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| Creator | BigMood |
| Engine | Lex Talionis |
| Download | Here |
| Score | 57/80 |
| Rank | 2nd |
| FEU Link | Here |
Reviews
Judge 1: Darrman
Gameplay: 6/10
It Came to Me in Someone Else’s Dream is a very mechanically complicated and impressive chapter. Stretching the rule of “Only one map may be used for gameplay” to its absolute breaking point, the chapter features a brawl on two different fronts, inside and outside an apartment. At first, the objective appears to be a matter of killing two bosses and escaping the flat, but the second boss won’t die until every other boss has been killed.
There are so many mechanics to talk about that it is impossible to mention every single one in a reasonable amount of space. Each unit, ten in all, has their own gimmick, allowing them their own particular role in the chapter. These gimmicks revolve around each unit having many skills that all form a cohesive kit for the units in question. Understanding each of these kits is essential for getting the best use out of each unit. Otherwise, failure is inevitable.
This leads me into my main criticism: this chapter is brutally difficult. Turnwheel is given, and its usage is absolutely mandatory to succeed. I had to rewind dozens, if not hundreds of times in order to succeed. Even with this, I still entirely restarted the chapter to make better use of my money. One of the most powerful tools in the player’s arsenal is the ability to move anyone
anywhere for a fee inside the apartment. While it is tempting to move every enemy far out of the way, careful use must be taken in order to not go broke. Going broke cuts two unit stats in half, and any unit death is a game over. Another major mechanic is that every unit has two health bars, hit points and life points. Units only die when the latter hits zero, and HP damage does not overflow into LP. HP can be occasionally healed, LP never can. This mostly served to make enemies more difficult to kill, as player units generally die quickly outside of a few specific situations. The reinforcement armour knights with their 1-3 guns were particularly frustrating.
There is zero room for error anywhere in this chapter. I believe clearing this chapter without usage of rewinds is simply impossible – it’s a long, gruelling challenge, and so several marks are deducted for this. I cleared in 24 turns, with 5,000 gold left, and having taken close to eight hours in total over two gameplay sessions. For those seeking a tough experience, this absolutely delivers, and I felt very satisfied when winning.
Presentation: 5/5
This submission takes place in the future, not the middle ages, and so the presentation fits in nicely with the time period. The battle takes place in an apartment, and a tileset appropriate for such has been used. I liked the music too, and all the backgrounds have been changed to fit the theme. The only nitpick I could possibly make is the apartment entry and exit commands don’t
have proper R text, but the average player isn’t going to notice that.
Story: 4/5
It’s the future, and our protagonist is trying to enter a game jam. She has no ideas, however, so she tries to teleport some friends in. After brainstorming several ideas that do appear in this chapter, villains hijack the teleporter and try to steal all of her ideas. The story is not serious by any definition, instead aiming to tell a funny story full of strange misadventures. I think it does a good job at this, with jokes about repeated dialogue in the opening free roam section. Shoutouts a plenty formed the unit roster, with nods to games and television and vtubers alike scattered throughout. The gameplay-story integration is well-done, too. In the end, everyone’s friends again and our game developer considers making exactly what we see here, before deciding it’s a silly idea. We never do see her reaction to her emptied bank account…
Total Score: 15/20
Judge 2: Frog
Gameplay: 8/10
This is a highly complex entry revolving around every unit having two health bars: one which can be healed, and another which can’t. Nevertheless, this mechanic kind of took a backseat compared to the game’s true highlight – a cast of about a dozen units, each with its own unique skillset. Many of these are very powerful and fun – Jack, Jiren, Free Will, and Res were my MVPs, but everyone contributed a lot in my run. In fact, I mainly felt the impact of the two health bars on enemies, which made them much bulkier than in most chapters, and really hurt a few units/abilities (such as Judith’s Hanging Judge).
This was also one of the most intense chapters I’ve ever played – taking me 45 turns and over five hours to beat. Nevertheless, most of it was really awesome! Many turns required a ton of planning and utilising every tool I had just to survive past it, with barely any room for mistakes. Turn 3 and the ending stretch were major highlights in my run, requiring dozens of rewinds and different strategies before I could finally solve them. And barely beating the chapter against all odds in the end felt amazing!
Two things detracted from the experience for me: one, I did not realise that relay warping cost gold until I lost all of it in the first part of the map. I’m certain that it made the second half way harder than it was supposed to be, but I was too far along to replay by that point. Two, the infinite reinforcements were absolutely miserable. They were more powerful by far than any normal enemy, and even most bosses! Fighting them felt terrible, yet it was unavoidable since they blocked the path to Kaori and I had no warping staves. Points were also deducted for the hundreds of rewinds I had to use to pull through.
