Tacthack Review

PREAMBLE
 - While list of critiques and reactions is extensive, it is by no means complete or comprehensive.
   - Furthermore, the existence of a critique does not necessarily imply that whatever is addressed should be fixed.
     - For example, I think the early chapters of the hack are too easy/slow, but maybe you want it that way
   - Additionally, the amount of critiques contained within do not reflect a negative view of the hack.
     - Because, to be explicit, the demo overall is great.
 - My TactHack folder: https://www.dropbox.com/s/seky0nwawud68ly/TactHack.rar?dl=0
   - Includes screenshots taken, a .txt version of this review, and the .gba/.sav files of the hack itself.

TL Note: When I say "mountains", likely in the map critiques, I'm usually refering to a group of Peak tiles.

OPENING
 - Unless you plan on using it, there's a way to disable the opening title on FEU.
 - I always find arbitrary changing the names of months (and days) to be an odd design choice, since it just serves to alienate the player unless it is an integral part of the story.
   - However, it seems to be part of the world building here, so it could work.

PROLOGUE
 - Weird transistion from "Er. Excuse me..." to next scene.
 - After [Tact] first appears, the ship's register's line is missing an [A]
 - The opening scene does a good job of establishing what each of your party members are like, good job.
 - MAP CRITIQUES
   - The front of the ship has two flowing water tiles on each side that just look out of place (they're light blue)
   - The stairs you start next to are designed weird. Are they supposed to be heading downwards? Sadly, the tiles probably only work when they head upwards.
   - A lot of the Deck tiles are inconsistent and have randomly darker outlines. All I can suggest is look at each one and see if it needs fixing
   - The shadows on the left of the boat are inconsistent. I'd suggest changing them all to be short shadows so it fits in with the barrel-in-shadow tile
     - Basically take the tile below the barrel on the second deck and use it for the whole left side
   - The barrel on the second deck and the mast are both missing shadows
   - You may want to used the curved wood tile to connect the back of the ship to the side. See FE7's ship map and follow the edge of the ship to see what I'm talking about
   - The Vendor being next to the stairs is weird from a unit-movement perspective, since you can move between them but they're at different elevations
     - Maybe fix by moving the Vendor to the far left instead?
   - I feel like you could try and touch up the ocean tiles a bit, but I doubt most players will care.
 - I just noticed that the mt and hit values of Iron Lances are adjusted, assumedly to make room for a Bow buff.
 - You can access Merch immediately, which is cool, but you also see Coster immediately, which is weird. Don't know how you'd fix that without making the portrait generic.
 - GAMEPLAY
   - Enemies have luck. I like this already..
   - I like this map's setup. It's fitting for a prologue; Nice and simple.
   - I missed a 91%. Shit hack.
 - After the battle, Algimas' sprite disappears from the map.
 - When Algimas praises Yarn, he's missing an [A] in his speech.
 - Kurtis is still not a little kid dammit.

CHAPTER 1
 - Haylyn's "We need to get those supplies to port" sounds...unfitting when people are potentially dead.
 - The enemies appear out of nowhere, but it sorta works since it's surprise attack. I like that they all come out of forest tiles.
 - I do like how Bows and Lances have switched places, but maybe consider buffing them additionally, as they still lack an enemy phase.
   - After playing through the rest of the hack, maybe this is balanced out by Celia being amazing. Might want to buff Boleslav, though.
 - Some of the enemies in this chapter are called Thugs and others are Bandits and it's driving me insane.
 - MAP CRITIQUES
   - This map needs plenty of touching up. There are a lot of tiles that look out of place. Just to list some of them:
     - For example, in the left-middle of the map, inside the circle of trees, there are two light grass tiles that end suddenly on their right and left
     - Another example is the tile that the left Mercenary starts on
     - There's also more subtle stuff, like one of the forests near the Thickets to the right cutting off early
     - The path under the top Mercenary cuts off early
   - The water tiles to the right of the map are actually River tiles. Maybe try to find replacement Lake tiles.
   - I do like how the yellow path isn't a solid line
 - When you hover the cursor over Thicket tiles, two black dots appear in the objective box (to the left of Defeat Enemy)
   - This happens for us too, though, so I think it's part of Vanilla FE7
 - Haylyn seems to still be using Serra's map sprite. Not like you have an alternative, though.
   -She's also not wearing a Coif but uses the generic Cleric animation. Magic try the less-religious animation on FEU?
 - GAMEPLAY
   - I like the little touches that Kurtis and Tact both start with an E in their weapon ranks
   - I also just noticed that Algimas doesn't have prf. Since there's no reason for him to have one, that's cool.
     - Further playing renders this a good choice.
   - Martel's palette as an enemy doesn't have a good outline.
   - I feel like all the enemies rushing you at the start, combined with the strong upper-left Archer, means you either have to play defensively or sacrifice some kills to Ernst. Take that as you will.
   - I like Martel's recruitment, but I feel like you could emphasis the importance of the supplies at the beginning of the chapter a bit more.
     - Right now them being "vital to people's survival" comes out of left field.
   - Did you increase the rate at which staves give exp? That's a smart change.
     - The problem with this, of course, is that it's pretty easy to rack up exp for Haylyn by waiting around and healing minor wounds. Maybe give less exp?
     - After furthur playing, Haylyn and Elaine reach level 20 way earlier than anyone else.
   - After the initial rush of enemies, the map is pretty much "move slowly forward and lure out all the enemies"
   - Boswin is pretty easy because you can just weaken him with Ernst. But it's only Ch 1, so maybe that isn't a problem.
 - There's nothing with Martel at the end of the chapter, which is kinda lame.
   - This gets especially weird if Haylyn is dead by the end of the chapter. Does Algimas just accept Martel in the blink of an eye?

CHAPTER 2
 - During the opening journal text, the blue arrow escapes the box. Maybe remove "effort."?
 - The talk between Aceline and the moustache generic has some weird lines.
   - "Let us not be impatient, but yes I shall cut to the chase." Maybe break it into two clauses and remove the "yes"
   - "cede this manor to anyone much less Lord Richard." You should add a comma between "anyone" and "much"
 - Maybe show off Boleslav at the beginning of the chapter, so his appearance isn't out of the blue
 - It's weird how Heavy Cavaliers have the Lance Cavalier map sprites, but can't use Lances. Might want to fix that.
 - Maybe change one of the outside Great Knights to whatever the promotion of Light Cavaliers is. Just so the player gets a preview of both.
 - I'm glad all the castle enemies are consistently thugs
 - I also like that, as of now, Bervinnian units have the same description as thugs. Nice touch.
 - MAP CRITIQUE
   - There's just three giant roads in the bottom-right of the map that look really weird
   - There's some patches of grass you could fix in the upper-right
   - The right side of the castle's outline is way too green. I think it'd look better as the regular shadow.
   - I don't think a cracked wall counts as a secret exit, Aceline, but whatever you say
   - I get that the lower set of stairs in the armory are supposed to be upwards steps to the floor "below" it, but it still looks weird. Not much you can do, though.
 - GAMEPLAY
   - I feel it'd help signify that the lower floor is an armory if it had chests and you had enemies on both routes drop Chest Keys.
   - Aceline starts with an E in both of her weapon ranks? I feel like she should start with a D in one.
     - Even if you've buffed Knights by giving them Bows, remember that they're still held back by their 4 move. No reason to discourage using them more.
     - Especially when you already have two Lance users, and just got a Bow unit.
     - Having her start at level 4 is nice, though.
   - Boleslav being strong and able to take a hit is nice, very different from the usual early-game Archer.
   - I know you made them different, but Kurtis and Aligmas still seem pretty similar at the start. Maybe make their base differences more extreme, as long as it doesn't kill the balance.
   - I really like how the Mage is positioned just right to attack you if you're near the Knights. Good design.
   - I also like how the soft-timer of Bervinnian units makes the immobile stair Knights actually threatening.
   - Just noticed that Martel starts at an E rank too. So this is clearly an intentional design choice.
   - The castle door just sorta opens on its own
     - Maybe make an event where one of the Bervinnian units walks up to the door and then activate the map event
   - None of the Bervinnian units have luck. I hope this isn't the same later on
   - I was going to complain about the outside height not being consistent because of the stairs, but the crack breaks into stairs. Well done.
 - Algimas should say "Quick, into the woods!" instead.
 - Sometimes "..."s have spaces after them, sometimes they don't. You should make that consistent.
 - Aceline's line "which I would gladly put to use in your service" needs a period.
   - Also Algimas comes off as sort of a dick in the previous line, or incredibly dense to not notice her house got burned down.
 - Glad Boleslav gets something after the chapter.

