Empire of Angels IV

My first instinct when loading Empire of Angels IV was to pull up a class spreadsheet, and that instinct turned out to be both useful and slightly overqualified for what the game actually demands. Softstar's Taiwanese SLG - a grid-based tactics RPG in the lineage of Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy Tactics - has been around on PC since 2016, and later found wider console audiences via port work in 2021. The series stretches back to 1993, so there is genuine pedigree here. But pedigree alone does not guarantee depth, and that tension defines every hour you spend with it. On the mechanics side, the foundation is solid enough to hold your attention. Combat runs on a straightforward move-then-act order (and notably, you cannot reverse that sequence - act first and your unit is rooted for the turn, which veterans of the genre will find restrictive). Missions play out on grid maps with a decent spread of objective types: elimination runs, point captures, and timed survival. The Merit Point progression system is the standout design choice. Rather than individual character XP, story missions feed a collective Star Rank that unlocks promotion tiers for every unit simultaneously. Each character then branches across three broad class trees - Magic, Melee, and Ranged - with further splits at subsequent tiers producing something like 22 unit types in total, including character-specific advanced classes locked behind side quests. Promotion choices are permanent, so there is genuine decision weight here, even if the game explains the branching class tree rather poorly. Special attacks consume action points and occasionally cooldowns, and a pet system lets you slot in monster-derived skills for additional build variety. There is even a combat rewind feature to undo a bad move, which is a thoughtful concession to newcomers. For a strategy-minded player, the ceiling is the problem. The AI holds position until you enter aggro range, which means mobile-first compositions (fast cavalry or evasive rogues) can trivialize most maps by controlling engagement distance. Stage sub-objectives exist for a performance grade, but the rewards rarely justify the extra effort, so the grading system ends up feeling decorative. There are no items to manage, no weapon durability, and equipment progression is absent entirely - class promotions are the only advancement axis. That strips out several layers of optimization that genre regulars rely on. Grinding is also required to keep pace with late-game enemy scaling, and the gains-per-minute on grind battles are noticeably slow. The other unavoidable conversation is the presentation. Empire of Angels IV features an all-female cast with a heavy emphasis on fan service: skimpy outfits in combat, clothes-stripping defeat animations, and transformation sequences during class promotions. Whether that registers as charming anime irreverence or an obstacle to engagement is genuinely a matter of personal tolerance, and critics have landed on both sides. The Chinese voice acting is fully produced and the aesthetic has real character, but the English localization has been flagged across multiple outlets as uneven, which dulls the story's impact. The plot itself - a plague driving civilians mad across the land of Asgard, with captain Niya leading the Namtar Investigation Team to find the source - is serviceable without being memorable. For a pure newcomer to the tactics RPG genre, this is actually a reasonable entry point. The complexity ceiling is low enough that you will not drown in systems, the rewind feature removes the sting of misplays, and the Merit-based progression means you are never locked out of advancement through poor individual unit management. Steam user sentiment sits at a mixed 67% positive across around 300 reviews, which tracks: it is a game that delivers what it promises to the right audience and underwhelms everyone expecting more structural depth. Veterans of Disgaea or Fire Emblem Three Houses will exhaust the decision space quickly.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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