FE7 2: Electric Boogaloo by LagSpike and to a lesser extent Epicer (FE7 Rebalance) v1.0

Projects Archives
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Hello, dear FE fans! You can call me LagSpike, and I’m here to proudly unveil something I’ve been working on for a bit now:

FE7 2: Electric Boogaloo

Many people have asked the age-old question: “If FE7 is so good, why isn’t there an FE7 2?”

Two reasons:

  1. FE7 isn’t “so good”

  2. People are just scared

But I’m not a coward and I have the mother of all romhacks here for you today! Reignited Blade is a full redesign and rebalance of FE7 including:

  1. Different promotions for thieves

  2. 3 different paladin classes with each access to 2 of the three weapon types

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  3. New (by which I mean imported) animations

  4. Archers that aren’t hot garbage

  5. Great Knight Wallace

  6. NO MORE WEATHER

  7. More of an emphasis on player phase than enemy phase

And more!

I made this because I feel that fe7 really just does itself dirty. FE6 is just a bit weird for me, FE8 is fun but too short, and I’ve always felt myself drawn to FE7 out of all the GBA games. My first FE7 playthrough was great, and I felt that it was some of the best times I’ve ever had playing FE. (I would end up proving that immediately false as I played Radiant Dawn next.)

I did an fe7 PMU a year or so later, and I again had a great time. It was a lot of fun, and people deciding to not just fuck me over with the characters I got was definitely a part of it. However, for whatever reason, I just kept coming back.

With the release of Blizzard Lance, I saw what a good hack creator could do to enhance a game this much, and I felt ready to push myself into the world of romhacking.

I’ve been working on this like a fiend, and I’ve documented everything, so if you want to see that, here’s my changelog folder link:

Rebalance changelog

There will be updates to this hack, and if you want to read about what kind of changes I hope to implement, know that I’m trying to make player phase more important in fe7.

If you guys would be willing to try it out, I would be forever grateful to it. Please leave any suggestions or ideas you have about this hack in the comments section, and I’ll be sure to address it.

Link to Project (note: if link doesn’t work, it can also be found on the Changelog folder on Google Drive

Before you start, note that this hack is intended for Lyn Hard mode into Hector Hard mode

Credit time! Huge thanks to:

Epicer for helping my dumb self at learning how FEBuilder works and doing like 60% of the palettes for me.

Ruffles for helping me figure out how to put 3x effectiveness in this game

Pikmin1211 for teaching me how to load characters so my changes actually like … work?

Inspiration:

  1. Brunhilda for creating Project Ember
  2. Ruffles and ltranc for creating Blizzard Lance

Map sprites:

  1. L95 for their fighter map sprites
  2. Team Salvaged for their cavalier map sprites
  3. Nuramon for their shield general map sprites

Animations:

Credits for animations

EDIT (As of 3/15/2020): Hello, people! I’ve just finished working on the 1.2 patch, and I’m happy to announce that it is available as of now. I did the following:

  1. Gave Oswin a good palette (Again thank you Epicer for saving my dumb ass)
  2. Changed BBD so that:
    a. Nino can be recruited on turn 1
    b. There are no more reaver weapon fighters who can fuck Jaffar
    c. Ursula has a Fimbulvetrr now instead of her previous non-bolting tome so she gets weighed down
  3. I rolled back the EXP gain to vanilla FE7
  4. I tweaked class stats to make enemy stats a bit less bullshit
  5. I changed some player units’ inventories to make them more valuable, such as:
    a. Priscilla starts with an Angelic Robe in her inventory
    b. Ninian starts with a Heaven Seal in her inventory on New Resolve
    c. Legault starts with a Fell Contract in his inventory
  6. I put an Ocean Seal in a brand new chest on Kinship’s Bond

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UPDATE! As of 3/23/2020:
V1.4 is out! It features:

  1. Good music
  2. That’s basically it

UPDATE! As of 3/25/2020:
V1.5 is out! It features:

  1. Special animations for Sonia, Linus, and Limstella (Thanks to RobertFPY, DerTheVaporeon, Greentea, and Nuramon)
  2. Fixed palettes for all bosses

Magic Magic Sword

UPDATE! As of 3/26/2020.
V 1.6 is out! It features:

