Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga

This game is an amazing homage to games like Ogre Battle/64 gameplay wise and it has a story to rival FFT. Huge cast of characters, tons of customization options, and a million ways to play. It can be very challenging difficulty wise, prepare to die a lot.

A console style, tactics game with the twist that you fight with squads instead of individual heroes / units. Maybe that has been done before, but it is a new concept to me. A squad is composed of units, one of which is the leader (which can just be another unit). These units can be things like bowman, medics, fighters, etc and these individual units can level up and eventually change into more advanced unit types. For instance, the fighter can change into a soldier or a spearman (amongst other things), usually giving them new abilities or roles. And this being a fantasy setting you will eventually get access to stuff like dragons, assassins, samurais, etc. Each unit has its own attack pattern, traits, attack type, etc giving you many, many options for designing your squads. In addition to the basic unit types, there are also special unique units (most of which are special story heroes), that have their own traits, stats, etc that make them unique. Units can be customized in other ways, by assigning them traits and changing their affinity (a sort of element which changes their stats). Beyond customizing the units, the squad also can have artifacts which give squad wide benefits. There are tons of these and the range from small stat boosts, to potentially giving the squad a 2nd turn, giving them resistances or weirder things like attacking up walls. Squads can potentially have up to 9 units, but the actual amount you can field is based on the leader’s leadership score (and some other factors such as loyalty and artifacts). As I said, that is the defining catch for this game, and there is a lot to it, and there is even more but I think that is enough detail to give you a picture. Beyond that it is a more standard tactics type of game. It is laid out in a pretty much a linear set of story missions (there are 5 optional missions you eventually get), where you move around your squads to defeat the enemy, capture towns, find treasures and complete whatever objectives are given to you. Pretty standard stuff but the game actually has some terrain, walls, weather and day/night which add some extra flavor to the missions. And these missions are no cake walk, with a good mix of easier and challenging battles as well as some story twists during missions. After each mission you are given the opportunity to recruit, purchase artifacts and resources, modify your squads and potentially purchase new technology. There is also an on-rails story leading you along. There is really no agency here at all (beyond kind of choosing which relationships can happen), but it is a well laid out story with some major twists (though some are predictable). The best aspect of this game is definitely it’s unique squad feature. It is a lot of fun designing, equipping and evolving these squads throughout the course of the game. It can take a bit to get going, due to lack of experience, resources, tech, etc but it is a very cool system. There is a lot of freedom here to get creative and try out new builds etc (though experimenting and getting the squads you really want isn’t always so easy). The story is also very good, with interesting characters, twists, etc. Overall, just a very well designed and fun tactics game. The big negative for this game is the horrible interface though. It is designed for a controller, and leans very hard into its console roots here. If you play with a mouse (like me), you will have to do weird things like click on the left side of the screen to activate the right side of the screen so you can scroll down, then right click on the right to active the left side of the screen again. Beyond just bad mouse controls, it is just poorly designed and requires a lot more clicking on things that it should. Maybe it will feel better with a controller, but it is really bad with a mouse and keyboard. You eventually get used to it so it’s not the end of the world… at least to me. Other negatives are that it takes a long time to promote your units, and it is a real investment in resources, time, etc which makes experimenting with different builds very challenging. This game is just begging for some kind of battle simulation kind of area where you can easily try out different builds. The game tries to help with letting you downgrade units, but doing that on any large scale is very painful and you end up messing up your previous squads. And of course, the bad UI just makes this process even worse. Still, more of a call for improvement than a major negative. Not really much else to complain about. The story was too linear, some minor choice in there would have been really nice. Also understanding all the mechanics was a bit of a chore and could have been handled better with some tutorials, tooltips, etc. Overall, an excellent tactics game. As a PC gamer, I have never played things like Fire Emblem, so I can’t say how it compares to those highly regarded games. I really enjoyed my time with this game though. It is a strong recommend as long as you are the kind of person who would enjoy spending as much time designing your squads as you are actually playing the missions. Oh, and you will have to be able to deal with a clunky, console type of interface as well.

