GrimGrimoire OnceMore (NSP, XCI) ROM + v1.10 Update

GrimGrimoire OnceMore is a 2007 real-time strategy video game developed by Vanillaware and published by Nippon Ichi Software (Japan, North America) and Koei (Europe) for the PlayStation 2. The story follows Lillet Blan, a trainee witch who is sent into a repeating cycle of five days after her school is attacked by an evil wizard seeking the hidden Philosopher’s Stone. The player commands units called familiars, each having strengths and weaknesses against the other, with the goal of either destroying the opponent’s bases or surviving waves of enemies.

GAMEPLAY

GrimGrimoire is a two-dimensional (2D) side-scrolling real-time strategy (RTS) video game; players take the role of trainee witch Lillet Blan, who completes both story missions and optional challenge levels. Each main level is bookended by story cutscenes, with the scenario taking place over a repeating five-day period. During the RTS segments, the player takes the role of Lillet Blan, who directs the action while the multi-floored battle area is shown from a side-scrolling perspective. All actions take place in real-time, though gameplay can be paused for the player to issue commands. The environment and enemy movements beyond where the player has explored are obscured by a fog of war. There are three difficulty settings: “Sweet”, “Easy” and “Normal”.

The player fights using units called Familiars. The units are split into four different styles representing the in-game magical schools. The schools are Glamour, Alchemy, Necromancy, and Sorcery, which are unlocked at different points during the story. Each school has a rock-paper-scissors arrangement of strengths and weaknesses among the schools, summoning different associated familiars. The units have different movement abilities, tied to both their group and their movement style.

Units in battle areas are split between the player, allied allied characters, or the level’s enemy force. There are six commands available: Move, Attack, Defend, Heal, Patrol, and Gather. Units are summoned from runes conjured by magical books called Grimoires. Runes can established on each floor of the level, with each three of the twelve available runes aligned to a different form of magic. Establishing runes and summoning Familiars require Mana, magical energy gathered from crystals on some floors using units from the Glamour class. Grimoires can be leveled up, granting access to new and more powerful units. Levels have different win conditions, though many are won by destroying all enemy runes.

SETTING AND CHARACTERS

The action of GrimGrimoire takes place entirely within the Tower of Silver Star, a magic school with ancient roots, over a repeating cycle of five days. In the game’s backstory, Archmage Calvaros cooperated with fellow wizards Gammel Dore and Lujie Piche to create the Philosopher’s Stone, a powerful magical object. Calvaros attempted to use its power for himself, and was killed by Gammel and Lujie; Lujie in turn attempted to use it, and after being killed became a hostile ghost within the Tower.

The main protagonist is Lillet Blan, a talented witch-in-training from a rural area. She is taught by Gammel; the demon Advocat; the half-lion alchemist Chartreuse; and the necromancer Opalnaria. Lillet’s fellow students are the casual and flirtatious Bartido; the upright Hiram; and Margarita, who hails from an area that hunts witches. She also grows close to Amoretta, a homunculus created by Chartruese from an angel’s soul.

PLOT

Lillet Blan arrives at the Tower of Silver Star to begin her schooling. During her first five days, she meets her teachers and fellow students. On her fifth evening, Lillet wakes to find the Tower under attack from Calvaros’s released spirit, who has killed the other teachers and is seeking the Philosopher’s Stone. Before he can kill her, the clock strikes midnight and she is sent back to the beginning of her first day at the Tower. During the next three loops of time, Lillet learns more about the Tower’s inhabitants and her situation.

Calvaros’s power came from a contract with the demon Grimlet, with Grimlet being imprisoned when Calvaros was defeated. The ghost of Lujie is both fuelling Opalnaria’s obsession with Chartruese—who was cursed when he refused Lujie’s advances—and instructing her in a ritual to destroy Grimlet that will fail due to being incomplete. Bartido is a spy from another country sent to find the Philosopher’s Stone. Margarita is revealed to be a spy for Calvaros’s followers, sent to free him. Amoretta possessing an angel’s soul means she can destroy Grimlet by sacrificing herself; in two of the loops, she lets this happen. Lillet also learns the mechanics of demon contracts, including the fact that if a human’s wish is refused the demon is trapped in Hell. She gains the powerful Lemegaton grimoire from Advocat using a contract, which is nullified by the next time loop.

On the fifth loop, Lillet has Lujie prevent Opalnaria from using the incomplete ritual; gives shelter to Amoretta to prevent her from dying; helps settle the feud between Opalnaria and Chartruese, which indirectly leads to a romance between Opalnaria and Hiram; and frees Margarita from Calvaros’s power. Summoning Grimlet with the Lemegaton so he can devour Calvaros, she then makes a contract with him and wishes that he embrace God; refusing the wish, Grimlet is banished to Hell. Discovering the Philosopher’s Stone under her room, she finds an older version of herself. It turns out Lillet has already gone through the cycle of time loops thousands of times, with a version of Lillet remaining near the Stone to ensure the loop remains stable. Lillet breaks the loop by destroying the Philosopher’s Stone, causing her older self to vanish. Lillet graduates and becomes Mage Consul to the country’s capital, Bartido, and Margarita leave the Tower, and Amoretta lives with Lillet. Visiting the Tower years later in her role as Mage Consul, Lillet meets remaining residents again, and learns that Lujie vanished into another world.