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Notes From Province
On that note, a change I think would also be cool is if the enemy color changes (that indicate how much HP they have) were spaced out more evenly. If an enemy has a white name, their HP can be anywhere between 90% to 35%, which just isn't very helpful. I think it'd be best if it just changed colors every 25% HP (so Yellow is between 100-75, then White 75-50, Orange 50-25, Red 25-0). I honestly also feel like Yellow for high HP wasn't the best choice, since the most common sequence is White->Yellow->Orange->Red (took me a while to get used to Yellow meaning almost full instead of at around half HP).
Also, it'd be nice if the Music Heart allowed you to select how many Music Notes you want to invest into a particular stat, instead of having you choose one by one. Once you get 12 it becomes a bit tedious if you want to redistribute its stats.
Finally, some clarifications and follow-up suggestions:
The crit chance accessories are tricky to balance. Since crits do double damage, if you do the expected value calculation over 100 turns, each +1% crit chance is +1% in damage. There's just a lot more rng in what the player actually gets.
I feel like the problem with that is that battles don't tend to last that many turns, so you're less likely to approach the average. You also have to take into account that in a real situation, a character won't be dealing their maximum amount of damage each turn, both because skills have CDs or resource requirements, and because buffs/debuffs fade over time; a random crit on the turn you're unleashing a big attack can be very helpful, a random crit on the turn you're using a basic attack not so much. This is compounded by the Magnifying Glass, which allows you to ensure your big damage turns will be crits anyway.
On a related note, it'd be nice if there was an Accessori that inflicted Bleed on first attack, I feel that currently you just default to Kyme for statuses because no one else can inflict Bleed. That'd make COND Ricky or Umbra more appealing imo.
Some of the suggestions are small enough effects. They give the items more flavor without being overpowered.
Personally, the thing I think would be most helpful would be the Chronomancer's Ring giving more AGIL. In some setups I needed the characters to act in a specific turn order and with the Gold Star alone that turned out to be impossible (I needed both Brave Wind and Umbra to act before Rick, but with only the Gold Star that couldn't be done).
Will take a second look at Life Siphon and Descending Darkness.
For Life Syphon, the suggestion to give a passive that inflicts it on first attack is to make it more practical, since a lot of times Umbra can be busy casting Epidemic even on turn 1 and she may not have a spare turn to use Life Syphon. The other thing is that it currently does nothing if the target already has Life Syphon, so it would be nice if it had at least some kind of effect when used on them (some random suggestions: instantly deals 2-3 ticks of Lyfe Syphon damage, removes Life Syphon but deals ticks of damage equal to the turns it has been on the enemy, increases Life Syphon's COND damage by 0.3 stacking up to 3x COND damage, makes the enemy take 25% more damage from all status conditions for one turn).
For Descending Darkness, it's kinda difficult to find a use for it currently, since unless you're fighting enemies you vastly overlevel, chaining it is near impossible; even more so when Umbra will probably not have Accessories that give her extra damage or MAG. So replacing it for a spell that has some kind of utility or can deal a crapton of damage if you set it up properly seems good.
Lot of interesting ideas here. I've had a lot of fun playing the Burn/Wildfire build, and definitely want it to be viable.
I personally used Emith for Burn/Wildfire early on, but once I obtained the Accessories that give Burn/Wildfire on first hit I switched to Thunder/Wet. Mainly because it makes more sense to build Kyme full COND and have him inflict the statuses instead since it results in more damage. That's why the suggestions for the Burn/Wildfire build focus on Emith being able to exploit the statuses even if he didn't inflict them; also, a lot of lategame bosses have enough resistance to Burn/Wildfire where they run out in just 1 turn and can't be maintained, which is why I suggested Emith being able to reapply them, since with his Fire Staves, he gets +1 duration, so he can help maintain a Burn/Wildfire that'd have otherwise run out.
Scalding Steam just kinda doesn't do much currently (50% MAG damage and recover 10 MP), which is why I suggested the ramping up damage thing to make triggering it more desirable.
Gentle Soul was added from a pure numbers perspective. When building him for damage, and spamming Marked Shot, he had higher damage per turn than the actual damage characters.
I think a somewhat prevalent problem with using Brave Wind as a damage dealer is that he's the only character with a spammable ATK buff, so if he's on offense you're basically losing out on a bunch of damage, since buffing yourself costs a turn and means you lose out on 25% of the buff. A possible solution to that would be making Zack's Battle Medallion a targetable ATK buff instead of self-only (with maybe 1-2 turns of CD, 9 turns of CD is too much even for its current effect).
One of the earlier testers built Sita into a damage machine, and since then I've been playtesting with a similar setup. It's probably thrown off my sense of how good she is without specific accessories.
I think I basically have 3 main complaints about Sita.
1) Her combo system is extremely inefficient Adrenaline wise. If you have 12 max Adrenaline, you can execute a 5-hit combo for 500-550% damage, if you instead use Hundred Punches you're getting 1200% damage for the same amount of Adrenaline. The more hits your combo has, the more inefficent it becomes in terms of damage to Adrenaline ratio, so there's no point in doing longer combos (unless you really need to do as much damage as possible and you're fightning multiple enemies so Hundred Punches is unreliable).
2)In any boss where the enemy isn't alone her DPT is worse than Emith's:
-Sita against a single enemy: spam a basic Punch combo 4 times to reach 12 Adrenaline, then use Hundred Punches. So you get ((100x4)+1200)/5 = 320% damage per turn.
-Sita against multiple enemies: Hundred Punches is unreliable, so it's better to just use a basic 2 hit combo each turn for 200% damage per turn.
-Emith Thunder/Wet build: use Sky's Rage 3 turns in a row for 375% damage each and then use Recover, with someone else inflicting Wet with Hydra's Spit. So you get (375x3)/4 = 281% damage per turn. With the Thunder staff you also never run out of MP with this loop. If you replace Recover with Sea's Sorrow you can also temporarily reach even higher DPT, but this cannot be maintained since you'll run out of MP eventually.
3)Sita pretty much lacks any kind of utility. Which is why I suggested the changes to Taunt so that she can at least work as a sort of Evade-tank while still being able to do damage.
Also, it'd be nice if the Music Heart allowed you to select how many Music Notes you want to invest into a particular stat, instead of having you choose one by one. Once you get 12 it becomes a bit tedious if you want to redistribute its stats.
Finally, some clarifications and follow-up suggestions:
The crit chance accessories are tricky to balance. Since crits do double damage, if you do the expected value calculation over 100 turns, each +1% crit chance is +1% in damage. There's just a lot more rng in what the player actually gets.
I feel like the problem with that is that battles don't tend to last that many turns, so you're less likely to approach the average. You also have to take into account that in a real situation, a character won't be dealing their maximum amount of damage each turn, both because skills have CDs or resource requirements, and because buffs/debuffs fade over time; a random crit on the turn you're unleashing a big attack can be very helpful, a random crit on the turn you're using a basic attack not so much. This is compounded by the Magnifying Glass, which allows you to ensure your big damage turns will be crits anyway.
On a related note, it'd be nice if there was an Accessori that inflicted Bleed on first attack, I feel that currently you just default to Kyme for statuses because no one else can inflict Bleed. That'd make COND Ricky or Umbra more appealing imo.
Some of the suggestions are small enough effects. They give the items more flavor without being overpowered.
Personally, the thing I think would be most helpful would be the Chronomancer's Ring giving more AGIL. In some setups I needed the characters to act in a specific turn order and with the Gold Star alone that turned out to be impossible (I needed both Brave Wind and Umbra to act before Rick, but with only the Gold Star that couldn't be done).
Will take a second look at Life Siphon and Descending Darkness.
For Life Syphon, the suggestion to give a passive that inflicts it on first attack is to make it more practical, since a lot of times Umbra can be busy casting Epidemic even on turn 1 and she may not have a spare turn to use Life Syphon. The other thing is that it currently does nothing if the target already has Life Syphon, so it would be nice if it had at least some kind of effect when used on them (some random suggestions: instantly deals 2-3 ticks of Lyfe Syphon damage, removes Life Syphon but deals ticks of damage equal to the turns it has been on the enemy, increases Life Syphon's COND damage by 0.3 stacking up to 3x COND damage, makes the enemy take 25% more damage from all status conditions for one turn).
