Since the comparison has to be made: Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark is the best SRPG I've played since the original Final Fantasy Tactics. In fact, I'd say it has the best gameplay of any SRPG I've ever played. If you're a fan of the genre or at all curious, I highly recommend the game.

My Experience: I started SRPGs with the original Final Fantasy Tactics and have been in love with the genre ever since. It's one of the few genres that I actively seek out and enjoy challenge runs. As far as Fell Seal goes, I played the game for a little over 60 hours, completing all but one achievement (which would take another 5+ hours of just grinding to get).

Classes and Customization: The class balance is easily the best I've ever seen in this type of game. I believe there is somewhere near 40 classes in the game, so this is no small feat. Everything from the oddball classes like Gamblers, Peddlers, and Engineers to the classic straightforward power house classes like Assassins and Wizards are both useful and fun to play. The storyline characters all get unique classes as the game progresses, and there are 6 'hidden' classes for generic units. All of these special classes bring a unique experience to the table, without overshadowing the basic classes. Of particular note is a 'blue mage' style character you pick up part way through the storyline, who can learn the skills of almost 20 different types of monsters, making for one of the most unique SRPG characters I've had the enjoyment of customizing.

Each character gets the active ability set and the two passives associated with their current 'primary' class. On top of that, they can equip a secondary active ability set, two passives, and a counter attack move. This allows for an immense depth of customization, which I'd argue to be the best in the genre. I spent many hours looking for and playing around with different synergies and ability combinations, and still have combos I'm looking to try out when I come back for a replay on Very Hard. Particular synergies feel very strong, but there is much less 'cheese' than in Final Fantasy Tactics.

The only strong complaint I have here is the way characters increase in level. Character levels are gained every time a unit gains 100 experience, with experience being awarded for each action in combat. The stats a character gains on level are based on their current primary class, which can be a bit annoying to manage in and of itself. New abilities and classes are unlocked with the acquisition of Ability Points (AP), which are gained only at the end of the battle, and do not depend on the length of the battle. If a unit did not participate in battle, they were still earn half AP, and units get a small amount of vicarious experience in each of the primary classes of your combat squad. Adding in the consideration that enemies scale to your level on most difficulty settings, and it leads to some odd considerations that I'm not at all a fan of. Essentially, on harder difficulties and with more defensive strategies, you're getting less AP per level. Enemies skills are generally based on their level, so it can be easy to fall behind. This means that there is a large reward to having at least one 'B' squad that you do random battles with to get your main squad AP while not increasing their level. Bleh.

Combat: The combat system is largely what you'd expect for the genre. There is a turn order determined by each characters speed stat. On a characters turn they can move and take an action. There are stats governing physical and magical attack and defense, as well as elemental resistances, movement stats, and the ability to crit. Interestingly, without a specific passive, only regular attacks can crit.

The are a few major differences to be aware of in the battle system. Items are refreshed on a per battle basis, and any unit can use them (though the Peddler is more effective with them). In order to get better or more items per battle, they have to be crafted. This is definitely my preferred way to handle items, and I'm glad the developers settled on it. Mana starts at 0 and takes up by a flat 10 points per turn, though there are a few ways to gain mana otherwise. While I like this system, as far as I can tell, there is only a single ability in the game which is proportional to a characters maximum mana, which makes the large MP pools spell casters can end up with feel superfluous. There is also an 'injury' system. Each time a character falls in battle, they receive an injury which reduces all of their stats until they sit out for a battle. I think this is a nice compromise with permadeath, though, it can be easily circumvented by doing a quick and easy random battle on the first map of the game. Finally, all spells and abilities are instant speed, which I can take or leave.

Scenarios: I initially felt frustrated that almost every scenario starts you in a disadvantageous position. However, I quickly realized, that height doesn't add damage to attacks or increase the range of projectiles by default as it does in many other SRPGs. Additionally, there was generally room to maneuver in such a way that I could maintain numbers advantage in the smaller skirmishes within the battles, as long as I was clever about it. In the end, the game provided a nice assortment of challenges throughout, in terms of both enemy capabilities and level layout. I enjoyed figuring out the best way to approach the most challenging fights, and only a couple of fights early on felt like difficulty spikes, but they were still manageable.

Story: While the story doesn't quite hit the heights of Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre, it is plenty solid. There are twists and turns throughout, and the world has it's own unique flavor, which I enjoyed. The characters were well done, each having a strong personality and sense of humor come across throughout the game. Outside of the main story, there are optional 'events' that mainly serve to build characters' personalities and motivations. I believe these were incorporated late into early access, and I'm very glad that they were. They played a very large part in being connected with the characters.

Without spoiling too much, there is a 'good' ending or a 'bad' ending depending on whether or not you complete some optional content and do an extra objective in the final battle. I bring this up because I think the 'bad' ending had some of the best writing in the game, and really enjoyed what is showed of the characters personalities and development over the game. The 'good' ending was also quite satisfying, of course.

Art and Music: The art is an interesting contrast of cartoony battlefield graphics and more realistic looking portraits. I think it actually works quite well, though it did take a couple of hours to grow on me. I generally liked the designs of both the characters and the monsters. I particularly liked the display of emotion in character portraits during dialogue.

The spell animations are a bit of mixed bag, but the summons and 'locus' spells can be enjoyable. The character animations in battle were very stiff and a bit disappointing.

The music was well done and genre appropriate, wearing it's inspiration from Tactics Ogre and FFT proudly. It felt a bit 'staple' at times, but that's not entirely a bad thing... I don't think the more extreme styles of Nier or FF13-2 would have worked well here, for example. I would have liked a couple more themes, but what was there was plenty strong.

Conclusion: It's good. Play it. And then replay it on a harder difficulty. And then maybe again when more community mods are out or if Six Eyes does some sort of expansion (plz).