Never played FE and did not like Wargroove, should I take this game?

[Elindos Phar & Family]

- like battle games, tactics games, where we can customize troops, think, strategize, have some challenge.

- liked Battle for Wesnoth

- was attracted by Wargroove premise but playing it felt underwhelming to me. I was disappointed both in story, linearity, simplicity, and also a bit in art.

- not overly attracted to RPG maker games. Worked on some prototypes before so I got too much used to its art styles and construction.

- not a console gamer per say, did enjoy some FF, and one Soul Calibur game which had a strategic battle mode, but never played FE etc.

- interested by the very positive reviews for this game!!! but many of these reviews were made by players who already knew Fire Emblem.

Questions:

1. Should I take this game? will I like it if I was very disappointed in Wargroove?
2. Which difficulty level? I read many reviews mentioned things are "too easy", and I prefer things to be challenging, but I am not a FE player.

[Doraver]

Steam gives you 2 hours of the 100 % money refund. Why don't you just give the game a try.
It plays exactly as old Fire Emblem titles with a bit more customization because you have more units in one stack. Story is okay, nothing overwhelmingly incredible, but I enjoyed the conversations between party members (and romance options are plenty)

[Jay-T]

I share your lack of enthusiasm for Wargroove. IMO this blows that out of the water.
Because it's squad based, there are tons of combinations that synergize well and this results in variable playstyles and approaches. Units can be upgraded and swapped among the squads between battles. It's not uncommon for me to spend almost as long moving units around and equiping artifacts to a squad between battles as I spend on the maps themselves. A lot of thought went into this game.

I would say start at the second lowest difficulty and see how that feels. A future update will allow for more customization of difficulty (multiple toggles rather than bundles of advantages and disadvantages), and I'm waiting for that to be released before my second campaign.

[Elindos Phar & Family]

Thanks Jay!

I was looking for people who could relate to wargroove and explain how different the experience of Symphony could be.

And yes Dorama, there is a refund policy indeed! but I already had Steam staff once tell me during the refund process that it's not actually made to "try games for free", as I had several. I tend to want to purchase several games before purchasing one where I would feel a risk, spacing that up.

[FroBodine]

The staff is wrong. It is EXACTLY for trying games. Nothing is free. You get the money refunded to your Steam wallet, and buy another game. Steam loses nothing. They still have your money.

Don't listen to the staff. Refund away if you don't like a game. That's what it's for.

[Throwaway Name]

This game fits your stated likes very well. It is totally worth it.

[LeftPaw]

One of the magic things about this game is that it has that cannon fodder feel, were you can't stand losing a hero, savescumming is needed. :D

[planescaped]

Originally posted by FroBodine:

The staff is wrong. It is EXACTLY for trying games. Nothing is free. You get the money refunded to your Steam wallet, and buy another game. Steam loses nothing. They still have your money.

Don't listen to the staff. Refund away if you don't like a game. That's what it's for.

Technically they don't want it used for that.

Practically a lot of people use it for that and they've no way to tell, so go ahead... blame game companies for not offering demos anymore.

[Steelfleece]

Not just Fire Emblem, but it can be compared to the Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics games. It holds up pretty well, and overall doesn't feel like a standard RPG Maker game (although if you have messed around enough with RPG Maker VX/VX Ace you will spot those stock NPCs in the first couple scenes EVERY TIME).

Add in the fact that the devs are still actively adding content and rebalancing, and I'd give it a go if you like any of the SRPG games mentioned above.

[Elindos Phar & Family]

Well I did not play Ogre or FF Tactics either.

But I did take the game, and YES, absolutely loved it :)

The reference that clicks for me is actually Battle for Wesnoth, because in that game we have a story and hesitate between several upgrade paths for units. Symphony is a big upgrade from it thanks to squads that receive some "identity" for us, characters and their relationships, another aspect to campaign, etc.

Took it, love it :)
I play in normal+permadeath and we'll see if this is OK.
Thank you for your help!

[Elindos Phar & Family]

I do note, however, level design, easiness, and the absence of "troop manpower" becomes something of an issue once in the Divine Hammer map, as our units are too powerful even as early as that step.

[Malevolent Tapir]

Originally posted by Elindos Phar:

I do note, however, level design, easiness, and the absence of "troop manpower" becomes something of an issue once in the Divine Hammer map, as our units are too powerful even as early as that step.

fwiw the devs are working on another difficulty mode. but I'm also finding my normal campaign a bit easy, I always feel like i'm rolling a dice when i pick a difficulty mode in a game. oh well the amount of customization should make replaying fun.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Elindos Phar:

I do note, however, level design, easiness, and the absence of "troop manpower" becomes something of an issue once in the Divine Hammer map, as our units are too powerful even as early as that step.

Which chapter is that? If it's before chapter 12, then you are in for a surprise! ;)

[butters007]

I would say Yes. I to did not like Wargroove. I also am reluctant to purchase RPG Maker games. The game is a bit easy, although you can go higher difficulty and permadeath which adds quite abit of challenge. Im saying Yes because, the game is simply put, fun. Theres a ton of units, its actually squads and not individuals that do battle, and theres so much polish to the game that it has that AAA feeling without lacking the soul that most AAA games seem to. Ive been gamming for decades and SoW is one of my all time favorite games. Yes get it.

[Kurio]

I hated wargroove. It felt like something made for children. Maybe that was the goal? Its definitely interesting to see all the combination of units.

But as some people have said, its an easy game.

[butters007]

Originally posted by Kurio:

I hated wargroove. It felt like something made for children. Maybe that was the goal? Its definitely interesting to see all the combination of units.

But as some people have said, its an easy game.

Agreed, some self impossed challenges really make it more difficult, but yes, rather easy.