[FE6] Fire Emblem - The Binding Blade Revamp: Project Sienna Alpha v0.25

[Deviation]

What if you wanted to enjoy an FE6 rebalance but found PE’s changes too drastic for your tastes? What if you wanted to enjoy an FE6 rebalance but wished for something more than simply unit changes or slight map changes?

Well this is the hack for you!

Welcome one and all!

This is a post about an FE6 hack that I’ve been working on for quite a while now that I have creatively (and very originally) called Project Sienna.

Now, I know that the topic of rebalances and trying to recreate FE6 is something that has gotten quite a lot of traction recently and people are probably getting tired of it all, but I promise that this is not your ordinary “rebalance” that a lot of you might expect (in all honesty the only reason I tagged this hack as a “rebalance” is so that it can get more attention and its an easy to apply tag). In fact, Project Sienna is a lot more akin to a revamp of the original FE6 experience than a strict rebalance.

Trust me, I’ve seen my fair share at attempts to create FE6 rebalances over these past few months, and while I commend and respect a lot of them for what they’re trying to achieve, none of them have truly touched on the soul of what I would envision an “improved” version of FE6 would actually be like.

Hacks like the godfather of rebalances, Project Ember, or the FE6 remake in the FE8 engine have all solid attempts, but I felt they missed a lot of the core of what made FE6 play and feel like FE6, and in general in my opinion they went a bit overboard in some aspects. Things like the overloaded amount of personal weapons for instance was something I was never a fan of, and the FE6 remake had strange balancing decisions that just made me tilt my head in confusion.

On the other side of the spectrum, some of the FE6 hacks I’ve seen that tried to go the opposite approach either only work well as a good starting point or didn’t do enough to try and change many of the aspects of FE6 that a lot of people had problems with, like annoying map design still being mostly present or most units still being barely usable, or perhaps even the most shocking of all being character nerfs, which I personally despise. I think its a time for a hack that bridges both of these extremes.

Introducing, Project Sienna! An FE6 hack that is more akin to a revamp of the original rather than either a rework or a rebalance. It is a hack that aims to find the best sweetspot it can between too much change or too little change that still plays like FE6 and still feels like FE6 while overall making the experience more enjoyable and streamlined.

Unit wise I adore the minimalist way of unit balancing. The only thing I changed about units are base stats, weapon ranks, and starting inventory.

Here are some of the things this hack will include:

• Buffs to most player units
• Increased hitrates (and altered weapon stats)
• Faster supports
• Improved map layout and map design
• Better difficulty curve (easier earlygame, harder lategame)
• More promotion items
• Earlier Roy promotion
• Revamped visuals.

Here are some things however that this hack won’t include:

• Character nerfs
• Personal weapons (except for Roy)
• Growth rate changes
• Returning characters
• New classes
• Original characters
• Major story changes
• Altered promotions

As I said at the beginning of this, I want this hack to at its core still feel like FE6. A lot of people probably won’t enjoy it or agree with it and that’s totally fine. You’re entitled to your own opinion. Especially the lack of changes to growth rates, I think a lot of people will dislike how I didn’t change any of them, but I’ll just say that it’s surprising how much you can do with just bases and weapon wranks.

There will also still be clearly better characters than others. I enjoy FE6’s imbalance and I think it not only adds to the charm of the game but also gives a story behind using certain characters or not. Not every unit will be the same power level, but at the very least all units can still be usable instead of just being straight up horrible.

Now in any standard post this would usually be the part where I link to the ups patch and tell you guys to apply the patch to a clean japanese rom and hope you enjoy the game but unfortunately that will not be the case today.

As you probably could already tell, this hack is still a WIP. Currently I would say its about 70% done, but Ilia, Route B of the Western Isles, the Gaidens, and Endgame have still yet to be balanced and fully playtested. The hack is still in its alpha stages and is currently being playtested as of this moment. I’m sorry for anyone who got their hopes up but I want to deliver the best gameplay experience of FE6 I can and I won’t release anything to the public without me being fully satisfied in what I’ve got planning.

That being said, I did want to start marketing my hack and I hope this post has ignited your interest and it spreads to more people. This has been a completely solo project and I’m just glad I finally got around to announcing my hack on a public forum. I hope you’ll all be anticipating and excited for when I’ve finally got everything complete and ready to go!

