Feda: The Emblem of Justice



Properly titled FEDA the Emblem of Justice, this is an obscure sister-game to the more well-known Shining Force series. It is an overhead-view tactical RPG in the vein of Bahamut Lagoon or Front Mission, though somewhat simpler than either mechanically. FEDA was released on the Super Famicom in 1994 and had a later Sega Saturn remake that added new characters and some low-quality FMV; as it is a Japan-only release, the only English localizations are hacks.

FEDA the Emblem of Justice provides examples of:

 * Absurdly High Level Cap - Subverted. Its maximum level is 50 and you'll need to be most of the way there if you want to take out the Big Bad.
 * Action Bar - The in-battle action menus take a little getting used to.
 * After Combat Recovery - You are healed between every fight. Somewhat justified in that it's usually a few days between battles, game-time-wise.
 * Airborne Mook - Flying units are a massive pain in this game. They don't usually have much health, but they make up for it with high attack power and a tendency to snipe your squishy units.
 * Antidote Effect - The Antidote (natch).
 * Arbitrary Headcount Limit - You may only have 10 characters on the battlefield. 10 is plenty, though.
 * The Archer - Dora.
 * Armor-Piercing Attack - Although not listed as such, several skills (Dan's Hammer Swing, Arby's Razing Blow) seem to ignore defense.
 * Artificial Stupidity - Probably unintentional, but the AI seems to target Brian and Ain
 * Authority Equals Asskicking - Subverted. "God of War" Commander Koumei never fights, and Ain even lampshades this by calling him a chair-warmer to his face. Yup, wolfman's got nards...er, cojones.
 * Badass - Ain, though some characters like Arby count too.
 * Bare-Fisted Monk - Arby. He's not a monk, specifically, but he fights the way the trope describes.
 * Big Badass Wolf - Ain.
 * BFS - Sword weilding characters can equip Claymores and Zweihanders. In one hand. Of course, since there's only one battle animation, Brian always has a broadsword, Ain and Shishimaru always have a katana, etc.
 * Boring but Practical - Standard physical attacks. Magic is only good for softening up enemies (usually).
 * Character Portrait - Most important characters have one on their dialogue boxes.
 * Child Mage - Yup. She's probably the least-squishy magic user in the group, too.
 * Climax Boss - Were it not for the fact that he's only a few hours in, you really could be forgiven for thinking Arnos is the last boss.
 * Concealment Equals Cover - Subverted hard; you can, apparently, shoot an arrow through a wall and nail an enemy that, were this in proper 3D, would not even be able to see you.
 * Cowardly Boss - Arnos again, though he gets his shortly after...
 * Critical Existence Failure - You may have only 1 HP left, but as long as you do, you can still fight as full strength. Lose that last one, though...
 * Critical Hit - Though they don't do double damage, criticals are plenty painful. Bows and lances seem to get them more often than swords.
 * Cutscene - Mostly done with the game's engine, though the Saturn remake has some anime shorts.
 * Damage Discrimination - Don't even bother trying to hit mages with magic. They seem to dodge it or take 1 HP of damage every time.
 * Difficulty Spike - Expect things to get a LOT harder once you hit the desert area.
 * Easy Logistics - Luckily, food/water/shelter are all accounted for.
 * Everything Fades - Enemies fade out a la early Final Fantasy when killed, and disappear in a small explosion on the map thereafter.
 * Evolving Attack - Brian's Wave Impulse changes a bit after a certain event.
 * Exposition Break - What most cutscenes end up being.
 * Fire, Ice, Lightning - And Earth.
 * Flunky Boss - Given a nasty twist with Arnos.
 * Friendly Fireproof - Your area-of-effect attacks will never harm a teammate, not even the ones like Dan's quake-causing Hammer Swing or getting caught in Connolly's Frost 4 spell.
 * Game Over Man - Commander Koumei.
 * Gainaxing - Shelly.
 * Geo Effects - The terrain alters both your movement range and bonuses/penalties to attack and defense. Additionally, flying units are permanently at +20% def.
 * Glass Cannon - Ain. Made worse by the fact that if he's killed, it's an automatic game over. He's strong, but he can't take much abuse. Thankfully this is countered with his good evasion. Ditto for Shane, minus the instant game over part. El kind of qualifies too, though you shouldn't be letting him anywhere near the front lines.
 * Golden Ending - Kinda. The others aren't all bad, and they're all a bit grim, but the lower-alignment ones will make you question the sanity of your protagonist...
 * Guns in Church - Your heavily-armed units spend a lot of time in temples, churches, meeting halls, and so forth.
 * Herd-Hitting Attack - Both your units' and the enemies' skills tend to be either single-target attacks, or some very nasty AoE magic.
 * Hide Your Children - Oh so very subverted. The game opens with a massacre of innocent civilians, and it's a child's near-death that ends up getting the lead kicked out of the Balformian Regular Army. Also, one of your later units can't be more than 10 or 12 years old.
 * High Altitude Battle - One fight takes place atop two cargo dragons. Two very steady, very stiff cargo dragons. Who apparently don't mind a giant lizardman causing a small earthquake on their spine.
