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51. Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling - Switch
52. Banner of the Maid - Switch
Banner of the Maid is an indie SRPG that is heavily influenced by Fire Emblem and is set in an alternate history Revolutionary France. You control Pauline Bonaparte, the sister of Napoleon, as she tries to defend France and navigate the fires of revolution. While it has some rough edges it overall plays quite well and isn't just a straight clone of Fire Emblem.
The title comes from the banner that was carried by Jeanne d'Arc, who was also known as the Maid of Orleans. In the world of Banner of the Maid the power of the Maid is something certain women are born with and gives them a variety of abilities that can be used to shape history. As a result, women are a part of the French military. The game begins when the royal family is still in power, but after the establishment of the Estates General. Initially you spend a lot of time in the various campaigns between France and Austria and Italy, but events back in Paris will draw your attention as the various factions begin to execute on their vision for what France should be, and the king is guillotined midway through the game.
As mentioned, the game is heavily derived from Fire Emblem. You move all your units, then the enemy moves theirs. Combats compare your attack to enemy defense, and if you have enough of a speed advantage you can attack twice, which is a powerful tool. Weapons have limited durability, but the durability is regenerated after every map, so don't be afraid to use your good stuff. Unlike Fire Emblem this game has the main combat units arranged in an advantage square; Heavy Cavalry beats Light Cavalry, Light Cavalry beats Light Infantry, Light Infantry beats Line Infantry, and Line Infantry beats Heavy Cavalry. There are two other units which sit outside this. Military Bands are your cleric analogues, with healing and status buffs. Artillery cannot attack enemies up close (other than one late game item), but have high damage and the longest range of any unit. The game features two defensive stats; one works against bullets and one works against swords (cavalry weapons) and artillery. This can affect what units you send where when you aren't exploiting weaknesses. Units also can learn passive skills which buff their combat performance. Instead of random crits the game has a system where you build up morale when attacking; once you have 100 you can spend it to do 50% more damage on your first attack and get a major accuracy boost (on the order of 30%).
The game does not have permadeath; instead losing a handful of units is a frequent defeat condition (aside from the standard losing your MC). The units are flavored as lines of generic soldiers commanded by one of the named characters, so losing enough of these formations would theoretically cause the collapse of your army's effectiveness. The game also features a faction system where doing sidequests and making dialog choices can increase your reputation. You'll want reputation with everyone, as each faction provides a benefit, such as being able to buy better weapons or learn more skills. The game does tell you which faction a dialog choice will buff, so it's not too challenging to get everything up to the required levels.
The game does have some rough edges on the balance end. A handful of maps have really nasty setups with either an extremely terrible weather condition (which is designed to massively favor patient defenders, which the AI is) or overly large reinforcement waves. On the flip side, the game also has an imbalance in the player's favor. That weapon square I mentioned usually sees the enemy forces without much in the way of Light Cavalry. This allows your Light Infantry to shine, as they are basically the myrmidons of the game. Without their natural enemy they can become monsters. Especially since they have some of the best skills, including natural ranged weapons and the ability to act again after using a heroic attack. This also means that your Heavy Cavalry loses effectiveness, as the enemy troops tend to have a lot of Line Infantry that will chew them up.
Overall Banner of the Maid is a very solid SRPG, and if you're a Fire Emblem fan you'll enjoy it. And the devs did a reasonable amount of research into the actual history; most of the cast are real figures, though all of them are more badass to suit a video game. There's no major changing of historical events; the monarchy falls and things end with Robespierre still in power. You just do your best to try and help France.