Presentation: 5/5
I loved the modern tileset! It made for a very unique look compared to most FE chapters. All the music was awesome, and the portraits and animations were also really good. I appreciate using real world pictures as CGs, but the requantisation made them feel a bit scuffed and out-of-place to me – especially considering that it’s unnecessary in LT.
Story: 5/5
The chapter starts in a very relatable scenario: Mika signed up for a game jam, yet has zero ideas what to make for it. She invites a couple of friends over to help with the planning, but then everything goes awry and battle commences. This is a super fun premise, and I really loved the writing & humour here! The free-roam segment in the beginning especially added a lot – the highlight for me was getting Jiren to leave there and the subsequent murder. Using the characters’ initial jam pitches to describe the chapter and its mechanics was very cute too. Just a really good time all around!
Total Score: 18/20
Judge 3: Struedelmuffin
Gameplay: 4/10
I am thankful every day for the existence of turnwheel in LT, because this project is without a doubt designed to make liberal use of it. It Came to Me in Someone Else’s Dream feels as though it is designed for you to trial and error it, with frequent turnwheeling or restarting being all but mandatory. It is hard to describe in just a single section the many ways in which this game will brutalize you, but I think it reached an extent to where it became unfortunately unenjoyable for me. That being said, there are lot of cool mechanics and clever ideas to play around with here. I appreciated the novelty of the dual HP/LP health system, where units have to essentially be defeated twice in order to be fully killed. I liked that all of my units had unique skills and combat roles, and a lot of the characters did become pretty fun to use once I discovered how to use them. Unfortunately, I think the extreme difficulty and length of this project (it’s really much more like two maps than one) turned what could have been a really fun and unique challenge into a bit of a tedious grind session that sometimes felt like it was intended to frustrate the player.
Presentation: 5/5
Great presentation here, it was fun and refreshing to see modern day visuals in FE. The apartment tileset is well made and gives the hack a nice visually unique identity. The portraits, animations, music, and UI are all polished, and I appreciated that there was color coding for different skills. The CGs were also a nice touch.
Story: 4/5
The story centers around an upcoming game developer trying to think of what to do for a game jam when, suddenly, some villains take control of her teleporter and try to steal her ideas. It’s a very silly premise, but the writing embraces it in a good way. The free roam segment in the beginning had some pretty charming dialogue (I liked the joke about repeating lines) and was, admittedly, probably my favorite part of the entire experience. Overall I don’t have too much to say about the story since it was mostly just lighthearted fun rather than anything particularly narrative driven. Still, the writing in It Came to Me in Someone Else’s Dream does a good job at what it sets out to do and remained entertaining throughout.
Total Score: 13/20
Judge 4: BandanaSplitzzz
Gameplay: 2/10
It Came To Me In Someone Else’s Dream is a map that filtered me. Dozens upon dozens of unique skills, weapons, and enemy layouts, all punctuated by two full-sized maps and an implementation of an infinite turnwheel, turn this chapter into a chaotic, sloppy mess. The mechanics of your units don’t really have a central thesis tying them together, other than being so complicated that they compound the complexity of your other units and, by extension, the entire chapter. Perfect play and comprehension are required to make it anywhere, as this map is incredibly difficult and exhausting.
In spite of the game’s complexity, its intentions are anything but. This is a rage game designed to include as many mechanics as possible inside. I tend to bounce off of these types of games extremely hard.
Presentation: 5/5
Good cutscenes, pretty maps, pretty portraits, lovely uncompressed .wav music. There are actually a lot of minor things in here that contribute to the presentation being this good, like the numerous multi-step text boxes with keywords attached, or all the color-coding applied to the weapons and abilities to let you know their action economy at a glance. Great stuff all around, no complaints.
Story: 4/5
Our unfortunate protagonist is working on a game jam, and some crazy rich terrorist wants to steal her ideas… and leave no traces! All of the dialogue here is extremely charming and very clever at certain points. I know a bit about the development of this chapter, and I know some of these units are meant to be parallels or parodies of real people, but the few I was able to identify really, really cheapened the overall experience. Enough for me to grimace awkwardly when seeing it, and enough to drop a point long after it ended. Otherwise, a treat to throw my eyeballs at.
Total Score: 11/20
Results
| Category | Darrman | Frog | Struedel | Bandana | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gameplay | 6 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 20 |
| Presentation | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 20 |
| Story | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 17 |
| Total | 15 | 18 | 13 | 11 | 57 |