Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark review

Reviewed on: PC

Can you review an SRPG without citing (much) Final Fantasy Tactics?

The answer is: yes. I mean, it’s natural that we look for the greatest exponent of a genre when trying to set up basic comparisons. It’s as if you described Red Dead Redemption 2 as “GTA with Horses” or Bayonetta as “God of War in high heels”. I could very well leave it at the basics here and say that Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark is a “Final Fantasy Tactics without Square’s budget” (or even say it’s FFT without Worker 8) but the reality is that the game is much – really much – more than the Final Fantasy Tactics 2.0 that we deserve.

As you’ve probably noticed, Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark is an SRPG – tactical (that is, grid movement) and turn-based – and pulls so many similarities from one of its clear inspirations (Final Fantasy Tactics) that the comparison is almost inevitable. But SRPGs are not summed up by Square(soft)’s tactical magnum opus: FS:AM drinks straight from the stream of several SRPGs and that is what makes it so competent and fun to play.

Duality

Although we have a competent plot, in terms of narrative the game is not so brilliant. Predictable at certain points and unsurprising at others; here, the story works like chocolate icing on any old cake: it isn’t indispensable and there are even better things, but it works so well with the proposal that you decide to leave the icing there and not even bother. That’s because the cast is especially charismatic and sprinkles the world of Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark with this dual “Good-though-bad” characteristic all the time: cool characters, although the dialogue is (extremely) shallow; an excellent half-steampunk, half-high-fantasy setting , although the plot is weak. Medium-high, if we had to rank it without a precise score.

By the way, the dualistic nature of Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark is something that transcends the narrative aspect. Graphically the game is very competent and beautiful. Colorful and almost handcrafted, the game’s art is divergent and somewhat dual. But, in keeping with the maxim that I’ll avoid that Square game as much as possible here, the style of Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark reminds me too much of Vandal Hearts: in-game it leans more toward the anime side with fabulous, well-detailed pixel art, but the portraits that represent its characters have a touch of classic, very Western art – almost oil paintings on canvas. Although the animations and sound effects could be much more polished – because they’re very simplistic and that’s a bit discouraging – the world in Fell Seal is vibrant in colors, races and magic and all this is reflected in the saturated color palette (it won’t hurt your eyes), beautiful hand-drawn scenery, permeating a world whose fine balance is tested all the time.

Mechanics of an Ogre Tactic

Mechanically, Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark is very focused. I confess that I spent the (unfinished) hours played much more concerned with balancing my team in a class system that makes Square’s game prepare for a second release, while evoking clear traits of established SRPGs, such as the focus on positioning and the lethality of Hoshigami: Running Blue Earth and the controlled statistical chaos of Disgaea. FS:AM is not a hard game – even when you set the difficulty high – in itself. The AI doesn’t cheat so much and, with a reasonable knowledge of tactical games, you’re not (so) surprised. But there are some mechanics that add more layers to the strategic onion of Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark and make you question your decisions all the time.

The first mechanic – a brilliant one – is the Injury mechanic. When a character falls in combat they get an Injury that reduces their stats until you do a battle but leave them out. This, by itself, is not that big an annoyance, but things get worse when you accumulate several injuries on characters important to your strategy as a whole and need to leave them out of fights that may be important to you! And the mechanic gets even more interesting because, at some point, you will revive a character within a fight and you may end up letting them die again, and then you’ll get TWO more injuries.

The second mechanic is that of consumable items. Unlike anything you may have come across out there, Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark uses a system of number of uses instead of stockable quantities. It’s cool on one hand, since it makes you more cautious and, at the same time, deliberate with the use of items (instead of simply not using an item – I’m talking to you, Megalixir); but on the other hand it leaves items in a rather uncomfortable position of homogeneity: items that should be basic become more rare and the rare ones become banal. This mechanic ties in well with the game’s crafting system, which is why you will love the Ranger and lose hours and hours farming that missing component for a badass item, gadget or weapon.

Finally, we have the classes. Everything about them, from their quite unorthodox look to the names and abilities, is a refresh of the system that, alone, is not a novelty – but here they are a spectacle apart. Their roles in combat are very clear and that avoids wasting time “leveling” a class for nothing – and some have very interesting mechanics. The game also has secret classes, unique classes and all sorts of things you expect from a class system. The coolest thing about all this is that the game can be completed without caring much about it – but when you do care, it’s another game. The Reset Level mechanic – identical to what you see with Reincarnation in Disgaea – takes you back to level 1, retaining attributes, skills and unlocked classes. The game’s levels of customization border on the absurd and there are possibilities for very interesting compositions, since besides the basic class, you can, as in Tactics Ogre equip any abilities from other classes that you have unlocked on the character.
Conclusion

Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark is an excellent addendum for SRPG fans who were missing some love for the genre. Although we have more representatives on PC, consoles – especially in this generation – are not exactly well served by games like this. Don’t play it thinking it’s the eighth wonder of the world – much less of the genre – but it is comforting to see the care and affection put into the game and, without a shadow of a doubt, it is worth it.

MECHANICS – 9
AUDIOVISUAL – 8
NARRATIVE – 7.5
TOTAL: 8.1