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| Creator | File2ish |
| Engine | FE8 |
| Download | Here |
| Score | 58/80 |
| Rank | 8th |
| FEU Link | Here |
Reviews
Judge 1: Darrman
Gameplay: 7/10
The objective of this chapter is to talk to five green militia units, who are under constant attack by monsters. Vulneraries heal 15 HP and have six uses, so they can survive for a while. With a split starting army and a portal spawning more enemies, rushing forward is incentivised. On turn 10, another portal appears to force the player to move faster, but I had already saved each green unit the turn prior. Upon talking to the final green unit, the chapter boss appears and all units are given a skill to defeat it easily. This fight is present for story reasons. Overall, this wasn’t an especially difficult chapter, but a reasonable pace is necessary and I cut it fine. Any friendly unit death is a game over, so care must be taken here.
Presentation: 3/5
All the music has been replaced with new tracks, which sound well. The character portraits are simple splices and occasionally just palette swaps, though these are restricted to cutscene-only characters. The map looks fine, with no blatant tile cut-off. The hack that allows for music persisting into battle has also been applied here, which worked well enough.
Story: 3/5
As the title screen implies, One Last Venture is a prequel to a hack named Mythgraven currently under development. It is framed as the lord, Richter’s, flashback into what he planned was one last venture with his fellow adventurers before starting a new life. In the present, he was hired by a noblewoman, who wanted to know why he was acquainted with another high-ranking family. He tells the tale of how he encountered them and the battles he fought. Some questions are left unanswered (the grandfather finding a magical artefact and its purpose, for example), which is framed as Richter simply not knowing the answer in his recollection. But in general, the writing is decent, though with the occasional typo. I trust that any unanswered questions will be answered within Mythgraven.
Total Score: 13/20
Judge 2: Rivian
Gameplay: 7/10
There are four units and a good bit of ground to cover, being spurred onwards by the need to save the green units. It is fairly simple, but it works well as a fun introductory map. At the end, there is a surprise final boss fight deliberately designed to be taken down easily, which serves as a nice spectacle without overstaying its welcome.
Presentation: 4/5
The presentation here is quite solid, in the map, palette and portraits. There is heavy use of cutscene map eventing as well as even a world map. This quite high effort.
Story: 4/5
Amusingly enough, the repeated emphasis on this being the ‘last’ job made me think everything was going to end up in tears but no, it all ends well for everyone involved. The kids were pretty funny to see get up to shenanigans. The dynamics between both the family and the mercenary band are efficiently introduced. The hack seems to acts as an introduction to a full-length hack that we don’t see and it leaves many threads hanging. I do want to see what more the story has to offer, which counts as a success in my book.
Total Score: 15/20
Judge 3: Legend of Loog
Gameplay: 7/10
The map here is pretty simple. A bunch of monsters are attacking a town, and there are a number of villages around on the map that are guarded by green units. The objective is to talk to all those green units and get them to close their villages. If any of them die, or if any of your blue units die, then you get a Game Over, but this seems pretty unlikely unless you take a very long time on the map. There is some light usage of skills, but they’re fairly unimportant as your units are more than competent enough to deal with the enemies. There is a second part after beating the first, but it’s basically an interactive cutscene as long as you pay attention to the new joiner. Overall, I enjoyed it and have no notable complaints.
Presentation: 4/5
Most portraits are fairly well-executed splices, but there’s a high amount of cutscene eventing, music that consistently fit the tone of the chapter, well-formatted dialogue that makes significant use of the Text Engine Rework, and there’s even a custom world map with eventing. Other odds and ends have been replaced too, and all of this put together gives the hack a unique feel and enhanced its plot and gameplay.
Story: 4/5
The story here is a prequel to the creator’s main hack, Mythgraven. A mercenary named Richter retells a story of how he came to know a noble family by taking on “one last job” to escort them to their destination, along with some other mercenaries. This, of course, ends up being a much bigger job than planned. I found that the writing was consistently high effort and well executed, and that I wanted to know more about what happened to the various characters since some plot threads were left open. There were a few typos, but otherwise, I didn’t notice any issues.
Total Score: 15/20
Judge 4: Levin64
Gameplay: 7/10
Mercenaries to the rescue! You have four units to talk to militia in each village in order to close the gate from… apparently terrors. The playable units are separated into two parties, three on the bottom part of the map and one on the upper part of the map. The map did make a note that stronger enemies will spawn if I progress way too slow; yet pace-wise the map should be a breeze. The surprise second part of the gameplay is a good addition that also ties with the story; dangerous but can be dealt with. Overall, the gameplay is simple yet it is executed really well.
Presentation: 4/5
Usage of cutscene events and world map does help rank up the score. Although, some characters have weird battle palettes. The portraits are not vanilla and not F2U assets, yet I wish it can be improved and cleaned more (I don’t mind splices and all, but I dislike the uncleanliness of the portraits). Music functions well, especially where map music still plays during battle.
Story: 4/5
This hack is a prequel to the creator’s hack, Mythgraven. I find the writing quite enjoyable; although it stays a bit too long– yet it is still a great introduction to the hack itself. The story leaves a great impression on me, and this hack does make me want to play the hack. Nice!
Total Score: 15/20
Results
| Category | Darr | Rivian | Loog | Levin | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gameplay | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 28 |
| Presentation | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 15 |
| Story | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 15 |
| Total | 13 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 58 |