Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga Introduction, Impressions, and Strategy Notes

This is an article introducing "Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga," a paid SRPG produced by the overseas publisher "Dancing Dragon Games."
I'd been interested in this game for a while, and since it now supports Japanese after an update, I decided to give it a try.
This is a simulation RPG where you assemble a unit and fight your way through tactical maps, similar to "Ogre Battle: The Legend of Ogre".
The stage progression is not in real time; instead, you move your units turn by turn, in a more traditional manner.
This game is fun because you can raise units from various classes and form your own army.

My completion time was approximately 35 hours on the Captain difficulty setting.
(Second lowest difficulty level out of four)

Game Overview (No Spoilers)

The protagonist is a young and promising officer of the Belidian Empire.
The story begins with the protagonist and his friend Xellos setting up camp ahead of the group to hunt down General Antares, who has rebelled against the Empire.

Because it's a translation from English to Japanese, there are some awkward parts, but it doesn't hinder understanding the story.
The unique choice of words was, in a way, strangely memorable and left a lasting impression.

You can freely choose whether the protagonist is male or female, and you can also freely name them.
You can also choose whether or not character loss is allowed.
（僕は女性を選択し、ロスト無しにしました）

Base screen

The tactical map has a total of 30 chapters, so it's quite substantial in terms of content.
At the beginning of each chapter, there is a base menu where you can organize your troops and make purchases.
Due to the nature of the scenario, there will be times when you cannot assemble your troops at your base.

I'll give you a rough overview of the menu items available at our locations, in order.

Troop formation

In "Unit Formation," you will organize your units.
In this game, each unit consists of a maximum of nine members.
While a team of nine would certainly be powerful, each member has a cost, and that cost must be kept within the team's capacity.
Since capacity depends on the leader's parameter "LDR," it's important to appoint a member with a high LDR as the leader.

There are various ways to assemble a unit, but the standard strategy is to place members with high durability in the front line and support members in the back line.
Since the type of movement a unit can perform is determined by the class of its members, it's important to consider what role each unit should play.
If cavalry make up the majority, it will be a cavalry-type unit with high mobility; if infantry are more numerous, it will be an infantry-type unit.
It's a good idea to start with a simple setup and then experiment with different configurations once you've gotten used to the game.

Class Change

Within your unit, you can swap members and even change their class.
It's one of the most enjoyable elements of an SRPG.
The promotion options are determined by the class, and students choose from those options.
You can change classes once you've accumulated the maximum amount of "CP" (Class Points) obtained through battles, and you also have the necessary stats and items.

Technology tree

The "Technology Tree" is an item that grants bonuses that affect the entire unit.
As you raise your faction rank, which represents the level of the game itself, you will obtain scrolls, which you can use to unlock new content.
Faction rank can be obtained by clearing stages with a high rank, etc.

You can obtain various benefits, such as increasing the ability scores of specific classes or unlocking new class change options.
Ultimately, it's possible to acquire everything, but the fun lies in deciding which ones to prioritize.

market

In the "Market," you can hire personnel and purchase items.
The members who automatically join your party as the story progresses are not enough to make up your forces, so you will need to hire more from the market.
The members at the bottom of the list are powerful, but they are treated as mercenaries, and therefore cost more and have a higher capacity than regular members.
A disadvantage of having a large capacity is that it reduces the number of people that can be incorporated into a unit.
However, even taking that into account, they are still useful, so I think it's fine to keep hiring them until the other members are more developed.

In particular, for classes that require rare items when changing classes, acquiring them as mercenaries may be more cost-effective.

You can purchase items as well as personnel.
There are mainly three types of items, and all of them are important categories.

First, there are equipment items, which can be used to strengthen the units that are equipped with them.
The second type of item is a consumable item that strengthens your members; it includes items that grant skills and items that increase parameters.
The third item is required when changing classes, and it's something you'll want to stock up on for the later stages of the game.

Items have ranks such as Rare, Epic, and Legendary, and you'll want to buy the valuable ones even if they're a bit expensive.
Since the lineup is set at the start of each chapter, you can also perform a "reroll" by loading the data from the beginning of the chapter.
(Even if you load data saved on the base screen, it will already be fixed.)

Support (conversation)

「サポート」の項目では、キャラクター同士の会話が見られます。
Through conversations, a character's personality can be explored in more detail, and new bonds can be formed, leading to the creation of support relationships.
In some cases, doing so may lead to a romantic relationship between a man and a woman.
In some cases, the player is left to choose which characters to pair up as a couple.

