Ambition of the Slimes is a tactical roleplaying game where the player wrangles an army of vulnerable slimes. By themselves, these cute critters are squishy and easily defeated but they have a trick up their sleeve: they can possess enemy units.
Created by altairworks, Ambition of the Slimes offers a quick blast of tactics action with a fun core mechanic. Early rounds of combat focus on positioning and slowly building an army of possessed heroes that can then turn around and beat up their former comrades. Picking the right units to steal for your own is a good little puzzle in of itself.
The combat is standard tactics fare, with terrain and elemental bonuses that give units benefits depending on who they are attacking. Raised terrain grants an advantage, for example, and elemental affinity between water, grass, and fire makes for a simple rock, paper, scissors approach to battles. Once you possess your chosen units, Ambition of the Slimes feels like a familiar RPG. Still, learning to position units so that magical attacks hit multiple enemies, or to take advantage of the terrain is a good time.
Ambition of the Slimes falters a bit in production quality. The bright sprite work is expressive but lack of combat animations can make fights feel a bit like smashing action figures together. A rough translation and generic storyline make it difficult to care for the plot. The real draw is the sly joy of possessing enemies and turning the tides of battle. When Ambition of the Slimes clicks, there’s nothing better that kidnapping a knight and going on a rampage across the battlefield.
You can play Ambition of the Slimes on PC, Nintendo Switch, and the 3DS.