Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark

WOW! What a NOSTALGIC encounter with this game! It's a LETTER OF LOVE to FINAL FANTASY TACTICS. Some points:
- Good story and characters;
- Decent graphics and art;
- Excelent job system, similar to FFT;
- Excelent battle system;
- Magics and moves with average quality;
- Good system to customize difficult settings;
- Bad camera! It does not rotate...
I had a lot of fun getting all achievements and I hope you have the a great experience!

It's inevitable that every review of this game is going to mention Final Fantasy Tactics, and fair enough, as that's basically what this is recreating. However Fell Seal optimizes a number of obscure mechanics that FFT had and I think it might be a better game for it. This does not mean the game is perfect though, although after having played for over 100 hours, I can safely say that it is a game worthy of a lot of praise.
Music/Sound: The music has not gotten stuck in my head the same way that FFT did, but that doesn't detract from the quality that is here. While the number of different tracks and tunes is rather limited, the battle music is catchy and never gets reptitive and annoying. The overworld and menu music all evoke a feeling of classic RPG's and are quite pleasant, if not outstanding. The sound effects are excellent though, each sword hit, gunshot and spell effect sound incredibly satisfying and fuel the addiction to grinding quite nicely.
Graphics/Art: This is always going to be subjective, and I've seen many people comment that they don't care for the art style and graphic design. I will say that I wasn't in love with many of the character portraits but I do think the in game models, monsters and environments look really fantastic. I wasn't a fan at first, but they really start to grow on you the more you play the game.
Gameplay: Ah here is the meat and potatoes. The job system is fantastic and greatly encourages experimentation and character building. Mastering any particular job doesn't take a very long grind to max out a class, and so you'll have plenty of time to switch things up and gain new skills as you play. Stat growths are determined by the classes you master and level in, so some planning ahead might be necessary on hard difficulty settings if you're looking to minmax the game. This really isn't required though, as even on a normal to medium level of difficulty, none of the story encounters and battles are so hard that you need to make broken characters to stand a chance. The game is classic tactics gameplay, movement on a grid, being able to scale up vertically, and having a variety of melee and ranged effects are going to be keys to victory. There is a bit of an over reliance on lethal terrain and pushing characters though, better hope your character can swim or hover or they might be one-shot by falling into water or lava. There is much more of an emphasis on buffs and debuffs compared to FFT here, and while many have mentioned that this might be too tedious or annoying to deal with; I personally didn't have much of a problem with it. The way items and weapons are handles is very nice, with some of the bet gear and accesories being crafted from rare components, or acquired out of a chest. I do wish there was just slightly more options for gearing that didn't simply amount to more stats, but that is a minor complaint over all. Items are not consumables, in the sense that you don't need to waste time buying new potions or phoenix downs after every battle. This is a nice feature, and is actually used in a way that balances the strength of items as you cant simply bring 99 elixirs with you to each battle.
The Story: Left a lot to be desired. Very tropey, and a bit predictable. Nothing can compare to the masterpiece of story that was FFT, but I really was hoping for more here. They give you a lot of plot early on in the game, and then over half of the game is just trailing behind the bad guys and fighting the same braindead group of bad guys over and over until near the end when the story begins to move forward again. It really would have been nice if they fleshed out the history of the world a bit more, have us more insight into the immortals, arbiters and how the world functions. Instead we are just given enough to have a skeletal framework of a story that ends with you fighting a big bad that is just kind of... there?
All that being said, I absolutely loved this game and would highly recommend it to any tactics fan, or even just an RPG player in general.

If you like Final Fantasy Tactics, Divinity, Baulders gate, icewind dale, and other games like this then I highly recommend this game. I beat a lot of these kind of games as a kid and the key is always patience. I do however have a few qualms with this game I'd like to address, but I like to start with the good.
The game runs amazing on my Steam Deck, the combat is a lot like Final Fantasy Tactics and with my limited time in the game I can definitely tell they improved on all the aspects of the game tremendously. I love the spell system, the injury system is also ingenious in my opinion. The different way to build your team is also definitely a treat. If you want a challenge, I know this game can offer one. I have almost no issue with the gameplay itself since I just wanted a final fantasy tactics system and this definitely delivered.
Now for the bad. The animations are pretty much garbage. A few frames of reactions, you can definitely do better. The graphics could do with some improving as well, I can tell they use 2D style over 3D but there is a reason we all don't play Atari anymore. If they added some cool animations then I'd definitely find myself wanting to play this over Wasteland 3. When I cut someone with an axe, I want to feel like I cut them with an axe. I want to hear a cry of pain, see blood, see them kneel over and think about their life choices before challenging me. Instead, I get 2 frames and an "oof". Even final fantasy tactics did better in that regard and for a $30 game, I expect more. I think this aspect is what you guys need to focus on the most. The cry you get in Final Fantasy Tactics PS1 when you kill someone, I want you to surpass that. There was nothing better than hearing that sound to me as a kid. If you guys improve that, you got yourselves a best seller. Not the combat, not the graphics, not the balance. Just the feeling you get when you slice, kill, and blow up your enemies. That's all I think this game needs. That's the sauce this game was missing for me. To see an enemy just fade away when they die is very disappointing.
The music is a solid 10/10 though. Don't change that, it's perfect.
I want the option to speed up animations as well. I'd like the character change screen to be faster. I'd like more voice overs and just overall more polish. The graphics itself is great though and I'm not asking you to remake the whole thing. That would mean making a second game and I promise you this: I'll buy it. Make that shit 3D if you do. Just look at how well Risk of Rain did when they sprinkled some 3D on that game.
Now you may be curious is this game grindy? Yes, it can be. Is this game extemely strategic? Oh yes, it can be. I'm a veteran on these kind of games and I can already tell I can play this like a Spartan system. Spartans used to stay close, move in slowly, and keep all their flanks covered at all times. Even at the very beginning I caught myself making mistakes in this regard and taking unnecessary injuries in characters I don't want injured. Ask yourself who do you want to have injuries and the game becomes totally different.
This game is beautiful, simplistic, and utterly relaxing. I smoke some legal weed, I spend some time playing it.
If you are new to these kind of games, play it on easy and breeze through it. I know it's going to be fun for you and enjoyable. Once I beat some other games like Wasteland 3, Boulders gate 3, and Divinity 2. I'm probably going to come to this game and beat it too.
If you beat Final Fantasy Tactics or just loved the game, buy this game full priced. I beat almost all the tactics games except for the GBA game. I got like halfway through it. If I had to rate this game just for it's Tactics system appeal type of games, this game is literally the best hands down. I'd say this is probably the most balanced kind of strategy game you'll find and I did spend a good hour researching it.
Buy it, play it, or don't. But if you actually read my review, it means you want this shit.

Was fun enough for me to 100% it. That means it's good. Although rng can induce rage from time to time when you miss several 90+% hits in a row on a guy that proceeds to murder one of your own next. Comes with the genre I guess.

Wonderful game, AI actually uses tactics that a human would use (super annoying to have enemies constantly healing... like a human would do)

I cannot recommend this game enough. I'm only part of the way into the story and I love it. It's extremely evident it borrows inspiration from Final Fantasy Tactics and FFT Advance and I LOVE that. There are many many classes and tons of abilities to learn (and yes, there is some overlap but I think that's totally fine). If you like tactical RPGs with a lot of room for growth, some great systems in place, this is a high, high recommendation.

For lovers of tactical RPGs, this game is for you. If you grew up playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, or Tactics Ogre, you will love immersing yourself in this world. The animation is hand-drawn, and it is story-driven.