First I'll say that I'm confused by people saying things like "It's similar to XCOM but without the fun," mainly because it's a fairly straightforward turn-based strategy like 1000 other games (not only XCOM), and fits very well into the genre. Pros: - Outside of battles, you perform research along a timeline and hope that your research finishes before the next attack you must defense. This adds interesting tension and decision-making to the game outside of battle. - The members of your kingdom age, and thus gain experience (which nicely stacks through generations as older generations teach younger ones what they've learned). - There are some interesting special weapons that sort of magically appear that you can pass through on to heirs when they die. - It's a really cool feeling watching your vanguard grow old and gain experience as the years pass. You kind of grow close to the reliable ones if they entered the vanguard at a young age and have gone through several battles with you. - The battle system is very good. The UI is easy-to-use and the overall feel of the battles is awesome. It's not long enough to ever feel repetitive. - The art is very cool if you like the simplistic overly-polygonal look (which I do). - It can be pretty funny at times. Cons: - The alchemist classes are too powerful at upper levels. I can finish the final encounter with 3 of them fully leveled. - The choices that pop up out of battle are silly and inane, and often feel like you're playing a choose-your-own-adventure story where the outcome is completely random. It often has little, if anything, to do with the actual choice you made. - The game seems too hard for the first 100 years and too easy for the last 100 years. - The ending seems to pack in a moral while the rest of the game was largely story-free. They missed an opportunity to add a cool story, or to ignore it completely. It feels out of place as is. Overally, solid game, good replayability. Pick it up.
