More Berwick Saga Fan Gushing

 

As you could tell from reading the title, I really like this game a lot! I just completed Chapter 5, and it's been roughly 2 months since my last Berwick Saga post. So here I go.

The Map Design

I admit that I have a relatively long way to go, but I've been impressed with how consistently good Berwick Saga's map design is. I've yet to come across a map that I thought was genuinely bad, or unfun to play. I'm including the side quest maps in that too. That's an impressive track record. Right now, the maps that stand out to me are:

• Chapter 3

 Chapter 3 is my favorite map in the game that I've played. The NPC priests force the player to move fast, and they also force the player to move in different directions. These priests move pretty far, so you have to maintain a fast pace throughout the level. There are also plenty of side objectives for the player, which means that there's never a dull moment. 

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 is another fun map where you're defending a group of NPCs that are traveling south. Enemies will approach you from the left, and there are also enemies on the "Wanted List" that you can kill to get more money. This chapter struck me as flexible in its design. You could choose to play it somewhat slow, or you could choose to go after all the juicy enemies with a bounty. You also got to choose how many NPCs could escape to the tiles at the bottom of the map. I managed to get every NPC to escape, and it was fun. 

• Chapter 4-1

Wow! Those enemies on the opposite side of the bridge are really, really, strong! Like...I feel like a genuine idiot for wanting to pick a fight with them. I managed to kill most of them before calling it quits and escaping. Still, it's a cool concept for what appears to be a stealth map. 

Chapter 5

• This is a defense map with the side option of being able to kill or capture the boss if you're feeling more aggressive. It also hands you Marcel, a recruitable ally with the super useful Guard and Shieldfaire skills. In order to recruit him to your side permanently, you have to make sure the villagers are all alive by the end of the chapter. The map is pretty good. You still have to move more aggressively, but it still has the feeling from a good siege map. Goebbels is a scary boss, but you at least don't have to face him if you don't want to. The real threat in this map are all the enemy cavaliers. Not only do they have high movement, they can dish out some nasty damage. Oh, and they all have Canto for some fun hit and run tactics. Lovely.

Fog of War

Something else that I'd like to comment on is how Berwick Saga handles fog of war. In traditional Fire Emblem games, fog of war is a mechanic that makes it so that the player can't see where enemies are, but the enemies can see you. This is an unfair disadvantage to the player, and most fog of war maps aren't fun to play. 

Berwick Saga makes it so that enemies can't see you when fog of war is out either. This levels the playing field and makes fog of war maps tolerable at worst. The map where you get Sherpa was actually fun to play. Coming from someone who dislikes fog of war, that's pretty high praise. Also, is it just me or does Sherpa look like a happy, non-edgy Guts?

Balanced Difficulty

Another impressive feature that I really like about Berwick Saga is that it's managed to remain just tough enough to make me think, while still being fair. When a character of mine dies, I know it's because I made a tactical error. I never felt like the game threw some unfair nonsense at me. I made a mistake and got punished for it. The enemy stats so far are tough enough to be threatening, but they're not anything that my army can't handle.

Bosses can be legit scary, which is what they should be. Goebbels in Chapter 5 can practically kill most of my troops in 1 - 2 hits while his defense is pretty high. This is what an Armor Knight boss should be. That's a tricky balance to maintain, especially when you consider the fact that difficulty is something that the Fire Emblem franchise doesn't always design well. 

Minor Quibbles 

• Weapons breaking based off RNG doesn't sit well with me. You can't tell when your character's weapon is going to break other than getting a vague feeling that you've used it a lot. 

• I went back and re-read what I wrote about the changed turn order mechanic in my previous Berwick Saga post, and I still stand by it. I am not a fan of this different style of turn order.

Overall: This game is living up to its reputation of being really fun to play. If the game keeps this up, Berwick Saga will be up there with Thracia 776 for its top-tier gameplay.