I was a little frustrated the last time I played Banner of the Maid, the tactical RPG for the Switch (et al) about a fantasy retelling of the French Revolution. I hadn’t leveled my characters evenly and it became clear I was never going to be able to beat a certain fight as I had no opportunities to grind my poor performers to higher levels.
The other issue that really killed my interest in the game was not being able to take screen shots. Not in the prologue, not in the cut scenes, not ever. The capture button, when pressed, displayed a little box on the screen saying that screen captures were disabled.
I put the game aside and played other games for awhile. I didn’t really want to restart the game. But, then I decided I would restart the game, but this time in “Story” mode, the easiest mode.
And…
I could level my characters more evenly. Unit vs unit battles became animated, as I’d seen in reviews but never seen in game I could take screen captures. I could get through that fight that had blocked me. I think the game must have been bugged in some way.
And when I entered the next chapter of the story, they gave me repeatable battles I could use for grinding. Hallelujah.
Now, I’d like to go back to “Officer” mode, the normal mode, but it’s a one-way switch. I’m not planning to restart once more and hope the normal mode is less buggy this time.
So, I think I can say that even at “Story” mode, the challenge is enough to keep a tactical fan happy, and there’s probably a good chance that “Officer” mode would be achievable — before that final fight, I’d been able to clear all the previous fights in two or three attempts, which I don’t think is bad for this type of game and playing without a walkthrough. If I’d been able to grind out the level imbalance, I guarantee I’d have been able to sail on through.
In the story mode, how is the… story? It’s okay. The plot is basically Napoleon Bonaparte’s younger sister, Pauline, has followed her brother into the revolution. As the game begins, she has lost her first command. She won the battle but lost most of her troops, and is questioning her ability to wage this war.
A man who chances to meet her on a train informs her that she is one of France’s famous Maids, like Joan of Arc, who have a divine power and destiny. Pauline soon meets other Maids, and they must join their powers together and lead their troops — a ragtag militia made of the strays from other armies — to unite Europe and free France.
Each character that joins Pauline’s army is a commander of their own armies. Their armies face off against opponent armies in a battlefield that slams down from the sky. This is fun for awhile, but can be turned off if it’s too distracting. There are some fun character moments during them, though, especially when the characters spend their morale to perform a heroic attack for more damage — and more experience.
Character gain abilities as they level. More abilities can be learned in the military academy, and certain items you can buy from your faction lords increase your power even more.
Off the battle field, Pauline has to negotiate the various factions of revolutionary Paris. I made the mistake the first time of focusing on one faction at the expense of the others; this locked me out of certain opportunities to buy upgrades. The correct strategy is to try and raise all factions at the same time. You may side with the rebels, but the royals still have quite a lot to offer.
Worth playing or buying on sale. The fan service isn’t as bad as in many games drawn in the anime style. The battles are fairly dynamic, with a lot of moving pieces and mid-battle changes of strategy. I mentioned in the previous post that the battles seem to be puzzle oriented — once you know what’s going to happen, you can have the right units in the right place to easily get the victory.
I still believe that’s true. It’s best to play defensively until it becomes clear what strategy the game wants you to adopt; once you do know, you typically should strike hard and fast because the enemy loves nothing more than to keep you divided and unable to focus on a particular threat.
Once I finish, I’ll be able to place it in the rankings and compare it to such giants in the field as Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre Let Us Cling Together, Fire Emblem Three Houses and XCOM-2. I wouldn’t dream of doing it yet, though I will note that while all those other games allowed any unit to take on another job, this one, so far, does not.
