This week's Indie Game (of the week) is yet another in this mini-series of "2017 games I didn't quite fit into last year's 2017 feature because I have poor time management skills," or "the leftovers" for short. It's also another Indie game where the "Indie" qualifier is disputed: Square Enix actually helped publish the game, providing yet another stark reminder if one was needed that we sorely need a better name for these smaller-budget, smaller-scope wonders. Especially as Childen of Zodiarcs is another in a long line of Indie RPGs that commit to some integral streamlining without necessarily compromising the core of its mechanical complexity, challenge, and longevity.

A strategy RPG in the mold of a Final Fantasy Tactics, though not quite as nakedly overt a riff as the recent Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark, Children of Zodiarcs follows a small group of honorable thieves that rob from the rich to feed the poor, which naturally includes themselves. Their quarries tend to be these big, important ancient relics that the game is setting up to be bad news - the "anyone who possesses one can kill people with their thoughts" type of bad news - and there's a huge amount of risk involved in wresting them from the nobles that acquired them and the legions of guards at their beck and call. I'm not far enough into the game to know if it pulls the standard RPG twist where suddenly the world is at stake instead of just your team's immediate well-being, but I wouldn't be at all surprised given all the familiar foreshadowing around these artifacts.

Gameplay tends to follow the pattern of having one side move all their characters, attacking or using support skills if either option is available, and then allowing the enemy side their time to shine all framed within a standard chessboard-like grid. Positioning is important since many skills have area-of-effects and ranges and any melee attack can be countered except for backstabs, making the latter ideal whenever possible. The player has some control over their party's move set, but for the most part its members adhere to specific roles in battle and should be respected as such: for instance the main protagonist, Nahmi, is a rogue that works best with quick melee attacks from the shadows, utilizing her speed and maneuverability to her advantage. Other characters tend to flit in and out of the party, changing the dynamics and the player's strategy going forward. To give you an example, I've spent most of the game without a tank character, so I've had to be cautious about advancing towards enemy groups too quickly without backup - I generally weaken enemies one or more at a time at range first and move in for the kill with Nahmi to avoid any counters, since you can't counter if you're dead.

The one significant difference between Children of Zodiarcs and its peers is a significantly heightened element of luck: whereas most RPGs give you some small range of potential damage, the player must rely on both lucky dice rolls and lucky card deals to get the most out of their turns. This both helps and hinders the game experience in a manner similar to something like XCOM, where no strategy is guaranteed success due to random chance - frustrating when you really needed an attack to finish off an enemy about to slaughter you, but exciting in turn to have to keep improvising alternative strategies on the fly following every fumble. A character's deck, which includes every action you could take not just the special skills, can be modified beforehand if you prefer certain skills over others, and you'll need to find a way to constantly add new cards to your hand while in battle because you can't do much when empty. The dice, meanwhile, are modifiers more than anything: the symbols can add a small amount of damage (or healing power, in the case of curatives), bonus healing to the wielder, extra cards to be drawn after their turn, or star icons which activate special conditions (e.g. Nahmi's main attack, Blitz, has a trait that lets her act again immediately afterwards if one of her dice rolls up a star). You have a limited number of optional rerolls per turn which are best used for when a symbol isn't necessary, like the bonus heals when your character is already at max health or the stars if the ability you're using doesn't require them. You gain new cards and stronger versions of existing cards after levelling up, and new dice after every battle. Eventually, you're able to burn all the extra dice you've been acquiring to improve your currently equipped ones.

That all means that there's enough versatility involved in tinkering with the character builds to keep the player invested even if the story's not enough of a draw, and combat is about right in terms of difficulty if you're keeping your characters evenly levelled and moving ahead cautiously, since enemy reinforcements tend to pop up frequently. In contrast, and fitting with the usual streamlining inherent to Indie RPGs, there's no equipment or other stat modifiers besides the cards and dice to worry about. The game also offers skirmishes - inconsequential bonus battles against random mobs - if you find yourself struggling with the core progression and need some extra levels or better dice. A notable trait about the game's difficulty is that on the standard normal setting the enemy levels are always set in the story battles, while on hard they're always raised to be just above your current level, removing the safety net of running off to train until you're as strong or stronger than your next opponents. Hard mode therefore has the benefit of removing the temptation to run off and take on random battles, keeping the playthrough svelte and a constant challenge throughout. However, much of the player's success still hinges on the quality of the dice the player is receiving after battles, which is a RNG element in a game with far too many of them.

There's a lot to like about Children of Zodiarcs, at least of what I've seen so far. The artwork, contributed by friend of Giant Bomb Aurahack, give the playable characters a distinctive presence on the battlefield in comparison to the nameless interchangeable mooks they regularly cross swords with and though the story has been fairly standard pabulum so far its players are well-defined in their personalities and motivations (getting a real "Tetsuo from Akira" vibe from this Brice newcomer) and the ancient city setting, with its mysterious network of subterranean tunnels full of cannibalistic shadow cultists and possibly worse, is shaping up to be an intriguing one. I am still undecided about this heightened luck aspect though - the game's not been so tough yet that I can't blame bad luck for failures any more than my own dumb decisions, but there have been a few moments where I've been one damage point away from ending an enemy because a dice hit another dice after it re-rolled or some such mishap. I suppose this all gives the game a more table-top/D&D type of feel at least, which isn't the vibe you get for a lot of SRPGs. I'm also running into issues pulling off the dice rolling on a regular basis, since the game requires you to drag across the screen at the right amount of speed before you're allowed to toss them - to ensure a minimal amount of cheating is I suppose the idea, though I'm not sure why rolls can't happen automatically like they do in every other dice-enabled game. There's also the very streamlined feeling where the player party has only ever been three members in size (and often just two) and the battles have been running together due to the limited number of enemy types and combat options available; absolutely understandable given the game's probable budget, which appears to have mostly been spent on its presentation instead. I'll stick with it because there's been enough hooks so far - for as much as I don't care for deck-builder RPGs, the subdued nature of its integration here is agreeing with me - but I'm hoping it's not done introducing new mechanics yet because it's still all a bit too surface-level.

Rating: 4 out of 5. (Knocked down to 3 due to Mission 10, which was many magnitudes more challenging than anything faced so far. Some real poor balancing that necessitates more grinding and puts the annoying luck aspect in an even harsher light.) (OK, I moved it back up to 4 after I stopped being a baby. But still! Hard swings! Caveat emptor!)

Great write-up.. I have had this game sitting on a shelf for awhile and I always think about starting it.. this might be the push I need to finally do it.