Banner of the Maid (Steam) is Charming
Good morning, afternoon, or whenever it is that you read this.
I have been feeling the itch to play Fire Emblem. The problem is that I don't want to play Fire Emblem. I don't want to replay a game. I want to play a hero strategy-based JRPG with characters who are more than just a single line of characterization, and gives me a grand scale adventure driven by regional politics, wherein you take control of one of the commanders in a completely new story.
I decided to go to steam and search for strategy JRPGs. Eventually, I found a game called Banner of the Maid, which I already owned for some reason. I'm not sure when I got it - I normally don't go for overtly anime-aesthetic games, especially those that seem to be of the kawaii-girls-in-short-skirt-military-uniform variety.
I already owned it, so I decided to give it a try despite my misgivings. Can't be a snob in this economy.
The Story... So far
I'm only about two hours in, so give me a break.
The protagonist you are playing as is Pauline Bonaparte (the real life younger sister of Napoleon Bonaparte). The setting? 1790s France. Due to the influence of Queen Marie Antoinette, women have been allowed to join the military academy. The Queen personally sponsored Pauline and dubbed her the 'Maid of Orleans'. There's also a piece of folk lore about maids of great power...
As Pauline, you need to curry influence with various factions in Paris. These include the Jacobins, the Royalists, and others. You'll also rub shoulders with other real life historical figures. As someone who enjoys reading about the hero of two worlds, it was a delight to see anime Marquis de Lafayette as one of the faction leaders I could gain reputation with.
How delightful.
The Gameplay
The gameplay seems familiar enough for the genre. I haven't figured out the entirety of the system, but it is built on a rock-paper-scissors style system. Luckily, the match up summary does a good job of indicating when to attack, or when to re-evaluate.
Elegant violins play when you're at court in France, and snare drum and booming brass perform marches on sweeping fields when you're at battle. When you engage with enemy units, you'll be treated to a gorgeous battlefield view as your commander shouts a command in Chinese, does a unique flourish animation with their sword, followed by a volley of gunfire. It feels triumphant every single time.
There are all of these beautiful visual details in every part of the action that makes it feel buttery smooth. When your line fires, you see the impact of your bullets, see the smoke drift up from the rifles and across the field. The maps look like Final Fantasy Tactics with SNES era JRPGs. It's fantastic, at least so far.
The other part of the gameplay loop are the story sequences. These are more like a visual novel, where you click through menus or dialogue trees while mostly static images look at you, occasionally making small changes in their expressions. It's not bad, but it doesn't feel as smooth as the rest of it. This jaggedness is exacerbated by the clunky translation from Chinese. Sometimes rocky translations are annoying.
Turns out, in a fantasy soaked alternate timeline 1790s France (that looks like an anime) where we are trying to unlocked the power of the Maids, a bit of bad translation is charming.
Final Thoughts
Like I said, I'm only a few hours in. But it's been a blast so far. I know it is currently 'mixed' on Steam. I don't want to read ahead and potentially spoil the good feelings I've got going in.
Thanks for reading.