FE 12 Prologue Map Design Rating

Prologue 1 - Meeting

Hmmm, a map that has only 1 playable unit, 2 enemies and uninteresting terrain. Where have I seen this before?

OH CRAP! This map is awfully similar to Lyn mode’s first map! Except, it’s smaller and all the units are stronger. Good grief game! If your first map reminds me of Lyn mode’s first map you’re doing something wrong. Really wrong.

Overall Rating for Map: Fail!

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Prologue 2

 The AI in this map always frustrated me. If Luke chooses to attack Ryan there’s nothing the player can do about it. (Bytheway does anyone know how Luke’s AI works in this chapter? Just curious) This is because the map is so small that there’s nowhere that Ryan can move that would be out of Luke’s range. Another problem is that only having 2 playable units, and 2 enemies doesn’t make for an interesting map.

Overall Rating: Fail!

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Prologue 3

         A very short and uninteresting map. To be fair it is nice that Caeda can move so that her presence forces the player to think a little bit about their positioning. However, even on Maniac Mode the enemies are so strong that the player has limited options about where they can maneuver without getting killed. That’s pretty bad on a map that’s already small enough as it is.

Overall Rating: Below Average

Prologue 4

                       This map is at least slightly more interesting than the previous three. There are two ways to approach the map. Either charge at the enemy and fight them off at the 2 square choke point or have everyone hide at the top left corner while My Unit’s at the front. Fighting Athena is more interesting than fighting Jeorge since Jeorge can be surrounded on all sides without having to fight back. This map is ultimately held back by a lack of a turtle disincentive.

Overall Rating: Meh

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Prologue 5

   To this map’s credit the enemy unit positioning is pretty good. Enemy attack ranges overlap each other and they cover a good portion of the map. The only problem, once again, is the lack of a turtle disincentive. At least the enemies are strong. Edit: Thanks to my friend, Alan Coffelt, I decided to change the map design rating here to Decent since he pointed out that the map does make the player actually think about how they want to approach the barbarians which is a valid point.

Overall Rating: Decent

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Prologue 6

This map feels like a downgrade in quality from the two maps that came before it. There isn’t much to this map outside of the bridges. I’m trying to think of more things to say but I can’t because there’s not much to talk about.

Overall Rating: Fail!

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Prologue 7

What’s this? A Prologue map that’s actually well designed? It’s about time. This map gives the player two routes to approach with. There’s the route on the far left and the route through the middle. Both routes are viable. This map actually has turtle disincentives! The enemy reinforcements work as incentives to get the player to play faster. In both versions of this map the boss moves and can attack the player, which is a good decision since it makes the player consider their unit positioning that much more.

Overall Rating: Excellent

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Prologue 8

                   This map does a great job at enemy unit positioning. Enemy fighters (barbarians? What class are they?) are positioned in range of the thieves so that if the player chooses to attack the thieves they have to consider dealing with the fighters during the Enemy Phase. Once the player deals with those fighters, they’ll have to deal with the archer and after they deal with the archers...you get the point. Enemy attack ranges stack wonderfully and the enemies are strong so the player has to be careful about how to approach them.

Then there’s the final bit where Katarina and her army of thieves will only start attacking once the player gets into a couple of their ranges. I like this approach with the AI since a simple bait and switch tactic isn’t good enough. It requires a more thought out method of approach. Also this map features 4 different enemy unit types, which is great since it helps to give the map some variety in the types of enemies the player has to face.

Overall Rating: Excellent

FE 12 Exclusive Maps Rating Tally

Excellent: 2

Pretty Good: 0

Decent: 0

Meh: 2

Below Average: 1

Fail: 3