RPG # 15: Strategy Defense Review

Strategy Defense is a little weird. You play a heroic character who fights bad guys and levels up in order to save his kingdom, and the game features a definite (though extremely limited) plot which might lead you to believe that it is an RPG. However, all of these RPG elements are subordinate to the main thrust of the game, which is strategic in nature.

Essentially, you fight a series of turn-based tactical battles against enemies who look suspiciously like Lego men with weapons. After each battle, you advance to another one via a linear map. After you've fought a few battles, you'll start being taken to a shop where you can purchase special arrows, healing potions, and transformations before you advance. Occasionally, you'll witness some sort of dialog between your character and someone else, but you never have control over this.

The battles themselves are pretty neat, occurring from an isometric perspective that reminds one quite a bit of Final Fantasy Tactics. You spend the first quarter or so of Strategy Defense as an archer, and you can get pretty far using hit-and-run tactics. You may find this difficult at first, since the game only lets you move in a straight line on any given turn. The enemies face this limitation as well, however, so it shouldn't take you too long to adapt. More annoying, however, is the fact that you don't get to command any sort of fighting force against your enemies. Every battle is fought single-handedly, which limits the tactical possibilities quite a bit. Also, later on in the game, large enemy sprites tend to obscure surrounding spaces, making targeting difficult.

Those are relatively minor quibbles, however. The enemy AI is pretty good, and will give you a decent challenge during the first third of the game. The game gets much more difficult once you start facing riflemen, however, and the AI isn't to blame. Rather, this drastic shift in difficulty comes about because you must now start to rely much more on expensive magic in order to win battles. You'll also start drinking Health+ potions like it's your job. In a true RPG, you could make up for the difficulty by fighting optional battles and leveling up. Not in Strategy Defense, however. You can't re-fight old battles. You just have to struggle onward.

The bottom line: it ain't Shining Force, but despite the occasional design flaw, Strategy Defense is a good game for fans of tactical RPGs.