Dark Lord and the Maiden of Light - Chapter 25: Within the dark
[was hard to find a good screenshot of the map, but with it gimmick I thinks it good to keep it secret]
Map gimmick that change the usual flow of the game can be very tricky, especially when it’s something that hasn’t been done before, it can easily don’t works and feel unfair/not fun for the player. But in my opinion, this hack did it very well in this chapter, both in terms of surprise and how well it works
Aesthically, it looks like a similar map to the Night of Farewells from FE7: a water temple map, with small “islands” and hazardous bridge between them. The difference here being that it’s a defensive map, with a central island where you have to protect a green character (formerly big villain) for 10 turns, with green monsters to help, and you have multiple groups of your units separated on multiple place of the map
The previous chapter of the hack was also a defensive map, albeit classical and very hard. So this chapter feels at first like a breeze compared to the previous map
With your groups of units being separated by waters, you are incencitized by the game to take flyers, rescue/teleport staffs, to help navigate the map
But then, while everything is going relatively smooth and at turn 9 you are getting near victory…
Spoiler for the map gimmick
… The Water Temple disappears, turn into a volcanic inferno, and the objective change:
now you have until turn 20 to go kill the boss that appeared and take the throne.
I still remember my (amazed) shock when this happen while playing
There is a lot of siege tome foes to try to slow the advance of your army to the boss, lava tiles that will hurt if you stay on it, and if you take too long there is anti-turtle reinforcements that will come in your back
With the clock ticking, you will really feel in a rush that is a drastic change for the first half of the map
The chapter become quite hard from here, but if you prepared your army for the hazards of the previous map, it is less complicated to deal with those challenge. Notably, your flyers will have a big role in making victory more feasible
So in terms of level design, even if it’s not perfect, it’s really interesting to see those kinds of experiments in a chapter. Those kinds of surprise has a big impact when you play it
Also, it goes really well with what is happening in the story at this moment: lot of revelations and plot twist that are leaving the protagonists, like Freesia, very confused. Making the map reflect the mindset of your characters, both in aesthetics and in mechanics, is something I love to see
It’s the kind of storytelling that you can only see in a video game