we will be attending Gamescom this year and we would love to see you there. We can play the game, chat and maybe take a selfie together?
We also have a lot of swag ready for you guys so don’t be a stranger :)
You can find us at Hall 10.1., booth D92!
And now, for this week's dev log:
We spent most of the week preparing for our Early Access launch, by adding polish to the game and fixing last minute bugs. It's been a very busy week indeed!
On the programming side, other than getting everything ready for the EA, I've wrapped up our next story map events and fixed a few issues that were found from thoroughly testing our worm boss battle. That one is now truly and fully finished at last (it took at least a full week to get the custom AI, custom abilities and special visuals just right!). Here's what it looks like:
Otherwise, our artist has been working mostly on polish as well, but we do have a few new spells to show this week, mostly focusing on weapon skills:
We most likely won't be putting up a devlog next week as we'll be at Gamescom, but we'll gather some pictures of the events for the next update!
it is finally happening! After your support through our Kickstarter campaign and months of hard work we are ready to start a new chapter in the development of Fell Seal! Early Access!
Ever since our Kickstarter, we've had solid lines of communication with you guys and your comments/suggestions have been invaluable to us. That feedback and communication is the main reason we're here in Early Access after all!
Our official position is always to try to answer all fan inquiries and comments, wherever they are posted. That being said, with all the various social platforms out there, it's easy to miss some. So, we're going to focus our efforts and attention in one main location primarily, which is going to be the Steam forums. Thus, we'd like to encourage everyone to post their comments and feedback right here, on Steam. We'll be able to get to it more easily and quickly, and it should foster more conversation, which ultimately should lead to even better feedback and suggestions and thus, to a better Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark!
The EA version is in a great state currently and pretty much all of the games systems and mechanics are already in place.
There are 21 Story encounters in the current version and around 30 optional non-story encounters. There are over 25 playable classes, 200 abilities and a crafting system. We have the ability for players to use custom portraits, to mod the game to add abilities, classes, languages and even customize core systems via a simple (but very large) customization file.
If we're looking at what's missing, it would be more story battles, about 50% of the sound effects, a Hard Mode and optional story-characters events. And, of course, your feedback! The above systems are all created and in game, but we're very eager to get your feedback to tune and improve them!
With all that being said, the most important thing in the end is that you enjoy the game :)
We've been running a devlog on our website for a bit now and we're already up to weekly update 54!
We recently had a fan discover our site through our Steam page and mention they felt a little sad they'd been missing out on all our devlogs previously and suggested we bring them to Steam as well.
Thus, starting this week, we'll be bringing our weekly devlog to Steam to showcase the progress we're making every week on Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark.
Progress Report:
We're still hard at work adding polish to the current build. We've been adding ambient sprites and sounds to most maps, updating items, maps and classes descriptions, fine tuning abilities and revamping dialogues. It's really shaping up!
We've also added a new UI element to our main menu, which puts an icon next to any character that has enough banked AP to purchase new abilities. The quick visual indicator should cut down on the amount of menu-ing the player has to do in between battles to make sure their troops are "up-to-date". It's a small addition, but we think the quality-of-life improvement it brings is actually pretty awesome.
We're also wrapping up the last of the secret classes and we expect to be done with those come the week-end. It will bring our playable classes to: 20 normal classes, 6 secret classes and 4 story classes, for a grand total of 30. That's a lot of classes!
Now, unto the new and exciting art!
We have another new map ready. A good old-fashioned "arena" map. Really, one can't have a proper RPG without one of those I say!
And we already have our next map in the works, in the form of a basic sketch. Here's the general looks of it:
And finally, we have some new story characters completed. I think they look absolutely great!
Hmmm, yes. Not ominous in the slightest, friend.
And once again, a big thank you to our Discord community for their continued incredible feedback and support! You guys really rock! :)
We just released the next Beta Backer Build. This one is a little different in that there is no added maps this month. We've been focusing solely on new assets, polish and balance.
