So I just finished playing this wonderful hack about an hour ago three hours ago, and I have plenty to say about mostly the story beats and how I felt they strung together. I guess I'll go in chronological order, so here we go.
I really like the addition of a political map to situate the countries on the continent of Velhari so we get a general idea of where everything stands. Clearly the map is in its infancy as it is... rough in its current state, and there aren't any actual country names or borders, but I know that will eventually get resolved somewhere down the line.
So now we'll jump ahead to when Seneca and Sebastian start scheming to overthrow Kalvesta. Previously, Seneca immediately tells Sebastian that he will remove her from power and ascend the throne, and he came across as kind of a power hungry asshole. Now, it was Sebastian who was the one who had to convince him that a coup would be the best for their country, and Seneca eases into the idea after some prodding. I prefer that in this iteration of the game, Seneca comes across as a reluctant antagonist who first needed to be coaxed by Sebastian into taking action, and I feel this makes him seem more like a misguided patriot than an egomaniac that thirsts for power like a typical Fire Emblem villain.
Skipping ahead a little, I find the scene where Kalvesta is dethroned to be leagues better than the previous version. I absolutely love that when Seneca is meeting with Dahl and Matteo, they explicitly state that if Kalvesta will head their council, they will renege from their plan to overthrow her. This meeting made me love Matteo as a character, as before he was kinda just there helping Seneca take the throne. In this version, he seems like an intelligent military commander, which is what he is, acting more as a voice of reason who compliments the changes to Seneca that make him more noble in his dealings with Kalvesta. He has a more defined personality now, and I just can't resist loving intelligent and reasonable "villains" in games.
So they go to her chambers and are stopped by Nero and Sofia, and I like the small steps taken to make Seneca less edgy and more of a cunning personality. I think removing his little inner monologue complete with "I don't have time for this..." was a sound decision. Also having the guard tell both of them that as Seneca is an adviser to the queen and thus must be let inside instead of just saying "I have more authority than you!" is a nice touch. Seneca's interaction with Kalvesta was my favorite part of the entire game, because there's more dialogue present to not make it feel like Seneca just waltzed in, cried like a little bitch to Kalvesta, got told off, then just killed her. Instead, Seneca implores Kalvesta to heed the advice of Dahl and Matteo first before anything drastic is said. But best of all, Seneca now has a reason to lose his cool. In his mind, he has done everything in his power to make the Queen see his arguments and realize the severity of the situation they are in with Arynden conducting a war in all but name. To him, she is directly responsible for the deaths of her own people out of inaction on her part, and in return he is quite impressively told to know his place by Kalvesta, who insists that everyone around her is wrong and that she knows best. Now the player can empathize with Seneca as he gives his Accountability Speech, like "Yeah, she should be accountable to her people that are dying because of her!" He seems more legitimized in going berserk when he does, the player feels his frustrations. Then he kills her, and whereas before he was just like "Oh, she's dead. Damn. Oh well, on with the plan!" now Seneca is freaking out about what he just did, and it makes him seem like less of a bastard. This scene sent chills down my spine when I saw it the first time, it was that damn good. Then he comes up with a plan to spread rumors that Kalvesta is ill so that they can cover up her death and prevent anyone from knowing about it. So in my mind, I thought that would mean that Belle wouldn't learn about her mother's death until later, and that she would continue thinking that her mother was alive. But then...
Then Kelan shows up and says "Hey, Seneca killed your mom, she's totally dead." And this didn't make sense to me. Seneca was trying to cover up Kalvesta's murder so that nobody, ESPECIALLY Belle, would know about it. But then, a minute later, and Belle knows that she died? What? I thought the plan would be to have Belle fight thinking that her mother was alive and that she needed to rescue her or something like that, only to discover that, surprise, she's been dead for weeks, and this revelation would come later in, like, the endgame or something. Same thing with Owen and Sawyer, when they meet "Hughes" he told them that the Queen was just sick, bedridden. Then, when it's revealed that he's really Mustang, he up and tells them that the Queen is dead! Why would he tell them that? More importantly, how would he know that? Seneca personally sent Mustang to deal with Owen and Sawyer, and he didn't want anybody to know that he killed Kalvesta, so why did he tell Mustang? At this stage in the story, it seems inconsistent that Seneca both wants to keep Kalvesta's death a secret, yet goes around telling everyone that she's dead by his hand. I'd like to know, is this something that's going to change in future iterations of the story? Or will Kalvesta's death be a secret to everybody like it is now?
That was the one big issue I had with the story, that inconsistency, although there are a few more things to touch upon. Owen and Regina's conversation is still bugged, he didn't converse with her. I also remember him having a conversation with Marcius that wasn't in the build, so I'm guessing another bug. I like how Owen and Sawyer are barons now, I hardly knew anything about the type of "Lord" they were supposed to be, so that bit of clarity was nice. I really like the change to the ending scene with Federica. Previously, Federica suddenly turned manipulative and exploited the law about succession to gain control of Fortuita, Sawyer was a whiny and temperamental baby all of a sudden, and Owen was kind of an asshole outright telling her "We are not friends, merely allies" in that threatening tone. Now, her claim to the throne seems more legitimate, seeing as how she has the letter and all, Sawyer still walks out on her, but without totally losing his shit and lashing out on Federica, and Owen seems more cool-headed too, giving her the benefit of the doubt and not badmouthing her. Federica seemed just a bit less manipulative, until the final scene where she's talking to herself and, uh oh, she's scheming something! What could it be? Play through and find out! I really like that. On a related note, monarchs don't "retire," they abdicate. Maybe replace the instances of "retire" with "abdicate?" I think it sounds a bit more era appropriate. Also, the guy with the Dragon Axe in 1-F, for some reason, did effective damage against not just Kate, but also Sawyer! You trying to tell me something? Sawyer half dragon confirmed! In the case that it is a bug, I hope your can fix that, because my Sawyer was blindsided by that and totally died. And as an aside, I love that level twenty now gives you a perfect level up, just a nice gesture for people who managed to get to the level cap. And if your unit's been getting nothing but shitty grows, seeing that would definitely put a smile on your face.
So yeah, this was my ramblings about Staff of Ages as it stands, I hope some of this babbling can be of some use and if not, oh well! I still had a blast playing this game and am looking forward to what the future has in store for it.
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