I want to preface this by saying that I haven’t been a member of FEUniverse very long and I’m not very active on any social media platform so regrettably I can’t post any screenshots as of yet. I appreciate everyone’s understanding on this.
Hack Length and Promotions
First off props for going the length of making your own hack after only playing Fire Emblem for a short time, this hack has I believe a lot of potential and promise, solid premise and decent world building going on here. I don’t know what your vision for this hack is but something you may consider is from what I understand you plan on keeping the hack as a short 6 chapter length project. Most people I believe are going to want to see the units promote 6 chapters isn’t enough time for that. I would recommend bumping up the level of everyone so that they can conceivably reach a level where they can promote. There’s another short hack called Barry’s Bandits at 8 chapters, units join at higher levels than normal around level 10 or higher, or the unit is a pre-promote.
Ark
Solid character design. Looks like a strong capable and experienced warrior. This is backed up by his in-game nickname the Warrior King. Bases are as follows: 8 str, 1 mag, 7 skill, 7 spd, 5 luck, 7 def, 0 res, 5 move Growths: 60 str, 5 mag, 50 skill, 55 spd, 55 luck, 30 def, 30 res, 70 hp. Solid lord design seems pretty standard, his bases and growths however don’t entirely match up with his Warrior King look and nickname, his look and nickname make him seem more like someone along the lines of Hector or Ike or even Alm for that matter. His bases however tell a different story, 8 str is better from the original 6 and 7 defense is also better from what it was before however this really isn’t helping him take more hits he looks like a very defensible unit in practice however he is very weak. He will go down in only a couple of hits. Personally I’m confused why his luck growth is so high when he’s called the Warrior King, one would think a Warrior King would have a really good defense base and growth. I personally would switch his luck growth for his defense growth but I don’t know what you envision for this character that’s just my thoughts.
Ark's Growths
Let’s talk about his growths for a second because if a unit starts off weak maybe he will get tankier, the only way he will reliably get tankier is by getting more hp the problem however is enemies get pretty strong really fast. So if you take each growth and multiply it by the amount of level ups that character will get, the resulting sum you add to the base and that will tell you how high each stat will be so for Ark let’s say he gets to level 15, that’s 14 level ups so his stats will look like so:
HP 27-28 Str 16, 14 skill, 14-15 speed, 12-13 luck, 11 def, 4 res, This is really not looking good for Ark 14 level ups and he’s leveled defense about 4 times, the attack power of enemies gets bigger especially with enemies having silver weapons later and he’s supposed to be the Warrior king he looks like someone who can take a hit and even at level 15 he’s only going to last for a couple attacks as enemies later into the hack have an attack of 20. Ark looks really strong but his bases and growths don’t back that up, he will only survive for a couple attacks and this doesn’t improve.
Theo
I like his design overall my main criticism design wise is that he doesn’t LOOK like an armor unit, maybe make him bulkier if possible. Theo honestly has really mediocre bases and growths and to make matters worse you get a better armor unit a chapter later at that point there’s little reason to still use Theo. I would first off increase Theo’s base speed so he can double other armors, his base strength is pretty bad. He learns Provoke at level 5, good skill for an armor unit. BUT he needs better base defense and growth and honestly there’s no reason for his strength to be so low he can’t double anything so being able to do a lot of damage in one single attack balances that out will. His strength base and growth are really poor for an armor unit. With how quickly enemies attack power increases Theo needs a better base def and growth with his base he can last for 4 attacks before he dies.
Sabastian
Sabastian is another solid character pretty good archer design both in terms of bases and growths but with how his strength is below everyone else’s. I would suggest bumping his speed base up so he can double more reliably. His growths and bases seem fairly typical of an archer, but I would bump that up reason being his strength is below average so if he could make up for his lackluster attack by being able to double that would help him to remain comparable to everyone else.