See you all soon and have a great rest of your day.

Detailed Unit Changes (as of Alpha v0.25)

Units not listed here have been unchanged. Not a single growth rate has been changed.

Roy:

• +2 speed
• Starts with an Iron Sword
• Promotes at the end of Chapter 16
• New promotion gains into Master Lord: +3 HP, +3 attack, +3 speed, +4 skill, +5 defense and resistance, +2 con

Marcus:

• Starts with Steel Blade, replaces Iron Sword

Wolt:

• +2 attack and +2 speed

Bors:

• +4 hp, +2 skill and +2 speed
• Starts with an Axereaver

Ellen:

• +2 magic and +2 def

Wade:

• +2 attack, +2 skill and +1 speed

Lot:

• +2 speed and +3 skill

Lugh:

• +1 magic

Chad:

• +6 luck

Saul:

• Starts with an Unlock staff

Dorothy:

• +4 attack, +3 skill, and +2 speed
• Starts with an Iron Bow

Sue:

• +2 attack

Zealot:

• +2 defense
• Starts with a Tomohawk, replaces Steel Sword

Treck:

• +5 hp, +3 defense

Noah:

• +1 to all stats and +8 resistance
• Has C rank Swords and Lances

Lilina:

• +2 hp, +2 magic, +2 speed, and +2 defense
• Gets C rank Staves upon promotion

Wendy:

• +2 attack, +4 skill, and +4 speed

Barth:

• +10 hp, +2 attack, +6 skill, and +2 defense
• Starts with an Axereaver

Oujay:

• +1 speed and +6 luck
• Starts with a Lancereaver

Fir:

• +1 attack and +1 speed
• Starts at level 3

Geese:

• +3 attack and speed and +4 skill

Echidna:

• +1 attack
• Starts with Killer Axe, Hand Axe, and Steel Sword, replaces Iron Axe

Bartre:

• +3 skill and +1 speed

Raigh:

• Gets Hard Mode Bonuses

Cath:

• +8 attack, +8 skill and +6 speed

Igrene:

• Now joins in Chapter 13
• +2 attack, +2 skill, and +1 speed
• Has no movement penalty in the desert
• Starts with a Torch

Sophia:

• +5 hp, attack, skill, speed, and resistance, +3 luck, and +9 to defense

Cecilia:

• Now joins in Chapter 14
• +5 attack, +7 speed, +9 skill, and +3 resistance

Garret:

• +3 skill and +3 speed

Hugh:

• Starts as a Sage
• Starts with D rank Staves
• Gets Hard Mode Bonuses

Douglas:

• +3 skill, +3 speed, and +3 defense

Juno:

• +4 attack and +6 speed
• Gets B rank Swords

Dayan:

• +3 attack
• Gets B rank Swords

Karel:

• Lowered level down from 19 to 17

Important Weapon Changes (as of Alpha v0.25)

Almost all weapons have been changed to their FE7 weapon stats which means that nearly all weapons have improved hitrates. Magic tome weight is unaffected since FE7 screws them over a lot with their added weapon weight, which is unecessary and not a good change for a hack like this. There are some personal changes to some weapons though:

Steel Blade:

• +1 might
• +1 weight

All Poison weapons:

• +30 hit

All Slim weapons:

• 60 uses from 30

Gant’s Lance

• Grants +2 def
• +10 hit
• 50 uses

Al Sword

• Grants +2 skill
• +4 might and +5 hit
• 50 uses

Tina Staff

• Now acts as a Physic staff
• 30 uses

Divinestone:

• Unbreakable
• Gives +8 atk, +8 skill, +12 def, and +16 res
• Down from +12 atk, +12 skill, +15 def, and +20 res

All Legendary Weapons:

• 40 uses

Binding Blade

• Unbreakable
• -4 might

Playtesting and Balance Breakdown

Notice: Don’t get this progress breakdown wrong, the gameplay has already been altered. I’ve already changed almost every map (again, aside from Ilia) and they are hopefully a lot better. The problem is playtesting and balance are still up in the air, and I can’t finish balancing a map without sufficient enough playtesting. So you could say that I technically could release the hack since all the maps are done, but without enough playtesting I won’t know if these map changes are actually to the betterment of the map or not. My own thoughts on a map and my specific strategy for tackling a map can only go so far.

