Tactics Blade: Episode One

Preamble
I'm one of a few the English language Sim RPG Maker 95 developer. I've been using this program for over 7 years and I know everything about it. I know how the battle algorithms work. I know tricks to get around it's limitations. I even have the guy who translated it in my Trillian contacts. Hell, I'm the one who wrote the help file.
But it's a lonely road. I see the occasional vapid interest, but this is pretty much my personal niche.
Because of that, whenever I see a fellow SRPG95 game, I become interested immediately. Even if it turns out to be a courageous attempt and not much else.

Visual: 1/5
Sim RPG Maker 95 has a couple of RTPs. I'm not sure exactly which came with the original product, but this is one of them used straight up; No edits, no additions, and not even palette swaps. I have seen it put to good use in Kikumaru's Adventure, but otherwise it's a shallow resource pool that doesn't offer a lot of flexibility.
As such, the variety in allies and enemies alike becomes tedious quickly. The first half of the game is spent killing enemies identical in appearance. Battle animations are sloppily timed, and the mapping, core to a TRPG's gameplay, is barely acceptable.

And there's Melanie, one of the two heroines in the player's party. Her facial portrait doesn't look anything like her map and battle sprite. It isn't even the same gender. Worse yet, she looks exactly like the generic soldiers in your team, to the point that even her base stats are identical.



Audio: 1.5/5
A trip to VGMusic would have helped greatly.
Like it's graphics, Tactics Blade uses solely RTP music and sound effects. Peculiarly, some BGM was lifted from other RPG Makers like XP and 2003. I don't know why this effort didn't go a little further to bring variety and careful selection, but we have what we are given : A mishmash of sounds chosen because they were the closest thing at hand when a scene called for a mood.

Storyline: 2.5/5
The storyline... it ain't bad!
Our protagonist, Rose, is a money-grubbing mercenary. She has a lackadaisical manner when dealing with allies and enemies alike, only getting excited when the reward promised upon success wows her. With a little better writing, she could have been molded into a genuinely despicable anti-hero.
Melanie, as I mentioned, is basically a generic soldier with the name "Melanie" instead of "Soldier". She has dialogue too, giving Rose someone who talk to when there's nobody else around (unless you count the umpteen soldiers & enemies). At one point, she expressed some dissatisfaction with her chosen path in life as a soldier (hrhrhr). For a fleeting moment, I believed she might have characterization of her own, but she was soon relegated to providing Rose with "um... right" and "....." responses. So much for that. At least she chucks a mean javelin.

Unactualized characters aside, the core story is predictable. If you read the game's synopsis, you already know the background. Three lands, one in rebellion, one supporting the rebellion, one... never mentioned again. As soon as the game opens, you're treated to a meeting with your government employer. Right off the bat, he looks and talks like a bad guy so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out what happens after you slaughter the rebels.
Regardless, this being part 1 of 3(?), the game ends with a semi-climactic battle followed by a cliffhanger.
It's crude, but it does give context.

Gameplay: 2/5
Heal Potion 1 can only be used by one character on another character.
Heal Potion 2 can only be used on yourself.
What the hell?!
This is just the first in a laundry list of generally bad design decisions.

Why is Rose the only melee character on the player's team? Why do Rose and Melanie start with 20 MP and gain more on levelups when they never learn spells? If several battles are part of a single campaign, why do I have 4 soldiers in one battle, 6 in the next, 5 in the next, and 12 in the next? Why does it take the valiant efforts of 5 soldiers to whittle down one measly bandit's HP to 0? Why are Rose and Melanie's stats and growth rates all the defaults? If my soldiers don't carry over from map to map, don't they just get in the way of Rose and Melanie's leveling? How come Terrain bonuses aren't used?

This array of conundrums and foul-ups only drags down the rest of the game. The essence of Tactics Blade's gameplay is to use Rose, Melanie, and a seemingly randomly generated number of soldiers to end each battle one after another. Sometimes you'll be struggling to make do with your three mooks, and other times you'll completely swamp the enemy. Since terrain bonuses are non-existent, 9 out of 10 battles boil down to choke points.



Still. I'm playing through, jeering at all of the game's faux pas, when I suddenly notice I'm crunching numbers and moving my henchmen into strategic positions. That's when I realized that the game's grim facade belies hidden quality as a TRPG. I shake my head in doing so, but I have to confess getting into it.

Overall: 2/5
I'm one of those freakazoids who can actually enjoy a clumsily made game like this. I'm also smart enough to know I can't actually go around recommending it. I'm a niche guy, this is a niche game, and it requires a niche audience.