GrimGrimoire OnceMore review

Sixteen years later, the magic is still there.

Vanillaware’s games have remarkable longevity. Now and again, I’ll revisit 2009’s Muramasa: The Demon Blade, soaking up its mixture of ukiyo-e and 70’s anime-influenced visuals as well as an absorbing combat system. When I’m in the mood for the pleasures of a brawler, 2013’s Dragon’s Crown gets chosen frequently. Its high-definition depictions of high fantasy remain unrivaled.

While it’s only been three years since I first soaked up 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim’s intriguing collection of time-spanning plotlines, I’m sure I’ll return to its distinctive narrative structuring one day.

Although the release of GrimGrimoire OnceMore provides several worthwhile additions, the game’s real-time strategy and visual novel-style storytelling hold up quite remarkably. Yes, there’s a bit of repetition that’s just as nettlesome as when the game was released for the PlayStation 2 thirteen years ago. But if can overlook that minor fault, the game remains one of the better console-explosive RTS titles.

Tragedy in the Tower

Set in the Tower of Silver Star, a prestigious magic academy, Lillet Blan spends the first four days learning and preparing to become a skilled sorceress. Beyond basic teachings, she encounters a colorful cast of characters that range from Hiram Menthe, an accomplished senior studying necromancy to Chartreuse Grande, a processor of alchemy who was cursed into resembling a lion. Her days are occupied with learning about the eponymous tomes used to create runes, which in turn summon familiars. But during the evening, she’s told to stay inside her dorm and avoid poking around the academy.

On the fifth day, a potent mage who had been sealed away deep inside the tower is released, causing chaos. Everyone in the academy is killed, with Lillet surviving only long enough to witness the bloodshed. Miraculously, she awakens and finds herself at the beginning of the week with the knowledge of what will play out. Structurally, you’ll find yourself replaying this tragic week, with each journey revealing new facets of the story. Sure, it’s the old Groundhog Day/Edge of Tomorrow time loop device. But GrimGrimoire contributes just enough reveals and dramatic duplicities to offset the tedium of recurrence.

The Curse of Sleeping Dragons

Like most real-time strategy battles, unit types often determine success in GrimGrimoire OnceMore. The game groups familiars into four different schools of magic: Alchemy, Glamour, Necromancy, and Sorcery. An additional distinction is rooted in the Substance and Astral categories. While the former have physical bodies, the latter faction are ethereal entities like ghosts and spirits. Unsurprisingly, there’s a rather complex relationship between the different familiars. Learning the intricacies of this rocket-scissor-paper-style system will take some time. Additional complications are engrained in the need to harvest mana that’s used to summon each familiar as well as unit caps for each stage.

As you build toward twenty different types of combatants, complexity increases accordingly. But learning how to exterminate an assemblage of adversaries with a single unit can be gratifying. Invest some time and you’ll be able to read a situation, deploying elves for their dealing, ghosts for their flying ability, imps for their swift movement, or blobs to overcome rapid-fire attackers. Fortunately, Grimoire includes an in-game catalog, that reveals the strengths and weaknesses of each unit type, so Lillet doesn’t have to completely strategize for herself. But like most RTS, there comes a point where tedium inevitably sets in. Although there’s variety in the composition of enemies hordes, backdrops don’t change that much. As such, your time in the Tower of Silver Star feels overly constrictive. Ideally, Vanillaware would have contributed some new battlegrounds.

New Competences in the Curriculum

That said, the team has made several worthwhile changes and additions. No longer are the different magic schools static. After a few hours, you’ll unlock a skill tree for each disciple, allowing you to personalize your playstyle. Pleasingly, there’s no penalty associated with reassigning skills. As such, if you face an arduous challenge, it is possible to tip the odds in your favor.

Occasionally, the tides of conflict can shift against you. With GrimGrimoire’s original release that meant having to replay the entire scenario all over. Mercifully, OnceMore provides the ability to tweak time, rewinding things to an earlier moment or fast-forwarding through a dawdling battle of attrition. The addition of Grand Magic also allows for area-of-effect based heals or harms, which can help offset any stalemates as well.

“Through the pleasures and pain of flesh”

Expectedly, the game’s visuals have been upscaled to take advantage of the Switch’s resolution. This allows you to perceive the meticulous details embedded into the backgrounds of the visual novel scenes or help distinguish between different unit types. The shift from a 4:3 to a 16:9 aspect ratio provides a broader perspective on the action. Likewise, the game’s voice acting has been rerecorded, improving the fidelity of the Japanese and English performances.

Given that the real-time strategy genre is rather underrepresented on the Switch, GrimGrimoire OnceMore makes a pleasing inclusion. Built for console, the title evades the awkwardness that often occurs when mouse-and-keyboard console schemes require adaptation. While it spins a respectable yarn and managing conflict is engaging, it’s also undermined by repetition that wasn’t remedied by this remake. But like most Vanillaware efforts, it’s beautiful and involving enough to probably warrant annual visits.

GrimGrimoire OnceMore was played on Switch
with review code provided by the publisher.