- Price: $24.99 USD (currently on sale for $22.49 until October 6th)
- Developer: Curious Fate
- Publisher: Akupara Games
- Release Date: September 15, 2022
A review code was kindly provided by Akupara Games on behalf of Curious Fate. We thank them for being able to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.
Content Warning: This game is rated T, and contains some gruesome images involving blood and gore. Reader and player discretion is advised.
September 15, 2022: Please note that an update for the game is coming soon. I was able to play from start to finish without any major issues in its current state.
The above video was my first look at Absolute Tactics: Daughters of Mercy, and I loved this trailer. Father Eldritch’s questionable parenting methods aside, the voice actors did a great job delivering the combination of serious and comical lines. (I also loved the art style.) The game is a turn-based tactics RPG, which is one of my favorite genres, so between the trailer and the tactics I was…absolutely…interested in finding out more.
You play as Huxley, a young man who enjoys exploring and likes the idea of being a hero. One day he encounters a statue that causes him to start hearing a voice in his head. That voice will serve as his guide over the course of the game. And he’ll need the help, because Father Eldritch is on the warpath looking for his runaway daughter – as well as a source of “Adenine.” (I vaguely recall this term from high school biology…)
Like many obsessive villains, Father Eldritch has minions to conduct these searches and commit atrocities in the process. Huxley and his group will join forces to defeat the humans, zombies, vampires, and other abominations that make up Father Eldritch’s army. Expect to see those creatures commit monstrous and often sickening acts throughout the game.
You can choose the difficulty level you’d like to play with for your playthrough; the three (initially available) difficulty levels range from easy to hard. I went with normal mode for my playthrough. The maps are smaller at first and include less enemies and obstacles. The farther you get in the game, the larger the maps get and the more enemies/obstacles there are.
There’s a player phase and then an enemy phase, so you don’t have any sort of speed stat to take into account. You can choose who acts in what order during player phase. It seems like you also don’t have to worry about an accuracy stat because my attacks always hit. (This could be a double-edged sword, as that means enemy attacks never miss as well.) I liked that none of my units’ attacks could damage their allies. I did wish that the game had a damage projection screen because I would often sit there guessing and hoping that an attack would finish off an enemy. But I really liked the more efficient, simplified stat management for turn order and accuracy.
Some enemies are weak against regular attack damage, while others weak against skill damage. Each enemy will have two red icons (regular attack and regular defense) and two purple icons (skill attack and skill defense) below their HP meter. They have little dots under those stats to indicate their strength; if they’re particularly weak against a damage type they may even have zero dots. But they could have up to 3 dots under a stat, indicating a great deal of strength there. So you’ll have to pay attention to what they’re weak against and be strategic in skill usage. I will say that sometimes enemies seemed like they didn’t take much damage to the type they should be weak to, and I couldn’t figure out why. But there are some enemies that can only take damage if you attack them from behind with skill damage, and that was clearly explained.
Anyways, the skills your units use depend on which classes they’ve been equipped with. There are 21 classes in the game, and you get to choose 2 classes for each unit. It did not seem like there were any limitations (gender, class progression trees) to what classes could be equipped, which I liked. For example, Arkyn’s art depicts him as an armored unit, and he uses a battering ram as a weapon. I chose to equip the fire and white mage classes on him to rebel against the traditional armored role.
Each class can only be upgraded up to level three. I’m someone that really enjoys using abilities that hit multiple enemies at once, and it seemed like there were more abilities with limited targeting capabilities than AoE attacks in the game. Roux was one of my favorite characters because her weapon for regular attacks was long-ranged.
I think Valentine was my favorite unit to use because she came equipped with some of the more interesting and useful classes. I changed one of those classes and equipped her with the only grandmaster class “manual,” which happened to be my favorite class as well. As the name would imply, the grandmaster class allows the unit to use chess-related skills that hit enemies in directions used by chess pieces. I thought it was a really creative class idea, and also enjoyed the animations that accompanied those skills.
Class “manuals” for the grandmaster and other classes can be acquired through optional missions. Every optional mission has a secret class manual or piece of gear, which you can find the location of by moving your cursor across the map until you hear a little bell-like sound. If you keep some or all of the NPCs alive in certain missions, you get a bonus for that too. These secret items and bonuses are definitely worth getting, and you can replay optional missions. I like that if you’re under-leveled, they tell you what level is recommended before you even select the next story mission. That way you can grind for levels in optional missions until you’re at the recommended level.
Regardless of the kind of battle you’re in, most of the maps seem very focused on navigating a hazardous environment with many obstacles – both natural and man-made. If an obstacle doesn’t slow you down, it will probably damage your units instead – like with the catapult.
I don’t mind dealing with these hindrances, but I did have an issue with the inability to move a unit through their allies on the map. If you have units on a narrow staircase, for example, once one unit is there the others cannot move through them to get further along on the map. This was one of my biggest issues in combat. But I did like that there weren’t turn limits for escaping the map, rescuing someone, or some other condition. (This is not the case in “Full Goth Mode,” which I’ll mention more below.) I also liked that, while some bosses start with several thousand HP initially, you first get to whittle it down by destroying things linked to them.
Every battle you participate in will lead up to a final confrontation with the last boss of the game, whose identity will probably not surprise you. The plot transitions sometimes felt a little weak to me, and there was one point where the group discovered something major about one of their own and it wasn’t discussed much onscreen. That discovery was definitely a plot twist for me though, because I did not have a clue that that was where things were leading. The characters were likable – especially Max the dog, who you can pet! I just wanted to know more about characters like Gabriel.
Once you’ve beaten the game and experienced the story, don’t think it’s over yet. If you really like a challenge, your first playthrough could just be a warmup. Finishing the game for the first time will unlock “Full Goth Mode,” which will require you to outrun the Grim Reaper. Full Goth Mode is the highest difficulty level, as you only have a certain number of turns before the terrifying Grim Reaper with 9,999 HP – even at level one – appears. This mode reminds me a little bit of the Reaper in the Persona series.
Completing the game will also unlock “Hordes of Mercy,” which is a separate mode available on the main menu. In this mode, you must survive as many rounds as you can and try to defeat as many enemies as possible. Once you’ve been defeated you can see how many enemies you killed this time compared to your best attempt, and you can get rewards for defeating a certain amount of enemies. There’s a lot of content in this game between the main scenario and the modes you can unlock, and I’m very impressed with how much they put into the game.
Switch it ON or Switch it OFF? Absolute Tactics: Daughters of Mercy is a fun tactics game with quirky and often amusing characters that serve to lighten the mood in an otherwise serious story. I wanted a little more detail in the plot, and the maps could have used more variety in my opinion. But overall, the game provides the player with an expansive and challenging experience. I loved the creative ideas for classes, as well as the flexibility in customizing my units’ classes and abilities. I also appreciated the many difficulty options and modes; I think that players can enjoy the game whether they choose easy mode or Full Goth Mode. It’s a neat game with a lot of good ideas and a fabulous soundtrack. (And you can pet the dog. 🐶) 8.5/10
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