The Diofield Chronicle

The game plays as a turn-based strategy role-playing video game.[1] It is not tile-based in its movement, like Final Fantasy Tactics, but instead allows for more free directional movement like X-Com.[1] The game features real-time strategy elements, with the battle system being named the "Real-Time Tactical Battle System", an allusion to the Active-Time Battle system.[2] The player manuevers a party of characters across a map to gain tactical advantages over an opposing party, which must be engaged in battle.[3] Similar to Fire Emblem, the viewpoint shifts as the battle themselves play out.[3]

The Diofield Chronicle takes place on a fictional war-torn continent, where the Kingdom of Alletain sits in the close vicinity of a conflict between the Trovelt-Schoevian Empire and the Rowetale Alliance.[4][3] When the Empire ends up defeating the Alliance, they turn their attention to Alletain.[3] The game follows the mercenary group related to the Alletain called the "Blue Foxes".[5][3] The four heads of the group are Andrias Rhondarson, a royal bodyguard who knows ancient sorcery, Fredret Lester, his childhood friend, Iscarion Colchester, an archer and former noble, and Waltaquin Redditch, a mage noblewoman.[5]

The game was first announced on March 9, 2022, as part of Sony's "State of Play" presentations outlining future games coming to their PlayStation platforms.[6] It was one of two games announced by Square Enix at the presentation, alongside Valkyrie Elysium.[6] While the latter was only announced for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC, The Diofield Chronicles was later revealed to additionally be coming to Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S platforms.[6] The game features character art from designer Isamu Kamikokuryo, who previously did art for Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy XIII, and was noted to have an art style similar to Final Fantasy at times, though the game share no official ties.[4][1][2] Square Enix is co-developing the title with Japanese studio Lancarse, who had previously co-developed Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey with Atlus.[7] Music is composed by Ramin Djawadi and Brandon Campbell, both of which had previously work on the Game of Thrones television series.[7] The game is scheduled for a worldwide release sometime in 2022.[5]