Wargroove

One of my major goals this year is to not only clear out my massive backlog, but play more titles to genres I’ve been meaning to delve deeper into. Specifically RPGs as despite being one of my favorite video game genres I haven’t played a lot of major entries to it. A good chunk of my RPG catalogue consists of indie games and if not that then action games with light RPGs elements. So let’s finally change this by spending 2026 playing more turn-based RPGs and bigger titles. I still have plans to cover indie titles throughout the year, so don’t think I’m sacrificing everything just for one genre. To start this crusade off let’s talk about….. An indie RPG that was released all the way back in 2019. Wow, that’s counterintuitive to what I just described. However, the catch is that it’s one of the bigger indie RPGs that has been released and considered by some to be one of the greatest tactical strategies games ever made. Developed by Chucklefish who’ve moved onto becoming a publisher for other smaller titles they wanted to create a game that paid homage to the titles they grew up with. The two main influences being Advance Wars and the Fire Emblem games on the Gameboy Advance. Two incredible influences when it comes to tactical RPGs and how to design one. The game they were making of course was Wargroove and spent two years baking in the oven. Two years of hammering away to create the ultimate tactics game.

The game released in early 2019 and Chucklefish probably weren’t expecting Wargroove to blow up the way it did. Managing to make back all money spent on development within the first three days of release, and being highly praised by most well known review outlets. Wargroove was for a considerable amount of time one of the best indie games of the year. It was a tightly designed game that kept hardcore tactical strategy players in mind. Boasting more content than what you would expect from your average indie game, and after launch support through the form of an expansive multiplayer mode, ability to create custom maps and campaigns, and expansion pack. This could have gone down as a modern indie classic, and for some it definitely did. However, it quickly became forgotten and I’m not exactly sure why. People loved, it sold well, and managed to get a sequel back in 2023 which I barely noticed released. A couple reasons come to mind for me. First is that releasing a game in January comes with multiple risks. You need the knowledge that there’s still eleven months left full of games people might grow more interested with. Next is they chose to release it the same year Fire Emblem: Three Houses came out. A game people still argue about to this very day because no one knows how to handle political discussion in games. We have a media literacy epidemic…. I mean hey Fire Emblem fans were happy. I guess.

Wargroove was forgotten after high praise and it’s probably why its sequel didn’t do so well. If you check the Steam page right now Wargroove 2 sits with mixed reception and just 500 reviews. Whereas the original has over 2,000 reviews and a very positive rating.  People don’t talk about this game in the same way Fire Emblem and XCOM always get brought up in discussion of what makes a tactically strategy game…… Isn’t that a good thing though? The game sold pretty well, was loved, and people moved on. It’s a rarity for a game to have that kind of reception as people are always trying to keep art relevant. It’s why I’m happy Metaphor ReFantazio and Octopath had their short periods of love. Told the stories they wanted to tell, because it’s longevity that’ll make a game good. It’s whether or not it’s a good work of art or not, and Wargroove for I assume for its playerbase was good. The devs knew what audience they wanted to aim for, made their game as good as they could and delivered. Wargroove is tactically brilliant, but despite owning a physical copy of this game for five years I never managed to actually beat it. Mainly because of how inexperienced I was with tactically strategy games back then, and other games drawing my interest at the time. So I went back to Wargroove recently, spent the last few days jetting through the main story, and can confidently say the game is. Great even with most of my criticisms being how I feel about tactical strategy games in general. Wargroove is a game I think all hardcore vets of the genre will enjoy, and today we’ll be delving into why it deserves your attention.

Story

In a distant past there lived four great kingdoms. Cherrystone hailed as the home of humankind, the Floran Lands run by their majestic plant people, the Heavensong Empire led by both honor and drive for technological expertise, and Felheim home to the undead and those associated with them. Each of the four kingdoms have their own philosophies and beliefs, but tension is always brewing in the land of Felheim. Land citizens are always in fear as every few decades a new leader is chosen and gifted the generation Fell Gauntlet. An artifact teaming with power as it’ll allow users to conjure the undead and command armies to invade surrounding kingdoms. This is exactly what ends up happening as during a stormy night the castle of Cherrystone is invaded. A mysterious assassin breaks into the king’s throneroom, kills him, and sparks a war between all four nations. Felheim invades Cherrystone killing thousands and taking the land for themselves. Not all is lost though as the daughter of the now dead king, Mercia, manages to escape alongside her dog, royal advisor Emeric, refugees, and what remains of the Cherrystone army. News of her father’s death is given suddenly, and she now has to cope with reality and what’ll happen during the next few months. Warfare as far the eye can see, but much like all wars they can end.

