The DioField group tells us how their technique RPG will make a reputation for itself

With nearly a month till it launches, The DioField Chronicle will be a part of a rising checklist of ways video games launching this yr. For those who’ve performed the demo already although, you’ll know DioField stands out in just a few methods: its artwork, its design, and the best way it makes use of real-time technique on the sphere.

We had an opportunity to talk with the builders behind The DioField Chronicle, to be taught extra about why they went this path. The group did anticipate just a few technique RPGs to be popping out near this sport. And based on producer Shigeyuki Hirata, the plan was for DioField to face out.

“We wished to make sure that the title that we’d be creating would be capable to differentiate and sort of stand out inside the pack,” mentioned Hirata by way of translator. “In order that it doesn’t, you recognize, get buried inside all these different titles.”

The DioField Chronicle group wished to make sure that it match inside each the real-time technique and simulation RPG framework. This may, in flip, create a brand new SRPG.

A historical past of conflict

And it definitely helps the sport stand out. In our preview, I wrote about how even in a yr with video games like Triangle Technique already out and Techniques Ogre Reborn on the horizon, The DioField Chronicle manages to really feel recent and fascinating due to how completely different it handles.

It’s significantly notable as a result of, when requested about inspirations, Lancarse growth director and battle designer Fukui Hirofumi cites some classics. He says the group referred again to video games just like the Ogre Battle sequence, in addition to Fireplace Emblem and Entrance Mission, as reference factors. However on the subject of the real-time points, they seemed elsewhere.

“However so far as real-time components go, we’d check with [League of Legends] or Diablo for extra action-based references, basically,” mentioned Fukui. “However we did wish to be certain that it nonetheless felt like an SRPG sport, with extra real-time components tacked on and added to this SRPG sport.”

The result’s an RPG that seems like each a real-time technique affair and a conventional ways sport. Gamers bounce between battles and the house base, creating their instruments out of battle after which bringing them in to make sure victory.

Constructing a battle

Even whereas the sport is constructed on core pillars of infantry, cavalry, ranged models, and mages, the group wished to make sure a stage of customization. Andrias, for instance, is an infantry unit that has skilled properly in assassination and subterfuge. He’s very expert at doing single-target harm and back-stabbing opponents.

Distinction this with Izelair, who’s a bit extra of a vanguard main the cost, and models can differ even underneath the identical umbrella. The DioField group wished to incorporate extra components that prolonged customization past simply the 4 archetypes.

Managing all these skills in actual time might sound powerful, however that’s the place the pause is available in. Actual-time technique video games have had combined success in issuing instructions and deploying orders via a controller. The group included a pause, when issuing sure skills or instructions, that provides the participant a bit of time to line the whole lot up proper.

Summons add a further layer too, with them performing as basically trump playing cards. Recreation and artwork director Kumagai Takahiro says the summons could be seen as an homage to all different Sq. Enix SRPGs, although the preliminary inspiration was Ogre Battle.

Magic and science abound

The world of The DioField Chronicle stands out a good bit too. It mixes magic with know-how, with science and sorcery taking part in hand-in-hand. Some mages can name down a rain of fireside, however there are additionally holograms that pop up on the conflict desk because the mercs plan their subsequent transfer.

“Typically, we didn’t wish to simply restrict it to sort of medieval inspirations,” mentioned Hirata. “Reasonably, we have been sort of extra considering pulling from extra of, like, the Industrial Revolution phases, basically.”

This mixture of tech and magic makes for a very fascinating look, like League of Legends‘ Piltover with a heavy dose of Ivalice. This extends out from the house base to the battlefield, as Takahiro says the group wished to make sure that the historical past and tradition may very well be felt via the environments seen within the sport.

The diorama-style view, mixing 3D graphics with a top-down type and pull-backs that really feel very Ogre Battle, additionally made it simpler to command troops on the sphere.

All of it comes collectively to make a technique RPG that definitely feels completely different from the remaining. It’s a brand new world for Sq. Enix and Lancarse to discover, however one factor appears for sure: it received’t be like the remaining you’ve performed.

The DioField Chronicle launches on September 22 for PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Change.