FE Hack Reviews: Midnight Sun Chapter 1 - Large Empty Map That's... FUN!?

Channel:

MarkyJoe

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Published on May 29, 2014 3:24:48 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbLOqOSwJ7E

Game:

Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade (2002)

Category:

Review

Duration: 25:47

13,015 views

188

This chapter's kind of a strange phenomena. The map is big, but I never actually NOTICED that fact. Am I being biased? I'm going to use this video description to analyze why this chapter didn't bother me. At all.

So let's start with the first two turns, which literally have nothing else going on. Why doesn't this bother me? Well for one, in most hacks with large, relatively empty maps, you are traveling specifically from the start to a specific goal with very few obstacles. This situation however has a completely different context and purpose. You're traveling over this large map so that you can set up and prepare yourself for the onslaught. You're not trudging along to some location, you're CHOOSING a location from which to combat the upcoming enemy. It's like the preparation screen unit formation thing, but with far more flexibility, and it's complimented by a sense of urgency to get yourself set up.

Speaking of flexibility, you have a lot of options. You can block the bridges to avoid getting dog-piled by the enemy cavaliers and shamans, or you can use the highly varied terrain choices and fight the enemy that way. If you're more daring, you can stay in the area where the enemies spawn and try to out terrain them there as well. You can also use the terrain's size to play Hit & Run, slowly taking out the enemies with enemy phase counter attacks and using player phase to run away.

With games like Decay of the Fangs, we have some maps that are just Long Winding Paths™, and your entire goal is just to rip through the enemies so you can reach point B, and it does little to make it interesting or urgent. Enemies are handled largely with just Bait 'N Switch tactics. In this, we have cutscenes and reinforcements to keep things interesting, and you don't have to approach it in a mundane, specific way.

I think another thing that helps bolster this map is that Faratrass is still too weak to feasibly take on a lot of enemies on her own. You NEED to use Hellios, but you don't want him to suck up the EXP either because he's prepromoted, gains little EXP, and probably doesn't have great growths. As a result, you have good reason to get the iron sword in the bottom left house (it allows Hellios to weaken, NOT kill, so that Faratrass can clean up and earn EXP), AND find a way to balance your usage of both characters to get the most out of the combat, adding yet another layer of depth to this map.

So yes, I can't believe it, but this game somehow managed to take a concept I normally hate, and turn it into something engaging.

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