Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark is a turn-based sRPG that originally released into early access in late 2018 and then received a full release on April 30th, 2019. I didn’t pursue a key for this game when it first came out, believing my lack of experience with Final Fantasy Tactics—which obviously inspired it—to be a handicap, but Tactics V: “Obsidian Brigade” showed me that I could get into this kind of sRPG gameplay regardless. Now, I wouldn’t normally cover something 8 months old since that’s not old enough to be classic and not new enough to be immediately relevant, meaning there’s virtually no search traffic benefit to doing so, but A.) I’m so burned out by how economically unviable this site has been over the years that I find it hard to fret about optimization anymore, B.) I was asked to by someone who sent me a nice email, and C.) I adore sRPGs.

There are a couple of minor red flags right off the bat. Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark is evidently too shy to take over the screen, so it begins unfocused on my PC for whatever reason, resulting in a black screen with a cursor that doesn’t end until you hit the windows key and click on its icon at the bottom of the screen. I’ve seen games that immediately minimize when opening, but an unfocused black screen is definitely a new one.

The second minor red flag occurs at the end of the beginning cutscene. Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark explains that centuries prior, seven heroes defeated a fearsome beast known as The Maw, becoming immortal as a result (for some reason) and establishing the Council of Immortals. There are too few of them to maintain order everywhere at once, though, so they use subordinates known as Arbiters to enforce their seemingly benevolent will. It’s very similar to how things worked in Tyranny: as the executors of a higher power, Arbiters can act as judge, jury, and executioner.

The problem comes at the end of the cutscene when it’s revealed that the Order of Arbiters have become corrupted, only for the next line to muse about whether there’s a threat like The Maw still around. I’m pretty sure that the intent is to suggest that Arbiters won’t be unified and selfless enough to rise to the challenge should a true threat arrive, or possibly imply that they themselves are the next great threat thanks to how corrupted they’ve become, but it doesn’t transition between the thoughts in a natural way, causing it to sound like a non sequitur. I’ve played for about an hour and a half at this point and the dialogue has been fine thus far, but I’m going to be keeping my eye on it anyway because games that don’t transition between thoughts well tend to have Final Fantasy XIII-esque moments that are like, “and then god exploded and died but was still technically alive, and then you were saved as a result.” Ideally, it’ll prove to be an isolated issue and not a larger writing problem.

Like most Final Fantasy Tactics-inspired games, Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark goes hard into its class system. Your characters gain experience in various classes that can then be spent on new attacks and equippable perks (some of which you can carry over into a new class), and I’ve already half-unlocked most characters’ starting class upgrades. Combat itself is a bit on the slow side, but the rate at which you unlock new abilities greatly benefits the pacing. I’m also incredibly amused by the visual customization. Not only can you customize the appearance of new units purchased through guilds, but that same customization can be applied to existing characters. I currently have a pantless wizard because a mostly-naked guy running around slinging fire spells is inherently amusing. It’s also worth mentioning that recruited characters can have their level bumped up by spending gold (500 gold per level) to maintain parity with the rest of your team. All things considered, Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark is off to a strong start.

Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark – Day 1: Classy strategy first appeared on Killa Penguin