In video games, simply copying the competition isn’t a winning strategy. Why play something that apes Hades when you could just play Hades? To survive on gaming’s fierce battlefield, developers need to be strategic about how they iterate on what came before to create something new. If you want to see a good example of what I mean this month, check out Grit and Valor 1949.
On its surface, Milky Tea Studios’ new tactics game sure looks like Into the Breach. It’s a roguelite that gives players a squad of mechs and tosses them onto diorama-like grids to fight off incoming enemies. That might sound a little shameless without more context, but Grit and Valor puts a unique spin on an established formula that sets it apart. It may not be as tightly designed or revelatory as the game that inspired it, but Milky Tea’s willingness to experiment allows it to hold its position in a crowded genre.
Grit and Valor 1949 is set in an alternate history version of World War 2 where the Axis hasn’t just won, but also created an army of mechs that is forcing its rivals into labor camps. The Allies respond by making some mechs of their own and setting out on a mission to transport an EMP blast to their foe’s strongholds. It’s a silly premise that isn’t all that interested in World War 2 beyond its label, but the story is hardly the focus here.
Instead, Milky Tea’s attention is on creating a new variation of Into the Breach’s formula. In that game, players moved their carefully mechs around a grid in turn-based combat that made every battle feel like a chess match. The big change in Grit and Valor is that battles happen in real time. I must position my squad around a small square board as waves of enemy robots are dropped in at the edges of the screen. Once they move to the spot I direct them to, they auto-fire as enemies get into range. That makes it feel more like a reactive tower defense game as I need to protect the transport vehicle carrying the EMP blast until it can reach the end of the roguelite run.
It takes me a few tries to wrap my head around the format change. Grit and Valor is a fast-paced game where I need to think on my feet and react to the changing battlefield. It’s imperative that I move my mechs into cover to avoid damage, remember to activate their special abilities, move my transport vehicle out of harm’s way, pick up run-specific mech upgrades that drop during each round, and manage bonus objectives like taking down missile silos before a round ends. It can feel a little too busy at times, especially once I need to move my mechs in and out of grid squares as missiles rain down on them. Trying to keep the Fire Emblem-style wheel of mech type advantages amid all that especially feels like one bridge too far. The pause button became my best friend after a while so I could map out exactly where I needed everyone to be before things got too hectic.
Once I figured that out, Grit and Valor opened up to me. I found a solid groove as I learned to use my squad efficiently. I figured out how to use my cargo car to pick up upgrades while my mechs held the line, which doubles as a good evasive maneuver. I got better at positioning my long-range sniper bot so that it could both hit enemy bots from afar and fire at optional objectives when the frontline had things under control. I got a better handle on how to create mech builds with the random upgrades I got every run, reinforcing my close-range robots’ defense while upping the power of my backline units. I add a bit more to my strategic knowledge each time, which helps to break up the somewhat repetitive nature of its roguelite arena battle gauntlet.
That’s all by design, as Milky Tea expects players to fail and grow. There’s a meta progression system underneath the basic run, where players can spend different currencies to unlock new mechs, equip them with perks, boost their pilots’ stats, and research run-changing upgrades. Though that does make each run feel useful as I’m earning resources even in defeat, it does make it feel like the deck is stacked against me early on. There’s no real hope that I’ll win until I unlock the ability to have three mechs on my squad instead of two. It isn’t as restrictive as something like Warriors: Abyss, a roguelite that can’t really be cleared at all without nabbing a certain number of upgrades, but I never want to feel like there’s no point in trying to win even in an early run.
Even with some struggles, I’m glad that Grit and Valor 1949 doesn’t just copy Into the Breach’s notes and leave it at that. This is a tactics game that sees a lot of flexibility in its inspiration’s format and tries to take a new approach with it. It’s unlikely to become a genre classic, but Milky Tea has earned a medal here. I look forward to seeing how the studio approaches its next battle.
Grit and Valor 1949 is out now on PC.
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