Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 11
 A Challenging New Take on the Genre May 21, 2008
J. Andrews (Boston)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Yes, Rondo of Swords is not an easy game. It forces players to unlearn what they have learned about SRPGS. Your 200 hours of Disgaea or your total domination of FFT will not help you here. The mechanic is drastically different, and it requires a new kind of strategy to conquer.
Here's where I had the most fun; learning the new wrinkles in the gameplay system, using the environment and positioning to my advantage and actually playing a game where a character mobility is as important as their relative strength. RoS is an odd bird in the RPG world, but the innovation is worth the frustration.
Now even with all the challenging fun, this game is nowhere near perfect. The documentation is terrible, along with the in-game tutorial. The larger metagame is never really explored (errands) and mistakes can be made without any chance to go back and fix them. For this part of the game gamefaqs.com is your friend. Along with lack luster unit/environmental art, uninteresting/sometimes repetitive music, and other strange design choices this game loses a star from me.
All that being said, for fans of SRPGS Rondo is a real gem. Playing it is like nothing you have ever tried before. Winning battles, even after a few tries, carries an extra sense of accomplishment because of the actual tactical thinking needed to overcome the foes. Unfortunately, non genre-stalwarts should probably find another game.
 Way too hardcore May 14, 2008
D. Pettitt (BC Canada)
2 out of 8 found this review helpful
Unless you want to play with the game in one hand and a strategy guide or walkthough in the other, don't bother with this game. Yes, it has a nifty new gameplay mechanic, the pass-through attack instead of the "move then attack" system standard to tactical rpgs. That's fine and good, it's the other stuff that really kills the fun. Like Fire Emblem, there are limited new characters that you have to unlock. Unlike Fire Emblem, there are often special things you have to do to even get those characters to appear in the first place, something I didn't find out about until I'd already missed the chance to recruit two of the better characters in the game. If you're a sucker for punishment, or just looking for something way more challenging than the average TRPG, this might be your game. Everyone else, stay away.
 Decent but annoying September 9, 2008
Greg Mullane (Gaineville, FL USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Overall, this is a very good game. The battle system is innovative and mostly enjoyable, as it building up the characters. To an earlier review that said mages are useless: you just haven't built them up enough. At higher levels, their long-range makes them indispensable. The storyline is thin but somewhat interesting. Be warned that this is not an easy game: until you learn the intricacies of how everything works, you will face 'Game Over' many times. Even after you learn the game well, you'll still find yourself facing it often. However, one of the redeeming features of the game is the ability to restart the current battle without losing any experience you've gained. I might even suggest that the game is unwinnable without using this feature a lot.
The major drawbacks of this game are:
* The music is horrible and annoying. Worse, there is no option to turn off the music and keep the sound effects, so you'll quickly play this game with the volume turned all the way down
* The combat can be slow. Each attack is done with a long animated sequence which can be bypassed, but only after it starts up. Worse, the enemies can take a long time to attack, and go one by one. I don't know how powerful the CPU on a DS is, but you can literally count the seconds while an enemy thinks about the next step to make in stages with a lot of enemy options in it. So you'll find yourself putting the game down and doing something else for a while, leaving it running, so that you can come back to it when the enemy turn is finished. Which could be literally 5 minutes later.
* The shopping/quest system is poorly designed and the game would probably be the better without it.
* It would have been really nice if there were a visual indicator of how far each ally and enemy can move during a move. This is very important knowledge, and can be figured out manually by seeing how far a unit can move and then counting squares on the screen, but this can get tedious.
* The game is difficult, but a little more on "stupid difficult" than "challenging difficult". Some enemies will knock you out in one hit. There are slow, laborious ways to make your way through some levels without getting killed (e.g. the archer plus healer yo/yo move), but doing so gets real old real quick.
I know that's a lot of negatives, but the game is fun for a while. Some quick hints to max out the enjoyment for those who try this game: get the archer, and get Cotton. Use a cheat site to figure out how to get them. Also, powerup Marie and Margus. The rest of the characters don't really matter too much, although another magic user is handy later on, and someone with really long movement (e.g. 10) can be handy as well. Having Cotton makes the game difficult instead of nigh-impossible.
Highly recommend! July 27, 2008
BillyDKid (GA USA)
This is quite a unique little strategy game for the DS. I'm not fond of Japanese RPGs in general, so I was glad to find ROS isn't too "Japanese". There is some lengthy dialogue and meandering stories, but it's not overdone or too obtuse. If you've played a lot of strategy games, it will probably take a few hours for you to forget everything you've learned and figure out what you're doing and how to play. There's a steep initial learning curve. I think a lot of people picked it up, couldn't figure it out in less than and hour and gave up. That's why all you hear is how difficult it is. You *will* probably have to start over a couple times as you realize you didn't know what you were doing at first. But after that, the game is challenging, but not hardcore. It's also surprisingly deep. It's a long game with many things to discover and characters to unlock. Character balance is an issue, but with so many character to choose from (once you unlock them) it's easily forgivable and after beating the game, it is enormously fun to replay and build up the weaker characters for new challenges. If you like strategy games and have an open mind, you'll probably really appreciate Rondo of Swords.
Almost, but not quite. October 20, 2008
M. Mayne (Baltimore, MD)
I am a long time follower of Atlus releases, one might even call me a fanatic about it ;) But this game falls short of the usual greatness that I expect from Atlus, though it just barely misses the mark.
By barely missing the mark I mean, this game, with a few very minor tweaks, would indeed be what I expected from an "epic" Atlus title.
Gameplay in Rondo of Swords moves from map to map without ever letting you have a break. Battle, after battle, after battle. Yes, this adds to the stategy - IE, making sure that you keep your people alive, so that they can fight in the next battle, etc. However, the other RPG elements such as shopping, outfitting your people, sidequests, etc. while present require you to sacrifice those people from the next battle, and there's never a time to do anything but battle. No equipping your people. No random battles or training area in which to lvl up under levelled and/or new people. Etc. etc. Granted, this is part of what makes the game difficult (IE impossible without a walkthrough or several restarts), but it also makes it not-so-fun.
Also, if you are just playing along, going with the flow, its very easy to miss the ability to recruit key characters and very easy to get to the 10th, or 11th stage, and be UNABLE to continue since you don't have enough people to put on the battlefield and complete the other objectives. If you play with a walkthrough, it becomes somewhat bearable.
The combat system? New, unique, refreshing, different, cool.
Skill customization on characters? Very good.
But this game needs to give you a break. An essential element of any RPG is the ability to stop, go back, do something other than the main storyline arc to beef up your people if you're having trouble. If you have trouble in this game? All you can do is start the entire game over and try something different. Which after the 3rd or so time, gets frustrating.
I know what you're thinking ~ but seriously, I'm a veteran gamer, have been playing RPGS and now tactical RPGs for over 20 years, this isn't "the game's too hard for me" - I'm an Atlus fan, I expect it to be difficult, in fact the challenge level in most Atlus games is what keeps me coming back for more. But more than challenging, this game is Punishing, and its very easy to get yourself into a position where continuing is impossible.
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