Added a lot of small animated props to most maps to make them more lively.
Here are the full details: Version 0.2.7
New Content:
Adding a lot of new sound effects to the game. We're just getting started!
Redid the items list of all stores, from the very start of the game. Balance should be better. "Shoes" accessories have been removed from early stores and are now primarily crafted (or purchased later).
Created proper crafting ingredients and crafting recipes.
Created the content of all chests and created proper drops for all maps and enemies.
To go with the above, resetting all treasure chests (so they are all flagged as not obtained yet and you can get them again).
Created proper StealTable and PoachTable for all game content.
Adding a bunch of ambient props and effects to maps. Everything should look more lively now :)
Adding parallax effect to the BG of many maps.
Adding proper merchant sprites and portraits to stores.
Updates:
A great many tweaks left and right. A big thank you to our Discord community for the feedback!
Fixed a hack in our main shader on OpenGL/Metal based setups. Should increase performance, but realistically, probably won't be noticeable. Still, if anything is weird on Mac or Linux, please let us know!
Updating save default slot to favor the last slot used (saved or loaded) rather than 'last loaded'.
Removing chest tutorials in first forest map if player has tutorials disabled.
Changing poaching so it replaces the potential regular drop, rather than add to it.
Adding a lot more options/flexibility to poaching/stealing tables.
Rebalanced many items as part of the crafting/components update.
Lowering Warmage Burst abilities damage a bit (1.25x to 1.15x).
Made Highlands encounter easier by lowering the level of enemies by 1 and increasing the level of a guest by 2.
Updated patrols descriptions.
Bug Fixes:
Fixing thorns on target still doing damage even if target is dead.
Fixing absorption numbers showing over the target rather than the caster if the target is punted into water and dies.
Removing the floating status on characters during cutscenes.
Fixing issue where weapons were drawn under the main cursor on the battle map.
Fixing many entries in encounters.txt having a typo that prevented patrols from having the correct level range.
Enabling patrols on Oldebzar map, as was intended.
Fixing help tooltips about buffs displaying the wrong one for affinity buffs.
Fixing visual issue when teleporting on water without the 'floating' status.
Fixing an issue with flying/teleporting units that broke their pathfinding if they were too far from anyone.
Fixed teleport/displacement actions sometimes giving 2x EXP to the caster.
Fixing the vangals in Ekhidna Falls spawning on hills of which they can't escape. They are meant to be a different enemy.
Fixing help tooltips being displayed at a weird location for many resolutions other than 1080.
Fixing information popups being really small in resolutions higher than 1080.
Fixing bug with Heal I spell sometimes using Mass Heal I selection.
Fixing rare issue with some lists being incorrect in resolutions higher than 1080.
Fixing projectiles having wrong starting and ending point in higher resolutions than 1080.
Fixing map scrolling too fast at higher resolutions than 1080.
Fixing issue where some spells would act weirdly when used with Infused Edge.
Fixing issue with Gadgets not showing as "acquired" in the menus (but still working in combat).
Fixed an issue with equipped items duplicating for story characters joining your ranks.
Quick highlights: - The Bzil race has been added to the game, including a recruitable character. - 3 new story maps - 5 new patrols - New recruits now start with some AP already.
Here are the detailed notes:
Version 0.2.6
New Content:
Adding the Bzil race to the game (player usable).
Adding 3 new story battles.
Adding 5 new patrol battles.
Adding new shops.
Adding starting AP to 'new recruits', based on the amount of AP the 6 characters with the most AP have.
Adding new monsters to the game.
Adding color variations to the beards/new hair styles that were added last build.
Tweaking beards/hairs to remove layering oddities that were happening.
Adding system for a new map objective: reach the safe area within the turn limit.
Adding icons for Xbox One, Ps4 and Steam controllers. The game should show the correct one depending on your used controller. Using any other controller will show Xbox360 icons.