Penelope
Penelope is a pretty cute looking character and I like seeing playable soldiers, with her strength of 6 I would recommend a higher base speed and maybe growth to allow her to contribute better similar to Sebastian in this case. The main enemies I remember her being able to double are that very first group on chapter one after that it didn’t seem anyone was doubling except for the prepromotes later. Also by chapter three she’s around level three with speed that hasn’t improved much if at all, the mercenaries on that chapter have 11, 12 speed meaning that with her 5 speed they will double her and with their attack of 19 and 20 respectively vs Penelope’s 8 defense and 22 Hp that comes to a damage of 11 and 12. She’s going down in two attacks and with their high speed they will double her. The units on this map all are really high around level 10 vs the level of the player units at this time in the hack. Penelope also has very low con and aid I would expect her to be able to rescue at least a priest especially since she’s a soldier but ironically, it’s reversed. The Priest can rescue Penelope the soldier. I get that she’s a girl and he’s a guy but still I would think she could at least rescue someone squishy like a priest. On top of that, her low con means she would get weighed down by her Iron Lance, and she doesn’t have a high enough speed growth to compensate for that.
Stella
Props on having some female fighters, love seeing that especially since infantry axe units are some of my favorite unit types. Stella looks pretty cool but as a fighter she has some issues. Her bases are as follows: 23 hp, 6 str, 1 mag, 4 skill, 7 spd, 0 luck, 2 def, 0 res. 6 strength is really bad for a fighter especially a level 5 fighter I’m going to compare those to Dorcas’ bases a fighter from FE7 who joins at level 3. 30 hp, 7 str, 7 skill, 6 speed, 3 luck, 3 def, 0 res. He has better stats all around and he joins at a lower level then Stella on top of that a Thief who joins a couple chapters later in this hack has a base defense of 5, 3 points higher than Stella’s and at level 3 vs Stella’s level 2. Thieves are not known for taking hits Stella should have more hp, str and a little more defense. I do like Stella’s base 7 speed really like that. Allows her to double with an Iron Axe at least but I think her base strength and HP need to be bumped up because as she stands right now, she won’t last long she can die from 2 spear attacks.
Arabella
Arabella has low aid for a mounted unit there’s only a couple of people she can rescue which limits her options in terms of who she can rescue if need be. Only the priest, Ark and Penelope. Being able to rescue carry other infantry units would be great. Another point of interest is there are a lot of units with ranged weaponry and very few of your own units have any ranged options. Two archers and one javelin user. I would suggest giving more people a javelin or hand axe as appropriate. When Arabella joins, she has a worse speed base than enemy cavs on the same map despite having a similar level. However, she is a mounted archer, always love having a mounted archer on the team and I think her design is really cool too no complaints on anyone’s portrait design.
Chapter 2
Not bad. Reminds me of some maps from Thracia 776: units are closer from how they were originally so that’s an improvement. Definitely like to see that however Penelope is a little too far away from the initial group of enemies to get involved right away. I would suggest moving her a square or two closer. Also, with all the armors you may consider making the hammer from that one fighter droppable. And speaking of armors, this hack seems to throw a lot of armor units at you with so many armor units one would expect some effective weaponry to be provided to the player such as a heavy spear, hammer or armorslayer possibly even a mage or two so I’m surprised about that.
Having two pre promotes reminds me of FE6 where you have both Marcus and Zealot I believe his name was, so nice to see that again, fairly early on too. Cora is a very likable her design reminds me of Mist from the Tellius games. Pretty standard set up in terms of a pegasus, I would recommend raising her skill and luck base and bump up her resistance growth a little bit it’s rather low compared to most pegasus riders. Typically pegasus riders have decent resistance making them ideal for baiting out and dealing with mages.
Chapter 3
Enemy units levels are jumping all over the place by chapter 3 most player units are still around 3 including the new recruits but the enemy is level 10. On top of that the pegasus riders have spears and a b rank in lances. This is a problem. With those spears it gives the pegasus riders an attack of 20, meaning with everyone’s low bulk they will kill everyone in two hits, Theo will go down in 3 when I played most of my units were around level 3 at this chapter. A consistent problem is that your front-line attackers have very weak durability. Even against Aurelius they will do 6 damage which with his 26 defense means he’s going down in 4-5 attacks and he’s a PROMOTED armor. I’m not mad here I’m simply trying to emphasize the fact that a promoted armor unit shouldn’t be going down that fast to unpromoted pegasus units especially when pegasus units are mainly known for being fast and don’t usually have high attack power. I like to think of them as flying myrmidons, high skill and speed but not too high on strength though high enough to do decent damage.
