Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark

In what is likely the newest game I’ll play for a long while, for the next whenever I shall be playing the only game I bought on the Stream Sales this winter. Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark was released in April of ‘19 by 6 Eyes Studio. It looks like Final Fantasy Tactics. It plays like Final Fantasy Tactics. It has a job system that, while much dumbed down still, is like Final Fantasy Tactics. FFT is a game that needs more clones, so I’m excited.

We start the game and, like many a fine RPG, get a fine CGI Movie. It’s very well done. I know less about cinematography and art than I do music, so I won’t even begin to critique it more than saying it’s pretty. It tells us about a great evil, The Maw, who once threatened the world. Fortunately, seven people banded together to defeat it. Those people became immortal and formed a council to run the world. They established a group of people to act in their place when they could not. That group was the Arbiters. They function as “Judge, Jury, and Executioner.” Over the centuries, the Arbiters have become corrupt...

The camera pans down from a bell tower onto two women. Kyrie, an Arbiter commander, walks with a subordinate, Anadine. They discuss the happenings of battle and command beforehand wondering where their friend, Reiner, is. They’re not worried because he’s always late. From out of the quiet streets they walk comes a scream from a nearby alley.

Rushing over, they see a well dressed man kill a slightly less dressed man. Because Kyrie is a noble Arbiter, she prepares to arrest the man. Alphonse calls for his back-up, and we enter the first fight of the game.

It’s an incredibly easy tutorial battle. We only need to defeat Alphonse. His hired merc doesn’t mean anything, but I wish I had attacked him. Free exp, ya know?

When he surrenders, he promises he’ll be fine and out of jail in due time. Kyrie decides to take him to the far more secure prison in Illuster rather than the more lax and sketchy one where they are now. Reiner walks in and joins them for the walk to the city. We’re taken to the world map screen that, as you’d think, functions as it does in Final Fantasy Tactics. We’re also told to visit the Guild to buy new recruits. I check out the merchant first to see if there’s better hear. There isn’t. In the guildhall, I take a turn. So, you can customize the appearance of non-story characters. We’re given two off the bat, so I spend the next hour looking through options. There aren't a million options, but there’s more than enough for me. 30 some odd hats and clothes for each sex. Skin tones, eye and hair color, a dozen hairstyles, a whole buttload of portraits. Dude, it’s so rad! So rad! I immediately make the ugly wizard they give us look more like me, and I turn the pretty enough healer/mender into the missus. I plan to make some friends of mine too, but maybe later. Gotta see how many characters are allowed in battle first. But before that happens, I learn the game is moddable. Bro, I already love this game! There’s nothing on the Steam Workshop, but Nexus mods has a bunch of new classes. I don’t know how to add them yet, but I’ll learn. With little of my self-imposed time limit left, I try to get on.

The first real battle happens in an area called the Crossroads. We come upon a group of people who try to bribe us into releasing Alphonse with 20% of the cut he’s giving to the mercs. Once again, our honest leader says no.

This battle was hard, and half of my team fell. I have the hardcore modes turned off, so I’m not worried about anyone getting injured for a battle, but I don’t want to miss out on EXP and whatever they’re calling Job Points here. We’re introduced to the concept of Trap Squares. In this battle, more enemies can enter from a cellar entrance in the middle of the field. Standing on top of the door prevents this. After the fight, we have the option to view an optional scene. Optional scenes are mandatory scenes for me. We go back to the Crossroads and learn something about Anadine. Her mother was an Arbitrator, and she wears her armor in memory of her. Kyrie says she inherited the armor but earned the position. Anadine asks Alphonse what the man he killed did to make him want to kill him. Alph responds that he got in his way, just like two little girls did. Anadine asks how he got arrested by two little girls.

We continue to Illuster, and we’re only with Kyrie and Reiner. Kyrie wanted to make sure Alph’s imprisonment goes smoothly. Unfortunately, a guard informs her that she, and all other Arbiter captains, have been summoned to a council of Immortals. Al is taken to the dungeon, while we respond to the summons.

The short of the meeting is the Immortals aren’t actually immortal. Every century or so, a member retires and is replaced. Every Immortal chooses a potential successor for the one leaving, and all the candidates go on a pilgrimage. Some of the Immortalsdo some bickering, and one guy looks SUPER evil, so I think we’ll fight a god later.

As we leave the meeting, we see Alphonse has been set free. He’s been chosen as a potential successor and is a jerkbag the whole conversation. Alphonse says he has a meeting in Centina and leaves. Kyrie decides to follow behind him.

And I’ll do that tomorrow!

Dude, I’m excited! I have a lot of questions now, like who’s the main character, but I have less than two hours of gameplay. Now is the time to have questions! FFT is, low-key, one of my favorite games, even if I kinda forget about it from time to time. I’m looking forward to getting into the thick of it tomorrow. I wanted to keep playing, but, well,  self-imposed time limits...