Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga
analyzed 2026-09-19 · sample of 547 English reviews across the whole review history
Players consistently praise the gameplay, which draws positive mentions in 157 of 175 sampled reviews, along with combat and build variety. Customization and progression earn similar approval, and price value draws 46 positive mentions against none negative. The squad system and class promotion paths recur as highlights, with players describing "a very satisfying and enjoyable combat system" and "excellent troop customization". Story appears in 206 reviews but splits opinion: 98 positive against 60 negative, with characters and writing drawing criticism alongside praise. The clearest friction points are the interface and balance. UI mentions are overwhelmingly negative, 39 of 44, described as "a UI that is a bit cumbersome and clicky". Balance draws 26 negative mentions against 13 positive, and AI behavior is criticized in 10 of 11 mentions, with players noting the AI "will never contest castles, mines, or abbeys from you". Difficulty divides players, with 28 negative mentions against 22 positive, some finding it "a bit on the easy side". Smaller aspects fare better: music, sound design, and platform access on the Steam Deck are well received, and updates and developer conduct draw mostly positive mentions. Pacing, learning curve, and level design attract more criticism than praise. Romance comes up as a recurring theme.
numbers checked against this report's stored data · quotes copied verbatim from reviews · plain text is the language model's own wording
Aspects
share of sample, axis to 40% · ± is the sampling uncertainty around each share
- positive
- mixed / neutral
- negative
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story
98 positive · 60 negative · 35 mixed · 13 neutral
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An interesting plot, developed characters, a protagonist that isn't a bland block of tofu, and a very satisfying and enjoyable combat system and gameplay loop.
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The story is immersive and the characters are charming and realistically written.
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Well, it's a fine game with nice story.
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gameplay
157 positive · 12 negative · 4 mixed · 2 neutral
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I spend hours modifying and micro managing my squad. So fun
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An interesting plot, developed characters, a protagonist that isn't a bland block of tofu, and a very satisfying and enjoyable combat system and gameplay loop.
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Absolutely amazing game in the vein of fire emblem with a great addition of squads which really changes up how you think about unit usage.
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combat
70 positive · 7 negative · 5 mixed · 1 neutral
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Good turn based strategy, medium + story, and excellent troop customization.
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An interesting plot, developed characters, a protagonist that isn't a bland block of tofu, and a very satisfying and enjoyable combat system and gameplay loop.
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Combat is great. Instantly familiar but also fresh and very satisfying to watch your units bounce back and forth.
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difficulty
22 positive · 28 negative · 10 mixed · 5 neutral
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The difficulty is a bit on the easy side but at the time of this posting the devs at Dancing Dragon are aware and actively making the necessary adjustments.
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Normal felt way too easy for me, I basically plowed through everything, and often 1 of my squads would take on 3-4 other squads on their own.
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The difficulty is on the lighter side - I was annihilating everything by Chapter 12 on Normal with no real plan or effort to optimize.
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build variety
58 positive · 5 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
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There are three tiers of class and promotion is not linear, you can pick from a wide veriety of classes to promote to, with differing stats and abilities.
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The Unit variety is fantastic and numerous paths for your units ensures you have a lot to experiment with. As well the game features a number of mini challenges for every single map, that reward you with money and the ability to unlock boosts for your entire army.
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Each unit in the squad can be individually picked to fulfill multiple roles such as support or DPS and depending where they are placed in the 3x3 grid, it will have an impact on how effective they are.
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characters
34 positive · 21 negative · 4 mixed · 1 neutral
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An interesting plot, developed characters, a protagonist that isn't a bland block of tofu, and a very satisfying and enjoyable combat system and gameplay loop.
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The story is immersive and the characters are charming and realistically written.
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I think like Awakening, this game does a decent job at creating memorable characters.
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writing
12 positive · 43 negative · 3 mixed · 1 neutral
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These are the only cons besides the occasional grammatical error, and obviousness of some of the plot devices used in the story.
