Indeed. However, only Elyse can activate the support, not Eldric. And when I press start in the preparation screen, in order to start the battle, it sends me to the preparation screen again. The second time you press start it will actually send you to battle. No game breaking things, but figured I should report it anyway (gods, this girl only brings up problems 
)
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You know what they say:
Girlboss, gaslight, gatekeep.
(Well, I don’t think she does the second part but you get the gist of it).
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Ok, I finished the game and I will give a detailed review later. For now, I have only two things to say…
Spoiler
Why ? Why the same thing had to happen with Elyse ? Her mother disappeared and she did too…leaving Edric all alone. Well, I guess I can’t use Elyse as a super broken unit in sequel. Also, please for the love of god, don’t abandon this project. I need that sequel like really I need it. The story was sooo good.
Thanks for playing the game! 
Ending
Elyse’s end will always be bittersweet because of her mysterious and magical nature. At least Edric has a daughter, so he’s not totally alone.
Elyse’s nature will certainly play into any sequel I make, if I make one.
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Found a glitch! Replaying with updated version, I promoted Tancred early for staff utility, but after chapter 13 he got unpromoted. He’s back in my party, but he’s now a lvl 12 shaman.
Well, Vorgus… As promised, I’ve come back to curse for Edric and Elyse’s ending, as it happened what I feared it would happen. I understand why you did it, but still!!!
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What? Really? That’s amazing. Does he have the same stats he had as a shaman? Could be get double promotion bonus? Does he have staff rank as a shaman? This is wild. Come to the discord and give me details
@LewynCollins you knew it was coming, but you had to see it for yourself. Would it be give you peace to know that, for a time, they were happy?
No, because I love my “happily every afters”, rare as they are. But it is a feeble consolation, at least. I had the hope that
...
Elyse’s mom only “phoenixed” herself because she was really old and tired and that Elyse would actually have a daughter instead of “phoenixing” herself too basically allowing 2 fire birds to live at the same time. Or, as there can only be one phoenix at the same time (according to our world’s mythology), they would have a normal child and, when Elyse reached old age, she would die leaving a younger self behind. Anyway, there was hope, remote as they were.
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Well it doesn’t matter if we like or dislike Edric X Elyse’s ending. All that matters to me is that…
Spoilers
They should be the canon couple in sequel. Their child should be the protagonist or at least one of the protagonists besides Cassius.
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You know, I forgot to ask.
Spoilers!
How old IS Harlan, exactly? And how old is Julia?
Because uhhhh… I’m pretty sure Julia is old enough to be his daughter from the looks of it…
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He said he is almost twice her age. If Julia is 20, as The Incident happened 20 years ago, Harlan should be 38-39.
Harlan is 36. He was recruited to the Phoenix Blades by Fenix when he was 16 (though it wasn’t called the Phoenix Blades, back then). He was there when Elyse was born, 1 year later.
Julia is 20, Elyse is 19, Edric is 24, Shorn is about 27…
I have an Excel file with all of the characters’ ages 
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Oh, they have the same age gap as my sweet granny and gramps. Nice.
Ahhh okay.
Which means… hoo boy.
Can we ever get that excel file released, then?
Pleeeeeeeease?
MAJOR ENDING SPOILERS
Also tbh, I would actually say that both Elyse’s A-Support and Catrine’s visions in her A-Support could be true…
Nobody ever said what that great source of sorrow was- and it wasnt because of Catrine or her hypothetical children with Edric…
At least, from what I’ve seen so far.
Also as an aside- I do wish Ruslan’s level cap could be increased to 30 since, well, he doesn’t promote, and while he is kinda solid, I do think that it would help serve as kind of a safeguard in case he gets statscrewed.
Oh and also:
Nadya cant use a Master Seal despite being over Level 10. Is this a bug?
Are you skipping the story?
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I just completed this game. I have finished many hacks but this is the best one I’ve played. Never before have I felt the need to plan with all the characters. I read somewhere that you wanted all the characters to have substance or something like that and I believe that they definitely did. It was an amazing and fun experience.
That ending though. I hope this means a sequel is in the works.
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I’ve never done a hack review before (not even for my favorite FE hack, Deity Device). But when I found out that a hack was fully released randomly on the latest posts, with supports and endings and everything, I knew I had to check it out. At first I did it just because, but lately my thoughts have been plagued thinking of this game and characters (probably because I got two of my FE friends to play it haha). I’ll try to cover every topic as extensively as I can. including characters, so fair warning for spoilers.
