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| Creator | TritraSerpifeu |
| Engine | FE8 |
| Download | Here |
| Score | 26/80 |
| Rank | 13th |
| FEU Link | Here |
Reviews
Judge 1: Darrman
(I played with MC, one of the MARTH judges.)
Gameplay: 4/10
Wood Wars is a PvP Fire Emblem romhack. The players are in control of armies who mutually have a kill boss objective. The map itself is perfectly symmetrical, with treasure chests in the corners and a ballista in the middle. However, the chapter itself was lopsided. Whoever got to the ballista first would win. The treasure chests were completely ignored.
The guide mentions that each unit can shove and pivot, but these commands were not implemented in the actual game. Other oddities we encountered include player 2’s autocursor defaulting to player 1’s units and Gaiden minimum damage being present but unmentioned. Some more time testing would have been appreciated.
Presentation: 1/5
The battle animations look decent, but they sometimes lagged for some reason: perhaps it might have been an emulator issue. The map itself is simplistic and prone to odd tile placement. The battle music was a quiet ambience, which did not fit the mood of a PvP battle at all, and both of us listened to different music instead to fit the mood.
Story: 1/5
The story is a clear excuse plot. Some children are playing amongst ruins, and the Somniel is name-dropped and a few shape-shifting FE characters get referenced.
Total Score: 6/20
Judge 2: BandanaSplitzzz
(Played alongside TheAtlas.)
Gameplay: 3/10
Wood Wars is a very unique hack, focusing just on PvP combat. My distaste for this hack might be born of inexperience, as multiplayer games typically have depth hidden in most nooks waiting for people to be found. That being said, a fair bit of this hack feels sloppy from a first-timer’s perspective. Units feel almost random to use, since some have really intricate inventories when there should have been minimal mental overhead. Advance Wars has units that function simply for this reason, at least compared to Fire Emblem. Every unit has the Pass ability (unstated), which makes me think the most effective tactic is hiding your Lord in the corner, given how frail he is. The guide mentions every unit has Shove and Pivot, which is untrue, and makes me wonder how much of the guide is also inaccurate.
All of these issues come with the context that I’m intentionally not mentioning balance issues, as I’m hesitant to talk about balance without being experienced with the meta. If I were to, spiders feel incredibly strong, and thieves feel way too weak. The Power Ups don’t feel half as valuable as the 1 tile chokepoint you can control if you take them. The Lord is way too frail to ever consider putting him on the frontlines, with ubiquitous Pass. This may be a skill issue, but gameplay felt unfocused. This needed a fair bit more testing to really become refined.
I understand it was born of hardware and engine limitations, but the lack of a turn timer and requirement for Parsec/savestate passing really hurts this game. I think having an easy way to play this, like in a modern engine like Lex Talionis, would make playing it far less abrasive.
In spite of all of these things, I still think Wood Wars is captivating to theorize about. I find the idea of PvP Fire Emblem so endlessly endearing. I hope the creator manages to make it click in the future.
Presentation: 2/5
I don’t think there’s anything too special about Wood Wars’ presentation, other than it being decent. Especially since as a player, I kinda don’t want to leave my opponent waiting through my battle animations. I’m also not super big on the woodsy thing this hack has going on with the music. It makes me feel… kinda sleepy…
Story: 1/5
The only real cutscene in this hack is in the beginning, using far too many words to explain that you are children playing a board game. I would question the many unexplained aspects of the world Wood Wars takes place in, but I can also ask why I, as a player, should care. Cutscenes like this don’t really belong in a PvP game like Wood Wars — I got some damn Fire Emblem to play with my buds!! The greater lore implications for the Elysium Ablaze series of games is lost on me.
Total Score: 6/20
Judge 3: Fringus
I played this with a previous judge, Rivian.
