Today, we’re diving into a tactical RPG I’ve been following closely for a while. With its release just around the corner, it’s time for a detailed look at what Those Who Rule has to offer.
- The Story
- Gameplay and Combat System
- Characters, Classes and Progression
- What Happens Between Battles
- Early Impressions
- Visuals, Style, and Sound
The Story
Developed by Eldin Turulja, Those Who Rule transports us to a medieval world where political intrigue and power struggles form the backdrop to the adventures of the Rangers, a group dedicated to protecting the empire. Starting as fresh recruits, the Rangers are quickly thrust into the heart of unfolding events and must make choices that will profoundly shape the future.
As is common in this genre, the story unfolds through character-driven dialogues between battles. During these interactions, players are often faced with decisions that influence the narrative, adding weight to every choice and ensuring no two playthroughs feel exactly the same.
Gameplay and Combat System
Fans of SRPGs will feel right at home with Those Who Rule. The game alternates between narrative-driven events and tactical battles, placing strong emphasis on character development. Here’s a closer look at its combat system.
Combat System Mechanics
Battles unfold on hexagonal grid maps, and turns are team-based: you move all your units first, followed by the enemy’s turn. Key mechanics include zones of control, which restrict the movement of engaged units, and flanking or rear attacks that can limit or entirely negate enemy counterattacks. Additionally, certain tiles provide bonuses or penalties depending on their type, adding another layer of strategy to every engagement.
Character Mechanics
Characters equipped with shields have a secondary resource called block points, which absorb incoming damage from frontal attacks. However, these points do not apply to attacks from behind, emphasizing the importance of positioning. The game also features ranged attacks from archers, line attacks that strike multiple units in a row, and wide-area attacks from two-handed weapons, which hit adjacent targets. Support units like healers and a variety of active and passive skills further enrich tactical options, offering buffs to allies or debuffs to enemies, such as reducing their accuracy and more.
Side Objectives and Maps Structure
Each attack provides detailed feedback, including hit probabilities, expected damage, and potential counterattack outcomes. The game also includes secondary objectives, such as reaching a treasure chest within a set number of turns or defeating specific enemies using a designated character, adding variety and depth to the missions.
The maps appear well-designed to accommodate diverse strategies for both offense and defense. For instance, taking a secondary route to flank an enemy formation of shielded soldiers can turn the tide of battle. Conversely, blocking critical chokepoints with shield-bearing units can buy time for the rest of your team to achieve key objectives. These dynamic scenarios ensure that every battle rewards thoughtful planning and adaptability.
Characters, Classes and Progression
Character progression is a hallmark of strategy RPGs, and Those Who Rule embraces this with depth and variety. Here’s an overview of the character classes, their growth mechanics, and the stats that shape their effectiveness on the battlefield.
Classes
The game features six distinct classes, each with unique abilities, strengths, and growth paths:
- Fighter
- Soldier
- Skirmisher
- Defender
- Archer
- Medic
Each character gains experience in two key ways:
- Weapon Proficiency: The more a weapon type is used, the more skilled the character becomes, improving damage and accuracy.
- Level Progression: Characters earn experience points for every action in battle. Once the XP bar is full, the character levels up, distributing points into core stats.
Core Stats
Upon leveling up, characters gain points in the following attributes, directly influencing their performance:
- Vitality: Determines the total HP of the character.
- Strength: Impacts the damage dealt with equipped weapons.
- Skills: Boosts accuracy and hit chance.
- Agility: Enhances dodge chance, counterattack priority, and double-attack opportunities.
- Endurance: Governs the maximum weight of equipped weapons and items before agility penalties occur.
- Defense: Reduces damage taken from enemy attacks.
Each character has unique Growth Rates that dictate how likely these stats will increase during level-ups. Growth Rates can be viewed and even modified from the main menu, where players can choose between randomized or fixed stat growths.
Derived Battle Stats
Core stats translate into battle-specific values that determine effectiveness:
- Attack: Combines the character’s Strength and the damage rating of their equipped weapon.
- Speed: If a character’s Speed exceeds an enemy’s by 4 points, they gain a double attack.
- Avoid: Determined by Agility, this stat governs evasion.
- Move: The number of hexes a unit can traverse per turn.
- Build: Represents how much weight a character can carry before suffering penalties to Agility.
- Hit: A combination of weapon accuracy and the character’s Skill stat (multiplied by 3), determining the chance to land an attack.
Skills and Weapon Proficiency
Every character is equipped with:
- One passive skill: Provides consistent bonuses or abilities (e.g., reduced damage from specific attacks).
- One active skill: Usable during combat to provide tactical advantages.
Weapon proficiency tables detail how adept each character is with different weapon types. Mastery over a weapon type enhances its effectiveness, making it critical to align characters with weapons that suit their strengths. The interplay between stats, skills, and weapon proficiencies ensures that each character feels unique, giving players plenty of room to customize their team and refine strategies to suit their preferred playstyle.
What Happens Between Battles
After the first two chapters, you’ll finally gain access to your headquarters. Between missions, you’ll handle unit management, allowing for a detailed level of customization. You can inspect each character individually, review their equipment, and use the forge to enhance weapon damage and accuracy. Additionally, you can apply various items to gain unique bonuses, such as scaling weapon damage with endurance instead of strength or adding a damage bonus when attacking enemies wielding axes.
This offers a robust layer of personalization for your characters. All upgrades and customizations require company funds, which are primarily earned by completing missions, especially side quests.
Base Activities
While at your base, you’ll also engage in conversations with your units. These dialogues aren’t just for flavor—they provide valuable backstory and unlock specific side quests for future missions.
There’s also the shop, where you can purchase weapons and items to use in the forge. Once you’ve managed your resources, you can save your progress and move on to the next chapter, which will typically lead to another battle.
Early Impressions
At the time of writing, I’ve played the game for about two hours, reaching Chapter 3. So far, the story is enjoyable, and the dialogue is refreshingly concise, which I consider a big plus. The combat system has been highly engaging, and I’m eager to discover special weapons that can be further upgraded and customized with the wide array of available items.
The normal difficulty setting feels well-balanced. In two instances, I came close to losing a unit (remember, death is permanent), so those seeking a greater challenge should undoubtedly select the Veteran difficulty.
Visuals, Style, and Sound
The character models and portraits are well-designed. While the art style might not appeal to everyone, I personally find it quite enjoyable. The music complements both the story and combat phases effectively, enhancing the overall experience.
A full written review will follow soon, offering a comprehensive evaluation. However, based on my time with the game so far, I highly recommend it to fans of tactical RPGs. You can find Those Who Rule on PC via Steam.