Story
The Dark Amulet’s story is somewhat straightforward at the start, in fact it’s kind of similar to PoR. You’re on a mercernary group, you’re a new captain, and there’s a war ongoing. This is how it is for most of the early game, with a few hints here and there at something more obscure. Then chapter 9 happens and suddenly the game has a very interesting twist in the story. From that chapter onwards until the lategame, you’re always shown as the lesser army, fighting against the odds, trying to rescue important people and strike fast. I like how this is integrated into the gameplay for the most part. The midgame does a good job at making you understand how all of this even happened. Chapter 16x in particular is fantastic, both gameplay wise and story-wise. The lategame shows a lot of the flaws with the continent the characters are living on, and how they try to still push through.
I like the story. It’s fairly straightforward, but it has a few moments here and there in which it’s pretty fun. Zeddard’s a good villain, at first he was kind of cookie-cutter, but by the end you fully understand how he got to the place he is.
THE ENDING however…
I was absolutely blindsided by the twist there. I knew Edric’s mom felt kind of…off, but I didn’t expect that she just lied about Edric’s parentage, Morven was gay, and that an unknown army is coming to the continent. It’s an interesting twist. However, it’s the kind of twist that desperately needs a sequel of to make it good, because otherwise it just feels like a bunch of loose ends that lead to nowhere and just makes you leave the game unsatisfied.
The reaction I had was kind of funny though so I think it’s at least a memorable ending
Characters
If The Dark Amulet stands out for anything, it is for its characters. With fully written supports for every single playable character, The Dark Amulet always at least 1 character that will stick out for someone. I’m going to try my best to do a quick review of every playable character in the game (yeah I know I’m insane).
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Edric: Our main man. In terms of official FE protags, he’s the closest to Ike. A smart, quick-witted person who inspires strength in others and has a strong sense of justice and personal honor. He’s somewhat simple at the start, if a bit mysterious. But as you get to know him, you learn that he is very kind-hearted, but also very uncomfortable about being looked up to as a leader, and later on, as a king. Regardless, for everyone else, he manages to bear that burden, even if he does a few missteps here and there (chapter 21/22). I think he’s a good character, I personally found funny how he’s so charming that almost every plot relevant woman of his age in the game falls for him (and even Shorn!). My favorite support has to be with Shorn, I just like how sweet and honest Edric is towards him, especially at the A support where even when he’s a bit confused on what he feels, he doesn’t want to let him go. Huge W for the gays.
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Shorn: Basically Edric’s right hand man for all the story (and perhaps more depending on who you pick). I’ll admit, at the start I kind of laughed at him because of his growths and his stupidly edgy and mean personality, I even was kind of sad he was that good because I did not like him. But on chapter 9, when the twist happens, and he stays with Edric and we meet his sister, we see a more…vulnerable side, a flustered side, an honest side, a loyal side. From there on, he changes, he slowly becomes more receptive to Edric as a leader, and starts opening up more to other characters as well. When he opens up, his previous attitude towards others starts making sense. I already said why I liked Edric and Shorn’s support, but I also want to highlight his supports with Miley, Sheila and Gareth. With Miley we see a more vulnerable side about his past with his lover, it is nice to see how even now he thinks about him, and starts accepting that other people in his life won’t just fade away like Roland did. With Sheila, we see truly just how kind and loving Shorn is, he sends money for his sick mother and family, and takes care of them deeply. And with Gareth we see him empathize with him, but also push him forward and try to make Gareth understand that there is a life beyond revenge and pain from losing loved ones. He is a fantastic character and probably my favorite from the hack.
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Miley: Fairly straightforward character. Kind, sweet, funny and strong. Her supports are all really good overall, and do a good show of making Miley a pretty memorable character with her silly antics and caring heart. Personally I like not A supporting her with Galen, since it’s a show of her moving forward and accepting that nothing has to last forever. My favorite support of hers is with Dwalt, I think it does justice to both of them. It portrays Miley as this deeply sympathetic person, and it helps to show Dwalt’s more vulnerable side. Probably one of my favorite A supports in general.