CHAPTER 3
 - Algimas' line "He's always mopey on guard duty if you haven't noticed." should probably have a comma between "duty" and "if"
 - To fix the start-of-chapter glitch, change thee FADU in the opening events to a FADI.
 - It'd be cool if Walter's description wasn't so plain.
 - Nice portrait change on Gerwulf.
 - MAP CRITIQUE
   - At the top of the map, there's a lot of jagginess where the cliffs meet the lake
     - There are also some ocean tiles, when I assume the body of water is meant to be a lake
   - The thicket at the bottom of the map, 9 tiles from the left cuts off early. Use one of the thickets to the left of it
 - GAMEPLAY
   - Funny how the Heavy Spear is basically Aligmas' prf because he's the only one who could wield it at this point, unless you funneled kills and battles into Kurtis.
   - Negu's line "if only Lani was here we could have won!" needs a comma between "here" and "we".
   - I like the upper house giving a bit of info on the two countries.
   - House to the left of your starting point: "changed three times since I'v[sic] been alive"
   - The start of the map is pretty mean design-wise: You got two high move enemies that control the weapon triangle between them.
     - And the one nearest to you has WTA against the majority of your units.
   - It's a questionable design choice to require Algimas to go left to recruit N&G, and then have the next enemies they naturally fight be axe-users.
     - Even if he could ORKO both of them.
   - If your inventory is full, the shop-keeper still asks to send it to Merlinus.
   - I like the town convo that alludes to the Christmas Fighters.
   - Compared to other minis, Walter's mini-portrait is tiny.
     - Same could be said for Boleslav.
   - Right now, the boss doesn't feel very threatening with his meager stats, an iron sword, and the fact that your strongest unit is a sword user and you just got two more.
     - Maybe give him a Steel Sword and increase his skill/luck to compensate for the loss of hit
     - And give him more con. He gets slowed to three (3) speed when he's using his Hand-axe
 - I really like the confidence of Algimas and the wary attitude of Tact in the closing scene

CHAPTER 4
 - The screen flashes the map before the text starts.
   - Instead of using OOBB, use FADI to create a black screen, load the forest background, and then FADU into it.
 - Sir Luck isn't subtle at all.
 - After the opening text ends, there's a suspiciously long load time before the prep screen shows up.
   - This is likely caused by you loading a bunch of enemy units, and the camera still being set to show enemies spawning. Use CMOF to turn it off
   - HOWEVER, you can just not load the enemies. They'll load by themselves when the prep screen is set up.
 - You also flash to the map really quickly when the load ends. Just FADI into the ENDB, it looks weird right now
 - MAP CRITIQUE
   - Overall, the map looks good, but quite a bit of Thickets/Forests cut off on the edges
     - The Thickets below the upper-left mountain is a good example
   - The upper-right part of the mountain cuts off too
 - GAMEPLAY
   - While I do like how complicated the opening is, Sven doesn't get a real good chance to shine because all the Lance enemies are guarded by Sword enemies.
     - Additionally, recruiting Sven puts Aligmas right in the range of a Fighter, which is a bit of weird design. At least he gets a forest too.
   - I like how your route through the map pivots around the center, so you can torch there to see more.
   - Why is there a Mage with Thunder in the chapter you get your first Drake Rider? That's just mean to Sven.
     - It's only made worse by the map being FoW, so you can't see the tome and its effectiveness ahead of time
   - There's a level one Archer on the left side of the map, and I don't think anyone could ever intentionally fight him.
     - You should probably just seal off the left side of the map with Thickets. It'd be a shame if a player trudged through the trees to win, avoiding the main force of enemies.
 - Tact says "It seems as we've broken the encirclement." Did you mean to have a "though" in their?
 - I really liked the "Algimas getting knighted" scene before, and I still do.
 - Aceline's line "some and they toss this prestige to" needs an [A] on the previous line.
 - Ernst says "Well it doesn't matter what happened, [Tact]" but Tact wasn't talking at all. Seems out of place, with the Aceline conversation before it.
 - [Tact]'s line "an order, the more lucrative jobs" needs an [A] on the previous line.

CHAPTER 4x
 - I'd use a recolored Messanger portrait, just for variety. This one was already used in Chapter 2.
 - During his blink, the left side of Algimas' face changes too much. Just look at the skin next to his outline on his half-blink.
 - "Meanwhile in the Kingdom of Ostreich" needs a comma after "Meanwhile"
 - Wayland doesn't talk at all during the first scene. For someone who is apparently a Lord, that's pretty weird.
 - "Most suspicious. It is most definitely a trap." I'd avoid reusing adjectives/adverbs within close proximity of each other. Just remove on of the "most"s.
 - There's another screen blink when the first dialogue ends. You've probably mixed up a FADU/FADI somewhere.
 - Another repeat "So we've been duped completely then." and "...Well, there's no need to keep hiding yourselves then."
   - Here it's the same structure, ending with "then"
 - The boss' lines should have better placement of [A]s. Put an [A] at the end of "by the likes of you." and remove the one after "This whole trap was my plan,"
 - Wayland's suddenly long line "No sir. He's too clever for his own good." is awfully verbose for a character we've only seen speak once.
   - I dunno if this is maybe part of his characterization, but it's pretty off-putting.
 - "Hmhm, then we shall give them a sound thrashing everyone?" is phrased really weird. Sounds like Vlad's asking an actual question.
   - Just swap the places of "we" and "shall"
 - MAP CRITIQUE
   - Some of the cliffs overlooking the lake look off. Look at the lake tiles to the right of your spawn.
   - The fields in general could use some cleaning up. Look at the jagged grass formations directly right of the your spawn
   - The mountain to the upper-left is broken in a lot of ways.
     - The green grass around the mountain doesn't match that of the whole map.
     - The top-left side of the mountain is out of place. There's random peaks even though that seems to be the downward side of the mountain
     - The bottom part of the mountain is generally incomplete and the ridges from the top don't properly end
     - I think one of the top tiles is just entirely green
   - The giant chest looks really out of place nex to all the tiny buildings. Dunno what you could do about that, though.
   - If you look at the Cliffs below Wayland and the Fighter next to him, there's some plain tiles with weird corners
   - Near the boss, there's some really green tiles. Maybe use those to connect the green mountain grass to the regular grass?
 - GAMEPLAY
   - The cursor doesn't start on Wayland and the status screen still shows Algimas, but there's a fix for that on FEU.
     - I found it: http://feuniverse.us/t/vennos-small-asm-hacks-and-notes/269/64
   - The boss Orland is serving Ostreich, but all the enemies are Zentrim? Shouldn't the enemies be Ostreich?
     - Also, the enemy name is "Zentirim" while their description says "Zentrim". Which is it?
   - The enemies here are very easy to kill. I get that maybe you don't want to the chapter to be too hard, but they're pushovers right now.
   - The Claymore is slightly heavier than Wayland can carry. Funny.
   - Also funny: Wayland doesn't have enough wexp to use the Iron Blade. At least Meila does.
   - You may want to change Wayland's animation. If I'm correct, it's based off Roy, who Wayland is likely larger than.
     - Basically, right now Wayland seems like a kid with his animation.
   - The chapter goal is to defeat all enemy units, but the chapter ends if you defeat Orland and other enemies are still alive.
 - Meila's description is missing a period.
 - Wayland talks in the ending dialogue, so he clearly isn't too reserved with his words. Maybe have him speak more in the opening?
 - I just realized I missed the Earth Seal. gg.

