When people see a retro-looking turn-based SRPG like Symphony of War, the incoming Fire Emblem comparisons are inevitable. As if the combat wasn’t good enough, the story managed to keep me fully engaged every step of the way and that isn’t something I can say too often these days. I don’t want to give the entire story away, even here in a spoiler section so you’ll have to see for yourself. Lindly has become the Avatar of Donar and bestows up Stefan and Diana the powers of the old Nephilim heroes. That’s when Lindly blasts down from the heavens, strikes down the soldiers and revives Diana. After fighting through imperial forces to get to the cold mountaintop where Donar struck the last blow against Zanatus, Diana succumbs to the cold and her injuries while a heartbroken Stefan sits down beside her as they are surrounded by imperials. You spend the next bleak chapters of the game fighting a losing battle while chasing down clues found in the lost hidden pages of the prophecy. Years after the execution you play as Diana, the last remaining templar as she is trying to find a way to save everyone and fight back against the empire and the cult. Cool as hell, right? It’s a gutsy move that I don’t recall many games trying to pull off, and believe it or not: it gets cooler. In a crazy scene, Lindly is then publicly executed, the prime minister consolidates his power to become emperor, and then there is a two-year time jump and you spend the next few chapters playing as the forces of evil subjugating the remaining opposition and Donar worshippers. Pegged as a traitor, Lindly and the gang spend the next chunk of chapters engaging in warfare and seeking alliances with the other nobles until she eventually holds off a massive attack while Diana and her friends escape. After jail-breaking Lindly, Diana gives her a crash course in this secret shadow war and while she is skeptical about the whole thing, Lindly agrees that the prime minister must be stopped before the whole country is ravaged by war once again. It turns out that Zanatus has a secret cult operating from the shadows and its membership is comprised of powerful and influential people, including the shady prime minister. Donar still has faithful practitioners but they are few.
Fast forward to now: these events are forgotten by most and regarded as a myth.
A thousand years ago, a demonic figure named Zanatus nearly conquered the world until the Avatar of Donar and four other heroes imbued with the power of the Nephilim managed to strike him through the heart with the holy sword Lightfury in a climactic final battle. Donari is a religion long fading from eminence. After being rescued by a roguish thief Stefan and the leader of the Donari temple paladins, Diana, you realize there is a deeper shadow spreading across the land. After spending a few chapters putting down the rebellion, Lindly (the default name for the player’s character) is promptly framed for the murder of the Empress and thrown in jail for treason by the power-hungry prime minister who has dreams of becoming the emperor himself. The main thing I appreciate about the story is how it isn’t afraid to take its time but doesn’t drag things out to the point where it gets boring. I’m going to dive in a bit deeper so here is your spoiler warning! Without giving anything away, it was definitely one of the better stories I’ve seen in a while. Every time you think you know where the story is going, a sweet plot twist fires it off in another direction. As a promising new graduate from the military academy (I know: it’s a bit of a common trope) you are sent to put down the Antares Rebellion. Dissatisfied with the state of things, former war hero General Antares revolts against the new Empress and raises an army. Like most conflicts, it is the commoners who suffer while the wealthy go about their business as usual. After a bloody Game of Thrones-style civil war of succession between the noble houses following the death of the emperor, a truce was brokered but the devastation was already wrought. In the world of Tahnra, the Empire of Veridia is a powerful nation in a volatile position.
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