[FE 8 Rom Hack] The Eligor's Spear v.0.1.2 release

[Zarg]

A new version of Eligor’s Spear is here. I’ve been doing tons of playtesting, but
since it’s just me chances are some maps, as well as certain characters or the
overall difficulty needs more fine-tuning. I’ve also started implementing the new
Hard Mode. If you’re feeling courageous, give it a try. Be warned, though:
I have intentionally made it very tough. It’s still a very experimental thing, so
I may have not found the right balance just yet. I highly suggest starting over,
as there are changes and additions to some of the earlier maps. This includes new
recruitable characters.

Any gameplay changes, as well as a list of bugs and the support pairings guide are
included in the download link. To avoid spoiling some of the characters that are yet to
be recruited, I’m referring to them in the guide by their initial letter only.

I have made a lot of changes and polishing since the initial launch, so in a sense
this project has received an overhaul of sorts. As such some of earlier changes I’ve
posted in this thread may no longer apply to the current version.
There’s kind of an “entry bar” for this hack: I intend to maintain a certain degree of difficulty. I’d like to think I have taken some inspiration from Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest (hopefully
not story-wise, though). Feel free to check out screenshots and additional information down below. Like always I’m open for all constructive feedback.

Download link (Patch to FE8 / Sacred Stones US ROM):

Eligor's Spear v.0.1.2

Features:

• FE 8 Quality of life patch
• Some custom music (see Credits)
• Some custom animations (see Credits)
• Self-made mugs (splices)
• Route choice (more on that under “Premise/Gameplay”
• Maps with varying objectives and gimmicks
• Current release has 15 chapters, 14 of which are playable:
  (One is cutscenes only, there’s also one “bonus” chapter)
  Once you reach “Thanks for playing”, you have reached the end of current build.
• Hard mode is being implemented little by little. More on that below.
• Support pairings are implemented, but the conversations themselves
  are still work in progress.
  (Note: Skills are not in the game aside from FE 8 vanilla ones like Slayer, Pierce and Sure Strike)

Title screen is still work in progress.

About the hack:

Story: The remote continent of Amasea was once ruled by mighty warlords. However, the divine intervened and put an end to their reign. Several tombs of said warlords still remain across Amasea. A collector of rare artifacts, Grismond, has listed the help of a certain group of thieves: Skylar, Camian and Avanni. Grismond wishes to expand his collection with yet another item. This item is none other than the Eligor’s Spear. Little did they know that retrieving the Spear was the easy part of their journey…

Premise/Gameplay

The group of thieves are also the main characters of the game. Story-wise the game begins when you are retrieving the Eligor’s Spear instead of the other way around. What comes after that is what the story consists of. The player is presented with the choice of either travelling with the collector Grismond or running away with the Spear: at one point in the game you have two chapters to choose from. This is where you make the choice.

Each route has their own maps and recruitable characters. These routes do not converge.
The stories in both routes are also (aside from maybe some minor references) their own;
you don’t have to play one to understand the other.

My idea is to make a somewhat simple hack that utilizes gameplay elements in new ways. At the same time I try to make my hack decently challenging. My main focus will be on character balance and map design. What I mean by simple is that this hack doesn’t center around deep political schemes and doesn’t contain various unexpected plot twists.

The maps offer a varying gimmicks and challenges for the player to overcome. The gimmicks are less extreme than say, Fuga’s wind castle thingy or the entirety of Revelation. Instead, the gimmick might be the chapter’s extraordinary objective, or it may have something to do with how the enemy is placed. Don’t forget to check the clear condition from the Status screen, as some maps provide more than one way of clearing them.

Hard Mode

My idea for Hard Mode is to not just simply increase enemy stats, but to add more variety to them, making it a new experience altogether. Of course enemies being stronger
is a part of it, but Hard Mode changes other things as well, including:

• Enemy types (classes), their positions and equipment.
  Bosses retain their classes, but aside from that are subject to these changes too.
• Droppable items - there are less of them on Hard Mode.
  My intention is to put an emphasis on managing your resources wisely.
• Reinforcement timing, placement and patterns.
  This doesn’t mean ambush spawns appear from thin air. There are ambush spawns in
  one map in the whole hack, and that’s simply because I’m not sure how to implement
  those said units otherwise. What this entails is reinforcements appearing a turn or two
  earlier, them spawning in another location, and/or their class has been changed.