Gameplay: 4/10
It’s a symmetric PVP experience geared towards, what else, PVP (though it has botplay). It’s a fun concept as is, and passing a savestate back and forth was very quick. But as is it wears a good few current design flaws that hold it back, though there’s still fun to be had. Unit kits are very simple (three single use strong weapons and one weaker infinite) and easy to understand. Though unit usefulness ranges, with Jousters especially being far too fast, mobile, AND bulky, with their best counter is your lose condition. Meanwhile, for the map, the corner objectives aren’t effective enough to go for, but the ballista in the middle the main thing to target.
However, after someone reaches it, there’s very little point for either player to approach. Because approaching often meant more losses, and the lack of time pressure encouraged a very defensive playstyle.
There’s also a notable error in the lack of the movement skills described in the guide, with all units secretly having Pass instead. It didn’t impact me and Rivian’s run through, but it could undeniably ruin someone’s plans. Ultimately, I could see this being super fun, but currently it needs some touching up to work better for actual PVP.
Presentation: 3/5
The monster aesthetic is fun and fits well for every unit. The map itself is a little simple but quite nice to look at. Though it’s held back by the mood set by the music being a very ill fit. It’s far too subdued and calm for what should be an exciting fight, and it really takes away from the excitement and energy this whole thing should have.
Story: 1/5
Some kids go to a museum with the goal of playing a game, then do so; it’s a solid excuse plot, and the attempt to give some explanation is nice. A few of the intro gags didn’t really land, especially the math/meth confusion. Though their reaction to the utter state of the place was good. I also wish there was a little more post-victory.
Total Score: 8/20
Judge 4: Electric Serge
Gameplay: 4/10
In its current state, Wood Wars is a neat proof of concept, but also very rough around the edges. For context, I’ve only played on botplay, and the AI is kinda one-note, mostly rushing its entire army towards my own, but I can see some issues that are likely to pervade into actual PvP matches.
One of the most notable gameplay quirks is that units of opposing factions can pass through one another, a decision that I heavily dislike. It’s one thing to have something like Pass in a single player campaign, but in a multiplayer setting, this will likely encourage more drawn out matches, as you can’t use terrain to create chokepoints and protect your backline, an issue that’s only further exacerbated by the lack of a turn limit. Alternatively, the two enemy armies will mesh into a giant blob where there’s basically no space to reposition and properly attack the other guys, which is what ended up happening in the botplay session.
Unit design in general also feels somewhat slipshod. Every unit has a primary weapon and 3 special items, some of which are stronger weapons while others are utility tools like lockpicks, healing items or stat boosters. It’s hard to put it into use, but I just didn’t find the units particularly enjoyable to use, maybe in part because a lot of tools were just slightly stronger basic weapons. If they were more interesting tools (like how the mages had Nosferatu) my opinion here might improve.
I can see a good amount of potential in a PvP game such as this, what with the fact the current build was designed under time constraints and had to deal with its fair share of limitations. I look forward to seeing what the creator can do with this in the future, but I can only grade based on what’s in front of me, rather than a hypothetical.
Presentation: 1/5
While I respect the use of custom sprites to sell the monster aesthetic of the game, the sound design frustrates me to such a point that it heavily tanks the general experience of playing the game, which is the primary reason behind my low score.
First, a couple of the units have mismatched movement sounds. The flying dogs sound like walking humans and the spiders sound like horses. This is annoying, but not nearly as much as the music choices.
In my opinion, a competitive PvP game should have music with some amount of energy to get both players pumped for an exciting competition. The map theme is cricket sounds, and the battle theme is a single, relatively quiet drum being banged in an abnormal pattern. There’s basically no music being played throughout the entire competitive match, which sucks the energy out of the fight heavily, and it’s a pretty big black mark against the experience.
Story: 1/5
There’s an intro cutscene here to explain the world behind the game. Frankly, it’s hardly any better than not having any story at all. The prose is pretty poor, and a child talks about drugs being cool for some reason. The world is supposedly connected to Fire Emblem Engage but one of the kids makes a Genshin Impact reference. Random would probably be a good word to describe it.
Total Score: 6/20
Results
| Category | Darrman | Bandana | Fringus | Serge | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gameplay | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 15 |
| Presentation | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
| Story | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Total | 6 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 26 |