Yuri Video Game Review: GrimGrimoire(PS2)

***SPOILERS AHEAD!***
*Note: some of the images for this game are from the Japanese version. Sadly there are not that many images from the US release.

That is right you read the headline right dear readers! This review is a double-whammy being as this is a video game.......WITH YURI! :D Released in 2007 for the PlayStation 2 and later ported over to the PS3 as a downloadable PS2 classic, GrimGrimoire is a rare gem of a game! GrimGrimoire combines elements from several different types of games into one seamless whole. The story is told through visual novel style cut scenes. The game play itself is an RTS, or Real-Time Strategy, in a similar vein as Command & Conquer or Star Craft, with some RPG mixed in for good measure! It may sound a little odd but once you start playing you will see how well all these different elements mesh together!

The story follows a young girl named Lillet Blan who aspires to be a great magician. She is accepted into the prestigious Tower of Silver Star, where she will learn about various different types of magic. At this school she encounters a wide assortment of crazy, yet fun and interesting characters. The teachers are a diverse and odd bunch. From your standard high magician who serves as principal to the school, a literal devil teacher, a lion-headed professor, and a love-sick woman who is far older than she appears. The students are just as diverse with a girl who hides her true intentions, a spy from a foreign nation, a prince with a hidden agenda, and a female homunculus with the soul of a female angel.

Tower of Silver Star

Lillet Blan

Amoretta Virgine, the homunculus

Opalneria Rain,the love-sick teacher

Margarita Surprise

Gammel Dore, headmaster

Advocat, the devil teacher

All goes well for Lillet until the fifth day of her first week at the school. The soul of the powerful and evil Archmage, Calvaros and his demon ally Grimlet awaken and attempt to steal a powerful artifact known as the Philosopher's Stone to gain absolute power. Just as Lillet is going to be killed she is thrust backwards through time to the first night she had arrived. Using her increasing knowledge of magic and taking advantage of the loop in time she sets out to prevent the death of her friends and stop Calvaros and Grimlet for good!

 

Calvaros

 

 

Now on to the game play! As I said this is an RTS, but a basic one at that. And like any good RTS there has to be differing factions to fight against each other! In this case there are four "factions" or groups of magic:

1. Glamour- A group of magic that summons mystical-type creatures such as elves, fairies, and unicorns.

2. Necromancy- A group of magic that calls forth ghosts and the undead to your army.

3. Sorcery- This summons demonic creatures to your aid such as imps, demons, and dragons.

4. Alchemy- Creates artificial beings like the homunculus and chimera to to your bidding.

 

Fairy

Unicorn

Demon

Morning Star

Chimera

Dragon(In my opinion the BEST unit in the game!)

All four groups are well balanced against each other, but in terms of the story missions and the bonus missions you will be able to mix and match each group to make a very diverse army, switching to units from each faction to suit the situation at hand. To build your armies you of course need to build a base and gather resources. In this case to summon your units you need to build runes pertaining to whatever faction(s) you want to use. Each group comes with three runes. Each rune allows you to summon and level up certain units as well as build base defenses. Building your runes, summoning, and leveling up runes and units is not free though. To fund your war effort you need to gather resources, in this case crystals. All the maps are littered with large crystals that can be claimed if they are not already. To gather from any crystal you need to have a basic unit from any faction(such as elves, imps ghosts and blobs) to build a shrine pertaining to a certain faction. Only the gatherers from that faction can gather from that crystal but all the crystals you collect can be used to build runes and units from any and all groups.

A diagram showing how to build runes, summon and gather

The missions for the story mode are pretty basic. Ranging from hold-and-defend to just destroying everything on the map, it is pretty easy to grasp the overall structure of the game. There are some missions with special conditions. Some will have you defending the runes of a different character, or destroying specific runes or units of the enemy. And even though time travel is involved in the story nothing is ever really gets repetitive. You unlock new runes and units at a steady pace and your enemies tend to do a very good job of keeping you on your toes. Aside from the main story missions there are several bonus missions as well. They don's have an impact on the story but are simply there for your enjoyment!

The graphics for the game are really quite striking and very unique from other games. It still has a very anime style charm to it but the art for everything from characters to the look of the maps themselves is outstanding! This game clearly places creativity and style over graphical prowess. The level of detail for the units, maps and characters is amazing and it all really has a hand drawn feel to it. my only complaint is that the maps all look the same. The art especially looks nice in the game's  visual novel style cut scenes.

The sound design is also great. All the units and creatures have unique voices and sounds which helps to really tell them apart. The music is somewhat generic but does have a grand feel to it at times. The English voice acting is however quite good. Though some of the voices are ok. There is an option to use the Japanese voice acting which is still better than the great English track. :P 

Now you must be asking " But FanBoy, you said this game has yuri in it!" And there IS! Always save the best for last! ;) As the story progresses Lillet meets and befriends Amoretta. Being a female angel Amoretta craves love. She does not get it from her creator. Lillet and Amoretta become decent friends at first but as Lillet travels through time she learns more about Amoretta. Being a homunculus with the soul of a female angel she is a very tasty target to demonic forces and other characters are willing to use her for there own ends. Lillet often stands up for Amoretta which only causes her to be drawn to Lillet. In fact at several points in the story Amoretta willingly sacrifices herself to protect Lillet. This only brings Lillet and Amoretta closer. These two declare there love for each other at several points in the game and diary entries from Lillet even confirm her love for Amoretta! XD Did I mention Amoretta even tells her creator to piss off so she can be with Lillet? She totally does! :D Well maybe not EXACTLY telling him to piss off but close enough! :P The awesome yuri love between these two even becomes one of the major driving forces to the story! This game is a gift from the yuri goddesses! And by the way they get a happy end! ;)

Overall GrimGrimoire is a fine game with lots of style! Great characters headed by a great protagonist, great RTS game play, and amazing( and surprising) yuri! I wholly recommend  GrimGrimoire to anyone who is a fan of real time strategy games, visual novels, great stories and yuri! There is something in this game for everyone! Don't miss out!

GrimGrimoire(PS2) score: 9/10

-------------------------------------FanBoy