  1. A buffed Marcus
    a +2 strength
    b.+1 skill
  2. Eliwood buffs:
    a. +2 base level
    b. +3 HP
    c. +2 strength
    d. +2 skill
    e. +3 speed
  3. Less enemies on Victory or Death
  4. After 17 years of waiting, we finally have a Wallace palette (Thank you Epicer)

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UPDATE! As of later in the day on 3/26/2020
V 1.7 is out! It features:

  1. NO UNPROMOTED REINFORCEMENTS ON COG OF DESTINY
  2. More deployment slots in HHM (Huge thanks again to Epicer for pointing out the obvious
  3. Some more QoL changes (by which I mean I know I did something else but I forgot)

UPDATE! As of 3/27/2020
V 1.8 is out! It features:

  1. Fixed generic palettes
  2. A bunch of other enemy palette shenanigans
  3. Moved Legault’s Fell Contract to Darin
  4. Beefed up a bunch of shops/secret shops (Make sure to check out the Sands of Time secret shop!)
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UPDATE! As of 3/27/2020
V 1.9 is out! It features:

  1. Nerfed Guy
  2. Buffed Canas, Dart, and Fiora
  3. Changed location of the Sands of Time Secret Shop
  4. Lowen is able to promote now
  5. 9 less enemies on Battle Before Dawn
  6. Made the first Dread Isle chapter less bullshit than previously by not having a silver lance falcoknight on a fog of war chapter

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UPDATE! As of 3/28/2020:
V 1.10 is out! it features:

  1. A bunch of map sprite bug fixes
  2. More random ass bug fixes
  3. Diversified music

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UPDATE! As of 3/29/2020:
V 1.11 is out! it features:

  1. Nino can’t get attacked on turn 1 anymore
  2. More bug fixes
  3. Jesus christ so many bug fixes

UPDATE! As of 4/3/2020:
V 1.12 is out! it features:

  1. Just an absurd number of bugfixes
  2. Some more music tweaks
  3. A couple palette fixes
  4. More balancing changes

SCREENSHOTS:

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Update: I’m announcing that I’ve finally decided to stop actively seeking out changes in this hack. If I see any more glitches or bugs that anyone in the community brings up to me, then I will address them, but otherwise, I don’t plan on doing any more radical changes to the hack. Thank you all for your support, I’m going to get started on another sick idea.

14 Likes
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Before I play, are all the modes unlocked from the beginning or not?

4

Will you be trying to untangle the story?

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Are you fucking with me? I already suck at story. FE7’s story is way better than anything I could come up with

1 Like
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Day 1 Update (1.1):
Made Wallace’s palette not shit
Made all modes playable from start

Note: This hack is intended for LHM into HHM, and if you aren’t playing it that way, you’re a coward

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Is HHM Battle Before Dawn still HHM Battle Before Dawn?

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yes, sadly. I haven’t got to changing maps yet. In fact, it’s probably going to have enemies with higher stats, but like lowen has 45% defense and res for example. I’ve tried to give the player as many options at any time as possible

11

Maybe I am. I’d be willing to help make a rewrite if you’re interested.

12

Write Hiraeth first smh

4 Likes
13

How come the weapons have no durability? Is that supposed to happen?

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Yes. As written in the changelog, all the personal weapons, all iron weapons, and all S rank weapons all have unlimited durability for a few reasons:

  1. Buying iron weapons is boring and stupid
  2. Having iron as a guarantee makes sure that the player has some way of getting through maps
  3. Legendary weapons breaking seems like the dumbest thing in the world.
  4. The lords always having access to their (usually superior) PRF weapons means they’re less bad
1 Like
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Dude, that would be awesome and I’m always up for help, but if you get into it and find out you really can’t de-fuckify the shit plot of fe7, it’s ok, feel free to give up, nobody will blame you.

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That would be Fe6 Binding Blade my friend.

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So I’m going to put my thoughts on all the “Rebalance Completed Changes” From the google Drive, I will not take weapon changes and such into consideration with this review.

My thoughts on all of the changes.

