I’m playing Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark
Aug. 12th, 2019 09:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feotakahariI keep forgetting this game’s title. Arc Fell? Arc Seal? Something about a mark?
There’s a fine line between homage and plagiarism, and some of these classes are pretty blatantly ripped from Final Fantasy Tactics. Mercenaries are just a name-swap for Soldiers, Wizards work the same as Black Mages (apart from using four elements instead of three), Rangers are pretty clearly Hunters, Fellblades are Ninjas with a bit of Assassin mixed in . . .
I get the impression you aren’t supposed to unlock Gadgeteers this soon. You get more gadgets for them via the crafting system, and since I can’t craft yet, they can’t do squat.
From Alphonse’s perspective, you’re like the cat who came back. He kills some informant in an alleyway; you arrest him. He bluntly tells you the local courts won’t convict him; you drag him to a court in the next county. His men try to bribe you; you demonstrate that the penalty for bribery is death. He gets himself nominated as a candidate for the Immortals who run the country, which gives him this setting’s equivalent to diplomatic immunity. You bait him into trying to kill you, then argue that since the self-defense laws explicitly say that you can even defend yourself against an Immortal, and he has the rights and privileges of an Immortal, you’re now legally allowed to kill him. The actual Immortals convene a special court, and the majority tells you to cut it out, but the minority sponsors you as an Immortal candidate just so you can barge into the Temple and beat the crap out of Alphonse. You have no prior dealings with this guy! You’re just pissed the fuck off that someone thinks they’re so powerful they can get away with murder.
Speaking of Alphonse, he sure goes down like a sack of potatoes. I was expecting him to last until they introduced another villain, or at least had a cutscene where shadowy robed people talk ominously with each other. I guess I’m fighting bandits and wild animals until I find someone else who’s linked to whatever’s going on.
Jagged Alliance notwithstanding, I am so unused to strat-RPGs where the humans you defeat actually die. I kept expecting to see all the defeated enemies tied up for prison transport, but no, you just shish-kabobed an entire mercenary squad. (Maybe the original Tactics was like this? I played Advance and A2, which were a lot lighter.)
I have no idea how smart this game is yet about the political side. It's clear the Immortals are corrupt as fuck, but is it actually going to address the issues inherent in this kind of oligarchy, or is it going to make it a problem of Bad Leaders that gets resolved by having the protagonist become a Good Leader?
Spitballing here: the Immortals originally got their magic from a ruinous monster, and it's mostly used for dark-elemental abilities. What if the entire system of the Immortals was the monster's grand plan for its own immortality? There's a pretty good chance whoever's pulling this plot is trying to revive the monster, but what if that isn't a perversion of the Immortals' power and will, but rather a direct consequence of the system they set up?
There’s a fine line between homage and plagiarism, and some of these classes are pretty blatantly ripped from Final Fantasy Tactics. Mercenaries are just a name-swap for Soldiers, Wizards work the same as Black Mages (apart from using four elements instead of three), Rangers are pretty clearly Hunters, Fellblades are Ninjas with a bit of Assassin mixed in . . .
I get the impression you aren’t supposed to unlock Gadgeteers this soon. You get more gadgets for them via the crafting system, and since I can’t craft yet, they can’t do squat.
From Alphonse’s perspective, you’re like the cat who came back. He kills some informant in an alleyway; you arrest him. He bluntly tells you the local courts won’t convict him; you drag him to a court in the next county. His men try to bribe you; you demonstrate that the penalty for bribery is death. He gets himself nominated as a candidate for the Immortals who run the country, which gives him this setting’s equivalent to diplomatic immunity. You bait him into trying to kill you, then argue that since the self-defense laws explicitly say that you can even defend yourself against an Immortal, and he has the rights and privileges of an Immortal, you’re now legally allowed to kill him. The actual Immortals convene a special court, and the majority tells you to cut it out, but the minority sponsors you as an Immortal candidate just so you can barge into the Temple and beat the crap out of Alphonse. You have no prior dealings with this guy! You’re just pissed the fuck off that someone thinks they’re so powerful they can get away with murder.
Speaking of Alphonse, he sure goes down like a sack of potatoes. I was expecting him to last until they introduced another villain, or at least had a cutscene where shadowy robed people talk ominously with each other. I guess I’m fighting bandits and wild animals until I find someone else who’s linked to whatever’s going on.
Jagged Alliance notwithstanding, I am so unused to strat-RPGs where the humans you defeat actually die. I kept expecting to see all the defeated enemies tied up for prison transport, but no, you just shish-kabobed an entire mercenary squad. (Maybe the original Tactics was like this? I played Advance and A2, which were a lot lighter.)
I have no idea how smart this game is yet about the political side. It's clear the Immortals are corrupt as fuck, but is it actually going to address the issues inherent in this kind of oligarchy, or is it going to make it a problem of Bad Leaders that gets resolved by having the protagonist become a Good Leader?
Spitballing here: the Immortals originally got their magic from a ruinous monster, and it's mostly used for dark-elemental abilities. What if the entire system of the Immortals was the monster's grand plan for its own immortality? There's a pretty good chance whoever's pulling this plot is trying to revive the monster, but what if that isn't a perversion of the Immortals' power and will, but rather a direct consequence of the system they set up?
