Skygard Arena Review

Whatever else Skygard Arena may be, it’s undoubtedly ambitious. It aims to unify the character diversity of a MOBA, like League of Legends, with the turn-based tactical combat of something like XCOM. The game doesn’t quite succeed in reaching its loftiest ambitions, but it makes a valiant attempt.

Skygard Arena is the debut title from French studio Gemelli Games. For a small team, they’re attempting a pretty vast undertaking here in creating a potential eSport. Players can build teams featuring three of ten possible champions, each of whom can adopt one of two different “personas”, which are effectively alternative playstyles. Champions can also be equipped with a variety of different relics that further change their loadout.

Brewing up different team combinations is where the game is at its most engaging. Combining the strengths of different champions in synergistic ways feels very rewarding. For example, Na Jima, the archer, dishes out heaps of damage to enemies in a straight line. Since the other team isn’t likely to helpfully arrange themselves in a single-file formation, though, you can support Na Jima by playing her alongside Champei, the Wind Guardian, who excels at manipulating the position of the opposition.

Not every fighter in this arena is 100% balanced. The developers recently had to rein in Daerio, a rapier and pistol-wielding duellist whose single-target damage output could shred through the competition a little too quickly for comfort. Since Gemelli Games is monitoring the meta, hopefully nothing too broken will emerge without being patched.

13-mission-long

Aside from online matchmaking, there’s also a 13-mission-long campaign that takes approximately six hours to complete. The story here sadly doesn’t have the same depth as Skygard’s tactical combat. The world is populated by five factions, which have a lot of scope for interesting conflict, though it sadly never quite gets fully explored. Some of the dialogue also comes across as a bit wooden. This may be a localization issue, and the original French script may have flowed more smoothly, but characters will often employ idioms that don’t quite sound right and speak in slightly stilted sentences.

There are also some issues with the level of polish given to the game's systems. A major part of the play experience is applying buffs and debuffs to bolster allies and hinder opponents. While all of these effects have their own icons in the interface, they don’t get displayed on characters to show when they have been pumped up or weakened. This information can still be gleaned by mousing over them, but it would be very useful to be able to see this at a glance. Similarly, one of the missions in the campaign revolves around seizing an objective and holding it for ten turns. No countdown appears on screen to indicate how much of this time has passed and how long remains, though, leaving the player needing to track this information mentally. These problems aren’t deal-breaking and could be resolved with an update, but as it stands, they add friction that makes the experience less smooth.

One aspect of the game that’s not lacking in polish, though, is its menus. This is especially true for the main campaign interface, which is a giant scrollable panorama depicting key scenes from the story. It’s a lot like the Bayeux Tapestry, except it’s elves, angels, and magically enhanced bear folk duking it out rather than Saxons and Normans.

Skygard Arena is an ambitious project, and Gemelli Games’ goal of creating a grid-based DOTA is certainly exciting. The core gameplay is engaging, and team building offers a variety of tactical decisions. Unfortunately, issues with its presentation, a story that doesn’t entirely utilise the world that has been built for it, and the brevity of its campaign hold Skygard Arena back from fully realising the grand objectives of its designers.