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| Creator | Cb1052 |
| Engine | FE8 |
| Download | Here |
| Score | 57/80 |
| Rank | 9th |
| FEU Link | Here |
Reviews
Judge 1: Darrman
Gameplay: 8/10
After the End’s specialty is in the action economy. Dotted across the map are several blue tiles that give the active unit another turn. Galeforce is present on several units too, and these tiles also refresh Galeforce. This allows the army to fly across the large map and back in a short period of time: the map is a defence map, only lasting five turns! This length is deceiving. The map is a large one, designed around the gimmick. Four tents must be defended, and these are scattered across the map. Ignoring the blue tiles will only result in the tents getting overwhelmed: use them to their full extent in order to win. Aside from that, basic weapons have infinite uses and the enemies are not particularly strong.
Presentation: 2/5
The main map looks good and there’s a cutscene map as the plot requires it. A few new backgrounds have also been inserted as well. The music is pretty good, and since the same two tracks play all game this helps. Mugs are decent. Enemies do have a tendency to pop out of thin air and some scene transitions have glitched fades in and out.
Story: 3/5
The end has come to Oklahoma! A demon plays Who Wants to be a Millionaire, so to speak, with a woman, who after wasting a life line, selects a monster apocalypse. A few decades later we have people just getting on with life in an internet-less (but not Tiktok-less) world. The serious business is handled well enough: the father has his family to protect, and he doesn’t care what is standing in his way. There’s the occasional hiccup with overflow and dialogue being spoken by the wrong person, but overall there aren’t many typos. It’s a simple story, but it does its job. There’s a moment near the end that caught me off guard, too.
Total Score: 13/20
Judge 2: Rivian
Gameplay: 8/10
The central mechanic here is that the “magic” tiles across the map endlessly refresh a player’s turn and also their ability to galeforce. Units also have access to skills like canto+, galeforce, powerstaff or lunge to really synergise with these magic tiles. Quite often, units can cross the whole map and slay 6 enemies in one turn using these options. The map is fairly easy, but not a steamroll. It is a defend map with only 5 turns but there multiple defend targets under threat, some on the other side the map. It really requires you use of those magic tiles and skills to get as much mobility as possible to clear out threats around the defend objectives. It is definitely a unique take and I found that it worked out.
Presentation: 4/5
In general, palettes, portraits and the map are all pretty solid. The chapter opens with an interesting representation of modern roads. The Demon lord having a “broken” alternate mug was was cool. Good effort all around.
Story: 3/5
As opposed to most FE hack settings, this hack takes place in the most fantastical setting of all, post-apocalyptic Earth. There is a lot of references to modern culture and often in the form very bizarre comments from the playable cast. I admit, I did laugh at some of them. The end of the world being caused by some modern sounding demon lord who acts like he is hosting some gameshow is pretty funny, if bizarre, a word I’m going to use twice. I am still unsure how to feel but it was pretty solid.
Total Score: 15/20
Judge 3: Legend of Loog
Gameplay: 8/10
After the End revolves around refreshing actions constantly, through stepping on pools and/or skills. This is a novel approach and gives the player a significant amount of room to optimize and improve. Aforementioned skills are typically well-executed, though some characters have enough that my eyes did glaze over a bit looking at them, so I ignored some that didn’t really matter.
The length of the chapter itself is appropriately chosen given the complexity resulting from this focus. It took me two attempts to clear, and the difficulty largely felt fair throughout the chapter. My main gripe is that the right side is much more under threat then you may assume initially, which was the cause of my initial reset, and feels as if you have to use Rescue on someone to get them over the mountains by Turn 2 or so. Certain characters felt borderline useless, but overall, I enjoyed the gameplay significantly and thought it was definitely above average.
Presentation: 3/5
The music is generally solid, as are character and map palettes. There was a cutscene map for the start event, and although it looks a bit thrown together, it’s nice to have one in the first place. There’s a jank transition here and a text skip there, but those are minor. The chapter’s map itself is well-done, and the blue pools used for refreshing units are a nice touch. Overall, presentation is respectable across the board.
Story: 2/5
The story in the chapter is somewhat unique in that it is based on the real world, but this isn’t used to much effect outside of making references to real world things, such as Tiktok. The humor didn’t land for me, and the more serious bits were fairly unremarkable, mostly as a result of the characters not leaving any strong impact. The narrative doesn’t take away from the hack, but I felt it was fairly forgettable, and that the main highlight of the experience was the gameplay, by far.
Total Score: 13/20
Judge 4: Levin64
Gameplay: 9/10
What? It’s all Galeforce after the end of the world?
The central mechanic here is the “magic” tile that refreshes the unit’s action once they wait on it. Some units have Galeforce to boot, some don’t but they have their own use that don’t make them fall off like the Galeforce units. The mogalls have their own synergies that I like; one having Rescue and Powerstaff and other having Lunge and Eclipse.
The map itself is big and the objective is to defend several points which are scattered across. The player is expected to use the “magic” tile combined with every single utility they have on the units to get as much mobility as possible to cover the whole map and defend the points. It is an interesting take, and again; who doesn’t like Galeforce? I like this a lot and I’m glad this works out really well!
Presentation: 4/5
The map is solid; the washed out map palette matches the “post-apocalyptic” world a lot. The portraits are solid, especially the alternate Demon Lord portrait where his horn got chopped. The music is interesting; I feel the music is custom-made and it surprisingly fits so well; having one leitmotif that sticks to most of the themes, and I like it despite being slightly… repetitive. Although, one dialogue overflowed on the outro… but overall I like the whole presentation; it has a unique vibe that works with the setting as well.
Story: 3/5
I’ve never been to the US, especially to Oklahoma so… eh. Southeast Asia moment. So, in rural Oklahome 2024, a demon lord has graced Earth to host Who Wants to be A Millionaire… and Jeff’s wife being the contestant. The demon lord ends up giving “necrodiversity” as in monsters, to be exact. Fifteen years later, the story follows Burtz and his family defending five camps and emerges victorious. The Demon Lord who appeared 15 years ago decides to confront Burtz and ends up getting nae-nae’d, I guess? I don’t know, I don’t play TikTok.
The story itself is bizarre, but it’s kinda funny. I laughed at several jokes here and there. The serious part of the story is still conveyed well. But again, it’s really bizarre, a bizarre adventure indeed.
Total Score: 16/20
Results
| Category | Darr | Rivian | Loog | Levin | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gameplay | 8 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 33 |
| Presentation | 2 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 13 |
| Story | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 11 |
| Total | 13 | 15 | 13 | 16 | 57 |