For Descending Darkness, it's kinda difficult to find a use for it currently, since unless you're fighting enemies you vastly overlevel, chaining it is near impossible; even more so when Umbra will probably not have Accessories that give her extra damage or MAG. So replacing it for a spell that has some kind of utility or can deal a crapton of damage if you set it up properly seems good.
Lot of interesting ideas here. I've had a lot of fun playing the Burn/Wildfire build, and definitely want it to be viable.
I personally used Emith for Burn/Wildfire early on, but once I obtained the Accessories that give Burn/Wildfire on first hit I switched to Thunder/Wet. Mainly because it makes more sense to build Kyme full COND and have him inflict the statuses instead since it results in more damage. That's why the suggestions for the Burn/Wildfire build focus on Emith being able to exploit the statuses even if he didn't inflict them; also, a lot of lategame bosses have enough resistance to Burn/Wildfire where they run out in just 1 turn and can't be maintained, which is why I suggested Emith being able to reapply them, since with his Fire Staves, he gets +1 duration, so he can help maintain a Burn/Wildfire that'd have otherwise run out.
Scalding Steam just kinda doesn't do much currently (50% MAG damage and recover 10 MP), which is why I suggested the ramping up damage thing to make triggering it more desirable.
Gentle Soul was added from a pure numbers perspective. When building him for damage, and spamming Marked Shot, he had higher damage per turn than the actual damage characters.
I think a somewhat prevalent problem with using Brave Wind as a damage dealer is that he's the only character with a spammable ATK buff, so if he's on offense you're basically losing out on a bunch of damage, since buffing yourself costs a turn and means you lose out on 25% of the buff. A possible solution to that would be making Zack's Battle Medallion a targetable ATK buff instead of self-only (with maybe 1-2 turns of CD, 9 turns of CD is too much even for its current effect).
One of the earlier testers built Sita into a damage machine, and since then I've been playtesting with a similar setup. It's probably thrown off my sense of how good she is without specific accessories.
I think I basically have 3 main complaints about Sita.
1) Her combo system is extremely inefficient Adrenaline wise. If you have 12 max Adrenaline, you can execute a 5-hit combo for 500-550% damage, if you instead use Hundred Punches you're getting 1200% damage for the same amount of Adrenaline. The more hits your combo has, the more inefficent it becomes in terms of damage to Adrenaline ratio, so there's no point in doing longer combos (unless you really need to do as much damage as possible and you're fightning multiple enemies so Hundred Punches is unreliable).
2)In any boss where the enemy isn't alone her DPT is worse than Emith's:
-Sita against a single enemy: spam a basic Punch combo 4 times to reach 12 Adrenaline, then use Hundred Punches. So you get ((100x4)+1200)/5 = 320% damage per turn.
-Sita against multiple enemies: Hundred Punches is unreliable, so it's better to just use a basic 2 hit combo each turn for 200% damage per turn.
-Emith Thunder/Wet build: use Sky's Rage 3 turns in a row for 375% damage each and then use Recover, with someone else inflicting Wet with Hydra's Spit. So you get (375x3)/4 = 281% damage per turn. With the Thunder staff you also never run out of MP with this loop. If you replace Recover with Sea's Sorrow you can also temporarily reach even higher DPT, but this cannot be maintained since you'll run out of MP eventually.
3)Sita pretty much lacks any kind of utility. Which is why I suggested the changes to Taunt so that she can at least work as a sort of Evade-tank while still being able to do damage.
Notes From Province
Okay, so I thought I could write-up some of my thoughts about the game, and also a bunch of balance suggestions.
General
-I liked how the game has a quick and short intro, I feel like nowadays too many games like their long, text-filled exposition intros. This is particularly important in Open-World games, since they're supposed to be less rigid and give you more freedom in how you want to approach the game.
-The way character dvelopment was handled was also pretty nice, in that it felt concise and to the point. We learn enough about the various characters to kinda get to know them, but we also don't get encumbered with their entire lifestory.
-The jumping mechanic was a really good idea. It's simple but makes you pay more attention to each map searching for jumping paths, and generally rewards exploration.
-Encounters were quality over quantity, which I'm always a fan of. Each enemy has their specific gimmick or AI pattern, and then each dungeon you get about 4-6 encounters mixing and matching.
-I think it'd be nice if you could disassemble crafted equipment, so just like food you can try out different setups.
-Skills with CDs should show the CD in their description.
-For the Arena, Adrenaline using characters should also start with full Adrenaline, otherwise they're in kind of a disadvantage for the damage test.
Main Story Thoughts
While I don't have much of an issue with all the side stories, I feel like the Main Story of the game felt kinda awkward. Mainly in the sense that it didn't really feel like a main story so to speak. There's no urgency or weight to it, and it's the main plot because the game tells you so.
I'm also not a big fan of how the plot kinda did a weird shift once the Great Thief was introduced. Before that, it was mostly focused on Kyme getting over his past. But then suddenly Redd and his whole "steal what was stolen from you" ideals become the focus of the story for some reason.
As Sita says in-game, Kyme's ex-lover died because of an illness, the whole "god stealed her from you" thing feels like a big stretch. Also Redd being his brother barely matters in the big picture and just feels like en excuse to justify him being the focus of the main plot.
Personally I feel like the whole story would have fit together better if for example, the story focused more on how Redd says stealing stuff people don't want can be helpful. So Redd offers to steal Kyme's memories of his ex-lover, or maybe just his sadness for her passing. So then you have Kyme who's trying to "fake it till he makes it" and overcome his painful past with new memories etc, but then Redd just says it's easier to let him steal all that painful past away so that Kyme can truly get a fresh start; then you can get into a whole phylosophical debate about whether accepting and overcoming your past is better than forgetting, or whether our past shapes our personality and such and how losing said memories would entail losing a piece of yourself, blah, blah.
Alternatively, make it so Kyme's ex-lover didn't die, she eloped with another man. Then the whole "steal from those who stealed from you" thing just makes a whole lot more sense. You could even have Redd show up with Kyme's ex, he has not only stolen her back but also stolen part of her memories so she is willing to get back together with Kyme, but Kyme refuses because that'd ultimately just be a farce and yada yada. This path would also make Kyme's relation with Serene more interesting, since it'd mirror his own situation, except with him being the perpetrator instead of the victim this time.
Finally, the ending itself was also a bit lacking. Ultimately, the story was focusing on Kyme's new life and such, and the story ending after confronting Kyme' brother just doesn't feel like it ties up the plot well enough. I feel like setting up a big "festival" type event for the ending would have worked out better. You have this big festival in Province, where you can talk with all the characters you have met, some of which tell you how they're gonna move on and do x and y with their lives; the various player characters also say it's time to split the party and each are gonna go their own ways to fullfill their dreams or whatever. Could also add in a Cyl cameo where someone who looks like her quickly passes through in the background; and the final scene is Kyme talking with Serene and such.
Equipment Suggestions
Accessories
Mostly just pointing out some Accessories that could be buffed:
-Black Powder: 100 damage is just too low by the time you get it. Probably either increase it to 500 fixed damage, or make it scale with COND (either 2.5x or 3x).
-Quartz Charm: a little bit more crit chance when at full HP is just too small and rng of an effect to be worth it. Maybe just change it to buff the user's PATK every turn.
-Lady Luck: same as above, could maybe make it give a big evasion boost (30-50%) when below half HP.
-Junior Assassin Badge: same as above. Maybe have it give guaranteed crits against enemies below 35% HP?
-Ruby Gem/Lost Ruby Necklace: could maybe buff the healing up to 20-25%.
Weapons
I feel like other than Kyme, weapon variety was a bit lacking. Kyme gets lots of weapons with different special effects (the early ones have 1 out of 3 different effects, and the later ones mix and match the previous effects). Emith gets 2 different effects depending on the staff, and everyone else gets no special effects at all from their weapons.
It'd be nice if the other players also had more choices when picking their weapons (and more unique Bead options for Ezekiel). Some potential special effects suggestions:
-Emith: Absorb Magic lasts 1 more turn. Slicing Gale hits two times. +1 Wet duration.
-Brave Wind: Non-damage skills gain "start of turn". Critical Hits do 25% more damage. Pin Down also debuffs DEF by 30%.
-Umbra: Self-sacrifice skills have their HP cost reduced by 20% (i.e. Epidemic would cost 40% max HP). Borrowed Blood skills have their HP cost reduced by 20%. +30% damage to targets with a status condition. Life Syphon becomes aoe.
