Arietta of Spirits
Arietta of Spirits
Game
Game2019
Banner of the Maid
Developer Azure Flame Studio
Banner of the Maid is a tribute to the golden age of tactical RPGs. Set in an alternate French Revolution, you play as Pauline Bonaparte, commanding your army on smoke-filled battlefields and navigating the turbulent political salons of Paris to forge a heroic epic like no other. From the Steam store page
200 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy, Mastodon) · newest Oct 19, 2026 · last updated Oct 20, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
65
Fresh
114 positive · 62 negative
95% range 57–71%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 114 | 62 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 4 | 0 | 16 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Mastodon * | 1 | 0 | 1 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mostly Positive
544 of 681 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
66% recommend · 122 yes, 63 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 185 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (7,233 of 8,374 positive).
The English translation is widely criticized as poor, with awkward phrasing and grammar issues. [1][2][3] Some reviewers find the late-game difficulty spike and required grinding frustrating. [4][5][6]
Liked
Representative posts
- [6]
I really like this style of game, which is why I scooped it up when on sale. Overall the game is fine with good mechanics and challenging missions. However, there is two glaring negatives that makes this game so frustrating. The first is scalability, the game forces you to do side quests to level up your units because if you don't the levels get to hard too fast. These side quests are repetitive, mundane and take up …
- [3]
The English translation is atrocious and was enough to dissuade me from ever picking this up again. The entire script sounds like it was ran through an AI translation service. The gameplay itself isn't bad, from what I played, but that translation....oof
- [14]
Easily one of the better SRPGs around, only held back by subpar voice acting (which can be muted) and some sluggish animations (which can be sped up with CE). People complaining about 'sudden/unexpected reinforcements' clearly can’t grasp tooltips written in plain English, so their reviews can be safely ignored. The later chapters are best enjoyed on General difficulty for maximum masochism, as the combat difficulty …
- [9]
Don't be deceived by its look. It features beautiful art, but it's not to make you forgive a bad game. On the contrary, it's quite good! The main thing I noticed and will remember is how perfectly balanced the game is. You'll often find yourself in dire situations, with enemy reinforcements adding to the pressure, and yet you'll always find a way to break through and win. I can't imagine how many hours of …
- [4]
A good game, but also, a grindy one Look, the art is beautiful, and the girls are even more beautiful (you'd expect the Japanese to be the one to turn French revolutionary history into anime girls, but the Chinese were the ones to do it here), but what you're here for is the gameplay. This plays heavily like Fire Emblem, and at the beginning and up to the middle of the game you have your own way of solving the …
Summarised from 34 of the 211 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 11, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
66% of the 185 Steam reviewers we collected recommend Banner of the Maid. The complaint that keeps coming up: poor English translation with awkward wording. Deal-breaker or nitpick?
Reactions
60 of 200 · most liked firstI really like this style of game, which is why I scooped it up when on sale. Overall the game is fine with good mechanics and challenging missions. However, there is two glaring negatives that makes this game so frustrating. The first is scalability, the game forces you to do side quests to level up your units because if you don't the levels get to hard too fast. These side quests are repetitive, mundane and take up a ridiculous amount of time, I'd say taht half my in game hours were taken up…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really saddens me to thumb this down, because as a Frenchman who enjoys his anime, I was having a blast with the "unhinged otaku" take on my country's history and culture. The Chinese devs basically took all the things Asian people think are cool about France's past (Jeanne d'Arc, Napoleon, etc...) and blended it all in an unmistakably "manga/manhua" story and world with fanservice, over the top scenes, moe archetypes, and all the jazz we weebs enjoy. Some might say it's cultural appropriation,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Azure Flame Studio's SRPG "Banner of the Maid" has now added Japanese battle command voiceovers to the game, and is celebrating with an 80% off discount. They have also teased future updates. store.steampowered.com/app/994730/B...
