Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark

« I am extremely impressed with this little indie gem, and wholeheartedly recommend it to fans of strategy JRPGs. Especially, dare I say, to those of you who are looking for a true successor to Final Fantasy: Tactics. I am well aware of how ostentatious that may sound, but the praise is well earned here. Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark has earned my respect and admiration, and it deserves your time and attention. Go purchase this game, and support an indie developer who has seemingly done the impossible. »

« Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark is easily one of the best tactical games I’ve played in recent memory. The fact that it was made by just two people is mind blowing. If you are a fan of Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, or games like Banner Saga, Fell Seal will scratch that itch. Just know going in that it might be a little bit before we get our next content fix. »

« A top-notch strategy RPG that should definitely appeal to genre fans who've enjoyed games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem, or Summon Night. »

« Would I recommend Fell Seal: Arbiters Mark? Yes, I would. It has remarkable polish, gorgeous art and was simply a blast to play. I went in with low expectations but walked away grinning from ear to ear. If you are looking for a turn-based tactics game set within a stunning fantasy setting, Fell Seal: Arbiters Mark should be right up your alley. »

« We recommend the game to the fans of the genre. the story is only good at its best, but the combat system and deep customization are its high point. »

« While Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark might lack graphical style and an enthralling story, the combat loop is the stuff dreams are made of for fantasy tactics devotees. If you’re a fan of strategy battles and a plethora of interesting unlocks, this is the game to take you back 20 years, when you met Ramza and Delita for the first time. »

« Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark is not a perfect game, but there aren't too many things that I would change. Its biggest flaw is the generic story, but there are some balancing issues as well. Also, some game system are thoroughly explained, so I strongly recommend reading the help page or the PDF manual that comes with the game. »

« If you like the genre, Fell Seal will give you tons of contents and options to get lost into. This has been a very nice surprise thanks to its story, gameplay mechanics and depth. »

« I liked the visual style, but the subpar default fantasy tropes and writing were very underwhelming. What killed any interest I might've had in this game though was the inventory management. It's very clunky and a real chore to navigate through. You can't just open up the inventory menu like you can in pretty much any other RPG on the planet. No, you can only do it while you're in a store for some reason. There was also this one time when I hired a rogue and I bought a crossbow for him, that specifically said in its stats that it was an appropriate weapon for rogues. I go to the inventory menu and... I can't equip it. Well, I can, but for some reason it is highlighted in red. Why, what does that mean? Can I not use it? Or I can, but it will be ineffective? Nobody tells you. Funny thing is, this game has dozens of learning tips for everything like "click on the square to move there" (wow, thanks for important info, I don't know what I'd do without it), but why a rogue can't equip a crossbow, when it's specifically said that it's appropriate for a rogue, is left unspecified. Marvelous. The difficulty is gruelling too. On normal, you get absolutely annihilated by the first gang of rogues you come across, which is ridiculous. I don't necessarily mind a challenge, but I believe difficulty should increase exponentially, giving the player time to get a grasp of the mechanics and the dynamics of the gameplay. But in this game it's like the first encounter - you win without even trying, the second encounter - you get your backside handed to you within two rounds. »

« Such a gem! I prefer to deactivate Revivals and mess with some difficulty options to make it a little easier. So if you are scared of the difficulty don't worry. »

« Final Fantasy Tactics was a contender for my favorite game of all time, and this spiritual successor might just be even better. It's clearly intended to be exactly that, as it takes nearly every mechanic and a good chunk of its aethetics directly from that game. But it also adds a ton of quality-of-life and balance features, such as visible class stat growth and an answer to item spam. There are fine-grained difficulty options and a bunch of optional tutorials to make the game more approachable and/or challenging. It's not perfect. The classes still aren't balanced as well as they could be, you won't be able to unlock all the classes until you're nearly at the end of the game, and certain builds are still dominant (notably But it's still amazingly good. The plot is coherent and comprehensible, the characters are rich, and there aren't ridiculous unnecessary gimmicks like zodiac signs or laws. It's pretty much exactly what I was looking for, and I can't want to see what this studio has in store for us. »

