Square Enix’s New Tactics Game Gets Release Date

In the wake of the recently released Triangle Strategy, it seems Square Enix is not finished developing more games within the strategy genre. On July 8th, Square released a Japanese gameplay trailer for The DioField Chronicle. The trailer also included a release date for September 22nd of this year. The overall style and presentation of the game are very similar to Fire Emblem: Three Houses. The game was a commercial success and was widely praised by fans. No doubt Square is hoping to bring some competition in the tactics genre.

The Diofield Chronicle was first announced this past March at a State of Play event. The initial trailer showed a glimpse of gameplay and established the premise of the game. You take command of an elite mercenary company by the name of Blue Fox and fight your way through a war-torn fantasy realm. Very cliché I know, but it’s the gameplay that really has me excited for this title.

Diofield Chronicle will be the first entry in a completely new genre. Dubbed, “Real Time Tactical Battle” or RTTB, the game seeks to combine the RTS genre with standard turn-based strategy gameplay. I imagine this will act similar to how Square evolved the turn-based combat of Final Fantasy into a more action-oriented system present in the newest iterations. According to the official website “battles are defined by real-time assessment of battlefield conditions and issuing decisive orders.” Most of the gameplay revealed so far looks more similar to typical turn-based strategy games. However, I imagine there will be a constant back and forth between ally and enemy units rather than moving all of your units in one turn. The expanded movement options shown in both gameplay trailers seem to support this theory.

Apart from the major gameplay distinction, I’m hoping that The Diofield Chronicle will be able to grab me with a fantastic story and a memorable cast. Though I did enjoy Triangle Strategy, I found the first few hours to be extremely slow and tedious with lots of useless, somewhat dull conversation between characters. Additionally, the main cast was pretty bland in terms of personality.

If Square wants to compete more favorably against Fire Emblem then they need to work on crafting memorable characters with engaging personalities that bend established fantasy tropes. Nintendo has proven that this is the secret to appealing to a broader audience, rather than just hardcore strategy fans like myself. The Diofield Chronicle will be available for Playstation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Steam on September 22nd.