Natural Doctrine Review

Natural Doctrine is a tactical RPG that brings a major challenge to even the most skilled players in the genre. Is the game worth the challenge or should you skip over it? Check out this honest game review and decide for yourself!

Natural Doctrine Review

The story starts of pretty basic with you trying to gain citizenship while clearing out mines and gaining treasure. This quickly changes into the typical save-the-world type of story that involves you facing off with Starship Trooper-like bug creatures. Along the way, you will gain new allies that will help you overcome these nasty bug invaders. While it doesn’t leave much to the imagination, this isn’t where the game shines.

The combat in the game plays a lot like the Valkryia Chronicles, and that isn’t a bad thing. The problem most people will have is how unforgiving the game actually is. If you lose a single player, you need to restart from a check point, or in some cases, start the battle completely over. Every move you make in the game has to be planned very carefully and rushing will normally result in you being overran within a turn.

The idea is to link your combatants up and clear out an entire enemy section without letting them retaliate. When you engage in combat with on of you units, the rest of your units move up on the turn meter and can join in on the fight. This is a double-edged sword though, because the enemies can do the same. There will oftentimes be way more enemies than players so when they start a link, it results in some serious damage. If you plan it properly and place your tanks in front and support in the back you can normally survive a enemy link attack. This is where the rushing in part will get you killed.

Another thing about the combat is that sometimes the AI will make questionable angle shots on your characters. At first I was annoyed by this, but it works both ways and you can also exploit it to your advantage. You can change the perspective at anytime and this will let you know if a shot will hit or not. The key to winning most battles in this game is switching angles and making sure you can hit without being hit.

The skill system in the game in kind of unique. Unlike most other games you can add/remove skills based on your level and the amount of points you have. This is a good thing because every battle requires you to bring something a little different to the table. The skill system isn’t super deep but it gets the job done.

Something a little odd about the game is the over world. They have a ton of places on the map but you can’t actually interact with a lot of them without a story battles. There a couple towns and some ruins but outside of a story battle or two you skip over them. The only spots you can consistently visit are the mines.

The mines in the game are kind of like the side quests. They will net you extra EXP and loot. These are great to help you test out tactical arrangements and skills. Mastering the mines will help you master the game. You can farm them infinitely but after a couple of battles in a row they will close for a little bit.

As I stated above the game is very unforgiving at times and that will be a huge turn off to some players. Still if you like tactical RPGs and a good challenge you will enjoy this game. If you are more of a run and gun player this one should be avoided.