-Sita: Start Battles with +25% Adrenaline. Attack buff limit goes up to 100%. 20% crit chance when above 90% HP.
-Rick: Stealth also gives +15% Evasion. Reload also buffs Attack by 75%. Crippling Shot can be used twice before needing to Reload. Backstab no longer removes Stealth. Twisting Fangs hits one more time if target is Poisoned. Throw Torch deals Explosion damage. Vial of Poison gives Opening Strike.
-Ezekiel: Sanctuary Bead (Aegis affects all allies, CD+3), Purification Bead (Heal Others also removes the latest one status condition), Crusade Bead (Smite deals 25% more damage to enemies with Holy weakness), Punishment Bead (Bludgeon has no CD, but no longer debuffs ATK/DEF)
Other
While accessories give you a wide array of possible builds, I think other equipment should also have a wider variety of special effects. Armor/Robe/Head/Arm/Ring equipment are kinda dull since a lot of them just increase defensive stats and nothing else, so it just feels kinda samey. I think it's fine for more generic equipment to just give stat boosts, but anything more unique it'd be nice if they had special effects. Lategame armors do have a bunch of unique effects, but there still are a bunch like the Lamia Armor, Snake Skin Armor and Mother/Father Robe where it'd make sense to give some other bonuses. Also stuff you get from some of the tougher endgame bosses like the Gloves of the Swordman, Stranger's Mask or Moon Raven's Boots, it's bit disappointing because they just give a couple points extra stats compared to the next best option and that's it.
For Rings too, I think it's fine for the "main line" of rings (Common, Uncommon, Rare, Miracle) to just give a generic boost to all stats, but it'd be nice if the other rings either gave more special effects or simply boosted a single stat a lot (or give a % bonus to said stat). Some random suggestions:
-Armor: Snake Skin Suit (Bleed Immunity), Vladio's Suit (+5 to all stats), Lamia Skin Armor (Paralysis immunity)
-Robe: Mother's Robe (Confuse Immunity), Father's Robe (Blind Immunity), Phoenix Robe (Burn/Wildfire Immunity), Celestial Robe (+5% Evasion)
-Head: Flame Seer's Headband (Freeze Immunity), Nefermaat's Crown (Poison/Disease Immunity), Sinister Mask (COND +10%), Stranger's Mask (+10% Evasion)
-Arm: Aa Ba Goop (Wet Immunity), Gloves of the Swordsman (PATK +10%), King's Gauntlet (75% ATK buff on battle start)
-Legs: Moon Raven's Boots (Second Chance)
-Ring: Shadow Claw's Ring (MDEF +50), Chronomancer's Ring (AGIL +100), Rooftop's Ring (PDEF +50)
Characters Suggestions
Kyme
Kyme overall feels like the character whose kit works the best together. Inflict Bleed and tank, which accelerates Bleed damage; simple but effective. The only change I would suggest is making Sever Artery do one additional tick of Bleed when used on a Bleeding enemy, because Kyme will probably mainly be built for COND and defensive stats, so one more tick of Bleed will generally be better than just +25% damage on an attack that scales with PATK.
Umbra
Overall a fantastic support character, mainly for spreading/maintaining status conditions. I think it'd be nice if she got a passive that makes her inflict Life Syphon on her first attack, also maybe make Life Syphon do something else if she uses it on a target that's already inflicted. I do think that Descending Darkness doesn't make too much sense with the rest of her kit, since she's probably not going to be built very offensively most of the time; maybe give her a spell that drains HP equal to damage dealt instead, and deals more damage the lower her HP is, this gives her a bit of extra self-sustain when she needs it.
I also feel like Brave Wind's Borrowed Blood is a bit on the weaker side, maybe have it grant Opening Strike to all frontliners and make it cost 50% HP?
Ezekiel
Jack of all trades, can heal and also deal damage (particularly considering Smite is one of only 2 aoes you get). I do feel that Prayer increasing item cooldowns by 1 is a bit harsh, it should only increase cd of skills that use MP (Bludgeon and Smite).
Rick
Has probably the most interesting kit imo, with 3 skillsets and some fairly synergistic passives, can do a bit of everything depending on how you build him. I would make it so Death Blossom only hits one target instead of being random though, it's really expensive at 5 Adrenaline, and it's honestly only good if all hits land on the same target for the instant 75% DEF down (its damage isn't even that good either at 125%). Also Vial of Poison feels like it isn't really strong enough to warrant costing 1 Adrenaline.
Emith
Probably the best/most consistent damage dealer, by virtue of not being limited by CDs or Adrenaline, and Wet+Thunder deals a lot of damage. I do feel like a lot of his kit ends up being redundant as the game goes on, and he ends up just being reduced to Wet+Thunder spam. While he has multiple passives that give MP recovery, they all give too little to really bother with them, so you kinda just use Recovery anyway.
-Flame Lance: damage increased to 100% from 75%.
-Slicing Gale: I feel like its whole spreading Burn gimmick falls off flat once Umbra joins the party. I'd suggest changing its special effect to "if the target has burn/wildfire, deal one tick of burn/wildfire damage", this way it can piggyback off someone else's Burn/Wildfire.
-Absorb Magic: now affects the entire party.
-Healing Waves: Emith passively recovers 5% max HP and 3% max MP each turn for every unit in the field with Wet.
-Fire Attunement: change effect to "when attacking an enemy with Burn/Wildfire, inflict Burn/Wildfire".
-Staves: instead of the Fire staves only increasing Wildfire duration, they instead increase both Burn and Wildfire duration.
-Water Attunement: change effect to "when using Sea's Sorrow on a Wet target, inflicts Wet to all enemies".
-Elemental Balance: whenever Scalding Steam is cast, Flame Lance and Sea's Sorrow gain a permanent flat 50% damage increase (i.e. 100%->150%->200%, etc) and +15 MP cost.
-Elemental Recycling: recover 10% MP whenever Emith uses a spell that the target resists.
The general idea is to give him some alternative build options, and a more clear cut path to MP recovery. The basic Wet+Thunder combo is still there and is mostly unaltered. The changes give two alternative strategies, first is to focus on spamming Slicing Gale to deal extra Burn damage, ideally you'd have someone with higher COND inflict Burn/Wildfire, then everytime Emith uses Slicing Gale he'll refresh the duration of Burn/Wildfire thanks to Fire Attunement, while dealing extra tics of Burn/Wildfire damage. The other path is to ramp up damage from Fire Lance/Sea's Sorrow by repeatedly triggering Scalding Steam, which thanks to Elemental Balance will make the 2 spells stronger each time (albeit it also makes them cost more MP each time). Water Attunement+Healing Waves allows Emith to quickly regenerate HP/MP if he spreads Wet to the entire enemy party.
Brave Wind
Brave Wind is supposed to be a support/damage hybrid that build up Adrenaline with his support skills and then consumes it for his damage skills, but I feel like that concept doesn't really work out mainly because his support skills are too spammable, and his damage is just not that great, so he just ends up being pure support.
-Support skills: I think Antidote Signet/Nature's Blessing/Energizing Wind should get cds to make them less spammable (1 turn for Antidote, 2 turns for the others). However, Brave Wind also gets a Passive skill (probably replacing Infectious Serenity) that makes the effects of said skills apply on himself when used on an ally (Antidote Signet and Nature's Blessing extra Adrenaline conditions can apply twice accordingly, while Energizing Wind still only generates 2 even if it affects 2 targets)
-Pin Down: now gives +1 Adrenaline instead of costing 3, but has a 5 turn cd.
-Gentle Soul: remove or change its effect, Brave Wind really doesn't need a crit debuff.
-Marked Shot: I'd suggest giving Brave Wind a passive that makes Marked targets receive 10% more damage from all sources (including status damage), however, the status now only lasts 3 turns and needs to be reapplied. Since the cumulative damage bonus will also be reset if the status fades, could also make it stack faster (10% damage per use), but cap at 100%.
-Coyote's Fury: I think instead of its current effect, you could make it so it can only be used when Brave Wind is at full Adrenaline, it consumes all his Adrenaline and gives him one extra action per 2 Adrenaline. Brave Wind can't use items/swap equipment during these extra actions, but can otherwise use all his skills.
