Maybe eventually.
1 Like
Finally getting around to playing this. Will post a full review w/ my thoughts and feelings when I’m further along, but one immediate piece of feedback I’d like to share – can you change the sound room names to the original tracks?
I was annoyed looking for the original version of “basket of deplorables” (I could’ve sworn I heard it somewhere before) only to be met with a series of Hilary and Trump clips.
I like being able to look at the tracks and listen to the original versions of songs I hadn’t heard before, and the renames make it difficult to find the song.
Would def recommend changing the track names back to the originals, if not for the above, but also for better understanding the music credits as well.
EDIT: Also I gave the blossom dew to Garath 
4 Likes
the original version of “basket of deplorables” (I could’ve sworn I heard it somewhere before)
FF6 Veldt theme.
I’ll pretty up the music section of the credits at some stage for more clear attribution. I don’t plan on re-renaming the tracks in-game, but there’ll be a list on the Guide once I get around to making it.
1 Like
Yeah ideally it should be findable somewhere, sound room makes the most sense to me since I can play the track there. Credits list for more granular details is a good idea too. Thanks for sharing the name.
Another small thing – there are a lot of weapons that cannot crit, but they share the 0 display with other items that don’t explicitly say that they cannot crit. I recommend changing crit on 0 crit weapons to 255 so it displays as a “–” to differentiate it from “0 crit but can crit”, or at least make it more clear that all 0’s don’t crit.
I know this caused issues in an old version of the danger icons (giving 255 crit a “!” icon), I recall getting a fix for this when i worked on LoT… if the newer version doesn’t fix this issue I can take a look and find the change to make.
I’ll keep sharing notes as they come to mind but will likely save the bulk of it for when i get through more
2 Likes
I’m against this on the basis that it’s likely to mislead people who are not familiar with the tracks into thinking they’re original compositions. I get wanting in-game verisimilitude but I don’t think that’s a reasonable trade-off for clarity in attribution.
3 Likes
My concern is more my own memorisation than verisimilitude; I have an atrocious memory for sound. But, true, I don’t want people thinking there are original compositions (as far as I’m aware there aren’t, though there’s a couple of original-Do5 tracks that I genuinely don’t know where they came from, so I guess it’s possible?) It’s going to be a complicated dive to get specific track names for non-Repo tracks, but adding sources at the end of the track name in-game would be straightforward enough, so I’ll get that done by the next patch and take it from there.
3 Likes
He’s the goat!.. THE GOAT!!!
1 Like
Hey, it’s not our fault you guys are making the experience amazing 
2 Likes
No bro!! most hacks should be More difficult not made easier!!!
hahahaha!!
2 Likes
Yeah I’m good I’m playing life on hard mode I’m not trying to relax by playing games on hard mode to prove a non existent point 
. I’m just trying to have fun and enjoy a great story and amazing supports. Shooting arrows and slinging fire balls.
7 Likes
Only noobs sling fireballs, you should be casting blizzards by now 
1 Like
I have completed the end of the current patch which is the Onduris route. I must say, a massive improvement over the original Onduris route in DOF.
I have found some minor bugs in chapter 12B which involve houses to get items again when you stand on top of it. It’s a silly bug and found it hilarious. Plus chapter 14B has ka’Danos’ portrait to appear while his followers’ portraits don’t seem to appear along with their boss theme when you engage them in said chapter. Just want to contribute to the improvements.
Overall, B Route is quite challenging to say at least.
Onduris Route Squad
Rena, the fastest and slightly strongest unit in the team. She’s made to be a dodge tank against Axe users and her personal weapon has gotten a good mileage with tanking hits and avoiding them.
The Kolbane Train does not stop! Kolbane is really the best unit in the long term if RNG becomes merciful. Had him supported by Rena and Garath in the early game, but had to drop Garath in favor of Driscoll and make room with other units in the early game.
Lizaveta (previously Liz) is a good staple to the team and helps rescue a few units on foot. Was invested with Bellona’s support which talks about her reason for leaving her Visharan homeland and some lore to it. Did support with Driscoll, but the support convo wasn’t ready, but got some support bonus in the end. Could not promote her as a result.
