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GrimGrimoire was originally released in 2007 on the PlayStation 2. The remastered version has the same story but adds graphical enhancements, new Japanese voice acting, and the ability to fast forward and save mid-battle. The hard difficulty has been adjusted as well. I played on the easy and normal difficulty settings. I did not play on the hard difficulty. You can expect around ten hours of gameplay.

Like the original game, GrimGrimoire OnceMore begins with Lillet Blan arriving at the Tower of Silver to learn magic. She is instructed not to leave her room at night for her own safety. There are stories of dangerous witches and archmages roaming about. There’s an interesting cast of characters between the students and faculty. One of the teachers is a devil, and another has been cursed to have the appearance of a lion. Some of the classmates are timid, while others are full of themselves, which leads to some entertaining conversations.

The gameplay is broken down into days, and Lillet will be provided with and instructed on how to use different grimoires throughout the game. On the fifth night, the school is overthrown, and Lillet is the only survivor. She’ll wake up back on the first day and will retain all her knowledge and will have to re-evaluate how to proceed in order to save the school and classmates. Throughout each run, Lillet will learn about different character flaws, which whittles out who she can trust amongst the students and faculty members.

GrimGrimoire OnceMore plays mostly like a real-time strategy with tower defense elements. You’ll start with at least one rune to protect and a few starting familiars. The starting units are typically elves, imps, or ghosts which are needed to gather mana from nearby crystals. Mana is a crucial resource needed to build or summon anything. Because of this, you’ll want to spawn a few more gatherers to speed up the influx of mana. It won’t take long for enemies to appear, so you’ll need to level up your runes to create fighters or spawn some runes capable of creating offensive and defensive units.

There are four magic types (glamour, necromancy, sorcery, and alchemy), and they all have similar defensive structures as well as a boss-like unit. It’s wise to have turrets near your crystals and runes to keep the mana mining going without interruptions.

The 2D maps have walls, stairs, and gaps to navigate and explore. Flying units like fairies are not restricted, but other units may need to be ferried over with the help of Charon’s ghost ship. It’s a good idea to send scouting parties in sizable groups. You’ll have to factor in that not all units move at the same speed, so you’ll have to manually set up a rally point. Other commands like Patrol and Defend can be automated.

The win condition is typically to wipe out all of your opponent’s rune circles. It’s game over for you when your rune circles are all gone. Keep an eye on your mana and crystals. Their supply is finite, and you’ll have to source another crystal once they’re depleted. You can cripple your enemy by taking over their crystals, but prepare for a good fight to get them.

After winning a battle, you’ll be assigned a rank (gold, silver, bronze) and earn a few coins. You can spend these coins in a tech tree for each rune type. You can increase the speed, health, and attack power for most familiars. If you’re hitting a brick wall due to a difficulty spike, you can fight trial battles to earn more coins. Trial battles don’t impact the game’s story at all.

Graphically, GrimGrimoire OnceMore’s 2D art is amazing. I love the art style, but I wish it wasn’t so sexualized. Many of the female characters are busty and only a sneeze away from a wardrobe malfunction. The succubus guardian familiars show off their buttocks. Some of the male characters have bulging crotches, so the sexualized imagery is even-handed.

While GrimGrimoire OnceMore isn’t overly violent, there is some bloodshed shown. However, the blood isn’t red, but black and shown when imps are defeated.

The occult references are just as blatant as the sexualized imagery. Magic use in this game is unavoidable. You’ll be using Wiccan-themed magic and necromancy. There are references to various religions and some characters are shown forging contracts with the devil teacher. The sorcery rune has the head of Baphomet hovering over it.

The English voice acting is well done, and I’m happy to report that I didn’t hear foul language. The background music is pleasant to listen to and sets the mood nicely. I like how each unit type has their own phrases and sound effects.

Like other Vanillaware titles, GrimGrimoire OnceMore is well-polished with amazing (but heavily sexualized) artwork. The gameplay is fun, but the difficulty spikes can be brutal and will require grinding to power up your units. Although the characters are likable, and the story is good, I’m not fond of the heavy occult references and required magic use to play the game.