Grimguard Tactics Review

Fire Emblem Meets Warhammer

Developed by the New Zealand-based studio Outerdawn, Grimguard Tactics is a dark-fantasy turn-based tactics RPG. While my first instinct is to describe it as a fusion of a Fire Emblem and Warhammer, the aesthetics also remind me more than a little of Darkest Dungeon.

The game opens with a party of heroes fighting through the undead minions of the fallen hero, Victor. They are too late, however, and Victor has completed his deal with the Lovecraftian entities known as the Primorvans. His eldritch powers easily overwhelm the heroes, unleashing an apocalyptic undead invasion across the land. One by one, the lands are swallowed up by the undead Dirge. After years of war, the city of Holdfast now stands as the last bastion of humanity in the world of Terenos.

The game proper begins with the arrival of an unnamed Mercenary in the half-ruined city. Players must rebuild the city and defeat Victor and the other fallen heroes if humanity has any hope for survival.

Unfortunately, the leaders of the Dirge aren’t just going to come fight you one-on-one. Instead, the heroes must adventure across the land, collecting corrupted magic shards. Each quest consists of a series of battles against the Dirge and Primorvan creatures, culminating in a boss fight with a fallen hero. These include the three heroes from the prologue, as well as corrupted versions of other recruitable characters.

Might and Magic

Regarding characters, Grimguard Tactics is a gacha game and one of the better ones in terms of unlockable characters. There are 21 heroes to collect, with a good deal of diversity between them. Each character also has a few paragraphs of lore that flesh out them and the world. Common heroes have short bios, while rarer heroes have longer and more personal biographies. Players unlock the first chapter of a character’s bio by recruiting them and the next chapter each time they increase in tier.

It’s especially interesting when the stories interact. For example, The Mercenary’s lore mentions how he deserted after being tricked into attacking a of elves. Meanwhile, the Blademaster is a Woodfae, and her bio shows how her people were under threat long before the Primorvans arrived. Granted, elves and wizards being oppressed is a bit of a cliché in dark fantasy. However, I think the game uses it well to show how a common threat has unified the disparate peoples of Teranos. It’s also not a central theme, just background lore.

Each hero has a Role: Assault, Tank, or Support, though their stats and abilities make each character unique. For example, the Mercenary and Blademaster are both melee Assault characters. However, while the Mercenary’s abilities encourage frontal assaults, the Blademaster gets a bonus when attacking from behind.

On the Field of Battle

Heroes are further sorted into one of three Alignments: Order, Chaos, and Might. These categories have a rock-paper-scissors relationship, with Order beating Chaos, Chaos beating Might, and Might beating Order. Thematically, Order generally represents professional soldiers and priests, Might covers mercenaries and barbarians, and Chaos includes criminals and outcasts. Personally, I prefer this to the more common element-based weaknesses, even if it’s a bit less intuitive.

Intuitive or not, you must keep those counters in mind when choosing your party. Heroes do very little damage against enemies that counter them but can sometimes one-shot characters they are strong against. The enemy AI is also pretty good at prioritizing targets against which it has an advantage. Fortunately, the game will tell you ahead of time what your Enemies’ alignments will be.

As for the battlefield itself, apart from the bosses and tutorial, each level consists of three rooms for the party to clear. These grid-based maps are small but tightly packed with obstacles and interactable objects. Heroes can kick explosive and non-explosive barrels at enemies to deal damage. Other objects can heal or buff the party, while hazards like fire mean you can’t get complacent with pathing.

My only criticism of the maps is that they are a little too small for my taste. I wasn’t expecting something on the scale of XCOM. However, a 7×7 grid doesn’t leave much room to maneuver. This is epically true when, as is frequently the case, half the map is obstructed by terrain and clutter.

That said, combat is fast-paced, tactical, and consistently entertaining, so I can’t complain too much. Overall, Outerdawn’s Grimguard Tactics is a fantastically fun and immensely satisfying turn-based tactical RPG.