Chapter 1 - Fully playtested + Fully balanced
Chapter 2 - Fully playtested + Fully balanced
Chapter 3 - Fully playtested + Fully balanced
Chapter 4 - Fully playtested + Fully balanced
Chapter 5 - Incomplete playtesting + Fully balanced
Chapter 6 - Incomplete playtesting + Fully balanced
Chapter 7 - Fully playtested + Fully balanced
Chapter 8 - Incomplete playtesting + Fully balanced

Chapter 8x - Incomplete playtesting + Fully balanced

Chapter 9 - Incomplete playtesting + Fully balanced
Chapter 10A - Incomplete playtesting + Fully balanced
Chapter 11A - Fully playtested + Fully balanced

Chapter 10B - Fully playtested + Fully balanced
Chapter 11B - Fully playtested + Incomplete balancing
Chapter 12 - Incomplete playtesting + Fully balanced

Chapter 12x - Incomplete playtesting + Fully balanced

Chapter 13 - Incomplete playtesting + Incomplete balancing
Chapter 14 - Incomplete playtesting + Incomplete balancing

Chapter 14x - Incomplete playtesting + Fully balanced

Chapter 15 - Fully playtested + Fully balanced
Chapter 16 - Fully playtested + Fully balanced

Chapter 16x - Incomplete playtesting + Incomplete balancing

Chapter 17I - Incomplete playtesting + Incomplete balancing
Chapter 18I - Incomplete playtesting + Incomplete balancing
Chapter 19I - Incomplete playtesting + Incomplete balancing
Chapter 20I - Incomplete playtesting + Incomplete balancing

Chapter 17S - Incomplete playtesting + Fully balanced
Chapter 18S - Incomplete playtesting + Incomplete balancing
Chapter 19S - Fully playtested + Fully balanced
Chapter 20S - Incomplete playtesting + Incomplete balancing

Chapter 20Ix - Incomplete playtesting + Incomplete balancing
Chapter 20Sx - Fully playtested + Fully balanced

Chapter 21 - Incomplete playtesting + Incomplete balancing

Chapter 21x - Incomplete playtesting + Incomplete balancing

Chapter 22 - Incomplete playtesting + Incomplete balancing
Chapter 23 - Incomplete playtesting + Incomplete balancing
Chapter 24 - Fully playtested + Incomplete balancing
Finale - Fully playtested + Incomplete balancing

(I’m accepting playtesters btw DM me on Discord if you’re interested. Thank you!)

Project Sienna estimated release date: Within this year

[Genericguy]

great job on the progress so far @Deviation, im excited to play this one

[Deviation]

I’m glad I’ve sufficiently given people enough reason to be excited about this. Thank you for the kind words

[Chair]

I like the direction this overhaul is going for, but I have some criticism about the unit balance that are base on the role those characters are suppose to play in Fe6, overbuffing and other small things people complain about.

I will list all the units I have some criticism with and the changes I would make.

Lugh and Sue

I’m going to talk about both of these here because they have the exact same issue. You only buff their offense and while That’s understandable their biggest issue is for the fast characters, they actually aren’t fast. Lugh is slower than Alan in vanilla (and in the current version, Lilina is faster after promotion) and even without comparisons he is extremly borderline in dobling everything he wants to.

Sue has It worse since she share a speed tier with Shin but without any of the upsides. They also have the issue that they dont doble at base what makes using them early really frustrating.

I know this sounds weird, but I would suggest a +5 Speed Buff to both. It seems excesive, but anything they doble before is basically the same, but more reliable and they can actually doble things at base. And their still Low attack keeps them in check.

Staff ranks

More Generally I would give them D Rank staffs on promo, so they can Mend and the way to C isn’t as long and tedious. In general I feel D Rank is still limited enought to force you to not use them as staffers while being usable.

They would still be worse than Normal staffers because of how much later they would get high rank staffs.

Noah

Noah is very problematic for his +1 Omni boost. This seems small but It actually makes him on avarage better than Alance on join and most of the midgame. This is the most important point of their carreer what is problematic since I feel Noah should be a replacement to Alance if they die, not a straight upgrade. Specially when he already has better W.Ranks.

