Mercenaries Saga 2: Order of the Silver Eagle Review

Who doesn’t remember the fun of playing Final Fantasy Advance Tactics on the Game Boy SP or DS? Planning out strategies and plotting the plight of your enemy through the execution of precise moves that put them into a trap to reap the rewards of a decisive victory. These were the highlights of Strategy Role Playing Games (SRPG), whilst the Fire Emblem franchise does this, nothing has truly scratched that itch.

Mercenaries Saga 2: Order of the Silver Eagle follows gameplay that you’d expect from a SRPG: square tile-based movement with a team turn-based system. With the use of “classes” to optimise their builds after spending your hard earnt SP gained after battles. One of the most important questions I asked myself when playing was, “Is this going to change anything related to the tried and tested formula?”. The answer after 16+ hours of playing through the game, not so much.

Part of the gameplay that stuck out was the active need to try and find hidden items and open/unlock chests placed around the map. Often containing powerful equipment and Puzzle Pieces necessary to unlocking more powerful classes. Giving the player a significant power boost, it made parts of the game rather forgiving in terms of the need to grind. It started to get really interesting the moment situations that weren’t part of normal play arose. Locking me into playing with certain characters in some chapters, it mixed up my playstyle and if I wasn’t as prepared they would’ve been more punishing. During the boss fights, the game made them tough - if only slightly - for their very deadly attacks.

The other aspect that stuck out was the mix of objectives in the level, some being a question of trying to survive the chapter after X turns as opposed to purely taking the enemy out. But it more or less maintains the strict “kill everything” rule, with the defeat clauses being either everyone retreats or character A retreats. It doesn’t feature permadeath, which definitely would’ve been nice, if only purely for punishing purposes. The game allows the player a brief period of grace of reviving a fallen ally, but at higher difficulties it reduces it to near impossible if left at the forefront of the fight and/or surrounded by the mass of enemies.

Despite this, the game is still rather forgiving even at Maniac difficulty as I experienced briefly. The AI doesn’t become smarter, it’s just higher stats; unless you’re willing to not grind for a more difficult experience, this means having to play the AI into your strategy. The AI is extremely forgiving on normal, where only a few enemies will move if there are a lot on screen. Maniac changes this, but it won’t feel entirely satisfying for more experienced players of SRPGs. The hidden objects and chests in the chapters is also part of what makes this game rather forgiving, with the ability to purchase and find powerful equipment that supersedes what the store is selling at the current chapter progress. This adds little bits of nuance to your characters, with sprites looking either cute or quaint as I found a bow you can find early on.

Other forgiving aspects were the skills characters could use. Whilst being late game, it seemed rather overpowered with certain skills such as a healing skill that heals everyone on your side quite cheap for the MP expended. With MP being regenerated each turn which you can either boost by purchasing/synthesizing gear, it makes MP less a question of “do I have enough MP to last the foreseeable battle before needing MP potions” to “after x turns I’m able to insta’ heal everyone”. Also, the need for strategising with skills is removed as the class doesn’t restrict the skills available other than the adoption of them. Which for better or for worse, made normal mode rather dull without self imposing these limitations on the use of other skills, unless they’re tied to a weapon type.

Other than it being forgiving, the game can be seen as being rather mechanically simple. Such as the lack of friendly fire with area of effect attack and heal skills, despite friend or foes being caught in the area. Another part is the inability to hide, where the ability to take cover behind an object feels off considering a gun just shot my character right through a ship mast - of all things. Granted not game breaking, but the lack of these small things could’ve made the game more nuanced and unique to play.

Other than the mechanics of the game, the story isn’t something to write home about. The writing is rather lacking in terms of character development, and contains, more or less, a string of one liners from characters (namely Boris your Clergyman). With certain plot points being rather unexpected and don’t really build to them other than character A says B which is why chapter C has D happening because of B’s relevance to the plot. This isn’t really a criticism I had with it, but the story isn’t what sold me in the first place. What did surprise me though was the dialogue choices presented (which didn’t happen often). Warranting the desire to have a second gander, as the ending I got was rather unfulfilling, but made sense with the choices I did make, and to see if the choices I made had a difference.