Here’s what we thought of The Diofield Chronicle, a new Square Enix strategy RPG coming on September 22 with a demo on August 10.
If you’ve ever listened to J-Rock, you know that Japanese musicians couldn’t care less about genres. There’s a radio rock intro, then they’ll rap for a bit, then do a bit of a shout and scream before doing it all again three times.
The world of new Square Enix strategy RPG The DioField Chronicle is a bit like that, but for English history.
You’ve got medieval knights collecting their kit from 17th century plague doctors, before going out to fight stovepipe-hatted cockneys straight out of the Victorian workhouse at the behest of tweed-jacketed gentlemen. Then some skeletons turn up with a couple of trolls in suits of armour. It goes places.
The characters have all got hilarious names that seem to be generated from the formula: demon from Charmed + town with a rugby team = totally a real person’s name.
Izelair Wigan and Iscarion Colchester are my favourites, but Waltaquin Reddich is also a strong contender – full-on Sleve McDichael stuff like that ‘90s Japanese Baseball game meme.
The “epic” story is just as fun though, and is obviously heavily influenced by Game of Thrones in how it tries to stoke political intrigue by following the machinations of rival noble factions, mercantile interests and religious orders.
On the island of DioField is the Kingdom of Alletain – England, basically – which has grown prosperous in peace for centuries. However, a war on the continent to the south between the Alliance and Empire over a magical resource called Jade is threatening to engulf the rest of the world.
With rich desposits of Jade buried on DioField, tensions are only set to rise further. And in the middle of things is where you find yourself, Andrias Rhondarson – soldier, bodyguard, and one of the four heads of the Blue Foxes group.
In the demo I’ve played, it’s not quite successful in its ambition though.
