Mercenaries Lament Steam Charts & Stats

I really enjoyed this game! I was looking for something to scratch that Final Fantasy Tactics itch and this game did just that. This was my first Mercenaries game so I can't comment on how similar it is to previous entries. Also, this game isn't as polished or deep as Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre: Reborn. If you haven't played those games look there first. I did enjoy this more than Triangle Strategy but that could just be my personal preference. Triangle Strategy had a deep story, tons of dialogue and some basic exploration and I wanted more of a straight forward experience centered around combat. Mercenaries Lament has a basic story and a basic story choice but I felt a deeper combat system than Triangle Strategy. You will be presented with a menu for managing your party, a shop and a map screen that allows you to pick a 'story' battle to progress the game or 'free' battle to grind. Free battles will give you items as a reward upon first completion incentivizing you to complete all of them. The shop has a basic crafting system that I enjoyed as well. When it's all said and done you'll have a party of 8 characters that each have two class paths. An example would be choosing between an Archer or a Lancer type class for a character. Overall this game took me around 30 hours to complete and I don't regret my purchase. I'll be playing through it again with the 'New Game+' type option to experience the alternate story path and I generally don't do that with games. I hope this team continues to make these games and if there is an 8th entry in the series it'll be a day one purchase for me. I'm debating playing the previous entry in the series but this game looks much more polished at least from a menu graphic perspective. From other reviews I'm thinking that might just be a surface level change. Story - 5/10 The story is centered around a pandemic which can be off-putting. The characters are shallow without any real character development. Some of the dialogue felt lost in translation as well. Music - 8/10 I enjoyed the music! I wish there was more variety, adding a couple extra tracks for battles would have been nice. Gameplay - 8/10 I had a lot of fun playing this! I think a controller is required to fully enjoy this game. It's very reminiscent of Final Fantasy Tactics so if you've played that you pretty much know what you're going to get. You can rotate the map in battles and maps usually have a couple treasure chests and special areas to search for loot. I hit a few battles that challenged me and forced me to grind a handful of 'free' battles to level up. Victory conditions are mostly defeat all enemies but there are a couple where it is to beat a 'boss' or keep an NPC alive.