One of the first games developed by acclaimed niche gaming studio Vanillaware, GrimGrimoire is an enchanting real-time strategy (RTS) game that first launched on the PlayStation 2 in 2007. Keeping a very anime-ish aesthetic and fitting the fantastical magical school genre that was very trendy at the time a la Harry Potter, its charm was only hampered by a sharp difficulty curve and an almost snail’s pace of progression during combat. It was a game I didn’t enjoy the first time around, returning it to the game store after a couple of play sessions, only to pick up that same copy of the game a year later at a mammoth discount. It seems like this would be a small, niche game lost to the annals of time, and outside of its PS3 classics release may never see the light of day on consoles again. Then 2023 came around. Making this game available to the masses on modern-day consoles and giving it the full remaster treatment, publisher Nippon Ichi Software America has worked with Vanillaware to deliver an updated version, GrimGrimoire OnceMore to the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. Whilst not a complete overhaul to the original game, I will say, I definitely dug it a second time around.
While not as in-depth as some might like, nor with the lore that some other RTS games might explore, the storyline of GrimGrimoire OnceMore is a satisfying one with a few little quirks that help it stand out. A time-looping narrative taking place over five in-game days, players fill the shoes of Lillet Blan, a young witch who has just commenced studying at the famous and very daunting Silver Star Tower, and must unravel the mysteries of a magical academy full of skilled teachers, mysterious students and some dark secrets within. Now trapped in this time loop where Day 5 will lead to the death of everyone – including herself – can she uncover the mysteries of the Tower and break this time loop?
Each in-game day typically consists of two short story segments and a battle, which initially unravels the intricacies of the combat system as Lillet learns new spells from her teachers, but later see’s her go up against a range of foes that way overpower her as a novice witch. While each in-game week is relatively short, they are well used to focus on different mysteries, for which there are many – leading to a surprising and satisfying conclusion. As mentioned above, the story isn’t super in-depth and would have benefited from cutscenes that offered more meaty content, even if they just expended the resources to expand upon the lore in this remaster through collectible story snippets.
Even in their early days as a developer, Vanillaware truly thrived in bringing fantasy worlds to life with their 2D art style – and while there is one caveat that will be mentioned when it comes to the combat system – Silver Star Tower and all its inhabitants looked downright stellar back in 2007, and even more now. Therefore rather than wreck what they had by trying something new, the correct decision was made in altering the screen ratio and providing a higher resolution, letting the visuals stand out. Even with the decade-and-a-half time difference between the original release and now, the visuals and visual quality holds up.
The same can be said with the music and voice acting, both being retained. Being of comparable quality to the original release, it appears that the audio was just carried across from the original release – a little bit quiet and tinny, but aside from occasionally being drowned out by the music in some parts, is very enjoyable.
Coming from an era where many RTS games were exclusively relegated to the PC, GrimGrimoire offers its distrinct take on the genre, better suiting consoles of the day while also retaining a distinct Vanillaware charm to it. The battle system combines side-scrolling navigation, resource management and combat into one easily accessible system, as you fight your way through the floors of Silver Star Tower. The downside of this system is easily that every floor is pretty much identical visually, meaning it is both aesthetically repetitive and lacks much in the way of landmark to instinctively (without looking at the mini-map) know where you are. On the other hand, the controls work well, and the gameplay loop on offer is sufficient enough to keep me going – especially supported by the new additions which make the game much better paced.
Rather than directly controlling Lillet during the battle sequences, you instead get a full view of the floor map, where you can summon units, collect mana and build traps based on each of the game’s different schools of magic – Glamour, Sorcery, Necromancy and Alchemy. Each school of magic is strong and weak against others, and each unit has their place on the battlefield – whether weak resource collectors, combat units who can fly between floors unphased, or slower units that require stairs but can pack much more of a punch directly. While it does feel a bit weird playing a student in a school of magic that can only summon units, from a gameplay perspective, it keeps you constantly engaged in the battle and is pretty attention-grabbing in shorter bursts.
Now GrimGrimoire has a fairly sharp difficulty curve at points, especially when you get to points where you are juggling so many different potential units. But what made the original game frustrating was ithat battles were slowly paced and long drawn out even in the beginning chapters – with one wrong turn potentially meaning a Game Over screen and 20+ minutes of progress being lost. There are a few different ways that GrimGrimoire OnceMore attempts to lower that annoyance – including introducing the ability to speed up gameplay, a newly introduced skill tree, and Grand Magic spells that can help out in a pinch but not required to be used. Honestly, just the ability to speed through some of the more boring gameplay phases resolves one of my big qualms. The other nice addition in OnceMore is the inclusion of a gallery mode, with virtually every successful story battle netting you a piece of artwork to view from a variety of artists.
Offering an interesting storyline, fantastic classic Vanillaware visuals and gameplay which has been tweaked in a few small ways for the better, GrimGrimoire OnceMore feels like the much needed definitive edition we have needed of this PS2-era cult classic. Is it a game I would go back to after my playtesting period? Unlikely. But it nevertheless remains a fun once-off experience that, especially with the new improvements, respected the time I invested into it and delivered a satisfying experience from start to finish.