CHAPTER 5
 - Oh, okay, so Ostriech is part of Zentrim. It's still weird for the previous chapter's enemies to have varying alliances.
 - Algimas' line before "Still, he is quite the hard worker." needs an [A]
 - Clara and Aceline need to bond over putting up with royal feuds.
 - I'm glad [Tact] is cautious about this offer while Algimas is ready to assist. It creates a nice contrast.
 - Nice reminder that Horace is looking for Dark Mages, in his description.
 - MAP CRITIQUE
   - The path below Horace doesn't properly connect with the path leading into the city.
   - Maybe remove the grass edges on the tiles that the Fighter and Knight below you are standing on.
   - A lot of houses don't connect properly with the grass surrounding them, but it's not like there are tiles that do that. Maybe try to remove the grass instead.
 - GAMEPLAY
   - For this chapter, I benched
     - Kurtis. He had been getting too many skill level-ups and was generally underperforming compared to Algimas.
     - Gerwulf. His only level was pretty mediocre, and he seems generally worse than Sven in terms of mount, weapon rank, and stats.
       - In Gerwulf's defense, Sven got a pretty killer level to start things off.
     - Ernst. He's still plenty of levels higher than the rest of my army, and you get another sword user this chapter.
   - Pretty lame that Lightning is just a weaker version of Flux with a bit of crit.
   - Here's an idea: Move the Fighter and Knight below the army downwards, and make a locked door there instead, so you can't just waltz up to Horace and ignore everything else.
   - Another thing: Horace has a lot of trees at the edge of his range, which makes it very easy to lure him out by hiding in them, plus you get terrain bonus.
     - Maybe you want to remove the trees, so the player doesn't have even more of an advantage when facing Horace, or move them closer to him so he can take advantage of them as well.
     - Okay, so it turns out the boss doesn't move. That's somehow even worse. The first two non-guarding-something bosses of the game moved, why not Horace?
   - When you begin the chapter, the game pauses for a split-second on a darkened version of the map. Dunno if that's normal, you may want to look into that.
   - Beatrice's eyes close at the end of the dialogue, but it doesn't feel like it happens for a good reason, if you know what I'm saying. Is she hesistant to fight?
   - Sweet, some random prgs that are both too heavy for their character.
     - I like how [Tact]'s is 2-3 range.
     - Algimas' seems a bit boring, considering it's just a stronger Iron Lance, but it has effective damage to spice it up.
   - The Inn doesn't have an visit event, aww
   - Beatrice's mini-portrait seems bigger than everyone else's.
   - Chiara should have some units closer to her so her talk makes more sense.
     - Like, she's talking to some mercenary leader, but there's no one around her and no indication of who she's talking to.
     - Also, her portrait seems to be outlined differently than other units, compare how she looks to the other portraits in her convo.
   - Might want to change the generic potrait of Monks, they don't use staves.
     - Although, thinking about it, they're like that in vanilla FE7.
   - When killing a level 5 Soldier, level 4 Beatrice only gets 28 exp. But when she kills a level 5 Drake, she gets 33 exp.
     - I think this is because Soldier's class power is still set at 2, so definitely change that.
   - Chiara's palette is still so messed up as an enemy.
   - You think Horace is going to be threatening until you realized his Short Spear weighs him down to 6 AS.
     - And he's not even on a throne. And he can't even heal himself. What a wimp.
   - Just realized there were no enemies that would destroy the houses. Maybe add some Brigands to force the player to play faster.
 - Algimas should probably react to Clara suprising him sooner. She gets a rather lengthy comment out right now.
 - People not knowing how to write is my favorite way to contrast olden times with today. Love it.
   - Plus, [Tact] has been writing journals the whole time. Writing being an uncommon skill puts his/her intellect in perspective.
 - Algimas' brother is an armor smith? I swear Algimas better get some bitching armor.

CHAPTER 6
 - "[T]he force that was spotted..." nice passive voice, random soldier.
 - After Vincent's "We shall not let this castle fall!", there's a random [A]
 - When Algimas kills the other random Soldier, maybe you should have Algimas run into shot, have his portrait bounce, and then have the Soldier disappear. Just to make it look nice.
   - Or just show them on map?
 - Another glitch before the prep screen. I won't look into this one, but you probably have to FADI before ENDB.
 - MAP CRITIQUE
   - A lot of the paths, both yellow and light green, cut off at random places.
   - Aside from that, I like all the cliffs acting as walls
     - However, thinking about it, that makes the last background used, the one with all the trees, look weird. This is a more mountainous area.
 - GAMEPLAY
   - I kept the same people benched as last time, meaning I took along Chiara and Beatrice for this chapter.
   - The party being divided into two groups is a pretty neat idea.
     - I'd shame you for repeatedly splitting the party into two (this chapter and the one before) when you only have one healer, but I enjoy using Vulernaries.
   - I'm suspicious that all the Archers start with a C in Bows, when they're merely wielding Iron Bows. What are you planning?
   - Drake Riders still use Lances in their map sprite. I don't know if there's a public Axe map sprite out there, though.
   - I've noticed that, like vanilla FE7, enemies have 0 luck. You should give them some, either through natural growth or character bases.
   - Giving out an Axereaver when the Drakes start spawning, nice. Too bad Algimas is on the other side of the map.
   - You might want to STAL while the reinforcements are spawning, just so the player gets a good look at them.
   - Maybe it's just me playing fast, but I like how the main-castle reinforcements were timed right so they'd be out when the two parties were close to joining together.
     - But then Drake reinforcements, goddammit.
   - You should set up an AREA trap so that once the player gets close enough to the main castle, more reinforcements spawn from there.
   - Vincent's battle quote reads "Come! Break your weapons upn[sic] me!"
   - Might want to give Vincent a Delphi Shield or Full Guard, he's still vulnerable to arrows
 - When Magnus blinks, the color of his headband changes.
 - Good speech, but I especially like the part where Algimas and [Tact] admit that they're just there because of the money.
 - Jormund looks huge, so good job on that.