neutral · AI labelView post →Maybe worth it if its on a really deep sale, but the translation is too rough to play
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So called Ally characters have a strong impulse to commit suicide and cause you to fail the mission, reinforcement for enemies only and late changes to win or lose conditions.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Easily one of the better SRPGs around, only held back by subpar voice acting (which can be muted) and some sluggish animations (which can be sped up with CE). People complaining about 'sudden/unexpected reinforcements' clearly can’t grasp tooltips written in plain English, so their reviews can be safely ignored. The later chapters are best enjoyed on General difficulty for maximum masochism, as the combat difficulty ramps up sharply and managing your (very) limited resources becomes the most…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Do not buy this game. If you are enticed by the old school tactical RPG aesthetics, know that you will become frustrated almost immediately by instantaneous failure conditions that have only one real solution. Tactics and strategy are meaningless; you have no chance in certain missions aside from memorizing one particular pattern to avoid the death of mission critical units. You are encouraged to level up your main character by using her in combat, but in so doing you open her to being…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Don't be deceived by its look. It features beautiful art, but it's not to make you forgive a bad game. On the contrary, it's quite good! The main thing I noticed and will remember is how perfectly balanced the game is. You'll often find yourself in dire situations, with enemy reinforcements adding to the pressure, and yet you'll always find a way to break through and win. I can't imagine how many hours of playtesting it required to be so close to perfection. Highly recommended to any tactical…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Short version. You can beat the game on the hardest difficulty with minimal grind if you play strategic. Story is nothing magical but it is kind of slow with the political schemed story. 7/10 Ignore the rabble. People are complaining about the difficulty, scaling, and grind. It is an RPG, playing on the hardest difficulty I have had to retry 2 missions. Yes you can spend countless hours leveling your people to make things super easier and that is an OPTION. If you are struggling because you…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If I already played Fire Emblem then Banner of Main is definitely worth a try with few tweaks. If not just emulate those, then given Reverse Collapse a try and only after that return here. Only if you are a frankophile go straight for this. Gameplay Gameplay wise it's a classic SRPG with rock-paper-scissor combat sprinkled with some VN elements for story telling. Still the environments are quite nice, varied (not to mention they fit the story) and often quite well balanced. It's nothing…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A good game, but also, a grindy one Look, the art is beautiful, and the girls are even more beautiful (you'd expect the Japanese to be the one to turn French revolutionary history into anime girls, but the Chinese were the ones to do it here), but what you're here for is the gameplay. This plays heavily like Fire Emblem, and at the beginning and up to the middle of the game you have your own way of solving the battles you are given, upgrading your units / heroes and making tactical decisions…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The foundational mechanics of this game made it seem like a pretty decent SRPG, however there were two significant issues that made me lose all interest halfway through the game. Firstly, the writing was extremely lackluster, not only due to the poor translation (filled with awkward wording and grammar) but also the lack of any development whatsoever. The story had not amounted to anything significant by the time I dropped the game, it seemed to just be bridging the gap between missions.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The English translation is atrocious and was enough to dissuade me from ever picking this up again. The entire script sounds like it was ran through an AI translation service. The gameplay itself isn't bad, from what I played, but that translation....oof
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Banner of the Maid Switch (played via Switch 2 BC) Does it play offline? Yes Does it require a download? No The BC layer seems to make the game freeze for brief moments. Doesn't cause any major problems, though. A big THX to Super Rare Games for the review copy.
