Rondo of Swords: More Interesting Than You Think

Feb. 9 9:30 AM by Lynxara

If you're like me, you glanced over Atlus's announcement for Rondo of Swords, went "Oh, another Luminous Arc," and went about your business. What makes Jeremy Parish's recent 1up preview of Rondo of Swords interesting is that it makes the gameplay sound... well, interesting.

So what makes Rondo so different than any of a dozen games riding the coattails of Final Fantasy Tactics? It all comes down to a single, simple change of gameplay mechanics. Where other entries in the genre have you moving your warriors to stand beside an enemy before launching an attack, Rondo combines "movement" and "attacking" into a single action. To attack foes, you must move through them rather than beside them; a turn consists simply of players drawing a path of movement for each character. Once the path is drawn, a cut-scene plays out in which any enemies along the way are attacked in a fast-paced anime style.

Of course, the last strategy RPG that seriously tried to transform the well-worn rules of the genre was Phantom Brave, which just about everybody ended up hating. I wonder if Rondo of Swords is going to suffer the same unfortunate fate? It does have a grid map, at least....