Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark Review

May 11

May 11 Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark Review

I haven’t been shy about my love for Final Fantasy Tactics in the past. Sometimes I worry it comes off as hyperbole or a running gag, but I sincerely believe it was the greatest video game to ever be created. There have been remakes, sequels, and other games in the same genre, but none of them filled the void left by FFT. But last week a small studio in Florida threw their hat in the ring with the release of their game Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark and it’s incredible.

In Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark, players take the role of Kyrie, an Arbiter Captain. In the world of Fell Seal, Arbiters are the boots-on-the-ground agents of the ruling Council of Immortals. They from place to place, righting wrongs and protecting the people. Unfortunately, as the game opens, many Arbiters have become corrupt, shirking their sworn duties and pursuing personal aims instead. Worse yet, there are signs this corruption stems from one or more of the members of the Council of Immortals. So when a member of the Council relinquishes their seat and Kyrie is marked as a potential successor, she seizes the opportunity to right the wrongs of the world, even if it means turning on the Council itself.

Being a turn-based tactical game, most of the gameplay in Fell Seal is spent squaring off against an array of villains on a grid-based battlefield. The core of the gameplay is good if uninspired, but is augmented with three features that helped me enjoy the game a lot more. The first addition is an ever-present turn tracker at the top of the screen, showing players exactly when each character will take their turn and any effects that may alter the turn order. An especially helpful function, it will highlight a character in the turn order when selected with the cursor, letting players plan more effectively by eliminating faster enemies first. The second feature is a refreshing update on the classic item system. Like many of you, I often refuse to use items in games in case I “need them later.” Fell Seal solves that problem by making their items recharge after every battle. This means that if a player has two healing potions and uses both of them in one match, they are available again in the next fight, so there’s no reason to be afraid of using them up. The last big change I noticed in Fell Seal is the injury system. When an ally is reduced to 0 hit points, rather than the character dying, they are removed from the battlefield and given injuries. These characters can be returned to the fight with healing items or magic, but at the end of the fight each character who was taken out receives one injury for each time their health was depleted. Each injury reduces all of that characters attributes by 10% of their maximum value and there aren’t any spells or items to remove them. The only way for that character to heal is to stay off the battlefield, healing one injury per battle skipped. I love this because I don’t have to worry about reloading save files to prevent losing a character I’ve invested hours into nor do I have to harden my heart to countless troop losses like I do when I play XCOM. Beyond that, I appreciate being forced to field a variety of party members so I don’t end up with 6 elite killers leading a gaggle of barely functional newbies. I would, however, like some more varied injuries than the blanket stat reduction. Perhaps a damaged vocal chord injury, preventing spell casting, or a broken leg that reduces movement range. While none of these features are unique to Fell Seal, this is the first time I’ve ever seen them be employed in concert and they play beautifully together.

While most of the gameplay in Fell Seal is spent in combat, the greatest joy comes from the character menus. I know that sounds weird, but please stay with me. One of my favorite aspects of Final Fantasy Tactics was how malleable each character was, and Fell Seal follows suit wonderfully. Each character will have a set of abilities decided by which class they are but can also be equipped with a secondary class, giving them access to a second set of powers, and passive bonuses and counters learned from other disciplines. This allows players to create exact fighters they want to help save the world. Want a holy crusader who isn’t afraid to employ a rogue’s dirty tricks? No problem. How a crafty archer that moonlights as a shield-mage and regenerates health every turn? Done and done. With over 20 character classes to choose from, you can easily build your perfect warriors. On top of that, every character can be customized with dozens of visual options from skin and hair color to outfits and accessories, you can save the world as a technicolor rainbow of justice, or be boring like me and make fairly standard fantasy soldiers with sensible uniforms.

To avoid the idea that this game is only good because it copies Final Fantasy Tactics, I want to take time to mention the writing of Fell Seal. The dialogue between characters is excellently written, giving players glimpses into the world and characters naturally rather than relying on an in-game lore codex or stilted exposition. For example, when you mean the cheerful Bzaro, you quickly learn about his history with Kyrie’s brother Reiner as Bzaro pesters Reiner about his cooking. The character does not walk onto screen and say “Hello, I am Bzaro and you are my good friend Reiner whose cooking I adore.” Instead, you get natural conversation, eschewing over-explanation and specificity in favor of vague familiarity. The writing also brings forward the mundane day-to-day conversations people have. Even in the face of a world-wide conspiracy, people still have their own hopes and goals, and it’s refreshing when Kyrie stops to speak with her apprentice Anadine about her training. The writing makes me feel connected to the characters. I genuinely care about these people and want to lead them to success, and I’d really love to know what Reiner cooks that no one but Bzaro seems to enjoy.

I wish I could say that Fell Seal is a perfect game, but unfortunately I cannot. On the bright side, there are only two real problems with it. The first issue is the limitations of making a “spiritual sequel” to a game. Because it wants to follow in the footsteps of Final Fantasy Tactics, Fell Seal can’t go too far outside the box. While there are a lot of excellent systems and improvements, it’s still built on the bones of a previous game and that can stifle some creativity. The other issue with Fell Seal is the size of the studio that made it. 6 Eyes studios, according to their website, is one married couple and about 20 contractors that helped create the game. I don’t think it’s bad to be a small studio but it does limit how much time and money you can put in to a project. There are a few typos in the tutorials, the animations aren’t as smooth as they could be, and, though I’m not done, I suspect I will want this game to be longer than it is. But if I’m being completely honest, based on the recent news about work environments in bigger studios, I’m willing to accept these shortcomings in exchange for games that are amazing to play like Fell Seal and a healthier job market for the people who make the games I love.

Whether or not you have ever played Final Fantasy Tactics, I really can’t recommend Fell Seal enough. Between the character skill customization and the wonderful writing, I believe that Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark is a top-notch video game.