The DioField Chronicle PS5 review. There’s a lot to be said for snappy RTS efforts that can be hopped into at a moment’s notice, not least because they’re something of a rare breed indeed. Coming from reliable JRPG and tactical battler purveyors Square-Enix, The DioField Chronicle is one such effort that despite its relatively workmanlike presentation and design, still manages to shine in its own right whilst also being resolutely welcoming to genre newcomers.
The DioField Chronicle PS5 Review
A Welcoming And Engaging Tactical RPG For Genre Newcomers
Set against the backdrop of a world in which technology and magic exist side by side, The DioField Chronicle puts players in control of the Blue Fox, an extraordinarily talented mercenary unit comprised of noblemen, countryfolk and veteran soldiers. With the wealthy Duke Hende as its deep pocketed and politically connected benefactor, the Blue Fox finds itself front and centre of events in the realm of Alletain as external hostile forces and internal power struggles threaten to send the continent into a perpetual state of war.
Clearly taking ample storytelling inspiration from the likes of Game of Thrones, The DioField Chronicle weaves a chunky narrative full of betrayals, tragedy and political skulduggery as the various factions and realms all vie for supremacy. Though the story takes a little while to get going and is told through a mixture of static dialogue sequences and pre-rendered cutscenes, it helps that the gradually expanding cast of main protagonists that make up the Blue Fox are a fairly interesting lot to follow and act as a compelling window into the occasionally labyrinth world of The DioField Chronicle’s myriad of political backstabbing scenarios.
Though the narrative side of things is perfectly fine, it’s really in the various nooks and crannies of The DioField Chronicle’s tactical RPG mechanics that Square Enix’s latest genre venture really shines. The action in The DioField Chronicle is essentially split into two very different components. The first of these has you walking the halls of the Blue Fox headquarters, chatting with your fellow mercenaries, buying gear from vendors, taking on side-quests and furthering the story.
Much more than just some generic hub area, the Blue Fox headquarters can be upgraded by redirecting the money you are paid for completing quests into employing cooks, alchemists and more, all of whom provide tangible upgrades to your warriors in battle such as additional skill trees, improved summoned monsters, a wider selection of gear to buy and so much more besides.
The other side of The DioField Chronicle’s gameplay offering and arguably the bedrock of the entire experience, are the real-time battles that you’ll be engaging within The DioField Chronicle’s many missions. Underscored by its RTTB (Real Time Tactical Battle) system, The DioField Chronicle enables players to send single or multiple units into battle in real time without any sort of grid based system in place. In effect, you can move freely to just about any area on the battlefield as you see fit.
Where The DioField Chronicle makes things a little more interesting however is in how it allows players to pause the battle whenever they like. Functioning in a manner that is not entirely dissimilar to how the ATB (Active Time Battle) system works in the Final Fantasy games, players can basically do everything from this pause screen from planning movements and attacks, through to unleashing special abilities, skills, spells and even unleash epic Final Fantasy style summoned monsters on the opposition.
For folks that perhaps aren’t quite so au fait with the real-time strategy genre, this represents something of a godsend as it allows players to take a breather and consider their next move carefully without having to worry about getting pounded into dust whilst they do so. What this also allows you to do is combine a number of special attacks to be unleashed all at once, allowing you to lay waste to legions of enemies at once.
Despite having such tricks up its sleeve, the battles in The DioField Chronicle play out in a similar fashion to other RTS efforts. Flanking enemies for example proves to be a desirable tactic as it allows you to dish out additional ‘ambush’ damage to the rear of your enemies, while splitting up your forces to deal with approaching enemy units on a number of different ingress points is something that you’ll have to get used to early on. Further afield, other tactical possibilities also become available too, such as being able to detonate explosive barrels to devastate enemies in the vicinity, all of which provide players with more means with which to expand their tactical arsenal.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, orbs of various colour can be seen dotted around the place, with each one producing a different effect such as replenishing your energy points to allow you to perform more skills, restoring the health of your heroes and top up a special meter which can be used to unleash summoned titans and beasts to your aid. Often, the presence of these orbs provide wannabe armchair generals with another tactical consideration – do you take a depleted force onwards and onto the final phase of the battle, or, do you divert some of your unit to seek out these orbs for some much needed reinvigoration?
Unfolding across a series of modestly sized diorama style maps viewed from an elevated third-person perspective, if there is one substantial complaint about The Diofield Chronicle’s battles it would be that they just don’t tend to be very large. Yet, the humble scope and duration of The DioField Chronicle’s numerous battles are also what make it attractive to fresh faced genre newbies.
What makes The DioField Chronicle such a roundly compelling proposition is just how accessible and respectful of your time it is. Because battles largely tend to be over in ten minutes or less, The DioField Chronicle is the sort of delightfully bite-sized strategy RPG that is utterly respectful of your time, allowing you to hop in and out at a moment’s notice and still accomplish a whole lot in those short sessions.
In terms of the battles themselves, they’re not especially challenging and certainly won’t pose too much challenge to stalwart strategists. Making these battles even easier still is the fact that not only do the side quests (which sadly are a touch one note in scope and generally feel like something of an afterthought) keep you comfortably over-levelled for the main missions themselves, but battles can be replayed infinitely, allowing you to accumulated precious gold and experience points for as long as you like. Again, it bears remembering that The DioField Chronicle feels almost laser focused on encouraging newcomers to the RTS genre, rather than mollifying the tactical savants that already make up the ranks of its fans.
Audiovisually, The DioField Chronicle is also fairly uneven to say the least. The character models, though stylish, are basic looking and awkwardly animated constructs while the geometrically simple and bare environments (the Blue Fox hub headquarters in particular is almost distressingly sparse), make The DioField Chronicle feel like an ode to an effort from an older generation of PlayStation consoles.
Faring much better though is the soundtrack. Broadly epic in composition and jointly composed by Game of Thrones duo Brandon Campbell and Ramin Djawadi, the music in The DioField Chronicle swells with dramatic flair during battle while settling down to calmer serenades during less action packed scenes. It’s great stuff, quite honestly. Sure enough with its relatively simplistic challenge, brisk battles and unspectacular presentation, The DioField Chronicle will likely struggle to find an audience among the burgeoning throng of armchair generals looking for their next tactical fix. For everyone else however who would like to a dip a toe or two in those genre waters, The DioField Chronicle is the sort of easily accessible, dip-in/dip-out tactical RPG that you need in your life right now.
The DioField Chronicle is out now on PS4 and PS5.
Review code kindly provided by PR.