Updates:
Lowering Forceful Strike damage from 0.95 to 0.85
Lowering the amount the timebar starts filled at when you take no action during a turn from 25% to 20%
Changing sandpits teleportation behavior to be 'instant' rather than at the end of the turn.
Updating Vicarious bonus so it only applies to non-story/non-special classes.
Updating various monsters abilities to their correct version (rather than place holders) in terms of game mechanics. They still need their visuals created.
Lowering Blind Powder damage to 0.6 (from 0.8). Lowering Sleeping Powder damage to 0.5 (from 0.6).
Changing gunner Blinding Bullet to Slowing Bullet.
Updated Oasis cutscene to add fires left and right to highlight things are wrong.
Bug Fixes:
Fixing KB/mouse issues with selecting different pages in the gear select screen (and some other screens).
Fixing bug where "One for All" would trigger for all attacks, rather than only 'single target' attacks.
Fixing a nasty bug with Arpia's Skyjack that was introduced last build where it fails to check for terrain correctly when deciding where to drop target.
Fixed an issue with worldmap pathfinding where search could be very long, when it shouldn't. Also fixed an issue where paths not yet available would still be used if faster than the current path.
Preventing summoned enemies (zombies, etc) from being raisable in combat after they die.
Fixing a bug where when Dual Wielding a 2nd weapon with shorter range than the first would make the 2nd weapon have the same range under special circumstances.
Fix bug where cutscene actors dual wielding would start combat with both weapons shown after a cutscene.
Fixing some issues with gamepad icons when using more than 2 controllers at once.
Anadine's "punt" move should now correctly punt.
Fixing a bug where an enemy portrait could be shown when receiving loot from killing an enemy.
Fixing small visual oddities with some spells when receiving loot.
Fixing an issue that prevented some spells to show up in the doublecast list.
Fixed an issue where flying enemy could land on "blocked terrain" if their wanted destination was already covered by another unit.
Adding a story battle before the 2nd temple fight (which was the previous end of the demo). Savefiles will automatically have their progress moved to right before this battle.
Adding 4 new patrol battles.
Removed the old temporary world map and using the real world map. It's much bigger and looks a lot better!
Adding spell effects for 9 gadgets and 9 new spells.
Adding a large contingent of beards for male characters. There might be a few issue with beard layering right now, but we'll get it fixed asap.
Adding "Infused Edge" to AI possible actions.
Adding a new mouse cursor graphic.
Adding code to support "happens next turn" abilities, including mortar shots from the giant turret demon, the Aeoth.
Adding code to prevent generated cutscene actors to spawn with certain outfits/hats (mainly, special stuff).
Adding new ability shape: 'charge'. A charge will move the attacker right next to its target, regardless of distance, as long as there is a clear path to it.
Adding new buff "adaptive aegis", which protects the user from the last element they were attacked with by increasing their elemental resistance to it.
Adding multiple new enemies, including: Helhund, Bzzerk, Niwot and advanced forms of existing monsters.
Bug Fixes:
"Weird sprites" visuals that were happening on Mac should now be gone. Let us know if you spot anything weird!
Adding missing passives to Anatomist skill tree.
Many small bug fixes.
Pektites did not spawn with the correct stats (high RES, low DEF) before. Also lowered their speed.
Added story classes to class lists (melee, mages, etc) so the AI recognizes them properly.
Some Sorcerer portraits weren't showing on NPCs. Fixed.
Fixing descriptions in the Ability-Setup menu so they trigger the help screen correctly.
Fixing Counters description so they correctly trigger the help screen.
The battle cursor duplicating at times during battles should be fixed.
Fixed some (rare) spell visuals where effects where shown over targets when they should have been under.
Only showing 'counter debuff spell animation' if a debuff was applied (this was always intended, but a check was missing).
Updates:
Revamping Highlands map and removing a part of the map that was confusing.
Changed the way the shadows behave while jumping. Looks much better now.
Added new knobs to maps information to prevent characters from being shown over/under some terrain when they shouldn't.
