A fire emblem: requiem review by a guy who's never posted before (obviously, SPOILERS)

[Saint Rubenio]

So, fire emblem: requiem. For me, one of the best fire emblem hacks, even when it has a few flaws (hey, nothing's perfect). First of all, here's the link to the hack: http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=54594

I'll be reviewing some of the main points of the game (what you'll read next is just MY opinion, feel free to post your own)

This review was done in v.1.4 of the hack.

By the way, please forgive any typos you may find, my main language isn't english, and while i believe i have a pretty decent english, it's obviously not perfect.

Story: 9/10

Suffers a bit from being kind of wordy (some cutcenes just seem to never end), but the story of this game is really nice. It feels less generic than the normal FE stories, while not being too ambitious like, in my opinion, the last promise's. I really liked the main characters, they're not completly dumb for no reason like, say, Eirika, but they're not perfect, having them all some flaws that make them believable. I particularly liked Alicia and Ash's interactions, which go from being just a temporal aliance for the good of both (Alicia only wanted Ash's power and Ash only wanted to survive his imprisonment) to becoming best friends (and if you A supported them, lovers). I also liked the secondary characters, the supports are very great, and the secondary characters that have more of an impact in the story (Drake, Rayden and Josie...) do so without looking like characters such as Seth or Marcus, who are just "extremely loyal knights that tell the protagonists what to do". There are a few bad things here and there (like Andrei's wound... I didn't really think it was necesary, as he fights perfectly in the chapters), but overall, this game's story is very unique and good.

Graphics: 8/10

I would have given this a worse mark before, but with the recent(ish) portrait revamp, the rather mediocre portraits have gotten much better (some of them are really, really good now).

The icons and HUD are good enough. Not much in the way of custom HUD, and the new icons are neat (i specially liked light magic and swords). The new item names are cool, although kind of confusing sometimes, but its not too bad.

The combat sprites are alright for the most part. Most of them range from good to alright (Isaac's paladin sprite, Rayden's sage sprite and Meredith's paladin sprite, just to name a few), but there are a few bad sprites scattered around (Katarina's promoted sprite comes to mind...), but they're few enough that it's not so bad.

Gameplay: 8/10

I really enjoyed the game itself. The money is well distributed (most of the time) and so are the shops. One thing i have to adress is that you should make chest keys buyable outside of secret shops, if you miss Edward (like i foolishly did) then you will be forced to leave some loot behind in the first Shel chapters (12 and 13, i believe), which is pretty bad because that white gem in chapter 13 is the most cash you'll get for a few chapters, but other than that, its pretty alright.

The difficulty is well balanced, and although i'd say the endgame is kind of tame (or maybe my team's just a bit too good, i'm not sure), it's not so easy that i can just carelessly destroy everything. The early game is, sometimes, a bit too much too (Specially chapter 1, until you can get Rayden and Josie to meet the main group it's pretty hard to hold up to everything, unless you just leave the loot behind and run).

However, i must rant about chapter 15, because i hate it so, so, SO much. If you trained a flier, its alright (i guess), but if you didn't... I only managed to beat it after like 7 tries, having considered to drop the hack twice, and using save states (because some brigand hit Ordanze with a 20~ chance of hitting, and i wasn't taking it at that point) and a lot of luck. Basically, i made Isaac (my designed cavalier) rush as fast as i could to where Ordanze and his suicide squad pop up before turn 5. I managed to arrive just in time to drive the attention of a mercenary blade before he could kill Ordanze. Then i recruited him with Ash and put his sorry ass in the bottom of the map.

I'm sorry for focusing so much on this, it may just be that i'm bad, but nothing in the hack came close to the ammount of battle before down-like bullshit of this chapter. I'd say, if the creator just moved Ordanze a little bit to the left (right down the lower bridge) it'd fix this issue entirely.

Or at least make him take his elixir instead of attacking a knight! At least on my game, he was GUARANTEED to die in turn 8, all because he didn't want to drink his elixir.

Okay, rant over, let's move on.

Music: 7/10

Fire emblem's music is good enough, but i'd liked to hear something new. Specially not FE7's music, which is kind of weak in my opinion (i prefer FE8's), but that's my opinion, of course.

Units: 9/10

Almost every unit is very good. By the looks of it, i'd say you gave everyone the same growth total (everyone's growths look pretty similar), and that's good, because it makes everyone usable, and that's some i really, really appreciate in a fire emblem game. The supports are well distributed (for the most part), and there are quite a few paired endings, for what i saw in the supports doc file in the hack's post.

But one of the reasons why even the prepromotes are very viable (and one of the best parts of the hack, for me) is the increased EXP gain. Staffs gain EXP very fast, enemies give a lot of EXP to my promoted units (20ish, 60ish for promoted enemies, that's unpromoted gain right there, which i really like). This makes people like Rayden (whose personality, affinity, class and spritework i really liked, but rejoining time worried me) become good really fast (he might have been a bit too blessed in my run though... he capped mag at level 16 and then became my MVP with his Josie support).

Yeah, i really like Rayden.

