Further analysis on Gungnir's mechanics

Day 377

Gungnir is a tremendously frustrating game packed full of promising ideas. It features a cute and colorful art style, a multitude of classic and innovative strategy RPG mechanics, and a solid plot and presentation. However, it is bogged down by clunky menus and a whole bag of questionable design decisions that go a long way toward significantly diluting the player's experience. I can't recall any game I've played recently that has soured my mood more than Gungnir. I am continuously surprised at how ludicrously poor some of the ideas that went into this game are.

Flashy animations will not dilute my rage

On the other hand, it's definitely possible my frustration comes from a poor understanding of the game's mechanics--but I'd still argue that these mechanics are not strong ones. One of these mechanics allows the player (or the AI) to net an instant kill by knocking a unit off the field of battle. Not only is this mechanic nonsensical, but it's also frequently very unsatisfying. Watching one of your units instantly die because you positioned it too close to the edge of the map is insanely frustrating--but it doesn't feel like much of an accomplishment to do the same to an enemy--unless you end up knocking an enemy into the water so it drowns. That's actually pretty fun.

Many missions seem balanced around the idea that you'll be taking advantage of this ring out mechanic, essentially forcing the player to employ that strategy to be successful. It's certainly possible to avoid it altogether, but it makes things a lot more difficult in a very unsatisfying way. There was a particular mission in which your characters start a really high elevation against a whole group of very durable barbarian enemies. Each of these foes require six or seven hits to take out, so it makes a lot more sense just to knock them off the map with knockback skills. It's possible to bait them to stand on the edge of the map with some careful positioning, but I feel it'd be a lot more fun to just slaughter them. There doesn't seem to be a very effective way of doing that. Maybe I'm underleveled and undergeared?

But oh wait, knocking them off the map might not even be a sensible strategy. Once you advance farther onto the map, an annoying little flying enemy called a Wampyre appears and completely wrecks your world with an attack that charms your units in an AoE. Yeah, it's capable of bringing your own units over to the enemy side in multiples. It has a very high chance of activating and completely derails whatever strategy you might have had. I've never been a big fan of status ailments in RPGs that cause you to completely lose control of your characters--and charm is the pretty much the highest offender, right up there with confusion. It's not a fun mechanic even when it's weak--but when it's as strong and reliable as that, it's downright infuriating.

Surely the counterplay to such an annoying enemy is to make sure it dies before it even gets close to you? Normally I'd agree with that, but Gungnir is a game in which most enemies require multiple turns to defeat. I don't have anyone close to strong enough to be able to take down a foe in one hit. Even against weaker enemies, killing in two hits is rare--and even in that case it would require some well executed combos to pull off. Even if I did have the means to kill the creature quickly, I would have to make my way over to it somehow, which puts me in harm's way regardless.

Gungnir has an the unfortunate tendency of always giving the enemy a massive tactical advantage. The map I've been discussing for the better part of this post is a great example of that fact. Although the Charm-inducing Wampyrie is annoying enough, the developers saw fit to throw in some nigh-unreachable Undines in the water far below your initial position. These mermaid-like creatures are extremely long-range spellcasters capable of hitting from 8 panels away. These spells evidently completely ignore height, because they can hurl spells all day long from an extremely safe position. If my units are at all grouped up, they'll be destroyed within turns by the onslaught. Without constant healing or armor that absorbs a couple of different elements, it's very annoying to deal with.

The logical move in that situation would be to carefully move your units out of the way before the spells go off--and that works, to a certain point. The only problem is that Gungnir's turn selection system is also heavily weighted in favor of the opponent. Each unit in the enemy's control gets to take a turn like a standard strategy RPG. However, the player must decide on a single character to move each turn. If you only move a few panels, you might be afforded the oh-so-rare opportunity to move someone else within a short time frame. It's very seldom enough to move your party members out of the range of these deadly long range spells, however.

Sting, in their zeal to innovate new mechanics, has needlessly complicated a system that already has several tried and true iterations in place. Final Fantasy Tactics is a prime example of a game that had a charge-based turn system and it was executed extremely well. Each character took turns based on their speed stat and it was very simple to check when each character's turn was coming up. Everyone got to shine and you were never forced to make choices that made you feel bad. 

These entry is already turning into a giant, unreadable wall of text and I haven't even touched on a lot of the things about the game that I find frustrating. The next major annoyance I will touch on is the ability to lose unique items, but I'll talk about that tomorrow. With all the negative things I have to say about this game, it's a wonder why I keep playing it. It does have its redeeming features, but so far I feel the negatives far outweigh the positives. I'm so far in at this point that it seems unlikely I'm going to stop, though. I'm loyal to the Dept. Heaven series and I yearn for the game to somehow grow on me, but I don't see it happening. I know that if I were to ever play the game again, I'd definitely make different choices and play the game a lot differently--but I have to wonder if it would even be worth the frustration.