  1. Buffed Archer Bases
    Honestly I don’t mind this one, archers needed a fair buff so thats fine.

  2. Buffed Assassin Bases
    Double Edged Sword, it makes Jerme Harder but also Makes Jaffar Stronger.

  3. Gave Jaffar S rank swords
    You made a really good unit stronger, why?

  4. Lyn can now use the Wo Dao.
    Not really that bad of a change, not much really changes though.

  5. Changed all of Ninos growths to 100%
    Dude, why? Nino was fine as is, a little underpowered yes but this just makes her unstoppable if she starts to get levels.

  6. Made nino Level 1
    Read my point from above.

  7. Gave Rebecca a steel bow
    Not much really to note, gives her better damage I guess.

  8. Gave all unpromoted Lord units 6 Movement
    This just gives them a fairly decent edge over a lot of units, also makes hector just amazing now.

  9. Playable hp cap is 80
    Doesn’t change much unless you arena abuse and such.

  10. Buffed Lyns con to 7
    Honestly lyn did need a buff so this change isn’t all that bad.

  11. Buffed Eliwoods con to 8
    Not much to comment, eliwood was fine as is but this makes him a little better.

  12. Buffed eliwoods base hp to 25
    Oh hey eliwood is a tank now, nice.

13-16 Are just changes to the movement/con of Eliwood/Lyns promo classes so not much to say.

  1. Increased Knight/General movement to 5/6
    Buffing armors is always nice.

  2. Made all iron weapons unbreakable
    Oh hey I don’t have to buy iron weapons and now I can save up a lot more money, dus making the game easier, alright.

19-21 are Slight Hitrate Changes

  1. All Personal weapons are Unbreakable
    Wasn’t the point of Personals to be a really good advantage but Limited in number?

23 and 24. Made all S rank/Legendary Weapons Unbreakable
You mostly get these near the end of the game so it doesnt affect much, not much really to say.

25-26 Weapon Weight Changes 11 for durandal 8 for Sol Katti
Again I don’t mind this change, it gives the lords that arent hector more of a advantage so thats nice.

27 and 28. Xp gained from dancing/stealing/using staffs is 20 xp gained minimum
Not much of a change, healers level up faster but thats about it.

  1. Snipers and Assassins get a crit boost.
    Pretty much means that Jaffar is even more broken, snipers having extra crit is fine though.

  2. Assassin Str cap is 23
    More points for Jaffar.

  3. All foot units gain xp faster
    Pretty broken, now some really good units become even better (Hector is a good example)

  4. Mounted Units have the same Xp rate.
    Pretty much not a change but alright.

  5. All classes with crit boosts have +30 crit now
    MORE JAFFAR BUFFS WHY, also its really broken with 30 crit if you give any unit with it a killing edge.

34-36 Lord promotions get C rank in the extra weapon gained
I quite like this change, it makes using the other weapons a actual viability.

37-48 (besides 45) Better ranks for other weapons on many other classes
I don’t really mind this change but B rank staffs for Monk to Bishop seems really good.

  1. Paladins no longer have access
    I’m going to assume you meant axes, I don’t mind this change really, makes paladins less good but that isnt exactly a bad thing.

  2. Wyvern Lord has D rank axes instead of swords
    The final change I’m going to list for now. I don’t mind it.

Overall on this Front a lot of the changes seem fine, but some like the Assassin Buffs and Nino buffs seem extremely broken. I made this review of these changes mostly for fun but I do hope I helped point out what to fix in the future.

Hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts, I had fun making the list, may do the other changes later.

1 Like
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Let me explain the reasonings for a few of the buffs:

Nino buffs: I buffed nino to a logical extreme. Actually to an illogical extreme. I did this because I knew people would want me to buff Nino and I also wanted to buff Nino. I actually still think that this only makes Nino slightly better for efficient play though it does make her super busted for casual play. However, I did this as a ceiling for how good I was willing to let Nino be. If I play and I find out I can make her super busted without any effort, then I’ll probably nerf her into reasonable range.

Crit boost buffs: The crit boosts are so that weapon locked units are better. So far, I haven’t been able to make player phase more worthwile, so if this balance develops a “meta,” so to speak, it’ll still probably be that mounted units just go every where and use 1-2 range to fuck up people.

