Rondo of Swords

DS review by Chris Gravelle on 21st April 2008

Goodness, where to start. Before Rondo of Swords launched, I was very excited about the new battle system. When I got it in my hands and loaded up my DS I thought I was experiencing the first major step forward for strategy gaming. But like pancakes, this game wore out its welcome long before it was done. It’s sad that a game with so much promise forgot what made strategy gaming so fun: the strategy. While there is fun to be had it is hidden so deep in this title that most will not want to find it.

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First things first. Rondo of Swords is not a typical strategy role playing game. It has one major change, the battle system. As battles begin, you get a small snippet of generic story and your characters are placed by the game (none of that pesky strategy in troop placement here). Once the story runs its course you begin taking turns. On your turn you will move each of your characters in an attempt to kill the other guys. Contrary to other SRPGs, moving and attacking are not separate actions, they are one in the same. At first this new mechanic is amazing. Your virtual killing-machine runs through anyone in his path, hacking and slashing until he arrives at his destination, leaving behind a wake of death and destruction. Battle scenes are shown, much like anime (Samurai Champloo and the like), with units running through enemies with no show of pain until your onslaught is finished. Amazing, right? Well, for a little while, yes, but after some time the new car smell starts to turn sour. Melee characters do well in this game as you can sit back, let the lackluster AI line up, then cut through the masses.

Izuna: The Employed NinjaIzuna, another Atlus character makes a cameo in RoS. You may know her from another Success DS title, Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja. Go here to find out more about the game on Wikipedia.Rondo of Swords does address the wily-nilly nature of just running through people by incorporating something called Z.O.C. or zone of control. Z.O.C. is a skill that your heavier units can learn that will stop attackers in their tracks, not allowing your opponents to finish their moves. When I first learned about this, a world of possibilities opened up to me. With six people allowed on the field at once I can take three Z.O.C. equipped troops and three ranged troops and slowly move through battles strategically. Yet again, developers Success fail here and mucks up any strategy to be had. Z.O.C. works fine on paper, but in practice it is a mess. As an enemy unit attacks a unit with Z.O.C. equipped, it is stopped and sent to the nearest empty square. Often, that nearest square is behind your front line and right between the mages and healers. This of course negates the need for strategy.

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For the fans of mages, don’t expect to enjoy them here. This is another place where strategy suffers. Most mages in the game move four or five spaces as opposed to melee and archer units who average seven to nine spaces. The limited movement should not be a big deal since mages, in general, are ranged units. Here is where Success really lost their way. Mages can not move and cast, they can do one or the other, but archers can do both allowing them to hit enemies up to fifteen squares away, while mages can hit enemies a maximum of six squares away. So now, Mr. Strategy Gamer, sir, you have mages that must move to a spot, hope the computer either doesn’t move or moves into your range so you can blast them next turn (for the same damage a melee or archer unit can do) or leave mages at home while the big boys do the talking (ie: anyone but mages). Because of these unfair disadvantages mages become useless.

Outside of battle there is a lot to do, though it feels like you have little control. Any unit not going out to war will have the option to either shop, train, or quest. While these work well on their own, you have little control over any of these options. Each character will have different strengths and weaknesses (naturally and skill based) when it comes to out-of-combat actions. When going to shop, you will choose to either buy or sell but not both. The amount of items you can buy or sell will depend on the character. It’s a good idea, but feels a little too hands off. The option to train is nice, allowing you to focus a characters training on certain stats for bigger gains or on all stats for smaller gains. This is a great option for the characters that you choose not to bring to battle. Allowing such units to miss multiple battles but still be strong enough to jump into the fray. The last option for the guys you bench is questing. Questing feels just like shopping in that it is automated and random. Some quests offer rewards, but depending on the success of the quest you may get less items than you expected or, no items at all.

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The storyline is similar to a Jay and Silent Bob film: easy to follow and entertaining, but it won’t force you to think or care. I can’t say that I expected more than filler to get me from one fight to another, so this is neither a negative or positive, but with gameplay so weak it would have helped this title out a great deal to have a strong narrative. The characters are generic to a fault: a ladies’ man, a confused but righteous main character, and a shy healer girl are all generic and honestly all cannon fodder. You won’t care to keep them alive through each battle as they come right back after. Serdic, the main character, is the only one you will care for since his death is normally the condition for defeat.

As negative as this review has been, there is some fun to be had in Rondo, it’s just hard to put a finger on why. The battles move quickly and if you have the mind set of this being far from a strategy game, most of what I have said won’t really matter. With average graphics, adequate story, standard music and decent battles you truly end up with an average, run-of-the-mill game. Is it worth its selling price? That comes down to how bored you are. As much as I disliked this game, I still enjoyed some of the time with it. The groundwork that was set here can easily be tweaked for a truly fantastic new series, one I hope will make a second go at it.

