JOSX

The second outing in this franchise has shown some amazing progress. The gameplay is much tighter and is almost to the standard of a AAA turn based strategy. Where War Groove imitates the aesthetics of the Advance Wars franchise, Tiny Metal FMR manages to distinguish itself from it's former inspiration. One of the most welcomed addition to the strategy element is unit facing, similarly to classic turn-based strategies such as Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics. This adds an extra layer to the strategy element. New mecha units are also a delight to see. As serious as its subject matter is (war), the super deformed style of the units are still as endearing as those that were featured in the AW series. Character art can sometimes be a bit rough around the edges but it felt like it has improved. Also, the narrative is not so frustratingly involved as its predecessor, which is a very welcomed change as well. The way that text appear in dialogue boxes somehow manages to trigger my OCD, not sure what it is exactly but perhaps a more conventional way to make text appear in a dialogue box would be better? Also, the UI registers everything you click so when you enter a mission screen from the world map, and had double clicked confirmed, it can potentially take you straight into the mission, skipping the briefing. The AI is an improvement but still rather predictable. There are ways to spam units to win but it's not as uninvolved as some people make it out to be. Overall, this game gets a 9 from me. It's not perfect, but considering the problems with it coming from such a small indie team, this is definitely Area35's best entry into the world of gaming yet. They deserve high praise considering the little to no marketing support from anybody (unlike indie titles like War Groove). If people want better, there really should be more competition, but there isn't.