Game Review #2

Title screen

Title: Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark
Genre: Tactical RPG
Developer(s): 6 Eyes Studios
Platform(s): Linux, Mac OS, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Xbox One
Release Date: April 30, 2019

About the story:

After witnessing a brutal murder and being threatened by a wealthy man, captain Kyrie and her group of arbiters sets out to capture the criminal. As news of corruption of some immortal breaks, she'll be tasked to undergo a journey as a marked. Deep into the journey, more deception and a looming catastrophic threat will be uncovered.

Troops screen

Crafting screen

Dubbed as the "spiritual successor of Final Fantasy Tactics (FFT)", Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark (FSAM) shares several similarities with FFT, from the turn-based tactical battles, class and skill system, etc. Fell Seal revolves around a group of arbiters (roaming judges / enforcer) tasked with keeping the peace around. Immortals (the highest power in-game) tasked the captain of the group (Kyrie) to undergo a journey as a marked (possible replacement) of an immortal. In the overworld, you can travel to towns to go to the shop to purchase equipment, guild to hire some generic characters. The player can go to locations on the map and do a patrol (there are no random battles in FSAM, just do a patrol on a location and the battle will commence). Most of the game's features are inside the troops menu.

Equipment screen

Skill screen

Fell Seal boasts around 20 character classes and 200 skills, multiple equipment to be crafted or purchased ranging from head gear, different types of weapons, armor, shields and accessories. One of the distinguishing similarity between FFT and FS is the character customization, 2 skill sets can be utilized by a character (current class and a mastered skill set). Up to 4 passive skills (2 from the current class and another 2 for mastered passive skills) and 1 reaction ability, in Fell Seal, you can also customize the look of your generic units from the unit's costume, facial features, gender, hair, name and portrait. Character stats increases upon gaining a level-up and are based on the current character's class. The player also has an option to reset a character's level to fully customize a character for a certain stat build.

Gameplay:

Battle screen

The battles in Fell Seal are turn-based tactical, the turn order (which is determined by a character's current speed stat) is displayed on the top portion of the screen, on the upper left is the height and coordinates of the tile where the pointer is hovering, this is important since several weapons and skills have a limited range and height is accounted for that range. The lower left portion displays your character's stat including the movement and jump range along with the critical chance (green shoe and the icons beside it respectively). Elemental resistance are also displayed as well. The lower right side displays the predicted damage to be done along with the hit chance and the target's HP, MP and reaction abilities. 6 Characters can be used in battle, enemy encounters (mostly story battles) have battle objectives. There are also 6 secret classes in-game which can only be used by your generic units to make them more powerful and special alongside your story classes.

Verdict:

Gameplay: 5/5
Story: 3/5
Aesthetics: 5/5
Audio: 3/5


Countless games are influenced by FFT but this one is the nearest to FFT and the best in my opinion. A simple game mechanic infused with a detailed and intricate class system, although the battles are not really random (2 sets of random encounter per location is already set) which can be a tad repetitive if you're grinding. The game also has an arena which you can use to battle stronger enemies and will sometimes reap great in-game items. The game difficulty can also be scaled on the player's desired difficulty. My only gripe with this game is the lack of side missions to be done and battles also doesn't feature a co-op attack for your characters. The story is straightforward compared to FFT but if you look at it as it is and without comparison, the story is still good, blended with some heart warming scenes, there are also a few side stories aside from the main one which can be triggered regardless of your main story progress. This game features beautifully hand drawn environment and character designs, from the characters to the items and locations in this game are well-made and not just rehashed or recolored of existing assets. In-game music is bland but the ones used in the cut scenes are really great, mostly the dramatic scenes in the story. Most players of the genre crave for something that will quench their thirst for FFT or Tactics Ogre and i can say that this game will be the closest that we can get for the time being. Updates are still being made for the game and who knows, we might get an update that will say that we're not just a FFT successor but a brilliant game in it's own right.