« Deeply dull game. Not any fun. Elements hint at a good game that's lurking *FAR* behind what they released. »

« One of the best tributes to Final Fantasy Tactics I've ever seen, but going further. Even if you've never played a style game before, it's an excellent introduction. Extremely mod-friendly, with the possibility of creating new classes, portraits, skills, etc. The graphics are 2d (scenarios and sprites resemble Final Fantasy Tactics Advance), but the art in general is beautiful. The story is simple but well arranged. The game is extremely light on the PC, running on almost any machine. The grind is flexible according to what you want from the game. »

« I’m a huge fan of Tactics-style games, Final Fantasy Tactics being, as it is to many, my favorite of the genre. Along comes Fell Seal claiming, like many games do, to be somewhat of a “spiritual successor” to FFT. I’ll admit, it does mechanically feel a lot like the beloved game of old. Unfortunately there’s too many flaws to really make it worth my time. Let me start off by saying that Fell Seal controls beautifully. It provides all the percentages, stats, and information a Final Fantasy Tactics junky could want. Characters level up, earn points to upgrade skills, can equip various skill just as you would in FFT, and can unlock and change classes using a very familar system. Main characters have special classes, while recruited characters can run the gamut and master every class. There’s even a way to customize the look of each new recruit you hire. Like I stated before, that’s where the similarity ends. Unfortunately, Fell Seal suffers from a boring, repetitive, and predictable storyline. The sprites, while colorful, just aren’t very attractive and lack depth on animation. The character portraits are just…ugly. What makes the sprites look even duller is that each stage is beautifully illustrated in stark contrast to the dull portraits and stiff character animations. As far as the game’s sound goes, it has great music but the sound effects sound a bit too soft. Not at all immersive. I’ve seen a lot of people out there who really enjoy this game. I just can count myself among them. As much as I really wanted to get into it there were just too many barriers keeping me from really enjoying myself. It lacks a sense of self. A soul, if you will. It doesn’t set itself apart in any way, shape, or form, and I need a bit more than just a solid mechanical structure to spend my time on when there’s so many other interesting Tactics games out there. »

« Gran juego si te gustan los rpg tácticos La música, el arte y las clases son muy buenos. El combate es divertido. La historia está sorprendentemente bien hecha. »

« So boring.... FF was not nearly this bad. Battles take far too long because enemies purposely turtle once you are about mid game. Many maps have multiple healers and classes able to resurrect and since there is practically unlimited mana, you have a boring cycle of endless healing, rebirths, and revives. And to top it off, endless barriers and total damage avoidance (too easy to get), screen wide debuffs (turtling), bugged mana shields that negate attacks even when they barely have any energy left, automatic resurrections (class skills and items), etc etc. I had this one map where I literally killed the same unit about 6 or 7 times because it auto resurrects and even when it didnt autoressurct, a different unit kept resurrecting it... the map literally took an hour and it was just a trash map, not even part of the story or anything. Finally I got to the point that I just couldnt stand it and mind you I love tactical games... but I couldnt enjoy this game. I then turned off the game and I dreaded the idea of even thinking about turning it on again so I uninstalled and deleted the saves. Aside from the horrible gameplay outlined above, if only the game did something new, or had a good story i probably would have given it more time but it really doesnt. The story is just kind of meh and the characters are pretty one sided as far as I played (about 25 hours in). I just didnt care about any of them and frankly, this game improved on nothing gameplay wise compared to 20 year old games which begs the question of why bother? Just play the originals. Disclaimer: I played it on default settings. I think there is a setting which cripples the AI but you need to start the game over to change them and it still doesnt change the fact that the game feels very old and tired. A few things they can do to improve the game drastically. No mana regen or slow regen and apply cool downs on skills and abilities that slow down progress especially those lame class skills. No more huge area dispels or make them harder to cast requiring significantly more mana. Seriously that is just broken. It takes a bunch of casting to get buffs, and only 1 spell to lose them all and it doesnt change the outcome, it just slows things down. No more team wide dispells without being proper position. Same as above. You just spend 2 rounds to get them debuffed, and one single spells removes all debuffs from all of them regardless of position. Again, this just slows everything down and does not save them in any way. »