 * Hit Points - Of course!
 * Hyperactive Metabolism - The three healing items (Rations, Food Packs, Survival Packs) heal instantly.
 * Infinity+1 Sword - Executer. Holy crap.
 * Informed Equipment - Characters always look the same in battle, no matter what weapons or armor they have on.
 * Instant Win Condition - Sometimes you just need to get a few units to the other side of the map to complete a mission.
 * In Universe Game Clock - Going into a map increments the calendar by one day. Oddly, night never falls on the overworld...
 * It's a Wonderful Failure - Played surprisingly straight. Your army actually accomplishes what it was intending to, but since you don't personally live to see it, well...
 * It's Up to You - Justified, in that most of the Liberation Army is said in-game to be desperate civilians and farmers. Guerilla Unit 3 may be the most powerful force on the face of Mildras Garz.
 * Journey to Find Oneself - Most of the endings are like this.
 * Karma Meter - A central plot point, and one of the determinig factors over both who joins you and what ending you see.
 * Lady of War - Lois/Roiss/Royce, who is something like a female version of Brian with somewhat reduced stats.
 * Lightning Bruiser - Compared to Mighty Glacier Dan, Arby is actually quite a good damage-dealer while having a nice move range, aside from having high defense (his only weakness is his poor magic defense). Hilariously enough, for a character who has high defense, he barely wears any clothing.
 * Mighty Glacier - Dan the Lizardman. He has low movement, but can soak a lot of damage and his special skill rips through groups of enemies.
 * Multiple Endings - Some of which will make you wince.
 * Non-Lethal KO - Played straight (enemies, though Arnos can apparently survive going 'splodie) and subverted (your units are captured, and you can bust them out).
 * No Points for Neutrality - Although your team is supposedly neutral, you are quickly roped into the Liberation Army. Foreshadowed early on with Ain's disgust at the neutrality of the people of Spitt, though this is soon shown to be a false cover.
 * One True Faith - Subverted. There seem to be a lot of different religions even on Skuderia alone, including obvious references to Buddhism and Catholicism.
 * Optional Party Member - Based on your Law or Chaos reputation, certain party members may or may not join you.
 * Panthera Awesome - Arby, a buff black panther who punches people and makes them explode while having high defense and mobility... despite wearing nothing more than bandages on his arms and legs and a loincloth
 * Point of No Return - Each chapter is separate, and you can't go back to a previous geographical region.
 * Real Is Brown - One of the rare pre-3D cases. This game tends to be pretty drab, though the setting justifies it.
 * Saving the World - Inevitably, this becomes your goal.
 * Selective Condemnation - Heavily subverted, as the game relies on a * Karma Meter of sorts and most of the time your goal is NOT to kill all the mooks you can see. In fact, a lot of characters will abandon you if you get too bloodthirsty.
 * Selective Historical Armoury - Mildras Garz is a bit Schizo-Tech, being mostly fantasy with a few seriously high-tech guns and laboratories thrown in.
 * Shoot the Medic First - Enemies will do this if they can't reach your main characters. Less useful when you do it since you should be dropping most enemies in one or two shots anyway.
 * Squishy Wizard - All of them. It's not uncommon for your healers or mages to be taken down with one good shot from an enemy.
 * Stat Meters - HP and MP bars, and an Experience meter.
 * Stone Wall - Dan and Arby can end up being this if you don't level them up enough.
 * Stripperiffic - strangely enough, most characters don't wear full armor. Some are even only wearing a half chestplate (like Ain), and some are barely wearing any clothing (like Arby)!
 * Stuck Items - You need at least one weapon on you at all times.
 * Suicidal Overconfidence - May overlap more with poor programming. The AI script seems to be "1) Kill Brian! 2) Kill Ain! 3) If you can't reach either, attack the squishy units!" As Brian is hands-down the best overall (if not the absolute strongest) character and Ain is fragile but nasty, this leads to a lot of pointing and laughing.
 * Super Move Portrait Attack - ALL attacks and magic/skills are miniature cutscenes.
 * Sword Beam - Brian's Wave Impulse. Cheap and nasty, guaranteed to drop just about anything in one hit.
 * 24-Hour Armor - If you believe the sprites, anyway. When do they get to bathe?
 * Turn Undead - Eris knows this.
 * Units Not to Scale - Actually subverted; your units are about the right size for the bridges, houses, etc. they fight around.
 * Universal Poison - Played straight. Poison is a lot nastier in this game than most, too; it will immediately kill the affected character in two turns. Luckily, it's easy to cure.
 * Useless Useful Spell - The aforementioned Turn Undead spell. If Eris is close enough to any undead to use it, she'll be dead before she can bring it off.
 * We Cannot Go on Without You - If Brian or Ain are captured, the game is over. Period.
 * White Mage - Eris, Aria, and Connolly. El is in the same general category, though he has a knife instead.
 * World Map
 * You All Look Familiar - There are literally only half a dozen or so standard NPC sprites (townspeople and so on).