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Writing is a bit wonky, but I can get past that.
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It's like fire emblem if you switched the quality of the writing and the gameplay
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art style
33 positive · 16 negative · 6 mixed · 1 neutral
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Great replay ability, music/sound is excellent, pixel art is well done.
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I think the art style is refreshing compared to the modern anime style that I've been used to for over a decade now, but that's just me.
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Graphics is decent and I like the art work.
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customization
53 positive · 1 negative · 2 mixed · 0 neutral
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Good turn based strategy, medium + story, and excellent troop customization.
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The animations, the squad customization, and the simple yet passionate story.
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To add to that, each unit can use a number of items to change their affinities to change their overall stats as well as items that boost those same stats, really pushing the threshold on customization.
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price value
46 positive · 0 negative · 7 mixed · 2 neutral
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Worth the $$ all day
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The result is a gem of a game that is MORE than worth picking up at full price.
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It's well worth the 20 dollar asking price, and for a game this affordable, it's a lot better than what I thought it would be going into it.
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see more
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progression
41 positive · 9 negative · 4 mixed · 1 neutral
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The leveling system and combat is very smooth and provides the freedom for the player to do anything that they want without much penalty.
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Story is a tad bland / generic but I'm typically playing these ARPG's for the tactical/character building/progression feel, which this game excels at.
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There are three tiers of class and promotion is not linear, you can pick from a wide veriety of classes to promote to, with differing stats and abilities.
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ui
1 positive · 39 negative · 4 mixed · 0 neutral
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- [ ] When healing out of combat. Don’t allow select of full units. Just pass over them. Or don’t show them at all
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Minor complaints include a UI that is a bit cumbersome and clicky, but there is good communication from DEV (and a couple of good patches already) that appears to be serious about improving it.
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Now that I've played through once, I'm thinking that it doesn't matter where in the formation they are, but it'd be nice if ppl had different patterns in different rows.
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balance
13 positive · 26 negative · 1 mixed · 2 neutral
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Some npc squads get unkillable unless your dumb without even much management (Dinna) well others are garbage i only use as meat shields at least you cant have a hero deathstack.
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Gunners and Mages feel too weak.
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Some of the unit balance is kind of questionable, Rogues/Assassins for example seem pretty useless for most of the game.
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replayability
30 positive · 6 negative · 2 mixed · 0 neutral
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Great replay ability, music/sound is excellent, pixel art is well done.
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The random skills gives me more desire to replay than any other game I've picked up in the last 5 years. The story and main characters are very likeable and I thought I'd want to skip through the story ASAP to get back to the gameplay but I found myself intrigued after the predictable beginning.
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The game allows for small battalion customization which is where you will get most of your replay value from. I cannot say that the game is particularly hard, outside of a few specific maps and bumps, …
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graphics
21 positive · 8 negative · 3 mixed · 5 neutral
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I enjoyed the visuals and overall presentation, but there is room for improvement.
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Finally, the graphics this game sports are really great imho and ooze character.
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Graphics is decent and I like the art work.
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game length
18 positive · 6 negative · 0 mixed · 9 neutral
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a lot longer than i thought it would be.
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I got it on sale and it entertained for the 22 hours I put in.
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The story was executed well and lasted longer than I had anticipated.
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music
23 positive · 3 negative · 2 mixed · 3 neutral
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Great replay ability, music/sound is excellent, pixel art is well done.
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The pixel art feels right at home and I do really like the music.
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Music/Sound: The music is great and as mentioned in the combat sections, the general sounds and stuff are also great.
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addictiveness
29 positive · 0 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Amazing game couldn't put it down once I bought it.
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The squad system is very addicting.
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Super addicting game.
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learning curve
6 positive · 11 negative · 2 mixed · 4 neutral
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-() Tutorial info on when a unit can be upgraded
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- Needs more contextual help / tutorials. For example, by clicking or hovering over a piece of terrain it should tell me about the rules surrounding that terrain.