-Coyote's Fury+: change effect to make Brave Wind gain crit rate equal to the extra damage bonus when attacking a Marked target during Coyote's Fury.
With these changes, you can no longer spam his support skills repeatedly, but in exchange, the fact they can simultaneously target Brave Wind and a selected ally makes them a bit stronger. Marked targets receiving more damage from all sources heavily encourages you to keep reapplying the Marked status whenever it's going to run out. So now you have a cycle where you apply Marked, then use your support skills, now your support skills are on cd so you use the turn to reapply Marked, and now your support skills are off cd and so on. Once your Adrenaline fills to full, you can use Coyote's Fury, which turns all your accumulated Adrenaline into extra turns for a big damage turn where you just get to spam Market Shot (it also comes with a big crit rate buff against marked targets); while you can't use items, you can still throw a few support skills in if you want to (for reference, Coyote's Fury would consume all the Adrenaline and grant the extra turns on use, so getting extra Adrenaline during Coyote's Fury will not affect the number of extra turns you get).
Sita
I feel like Sita is probably by far the worst character, she's wholly focused on damage with almost no support but her damage is kinda just okay, and is far more dependant on Adrenaline than Rick/Brave Wind are while also having a harder time gaining it.
-Critical Artist: replace with a passive that gives her 1 Adrenaline when dodging, this helps her build Adrenaline faster.
-Critical Success: change effect to gaining +1% critical damage permanently every time Sita crits for the rest of the battle.
-Spin Heel Kick: special effect changed to 15% DEF debuff before damage.
-Perfect Finish: base damage increased to 200%. Special effect changed to just deal 50% extra damage at 0 Adrenaline.
-Jump Front Kick: base damage increased to 200%. Now gives 5% to crit rate instead of 1%.
-Her combos now no longer increase Adrenaline cost each time a new move is added to the combo, but are capped at 6 attacks. The finisher moves can only be used if the combo is at least 3 attacks long.
-Taunt: now only generates 2 Adrenaline, but can be used again, with a 2 turn cd.
-Recover: now recovers extra HP when used below half max Adrenaline.
Thus the general idea is for Sita to keep using Taunt to draw enemy aggroo, then for every attack she evades she gets Adrenaline she can then use on her combos, then once she runs low on Adrenaline she can benefit from the extra heal on Recovery, then she uses Taunt again and the cycle begins anew.
The increased Adrenaline cost on her combos is removed since it was very limiting, and made Hundred Punches a better option any time there is only one enemy. So the idea is to give more of an incentive to using her combos.
Bugs
-Reaper's Cloak special effect (addding Poison to the first attack), does not work.
-Mint Julip only heals all party members, it does not Revive.
-Kyme:"Inspiriation struck last night" typo, should be inspiration.
-"Gardner's Gloves" typo, should be Gardener's.
-Not really sure if it's a bug, but a square appears when you talk to the crow in the beehive's throne.
-There seems to be some kind of problem with the fences, the prompt for buying the 600/300g fences repeats itself when you interact with them (e.g. say yes to buy the 600g fence, then if you interact with the fence it asks you again if you want to buy it).
-The skit in New Dawn (where Ezekiel needs to take a rest) repeats itself if you go through the area again.
-Scalding Steam seems to trigger when Emith attacks an enemy with Wet and Burn, even if he does not inflict the statuses (e.g. if the target already has both Wet and Burn, Slicing Gale can trigger Scalding Steam).
-Removing Belt Pouches can cause the game to crash if you don't remove the Accessories in the extra slots before.
-Kyme's Counterattacks do not consume Opening Strike.
General
-I liked how the game has a quick and short intro, I feel like nowadays too many games like their long, text-filled exposition intros. This is particularly important in Open-World games, since they're supposed to be less rigid and give you more freedom in how you want to approach the game.
-The way character dvelopment was handled was also pretty nice, in that it felt concise and to the point. We learn enough about the various characters to kinda get to know them, but we also don't get encumbered with their entire lifestory.
-The jumping mechanic was a really good idea. It's simple but makes you pay more attention to each map searching for jumping paths, and generally rewards exploration.
-Encounters were quality over quantity, which I'm always a fan of. Each enemy has their specific gimmick or AI pattern, and then each dungeon you get about 4-6 encounters mixing and matching.
-I think it'd be nice if you could disassemble crafted equipment, so just like food you can try out different setups.
-Skills with CDs should show the CD in their description.
-For the Arena, Adrenaline using characters should also start with full Adrenaline, otherwise they're in kind of a disadvantage for the damage test.
Main Story Thoughts
While I don't have much of an issue with all the side stories, I feel like the Main Story of the game felt kinda awkward. Mainly in the sense that it didn't really feel like a main story so to speak. There's no urgency or weight to it, and it's the main plot because the game tells you so.
I'm also not a big fan of how the plot kinda did a weird shift once the Great Thief was introduced. Before that, it was mostly focused on Kyme getting over his past. But then suddenly Redd and his whole "steal what was stolen from you" ideals become the focus of the story for some reason.
As Sita says in-game, Kyme's ex-lover died because of an illness, the whole "god stealed her from you" thing feels like a big stretch. Also Redd being his brother barely matters in the big picture and just feels like en excuse to justify him being the focus of the main plot.
Personally I feel like the whole story would have fit together better if for example, the story focused more on how Redd says stealing stuff people don't want can be helpful. So Redd offers to steal Kyme's memories of his ex-lover, or maybe just his sadness for her passing. So then you have Kyme who's trying to "fake it till he makes it" and overcome his painful past with new memories etc, but then Redd just says it's easier to let him steal all that painful past away so that Kyme can truly get a fresh start; then you can get into a whole phylosophical debate about whether accepting and overcoming your past is better than forgetting, or whether our past shapes our personality and such and how losing said memories would entail losing a piece of yourself, blah, blah.
Alternatively, make it so Kyme's ex-lover didn't die, she eloped with another man. Then the whole "steal from those who stealed from you" thing just makes a whole lot more sense. You could even have Redd show up with Kyme's ex, he has not only stolen her back but also stolen part of her memories so she is willing to get back together with Kyme, but Kyme refuses because that'd ultimately just be a farce and yada yada. This path would also make Kyme's relation with Serene more interesting, since it'd mirror his own situation, except with him being the perpetrator instead of the victim this time.
Finally, the ending itself was also a bit lacking. Ultimately, the story was focusing on Kyme's new life and such, and the story ending after confronting Kyme' brother just doesn't feel like it ties up the plot well enough. I feel like setting up a big "festival" type event for the ending would have worked out better. You have this big festival in Province, where you can talk with all the characters you have met, some of which tell you how they're gonna move on and do x and y with their lives; the various player characters also say it's time to split the party and each are gonna go their own ways to fullfill their dreams or whatever. Could also add in a Cyl cameo where someone who looks like her quickly passes through in the background; and the final scene is Kyme talking with Serene and such.
Equipment Suggestions
Accessories
Mostly just pointing out some Accessories that could be buffed:
-Black Powder: 100 damage is just too low by the time you get it. Probably either increase it to 500 fixed damage, or make it scale with COND (either 2.5x or 3x).
-Quartz Charm: a little bit more crit chance when at full HP is just too small and rng of an effect to be worth it. Maybe just change it to buff the user's PATK every turn.
-Lady Luck: same as above, could maybe make it give a big evasion boost (30-50%) when below half HP.
-Junior Assassin Badge: same as above. Maybe have it give guaranteed crits against enemies below 35% HP?
-Ruby Gem/Lost Ruby Necklace: could maybe buff the healing up to 20-25%.
Weapons
I feel like other than Kyme, weapon variety was a bit lacking. Kyme gets lots of weapons with different special effects (the early ones have 1 out of 3 different effects, and the later ones mix and match the previous effects). Emith gets 2 different effects depending on the staff, and everyone else gets no special effects at all from their weapons.
It'd be nice if the other players also had more choices when picking their weapons (and more unique Bead options for Ezekiel). Some potential special effects suggestions:
-Emith: Absorb Magic lasts 1 more turn. Slicing Gale hits two times. +1 Wet duration.
-Brave Wind: Non-damage skills gain "start of turn". Critical Hits do 25% more damage. Pin Down also debuffs DEF by 30%.
-Umbra: Self-sacrifice skills have their HP cost reduced by 20% (i.e. Epidemic would cost 40% max HP). Borrowed Blood skills have their HP cost reduced by 20%. +30% damage to targets with a status condition. Life Syphon becomes aoe.