neutral · AI labelView post →Enemy Army: Loses when completely wiped out Your Army: Loses when the two or three weakest members are sniped out One poor game design decision is all it takes.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Chinese Fire Emblem game with a French Revolution setting. Surprisingly good actually.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is not a turn-based strategy game, but just a lame puzzle game. The map design does not allow for multiple strategies to win, but rather only allows one very specific way to play it to win. It gets worse the further you get in the game, because the difficulty spikes are huge, some maps feel like there is only 1 exact action sequence to victory. Practically this results in a lot of try and error to figure out the correct approach to a map, which is just tedious and not fun at all.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Its like Final Fantasy Tactics.Fun game but difficulty scaling goes up dramatically after midgame so much that nobody will be ready for it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →French Fire Emblem with idiosyncratic (you like that?) translations (Crash them!), a very fun, alternate history take on the French Revolution and a tiny bit of magic. Interesting tactics, characters, and mechanics along with some unlockable character hijinx made for a very fun playthrough, though one I probably won't repeat. This game definitely was designed for the male gaze; if fan service is a deal breaker then go ahead and ignore, if you can atleast look past it, though I know its more…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hmm. Played for a few hours and there's a lot to like: good art, clear mechanics. But the actual gameplay is ... just ok. The rocks-paper-scissors aspect of the combat means that a unit can be totally clobbered with one piece of bad positioning; and the win conditions are often something like "you can't lose more than two units," etc. So a wipe is fairly common occurrence. Fortunately, on normal mode, you've unlimited saves, but you should expect a fair bit of loading and reloading until you…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a fun little pseudo-historical turn-based strategy game, with some cute french waifus. The gameplay is the main draw, it's very similar to Fire Emblem but more forgiving with no-perma-death and free opportunities to level grind. It's simple to understand but there is a lot of depth with the skills you can learn. The music is fine, the story is fine. It suffers from some not-so-great Chinese to English translation errors, but it does the job of getting you to the next fight. The girls…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An alternative history of the French Revolution sounded like fertile ground for a great narrative. Plus with the edition of cool anime characters and battles, with big brain strategy elements, while learning a bit about history and love and war, it felt like an idea with a lot of potential. However the execution is quite poor. The story/dialogue feels uninspired, possibly due to a low quality translation. The characters feel like you're interacting with sentences copy-pasted from wikipedia. The…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TL;DR: This game is too grindy without variety. This game has way too many skills that you can never afford to unlock and play around with. More than half of my hours of playtime have been replaying the same exact quest on repeat. Not even guaranteed money each time you run it. If you don't make the correct dialogue choices, you don't unlock the best weapons. You'll struggle just to afford promotions anyways.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun little turn based strategy game. The story line is ok, nothing amazing about full story but good enough to keep you engaged during the play thru. The art work is great, especially if you like the JRPG style anime girls. The only bad thing I can say about it is the game play can be a little repetitive the longer you play. After first few levels it doesn't really introduce many new concepts as the game goes along. At about half way thru the story you may be bored and only continuing…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Yes, I definitely needed to imagine Robespierre and Antoinette in the same room. Love the story idea, and if you like things about the Napoleonic era-- or just like Rose of Versailles for that matter-- you'll feel at home here. Really simple yet deep enough in complexity to keep you wanting more. Definitely recommend to get the DLC! Hint Hint: This game will sometimes turn out to be more puzzle solving than you think so be prepared to have to fight in a "this-way-or-highway" manner in order…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I usually don't write reviews I love playing this game and it's getting hate for no reason, the english is not the best, that is true, but even a non native speaker like me was able to understand the story, the story is nice but don't expect an extraordinary one. One guy said combat is more of a puzzle of finding the right path and that is not true, finding a good path helps but knowing counters and which units work best together is the most important part, and if you just want to wind through…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love strategical JRPGs and was looking forward to this one. But within the first 2 hours I got so bored that I quit... The dialogues of the characters feel lenghty and empty. Even though there is so much talk (like the main characters saying like every 30 seconds that she doesn't want to command because she can't bear soldiers dying under her command...) it's hard to understand the main story, like what is going on etc., it's really just a confusing gibberish. The battle system itself looks…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Major balancing problems. This would be a great tactical RPG except for 2 HUGE flaws. After about 7 battles you start getting arbitrary time limits and these are way too short. The win condition isn't usually defeat a certain enemy, its defeat ALL enemies. What makes this difficult is they don't move until you get within a certain range. Enemies will camp out on the far side of the map not doing anything thing. So you have to play super aggressive and push hard because you don't have enough…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is another one of those "Yes, but..." or "No, unless..." type of recommendations. You "armies" (each represented by a character on the map) and the enemy face off on the map. There are some terrain bonuses (standing in the grass gives you better dodge, for example). Sometimes, unexpected events may happen...reinforcements or weather may change your plan. But...speaking of plans...that was sort of my issue here. The units don't have a ton of health. Since you move all your…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ahhhh my ears. Why do the french sound chinese??? What the hell? I really wish they used french voice actors because French is such a beautiful language, but hearing chinese instead really ruins the game for me, I don't know why. I like the way the game looks visually and the gameplay, but damn I wish they would fix the voices. Also the ui is not great, like I'll click on stuff just to see what it does and it moves the story along with any warning. Anyways, I like the concept and like…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TLDR: Beautiful Visuals Can’t Save a Frustrating Experience -Pro's: Visuals & Historical setting -Neg's: Story is confusing at times, dialogue is flat and lenghty at times & harsh mission fail conditions in mid-game and end-game missions What initially drew me to this game were the historical setting, the genre, and the visuals. The graphics and artwork are definitely the game's strongest suits. However, after finishing the main story, I find I cannot recommend it. While the plot has…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Next up is Banner of the Maid, a Chinese-made game about the French Revolution. It's probably the SPRG I've played that is the most like FE:Fates in gameplay. There are a lot of PCs (most of them cute women) and a lot of fighting styles which makes it replayable.