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The lack of explanation: Support and tutorial do not tutorial do not really explain much. You could check the pages and not really learn much other than basic requirements to promote units.
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pacing
7 positive · 15 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
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I will say I burned through the first 26 or so chapters and then had to kind of drag myself through the end, but overall I had a good time.
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Every chapter past 20 that 52 becomes 50, 70, 80, holy heck now it's taking 15 minutes for an enemy turn to pass because the mission spawned so many more units.
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On the bad side, they really need to reduce the pause between dialogues or a way to move to the next dialogue.
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content amount
11 positive · 11 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Even though it is pretty new, there is a decent amount of content.
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As well the game features a number of mini challenges for every single map, that reward you with money and the ability to unlock boosts for your entire army.
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This game is great, 30 chapters to get through , however my only complaint is that i beat it and don't know what to do with my self now.
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developer conduct
14 positive · 4 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Minor complaints include a UI that is a bit cumbersome and clicky, but there is good communication from DEV (and a couple of good patches already) that appears to be serious about improving it.
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The devs are awesome, friendly, and have poured tons of effort into this game, and continue to do so, with 2 patches already out at the time this review is posted.
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While the game its self does of course have some short comings I can definitely see the passion of the studio behind it and think they will do even better with future games.
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animation
9 positive · 5 negative · 0 mixed · 1 neutral
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I loved this game. The animations, the squad customization, and the simple yet passionate story. I high;y recommend this game to anyone who enjoys turn based RPGs.
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As other reviews mentioned there is a great squad min-maxing managing system, very nice animations and this compelling story that even though a tad predictable provides enough twists and turns to play just one more mission before closing the game.
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It is an excellent game overall, with great unit customisation, engaging mechanics and battle animations, and interesting worldbuilding.
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level design
5 positive · 9 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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The art is beautiful pixel art, although the battle backgrounds lack some variety.
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Maps are often very frontloaded; the start is often near overwhelming but once you get through it the rest of the map will be pretty devoid of enemies.
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- The actual maps tend to be quite simplistic.
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quest design
8 positive · 6 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Objectives change from battle to battle but it is nice it isn't kill everyone else.
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All missions feature additional challenges that you can strive to achieve.
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The mission design is strong.
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dlc
9 positive · 0 negative · 2 mixed · 2 neutral
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Can't wait for DLC and offical mod support
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Without a doubt I will buy DLC and/or a sequel upon release.
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Looking forward to more updates and potential future DLCs!
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controls
4 positive · 7 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
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É perceptível que podem fazer muitas melhorias, como suporte a controle, melhorar a resolução, algumas músicas.
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I would like a undo option for just movement in case u make and error and press wait instead of battle.
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It took me a while to get used to the game being 100% controlled by the mouse.
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updates
11 positive · 0 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
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Minor complaints include a UI that is a bit cumbersome and clicky, but there is good communication from DEV (and a couple of good patches already) that appears to be serious about improving it.
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The devs are awesome, friendly, and have poured tons of effort into this game, and continue to do so, with 2 patches already out at the time this review is posted.
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I'm super excited to see any updates and future games from this developer.
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ai behavior
0 positive · 10 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
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This game does not ask you to strategize much, doesn't care if you're over-levelled, and the AI never once recaptured a city or even moved like they could.
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The AI will never contest castles, mines, or abbeys from you, making strategy on each map irrelevant.
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The AI is not very strategic for the most part and predictable. Even just a patch that introduces a better AI opponent with some tougher units would be great.
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bugs
1 positive · 8 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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-When shooting siege canon I don’t always see the hit animation on the other side.
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However, once you hit Chapter 20+ besure to do yourself a favor and quick save before you hit "end turn" because you will be stuck staring at the screen as the enemies 52+ units each take a turn and you can do nothing but sit, wait and watch.
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There must be a glitch or error with Steam Achievements as I didn't get alot of them.
