Symphony of War

Symphony of War is a squad based tactics game with a turn based map where individual engagements are fought between two squads. Focus is on the army and squad level, so battles between squads are conducted automatically rather than with direct control of each character’s actions. However, squads can be instructed to attack defensively, aggressively, force enemy surrender, etc.

Players will control up to 200 individual characters across as many as 20 active squads that can be mixed and matched in a multitude of different ways. Individual characters gain stats with levels and can change classes once stat thresholds are reached, class points are raised and resources are obtained. With 43 classes in partially overlapping trees there’s a ton of choices for how to build each character and a ridiculous number of unique squad compositions.

The game is composed of 30 main chapters and 6 optional side chapters, each with their own map and objectives. Individual characters cannot be equipped with items, but up to three artifacts can be equipped to each squad. Characters can be customized by giving them new traits or changing their elemental affinity.

If I had to compare to other games, Symphony of War is clearly inspired by Fire Emblem (tactical map) and Ogre Battle (squad based battles), but has it’s own unique mechanics and progression. One addition is a technology tree in the vein of a 4x game.

Taking objectives, forcing the enemy to surrender and beating levels in a timely fashion all increase your faction xp & enable unlocking new technologies. Each technology gives a unique bonus and higher technologies have prerequisites, which adds another layer of strategy to how you will build your army.