Processor: 1.2 Ghz, Pentium 4+

Memory: 3 GB RAM

Graphics: DirectX 9.0c compatible with 512 MB

DirectX: Version 9.0c

Storage: 2 GB available space[/toggle] [toggle title=”Recommended Requirements”]OS: Windows 7/8.1/10

Processor: 2+ Ghz

Memory: 4 GB RAM

Graphics: DirectX 9.0c compatible with 1024MB

DirectX: Version 9.0c

Storage: 2 GB available space[/toggle] [toggle title=”Review Specs”]OS: 64-bit Windows 10

Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 1600

Memory: 16 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 1060

DirectX: Version 11[/toggle] [/toggles]

DETAILED REVIEW

People generally say that we as people tend to rush through life, and try to do everything at the same time. irrefutable. That’s an irrefutable statement. So, whenever a turn-based tactical RPG comes out in the vein of Final Fantasy: Tactics, it gives me an opportunity to tell these people why I love such games. It’s because I get to take my own sweet time in commanding each character of mine to move wherever I want them to move, and then take the action I want them to. It basically feeds the inner God complex and makes us feel that we have all the time in the world. Fell Seal: Arbiter’s mark is one such tactical RPG. Does it live up to all the expectations I have? Well, you can clearly see from the score that it does. But let’s dive deeper. You’ll definitely want to.

Story and Narrative

You start off the game through a small “tutorial” mission, which has your party of characters trying to arrest a person for murder. After having done so, you capture the said murderer and have to deliver him to the central keep and complete the formalities. It’s here that you uncover a deep mystery regarding corruption among the arbiters, your order.

Arbiters are essentially like the police force in our world. They have been tasked by the Immortals to maintain peace on the world, and they have supreme jurisdiction on all matters concerning the realm.

The story is told really well through crisp writing and engaging dialogue. The characters are well fleshed out and have an intriguing arc. But there are times when it seems to fall flat on its face, and the game slows to a crawl. On the bright side, such instances are few and far between. And you get to skip such cut scenes, so that’s a plus in my book.

I refuse to write anything more about the story, for there are a lot of secrets to uncover. But also, it’s like a solid movie with cartoony graphics; something you must experience to appreciate. There’s also a printable PDF manual for the game, which just increases the nostalgia twice-fold. Huge props for that.

Gameplay & Mechanics

Fell Seal plays very much like the old Final Fantasy Tactics games. Movement on the world map happens quasi-real time, and you move between “hubs”. At each town hub, you can recruit party members, re-organise your team and buy/sell items and equipment. The systems are deep and rewarding, and exploration has its merits.

Items in this game work differently from other similar games, in the sense that they’re only limited per encounter. For example, if you have one Phoenix Feather (an item in the game used to resurrect a downed ally), you can use it once per encounter. If you use it, it’ll still be available in the next encounter. Now some people might feel this makes the game easy, but I personally like it very much as I don’t have to go item hunting every time and prevents hoarding up items to cheese through fights. Yay!

It also means that encounters aren’t “random”. What I mean is, encounters don’t happen like wild Pokémon in the tall grass. You get to pick and choose if you want to “patrol” an area and encounter baddies. This is a very welcome system. The map variety is huge, and even though they aren’t procedurally generated every time, the variety makes up for it

The combat of this game is sublime. Pure, unadulterated, turn-based goodness. It takes the best of Final Fantasy Tactics with a bit of XCOM and mixes them very well. Your attacks can interact not just with the characters, but you can force them to interact with the environment. This opens up a wide array of new tactics to come out on top in the fight. Attacking from the front is less effective than side or rear attacks, and mixing up melee and ranged combat with supporting, offensive or defensive spells is a good way to gain the upper hand.

The difficulty settings are varied and offer a decent challenge at the harder levels. It’s no cakewalk even at the easiest settings, but it does hold your hand a wee bit, which will make it fun for players new to the genre. It’s a nice addition to the already solid mechanics. The best part is, the grind is independent of the difficulty. Hell, it’s not even necessary. Sure, you can grind if you want to and feel a bit more powerful and get some more loot, but it’s not at all necessary. This helps make this game fun, even during long sessions.

The game has a class-based system for your characters. But, they’ve turned this on its head, as classes are not necessarily fixed and you can change your class basically whenever you want. But that’s not all. You can also mix and match skills/spells between classes for your character. Want to be a strong melee fighter who can also dish out some sweet fireball goodness when needed? Yep. Want to be a sneaky thief who can also throw down at range? Doable. The choices are near endless.

In addition, you can deeply customise the non-central characters. All recruits are fair game for this customisation. You can change everything from the looks to the posture to the clothes. There are almost XCOM levels of customisation. I’ve spent a lot of time trying out all the various styles possible.

Visuals, Performance, and Sound

The game’s graphics look like they’re straight from a GBA Final Fantasy game. No, it doesn’t look dated. It’s just got a similar aesthetic. The character sketches are crisp, and the UI is clean and readable. The cartoony visuals don’t necessarily affect the game in any way, but it is pleasing to the eyes of a FF: Tactics fan. There is a familiar feel which keeps me hooked to the game

The game performs as great as expected. Barring one or two crashes (which were basically my fault, trying to break the game by reducing the CPU affinity), the game was very stable and had no hiccups. It runs at a constant 60 fps on my hardware, though I don’t think any low-end machine will have a problem either. The game is very well optimised, and the simple visuals definitely help out.

The music in Fell Seal is possibly my biggest gripe in the game, and even then, I am not going to say it’s bad. The music is simply outstanding at times, especially during battle. It keeps the juices flowing and thus, the game is exciting. However, during some cutscenes, the music gets loopy and repetitive, making it mildly annoying. But the rest of the sound design makes up for it. Weapon sounds are accurate and actually sound like you’re doing damage, movement sounds are crisp and so are the character noises on being hurt. Overall, really good sound design.

VERDICT

[signoff icon=”icon-info-circled”]Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark is an excellent foray into the tactical turn-based RPGs, and one of the best I’ve seen in recent times. 6 Eyes Studio has done an excellent job keeping it similar to the best of the Tactics games, while also mixing it up and keeping it fresh. If you’re a fan of such games, getting this game is a no brainer. However, I recommend getting this game even if you’re new to the genre. It’s a great place to start, and you will be hooked right from the tutorial. At ₹759, you’re getting a huge game world, deep with engaging lore. Plus, mod support keeps the game fresh for multiple playthroughs. Highly Recommended.[/signoff]