 |
|
| Creator | RandomMercenary |
| Engine | FE8 |
| Download | Here |
| Score | 56/80 |
| Rank | 10th |
| FEU Link | Here |
Reviews
Judge 1: Darrman
Gameplay: 8/10
I’ll admit to a bit of bias here: this is an FE4 map, toe to tip. And I love my Jugdral. Your army is split in half, with one half marching north and the other marching east, before the two unite to take down the final boss. In the vein of FE5 Chapter 13, much of the player’s army is composed of generics. But this takes it to an extreme, as here the generics are the army.
Named characters are few and far between, and also by far the strongest units. The generic units are described in the guide as “resources, not characters”; I happily sacrificed them to keep dangerous enemies off my back. Bosses usually required the intervention of named characters, while the generics made themselves useful whenever possible. The most dangerous enemy was the boss with a “master lance”, which required several sacrifices to slow down and keep distracted. Like in FE4, you can save every turn, though I never needed to reload.
Presentation: 3/5
The map tileset is FE5’s and the map sprites are FE4’s, which fit in well with the general Jugdral inspiration of this entry. The music is taken from an assortment of FE games, while the battle theme is Zelda 2’s. Under the Flag and Army of Grandbell are good choices. There’s also a world map, which comes up in the ending cutscene, and there’s plenty of cutscene maps used in service to the plot.
On negative notes, the vanilla opening demo is not skipped and the chapter title is drawn by hand instead of using the hack that displays it in text.
Story: 4/5
The Jugdral inspiration runs into the story as well. The entry is a prequel to the author’s hack, Crowns and Thrones, which I haven’t played and therefore lack context on. The entry opens with a royal wedding, but Prince Hubert wasn’t invited to the celebrations. He came anyway for his sister’s sake, but he and his father don’t get on, and Richard ends up throwing Hubert out. A year later, he and his wife are now growing potatoes when news breaks of incoming tax hikes. With the common people destitute and angry, Hubert decides he’s had enough of his father’s policies and rises up in revolt. Richard orders his other son, Leon, to put the revolt down. Leon isn’t happy with his orders, but he is ultimately loyal to his father.
From there, the various nobles declare their loyalties for one side or another, and after the brothers clash, the ending takes twists Jugdral would be proud of. I do feel like it would have helped to have played the actual sequel for more context and the opening cutscene ran to about twenty minutes, which is a bit long for a single chapter. To be fair, I often do the same. Overall, I do want to see where things go after the ending.
Total Score: 15/20
Judge 2: Rivian
Gameplay: 7/10
As this hack says units “are resources, not characters.” It has more of the wargame feel by having hordes of generics to pit against each other. Each class has skills that support its role, such as mercenaries having 3 movement skills, mages having 2 debuff auras, etc. While story units are fairly tough, it is definitely not FE4 where a juggernaut wipes 30 cavaliers. Unit matchups have to be careful and deliberate to have enough armies to last the whole chapter. The size of the map and armies also emphasises the feel of a grand conflict instead of a simple skirmish. The downside is that there is a lot of time spent just moving, with both a large map and many, many units to move. Turn autosaves help mitigate a loss creating a lot of tedium. Overall, I found myself eventually enjoying this different kind of playstyle, even if its not normally my thing.
Presentation: 4/5
The hack uses a lot of Judgral map sprites, weapon icons and UI elements. The harsh colours of the map sprites do clash a little. There is good use of multiple cutscene maps such as a banquet room and on map eventing to further the visual representation of each scene. It is definitely high effort.
Story: 4/5
It is a lot of work to introduce the player to a whole royal family, its associated noble houses and their conflicts in a single chapter, but this hack does so without drawing things out. Admittedly I had played the sequel to this so I wasn’t completely blind. The hot-headed prince who jumps straight to inciting a rebellion is a sympathetic figure to root for while knowing his ending was going to be undoubtedly tragic. The scope of the tale did feel as grand as it could be within the scope of a single chapter, involving several noble houses and armies. It did come as a surprise that the story didn’t end with his head on a stick which I’m pretty happy about.
