Vanillaware usually makes action games. Grand Knights History breaks away from their mold since it has turn based combat and a tactics-lite system.
One of the strategic elements players need to be aware of is the formation of your units. Before a battle begins you can place four units (knights, archers, wizards, etc.) on a 4 x 4 grid. Tomohiko Deguchi tells Famitsu there are more than 20 formations in Grand Knights History. These change your attack and defense plus certain formations give bonuses like recovering some HP each turn.
The knights in Grand Knights History are customizable. Players can select their hairdo, hair color, voice, and other appearance options. Characters also have different personalities, which influence how they develop. Do you have a hot-blooded, practice makes perfect kind of character or a stuck up knight ready to show off?
Famitsu also has a look at some of the special skills. These attacks are tied to the type of weapon your character equips. Weapon proficiency increases with each fight and after you find a book with secret techniques you can teach a character a new skill. Skills shown (in order) are: Flash Code (sword type), Gallop Beat (spear type), Judgment (magic type, can cause paralysis), Skullfang (great sword type), and Blaze Rain (bow type). There are more than 10 weapon types and over 50 skills to learn. The magazine also introduced three enemy types: dragon, fairy, and mimic. Not Gogo, the kind of monster that mimics a treasure chest and suddenly attacks.
Grand Knights History is slated for release on September 1 on PSP in Japan.
