Banner of the Maid

Genre: Turn-Based Strategy-RPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Banner of the Maid is a Turn-Based Strategy-RPG released on PC in 2019, then ported to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in 202. This game takes place in an alternate-history French Revolutionary War where Napoleon’s efforts on the battlefield are assisted by capable female commanders (whose costumes conveniently show their sometimes sizable cleavage), and with some of these women rumored to be “Maids”, women with magical abilities to aid them in battle.

Calling Banner of the Maid “Alternate History” is a bit of an understatement – this game often comes across as French Revolution fan-fiction, with players taking on the role of Napoleon Boneparte’s sister Pauline, who in real life was the duchess of the Italian state of Guastalla and later an Imperial princess of France, but in this game has been recast as a military genius almost on par with her brother and one of the key generals in his military operations.

This ends up being one of this game’s most distinguishing features, but also one of its more frustrating flaws – this game seems to run with the assumption that players are already intimate with the history of the French Revolution, its key figures and factions, and plays on that with its alternate-history plot, but players who haven’t brushed up on their history in a while may feel lost.

It’s not like this is a small part of the game either, as long sections feature conversations between characters at a length that approaches Visual Novel at times, and you’ll occasionally be required to make choices that earn you points with one of the multiple aforementioned factions. It’s not quite made clear to the player how much their choices can affect the story, or whether this alternate history extends to some of the major events that even those who failed history will remember – for example, when you’re introduced to Marie Antoinette early on, after taking a moment to admire her massive chest, your thoughts may well turn your attention just a bit higher, where you’ll wonder whether that neck of hers will remain intact in this game’s version of events…

Fan-service-heavy chest sizes aside, Banner of the Maid features some really excellent anime-style 2D character art, a style that seems like a curious choice for a very French story in a game from Chinese developer Azure Flame Studio, the latter clearly being the reason why all of the game’s voiced dialogue is in Mandarin Chinese. The rest of this game’s presentation includes isometric pixel art visuals much in line with classics of the genre like Final Fantasy Tactics, and a cinematic soundtrack that does a good job fitting this game’s epic themes.

When you get into the gameplay itself, this is a pretty by-the-books Tactics-style Turn-Based Strategy-RPG, with each character representing a military unit and their health points presumably representing the number of soldiers left in that unit. Beyond this however, there’s not too much that the gameplay does to set it apart within the genre, and in fact this lacks a lot of the nuance you see in other franchises on Nintendo Switch like Disgaea and Fire Emblem. This would still be a solid Strategy-RPG, if a somewhat unremarkable one, except the lengthy conversations between and even during battles really slow down the pacing, often making the game drag.

Despite this, fans of Strategy-RPGs still may find something to like in Banner of the Maid, especially if they have a fondness for French history and anime characters with large chests. I don’t think this holds up well against some of the better games in the genre on Nintendo Switch, but it’s decent enough in its own right I suppose.

tl;dr – Banner of the Maid is a Tactics-style Turn-Based Strategy-RPG set in an alternate-world version of the French Revolutionary War. Between this game’s fanfiction-like story and well-endowed anime-style characters, this definitely presents a unique setting for this genre, but the gameplay itself isn’t anywhere near as bold, and the lengthy story interruptions bring down the pacing. Still, this may appeal to fans of the genre who follow French history.

Grade: B-

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