Updated the directions characters "get out of the way" when allies "walk over their tile" as there were oddities in there.
Changed visuals for Defend skill.
Changed Thunder 1 to new spell visuals.
Redid most tutorials and added a few ones.
Changed the camera position during spells to show the target better.
Changed damage predictions to account for "bonus punt damage" on the main target where applicable. The secondary target still isn't shown since it isn't part of the "regular ability range".
Changing Poison spell damage from 0.8 to 0.9
Lowering Marked abilities damage from 1.0 to 0.95 for "hybrid damage" spells, as well as other hybrid spells.
Fixing enemy snorkel having weird frames.
Renamed many XML status effects/etc to be consistent with game terms.
Now showing map objective when 'pausing' the battle (by showing the options).
Adding an icon for the "natural weapon" of monsters in their equip list.
Enemies spawning with +HP gear will now have their current HP filled correctly at the start of the battle.
Characters with lower levels than the map average level will receive more MVP points.
Fixed the "start of battle" effect on the worldmap not centering correctly in 4:3 (and other resolutions).
The next big update is now live with Beta Build 0.2.4. The biggest changes are added story battles and added haircuts for sprites, but there's a LOT of changes left and right.
One of the new town maps.
Here's the complete list of changes (including changes from the 0.2.3 experimental build at the end).
Detailed Changelogs:
Version 0.2.4
Many new story encounters.
Adding a slew of new haircuts to the game.
Updated the class selection screen. Now showing character information panel and Growth stats of the class. Redid the layout for the class information.
Exported all classes and abilities to new XML files. This allows modders to modify existing jobs/abilities as well as create new jobs/abilities easily.
Updated cost of all weapons, armors, accessories.
Adding story class Anatomist and all its spells.
Adding story class Marked and all its spells.
Adding story class Demon Knight and all its spells.
Adding story class Bounty Hunter (but not most of its spells).
Adding new spells (lost track of all the new ones, but some monster spells, Pile On, Refresh, trap Icons and a few more.)
Adding/updating many existing spells visuals.
Adding world map "battle start" effect.
Adding new maps Oasis City, Lava Map and Greek style City.
Adding various tweaks/tutorials/etc on issues gathered from our PAX East feedback.
Ignoring gamepad Stick input while moving the cursor on the map by default (there is an option to override that) as repeated tests show people don't like it, whereas the d-pad feels natural.
Updating crafting menu with cleaner layout and information about the crafting result (specifically useful for "crafting by ingredient").
Updating various other UI elements with added clarifications and small cleanups.
Adding a graphical box around the name for "portrait-less" textboxes.
Minor balance tweaks to some maps (updating map layout).
Adding L/R keys to navigate the cursor to nodes on the Worldmap directly.
Adding a 'projectile effect' to the Thorns ability when it reflects damage.
Fixed an issue with the AI often not doing anything when on low HP.
The wrong map rewards were used in many story battles. This is fixed.
Adding anonymous telemetry through Google Analytics. We are mainly tracking which classes/abilities are used and party composition after victories/losses. The goal is get data to help balancing difficulty/classes/etc.
Moving Encounters.txt and GameOptions.txt to the "customdata" folder within the "My Documents/Fell Seal/" folder for consistency (since it's customdata stuff).
Adding new options when creating enemies on the map, including staying dormant until the player is "close enough", or enough turns have passed.
Adding new enemies, including the Pektite
Renaming multiple spells and passives to more appropriate names. Ongoing process.
Removing code to convert old save system to new save system (the new system has been out for several months, nobody should still be using old files at this point).
Adding the possibility to create enemy traps on the map before a battle starts. This can be used from the encounters.txt file for modders.
Balance:
Adding Fleet Footed magnitude and duration to the options file.
Adding Lifefont and Manafont amount restored per step to the option file.
Adding a lot more such values to the option file (lost track >.<).
Favor jumping over single 'hole' tiles rather than jumping in and out.
