Review - Diofield Chronicle (Spoilers Ahead)

Image courtesy of Lancarse & Square Enix

I think one of the greatest pieces of advice that I ever received for my writing was "Show, don't tell." It sounds cliche, and maybe it is, but it's cliche for a reason. You want to paint a picture in your readers' minds without giving your story in the form of a journalistic report. That's the hope, anyway. Diofield's directors didn't get the memo.

    Diofield Chronicle is about a couple of friends who find themselves embroiled in a small nations struggle to keep its independence against an encroaching empire. We've heard all this before, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Nowadays every story has been told already in some form or another, so it's going to be impossible to get past anything's derivative nature. You just have to roll with the idea that maybe this rebel alliance's fight against the empire is unique in its own way. And it is, for the most part.

    The main character of Diofield is named Andreas, and he's a secretive young man who prefers to let his let his dagger do the talking on the battlefield. That said, although he does not share a whole bunch, he does come up with the majority of the plans for he and his friends as they navigate their way from the outliers to the vanguard of the war. He comes onto the scene with two friends in particular, Fred and Izzy, and the three of them start off the game on the same playing field but working towards making more of a name for themselves as mercenaries. They join the Blue Foxes, headed up by a knight of some renown before he gets himself killed about 15 minutes later, and then the Blue Foxes is in a position of split leadership between Andreas, Fred, Isca (a silent sniper with his heart set on democratic values), and Waltaquin (their newest friend who... you'll see). 

    Their employer, Duke Hende, sends them on missions to disrupt the advances of the empire encroaching on Diofield island, but he forgets to twirl his mustache as he does so. That could be because he simply can't. He has the stupidest goatee/beard ensemble since the conceptual beard. Don't know what that is? Google. You're in for a treat. So obviously Hende is a villain, a twist we all see coming, and the Blue Foxes have to take him down because he's threatening the security of the entire island by colluding with the empire. In the meantime, with virtually every mission that the Foxes go on, Waltaquin has moved from pretty girl with a crush on Andreas to complete psychopath with a penchant for murder. Some of these characters would be good contestants on Peacock's The Traitors, barring the fact that they make it so obvious they are up to no good.

    After a plethora of little battles and people turning the tables, a current ailing king dying and his only tolerable heir biting the dust too, Diofield island is at a crossroads where the only two heirs left are turds and neither one of them bears the "mark" that so many people put their stock in. After a couple secretive type of moments where Andreas found some special form of jade, the blue energy crystal that the empire and their enemy the Alliance (not the rebel kind) desires more than gold, Fred suddenly announces that he's not Fred. He's actually Levantia Shaytham, the childhood friend of Andreas and Fred who was also marked as a potential heir to the throne. He died as a child, though. Supposedly. Fred shows that he bears the mark and everyone is shocked because apparently this grown man has never taken his gloves off in public once so we're just now seeing for the first time that he has jade growing under his skin. Convoluted, I know, but that's why I wanted to include spoilers in this review. You just don't get the full effect, otherwise.

    So it culminates in a final battle where Fred, standing in as Levantia Shaytham, defeats the decorated general of the empire who is responsible for much of the enemy's victories. As he lies dying, he looks at Andreas with a sense of betrayal, and Andreas's memories are suddenly unlocked. He's a sleeper agent, of sorts, who suddenly remembers his family being butchered by this man and him being taken away to the empire to train day and night for years before being released back to the Diofield where he can befriend Levantia and be in a position to "restore order." Upon this realization, he pulls a gun on Fred and shoots him. Now that may sound pretty abrupt, and it definitely is, but Fred was acting like a real douchecanoe leading up to that point anyway. He was bossing people around like he was really Levantia Shaytham, but things don't add up unless you make it a point to go the Blue Foxes library and do some research of your own.

The Good

There is some good in this game. I should stress the word some, because it's going to come with some caveats along the way. It starts off very promising. It's rare that a demo will actually convince me to grab a game after only a couple hours of playing, but I was impressed with what I saw in the beginning. The gameplay is fun, albeit a little repetitive by the end of your 30ish hour journey. The graphics are good, although there is a lot of repetition in face styles among the characters. The voice acting is fine. The story was decent, but it became too convoluted by the end to really warrant a high five for Square Enix.

    I think what I enjoyed the most about the game was the amount of customization that could be done at the base. The weapons and their upgrades were incredibly cool, but there was a lack of explanation for some things like "technique." I could only presume that it specifically had to do with the amount of damage that a weapon does when using a skill move, but if they ever said so it was so glossed over I missed it. Building upon your weapons and skills was a fun addition to the research center. I also liked being able to replay every mission in the game in order to close up the gaps and get the materials I needed to better outfit my crew.

The Bad

All right. Buckle up.

    Just kidding, I already covered a lot of the bad. Hell, I even touched upon some of it in The Good!

    I think Diofield's main issues stem from telling instead of showing. See how I brought that full circle? Seriously, though. I love a good codex. The codex, and the voice therein, of Mass Effect is one of my favorite things in any game. A codex can flesh out the worldbuilding and lore, bringing more of the unique nature of the game to the forefront so it can separate itself from others in the genre. A codex, however, is not meant to replace the storytelling aspect of a game. In Diofield Chronicle, you are expected to read the codex in its entirety in order to fully understand what is happening in the game. Nothing is explained regarding Fred's sudden reveal in the game and whether or not it's true. There are hints, like Andreas still calling him Fred (but he does that in public and in private, so I wondered if it was simply an error on the developers parts). That said, reading the codex doesn't just give greater context to Fred's lineage. It literally spells out to you that it's a ruse set up by Andreas and Fred together.

    Waltaquin's ending is another blunder. First of all, why does Andreas feel bad about gutting this crazy bitch? She literally laughs maniacally when she kills people and summons the dead. I'd say that's cause enough to cut her down and not lose much sleep over it, but Andreas puzzles over it like she was some great addition to the world that he had to remove. Although, apparently he didn't remove her because in the Blue Foxes' library, errr codex, it says that her body was never found. There are plenty of other plot points (plot holes... whatever) that left me scratching my head. Izzy's role in the Blue Foxes never really moves past trying to impress her father. Eventually she does, and... that's it? She was the 3rd wheel of the beginning tricycle. She doesn't have anything to add to Andreas and Fred about the ruse they've pulled? Nothing to add, Izzy? For someone so damn talkative in the first half of the game she's pretty tight-lipped on the back 9.

Final Judgment

I wanted to like Diofield Chronicle. I truly did. I had just come off a kick of strategy RPGs to include Unicorn Overlord and Lost Eidolons. And honestly, maybe that's what helped to bury Diofield for me. Those two were pretty damn great, and Diofield is simply... not.

    I'm all about a game trying to punch above its weight, but this one fumbled the jab and threw a hook right into the wall. It has great bones. Kind of like the Blue Foxes hideout. The components are there to make everything incredible and stand out, but someone forgot to simply hang up some pictures in the hallways and give this thing a bit of heart. They try to cover their bases with the codex, and maybe that was all done in retrospect, but you can't honestly expect every player to be like me. Not everyone wants to run to the library after the missions to read what new information there is, just so they can get a better view of this world that someone wants desperately to stand out in the gaming community. Overall, it was better than some games I've played, but I can't in good conscience recommend it.

6/10

Better than Some