Overall: 9/10

I know, it doesn't average to this, but, i still want to give it this mark. Why? because chapter 15 aside i really, really enjoyed this hack. The story is really good, the units are really good, and the chapters except chapter 15 are really good, large (which i actually like) and good-looking. It's a very well made hack, other than a few bugs (namely, Andrei and Val becoming the best magical tanks around. Although i didn't abuse this, so it wasn't so bad) I'll probably go through it again, and i recommend everyone to give this hack a try.

Finally, i'll give some brief lines about my experiences with each unit, the ones i used anyway (some differ from the author's opinions greatly).

Val: Standard femlord, too weak, too fragile. Even when promoted she wasn't that much of a help, so i mainly used her to recruit whoever needed to be recruited by her (namely, Thelma, since i missed Ed) and carry my chest keys (since i missed Ed... i'm so dumb why didn't i think of talking to him with Alicia and why didn't i read i could do so in the author's topic urgh!)

Andrei: Well, that leg wound sure isn't holding him back. He's strong (albeit kind of slowish), gets axes in promotion (yay, 2 range) and has some nice supports (i used Katarina's). I'd say use him if you can.

Linda: Her growths may be pretty good but, with those typical archer bases and that typical archer lack of enemy phrase, i didn't have the patience to baby her up. She dies in two hits at the early game, and she comes in a pretty bad place in Ash's mode.

Keiran: He's good, his growths and class are both very nice. Its really good that your first flier (both, in fact) are wyverns instead of peggies, which makes them not useless in combat. I'd say use him.

However (this is just personal experience), he came off really screwed to me, to the point where he couldn't double anything, and the things he could double, he couldn't kill in one round, and he couldn't dodge anything either. So i just dropped him.

Katarina: Her sprite is as bad as her fighting prowess is good after her promotion. She's got low starting mag, but it will grab two rockets and fly up into the sky as she gets levels (which shouldn't be hard with the increased EXP gains). Light magic doesn't weight the shit outta her in this hack, so that's a plus.

Rayden: He's pretty much god (even more so than Josie) in Val's mode, although he's best used as a healer (he should level up pretty fast doing that too, 10~ exp per heal ain't too shabby, i got him up to level 7 by the end of Val's mode). However, he comes back really late, which certainly doesn't help his case when he now has strong competitivity in Alicia and Layla. Still, if you plan to use him, he should come out nicely.

Josie: She's slow, but strong and defensive. Basically, a wyvern lord. Alright if you use her, but Keiran should be better.

Marco: Standard fighter, huge strenght and hp, low speed. He does have a good defense as well though, so he can tank very nicely. He's pretty good, i feel.

Isaac: Green cav, although in this case he's a black cav. Uses swords instead of axes. Basically, his (and Kane's) case is the same as the red/green cav: use whoever you like the most (in my case, Isaac).

Kane: Red/piss yellow cav. Uses axes, which might give him an edge over Isaac. Look Isaac.

Almer: Merchant. His personality is rad.

Nella: Pegasus rider. Her bases are good, but she ain't doing anything to the enemy when she has no strenght with the slim lance fine spear, and no speed when using anything else (however, the adiction of 2-range to the slim lance makes her a bit more usable, since she can now stay out of counter range without tanking her speed with a javelin)

Layla: She's a really speedy sage with her 28 speed cap and her huge speed growth, and has a pretty good magic too. Since Alicia (her most direct competitor, because Rayden comes back too late and promoted) doesn't promote with a guilding ring sage ring, i'd say you should give the first one to either her or Katarina.

Ash: The author said he was "the worst of the 3 lords", but to me, he's more like the 2nd before promotion (beating Val and losing to Alicia), and then jumps up to the 1st place after promotion (Staves > Getting anima and dark access, when the only dark tome with reasonable weight has one less might than thunder). He's pretty slow, but promotion and a speedwing (if you feel like giving it to him) should do.

Drake: He's basically Oswin: a knight who starts very good, and keeps doing good in everything except speed. He has the same curse of FE8 Gilliam though, in that he's a knight in a game filled with good units, which makes his exceptional defensive stats not so exceptional. I ended up replacing him with Emilia, but he should be good if you use him.

Gemma: Pegasus rider. A bit tougher than her mother, but her bases are worse. I didn't have the patience for Nella, and i didn't have the patience for Gemma.

Clare: Basically, a somewhat worse healer than Katie but with more movement and anima access after promoting. She should be good if you decide to use her.

Alicia: She's a good unit, looking like Lute growth-wise, actually. She loses a bit in comparison to Layla in that she doesn't get staves, and Ray in that she doesn't get staves + another magic type, but she still holds her ground pretty nicely. Since she has no competition for the promotion item, and she's forced in the endgame chapters, i'd recommend everyone to use her.

Nala: The slave-wife, your standard myrmidon, but without the killing edge and the crit bonus upon promotion (because she's Lyn instead of your standard myrmidon, i lied). Bows are worse than the crit bonus, sorry.

Skye: He looks a lot like Shin, having actual strenght as a bow user, and he gets swords upon promoting (which basically makes him Nala with a horse, which basically renders Nala obsolete).