So I would remove the +1 Omni boost. The res boost seems OK, I think It doesn’t need to be that big but I don’t mind It.

Echidna and Bartre

A problem a lot of people more experience with Fe6 find is Echidna Axe Rank.

Because the western prepromotes are basically made to use Armads. A lot of them complain that B Rank is too low and It requires too much W.Exp grind for what should be the easier option.

I think raising It to A would be fair, I also think a similar Buff to Bartre but raising his Bow Rank to C so he can use Killer Bow at base would be apreciated.
Using Bow Bartre was also a grind and him having Bow Rank is one of his trade marks aggaist the other Axe Users. And this really keeps him the same without forcing you to grind Bow Rank for the Ch13 benchmark while still needing a lot of investment for Silver and Muglair.

Klein and Igrene

These have always had the dilema of W.Rank vs Stats but I feel like making Igrene join earlier and have better stats puts the balance too much in her favor.

Also, Klein is usually the one with higher Strength and Igrene the faster one. So I would give Ingrene current buffs to Klein and give Igrene +1 Strength, +2 Skl and +2 Speed.

Sophia

My issue with her is that she is suppose to be a protection mission and making her able to take hit kind of defeata the point of It? I would just remove the Def Buff. All the other offensive buffs are perfectly fine and give her a use as a glass canon.

The last ones are just a small nickpicks that really can be ignore.

I dont think Douglas benefit much from his speed bonus and he would honestly prefer Luck over It to avoid unlucky crits.

Also, Garret Rank is really bad for a prepromote, insta promo Gonzo and Guesse have higher ranks than him. So unless you want to keep this as one of Carrets downsides I would buff It to B. He would be able to use practically the same, but It would make the grind to S faster.

I hope this read was usefull. I really just want to see this project be as good as It can get.

[Chair]

A small add on, I don’t think the BB Nerf was neccesary to compensate for infinite durability. You get It when there are only 3 real chapters left and It’s lock to Roy.

Let It be broken.

[Deviation]

Thanks for the criticism! I was waiting for somebody to post their thoughts about the unit balance ever since I released that information to the public. I have a few words and explanations so buckle up.

Lugh and Sue
One of the things I mentioned about FE6 was the easier earlygame. What I mean is not just an earlygame that is “easier” but specifically an earlygame where units have less hard mode bonuses. What this means is that Lugh and Sue both actually reliably double most of the units on their respective join chapters at base due to the lower hard mode bonuses. It’s actually not a problem to use either of them, and in playtesting they both caught up to the point of getting enough speed to double most units once the hard mode bonuses caught back up to vanilla. That being said, I wouldn’t oppose giving them an extra point of speed or two so that they can truly put the reliable in “reliably double” (specifically Lugh since I do think Lilina is a bit better than him now in the long run, statwise, which is something I didn’t want), I just don’t think +5 speed is all that necessary with the lowered hard mode bonuses.

Staff Ranks
I agree with this, actually. I wanted to keep staff ranks low because it really emphasizes the units that did end up getting higher staff ranks on promo, like Lilina for instance, who joins in a dubious spot on her join chapter and due to her (comparatively) lower speed at base for her chapter is not only more difficult to train than Lugh but also generally worse than him by that point. Lilina getting C rank upon promo means she can use Restore and gives her an edge over him even if she’s more difficult to train and her combat ends up being worse. That being said, the difference between D and C is still quite big and the chapter you get Lilina is also the Chapter you get your first Guiding Ring, so its not like you’re promoting Lugh earlier to raise his staff rank. So yeah, this change is perfectly reasonable.

Noah
I agree with this too. In playtesting I found Allance and Noah to be quite comparable to eachother, at least on average. I also checked their averages and Noah seems to have better short-term potential due to his slightly (like a point or two) higher bases, but Allance being better long-term due to their higher growths on average. That being said, I do think the short-term stat differential, alongside Noah’s Wranks and extra Con outweigh the christmas cavs. I still wish to keep Noah as a weird jack-of-all-trades cav, and him having high res was to contrast Treck with high def; Noah is the magekiller Paladin. So, I’ll probably end up just removing the attack and speed buffs but keeping everything else. That makes Noah a worse combat cav than Allance, and still worse defensively than Treck, but hey atleast he can kill mages and his higher wranks and con should give him a slight niche over the others in that regard.

