I’m of the school of thought that not every game needs a multiplayer element, particularly RPGs. Sometimes, it’s just tacked on because of marketing and is a complete disaster. Other times, the developer may spend so much time on it that the single player element isn’t given enough attention and falls dreadfully short of expectations. But every once in a while, a game like Grand Kingdom, spiritual successor to the Japan-only Grand Knights History, comes along and manages to bring it all together in a package with something for everyone.
Grand Kingdom takes place on the continent of Resonail, one hundred years after the fall of the Uldein Empire. The fall of this once mighty empire left a power vacuum and Four Great Nations in its wake: Landerth, Valkyr, Fiel, and Magion. These nations are constantly at war with each other, vying to expand their influence and seize territory. They enlist the help of freelance mercenary squads via war contracts to aid in these endeavors. This is where you come in as captain of one such mercenary squad. Having displayed battle prowess in the game’s opening sequence, your squad is recruited into a powerful yet autonomous mercenary group matter-of-factly called The Guild.
The Guild acts as the main driver for game and story progression by providing several types of quests. Each quest deploys your squad to a field somewhere on the continent of Resonail and has an objective for you to achieve. The field map is structured in a board-game style where you move your “piece” one square at a time and interact with treasure chests, obstacles, and enemies, among other encounters. This core construct is simple, straightforward, and is perfectly executed for short gaming sessions on systems like the Vita.
One of my main complaints, few as they may be, lies in moving your piece on the field. The field map is presented at an angle rather than completely vertical or horizontal, which is pleasing aesthetically but complicates directional movement a bit. Rather than moving up and down, your movements are all diagonal and very touchy. If you’re even slightly off with the analog stick, you may move left when you wanted to move up. That may not seem like a big deal, but it’s frustrating when you land on an enemy that you were trying to avoid but now have to battle. Fortunately, this only came up often enough to be worth mentioning, not often enough to detract from my enjoyment of the game.
Coming into contact with an enemy piece engages you in battle, which is one of the areas where the game really shines. There are seventeen available classes of mercenaries for you to hire, including Medics, Fighters, Blacksmiths, and Witches. Though each class has its own distinct attributes, their playstyles break down into four basic types: melee, magic, ranged, and special. While combat is turned-based, each character’s turn plays out in real-time and is limited by action and movement gauges. This allows movement that makes combat feel truly freeform and enables your strategies to be satisfactorily executed or fail miserably.
Battle actions are incredibly smooth, particularly for the melee classes. The timing of your button presses in relation to the effects of each attack on an enemy (launching, knock backs, etc.) determines the success or failure of a combo and doesn’t reward you for simple button mashing. The collision detection is also accurate to the point that you need to be keenly aware of the consequences of your actions lest the arc of a ranged attack falls shorter than you anticipated and clips the shoulder of a nearby ally. The solid mechanics and flow of combat as well as the class variety ensured that battle grew minimally stale and was legitimately fun throughout my playthrough.
The game’s storylines are driven by Campaign quests that aren’t particularly original, but story isn’t the reason you’re going to buy this one. There’s the Guild’s storyline revolving around the attempts of the descendants of the Uldein Empire to resurrect it, as well as individual storylines for each of the Four Great Nations. The characters aren’t particularly complex, so prepare to get reaquainted with the brash rival, the obnoxious friend, and the earnest-yet-stern young woman. The dialogue, though cheesy at times, at least does a decent job of keeping things interesting.
Grand Kingdom is very pleasing visually, with vibrant and smoothly animated 2D characters and backgrounds. The music is top-notch, from its thunderous opening theme to its catchy battle music. I found myself frequently whistling or humming the background music for the Guild base, with its flutes and strings, if that tells you anything. Additionally, the voice acting for the main characters is generally very well done and engaging while the minor characters are hit or miss.
The multiplayer aspect of Grand Kingdom is manifested in your ability to join other players when contracting with one of the Four Great Nations in war. It’s a mechanic that really sets the game apart. Each war occurs in 24-hour cycles, and there are numerous ways for you to contribute to the effort, including participating in operations and providing resources for support. The ways in which you interact with other players aren’t relegated simply to battle, though you do meet in combat asynchronously with the mercenaries of players contracted to enemy nations. All players contracted with your nation can vote on invasion sites and treaties with other nations as well as armament placements before battles. The more influence you have with that nation, the more you provide in battle and support, and the more sway your individual votes hold. You can even hire other players’ mercenaries during war and bring them with you into battle, all in an effort to win the war and claim disputed territory on Resonail. A hard-fought victory and watching enemy forts crumble is incredibly satisfying.
Grand Kingdom combines great music, charming visuals, and a fantastic battle system, then one-ups itself with a robust and unique multiplayer system. Although its quest structure lends itself to quick gaming sessions, you’re bound to find yourself unable put it down, which is just fine, because this war isn’t going to win itself.
