The RPG Codex checked out Grimoire, again:

RPG Codex Review: Grimoire - The Real Official Review

[Review by Dorateen]

There and Back Again: A Barrower’s Journey through Hyperborea

On page six of the Wizardry 8 Game Manual, under the section Importing Characters, it reads the following: If you’re interested in this option, then you’ve been waiting a long time for this moment.

It is a reference of course, to the game’s highly acclaimed predecessor, Crusaders of the Dark Savant. Released in 1992, that adventure had reached a cliffhanger climax, and it would be nigh ten years before players could experience a satisfying conclusion. However, this sentiment is equally applicable to Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar. Not just for its laborious development cycle, but also in the context of the latter Wizardry series of computer role-playing games.

To appreciate the historical significance of Grimoire, one must consider that Wizardry 8 was the numeric and literary sequel to Wizardry 7, ending the story arc of the Dark Savant and the Cosmic Forge trilogy.
One year earlier, in the autumn of 2000, another title called Wizards & Warriors was published, designed by D.W. Bradley, the author of Wizardry 7. Wizards & Warriors could also be treated as a successor, in writing style and fundamental design. However, both of these at the turn of the millennium represented a move to 3D graphics, introducing real time elements and generally embracing advancements in software technology.
At last, in Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar we have a sequel that has hewed to the traditions of Crusaders of the Dark Savant, and to a good degree Bane of the Cosmic Forge, in both presentation and seizing that intangible quality, the spirit of the game.

It is with this understanding that one should approach Grimoire. To state it plainly, this is a cRPG belonging to the early 1990’s, and places value on many design principles of that period. The game is viewed through an adventuring window, turn-based and grid-based, unapologetically opaque in delivery of its mechanics as much as narrative; a behemoth in scope allowing multiple hundreds of hours of playing time for a player who is given just enough rope to hang their party as they explore Hyperborea. All this, as well as the chance to rise in exultation with each triumph, whether in combat or deciphering the mysteries of the richly developed game world.

It is not to say there aren’t some concessions made for a modern audience. Features of comfort are present such as the automap, an encyclopedic journal, and a quick fix method to heal characters in the party post combat. Yet even these do not detract from the overarching classical agency of the game, setting the player loose in the world with little direction, until they search around following their own instinct and volition, for the threads from which the tapestry of Grimoire is weaved.

[...]

IMPRESSIONS

The adventuring landscape of Grimoire is vast, and a large swath of time will be spent in the hunting of cuneiform tablets that are pieces necessary to the central quest. Often these are only found locked away in deep dungeons, and claimed by conquering some tyrannical guardian. As I looked back at the culmination of our party’s progress in the game, I realized it was not just about traveling from one dungeon to the other, but rather the fashion in which these locations are rooted in Hyperborea and attached to surrounding environments, which created a sense of separate modular adventures. Taken together, these episodes form a much broader campaign, with individual tales like streams that feed a river’s current pressing toward an unforgettable crescendo. More than any other role-playing game in a long time, Grimoire kept me in suspense all the way up to its multiple endings.

For what it’s worth, the story of the Heralds of the Winged Exemplar is a heroic romance, filled with tragedy and flawed characters as well as a realistic desire to set things right again. To return the world to what it once was. The party of characters thus answer the call to do the deed at hand, whatever the cost.

While the writing in the game is humorous and can at times be as fourth wall breaking as the Might & Magic series, nevertheless it touches upon serious subjects such as war, the nature of totalitarian state, and marketing media corruption. One of the lasting themes of the narrative is the transcendent power of music.

Computer role-playing games of this style and magnitude are not being produced in our present age. Not like Wizardry 6, not like Wizardry 7, or the classic party and turned-based dungeon crawlers of yesteryear. But the independent developer of Grimoire took it upon himself to craft such a title. For good or bad, like it or not, Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar stands as a once in a generation contribution to the hobby.