Echidna and Bartre
Nothing to explain here. I probably won’t raise them to A since it is actually easier to get weapon experience in this rom, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with raising their axe rank.

Klein and Igrene
The weird thing about the Igrene buffs is that I specifically made it so that Igrene had a much better impression of the player. The problem I had with her in Arcadia was that she barely didn’t double the Wyverns on her join Chapter, which I feel would sour a lot of player’s impressions on her whilst playing the game. My script was also flipped because I thought that Klein was always the fast one and Igrene was the slow one until I double checked their bases. That being said I like this change and I think I’ll apply it to my rom to differentiate Klein and Igrene a bit more.

Sophia
Oh ho ho ho ho
You would think that would be the case and looking at it purely from a stat perspective it seems to confirm it, but the world of Sophia works in wondrous ways because the funny thing is Sophia still gets one-round by basically every enemy in her join chapter. She’s still gonna die if you are careless and one round of combat still leads her to death. Not only that but you get Raigh which not only joins earlier but also has strictly better stats than her in every regard. So even though she does have higher defenses, this chapter is still very much a protection mission from her because she still dies from everything.

That being said, lowering her current defense buff by two is still something I can do just to make sure she can’t survive even one hit from the brigand reinforcements on her join chapter.

As for the smaller stuff.

Douglas
Slightly higher speed means he reaches the vital threshold of not getting doubled, which is pretty important in this part of the game methinks. He shouldn’t double but at the very least he doesn’t get doubled.

Garret
Same case with Echidna/Bartre, I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t rase his base rank higher.

Thanks for taking the time to respond to my announcement hack! I found what you said very insightful and I’ll definitely apply most of these changes to my hack going forward. Also, the Binding Blade was nerfed because of Idunn. I did the best I could with the Finale itself (I actually think the Chapter is pretty difficult), but with old Binding Blade + Roy’s better overall stats it still ends up making Idunn an easy 2-shot (and I wasn’t stingy on giving her weapon statboosts or increasing her stats). Eh, I dunno I guess we’ll see when more playtesting arises. For now, infinite uses is enough to justify lower might in my eyes and it’ll still be Roy’s best weapon (in short; it’s still very much broke, but a bit less broken. Heck the infinite durability is what makes it broken) unless he wishes to bust out the Wyrmslayer for the Wyverns on the next chapter.

[IAwaitYouAtTheDreadIsle]

Man you’ve exemplified exactly what I wanted from an FE6 revamp. Since it looks like others have thrown in their two cents, I’d like to add my thoughts specifically on one topic in terms of the changes, the hit rates. I think that low hit rates, despite their near universal barrage of hatred in the community are vital in the identity of FE6 that ultimately, (in my opinion), make it the best of the 3 gba games.

A buff to hit rates may seem like a general buff to all units, but it actually creates major trickle down problems in weapon and class balance. Buffing hit rates gives diminishing returns for swords and bows than it does for lance and axes. If a sword hits for 80, a lance for 60, and an axe for 40, all the while bows hover around 70, it creates valid risk vs reward and gives accurate chip damage a lot of value.

Thus, 2 range becomes the bigger debate in chipping. FE7’s higher hit rates are the reason why javelins and hand axes are considered the best weapons in gbafe. Why would you use bows at all if these weapons can do the same job, plus 1 range as well? Effective weaponry also becomes much more potent, making them cheese to play with, and frustrating to play against.

Pirates, fighters, and brigands have high hp and defense to compensate the gamble of low axe hit rates. Brigands and pirates have lower defense because of their terrain access, while fighters have the highest defense to give them more flexibility. In addition, Warriors get bow access to deal with that accuracy problem they all share to contrast the hightened gamble of berserker crits.

Wyverns and Pegasus knights have the same weapons, but deal with opposite problems. Wyverns have low skill but decent con, making swords better for reliable damage upon doubling. Pegasus knights have high skill but low con, making swords the option for when lances are too heavy.

