Bite-sized Review:
Together in Battle

By Chris Picone, 06 May, 2025

After all this time, full release!  Together in Battle has been a long time coming. It's the latest title by Sinister, the developers behind Telepath Tactics. Together in Battle's story is a little weaker than I expected or would have liked  - the gladiator aspect isn't sure whether it's the main part of the story or the distraction - but the combat's great. And between the constant character level-ups and wanting to know "whodunnit," I found it very addictive. I got a little carried away writing this article and included a few of my top tips at the bottom. Hope they help!

Aesthetics

If you've played Telepath Tactics, the audio and visuals are identical (or close enough that my untrained eyes can't tell the difference).  If you haven't, the aesthetics are very heavily inspired by Fire Emblem. The graphics are very functional - the characters all look great and while the in-level environments look good, the importance of the functionality of the tile; its type and height and effect, is paramount - though at the expense of aesthetics like integration between tiles.  Much of the story is told through visual novel-style dialogue scenes, and yes there is some choice & consequence, although you frequently won't discover the consequences until much later in the game.  

Gameplay

Turn-based tactical combat is very much the focus of TiB. What I love about it most is that teamwork is absolutely imperative; if you go in trying to place your 6 fighters against your opponent's, you're going to take some heavy losses. Your whole team takes its turn simultaneously so you're able to move characters closer to healers before moving on, or use a character to provoke an enemy before another character attacks, or set up buffs or de-buffs, or manipulate positioning to best effect in the following turn. There's a huge range of character classes to play with, and of course you'll face off against the same range. The environment plays a huge part; it dictates fire lanes, bottle necks, and dead zones. It also features a range of obstacles and traps.  The battle system is very well thought out and thorough, which is great because you'll spend the vast majority of your time fighting battles in the gladiatorial arena. The kingdom manager component is fairly simple but trying to maintain or purchase new equipment and keep morale and training high while managing overheads adds a very welcome distraction. You'll also spend your spare time while characters rest and heal between battle conducting guard duty, exploring caverns for treasure, playing card battles for money - and investigating a coup! The arena battles did become a little tired after a while but you'll also face the odd random encounter along the way. There's plenty of variety and you'll probably settle in for 2-3 play throughs - if you're anything like me, you'll die the first time while you learn, then finish with one of the "bad" achievements, and then go back for the win. 

Verdict

While I did find Together in Battle lacking in some areas, the overall experience was fantastic. I rarely get time to finish any games anymore but I played TiB through to completion twice (not including my first dismal playthrough while I got my head around the mechanics - we don't talk about that). If you're a fan of Fire Emblem or any other Tactics (think: Final Fantasy Tactics) games, you should love TiB. 

My Top Tips

• Go for the throat: The only good enemy is a dead enemy. Gang up and wipe them out one at a time, as fast as you can: If they're dead, they can't attack you. And if you don't kill them, they're likely to heal up and you'll just have to deal all that damage all over again. 

• Watch your back: The enemy will use the same tactic on you.  Never leave your characters exposed for back attacks and try to position yourself in such a way that the enemy can never gang up on any of your characters.

• Equipment: Focus pills are your best friend! Give some to every character and ensure your assassins, healers, and mages have several. These characters are as good as dead with no energy.  The pills are cheap and don't cost an action to use so there's no reason not to top up any time you need it. Bandages or food are also handy in a pinch when your healer can't reach you in time.

• Be efficient: Limit your trips to the shops. Buy a huge stack of food, stock up your bandages and pills, and grab a few emergency items like repair kits so you don't have to return for  along time. The arena takes two time slots so if you go to the shop you can't fight. And although you can send your fighters on guard duty, which theoretically takes the other slot, your fighters are gone for two days which means you also can't fight tomorrow. The only time that's ever worth it is if half your team's in the infirmary so the other half your team can at least earn some money while you wait. Best use for the second slot when you do have to go shopping is to play in a card tourney when it's available (and if it isn't available I'll often save my shopping trip until tomorrow when it is!) While caravan guard missions are fun to fight, they and the labouring jobs are almost never worth it. 

• Use your secondary abilities - skills like sprint, alert, etc. that don't end the turn - liberally.  Every turn if you can. Because every time you use them, you get some XP, and the cost of pills to cover the energy loss is well worth it. 

• Heroes: When you start the game, you're recommended to take at least 6 heroes for your starting team.  Don't: Pick 8 instead (and bring that to 10 when you can buy golems!).  And you will definitely need variety!

• Mobile:  I don't think there are any wrong answers here. The cavalier is tough and the charge attack is amazing. On the other hand, spriggats are weaker but can fly and are more dynamic, usually bringing both melee and psychic attacks as well as some support skills (blind & healing are both great!).

• Tank:  Swordsman, spearman, axeman. Your pick, honestly.  Personally I prefer the spearman because the range 2 attack lets you attack through obstacles or prop him behind a golem, but this one's very much down to what you like. You probably want two of these. 

• Healer: The Psy Healer is your obvious choice here but I actually like the Gasul better. He is a little slower to level up into your stronger healing spells but he's much easier to keep alive and can be used to beat face with his mace in a pinch.  My other recommendation here is to select another mage that you like (eg. skiakineticist) and, after you've levelled him up enough to snag a couple of decent spell attacks, paradigm train him into a psy healer. Keeping a dedicated healer sounds annoying but when your characters are knocked out of battle it's crippling - not just for the battle but also potentially for the next several days - so it's worth keeping their health topped up constantly.

• Assassin:  He's super weak in the early game so you'll need to do as the in-game hints suggest: let his team mates put the damage down and then have your assassin snag the kills wherever possible. Mid- to late-game, the assassin turns into a one-man army. He can bounce from one end of the screen to the other and then back attack the most powerful character for a one-hit-kill in turn one. Seriously, the assassin gets ridiculous.

• Mage/support: TiB has so much variety and so many layers of mechanics, you'll need to be adaptive to succeed.  For some reason there's a huge range of these to choose from in TiB; you'll need to experiment and pick the right one for your play style.  Depending on your choice, they can blind or stun enemies, use ranged attacks to support your tanks, speed boost your troops for better positioning, debuff enemies to get past resistances, buff damage to ensure lethality, etc.  Mages are also crucial for getting past golem defences. They're invaluable.

• Golems:  When you get the opportunity to buy some, do.  Get two if you can afford them. For some reason, player-controlled golems seem to be much weaker than their enemy-controlled counterparts but it doesn't matter.  They're expensive but once you own them you own them - no ongoing salary!  They're also really hard to kill: Aside from their high HP and resistances, when they're about to die they shut down instead. They also don't consume any food and while your other party members are canoodling, they're self-repairing, and can usually return to full HP & energy in a day or two. So, no trips to the infirmary. Unfortunately, they can't be sent to the trainer, but having them always at home can be handy when you find yourself ambushed at night.

Links: 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1267210/Together_in_Battle/