I recall seeing this portrait before he was a bard telling the story in the original DOF, now a playable unit as a thief. Used him as a replacement for Chester since he wasn’t getting enough speed. Saw only one support line with Leda, but only up to rank B. I didn’t promote him when he capped level 20, but capped two stats overall.
se’Mori (previously Seymour) is a good unit with access to swords and lances and his personal weapon as a 1-2 magic sword, minus the nosferatu effect which is a strange change if you ask me
The Magic Aide of se’Mori. A new unit that isn’t in the original DOF and a good substitute if your Amelia does not turn out well. Her support with se’Mori gives me a better understanding of her character and the interaction with Nari is quite funny involving potatoes.
Kaaaaaahn (previously named Kanus). A soldier who’s more focused on the bulky side than Kolbane and has support with his sister, Wren, which is a surprise addition if I say so. So I have to honor him in the best way possible. Here’s Kahn in all his glory.
Bellona my beloved. Now I understand why Bellona is Parr’s favorite unit and character in the original DOF.
Wren (previously named Karen), is a good healer and a better Asher. She’s the brains to Kahn’s brawn and her support with her brother helps him tank hits from fast myrmidons. Tried to support her with Gabriel, but couldn’t due to deployment slots.
Baldur’s Gate, I say. His joining chapter in surviving against incoming enemies is tough to get by and the swordreaver helps him survive against most sword users. His support with Nikita has some bad blood between them and they work off their indifference as a result. Hope I don’t misunderstand the support itself as a result.
Lovely Leda (previously named Lienn) is a good dancer to have. Did recall her in the original DOF that she has a Ninian battle sprite and has the FE8 dancer sprite instead. Wonder if there’s a reason for it. Supported her with Baldur and got that A support, hope that there’s a paired ending once DOF - Definitive Edition is complete.
Navy Nari (previously named Inari). She’s a good bulky mercenary to have and having her join with Baldur and Leda is a good choice to have and makes sense. Did support with byor’Dal and found out their support hasn’t been implemented yet, but the support bonus is appreciated.
Nikita is now my favorite unit. This is an improvement from boss to playable unit and she’s really good at avoiding and withering down enemies with an iron sword. She had a few boss convos and delivered the finishing blow to jin’Sei and smite ka’Danos into the afterlife. She has three supports with Balder, Brill, and vi’Shen (found out that the support convo is not ready yet until the complete version is ready so I have to replay it to experience the support convo again and use some units that got improved over time.) If you couldn’t get Nikita, there’s vi’Shen if you want to train him into a swordmaster.
Another unit that joins the main character’s crew and having a prepromoted gladiator is a plus, if you don’t want to train Nari instead with a focus on axes than swords. Don’t know if the Raven! Hero Coat battle sprite or the Nuramon Armored Hero battle sprite would fit him, but either is fine.
Brill (previously Brielle) Pad is here! Need a good sniper to replace Crowe who couldn’t gain speed during his level-ups. Her support for Nikita adds some characterization since the screenshot shows proof of it. Strange story about how I got her recruited, I somehow skipped the ambush trap from Brill, beat all the enemies, and made mir’Katal leave the map and the chapter ends without Brill showing up. But to my surprise, Brill ends up getting recruited when she doesn’t show up. So I left a few enemies alive and got mir’Katal to leave, then I ended the turn and Brill showed up. I don’t know if it’s a bug or something, but I got her the proper way as you intended.
The units that I used in the Onduris route that didn’t make the cut were Garath (This is before I got off to the Musain route, I want to give other experience to others), Asher (Lizaveta took his spot in healing duty.), Cyrille (Couldn’t find a spot for them in the team.), Chester (I tried to train him, but benched him in favor of Alexis.), Crowe (Wish he had gotten speed in this route so I benched him for Conleth.), Amelia (Benched her for Sileth in stats.), Tricia (Having an extra convoy is nice, but wish I trained her better in the early game.), Eileen (Bench her for Ioan, and since I’m not fielding Amelia.), Cathale (With the route being a challenge, I couldn’t fit her into the team.), Cothiva (Gets doubled by anything that has higher speed than her.), Gabriel (I used him in a few chapters and had him tank a bolting tome from the boss, Bede, but dropped him due to other units I’m trying to use.), Ioan (Bench him for Bellona, my beloved. His time will shine in the Musain route.), Conleth (Was a good bow unit if I say so, but the downside is not having access to Longbows and the lack of strength.), and Driscoll (Was doing well for some chapters, but I couldn’t get him on the team). I might get some luck with the units in the Musain route, but that depends on the RNG of the units.