CHAPTER 7
 - "If you find the warden end him," should probably have a comma between "warden" and "end", and also end with a period.
 - Another messy fade away. Probably mixed up your FADI with a FADU.
 - When Algimas finishes the scripted battle, the unit he killed temporarily reappears, and then both enemies disappear. It looks very odd.
 - You probably should either swap Aceline and Nilda's classes, or adjust their portraits for their current ones.
   - Nilda looks incredibly bulky for Solider, while Aceline looks rather under-armored for a Knight
 - Also, Nilda's mini-portrait looks very odd. It's messed up like Boleslav's
 - MAP CRITIQUE
   - In the lower left-hand corner of the map, maybe have the walls not visually end at the edge of the map.
   - I don't know if it's possible to fix the horizontal stairs and keep the current layout of the map, but give it a shot.
   - It's a bit weird that the room with the Soldier, Knight, and Archer is visually "over" Robert's room when they're both on the start Z-height
   - The walled off area above the boss room just looks odd, though I can't say why. Maybe fill it in instead of leaving it empty?
   - Otherwise, I really like the look of this map. It seems more polished than the others.
 - GAMEPLAY
   - Ah, perhaps Archers start with a base C in Bows because Longbows are prf locked to Archers/Snipers.
   - I like how you've limited the Player's access to Steel weapons, so far.
   - I've kept the same people benched for this chapter, and benched Beatrice too.
     - Even though it's hinted that high-res units will be helpful this chapter, I don't see any Monks and her levels were not the kind I like.
   - A little thing I noticed: Often, the camera doesn't start on Algimas and his units. Maybe have a turn one CAM1 event that does that while the screen is black.
   - I like Robert's duping scene. A little twist on expectations.
   - I don't know if one would count this as a problem: But the Cleric near the upper Soldier (the one with the Door Key) didn't go heal him when he was at 50% health.
     - But getting enemies to heal each other in a smart order isn't the easiest thing, so I sympathize.
   - Shit Nilda calm the fuck down.
     - Also, you should use a female Soldier for her, or at least make the crit more spectacular.
   - I don't really like the design of Algimas needing to recruit a unit at the very top of the map and a unit at the very bottom of the map.
     - Maybe other characters can recruit them, but there was no indication that I picked up on.
     - Of course, it isn't that bad if you plan ahead with mounted units. So I guess it would be alright if you had a visible time limit.
   - I rather like the Robert recruit talk
   - Not so much Nilda's recruit. Nothing about her countenance or description lends to her being so excited-sounding.
   - Seere has so much utility, I love it.
   - I like the timing of the stair reinforcements with the 2nd mage reinforcements.
     - I was in the center of the map, so I sorta had to retreat to be prepared for both.
     - Why does this wuss of a Merc have a Slim Sword?
     - I'd maybe look into the balance of your enemies. This Cavalry is so much better than this Soldier it's not even funny. Then again autolevel can be misleading.
   - For a Sage, this guy has a lot of Defense. But that isn't too bad considering he's not on a throne.
 - While general dude critiquing Algimas is a regular "You're too brash" lesson, I like how he calls out Yarn on being too generic with his strategies.

CHAPTER 8
 - Another weird transition to begin the chapter, another likely mixup of FADI/FADU
 - You give two more units the last chapter, but don't increase the deployment limit? Harsh.
   - I kept Nilda and Robert benched.
   - I was thinking about benching Boleslav, but even if you get another Archer this chapter he'll be helpful if the fliers get any ideas.
 - Should've bought more Heal, I only got 10 charges in this one.
   - Combined with how Haylyn is nearly 18 while everyone else is 9-10, definitely lower how much exp Heal gives. Too easy to get Haylyn to high levels
 - MAP CRITIQUE
   - Oh good lord these mountains are all sorts of messed up. I'd dedicate a night to just fixing them up.
     - I like the river the upper one creates, though.
   - You could probably find a more convincing tile for when the river becomes a lake.
     - Speaking of which, the river is flowing right, but the lake is flowing left. What's up with that? Probably should switch the direction the lake flows.
   - The yellow and light green paths also generally cut off at weird places
   - And the cliffs near the lake are often mismatched with the tiles around them.
   - There are even some forests near your spawn that cut off too early.
   - Forget spending a night on fixing mountains, I'd spend a day on polishing up this map. It's a mess right now.
 - GAMEPLAY
   - I'm very confused as to why the enemies near the start of the chapter are underleveled, but whatever.
   - Dammit, I was rushing with Negu and Sven to get Celia, but she auto-joins with Wayland and co.
   - All these Fighters don't need to be level 4-5, give Wayland and co. some credit.
     - I do like the mini-challenge of keeping them off the mountains, though.
   - I also like how the lower-left Pegs and Wyvern move near the edge of the peaks, close enough to attack your units but far enough to be hard to hit.
   - Does the level 9 Knight with the Steel Lance about midway through the map just not move? Pretty pathetic if that's the case and he has no 1-2 range.
   - Enemies at low health, likely because of Foskey's units, retreat to the castles near Gio to heal. The same castles reinforcements spawn from.
     - To fix this, I suggest having the Cavs move off the castles they spawn on. That way, they'll spawn even if someone is on the castle.
     - Also, the reinforcements are pretty low leveled. Are level 4-5 Cavs really suppose to threaten my level 11 units?
   - I gotta say, immobile enemies without 1-2 range are not as threatening as you seem to think they are, especially if you have no time limit.
     - I, of course, refer to the cavs near Gio.
   - There's a lack of space after the ':' in the girl's explanation of the Gods
     - Also, while I do like the houses set up near Foskey, they're a bit of a nuisance to get to (courtesy of the castles in the way).
     - Additionally, the far-left one is pointless (as if the player wouldn't notice the village) and the furthest left one is sorta filler.
   - On a related note: Maybe add some more trees to the right of the Village and start a Brigand there, so the player has a timer to get the Talisman.
     - Alternatively, start a Pirate in the water.
 - Maybe have some sort of noticable event, either with a text box or a long cut to black, to signify time has passed since [Tact] talked to Ernst.
   - The same could be said of the scenes after it. There's barely any time between Algi and [Tact] outside, then them inside with Wayland, and once again when they meet with Clara.
 - Rudolfo's face is messed up. Dude needs plastic surgery or something.

CHAPTER 9
 - Bad transition to the beginning of the chapter and all that.
 - The player gets five (5) new units in the previous chapter and you can't even give a single additional deployment slot? C'mon.
   - At least the last chapter had "The troops are tired" as an excuse.
 - I benched
   - Boleslav for Celia, since she far surpassed his speed and got some good starting levels
   - Haylyn for Elaine, since Haylyn is one heal away from level 19 and has an A in staves. Seriously, lower the exp Heal gives.
   - Just to be clear, my current party is: Algimas, [Tact], Martel, Aceline, Negu, Sven, Chiara, Elaine, and Celia.
 - I'm wary about the balance of Ernst and Vlad. Right now, Vlad seems to be strictly better with higher base str, con, res, and lck. Ernst only has 2 hp and spd on him, which doesn't seem that decisive.
   - Maybe Ernst has better growths, or the Myrm and Merc classes are sufficiently different, so this is just an idle thought.
 - Lani x Negu for life.
 - MAP CRITIQUE
   - As they are wont to do, all the mountain ranges need a lot of fixing up.
     - The group of peaks a couple tiles above and to the right of Warren look alright, but the rest need a lot of work.
     - And don't forget about the peaks above the upper-right village. They need work too.
   - While the "gates" in front of Warren are merely village tiles, it's a creative use of them. I like it.
     - Just a thought: Maybe try the brown Gate tiles (like the one Warren is standing on) instead and see how they look.
     - The mountains above the gates don't match with the standard mountain color, but I think that's in vanilla FE7
   - The light green grass tiles need fixing as well, all of them cut off in some place.
   - The Thickets to the lower right don't match together properly.
     - There are two Thicket tiles that, in my opinion, work on their own, just fill the area up with those.
   - The yellow path in front of the upper-right village cuts off at the forest. Use a different village entrance tile, since I think there are multiple.
 - GAMEPLAY
   - It's a bit annoying to have to visit 4 separate shops to get everything you may want.
     - At least you get some new units that can visit the shops for you.
     - Also, the Shops don't sell Iron Bows. Don't know if this is intentional or not, since the shops sell the rest of the Iron weapons.
   - While I do enjoy varying the gender of enemies, it'd help if the Female Mercenary wasn't just the Male Merc with worse stats and less con.
     - Same goes for the Female Archer, although her stats could just be worse because autolevel.
   - Pretty cruel, giving the player their first peg right when ballistas get involved.
     - In addition to plenty of Wyvern reinforcements and a general lack of sword enemies. At least she has enough wexp for an Axereaver.
   - Having Aceline visit the Village makes it hard for her to catch up to the frontlines, but maybe I just play fast.
   - I'm a bit confused as to why the Fighter that chases after Melia moves forward another space after the scene is finished, but it's probably fine.
   - Kinda weird that the switch for the gates is located in a Village.
     - Maybe switch the village for the castle Warren is on, and then make Warren's castle a bigger castle.
       - Don't know if that'll work with the "Visit" command, though, so if it doesn't and this is the only thing that works, don't sweat it.
   - I'd be hesistent about sending Lani back to rescue Melia, because she'd get less kills/exp. But all the enemies are still level 6-8 so I guess that's good.
   - I gotta say, Rorick seems so much better than Odin it's not even funny. I know that I can't tell without seeing their growths and such, but that's my impression of them.
     - Rorick has higher str, spd, def, con, and starts at a higher level. Odin, on the other hand, seems like he may be as slow as Sven without the Wyvern and def to compensate.
     - In fact, Rorick almost seems like a straight upgrade to Martel at this point, with better str, def, and con, but they are different classes so that's less of an issue.
   - It's nice that Elaine has a talk with Melia. Maybe Wayland and Vlad do too. Wouldn't know, since there weren't enough deployment slots.
   - Warren is a bit of a chore to fight, especially with the peak only allowing you two 2-range attackers, but such is the nature of throne bosses.
     - I imagine if Algimas was faster, his prf would make short work of him if you got Warren's Swordreaver out, but Algimas would still need 14 base speed.
 - Algimas' line before "peh, he's gonna get himself killed like this!" needs an [A]
 - Andrew says "Thanks much". Maybe this is intention, considering you mentioned informal speech a few lines ago, but one can never be sure.
 - Just a thought: The Ostreich castle is using the standard bright fields palette, but the interior of the castle is dark and sinister. Maybe make the palette of the map match the gloom?
 - Cortez's line before "It's far too risky for someone of your station." needs an [A]