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Hilda: Recruit alert!!! She’s silly, fun and a scarily fast learner. I enjoyed how she thought Edric was proposing to her on chapter 3 and she was like “Weird, but sure ok!!”. Not much to say about her other than her supports are pretty nice, with Catrine being the most bittersweet (but also a pretty good show of Hilda’s character). I personally really liked her and Alexis’ supports the most, especially their C support (“That’s a lot of castles.”).
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Catrine: The classic FE cleric. Kind, sweet, and selfless. I personally really like it how her ability to have visions and look back on the past are used in both the story and her supports, and how it affects her relationships. I think it’s unique to not make her devoted to the Gods, it gives her this air of personal freedom in her actions. I loved her support with Leandra, it was just really really sweet and loving, and it showed a more normal side of Catrine, one that isn’t tied to her visions, but to who she is a person. I would talk about her support with Sophia, but I think that’s more fitting for her section.
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Griss: He’s a classic FE veteran. Honestly his character is rather simple overall, but it is interesting to see how much he sacrificed for Catrine, and how much he cares for Hilda. Also his support with Shorn showed a more mature and reflective part of his personality, clearly he became wise over the years.
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Galen: To be honest, I didn’t use much of him during my playthrough, and his personal conflict between his honor as a knight and his own wants isn’t something new. He still is appreciated though, I enjoyed reading his supports with Miley that you can only see in the support room, they’re nice (rump lol). The fact that he can for some reason juggle and tries to cheer Elyse up with it is kind of hilarious too.
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Elyse: A pretty interesting character, if sadly underused by the plot for obvious reasons. The fact that she is somehow a reincarnated version of her mother, who also happens to be some kind of phoenix is just crazily insane but I love it. Her support with Galen is pretty hilarious, and of course her support with Fenix is fantastic. Not much else to say, I just like her.
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Dwalt: I didn’t particularly find him interesting when I played the game, so I dropped him early on, but I’ll admit, he’s a pretty damn good character! I love how emotional and sensitive he can be while staying strong. His support with Miley is fantastic, as I already said, but I also loved his A support with Rivkah, it shows just how devoted and respectful he is.
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Julia: The co-protag of the story. I liked her, she’s relatively fun, and her witty comebacks are pretty funny to see. She’s a very different kind of “strong woman” and I like how it’s shown. She isn’t independent and she isn’t almighty, but she is steadfast and kind-hearted. Sadly, I didn’t find any of her supports that outstanding, so I can’t say much in that regard.
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Harlan: The not-so-quite thief. His character is fairly interesting, it’s curious how much he debates over what he thinks he owes to Fenix, and what he really wants to be. It’s nice to see him eventually manage to live a life that he can feel proud about. I’ll admit I got a bit shocked when I first saw him bc I was like “VOLKE?!”, but beyond that he’s good.
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Freya: Obligatory 1st pegasus knight, I like how she’s pretty decently involved in the events of the story (especially during the Sophia parts of the game), and as a character she’s cool, I like how she wants to regain her honor in an unconventional way, though I do wish she had at least 1 more support, 3 is very little for such an early unit.
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Rivkah: She’s a pretty good character I think, her background is really sad and very realistic. I hope that if we get a sequel we can see her efforts to get better and free her people come into fruition. I liked her support with Hadima, I enjoy supports that bring a very hard conflict to the table.
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Donnal: There’s not much to say about him, to be honest. He’s pretty straightforward, he wants the money, he gets the money. It’s a bit funny to see him get dragged around by the Southwood nobles lmao.
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Sheila: Hilarious character, appears in a chapter and Megalovania starts playing, immediately memorable. I love her attitude, it’s a very refreshing kind of both serious and comedic character. Her relationship with Shorn is really great, and it is nice how he starts becoming less of a hard-ass once Sheila shows just how much of a mess he is haha. Her support with Gareth is pretty nice too, I love how they enjoy each other’s company, even if Sheila didn’t get the memo about Gareth’s orientation lol. Speaking of…
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Gareth: Our other gay man alongside our boy Shorn. I like how, despite his silent and calm demeanor, he hides a deep-seated need for revenge, and for peace. I already talked about why I liked his support with Shorn, but I also enjoy his support with Rivkah, shows just how much he misses the life he once had, and how he knows he will never have it back. I hope that if there’s a sequel, that he manages to get a happier life, and hopefully someone else to spend it with.