1 Like
Glad you enjoyed! We’ll take a look into the issues.
We did originally keep it and then it became apparent that it was uh
OP as fuck
Huh, that does sound unintentional.
2 Likes
Finished Musain route, might try Onduris some time. On the whole, pretty fun hack, interested to see where the plot goes.
Units
Not very good after earlygame but at least she can fight mages okay.
Extremely strong, OHKOing mages and tanking everything physical means he was always solid.
Very good addition to earlygame, mobility and tanking appreciated. I know they got nerfed but maybe take a look at the christmas cavs because they just barely about match up on average I think.
He hits hard, and he’s capable of doubling at 3 range past earlygame (unlike Garath). Sorry to Franseza, but I couldn’t let him go.
Just did solid damage, a lot. Probably should’ve given him the skill booster, but c’est la vie.
Kind of a copium unit, stopped getting speed shortly after I committed to her, and Cometfall misses ohko’s on basically all cavs. Certainly good enough to keep using at least.
Not great damage output either, but heals on wheels.
What’s there to even say, she’s amazing.
Another solid pre-promote.
He refresh.
Really wish I had a seal for him.
Used him because he was important and Amelia decided that growing stats was for losers. He healed and had 3 range, fair enough.
When the cav is good
Instantly outclasses Eilene on join, I dunno what you expect. Probably could nerf her bulk or give Eilene a bit more power/HP.
She thiefs. Outclasses Chester and does okay enough in combat when you need her, but goddamn she must be tired for how much she has to run around on the later Musain maps with their chests and doors all over the place, and keys basically being non-existent. I’d seriously recommend adding more unless you want the player to either master rescue chains or bring 2 thieves.
Gameplay
Through the first arc, I’d say it’s pretty solid. Units all feel useful, there’s some challenge as enemies don’t just immediately fold, but aren’t too brutal.
I like the opening to Musain. There’s a lot of curveballs, but well, you were warned, and it’s still fair enough. I know it’d be work, but having Garath’s “guard” have a line or bit of banter after preps would be neat to make it less weird that they just show up when he’s alone in the cutscene (maybe move part of the cutscene to post preps?).
If anything, it’s maybe a little too fair, on the reconvergence map. I know you’re erring on the side of caution here, but I think you could have more enemies coming from the middle of the map (you have Corbeau at her strongest here) to have more stuff to do before the Maul makes his appearance; on my playthrough I had the map routed by the time Arcus and Asher appeared.
I noted this with Marie but you really are reliant on getting your thief around to get everything, with how scarce chest keys are (I’ll concede that I had the chance to buy door keys but did not). In particular, in the final map it’s really silly that the time limit mostly seems to exist to force you to have really rescue-chain if you don’t want to bring two thieves and get everything.
Master Seal allocation seems odd, you get a steady drip feed of them through 11, and then literally none in 12/13? There’s one in 14 at least. I’d either add more or shift an earlier one later so it’s less out of nowhere, as I had expected to be able to promote a couple more units than I actually could.
Last thing I’d want to say is that the last 3 maps are… pretty easy? By this point you have a lot of strong units and promotions, in 12/14 I only drew them out to get all the chests, otherwise I was way ahead of the anti-turtle. 13 is also easy thanks to enemy comp (mages are easier to double and not bulky, compared to myrms and cavs and the like). I think you could beef up enemies/reinforcements here, as there’s a noticeable drop off in difficulty.
5 Likes
Thing is, this time your units get proper experience. Now imagine a character who can level up more easily + a life draining sword. It sounds a little overkill, doesn’t it?
Hello it’s me, a person who likes the hack. I want to talk about it.