CHAPTER 10
 - wow 2% crits this game is bullshit
 - Rudolfo's line "Hmph, If we are to deal with it" has "If" capitalized.
 - Okay, while I do like side-characters getting screentime, Celia really comes out of nowhere here. It's quite a random time for her to bounce into the conversation.
   - Maybe have her talk only appear if you deploy her.
 - The map transition was alright this time, except there was a Dark Mage map sprite visible. So look into that.
 - MAP CRITIQUE
   - Overall the large mountain ranges look good.
     - The one to the right of the spawn has a lot of mismatched tiles.
     - The one below your spawn and the one at the very lower-left of the map just have a few mismatched tiles each.
   - A lot of the forest tiles cut off/don't properly connect with their surrounding tiles, though some cases are more noticable than others.
     - One good example: Start from the farthest right deployment slot, move over two tiles, and then go down nine tiles. The forest tile there should only be used with groups of forest tiles.
   - Two tiles to the right of the upper-left corner of the map, the cliff tile has an extra brown bit to the upper-left of it.
   - One tile to the right and three down of the upper-left corner of the map, you could complete the cliff range with a grass tile that has a brown part to the upper-left of it
     - The same could be done on the tile three right and eight down of your farthest right deployment slot.
   - You may also want to touch up the yellow paths, but they look fine right now.
 - GAMEPLAY
   - One (1) extra deployment slot after we haven't gotten an increase for two maps and after eleven (11) new units. What a miracle.
     - To be clear, the 11 units I refer to are Robert, Nilda, Wayland, Vlad, Elaine, Celia, Foskey, Lani, Rorick, Odin, and Melia.
     - I understand not wanting the player to be able to crush the enemies with a swarm of units, but it'd be nice to be able to use more of the cool characters you've introduced.
       - Maybe introduce less of them at a time, so there's not so many on the bench this early in the hack?
     - At least the enemy levels are low, so one could hypothetically pull someone from the bench at any time and they'd do alright.
   - I took Melia off the bench over Robert. She has more levels than him and seems more fit for Thief duties with her higher speed.
   - I also benched Negu for Lani, since I had an extra Sword user with Melia and high res could be useful this chapter.
     - She also seems like a straight upgrade to Negu if you focused her into Lances, since Lani joins with greats bases, a C in Lances, and flying.
   - Like the Eclipse user across the map.
   - Oh that's why you had Celia appear. Okay, that makes more sense. Still weird, but it makes sense.
     - And that's why Lightning was buyable last chapter. I thought it was because you could early-promote Haylyn.
   - Lightning is still Flux with less mt but more crit. Maybe you don't think that's bad, though.
   - You may or may not want to turn the AI's healing mode off, they retreat to Forts at low health, greatly decreasing their threat as a group.
   - I'm not sure how to feel about Druids getting Dark, Staves, AND Anima. Will have to see the other magic promotions.
   - I was checking out the units near the upper-right of the map
     - By turn 12, at least, examining the level 10 Wyvern Rider reveals a Shaman under him. He can't escape from the mountain, so I guess you loaded the unit wrong?
     - Why are there enemies even there? Brendan appears down the open path, so you definitely want to go there, but there's no incentive to go through the path with all the cliffs.
     - Plus, you couldn't see the incentive through the fog. I'd prevent the player from taking that path entirely.
 - "Goodness gracious, am I glad that's over" is a peculiar line to end the chapter with. A bit unfitting, with all the Dark magic being thrown around.
 - [Tact]'s "Captain" has an extra space in front of it.
 - Algimas' reveal of his friends' deaths is awfully frank. Fits him well, though.
 - The load in to Ostreich Castle has a bit of a graphical glitch. The Ballistas sorta fade in and out.
 - I know it's difficult to avoid, but it's a bit weird to have two generic soldiers at once.
 - As a side note, I find it strange that Dark Magic is outlawed, but shops sell Flux by the dozen. Hard to fix that, I know, but still.

