Gem Wizards Tactics: A Review

Shining Gem or Dull Rock?

03 March 2022
by benmagnet 0
image

Tactical games have seen a big boom as of late. This year we’re getting Triangle Strategy, Metal Slug Tactics, Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp, and a remake of Front Mission, all for the Switch. However, if you aren’t in the mood for a story-heavy tactical RPG, then Keith Burgun’s Gem Wizards Tactics could be for you. It has some great pixel art and crazy-looking characters, but there are some glaring issues with the game, especially in the Switch version.

Let’s start with some of the good. Aside from nice-looking pixel art and a more pastel color palette for the genre, Gem Wizards Tactics (GWT) twists the tactical aspect by having an out of bounds. All battles take place on a randomly generated field with different terrain. If you manage to knock an enemy unit off the map, then they’re done for. GWT also moves away from the Fire Emblem approach to losing units. Here, if a unit dies in battle, you get them back in the next fight. There are several different factions and each one is unique. Each faction design has a ton of character, and each unit offers a specific set of skills. There’s a faction full of sentient potatoes (yes, you read that right), business-suited demons, punk rock-loving skeletons with a flair for activism, and a cyber punk group of hackers. There’s even a faction with knights and mages found in a traditional fantasy setting, but the world of GWT is anything but traditional.

The game modes of GWT consist of a Tutorial, Campaign, Mission, and Derby’s Story. If you were looking for any sort of storyline to this game, then Derby’s Story is where you’re going to find it. Unfortunately, the story is super short, and the writing isn’t the best. There are some decent jokes in there that gave me a small chuckle, but other than that, it fell flat. Outside of the opening cinematic and Derby’s Story, there really is no storyline.

The campaign mode is a single player match where you control 1 faction and complete missions to control the Omni-Gem (the main Gem in the game). You have to complete 8 missions or so to access the Omni-Gem mission, and once you beat it with one faction, you can try again with a different faction. While playing these missions, you can save other units and they’ll join your fight. There are also treasure chests to collect on the maps that offer both gold and items. However, if you fail a mission in the middle of a campaign, you’ll have to start the campaign all over again, and you lose everything. While the missions are short, this can get annoying, especially when you’re close to the end of a campaign.

The Battlefield of Gem Wizards Tactics.
The Battlefield of Gem Wizards Tactics.

The campaign mode is a single player match where you control 1 faction and complete missions to control the Omni-Gem (the main Gem in the game). You have to complete 8 missions or so to access the Omni-Gem mission, and once you beat it with one faction, you can try again with a different faction. While playing these missions, you can save other units and they’ll join your fight. There are also treasure chests to collect on the maps that offer both gold and items. However, if you fail a mission in the middle of a campaign, you’ll have to start the campaign all over again, and you lose everything. While the missions are short, this can get annoying, especially when you’re close to the end of a campaign.

Mission mode is where you can either create custom missions, or play random maps as a random faction. As you play the game more, your Mastery Level goes up, and you get to take on harder missions. In essence, it’s like a tactical roguelike where the terrain is different every time you play, and stronger enemies will keep popping up to ruin your day. Increased difficulty doesn’t come from wiping out tougher enemies, but instead, flag collecting. To capture a flag, you have to have a unit stay in the same tile as the flag for at least 1 turn, and the tile next to the flag can’t be occupied by enemies. It’s refreshing to see this win condition outside of the standard “Defeat All Enemy Units” approach. It should also be noted that enemies keep spawning all over the map, but you are given fair warning before they show up.

Its very satisfying knocking an enemy off the map.
Its very satisfying knocking an enemy off the map.

With what Gem Wizards Tactics does differently, you’d think this game would be great for any tactics-loving gamer. Unfortunately, after playing for a while, the cracks started to show, and eventually made me want to move on to a different game altogether. The tutorial really only gives the basics for combat, and while one can argue that’s all you need, it doesn’t do a very good job of explaining. A unit’s actions, including movement, are dictated by action points, and sometimes gem points. This means if you move a certain unit the max amount of spaces, they can’t use any of their special abilities. The only thing left for that unit to do is attack an enemy unit, should it be next to one. Only after an attack is the unit grayed out, signaling that its turn is over. One bonus to having your units not grayed out is that if they are attacked, they can attack back. The thing is, this can become confusing, as sometimes a unit looks like they can still perform an action when they can’t. Finally, you always have to manually end your turn, which is done with the press of a single button.

The issues continue into the game’s menus, which are quite a pain to navigate, especially in Campaign mode. There is no help box for players to reference, which can make starting battles or accessing items in your Caravan a bit troublesome. I was 4 battles into my first campaign when I finally saw the Caravan tab, and it took me more time than I’d like to admit to actually get to the tab. My cursor was constantly moving all over the map, and it was frustrating to the point where I started button mashing to get where I wanted to go. When I did manage to get into my Caravan, opening chests was a chore, as it was surprisingly difficult to select and open them. Chests don’t open automatically, and equipping items to my fighters was a nightmare. I had some decent weapons, but when I would select one and hit the A button, a new cursor would pop up, leaving me confused as to whether the item was equipped or not. It took over 15 minutes to figure out that in order to properly equip an item to a unit, I would have to scroll through 2 other sub-menus to get to the unit I wanted. I couldn’t scroll down, I couldn’t skip the sub-menus, and the game never properly explained how players can equip items.

You know how sometimes a game makes you feel like the platform you’re playing it on wasn’t the one it was built for? For example, a game where the controls aren’t smooth, and you can’t help but think it would work better with a keyboard. GWT has that problem, and also happens to be available on Steam. I’ve only played the Switch version, so I can’t say what the game plays like on a PC, but I can say the control scheme on Switch is not good at all. The analog stick and D-pad are two methods of input that do the same thing. In other words, if the analogue stick isn’t working to move the cursor where you want, the D-pad won’t help either. You also can’t hold the analog stick in a direction to skim across the whole map. Instead, the game makes you move the cursor one tile at a time. If you want a unit to move the max number of spaces possible, you’re going to have to tap that analog stick over and over. Not the worst thing in the world, but a considerable annoyance when I was replaying campaign missions.

This menu had me screaming.
This menu had me screaming.

It’s quite a shame, because the characters and factions in this game are fun to play with. I liked experimenting with the units and seeing what they could do, but the controls were so out-of-control that I didn’t care if I made a tactical mistake. There were times I felt like the game was fighting me, and even when it was my turn, I sometimes couldn’t move the unit I wanted to.

While the lack of story was another disappointment, I could personally look past that, and I know plenty of other fans of this genre don’t play for the stories. What I can’t look past are the broken controls, bare bones tutorial, and the constant feeling of fighting against the game itself. Again, I haven’t played the PC version, but I don’t think I can recommend the Switch release. You’re most likely better off digging through the Switch’s library to see what other strategy games are available, or waiting to see what else crops up.

About benmagnet

benmagnet

When Ben isn't writing or hosting Basement Arcade: Pause Menu, or The Fake Nerd Podcast, he's probably playing games or reading about them. When he isn't playing games, he's usually reading, watching a movie, or playing with his cat.

Add Comment

Comments (0)

No comments yet. Be the first!