Power in Numbers
Yggdra Union provides plenty of strategy RPG goodness, and a funky name to boot! We go hands-on.
Published: August 17, 2008
The PSP has been blessed with an unexpected number of strategy RPGs in the three years since it came around -- or perhaps more accurately, an unexpected number of good SRPGs, from more modern Advance Wars-like Field Commander to the bonus content revivals of classics like Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions and Disgaea, just to name a few. Now granted, most of these have been ports of games from other systems, but hey, if the PSP ends up being a dumping ground for all the greatest strategy games from years past and present, then we're not going to complain.
Take Yggra Union, for instance. Yes, technically it's a port of a Game Boy Advance title, but most parts have been tweaked for the PSP's wider and higher-res screen, and the result is a game that might have lower-tech roots, but has been bolstered by more modern advances in hardware. This means higher-res (or at least cleaner) sprites, bigger character portraits and more screen real estate to manage it all.
And you'll need to keep your eyes on most of the screen during Yggra Union's not-so-surprising number of battles. It's not an exaggeration to say that the concepts here, though rooted in most SRPG truisms, are handled a bit differently that you're used to, and that is most certainly a good thing when it comes to making what was familiar seem a little fresh.
It's probably also fair to say that the game strips away a lot of the extraneous fluff that would help some gamers grow attached to the characters. There's no real overworld, there are no towns, no places to rest and no exploration to be found outside of battle. Just about everything in the game either takes place in battle, or shortly before it breaks out. Ordinarily, this might lead to a feeling of being rushed along, and though we at first found ourselves hoping for something of a breather, we quickly got into the swing of things after realizing that the brief pre-mission loadout screen was about the only way to help refill the health of our fighters.
That's because, despite all the normal RPG trappings, Yggdra Union doesn't really handle things a traditional way. Your units, led by a main character that's always on the overhead movement map, are subject to morale instead of HP. Losing a battle means that morale drops according to how handily you were beaten, but it doesn't mean that you're completely out for the rest of the fight. That only happens once morale drops to nil, at which point you'll probably find yourself reloading from the start screen. For us, it meant a sizeable penalty for completely losing, and motivation to keep morale high, since there are really only saves between major chapter points, leading to sometimes three or four meaty battles before the next save point.
Luckily, the game does a few things to help with pre-planning before just charging into battle against enemies. Moving characters around is, as the lengthy tutorial explains, as simple as pressing X to select a character, then move them and X again to set. When next to an enemy, tapping Square will bring up a brief overview that lists a five-level predictor of how favorably the battle will play out before you actually start it (and once you do, a nine-point system shows just how good your attacks will (or won't) be against the enemy).
Everything in Yggdra Union is powered by cards. Before the start of each round, you'll pull a card from your deck and that in turn determines how the rest of the battles that round will play out. Cards are appointed with a movement number (shared between all units on the field, so you choose how to divvy them up), the attack strength (which levels up as you win battles with that card), the attack's affinity (more on that in a second) and any special skills that can be tapped if the conditions are right. Since only one character can attack per turn, the card is used for both offensive and defensive phases.
Obviously attacking is important, but just as important is where your fellow troops are on the grid-based overhead map prior to initiating a skirmish. Female characters with fellow units need their back up to be situated in a cross, straight up/down or left/right. Male characters, on the other hand, need everyone laid out in an X formation, with units on the diagonals to the upper and lower left/right. It plays heavily into fights because all units that are in range for a few squares will jump into the fray, and chances are if they're outnumbered (and thus will have to fight against multiple enemies per turn), they'll be wiped out, resulting in a drop of morale.
Take Yggra Union, for instance. Yes, technically it's a port of a Game Boy Advance title, but most parts have been tweaked for the PSP's wider and higher-res screen, and the result is a game that might have lower-tech roots, but has been bolstered by more modern advances in hardware. This means higher-res (or at least cleaner) sprites, bigger character portraits and more screen real estate to manage it all.
And you'll need to keep your eyes on most of the screen during Yggra Union's not-so-surprising number of battles. It's not an exaggeration to say that the concepts here, though rooted in most SRPG truisms, are handled a bit differently that you're used to, and that is most certainly a good thing when it comes to making what was familiar seem a little fresh.
It's probably also fair to say that the game strips away a lot of the extraneous fluff that would help some gamers grow attached to the characters. There's no real overworld, there are no towns, no places to rest and no exploration to be found outside of battle. Just about everything in the game either takes place in battle, or shortly before it breaks out. Ordinarily, this might lead to a feeling of being rushed along, and though we at first found ourselves hoping for something of a breather, we quickly got into the swing of things after realizing that the brief pre-mission loadout screen was about the only way to help refill the health of our fighters.
That's because, despite all the normal RPG trappings, Yggdra Union doesn't really handle things a traditional way. Your units, led by a main character that's always on the overhead movement map, are subject to morale instead of HP. Losing a battle means that morale drops according to how handily you were beaten, but it doesn't mean that you're completely out for the rest of the fight. That only happens once morale drops to nil, at which point you'll probably find yourself reloading from the start screen. For us, it meant a sizeable penalty for completely losing, and motivation to keep morale high, since there are really only saves between major chapter points, leading to sometimes three or four meaty battles before the next save point.
Luckily, the game does a few things to help with pre-planning before just charging into battle against enemies. Moving characters around is, as the lengthy tutorial explains, as simple as pressing X to select a character, then move them and X again to set. When next to an enemy, tapping Square will bring up a brief overview that lists a five-level predictor of how favorably the battle will play out before you actually start it (and once you do, a nine-point system shows just how good your attacks will (or won't) be against the enemy).
Everything in Yggdra Union is powered by cards. Before the start of each round, you'll pull a card from your deck and that in turn determines how the rest of the battles that round will play out. Cards are appointed with a movement number (shared between all units on the field, so you choose how to divvy them up), the attack strength (which levels up as you win battles with that card), the attack's affinity (more on that in a second) and any special skills that can be tapped if the conditions are right. Since only one character can attack per turn, the card is used for both offensive and defensive phases.
Obviously attacking is important, but just as important is where your fellow troops are on the grid-based overhead map prior to initiating a skirmish. Female characters with fellow units need their back up to be situated in a cross, straight up/down or left/right. Male characters, on the other hand, need everyone laid out in an X formation, with units on the diagonals to the upper and lower left/right. It plays heavily into fights because all units that are in range for a few squares will jump into the fray, and chances are if they're outnumbered (and thus will have to fight against multiple enemies per turn), they'll be wiped out, resulting in a drop of morale.