Fun and Challenging experience permadeath on the hardest difficulty isn't to be taken lightly You can romance characters as well It's good if you like Fire Emblem

It is kind of like a not as good Unicorn Overlord. I don't mean that in a negative way necessarily, I just mean that while the two games ultimately probably don't have any connection to one another, it does kinda feel like this walked so Unicorn Overlord could run. There is just something so addicting, so playable, about the loop these games have and the Unicorn Overlord team dynamic (well I guess technically it is the Symphony of War team dynamic, as this came first) only enhances that. Building out your squads, swapping around units, slowly realising the identity and purpose of each unit, tweaking their stats, changing their classes, watching things constantly evolve as you fiddle and tinker and then enjoying the fruits of your experimentation is just a total rush. I probably spent more time in menus adjusting things than I did on the battlefield and I loved every second of it. I will say one of the major misses this game has is how the characters are all cardboard cut out archetypes longing to be fleshed out, I feel like one crucial thing in this genre is to create units you really love, and invest in, to enhance the emotion when you're sending them out into battle. I just never really felt that here, because of how weakly realised all the characters are. No Fire Emblem game or Fire Emblem like has been exactly high art when it comes to the storytelling for me. However, even with that in mind, I feel like Symphony of War borders on being incomprehensible. It is incredibly disjointed and jumbled, constantly jumping around all over the place, I had almost zero grasp on what anyone's motivations or goals were, characters enter the story from nowhere then disappear for hours at a time, only to then reappear again out of nowhere, I thought much of the lore of this world and many of the villains were poorly established, and it is not helped by the slightly rubbish 8-Bit pixel cutscenes. Again, I personally don't care that much about the story in these games so it wasn't really a negative for me, but I can't think of another Fire Emblem or Fire Emblem like where I was so frequently lost. Oh, and there is a special room in Hell, however, reserved for the person who designed that child escort mission. How could so much frustration be baked into just one mission.

This was a very good game with a great story line. The play style was nice but it did get repetitive after a while. Luckily the story kept me hooked.

Really enjoyed my time with this game. Growing up in the 90s I played a lot of Ogre Battle, fast forward to the 2000s and I found Fire Emblem, this game is the marriage of both series. My only complaint is there just wasn't enough classes to promote into. I found the units I liked less than half way through the story and curb stomped my way through the rest of the game. Hopefully there will be more variety in future releases. Great job!

I love this game, it fuels my nostalgia of similar games, while not having many old-school flaws

A fun, competent tactics game most similar to Fire Emblem or Tactics Ogre. If you like those games, you'll find stuff to like here! I was idle for a while and spent too much time goofing off in the arenas and trying to min/max my squads, but I figure it took me about 30-35 hours to complete on normal difficulty. The highlight is definitely in customizing your squads. Between playing with different combinations of artifacts, jobs, leaders, and even traits, there's a lot of "I wonder if this will work..." at play. The game largely encourages this experimentation, since any resources spent upgrading a unit or changing its job can be recovered, and artifacts (equipment for squads) can be shifted around freely. The only things that, unfortunately, can't be recovered are traits (unit-specific skills) and elemental changes, but if you're worrying about those, you're likely on a second playthrough or a harder difficulty. The not so great parts: The story is very simplistic but does the job and doesn't really overstay its welcome. The writing itself, especially for the characters, is a bit of a slog and borders on eye-rolling as characters will do almost anything to drop one-line quips in. I was quite overpowered, but I could tell if I wasn't that the final boss would be a bit of a rude awakening. The only really frustrating thing in the game is the lack of tooltips for so many things! You can get tooltips for character traits, but nothing else in their stat sheet. Do you know the difference between water and fire elements? Do you know what the little icons in the top right of the screen (weather and time) mean? Do you know what each stat does? What moves does a job have? Most of the information can be found in the pages of tutorials you can pore over, but why not just make it available from the context I'm trying to understand it from as opposed to making me back out of what I'm doing, find the relevant help page, and then read. One of the tutorial pages was even just a pile of icons. I felt like I was deciphering hieroglyphs. It was only frustrating because the game has so much stat depth and customization. I just looked stuff up online rather than poring through the tutorials, and after enough play time I did figure most things out. If you like classic tactics games, aren't here for a deep story with sophisticated character relationships, and have fun staring at stat sheets, this is worth a play.

Steam Review – Symphony of War ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆ (100% Achievements) Just hit 100% achievements, and it was worth the journey. SoW offers a satisfying tactical experience with surprisingly deep mechanics. The ability to build and customize your squads ranging from frontline tanks to magic-heavy artillery is one of the game's strongest aspects. Experimenting with different unit synergies keeps combat fresh. The story is serviceable. Not groundbreaking, but it does enough to push you through the campaign and give context to the battles. Think classic SRPG storytelling—light political drama, predictable twists, but with some charm. Other highlights: The difficulty feels well-balanced, with meaningful choices on and off the battlefield. Te music and pixel art give off a strong GBA/PS1 tactics-era vibe, became much better after the visual update. If you’re a fan of games like Fire Emblem, this is an indie title worth playing.