In the current release, the following chapters have new Hard Mode data:
Prologue: Tomb of Eligor, Nightfall Ambush, Karkos Mountains,
Slumber Disturbed, Adversaries, The Hermit’s Home,
On the Run, Land Ahoy, Showdown at Sevna

You can still keep playing after clearing these maps, but in those maps there are no
other changes than enemies being tougher.

Screenshots

Credits

FEBuilder GBA + (most) patches:
7743
circleseverywhere

Other patches:
Tequila - Show amount of HP healed -patch, Unlimited S-rank weapons
Magrika is Now Canon - prevent AI healing mistargeting -patch
Gryz - Enable faster movement
Brendor - remove Pierce glitch -patch, Monster weapon fix, remove Enemy control
Agro & Brendor - 16 tracks, 12 sounds -patch
Stan - Dancer AI
Aera - Character Retreat event- patch, remove Link Arena, set Preparation store pricing (default), gender-neutral cavalry rescue
Aera & 7743 - Give unit experience points- patch, Deny Deployment from Preparations- patches
Kaito & 7743 - Lose item (all units and transporters)
Hextator - custom animation (01/48command hack) patches, Anti-Huffman
Vennobennu - Autocursor fix
Vennobennu & 7743 - Gain support at various ranges -patch
Nintenlord - remove Easy mode
Alusq - Native Instrument Map 2
https://github.com/ngmansion/FE8/tree/master/escapemap - Conditional: check whether all members have withdrawn
Chap@FE8_GIRLS 09.10.01 https://dw.ngmansion.xyz/doku.php?id=data:パッチ - Great Shield last class

FE Map Creator:
BwdYeti
Pi

Battle animations:
Russel Clark - Mercenary (F)

Glenwing, Keks_Kreb - Assassin (F) hoodless

Black Mage, Temp, Eliwan - Halberdier (F) 2.0

Gabriel Knight - Hatless Mage (M)

Blind Archer, Archibald, BwdYeti, Skitty, Temp - Phantom battle animations

Lisandra_Brave, inkling, genocike - Pegasus Knight (M)

Velvet_Kitsune - Summoner (F)

FEif hack development team - Eirika-Style Isadora Doubleblade

St jack - Hero (F)

Greentea, Nuramon - Legault assassin

Alusq, maiser6 - Improved Fe10 -style soldier (F) [original by flasuban]

Map Sprites
Rasdel - Female Mercenary Standing + Moving sprites
[Unknown/ Ultimate Graphics Repository -FEU] - Summoner (F) Standing + Moving sprites
flasuban - Fe10 -style soldier (F) Standing + Moving sprites

Status screen/ background:
Lord Glenn

Weapon icons:
Lord Glenn

FE8 Quality of life patch:
Solum
Agro/Brendor
Gryz
Vennobennu
Hextator
Nintenlord
Tequila
circleseverywhere
Zane
crazycolors

Event Assembler:
Nintenlord
Kate/Klo
Fire Blazer
flyingace24
markyjoe1990
mariobro3838
Arch
Ryrumeli
Omni
Camtech075/Cam/Kam

Custom music:
Alusq: FE 2 Boss battle theme, Act Raiser: Cassandra, Act Raiser 2: Deception

CivilYoshi: Door of Destiny

GratedShtick: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Darkness Ridge

DerTheVaporeon: SoMBoss2

Meilu: Concealed Four Seasons, Chrono Trigger: Unreleased Battle Theme, Tales of Phantasia:
Tale Up the Cross, Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Roaming the Wastes

MrGreen3339: Berwick Saga - Advancing Wave

nyawenyye: Damn Again, Crimson Ridge

Sme: Elder Princess Shroob, Vim Factory, At the Bottom of Night, Chrono Trigger

SaXor_the_Nobody: Knights in the Nightmare - Maria Sortie!, Clash!

Tamborrino: A Deadly Confrontation, Anthem of Valor, Imperialistic Thoughts, True Perseverance,
False Valor, Renegades in the Rain, Damocles (Kotoaro Nagakawa)

FE6-8 mug spreadsheet:
Lexou
Serene’s Forest - prototype mugs

Fe6 blinking frames:
Lenh (edits by Zarg)

Other:
[Unknown/ Ultimate Graphics Repository - FEU] - Summoner class card, Halberdier class card

Assisting developer/ technical advisor:
Shvico

Mugs, maps, main development:
Zarg

Thank you for your attention.

[FlawlessJar]

Looks impressive! The storyline sounds unique and interesting, the mugs are all clean and look good, the maps you’ve shown have good design elements and look visually appealing aside from a few out of place tiles. This project looks very promising! You’ve done a lot of work on your own, keep it up! I will definitely give this a go in next few days and give you more constructive feedback.