-Sita: Start Battles with +25% Adrenaline. Attack buff limit goes up to 100%. 20% crit chance when above 90% HP.
-Rick: Stealth also gives +15% Evasion. Reload also buffs Attack by 75%. Crippling Shot can be used twice before needing to Reload. Backstab no longer removes Stealth. Twisting Fangs hits one more time if target is Poisoned. Throw Torch deals Explosion damage. Vial of Poison gives Opening Strike.
-Ezekiel: Sanctuary Bead (Aegis affects all allies, CD+3), Purification Bead (Heal Others also removes the latest one status condition), Crusade Bead (Smite deals 25% more damage to enemies with Holy weakness), Punishment Bead (Bludgeon has no CD, but no longer debuffs ATK/DEF)
Other
While accessories give you a wide array of possible builds, I think other equipment should also have a wider variety of special effects. Armor/Robe/Head/Arm/Ring equipment are kinda dull since a lot of them just increase defensive stats and nothing else, so it just feels kinda samey. I think it's fine for more generic equipment to just give stat boosts, but anything more unique it'd be nice if they had special effects. Lategame armors do have a bunch of unique effects, but there still are a bunch like the Lamia Armor, Snake Skin Armor and Mother/Father Robe where it'd make sense to give some other bonuses. Also stuff you get from some of the tougher endgame bosses like the Gloves of the Swordman, Stranger's Mask or Moon Raven's Boots, it's bit disappointing because they just give a couple points extra stats compared to the next best option and that's it.
For Rings too, I think it's fine for the "main line" of rings (Common, Uncommon, Rare, Miracle) to just give a generic boost to all stats, but it'd be nice if the other rings either gave more special effects or simply boosted a single stat a lot (or give a % bonus to said stat). Some random suggestions:
-Armor: Snake Skin Suit (Bleed Immunity), Vladio's Suit (+5 to all stats), Lamia Skin Armor (Paralysis immunity)
-Robe: Mother's Robe (Confuse Immunity), Father's Robe (Blind Immunity), Phoenix Robe (Burn/Wildfire Immunity), Celestial Robe (+5% Evasion)
-Head: Flame Seer's Headband (Freeze Immunity), Nefermaat's Crown (Poison/Disease Immunity), Sinister Mask (COND +10%), Stranger's Mask (+10% Evasion)
-Arm: Aa Ba Goop (Wet Immunity), Gloves of the Swordsman (PATK +10%), King's Gauntlet (75% ATK buff on battle start)
-Legs: Moon Raven's Boots (Second Chance)
-Ring: Shadow Claw's Ring (MDEF +50), Chronomancer's Ring (AGIL +100), Rooftop's Ring (PDEF +50)
Characters Suggestions
Kyme
Kyme overall feels like the character whose kit works the best together. Inflict Bleed and tank, which accelerates Bleed damage; simple but effective. The only change I would suggest is making Sever Artery do one additional tick of Bleed when used on a Bleeding enemy, because Kyme will probably mainly be built for COND and defensive stats, so one more tick of Bleed will generally be better than just +25% damage on an attack that scales with PATK.
Umbra
Overall a fantastic support character, mainly for spreading/maintaining status conditions. I think it'd be nice if she got a passive that makes her inflict Life Syphon on her first attack, also maybe make Life Syphon do something else if she uses it on a target that's already inflicted. I do think that Descending Darkness doesn't make too much sense with the rest of her kit, since she's probably not going to be built very offensively most of the time; maybe give her a spell that drains HP equal to damage dealt instead, and deals more damage the lower her HP is, this gives her a bit of extra self-sustain when she needs it.
I also feel like Brave Wind's Borrowed Blood is a bit on the weaker side, maybe have it grant Opening Strike to all frontliners and make it cost 50% HP?
Ezekiel
Jack of all trades, can heal and also deal damage (particularly considering Smite is one of only 2 aoes you get). I do feel that Prayer increasing item cooldowns by 1 is a bit harsh, it should only increase cd of skills that use MP (Bludgeon and Smite).
Rick
Has probably the most interesting kit imo, with 3 skillsets and some fairly synergistic passives, can do a bit of everything depending on how you build him. I would make it so Death Blossom only hits one target instead of being random though, it's really expensive at 5 Adrenaline, and it's honestly only good if all hits land on the same target for the instant 75% DEF down (its damage isn't even that good either at 125%). Also Vial of Poison feels like it isn't really strong enough to warrant costing 1 Adrenaline.
Emith
Probably the best/most consistent damage dealer, by virtue of not being limited by CDs or Adrenaline, and Wet+Thunder deals a lot of damage. I do feel like a lot of his kit ends up being redundant as the game goes on, and he ends up just being reduced to Wet+Thunder spam. While he has multiple passives that give MP recovery, they all give too little to really bother with them, so you kinda just use Recovery anyway.
-Flame Lance: damage increased to 100% from 75%.
-Slicing Gale: I feel like its whole spreading Burn gimmick falls off flat once Umbra joins the party. I'd suggest changing its special effect to "if the target has burn/wildfire, deal one tick of burn/wildfire damage", this way it can piggyback off someone else's Burn/Wildfire.
-Absorb Magic: now affects the entire party.
-Healing Waves: Emith passively recovers 5% max HP and 3% max MP each turn for every unit in the field with Wet.
-Fire Attunement: change effect to "when attacking an enemy with Burn/Wildfire, inflict Burn/Wildfire".
-Staves: instead of the Fire staves only increasing Wildfire duration, they instead increase both Burn and Wildfire duration.
-Water Attunement: change effect to "when using Sea's Sorrow on a Wet target, inflicts Wet to all enemies".
-Elemental Balance: whenever Scalding Steam is cast, Flame Lance and Sea's Sorrow gain a permanent flat 50% damage increase (i.e. 100%->150%->200%, etc) and +15 MP cost.
-Elemental Recycling: recover 10% MP whenever Emith uses a spell that the target resists.
The general idea is to give him some alternative build options, and a more clear cut path to MP recovery. The basic Wet+Thunder combo is still there and is mostly unaltered. The changes give two alternative strategies, first is to focus on spamming Slicing Gale to deal extra Burn damage, ideally you'd have someone with higher COND inflict Burn/Wildfire, then everytime Emith uses Slicing Gale he'll refresh the duration of Burn/Wildfire thanks to Fire Attunement, while dealing extra tics of Burn/Wildfire damage. The other path is to ramp up damage from Fire Lance/Sea's Sorrow by repeatedly triggering Scalding Steam, which thanks to Elemental Balance will make the 2 spells stronger each time (albeit it also makes them cost more MP each time). Water Attunement+Healing Waves allows Emith to quickly regenerate HP/MP if he spreads Wet to the entire enemy party.
Brave Wind
Brave Wind is supposed to be a support/damage hybrid that build up Adrenaline with his support skills and then consumes it for his damage skills, but I feel like that concept doesn't really work out mainly because his support skills are too spammable, and his damage is just not that great, so he just ends up being pure support.
-Support skills: I think Antidote Signet/Nature's Blessing/Energizing Wind should get cds to make them less spammable (1 turn for Antidote, 2 turns for the others). However, Brave Wind also gets a Passive skill (probably replacing Infectious Serenity) that makes the effects of said skills apply on himself when used on an ally (Antidote Signet and Nature's Blessing extra Adrenaline conditions can apply twice accordingly, while Energizing Wind still only generates 2 even if it affects 2 targets)
-Pin Down: now gives +1 Adrenaline instead of costing 3, but has a 5 turn cd.
-Gentle Soul: remove or change its effect, Brave Wind really doesn't need a crit debuff.
-Marked Shot: I'd suggest giving Brave Wind a passive that makes Marked targets receive 10% more damage from all sources (including status damage), however, the status now only lasts 3 turns and needs to be reapplied. Since the cumulative damage bonus will also be reset if the status fades, could also make it stack faster (10% damage per use), but cap at 100%.
-Coyote's Fury: I think instead of its current effect, you could make it so it can only be used when Brave Wind is at full Adrenaline, it consumes all his Adrenaline and gives him one extra action per 2 Adrenaline. Brave Wind can't use items/swap equipment during these extra actions, but can otherwise use all his skills.
