Chapter 3 Gaiden: The Maiden and the Mercenary
Chapter 3 Gaiden: Thieves and Ponies
This gaiden chapter happens to be a solid one. There are thieves in the top right corner of the map who are trying to steal horses. Kill this thieves, or get the horses first, and they go in your inventory and can be used later. Horses in this game are treated like another resource that the player is expected to manage. They have HP, take damage with their rider, and when their HP reaches 0 they die and never come back. Horses can be bought, but they're relatively expensive.
All of this explanation is to say that horses are valuable, so when this chapter gives you the opportunity to have more, you will book it. As a result, this works as an effective turtle disincentive. Terrain is also cleverly implemented to act as an obstacle to the player. The boss, Seamus, moves from his fort and can run away from the player if his HP gets too low. (I could be wrong about this, so feel free to correct me, if I got that part wrong) Killing or capturing Seamus nets the player a good deal of gold, and Seamus isn't a pushover. Overall, this map is pretty good and is fairly fun to play.
Overall Rating: Pretty Good
Chapter 4
This is an escape chapter that's designed as a defense level. At the beginning of the map, there are wounded NPCs who are trying to escape. At least 7 of the 12 NPC allies have to escape. Once they've escaped, you have to have everyone in your army escape by 24 turns. Another important note is that whenever someone in Berwick Saga is crippled, they might not be able to move their full movement range. This can further complicate the map, since you'll have to defend your allies for a longer period of time than you normally would had their movement been normal.
This part of the map is fairly simple since all you really need to do is move to the center and put your tanky characters in the chokepoints. However, this map has several side objectives which make it more interesting to play. There's a random spot in the north that has a secret item, there are several bandits on the left that drop valuable axes, and there's a side objective of collecting droppable shields from enemies.
There are two recruitable characters on this map: Daoud and Larentia. Larentia is the only flier that you get in this game, and Daoud is an Axe Knight. If you want to recruit Daoud, you need to make sure that all 12 NPCs escape. Larentia will talk to Reese on her own and will essentially recruit herself.
Another side objective that I almost forgot about are the assassins that will also show up on the left. They provide gold, experience, and droppable items. It's definitely worth it to kill them.
What's interesting about escape chapters in Berwick Saga is that they lure you into a false sense of security. It's really easy to think that you'll be able to escape far easier than it actually is. The terrain on this map limits movement, so it can and will take you longer to flee. This actually puts a great deal of pressure on the player, which makes the map more exciting and fun to play.
Overall Rating: Excellent
Chapter 4 Gaiden: Color Chord
Here comes the second fog of war map in this game. It's also not very good. There's no turtle disincentive and most of the enemies are relatively weak. The only noteworthy part of this map is the boss, Penelo. There's a special cutscene that happens if you get Sherlock to attack him first. It breaks an item of his that otherwise would put your characters to sleep. Unfortunately, his avoid is high. Like, really high. Think Gel from Binding Blade Sacae Route. Fighting Penelo feels like a massive gamble because getting an accuracy of 50 % or more on him can be a real struggle. He also has Vantage, which is even better in this game because the moment somebody gets hit is the moment that combat stops. So what I'm trying to say is...
Overall Rating: Fail
Chapter 4 Gaiden: Children's Hero
While this gaiden map is better than the previous one, it's still on the underwhelming side. The main premise of this gaiden chapter is to have your thief Sedy seize a house on the top left portion of the map. Meanwhile, you have to avoid stepping into the range of all the yellow troops on the top right corner of the map.
There's a spot on the map that will lower the drawbridge so that the rest of your army can cross over to the other side. Most of the enemies are weak, except for the boss and the goons right by him. Enemy reinforcements will show up, but by the time that they do, the player will most likely be close to beating the map. There are no side objectives here, and not much else noteworthy going on. Like I said before, this map is underwhelming.
Overall: Meh
Chapter 5
This map is a defense map that can be beaten faster by killing the boss. It also has a couple of smaller side objectives in the form of capturing an enemy thief, and collecting stuff from a nearby house. There isn't really much to say about this map. Various enemies will drop items for forging or weapons and gold. There's also a recruitable Armor Knight called Marcel. You just have to talk to him with Reese.
There's a house that can bring your troops behind enemy lines straight to the boss. Keep in mind that the boss is tanky, and Goebbels (yes you read that right) is a really strong miniboss that will wreck anyone nearby. Overall, this map can either be played super fast for the LTC vets, or it can be played like a simple defense map and both types of players will find something to enjoy here.
Overall Rating: Decent
- Excellent: 5
- Pretty Good: 1
- Decent: 2
- Meh: 2
- Below Average: 1
- Fail: 2
No comments:
Post a Comment