[FE8] Cerulean Coast (20 chapters + 5) Act 2 Complete!

Played the available 7 chapters and really enjoying it so far! Looking forward to future builds and more cool wackiness!

Story

What happened at the end with them disbanding was pretty sudden tho. Came a bit outta nowhere, but i suspect we will get more on that in the next build

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I appreciate the encouragement! Iā€™m an amateur writer so the execution wonā€™t land quite right, but the next chapter (another interlude) should expand more on it.

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I played the first two chapters - Iā€™ll share more specific details + recommended changes over discord and will follow up again once Iā€™ve finished the patch.

Overall, this is strong and more people should play it.

Generally, I am a bit iffy on funky skills since they can be centralizing or encourage puzzle like gameplay (ie you must use the funny skill to win the map) and also not a huge fan of games with a more whimsical tone, since I find that it is used to handwave things that otherwise would make no sense or serve to detract from the experience (ie ā€œtaking the player out of itā€).

Despite this initial thought, my expectations were dashed pretty quickly. The tone stuff works because of the more dire undercurrent that exists w/ characters like Tower and Orianna, but also because the player reads descriptions of other characters and items from Ellerieā€™s perspective, which is a cool touch and it is a refreshing take on ā€œRenairā€™s journalā€ and other 1st person narratives in FE games.

The skills and custom items all feel pretty well-thought out. Theyā€™re unique and give the unit and game identity, but I never felt like I needed to use any of them to win. I can ignore guidance, swarp, the landboat, or whatever I wanted, and just play FE and still have a good time and win. This meant I could use these tools in whichever way I wanted without feeling required to. Itā€™s a good balance and I applaud your restraint in not making the maps all gimmicks surrounding puzzles with these things.

Iā€™ll share more when Iā€™m totally done with the patch, but Iā€™ll say two things.

  1. I used to record LPs in the morning before I started work. Since I stopped, I generally donā€™t have a strong desire to play a hack in the morning, and usually boot one up at night to relax. This was the first time I woke up and said ā€œI want to play the hackromā€ in a long while, so thanks for that.

  2. This will read as pompous, but the hack made me feel self-conscious about my own work, which excites me. As I was playing chapter 2, I was like ā€œhot heck, this is sick, why am I not doing this?ā€

So far, Iā€™d say the hack reminds me most of The Heroes We Deserve in terms of tone and funny items, but also of Thracia, in that the challenge feels surmountable if I know what Iā€™m doing, but if I hit snooze, I will get borked. ā€œFall asleep at the wheel and dieā€ is a difficulty Iā€™m on board with. The hack forces me to pay attention and I appreciate that type of difficulty.

Narratively though, my main critique is Iā€™m having trouble parsing out the why weā€™re here and doing all this stuff, but Iā€™m guessing itā€™s a bit too early. The character interactions generally feel decent so far, but the broader plot Iā€™m struggling to fit together. Guessing I just need more time. Will be sure to follow up on this later.

Looking forward to whatā€™s next, will share more as I go.

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Thatā€™s high praise, hopefully the rest of the hack doesnā€™t disappoint!

Since the first three chapters were mostly done before I had a full grasp on what I was doing for the main plot, they end being your average ā€˜bandit chapterā€™ in terms of plot relevance, though I have tried to connect them more in a rewrite.

Iā€™m curious if the narrative becoming more serious in later chapters helps or hinders, but weā€™ll see when we get there!

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Thinking on it a bit more, Iā€™d say the closest comparison hack is actually A Vestrian Tale - both generally seem to have maps jampacked with side objectives, and the challenge is really in trying to do everything the map wants you to consider.

Finished ch3 and 3x yesterday. 3x is neat and I canā€™t imagine how long it took to set everything up. Reminds me of the Rapport chapter in Bloodlines. I like that the side stuff shows up in the guide, a nice touch.

Following up on our discord chat - Ch3 I felt was a bit congested and the map flow could use some work. The map really empties out ahead of the ā€œā€ā€œsurpriseā€"" twists at the end, and I think reducing the number of enemies or pushing some enemies upfront to the top of the ships could help improve the flow a tad. Each time I played the left side cleared everything out well ahead of the right side, and Iā€™d argue thatā€™s in part because the left side gives you a healer, and because the right side has two boss units. Making these a bit more even could be worthwhile IMO.

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Vestrian Tales is one of my favourite hacks, so that checks out.
Iā€™m kind of worried that the amount of dialogue in ch3x is a tad too overbearing for this early in the game, but I had already done the eventing so I wasnā€™t going to remove anything from it.
Iā€™ll do a few runs of ch3 with different set ups to see if thereā€™s a noticeable difference, since usually they ended around same time for me.

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I also am biased towards getting back to the map, but I donā€™t think 3x wears out its welcome. I wouldnā€™t cut anything, personally.

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I might write something longer later, for now i will just say this is REALLY good. Also, quick, until Rivian fixes it, post the

funny

weird galeforce skeleton with 147 attack, and infinite move but 34 hit that vanishes after attacking in ch7

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With FEE3 around the corner, itā€™s a good time as any to push out a quick minor fixes update.
(Same link in the main post, of course.)

Thanks to everyone who has given support and feedback, and reporting bugs and typos.

  • The funny posted by Alguien has been erased from the multiverse
  • Harm battle animation sound fixed
  • Corrected some prf locks
  • Further clarification for stuff like the summoner lich, quests, etc.
  • Removed voidā€™s curse from the Ancestor
  • Fixed minor problems in ch5 dragon vein
  • Various typos fixed

However thereā€™s one important issue that only applies if you got Gecko to level 10 and level cap.
Even after promotion, her experience is still capped.
Donā€™t worry, in this update, loading ch7x will fix Geckoā€™s exp gains if sheā€™s been capped.

