Theatrhythm Final Bar Line - Played this a bunch more, mostly just doing Endless World. Not much to say, it's still fun.
Fire Emblem: Morrow's Golden Country - Beat this (played on the highest difficulty). Pretty solid game all told. I've never played a full conversion romhack before so I'm not really sure how to feel about it as an independent game, but unquestionably the core gameplay is a major improvement over the actual GBA games, and I liked those, so hey! It's not really a game I'd play for story/writing (if better than SoV or Engage!) though it got a bit better in the back third or so.
The game does a really good job of making individual PCs feel unique, often via personal skills (similar to Tellius in how you learn them but really more informed by Fates for how they work) and combat arts (similar to 3H). Despite the GBA engine (heavily modified/improved, it must be said... I love the little HUD of key stats if you move the cursor over a unit, for instance) it ends up feeling more like a modern FE overall and it turns out I do in fact like those better on average. It also has a nicely varied and generally pretty well-balanced set of maps: there are seize maps, survive maps, defeat bosses maps, escape maps, defend maps, you name it... and for the most part they're usually well-paced and fun.
The game does give you way too many powerful toys by the end, probably, but on the hardest difficulty it can at least (mostly) fight back. I actually thought the back third of the game was the hardest, even, because enemies get more and more crazy tools of their own. (Archers get the craziest tools, though... the combination of a range 2-7 bow and an accessory which makes bow attacks ITD
and grants Galeforce is just silly. The latter in particular really should have been dialled back to be more in line with the other weapon-related accessories.)
For non-gameplay things... they mostly did a great job with all the new animations/graphics (though occasionally things are a bit off, like Arin's Prf sword not having an animation). Music's a bit of a mixed bag. They grabbed tracks from other games and rewrote them using the GBA sound system and some tracks come out great and some really don't. Similarly, some are really appropriate to where they are used in TMGC and some really aren't.
I dunno what I rate a game like this. I had a good time though. Will I play it again? Yeah, probably? It's pretty long unfortunately, but the sheer unit variety gives it some replay value.
Hundred Line: Last Defence Academy - Completed all the endings. Which took a little over seven months.
It's a fantastic game, I've never really played anything like it. It's also absolutely huge, which is certainly the main thing which keeps me from recommending it more widely. I've done plenty of line counts for JRPGs, and ten thousand line is a threshold only reached by longer ones, typically. So what does it say that this game breaks
one hundred thousand?
Well, it says that you don't actually need to play all of it to enjoy it. (This is very intentional. There is no special reward for getting every single ending, and honestly I'm glad there isn't.) Still, it's a long ride even if you just focus on getting a few of the most important endings.
Writing-wise it has a lot to recommend it. I really enjoyed the themes the game touches on, both the big real-world ones (it's a compelling look at war and genocide from the ground level) and also the more philosophical (the connection between identity and memories). The five most important characters all range from good to real good, and I ended up really enjoying the supporting cast too, even if a few of them are absolutely terrible people. The plot is engaging, the mysteries are well-paced and the big reveals are very effective.
Gameplay-wise, it's a lot of fun too! Has a bit of that Paper Mario energy where the damage scale is small but individual skillset differences shine. The PCs all feel unique and their gameplay is a great extension of their storyline selves. I do think the challenge curve is a bit unfortunate, as the game is at its hardest early and then you just get steadily more overpowered toys to play with, which dampens the feel some later fights are going for. And while it's nice that you can skip battles if the game judges you've done one that is "similar enough", it would be nice if there were more individual battles which were hand-designed to be more engaging in the later stages of the game. But ultimately, I still think the gameplay is a major bullet point in the game's favour, because (a) it's a fun little SRPG, and (b) the type of visual novel this game is usually has gameplay which is bland at best and annoying at worst, so this game sidestepping that is wonderful.
Obviously I'm mostly full of praise for this game. Are there things I feel the game could have done better? Yeah, some. Some of the weaknesses are the gameplay notes I've already made. Some is that, as you get further and further into the game, the novelty of some of the other systems wears off. And unshockingly, in a game with a hundred endings, they aren't all gonna be good, even if it bats a pretty high average. Having different writers means that sometimes, certain characters don't feel quite right on some routes, though it's clear the writing team did what they could to minimize it. Still, there's one or two really egregious cases
(Nozomi on Killing Game).
But I still think this game is fantastic. Probably the best game I've played this decade.
I've been writing reviews for individual routes of the game, but the nature of the game means that the reviews will contain spoilers so I wouldn't read these unless you've played the game. Still, for those who are interested:
click here.
I have lots more to say about the game but this is probably enough for a WGAYP post.
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