positive · AI labelView post →Rating : 2/5 Decent effort, but hard to defend this title Banner of the Maid is an awkward rendition of the turn-based grid-based tactical RPG. Poor (or missing) translations suck out any potential charm from its mediocre story involving fantastical mysticism during the French Revolution. Meanwhile, the gameplay is just not very engaging, nor rewarding. I will offer that the game did have some stand-out moments, and some credit is deserved for making the maps feel very distinct, however,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Welcome to Banner of The Maid An indie turn-based strategy game that is worth the money. After playing this game, I’m much more interested in checking out the developers other turn-based games as well (especially if they go on a major discount). If anything, Banner of the Maid feels like the quality standard I’d expect from this studio going forward. Minus/complaints: Why this game is very good: Strong French influences, complete with Napoleon references and all. An anime-inspired art…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cool aesthetics and the gameplay is easy to get into. The problem is that the game's idea of "challenge" is throwing absurd rules, difficulty spikes and having you depend on sheer dumb luck. Just get a real SRPG instead of this mess.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ruined by turn limits... I forget exactly how many levels this change comes in, maybe 10 or so. This changes the game from tactics to an optimisation puzzle where there really is only one way to finish the level and you either luck into it the first time or replay until you do. This completely changes the nature of the game. At the start you can play the game on your own terms, being aggressive or defensive as and when you like and figuring things out as you explore the level. This is made…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So anime Napoleon had a younger sister called Pauline Bonaparte who was also a very gifted military commander and fought in the French Revolution bearing the magic banner that once belonged to Jeanne D'Arc, and Banner of the Maid allows you to experience her adventures and meet all sorts of anime-fied historical figures in a turn-based strategy RPG in the style of Final Fantasy Tactics and similar games. The English translation has some issues, but nothing too terrible, and I ultimately had…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'd say for the price, the game is "fine". Nothing special, just...fine. It does scratch that Fire Emblem itch and the setting is refreshing (and comically absurd because of the Chinese voices, but I kinda like it), but the gameplay itself feels kinda bland. It has everything one could want from a game like this, but it doesn't really "click" for me. For a game that relies heavily on its story to keep you going, the mediocre translation is a disappointment. I also find that the entire pacing…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pros - A unique setting. I can't say I've ever played a game based on French history that replaces iconic characters with "waifus" and is voiced in Chinese! - Visuals are decent. The character portraits frankly look like AI art but at least the attack animations are clean. Cons - Combat takes too long. This game could have really used a speed up function, instead I just used 3X speed on cheat engine to balance it out - Later maps feel more frustrating than fun. For example, there's a mission…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pretty good turn-based strategy game albeit with quite a lot of problems story and gameplay wise The combat is good and you never feel like you have a lack of troops against an overwhelming odds of foes, even if they have more unit types that can counter yours. Story is kinda meh to be honest, first half makes sense and enjoyable but second half is where it starts to fall over itself and become confusing or disconnected. Visually the game looks great, characters are well done and the map…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Banner of the Maid is a strategy RPG by Azure Flame Studio, taking place in an alternate history French Revolution. I had seen this game pop up in store and on some videos but didn’t really know much about it. Other than the very… bust-forwardness of its characters… but it’s a strategy rpg that had some similarities to Fire Emblem and promised character development, deep story, and engaging combat. So naturally, I had to give it a go. Starting with the visuals, the game looks pretty great. The…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Art from the video game Banner of the Maid.