Five out of ten

Pros

Interesting battles
Nice artwork on the characters

Cons

No strategy in combat
Very difficult game

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About the author

Chris Gravelle is a Staff Writer at Thunderbolt, having joined in March 2008.

Comments

Methylparoben
22nd April 2008

There is plenty of strategy, it's just very different than any type we've used before. The game is called Rondo for a reason. The battles are dances! Movement is the key to success. Use the Momentum Counter (surprisingly absent from your review) to draw enemies wear you want, then unleash your mages (which have AOE attacks, again absent from your review). There is plenty of strategy to be had. Just not the typical put up a wall and nuke from the back kind.
Chris Gravelle
23rd April 2008

Thanks for the comment Methylporaben and I do agree with a few of your points. This is FAR from your typical strategy game, and it did get points for being something new. When I review I try to leave out a bit of info as, in my opinion, part of what makes video games so great is discovery. But dance or not, skills that should stop a unit from moving, should not teleport said unit to the back of your army. I think this is a series that can become great in time, it is just average as it is now. Much like Etrian Odyssey, which I would have rated about the same, I am pumped about sequel and have pre-ordered EO2. The best way to summarize what I tried to say here is: This is not a game I would wish on my worst enemy, or a game I would tell my best friend not to buy.
mvidmaster
23rd April 2008

I would like to point out some of the flaws that the reviewer missed.

Mages do have AOE attacks, but these are useless because mages cannot move and attack at the same time, and the enemy never moves in a way that makes them vulnerable to AOE thanks the the games AI.

Second was the way the battle system meshed with the number of forces in each battle. Because the combat is so unrepresentive of real-life melee combat (If a soldier with a sword attacks another soldier with a sword, he stops and fights him unless he dies, he doesn't just pass through them.) If you try to engage an enemy force larger than your own (which Rondo constantly forces you to do) you basically have no hope of victory, because you can't stop all of your enemies from attacking you in one turn.
zarza
27th June 2008

Most players are boggled down by the traditional strategies developed in great strategies games such as Fire Emblem of FF tactics, and they failed to realize the numerous amount of strategy that is present in Rondo of Swords. I would like to point out several flaws in the strategies in the review.
Point 1 - you said mages suck because they can't move and use spells.
Point 2 - Z.O.C can teleport enemy units to the back of your army.
Combining points 1 and 2 - set up ZOC such that all your enemy teleport behind your enemy in an area, then use your mage to blast their pants off the next turn. This strategy can wipe out whole armies in one shot, so therefore both ZOC and mages can be used strategically.

Point 3 - AOe spells are useless
I have to point out the flaw of this one too. ZOC again, is what players need to learn to use. I have used ZOC many times to set up enemies for huge damages with AOE spells, and again, wipe out armies with ease.

I am not here to flame anyone, but the review really didn't present the strategies correctly, and cause the common misconception of "no strategy in combat". By not realizing all the strategic decision one makes, you make the game extremely difficult. This game is actually fairly easy if the correct strategies were employed. I say this is a lot easier than FE 6 the sealed sword.

P.S. the comments on momentum meter is also VERY important in planning as mentioned. I am very disappointed in this lackluster review, sorry.
Tessa
27th August 2008

I've seen the issue with mages in a couple of reviews, but to say the game lacks strategy because of it is silly. Mages are more powerful than archers in attack power plus they have the chance to hit more than one enemy. Cotton is insanely powerful with this. Teamed up with ZOC, it's almost game breaking how great it is. it is a 5×5 square around cotton, and only enemies are attacked. It's powerful and ignores people on your team. This is where zoc on your side is useful. My single zoc guy gets hit and knocks the attackers all around him. cotton is directly behind him and practically all the attackers are within range. I've taken out 6 enemies with just one spell with this strategy.

If mages could attack in move, cotton would be game breaking. She has a max movement of 10 plus she is the only mage I've found who can actually survive a hit from a melee enemy (she could actually survive 2).

A correct way to use zoc is this:
Make the enemies come to you. Put the single zoc person in the lead with the other characters in a line (or triangle) behind him. A mage is best right behind him, the healer should be off to the back. If positioned right, the enemies will always try to go through your Zoc character first. This will hold them well within range of your mage. With AOE spells, you can get more than one enemy at a time. Lightning spells are usually best because you can position people in the right places to avoid attack while enemies will be knocked into the attack points by zoc (cottons fairy magic spell negates the need for this becuase it ignores team members). You use the melee soldiers and archers to take out the ones that survived the mage's spell. The enemies will be close together so you can usually get multiple hits.

The strategy above works for most infantry and cavalry type enemies. Archers and mages require other strategies, they are best delt with by an archer and/or long range cavalry. Mages aren't great against mages because it becomes a question of who has the farthest range of single hits and they often have 2 mages together. Igraine has a very long range spell if you are mindful what the enemy has.

It's sad how people who can't think of useful strategies bash the game without giving it enough thought.