Sword of Convallaria Is the FF Tactics Successor Gacha Players Have Been Waiting for [Review]

Look at any screenshot or video clip of the game and you’ll immediately see that Sword of Convallaria is clearly taking its cues from Final Fantasy Tactics, the beloved tactical RPG from 1997. The game that most fans wouldn’t hesitate to call the holy grail of tactical RPGs.

Final Fantasy Tactics on Mobile

From the grid-based maps to the cute pixel art, Sword of Convallaria looks to emulate the nostalgia of the 90s, but with a few modern conveniences that make this game a blast to play. There’s a whole variety of jobs to experiment with; you’ve got your usual warriors, mages, rogues, archers, and healers. There’s also an elemental damage type system that forces you to diversify your team. Think the weapon triangle from Fire Emblem, except there are five elements instead of just three.

Breakers beat Defenders, Defenders beat Seekers, and Seekers beat Breakers. Then there are Destroyers, who are inherently more powerful than the three. But not to worry, because there are also Watchers who have an advantage over Destroyers to keep them in check.

It may sound a little complicated at first, but you’ll quickly get the hang of it once you’ve played a few stages.

The story kicks off when you, the classic amnesiac protagonist, wake up in jail to find yourself in the nation of Iria. Iria is a country rich in minerals, but as a result, has caught the attention of power-hungry nations that want its resources for their own gain. As a tactical commander, you’re tasked with navigating the complex political threads between nations, while trying to restore peace to Iria.

As far as the story goes, it’s decent, but nothing to really write home about. The plot is predictable, though I will say that the one thing Sword of Convallaria has going for it is its characters. I couldn’t help comparing it to War of the Visions, Gumi and Square Enix’s own FF Tactics gacha successor, which was content with heavily leaning into tropes and over-the-top plotlines that made no sense.

The titular Convallaria band of mercenaries alone is full of colorful characters who quickly make an impression on you, such as Rawiyah, the leader who always has a drink in her hand even during combat, or Maitha, the lively and upbeat tank with a tragic childhood. These characters grow on you quickly, and even as someone who rarely cares for the plot or characters in my gacha games, I got attached to my little group of fighters as the story went on.

Is It Pay-to-Win?

As a free-to-play player, you’ll find a lot to love in Sword of Convallaria. But because this is a gacha game at its core, we should address the elephant in the room: do you need premium units to get through the PvE content? The short answer is no. You can get through the game’s story mode even with base characters, though you’ll likely progress much slower than players who may have gotten their hands on their ideal reroll targets.

Sword of Convallaria features the same annoying stamina system adopted by most gacha games, where you’ll eventually find yourself waiting around for stamina to refresh so you can continue playing and leveling up.

This is certainly one of the more F2P-friendly gacha games I’ve played in a while. Whereas most games of this genre require you to pull dupes of a character, Sword of Convallaria follows the War of the Visions route of letting players farm Memory Shards to star up a character. This is a grind that will take you a while, sure, but it’s better than nothing. Theoretically, all you’d have to do is just pull one copy of a Legendary character, then farm their Memory Shards daily until you’re able to max them out.

Sword of Convallaria also features a secondary story mode that’s independent of the gacha systems. Titled Spiral of Destinies, this full-blown story mode lets you play the game without worrying about having to pull Legendary units. It’s essentially an alternate retelling of the main story, with different choices you can make to discover new story outcomes.

Spiral of Destinies isn’t beholden to the stamina system either, which means you can play this mode to your heart’s content. You still have to play the main story with gacha elements in order to unlock even more chapters in Spiral of Destinies, but with time, getting through that shouldn’t be too hard at all.

I’m a huge fan of the way XD Entertainment incorporated this into the game, as it essentially caters to the FF Tactics fans who want a pure experience, and the gacha degenerates (AKA me) who enjoy rerolling and collecting the most powerful characters who can steamroll everything.

Even the game’s PvP mode is casual-friendly, as the rewards for the highest PvP tier are pretty minute, and there isn’t that much of a gap between the highest and lowest tiers of players. My point is, while the microtransactions are still predatory, there isn’t any pressure to spend, and that’s a win in my book.

All That’s Left is the Powercreep

While it’s still early days for Sword of Convallaria, things are looking very promising so far. The tactical RPG gameplay is genuinely fun, even if it’s not be quite in-depth as something like Triangle Strategy or even the original FF Tactics itself.

As someone who used to be an avid fan of War of the Visions, my only concern is that Sword of Convallaria could fall into the trap that so many gacha games often do: rapid power creep. It’s not unusual for gacha games to introduce new characters that can outclass old ones, but it’s important that this doesn’t happen too rapidly so that more casual players can catch up with the meta. By introducing too many powerful units too quickly, Sword of Convallaria could run the risk of power creep that will turn off F2P players and kill the game. It’s what’s happening to War of the Visions, and I certainly hope this game won’t go down that route, too.

Verdict: Recommended

If XD Entertainment is able to stay the course and maintain a fine balance between introducing powerful characters and giving just enough to the casual players to keep up with PvE content, I can see Sword of Convallaria getting a permanent place in my gacha game rotation.

Sword of Convallaria is available to play now.