-Coyote's Fury+: change effect to make Brave Wind gain crit rate equal to the extra damage bonus when attacking a Marked target during Coyote's Fury.
With these changes, you can no longer spam his support skills repeatedly, but in exchange, the fact they can simultaneously target Brave Wind and a selected ally makes them a bit stronger. Marked targets receiving more damage from all sources heavily encourages you to keep reapplying the Marked status whenever it's going to run out. So now you have a cycle where you apply Marked, then use your support skills, now your support skills are on cd so you use the turn to reapply Marked, and now your support skills are off cd and so on. Once your Adrenaline fills to full, you can use Coyote's Fury, which turns all your accumulated Adrenaline into extra turns for a big damage turn where you just get to spam Market Shot (it also comes with a big crit rate buff against marked targets); while you can't use items, you can still throw a few support skills in if you want to (for reference, Coyote's Fury would consume all the Adrenaline and grant the extra turns on use, so getting extra Adrenaline during Coyote's Fury will not affect the number of extra turns you get).
Sita
I feel like Sita is probably by far the worst character, she's wholly focused on damage with almost no support but her damage is kinda just okay, and is far more dependant on Adrenaline than Rick/Brave Wind are while also having a harder time gaining it.
-Critical Artist: replace with a passive that gives her 1 Adrenaline when dodging, this helps her build Adrenaline faster.
-Critical Success: change effect to gaining +1% critical damage permanently every time Sita crits for the rest of the battle.
-Spin Heel Kick: special effect changed to 15% DEF debuff before damage.
-Perfect Finish: base damage increased to 200%. Special effect changed to just deal 50% extra damage at 0 Adrenaline.
-Jump Front Kick: base damage increased to 200%. Now gives 5% to crit rate instead of 1%.
-Her combos now no longer increase Adrenaline cost each time a new move is added to the combo, but are capped at 6 attacks. The finisher moves can only be used if the combo is at least 3 attacks long.
-Taunt: now only generates 2 Adrenaline, but can be used again, with a 2 turn cd.
-Recover: now recovers extra HP when used below half max Adrenaline.
Thus the general idea is for Sita to keep using Taunt to draw enemy aggroo, then for every attack she evades she gets Adrenaline she can then use on her combos, then once she runs low on Adrenaline she can benefit from the extra heal on Recovery, then she uses Taunt again and the cycle begins anew.
The increased Adrenaline cost on her combos is removed since it was very limiting, and made Hundred Punches a better option any time there is only one enemy. So the idea is to give more of an incentive to using her combos.
Bugs
-Reaper's Cloak special effect (addding Poison to the first attack), does not work.
-Mint Julip only heals all party members, it does not Revive.
-Kyme:"Inspiriation struck last night" typo, should be inspiration.
-"Gardner's Gloves" typo, should be Gardener's.
-Not really sure if it's a bug, but a square appears when you talk to the crow in the beehive's throne.
-There seems to be some kind of problem with the fences, the prompt for buying the 600/300g fences repeats itself when you interact with them (e.g. say yes to buy the 600g fence, then if you interact with the fence it asks you again if you want to buy it).
-The skit in New Dawn (where Ezekiel needs to take a rest) repeats itself if you go through the area again.
-Scalding Steam seems to trigger when Emith attacks an enemy with Wet and Burn, even if he does not inflict the statuses (e.g. if the target already has both Wet and Burn, Slicing Gale can trigger Scalding Steam).
-Removing Belt Pouches can cause the game to crash if you don't remove the Accessories in the extra slots before.
-Kyme's Counterattacks do not consume Opening Strike.
Notes From Province
author=Ramshackin
Wow I didn't know that was possible. Most I got was 30k. What was your setup?
Did a video of it
https://youtu.be/aWHsznHXJgo
Notes From Province
author=Ramshackin
Extra things in the game with no todo/note/reward attached:
- Find all 7 Miracles Rings, 7 unique end-game armors, and 17 Soul Cards
- Beat the Wandering Sword with a single party member by selecting the same character twice
- Cook all the food
- 100% furniture catalog
- Got all 7 Miracle Rings and 17 Soul Cards. I assume the 7 armors are Kitsune, Crystalline, Royal, Centurion, Gladiator Spike, and God Slayer Robe and Reaper Cloak? (alternatively Vladio, Lamia or Snake)
- Funnily enough I did that one like 20 times to farm money (since he gives you 400g each time you defeat him), soloing him with Kyme was just faster/simpler than using 2 party members
- Yeah, cooked all the food
- Yep, 100% furniture catalog
Notes From Province
author=blackassassin7
Have you managed to solve the last 2 puzzles in the Radiant Hollow? The ones that lock 2 green chests? They seem to be impossible to solve.
To solve the one in the east, you need to take into account that you can block lasers with your player character. For the one in the west, direct one of the lasers to the crystal right next to the chest.
author=FrejoAlso nevermind about that, found the chest I was missing, which got me the last Wood. And getting Chuck's Note triggered the Gang of Eight fight. Now I only need to complete the Furniture Catalog and I'll be done. Though I'm also somewhat curious if I'm missing any Soul Cards (I've 17 right now, including boss monsters).
Hmm, I think I finished almost everything, but there's a few loose ends left.
Notes From Province
author=blackassassin7
Ah, nevermind what I said. I can't believe I fell for that. Another thning. How do I get rid of the vines at the eastern end of the town and where is Lamia's Cavern?
Lamia's Cavern is in Mount Verner, one screen right of the entrance (you need to push a rock from the cliff to open the cave). Getting the treasure from Lamia's Cavern will eventually allow you to get someone who will be able to clear the vines.
Hmm, I think I finished almost everything, but there's a few loose ends left.
1-Can't get Chuck's Note. I was thinking that maybe I need to Craft everything to get it, but I'm 1 Wood short.
2-Bolinda asked for Moonstone Ore and Palladian, but I'm not sure if that's supposed to lead somewhere, since nothing special seems to happen even after I gave her those items.
3-I'm lacking 1 Story Note (I've got Beginner Gladiator, Gladiator, Marbo, Harps, Morning and Light, Graveyard, Shadow Claw, Chronomancer, Lonely Guard, Rats, Rat Man, Life Tonic, Ferndale, Arana, Bree Tree, lady Luck and Lamia).
2-Bolinda asked for Moonstone Ore and Palladian, but I'm not sure if that's supposed to lead somewhere, since nothing special seems to happen even after I gave her those items.
3-I'm lacking 1 Story Note (I've got Beginner Gladiator, Gladiator, Marbo, Harps, Morning and Light, Graveyard, Shadow Claw, Chronomancer, Lonely Guard, Rats, Rat Man, Life Tonic, Ferndale, Arana, Bree Tree, lady Luck and Lamia).
Notes From Province
author=Ramshackin
Did youenter the Realm of the Dead through Demon Claw Swamp, then leave through the portal in Kyme's house?
Yeah, I think I did that a bit before I triggered that event.
Notes From Province
Hmm, somehow managed to trigger the event with Cyl by swapping to the Bush Fence garden. But then the game crashed.
Notes From Province
Hmm, I seem to be stuck on the Great Thief's riddle.
The two parts seem to suggest the passage in the Harpy's Campment, but I can't get past the guard there. I've already completed most other optional content (still have to defeat the Stranger) and exhausted all Chats but I can't seem to find a way to advance.
Dracoseal - Aether Knights and the Legion of Hell
Great game, finished all current chapters and it was pretty fun. Thought I could do a mini-review and also note some bugs and stuff I found.
Gameplay
Honestly not much to say here, since it's just Fire Emblem. Healing staves having 2 range and bows up to 3 range is nice though. And Warp/Rescue staves being readily available is really nice.
Story & Convos
Overall nothing groundbreaking, but the overall plot and story feel fine. Was somewhat surprised at how dark the story got with R'lyeh and stuff though.
Something I thought was nice is that Johanna's act of forcing herself on Peter didn't just get sweeped under the rug (well, I guess Matthias sorta does but still). Johanna gets depressed over it and feels guilty, and Peter can't get along with her anymore. It does feel a bit awkward after you learn that though, since Johanna is mostly seen and treated as a young and promising, but somewhat naive, leader as per Fire Emblem lord standards. I feel like people in your army will eventually know what she did and they'll have to forgive her for what she did for the plot to move forward, and I'm just imagining Prisca go "Well, what you did was bad but young people do dumb stuff, premeditated rape is just one of those things all teenagers do once during puberty! Now let's move on and never talk about this again". I guess the other option is no one outside of the trio ever learning of this, but then it kinda feels like she got off scot-free (then again she did get depression though, so maybe it's fine).