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Tancred: The dark mage of the game. It’s very sad to see how fucked up his life got due to the Dark Amulet, and how even after all of that, he still had to run away and hide. Poor man will never know peace.
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Leandra: Light mage of the game! I personally really loved her character. The way her dialogue is written and how she’s characterized is really really good and I wish there was more of her. I love her support with Catrine, I just love how vulnerable she is with her, and how she seeks happiness. I also love her A support with Tancred, it’s just a really strong character moment for her, in which she realizes she’s the salvation she’s been asking for all this, time, that the strength she needed was always in herself. We love a lesbian queen.
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Rowan: Fashionably late, as it would seem. His relationship with Griss is pretty cool, and it’s a good example of how messed up the systemic differences in this continent are. It’s kind of funny how his support with Morgana is just him setting her up on dates with his son.
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Eleanora: The dancer of the game! She’s silly, she’s fun and we love her for that. It’s pretty cool how strong willed she is, and how smart she is as well. I love her Edgar ending, her becoming an ambassador of Southwood fits her so well with how good she is at talking to people and forming relationships.
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Ruslan: WYVERN!!! I loooove weird units in FE games, and Ruslan definitely fits that bill! Just a really cute and enjoyable character. The fact that his support with Hadima is just him and her wyvern falling in love is pretty funny. Also that Tancred A support tho… On another note, it’s pretty funny that he’s the one character that can make Edgar stand down when he’s a boss.
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Edgar: The older brother of the Southwood nobles. I like how despite his stern appearance and attitude he can be pretty relaxed at times, and to be honest, with siblings such as his, I get why. It’s cute how he rescued Ruslan and it made them become best buddies.
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Alexias: Recruit alert number 2!!! He’s just the silliest guy ever. I love how charming he is, and how despite his heavy-handed flirtatiousness, he still manages to be really…non-harmful about it? Like, he’s just 16. He’s also rather sweet with Hilda and Eleanora. His support with Leandra is particularly funny when you put in perspective the fact that Leandra’s like 28 and he’s 16, so he’s just flirting with a lesbian older woman and she just can’t bring herself to break the news to him, lmao.
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Sophia: By far one of the most complex and interesting characters this game has to offer, and also one of the most pained ones. She suffered so so much, she was forced to see her husband hate himself, see him get consumed by power, and then she was forced to be locked away for 10 long years, being poisoned all the while. And even then, she still tried to have hope for what was left of her life, but again and again, she kept losing. She lost her brother, and now she was forced to lead. Her support with Catrine shows how much pain she has in her heart, and how much love and hope she once held… How she wasn’t able to forget just how much she loved Zeddard, and how she desperately pleaded to Catrine to make her forget everything about it, just so that she would stop suffering. It’s a really painful character, and yet it’s nice to see it. She’s still a good person, she still treats Nadya with respect, hears Freya’s concerns, and respects the decision to make Edric king, even if she can’t agree with it. She deserved better. She also had one of the best moments in the game, her stabbing Zeddard in the back with the same poison she was forced to suffer from for 10 years… Wow, just wow. Incredible character, really puts into perspective how awful the whole situation is.
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Hadrian: Interesting character. It’s depressing to see someone who very clearly knows he’s going to die, and yet has no choice in the matter about it. It’s especially sad when you know that he was so close to being saved, to getting the cure to his illness…but then the war took that away. I’m also curious about what his relationship with King Morven was… After all, Edric did say he had many male lovers.
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Nadya: Flying mage! She’s pretty silly, I like how lighthearted she is, though I wish she had at least one or two supports more centered around her as a person. I also feel like it’s a bit sad that she doesn’t get any paired endings, not even with her best friend Freya.
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Hadima: The wyvern knight of the game. Her background is pretty sad, it’s sadly realistic too. Many people get sent to wars they have no idea about when they’re young, and they’re victims too. I hope her and Rivkah manage to free themselves from the shackles of their past though.
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Morgana: I didn’t find her character all that interesting, but her supports with Julia and Eleanora are pretty neat. Her support with Hadrian is also sad, for reasons already mentioned, but also because it shows how she misses her father, poor girl.
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Fenix: A very interesting twist antagonist and late-game unit. I wish we knew more about his past so that we could learn as to why he was so obsessed with having glory and titles, but I like what we had too. His support with Elyse is terribly sad too, and his support with Harlan is interesting as well. I almost wish he had a support with Edric, that could’ve been an interesting back and forth maybe.
