Pretty good, pretty good, I like it It starts to fall apart near the end, with a bunch of broken mechanics (the poison staff that only targets your own units :skull:) And I could've sworn Circe would be recruitable but capturing her does nothing It seemed like there were going to be reinforcements from the northwest but nothing happened, and then the boss took me 21 turns
I think I have an uncanny 6th sense for detecting updates for this game For versions 3.6,7,8, and 9, I was all like "I wanna play Goddesses's Whim today :D" and then I was all like "Actually I'm gonna check to see if there's an update first" and EVERY TIME there was an update released within the last 6 hours
I shan't let the fact I'm a pseudo-main character (force recruit early on) sway my rating.
It feels a little over-balanced, which is of course a by-product of using the FE Starter Kit (Also I've literally seen the balance spreadsheets), in fact most flaws are a by-product of that. Things from minor gripes like inconsistent weapon placement in walking animations and lack of critical hit animations to large things such as WGT directly affecting SPD, Awakening-Inspired (AKA lame) skills in bulk, and the strange fascination with using tiny, unscaled GBA portraits for the face graphics.
The game also has heavy emphasis on using reclassing to get the most out of maps, but me and a few others never reclass. Me, personally, I just think reclassing feels dirty. If a character is an archer, I want to use them as an archer, not change their career to fit my needs. However, Hoggin' Dank about makes up for it.
Aside from the over-balance, though, the gameplay is nice enough.
My live notes to the game thing (Spoilers, it's better than FE Engage)
Dark Age: Chronicles of Ostia, the capital of Lycia
-Lore dump is great so far, I usually hate lore dumps but I'm oddly retaining the information. Overall it's great except for one line "The offspring of this union were born with orange skin, instead of blue, and were resistant to heat instead of cold." It just seems out of place compared to how the other lines are written, mainly the second half of said line.
-The RTP music doesn't quite fit the vibe of everything else and it's a little jarring, I know that it's probably placeholder but just wanted to point that out
-seeing the word 'xenophobia' used in this vibe is quite jarring. Oh the curse of language
-The two red bandits should probably actually be seen walking into the map instead of suddenly appearing
-seeing the word 'fuck' used in this vibe is quite jarring. Oh the curse of language. I'm partially joking
-Alright here's the first big one, I don't like the usage of pronouns in the unit's descriptions. Like the music and language discussed earlier, it just feels goofy. Usually information like this is relegated to the extras menu. My suggestion is to find some other way to put this information in the hands of the player, maybe somewhere else in the unit menu like above/below -Supporter- or like I mentioned put it in the extras menu and have their pronouns revealed in-game through cutscenes. I also would've complained about the arcana in the same way but I think I remember hearing there was gameplay purpose to that, like a Fire Emblem affinity. Like I said it just feels goofy
-The swords mention they use 'Dex' to calculate damage, but the stat is still referred to as SKL in the ui
-Unit Roster (banger plug-in btw mind sending it my way?) lists Vander as a support partner 3 times, this is probably because there's 3 ranks, but there's likely some fix to make it only show once per unit
-I feel like there's too much foreshadowing in the prologue's ending cutscene
-Love the demo-exclusive 4th wall-breaking intermission
-I don't see why Map Thumbnail is an option
-The music's audio mixing isn't the best, the map theme/battle theme don't have the same volumes. I assume this won't be a problem once the RTP has been completely replaced, but I just wanted you to know
-The village mapchip uses the Grave terrain
-Kinda wish I could see the names of my unit's classes :(
Overall
Dang I liked that a lot, too bad it's so short.
From what I've seen:
Custom assets: 9/10
Story: 7/10
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Characters: 6.8/10
Conclusion: BETTER THAN FE ENGAGE?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!
Yeah. Every time I put the game out the first chapter gets slightly smoother and smoother, but until we manage to make a plug-in that adds FE4 paths the first chapter will always be jaggy
BEFORE You play the game, you can download the attached txt survey form. It was designed to be filled out as you play the game, perhaps during a second playthrough if you somehow find the time
