Binding Blade Map Design Reviews Chapters 20x - Final Chapter

Chapter 20x
Yippee. Another Gaiden map. Let's get this out of the way. My biggest problem with this map is the "fake throne" gimmick. If you don't have Roy seize the right throne you're rewarded with enemy reinforcements that you then have to fight off. Based on what I've seen from ltc players, it seems to me like you have to rig the RNG in order to seize the correct throne. That doesn't sound like good design to me. 

Outside of that, I'm also not a fan of the fact that enemy bosses on the throne seem to have really high avoid. Maybe I just need to "get gud" but my Rutger had maxed Skill of 29 by this point in the game and I still couldn't manage higher than a low 50 % hit rate. It turned the map into an RNG fest where you're hoping that the RNG is merciful to you. Not a fan of that design choice either. I can't really think of any positives that this map has to offer so...

Chapter 20x Ranking: Fail
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Chapter 21 


This map simultaneously encourages and discourages turtling. All the enemies at the beginning of the chapter rushing toward the player tends to grind the pacing of the map to a halt since you're most likely going to fight them. Later on in the map enemy reinforcements will appear once you approach the throne. This approach succeeds at getting the player to play faster so in the end, I'd say this map succeeds more than it fails at getting the player to play faster. 

One extra note that I love about this chapter is the secret shop. It's a really neat design decision to have a secret shop that has all the stat boosters you can buy because it incentivizes the player to save up their money in order to buy a ton of stat boosters so that they can just go ham on the final chapters. At least, that's what I've done in the past and it's a lot of fun. It's a smart way of getting the player to actually think about how to spend their money. 

Chapter 21 Ranking: Decent

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Chapter 21x



I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I really liked Chapter 21x a lot. Maybe it was because I brought along two thieves with me, but I could see the enemy reinforcements moving up behind me, which caused me to actually move faster since I didn't want to deal with them. In other words, the map had a turtle disincentive. This is something most gaiden chapters in Binding Blade don't have. It also has two routes to approach the throne from, which makes it more interesting to play.

 The only problem I have with this map is the gimmick where an enemy could randomly pop out of a treasure. It's a dumb gimmick that adds nothing to the strategy of the overall map. That being said, at least it's completely avoidable since it only activates if you go after the treasures. 

This map is easily the best designed Gaiden chapter I've recently played so far in Binding Blade. The positives really do outweigh the negatives.

Chapter 21x Ranking: Excellent

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Chapter 22


This chapter requires the player to split up in two different directions in order to reach the squares on opposite sides of the map. This makes playing the map more interesting as you have to decide how to split up your teams. Once Roy reaches the gate you get enemies from your former starting positions approaching you from behind. These enemies really excel at putting pressure on the player, even if they're starting from a distance.

 There are ambush spawns that show up right next to the player that are a total cheap shot. To be fair, you can have characters sit on those tiles to prevent enemies from spawning, but it's not good design if enemy reinforcements can be easily prevented like that. Fortunately, the turtle disincentives on this map are still a net positive, because there are enough enemies that will put pressure on the player.

It's fairly common to have enemies use either Nosferatu or Brave Weapons, which makes them far more dangerous, and thus make playing the game more interesting. Once again, having a variety of status staves makes the map more interesting and having Manaketes in the throne room works as an obstacle to getting to Zephiel. 

One nitpick I have about this level is that the only way to approach this map is from the right, so whoever's on the left has to go all the way around to the opposite side in order to approach Zephiel. 

Chapter 22 Ranking: Pretty Good

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Chapter 23


This map strikes me as mediocre. It does nothing to encourage the player to play faster, in fact having a bunch of charging wyverns encourages the player to play more slowly. The two routes could be more interesting on paper, but the fact that there are so many enemies near the throne (a good number of them wielding status staves too) means that the player is probably just going to approach more slowly. Karel...exists I guess? His recruitment doesn't add much to the game, let alone the chapter. Not much else to talk about due to how bland and boring this map is.

Chapter 23 Ranking: Meh

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Chapter 24

On paper, this map shouldn't work. The enemies are literally all the same type, Manaketes, and it's an enemy type where there's a lot of effective weapons that can deal extra damage to them. Plus this enemy type doesn't have range. So in theory, this map should suck right? 

Well, actually it does work. In fact, it works out very well. For starters, Manaketes on Hard Mode are capable to killing most of your enemies in 2 hits, which means that they're super powerful and not to be trifled with. To add to that, most of your ranged weaponry (emphasis on the word most) won't do that much damage against them so you can't trivialize Manaketes as easily as you'd think. By this point in the game you should have gotten all the Legendary Weapons, many of whom you would have had for a while now. This map's existence sort of requires the player to actively hold back and save up on the uses of their Regalia. You actually have to conserve your Legendary Weapons, which is rare for a Fire Emblem title to do.

This chapter is also AMAZING at putting pressure on the player. Thanks to how powerful Manaketes are, once you start seeing them show up behind the player and chase them, you know just how ominous and threatening that can be. And this chapter will pump out Manakete reinforcements turn after turn and they will not stop until they've caught up to you. Combine that with the fact that Manaketes are usually pretty durable (which means that killing them off in order to get to the throne is a little more challenging than one might think) and you've got yourself an interesting puzzle to solve. 

In essence, Binding Blade Chapter 24 succeeded where Conquest Chapter 19 (aka the kitsune level which I call the "Furry Genocide" chapter) failed. 

Chapter 24 Ranking: Excellent

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Final Chapter


This map doesn't really have any . It's an open map with nothing interesting to offer the player. Idunn is notorious for not being very difficult to defeat. One oddity about her is her lack of 1 - 2 range. In a game that consistently gives bosses 1 - 2 range, it's pretty strange that the final boss cannot counterattack ranged weaponry.  The only other thing to talk about is how the map will spawn Manaketes at you, which isn't good design. This map has no positives as far as I'm concerned which means that it's ranking is:

Final Chapter Ranking: Fail

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*Friendly Reminder:* This is not the final map ranking for Binding Blade. I still need to do the map rankings for the following chapters:

• 10B
• 11B
• The entire Ilia route (which is 5 chapters long)

That's a whopping 7 chapters. That's enough to potentially boost the map ranking overall for this game. Until then, here's the current ranking:

Binding Blade Map Design Totals So Far

Excellent: 6

Pretty Good: 5

Decent: 4

Meh: 7

Below Average: 4

Fail: 5