When attacking a target, if they are sleeping, their evasion will be ignored (the attack could still miss for other reasons, such as the caster having blind, etc).
Making most Templar chants use "mixed atk/matk" values rather than only atk or matk. This results in stronger values in general, so we lowered their ratios a bit to compensate.
Moving Gambler's passive "All In" to a secret class. Moving Scoundrel passive "Lucky" to the Gambler. Moving Gunner passive "Atk Expert" to the Scoundrel. Adding passive "Height Advantage" to the gunner (bonus damage per amount of height above the target).
Increasing damage of Health Siphon for Fellblade.
Changing how the passive "Quick Fingers" works. Old: automatically open chest/gather components in range at the end of the turn. New: any situation command (open, gather, climb, activate) won't use up the character's action for the turn.
Updating many monsters abilities as we create their proper abilities (many of them have placeholder abilities right now.)
Changing protect so it doesn't activate if the protector is asleep.
Armor values across the board were higher than intended. Reducing them by 25%.
Version 0.2.3
Updating weapon description in combat to show range of weapon.
Adding lots of new spells visuals and updating others.
Updating error.log system to add timestamp to file name. Removed errors that should have been warnings. Updating error logging to not log identical errors multiple times (since unity can get spammy if something bad happens). Also enabling error logging on the MAC build and moving the log to My Documents/Fell Seal.
Showing a short lore description of each patrol area as well as the maximum enemy level for the patrol.
Quick optimization pass to reduce draw calls in the UI.
Updating "Details Button" in battle to show healthbars: now shows buffs/debuffs of all targets as well as "points of interest" on the map, such as ladders, treasures, gather points, etc.
Fixing issue where game could have crashed/acted weirdly with non-english language OS (maybe).
Fixed the illusive issue with dead characters sometimes still countering after getting hit by Forceful Strike (as well as Rebirth not proccing under the same conditions).
4k support should be finished. Needs more testing.
Mouse input should work much better for resolutions other than 1080 and especially higher than 1080.
Menu unit selection with the mouse should be easier and more intuitive.
A big rework of the way we handle graphical assets has shaved off 500MB from the build size and about 200MBs of RAM and VRAM usage.
Balance:
Adding 'hybrid' style of AI. They will favor a mix of magical/physical attacks.
When landing the killing blow on a boss, there will be a bonus to the EXP gained by the character (currently, 100).
Adding new AI style for enemies: focus fire. The unit will favor attacking low HP units. 15% chance of AI spawning with that AI style.
Each Double Cast spell only does 75% of its regular damage/healing. This was always intended but not implemented before.
Added stealing and poaching systems and cleaned up loot drops. Most of the tables aren't finished, but the systems are all in place. And it's all moddable.
To access this build, you need to opt in the "Experimental Beta - Latest Beta Build" on Steam for Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark, if you haven't done so already.
To do that, you go into Fell Seal's properties from the Steam games list, select the BETAS tab and select "Experimental Beta - Latest Beta Build" from the tab.
You might have to shutdown and restart Steam for it to pick up the change though.
The biggest change to this build is actually under the hood, as we redid the way we handle our graphics significantly. This reduced build size (by about 25%) and RAM usage considerably and should have better visual quality as the images are now mostly uncompressed.
If anyone is seeing weird images/colors, let us know (but it really shouldn't happen, haha)!
We've also fixed issues that were unique to Linux and to Mac builds, so if you're using those systems, let us know if you encounter any trouble.
Here's the complete list of changes:
Change List
Version 0.2.3
Updating weapon description in combat to show range of weapon.
Adding lots of new spells visuals and updating others.
Updating error.log system to add timestamp to file name. Removed errors that should have been warnings. Updating error logging to not log identical errors multiple times (since unity can get spammy if something bad happens). Also enabling error logging on the MAC build and moving the log to My Documents/Fell Seal.
Showing a short lore description of each patrol area as well as the maximum enemy level for the patrol.