CHAPTER 11
 - In Yarn's journal "and have proceeded march full force upon the capital" is a bit weirdly worded.
 - The way white-haired General charges past Clara looks plain silly. Just have him appear beside her.
 - Woah, no fair, the enemy isn't allowed to have cute units unless they're near endgame bosses.
   - They better not be near endgame bosses.
 - Also, the blue haired girl is shaded wrong. She should be shaded to match FE7 portraits, not use the black of FE8 portraits.
 - The white haired girl's line "He wouldn't use a straw if he were drowning!" needs an [A] before it. Also that's a bit of a weird phrase.
 - MAP CRITIQUE
   - All of the mountain ranges, including the innocuous one at the top of the map to the right of the village, need fixing. Lots of mismatched tiles.
   - What I assume is supposed to be a lake is actually a bunch of river tiles.
   - Some of the forest tiles cut off. For example, there are some in the group of forests between your spawn and the upper village.
   - Follow the river from its source, past the bridge. The corner tile that turns the stream upwards is very much out of place, both with the rest of the river and the surrounding landscape.
   - If you look at the tile to the left and down of the aforementioned river tile, the green mountain tile there is out of place. (look at the upper-left corner of the tile)
   - Look at the group of cliffs to the right and above your spawn; Both light green patches there need to be fixed.
   - Back to the river: look at the tile to the left and down of the bridge, it has the same problem as the previously mentioned river tile.
 - GAMEPLAY
   - 2 whole deployment slots more. It's a miracle.
     - I took Wayland off the bench because he seems like a cool unit to use, but I haven't had a darn deployment slot for him.
     - I let Brendan join the team because his bases were good and having another magic-user around seems smart
     - I swapped Melia for Negu, since there's nothing to steal and Negu's behind on a chapter's worth of exp (ie 1 level at most)
     - So my current team is: Algimas, [Tact], Martel, Aceline, Sven, Chiara, Elaine, Wayland, Lani, Negu, Celia, and Brendan
   - As I said before, I like that some enemies are female, but you really ought to make them different from their male counterparts, and not just objectively worse enemies.
   - These bosses look pathetic. I hope they get replaced during the chapter.
   - I swear I just saw a Fighter perform mitosis (Checked, there are two Fighter on top of each other, to the right of the ballista near the Lake.)
   - Wayland currently has a bit over half a D-rank worth of wexp. If this isn't intentional, consider having his prf give more wexp or start him at half a D rank.
     - I assume he starts with a D-rank so he can't use Melia's Light Brand or Vlad's Iron Blade, but that's no reason to have him start at the bottom of D-rank.
   - You get barely any experience for killing Archers in Ballistas. Maybe increase the Ballista class' relative power?
   - Level 14 Celia just got 32 exp for killing a level 9 Merc, so I don't know what's going on anymore.
     - Maybe it's this? http://feuniverse.us/t/exp-formula-mode-coefficient-fix/27
     - Or maybe Female Archers have a lower class relative power?
   - It would be wiser to leave the fighting to the royal guard if Cortez didn't have better stats than either of the promoted units on the thrones.
     - I was really hoping he'd start charging the player and you'd have to scramble together to form a good defense, but I guess it's good that he doesn't because you have ballistas.
   - I can't believe it took me this long to notice, but I think Light & Heavy Cavaliers only lose 2 move when traversing trees, as opposed to the traditional 3 move.
     - If this isn't intentional, I suggest fixing it, since then cavs still retain their high move across forest terrain
   - You can lure Cortez's guard out by stay just at the edge of their range. Shouldn't they stay and protect their king?
     - After fighting Cortez, having to fight 4 other Drake Riders at the same time would be too much. Maybe just have two other Drake Riders, but they wait until an enemy is in Cortez's range to move?
   - The lower-right house girl's line "You'd have to go to Braxis fer" needs an [A] on the previous line.
     - Also actual dragons, oh no.
   - Cortez is massively powerful, I like it.
     - Come now, Tact has a convo with Cortez and Wayland does too, but Algimas doesn't?
   - Defeating Cortez reminded me of a maxim my father oft said: The last enemy you fight on the map should always be the strongest.
     - Basically, after you defeat Cortez, you're performing boring clean-up on a bunch of generic mooks. It's an anticlimatic way to end the map.
     - In order to fix this, I think you should change a fair bit about the map's structure.
       - For example, the Great Knight and General "boss"es are on practically opposite sides of the map, but you have to kill both of them to finish.
       - The same applies to the Valkyrie and upper-left village. Even sending Lani there, it still took several turns for her to get back to the main force after she killed them all.
     - However, no matter how you fix this or even if you fix this, I think Cortez should definitely stay mobile.
       - It's great that if you can't kill him in one turn, he'll be able to crush one of your squishier units.
 - To me, it's a bit strange that Algimas, Tact, and co. have no part in the conversation directly after the map is won. Only Foskey and the other generals.
 - This dude with orange hair only has his right eye blinking and that's enough to freak me out.
 - I inherently enjoy "look at these jerks you're going to be fighting" scenes.

CHAPTER 12
 - The journal entry brown text box isn't centered.
   - And the music sounds way too ominous for a relatively upbeat entry. There's nothing sinister in it at all.
   - And one of the later [A]s extends past the text box. The one after "from the treaty, mainly in the form of funds."
 - "!!!" could maybe be replaced with a portrait bounce.
 - If they're just going to go back to the capital, what was the point of having them be at the fort?
 - Sending a mercenary group of like, 20 people to the front lines?
 - Cynthia's line "I just wanted to check the men" needs an [A] on the line before it.
 - Instead of having Cynthia move to the edge of the map and then abruptly disappear, just have her fly off the map. Looks less strange.
 - Bogriff's mini, like other characters, suffers from being rather thin.
 - Hastatio's description is rather boring. He seems to care about his men, so why not add that?
 - MAP CRITIQUE
   - Both the lower-left and upper-right body of water use ocean tiles instead of lake tiles.
   - Some of the forest tiles cut off early (an example would be the one below the Monk to the right)
   - To the right of that same Monk is a solitary Cliff tile. Seems odd for there to just be one on its lonesome.
     - There are similar cases of solitary cliffs at the top of the map.
   - Try to do the river better. I know there aren't a lot of tile options, but clean it up if you can. Key points of interest:
     - The tile at the very start of the river near the top of the map.
     - The river tiles a couple spaces up and to the right of your spawn.
     - The tile at the very end of the river near the bottom of the map.
   - A lot of the light-green patches of grass need to be redone. The yellow paths look good, though.
   - The mountains here are generally passable, but there are still plenty of mismatched tiles.
     - The mountain in the middle of the map has two very dark squares in its center, and the upper-right portion of the range needs some fixing.
     - The mountain at the top of the map have a lot of wonky stuff about them, especially the right side of the left-most group.
 - GAMEPLAY
   - Still 12 units but at least we didn't recruit 15 new ones last chapter.
     - My party is the same as before.
   - Are those some Boots on Hastatio? Hot damn. Shame he has pretty good stats.
TL NOTE: Around this point in the review I took over two weeks off the hack because of work. Take that as you will.
   - Just noticed the Shop text says "Send it to Merlinus?" Though this is a problem in other places of the hack.
   - Maybe lower the prices of Bows?
   - There's an empty house to the lower-left of the map. The house just loads, but nothing shows up.
   - During battle bit of Dita's face has a pixel white on it. Consider making her custom animation frames so that color isn't there.
   - Additionally, I like how Dita's high res (for a physical unit) makes her well suited for the chapter.
   - Just from the first turn I can tell I'll like this chapter. I wasn't expecting so many enemies to move.
     - And the castle reinforcements to the upper-right are icing on the cake.
   - Dumb allied Knight, don't suicide yourself on that Horse
   - Tested it out, and Wayland doesn't have armor weakness.
     - I thought that he would, considering his sprite and stats, but it's probably better that he doesn't.
   - I actually had to restart the chapter because I'm not used to enemies taking the offensive in this hack.
   - Some strange enemy behavior: The Heavy Cav with the Steel Axe on the right side of the map just runs off at low health.
     - But he doesn't run off to a castle to heal: He just sorta runs away. I savestated and just let the turns run, but he never really went anywhere.
     - Except when I accidently put Dita in his range, and he attacks her. Really weird.
     - I attached some images of this. The Dita attack happens after "Chapter12-5.png"
   - Algimas has one res while everyone else in my party has at least four. Maybe it's just shitty levels, though.
   - Really like those back reinforcements that remind you that this is a defend map.
     - And I think they ignore you for Borgriff? Even better, reminds me of Conquest 10.
 - At this point, I decided to completely restart the map, for a variety of reasons.
   - First, I didn't have anyone equipped to properly deal with the reinforcements from behind, especially since they ignore you.
     - And while I think Bogriff could've handled it, I don't know if Armorslayers are effective against Great Knights.
   - Second, most of the castle reinforcements, which includes the Monks, were going along the upper-path, and my only res-tank up there was Tact.
   - Third, the above wouldn't be a problem if I had a healer up there, which I didn't because of deployment limits.
   - All of that combined with my general dissatisfaction with how the chapter was going lead to me restarting and making some party changes.
     - Not to say I wasn't enjoying the chapter, it's a nice change of pace from how easy the rest of the hack is.
   - First thing I did was bench Brendan for Haylyn, since I wanted another healer.
     - I benched Brendan because Haylyn is level 18.88 and will surely promote after a couple of turns, and then she can take over Light duties.
     - Another reason to lower staff exp: Brendan loses a lot of his value if Haylyn far surpasses him in levels even after being on the bench for several chapters.
       - Same for Beatrice, since Elaine also has the bonus of being on a horse.
   - Compared to the upper route, the right route feels like it has less enemies and therefore is less tough.
     - You'd think the right route would have more enemies, in order to make it more challenging to reach the village.
   - More reinforcements? Loving it.
   - Hastatio's generic battle convo has the blue arrow outside the text box.
   - Even though I didn't reach the last turn, people were saying that the map goes one turn longer than it should.
   - Finished on Turn 13, taking down Hostatio and ending the map.
   - I enjoyed this map, especially with the varied enemy weapons.
 - Woah he said whore, I don't think that's very FE-friendly.
 - After Algimas and co. retreat from the battle, their map sprites stay off the screen for a bit. Try to get them to DISA earlier.
 - Also, while I like the Ernst slash, it's a bit odd (from my personal PoV) that he displays such competency when I haven't been using him and he isn't a prepromote.
 - Look at these dorks, hanging around in Sacaean huts.
   - If it's supposed to be a camp, have the huts be more scattered.
   - Also, the light green grass cuts off a lot, might want to fix that.
 - After orange Emperor says "you may leave", there's no [A]
 - She's showing hesistation that means all the qts will join us and none of them will die. This is good.