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player choice
4 positive · 5 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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More RPG elements could be included, like choices which affect the game.
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Story-line and character progression is amateurish and feel hurried, as a player you really have very little control of the course of the game, comparing this with a game like fire-emblem is like comparing a bicycle with a motorcycle, the distant and different is huge.
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Lost my vote when 'choice/consequence' was removed from the game.
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sound design
8 positive · 0 negative · 0 mixed · 1 neutral
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The sounds during combat is also great, it fits the action on the screen and sounds satisfying.
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I can't remember any particular song I jammed out to but I always played the game with the sound on to enjoy the music and sound effects.
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Seriously for a indie game they nailed graphics, sound, story, gameplay, etc about as well as a small team could and earned a instant buy for future games.
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platform access
6 positive · 0 negative · 0 mixed · 1 neutral
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Addendum - the game works really well on the Steam Deck.
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I played this entirely on the steam deck.
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Also very easy and natural to play entirely on Deck.
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voice acting
3 positive · 4 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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-Minimal voice acting if that matters to you (idc)
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The sound effects are good, but the voice acting is bad, lacking in variety, and heard way too often with no way to reduce the frequency.
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- The voice-acting is terrible.
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lore
5 positive · 0 negative · 0 mixed · 1 neutral
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This game has a DEEEEEEP story with really good lore of the world that the story takes place in.
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But overall, enjoyable, nice world-building and leaves room for more.
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It's not amazing, but it's on par with those old games and there's a fair amount of intrigue and lore.
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performance
4 positive · 0 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
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Technically it seems very solid - loads almost instantly and I've had no crashes.
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There were some visual flashes that were clearly bugs but otherwise it ran perfectly.
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Performance wise it runs smooth without requiring the Giga-Chad rig to play it on (standard machine - 7th gen I5, 16GB ram and 4GB GPU is enough).
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world
4 positive · 1 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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But unlike Awakening, I think this game does a better job at world building.
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The game isn't afraid to world build and with a saga ( I assume) in the works I look forward to continuing to see this world.
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It is an excellent game overall, with great unit customisation, engaging mechanics and battle animations, and interesting worldbuilding.
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Emergent themes unvalidated
topics reviewers bring up that are not on the validated list; raw counts only, no error bars
