Can anybody write up a Tear Ring Saga review?

[foxstar74]

Hi guys, project organizer for the Tear Ring Saga Translation Project here! I was wondering if anybody could post on gamefaqs or on here a review for the actual game itself, considering that we've had reports here of people managing to finish the game with the translation patch (granted some workarounds around map 19). How would you score it out of 10 (the game, not the translation), and how would you rate it in comparison to other Fire Emblem games? :)

[Integrity]

I'll write plenty once I finish it, which I probably will over this week. Is there some deadline you're trying to meet?

[Icon of Sin]

Pff translation patches.

The game is quite good. Longer than an average Fire Emblem game with 40 main chapters and a bunch of encounters (think skirmishes in FE8, but forced). Story is about the same quality as a FE game, if not a bit better since you have 2 distinct characters you must play with. I'd say the music is probably a bit better as well. Runan's route is very straightforward while Holmes' route allows you to fight monsters repeatedly, which is great if you liked that in FE2/8. The game isn't especially challenging since enemy stats tend to remain poor and there's a few ways to break the game, such as infinite skirmishes, a duplication glitch and personnal weapons more broken than in FE5.

Most skills and classes are taken straight from FE, so they shouldn't be too different, but there's a few new skills to add some diversity. Other interesting things include a FE4 style system to add criticals to weapons, ccomplete with mundane (but costly) repair hammers if you don't want to waste your precious Hammerne uses. There's supports, but closer to FE5 in style, so don't expect C-B-A conversations every chapter.

Definitely worth a try. If you like FE, especially the earlier games and FE8, I don't see why you wouldn't like this game.

Edited August 12, 2012 by Dio

[BBM]

Another thing that I really like about TRS compared to other games I've played is that the secondary characters don't just disappear from the script after their recruitment chapter. Many of them have conversations with each other after every chapter.

[dondon151]

it's too easy 3/10

also pretty slow which is annoying

Edited August 13, 2012 by dondon151

[Rapier]

It's got an average story in my opinion, not as good as the other FEs but good enough. I thought the staff would have developed the formula a bit, but instead they went back to the FE2/3 formula and developed it instead, which disappointed me a bit. It's also really slow, as dondon said.

Still, I give it a 7/10. The gameplay itself is a messy idea, just like all the other FEs prior to 6, but it's still fun.

[Big Klingy]

I have the same views as most of the people above, but anyway, here's my opinion on the game.

Story: 6/10

The plot is pretty average, so I would normally give it a 5, but I do give it credit for trying to subvert as many cliches of the 'typical FE3 plot' as it can. Some of the characters, especially the enemies, turned out to be VERY different that I would have suspected. For one:

the Caanan Empire, built up as your typical FE antagonist nation, turns out to be practically an entire army of Anti-Villains.

And I won't spoil any more. But yeah, even the enemies kinda get character development.

Music: 7/10

Again, pretty average. There are a few standout songs, but most are sadly underused. And one or two of the map themes can get really annoying due to how much they're spammed. (I'm thinking '4th Corps' here) But not bad, per say.

Characters: 9/10

As said above, non-main characters don't disappear from the plot after recruitment, and you get a lot of conversations between chapters for character development. And some goes in surprising directions... Also, don't think you're done with character development after the final map, there's quite a bit of significant events in the semi-playable epilogue. Though there are no supports, pretty much everyone gets a chance for a conversation. Also, well over half the characters have links to significant NPCs, which is another nice touch. And there are some who have very... personal reasons for wanting to take down certain bosses. Hell, I'd go so far as to say the character development here is probably better than the average FE.

Gameplay: 8/10

Solid, but not the best in the series. Balance on units is pretty good, late-joining units tend to either have Elite or some unique utility that makes them immediately useful, and there are few truly awful units stat-wise. (Judging by dialogue, Marchen is probably a deliberate joke character) Most skills are the same as FE4/5, with some exceptions.

The game draws most of its 'feel' from Gaiden, including controling two parties. Once you get the chance to split, Runan's route plays more like a traditional FE, moving from one chapter to the next with more intense battles against human soldiers, while Holmes' route plays out like Sacred Stones, with repeatable monster encounters and re-visitable shops on the world map. That means there's generally more EXP to be had over on his route, but Runan's maps are usually harder, so you need to balance who you send to each party.

A few notes for people familiar with the series:

1: In this game, it's often beneficial to promote before Lv 20. Certain characters only learn certain skills in their promoted classes, and level is not reset after promotion, so promoting late sometimes causes you to miss useful skills. (I learnt this the hard way with Narron, missing his Blazing Wind)

2: Doubling is much, MUCH harder in this game. The AS margin you need is certainly greater than in FE (I believe it's 5 at the very least) and weapon weight is higher all round, and there's no way to mitigate it. Expect Lance users to have negative AS often. Though since your enemies often do too, it's still possible to double sometimes.

Difficulty: 4/10

It's not a hard game. There are one or two annoying chapters (Runnan 26B and 34 come to mind) and a certain boss who can cause trouble. (Though he's pretty much the only thing remotely hard about his map, and it's more due to those DAMN NPCS WITH MUG MAKING IT REEEEEEEEEEEALY HARD TO HIT THE BASTARD!) There are a lot of broken weapons and game-breaking setups, particularly those skill teachers in Map 30, who can turn just about anyone in Holmes' team into unstoppable death machines. Also, item duplication (though I never used that) and infinite exp.

Lasting Appeal: 8/10

With 40 Maps in all, not including random encounters, the game is pretty massive. There's plenty of characters to train, and with you only being able to get 2 of Marlon's men on any given run (and all of them have unique events throughout the story) you have some incentive to replay the game and see everyone. Pretty good, actually.

Translation:

I'm going to have to split this into three.

Chapters 1-10: 9/10

Absolutley excellent, felt like I was playing a proffesionally localized game. Great job!

From there till Reunion 3: 5/10

Quality goes downhill, but it's still understandable.

Reunion 3 to Ending: 3/10, (8/10 for comedy value)

lolengrish. Seriously, I was crying from laughter after Holmes' series of Katri flashbacks. And then some really important backstorty becomes an incomprehensible mess. Argh! But the final chapter was actually a lot better (by comparison), and roughly came back to the midgame standards above. So sort of hit and miss.

Overall I didn't enjoy it as much as my favourite FEs, but it was a nice distraction. I probably liked it as much as I did Sacred Stones. (and I'm not one of the fans who despises that game, for the record) Definately give it a try now that the patch is out.