Review | Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga - Squad Goals
Bitches are sending their squads of dragon riders into battle against a demonic cult’s army. Bitches are also pitting their ground units - consisting of swathes of knights, gunners, cavalry, mages, giant lady paladins and yes, MORE dragons - against the greatest evil the land of Tahnra has faced.
Hi, I’m bitches, and you could be too.
Hmm. Needs more gun.
Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga (henceforth, SoW — I am a lazy typist) is a love letter from indie developer Dancing Dragon to those classic Strategic and Tactical RPG’s spanning almost 30 years of influence. Much to my delight, it also stands tall as a great evolution of the genre. SRPG-goblins and aficionados will see an instant line to be drawn between SoW and classics like 1993's Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen and older Fire Emblem iterations. Pitting your own army against another on a large map with various objectives to seize, defend and conquer will be par for the course for those with experience, and a very tasty course it is…
Yes, I forcibly mixed up a golf saying and a food saying, but we’re making it work.
The enemy is not afraid to bring a whole dragon to a horse fight.
I spent a lot of hours with SoW for this review, these types of games deserve it. I can proudly say that I spent a large portion of that time poring over its chasm-deep squad preparations, skill tree, class assignment and Artifact systems. I’ll be up-front, I’m not quite finished the main story, let alone the side quests, and I love it. There’s simply so much game to be gamed. SoW would put me in a chokehold before the next mission even started and told me to like it, and I did. The depth available to your army’s preparation and the multitudes of classic RPG classes on offer (everyone is here!) alone would make any fan smile. But the addition of our more modern friend, the humble skill tree, and the Artifact (situational equipment/buffs) system really lets you get into the nitty gritty of curating each one of your squads to any of your likings. Min-Maxers, I’m looking at you.
I streamed the beginnings of the game to a few followers on Twitch, just to get a better idea of what immediate reactions from both fans of the genre and those who haven’t ever played an SRPG looked like, and to have a little conversation on what we expect out of these kinds of games nowadays. The general consensus on the game’s overall presentation was that the pixel art-style of both mission maps and your units were gorgeous and detailed very well. The image of your allied units battling the enemy over almost-painted backdrops also stood out to us as a positive, which is important as you’ll be looking at these various backgrounds to get a feel for the area you’re in, and also to understand the terrain and weather that might affect the fight. Units don’t clash at once, they take turns, which helps the battle screen from looking messy.
Robert here doesn’t care that they’re surrounded on nearly all fronts. Robert has dragons and Sean Paul’s “We Be Burnin’ ” playing on stereo. Robert is a danger to us all.
The main gripe I found, as far as the look of the game goes, is with the key art and some story elements. The character art, for one, seems incongruous to the overall pixel/classic RPGRPG-maker aesthetic that the rest of the game presents. Cutscenes and re-caps where wooden character art is shown over a pixel mission map often like a mixture of two different games. As for storytelling, SoW has not reinvented the wheel here, if you’ve played a Fire Emblem game or similar, you can see where the story beats are coming from and where they’re going. Of course, this is not to say that it’s to the game’s detriment, my own personal wishes just find <insert fantasy empire bad gu-Oh no there was a big demon cult all along pulling the strings> a bit eye-rolling. At least it made me speed-read forward to the juicy gameplay though.
There’s a lot to love with Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga. The gameplay systems run deep for the veterans, and the tutorials are also there in spades for newcomers should they start to feel overwhelmed. Difficulty scaling options are available too: we love a Story mode! As the game’s story amps up and the battles grow increasingly larger in scale, further mid-battle ‘Powers’ for your army are unlocked, but I can’t in good conscience spoil how cool those are, you’ll have to play it and see for yourself. However, I can say that watching your army of up to 200 units grow and using your own problem-solving to organise your squads to match the mettle of your enemy will undoubtedly keep you hooked. As you play SoW you will constantly find yourself with an itching feeling of“what if I just tried THIS?” and it never stops being satisfying playing some more and scratching that itch.
OH NO THEY HAVE REVEALED THEIR SECRET WEAPON - A BIG LADY!
In my 30+ hours with SoW on its challenging and rewarding Captain (Normal) difficulty, I can safely say that this is absolutely one for the lovers of fantasy-set strategy titles and a very welcoming beginner’s foray into leading armies into battle. Thanks to Dancing Dragon for letting me review this one, please support Indie developers, and check Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga out on Steam for PC now.
