GrimGrimoire OnceMore (2022)

I don't see Grimgrimoire get a nod in conversations around hidden gems ever, but I think it absolutely has the potential to be one if you don't bounce off the unique 2D RTS style gameplay.

The cute and charming character designs and voice acting, plus the somewhat unique spin on the magical school setting and plot really sold the game for me.

The gameplay itself gave me an appreciation for the variety of units you can summon and the various pros/cons they have within the game's mechanics and potential for play and counterplay. The main game isn't especially long but there are some fun side missions and difficulty options to play with that add further content. Practical strategy did often just boil down to summoning the correct units to counterplay whatever you encountered, and sometimes enemy AI did appear to act oddly, but I still found it entertaining.

Some aspects of the story and dialogue were hard to follow, perhaps due to localization issues or just weird phrasing, but it also made room to speculate about the possibility that Vanillaware kept some aspects open for the possibility of a sequel. I am a bit sad that this is probably the only time I'll ever see the main character, Lillet Blan, or any of the other interesting and stand out characters, but Vanillaware is anything but predictable so fingers crossed they come back to this title again down the rode. I say again as this version is a remastered port of the original afterall.

The novelty alone of a 2D RTS game made by Vanillaware made this a must play for me. The level of charm here is surpassing even my initially high expectations with the cute character designs and voice clips really pulling a lot of weight.

Gameplay is fun even if a bit weighed down by some missing quality of life features that feel standard in modern RTS experiences. No ability to set rally points for spawning units for example, and the nature of the experience being in 2D creates a lot more cluttered visual chaos when things get busy.

I am also greatly apprciating the variety of abilities and roles of the units in each magic school. I think it would be a mistake to assume each school should be treated as a soley unique faction to be compared and balanced against the rest. Instead I think each one is meant to be just another toolkit to use depending on the situation and what you feel drawn to. Most missions past the early ones let you use any unlocked school's grimoires together in any combination, so I don't think the traditional RTS lens of completely seperate and semi asymmetric factions that are competing directly should be applied here.