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| Creator | Carrosa |
| Engine | Lex Talionis |
| Download | Here |
| Score | 55/80 |
| Rank | 11th |
| FEU Link | Here |
Reviews
Judge 1: Darrman
Gameplay: 6/10
Captain’s Log is designed slightly like FE4, in that the map has several points to seize in order to finish it. Each seize point is located in a different corner of the map, and there’s fast travel to the centre of the map once a throne has been seized. Enemies themselves are generally fairly easy to kill. Everyone can take a few hits, and a large amount of combat arts are given to each unit in order to help fight the enemies. These arts use an MP system in order to function, with examples including gaining Canto Plus for a few turns or teleporting the user a few turns away and acting afterwards. I managed to finish the map in one go, but checkpoints are given after each seize and rewinding is present should you wish to use it.
Most of the map flows reasonably, and berserkers do start chasing to hurry the player along. Tools are given to slow them down. The final boss fight appears to be bugged, however. For whatever reason, he never actually attacks on enemy phase, which took the danger out of the fight and and slowed the pace down, ending the chapter on a sour note. Another oddity included the axe knight having five movement when enemy cavalry had seven movement as usual.
Presentation: 3/5
The tileset for the map and the free-roam sequences beforehand looks nice, but collision was a bit unusual at times, with some tiles looking like floors being designated as walls. The portraits are mostly simple splices, but they’re all functional for what they are. The music’s good and the title screen also looks good. Issues include tile change errors when opening the treasure chests, some classes having blank descriptions, and the chapter intro noise playing on repeat on the first save screen and when prompted for tutorials.
Story: 4/5
Captain’s Log opens with an entry in the captain’s log. Captain Asef has lived a long, long life. He wants to record the memory of his companions, as the modern historian wouldn’t know them personally, but memories fade with time, much to his chagrin. As he falls asleep, he starts dreaming of the past. He sees his crew for the first time in a long time, but they cannot see him. The mood is sombre, as the crew prepare for a big job. Nothing is explicitly stated, but all signs point to the job not going well.
After a rude awakening, Asef drifts off into another dream, within a library. All his crew comes together, and a battle between old Asef and who appears to be young Asef begins. More reminiscences take place after each throne is seized, and the ending provides a surprising explanation to the cause of the memory loss in the first place. Overall, it’s not the most complex of stories, but I think it was executed well enough. Lex Talionis free-roam is always interesting to see supporting the plot as well.
Total Score: 13/20
Judge 2: Rivian
Gameplay: 8/10
I played my first attempt completely wrong. There is a weird interaction for seize where trying to canto out cancels the seize, and I must have thought I seized when I didn’t. This resulted in me not getting the teleport and the very powerful additional unit and I was forced to gamble on crits against the anti-turtle.
Playing as intended this time, the run went much smoother. The fact that killing the boss gives a teleport back to the centre is a neat time saver, though the odd interaction with canto as above still applies. The second unit joining just in time to obliterate the anti-turtle felt very good. The final boss felt a little too dodgy for my liking, it took several turns to grind him down especially with the extra lives.
Units were all pretty decent and the AP system to use skills were neat. I generally made heavy use of heavy draw and Asef’s skills. It flowed well and was a good experience.
Presentation: 3/5
The harsh colours of the tileset clash a little with the FE map sprite colours. Otherwise, good choices of portraits, palettes and animations. Not much to complain about.
Story: 4/5
The framing of the story was that Asef was locked in a battle in his own dreams accompanied by the lost memories of his companions. I enjoyed the reveal that it wasn’t some “mind demon” just invading his memories but he himself had demanded his own memories sealed to stop the pain. It was kind of bittersweet that those friends were gone but he did overcome his own sorrow to keep those memories. A solid standalone tale.
Total Score: 15/20
Judge 3: Legend of Loog
Gameplay: 6/10
The chapter’s objective is to Seize 3 gates, each of which is guarded by a boss. You have a decent number of units for this task, each with their own set of skills that are essential to eke out an edge against the enemies, as many of them actually have quite high stats. There were a few oddities I noticed. For one, the Axe Cavalier has 5 Mov while enemy Cavs have 7. Also, the Globe mechanic, which allows your units that go to the top left and bottom right corners to return to the center, is inconsistent. The bottom right one, at least for me, didn’t work at all, but the top left one did.
Outside of this, the map generally plays fine. There’s not much incentive to move quickly, even with the Berserkers behind you, and combat can get sloggy with the power of some enemies combined with the bosses all having more than one life. The final boss exacerbates this, as they have very high Avoid and make killing them a slow endeavor since they also don’t attack on Enemy Phase. While I liked the map otherwise, the slow trudge of the final boss fight reduced my opinion of it a bit.
Presentation: 3/5
The portraits chosen are solid overall, the music chosen is good (the player phase theme is particularly catchy), and the map for the chapter has few notable flaws. I did notice that some of the chest tilechanges were off, triggering incorrect chest openings, and it was occasionally hard to tell whether a given tile was impassable or not, especially in the free roam section. However, the aesthetic here is overall positive.
Story: 4/5
The story centers around an immortal captain slowly regaining memories that he had long since forgotten, using his dreams. In these dreams, he fights alongside his deceased crewmates against someone who appears to be his younger self, and his parents also join the battle. The main story was fairly engaging, and I also appreciated the narrative interlude before the chapter along with the final twist. Overall, I enjoyed it a lot.
Total Score: 13/20
Judge 4: Levin64
Gameplay: 7/10
The objective is to seize 3 points, and each of them is guarded by a boss that needs to be taken down twice? That alone is an uncommon decision I have never seen. The map itself is somewhat fun; I was thinking of splitting the party but ended up just going towards one point at a time, and it did work well. I didn’t really utilize the Globe mechanic that much due to the flow I was going for, but it’s still a neat tech too; saves some time for several units that weren’t able to catch up with the rest of the party. The anti-turtle wasn’t really as intimidating; but they did still drain your resources. The final boss was too dodgy, yet I was able to defeat him with Fariba combined with Reza’s Vision Harp. Overall, I like the pacing of this map, the AP system is really neat for the skills, it does balance the skills too.
Presentation: 3/5
Some portraits are fine yet one thing I love from the portraits is it does fit with the setting and the vibe, which is something I still like. The palettes and music are really pleasing; the tileset clashes too much with GBAFE map sprites, but everything else is good.
Story: 4/5
The interlude follows Asef; within his dream, where he found his comrades. Then, he ends up finding an “intruder” in his dreams; and he tries to defeat him. The story wraps up with the “intruder” being someone who was asked by Asef himself to lock his memories away. Asef ended up preserving the memories as painful as it is. The main story is light enough to digest, yet heavy enough to savor. I enjoyed the story a lot! It’s not complex, yet it’s executed really well.
Total Score: 14/20
Results
| Category | Darr | Rivian | Loog | Levin | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gameplay | 6 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 27 |
| Presentation | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 12 |
| Story | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 16 |
| Total | 13 | 15 | 13 | 14 | 55 |