Warning: Write up is big.
Quick Note, I have never played the original dream of five, so this write up will be coming from a pure, untainted perspective. Having played DoW, I can hazard a guess at which elements are Parr and which elements are trying to stay true to DO5, but I won’t be taking those things into consideration here.
Gameplay Thoughts
Gameplay wise, I feel rather out of depth talking about it, so consider this more an initial emotional response than intensive feedback.
The Strider arc chapters play well enough, with some awkward choke points stopping forward momentum for a while. There’s very few times in the hack where you can keep a consistent forward momentum, with enemies being too sparse, too far away, or having to stop the threat from reinforcements. A lot of “hurry up and wait” in this game. This dynamic works pretty well for the fog chapters, but outside fog there’s a bunch of turns involving just moving or keeping a checkpoint.
Musain is mostly the same, with the funny mini route split being easy enough despite having every unit on Rena’s side be someone I benched. Magic enemies are very strong in this game, with some formations being very difficult to tackle. It’s really fun in the Furies chapter, where it’s a race to kill all the mages before more than one of them can hit you. But dealing with more than one mage in a physical formation can be really difficult to deal with.
Onduris is by far the more challenging route of the two. The skeletons are massive enemies, basically being armor knights plus. Even with ball of death tactics, groups of more than 3 skeletons can be really tough to deal with. Onduris also has a bunch of reinforcements, coming in numbers that can easily blindside players. There were multiple times where I got sandwiched between tough enemies and even more tough enemies. Also there’s that one fog chapter with multiple high move enemies, most of which have enough atk to take out some of your units. I hate that fog chapter.
Overall I find it fun but it’s a very Fe7 hack, which gets more and more annoying when chapters try to increase in difficulty.
Story Thoughts
Part of the draw of this hack, for me, was that Parr was rewriting the story. And it really is a joy to read. All the characters have distinct character voices that match the tone of the setting, and everyone talks in a grounded way, yet fun way.
I will be providing suggestions on things I would change to improve the story, but don’t feel compelled to follow any of them. I want to give ideas, not orders.
Main Cast
Rena is a great lead, with a very strong sense of morality tempered by her more pragmatic mentors. She, above all else, is a survivor. And it really does feel that, were she was not in the lead role, the story would go wildly differently. Her choices constantly impact the story and the characters in ways that are really cool to see.
Garath and Varkade are awesome mentors, and have great chemistry with Rena and each other. Garath understands warfare from the ground level, and is always quick to remind Rena and other characters the reality of what they’re doing. Despite that, it’s obvious he does care about the people in his life, and it seems like he follows Rena because of her flexible, but strong moral compass.
Varkade is much more concerned with the big picture, he wants to build Rena into a great leader of her nation, a task made more difficult by Rena’s disinterest in it. He’s much more Machiavellian than Garath, but it’s contrasted with an extremely deep loyalty to Rena. Honestly I wish Varkade got to talk with the rest of the cast a little more, he comes across as existing in Rena’s pocket dimension, summoned only once all the other characters leave. The few convos Varkade gets with other characters are great, but Varkade only really gets a dynamic with Garath, which is a rather simple “I dislike this guy’s priorities”
Kolbane is fine but suffers from never being present in a meaningful way. After the Strider arc, his contributions in both routes amount to “Hey Rena, what you’re doing is bad”. Which would be fine if it wasn’t for his mysterious absence every time Rena makes a risky, morally good choice. It feels less like he’s Rena’s conscience, pushing her towards being a better person, and more like Parr showing up in the plot to tell the player that the situation is morally grey.
Strider Arc
Strider Arc gives Act 1 DOW vibes, in a good way. It’s obvious from the get go the cast is walking into a death trap, so it keeps the same tension that explodes into the mad dash towards the border.
The villains are great, the Baron is a wonderful bastard and Sorcha is really fun. The Baron’s relationship with the Queen and the other Crown hopefuls are awesome and I want to see more them.
Ganter might benefit from a cameo or two in the early chapters? The emotional beat of “Hey we’re killing our boss, this sucks” doesn’t really work for me when he’s only introduced after Rena makes an enemy of the Striders.