- romance 16
Review timeline
monthly peak 1,740 reviews · all languages
monthly share rated positive · 50% reference · months with <5 reviews faded
the timeline as a table
| month | reviews | up | down | positive | note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2022 | 1,740 | 1,677 | 63 | 96% | |
| Jul 2022 | 857 | 829 | 28 | 97% | |
| Aug 2022 | 891 | 855 | 36 | 96% | |
| Sep 2022 | 450 | 420 | 30 | 93% | |
| Oct 2022 | 286 | 273 | 13 | 95% | |
| Nov 2022 | 646 | 612 | 34 | 95% | |
| Dec 2022 | 271 | 255 | 16 | 94% | |
| Jan 2023 | 229 | 216 | 13 | 94% | |
| Feb 2023 | 901 | 842 | 59 | 93% | |
| Mar 2023 | 428 | 410 | 18 | 96% | |
| Apr 2023 | 210 | 190 | 20 | 90% | |
| May 2023 | 427 | 392 | 35 | 92% | |
| Jun 2023 | 164 | 153 | 11 | 93% | |
| Jul 2023 | 305 | 290 | 15 | 95% | |
| Aug 2023 | 181 | 171 | 10 | 94% | |
| Sep 2023 | 332 | 306 | 26 | 92% | |
| Oct 2023 | 339 | 316 | 23 | 93% | |
| Nov 2023 | 546 | 527 | 19 | 97% | |
| Dec 2023 | 239 | 222 | 17 | 93% | |
| Jan 2024 | 201 | 183 | 18 | 91% | |
| Feb 2024 | 103 | 99 | 4 | 96% | |
| Mar 2024 | 148 | 140 | 8 | 95% | |
| Apr 2024 | 99 | 95 | 4 | 96% | |
| May 2024 | 114 | 104 | 10 | 91% | |
| Jun 2024 | 110 | 98 | 12 | 89% | |
| Jul 2024 | 154 | 142 | 12 | 92% | |
| Aug 2024 | 99 | 92 | 7 | 93% | |
| Sep 2024 | 98 | 87 | 11 | 89% | |
| Oct 2024 | 201 | 184 | 17 | 92% | |
| Nov 2024 | 122 | 113 | 9 | 93% | |
| Dec 2024 | 109 | 99 | 10 | 91% | |
| Jan 2025 | 118 | 108 | 10 | 92% | |
| Feb 2025 | 106 | 94 | 12 | 89% | |
| Mar 2025 | 141 | 129 | 12 | 91% | |
| Apr 2025 | 129 | 118 | 11 | 91% | |
| May 2025 | 84 | 80 | 4 | 95% | |
| Jun 2025 | 111 | 103 | 8 | 93% | |
| Jul 2025 | 153 | 145 | 8 | 95% | |
| Aug 2025 | 109 | 98 | 11 | 90% | |
| Sep 2025 | 94 | 92 | 2 | 98% | |
| Oct 2025 | 113 | 104 | 9 | 92% | |
| Nov 2025 | 79 | 75 | 4 | 95% | |
| Dec 2025 | 90 | 83 | 7 | 92% | |
| Jan 2026 | 96 | 88 | 8 | 92% | |
| Feb 2026 | 78 | 72 | 6 | 92% | |
| Mar 2026 | 109 | 100 | 9 | 92% | |
| Apr 2026 | 118 | 108 | 10 | 92% | |
| May 2026 | 97 | 85 | 12 | 88% | |
| Jun 2026 | 71 | 67 | 4 | 94% | |
| Jul 2026 | 83 | 74 | 9 | 89% | |
| Aug 2026 | 66 | 61 | 5 | 92% | |
| Sep 2026 | 73 | 69 | 4 | 95% |
How this report was made
- Population
- all Steam reviews of the game (every language, purchase type, and verdict), walked newest-first per window; only English-language reviews are analyzed
- Sample
- 547 English reviews, time-proportional draw over 52 windows (newest-first within each), taken from an all-language walk and kept English-only — where English is a minority the sample runs smaller than the draw, and every margin of error is computed at 547
- Aspect yield
- 391 of 547 analyzed reviews carry at least one aspect (71.5%); every share on this page divides by all 547
- Interval regime
- calm: standard margins of error for a share of a sample (Wilson interval), no widening needed
- Fetch paths
- 52 time windows fetched directly (windowed)
- Language mix
- 1,000 fetched: english 587 · schinese 203 · koreana 51 · 17 more
- Steam-marked windows
- none flagged by Steam (Valve's off-topic flagging began March 2019)
- Marked share
- 0.0% of sample inside marked windows, under the 2% floor
- Narrative
- passed the grounding gate first try
- Evidence floor
- aspects and emergent themes appear only with 5+ supporting reviews; smaller counts sit at the classifier's false-positive floor
- Instrument readings
- measured once on the study corpus for this model and prompt: frozen calibration, not properties of this run
- · aspect tagging vs. human labels
- 0.801 [0.752–0.844] (F1 against a human-labeled test set; 1.0 is best)
- · quotes filed under the wrong aspect
- 11.6% [6.6–19.6] of quotes, measured by hand on a sample; lower is better — measured on the prior model (2026-08-05); re-measurement pending
- · independent model vs. production labels
- 0.791 [0.772–0.810] (F1 of the production labeler against an independent judge model) — measured on the prior model (2026-07-25); re-measurement pending
- Versions
- deepseek-v4-flash · prompt classify-v1 · ontology v2
- Run
- serve-20260919T150527Z-ab50b59c · code b09cf2d
full methodology in the milestone write-ups