Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• I think there's some potential with the more in depth levels of combat and the party-wide mana pool, but the execution is not great. There's a lot going on and a lot to take in. Some of the abilities aren't actually clear what they do. Basically, this would actually be a lot better if it was a full game and we could learn step by step, gaining new units and abilities as we go. I like it, but not as a single chapter.
• Recursion is one of the most interesting entries in this contest. It plays like any regular SRPG, but the selling point is how it handles the battle system, which is one of the best I've played in a while. Instead of selecting Attack command, pick weapon, see the attack animation and playing the counterattack, this game manages that part in a different and more refreshing ways. In the map, you would Engage the enemies and in the battle screen, your unit and your opponent has a number of actions they can take each turn and a list of weapons and skills they could use. Those skills has some MP costs that's shared between your entire party. Once you selected an action to take, they will engage in battle and select the weapon/skill again. This is repeated until both units has 0 actions left or either of them is KO. In enemies' turn, they will engage you with the same battle system and same rules. Considering the game's particular mechanic, it opens up a complete different way of playing an SRPG. My only drawback (and admitelly, it's pretty much nitpicking) would be the mapping can be heavily improved, but again that's not a detriment for this entry. Would recommend.
• Well, this was probably the hardest submission for me to beat. Took me 3 tries, total of about 3 hours. But don't get me wrong, it was really fun. I love the MP management system. I don't play a lot of RPGs but when you combine resource management like that with FE it adds a lot of depth with regards to extra decision-making. The level design is very good. Out of the more Fire Emblemy submissions in the contest, it's probably the best designed. On my first two attempts I lost badly because I tried to stall out the enemies, but I got punished for it hard. To make this harder there's no 1-tile chokepoints to abuse. The only way to win is to push forward. And there's a lot of instances where you need to carefully spend your MP (and Dynamo uses) to make that work. Also, I don't know if this was intentional, but I love the idea of having a weak unit (Liam) with this MP system. You're encouraged to keep all your units alive more than usual, so that your MP is restored fully every turn.