Onduris Arc
Rena’s backstory is given more focus here, and I really enjoy what I’ve seen of it. Varkade’s role in raising her becomes more and more clear, and it’s easy to see how it relates to her current worldview and moral system.
se'Mori
se’Mori is a sublord I enjoy, being a static character the cast has to work around instead of working with. Mori’s entire character is being overconfident in his ability to be the cool bloodline heir, with Sileth and Rena doing their both to keep him alive while advancing their own interests. se’Mori comes to trust Rena, but never sees her as anything more than his mercenary until the truth of her bloodline is revealed, which is perfectly in character.
Am'Roan
I do wish se’Mori had more of an emotional reaction to am’Roan’s death. Having to kill someone you once called a friend because you’re pursuing your birthright must do something to change the way se’Mori thinks about it. During the big argument, se’Mori never really brings up how he’s killed a friend to get this far, which might help in giving him a better foundation in the argument.
The Big Argument
The big argument really doesn’t work for me. Rena, correctly, points out that they do not have the forces to fight the dictator. Rena then, correctly, points out that they can depend on Shen to work things out in the capital. But se’Mori, stupidly, says that solving the issues with Onduris should be their job, because there’s a cancerous ball in the middle of their nation. se’Mori has never been concerned with systematic change before this point, and is now advocating for fighting the dictator? His only goal so far was to get the dictator’s blessings, and we don’t get to see him deal with the fact the dictator is now trying to kill him. He’s just flipped his priorities on a dime offscreen. Perhaps it might help to set the seeds of wanting change early with am’Roan’s death, which comes to a head when Jin Guards attack the household. Rena arguing against Mori’s righteous fury might help give Mori some better ground to stand on in the argument.
But then se’Mori goes for ad hom of “Oh you call yourself a logical person, but you’re too scared to fight the Baron, so I win the argument because you’re emotional”. Which, in fairness, is an argument a person could make. But that hits Rena hard, and I don’t buy that. Rena isn’t so fragile to get affected by this loser calling her a coward. Varkade lampshades it a bit, but it doesn’t make it any less silly.
In my mind, Rena’s biggest fear is that fact that all the morally dubious stuff she’s done wasn’t necessary. If it was mere cowardice that motivated her to flee from the Baron, she killed a lot of well meaning people for no reason. Mori attacking Rena’s moral character may work much better in getting Rena to snap back at him.
Also, throughout the whole argument, Rena never mentions her biggest trump card. Unlike in Musain, which was a combined army of rebels and mercs, Mori’s army is just Rena. Rena has a bunch of leverage in her relationship with Mori, and even if Mori doesn’t realize it, Sileth should. Rena leaving with her army is a big deal, and neither Mori or Sileth seem to care that their army could be going from 20 men to 2 men.
Sileth
Sileth in general is pretty underutilized. It’s pretty clear from the get go that Sileth is the brains behind Mori, but after her opening chapter she doesn’t get much screen time. I’d expect her and Rena to become somewhat close, or at the very least talk more without Mori present. Varkade being the only person to tell Rena about Onduris politics is also strange, especially when Sileth is also there and has a vested interest in Rena not leaving. Even one convo with Rena and Sileth talking about how to work around Mori being… Mori would be really cool.
Villains
The villains are great here, with the relationship of ka’Danos and the dictator being standout. A fun group of simple villains that still feel grounded.
Onduris gives us more Baron, which is always cool to see. We get to see the exact way the Baron gains power, which is executed very well.
I don’t really see the point of having the Baron himself enter in Onduris though. He just chases her off screen and then leaves when the boat does. I guess the turn count of the port chapter is meant to be a scary “Oh the baron is coming any second now”, but the number 16 doesn’t really garner any emotional response from me.
Musain Arc
The vibes are great. Continuing the frantic tensions of the Strider Arc, the gang always has their backs pressed against the wall, with everything working against them. Rena’s reaction to the torture of innocents is done wonderfully, and the arc is able to get pretty dark in a way that treats its subject matter seriously. The rebels leaders have such a fun force of personality that keeps things lighter during such a tense arc. The mini route split is such a cool set piece, and it’s a joy to see the whole party get back together afterwards. Seeing how far Garath goes for Rena is really sweet, and makes him into one of my favorite characters.
