Hmm. Played for a few hours and there's a lot to like: good art, clear mechanics. But the actual gameplay is ... just ok. The rocks-paper-scissors aspect of the combat means that a unit can be totally clobbered with one piece of bad positioning; and the win conditions are often something like "you can't lose more than two units," etc. So a wipe is fairly common occurrence. Fortunately, on normal mode, you've unlimited saves, but you should expect a fair bit of loading and reloading until you get the hang. Not a game for newbies to tactical games or for those who want a more casual adventure.

Banner of the Maid's premise definitely stands out : you play as Napoleon Bonaparte's little sister, Pauline Bonaparte, during a slightly altered French Revolution stuck in a stalemate between the Royal Family of France and the Revolutionists.

This particular setting comes with its own twist on how the battles play out. Forget about the classic medieval weaponry, your infantry units fight with rifles and muskets and your cavalry units charge ahead with sabers and swords. There is no magic either, you strike ennemies from afar with artillery instead. You success in battle will partly depend on sticking to the balance between the different types of units, each of them being powerful and weak against others, a mechanic similar to the weapon triangle from Fire Emblem.

Banner of the Maid sticks to a linear system of progression with stat growths being set in stone, however the game does offer some level of customization through stat boosters or passive and active skills that can be bought and arranged freely for every unit; needless to say some skills will be much more impactful than others. Characters can promote to an advanced class once they gained enough XP and with the use of a certain item. Weapons have finite uses but get replenished after every battle so there's no need to rebuy them. That doesn't mean that ressources come cheap though, money is scarce and weapons and items aren't cheap, the player has to choose carefully how to invest the few funds earned after each battle.

Maps mainly revolve around the classic "Defeath every enemy units" or "Defeat the enemy commander" objectives with some twists here and there but the game manages to maintain some level of variety thanks to the different layouts, terrains and weather mechanics sprinkled throughout the maps. Optional skirmishes can be fought between two main battles, these offer some much needed supplementary ressources and XP. On a side note, I would advise every potential player to get the free DL, it adds a new playable character and new optional maps as well.

While the game's setting is innovative, the story won't wow you. That doesn't mean it's bad though, it's serviceable, simple and to the point. The characters follow the same pattern, they won't impress you if you've been playing a lot of Fire Emblem games before but they are functionnal, they get their chance to comment things here and there, some are more important and/or charming than others but I never found any one of them unbearable, quite the opposite in fact. Bear in mind though, that there no support system in this game and no romance , every character get their chance to have a bit of spotlight and that's it.

The cast is comprised of historical figures and fictional characters infused with references to the depicted period in a broad manner. You can tell by looking at the screenshots or the game's description on the Steam page that a lot of liberties have been taken regarding the period, characters and events depicted; should this game catch your attention, you should keep in mind that this is first and foremost a TRPG with an 18th century flair and not an accurate depiction of French history.

Many NPCs and playable characters represent a faction whose relationship with Pauline must be managed to unlock new weapons, items or services to purchase. To raise Pauline's relationship with a faction, the game sometimes offer dialogue choices, each answer will offer ralationship points with a certain faction so that they can in turn offer more products or services to the player. Relationships with factions don't affect the story in any way, it's purely a gameplay mechanic. A word of caution though, maxing out every relationship is doable but really hard without a guide.

If I had to pinpoint two flaws I had with Banner of the Maid, it would be these two :

• Reinforcement. Enemy reinforcements is one thing but them being able to move and act the same turn they spawn on the map can really ruin a battle that has been going well so far. If you played Fire Emblem : Awakening or The Binding Blade then you know how frustrating and unfair this is.
  
  
• The translation. This is a chinese game with a Chinese dub, localized in English. Unfortunately, the translation feels too litteral, it's comprehensible but doesn't feel natural, especially considering the setting in which the game takes place.

These two shortfalls aside, I was really satisfied with Banner of the Maid and I encourage you to get it if you want a good TRPG experience, whether you're used to the genre or a complete beginner.

A solid 7/10 for me.