CHAPTER 13
 - Great boss portrait.
 - Didn't know Cynthia is from Bern. Must've been a long flight.
 - There's this Monk carrying around Dark tomes. What a moron.
 - MAP CRITIQUE
   - The mountain to the right of start is messed up in all sorts of ways.
     - The most apparent thing is under the Fighter to the upper-right of the mountain: It just sorta cuts off.
   - The sand to the right of the Knight directly above the spawn looks out of place. I'd suggest replacing it.
   - The yellow path below the middle town cuts off when it connects to the cliffs.
   - The yellow path below the upper-left town just looks a bit odd in a couple of places. Nothing too bad, though.
   - The yellow patch a bit to the right of Cynthia looks out of place.
   - If you go a tile down and two tiles left of Aras, there's a forest tile that looks out of place.
   - The group of cliffs above the Monk above Aras look similarly out of place.
   - The first bridge to the left of Laurence has a bit of land above it for some reason. I'd suggest replacement.
   - While you should probably use "Lake" tiles instead of "Sea" tiles, I do like the giant lake. It is a lake, right?
 - GAMEPLAY
   - Benched Aceline for Dita. The map is just too big to drag a Knight around.
   - The entire theme of this hack has been starting with suspiciously low weapon ranks, and then Aras gets a B base? Crazy.
     - Although, that's still less than Tact's, who a B and then a bit more.
   - The Dancer can use staves? Nice.
     - Her joining is a bit sudden and sorta contrasts the tone, especially with her personality.
     - Maybe have her be running from the enemy instead?
     - Also, be sure to give her an end-of-chapter thing. Right now she just shows up and stays.
   - I'm a bit confused as to why there's a time limit, but I'm glad there is one.
   - Wish I had a hint as to who'll recruit Aras. I guess Algimas is a good choice.
   - Maybe use Lalum's map sprite for Katarina, since that's what her animation is based off of.
   - Damn, Aras has some major stopping power.
   - I did not notice that right Fighter had a Halberd. I like how varied the enemy weapons are.
   - Nice warning that the village is going to be destroyed.
   - I forget if I wrote this elsewhere, but don't forget to raise the Soldier class' relative power.
     - Right now they give less and receive more exp than other classes.
   - Damn, you really have to rush to save that first village. I was playing fast like I normally do and I still couldn't reach it.
   - While I didn't try to, I see how one could easily rescue Cynthia.
   - Does Luna reverse the WT? I wondered how Aras was surviving so easily.
   - Really? No custom talk for if Aras saves her village? They even ask about her.
   - A hard time limit, villages that need to be saved on a timer, AND strong enemies that chase you from the back? Please, continue this pace.
     - Hell, go back to the previous chapters and add some more timers.
   - I think you forgot to remove the CMOF some time before player phase 6/16
   - Finally, a use for that Restore Elaine joined with.
   - Good job, giving Aras and Tact a custom convo with Laurence. It's fitting.
     - Maybe give him one with Haylyn too, as they are both Bishops, or at least Holy classes.
   - However, you might want to give Laurence some form of healing, like a Cleric next to him. Right now he's rather easily to pick off.
     - Not-Dorcas at the beginning worked because you didn't have many units with res by then. But now you have several, and it makes Laurence rather weak.
     - Though, considering this map is timed, maybe the boss being easy to kill is for the best.
   - For posterity, I beat the chapter by turn 11.
 - That background change when the map is burning. Nice.
 - Good writing, here. I like it.
 - And a unit you recruit gets an end-of-chapter scene. Gold stars all around.

CHAPTER 14
 - Warren, bro, what happened to your eyes?
 - The "!" at the start of Algimas' sentence just looks weird. Insert an [A] and a linebreak after it.
 - Sorta weird that we haven't talked to Clara at all. She's mentioned in passing, but that's it.
 - I didn't know Roswell is secretly Lloyd.
 - MAP CRITIQUE
   - All of the pillars lack proper shadows and the ones on the top floor have weird pedestals.
   - The palette makes some tiles on the far-left look orange. Best to find a replacement.
     - There's also some orange glow on the pillars below your spawn, but they look fine.
     - Looking carefully, there are also orange bits on other parts of the map, but most are hardly noticable.
   - Not really something that needs to be fixed, but the carpet under the throne looks pretty random in terms of layers.
   - Otherwise, the map looks pretty good. You make good indoors maps.
 - GAMEPLAY
   - Unbeneched Melia to get the loot. So, my current army is:
     - Algimas, Yarn, Martel, Sven, Chiara, Elaine, Lani, Negu, Celia, Haylyn, Wayland, Dita, and Melia.
   - While I appreciate having more units, does Auguste really need to start at level 8 when the average enemy level is 12?
     - And she's axe-locked with 9 con. That may be the same as Dita, but at least Dita can use swords.
     - Though you do give an explanation, at least.
   - Since when have we had an Augery, woah.
   - Did I miss a Secret Card somehow or is this tile just out of place? (Chapter14-1.png)
   - The Ibrioche talk is entirely pointless, but I appreciate its existence. Shows that Roswell leaving had an effect on the enemy.
   - Lotsa reinforcements, this is nice.
   - A magic sword capable of screen glitches. (Chapter14-5.png, at the top)
   - For a level 15 Monk, this boss-replacement is a pushover.
   - I was able to defeat every enemy, save Ibrioche. However, I was able to steal his Speedwing with Melia, courtesy of rescuing and Canto.
   - Having to "sacrifice" two units to get the bottom chests, not to mention having to deploy a Thief to get the middle one, is a bit mean, but I don't mind.
 - I like the musical shift. Pretty impressive and fitting.
 - Poor Dita...
 - Bervinnia? Damn, I had forgotten all about those guys.
 - "My own..."? Oh, I know exactly where this is going.
 - And you were doing so good with scene transitions too. Why do Yarn and Foskey turn into enemies anyways?

