For all the popularity of the strategy RPG genre recently, it hasn’t been seeing a whole lot of innovation. While there have been plenty of quality releases in the past year or so, few have offered anything fundamentally different from what we’ve seen before — move your units, attack, the enemy takes a turn, and so on. That changed this spring, when Atlus brought Rondo of Swords for Nintendo DS to America. And while it may not be a flawless game, it is an altogether new take on the genre, and a fun, engaging portable adventure.

Rondo follows Prince Serdic, banished from his homeland of Bretwalde during an invasion by a neighboring nation. Except actually (spoiler alert, I guess, though it’s revealed on the back of the game’s box) Prince Serdic dies during the attack. You take control of a young knight who serves as the prince’s body double, who takes Serdic’s place at the forefront of the surviving troops of Bretwalde in an effort to reclaim the kingdom — as well as protect Serdic’s young sister Marie, as the prince commanded with his dying breath. Rondo’s tale of kingdoms at war and the small but determined band of survivors trying to save the land sounds much like any number of RPG plots, but it’s the strength of that one little twist — that you are an imposter, and not the prince everyone believes you to be — that keeps the story interesting. Well, that and the skills of Atlus’ excellent translation staff, who’ve brought us a tale full of witty dialogue and interesting, likable characters.

 
Story events unfold often right in the middle of a battle.

But in a tactical RPG, it’s the battle system that matters most, and that’s where things get interesting. Rondo disregards the traditional strategy RPG battle convention, where each unit gets a certain amount of movement then an attack or action of some kind, in favor of what it calls the Route Maneuver System. Essentially, it boils down to plotting a course of movement for each character directly through friendly and enemy units; allies passed during a turn provide positive effects, like healing and statistic bonuses, while any enemy your character encounters is on the receiving end of an attack. This system offers dramatically different tactical choices during combat than your standard strategy RPG. Since movement and attacks are combined, both must be considered when charting each unit’s path. Do you prioritize killing enemies as quickly as possible, or would you rather get your characters into position for their next turn? Sometimes the two are mutually exclusive.

 
Intelligently plotting each unit’s path through the friendly
and enemy units constitutes the bulk of the gameplay.

Enemies have the same capabilities as your characters, leading to new strategic choices on the defensive end of things as well. Whereas keeping your party close together might offer them some protection in a title like Fire Emblem, here grouping lots of units together means that one enemy character could potentially attack them all. Spreading your characters out, meanwhile, denies your opponents easy attack opportunities, but prevents your characters from granting each other powerful bonuses. There’s no right or wrong answer either way, but cleverly choosing each character’s path is the only way to succeed. The novelty of the Route Maneuver System, along with the different tactical possibilities it provides, make for a significant challenge, especially at first when you’re learning the ropes of the system. Don’t be surprised to suffer plenty of defeats early on, even if you’re a veteran of the genre.

There’s also the concept of Momentum to consider. Each character has a Momentum Counter, which essentially measures how much attention the enemy forces are paying to that character. Killing enemies raises the Momentum Counter, as do certain spells and abilities; high Momentum indicates that the enemy forces are more likely to focus their attacks on that character. Various means are also available to you to lower a given character’s Momentum, granting them a higher probability to escape detection. This system allows for yet more interesting strategic choices — using high Momentum characters to create a diversion and draw the attention of the enemy troops, allowing another unit to sneak their way to mission objectives, for instance.

 
Using high-Momentum characters, like Serdic here,
to distract the enemy forces from others is often a viable tactic.

Some standard tactical RPG elements are present in the game. OverBreak abilities, Limit Break-style super attacks available only after filling a meter, can dramatically turn the tide of a battle. Archers, a standard of the genre, are present here, and are highly valuable for their long-range attacks. Mages, also a genre staple, are available as well, but their powerful magic is compensated by the fact that, unlike archers, mages can either cast a spell or move each turn, but not both. Utilizing mages effectively in Rondo of Swords is a matter of keeping them close enough to the action that there spells are effective, but far enough away that they don’t get wiped out.

Outside of combat, you can send your men out on errands, which are divided into three groups: Quests send one unit out solo to perform various odd jobs and missions, Training allows you to improve specific statistics for each character individually, and Shopping sends a given unit to the store to pick out new items and equipment. Quests and training are pretty much what you’d expect, and come in handy for keeping your b-team fighters ready for action. Allowing your characters to do their own shopping is an interesting concept (especially considering that, just like in real life, some people are better shoppers than others), but it can get aggravating when you can’t heal your party because somebody blew all the group’s cash on stuff you don’t even need.

 
Sending units on errands between battles keeps even your least favorite characters useful.

Rondo of Swords doesn’t innovate graphically as much as it does in gameplay. Still, it’s a good-looking game, with large, detailed 2D sprites used for characters and enemies. Especially impressive are the animated cutscenes that play during each turn, and although they tend to run a little long, the 2D animation is gorgeous. Rondo’s music is all right, but not especially memorable or exciting.

Rondo of Swords is a game that takes a lot of risks, and sure, not all of them pay off. Still, it’s refreshing to see a game take the unconventional route in a genre where everyone else seems content to play follow-the-leader (the leaders, of course, being Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem). With a little more refinement and polish applied to the ideas and concepts presented here, I could see a sequel drawing a significant following. But while it may not be perfect, Rondo of Swords is an engaging, challenging, unique strategy RPG, and is well worth the time and attention of any genre fan.

Gameplay: 8.0
The Route Maneuver System is innovative and fresh, and adds new strategic depth to the game. While the learning curve is pretty steep, it offers satisfying new ways to approach battles. Some of the game’s other ideas, especially the shopping errands, aren’t as strong.

Graphics: 7.5
A nice anime art style and impressively animated 2D cut scenes go a long way to keeping the game visually interesting, but some will be turned off by the old-school look of the battle map.

Sound: 6.8
The soundtrack is the sort of generic fantasy epic music that sounds just like 80% of other fantasy games. Sound effects don’t go much beyond swords clashing, but the voice clips that play in combat are pretty cool.

Difficulty: Hard
Until you get the hang of the Route Maneuver System, prepare to get wiped out early and often. Later battles require you to use every tool at your disposal to emerge victorious.

Concept: 8.8
Rondo introduces plenty of innovative new ideas to the tactical RPG genre. While the story is good despite being fairly derivative, the combat system is anything but.

Overall: 8.0
Rondo of Swords attempts to breathe new life into the strategy RPG genre, and mostly succeeds. While there are some missteps from time to time, overall this is a deep, engaging tactical game that will bring a unique challenge to fans of the genre.