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Othello: The last recruitable character. There’s not much to say about him to be honest, I mean, he has one support. I do at least like how misguided he ended up due to his love for Sophia, and how he was willing to accept any punishment for his mistakes.
Overall, I liked many of these characters, but if I had to pick favorites, I would say Shorn, Leandra and Sophia won my heart.
Map design
The map design of this hack was solid, there wasn’t anything in particular about it that bothered me, and the escape chapters were always fun to play. In general don’t have much to say about it, just really solid map design! Well…except for Chapter 13, 25 and 26. With 13 the issue is that you put the green units in a very vulnerable position, and making it so that there’s a one tile walkway to even get there makes it a pretty bad experience. Chapter 25 is more of the same, but with the floor falling off. Chapter 26 is somewhat cool, but the fact that there’s an unnanounced phase two that doesn’t end the turn limit or anything kind of sucks and feels unfair.
Reinforcements
I didn’t have any particular complaints about the map design since I found most of them pretty well designed, but I (and my two other friends who played the hack) did have a lot of complaints about how Reinforcements were handled.
I’ll be honest: Ambush spawns quickly make some maps go from manageable to straight up unfair and unfun. Chapter 7 is the start of it, but it never stops getting worse and worse. Ambush spawns are awful, and should never exist 90% of the time because it goes against a fair gameplay design.
Reinforcements in general came at way to big of waves. Normally when Fire Emblem games deploy reinforcements, at most it’s 3 or 4 units per turn. Well, in this hack it’s really really common to have random reinforcements be like 7 or 8. And there’s almost always one or two big reinforcement waves per map that have like 10 or 12 units pop up in random places. I know it’s to stop turtling, but to be honest at times it makes turtling so much more prefferable because you never know when you’ll need your entire team together to handle a massive wave of reinforcements.
Way too many infinite reinforcements as well. Chapter 26 was particularly egregious of this, I did not like how bad it got there, but there’s many other maps that suffer from having an excess of reinforcements.
In general, I feel like this game would be overall much more enjoyable if the reinforcements were tuned down by half, or at least two thirds of what they are. It doesn’t help that many of these reinforcements are really strong so the problem becomes even worse.
My Endgame team/Quick character reviews
To end this pretty long review, I’ll try to talk about all the units I played with, alongside my own personal thoughts about them gameplay wise. I played on Version 1.0 on Normal mode, but I still feel like these thoughts still hold for the most part.
Edric: Now, I know what you were trying to go for here. But I just simply can’t agree with him unit-wise. His horrendous growths make him such a 50/50 on whether he’s good or near unusable. I know he gets a busted prf by the end, and that he has aether with rightful king, but it’s just…not enough. It is not enough for how bad he is at the start (seriously? 6 speed?). I know he got a 5% speed growth buff, but I still feel like that barely does much to address just how unreliable he is as a unit, and he’s the lord. One of my friends hated playing through a lot of the game mainly because her Edric got insanely bad growths, like, 16 speed at endgame type of deal. I feel like if he had a 45/45 speed and strength growths he’d be a much more consistent lord. I also feel like his promotion gains should be a tad bit higher, they’re really low for no reason. At least the rate at which he gets Broadswords is really good.
Julia: A very bold unit, being stafflocked all the way through. She does her job as a staffbot, and now that she has 7 movement on her base class she’s not that bad, but I still feel like it’s annoying to have a unit be designed like this. It would be cool if she could at least use swords but…whatever, staffs are good so it’s not the worst thing.
Leandra: Incredibly busted unit in the best way possible. She doesn’t really break the game due to how hard it can get, so she’s just the right amount of strong this game needs. Her really good growths, alongside a really powerful prf really elevates her place as a unit. Plus the fact that she gets exp faster even when promoted helps a lot to never have a problem with not using her that much when getting kills. Amazing, a must-have.
Miley: A pretty cool unit! A great archer too, probably your only real archer if you don’t use Donnal. Her prf is great, and her promotion is good to make her a crit monster. We love fast archers! Though her level 10 promoted skill is kind of redundant since it’s unlikely she’ll miss.
