 |
|
| Creator | Frog |
| Engine | FE8 |
| Download | Here |
| Score | 65/80 |
| Rank | 3rd |
| FEU Link | Here |
Reviews
Judge 1: Darrman
Gameplay: 9/10
The main gimmick here is the ability to swap the classes and weapons of almost every unit on the map, both player and enemy. This opens up many different angles of attack, such as turning an enemy mercenary into a zombie and then turning a nearby villager into a mercenary. The way the entry handles all of this reclassing is by giving each unit an item representing their class. The lord can swap these around, with weapons automatically adjusting for class. A lot of formula adjustments have been made in the vein of Gaiden. Stats are low, weight is unmitigated, and only one speed is needed to double.
In terms of gameplay, this is a difficult submission. The lord will die if left exposed on enemy phase, and durability is fairly low across the board. Interacting with the chapter gimmick is absolutely essential to win. On my first decent attempt, I hadn’t upgraded any of my weapons, and they all broke. Reinforcements keep the player moving, as do side objectives. The boss took a long time to kill, but this was because I didn’t grab a rapier. The chapter does give checkpoints on turn 8 and turn 14 within the engine, and I did have to use these. Overall, Avalon X Emblem requires a lot of thinking out of the box, but once things started clicking, it feels very satisfying.
Presentation: 4/5
A lot of work’s gone into making things look good. The music choices are all good. The character portraits are good too, though Gisella’s frames are mis- aligned. The cutscene eventing is pretty good here, and the map music and palettes shifting as time passes is a nice touch. The CGs in the opening and ending are also well-placed. Animations are completely disabled, presumably due to reclassing. There are a few minor overflows with GUI space limitations (such as when attacking with broken weapons), but these are forgiveable.
Story: 4/5
The end of the world is nigh, and Fey the civilian really isn’t interested. She may be the chosen one to take the best parts of this world to set the ground for the next, but finding it all difficult to believe, dismisses her predecessor’s instructions. Meanwhile, a nearby village is under attack from a royal army, trying to flush out the exiled prince. The keeper, a spirit haunting Fey, urges her to leave the villagers to their fate; she refuses. And so, the final battle on the old world commences. Throughout the map, the keeper continues urging Fey to worry about the greater good, but all she’s ever known is an ordinary village life, and she’s not going to change that. The ending pays off nicely with what’s set up. Depending on the actions taken when reclassing your units and swapping weapons around, the ending will change slightly, which is a nice touch I like.
Total Score: 17/20
Judge 2: Rivian
Gameplay: 8/10
The unique mechanic here definitely blew me off my feet. The lord can swap the class and weapons of all units. Every powerful enemy is a potential loot pinata, but how they charge in waves makes this not feasible a lot of the time.
My first attempt went right (and very wrong). Even relying heavily on the occasional mid map save, an absolute godsend, I still ended up bogged down fighting every reinforcement wave. Seeing I was down to 3 units and basically doomed, my audience gave the advice to use the zombie class to cripple the boss’s stats by turning him into a zombie, then use the effective blessed bow. This strategy worked with my very last unit on 1 HP right before the zombie horde hit which was one hell of a finisher.
It was only fair to give a second attempt on my own, going in the other direction. This time, I slew the boss very smoothly skipping most of the reinforcement waves. It feels to me this side was much easier rather than me having gotten better at the game. Ultimately, I found the hack quite difficult overall, with tough placements and powerful enemies. However, the class and weapon swap are a very flexible toolbox to allow the player to adjust their party on the go and cripple enemies. It definitely takes a bit to get into the mindset, but it’s a very rewarding system.
Presentation: 4/5
The map, palettes and portraits all look pretty good. CG used for book of creation is cool. There is a good use of on map eventing in the opening and end event. Good work.
Story: 4/5
It’s a rather interesting tale about some deity of sorts pestering a girl save the world while she ignores him to fight for her friends. The fact that her victory was completely meaningless in the face of the world ending did tug at the heartstrings a little. The ending being based on the class and weapons stored by the lord is a very interesting touch, though I do wish there was some more major ones like the zombie ending.
Total Score: 16/20
Judge 3: Legend of Loog
Gameplay: 8/10
The idea of the chapter is incredibly interesting, revolving around the lord’s ability to use Reshape. Functionally, this is Trading “cores” that determine the class of each character and “memories” that determine their equipped weapon. This leads to a huge amount of possibilities, as you can take these from enemies and give them to your units (and vice versa). The lack of stats on most of your units adds to this, as class cores largely determine them in a very Gaiden-y way.
In practice, the lack of player stats means that enemies are very threatening, and when paired with the density of the chapter, it can constrain your strategies significantly. There’s a split setup on the map, but it seems more intended for you to go one of the two ways, as actually splitting sounds nigh impossible. I went down and ignored the villages on the right in my successful run. I’d say the chapter was a bit too hard, but still, I enjoyed what I played and would love to see the mechanics return in a longer hack.
Presentation: 4/5
I have nothing but good things to say here. The music choices consistently fit well with the chapter’s vibes, and many graphical assets have been replaced, giving it a unique look. A significant amount of effort is put into its eventing to enhance the narrative and gameplay, as well. A particular highlight is the mid-map events that provide map saves. They change the palette of the map and the music to fit the new “phase” of the map, which is a nice touch.
Story: 4/5
The plot revolves around a girl and some sort of god who grants her power from a book (tying into the main gameplay mechanics). The dynamic between the girl and the god was consistently interesting throughout the chapter, leading up the end event where it comes to a head. I only saw one of the branching endings, but their variable nature adds to the uniqueness of each playthrough that Avalon Emblem excels at. Also, Morbius shows up for some reason, I guess.
Total Score: 16/20
Judge 4: Levin64
Gameplay: 8/10
The Reshape mechanic is what blows my mind here with how sandbox-y it is for your strategy (even though you can only reshape max 4 people at one time), and combined with deflated stats; you can be quite creative on what to do on your units and enemies. Enemies can be both your resource and threat, and player units can be dependable or other way around depending on how you configure your units. Enemy density can be rather much, and I DEFINITELY tried splitting but it was just too difficult to do that. People who want to play this might need to readjust their playing style a lot (like I did with several playthroughs and lots of resets; mid-map saves are blessings in disguise, it helped me a lot) with the fresh mechanic and deflated stats.
Presentation: 4/5
First of all, every portrait is not vanilla, which I definitely like. Music also changes with the map, showing a flow of time and introducing new “phase” combined with mid-map events which also functions as mid-map saves, amazing integration. I’m slightly disappointed with no battle animations but later I’m very much aware of the hassle to assign every single palette on every single class for each unit and or boss with the core mechanic of this hack. Overall, I can see lots of effort on polishing everything here, great job!
Story: 4/5
The story is neatly woven into the gameplay, and the whole plot is a desperate struggle that ends up with a tragic ending. I love it! The plot is solid, the interaction between the girl and the deity makes sense and it also flows naturally. Although, I wish there were some talks about how other units respond to the girl’s newly found power, and the units’ responses about the zombies. If that’s explored during the gameplay, I’d say the epilogue (before the final CG) could be more impactful. Yet, the ending is amazingly done and again; tied and integrated with the girl’s inventory; making each ending more diverse.
Also uhhh why is Morbius here and why is he morbin’?
Total Score: 16/20
Results
| Category | Darr | Rivian | Loog | Levin | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gameplay | 9 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 33 |
| Presentation | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 16 |
| Story | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 16 |
| Total | 17 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 65 |