4/5 ★ – Mike_Kersh's review of Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga.

TL;DR — Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga takes everything good from the tactics genre's best entries and forms it into something fresh in playstyle and grand in scope. Those who love Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, and Final Fantasy Tactics will find a LOT to love in this game. Review: There's nothing quite like finding a really great game you weren't expecting to. Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga was one of those games. I got it in a Humble Bundle and downloaded it on a whim while searching for something to play. I was greeted with a surprisingly deep and refreshing take on the tactics genre, incorporating elements from the best of its peers and fashioning something highly customizable and replayable. In Symphony of War, you play as a male or female version of Devoa (a default name, which you can change) a young recruit suddenly thrust into conflict and combat amidst a burgeoning civil war. Their journey uncovers a plot far more diabolical, and it is up to them and their friends to restore peace to the land. Presentationally, this game offers pretty standard fare. The story is predictable, with some inoffensive writing and character work. The plot and pacing are inconsistent and worsen later in the game, but it isn't ever terrible. The art direction is nice, though lacks consistency. The cutscenes play out with the top-down sprite work similar to classic JRPGs; during conversations, you get to see some beautiful and mildly expressive character portraits; while during gameplay, the overworld sprites look more like those from the original Fire Emblem game; and still the animated battle sequences adopt a different style of sprite work themselves. They fit the colorful, fantasy setting, but don't all need to be present. Especially when other artistic elements could have used the resources. For example, several flashing magical effects happen during pivotal scenes that seem like they were drawn to be much smaller, then blown up so large that the pixels no longer look artistic. In combat, animations are smooth, snappy, and impactful. The sound design is crisp and satisfying, and the music is welcomingly unobtrusive. Despite all the critiques, the game is generally pleasing to the eye. I would be excited to see improvements should Symphony of War get a sequel. Where Symphony of War truly sings is in its gameplay and systems. The units you control on the overworld map are made of individual troops that you form into squads. Each individual has their own stats, HP, abilities, etc, and you can form squads consisting of whatever nine troops you wish. On top of that, each unit can progress, upgrade, and change classes similar to Final Fantasy Tactic's jobs system. A Champion might hit hard and heavy with a two-handed swipe, while the Assassin strikes the back row to take out enemy healers, and your Lightning Mage deals damage to an entire row with a devastating spell. In addition, squads made up of a majority of a specific unit type will gain certain advantages. Heavy infantry squads are generally made up of troops like spearmen and soldiers; they can take a beating before any individual unit is defeated, but they struggle to move quickly through rugged forests and swamps. Light infantry squads, on the other hand, consist of rangers, rogues, and the like, and they do not suffer these movement penalties and they are capable of ambushing enemy squads by attacking twice before they can respond. If you leave these squads vulnerable, however, they will be eliminated quickly. Calvary can travel great distances but training troops up to those levels can be costly, and they are vulnerable to spearmen. There are so many combinations of classes and troops that each playthrough of Symphony of War has the potential to be completely different from the last. Battles in Symphony of War play out at a much larger scale than you typically find in a tactics game. A round might take up to 45 minutes to get through as you command your army of up to 20 squads, each composed of up to 9 troops, as you defeat other squads, gather valuable upgrade resources, and complete mission objectives. The slower pace of this experience results in more strategic decision-making. Make the wrong move early on and you could be out a squad or two and at a significant disadvantage for the rest of the mission. Thankfully, due to the sheer size of these encounters, you're not as severely punished for losing a few units, or even a squad or two. In fact on normal difficulty, I felt the game was slightly too easy. I rarely had trouble achieving good scores at the end of a stage, which is important for accruing money needed for upgrading and prepping between missions. The good news is there are other difficulty modes and an optional permadeath setting that can be toggled on any difficulty setting. When you aren't in combat, you are prepping for combat. You can recruit new troops, purchase upgrade materials, level up troops, and reorganize squads. Do you have an Acolyte that is just a few strength points from becoming a Paladin? You can give them some roast beef to boost their strength. Furthermore, individual troops can learn traits that provide them passive boosts, and buffs can be given to entire squads via artifacts that take up inventory space. Is your team of Gunners getting mowed down too quickly? You could shift over some tower shield-wielding Sentinels to the front line to absorb the brunt of the damage. Do you have a Sorceress that would fit perfectly with an ambush squad but lack sufficient squad capacity? You can give the squad an imperial war banner artifact to open up space or increase the squad leader's leadership stat with a medal of valor. With so many ways to customize and build, you can make your army your own. Apart from the mission prep you'll do, there are also some light RPG conversations between the various characters during downtime. There are technically some romance options but these conversations are shallow and rushed. They don't feel earned. When two characters do form a deep bond, they get some in-mission buffs when their squads are near each other, but apart from that bonus, the story or writing isn't enough to merit their existence. Finally, as you play through the game you'll earn arena tokens, which can be used in-between story missions to enter small skirmishes to earn a few extra resources or level up some of your weaker squads. The last thing I'll mention is the UI design. It's a little burdensome in these downtime intervals. Navigating the menus requires too many clicks and doesn't do enough to communicate where you are in any specific process. For example, if I wanted to give a soldier an item, I would have to click on the Squad Operations tab, click on the squad with that soldier, click on the Item tab, click on the soldier which brings up a menu, click again to confirm the soldier is the correct unit, click the item I want to give them, and another click or two to confirm the action. It's a little much and while I wouldn't say it's a negative experience, it takes a little while to learn the quirks. It certainly could be improved in future entries. Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga is a wonderful tactics game and delivers a fresh and innovative experience. It's rich turn-based gameplay and deep squad progression systems can keep tactics fans busy for hours upon hours. While some elements of the game, namely the story and UI, are underbaked, they feel minor compared to the impressively fun strategy and army management systems. Fans of games like Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, Final Fantasy Tactics, or XCOM won't want to miss this one.