8/10, This game is a callback to the strategy games of old: Fire Emblem, Langrisser, Shining Force, and other squad based tactic games.

I first bought into this game expecting, from the screenshots, little more than a mostly functional strategy time-waster with a retro-aesthetic. Instead, what I found was a deeply engrossing and coherent army management sim that punches far above its weight class, and offers up more depth and choice than many of its modern counterparts. The amount of customizations is staggering but done in a fun way.

Most of the time playing this game is spent staring at the squad management page looking over unit formations, juggling squad artifact loadouts, and tweaking various micro-optimisations. Between adjusting the paladin subclasses or formation and tossing in assassin squads and the like. The game does toss you in and most of your gameplay is pushed into the actual gameplay, but you'll find more time in the camp menu then you do in stages.

It is quite a breath of fresh air in an old genre. Though it does have some minor issues.

Occasionally cumbersome interface with multiple nested menus, critical information that is buried deep within the interface, a somewhat counter-intuitive affinity system that is difficult to get to grasp with initially, sporadically uneven difficulty, inconsistent writing and a limp bond system, to name a few. It's also missing repeatable scenarios and new game+.

It's a tactics game with RPG elements. It's OK.

I do not recommend this game but I do it with a heavy heart because it's a decent game and I played half of it without any real complaints. It is mediocre and there's nothing wrong with it, you might love it if you're fan of the genre as there isn't many games in this genre.

It might look like a Fire Emblem game and that is what I expected, but it's really quite different. You lead squads so instead of a snappy tactics game with hard counters like Fire Emblem you get something more reminiscent of wargames. It's chaotic and hard to predict unlike FE and similar games. You quickly start to control dozens and later hundreds of units, and you lose the connection to them. Most of the characters are characterless but unlike something like Disgaea there are many of them and there's relatively little distinction between them. Scenario design is fine, but there's little memorable or interesting there. It doesn't feel to me like scenarios provide different enough experience to justify their amount.

In fact everything else is fine but not great too. The story is what you expect but at least it's not irritating. Graphics and sound are serviceable. My only complaints are probably voice acting (there isn't much of it but it's low quality) and some UI issues. At some point when I understood the systems and where the story is going I felt like there's nothing keeping me playing this game.

It's not a bad game but I can't recommend it to anyone who isn't looking for something in exactly this genre.

If you loved Fire Emblem, you'll love this.