As Sega continuously seeks to answer Nintendo's hits with matching franchises of its own (Vectorman to DKC, for example), Max Entertainment leaned in the other direction, thereby granting the Super Famicom an equal match-up to Shining Force. Feda: The Emblem of Justice looks and plays in a nearly identical manner to its cousin on Sega, right down to sharing the same art designer in Yoshitaka Tamaki. In this tactical role-player, combat occupies a grid system. Your characters can be commanded to move around the grid, attack or utilize items, then end their turn to shift the action. The battles themselves are a flashy and fun to finesse, an animated real-time war simulation. Although, battle outcomes are mostly pre-determined by weapons and character stats.
Feda is a story about mass destruction and surviving the reins of corruption in an empire fraught with war. Two Balformorian soldiers, sickened by the suffering of the common folk, rush to escape the violence and potentially assist a burgeoning resistance movement. The factor that divides this title from Shining Force and other renowned tactics games is its unique emblem-based system. Emblems are awarded based on the completion of objectives, management of fighters, and general battle performance. More emblems equal some extra bonuses. For now, Feda is locked to Japan and the Super Famicom, but perhaps a steady rise in RPG popularity in the USA will incite a change in the wind's direction.
Printed in Issue #30, October 1995
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