Hawke: His start is rather hard, having two weapons that crush his speed and no chance of getting an iron militant axe until half way through chapter 11, and rather weak bases. He might be good if you decide to train him, but i already had Marco, so i didn't really waste my time on Hawke.

Edward: I can't talk of Edward, read Val.

Looking at his growths, bases and everything, he's basically Colm. It's a good thing that you made him promote into a rogue, since rogues are better than having a crit-based chance of killing in one hit, without a crit bonus. His promo-item also comes rather early (unlike in vanilla FE7).

Jace: He suffers of the same thing as Hawke, and that is, i already had Andrei. I guess he can become something good if you train him up. Maybe i'll try next run.

Vincent: See Jace and replace "Andrei" with "Marco".

Mister "i won't drink my elixir" Ordanze: He's pretty good, with high speed and rather high strength for a myrmidon. I won't say anything more, as you should know by now, i hold a special grudge againist this asshat.

Laraya: Ordanze's hot boss, she's very good, focusing on speed over Ordanze's high-ish strenght. I actually kind of prefer her, since her bases let her be very good right off the bat and she has the decency to be a blue unit so i can make her drink her salve.

Emilia: She's kind of weak, and kind of fragile, but she's very balanced, and i enjoy playing with her just for the novelty of playing with a soldier/halberdier (female soldier, actually).

Alyssa: Dancebot that's also a healbot, with the increased staff EXP gains.

Kenrick: He's... kind of underwhelming. He's kinda slow, and not strong or defensive enough to make a difference.

Pamela: Prepromoted falco. She is alright, but she isn't a wyvern, and at this point, i had enough rescuebots who could also fight and survive two hits.

Sorry, i don't really like peggies.

Meredith: Well, she could be a good replacement for Isaac... but her bases are kind of bleh. If you train her she should become good, but i already had Isaac, so i didn't.

Thelma: It's the same thing all over again, if i used her, she would be good, but i already had Andrei.

Overall, i'd say every unit could be used. Just go for whoever you like, everyone is good enough.

[magemane]

Decent review...... Now i gotta play this hack

[Sacred Blaze]

Thanks for the review, man. I appreciate it.

On chapter 15:

As of this patch I did actually change Ordanze to not move immediately, like he did before. I thought that lowered the chance of him getting himself killed so easily, but I guess not. It's sort of difficult for me to evaluate that myself, because I know the map too well by now, I guess.

Making him heal earlier does have some problems as well though. Because of the silly AI to move maximum range possible when using healing items, it can sometimes be even more annoying.

But in all honesty, I'll concede that the whole issue of getting to Ordanze safely is not that well done.

It's good to see your rundown on each of the characters. I've had playthroughs before where my opinions align with yours anyway, particularly in regards to the Lord rankings. In general though, I'd still put Ash last mostly because he has the highest chance of turning out poorly, from my experience. Val, at least, will usually be useful in her mode and have some utility for taking down axe users throughout Ash's mode. Without a few boosters, if Ash is in a bad way, he just can't be relied upon for combat sometimes.

Also, I'd recommend giving the pegasus knights a go. They're pretty good here, imo.

[Saint Rubenio]

Thanks for the review, man. I appreciate it.

On chapter 15:

As of this patch I did actually change Ordanze to not move immediately, like he did before. I thought that lowered the chance of him getting himself killed so easily, but I guess not. It's sort of difficult for me to evaluate that myself, because I know the map too well by now, I guess.

Making him heal earlier does have some problems as well though. Because of the silly AI to move maximum range possible when using healing items, it can sometimes be even more annoying.

But in all honesty, I'll concede that the whole issue of getting to Ordanze safely is not that well done.

It's good to see your rundown on each of the characters. I've had playthroughs before where my opinions align with yours anyway, particularly in regards to the Lord rankings. In general though, I'd still put Ash last mostly because he has the highest chance of turning out poorly, from my experience. Val, at least, will usually be useful in her mode and have some utility for taking down axe users throughout Ash's mode. Without a few boosters, if Ash is in a bad way, he just can't be relied upon for combat sometimes.

Also, I'd recommend giving the pegasus knights a go. They're pretty good here, imo.

Thank you for your reply! I'm going though your hack again. This time Keiran did become good (albeit still slow), which is actually more on the line with the rating i gave him (which was more objetive and based on his averages). I hope that with a flier (maybe two, i'll try to make something out of Gemma this time) chapter 15 will be less Battle Before Down-ish.

In this run i'll also give a try to the characters i benched for having another alternative (Hawke, Jace, Clare, maybe Meredith since I am not training Isaac and Kane's not doing nicely) and some other i just benched because of personal preference (I actually tried to train Gemma, but what she could double she couldn't damage, and what she could damage she couldn't double. Maybe this time i'll try to train her up a bit in chapters 1 and 2. And about Ordanze... well sorry but i just really hated him)

Still, with all the chapter 15s and AI issues, i still loved your hack, and i think it's one of the best, if not THE best, hack i've seen. I'm looking forward for another update that fixes Ordanze's suicidal tendencies and Andrei's and Val's 33 resistance.

And this time, i'll try to recruit Edward.