Quick optimization pass to reduce draw calls in the UI.
Updating "details button" in battle to show healthbars: now shows buffs/debuffs of all targets as well as "points of interest" on the map, such as ladders, treasures, gather points, etc.
Fixing issue where game could have crashed/acted weirdly with non-english language OS (maybe).
Fixed the illusive issue with dead characters sometimes still countering after getting hit by Forceful Strike (as well as Rebirth not proccing under the same conditions).
4k support should be finished. Needs more testing.
Mouse input should work much better for resolutions other than 1080 and especially higher than 1080.
Menu unit selection with the mouse should be easier and more intuitive.
A big rework of the way we handle graphical assets has shaved off 500MB from the build size and about 200MBs of RAM and VRAM usage.
Balance:
Adding 'hybrid' style of AI. They will favor a mix of magical/physical attacks.
When landing the killing blow on a boss, there will be a bonus to the EXP gained by the character (currently, 100).
Adding new AI style for enemies: focus fire. The unit will favor attacking low HP units. 15% chance of AI spawning with that AI style.
Each Double Cast spell only does 75% of its regular damage/healing. This was always intended but not implemented before.
Added stealing and poaching systems and cleaned up loot drops. Most of the tables aren't finished, but the systems are all in place. And it's all moddable.
To access this build, you need to opt in the "Experimental Beta - Latest Beta Build" on Steam for Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark, if you haven't done so already.
To do that, you go into Fell Seal's properties from the Steam games list, select the BETAS tab and select "Experimental Beta - Latest Beta Build" from the tab.
You might have to shutdown and restart Steam for it to pick up the change though.
The biggest change to this build is actually under the hood, as we redid the way we handle our graphics significantly. This reduced build size (by about 25%) and RAM usage considerably and should have better visual quality as the images are now mostly uncompressed.
If anyone is seeing weird images/colors, let us know (but it really shouldn't happen, haha)!
We've also fixed issues that were unique to Linux and to Mac builds, so if you're using those systems, let us know if you encounter any trouble.
Here's the complete list of changes:
Change List
Version 0.2.3
Updating weapon description in combat to show range of weapon.
Adding lots of new spells visuals and updating others.
Updating error.log system to add timestamp to file name. Removed errors that should have been warnings. Updating error logging to not log identical errors multiple times (since unity can get spammy if something bad happens). Also enabling error logging on the MAC build and moving the log to My Documents/Fell Seal.
Showing a short lore description of each patrol area as well as the maximum enemy level for the patrol.
Quick optimization pass to reduce draw calls in the UI.
Updating "details button" in battle to show healthbars: now shows buffs/debuffs of all targets as well as "points of interest" on the map, such as ladders, treasures, gather points, etc.
Fixing issue where game could have crashed/acted weirdly with non-english language OS (maybe).
Fixed the illusive issue with dead characters sometimes still countering after getting hit by Forceful Strike (as well as Rebirth not proccing under the same conditions).
4k support should be finished. Needs more testing.
Mouse input should work much better for resolutions other than 1080 and especially higher than 1080.
Menu unit selection with the mouse should be easier and more intuitive.
A big rework of the way we handle graphical assets has shaved off 500MB from the build size and about 200MBs of RAM and VRAM usage.
Balance:
Adding 'hybrid' style of AI. They will favor a mix of magical/physical attacks.
When landing the killing blow on a boss, there will be a bonus to the EXP gained by the character (currently, 100).
Adding new AI style for enemies: focus fire. The unit will favor attacking low HP units. 15% chance of AI spawning with that AI style.
Each Double Cast spell only does 75% of its regular damage/healing. This was always intended but not implemented before.
Added stealing and poaching systems and cleaned up loot drops. Most of the tables aren't finished, but the systems are all in place. And it's all moddable.