Villains
The villain politics are so, so good. Seeing the sisters navigate their love for each other, their loved ones, and their own morality was really interesting to me. The furies are creepy while being human enough to be sympathetic, although I think Eudira needs a little more to get from fighting for evil man to fighting against evil man. I love Severin with all my heart. He’s very self centered in a very understandable way, really disliking his current job but still willing to go along with the bare minimum he’s expected to do. He’s also really funny. He does the jokes.
Uther is the weakest by far. Going to break my rule at the beginning and mention, yeah this guy was so obviously a generic Camus in the original. I’m technically guessing because I haven’t checked, but I’d bet money on it. The solution to this is to make all the characters treat Uther like the weirdo he is, marching to his death for his honor and pride. Which is better than what I’m assuming OG Do5 did, but the game still somewhat expects you to care about him. Perhaps a solution would be to focus more on his family’s honor than his own? He’s not marching for his own sake, but for the sake of some family member that died in battle. If he ruins his family name, he also ruins the memory of people in said family.
Arcus....
Arcus sucks. He’s really bad. The best part about Onduris arc is knowing Arcus is being tortured the whole time.
I’m exaggerating, of course, but I do think Arcus is a weak character to the point of dragging down the whole arc. I have a problem with every scene he’s in, and the arc is better when he gets less screentime.
For starters, Arcus is introduced to us as someone with the little practical combat experience, but still has the mental fortitude to undergo days of torture from a trained torturer.This is… insane. Not in a bad way, but this is a character trait that should be given more emphasis from the party. Rena is super dismissive of Arcus from the get go, which is very odd given both she and Garath should understand how insane that force of will is from a noble with no training.
I’d be more lenient of Rena’s dismissive behavior if in the next scene Rena wasn’t chastising Arcus for being inexperienced. Rena doesn’t take Arcus very seriously at all from the word go, treating him like any other soldier. It gets doubly weird when the Journal mentions efforts from Arcus to take command away from Rena, which happens offscreen for some reason? Not that it matters, Rena is so obviously in charge that the enemy general won’t even accept Arcus as their leader in the surrender agreement.
But wait, we have Arcus and Garath as a duo next.(Side note, I think I’d be good to have this chapter happen before Rena’s jailbreak, to keep the desperate tone this chapter has). Garath puts himself in danger and Arcus has to decide if he wants to save him or not. Garath’s death would give him full command, after all. Well, I make it sound more interesting than it is. The future teller walks up to Arcus, says “Hey you’d be such a badass if you saved him right now” and Arcus is like “Yeah, I would be a badass”. And then Arcus leaves the plot.
In the ending, Arcus talks how he’s grown to trust Rena, which is… they barely get any screen time together. The fact he’s here at all is so weird. In summary, I would heavily recommend a rework of Arcus’s character. I have some of my own suggestions down below.
Arcus suggestions
Welcome to glorified DO5 fanfiction by SirSpensir.
For one, you have an inexperienced leader who wants to take command right before a massive military blunder. Why not lean into it? Perhaps Rena’s men, especially Kolbane, are impressed by Arcus’ resolute heart and speeches about being a moral leader. Especially after the morally gray bloodbath of the Striders arc. Arcus is able to take command away from Rena, with a mixture of financial and loyalty pressure. This is at a point in Rena’s arc where she is unsure of her leadership abilities, so seeing what happens when she loses it could be interesting.
Arcus fails, of course. He doesn’t listen to the warning signs, quotes some book about not letting an opportunity pass by. During the surrender agreement, Arcus wants to sacrifice himself, but Rena reasons that if Arcus is gone, so is her company’s paycheck and ability to provide for themselves, so Rena goes instead.
Arcus and Garath argue about how important it is to get Rena back, and boom, Garath is about to get merced. Arcus is now in a position where he could get his own army under his leadership, but he understands now that he lacks the experience to lead an army, and decides to save Garath.
