To Arms!

I am actually kind of confused as to how this is a "tactics RPG" seeing as there is no tactical battle system.

I've also stated a number of times that this isn't what a player is looking for when they search RMN for "Tactics RPG". Seek your target audience!

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Ok, I've played the game. Here's my experiences with it.

Gameplay:

Chose an Archer, Pikeman, Alchemist, and Engineer. Please note that I chose the Alchemist and bought copious amounts of salves because I knew I was going to need them based on prior comments. Turns out this was the right choice. I had no problems in the first mission, save Horace dying while still outside and no ability to revive him (didn't think about buying a restore item). I was also mislead by the fact that you were healed before the first mission and after the battle traveling to the town. No such luck during the first mission, but whatever, I didn't need Horace that much it turns out, at least before he was able to get revived.

Now, here's my experience with the luck factor. Like I said, I didn't have much problem at this point, including misses and evades. They came up, but never turned into a problem with the full party. I don't think that's luck. What I DO think is luck, however, came after Horace died. When he died, I had resigned to start the mission over from the save, because I was only one or maybe two battles in. So, I chose attack for all characters until the battle concluded. I won. I believe this to be good luck. People don't typically complain when they win, but I had noticed it after a few unfair attacks had landed on Horace and killed him.

I did not observe any threat mechanic at all in this game. In fact, I completely ignored it as far as builds go and forgot it was a mechanic until reviewing certain skills to purchase. I don't see why it should exist. I was just happy playing the game as I would any other DQ game; let the hits fall random and spot heal when you need to. I realize this is dependent on build, so I just happened to pick an incredibly good one.

Skill building was easy and logical. Once I saw the engineer could toss pitch at the enemies, I learned fire-based abilities with Horace, the Archer, and bought Grenn's str buff for his own attacks which does fire damage (although I don't think it stacked with Janos's "Let Them Have It!" which I also bought). Got Trip with the Pikeman since I figured I would want a little utility for boss fights. By the time I had 7 characters, nothing really became a threat. I made it through the first mission with relative ease, but by ease, I mean that I kept on top of healing when I needed to, removed statuses when it was safe to do so, and gave buffs when I could. It certainly doesn't need to be harder.

Second mission/event. Forced-loss to Aemon, forced-win to Cutjack/Rhea (after killing two archers I think), no biggie. Then, it happened; the moment I knew was going to come but didn't know exactly when.

Two Storm Crow Pikeman (I think), the first battle you fight with Janos and Horace on the way to the Castellan. First time I was stupid, hadn't healed before, so I took the first round to heal both characters. After the first round, both were back down to where they were when they started, or worse. A few more rounds, no headway to begin my offensive. Horace dies. Use an item to bring him up. Janos dies. Another round or two of trading heals with blows, and it's all over. Second attempt: both characters healed. Pop guard-mode with Janos, cast spell with Horace. Horace is two-shot, dead, from full health. Janos lasts a few rounds before going down. Third attempt, more healing against a brutal offensive under which I could make no headway. I lose again. I quit playing.

The same thing happened in the latter part of the Starseed demo. I'm secretly glad I never made it to the Cutjack/Rhea fight, or the boss at the end, as I didn't want to have to go through that again. The difficulty jump between mission one and mission two is too great. I don't have enough abilities to deal with the change in enemy strength, and splitting the party made that point moot anyway, at least for Janos/Horace.

And now...

Plot/Setting/Story/Characters/Everything Else

Whoa. Really, Max? I'm actually a little stunned. But let me start from the beginning.

Going in, I knew that the setting and tone of the game were greatly influenced by ASOIAF. This was evident pretty much as soon as I started watching the intro as well. The game's intro starts with the training of the Duke's son in armed combat. At this point I felt right at home in the Westeros universe, bringing back memories of Winterfell's own courtyard and the training of Bran Stark with blunted training swords.

Terms familiar in the universe were thrown around quite frequently, like ser, coz, seven hells, etc. It would also seem a good number of names in the game were lifted right from the series as well, as blue period noted. In particular, the random names for both males and females included major plot characters and more from the books.

I can understand all of this. It's a great, rich world created by GRRM, and it deserves homage. I'd say it fits right in with what you were wanting to do with To Arms!, but I think it's more likely that his universe actually inspired To Arms!' creation, including characters, setting, and tone.

