Grotesque Tactics and a new game

This has been overdue, but work has got me running all over the place and working late for the last week, so I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and really finish this game, so apologies.

Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes $9.99
Time played before: 0 Hours
Time played upon Completion: 8 Hours

Review

Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes (GT:EH) is a good game for what it is, a satire on the RPG genre, but it fails to execute in necessary areas at times. While it gets a good many things right, the simplistic nature of combat with very little tactics involved, contrary to its name, make playing it stale very quickly.

To start with the good, the story and dialog are good. GT:EH takes from RPGs the most cliche and predictable elements, and gives them a twist. You have the brooding, emo hero, who near the beginning of the story is going to off himself via some carnivorous mushrooms. That is until the greatest hero the world has known, Holy Avatar, stops him to fight against the Dark Church and their leader, the Mother of God. You go along, getting new party members, from scantily clad maidens pining for the Avatar to a goblin thief and goth vampire. There are some witty humor in the dialog by some characters, but others seem to grate on you a bit. Predictable plot twists are made abundant to make sure to drive home the fact of parody.

As for the gameplay, I really enjoyed it for the first hour or two. After that, the repetitive nature of the game began to drive down the playability. You're sent to different areas from a central hub town, with a book full of quests to do usually, and wipe out enemies and finding loot along the way. The problem doesn't lie here, it is really with the combat and progression of characters. When you come close enough to an enemy, the battle begins. You move along squares and attack enemies in turn based style, and that is it. Each character only has their regular attack and two special skills, which unlock at 4 and 8. There are really no tactics involved in this game. Keep the archer maidens and your healing angel back from the fray, and move your melee fighters in for the kills. Sure there are bushes that give you more defense, but it seems like these areas are abundant enough everybody is always sitting in one. I suppose the simplistic design may have been the point, but really, it just ruined it for me.

Each item of loot gained is usually an upgrade unless you managed to purchase something better, but the options are limited to weapon, armor and helmet. Potions grant boons and can heal you, and that is as far as the inventory system goes.

The only tactical thing about GT:EH is the obsession meter. Each hero has a bar that when you attack or receive damage fills. After full, a type of limit break occurs. But instead of being useful, usually they tend to hinder you. The only one who is useful all the time is the main character's, who increases the attack power of allies around him. Others need to be watched carefully, or death from your own characters may come quickly. The Holy Avatar puts everybody, including allies, around him to sleep with his tales of adventure. The 3 maidens, in a rage, shoot anybody, including your own forces, that are near the Holy Avatar. The angel Angelica will beat up on any teammate because they aren't protecting the healer, the goblin blinds everybody near him and teleports away, West the barbarian goes berserk and attacks with increased AP anybody near him (seemed like it was always an ally), and the vampire predictably sucks your blood. Making sure only enemies are near the Avatar when a maiden fills her meter or the goblin is surrounded by enemies, is the only tactical decisions I ever made.

The controls are terrible to say the least. Panning the camera around the battlefield is slow and not the fluid thing I would expect. You can move either by clicking tiles or moving via wsad, but most of the time didn't go where I wanted them to. Good news is you're not stuck with your movement, if you didn't go where you intended to, or changed your mind, you're free to continue moving within your area until an attack.

Graphics are underwhelming, not surprising. The character models are squares of polygons, and enemies frequently switch out different palette to show new ones. One good feature is new equipment is actually shown on your characters, but its little improvement. Sound is the same, nothing stood out. Music is atmospheric but nothing special, and as for battles, the grunts of attacks and swiping of swords is all to be heard.

Final Verdict

Gameplay: 6/10
Graphics: 4/10
Sound: 4/10
Story: 8/10
Replay: 2/10

Overall: 6/10

GT:EH gets the story right, which is really what matters in a satire and parody. But its lackluster gameplay and poor camera and controls stop it from shining. The combat is just too simplistic for a tactics title for my taste, but I'm sure some will greatly enjoy it. If you want to enjoy a funny story and some non tactical SRPG combat, load up GT:EH, otherwise, wait until you're bored with nothing else to do.

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The next game to wipe off the backlog will be..
The Void $9.99
An interesting looking game, apparently all in game actions are done through drawing your actions and way using your own blood. Weird, but good to see something different.