Emeric tells Mercia she is now a captain and queen, and her goal should be to rally forces that can help strike back against the Felheim forces and bring peace once more. She’ll recruit tribal forest dwellers, stern samurai, seaman, and much more as she carries out what she believes what her father would’ve wanted. All the while trying to learn what the folks of Felheim are planning to do, and if there’s more lying beneath the surface. Was it because Felheim is ultimately evil or because someone is pulling strings behind the scenes. Manipulating them for a grander goal. All is corrupt when it comes to the politics of warfare. Nothing but fire shall light up the sky. The clear blue is what you fight for.

Gameplay

Unlike a majority of tactical strategy RPGs where you amass units, grow in strength, and handle missions as they come along this game instead follows a mission based structure. With a whole Super Mario Bros. 3 esque map screen and star rating for how well you manage to do during a mission. With more stars rewarded based on how many turns you managed to clear them. Each mission takes place with their own specially designed maps. With one corner containing troops & the like to start you off as well as another corner for the enemy side. Each mission has their own main objective, but most of the time it’s either to kill the leader of the rival army or their base of operation. A tower that must be brought to the ground, but achieving either or is difficult. The enemy leader is strong and is often accompanied by the other soldiers on the field. Soldiers that keep spawning in due to army outposts. The tower is easier to deal with, but also contains the same problem. Leading to the personal question of which two goals would you rather want to deal with? It’s what makes Wargroove a compelling tactics game as you wonder how to achieve one of the two goals. Working your way as you spawn in more troops and navigate the map. 

What you always want to keep in mind is what troops you spawn in and townships you manage to capture.You’re not just fighting an army, but maintain control of the land. Each turn you will generate gold, and this allows you to spawn in more troops at army outposts and towers. Stronger troops often cost more money, and each outpost can only spawn one per turn. Capturing any of the towns in the map allows you to generate more gold per turn, so there’s encouragement to spread out and capture as many towns as possible sooner than later. Keep in mind towns can also be attacked and captured by enemies, so either be on guard or push enemies back. Widdle them down so they don’t advance, or even manage to reach your outposts as it stops the generation of more troops. You can also capture enemy towns and outposts, but they’re guarded and might strike back. Break their defenses and capture them to gain the upper hand. A place in the map closer to where your goal lies. Another thing to keep in mind is what units you decide to spawn onto the map. Different units have their own strengths and weaknesses. For example, archers can deal damage from a distance and flying enemies cannot be damaged by grounded troops. They can also deal extra damage in the form of a rock, paper, scissors system. 

Attacking enemies in Wargroove is much different compared to games like Into The Breach or XCOM. A percentage number is displayed showing how much of the enemy’s health bar shall be drained when attacked. Once you strike the opposite team shall strike back. You’re always shown the percentage number they’ll dish in return, so it's a careful consideration of who you send after who. Your leader units are the most important characters on the field and the game encourages you to use them wisely. They dish heavy damage to a majority of standard foes, power up their ultimate abilities to aid allies, and if slain can lead to an instantaneous game over. The strong will stand tall if you know how to keep them standing. Wargroove is a very decisive game with how much can happen within its battlefield. Managing your troops, making wise choices, and trying to push further with each turn. “Hold fast or expire.” A term I once learned in Darkest Dungeon, but that’s not the main topic right now. Let’s just hope this war will end eventually. That the hellfire is eventually extinguished.

Thoughts

I think Wargroove is a really good game and if you enjoy this style of tactical strategy games you will fall in love immediately. While I hold my fair share of criticisms it comes as someone who has a few pet peeves with this genre. Again, not a veteran nor have I played all that many tactics games. You know my experience is shallow when my gold standards are Into The Breach and the Steamworld Heist games. Heck, you’re gonna see me bring them up in comparisons shortly. Just wanted to get that out of the way before moving forward. Wargroove is enjoyable and there were moments I sat there glued to what was happening on screen. Analyzing the problem placed before me and mentally figuring out how to best deal with it. Even if my expertise wasn’t great and I found myself struggling, a lot. Wargroove is a challenging game, which is why I mentioned it’s made for tactical strategy veterans and hardcore players alike. The game has multiple settings for difficulty and by default it’s set to hard. Your units die easily if you make poor mistakes and some battles can be a slog. Spending the first few turns trying to capture some towns and amass enough troops to start pushing to the other side of the map. Battles are long by design and I know there’s a fair amount of people who will either get bored or frustrated.