Nadya: Flying mage! I didn’t have the best Nadya, but it doesn’t really matter, a unit that can fly, use magic, and use a staff will always be universally good no matter what. The low amount of thunder tomes at the beginning of the game does make it hard for her to get kills, but that gets fixed pretty quickly later on
Ruslan: Wyvern!!! Loved using him, I love unorthodox units in general, and he’s pretty awesome. He starts off a bit rough since he can’t kill that easily, but if you get him a few levels in chapter 13 he quickly becomes a really good unit that can double even when using vicious bite! And in the lategame he gets monster effectiveness which is really useful. Due to only having 3 weapons, he makes good use of the storm guard and holy shield, so he’s also a deceptively good dodge tank!
Rivkah: Universally good unit. She has really consistent growths, and Outrider helps a lot to make her a crit goddess and a solid player phase tank. There’s not much to say about her, she’s just really really good! Her promotion is meh, but it’s alright, she’s good anyways.
Shorn: Or “Mr. Yaoi”, as I like to call him. I kind of laughed at his stats and growths when I started the game, but I quickly realized “oh damn he’s actually an essential unit to beat this game”. Really good dodgetank, on chapter 9 he gets a prf and he becomes a crit god, and just when you though he was good enough, he gets GALEFORCE! AND ANOTHER PRF!! He absolutely “Shorns” it out and destroys the competition. Couldn’t do it without him.
Catrine: She sure is a cleric! She doesn’t stand out all that much, and her growths are pretty wishy-washy, it doesn’t really ensure a good unit to come out of it, what with that 35% magic growth, plus I got unlucky with my speed growths. At least she gets slayer and is the unit most likely to get high ranks on staffs, so she has a bit of a niche in that regard. She’s alright.
Eleanora: Dancer that can heal! She’s pretty good when you get her (obviously), but if you manage to grind her to level 15, she immediately becomes broken. Getting an extra action when healing does wonders for action economy, and lets her move a lot farther than she normally should be. Amazing unit.
Gareth: I don’t know if it was just me who thinks this, but Gareth is in my opinion one of the best melee units in the game. He’s just insane. He gets lots of levels alongside an alright speed growth and good speed base and promotion bonus, his skill is fantastic so he’ll always get a lucky crit, and his strength is definitely manageable. I love Halberdiers, and he definitely delivers. When you get the S rank lance he definitely jumps from a solid frontliner to a boss killer. Absolutely loved using him
Alexias: Insanely good unit. 3 ranged tomes is crazy good, plus he has a brave prf. He’s always going to be really good no matter what you do with him, but I think that’s the charm of it. There’s not much to say about him, he’s just really good.
Hilda: An absolutely essential unit if you want to beat the early game and midgame. She carries the weight of the team in her back alongside Shorn, and she does not dissapoint. She falls off on the late-game, but by that point she already did her job excellently.
Sheila: Hilarious unit. Having such a high mobility unit is already really good always, and her prf helps her a lot to keep up once you give her a few levels. Her promotion is absolutely amazing, having safety on player initiation just means she can do whatever she wants. It’s balanced by her low strength, but she’s still really cool.
Elyse: A really strong late-game carry. If you manage to get a bit lucky with her speed, she will absolutely demolish anything in her way. Mine wasn’t the best, but she still did good work with her amazing triple prfs. A very fun unit to use.
Griss: One of the best armor knights I’ve used in a while. Dropped him a bit because of his movement, but he always did fantastic work whenever he was used. Insane amount of attack on initiation, and for some reason mine got a loooot of speed, so he didn’t really get doubled. Loved him.
Harlan: Really really curious and fun unit to use. At the start he’s just the regular thief, but when he comes back with his killing runesword lightbrand prf, he becomes an enjoyable unit for sure. Plus the fact that he can do an immediate follow-up at 1 range makes him really fun to play with
And… that’s it! That took a while, but I think that’s all I had to say for this hack. I hope, creator, that you’ll improve upon this and learn, and hopefully you’ll get to make a sequel! There’s a lot of potential here, and I think you nailed the character writing part. Looking forward to seeing more of you!
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Thank you so much for the detailed review, FrisoLaxod! Loved reading through your character analysis. I will be continuing to tweak things like reinforcements as I get feedback, and will adjust character stats if needed as well.
I’m sketching out the plot of a potential sequel right now. No promises, but I’m at least actively thinking about it
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Just finished blazing through this hack since i’ve been sick. I’ll post a review later tn but i thought i’d say well done and good hack.
