Feda: The Emblem of Justice (1994)

Feda the Emblem of Justice, for SNES

Rating: 7.8/10; Good

Recommended for strategy rpg fans

Feda is a strategy rpg that follows the hero Brian as he revolts against a tyrannical empire. The opening says that the empire is ruled by non-humans and that humans are subjugated, but all kinds of anthropomorphic people appear on both sides. Most of the characters in the game are some kind of humanoid animal; wolf, fox, dog, cat, ox, insect, lizard, dragon, bird, horse, while there are also actual animals, monsters, undead and robots. And flying machines and laser cannons. Characters fight with medieval era weapons and armor though. That whole sci fi angle is not explored at all and feels out of place.

Battles take place on small maps; small in both playable area and scale. If not for the fact that some tiles give bonuses and penalties to stats as well as restrict movement, I would consider this more of a tactical rpg. As it stands, the game falls somewhere between Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy Tactics. All of your characters are named with personality and things to say when you talk in camp, but the dialogue only changes each chapter rather than after each battle. If either of the 2 main characters die the game ends, while everyone else becomes captured by the enemy if they fall in battle, which causes them to miss out on xp rewards for winning battles and makes you do a rescue mission if you want them back. Missions come with objectives that are loosely mentioned in dialogue at the start but there is no screen of any kind to remind you. These objectives are fairly simple and tend to be kill all enemies, only kill certain enemies, hold out for X turns or move 1 or all of your characters across the map. You can always win by killing everything and the game's morality system compares how many enemies you have killed to missions completed. So if you want to follow the Law path you have to complete objectives without killing too many enemies, while if you want to be Chaos it is as simple as butchering as many as possible. Attacks and killing blows grant xp, and kills grant money so the battles can be more difficult if you follow Law. There are also characters that only join if you match their alignment, and who will leave if you change to the opposing.

In battles each side takes turns moving 1 unit at a time, which is a refreshing change of pace from the usual binary turn system where all units on 1 side move before the enemy gets to do anything. This mechanic creates a number of tactical considerations that encourage the player to think several moves ahead. You get to move first and your characters can act in any order. The enemy can also choose any of their units to move, and are pretty good at prioritizing those that can attack and healers if healing is needed. There can be some cat and mouse situations where you want to hold off on attacking or charging in until a certain enemy ends its turn. Enemies tend to prioritize attacking the main characters but I have seen them go after wounded units to finish them off. Moving a unit shows every tile they can move to and you can freely move them around and cancel until you confirm. Attacking ends the unit's turn so you can charge into battle to attack but not hit and run in the same turn. Flanking has no effect and there are no counterattacks, but there are those time wasting unskipable cutscenes for every attack and spell. You can look at enemy stats but there is no way to tell their movement and attack range outside of practice. The game is not difficult though so you will not need to use optimal tactics. Units can freely swap weapons on their turn so you can carry both short and long range weapons. Items have simple descriptions and pictures showing what they are, which are greyed out at shops if the selected unit can't equip it. Swapping stuff between characters can be done in battle or by using the storage in camp, but characters cannot be without a weapon so you will not be able to swipe the gear of your allies unless you have spare stuff to trade them. Outside battles are typical jrpg towns to explore, which is pretty much what the camp is too, and a Mario Bros 3 style overworld where each day you can move to an adjacent location. The very interesting thing about the world map is enemy armies and garrisons are visible and can move around. Not only can you see the enemies coming but some battles can be avoided if you move around the map in certain ways.

Feda is an easy game for the most part but still provides compelling story, characters, mechanics and pretty much everything you want from a strategy rpg. The highlight of the game is the way units on both sides alternate turns in battle while the only things going against the game are some minor user unfriendly features and missed opportunity to flesh out the story and setting. I personally could have done without all the animal people, or at least include something in the story akin to racial tension; but no one in the game seems to care, or even acknowledge, what kind of animal another is. Might as well have everyone be human then, or humans wearing silly animal masks.

Pro

• Alternating unit turns
• Great tactical combat
• World map can be used to avoid or go after battles
• Decent story, dialogue and characters

Con

• Dialogue does not pause to wait for player input
• No objectives screen or battle map
• Limited party size
• No descriptions for spells
• Trading items between characters can only be done during battle (and costing a turn) or using the storage in camp
• Unskipable battle cutscenes