The world building, the lore and the overall style of Grimshade are excellent and though there is actual tactical depth beneath the simplistic first glance, the game’s pace, excruciating difficulty, unneeded number of battles and unbalanced heroes hinder this tactical turn-based homage to 90s JRPGs from being a truly magnificent effort.

In this type of game, you often get disproportionate enjoyment from combat or dialogue. You’ll find yourself suffering though dialogue to get to the next battle or trudging through fights to get to the next piece of story exposition. In Grimshade, both are fine. Regrettably, that is all they are.

Grimshade is not a bad game per se. It even boasts some fine, original ideas. The execution, however, is very flawed and the game cannot compete with other, more accomplished JRPGs.

The stronger elements such as combat, art direction, and sound design are held back by the technical issues, odd design decisions and weak narrative, taking itself far too seriously when – if simplified – this could be a truly fun turn-based combat game.

Grimshade has stunning visuals for an RPG game. Additionally, it has an easy to play combat system and a wide array of characters with different backgrounds and personalities. Sadly, the negatives outweigh the positives due to the fact it’s incredibly story dependant, meaning you can get lost easily mid-quest if you are not invested in the story. The combat is predictable and there are game bugs that will make you restart the game and by extension the battle itself. Lastly, the choppy visuals are a little tough to digest.

Grimshade is a love letter to the JRPGs of the '90s. Trouble is it's one that wasn't as eloquently written as it should. The weak-to-decent presentation cannot be fixed, of course, but there's some hope for this, if the developer ever heavily rebalance the tactical battles.

Grimshade frustrates as it offers up an interesting and original world to explore and then actively deters you from doing so with overly difficult and frequent combat. This could be worth visiting after some balance updates, but one to avoid for now.