I’m trying to think of what parts of the game are truly unique and stand out.
The weapon system? Each character gets four weapons. These weapons all have exactly the same niche, and the same four stats. You can level them up, but they have no depth. You lose brave weapons, effective weapons, weapons with unique skills and abilities, weapons that give cool stat-ups, weapons with extremely limited durability but powerful 1-3-time use powers such as siege tomes, etc.
Is the weapon system really that fresh and unique? It’s like if every character in GBA only got to pick from four basic Prf weapons each, but you could level them up to make them slightly stronger. Does this enhance the game??? I think not. It actually reduces strategy.
Then, we have the promotion system. This is literally just Awakening promotions. It’s already been done before, having more than 3 possible promotions for units. It’s also something that reduces unit complexity and strategy. Every unit has so many promotions that they lose their sense of personality and uniqueness.
Sure, units having cool skills is cool, but is this really some exciting DD-unique feature? FE13 already did it, and way better, too.
Maps? Maps are awful. They are absolutely the worst part of the game. Even FE13 had tactical positioning with terrain that forced you to consider hitrates, slight damage modifiers, healing on the next turn, and so on. And that’s just basic terrain, most romhacks have FAR better maps.
The UI is awful. Like, beyond awful, even. It was clearly made by someone who has no experience with UI design. I actually have UI design experience, as evidenced by my work improving FEBuilder’s UI a couple of years ago. (See: Character, Class, and Item Editors)
Units amount to stat blobs with one or two skills that define their playstyle. Sure, this is cool, but in exchange you sacrifice ALL the other strategic elements that make Fire Emblem gameplay good.
It’s hard to even say ‘what the developers should fix’ because the entire game from the top down is mediocre. I wouldn’t play romhacks with this little effort put into their design, and I’m sure as hell not plopping $20 onto a ‘professional’ indie game for that level of quality.
I have a friend who made his very first game. It isn’t this bad.
I have other friends right here on these forums that made their own first games as romhacks, free of charge. Alfred Kamon didn’t put out his first romhack as a full-priced indie game. If he had, I’d have had all the same criticisms. Midnight Sun circa 2012 was mediocre, just like Dark Deity. Instead, he spent those years learning basic game design, absorbing criticism, and using it to bolster his design philosophy. The same is true of Blademaster and Corrupt Theocracy, and plenty of other hackers in this very community.
We all start somewhere, but only some people choose to put out their first mediocre project for $20. If the DD devs had been honest enough to put their game out as Early Access, I’d have had NO criticisms for them! That’s all they had to do, but they didn’t. If they don’t want me to judge their game as a finished game, then maybe they should have not released it as such. They solicited our community for graphics and resources, so we have the duty to call them out for their Cyberpunk and Fallout 76-esque behavior. This modern game dev behavior is awful for the entire game design scene and should not be excused.
A copypasta from a discord server:
“so what if no man’s sky sucks and took people’s money on false promises, just stop talking about it now”
“so what if fallout 76 sucks and took people’s money on false promises, just stop talking about it now”
“so what if cyberpunk sucks and took people’s money on false promises, just stop talking about it now”
“so what if dark deity sucks and took people’s money on false promises, just stop talking about it now”
