Vanillaware's first game released in the US, coming out only a month before Odin Sphere, GrimGrimoire has a pretty interesting premise: an RTS, on a console, played from a sidescrolling perspective instead of the usual top-down.

Do these ideas work? Not really!

Using a controller for an RTS is already a pretty hairy prospect, but the perspective makes it even worse, as units often overlap with each other. This means the best strategy is often "select everyone, move them to enemy". This is exacerbated by the skill trees new to this version, where you get coins to power up certain unit types. It ends up creating a feedback loop where you just keep using the same types because they're what you've put points into.

There's supposed to be a rock-paper-scissors type dynamic between the schools of magic (Glamour [Nature] -> Necromancy [Ghosts] -> Sorcery [Demons] -> Alchemy [Golems]) but I cruised through the game by simply sticking to Glamour, which you start with. Depending on the level, either amassing huge amounts of leveled-up Fairies (sending them in groups of 10 or so to avoid getting wiped out by AOEs) or Morning Stars (bigger units with AOE blasts themselves) would win every time. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the difficulty was lowered in this version because I remember the original being balls-hard.

While the skill tree kinda sucks, a welcome new feature for this remaster is the fast-forward function. By default, the game is SLOW, probably to accommodate the awkward controls and micro-management, and the fast-forward makes the gameplay much more tolerable.

The story is kinda... Whatever. It's a time-loop scenario about a girl at a wizard school. Most characters are underdeveloped and the plot made very little sense to me. At the end I was left scratching my head wondering what the hell happened, as it gave me an Animal House-style "and here's what happened to the other characters~!" montage.

Of course, as is always the case with Vanillaware, the art is top-notch. Character and unit designs are excellent across the board. Some of them are very cool (the Golems and Chimera are incredible) and some of them are very funny (the demon turrets are succubi that wiggle their giant asses), but the art is probably the main reason to play this game.

Of course, if you want good art with a good game to go with it... Maybe just check out Odin Sphere.

Without a trace of irony: god bless Vanillaware's hardline stance against game balancing. GrimGrimoire and 13 Sentinels are the only RTSes I've ever played and I am not here to learn how the genre works. I beat the original back in the day pretty much entirely by repeatedly summoning dragons and I regret nothing.

That said, I think it's a good sign that OnceMore made me really enjoy branching out more. Everything that's not dragons feels a lot more distinct and effective, and the fast forward button is a tremendously important addition. It's not as complete a transformation as Odin Sphere Leifthrasir, but Vanillaware is so good at jazzing up their classics with new game mechanics. The original I mostly considered noteworthy for the developer standard knocked-out-of-the-park presentation and also the lesbians, but OnceMore I can really recommend as an actual great game.

The obvious Harry Potter references have unfortunately only gotten exponentially more cringe, but the story is a cute, weird diversion nonetheless. And OnceMore contains a huge number of brand new gorgeous art CGs--you unlock one after every battle, and the fact that most of them are essentially little slice of life micro-vignettes helps make the characters feel a little more fleshed out.

I don't have a summary here, so, I dunno, buy Vanillaware games. Buy them for full price! I Am No Longer Asking.

Challenging but fantastic Soulsbourne action RPG.

You play the role of William, an Irish pirate imprisoned by the English after his usefulness was up on their quest to gain hold of Amrita, a spirit stone granting great power they wish to use against the Spanish in their current war. On his attempted escape William has his personal spirit stolen by am English agent called Edward Kelley who then heads to Japan to fuel a civil war and gain more Amrita, William obviously then gives chase to find a country of spirits and demons.

The story is....not good. It's ham fisted with a pretty ridiculous almost anime villain though I found it interesting they are based on real historical figures who did indeed travel to Japan in the 1600s (William Adams was actually declared a Samurai by the Shogun of Japan Ieyasu Tokugawa for his help). The story is mostly there just to push William from mission to mission which frankly is fine because it's the gameplay where Nioh shines.

