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| Creator | RandomWizard |
| Engine | Lex Talionis |
| Download | Here |
| Score | 59/80 |
| Rank | 7th |
| FEU Link | Here |
Reviews
Judge 1: Darrman
Gameplay: 5/10
The main draw here is that every unit does something unique. Almost everyone is a mage, with each character having their own unique abilities. You have a Gaiden mage, you have a unit who cast magic based off of terrain, a unit who turns nearby units into zombies, and you have the one physical unit. These spells undoubtably took effort to program. However, the project is worth more than the sum of its code.
The map itself is a relatively meandering escape map. Each unit must escape alive, leaving no room for deaths. However, I was rarely in danger. The ability to accrue large amounts of disposable units – most importantly, the zombies, but the ninja can summon clones too – means they can take the hits, leaving the enemies to be picked off on the next turn. A strong boss does appear to stop turtling, but I had already made it near the chapter boss by the time he spawned. I was also prompted to look at the guide at several points, but the game would crash whenever I tried to read anything for more than a few seconds. I ran into this issue almost immediately, but can be triggered at any time.
Overall, the chapter had a good amount of effort put into it, but it didn’t really click with me, being mostly a leisurely walk around. Points also come off for the easy to access crash.
Presentation: 3/5
There’s not much to mention here. The character portraits are all fine, and the music is fair. One unit has an item to switch the BGM to help alleviate fatigue. A nice touch was having greyscale variants of the portraits for flashback scenes in the story. The map also looked fine.
Story: 3/5
The entry puts a fair bit of focus on its story. The basic storyline isn’t particularly complicated: a professor is expelled from a magic academy as her magic was growing too powerful. For five years, she gathered up an army of other people wronged by the academy, ultimately culminating in an attack on the academy. Each unit has their own reasons for joining in on the attack. The highlight here is that each character has supports that can be unlocked throughout the chapter. Most of the supports I got were implied romantic confessions, leading into paired endings. For a one-chapter hack, these were serviceable, but not particularly memorable.
In the end, the heist was successful. I got a paired ending that made it all for nothing, which did annoy me and cuts the score, but I can’t rule out the presence of a happier paired ending for the protagonist. I respect going to these lengths, but one chapter isn’t enough time to get attached for supports.
Total Score: 11/20
Judge 2: Rivian
Gameplay: 8/10
Each unit represents a different form of “magic” and has unique mechanics. There’s a mana based caster, a HP based caster, DnD caster, a Wildermyth style caster, etc. Amusingly, I often found the one magicless unit, the soldier, to often bring the most damage. The unit which causes every enemy killed near her to spawn a phantom let me amass a disposable army over time which was very fun. This is pretty daunting to learn and it could take a few resets to understand each unit’s kit, but they’re not overly complicated. Enemy formation and timing is well thought out.
My main complaint would be that the boss squad can charge unexpectedly early due to group AI at the same time as other charging enemies and make the final section very hellish. Besides that, the powerful toolkits of all these different casters provides flexible ways to deal with the challenge presented.
Presentation: 5/5
Animations, palettes and portraits are good. Particular mention to the impressive looking map. It’s all supported by good on map eventing.
Story: 5/5
I like this a lot. It uses its time very efficiently to give character to all of these different “rejects”. Hjenna is an interesting lead, championing a supposedly just cause but with only selfish intention in mind. Supports help flesh out each character’s thoughts on their predicament and their hopes for the future. There is a lot of discussion about conflicts between all these forms of magic in this world. There is even endings and paired endings for the cast. Very well done.
Total Score: 18/20
Judge 3: Legend of Loog
Gameplay: 8/10
The gameplay gimmick of Spellthieves is that all of your characters (except one humble soldier) are mages with unique skillsets. For example, Ongorzul is an all-rounder who can choose 3 spells to use for the chapter, including a mini Rewarp, a Def boost, and an assortment of offensive spells. Meanwhile, Yuan is an axe-wielding mage who can mark terrain and then use AoE Spells around that tile based on the terrain marked (i.e. Rallies, healing, and even refreshing multiple units). The options at hand are initially overwhelming, but when you get them down, the combat can feel very rewarding.
For the actual chapter, it’s an Escape map where you start in a library and have to break out through the academy’s guard. The map pushes you enough that the options aren’t superfluous, and although it could have less reinforcements, the map is generally fair. It took me a couple resets to grasp the sandbox, but once I did, it was a really fun and unique chapter.
Presentation: 4/5
Overall, the entry impresses in this regard. The map aesthetics are great, the music chosen is good and varied (you can change the map theme mid-map), and the portraits range from solid to good. There’s also a significant amount of cutscene eventing in the start event that is appreciated, and the large amount of new items/skills all have appropriate icons. In general, there’s not much to complain about here.
Story: 4/5
The chapter centers on a very Dungeons and Dragons party that has decided to raid a magical academy, all for their own compelling reasons. The protagonist, Hjenna, is in it for revenge against her former colleague who forced her out after she discovered Warp Powder, which he did to cover up its existence. I found Hjenna to be an interesting main character, as her selfishness is ultimately self-destructive and somewhat unique. Another cool detail is that each character has a couple support convos they can get, which change the endings after the band splits up.
Total Score: 16/20
Judge 4: Levin64
Gameplay: 6/10
Dungeons and Dragons inspired submission, I see. All we have for our units are mages (well, except Bjorn, our lovely soldier) with unique kits for both offense or support. I ended up using lots of summons: the Ninja’s Mirage, Necromancer’s skill, and the Orthodox Mage’s Minor Illusion to help trudging through the chapter. The difficulty is not to be messed with, but I wish the reinforcements can be toned down for a bit, especially during the mid-part of the chapter. The low rank is due to lots of bugs found in the guide, and one crucial bug when everyone already escapes, except the summons. It ended up with an endless loop of “Player Phase” and “Enemy Phase” phase change, and I had to restart on my recent save (thankfully it wasn’t far behind) due to that, and that’s something that needs to be changed ASAP.
Yet overall, it is a fun map with a sandbox-y vibe due to how diverse the units kits’ are.
Presentation: 4/5
Solid presentation; the portraits are solid, music is good (although the battle music can be more impactful at the start), and the map is really pleasing to see. The cutscenes are well-made; I love the attention to detail on flashback cutscenes, where the portraits are grayscale during those cutscenes.
Story: 4/5
The story follows a former researcher of the Academy seeking revenge against her former colleague after her discovery of Warp Powder. The rest follows her but they don’t really follow her blindly, which does make sense; and I like that. The support convo during the gameplay also affects the paired endings, which is also a nice touch. I enjoyed reading the story and the worldbuilding behind that. Love it!
Total Score: 14/20
Results
| Category | Darr | Rivian | Loog | Levin | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gameplay | 5 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 27 |
| Presentation | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 16 |
| Story | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 16 |
| Total | 11 | 18 | 16 | 14 | 59 |