Grim Grimoire
Like most every game released by Nippon Ichi, GrimGrimoire presents a quirky RPG with more personality and charm than you can shake a stick at. I'll get into all of the details in a minute but before I do I have to say that the storyline here is essentially the Japanese equivalent of Harry Potter. That is to say you play as a kid who goes to wizarding school, it involves a philosopher's stone, and the guy in charge of the school is an elderly wizard named Gammel Dore (Dumbledore anyone?). Apart from the lifted inspiration and material subtext the actual content of the game thankfully differs greatly from Rowling's franchise.
When the game begins we are introduced to Lillet Blan. She is a young girl who was just invited to the Silver Star Tower to learn magic and such. Once there she gets along decently enough, makes some friends, and meets much of the faculty. Then on the fifth day at the school, tragedy strikes. Everyone in the school is dead and on the cusp of her own demise Lillet is sent back in time to her first day in order to resolve the issues and discover how the Archmage was actually released. Time will continuously loop and each day you'll witness different things at varying intervals as the tale unravels.
During her quest she'll meet many interesting and funny characters and you'll be immersed in this quirky and creative world. Unfortunately the story isn't as engaging as it should have been and dialogue between characters tends to be somewhat self-serving. GrimGrimoire certainly offers a memorable adventure and Nippon Ichi did a fantastic job of providing us with this title but it's not the strongest title in their catalog in regards to a presented story. The rest of the game works essentially the same way as the plot does. It has a lot of promise, feels somewhat familiar, and ultimately harnesses some annoying flaws.
Gameplay
In no time flat after you're given an introduction to the story in GrimGrimoire you're thrown into battle. I mean, you are investigating the source of the school's destruction after all. Despite the cartoony appearance and odd design choices GrimGrimoire is actually a real time strategy game. Beneath the cute and bubbly exterior beats a complex and unabashedly challenging battle system that takes some time to get familiar with. Granted all of the RTS fail-safes are present so if you're a veteran of the genre you'll feel at home with most of what's going on.
You start out with very limited resources and essentially all you have at your disposal are a couple of elves, some faeries, mana, and whatever skills you bring in your bag of tricks. On each map you'll have to locate mana producing objects and build, build, build. It's not uncommon in RTS games to cultivate money as a strategy but in GrimGrimoire not doing so would be suicide.
Once you have netted enough mana you can summon more faeries and other beastly things to your aid. Keep in mind that while you're toiling away the CPU is hard at work doing the same thing and they are relentless in this endeavor. As you begin moving into enemy territory you're going to come across golems, ghosts, goblins, and many other ghastly things that do not even begin with the letter g. Fortunately you can always earn new things by being studious and learning in class. You didn't forget that you were in a school, did you?
There are four areas of study that Lillet can excel at. Their relationship with each other follows a rock paper scissors pattern where one works well against a magic type but poorly against another. The four classes are Glamour, Sorcery, Alchemy, and Necromancy. As you power these up you'll gain access to more familiars that will aid you in battle and skills that will assist with your stats. You'll also see terms like grimoires and runes tossed about but they are basically things that add to your power in battle by allowing you to summon critters and increase their levels.
The battles in GrimGrimoire require a lot of strategy and the need for you to stay on your toes. You need to be nothing less than perfect in order to get anywhere in most cases and as you'd imagine this leads to some frustration. The game is also unforgiving in the sense that battles take forever and a day plus there's no way to save in mid-fight. That means you have to put your life on hold for as much as an hour and a half for one simple conflict. If you have the time to invest you'll find a rich and rewarding combat system but there are definitely ups and downs associated with this.
The controls are very intuitive for the PS2's controller though not quite as solid as the configuration for Xbox 360's version of C&C3. They are still functional in this case but sometimes in the thick of battle you'll feel like you're juggling four hot potatoes with a spatula. In other words the controls can be rather inefficient at times.
Overall GrimGrimoire is a compelling RTS game that brings several new things to the genre. The battle system is addictive, if not a little on the cumbersome side, but fans of the genre will find much to love. I do have some concerns with the longevity of the game because it doesn't take very long to beat it by RTS standards. Still, Vanillaware did a fantastic job developing the game and Nippon Ichi did a great service by bringing it to the States. If you enjoyed Odin Sphere you owe it to yourself to give this one a shot.
Graphics
GrimGrimoire is not quite as jaw-droppingly beautiful as Odin Sphere was. The graphics lack the liveliness and detail that was poured into that title but that doesn't mean this one is a slouch. Charming designs and cute animations make for one heck of a loveable game whether you're looking at the still pictures in cut scenes or watching battles heat up. As far as those battles are concerned they are quite possibly the weakest area in terms of the game's overall look. There is only one fighting arena throughout and believe me when I tell you it gets boring after, like, the tenth time.
Sound
The audio direction for GrimGrimoire feels less inspired than the graphical but there are still some decent bits. For starters the game features both English and Japanese languages which is always a plus when you're talking about games like this. Both dubs are very good though I have to give credit to the English cast for adding more humor into the title. Sound effects are mostly dull and repetitive and the music fairs a little better but once again repeats itself too much.
Conclusion
GrimGrimoire is another game released by publisher Nippon Ichi that fans will want to give a spin. It's not the most intuitive RTS in the world but it is certainly one of the most colorful and personable. In the end it's a flawed game that offers some inspiration but ultimately not enough to make you go gaga over. Repetition runs deep throughout this title and it's not very long when you get right down to it. I'm going to recommend it for those of you looking for a charming game to punch through but most everyone else could get by with a rental.