On a different note, I was surprised you went with a LionelxChristine ship. For the most part, I felt like Christine was a bit of a subversion to the standard cleric village girl that falls in love with the lord we see in a bunch of FE games, since their relationship is never really portrayed as romantic early on. Sorta feels like before chapter 12 they're just friends and starting from 12xx intermission they suddenly start blushing if they look in the general direction of eachother.
Characters (Battle Performance)
-Lionel: I feel like Lionel inevitably gets used a lot early on since he's your only frontliner for a few chapters, and Dormant Vulcan allows him to dominate the early game. Once you get more units though, he kinda feels a bit meh. Vulcan is still great due to good damage and high accuracy, and Rapier and Cub Beil are nice when they're applicable, but I found myself mostly using him just for Charisma and Convoy past a certain point.
-Christine: main healer girl, levels up quickly, and has great defense for a cleric. Nothing to write home about offensively but Light Tomes have high accuracy which is nice.
-Thomas: magic nuke. Not sure if I got really lucky, but for me, Thomas got a point in Magic almost every single level, so past a certain point he just obliterated everything in his path, combine that with high mobility once he's promoted and he's just a beast.
-Martha: she started off a bit weak and basically unable to damage anything with non-garbage defense, she then got Galeforce and became amazing. Being able to move twice with no strings attached is just great: allows her to kill 2 enemies per turn, kite enemies, reach ballistas, and so on and so forth. Also really versatile once she promotes since she can use all 3 melee weapons.
-Peter: starts off one-shotting everything that looks at him off, then becomes just good. He certainly didn't become bad, but it's not like the early stages where he was effectively invincible.
-Simon: started off kinda useless, but he became better after getting Deathblow since it helped his damage a lot. Definitely feels like he has good potential due to being able to use bows after promoting (I didn't get to promote him until the end of the last chapter in the demo).
-Junia: your only bow user early on, she's great at doing her job. An overall solid unit.
-Joseph: nothing to write home about honestly, but Triangle Adept does make him fairly accurate and evasive when he has weapon advantage. Didn't get to promote him yet (reached level 18 on the last stage).
-Hanna: fantastic shopper due to her Bargain skill (too bad it doesn't stack with the membership card). Good defensive unit and Hanna's Lance is a fantastic weapon when facing enemy armored units. I found the Dualform Seal to be kinda useless though, never found a time when it was better to have her be a Soldier instead of a Knight.
-Kiba: felt a bit underwhelming because enemies have a lot of lance users. But when he does get a chance to shine he does well.
-Matthias: probably best physical defensive unit, generally can tank anything that's not bows or magic. High mobility and good damage are just icing on the cake.
-Carmel: cleric with higher mobility and Canto which is really convenient. Also has better stats in everything but Magic and Defense compared to Christine. Miracle+Sol once she's promoted is a pretty nice combo.
-Johanna: pretty underwhelming until she gets the Dormant Rapide. After that she becomes pretty nice for picking off enemies that have low defense/HP or that have already been weakened due to Rapide's high accuracy and decent damage. Also really high Speed.
-R'lyeh: big damage but fairly inaccurate, particularly with Fenrir. Advantage against Anima is really convenient though. Wary Fighter+Miracle is great defensively (she's not really fast enough to double anything anyway).
-Prisca: started off a bit underwheling compared to Thomas, then she got Vignale. A siege tome with good accuracy that allows you to double and gives +5 Magic and Speed is just crazy.
-Andrew: basically worse Prisca, and that's before she got the Vignale. Feels really underwhelming for a pre-promoted unit.
-Chaco: weak before evolving, and okay after. Haven't had that much of a chance to test its performance, but it has good stats and high mobility after evolving.
-Sheerah: good stats in almost all areas, high res for a melee unit. Has a nice set of skills, with Carrier and Stun standing out.
-Jude: capture seems it could be really busted and help save a lot of money. Pugio gives him overall good damage.
-Aquila: lower strength but better skill and res than Junia. Doesn't seem that promising, but does fine against flying units and has utility with staves.
-Miriam: really high speed but low attack. Has trouble dealing damage to anything with an actual defense stat even with Moonbow, albeit Poison Strike at least always guarantees a bit of damage.
Bugs
-Not really sure if it's a bug, but is the Nihil Scroll supposed to have infinite uses?
-Forgot about the exact chapter, but on the chapter you first fight Nero, the "pirate left the map" message kept repeating itself after every action.
-In chapter 14, you get a Torch at the start of the chapter, you keep this Torch if you Save and reload, so you can get infinite Torches this way.
-In chapter 14, stepping into the bottom-left house (which can only be accessed through a teleporter) doesn't do anything.
Suggestions
-Some of the descriptions could maybe use a bit more detail. Charisma and Anathema only say they affect "units" instead of "ally units" and "enemy units" respectively. The chapter where Kiba officially joins your army tells you you'll get +2 levels if you keep your units alive but I don't think it points out well enough it's referring to your green units. When you get the Dormant Rapide it tells you it doesn't consume durability when it's used as a thrown weapon, but I don't think it specifies it's talking about only when it misses, not in general.
-I feel like the anti-armored weapons could get a couple more uses. There's generally a lot of armored units and early on most of your units can't deal any damage to armored units without the aforementioned weapons.
-There seems to be a lot of lance-wielding units in general when it comes to enemy armies. Maybe a bit more diversity with sword-wielding Myrmidons/Mercenaries and axe-wielding ruffians would be good.
-Would be nice if enemies killed by green units still gave out their drops or gold (maybe at the end of the chapter).
-Maybe Hanna keys could get 3 uses? They feel pretty expensive right now for just 1 use.
-I feel like on Chapter 13 you could have the guards that drop Keys be present right off the bat instead of spawning later. Otherwise players might waste money with Hanna Keys fearing they won't have enough keys when they reach the prisoners/chests.
-I think Christine, Lionel and Johanna could maybe get a higher level cap, since their promotions are story-locked (well, I assume Christine will get one). Both Christine and Johanna have been sitting at level 20 for a couple chapters.
-Could maybe add unit growth rates in their status screens, or in the Extra section.
-I think the Extra section could also use a Summary section that gives short summaries of the plot so far. Given the fact that the game is released in groups of chapters, it's a good way to refresh people's memory between releases.
-Maybe Chapter 15 could get more rewards? Currently I feel like there's no incentive to actually play the stage: dragons don't give much EXP, and you can Warp Thomas to the Lagonda right on turn 1 to complete the stage. Aside from a Thoron drop and any potential captures you land with Jude you get no rewards whatsoever from the stage, so there's no real motivator to wasting a lot of weapon durability in this stage when you could just skip it with a single Warp. Maybe have piles of gold in the cave you can Check for money and equipment? Or have dragons drop Dragon Scales which can be sold for money afterwards?
-I think it would be nice if we got more skill diversity. You've taken skills from different games and I believe Thomas's Nebula is entirely original (and one of Prisca's skills has a different effect in this game than what it did originally), so it's a bit boring to have Sol or Ruptured Sky on 4 different units. Not saying every skill on every unit should be unique or anything like that, but I feel like there's enough skills to choose from where repeated skills could be a bit less common than right now. Maybe instead of Ruptured Sky, Andrew could get Opportunist (deal more damage to units that can't counter), instead of Moonbow, Miriam could get a new skill that makes her crits ignore defense, instead of Miracle, some of the non-cleric units could get a skill that gives them a small chance to completely avoid all attacks for one battle (or increases their evasion a lot when low on HP), variations of Drive Guard/Attack that grant a bigger bonus, but only on specific types of damage or weapons, and so on and so forth. The weapon-breaker or stat-sealing skills could also be interesting additions.
Gameplay
Honestly not much to say here, since it's just Fire Emblem. Healing staves having 2 range and bows up to 3 range is nice though. And Warp/Rescue staves being readily available is really nice.
Story & Convos
Overall nothing groundbreaking, but the overall plot and story feel fine. Was somewhat surprised at how dark the story got with R'lyeh and stuff though.
