Berwick Saga Review Part 3

 

The Plot

I'll be the first to admit that the main reason why I love Berwick Saga so much is its top tier gameplay. However, it would feel wrong not to include at least a little bit about the plot. Since I want to keep this part spoiler-free it's going to sound a little vague. I hope I can get the point across:

The story of Berwick Saga begins on a familiar note for a Fire Emblem game. You think you know where the plot's going to go, but interestingly enough, this game's story had a pretty good twist that made everything more interesting. The main conflict of Berwick Saga is a morally gray one. I'm not alone in thinking this either. Even TVTropes has a few things to say about this game's story:

• Shades of Conflict: And unlike in Fire Emblem, it's not limited to the named characters. It's very rare to find a character who is truly good or evil in this war.

•  Enemy Chatter: Unlike in the Fire Emblem games (until Three Houses, years later funny enough), even the lowliest Mook are given their own dialogue that mostly humanizes them. This is best shown in an early sidequest against an imperial supply convoy; most of them are just regular people doing their duty.

I found this picture on a developer's blog: https://dyaus-pita.tumblr.com/post/172053361660/i-refuse-to-play-heroes-until-berwick-sagas-best Check him out. He's pretty funny.

On a broader note, Berwick Saga's story is more grounded than the plot of your normal Fire Emblem game. The supernatural aspects are heavily toned down, and political machinations are given more priority over the course of the story. The final boss of the game is a human instead of being a dragon or a deity. This game places a much bigger emphasis on showing how the war in this game affects your average everyday citizen. Most of the time it shows that through the eyes of those everyday citizens themselves. Before I end this section, I wanted to copy / paste another quote from TVTropes that I think you'll appreciate:

Spiritual Successor: While Berwick Saga borrows less from the Fire Emblem series, its tone resonates somewhat with Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 in featuring an underdog struggle against seemingly impossible odds. Funnily enough, it shares a lot in common with Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn as well. It has fans suspecting both drew from the same notes Shouzou Kaga left over with Nintendo after he left. TearRing Saga may also have inspired plot elements in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (several similarities are apparent between TRS and Blazing Blade).

Another meme from that developer's website. I was thinking about this too when I saw the name "Clifford".

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My Criticisms of the Game

While I stand by my statement that Berwick Saga has top tier gameplay, I'd be lying if I said that I enjoyed everything about this game. The pros outweigh the cons when it comes to this game, but flaws do exist. So what are the flaws of Berwick Saga's gameplay?

• Certain weapons breaking based on RNG: Every melee range weapon in addition to bows breaks based on a percent chance. Instead of having a number like magic and javelins do, the game simply hints at when a melee range weapon is going to break. That's a terrible mechanic! Not knowing when a weapon is going to break makes it harder to plan on when you need a new weapon. Your weapon could theoretically break after a few uses, or it can take a really long time to break. You have no idea either way.

The Simultaneous Turn Order

 Let's say that the player has 10 characters on the map while the enemy has 30 soldiers. Berwick Saga's unusual turn order makes it so that for every one character the player gets to move, the enemy gets to move three in a row.

One Fire Emblem mechanic that Berwick Saga keeps is that enemies typically outnumber the player's crew. When you factor in this new turn order, it becomes clear that the enemy is going to get a major advantage. To be fair, Berwick Saga plays around with this a lot. You do get instances where it's the player's army that outnumbers the enemy. But that doesn't apply for all of the hardest chapters in the game.

What I dislike about this system is that there are numerous times where enemies will gang up on a character and kill them before you get the chance to heal said character. There were times where I had to use my one movement to force a nearly dead character to actively run away just so they can heal themselves.

It also adds an unnecessary element of trial and error. You don't know which enemy will move next, and that can affect everything. Will the enemy try to kill one of your units? Or will they try to move that one random soldier in the back that's outside your character's range? You have no idea either way. This is a mechanic that I'm glad that no other Fire Emblem game has tried to tackle.

• Poor Earlygame Hit Rates and Frustrating RNG

Here's a picture that demonstrates one problem that you'll come across early on in the game:

The hit rates are at the bottom. Adel, the player controlled character on the right, has a 64 % accuracy while the enemy soldier on the left has a 35 % accuracy. Both of these accuracies are terrible. What's even worse is that this picture is representative of the types of accuracies that you'll experience early on in the game. The average hitrates of your troops will be between 40 - 65 %. Enemy hitrates will be even lower. The main issue here is that virtually every fight will start to feel like a gamble.

To this game's credit, there are numerous mechanics in place that will boost your hitrates. This problem goes away in the span of a few chapters. Then you run into a different problem: The RNG. Berwick Saga has the most frustrating single RNG I've ever experienced in an SRPG! I've never missed so many accuracies above 90 % before! AHHHHH!!!!!

Guide Dang It!

The last main issue with this game comes from the fact that it leaves out important information about numerous mechanics that would be helpful.

Remember how I mentioned how you have to pay certain characters in order to use them? Well, here's the thing: If you want to permanently recruit a character into your army, you have to follow certain criteria. What criteria do you need to follow? Good question! The game never tells you. You have to look that information up:

https://wiki.serenesforest.net/index.php/Berwick_Saga_Recruitment

But wait. There's more! Many of the recruitment requirements say "Raise this character's happiness to a certain amount". What's happiness, and how do you raise it? Another excellent question. None of that is explained in the game! In fact, the happiness stat is hidden. The game doesn't even vaguely hint at it. What you basically have to do is bring a character with you on certain missions, feed them certain foods, make sure they land kills and if you're able to, their promotion will also increase their Happiness. None of this is difficult once you know what to do, but the fact that the game doesn't tell you this is pretty frustrating to say the least.

The game also never tells you how promotions or the food mechanic works either. Here's a guide to both of those:

• Berwick Saga Food https://wiki.serenesforest.net/index.php/Berwick_Saga_Food

• Berwick Saga Promotions

https://wiki.serenesforest.net/index.php/Berwick_Saga_Class_Change_Requirements

The fact that there's so little information on this game available is why I'd like to write up a guide for anyone who's interested in playing this game. When you have all the information available, it becomes a really fun game. Trying to figure this stuff out or learning about all of this after the fact can be a painful process.

In Conclusion

Despite devoting an entire post to listing the flaws of this game, I feel confident in saying that Berwick Saga has some of the best gameplay in the Fire Emblem series. It nails so many important mechanics that other Fire Emblem games get wrong. This game has become the gold standard on how to handle resource management, unit balance, and map design. That's impressive! As I'm typing this out, there's a part of me that's already thinking about doing another playthrough of this game!

I would recommend that everyone reading this plays the game. I think you'll like this game if you're any of the following:

1. A fan of the older Fire Emblem games that Kaga created.
2. A fan of either Tearring Saga or Vestaria Saga.
3. The type of fan whose main priority is gameplay.

^ If any of the above fits you, then you're probably going to love this game. I'm a little hesitant to recommend Berwick Saga to fans of the new games due to how this game is designed, but it's an awesome game and I do want more people to like it.

In the end, Berwick Saga is a masterpiece! There are many people who feel like this is either Kaga's magnum opus, or feel like this game showcases the next evolution of Fire Emblem's mechanics. Now that I've finished playing this game, I totally get where those people are coming from.