(my review from backlogged, a game rating website, i list mostly complaints but I did give it 4 stars). An excellent GBA experience that attempts to not just tie with the mainline gba fire emblem games in terms of story and gameplay, but to surpass them. However, it suffers from some of the things Mangs himself complains about in other rom hacks. They got carried away past the first 13 chapters (fire emblem at its peak). My complaints are coming from someone who only ironman's fire emblem games and from someone who as beat fe4-12 on those ironman's on the hardest difficulties (i dont like the new games without WT). Andaron saga finds itself in the slightly below radiant dawn level of difficulty which is just not enjoyable (frustrating and rng dependent, fake difficulty).
It does do a pretty solid job in both gameplay and story categories, the main complaint is the overuse of legendary weapons and unfair, over buffed bosses and their elite guard on lunatic that constantly make your team run away or be forced to fight with only your top 3 units. Its a massive problem for a game said to be made as "ironman friendly' and it makes maps and the war feel repetitive and one sided. Im not referring to the anti turtle enemies entirely. Even your strong main lord can still find himself being one rounded the chapter right after his promotion. Bosses will usually have a shitload of weapons so they have full or almost full control of the weapon triangle AND 1-2 or 1-3 range. And dont expect speed to save you..... you will get hit in the front by a brave weapon by bosses and promoted enemies and get one rounded no matter what. Dont expect bosses to drop below having 75 hit on you either. hell, Your lucky if it drops out of 80 for normal promoted enemies. Its overzealous in its design. Lunatic doesn't feel balanced or well made but hard mode feels just right for your tough difficulty minus the gimmick maps.
story complaint wise, the war surprisingly doesn't feel like a war. Which is a shame since i expected a more immersive conflict since mangs states thats why he likes fe6. It feels like you are just fighting individual houses and majority of Andarons lords are just taken out like chumps in one chapter (it doesn't matter how tough their stats are if u kill 9 of them in one map). It makes Andaron feel like one of the smallest and weakest main nations to exist across FE games. At the end of the day It just cant compete with wars like radiant dawn or path of radiance where (hate them or love them) green units and massive sized clashes that happen for dozens of chapters make you feel immersed in the conflict. In andaron, you simply take out houses in secluded episodes with your small band of soldiers then all the other lord at once because they ran out of time and only can do a 6 chapter war. White its a top FE game, its conflict does not crack my top 6 FE wars.
This is still in my top 4 fire emblem games and right below vision quest in second place for fan made games (while the story is better than VQ, VQ is easily more replayable and well tuned).
This review comes from a place of love as I want the next one to improve on some aspects since the gameplay mechanics and story are otherwise topnotch, minus the enemy spam (chapter 29 example, played pre-nerf). A near perfect game, just not one i will frequently ironman unlike the main gbas, tellius or VQ.
It does do a pretty solid job in both gameplay and story categories, the main complaint is the overuse of legendary weapons and unfair, over buffed bosses and their elite guard on lunatic that constantly make your team run away or be forced to fight with only your top 3 units. Its a massive problem for a game said to be made as "ironman friendly' and it makes maps and the war feel repetitive and one sided. Im not referring to the anti turtle enemies entirely. Even your strong main lord can still find himself being one rounded the chapter right after his promotion. Bosses will usually have a shitload of weapons so they have full or almost full control of the weapon triangle AND 1-2 or 1-3 range. And dont expect speed to save you..... you will get hit in the front by a brave weapon by bosses and promoted enemies and get one rounded no matter what. Dont expect bosses to drop below having 75 hit on you either. hell, Your lucky if it drops out of 80 for normal promoted enemies. Its overzealous in its design. Lunatic doesn't feel balanced or well made but hard mode feels just right for your tough difficulty minus the gimmick maps.
story complaint wise, the war surprisingly doesn't feel like a war. Which is a shame since i expected a more immersive conflict since mangs states thats why he likes fe6. It feels like you are just fighting individual houses and majority of Andarons lords are just taken out like chumps in one chapter (it doesn't matter how tough their stats are if u kill 9 of them in one map). It makes Andaron feel like one of the smallest and weakest main nations to exist across FE games. At the end of the day It just cant compete with wars like radiant dawn or path of radiance where (hate them or love them) green units and massive sized clashes that happen for dozens of chapters make you feel immersed in the conflict. In andaron, you simply take out houses in secluded episodes with your small band of soldiers then all the other lord at once because they ran out of time and only can do a 6 chapter war. White its a top FE game, its conflict does not crack my top 6 FE wars.
This is still in my top 4 fire emblem games and right below vision quest in second place for fan made games (while the story is better than VQ, VQ is easily more replayable and well tuned).
This review comes from a place of love as I want the next one to improve on some aspects since the gameplay mechanics and story are otherwise topnotch, minus the enemy spam (chapter 29 example, played pre-nerf). A near perfect game, just not one i will frequently ironman unlike the main gbas, tellius or VQ.