Centuries ago the first Immortals came across great powers; powers they used to defeat a brutal beast ravaging the land… These Immortals formed a council to prevent such destruction ever happening again, enforcing order and stability globally, crushing any hint of chaos. Their mortal agents, the Aribiters, traverse the land enforcing the law… But one Arbiter discovers a deep corruption threating the land with destruction matching that of the brutal beast of yore…

Fell Seal is a beautifully hand drawn tactical combat game with a rich storyline to boot – There are 40 story encounters in total ending in challenging combat scenarios! The terrain is rugged with elevated and dipped components, each ally can be carefully crafted with 20 classes and 200 abilities to choose from; you can create dedicated specialists and jack of all trades to assist you in your journey, with full control over each units class, sub class and passives, giving you the true freedom to build the army you envision.

You can fully customise the appearance of each ally too, and give them a unique portrait in order to quickly identify which unit’s turn is coming up next! Furthermore there are 240 pieces of equipment you can collect, buy and craft to buff your characters.

I’m admittedly really new to the tactical and RPG world. I have perhaps played about and hour of Final Fantasy (Can’t tell you which one) and most of my Pokemon games remain about half finished… However, Fell Seal aids players like me by giving me full customization of difficulty at the start, enabling me to make everything super easy. Plus throughout there are really simple and easy tutorials on everything, making gameplay pleasant and fun even for beginners to the genre.

Battle is kind of like chess in that way, you get to move and take an action each round; you can easily see who’s up next, and if there are any “Special Events” about to happen. These special events usually make battles a little harder for you, but luckily the ones I have encountered so far give you the opportunity to prevent them… So if you think ahead and move accordingly you are able to make your life easier.

So far I have found Fell Seal really easy to navigate; controls are simple and seamless, and the movements you take aren’t permanent, so if you decide you aren’t in the right position after moving it’s no big deal, you can simply go back and pick a different space. What did take me a little time to realise, however, is that certain moves can be moved around the board, in a limited space. This is vital as with some actions you take have the opportunity to harm your allies. It also took me a little time to realise that you can use the terrain to your advantage, which can result in some pretty exciting tactical opportunities. This could be my naivety to this type of game, but I’m sure more seasoned players will be able to use this to their best advantage and quickly dispatch enemies.

As mentioned previously, you can cause harm to your allies, something you want to avoid greatly; this is because the game does punish you for a downed ally – They sustain an injury and their performance is hindered in future battles unless they’re side-lined and given the chance to heal. I really like this mechanic as it forces you to forgo recklessness, but if for any reason this is inevitable, it’s a good idea to stock up at the guild with plenty of Units.

I love the art style in Fell Seal, everything is well drawn and you can tell that a lot of love and time has gone into the game. Not that graphics are what makes a good game… But It does go some way to showing that thought has been put in. Another key point for this is the dialogue; there’s even optional dialogue you can unlock, which I would definitely suggest you don’t pass up on as the character building is brilliant – If you’re like me and love a good story you will enjoy this aspect of the game.

Overall my first impressions of these game are overwhelmingly positive. I think it’s thoroughly changed my mind on the enjoyment that you can have through this genre of game – It’s truly won me over with all the love and thought that you can see has gone into it. The beginning cutscene is beautiful and the voice acting is on point!

So far this game is a big winner for me, and I’m going to give it a 9/10. I really don’t think you’ll be disappointed with it!

9 / 10

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