Dominic is super scary. He has a Brave axe first of all, he will double anyone who attacks him on top of that he has skills which will reduce the strength of his opponents and a skill which can restore his health of all the skills it’s really the strength seal skill I hate the most. His stats are pretty reasonable I think but his skills on top of the brave axe make him really terrifying.
Chapter 4
Map 4 from what I can tell it’s impossible to rescue the villager, I’m not sure if this is intentional or not, the implication seems that he can be rescued but there’s a pegasus that will attack that villager and it takes two turns to get a mounted unit within that pegasus rider’s range by that point the villager is in the pegasus’ range and so targets the villager instead. Maybe move that villager a little closer, perhaps give the priest a rescue staff that he can use to warp the villager to the player? These are the main suggestions I can think of.
Unit Recruitment and Stats
Recruit levels are all over the place as well as bases, Stella joins a chapter earlier at level 5, but then the priest and cavalier a chapter later join at level 3 same with the mercenary and thief for the following chapter. Growths too seem to be all over the place Cora and Sabastian have about 3 areas they’re good in but then Theo doesn’t have any area he really excels in going by the color coding, to be clear I’m just talking about base tier class characters here. Now overall I think the hack is solid and I think it has promise and potential and honestly, it’s great seeing someone make a Fire Emblem hack.
Unit Durability
All the units have likable designs but consistently and throughout the hack everyone is very weak their durability is very bad. On average most characters can last for 2, 3 attacks, this is from the start, and it really doesn’t get much better. This durability is just marginally better than Lyn’s considered the weakest lord in the series. I may get long here, and very analytical but comparing and contrasting FE units is a passion of mine apologies in advance.
One main thing that sticks out to me is that the Player units are really weak with poor durability the only exception to this are the pre promotes and this tends to be a consistent problem here. I expect pre promotes to be strong, but I also expect the non-promoted units to grow into tanky reliable units. I would recommend watching YouTuber Mekkah’s Lyn analysis as some things he says may provide some insight and be helpful for this project. Regrettably I can’t post the video for the same reason as why I can’t post screenshots, but the video is as I said by youtuber Mekkah and is titled 8000 Subscriber Special: FE7 Lyn Analysis. It’s a 35-minute length video and goes very in depth. To be clear there are things I like about the hack, character design, unit selection it all shows excellent promise and potential and I hope you continue to work on it, you have some very solid concepts I just think it needs more time in the oven so to speak.
On that first map, most enemies have an attack of 13 or 14. So let’s take that 13 damage and subtract Ark’s 7 defense from it, they will do 6 points of damage and with Ark’s base hp of 18 he will go down in 3 hits, and this isn’t something that improves. Now granted he should dodge however I’m not someone who relies on a unit dodging. I prefer a unit be able to take that attack. Now a base hp of approximately 18 is fairly typical for gba lords however this is a 6 chapter hack and he’s called the warrior king I would recommend bumping his level and bases up to reflect his warrior king status and because it’s a 6 chapter project most people are going to want to get units to a point where they can promote so units being at higher levels than normal would allow for units to be able to promote without increasing the number of chapters of the project.
Overall pretty decent hack and I like how the objective for map 2 was incorporated into the dialogue of the player units where you are given hints that there are more villagers coming that will need to be rescued and how many need to be rescued at minimum. This map is pretty decent with its objectives, just a friendly suggestion, feel free to ignore this, but usually with rescuing villager maps you get an increase in reward with the more villagers you can rescue. Now the map is good as is this is just a friendly suggestion. Character design is great, there’s some intrigue going on and the world building is solid I like how the player gets a general rundown on what’s going on. Makes it clear why Ark was fighting those bandits back on the first map in the first place.