But the story, too? After finishing my first foray into typical RPG-land, clearing goblins out of a sacked village, I traveled back to Ryn..something, and was met by a bard or some such along the way. I was literally mouth-opened aghast to hear what had happened to the Duke. Not because it was unexpected and a really crappy thing to have happened, but because it was a carbon copy of a major plot point in A Game of Thrones!

As I encountered this band of deserters, I already knew the Duke was dead. I was 100% sure of it. The goblin leader's "foreshadowing" had pretty much prophesied the future of the Blackthorne brothers. Basically, as soon as he said it, I knew it was truth, I was just counting down the time. So yeah, the Duke's dead. But really? Died in a hunting accident? Presumably by a wild boar? I groaned, and pressed on the the next cutscene, but it only got worse.

The Duke lays dying on his bed. He knows his wife poisoned him.. The Duchess refers to him as a fat drunk. The sisters give him milk of the poppy. He dies, as the Duchess planned. I felt like I was watching scenes from the book. After that, other events started to come into place, but have yet to be confirmed in the scope of this episode. I realized then why the Duchess wouldn't let the Duke have his way with her. I'm now suspicious of little Timmy's origins, and while I'm not sure that Kevan would have bedded the Duchess, I now have no choice but to believe that some other Morrigen had.

What happened between the prototype and this? The prototype's synopsis talked about the merciless Blackthorne Company and how they were hired to purge a necromancer from a town. What was wrong with that? If that's still the case, why add this prologue episode? This episode is a fan game. What I don't know is what happens in future episodes. If it continues to parallel the events of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, that's fine, wear it on your sleeve. It's a great series. But if your plan for the future is for this to be viewed as an original effort, this episode needs a significant rewrite, or to be axed completely, as I would be too distracted to accept the story by its own merit (that is to say, I'd be too busy looking for parallels to ASOIAF, if they weren't as obvious as this major scenario).

I don't know how far into characters/dialogue I should go. To most (people that are happy that it's written in understandable, grammatically-correct English), it probably comes off as nitpicks. However, you pride yourself with your accomplishments, and it wouldn't do not to hold you to that. The characters had their distinctive quirks, making them recognizable. I can't agree with a lot of the choices for dialogue though. Stylistically, you chose to give Horace the colorization a random boss or comical sidekick might have. He likes his fireballs, and he works them into his conversation, like an otaku might end a sentence with "desu ka?" This is fairly common in jRPG's, and is to this degree an archetypical character quirk. But did you really intend for this to be the case in a Westerosi universe?

"Wakey waky, eggs and bakey!" Enough said there. I appreciate the interjection of humor, but Janos Blackthorne? Moving on.

The talk of cursing has been done to death, and I've given my own opinions already. Having experienced the game now, I do find a number of the curses forced. A practical example: Janos is summoned to Mandon and gives him a greeting one typically would give a Duke. Mandon responds, "Dispense with the f---king formalities, Janos. I'm not in the mood," maybe not verbatim, but close to it. Let's dissect.

Why is he not in the mood? He just found out goblins are assembled and ready to sack one of his villages. Distressing news, to be sure. He then summons Janos to confer on the situation. If he summoned Janos, why we he react that way to seeing him? He's had a chance to be angry before Janos arrived, then the arrival of Janos might actually serve to improve his mood because Janos is the first step in getting some asses kicked. Furthermore, is this the same kind of mood one would be "effing" about? If someone makes you angry, like goblins, and you have the capability to completely crush them, then what you are feeling might be wrath. If someone makes you angry, like your wife, and you can't do anything meaningful about it, then you might not be in the effing mood.

Note that the above is stupid and subject to infinite levels of interpretation. Point is, it didn't feel like a natural response to the situation, and out of flow. To the contrary, a curse that seemed more appropriate came from Horace, talking to Aemon. "Where are your men?" "Taking turns plowing your mother's c--t." A harsh word, to be sure, but it flows much better, and more naturally given the situation and Horace's personality.

Too much nitpick. I'll just say that for an ASOIAF-themed game, the dialogue seems to fall into the jRPG trap of token humor and archetypical extremism. Sorry if that sounds negative. When I'm playing a game and I'm not immersed by the dialogue (like Xenogears perhaps), then I fall back on the story to keep me interested, and I've been over that already.

Wow. Didn't he want this game to go commercial?

"It's not plagiarism - I'm recycling words, as any good environmentally conscious writer would do."

~ Uniek Swain Max McGee

hey did you just spill my pint

right that's it *breaks pool cue*