Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark

Fun, turn based RPG if a little complex with the class selection (for me).

I'm in awe over the fact that a game of such high quality like Fell Seal could enjoy so little fanfare in the gaming media. For fans of FF Tactics or FF Tactics Advance, this game is literally the only new thing out there to fill that void, except that it exceeds its inspiration in practically every way -- design, art, story, music, gameplay. It's an incredible achievement and easily one of the best indie titles ever. I make this last claim because most people I know to whom I've showed this game never played the Tactics games back in the day, but they instantly felt this game to be so genuinely fun and so quick to learn, it was just effortless for newcomers to pick up this retro style of play without rose-tinted nostalgia glasses. The art is absolutely top notch, the music is impressive, the characters' art and dialogue are refreshingly well-done. I honestly didn't expect this to be so good. Best of all, it runs perfectly on the lowest end hardware, plus it has real native Linux support, which is just beyond the most optimistic expectations for indie enthusiasts in 2019. So, I thank the geniuses over at 6 Eyes & 1C -- they deserve huge success and way way more attention from the media. 5/5+.

It's very rare to play an isometric tactics game that is all fun and no crap. I loved the variety of characters and skills and enemies (my favourite enemy was the musical duck creature.) The special classes were fun to play with although from I've played of them the Princess seems stronger from the start than say the Werewolf or Vampire but that might have something to do with my party composition. The story was nothing extradordinary but it did move things along and opened up the map at just the right pace...no arbitrary roadblocks here. There were the obligatory immortals to mess things up and those battles felt more special that "regular" enemies. I liked the replensible items idea and the overall amount of treasures and items to collect. The shop continually had new items and gold was never in short supply although you had to be careful what you bought, unless you wanted to repeat earlier levels to get stocked up again. As always with these games it's a good idea to replay some of the earlier (i.e. easier) maps to get slightly ahead but that's how I like to play. If there was one complaint I had it was the UI - there's a bit of conflict going on between small and large text (and not being able to adjust it). Although you can adjust the walk speed of the characters in battle (do this!) it doesn't reflect in the story elements so it can feel like you are waiting around just a tad too long. Also the game probably feels better with a controller but as I played with mouse and keyboard it felt a bit clicky/tappy at times, especially when upgrading characters and selecting skills for the next battles.

As other reviewers have said, this game's mechanics draw inspiration from a lot of SNES/PS era RPGs, and this game does it well. You can min-max stats, create a huge team of intricately specialized heroes, or flexibly class-change to your heart's content, if you want. Throwback classes like werewolves and those mages that hit the whole map make a big splash. Thanks to the interface and presentation, it's also lots of fun in casual play. Whether you're playing a story mission or just grinding, this is a game you can pick up and spend just an hour on in an evening instead of feeling you have to "work" to make meaningful progress. The combat tracks can be breathtaking. The animation and graphics are crisp. Fast loading times, a default "injury" rather than permadeath system, and just the right autosave timing make small mistakes much less punishing on the player's time. Ever had to reset a battle map because you forgot to equip just one character in your team with just one piece of gear? You lose only a minute for that mistake in this game. I've also spent hours customizing the look of my characters, importing my own portraits, yes, but even without that there are many options for customizing each generic's sprites. Elf ears, anime hair, devil horns, no problem. Among the few weaknesses of this game, I would say that its fantasy world's lore seems rather generic and shallow, especially compared to your own characters. OgreBattle's world and the Ivalice of Final Fantasy Tactics had a rich depth in their world histories, and were able to tell a complicated and subtle political tale through them. This game's story spoon-feeds you a bit. But that is probably something that makes it more accessable.

Classic bones with indie soul. It's got enough of the Tactics games in it's DNA to feel familiar but with fresh formulas classes, and feels. My only gripe is lack of feeling much investment in the character's decisions. A definite must play if you like Tactical RPGs