Dark Deity | PC Review
While many readers may not remember, the 1990’s was a premiere time period for the turn-based tactical RPG. Nintendo’s Fire Emblem and Camelot Software’s Shining Force series dominated the genre, providing challenging, deep, and rewarding gameplay. While Shining Force has long since faded and Fire Emblem has taken steps away from its overly punishing roots, other games have stepped in to fill the void.
What’s Old is New
Cue Dark Deity, a new tactical RPG by Sword & Axe LLC. Between the grid-based, turn-based combat, weapon triangles, and RNG-based stat increases, this is a game that isn’t afraid to show its roots. It’s Fire Emblem inspired by the older GBA titles, but produced for a new generation on a non-Nintendo platform.
Even the story is reminiscent of the early 2000’s era Fire Emblem: A war is brewing with a neighboring kingdom, so all current recruits of your home’s military academy are forcibly graduated and conscripted to fill army ranks. You and your squad start by clearing out the odd bandit force and freeing villages, but quickly become embroiled in something more sinister that threatens more than just your kingdom’s borders.
The combat, naturally, takes its cues from the tactical RPGs that came before it, but with a modern twist. While Fire Emblem would have you equipping your troops with weapons that would eventually break, Dark Deity gives everyone four different weapon types they can use infinitely. These focus on either power, critical hit chance, accuracy, or a balanced stat approach. Each of these can be upgraded individually, allowing you to make a crit build for a character, for instance. The weapons matter less than your character’s class and damage type, however, and utilizing those effectively is key to ensuring you don’t get overwhelmed.
Train Your Squad
The character classes in particular give you some creative freedom over your squad makeup. You’re given your first class change at level 10, and your second at level 30. Unfortunately, you can’t change your class once selected, and the choice is presented immediately upon hitting the requisite level, so you’d better be happy with your choices. It’s a step backward from Nintendo’s Three Houses, which let you change classes freely, but a step ahead of the GBA Fire Emblem titles that Dark Deity takes inspiration from. Still, it would have been beneficial to be able to better customize your squad beyond the choices presented.
Naturally, because it’s a Fire Emblem-like, your squad can interact with one another and have conversations while in camp that boost their bond level. These are fun little vignettes that give you some insight into the characters and their backstory, and can be pretty funny as well.
What’s Missing
That said, there are some features missing from Dark Deity that were welcome additions in recent tactical RPGs. The game goes from combat to story to camp to combat in a loop, and you have no ability to explore the overworld or revisit old areas. While the weapon triangle of Fire Emblem has been replaced with armor resistances, these aren’t clearly explained, and so it’s easiest to simply default to “green arrow good fight, red arrow bad fight.” And while there’s a wide cast of characters, you’re also given a lot of them right away, giving you little time to get acclimated to your new recruits.
Dark Deity is currently available on Steam for $25 USD. It’s about 15-20 hours long and for a hardcore Fire Emblem fan, definitely an enjoyable playthrough. For fans new to the genre, it might be worth jumping in with Dark Deity, as the overall difficulty level is far more forgiving and the systems much simpler than Three Houses. That said, if you want something beefier than the old GBA Fire Emblem games, Dark Deity might not be for you.
To hear me talk more about Dark Deity, be sure to listen to Episode 352 of The Gaming Outsider Podcast around the 1:20:50 time stamp.
This review is based on a PC copy of Dark Deity provided by Stride PR for coverage purposes. As of this writing, it is exclusive to that platform.
Dark Deity
$24.99
Pros
- Classic Tactical RPG Gameplay
- Interesting Cast of Characters
- More Forgiving Than Traditional 'Fire Emblem'
Cons
- Can't Explore the World or Revisit Old Maps
- Somewhat Generic Story