[VonIthipathachai]

I’ve played the first couple of chapters. Pretty good so far, though I’m still not sure if you’re meant to be able to go down to the bottom of the map in the second chapter.

Starting the route split with the route through the mountains. I don’t like how your healer is a green unit for whom you have to bend over backwards in order to protect him and reach the visitable House at the same time.

(EDIT: After a few more attempts, yeah, not having your healer be controllable makes the map way harder than it needs to be. He even tried to heal somebody who already had full HP! I had to play too slowly because of how low on HP everyone was getting and I wasn’t able to make it to the second House at the top.)

[VonIthipathachai]

I’m attempting the other route too and still no luck. I think the enemies in your corridor are a little too tough and a little too many. (Knights when you don’t have any magic users? Really?) Even when I was playing as recklessly as possible to reach the green units ASAP I still couldn’t stop the boss from escaping.

I also hate how over half the Enemy Phase is just generics duking it out.

I think this hack is going to need some work to make it less cheaply difficult. For what it’s worth, the portraits are pretty nice, though.

[Zarg]

@FlawlessJar Thanks for the compliments! Yeah, take your time. The more feedback and critique you can give the better.

@VonIthipathachai Thank you for your feedback! Can you explain what do you mean by being able to go the bottom? If you mean the area where the boss is, that is in fact intentional.

Originally the chapter with the healer was meant to be an escort map, but I scrapped that idea. Instead I opted for a map where you have to push through the enemy while at the same time make sure your healer is safe ( sorta like an escort map?). Making him playable from the get-go might work better though, given all the status ailments and the fact that you’re on a timer - if you care about the villages.

Have you tried using the panels in the areas with rocky floor? The idea with this chapter was to give the boss more than one escape point in order to make stopping him more difficult. I’ll see what I can do about the enemy phase being so lengthy, and as for the knights I believed having an axe user and Armorslayer would be enough to deal with them.

Aside from myself, there has been like one other person playtesting the hack, and even then they haven’t played all the chapters in the current release. Needless to say, that isn’t nowhere enough to gauge the difficulty. For the time being all I can offer is advice if you’re still open for that. I’ll be keeping an eye on this thread and see if there’re more people sharing your sentiments.

[VonIthipathachai]

By the bottom of the second map I mean the southern half, from which I’m guessing all the enemies spawn. I was able to see a Fighter down there with an Energy Ring I wasn’t able to get. You’re constantly stuck at the top of the map near Grismond because you have to protect him and the enemies can potentially overwhelm you if everyone isn’t together.

I just tried stepping on one of those panels to open up a door. For one thing, there’s no indication given anywhere that they can be stepped on to open hidden doors. What’s worse, none of the switches actually block an exit, so the boss will likely still stay on his path to the other stairs.

I still can’t beat this awful map. I would suggest adding some other switches that block certain paths for the boss to escape through or changing existing ones to do that. Also, his Avoid is way too high. I would personally downgrade him to a Thief.

You DID playtest this map, right? How the heck did you beat it?

[Zarg]

Yeah, that part is reachable. One strategy you can use is to send Cam or Sky on the island in the middle, let Agnessa solo the right hand side and send the rest to the left-hand side. Playing aggressively can be rewarding (since you can get some nice items) but also very risky. You have to use your Vulneraries and Elixir quite a bit.

As for the map with the rogue, the idea was that the panels serve as a visual cue: they’re supposed to stand out from the rest of the floor. I didn’t wish to explicitly say what they’re there for, because I think that’s a bit too hand-holdy. I made the walls look unmatching for the same reason. I wanted to make the panels sort of a double-edged sword: they would help you reach the NPC’s and the boss faster, but also open up more space for the boss and the enemy units to use. I can make the panels not only open new entrances, but also close some of the escape points like the stairs. I actually ended up adding those panels after testing the map.

Swordreaver helps you a ton against the boss, not to mention the Barrier staff and also Pure Water if you bought any. However, I might lower his Speed and/or Luck a bit, that should help landing blows on him.

I open the upper door with Sky and send others to the corridor below. Cam and Avanni do most of the fighting, I can step on the panels and still keep up with them because Sky as a thief has 6 move. Both of the NPC’s are recruited when you talk to either one of them, so once I reach them I can use them right away to block the boss. If you’re running out of time, try summoning a Phantom.

Edit: a Phantom can also serve as a roadblock for the boss, assuming it doesn’t get killed immediately.