Nioh has a mission screen that allows the player to choose which areas to go, either main missions or side quests depending on William's strength and equipment at the time. Each level is full of various enemies from normal samurai to oni (demons) including horned creatures, sentient parasols among others. The battles are excellent though tough, a lot of the enemies will hit hard and if you just hack and slash in, you will die. Nioh, like it's influence Dark Souls, requires a little bit of strategy to make the most of it such as learning enemy attack patterns, knowing when to block, dodge or attack as well as taking advantage of the huge amount of items and skills available to win.

What really separates it from Dark Souls though are...well several things. Firstly there is a large amount of weapons such as swords, spears, axes and some more unusual like the ninja's Kurasigama (Like a hook and chain). Each weapon has upgradable abilities like extra moves which you can customize to suit your playstyle I rather like. Regardless of weapon though, each has three stances you can swap between on the fly. High stance deals more damage but is slower, low is faster for dodging but deals less damage and of course the middle is the best of both worlds. The fact that every weapon can swap between these stances depending on what you are fighting is a fantastic addition.

Secondly is that when players die they leave a bloody grave in other players games in the same location. If you so choose, you can then summon an AI version of the player to fight in the chance to get some of their gear which is a great take on the Dark Souls death messages. (There is a really clever enemy tied to this as well) Speaking of gear, the amount of flexibility with it is great. It seems to be mostly random loot but each gear set has bonuses as well as abilities that boost William. Most of which can be changed or even moved from piece to piece when fused together allowing players to really efficiently optimize their equipment for a certain style. Want to go full ninja throwing shuriken everywhere? Or use full magic powers? A little of everything? No problem.

Lastly is Ki. This is your stamina, everything you do from blocking to attacking takes away Ki, in Nioh though after you finish an attack you can Ki pulse to get a lot of it back after you attack. The timing takes some getting used to but in certain fights it can really help to keep you alive if you can master it.

Aside from combat, visuals and audio to Nioh are also great. It's quite a dark game with Japan in a war with demons roaming around but it gives a fantastic atmosphere with period Japanese buildings, shrines and themes everywhere. The graphics wont blow you away but they do look great and the game even has options on prioritizing framerate or resolution which is pretty neat and rare for a console. On the audio side the voice acting is mostly in Japanese but its very good and the music is excellent fitting with the period and the action....except for the end credits theme which is one of the worst songs ever and so out of place with everything else it's crazy. Seriously look it up on youtube, it's awful.

So with all this praise why only four stars? Well it does have a few issues. There are some really cool enemies in Nioh that are fun to fight for sure. There simply aren't enough. The variety is sorely lacking and I found myself fighting the same enemies in the final mission as I was fighting in the very first I would have thought would be phased out by that point which can be a bit boring. My biggest gripe with Nioh though is the bosses. They are hard, now I'm fine with that, I love challenging games but I didn't think they were balanced. A lot of them can just one shot kill you regardless of heavy, medium or light armor and they generally have pretty huge range and are incredibly aggressive sometimes barely giving a chance to heal. There is no back and forth learning their attacks even if they hit hard and fighting them solo without a co-op companion to by you a few breathing seconds can be pretty frustrating.

These complaints however don't ruin the game, I would highly recommend it to both action fans and some RPG fans, especially Dark Souls players. The game took me about 90 hours to beat overall going for the platinum trophy. It has a ton of content with a lot of missions, co-op multiplayer, bosses and different weapons and styles to try out so it's certainly good value for money and well worth your time. Looking forward to trying announced Nioh 2.

Recommended.

+ Characters based on historical figures is a nice little touch.
+ Combat system is brilliant.
+ Different stances and Ki pulsing are a great implementation.
+ Great value for money.
+ Great art, graphics and audio....

-.....except the end credits theme song which is strangely abysmal.
- Story is pretty bad.
- Needs greater enemy variety.
- Bosses aren't greatly balanced.