Grand Kingdom

Grand Kingdom
Developer(s)	Monochrome Corporation
Publisher(s)	JP: Spike Chunsoft NA: NIS America
Director(s)	Tomohiko Deguchi
Artist(s)	Chizu Hashii
Composer(s)	Mitsuhiro Kaneda Azusa Chiba Kazuki Higashihara Yoshimi Kudo Masaharu Iwata
Platform(s)	PlayStation 4 PlayStation Vita
Release	JP: November 19, 2015 NA: June 28, 2016 EU: June 17, 2016
Genre(s)	Tactical role-playing

Grand Kingdom^[a] is a 2015 tactical role-playing game developed by Monochrome Corporation for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita.^[1][2][3] It is considered a spiritual successor to 2011's Grand Knights History.

Gameplay[]

Players engage in turn-based battles, where they command groups of mercenaries (referred to as squads) who are able to attack using weapons and magic attacks (depending on the specific combat class each unit belongs to) as well as support, defense, and healing moves. Battles involve arranging the positions of units into formations and executing action techniques.^[4]

Each squad, which can include both humans and demons, has a unique set of moves to employ in combat. "Medics" can use medicine to heal allies and acid to attack enemies; "Challengers" can sacrifice themselves to inflict damage over a large area; and "Hunters" and "Gunners" can use bows and guns to attack multiple foes at once. Status conditions such as confusion, blindness, or poisoning, which affect the movement and strength of units, can help tip the odds in favor of either side. Items can also be placed on the field, such as obstacles to hinder movements, or flags that grant bonus effects to squads.

When not battling, squads are represented as chess pieces on a map. Campaign and Contract missions have a set number of moves; if the number of moves is exceeded, the mission is automatically failed. If a squad runs into an enemy piece or an ambush, a battle is triggered. Alternatively, if they encounter an allied piece, they can be healed, usually for a fee. If squads encounter a roadblock like a tornado or a fierce storm, they can choose to force their way through it (and lose health), go through it slowly (and lose some moves), remove it with a magic charm, or find another way around. During certain quests, enemy forces will deploy armaments such as cannons or catapults, which will periodically launch attacks in the middle of battles that occur within their aiming radius. These armaments can be destroyed if the player's squad manages to defeat the enemies guarding them.

In addition to the standard Campaign mode, there are also Contract quests assigned by different nations with specific objectives, or the player can choose a region for their units to freely move around in. Within these areas, the squads can collect resources, battle enemies, open chests to obtain rare items, take part in fights for money or prizes, and defeat "bounty" squads for rewards. If there's a contract between the squad and a nation, completing quests adds to the squad's war record and earns them special rewards. Once a contract is signed, the squad is also obligated to fight with other allied squads should a war break out with another nation.

Outside of quests, players will have the opportunity to travel to the capitals of the four nations, where they can purchase items, form contracts, obtain new equipment from blacksmiths, get information on current events, review their war records, and meet with allied squads. The Guild, which serves as a home base for all units, also offers its own merchant shop with unique items and training camps where units can learn new skills for the field, and can provide information on rival squads working for other nations.

At launch, the game supported single player and online multiplayer modes, where players could fight against other players belonging to other nations, and expand the territory of their nation via invasions.^[1][5] There was online cross-play support for PS4 and Vita players.^[6] However, as of October 1, 2019, the online servers have been shut down by NIS America.^[7]

Setting[]

Grand Kingdom is set on the fictional continent of Resonail, where four nations are vying for dominance: Landerth, a cosmopolitan society built on commerce and manufacturing; Valkyr, a kingdom with a strong culture of warfare; Fiel, an isolated nation that acts as a refuge for those fleeing conflict; and Magion, which prides itself on its mastery of magic and magic-based technology.^[1][8] One hundred years after the fall of the Uldein Empire that once unified Resonail, mercenaries fight in battles throughout what remains of the region, all seeking to expand the territory of the four nations. As a rookie mercenary leader, the protagonist becomes involved in an incident which affects the whole continent, involving a legendary mercenary leader, the remnants of the Uldein imperial family, and the true history of the empire's collapse.^[9][6]

Plot summary[]

The game's campaign consists of twelve missions, and opens with the player and their right-hand man, Flint, fighting against the Guild in a battle. After their employers surrender, a Guild soldier advises the pair to join the Guild, recognizing their talent. After passing a test, the player meets Godfrey Sforza, leader of the Guild, and are permitted to form a Guild squad, with Flint as second-in-command and Godfrey's daughter Lillia as the player's field assistant. The squad quickly proves its worth in combat, while also entering into a rivalry with the White Wolves, a squad led by Weiss, a swordsman regarded as the best soldier in the Guild.

