Rondo of Swords is turn-based strategy game for the Nintendo DS that was developed by Success and published by Atlus, who has also released other turn-based strategy RPGs on the Nintendo DS such as Luminous Arc. Rondo of Swords, however, takes a slightly different tack than most grid-based strategy games by changing one of the fundamental elements of battle - rather than walking up to an enemy and smacking the daylights out of him, your characters are now required to use the “route maneuver system” to pass through both allies and enemies in the name of gaining bonuses and dealing damage (to the respective parties, of course).
Before I discuss the particulars of this game, however, I have a confession to make. I can’t finish this game. Despite the fact that my game timer only records my having played approximately sixteen hours, I am quite sure that I have spent in excess of thirty hours playing this game. How is this possible, and is this a good thing? Read on to find out.
In keeping with other strategy games that Atlus has published (Disgaea, Luminous Arc, etc.) the focus in this game is more on the gameplay and less on the bells and whistles. The graphics are decent - the sprites of playable characters are differentiated enough that you can easily tell who you’re looking at on the battlefield and the anime-style renderings of main characters during the “talking torsos” conversation sequences are easy on the eyes. The battlefield environments don’t outshine anything that couldn’t be seen on the Game Boy Advance, though, and the enemy grunt models are heavily recycled throughout the battles. The sound is nothing special either, with standard battle fanfare in fights and a smattering of voice acting throughout the game. The writing in the game, including the story, waffles between the complex and the brilliant, gradually clearing up as the storyline progresses. The storyline itself is a somewhat convoluted affair - when you first start the game, the introduction to the very first battle throws so much information at you that it’s almost impossible to understand exactly what is going on in this fantasy setting. Then again, you’ll probably play the first battle more than once, but more on that later. The conversations between characters, however, both inside and outside of battle, are truly excellent. Each one of the party’s characters fills some kind of anime stereotype and holds to that character throughout the game, providing some very interesting and hilarious banter between party members. It’s nice to know that there’s still a game that will throw together a lecherous footman, a catgirl, an amnesiac witch, and several other differing personalities and expect them to function as an effective battle party. The game is also kind enough to offer a variety of different endings and a New Game + option, assuming that you’re actually able to make it to the end.
When it comes to the gameplay, I can only say that this game is for the hardcore strategy fans. I thought I might be one before I played this game, but this game has emphatically proved otherwise. Why? Because this game is hard. Rondo of Swords not only encourages you to demonstrate tactical excellence in every fight, it DEMANDS it. At the end of each fight, bonus items and experience are awarded based on how efficiently the player completed the level (enemies defeated, characters lost, etc.), ranging from an “Complete Victory” to a “Narrow Victory.” Whether you enjoyed playing that stage or not, you generally want a Complete or Overwhelming Victory because earning experience in this game is like pulling teeth. Not only do you have the option of gaining experience through achieving a stellar victory in the game’s eyes, but you also have the option of restarting any battle with your current stats (earned through however much battling on a single stage) in order to keep powerleveling. This is a tiresome mechanic at best, however, given that the maps only become larger as the game progresses and the programming sees fit to outnumber you seemingly five to one in every single battle. The “route maneuver system” is a very interesting change and Success should be lauded for their sense of innovation, but there are definitely some issues that feel like they could use some slight adjustment. Most of the characters in the game do not have a very large movement range, and when combined with some of the rough terrain that characters are required to cross (which slows their movement), your characters rarely have enough move to work things out exactly as you’d like. For starters, for most characters it is highly unlikely that you can hit an enemy and then have enough move left to escape to where they can’t hit you. Therefore, if you don’t finish your enemies in a single blow, it is more than likely that they will come back and hit you in the back when their turn rolls around, which can be a problem when considering the aforementioned ratio of PCs vs. enemies. The battle system is also somewhat unbalanced, relying heavily on melee characters in the beginning levels and then giving all powers and preferences to magicians and ranged characters by the end of the game. It might be a bit of a spoiler, but I have to say it: if you don’t acquire the archer in the first few levels, you might as well start over, because that’s a huge chunk of your endgame offense gone right there.
Regrettably, sidequest and item management aren’t really part of this game’s forte either. Before certain battles, you have the option of sending some of your party members on “quests” in order to acquire items to sell, improve their weapons, give them special bonuses, or obtain the crests and other knickknacks required to upgrade the “classes” of your party members. Earning items, weapon powerups, and crests are fairly straightforward, but sending your characters on the special bonus missions is a mixed bag because: 1. You don’t know exactly what the bonus will be until you get it and 2. You’re losing that character for the battle, which can be extremely annoying depending on the circumstances. Buying and selling items is also unnecessarily convoluted, as you must delegate a party member to go “buy” or “sell” items (apparently they aren’t competent enough to do both in a single trip). Buying is even more annoying that selling because although you can generically specify what you want to buy (HP or MP recovery items, stat-boosting accessories, etc.) you cannot purchase items on a named basis. Instead, you throw as much gold at the shopper as you want and pray that he/she comes back with something good.
Overall, this isn’t a bad game, but I can only recommend it to the strongest fans of turn-based strategy rpgs, and even then some of them might not appreciate the mechanics of the route maneuver system. Give it a shot if you’ve been lacking something in the strategy JRPG department lately, but otherwise there are some better choices on which to spend any hard-earned cash.
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