Banner of the Maid: Tons of potential, marred by terrible design decisions.

I'm not generally a fan of so-called 'strategy' RPGs. I've played them - Shining Force, Mercenaries Saga, Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, Jeanne d'Arc (PSP), etc. But they would never be at the top of any of my gaming preference lists and I can't tell you why that is.

I noticed quite a few people complaining on Steam (I'm playing the Switch version), where they've basically resorted to cheating because the game is so dysfunctional. In this I feel redeemed.

What I Liked

The art. It's just gorgeous art. Although the characters portrayed make no sense for the time period and it's obvious what the developer was doing here. If you don't walk away from this with a strange craving for milk, you're not human.

It does seem to understand strategy better than most of the games I mentioned. Later maps will force you to think every move very carefully.

It's very accessible; no crazy, convoluted control schemes or touch screen gimmicks.

Its price is right around what I would justify paying for it.

What I Didn't Like

While I did like the art, this is one of those games that really needed fully voiced, fully animated cutscenes. The story that's presented is trying to get you to feel at points and it's hard to really attach when you're staring at still photos of people while Chinese is voiced.

Speaking of that Chinese, I get that it's a Chinese game; but I feel that when localizing, they should have gotten some French Canadians to do the voice overs.

Some of the "Ace" enemies have strange difficulty spiking. In one map there are three of them - you can decimate two of them without half trying, but the third (who you encounter multiple times) can annihilate your troops with ease, even ones you thought were your strongest.

The weapon ammo mechanic feels like overkill and just unnecessarily slants difficulty - since the enemy is not subject to this same mechanic. (Also shouldn't apply to swords. Just sayin)

The weather conditions and map conditions such as swamps do add a bit of variety to otherwise dull gameplay, except when they're abused. Some maps call for you to rescue a character at the other end of the map and you're stuck slogging through a swamp because the character(s) you need conveniently does not have the right skill to nullify it.

You can't repeat main maps or even sidequest maps except in limited situations.

In these limited situations the enemy moves the exact same way every time; so once you've done it once the rest is a cakewalk.

The early parts of the game are about a 50/50 with the visual novel parts vs. battle. Later in the game it's back-to-back battles, which gets extremely dull, with multiple hours passing before you see any more cutscenes or significant story moves.

"Progress gating" is the notion in games that, rather than letting you buy and acquire what you need to get ahead, there are arbitrary roadblocks that keep you weak. That's here - in the form of a faction affection system. Each faction sells something different, and to get the best stuff you'll have to focus on one of them because there aren't a lot of opportunities to increase affection later in the game. That means there's a long - LONG - stretch where you'll have to rely on levels to get you through.

"Any two" or "Any three" death conditions. This wouldn't bother me much EXCEPT that you'll be heavily relying on characters that happen to be quite weak and can't move very far; and the enemy AI will purposely target these characters. I much prefer ones where if all allies die or the leader dies you lose. Not "any X" - because....

There are TOO MANY CHARACTERS. Normally I love a lot of characters and trust me, you'll need them. The problem is keeping up with them on the field. Since each type of troop requires different strategies, it's hard to manage the different needs in different parts of the map effectively. You can't go full defensive because some maps have enemies that won't move until you get close. If you go full offensive, the enemy will use weakness tactics ("Threatened", anyone?) and then jump you. If there were less characters to deal with you could make more effective strategies.

This all isn't to say that the game is garbage. I have a LOT of complaints. But as I said leading in, the price is right for this. If it wins awards it's because of the art. It's a decent outing for the strategy. But many of the mechanics in the game were flat out unnecessary and just add tedium to something that could have been a fun time passer.