Recent reviews by Tjalle

gr8 w m8s

Glad to see this on PC. A few minor bugs, but overall great.
Thanks "Veralis", for finishing the game with me, even if my scarf was a lot shorter. Thanks <3

TLDR;
Above average turn-based strategy RPG with a pleasant class system, 8/10.

Gameplay:

Overall fairly enjoyable. Certainly a game that pulls you in to play more.

There are three main annoyances I have. First off, enemy balance is all over the place, sometimes they are absolutely stupid and you waltz over them, other times it feels like they have infinite MP or can literally not miss. Might just be my bad luck.

Similarly the chance of effect of hits and status effects feels smaller than the percentage chance given. I.e. an 85% chance to root an enemy failing five times in a row. Blegh.

Lastly a minor one, crafting. Either make it an interesting implementation or just don't bother.

To balance this out, three very positive elements.

You can multiclass into madness without penalties. You can equip the actions of a ranger and a wizard, the passives of a knight and a mercenary and the reaction ability of a druid. Absolutely amazing.

As mentioned above not all attacks and abilities always do what you expect, that said, when the stars do align having your entire team wombo-combo the enemy into oblivion is the most satisfying thing ever. If the difficulty curve was less random, it'd be even better!

Rounding this up, progression is speedy. Whilst I know some people enjoy the grind, with the ability to swap classes quickly I enjoy the ability to quickly level my classes, buy the right gear and move forward in the story.

Story & Narrative:

Talking about story, the narrative in Fell Seal is... Predictable. But, a pleasant journey regardless.
The developers describe the story as "mature" one, this is not quite the word I would use to describe it.
Whilst having some twists and turns and intrigue after an hour of play you can already predict how things will go forward.
Everything is very much surface level. Does a simple story mean it's bad? No. Not at all!
It's easy to follow, and it ties in perfectly with the events that unfold, and even with the core mechanics. Lovely.
The banter between characters is a nice touch too.

Narratively, in more of a world building perspective, I feel 6 Eyes could have done a better job.
Whilst most humanoid character feel sensible within the world, most of the environments the game takes place in, the monsters or even the classes characters have all come without any explanation.
It wouldn't hurt to give those kind of ideas a bit more exposure in the game.

Visuals & Audio:
Somewhere in the void between pixel art, modular tiles and unique hand painted assets lies Fell Seal.

Not beating around the bush, when I first started the game I was not impressed by the graphics.
The character portraits are lovely and well done, the same goes for the main menu and battle backdrops.
The actually intractable environments however vary wildly in quality, the very first scene takes place in a horrid mess of mixed pixel art and regular 2D art, and then the next environment is a lovely hand crafted forest scene. I wish they'd chosen a set style and a set quality of work.

The characters as represented in battle and cut scenes have cool designs, but feel very off with their far more simplistic pixel art style. Animations are often reused, and with some exceptions are not very interesting.
The upside to this is that you can heavily customize the visuals of party members. I would still have hoped on regular 2D sprites, or at the very least more interesting animations, but knowing the constraints of development I respect the current art style.

Over time the art will grow on you. It did on me, and heck I do game art for a living. You'll be alright.

Let's talk sound briefly. The music in the game is decent, no complaints. SFX is adequate, but I've heard a few sounds that are near identical to sounds from other games. Slightly worrying.

UI:

Keeping it short, clunky, but functional. I play using my keyboard and trackpad, and it works.
The combat UI is nice and works just fine, but things such as shops and the party management system come with too many little sub-menu's to manage when you have a large party.
I'll give it a try with a gamepad soon, as this is recommended.

Closing thoughts:

I realize I highlight several negative elements about Fell Seal, but don't get me wrong, the game is lovely.
If you are looking to spend 10-30 hours in a quality tactical RPG game, look no further, the Arbiters are here to take you on an adventure.

Enjoyable and quite easy to use (I probably have 200+ hours outside of Steam on this ♥♥♥♥), I would especially recommend Blender if you just started modelling. Professionally I still prefer my 3DS Max and ZBrush, but ♥♥♥♥ it, this is free and works like a charm!

This game is a masterpiece.

The overall gameplay is innovative and fun, and to be honest, it's even quite an easy to addapt too.
This allows you to comfortably soak in to the amazing world, filled with excellent graphical design, an amazing soundtrack and an even more compelling plot.

Life, death and the strong bond between two brothers create an amazing story which leaves you baffled. In just about 4 hours you will feel connected to the characters and the world they live in, and be riveted to the screen until the very end.

I shall say no more before I spoil anything, but if you are ready to be hit by the feels-bus, I recommend this magnificient gem of a game.

Its fun, but only after googling how this actually worked XD

3d Arena Fighter, why not!?