This is a review-ish piece I recently wrote and posted on a forum. It’s not publication quality, but since I haven’t seen much discussion of this game anywhere, I figured I’d repost it here, with minor alterations. There’s no scoring or overall judgement on the game, but if you’re trying to decide whether you’re interested in the game, hopefully you’ll find it useful. I thoroughly enjoyed it and don’t regret spending $40, if that counts for anything. P.S. this review contains vulgarity, hide the children.
Covenant of the Plume is a very strange game. For the most part, the strange things are also good things, but it ultimately leaves you feeling unsure about what you’re playing and whether you like it or not.
At first, it seems like a typical strategy RPG. You’ve got the standard FFT-style isometric map and character sprites, with the rotating camera and per-character turns, characters each have their own attack and movement ranges, there’s terrain restrictions on movement, all that sort of stuff. Then they pile a bunch of weird stuff on top, and it’s hard to tell whether all of it works.
For example, like in a standard SRPG, if you run up to a guy, you can attack him. But it’s a little strange – it cuts away to a higher-res screen where you can see your characters fighting, instead of doing it on the main map. Then you move in another character to attack the same guy, and you realize that both of your characters are now on that cutaway screen, and they can both attack the foe at the same time.
You are now in the Valkyrie Profile battle system, not to be confused with the FFT battle system. The two are basically separate, with one exception. This is really, really bizarre. I don’t think I’ve seen something like it in a game before, which is all the more strange since it actually works pretty well.
