Growlanser: Heritage of War

The series' own awkward transition to 3d, Growlanser: Heritage of War nevertheless deviates from the others in two notable ways. First, it fragmented the story into brief prologues covering different perspectives, nations and time periods before coalescing to a main route. Almost a miniature, linear take on Suikoden III. Second: the addition of free movement mid-combat, seamless battle transitions and mostly AI-controlled allies basically pushed the battle system as close to an RTS as possible. Even the RPG systems diverged, tweaking ring weapons and gems to revolve around small, player-crafted skill trees defined by equipment-dependent ability mastery (sadly not given enough options or space to explore). Other updates are a mixed bag. On one hand, QoL changes and shortcuts meant that both control and menu tedium were reduced to a minimum. On the other hand, their effect made battles rather dull and passive, while leaving its annoying targeting system, animations and jarring pauses untouched.

If the series' war focus threatened to spiral out of control in Growlanser IV, it completely took center stage here. While fairly underwhelming in the dialogue department, the story is their bleakest statement yet - the culmination of their anti-war message, and a stark contrast to the vibrancy of old. Thankfully, Career Soft haven't completely forgotten the levity of prior games, and here it acquired a bizarre flavor that managed to contaminate a few missions. A lot had changed, but the experience overall is either forgettable or ineffective, due to a revolving cast of characters, excessive filler, and disengagement from mission to mission. What redeems the show are the occasional morbid sci-fi horror situations.