Everyone who knows me knows that I really enjoy turn-based strategy games. Even random people I corner at the local bar know I like strategic games where I can contemplate my moves. Most recently, I have been enjoying Fire Emblem: Engage. That was, however, until I got Absolute Tactics: Daughters of Mercy. I had received a notification that there were free games including Absolute Tactics: Daughters of Mercy available on Amazon Prime Gaming, and I love free.

Absolute Tactics: Daughters of Mercy follows Huxley, a country kid from a small village. Huxley is in a mountainous area looking for berries when he stumbles upon evil creations. Absolute Tactics uses this little mission as a brief orientation. While learning the controls, I was very much reminded of Final Fantasy Tactics. It has a grid layout and takes the direction the character is facing into account. If any character is hit in the back, it is an automatic critical hit.

This adds an interesting aspect to the title, and that is before the interesting layouts. There was one mission in a volcano looking place where the team was split up. Each side had to fight their way to switches to open the other side up. I really love it when a tactical game throws varied missions in. Having varied objectives and unique challenges help prevent titles from getting too formulaic.

I really liked Huxley’s character. While it was the fairly standard weak character arc, he didn’t whine or complain. There wasn’t that angst that you commonly see in genres like JRPGs. The characters as a whole are interesting and colorful. Personally, I liked the sassy crossbow wielding Roux the best. The characters are also enhanced by a dark fantasy art that is illustrated perfectly. Do I know what the art style is? No.

Columnist Vincent Mahoney went to art school, and I went to business school. All I know is that I like it, and it makes me want to play Absolute Tactics: Daughters of Mercy more. The title of the game, Absolute Tactics: Daughters of Mercy, is a misnomer because people seeing it would likely assume that the Daughters of Mercy are the good guys. Instead, they are four women that assist a big bad evil guy. Their overall plot is fairly harmless though, they are just sacrificing people to suck their soul energy out. I want to add Absolute Tactics: Daughters of Mercy to my new subsection list: Still a Better Story Than Tales of Arise.

That is one of the story hooks I loved the most. The fact that the Daughters of Mercy are actually the ones hellbent on the opposite. It does a good job reflecting how some evil people or groups truly believe they are doing the right thing. I can’t recommend Absolute Tactics: Daughters of Mercy enough. I don’t want to go too much into detail and spoil the story. Need another reason to buy this? Huxley gets an adorable dog companion named Max that will attack enemies for you.

While this might be a short column, it is only to prevent spoiling the interesting story. Anyone who enjoys Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy: Tactics, or similar games will enjoy Absolute Tactics: Daughters of Mercy. Additionally, the environments are lovingly developed, and it’s compatible with a controller as well as keyboard and mouse. Absolute Tactics: Daughters Of Mercy is a turn-based strategy title I don’t want you all to miss out on. Everyone, please enjoy the holidays and spend them with those you care about. I look forward to my next column.

And for those keeping track, I still have not beaten Final Fantasy XIII.