1 Like
Alright Here’s my Review:
Preface: I’ve read a lot of the reviews on here and I obviously have my own thoughts. I’d like to just congratulate the creator for finishing their hack and publishing it online. I know it may sometimes be hard or scary to put something you’ve made into the world. Also for it being a solo project it’s impressive. Now i will say i agree and disagree with lots of whats already on here as you will come to read.
Story: Very good! It’s probably the thing that kept me invested and playing. Yeah lets be honest the ending is a little lackluster but it’s for sequel bait purposes. It reminds me a lot of Path of Radiances ending where the ending didn’t sit completely right until the sequel came out. I
Characters: They are for the most part well written. I felt like there were a few jokes that were hit or miss but thats subjective. (I hate writing dialogue and jokes lol so i get how hard it is). As units it does feel like some are better than others. Some units feel like their in a tier of there own. I honestly think that’s a good thing.
Presentation: I get that it’s a one man team, I would implore the creator to go back and fix the character palletes. There are some really solid ones but there are a few that really stand out as sloppy. (Griss, Rivkah, Sheila, Braggo). The maps sometimes look funky but they are serviceable. So you understand what your looking at and thats all that matters anyway. Though, maybe some aesthetic adjustments could be made.
The Elephant In the Room: Lets talk about the Reinforcements and Gameplay
The creator has made it clear that it’s an intentional design choice to have ambush like reinforcements and to have them in such a large quantity. Which was done to create a sense of anxiety or suspense and it does it a couple of times. But lets be honest here, they aren’t telegraphed. Sometimes they’re laughably unfair Chapter 18’s paladin ambush was the worst prolly (I feel ya Pottsie). I don’t think the hack is hard or difficult but the challenge does stem from the reinforcements and ambush spawns. I think of like Cuphead in the sense that you will be screwed over by bs plenty of times, but it’s in many retries with all your acquired knowledge that makes beating the chapter worth it. (I hope that made sense.) Part of me wonders if thats what the creator intended. I agree with most of the reviews on here that the reinforcements do slow the game down. I think just cut the numbers down and make the reinforcements statistically stronger. I really don’t see what would hurt with having more lines of dialogue or text messages or hints to reinforcements. I think including stuff like that is a way to respect the players time. Because many of these reinforcements can cause game overs. Speaking of game over conditions, there are probably too many. I understand why the player has made them essential due to their use in the story but my suggestion is to make their death quote a retreat quote. It’s the easiest solution and one that has really no bearing on the plot and lessens the load on the players margin for error. Lets be honest having 14 game over conditions is rough. Keeping track of those 14 conditions over a 30 chapter span is harder. I think this also helps with making the reinforcements more manageable. Now I get that we has hack makers make the hacks we’d play and it’s important to respect the creators vision. On the other hand, I do think that if your asking people to play your hack you may need to consider making large mechanical shifts or changes that would make the experience more welcoming. At the end of the day your asking people to take their time to try your hack (which is also on them cuz it’s their choice) and having anti-player mechanics bogs the experience. Maybe these ambush spawns are apart of a Maddening mode or something. I think if the ambush spawns stay, either save tiles (like fe11) should be added or the reinforcements need to be telegraphed. Those are the two ways I could see the reinforcements staying without being too punishing.
Also I think a lot of people are posting reviews and criticisms not because of hate but because they see the potential of the hack and want it to be successful.
Some Map Criticisms:
Chapter 5: Brutal. Really luck reliant, you really have to corner urself and pray you don’t get hit which isn’t really fun or strategic.
Chapter 4: Have the enemies who spawn from the north come earlier, it felt like that area was neglectable for most of the chapter until the end. Please change Ormers AI to not move. it really just forces you to turtle. Which for a defense map is not the worst but it makes aggressive play unviable
Chapter 6: Map could be smaller
Chapter 9: Look up Chapter 18 Part 2 of Code of the Black Knight. This is prolly the way this chapter should go. Forced deployments suck in general and the units you get aren’t good for the chapter. If you had to rescue your entire party that would at least allow you have all your units available (look up the chapter from Code of the Black Knight to see what i mean.
Chapter 10: Too long. Make it 10 turns
Chapter 15 is not fun. I agree with Pottsie.
Chapter 16x could’ve been a cutscene.
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