Tactical RPGs come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. You have games that are 2D grid-based like Advance Wars, Fire Emblem and Langrisser and then you have games that use a 3D isometric camera angle like Disgaea, XCOM and the game that popularized the genre, Final Fantasy Tactics. Fans of Final Fantasy Tactics in particular have been begging Square Enix for years to either remaster the game, remake it or make an entirely new entry to the series, much like how Advance War fans have begged Nintendo for a new Advance Wars game. And just like with Advance Wars, it was up to indie developers to answer the fans’ cries. The indie developer in question was 6 Eyes Studio and the game, Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark. With big shoes to fill, can Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark fill the void that FFT has left in fans’ hearts for years? Let’s find out.
Story
Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark takes place in a once chaotic and destroyed world. Then a group known as The Immortals arrived and restored peace and order. These Immortals formed a council as a measure to enforce peace and prevent war. In order to carry out their rule, they appointed moral agents known as Arbiters to guard the people and the land against evil and enforce the Immortals law. Players take on the role of an Arbiter known as Kyrie. A devout follower of the Immortal’s law, she happens to stumble into an internal corruption conspiracy that if not stopped, could throw the world back into chaos. With the help of her two fellow Arbiters, Anadine and Reiner, Kyrie sets off to put a stop to this.
The game’s story is pretty much the stereotypical “things not what they seem, hero’s convictions are tested, save the world” kind of story. It’s not bad by any means, it’s actually pretty fun and enjoyable. The banter between the characters is entertaining and at points heartfelt.
Gameplay
As I mentioned, Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark is a Tactical RPG (TRPG) that uses a 3D isometric view that takes place on a grid-based battlefield. Before each battle, you can choose up to five other party members (Kyrie is always on the battlefield) from a pool of recruits that you can hire at the local guild. This also includes Anadine, Reiner and other people that will join your party at various points in the game. When adding recruits to the party, you can customize their looks, their portrait icons, their names and most important of all their class. Classes dictate what kind of abilities and skills they will be able to use. Party members will also be able to have a subclass as well and choose two skills to use from there. As your party earns experience and levels up, you earn AP to spend on unlocking skills for each party member’s class and subclass. A cool little feature when assigning classes and subclasses is if one party member has a main class, say mercenary for example, then every other party member who has mercenary as a subclass will gain partial experience for that class. This is pretty versatile when forming your party, making you think about what classes and subclasses each member should be and allowing you to use skills not associated with your main class.
The actual battle phase is just like most TRPGs: after picking the party members you take turns with the enemy AI moving them across the battlefield. The turn order is based on the highest movement stat to lowest between your party and the enemy AI. It’s pretty simple though it can get a bit repetitive. The only annoyance that I have is the lack of a movable camera. Most TRPGs that I’ve played had a moveable camera. If you’re wondering why this is a complaint, it has to do with an issue that most people will discover when they play a TRPG that has an isometric view: directions. In most TRPGs, the up button on the controller doesn’t always equate to moving the cursor up when choosing a spot to place a party member. It usually equates to left. Same goes with the rest of the directional buttons. While you do get used to it after a while, it’s still annoying in my opinion.
Graphics
The graphics for Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark has a more Western look, steering away from the more anime style that most TRPGs (at least the ones that I’ve played) have. The characters (both party members and NPCs) have a look that’s a mix of traditional fantasy and steampunk which looks really cool. The character portraits for both your party members and the AI party have an English medieval style to them which also looks really cool. Everything is brightly colored and detailed.
Sound/music
The music for Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark its pretty good. Each different area of the game has their own theme that match the feel of the environment. Some of my favorite tracks are the boss encounters, they have a menacing urgent feel to them.
Extras
With some TRPGs there’s only one playthrough, unless you make multiple save files. Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark adds in a New Game+ mode that bumps up the difficulty while letting keep your previous progress intact. If that’s not enough, the game also has a piece of DLC called Missions and Monsters. In this expansion you will be able to tame and recruit monsters to fight for you in five new locations. There are three new human classes, new music, new end game content and a new in game system where you can send out a group of recruits on missions. For around $13 this is a lot of content to keep you busy.
Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark ticks off all the marks of a good TRPG. The story is fun and entertaining, the gameplay very solid, the graphics cool looking and detailed and the music enjoyable. It can get a bit repetitive after a while and no control of the camera can be a bit annoying, but that doesn’t get in the way of how much fun the game is. Add in the Missions and Monsters DLC and Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark is a worthy entry to the genre that Final Fantasy Tactics has paved the way for.