In 2021, I wrote my review for Fire Emblem: Three Houses and looking back it’s the piece I feel the most divisive over. Not because I can’t remember much from that game, but because it held a lot of my grievances I have with this form of tactical strategy games. Whole turns spent on trying to get multiple units across a map. Battlefields are made big not because you’re making choices, but because the designers want these fights to be long as possible. Combine this with a game that I unpopularly believe goes on longer than it should. Wargroove is more of this style I have pet peeves with, but between both games I’d argue Wargroove is the better designed game. Yes, the battlefields are big and some turns are spent just getting across them but more of this space is well utilized rather than being a massive waste of time. The townships and outposts you capture makes progressing through the map meaningful. As you decide how to spread your troops out so you can cover more ground. Accumulate more gold per turn so you summon the forces needed to make fights more trivial. There were moments where my army and I were holed up in one spot of the map. Fighting for our lives as numerous foes approached our positions. Eventually the lads and I break through and push further. Capturing an outpost so trekking across the map is less of a chore. Its high stakes gameplay & decision making done well.

Then there’s all the minor choices in between that make Wargroove an even smarter experience. The weakness system and deciding what troops to summon. The knowledge enemies strike back when you strike, but if your troops are strong enough you can kill them in one turn. Preventing them from landing a hit afterward. Whether you target the leader by picking off everyone around them so they’re isolated, or the stronghold by getting far enough into the map. Gameplaywise I believe Wargroove is better. It gets the fundamentals of what makes a good tactics game right and at times much more. Again, this is coming from an indie game studio. There’s over twenty hours of content to be found in the main story alone and after that you get the multiplayer mode and custom campaigns made by either yourself or other players. The core of Wargroove is strong and even if you are having a hard time you can knock down the difficulty in exchange for getting a lower star grade on level. You even have sliders to adjust different components such as damage dealt by enemies and strength of your units. Between this and Three Houses my money is more on how well Wargroove is paced thanks to what is probably its most divisive aspect. A mission based structure where you go from level to level. Steamworld Heist does this and this game does too, but I know some players will enjoy how Fire Emblem and XCOM operate. Progression while risky is more satisfying as troops can be lost during battles. However, it’s keeping them alive and watching them grow stronger naturally that leads to satisfaction.

This game doesn’t have this when following the level to level structure. You can’t lose troops or major characters. One specific leader is always chosen for each mission, and they don’t grow in strength. You don’t level them up or choose what class they’re mastered in. Progression is done within missions, but outside of that it’s you getting dragged back to video game land. Immersion is lost when you know major characters can’t die or grow because they are needed for the plot & what happens in later missions. However, I also have the argument that even though character growth and build variety among units is lost in this structure it allows players to take more risks in battles. Permadeath is a double edge sword as you either feel pleased when units survive, or frustrated as you lose out on cool story beats or access to a unit that was carrying your team. This game doesn’t have that and even avoids the potential problem of amassing troops strong enough that future missions become trivial. As every mission in Wargroove starts with the player being in a weak position and working their way up. Finding ways to outsmart enemies each step. I will say that there’s not much reward in acquiring three stars per mission. You unlock bonus content, but I’m not one to strive for that and even then it’s a mental grip for perfection. 

There is one thing the stars you can accumulate will unlock. Bringing us to the main story, which is alright in my opinion. I like the characters, their designs, and where it ends up leading. A team of unlikely allies joining together to fight for an ultimate cause. The wondrous joy JRPGs have shown over the years and the cheesy message of how “teamwork is the dreamwork.” There is a well written and intriguing universe, but without spoilers the ending is underwhelming. At least the ending that I got, because once you beat the final boss an event occurs. Something that leads into another event, but to access this event you need to have earned one hundred stars. Gained across multiple missions including optional side missions. You can’t acquire three stars unless you play on one of the harder difficulties, and I just couldn’t be bothered to strive for it. I just looked up the final mission and true ending instead, and from the looks of it the final mission did not look that hard to begin with. As the game has conditioned you so far on how to think up good plans and deal with multiple enemies hoarded together. I can see this being an amazing reward for those who are expertly skilled tactics players, but sadly I’m not one of those people.

To wrap things up I think Wargroove is well worth your time. A fun well designed tactical RPG that doesn’t overstay its welcome and is endearing thanks to vibrant visuals, battle, and likable enough cast of characters. I may have my problems with the game, but it’s gotten me to lighten up to the tactically strategy genre more. The game regularly goes on sale, but even for twenty US dollars you’re getting one heck of a package. I’m glad this game put Chucklefish on the map and eventually elevated them to the position of being an indie game publisher. Not in the same vein as Devolver Digital or Annapurna Interactive, but somewhere there. In the end I give Wargroove an 8.5/10 for being pretty good!

8.5/10, Pretty Good