After spending far, far too long procrastinating on this campaign, I finally finished my first run of Shackled Power! If the in game timer is to be believed, I spent a good 43 hours on this campaign over the course of about a year and a half, so I’ve collected a fair few thoughts on this game, figure I might as well dump them here.
Gameplay
Overall I think the gameplay is pretty damn strong! I always considered this game a bit of a spiritual successor to Four Kings, so it was no surprise when I saw Krash being thanked as inspiration in the credits.
I think the strongest aspect of this hack’s gameplay has to be the unit design, this is probably my favorite cast I’ve ever used in a Fire Emblem game, every map I was using units I loved and sad I had to bench other incredibly fun looking units. A really good problem to have I suppose, because there’s always next time.
One thing I really love about the maps in this game is their masterful use of tension. A huge benefit of making your maps larger is you can really set up a rollercoaster of high and low tension turns throughout a clear, with the biggest example of that to me being chapter 15. You’re just riding it out between high tension turns of needing to deal with what feels like way too many enemies all at once (there’s a big wyvern rush right as you get to the first save point) and lower tension turns where you’re either regrouping and getting ready for the next big wave, or trying to close up the map without tripping right at the very end. I’m usually not a big map save guy but they work amazingly here as a nice pressure valve for those big turns when you really need to be on your A game.
The one big complaint I have for the gameplay is that since the maps are so big, when a map whiffed for me it whiffed pretty hard. Chapter 14 comes to mind as a map I really struggled with, and while me getting hard stuck is my fault, I wouldn’t call the game unfair in any way, I can’t just ignore the fact that it took me 18 months to finish this thing, and maps being both long and difficult definitely contributed to that. If I could do it all again I’d probably pick easy mode instead, but c’est la vie.
Story
The story is a real slam dunk for me, honestly, no big criticisms here. I really love Prosel and Marilyn, I think they have a wonderful dynamic and it was just an absolute treat to watch them both develop.
That said, it’s no surprise that I think the villains are the real stars of the show here. Spheal made an amazing choice by having basically every chapter boss past the midpoint be a character that has appeared multiple times in the story. It really feels like Prosel is dismantling Birgitta’s forces brick by brick as you recognize each and every chapter boss before they fall.
The villains are also more than how they first appear, with all the politicking and scheming they do against each other being amazing to watch unfold. Spheal once asked me what the most iconic scene in Shackled Power was, and while at the time I was only finished with the first ~10 chapters, so I couldn’t say with certainty, now I can say without a doubt in my mind the most iconic scene in Shackled Power is when Birgitta turns the tables on Nestrix, uncovering her plot to try and have the demon king take full possession of the queen, and establishing once and for all that Birgitta is not someone you fuck with.
The other massive, massive highlight of the story that I need to mention is of course Fulshir. A runaway star even in a cast of villains this stacked, I was really pleasantly surprised in how his story unfolded. Shackled Power is a game that wears its inspirations on its sleeve, and having such a heavy 80s movie inspiration I fully expected Fulshir to be an Ivan Drago type villain. Doesn’t say much and there’s not much to him, and boy was I wrong. Don’t wanna go too much into spoilers (even behind a spoiler tag) but oh my god I’ve never underestimated a character so much, the story of Fulshir nearly brought me to tears.
So yeah, pretty damn good hack overall. Special shoutouts to the MVP of my run, Eileen. I even had some art commissioned of her, courtesy of CENIJ0 on twitter. A kickass character from a kickass game.
. Perhaps I was in no hurry to complete the game faster, because some of the music got boring to me, but I singled out one soundtrack for myself - TMNT 2007 2-3. He played on maps where Peirhok spawned, so I nicknamed him “Peirhok Attack” and I tried to stretch the battle out a little because of him. I don’t want to spoil it, but I was sad for the fate of a character who had so much charisma, in addition to an awesome portrait.
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. By the way, I used the guide and recruited all possible characters.