Something I thought was nice is that Johanna's act of forcing herself on Peter didn't just get sweeped under the rug (well, I guess Matthias sorta does but still). Johanna gets depressed over it and feels guilty, and Peter can't get along with her anymore. It does feel a bit awkward after you learn that though, since Johanna is mostly seen and treated as a young and promising, but somewhat naive, leader as per Fire Emblem lord standards. I feel like people in your army will eventually know what she did and they'll have to forgive her for what she did for the plot to move forward, and I'm just imagining Prisca go "Well, what you did was bad but young people do dumb stuff, premeditated rape is just one of those things all teenagers do once during puberty! Now let's move on and never talk about this again". I guess the other option is no one outside of the trio ever learning of this, but then it kinda feels like she got off scot-free (then again she did get depression though, so maybe it's fine).
On a different note, I was surprised you went with a LionelxChristine ship. For the most part, I felt like Christine was a bit of a subversion to the standard cleric village girl that falls in love with the lord we see in a bunch of FE games, since their relationship is never really portrayed as romantic early on. Sorta feels like before chapter 12 they're just friends and starting from 12xx intermission they suddenly start blushing if they look in the general direction of eachother.
Characters (Battle Performance)
-Lionel: I feel like Lionel inevitably gets used a lot early on since he's your only frontliner for a few chapters, and Dormant Vulcan allows him to dominate the early game. Once you get more units though, he kinda feels a bit meh. Vulcan is still great due to good damage and high accuracy, and Rapier and Cub Beil are nice when they're applicable, but I found myself mostly using him just for Charisma and Convoy past a certain point.
-Christine: main healer girl, levels up quickly, and has great defense for a cleric. Nothing to write home about offensively but Light Tomes have high accuracy which is nice.
-Thomas: magic nuke. Not sure if I got really lucky, but for me, Thomas got a point in Magic almost every single level, so past a certain point he just obliterated everything in his path, combine that with high mobility once he's promoted and he's just a beast.
-Martha: she started off a bit weak and basically unable to damage anything with non-garbage defense, she then got Galeforce and became amazing. Being able to move twice with no strings attached is just great: allows her to kill 2 enemies per turn, kite enemies, reach ballistas, and so on and so forth. Also really versatile once she promotes since she can use all 3 melee weapons.
-Peter: starts off one-shotting everything that looks at him off, then becomes just good. He certainly didn't become bad, but it's not like the early stages where he was effectively invincible.
-Simon: started off kinda useless, but he became better after getting Deathblow since it helped his damage a lot. Definitely feels like he has good potential due to being able to use bows after promoting (I didn't get to promote him until the end of the last chapter in the demo).
-Junia: your only bow user early on, she's great at doing her job. An overall solid unit.
-Joseph: nothing to write home about honestly, but Triangle Adept does make him fairly accurate and evasive when he has weapon advantage. Didn't get to promote him yet (reached level 18 on the last stage).
-Hanna: fantastic shopper due to her Bargain skill (too bad it doesn't stack with the membership card). Good defensive unit and Hanna's Lance is a fantastic weapon when facing enemy armored units. I found the Dualform Seal to be kinda useless though, never found a time when it was better to have her be a Soldier instead of a Knight.
-Kiba: felt a bit underwhelming because enemies have a lot of lance users. But when he does get a chance to shine he does well.
-Matthias: probably best physical defensive unit, generally can tank anything that's not bows or magic. High mobility and good damage are just icing on the cake.
-Carmel: cleric with higher mobility and Canto which is really convenient. Also has better stats in everything but Magic and Defense compared to Christine. Miracle+Sol once she's promoted is a pretty nice combo.
-Johanna: pretty underwhelming until she gets the Dormant Rapide. After that she becomes pretty nice for picking off enemies that have low defense/HP or that have already been weakened due to Rapide's high accuracy and decent damage. Also really high Speed.
-R'lyeh: big damage but fairly inaccurate, particularly with Fenrir. Advantage against Anima is really convenient though. Wary Fighter+Miracle is great defensively (she's not really fast enough to double anything anyway).
-Prisca: started off a bit underwheling compared to Thomas, then she got Vignale. A siege tome with good accuracy that allows you to double and gives +5 Magic and Speed is just crazy.
-Andrew: basically worse Prisca, and that's before she got the Vignale. Feels really underwhelming for a pre-promoted unit.
-Chaco: weak before evolving, and okay after. Haven't had that much of a chance to test its performance, but it has good stats and high mobility after evolving.
-Sheerah: good stats in almost all areas, high res for a melee unit. Has a nice set of skills, with Carrier and Stun standing out.
-Jude: capture seems it could be really busted and help save a lot of money. Pugio gives him overall good damage.
-Aquila: lower strength but better skill and res than Junia. Doesn't seem that promising, but does fine against flying units and has utility with staves.
-Miriam: really high speed but low attack. Has trouble dealing damage to anything with an actual defense stat even with Moonbow, albeit Poison Strike at least always guarantees a bit of damage.
Bugs
-Not really sure if it's a bug, but is the Nihil Scroll supposed to have infinite uses?
-Forgot about the exact chapter, but on the chapter you first fight Nero, the "pirate left the map" message kept repeating itself after every action.
-In chapter 14, you get a Torch at the start of the chapter, you keep this Torch if you Save and reload, so you can get infinite Torches this way.
-In chapter 14, stepping into the bottom-left house (which can only be accessed through a teleporter) doesn't do anything.
Suggestions
-Some of the descriptions could maybe use a bit more detail. Charisma and Anathema only say they affect "units" instead of "ally units" and "enemy units" respectively. The chapter where Kiba officially joins your army tells you you'll get +2 levels if you keep your units alive but I don't think it points out well enough it's referring to your green units. When you get the Dormant Rapide it tells you it doesn't consume durability when it's used as a thrown weapon, but I don't think it specifies it's talking about only when it misses, not in general.
-I feel like the anti-armored weapons could get a couple more uses. There's generally a lot of armored units and early on most of your units can't deal any damage to armored units without the aforementioned weapons.
-There seems to be a lot of lance-wielding units in general when it comes to enemy armies. Maybe a bit more diversity with sword-wielding Myrmidons/Mercenaries and axe-wielding ruffians would be good.
-Would be nice if enemies killed by green units still gave out their drops or gold (maybe at the end of the chapter).
-Maybe Hanna keys could get 3 uses? They feel pretty expensive right now for just 1 use.
-I feel like on Chapter 13 you could have the guards that drop Keys be present right off the bat instead of spawning later. Otherwise players might waste money with Hanna Keys fearing they won't have enough keys when they reach the prisoners/chests.
-I think Christine, Lionel and Johanna could maybe get a higher level cap, since their promotions are story-locked (well, I assume Christine will get one). Both Christine and Johanna have been sitting at level 20 for a couple chapters.
-Could maybe add unit growth rates in their status screens, or in the Extra section.
-I think the Extra section could also use a Summary section that gives short summaries of the plot so far. Given the fact that the game is released in groups of chapters, it's a good way to refresh people's memory between releases.
-Maybe Chapter 15 could get more rewards? Currently I feel like there's no incentive to actually play the stage: dragons don't give much EXP, and you can Warp Thomas to the Lagonda right on turn 1 to complete the stage. Aside from a Thoron drop and any potential captures you land with Jude you get no rewards whatsoever from the stage, so there's no real motivator to wasting a lot of weapon durability in this stage when you could just skip it with a single Warp. Maybe have piles of gold in the cave you can Check for money and equipment? Or have dragons drop Dragon Scales which can be sold for money afterwards?
-I think it would be nice if we got more skill diversity. You've taken skills from different games and I believe Thomas's Nebula is entirely original (and one of Prisca's skills has a different effect in this game than what it did originally), so it's a bit boring to have Sol or Ruptured Sky on 4 different units. Not saying every skill on every unit should be unique or anything like that, but I feel like there's enough skills to choose from where repeated skills could be a bit less common than right now. Maybe instead of Ruptured Sky, Andrew could get Opportunist (deal more damage to units that can't counter), instead of Moonbow, Miriam could get a new skill that makes her crits ignore defense, instead of Miracle, some of the non-cleric units could get a skill that gives them a small chance to completely avoid all attacks for one battle (or increases their evasion a lot when low on HP), variations of Drive Guard/Attack that grant a bigger bonus, but only on specific types of damage or weapons, and so on and so forth. The weapon-breaker or stat-sealing skills could also be interesting additions.
Games - Tester
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