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| Creator | MegaCowsamMan |
| Engine | FE8 |
| Download | Here |
| Score | 41/80 |
| Rank | 15th |
| FEU Link | Here |
Reviews
Judge 1: Darrman
Gameplay: 6/10
There’s two major facets to this entry. There’s the mainstream gameplay, and there are the quiz questions. The gameplay itself is a bit slow-paced. You start with three archers, and as the map goes on you recruit several weak FE1 units via quizzes. As the chapter name implies, the more knowledge you have, the more power you gain. True to form, most units are fairly weak and slowing down to mop up reinforcements is a common action.
Hidden events are everywhere. The moat can be drained, items are lying around, the stairs can be used, and it all worked nicely. I never did find a way into the boss room though: I killed him from range. On the other side of the chapter: trivia. I like Fire Emblem, I like quiz shows, therefore, I like Fire Emblem quizzes. Rewarding the player for their knowledge is interesting, though punishing them for getting a question wrong is harsh. Trivia ranged in difficulty and topics, and I liked most of the questions. Tomth Q3 overflows and Raddy Q3 has the first two answers mean the same thing, the latter getting me once. Overall the chapter was a bit slow, but I did quite like the trivia.
Presentation: 3/5
The map is functional, and the character portraits all look good. Plenty of Akaneia music is playing in this FE1-themed chapter, which makes me happy. The stat screen was also changed to resemble FE11’s. There were a few visual bugs (Est’s promotion, the turn 3 event) at times, but otherwise things looked fine.
Story: 2/5
The story is beyond an excuse plot, but it’s not particularly complicated. It appears to be a bit after FE1, and Hardin has heard rumours of the Strengthien gang causing trouble, and various bad units have been seen there. Thomas was feeling weak and inadequate, but he suddenly had an idea: his parents had passed down general knowledge to him. He would use it to defeat the gang and save the day. His fellow archers Gordon and Norne (a bit sceptical of the whole idea) went with him.
Meanwhile, Bozen and Himmler, the two Chapter 12 bosses in FE1, captured Nina and have unleashed a disease that forces everyone into answering quiz questions. Quite why these two want to take over is never explained, though they somehow managed to outlive Mediuth, placing this after Book 1. From there, quiz questions are asked, and the story suffices to justify it. The score is brought down by the presence of several typos: another proofread would have done it a world of good. The ending is short, but it suffices to wrap things up.
Total Score: 11/20
Judge 2: Rivian
Gameplay: 6/10
The primary gimmick, to answer FE trivia questions, makes for a good time with pals where they all mock me for being a dumbass. There was some inconvenience like the fact the units do not trigger the switch after they turn blue made me assume the switches did nothing, and the fact that switches to enter the boss room seemed invisible. While the trivia aspects were neat, the actual map felt like a bit of slog through reinforcements to get to the next question. The player units are pretty adequate for taking them on.
Presentation: 3/5
The Archanea mugs are pretty solid. Battle palettes are pretty well done. Map looks like a fort. Yep.
Story: 2/5
The story seems to be a pretty simple Archanea side story. The fact that each recruitable asks you to play a trivia game is quite jarring in this context. It’s not really meant to be some serious story, so it fits the purpose.
Total Score: 11/20
Judge 3: Legend of Loog
Gameplay: 5/10
The central gameplay of Knowledge is Power requires that the player answer quizzes given by the various recruitable characters. If you answer one question right, then they’re recruited, but that character get special bonuses if you’re able to answer any question after the first. However, this felt mostly like a gimmick because it rewards knowing bits of FE trivia over emphasizing player skill. As a result, I found that it didn’t impact my opinion on the gameplay at all.
There were a few notable bugs, like one quiz question being illegible and, more pressingly, one of them causing the whole visuals of the game to bug out. Answering Est’s quiz questions correctly will cause her to promote, but because this is not properly coded, the map freaks out and all map sprites disappear. I had to toggle through my army to see where they were, and from there, had to guess at where the boss was located.
In the end, I’d say the chapter’s gameplay is okay despite this. Some of your units stink compared to enemies, and this ends up making the map turn into a bit of a slog. With a few bugs removed or the pace sped up, Knowledge is Power would be a solid entry, but as it stands, it has a few too many rough edges to stand out.
Presentation: 3/5
The mugs are in general solid, and the music throughout the chapter is well-chosen for its Archanea vibes. Outside of this, most aspects of its presentation are solid.
Story: 2/5
The story itself focuses on a group of scrubby archers (Tomas, Gordin, and Norne) taking back a castle, with Tomas trying to make use of his “knowledge” to make up for his deficits. I actually liked this more than I thought it would, but there are many typos throughout the script that drag down the experience. Also, I didn’t really like the quizzes from a story standpoint, as it felt really odd and arbitrary that answering their questions made them stronger. Still, Knowledge is Power has a fine enough premise to partially make up for these issues.
Total Score: 10/20
Judge 4: Levin64
Gameplay: 5/10
Knowledge is power, which by knowledge means FE trivias; that most FE players should know… I guess? One answer’s choices are bugged though (on one of the armor knights). The map has neat gimmicks but are shown to the player rather poorly. Not to mention the reinforcements can make the map more tedious. The switches to reveal the area to the last boss’ range aren’t visible like the first two switches that remove the water. Stat balance is indeed balanced, so yeah. Nothing much to brag about.
Presentation: 2/5
Portraits are… fine, some of the music can be a miss with some awkward instruments here and there. Battle palettes are fine, but the knight animation does need some script fixing. Lots of text typos, even some items have typos, like Energy Vile? That’s supposed to be Energy Vial, right? But even then, in Archanea it’s supposed to be Energy Drop instead, I think. Consistency is fine, but not this kind of consistency.
Story: 2/5
Benched Archanean player units trying to be inside the spotlight, with Tomas being the center of the attention… dunno why it has to be him, though? Very serviceable story, but does help the narration of using FE trivias as the gimmick into the story integration.
Total Score: 9/20
Results
| Category | Darr | Rivian | Loog | Levin | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gameplay | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 22 |
| Presentation | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 11 |
| Story | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
| Total | 11 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 41 |