Total Score: 15/20
Judge 3: Legend of Loog
Gameplay: 7/10
The main thing that separates this hack from others is that the vast majority of your army is disposable, with no names or death quotes to make you feel bad. The gameplay here generally trends towards having your named characters do the important jobs while your unnamed ones act as meatshields or make use of the solid equipment they have to help their leader out.
In the chapter, you have to Seize two forts with two different groups, then defeat the charging cav boss that shows up. The map was definitely balanced around you sacrificing your army liberally towards this goal. Even so, it felt like I had too many units and that moving all of them each turn made playing the chapter drag on longer than necessary, with multiple turns towards the middle consisting of just moving.
In the end, I’d say that the gameplay was above average despite these gripes, as it still engages the player and makes them consider their resources carefully in order to defeat the large armies facing them.
Presentation: 4/5
A significant amount of effort has been expended here to enhance the story beats, with multiple cutscene maps and significant cutscene eventing. The aesthetic of the hack has also been overhauled to resemble SNES era, most noticeable in the tileset and the map sprites chosen. I don’t like the new map sprite army palettes, or the palettes that certain portraits have, but on the whole, presentation is a clear strong point.
Story: 3/5
The plot here is a prequel to Crowns and Thrones, and it focuses on the son of a king who decides to raise a rebellion in response to the king raising the kingdom’s taxes. There’s quite a lot of plot here, and as someone who hasn’t played the original hack, it was a lot to take in all at once. That said, the core of the story is simple, and it’s generally well-written, outside of some typoes here and there. I expect that it would be more interesting had I played the original hack, but the story is still solid even without context.
Total Score: 14/20
Judge 4: Levin64
Gameplay: 6/10
This hack really does make me try to be less conservative on my generics; like what it says in the beginning “generics are resources, not characters”. It makes the rift between actual characters and generics by stats; characters are powerhouses to some extend, generics are meat shields or enemy chippers, and both serve their purposes really well. The characters aren’t really “juggernauts” so the generics are still really essential.
The map is very FE4, with several seize points being the cue for the next story beat and or more enemy waves. Big map combined with many characters make the gameplay feel like a slog; especially when I spend a turn just moving from point A to B. But as I engage(!) the enemies, it’s actually fun to strategize; again, just like FE4. Combat is fine, several weapons are a must-have (specifically the effective weapons).
To summarize, the boring parts are boring, the fun parts are fun. The gameplay doesn’t hype you that much, yet it doesn’t really bore you too. The resource management; for both units and items is the underappreciated part here, and that alone is what keeps me going as I play.
Presentation: 3/5
Mix and match of several FE installments’ assets turn this down a lot. Archanean map music, Thracia tileset, Genealogy map sprites, Jugdral item icons, GBAFE vanilla assets and customs for the rest. The portraits are okay yet some do have really bad palettes… Some battle palettes are weird (like the fighters and the unpromoted main lord). Overall, the choices for several assets which aren’t cohesive shot my rating here. Although, I can see a massive effort on cutscenes maps and the usage of map eventing here, especially on the chapter prologue and epilogue. I love these.
Story: 3/5
Lots of introduction and exposition lead to the main premise, which is a lot to take in especially since I haven’t really played the sequel. To be completely fair, I wasn’t hooked to the story due to the problem I mentioned. Not to mention the characters feel one-dimensional to me. Yet, the core is simple and at least I was able to get through it. All in all, the story just barely passes my standards; but again my standards are quite high in some way.
Total Score: 12/20
Results
| Category | Darr | Rivian | Loog | Levin | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gameplay | 8 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 28 |
| Presentation | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 14 |
| Story | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 14 |
| Total | 15 | 15 | 14 | 12 | 56 |