I don’t typically seek out and play turn-based tactical video games, but, the art style of Othercide caught my eye. While it features horror themes with inspiration from HP Lovecraft and greyscale visuals, it is so much more than that. What kept me playing through the entire campaign was the game’s heavy focus on combat. I tend to lose interest when I am forced to focus on too many objectives over a long period of time. But Othercide keeps things simple in the best ways by allowing us to focus on combat and customizing our Daughters to our particular playstyles.
A Mother and Her Daughters
Othercide takes place in the ethereal realm known as the Inner Void. Here the Red Mother granted me the ability to summon Daughters. They were created using echoes from Red Mother’s previous life, and they were the ones I took into battles. The Daughters fell into one of three classes at the beginning. Blademaster, Shieldbearer and Soulslinger. About halfway through the game, I was able to unlock the Scythedancers class. These classes focus on a specific form of combat. For example, the Soulslinger wields guns and deals damage with long-range attacks, while the Blademaster wields a long sword and deals damage with short-range attacks.
The Daughters can be customized even further in multiple ways. The first way is by leveling up and unlocking different abilities. The second is by attaching memories earned during battles to those abilities. This is where the customization got exciting for me. These memories adjust things like increasing critical strike percentage or adding an overall damage buff to a specific attack. Memories disappeared once they were attached to a Daughter, so I spent quite a bit of time debating how to use them.
Another way the Daughters can be customized is a bit more random. The Daughters have the ability to gain traits as they participate in battles. I had Daughters gain the arrogant trait after they didn’t take damage in multiple fights in a row. This gave my Daughters a boost in their critical strike but debuffed the experience they gained. I was able to target specific traits and avoid others after understanding how they were triggered. But sometimes they were just unavoidable.
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Reliving the Last Moments of the Red Mother
Othercide begins with the death of Red Mother at the hands of servants of the Suffering. The Suffering is an eldritch god who wants to bring destruction to the world. Instead of dying, Red Mother is reborn into a deity of sorts and continues her battle against the Suffering. I was able to replay the last few weeks of Red Mother’s life in an attempt to stop the destruction of the world at the hands of the Suffering. The gameplay is broken into five chapters known as eras, and each era lasts seven days. At the end of an era, it was time for me to face the final boss.
However, it isn’t as simple as it sounds to progress to the end. I attempted to quickly clear the first era by doing a mission each day and jumping right into the boss battle only to learn I was extremely underprepared. For my second playthrough, I opted for a different strategy. Othercide allowed me to complete as many days as I wanted within the current era before starting over. This gave me time to level my Daughters and customize them in a way to better my odds against the final boss.
It became very clear to me that I needed to use my days wisely. Once a Daughter has taken part in a mission, she is unable to go into another one. For the most part, I was able to clear one or two missions depending on the difficulty of them. Then it was time to rest and start the next day. The missions themselves are broken into hunt, survival, rescue and ritual. Each has its own special requirements to complete them, but I always had to battle against entities of the Suffering.
Let the Battle Begin
At the center of Othercide is its combat system. The style felt like a mix of XCOM and Final Fantasy Tactics, where my Daughters took turns moving about the map and attacking the enemies. After choosing a mission I was able to select three Daughters to take into battle. The first thing I noticed was the timeline that appeared at the bottom of the screen. This let me know exactly when my Daughters’ and my enemies’ turn is to take place. Some abilities allow the Daughters or enemies to jump around on the timeline, either delaying their next turn or moving it forward. It was important for me to keep track of who was going when so I did not take unnecessary damage. I always made sure to take out an enemy before they were able to use a delayed attack on me.
Each Daughter has a set amount of action points that can be spent on moving, attacks and reactions. I spent most of my Daughters’ turns trying to use my action points in the most efficient manner. Sometimes it made more sense to move clear across the map to avoid major damage and forgo attacking an enemy. Other times it made sense to unleash a brutal set of attacks and set up a reaction in order to protect another Daughter. This is where I felt Othercide shined when it came to customizing each Daughter’s abilities to work together and independently.
While I enjoyed the combat in Othercide, this is also where it struggled. The enemies each have very similar abilities, so each run felt like I was in Groundhog Day. Each mission became a wash, rinse and repeat routine. It only changed slightly when I entered a boss fight or another era. But after a few missions in a new era, I felt like I was back in the never-ending loop. It wasn’t until later in the game that I started to feel like I was seeing more variety in missions and enemies.
Overall
Othercide gave me everything I love when it comes to turn-based tactical games without all the additional fluff. I was able to really customize my playthrough by upgrading my Daughters in ways that I like to play. Those choices transferred over to my missions where I had to stay on my toes. Every decision I made was met with serious deliberation; nothing went unaccounted for. My only wish was that every mission didn’t feel just like the last one. But outside of that, Othercide is definitely worth the playthrough.
Othercide is available to play now on PC through Steam, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
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Who I Am: A nerd by the strictest definition. I enjoy diving straight into my favorite fandoms without a care in the world. I live on video/board games, fantasy movies and TV, and all things geeky.
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