Dark Deity

The central loop of battling, chatting and levelling up is as compelling as you could ever want it to be, with an interesting story told well and a meaty 20 hours or so of no-frills tactics. Dark Deity lacks the romance options of Fire Emblem, as well as the first-party flair you expect from a Nintendo title, but the latter is hardly surprising and would be an unreasonable standard to hold almost any indie game to. Dark Deity delivers a convincing and essentially satisfying facsimile of GBA Fire Emblem, but perhaps fails to stand on its own two feet. Then again, we're not sure that was ever really the point.

In just barely differentiating itself from titles that inspired it, Dark Deity produces a charming and complex yet flawed SRPG that strategy fans will enjoy.

Dark Deity is a flawed game. Its story left me wanting more, and certain game balancing issues decreased my enjoyment at times. However, despite its faults, Dark Deity scratches an itch with its quality base gameplay and unique features that any SRPG enjoyer would be remiss to overlook. In addition, its quality visual-novel style portraits and pixel art are undoubtedly boons for the title. I rate Dark Deity a 7, with the caveat that for folks who aren’t into or haven’t tried SRPGs to do more research before buying. But, if you find yourself in love with the art style, are intrigued by a preview video, or are itching for a Fire Emblem-like experience outside of Nintendo, it’s absolutely worth a try, and a commendable first offering from Sword & Axe.

There’s no mistaking that Dark Deity was heavily inspired by Fire Emblem. But what’s important is that it differentiates itself. And it does, giving it a well-earned place in strategy genre. Filled with wonderful characters with a ton of personality, and an intriguing but linear story with some decent audio, we have a title that will surely quench the thirst of FE fans that need to get back on that strategic grind.

"Academy student's budget is limited."

Any strategy fan looking for a good challenge, interesting gameplay, and fun and customizable cast of characters should find Dark Deity up their alley. Just maybe wait for a patch on the Switch in hopes that the performance issues get addressed.

My final thought on Dark Deity is that the game can sometimes feel like a copy and paste of the Fire Emblem series. There is taking inspiration from a video game.

A modern homage to the tile-based TRPG’s of the late 1990’s, Dark Deity will land solidly as a nostalgia hit with older gamers who grew up playing these games. Unfortunately, two decades of progress in game design have left elements of this format feeling dated and behind the times. With excessive reliance on static tableaus behind endless text dialogue windows, limited visual information during player-controlled battle segments and a lack of any tutorial or introduction to the game’s mechanics, Dark Deity simply doesn’t stack up favorably against other modern offerings.

It’s hard to develop your own voice until you understand how other artists find theirs. While I ultimately find Dark Deity to be uninspired and certainly won’t be replaying it every year or so, as I do Fire Emblem, I also hope that this developer produces another tactics JRPG. I would buy that in a heartbeat, because I am quite certain that with a bit more experience as a team of artists, not only will this developer find its own voice, but it will start to build on everything that made those GBA Fire Emblem titles great. That – the promise of some kind of “Fire Emblem Plus” – is some exciting promise indeed.

Remember when Fire Emblem games focused more on story and combat than on fishing, construction, and class studies? So do the developers of Dark Deity, an SRPG that survives some annoying bugs and UI issues to provide a satisfying, briskly-paced adventure.