by Amr (@siegarettes)

• Grid Force: Mask of the Goddess
• Developers - Taito, Pyramid, M2
• Publisher - Square Enix
• Switch, PS4

Self-described as a “tactical bullet-hell RPG”, Grid Force is in reality a Mega Man Battle Network style game. Presented with visual novel style branching dialogue and illustrated comic panels, it immediately impresses, and continues to do so as the scale of what it’s attempting is revealed. Grid Force is unafraid to reinterpret the core ideas of its inspiration, with arenas that vary drastically, and a large roster of playable characters that shake  up the way battles play out on every screen. Unfortunately, Grid Force’s ambitions often overreach, leaving the execution of its many ideas inconsistent through its runtime. 

Grid Force’s initial visual impact is quickly lost in messy visual language, and confusing design choices. I had plenty of favorites across its cast–which admirably attempts to include a diverse range of races, body types and play styles–but was sadly kind of mixed on the designs overall. In attempting to represent such a broad range of cultures, Grid Force sometimes plays with a cultural shorthand, with designs that feel more like they’re meant to tell you what the character represents, more than anything about the character themselves. Unfortunately, this does include members of the main cast, who get the most screen time in the story. 

Their in-game representations don’t flatter the characters either. Grid Force uses one of the weaker implementations of cut-out style animation, with broad movements that lack the finesse and details that generally make the style work. Attacks lack impact or strong posing, making it harder to read in the chaos of combat. 

Readability is a  huge  issue in general. The grid uses a combination of 2D and pseudo-3D hitboxes. Targeted attacks land within marked spaces, giving clear indications of where the end of their arcs are, but other attacks can collide with the entire 2D space they occupy, even if they seem to be at a “depth” that’s in front or behind a character. A shot might hit a larger character in the head instead of passing “behind” them on the tile above, for example. It generally works in the player’s favor, and is at least internally consistent, but mixes visual rules in a way that’s unintuitive. 

Layered on top of this is the class, armor and elemental systems, which can swing the direction of battle wildly. Damage output can be near zero if attacking with the wrong element or attack type, and you can quickly be one-shot if hit with your elemental weakness. Conversely battles can be a breeze if you go in with the right character. With luck, or a little precognition, you can finish battles near instantly. The first boss fight dragged on, but when I made it to the second, I happened to have a character on my team that annihilated the boss on the first try.

Elemental weaknesses can be hard to parse, too. A small symbol delineates an enemy element, but they vary with class type, leaving only the color to communicate the element. Elemental weaknesses aren’t always intuitive either, with interactions like dark beating water, or air beating earth. I found myself constantly glancing into the pause menu to check the weakness order, although unfortunately there isn’t a way to do the same for your team’s attributes. 

The obfuscation continues to the leveling system, which seems to keep characters perpetually underleveled. After each battle a random set of shards are dropped, each corresponding to an element, and each of those elements increasing a certain attribute. (These also need to be picked up before advancing to the next area, so you can lose resources if you’re not careful).

Each attribute has a certain number of tiers that contribute to stat growth, and additionally work together to affect your primary stats like hit points and mana points, as well as earn you the next character ability. With each tier the requirements for the next one go up exponentially, making it cheap to bring up the initial tiers, and expensive to continue improving. Cost seems to vary by character as well, with characters having affinities for certain elements, making you work if you want to improve them in areas that they’re not naturally aligned to. 

I see the intent behind the system–which would in theory make leveling up more considered and keep pushing you towards certain builds rather than a more generalized approach–but in practice the scarcity and randomized nature of resources meant I threw points into whatever areas I could afford to level up, just to keep up with enemies and work towards the utility of new abilities. 

Grid Force is full of odd designs like this, attempting ambitious ideas that don’t land. But when it hits, it hits. 

Even with its many issues, when you get everything lined up Grid Force feels GOOD. Synergizing abilities to take advantage of the various grid designs, setting up the right team composition, and parrying enemy attacks makes the tactical layer engaging. Working out how to stagger an enemy for big damage is rewarding, and giving the enemy the ability to parry your attacks keeps you from treating it as a DPS race where you can keep firing without consideration. The core systems here shine with the right team, and while it can drag when you’re not prepared, there’s an intense back and forth to boss encounters that makes them engaging even on a repeat encounter. To the point where I was surprised that Grid Force didn’t have any multiplayer options, as it felt suited for it. 

The combat loop kept me around even when grinding my new team members up to my current power level, because I was happy to see how much better I could do this time around. 

And this is a game that you’ll want to dip into for repeat playthroughs. Not only to see the other story paths, or unlock characters you missed the first time, but because it’s built into the thematic framework of the story itself. Grid Force is a game about continuing to struggle, together, against a world that’s hell bent on entropy and your destruction. It’s about cycles of suffering and what we can endure before you finally achieve the world that we want. And like other parts of the game, sometimes it’s attempting to pull a little more weight than it can carry. I found it hard to relate to some characters, and the story often tries for a heavy atmosphere before giving you a proper idea of what the stakes really are. 

Grid Force takes on a lot of ideas, and only manages to see a few to a complete, refined state. But the few it achieves this with are excellent, and give it a unique, standout identity. Of the recent games in this style it’s easily my favorite, with such a variety of characters, personalities and mechanics that I’d love to see it expanded on and refined. Grid Force is taking on a lot more than it can handle, but that makes it hard not to root for its success.