It's been a little over a week since my friend Guy McAulay made a game called "Tactical Edge" on SRPG Studio and released it for everyone to play. I was intrigued by what he said about it, so I wanted to play this game and share my thoughts. Like most Fire Emblem games that I've played, I started on a lower difficulty setting in order to acclimate myself to how this game plays. This review will be based on my playthrough on Normal Mode. Also, as of the time of this writing, I have only played up to Chapter 7.
Pros
Capture
This game has the capture system from Thracia 776! YAY! The fact that most of your units can do it too makes it even better. Capturing, for those who don't know, is basically when you reduce an enemy's HP to 0 and you get to take the enemy's weapons and items. It's one of my all-time favorite mechanics. It makes acquiring resources super fun! This game has that mechanic and it's every bit as fun in this game as it is in Thracia 776!
Steal is ridiculously OP....and I love it!
As you'd expect of a strategy RPG like this, you get a thief in your army who has the ability to steal weapons and items. In this game, the "Steal" skill is capable of stealing just about every weapon in the game....including the main weapon of what's supposed to be a frightening boss in this game.
Meet Vernicht, the Black Knight of this game. He shows up in Chapter 3 as a means of disincentivizing turtling on the part of the player. His stats are really high so you can't just fight him off. For the sake of kicks and giggles, I decided to try something: I had my thief try to steal his almighty Master Sword....AND IT WORKED! Helena, the thief of this game, can steal Vernicht's Master Sword! He no longer poses a threat to your characters on that chapter once you do that.
Like the picture above shows, that's his only weapon. (The reason why he has a bow is because I stole so many weapons that I had to switch one weapon in my inventory with the Master Sword in his inventory) The Steal skill can essentially trivialize every enemy in this game so far. Any enemy that has only one weapon can be neutralized by Helena since she can steal their weapons.
Replace the word "party" with Guy.
We're gonna file this under the category of "this is a feature, not a bug." To be fair, I rarely steal with thieves because of how limited it is in most Fire Emblem titles. I do love the idea of a thief neutralizing enemies via Steal. It's kind of creative, and it actually made me want to steal stuff with my thief.
Skills
I like the fact that the Jagen of this game has Wary Fighter. His stats can be fairly high, without being game-breaking. Karl is much better designed than most Jagens in the series:
Come to think of it, this game has several skills that I recognize from Fates. Wary Fighter is one of them. This skill is another example:
^ Hmmmmm. A skill that heals the healer as well as the other person. That's Live to Serve.
Chapter 3
The best designed map in this game that I've played so far is Chapter 3. It's a map with a timed objective where the amount of turns actually requires you to play fast. Generally speaking, Fire Emblem is pretty lenient with its time limits. This is the first time where I actually felt pressure by the turn limit itself. This map did a fantastic job putting the pressure on the player. It also forced me to pay attention to which enemies had which weapons at a given time. It was awesome! Difficulty & Unit Viability
Even though I'm playing on Normal Difficulty, I still feel like I have to pay attention. Enemies are powerful enough to force me to turn my brain on and I have to use actual strategy. That's a good thing. I'm also pleased by what I've seen of the unit viability so far. It feels like most of the cast is useable, and that you can get some use out of them.
Holy Multi Attacks Batman!
^ Remember how I mentioned that I stole Vernicht's Master Sword? Well, I gave it to Marie and this is what happens. This game lets you attack multiple times, and the number of attacks can get downright insane!
So here's how Guy explained his attack speed formula: "It's + 3 to double, and for every 3 over that you have, you get another attack."
It's busted, but I love it.
The Drawbacks
The 0 % Growths
This part of the game will most likely turn some people off. I've been reading other people's reviews to see what they've said, and so far it would appear to me that a lot of people already don't like this aspect of the game. It's sad to say, but I totally get where they're coming from.
Not gaining a single point from level-ups will feel demoralizing to a significant chunk of the fanbase. Lots of people love seeing certain units grow into powerhouses, and this game will deprive them of that. To be fair, there is some sense of progression in this game: Skills and promotion bonuses. Characters get certain skills when they hit a certain level, and promotion bonuses are great. The thing is that these things are few and far in-between. Most level-ups feel demoralizing and hollow.
There's another point that I've seen raised about this element of the game that I agree with and it's this:
"But right now, the battles are all feeling a little identical to me. I don't feel like my characters are making progress, they're just...the same weaklings they were in chapter one, so why bother levelling up at all? This might be addressed later in the game, but you need to hook people in the first few chapters. And by the end of chapter three, I was getting fatigued because I didn't feel like my time was being rewarded."
Source: The Dandy Gentleman - https://itch.io/t/1571960/first-impressions
I've always been curious about how 0% growths work whenever I've seen veterans of the series do these kinds of playthroughs. This game scratched that itch. Now that I'm playing a 0 % growths game, I can confidently say that I have no desire to play a 0 % growths hack of a currently existing Fire Emblem game.
Maps
Chapter 3 is the only map that I've truly loved so far. It's the only map where there was a turtle disincentive. Some maps like chapters 4, 5, & 7, arguably encourage turtling in several different ways. Chapter 4 is a rout map with an easy choke point, Chapter 5 has big waves of enemies that charge at you, and Chapter 7 has an easy chokepoint and enemies that charge you. I restarted Chapter 7 several times because rushing forward got punished. I'm crossing my fingers hoping that some of the maps in the future try to get me to play faster.
Conclusion
So far I'm having a decent time. There's enough here to make me pay attention, and it's a game made with a lot of love. If you're reading this and haven't played the game yet, I would recommend doing so. I'm curious to see what lies in store, and even when it's busted, I am having fun. That being said, the 0 % growths aspect really does hold this game down. Still, it's worth checking out, and I am looking forward to what this game has in store:
P.S: Here's the link to Guy's site -
No comments:
Post a Comment