When Arcus and Rena reunite, Arcus gives command back to Rena. It might be nice to have Arcus learn of Joylon’s capture beforehand, so that giving command back to Rena can have the emotional weight of “please save my friend”.
Before the siege of the prison, or maybe before attacking the great library, it might be good to give Arcus a moment to rally people to the cause. The men, especially the new men they’ve added to their ranks, will be quite afraid of facing an entire army. Arcus may not be the best leader in a tactical sense, but he is the heart of the army. He is still an indispensable part of the rebellion, and Rena has to learn from him to become a better leader herself. Rena’s talk with Arcus after the promos could lean into this, “My men look to me for survival, they look to you for the future”
No matter the specifics, I’d highly recommend tying the military blunder to some person failing Arcus can learn from, instead of Arcus just being a part of the plot.
TDLR
In summary, the writing is awesome. The plot is mostly good, although the sublords currently suffer from being a little wonky. Very excited to see where Rena ends up after these arcs. Also did I mention how awesome Severin is? He’s great.
5 Likes
Hey. Hack good. Hack fantastic, even. I just beat Musain and want to get my thoughts out there.
Units
Not much to say about Rena as a unit - she’s fast, she’s weak, she’s frail unless wielding the Gilded Brand, but there are still plenty of places she can contribute.
Arcus does armor knight things: taking big hits and doing big hits back. Mioritza is a great prf but I found that even with a steel/silver axe he was still strong enough to secure OHKOs on mages.
Fallingoffsayswhat. Gareth has been an excellent unit even long after his speed stopped cutting it. Longbow access (and Greatbow specifically) are so centralizing that I chose him over Corbeau as my Warrior prepromote despite the latter’s better stats in every area. With supports from Rena and Kolbane he was still able to OHKO problematic mages from 3 range, notably Severin in 12A.
Kolbane is good. Like really really good. 55/55 offenses and perfect availability (bar 8x) make him stupidly easy to train with a lot of payoff. This one is actually -2 on strength right now but like you can’t even tell. He does so well.
Earlygame mage girl, bottom text. Strongest unit in the army and it’s not particularly close. Recipient of the first Blossom Dew.
Earlygame adept girl, top text. I was a little worried cause she wasn’t getting any speed from levels 12-16 but she turned it around toward the end. Recipient of the second Blossom Dew.
I was horrified to see her base speed and defense, but after chapter 11A I realized she has a 100-0 matchup against every enemy type left in Musain. Something tells me post-route split probably won’t be as kind to her, but if that’s true I can always relegate her to staff utility.
MY KING. He should’ve been the sublord of Musain, his character is so enthralling. I was worried about his middling speed but it didn’t impact his ability to do mage things like boil armors alive and hit big Thunder damage from 3 range.
I think Franseza is the most underrated unit in the hack. Her stats may look underwhelming on paper (or at least they did before promo) but being able to one round Warlocks from outside their range is HUGE. If Seren gets a buff next patch I imagine Franseza’s viability will also go up even more because of their built-in A support.
Jesus christ. Jesus fucking christ.
Annalise is probably the only unit in the game who actually benefits from the Warding Sword because it bumps up her passable resistance to great resistance. Aside from that she does normal pegasus knight things, she’ll probably get the +2 strength consumable once I get over my statbooster hoarding.
Great crutch prepromote: strong, fast, good ranks.
Thief utility.
Bard utility.
Staff utility (with a side of rescue dropping).
Staff utility.
All in all pretty much every unit felt like they had a place where they excelled. The only unit I felt was redundant is Seren, who’s pretty cleanly outclassed by Kolbane. Even outside of Kolbane, her base strength is pitiful and doesn’t give her any meaningful matchups except for like, myrmidons, which aren’t common in Musain to begin with. If it were me, I’d make her a resistance-focused soldier for a complete sidegrade to Kolbane with good matchups against common enemies in Musain that don’t require a high strength threshold to one round.
Lyndra needs to be toned down. She’s crazy strong from the time you get her all the way to the end of Musain. She might be slowing down a little, but she breaks every Musain chapter over her knee. In particular you could probably nerf her axe rank, as whenever her strength was lacking I could hand her a Silver Axe and let her hit a damage threshold.