Mercenaries and Myrmidons are made for reliability. They reliably hit then dodge axe units while evenly matching with each other and melting against lances. Axes will still kill them if they do land, and they often won’t one round units so they can’t fully dodge tank. They gain crit and axes to deal with the damage problem upon promotion.

Generals while considered the weakest class, often have the best survivability against all physical units, giving their decent skill and access to both javelins and hand axes their most viable usage, necessitating lower speed and movement. Conversely Nomads gain swords in order to give them access to both ranges while not giving them both to highlight their low survivability and high hit rate, speed and dodge.

Paladins have full access to the triangle, making them best against physical classes, only held back by unit stats and low con limiting their axe use. Snipers are made to usually hit everything either twice or very hard. They also do best against magic units since on enemy phase they either die at 2 range or come to 1 range, deal damage, and get cleaned up on player phase.

Magic units in general are also buffed since now they can kill units with low res even faster since their hit rates are secure. Light magic is made for combat utility on healers only, so their high hit rates and low damage are understandable. Anima allows for the most potential damage on physical units and other healers so decent hit rates give them that chance while dodging is still possible for the faster units. Dark magic is very risk reward, primarily made for combating anima users while still dealing major damage to physical units if they hit.

FE6 classes are designed around skill and how each weapon interacts with it. Changing hit rates does a lot to change every class as a whole. I haven’t played the hack myself so I might and would be very happy to be proven wrong. I don’t got your discord handle but I’d love to playtest if you’ll let me.

TL:DR

Higher hit rates buff Wyverns, Sages, Valkyries, Druids, Berserkers, and Paladins.

Higher hit rates shadow nerf Warriors, Snipers, Swordmasters, Falcoknights, Bishops, Generals, Nomad Troopers, and Heroes.

Me want playtest hack sound very fun.

[Deviation]

Fascinating. Honestly I’ve seen talk about the reasons why FE6’s lower hitrates are actually to the game’s charm/benefit, but all I’ve ever heard were snippets here and there. I never got much detailed information, so I’m glad you were able to put the reasons so eloquently and comprehensively.

That being said I have a particular problem with FE6’s lower hitrates because, although it helps make the player’s weapon types more varied and distinct, it also makes the enemy less so. Your player units will still have comparatively higher stats than the enemy most of the time, which means they will be a lot more accurate than the enemy. The game however is now much easier to dodge tank, especially in the early game, which is something that goes against the major philosophy that I want to create with this hack.

I want to create an experience where the player is the one who is proactive. The player is the one initiating action, making decisions, and taking action (most of the time). I recognize that dodge tanking is also a pretty big part of FE6’s identity and is part of most of the fun but atleast in the early game I want the player to mostly play proactively, and dodgetanking is mostly a reactive response to what the enemy is doing. Lowered hitrates will make dodgetanking much more prevalant early on which is something that I wish to avoid.

That being said you make some compelling arguments and I am very interested in seeing how the hack will play using FE6’s base weapon stats. Will it be to the hack’s benefit? I’m not completely sure, but that’s what playtesting will lead us to in the end.

[theghostcreator]

@IAwaitYouAtTheDreadIsle

If a sword hits for 80, a lance for 60, and an axe for 40, all the while bows hover around 70, it creates valid risk vs reward and gives accurate chip damage a lot of value.

I’m sorry but I don’t think reliability should be a weapon’s selling point. Besides, you can bump these numbers up by 20 and still have it well without making axes feel awful to use bc of 2rn. I believe weapon triangle gives enough reason to use different weapon types and by the time where it stops mattering you have promoted units with multiple weapon types and a set squad anyway. Risk vs reward also really doesn’t work when that’s all a unit has. Unreliability is good in small amounts but in strategy games you need to have some level of reliability and having axes hover in the 40s of hit rates (30s in 2rn) is just not worth it.
With 1-2 range it’s alright to nerf it in a major way with hitrates because you still have the 1 range options that are more accurate yes but force you to face a counterattack, and bows are there for that specific niche.

[IAwaitYouAtTheDreadIsle]

I agree. Small hit rate buffs are fine, my point was that they give diminishing returns to swords and bows as opposed to lances and axes. Axe units specifically are designed to be bulkier and able to take more hits than cavaliers or myrmidons and faster than armor knights to compensate this weakness so it leaves you with bulky units that also hit reliably.