Chosen of Asgard

Day 376

One feature of Gungnir that I haven't discussed at great length is the special ability of the titular weapon wielded by Giulio, the protagonist. According to Elise, a mysterious blue-haired women claiming to from Asgard, Giulio has been specially chosen by Gungnir to be its wielder. It's a very powerful weapon that is given to you from the very beginning of the game--and it only increases in power over time.

Gungnir's default attack targets the three panels directly in front of Giulio. It deals heavy damage and converts a percentage of that damage to HP. This ability has saved me in multiple missions. This is not Gungnir's only ability, however. It can also summon gods based on Norse mythology, all of which have varying effects. These summons require a great deal of Tactics Points and therefore cannot be used early on in a mission. Although the effects are extremely powerful and hit multiple targets, it seems the targets chosen are random, meaning you can easily harm allies as well. On top of that, these summons require an extremely long charge time, leaving Giulio quite vulnerable. It's more than a little irritating that these spells are so unreliable considering the hefty requirements inherent to casting them.

I've only used these summons a few times so far, mostly as a last resort when I have no other option. I used it recently to finish off a few stragglers when most of my party had already been taken out. I didn't have to worry about hitting allies because there was no one left to hit! This usage case isn't a very satisfying one and I can't imagine it was designed to be that way. It's possible the high power of these spells offsets the possible downsides, but so far I'm not convinced. I'll experiment with it more as I go.

In my last entry on Gungnir, I discussed casting times for spells. It's frequently unsatisfying to attempt to cast a spell on an opponent only to find that they'll be able to move long before the spell finishes casting. This is still frustrating, but I've learned that there are items that can reduce this charge time--mostly through accessories and other secondary items. I have one accessory equipped on a story character named Paulo that seems to cut his charging time in half. This is a welcome addition but I have to wonder what strategic depth this really adds to the gameplay--other than allowing some counterplay to the spells of opponents. 

 Another feature that I had not been making use of nearly enough beforehand was the Ace system. Each missions requires you to field at least one story character. Which characters are available to you vary based on the mission, but each of these characters have unique classes as well as a different set of units that they have synergy with. Well, the only real synergy is an added effect that reduces their delay after movement. It's a very good idea to use classes that synergize with the ace you've chosen so that you can move your units more frequently.

There are a lot of classes in Gungnir, but the only real thing that separates them is the kind of gear they can equip and their base statistics. This is fine though, because the weapons your characters equip determine the abilities they use in combat. Each weapon has at least one unique ability and there's no such thing as a standard attack in Gungnir. An axe might have a command called Earth Crush as it's primary attack and it will of course be earth elemental and might have an additional effect like lowering armor. As your character gains profiency with this weapon, they'll unlock other attacks this weapon has. A weapon could theoretically have four attacks, but I haven't seen anything with more than four just yet.

I think Gungnir is a game full of dense mechanics that I'm only just now beginning to understand. I've talked about it a lot and I still have not even begun to explain it in detail. I like the game, but I can't say I'm engrossed. It might end up being a situation where I only really come to love the game until I'm in the homestretch--but by that point it might be too late.