Assassin Buffs: Have you seen the assassin class in base fe7? I do agree that this is going to make Jaffar more busted, but Jaffar was a 6 move footlocked swordlocked unit before and now he’s a 7 move footlocked swordlocked unit which WILL kill anything he goes up against. His 1-2 range and movement probably will hamper him a bit more and I also designed Jaffar to be a special reward for managing to recruit him in BBD because the enemies will be strong. Also, finally, Jaffar serves as a get out of jail free card if you find yourself completely screwed in the late game. He’s an insurance policy.

S rank swords for Jaffar really just makes him get to S swords faster. As it already was, Jaffar would’ve been at A rank swords and it would’ve taken a few turns with an iron blade (which gives 2 wexp instead of 1) to get him to S. This just gets rid of the wait for Jaffar to hit peak Jaffar.

The Personal weapons have been changed to significantly better iron weapons. They don’t have stupid crit, they don’t have a lot going for them, and Hector still has alternatives he wants to use like the Hand axe. The personal weapons just give the lords a bit of a buff, which might be pushing them over the line but I want to make it so that people CAN use Lyn and Eliwood without shooting themselves in the foot.

B rank staves for Bishops: This is absolutely Lucius bias and I won’t disagree with you on that, but let me have this, ok? LET ME HAVE THIS.

Paladins no longer have access: This actually meant to say that Paladins each only have access to 2 weapon types each. Kent, Marcus, and Isadora all have access to swords and lances, Sain has access to axes and lances, and Lowen has access to swords and lances. This was to give the cavs a bit of flavor and also to give the player more reasons to use one cav over another.

I want to highlight changes 25 and 26 in particular because i don’t think you get how criminally shafted Eliwood and Lyn get on their personals for the final chapter. Lyn’s weapon weighs more than your average fucking axe and Durandal weighs so much to the point that even with capped speed he can’t double the fire dragon on HHM.

Thank you so much for your feedback, I really appreciate it.

19

Fuck he’s right

3 Likes
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So pretty much this is what I wanted to say about these reasons

Nino buffs: 100% on everything is busted, no exception. The only units that get growths like these in these games are manaketes, that should say a lot.

Crit boost: Not much to say, I just don’t get it

Assassin Buff: Jaffar doesn’t need a buff, BBD is already a nightmare, not much to say, also Athos exists.

Personal weapon changes: I didn’t check out the weapons, I was going to later.

B rank staves: I get bias but like, your making this project for people besides you right?

Paladins: I don’t know how thats going to work but alright

Lyn/Elis weapons: I get these changes, they arent bad, I do like them dude mainly with Sol Katti.

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Paladins: This is how it works.

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100% on everything would be busted, but I’ve increased enemy stats by a lot to the point where you’re going to have to deal with fe6 hit rates for a while with Nino. I actually also plan on changing her AI and stats so she doesn’t immediately get nuked by Ursula because her AI makes her go drink an elixir in bolting range.

Jaffar definitely needed a buff. You might disagree, but the fact that he still doesn’t have 1-2 range meaning that at his core, he’s a guy that kills one enemy a turn doesn’t make him broken except for in very casual play. Athos existing doesn’t really mean anything when between Jaffar and Athos you have Cog of Destiny, Victory or Death, Night of Farewells, Sands of Time, The Berserker and The Value of Life (which is going to have shitloads of enemies with at least 20 speed each.) Giving you one nuke per player phase for one enemy is just my way of making sure that anyone who GETS to BBD is going to win the game.

B rank staves actually isn’t too much of a buff. Even in base game fe7 with its E rank staves on promotion for sages and druids and only C rank for bishops, any one of these units can get to A rank very quick because of the defend chapters and all of the really high WEXP staves. This is very mild favoritism, and I’ve already decided on nerfing Lucius’s speed a bit so it’s just a way for him to differentiate himself from the other mages after promotion (because bishop class caps are super bad compared to sage or druid class caps).

Crit Boost: In fe7, player phase is not as valuable as enemy phase, and all of the classes which recieved crit boosts were footlocked classes that were all (except for berserker) either 1 range or 2 range locked. This makes units like Guy very valuable for boss kill candidacy and not trash like in base fe7.

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That mention of hitrates and enemy speed scares me, jaffar not having 1-2 doesn’t mean he needs a amazing buff, overall this just sounds like a nightmare to play through. I’m sorry I tried to be nice but this seriously does sound like a nightmare.