Played the demo will change review on full release and I have to say even though I fucked with the aesthetic before I do like the cinematography and trippy nature of what they changed,

gameplay is a lot better and less annoying, its not just minigames that take forever. its more traditional turn based with a card system which I am glad indie rpg devs are not being scared of turn based.

I can't really say much for the story its pretty similar with some new stuff that may hint at things getting better,

but if you played til the end of the factory in the previous version and didn't like the dialogue there I doubt you will like it here. its still about the missing person which the original was criticized, and personally I wonder why they didn't just make a sequel or a new game with similar vibes and aesthetic.

because the game doesn't hide the fact it is still about a real life missing woman and a romanticized relationship between the protag and the same woman, maybe I.V is wanting to criticize the characters and specifically the main character and his immaturity but again ill have to see

the new music kicks ass though

and I like the bleed mechanic

For context this is the oldest Fire emblem I have played so far (the others being 7,8,13-17) so forgive me if I am just talking about classic FE and not this game specifically.

It's a hard game to rate, but I think It was fun in a challenging masochistic way, because every time I got frustrated with the game I always made it through the challenge being to figure out the strategy to win, which is probably just the appeal for the series.

what makes this one unique is the size of the maps and its time skip being split between gen 1 and gen 2. The large maps are also to make up for this game having less chapters but I liked how it made each chapter feel like little story in that continent and capturing bases and having the enemy armies respond while this is cool it does mean most of the game is moving units around and if they aren't on horse it will take extra long.

This series has always been good at tying narrative and gameplay but this game is on another level especially with the twist of gen 1.

The time skip works for both narrative and gameplay, pairing gen 1 units together for insanely overpowered units in gen 2 as well as the games theme of fixing the problems caused by the previous generation, and for a SNES game it's very impressive for what it does with its story, world, and in game politics.

My only major issue is I felt like it was hard to grasp the mechanics of the game, they don't explain it very well

But overall I enjoyed my time with it and can see its influence in the rest of the series and can see why its a fan favorite.

My initial review of this game was kind of mean and I felt went from a lack of understanding of both game design and the actual mechanics that went into the game


Not to say my issues went away per say but I was looking at it from a perspective of other game I like the black and white morality isn’t super well written but like, it sure is fun from a gameplay sense in this game

And maybe the game benefits from a simpler story to focus on a fantasy life sim

It’s an ambitious project and I’d be lying if I didn’t respect the hell out of ambition and trying to do cool shit with your game

The way you interact with your player character and how they interact with npcs and the world is very impressive and fun the fun ways you can complete quests is actually impressive, how armor and your character looks makes npcs reacts is really cool

Also the style has really grown on me

Combat is still a clunky but it didn’t bother me too much

As well as how this game gives the player exploration and choice without filling the world with empty space, now granted it’s not an open world but maybe modern games can learn from this fun albeit flawed fantasy life sim