Strategy-RPGs have always been a favorite genre of mine, and they’re enjoying a period remarkable popularity right now — especially on the DS. Between Final Fantasy Tactics A2, Disgaea DS, and the upcoming Fire Emblem, DS-owning tactics fans will have plenty to keep them busy in the coming months. One of the biggest criticisms of the genre is its high learning curve and sometimes overwhelming complexity; these factors keep many potential fans from trying the genre, especially the pre-teen crowd. Atlus Software is doing its best to show kids how great the genre can be, with Drone Tactics for the DS. And while the game might be aimed primarily at the younger crowd, older players might be surprised to find that underneath the game’s kid-friendly veneer lies a wealth of quality strategy-RPG gameplay.

The game’s story sounds like it could have come straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon: two young friends, Yamato and Tsubasa, share a love of insects and meet after school to collect and discuss bugs. At their normal bug hunting grounds, however, they encounter K-Buto the rhino beetle and Y-Ite the butterfly from the planet Cimexus, a world where insects are capable of speech and human-level intelligence. They are also able to transform into gigantic mechanized versions of themselves, but only with the help of (surprise, surprise) bug-loving humans. The good bugs of Cimexus are under attack from the evil Black Swarm, and so K-Buto and Y-Ite travel to Earth in hopes of finding humans willing and able to return to Cimexus and help. If you ever watched the Digimon anime, the story here is pretty similar, and similarly groan-inducing for anyone over the age of 12. Still, the dialogue is well-written, and story sequences are mercifully brief enough that anyone not interested can skip past them relatively painlessly.

 
The dialogue can be occasionally chuckle-worthy,
but the story will only hold the attention of pre-teens.

Once you get into combat, however, it’s an altogether different story. Drone Tactics doesn’t innovate tremendously in its combat system, and most of its gameplay cues are taken straight from either Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem, or Front Mission, so players of any of those titles will have a good idea of what to expect. Combat is presented in an overhead isometric view, and players will take turns moving each unit then taking an action, such as attacking or playing a card (more on them in a minute). Terrain plays an important role as is usual for a game of this type; wooded areas provide defense but reduces movement, for instance. Controlling your units can be done with either the face buttons or the touch screen — touch control is well implemented (with one exception, which I’ll explain later), and while I preferred button controls, either is a viable choice.

While it doesn’t worry about making any major innovations, Drone Tactics succeeds by streamlining some of the genre’s complexities — which not only eases the difficulty curve, but actually improves the strategic gameplay. For instance, in most games of this type you’ve got long range units (like archers in FFT or artillery in Advance Wars) which can dish out serious damage from a distance, but turn into sitting ducks as soon as an enemy gets in close. In Drone Tactics, every unit can equip both short-range weapons (guns and melee equipment, like blades and drills) and a long range one (usually cannons), so any character can potentially attack from a distance or close up. You’ve still got characters that specialize in long-range attacks; they just don’t become completely helpless as soon as enemies move in close. On the flip side, your heavy melee attackers have long-range attacks as well, but they’re still best at getting close and personal. This can lead to some new strategic choices, and makes the game less frustrating.

Being on the defensive gives you new choices, as well. Every time your characters come under an attack, you can choose for them to Counterattack, Defend, or Evade, with each having its pros and cons. Choose to counterattack and your unit takes the full brunt of the attack, but gets a chance to return fire afterward. Defending units add their Defense statistic to “dig in” and try to avoid taking damage, while Evading units add their Speed statistic to increase the chances of the enemy missing. Having control over this allows you to play to your unit’s strengths; still, each situation is different, and there are times, for instance, when it’s smarter to have even your quickest characters defend (say, to stack with high defensive bonuses granted by the terrain).

 
With the right choices, you could reduce or even negate the damage you receive.

Instead of buying and using items, Drone Tactics has the characters collecting and using cards. Cards are obtained as a reward after battle, or they can sometimes be found on the battlefield (provided your characters get to them first). Just like items, cards provide an instant effect, and do everything from healing to instant damage to statistic improvements. Unlike items, however, cards are usable again and again, but only once in each battle. So instead of having to re-stock on healing potions after every fight, once you’ve got a few healing cards in your deck you don’t have to worry about it as much. Strategic choices come into play in two ways: the number of cards in your playable hand in any given fight is limited to 16, so you have to pick and choose what cards you’d like to use before each fight, and cards can be combined to produce more powerful effects, so you might have to choose between, say, keeping five healing cards that heal a minor amount or combining them to get one card that heals a great deal. Unfortunately, using cards requires the player to succeed in one of a handful of touch-screen mini-games, which are unnecessary at best, and often silly, pointless, and tacked-on. Seriously, how does helping a fly escape being swatted improve my defense?

The battles are presented in 2D, with colorful sprites representing each unit and anime-style character portraits accompanying dialogue and the like. While it doesn’t look great, it doesn’t look bad, either. The game does look great, however, during the cut scenes that accompany any combat action; switching from small 2D sprites to detailed 3D animations, every attack and special move is shown in its full glory. The 3D is impressive for the DS, and the animations really do a great job of conveying the weight and power of these giant robot insects. These 3D animations keep every turn exciting, and are definitely something I’d like to see in other games in the genre.

 
If you’ve ever wanted to see life-and-death struggles
between giant robotic insects presented in full 3D animation, you’ve come to the right place.

Drone Tactics is a deep, fun strategy-RPG and more than worth your while if you’re a genre fan. I have to admit, when I first started it up I thought it was a kid’s game, nothing more. Once I put a little time into the game, however, I began getting more and more addicted. Few games are as addictive as a deep, well-balanced tactical RPG, and Drone Tactics has got the goods in spades. If you know a kid you want to turn on to the genre, pick them up a copy. If you give it a try, though, don’t be surprised if you end up wanting a copy for yourself, too.

Gameplay: 8.5
Deep, strategic turn-based combat is the name of the game here. Units are well-balanced, and each battle presents you with a multitude of tactical choices at every turn. While the game has a nice gentle learning curve, don’t be fooled: you have to use each unit intelligently and efficiently if you want to emerge from battle victorious.

Graphics: 7.8
The 2D sprites are detailed enough to be functional, but not particularly exciting. The game does look great, though, during the 3D combat sequences. Impressive 3D models for the DS come to life with fluid animations, and they really make you feel the power of each attack.

Sound: 6.2
The music could have been stolen directly from any number of generic anime shows, and is generally forgettable.  Sound effects don’t do much to impress, either.

Difficulty: Medium
Don’t get me wrong, there are some battles here that are quite tough. But the game eases you into them, and teaches you exactly what you need to be doing at every step of the way. Besides, if things get too tough, between storyline battles you can tackle combat in the Badlands, allowing your characters to level up at your leisure.

Concept: 7.4
The game’s storyline could have been taken straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon, but giant robot bugs fighting each other is as good a reason as any to pit armies against each other in turn-based combat. Still, some will probably be turned off by the kiddy premise.

Overall: 8.0
I wasn’t expecting to like Drone Tactics, but I found myself addicted nevertheless. Only kids will likely get much out of the game’s storyline, but anyone who enjoys a good turn-based strategy-RPG will find plenty to like about this game.