Known for their unique and sometimes eccentric role-playing games (i.e. Disgaea,, Hyperdimension Neptunia, Mugen Souls, etc.), NIS America’s first Playstation 4 title stands in stark contrast to just about every game the company has released. NAtURAL DOCtRine is a Final Fantasy Tactics-style RPG that uses a turn-based combat system that relies heavily on team tactics.
The player assumes the role of Geoff, a guard soldier that has been employed to clear out goblin dens to make a precious material available to mankind. Accompanied by two females warriors- Anka and Vasily – and their adviser, Zekelinde, they discover a new apex predator that uses the local Goblin population as a food source. With his trusty companions by his side, Geoff sets out to abolish the underground menace and warn the kingdom of its prescience.
Natural Doctrine is a difficult game that spends little time waxing on the philosophical. The game immediately sends you into a combat tutorial, explaining the controls, camera angles, and ‘Link’ combat ability that is shared between party members (more on this in a moment). While segments of the game are spent on the surface via the World Map, the majority of it is spent underground inside large, cavernous locales where treasure chests and hidden rooms abound.
Environments are divided into flashing squares that represent the distance each party member can travel. The left analog stick is used to move party members during their turns, while the right analog stick is used to move the camera and highlight objects such as chests and doors, to name just a few.
The game is seen from a top-down perspective by default, but this can be changed to a third-person perspective by double-pressing the R1 button. The free-roaming camera system makes it a lot easier to explore dungeons for floor switches and hidden rooms. But most importantly, it gives you the advantage when encountering enemies.
The combat system is as complex as it is challenging to use. First and foremost, combat is based on a variety of ‘Victory conditions’ that range from ‘killing all creatures’ to ‘finding a dungeon’s exit’, among others. Your party members’ skills – which includes everything from standard melee attacks to gun-based power shots – are readily available via the ‘Attack Menu’, which is located in the top left hand corner of the screen. As your characters level, skill points are earned to either upgrade current skills or unlock new ones. Your party’s skill trees are located on the Formation Screen, which is accessible via the World Map by pressing Triangle button.
The Skill Tree system is divided into five categories – Swords, Shield Bash, Shields, Potions and Guns. Each category contains a total of nine skills that offer a wide variety of dexterity increases, vitality boosts and melee attacks that inflict enormous amounts of damage. It is also possible to remove skill points and then re-spend them in different skill categories without any penalties. Not only is this feature helpful, but it prevents the occasional mistake from happening (i.e. spending a skill point in the wrong category/skill).
The Tactical Link system makes simultaneous attacks possible between party members; it also creates what is called a ‘Tactical Grid’. This grid system creates most of the challenge during combat, as the placement of each grid line – which extends from the attacking character – must connect with others in your party. But it’s not as simple as connecting these lines and highlighting an enemy target, as the distance of each party member and any attacking creatures determines the overall effectiveness of the attack.
The dungeon environments can also determine your party’s performance during battle. Large hills and rocky cliffs can be used to attack enemies from three grids away, but this can also have the opposite effect if you’re not careful. For example – Gunners, a class that specializes in projectile-based weapons, can easily shoot a party member by mistake if they’re standing on uneven terrain (i.e. an incline or hole in the ground , for example.) or firing their weapon between two party members to attack a monster. Even when a party member’s grid line appears to clear a space between other characters in your party, there is still a chance the grid line could still be touching a unit. This can have disastrous results since you can easily shoot or stab your own party members by accident.
While turn-based role-playing games are not known for their speed, NAtURAL DOCtRine takes it to a whole new level. The player must sit and watch the CPU as it makes a decision for every creature that participates in battle. And while it’s possible to speed up the process by pressing Circle button, there really is no way to actually avoid it. There are times when battles can take upwards of ten minutes or longer due to the sheer amount of enemies on-screen.
NAtURAL DOCtRine is the type of game that targets a specific audience of gamer. Its sluggish gameplay will not only frustrate gamers looking for instant gratification, but novices that are not familiar with the SRPG genre. With that said, NAtURAL DOCtRine isn’t necessarily a bad game; it just demands a lot from the player.
Mike Pittaro
Platform: Playstation 4
Developer: Kadokawa Games
Publisher: NIS America
ESRB: M (Mature)
Price: $39.99
Natural Doctrine’s Official Website
| Review Score | |
|---|---|
| Graphics |   |
| While colorful, the textures and character models look last gen. | |
| Sound | |
| English voice acting abounds, and it's rather good. | |
| Gameplay | |
| Strategy-based combat that is harder than nails. | |
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| Hardcore RPG veterans will enjoy the challenge. | |
