Tactics Maiden Review

At its best, Tactics Maiden is like strategy comfort food: familiar and fulfilling for fans of games like Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy Tactics. However, while its commitment to substance over style is appreciated, it ultimately ends up overstaying its welcome.

Tactics Maiden, like its predecessor Kingturn, won’t be winning anybody over with its visuals. When zoomed out the vaguely 16-bit, vaguely fantasy sprites look okay but the style is fairly generic and devoid of personality. However, proving that first impressions aren’t everything, soon players will be so enthralled with the depth of the strategic systems that it would be still be fun even if characters were just giant squares.

During their turn, players manage their units on a grid and attack their foes until the battle is won. To overcome the game’s considerable challenge, players must know exactly when to use which kind of unit and how. Take out soldiers with archers, or vice-versa, since the difference in range prevents retaliation. Bust out a wizard spell to burn a group of enemies or poke at them with the extended reach of a spear. As all this is going on, the game runs numerous algorithms determining various survivability stats and chances for critical hits, and it's surprisingly forthright with sharing that math with players - even if it can get overwhelming.

However, while most of these systems do a good job of making Tactics Maiden a richer experience - like capturing magical pillars to restore health - one major mechanic threatens to sink the whole enterprise: units never really die. Instead, they get knocked out and sent back to base. After a certain number of turns, they can be deployed again as long as the player hasn’t reached their battlefield limit. This doesn’t overpower players though, because enemies can do this as well. However, what this ends up doing is turning matches into overlong slogs where units die and come back so frequently it can be hard to tell who's actually winning and when things will finally end. Players can block and capture enemy bases to prevent them from reviving units, which can lead to dramatic coups, but overall this system makes the game incredibly (and unnecessarily) tedious.

But turn-based strategy games aren’t for the hyperactive. They require a certain amount of patience to enjoy. So while Tactics Maiden may ask for too much patience, it does give back a reliable if unremarkable test of, well, tactics.