My plan was to open with an easy joke about how characters in Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark walk infinitely in place like it's the newest exercise craze (as you can see in the trailer above), but unfortunately I missed my chance. The developers at 6 Eyes Studio listened to player feedback and in the latest build characters have new, less goofy idle animations.
Those perpetually strolling characters showed how closely 6 Eyes are emulating Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre, their two main inspirations. Maybe it's for the best, but I'm sorry I took the moonwalking for granted. Yet even without endlessly marching NPCs, there are a lot of elements of Fell Seal lifted directly from Final Fantasy: Tactics.
Fell Seal's turn-based, tactical combat takes place on maps marking story points in the characters' journey, each locale painted in vibrant style with an emphasis on vertical movement and environmental hazards. During battle each character earns experience points which automatically increase their stats (attack, defense, speed, etc). After each battle, they also receive ability points to spend on active and passive abilities. Each unit has a main class but can level up several side classes as well. Both main and secondary classes can be swapped and tweaked between battles.
It sounds exactly like the jobs system in Final Fantasy: Tactics because that's precisely what 6 Eyes Studio is going for. "We think FFT's class system is probably the best one out there", it said in a developer's log during the Kickstarter campaign (which raised $45,289). "It's also very popular and we think a lot of people are going to be happy to get an improved/revamped version of it."
A standard deviation
Fell Seal does veer away from the source material in a couple areas. In most RPGs, players find themselves hoarding consumables—I know I've always been prone to having x99 unused health potions when the credits roll.
In Fell Seal, the party has a set number of each item per fight and that number resets, removing the fear of waste. Sure enough, over the course of the demo I found myself chugging potions by the second or third turn as needed.
The injury system gives an incentive to trade in your second-string combatants while the starting lineup is benched
Fell Seal gently nudges you into a different playstyle with its injury system as well. 6 Eyes cite XCOM's infirmary as the inspiration for that. Rather than units dying permanently in combat like in the nail-biting encounters of classic Fire Emblem, downed characters receive an injury that deals a -10% hit to their stats. A unit can recover from an injury by being left at camp for an entire fight but you can also keep bringing them along, accepting the injury debuff, and risking the chance they'll suffer a second injury and be forced into eventual bedrest for even longer.
The goal with the injury system is to encourage players to invest in custom units rather than just sticking with a main party of six preferred characters. 6 Eyes wants to see players experiment with all the 20 classes available instead of endlessly deploying the same favorites. The injury system gives you an incentive to trade in your second-string combatants while the starting lineup is benched, but without being so punitive that you'll consider loading a save to rescue your star unit.
Despite knowing its goals, I was still skeptical and expected to save-scum my way out of letting my main characters fall. When push came to shove, though, I found losing 20 minutes to restart a fight a less attractive option than sitting out my strongest melee unit for just one encounter. Even at my most desperate, I took the opportunity to level up in a random patrol battle while I waited for two key characters to rest before heading on to the next story mission.
A tale as old as time
Fell Seal's current demo includes 11 story missions and the option to replay most of the maps as random encounters. In true JRPG style, it also features fantasy monsters, bumbling henchmen, and a haughty antagonist with a terrible haircut. The protagonists, by way of contrast, stray a good deal from the plucky heroes of the coming-of-age tale I expected to find.
The Arbiters are independent peacekeeping agents who mete out justice and intervene in disputes on behalf of godlike being called the Immortals. Three of the main characters thus far in the demo, and one companion, are all Arbiters about to become embroiled in some good old-fashioned intrigue because one of the seven Immortals has just stepped down from his post, freeing up a spot. Apparently matters of succession involve a globe-trotting, anything-goes quest where each contestant is conveniently above the law.
I can't say for sure, but I don't get the feeling that Fell Seal is going to dip into cliches like "the hero was destined all along" or "the villain wants to turn the entire world into a hellscape." Nothing is for certain, but I've so far enjoyed the story of these three stalwart Arbiters who find themselves the center of attention not due to supernatural ability or conveniently royal blood, but by pure unfortunate circumstance.