Stage screen

After completing preparations at your base, select "Advance" to proceed to the next stage.
Each stage has victory/defeat conditions, as well as target turns and challenge missions.
Completing these requirements will result in a high rank and accelerate your faction rank increase.
(In other words, you'll gain bonuses from the technology tree faster.)

It's a good idea to actively try to get them when you're playing the game.
By the way, during gameplay, you can restart your turn by selecting "Restart Turn" from the menu.
The fact that you can immediately restart even if you get a game over is something I find very convenient.

Select the friendly unit you want to move, and then select the square you want to move it to.
If an enemy is within your attack range, you can select the attack command to engage in combat.
As the game progresses, in addition to normal combat, you'll be able to choose special tactics such as forced surrender and targeting weak points.
Let's use them appropriately depending on the situation.

Each unit displays a "Threat" value, which roughly indicates its strength.
Stronger units will naturally have higher values, so use this as an indicator to measure the strength of your enemies.

All battles are conducted automatically.
The attack begins with the side that initiated the battle, followed by the enemy's counterattack.
One last action is performed, and the battle ends.

If the attacking side can defeat many opponents in their initial attack, naturally the enemy's counterattack will be less likely.
Therefore, the basic strategy is to proactively launch attacks from our side.
Against an enemy that won't move unless you approach them, tactics such as forming a heavily fortified unit specifically designed to lure them out and using them as decoys become effective.

Within each stage, you'll find enemy bases that serve as your objective, as well as mines where you can obtain items, treasure chests, and bazaars where you can purchase valuable goods.
To effectively control these situations, it is necessary to strategically allocate forces appropriately.
Along with unit organization and training, I think this is one of the most enjoyable aspects of this game.

That concludes my brief overview of the game's systems.
If reading this explanation has piqued your interest, I think you have the potential to enjoy this game.

My thoughts (no story spoilers)

Difficulty: I cleared the game to the end on Captain difficulty.
It felt like the beginning was easy, but it got progressively more difficult towards the end.
I believe it's crucial to properly train and assemble your characters to keep pace with the increasing difficulty of the stages.
While players have a high degree of freedom, there are clearly powerful classes, so I think it's important whether or not you can recognize their usefulness.
Similarly, I think it's also important to be able to identify and utilize powerful skills and equipment by reading their descriptions.
If you don't have any particular preferences, I think it's perfectly fine to use information from walkthrough websites as a reference.

The story had quite a few major plot twists, and I thought it was very interesting.
While the unit formation and training aspects of this game are interesting, the story was also engaging from the beginning to the middle, so I ended up getting quite engrossed in playing it.
The ending had many sudden plot twists, and there were parts where I continued reading without fully understanding them.
Rather than a serious war story, I think it's best to enjoy the battles without thinking too deeply about it, as it's a mythological fantasy with religious undertones.

The pace of the battles was just right at first, but as I got used to it, it started to feel slow.
Since you can fine-tune the settings with options, I think you can reduce stress by choosing a comfortable speed.

While there are various situations in each stage, I didn't get the impression that they required significantly different strategies.
I felt that the difficulty level depended more on the types of enemy classes placed on the map than on the geographical elements of the map (this isn't to say whether that's good or bad).
If we put our strongest troops on the front lines, we can pretty much dominate the battlefield.
However, since the rear guard is vulnerable to stealth attacks and magic attacks, I felt the need to create various types of units.
And I felt the need to prepare different types of units and have them cooperate with each other.

When I assemble a specialized unit exactly as I envision it, and that unit performs well, I feel a sense of joy as if my own child were succeeding.

The following is just one example.

For example, a longbow unit composed entirely of Warbows, a class capable of indirect attacks with a range of 3.
Because I'm a little worried about my firepower, I'm equipping gear that ignores enemy defenses by 20% and gear that increases STR.

This is also a similar type of unit.
This unit is comprised entirely of Siege Cannons, a class of weapons capable of indirect area-of-effect attacks, and their firepower is further enhanced with equipment.
Due to the class's characteristics, it cannot counterattack at all, so it will be wiped out immediately if directly attacked by the enemy. However, the satisfaction of almost completely annihilating an entire enemy unit in a single battle is exceptional.

This concludes my introduction and review of "Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga."
This game offers the full enjoyment of developing characters and assembling your ideal army.