Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark

Estimated Time for a Single Playthrough: 30-50 Hours (Determinant on difficulty, how much side content the player is willing to do, and how much level grinding a player decides to do) [9/10] for those who are familiar, and enjoy SJRP's like Final Fantasy Tactics. [8/10] for those who have a neutral perspective on the SJRPG genre. I highly recommend this title for a variety of reasons such as enticing gameplay, solid replay value, decent music, flexible customization, and fantastic "secret" content. While I personally would consider the story slightly below average - I still found myself occasionally captivated by the narrative being presented and invested in some (heavy emphasis on "some") of the characters presented. Whether or not a story is a determinant factor that makes, or breaks a game for you, Fell Seal offers cutscene skipping which is complimentary to those of us who would ra

I'll start by saying I really like this game. At least on its surface. BUT, there are a lot of things I dislike. This recommendation is, on the fence. I really could go either way. What works: Choice - There's a lot to choose from. There's tons of classes, weapon types, weapons, armors, and abilities. You can build a lot of things in this game that will be fun, and frankly broken. Which I think is a lot of what I like in FFtactics. Tactics:(Once you get to a certain understanding and skill level, you can just break the game through lots of skills and understanding of the mechanics, this is done through very careful, meticulous crafting of very different feeling classes and what I'm guessing was hundreds or thousands of hours of testing.) And Fell Seal does manage to capture the essence of that. Art - I like the monsters and sprite art. I also think the characters themselves are disti

They tried to make story a selling point. I saw the devs on the forum talking about this, they kind of turned their nose up at FFTA, saying that it was too many sidequests, and they wanted to focus on writing some kind of shakespearian thing. Boy, did they overestimate their writing abilities or what? A 'epic, mature story,' they wrote as a selling point. Here's the problem with that: FFT opens with a young lord who puts down a rebellion of disgruntled veterans who were going unpaid. There are somewhat modern specific historical events that this draws from, which grounds the story in reality. The writers were brave enough to make the protagonist unlikeable enough to be real, but not so much that he's an outright psychopath, conflicted enough to make him relateable. His allegiances change over time. He does bad while he was naive and young, develops as he grows older. It also starts out

People compare almost every tactical RPG to Final Fantasy Tactics where it's pretty much a cliche. In my book most games don't quite scratch the same itch. NIS's games like Disgaea are more about grind than combat tactics, Fire Emblem plays more like a strategy game with the lack of character customization, and most indie titles I've tried have trouble walking the line between having enough interesting options to build characters around and not having anything obviously broken that dominates the gameplay (to be fair, FFT is crazy broken as well). Of all the tactical RPGs I've tried in the past decade+, Fell Seal has done the best at living up to this comparison, and in many ways improves on the classics' formula. The core mechanics are a mix of FFT, FFTA, and Tactics Ogre. There's a similar speed system to all three games. MP starts at 0 and ticks up like in Tactics Ogre. There's a job

Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark, a well-done indie with some proper investments into all major game components. There is a very good soundtrack, good visuals, deep enough story, and obviously a very lucrative gameplay based on the chess principle of the complete certainty to the player of all outcomes of every action. The only slight weak point in gameplay that I've found in a full game is that you can't rotate the map in the battle, which makes some manoeuvres a bit awry. Other than that, from the gameplay point of view, it's almost perfect in what it does. However, let's not be all salutes and bonfires. Fell Seal is not an ideal game overall. While it clearly follows the well-known path of already-became-classic Japanese tactical RPGs like Shining Force, Final Fantasy Tactics and such, it should be noted that Fell Seal was made around gameplay. Not around story. Generally, you will do fine

Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark is a very good game with a fundamental flaw. If you're a fan of Final Fantasy Tactics or tactical rpgs like me, you will enjoy it A LOT - but something might gnaw on you until you're pissed. More on that below. PROS + Deeply customizable character builds. + Tons of classes with themed skill sets & traits. + Combine 2 classes & get traits from other classes. + Synergize class combos or just go w/ a crazy build. + Stat growth differs for each class, more uniqueness. + You can upload your own character portraits. + Very tough (but long) battles if you play on hardest. + Lots of unique armor, weapons and accessories. + Interesting map levels, lots of verticality & flavor. + Quaint pixel style is clean, it grows on you. + Music is above average but limited. CONS - Too many difficulty settings. Keep choices minimal. - Story attempts to be adult but dialogue is child