| GrimGrimoire | |
|---|---|
 North American PS2 cover art | |
| Developer(s) | Vanillaware[a] |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Director(s) | George Kamitani |
| Producer(s) | Sohei Niikawa |
| Designer(s) | Takehiro Shiga |
| Artist(s) | Kouichi Maenou |
| Writer(s) | George Kamitani |
| Composer(s) |
|
| Platform(s) | |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Real-time strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
GrimGrimoire[b] is a 2007 real-time strategy video game developed by Vanillaware and published by Nippon Ichi Software (Japan, North America) and Koei (Europe) for the PlayStation 2. A remaster, GrimGrimoire OnceMore was released in Japan on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in 2022 and worldwide, along with a PlayStation 5 version, in 2023. The story follows Lillet Blan, a trainee witch who is sent into a repeating cycle of five days after her school is attacked by an evil wizard seeking the hidden Philosopher's Stone. The player commands units called familiars, each having strengths and weaknesses against the other, with the goal of either destroying the opponent's bases or surviving waves of enemies.
GrimGrimoire was born from Vanillaware staff wanting to create their version of StarCraft, beginning development after completion of their first title Odin Sphere. Due to various factors, GrimGrimoire was released before Odin Sphere, becoming the company's Japanese debut while also draining its funds. Writer and director George Kamitani based the setting on Atelier Marie: The Alchemist of Salburg and the Harry Potter series. The music was composed by a team from Basiscape led by company founder Hitoshi Sakimoto. The remaster included expanded gameplay, enhanced graphics, and a new voice cast.
Upon release, the game met a generally positive reception; praise went to its narrative and implementation of RTS gameplay on a console, but many faulted the audio and controls. Despite Kamitani planning sequels, GrimGrimoire was a commercial failure and Nippon Ichi Software did not continue the series. The character Lujie Piche crossed over into Nippon Ichi Software's Soul Nomad & the World Eaters as part of the two companies' collaboration. Vanillaware would later reimagine their early gameplay and presentation ideas for GrimGrimoire in 2019's 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).