Natural Doctrine Reviews

Natural Doctrine is ranked in the 12th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
IGN
Top Critic
2.8 / 10.0
Oct 15, 2014

With its unfair gameplay and messy combat, Natural Doctrine is nothing more than a tedious, rage-inducing nightmare.

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3 / 10.0
Oct 15, 2014

I know that in the current climate of the gaming industry, everyone is glamouring for hardcore games that don't hold their hand, but I don't think Natural Doctrine is what you're looking for. The game isn't challenging so much as it is just inconsistent because the enemy rules are seemingly made up as it goes along. It just isn't enjoyable to play, and that's a really big failure in a game like this.

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3 / 10.0
Sep 28, 2014

With all the bad I have said, there is an audience out there somewhere for Natural Doctrine. If you enjoy mindless hours of grinding with no clear goal or instruction, and if you enjoy hour long battles on the "easiest" difficulty setting where you still feel underleveled no matter how much you grind, then this game could be right up your alley.  The system is there to try and be a good game, but it is given no chance to shine and no clear direction on what to do, leaving you with a mess of missed opportunities and frustration.

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4 / 10.0
Oct 3, 2014

Unfortunately, when all is said and done, NAtURAL DOCtRINE simply doesn't provide an enjoyable experience. A difficult game like Dark Souls will reward patience and show steady improvement of player skill in-game progress, but this is purely hard for the sake of being so. It's too frustrating in today's busy age to spend 45 minutes at a time on the same mission, failing to make any progress for hours. Mid-mission surprises happen too often and the game's design only makes their appearance frustrating rather than tense. There's no saving halfway through a mission, a problem that's sure to annoy Vita purchasers. I haven't finished the main campaign, although I would estimate I'm over halfway. In-game timer reads around 20 hours – although this doesn't include the hours of gameplay lost to rage quits.

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Oct 4, 2014

Natural Doctrine gets so much right. A strong premise, great top-level strategic mechanics, sensational skill system and ruthless tactical battles ought to have made this a left-field cult smash.

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2 / 5.0
Oct 12, 2014

For players looking for a harsh, cruel strategy RPG to play, this game could be right up your alley, though you might find yourself turned off by the lack of reward for trying to think outside of the box. While I'd highly recommend Natural Doctrine to masochistic players, it is likely that most people will get tired out by the game's restrictions within the first few hours.

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Sep 25, 2014

Although mechanically sound, Natural Doctrine is too unfairly difficult and slow-paced to be worth recommending to anyone but the most hardcore gamers.

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4 / 10
Sep 21, 2014

Natural Doctrine takes strategy role-playing games one step forward, and several clumsy steps back.

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Drew Leachman
Top Critic
4.5 / 10.0
Sep 30, 2014

It is most certainly not for me, but even I can see that there are some things that strategy fans will love about it. Just keep in mind if you do decide to pick this up, you're in for a very difficult, sometimes unfair, struggle.

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5 / 10.0
Sep 25, 2014

Natural Doctrine fails in its ambitious attempt to deliver a wonderfully unique, deep, and rewarding turn-based strategy adventure. The foundation is solid but what's built atop that foundation is a crazy assortment of great individual pieces, but none of them really fit together. Satisfaction isn't out of the realm of possibility, but when seasoned veterans have to spend many hours dissecting the ins and outs of a gameplay mechanic, only to find their efforts thwarted by an unfair and unforgiving structure, well… Controllers may shatter and nobody would blame you.

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EGM
Top Critic
5 / 10.0
Oct 4, 2014

While its refreshing combat offers a different kind of strategy-RPG challenge, some ridiculously punitive design decisions sabotage a good deal of the potential fun in Natural Doctrine. Considering the experienced pedigree of the developers involved—they count Patapon among their previous works—that's simply inexcusable.

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Oct 3, 2014

A difficult game that is hard to enjoy

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5 / 10.0
Oct 6, 2014

Natural Doctrine isn't atrocious, but it does have a lot of issues. It's as frequently enjoyable as it is repugnant, an experience that will often blindside you with cheap deaths that reek of artificial difficulty. Some will enjoy it, sure. But it's a hard sell to all but the most staunch and patient SRPG fans. And even then it will undoubtedly test those players' resolve.

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5.3 / 10.0
Oct 1, 2014

Natural Doctrine is a punishingly difficult strategy game but if you stick with it, you may just find it to be extremely rewarding.

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Oct 11, 2014

'Natural Doctrine' is really a love it or hate it game. There's quite a bit of good in this little title, but at the same time there's also a lot that will drive away a great many gamers. It's complicated, even obtuse at times, but battling and steamrolling over foes when everything goes right can be a great feeling. Then again, watching the same animations over and over again because of a failed attempt or lucky critical can be rage inducing.

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3 / 5.0
Sep 16, 2014

Natural Doctrine is an exhausting game. It's punishing, unfair at times and hell-bent on funneling players through a narrow corridor that leaves little-to-no room for tactical experimentation. That being said, it has its moments.

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RPG Site
Top Critic
6 / 10
Sep 27, 2014

An interesting take on Strategy RPGs that never reaches its potential.

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60 / 100
Sep 7, 2014

Natural Doctrine is a broken attempt at revitalizing the tactical RPG genre. At first glance, it appears to have all the markings of a classically inspired and intelligently designed strategy game. But sadly, despite delivering its own rare bursts of satisfaction, it remains frustratingly bogged down by artificially challenging gameplay, a confusing and overtly complex user interface and a painfully slow pacing that will try the patience of even the most Zen-like of gamers. If you're looking for the next Final Fantasy Tactics, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to keep looking elsewhere.

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6 / 10.0
Oct 5, 2014

Hardcore strategy RPG fans may find a decent experience here. In fact, it may simply be the case that Natural Doctrine's blend of punishing difficulty and simple presentation don't gel with everyone. One thing that is certain is that Natural Doctrine us not designed for the casual crowd, and unless you're prepared to invest time and energy into learning its systems inside out – and then are still prepared to try and try again when you do know what you're doing – you'd be advised to away from this one.

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6 / 10
Oct 17, 2014

Natural Doctrine was never going to bring hardcore strategy to the masses. The developer knew exactly who they were targeting with their debut title and, for those players, the game will prove a worthwhile experience. For those who aren't too hot on their strategy role playing games, however, Natural Doctrine is a risk, yet one still worth taking if you're looking for something testing and out-of-the-norm.

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