De los mejores juegos indie tacticos que he jugado, me recordo a Unicorn overlord en cuanto a la gestion de las tropas Definitivamente el juego vale el precio completo, recomendadisimo.

Turn-based games always teleport me straight back to ‘99—little me button-mashing on the SNES. But this one? Built different. The way you slap together your squad piece by piece? Chef’s kiss. Makes you feel like every unit you drop is your homie fr. Like, 'nahhh not my boy Jake getting stabbed!' :D

Very entertaining, played all day long and couldn't stop. The battles are cool, and the story is catching. Sorry guys, can't write more - the adventure awaits

This game.... What really can I say? It was one of the first games I bought on Steam, and it inspired my love with turn based tactics and Fire Emblem like games. I loved the characters and their interactions, and I even thought the story was quite solid. I really liked creating my own squads of soldiers and I thought most of the map designs were well designed and had a variety of secondary objectives to aim for.

Great game. Hits a lot of notes for what I like in a tactical RPG. Good variety of characters and approaches.

It's a great game, for what it is--satisfying progression, complex enough to feel worth investing in, and just a touch of character development to keep you entertained. Not a deep story, but it doesn't need one--it's the gameplay, the battles, the planning, the tactics. I'd like a bit less R from the RNG, but overall great job. 8/10 overall, 9/10 within the genre.

Shout out to the creators of this game. The classes and traits kept it interesting, squad development wise. Story was aight. Thanks.

Composing different squads and positioning them during missions is unexpectedly really fun. In other games it often feels like a chore but here there's enough diversity of units and artifacts to make it interesting throughout the game.

This is the first squad based RPG I've played, but I highly enjoyed it and would recommend. I'm on my second playthrough, there is so much you can do with your army, that one playthrough isn't enough. Plus the normal difficulty is kind of a breeze once you get the hang of things. The visuals are 16 bit style. It was an interesting choice to have cut scenes in a classic RPG style world without giving the player the ability to roam, it works though. The music is great, some of the tracks are top notch. If you've never played a squad based RPG this is a good one to start with. Even if you have I'm sure it is up your alley.

I forgot I didn't write a review for this. Game's great! What if your Tactical RPG also let you build each squad as its own little RPG party? Warriors, mages, dragons and even My man McLain who always shows up and ends up being THE GOAT. Every squad is comprised of units and these units have individual stats, levels, weaknesses, strengths and perks. You'll spend more time micromanaging your army between missions than playing AND THAT'S AWESOME I LOVE MY LITTLE GUYS. Except rogue archetypes. I'm sorry I know how i should be using them but they never produce the results I expect. Also, the game isn't too difficult even if you play in hard. Can't say what the permadeath experience is, haven't tried it, but I'll go ahead and try next time I play. I do suspect it may end up becoming a matter of turning every squad hyper-defensive to not lose resources. Of course, the gameplay itself is also fun. What you'd comef rom expect! Though uh. The animations get a bit tiresome especially in longer combats. It's cool to see them but nowadays I always play without battle animations. Music is servicable. Some tracks are memorable but most of it is... aight. Mostly in the background. And the story! It's fun, it has some interesting twists and turns, but it never blew my mind. Keeps you engaged enough during the first playthrough tho! And the DLC is... there? Not gonna lie the new units are awesome but the missions are overly long, not particularly difficult and kiiiiind of a chore. I'll certainly be playing again at some point!

"Pope plays Unicorn Overlord, Pope enjoys. " *Checks Steam* Game that looks like a pixel Unicorn Overlord. *Catches it on sale* Sweet Moses on a Cricket Bat!!! This game rocks. WoUlD pLaY a SeQuAl Or SiMiLaR gAmE 11 000+ People are waiting Dancing Dragon Games---(published by indie.io) We believe in you