Chapters
For the most part, I really liked the chapters in the Strider arc. Enemies have the same Group AI we all know and love from DoW, and there were well-timed reinforcements from the back to encourage you to move forward. The only map I really disliked in Act 1 was Chapter 3, I think it’s way too long and serpentine for the units you have.
As for Musain, I LOVE the bullshit in the early maps. It really helps to sell how the company is on the back foot in unfamiliar territory for maps like 8A and 9A. The sentiment has been echoed before but I think 9A is a little too fair for how many options you’re given in it. I understand why you have to err on the side of caution, though.
Musain’s biggest flaw is the insistence of chests as an anti-turtle. Realistically Marie is going to be your only thief, and she can only be in one of the two split parties at once. If you want to get every chest on a map, you’re either going to have to rescue chain her or break into your 5-use chest key you get really early in Act 1. 14A is especially egregious here, as having 2 chests in 3 faraway groups means Marie has to walk back and forth while everyone else lets Guillaume chill on his throne after killing all the Dracoliches.
Story
You have no idea how excited I was for Dream of Five’s story. I mean, it’s made by the Drums of War guy. And not just that, but the story has been cooking for over a decade!
First and foremost, Rena is great. She bears a lot of similarities to Roxelana Kallaste - both are hardened captains of a company who’ll go through hell and high water to ensure the safety of their charges - but with a few notable and interesting differences. Rena is much more willing to go with the flow, much more willing to pull the trigger as a first resort instead of a last, and much less outwardly regretful of her circumstances. This gives her interesting interactions with her subordinates like Kolbane, who worries that his use to her only extends as far as his spear-arm does; and Garath, who’s all too happy to enable Rena’s impulses so long as she trusts him enough to let him in on it.
Garath, Kolbane, and the rest of the ensemble Act 1 cast are all great. They have distinct character voices and memorable recruitment convos (sans Tricia), but I find myself missing the commentary of the levy during big plot moments. It was a shock to me when Lizaveta spoke up to go with Rena when captured by the Gendarmie since she barely said anything after her join chapter.
Act 1’s overarching plot and politics are very simple, especially when compared to the grandiose and layered worldbuilding of DoW. But irrespective of that simplicity, each chapter is still wonderfully fun to read. The highlight here is Sorcha, every single line of dialogue she has is a fucking riot.
Okay I’ve gone too long without talking about Musain’s villains. Oh my god Musain’s villains are the best part of the hack in writing and it’s not close. Menida, Severin, Guillaume are all so unbelievably hammy and a delight to read. This is the biggest tonal contrast from DoW: DoW’s villains all embody the banality of systemic violence and are much more subdued in personality, while Do5’s villains are bombastic and delight in their individual cruelty. Both are fantastic, I’ve made a writeup about how effective of an antagonist Micah is, but as a theater person and huge Les Mis fan I think Do5 barely pulls ahead.
The weakest link of Musain is one already covered in great detail by Spensir above: Arcus. Even on a surface level Arcus fails as a sublord for Musain, being mellow in personality and unable to match the villains in sheer energy. He’s so out of his depth in Musain, literally in this case as he’s a noble from another country, but that doesn’t really justify the amount of screentime he has that should really go to Jolyon.
Jolyon is the perfect character in Musain. He’s witty, energetic, has agency in the plot, has political connections to Meliza and Fluerre, and overall makes more sense as a sublord than Arcus. I have no doubt Arcus will get better as revisions are made to the script and the party travels to Vishara after the route split, but in Musain he sticks out like a police inspector in a student revolution.
Overall, I really like the characters and want to see more of them. The only fully-written support chains I read were Kolbane/Rena and Eilene/Amelia, both of which I thought were great. Can’t wait to see more of them!
I’ll wait until the next patch to start Onduris (keeping this save for when the post-route split is finished). If anyone reading this hasn’t played either of the routes yet, do it now. Play Dream of Five.
4 Likes
Is there a planned release date for this game? I know this is a newly revitalized project; but I was just curious if you have a target date for release. Thanks!
It’s currently released, check out the first post.
1 Like