OVERALL
 - To reiterate, the demo was great (if in need of polishing). Gold stars.
 - Give recruited characters more screentime, somehow.
   - Most of the time, when you recruit a unit you see them, you talk to them, and that's it. Maybe more if they're lucky like Aceline or Negu.
   - And I don't think adding supports with help with this particular problem, since supports take a while to build.
   - I suggest at least having after-chapter convos for all of them, so it feels like they've actually become part of the army rather than being randos.
     - Like Martel. You recruit him, but he doesn't show up at all when the chapter ends, even if Haylyn is dead.
     - Or Celia. Even if she gets to talk about Brendan, she just shows up with Wayland without an explanation.
     - Or Katarina. She shows up out of the blue, you get a quick excuse for why she's joining you, and that's it. Seems weird, especially for a unique unit type.
 - You recruit a lot of units (31!) in 14 chapters, most of whom I want to give a chance, but I never had the deployment slots.
   - In fact, as the hack went on, I found myself avoiding giving new units exp, since I wouldn't get the chance to deploy them next chapter anyways.
   - I would suggest giving Wayland and his posse more solo chapters, but that would make Haylyn the only healer for like 12 chapters.
   - Of course, this opens up lots of options in terms of replayability, so I guess it isn't really an issue.
 - You mentioned that you gave both Cavalier-types Swords so that Ernst wouldn't be your only sword user for early-game, but balanced it out in some way.
   - However, since both the cavs I used were as good if not better than my other units, I feel like this change is too favorable towards cavs.
   - Even though your cavs start at low weapon ranks, Iron, Ranged, and Steel weapons are still the core of your weapons, and they're all in the E-D range.
     - Since you'll likely want to funnel wexp into a single weapon rank, they become weapon-locked cavs who can use another iron weapon type if needed.
     - This is in contrast to regular foot units, who get less move and can only use one weapon type until promotion.
   - I think this is most noticable on the enemy side, though, where cavs have (mostly) equal stats than foot units and get to use all sorts of weapons.
     - An enemy with multiple weapon types, high move, and good stats is much more threatening than an enemy with one weapon type, normal move, and good stats.
     - This is especially apparent once the enemies start using diverse weapons, like in Ch 12.
   - Plus, I never really felt short on Swords.
     - Negu was a Sword Cav before, and Chiara joins two chapters after her, and Robert after another two chapters.
     - Then you get Wayland's party, which is another two Sword users, one of them an MC, and then Melia the next chapter.
   - Since you've clearly designed the demo around cavs having multiple weapons, though, I understand if it's hard to change.
 - Reduce the amount of exp Healers get. Haylyn and Elaine were so far past my average level it wasn't even funny.
 - Maybe improve Algimas' crit animation a bit.
   - I like how he warms up his shoulder, but after that it feels like a regular attack.
   - Making animations is tough, though, so I understand if it stays that way.
 - Maybe make the earlier maps a bit more challenging.
   - Things ramp up at Chapter 12 and stay there, but it's a bit jarring when compared with the rest of the hack.
   - For example, in Chapters 3, 5, 6, 8, 11, and even 12 there's nothing threatening the villages, so there's no reason to try to get to them fast.
   - The rest of the hack, Chs 12-14 not included, have a similar problem: There's no sense of urgrency, or incentive to move fast.
     - This isn't bad for really early chapters, but I feel like, maybe starting from Ch 3, there should be some motivation for playing quickly.
 - Polish up the maps.
   - It's a labor, but it's a labor of love.
   - Also, I personally think you used the "Plains" tileset with its generic palette a bit much.
     - Though I may just be gripping about the its repeated use from Chs 8 to 12, even if it wasn't in Ch 10.
 - The Ostreichian Generals
   - I find it weird how it's said that they're traveling with the party in the middle chapters, but we get no evidence of this from a gameplay perspective.
   - And as a player, I found it really weird that you introduced these characters but didn't do anything with them except have them talk.
     - I now know that this is to lead up to their deaths/betrayals, but it bothered me quite a bit.
   - Additionally, there's quite a few scenes with them, and I sometimes I felt like Algimas and co. weren't the main characters, just people I happened to play as.
     - Like I mentioned in Cortez's chapter. When you kill the last enemy, it's the Generals talking for a whole scene, and Algimas and co. aren't involved at all.
   - Of course, this is a difficult problem to solve without their deaths/betrayals being meaningless.
     - Maybe have them playable, but have them be so overleveled that it's pointless to use them?
       - But since you didn't do that for Ernst, I'd assume you wouldn't want to do it here.
     - Maybe explain why they're not fighting with you each chapter, so it's not weird that Algimas and co. have to take the brunt of the battle over experienced knights.
       - I think you explained it for some chapters, but it really stood out when you didn't.
 - Thoughts on each unit
   - Algimas: Turned out entirely shit, and I needed to actively keep him out of danger. View that as you will.
   - Tact: Great, I like his niche as slow but powerful magic user.
   - Ernst: I never felt the urge to unbench him, mostly because Chiara got some great levels and Negu was on a horse.
   - Kurtis: His levels were mostly skill, so I just benched him. Too bad, since other anons say he's a force of nature.
   - Haylyn: Aside from getting too much exp, I liked how fast she was.
   - Martel: Lots of strength and speed is the formula for a good unit, especially considering he was my only axe-user who could consistently double.
   - Aceline: Fast for a Knight, but it's a clear contrast with Foskey. Good unit, but her move ended up getting her benched near the end.
   - Boleslav: A bulky Archer is nice, but he couldn't compete with Celia once she showed up because he couldn't double.
   - Negu: I thought she'd just be fast to balance out her move and weapons, but she ended up getting plenty of strength near the end.
   - Gerwulf: Got benched in the wake of Sven's great starting level.
   - Sven: Great starting level and consistent performance overall, but his def felt low for a Wyvern until it picked up at the very end.
   - Wayland: For being a really strange character, his high strength and def for a sword user was a nice combo. Got doubled the most.
   - Vlad: Benched because of lack of deployment slots, but he seems like a straight upgrade to Ernst.
   - Melia: Didn't use her much, but she got a lot of strength for a Thief.
   - Elaine: Aside from getting too much exp, I liked how her high mag and low spd contrasted Haylyn's stats.
   - Beatrice: Didn't get good starting levels, but she'd have been helpful against all the Monks thrown at you.
   - Chiara: She got a great starting level and didn't stop getting them. The most random crits.
   - Robert: When I had to choose between him and Melia, Melia just seemed to have better Thief stats and was higher leveled. Got benched.
     - Thinking about it, he's innately disadvantaged because you have to use Melia for 2 chapters, both of which give her plenty of axe targets.
   - Nilda: She got some okay starting levels, but the lack of deployment slots and already having Algimas, Negu, and Aceline for Lances didn't do her favors.
   - Celia: Great bases and levels made her an easy choice to use, especially with the higher might of Bows.
   - Foskey: Seems like a more typical Knight compared to Aceline, but since Aceline was occasionally doubling enemies I kept her.
   - Lani: Crazy bases for a Peg; she's pretty much Farina but at a lower level. Her levels left something to be desired, but she was still great.
   - Rorick: Great bases, but Martel was already doing fine for me and Rorick's stats were too similar.
     - Probably want to debuff him a wee bit, though. As I said in Ch 9, he had much better stats than Martel.
   - Odin: Less str, spd, and def than Rorick doomed him to the bench. Plus he has less con, no mount, and started at a lower level.
     - Definitely buff him, since lacking str/speed compared to Martel and Rorick and def/mount compared to Gerwulf and Sven makes him a poor choice.
   - Brendan: He's got good bases, but two poor levels and Haylyn easily being promoted by his chapter stuck him to the bench.
     - Hell, if I didn't temporarily bench Haylyn for Elaine, Haylyn would've already promoted by his chapter.
   - Dita: Incredible bases all around and being a cav got her an instant spot on the team.
   - Katarina: She was useful for her chapter to get to the first village.
     - But her hasty introduction and competition for deployment slots will probably see her benched for the rest of the hack. Just saying.
     - I do like how she can heal too, though.
   - Aras: Great bases and nicely differentiated from Tact, but she can't hold a candle to his story importance.
   - Warren: Was nice for his chapter, but it worries me that a non-leveled (at all) promoted Foskey has comparable stats to him.
     - Of course, as a prepromote, you don't want to make him too good.
   - Franck: Same as Warren, except his horse makes him good no matter what, even if he isn't made of spd like Negu.
   - Auguste: Pretty mean, starting her a such a low level in a tough chapter.
     - But her stats were comparable to Sven's when she was 5 levels lower, so I'd bench him for her if the hack was done.