neutral · AI labelView post →Game is alright but feels like they rushed to finish it and has alot of smaller problems but I would still recommend it for the low price. The biggest issue in gameplay is that almost every map has enemy reinforcements that often spawn behind you and sometimes can move as soon as they spawn. While the game doesnt feature perma death, losing two units already costs you more money than you make in a mission forcing you to reset in trial and error. The balance is another issue. Game and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →the barebones mechanics of this game contradict each other. most missions require both speed in caution in ways that make most missions less of an rpg like game and more like a puzzle. because there really is only one way to complete most missions unless you grind for hours. most missions require you to not let more than three companions die, but also require you to complete the mission in so many turns. so which is it to you want me to play fast or cautious i dont know how many times i soft…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Vaguely amusing, but sluggish interface detracts from the gameplay experience.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I gave this a go despite some reviews warning me off, because it's cheap and I was a huge fan of old tactical JRPGs like tactics ogre, final fantasy tactics, vandal hearts, etc. I agree with other reviews that the chinese voice acting is very jarring in a game where you're playing Napolean's sister. A couple of reviews mentioned being able to turn voices off, but you don't even get access to a menu until you're in your HQ a few battles into the game, so it wasn't the easiest to find. The…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Interesting idea, but bad execution. Would welcome French or English voice acting much more had to pretty much mute it since Chinese voice acting does not fit at all.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →How will this affect Napoleon's legacy?
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Playing as Napoleon's sister is pretty fun. I love how the in-game sprites animate the kind of battles you'd see in the era of musket firearm warfare.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An excellent SRPG that's very reminiscent of the GBA Fire Emblems
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Liked: - Fun reimagining of historical events - Solid tactical gameplay - Treasure and challenges provide good optional objectives - Weapons and skills provide good unit customization - Reputation system ties mechanical progression to narrative progression Disliked: - Writing and narrative could be a bit confusing at times - Units lacked variety and combat niches (tank, glass cannon, etc) - Some maps are underwhelming and do not foster creative strategy - Linearity of reputation…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is as mediocre as they come if you are hoping for a good Turn-Based Strategy game. Yes, I am into anime girls, yes I am into JRPG's too. Ok, ok. I am into cool medieval & World War esque settings too! HOWEVER! 1)There is no excuse for the game having crappy translations, to the point where I am not sure if the story sucked, or the team doing the translations did such a bad job. Either way, it made the story boring and forced me to give up on it. 2)It also does not help that the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gameplay wise, It's crap. Nuff said. I get paying homage to Fire Emblem and old time RTS and all, I mean, hey I played Fire Emblem too, but surely some things can be made better than literally copying, especially on QoL side. Buying 20+ weapons / armors / consumable 1 by 1, then scrolling through inventory many times because they're not stackable, unsortable, and not automatically selecting suitable weapon type is what I call mouse click & scroll destroyer. Definitely a big no-go system at…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really wish I could give it a positive rating, because this game really does some things well. The art style is nice, the soundtrack is ok, the tactics gameplay is competent, the story is fine, but it stumbles along the way. First, the game doesn't really have voice acting. The character have barks, they'll say one or two words when you go into a shop, at the start of their lines in story dialog and when making an attack, but most of the the is dead silent. Not a deal breaker, but when…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Control is clunky, The language you can choose for voice are either chinese and japanese. Japanese is either voiced by AI or Chinese who doesn't know how to speak japanese properly... The gameplay is... let's say I rather go play langrisser series, fire emblem or FF tactic. Everything I saw so far feel lazy and ingenuine. 3/10 I wished I can see more if there is redeemable quality but steam only gave me limited time to refund this so I will not.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Story isn't great but the game play is super fun. Im currently on a second play through
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's one of my favorite games to ever play because it combines both the historical period of the Napoleonic Era with beautiful drawn anime characters. All the characters are well drawn with fun personality, the pixel combat animations and sprites are absolutely fantastic to watch every time, and the sound/music adds to the already great atmosphere. This game, by all means, is really a one of a kind in the world of turn based tactics and rpg. However, that being said, this game does have some…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A really fun turn based strategy game set during the Napoleonic era. The art (both pixel and regular) are quite charming and the battle animations never get old. They always feel like they have power while the music sets the tone of each battle and gives some flair to most scenes and the voice acting is good. Battles are challenging and require you to really use the most of your army's strengths, abilities and exploiting the enemy's weaknesses while mitigating your own. The story…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Boring, lack depth from a strategy game
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nice game, worth buying but dont expect fire emblem level quality. The music is great tho.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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