The player's squad becomes involved with the Guild's efforts to contain the surviving armies of the "Uld", a faction determined to resurrect the Uldein Empire by any means. The Grandmatron of the Uld, Teterva, steals Godfrey's sword, Tyrbrand, during an attack on the Guild; the blade is brought to the ruins of an old fort where Teterva and her granddaughter Corona, the last blood descendant of the Uldein imperial family, conduct a ritual to break the first of Tyrbrand's magical seals, allowing powerful demons to spread throughout the land. When the player's squad attempts to retrieve Tyrbrand, Weiss interferes, demanding that the player face the White Wolves in a battle, and allows Teterva to escape. The White Wolves are defeated, and Weiss is left for dead when the fort suddenly collapses.

Weiss wakes up, still alive but badly injured, in the caves beneath the ruined fort to find Corona waiting for him with Tyrbrand. She admits that she despises what her grandmother has done but feels powerless to oppose her; Weiss is sympathetic and encourages her to stand up for herself; he also agrees to teach her how to handle a sword. The rest of the Guild, meanwhile, continues to fight the Uld but becomes increasingly concerned by reports and sightings of vicious demons throughout Resonail. Weiss manages to find a way out of the caves but is soon tracked down by Teterva and her men; after the former threatens to kill Weiss, Corona willingly surrenders herself and Tyrbrand to protect him.

Godfrey explains to the player his fear that Teterva is seeking to free the "Animus", a collection of four demonic gods that the Uldein family once controlled before the fall of their empire. His fears are soon confirmed when Teterva, after sacrificing the rest of her forces to hold back the Guild, breaks the final seal of Tyrbrand, allowing the Animus to cross over from their realm. The Guild's squads are decimated when they try to fight the Animus, but Godfrey successfully calls on the four nations to set aside their differences and unite their armies under his command before instructing the player to find and kill Corona, as her magic renders the Animus invincible to all forms of harm.

At the temple of Imperium, the former capital of the Empire, Teterva taunts the player, saying that as long as Corona is by her side, she cannot be harmed and the Animus cannot be defeated. Weiss then arrives, and declares that Corona is a member of the White Wolves, urging her to reject her grandmother's evil. Corona then reveals that she can remove the spells protecting the Animus if she so chooses; an enraged Teterva then flees the temple, declaring that even if the Animus can now be harmed, they are still far too powerful to die. The player must then confront and defeat each of the four gods; once the last is felled, Teterva becomes hysterical and commits suicide by jumping off a cliff, ending the threat of the Uld for good.

At the Guild celebrates their victory over the Uld, Godfrey announces his intention to retire and name a successor. Weiss, with Corona now acting as his assistant, challenges the player to a final battle with the White Wolves, with the victor being named as Godfrey's successor. The player accepts and wins, and so becomes the new leader of the Guild. Afterwards, Lillia informs the player that more contracts are still available, and that they need to get back to work as soon as possible.

Development[]

Development of this game was first publicly revealed within a June 2015 weekly issue of Famitsu. The game was directed by Tomohiko Deguchi, a former employee of Vanillaware who had previously worked as a system planner for 2009's Muramasa: The Demon Blade and the director of 2011's Grand Knights History, for which Grand Kingdom is considered a spiritual successor. Chizu Hashii is responsible for character designs, while the audio is composed by Basiscape.^[1][10]

Reception[]

Grand Kingdom received "generally favorable" reviews on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, according to review aggregator site Metacritic.^[11][12]

References[]

External links[]

• Official website