Tears to Tiara II: Heir of the Overlord – Review
Living in a world where your own country used to be peaceful but is being completely flipped over when an invasion from outside takes away everything that you once had. Such a sad story is told in the newest Tears to Tiara II: Heir of the Overlord from Atlus for the Playstation 3. Take up the role of the head of a powerful family, Hamilcar Barca, and lead your fellow comrades to a period of rebellion.
Story
In Hispania, a country that has been free of suffering and conflict for a very long time, is led by one family that makes all of this possible, namely the royal Barca family. Although the country has never before needed to defend itself from outer invasions, the time has eventually come for it to stand up against the invasion of the Empire that tries to take over Hispania. The Empire’s forces are certainly something to reckon with, and eventually they succeed in bringing down the head of the Barca family which will allow them to take over whole of Hispania.
All the citizens of Hispania have been under control of the Empire, being forced to swallow all kinds of hardships like the increase of taxes, or the amount of workload they have to deal with every day. Even the son of the previous head of the Barca family, lord Hamilcar, cannot stand up against the might and bullying of the Empire’s soldiers. Hamilcar, or Hamil in short, is just a teenager that doesn’t know how to fight or use magic, which doesn’t allow him to resort to a rebellion after a 7 year of terror. Even the followers of the Barca Family who have organized an underground rebellious group called the Barca Faction don’t think that Hamil will undergo any rebellious acts, as he is constantly putting himself down as a good-for-nothing kid that doesn’t understand anything.
One day Hamil dreams of a goddess that talks with him during the day, not understanding what this goddess is trying to say or why she forgives someone like him who doesn’t take any action. When awakened from his daydreaming, he encounters a couple of conflicts with soldiers, eventually taking a beat down from them and being forced to keep on breaking down a temple that was once part of the Barca family. The same evening he meets up with a girl that appeared out of nowhere and gives her a bit of food in order to help her. She reveals herself to be Tarte, a goddess that has descended upon her people in order to help them.
She stays with Hamil for a while, eventually being sent away from the village as Hamil discovered that during the nearing festival for the gods of Hispania, the Barca Faction is planning to try a rebellion and attack the Empire. This is stopped during the festival itself, as a priest of the Empire has captured Tarte and burns her on the stake while every Hispanian is forced to watch. This upsets Hamil greatly, eventually forcing him to unleash all the hate and magic that he kept safe in his body during the last seven years as he takes on the form of Melquart, god of war. This power allows him to defeat the Empire that is threatening the village and forces them to fall back, starting rebellions all over Hispania and leading to all kinds of events that will become a battle for Hispania.
The story in Tears of Tiara II: Heir of the Overlord is the main focus of the game, even more than that of the gameplay. The balance between story and gameplay is somewhat questionable in the beginning, as in the first chapter you’ll spend a lot, and I mean a lot of story-driven dialogue without getting much chance to actually fight battles. Luckily this changes starting the second chapter, eventually giving you more freedom and battles while still offering tons of story-driven dialogues. The story is pretty nice, and with the addition of unique and interesting characters, it makes the game certainly something to enjoy.
Graphics
Graphic-wise, the game is lacking in some areas while doing good in other areas. The main and only problem this game has is the fact that characters in the background often have strange movements, like a random NPC that is walking against a wall, or hand movements where you don’t know what they are actually trying to do.
On the good side, all the character designs are really well made, varying much from each other and having that special vibe that makes them enjoyable to see. The environments also look pretty nice. The dialogues in this game are accompanied by portraits of the characters, which look very nice along with occasional artwork that they show instead in the background of the standard character models that look rather cute.
Sound
Not much is to be said about the sound except that the soundtrack in this game is simply beautiful. The music catches the feel of the different events so nice, that you’ll either be moved or excited for the moment, motivating you to keep on playing.
The voice acting is also done very nice, capturing each character like you would want to imagine them.
Gameplay
As explained before, the game is comprised as mostly story told in tons of dialogue. This makes it so you spend most of your hours in the game with reading and listening to the things the characters say. This is what you would call the Visual Novel part of the game. During the first chapter, you’ll almost only see this side of the game, which might eventually scare off players who only bought the game for the action.
Starting from the second chapter, you’ll be able to choose between options like changing your equipment, or embark to the map. You also have a War Council option, but this is also something story-driven where the characters from either the good side or the bad side discuss their military strategy or where they recruit new allies.
If you want to do some battling, you’ll have to embark on your adventure which brings you to the world map. On the world map you can do two things: either go do some simple battles that don’t progress your game, or participate in battles that will progress your game.
Battles are fought in grid-styled turn-based battles where each side deploys a couple of units that will fight on the map. Objectives for winning a battle change depending on which mission you are on, related to the story. Each mission has a set number of deployments that you can do, but unique to this game is that you have a carriage that contains your other units, which you can ne sent in later in battle. However, your carriage is susceptible to damage, so if your opponents attack it enough it will be destroyed, making you unable to send in reinforcements.
You’ll have to pay attention to the affinity your units have, as elemental weaknesses are present in this game, much like other RPGs. If your character dies, it is not dead forever so you don’t need to worry yourself of losing him/her. Each character has a different class, which can be divided in three main groups: melee units, ranged units and magic users. Melee units are closed ranged and are able to perform counter attacks on the enemy if they would attack you, this is not possible for ranged units or magic users.
Another unique aspect of the game is a small one, namely the Chain Stock. The Chain Stock fills up when you attack enemies, and when a certain amount is gathered you can perform stronger attacks, like doing a second attack where you need to time really well before you can utilize it. It also allows mages to execute more powerful skills, dealing more damage. Once you have used a stock, you’ll need to fill it up again.
The very last aspect is the awakening of your main character Hamil. When your Awakening Gauge is filled up, you can perform your awakening, letting the power of the god of war Melquart flow through you and giving a huge boost to you stats. However, this has a consequence, namely that if your awakening ends, Hamil won’t be able to move the turn after.
Conclusion
Overall, while the game has a small problem in balance in terms of dialogue and actual battles together with the small issues graphics-wise, the game does a very good job at keeping you entertained. The various conversations are really exciting to follow, the characters and story are intriguing and the gameplay is enjoyable. If you don’t mind having to spend tons of hours on story alone, you should definitely keep an eye out for this game.
Tears to Tiara II: Heir of the Overlord - Review,
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