TLDR: You get what you pay for, budget Indie Fire Emblem. I recommend it for FE players and fans of the genre. Maybe not if your new to SRPGs.

If you like fire emblem you'll probably like this. But the main differences here are the class system and abilities. While the class system is alright, it is a bit limiting, as there are really only about 3 main classes that have a lot of options. For instance, a mage can easily change between the different mage classes with different abilities and growth rates enabling a good amount of customization at the cost of a bit of individuality. While this is alright I perfer the system in FE and DD1 with a bit more of a "class tree" system that felt a little more significant and diversifies the units themselves making everyone feel more unique, which brings me into bad stuff, starting with the abilities and the mana system.

Active Abilities are powerful, but use mana that regenerates every turn meaning you have a powerful and endless resource that would trivialize each map if not for the badly implemented turn limits on each map. The game does give you the option to turn it off, but if you do then there is not really any real challenge at all in this game. Without the turn limits combined with the fact that the maps put almost not pressure on the player means that you can take your time and use your abilities to clear the map with more damage, durability, or even summons (later in the game) that your enemies have no access to. I don't really know how to put this politely, but this seems like incredibly amateurish game design.

Arbitrary turn limits feel bad and cheapen it when you actually want to put real time based pressure on the player. The fix for this is to make mana a limited resource that does not naturally regenerate every turn and force you to be careful and actually think about when you want to use your special moves. Now suddenly your abilities are more significant and don't limit the map design, which speaking of is also the other biggest weak point of this game. Some of the maps are bland, most/if not all put almost no pressure on the player and the enemies wait around to be aggro'd and killed. The game relies so hard on the arbitrary turn limits to turn pressure on the player that im really not sure I CAN recommend this to anybody who doesn't already like the FE style of games as this is worse than the original DD1 as an introduction to the genre.

If I can offer one peice of advice to the devs it's to learn how to put REAL pressure on the player that doesn't feel cheap and gamified. FE isn't perfect and has had the same problem but its not close to as bad as it is here. To list a few off the top of my head FE uses things like bandits raiding villages, thieves stealing treasure, recruitable allies under attack. All these are fun and much better ways to get the player out and doing things.

Anyway. I know I got really negative but it comes from a long time FE fan with a lot of love and passion for the genre. I did enjoy the game. The writing and characters are mostly good and I'm looking forward to more from a dev that is actually trying new things and I'm here to support it.

A better experience than I had hoped for. There's a lot of customization with the individual characters from their classes to ability upgrades to weapons. The possibilities allow for crazy synergy/combo potential. Nevertheless, it is vital to not ignore training sessions/challenges as they are tools to help progress your squads's combat power. The only thing I don't personally like is can use no more than 10 units on the battlefield, with your final roster being 20 characters in total. Several of your people are bound to fall behind, so it's vital to establish a reliable rotation as you will never know who will fall in battle.

As for the story, it was nicely paced, made sense. A little cliche at times, especially with some of the character's archetypes, but I never felt bored or wishing the game to end sooner. The protagonist, Gywn is at her core: selfless, family-oriented, humble and isn't afraid to look to her allies/family/friends for help in her most desperate of hours. In addition, there is a decent amount of content for your heroes through their bond conversations (pretty much standard of this genre). The few 4ish chapters are more so tutorial missions which feature decision-making that become non-existent later on in the story. The earlier chapters in comparison are pretty straightforward, but the stakes of Dark Deity 2 ramp up more and more, from a story perspective, enemy types/abilities, and map design/objectives as you progress.



Finally, the game does a good job of being self-contained enough for newcomers to the series, like me to enjoy Dark Deity 2 without possessing some feeling of obligation to play the first Dark Deity. There will be references here and there, but the lore is not heavy enough to be at all overwhelmed.
The experience was enjoyable and I recommend anyone to try out Dark Deity 2.

top tier