TL:DR; Fire Emblem, but with each single character is replaced with a squad of five to nine units. Though it suffers from issues of clarity of information, this is a great game to experience commanding armies as opposed to just a small party of heroes. ------- Symphony of war is a combination of Fire Emblem and Atlantica Online. ...okay, most people won't get the second reference. Basically Fire Emblem's units on the map are replaced by squads of up to nine units (four at first). It is up to you to build each squad to tackle different roles, then control the positioning of these squads on the battlefield. Combat itself is autobattler-style, your units fight it out themselves. You can even set the game to just show you the results after each battle is done. This design choice works in the game's favor; gameplay is focused on the overall positioning of your squads and how each squad is built rather instead. It feels like you are playing a general who is commanding armies instead of a captain who is directing individual troops. Perhaps the biggest fault Symphony of War has are issues of clarity of information. There are many, many mechanics in the game which are not well explained well (just looking at a unit stats it doesn't indicate the archetype and how much damage it does exactly, how much is the movement penalty for rough terrain, etc.). The most egregious being the volley mechanic which is not explained at all but has a huge impact on how squads should be built. Definitely check out the guides. This game is my personal best game this year, so highly recommended.

great turn based strategy game, with addicting team building and characters

Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga is a meticulously crafted tactical RPG that expertly combines classic turn-based strategy elements with a rich narrative and deep customization options, offering a fresh yet nostalgic experience for fans of the genre. Developed by Dancing Dragon Games, this title stands out by focusing on large-scale battlefield tactics, meaningful unit management, and a story steeped in fantasy lore. The game’s elegant design and thoughtful mechanics make it both approachable for newcomers and sufficiently challenging for strategy veterans seeking a rewarding tactical experience. At its core, Symphony of War places players in command of a vast army of customizable units, each with unique classes, abilities, and equipment. Battles take place on grid-based maps that emphasize positioning, terrain advantages, and synergy between different unit types. The turn order system adds strategic depth, allowing players to anticipate enemy moves and plan their actions accordingly. Unlike many tactical RPGs that focus on individual heroes, this game shines by encouraging players to think on a grander scale, managing multiple squads and leveraging their diverse strengths to outmaneuver opponents. The result is a fluid and engaging combat system where each encounter feels like a carefully orchestrated battle. Customization and progression form the backbone of the experience. Units can be extensively tailored through skill trees, class upgrades, and gear enhancements, enabling players to develop their forces according to preferred playstyles. This depth extends beyond combat, as resource management and strategic planning between battles influence long-term success. The ability to adjust formations, switch classes, and optimize team compositions ensures that no two playthroughs feel the same, encouraging experimentation and adaptability. Narratively, Symphony of War delivers a mature and immersive story set in a richly detailed fantasy world filled with political intrigue, ancient mysteries, and complex characters. The writing is thoughtful, with meaningful choices that impact alliances and the course of the war. While the story occasionally dips into familiar fantasy tropes, it maintains a compelling pace and emotional resonance, drawing players into the unfolding conflict. Voice acting and a haunting orchestral soundtrack complement the narrative, enhancing the atmosphere and immersion. Visually, the game opts for a pixel-art style that balances retro charm with modern clarity. Character sprites and battlefield environments are detailed and expressive, ensuring readability during intense battles without sacrificing aesthetic appeal. The interface is clean and user-friendly, with customizable options that streamline the management of large armies and complex information. Despite its many strengths, Symphony of War does present some challenges. The game’s learning curve can be steep, especially for players new to tactical RPGs or large-scale strategy games. Managing numerous units and understanding the intricacies of class synergies requires patience and study. Additionally, some battles may feel lengthy or occasionally repetitive, potentially slowing down the pacing for those seeking a faster experience. However, the developers’ attention to balance and quality of life features, such as adjustable game speed and detailed tutorials, helps mitigate these issues. In conclusion, Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga is a standout tactical RPG that masterfully blends strategic complexity with narrative depth and customization freedom. It honors classic turn-based strategy traditions while injecting modern design sensibilities, creating a game that is both intellectually stimulating and emotionally engaging. For players craving a thoughtful, large-scale tactical challenge wrapped in a compelling fantasy setting, Symphony of War offers a richly rewarding journey that is as strategic as it is immersive. Rating: 9/10

Such great battle system mechanics. Doesn't take millions of dollars to make a fantastic game like this. Big developers take some notes.

I didn't think I would like this game and I didn't play it for months after I purchased it and after playing the game I wish I had played it right when I bought it. I really enjoyed this game. From the layout, the combat and I love making up the different squads for combat. It was an awesome game to play

Ogre Battle 64 is gone, but this game is pretty darn good!

It's a cute game. Very linear, but lots of fun if you enjoy the genre.

If you liked Ogre Battle 64 this is the same game with a FF6 vibe going on.

Yesh, it's great.

great tactics game

I put like 40 hours in, in 3 days

Awesome game

Goody good.

Recommended!

Water Emblem

GOOD GAME

excellent