[VonIthipathachai]

I did try a couple of times to block the boss with a Phantom, but it couldn’t do so because other enemies kept killing it.

[Zarg]

I can’t record or stream me clearing the map, but I can provide a guide by taking screenshots if you think something like that could help.

[Zarg]

Update time:

1. Fixed the broken spoilers/ hide details-thingy in the opening post.

As for actual updates on the game:

1. Edited the map “On the Run”. Here’s how the newer version looks like:

Summary

Other changes to this map:

Summary

• Boss grabs also Guding Ring now + starts further away from escape points
• The amount of escape points has been decreased to 2.
• His Speed and Luck stats have been decreased by 1 and 3 points respectively
• There are less enemy units and less green units
• The path to the left side of the map is now longer and more of the enemy units target the player units now, meaning (hopefully) that green units don’t hog most of the kills.
• Changes have been made to enemy placement.
• The floor panels have been made to stand out more.
• One of the panels also closes the stairs the boss uses to escape.

2. Updated the map “Land Ahoy”. Here’s the newer version:

Summary

What else changed on the map:

Summary

• The amount of villages you need to protect has been decreased to 3. However, all 3 villages are under constant threat, so no more “suddenly a thief” shenanigans.
• The Guiding Ring reward has been replaced by an Elixir.
• The boss has lost 1 point of Speed.
• The amount of enemy units has been decreased, enemy placement and equipment has been changed.

I think that’s all for now. Note that these are still work in progress, current release still has the old versions of these maps. This update post is just to let you know what I’m working on.

Feel free to leave me feedback and critique. Thanks for reading.

[Zarg]

Here’s an update.

I’ve edited the map for Chapter 1. Here’s how it currently looks:

Map

What else changed:

Summary

• The amount of enemies has been slightly decreased
• The boss has lost some of his Speed and Defense
• Talk conversations are easier to trigger due to how characters are placed

My intention is to make it so that players can choose between ending the chapter early or attempting to clear the bonus objective of the map. You can play safely, but doing so means you’re not very likely to get all the goodies.

Edit: I have also edited the map “Adversaries”. Here’s the new version:

Map

Other changes include:

Summary

• removing some of the enemy units
• the Great Knight and Paladin bosses now drop a weapon
• the first ballista should be a regular one now instead of Iron (which had increased attack range)

I have also been working on some new maps, but those are still in testing phase. My question is, do you prefer to wait until they’re done or would you rather have a new release now and get to play the fixed maps now?

[Zarg]

It has been a while since I posted here. Currently the hack is undergoing some playtesting, and if need be I’ll make some adjustments and polishing. I think a new version will be released some time this month, and it contains more substance not only in terms of gameplay but story as well. Once the new version releases, I’ll go more into detail about what’s new and changed.

I want to thank those of you who have downloaded (and played) the game. Those who prefer to wait for an improved / the complete version, I understand. All I can really ask of you is patience.

[StreetHero]

[Operator0G]

i’m liking it so far. the difficulty is decent, and the characters are likable. can’t wait for the next update to release!

[Zarg]

Edit: Development of this hack is finally resuming. Progress might be slow, as there are things I need to fix and stuff I wanna try out, as well as IRL business I need to attend to. Thanks for being patient.

[Tamborrino]

Eyy, glad to see you’re using some of my music, when I get the chance I’ll give it a go

[Zarg]

Here’s a little sneak peek of things to come, look forward to it!:

[Zarg]

I’m currently doing some playtesting for Hard mode. Some of the maps have received new
Hard mode versions; for now all I’m going to say on that is that maps with new Hard mode versions have more changes to them than just enemies being tougher. In the meantime enjoy
me failing in my own maps:

[Zarg]

Sorry for the drought of updates. Now, however, I have updated the opening post with a new version of this hack. You need a clean FE 8 US ROM.

Edit: If you’re having problems with Ivan’s AI going haywire, try moving Skylar to this spot over here:

I’m not sure what causes the issue, but I think that if there are enemies between Ivan and Skylar, the AI doesn’t work properly. Ivan’s AI is set to go to Skylar once the rain first stops.

Edit 2: I did further testing and it turns out that moving Skylar to a certain spot will cause
Ivan’s AI issues. I couldn’t replicate the problems by moving Skylar anywhere else. Instead, Ivan’s AI worked just as intended. Here’s a screenshot where I marked the area that causes the problems, so if you want to recruit Ivan, Do Not move Skylar there. I sincerely apologize for any problems this may cause.

Here’s the screenshot:

[Zarg]

There was a bug with one of the talk conversations, so I went ahead and fixed it.