However, as a result trainee level is no longer capped at 10, but trainee classes will have lower stat caps to discourage remaining in that class for a long time.

(I also want to shoutout Horizons which was released recently, yes I am completely biased but I think its a fun experience, and has funny skills.)

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I find the lack of geckoā€™s posted disturbing

Thank you for the shoutout chief, I look forward to more epic
Australian ideaguying sessions in the future. :australia:

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Finished the patch this morning. I shared some notes in the discord, but Iā€™ll provide a full summary here.

Overall, the hack is strong. It has a very clear identity and I appreciate that almost all of the units have some element that provides a nice twist on their class or ā€œarchetypeā€. Itā€™s a really different sort of FE experience and it was refreshing to play. I could see this being a fun game to try and figure out how to LTC because of all the funny gimmicks.

Combat generally was good. Even if you choose not to take advantage of all the skills and class gimmicks that are available, you can still largely approach the game as you want. Thereā€™s a lot of neat setups you can do and the matchup oriented gameplay w/ the big triangle helps shake things up.

My biggest complaint in general is around the cognitive load. The hack does expect the player to keep track of a lot at once. I donā€™t think you need to add any chapters to pad this out and chapter 1 makes for a perfectly fine intro. Some additional clarity around stuff like leylines and how they work (ie that anyone can use them), as well as reducing enemy count in a few places will make the game feel a bit easier. Some of the turn 1ā€™s in particular were long and it made making a mistake punishing, albeit I donā€™t mind this too much because resetting early is less punishing than late. All in all, the game really expects you to pay attention and youā€™ll be rewarded if you do, but it definitely isnā€™t a good ā€œkick back and chillā€ style FE, which is fine. For what youā€™re aiming to do, itā€™s done well.

Narratively, it still feels like the crew is mostly dicking around and itā€™s unclear what the overarching plot is, or reason. Thereā€™s a lot of namedropping, character backstories, and lore, but I definitely struggled to grasp why it mattered or what was at stakes. It kind of feels like Ellerie is a protag in an episodic cartoon where each map is its own self-contained tale. However, by the end it started to come together more and I think future releases will largely remedy this, and the 7ish chapters of setup will have more payoff, so Iā€™m keen to see what you do there.

Unit wise most of them felt pretty solid. Some of the more standard-ish units felt outclassed, but everyone did their jobs well enough. Iosaf is probably the most lacking and could use something to give him a secondary niche besides ā€œdoubles some stuffā€ and ā€œbetter combat when near deathā€, since the other axe units offer not much less killing potential for way more utility (Fran can fly, Tower has heal and big stats, Pomelo has the boat, etc.). He was probably my easiest bench choice. Everyone else competed much better for their slot.

Iā€™m curious how long the game will be. Given the reduced EXP share and how slow gains were, I felt like I could use the more jeigan-y units without much issue. I did train the heck out of Gecko and she was epic, but most of the other units didnā€™t get past level 5 or so, most 3-4.

Other than that, I am super impressed with what youā€™ve done here and admire your creativity. Every map has something neat going for it, and I can see that having broad appeal. I can see some of the VQ influence, but I found myself thinking more of A Vestrian Tale (lots of stuff to do on the map, general party dynamics), Bloodlines (custom classes and map gimmicks), and The Heroes We Deserve (humorous and light tone, map gimmicks, multiple bosses on each map) throughout playing the game.

Favorite units: Gecko, Tower, Vermillion, Mince, Justice (the log summon)

For those reading this, I highly recommend you give this hack a play and share your feedback. For me, there are def some ideas Iā€™d like to test out in my own work, too.

Thanks Rivian and everyone who supported this.

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Iā€™m glad that it wasnā€™t too much of a pain to get through, and your comments have been very helpful.

  • Iosaf will be buffed in the next update, how is still up in the air
  • Iā€™ll look into reducing the turn 1 difficulties, because also I remember TDAWS making a similar point
  • Iā€™m kind of surprised that your units tended to be level 3-4 by the end, since mine were around 6-7. I presume itā€™s because I rout everything I can before I leave a map, in which case Iā€™ll likely need to slow down enemy level scaling.

Again, I appreciate your support! Canā€™t wait for Lengths of Time to be a finale for a future FEE3.

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Happy to help! I also used the prepromotes and Gecko a lot so everyone else kinda did less lol

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post the gecko :pray: :turtle:

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It wasnā€™t much, but at least it was short!

Iā€™d like to thank Xil for helping me record an actual project showcase, but due to a lot of problems on my end, letā€™s just say you donā€™t want to see that.

Youā€™ll be seeing a lot of him in FEE3, bit of a legend.

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Iā€™m glad you liked the backgrounds I ported from Final Fantasy Advance games to Fire Emblem. Iā€™m adding this hack to my list of hacks to play, Iā€™ve just watched the trailer and it looks interesting! :grinning:

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I checked through my credits and was slightly panicked when I didnā€™t see your name on there. :sweat_smile:

Were you one the people did the original rips of FF Advance on spriters resource? Because I realised that I just credited 7743 who resized them (assuming he got them from spriters resource) and didnā€™t credit the rest.

(If someone is miscredited or lacks credit where it should be due, hit me up.)

I created the backgrounds for my hacks (Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones Reloaded & Fire Emblem: Heroes Crossover) and credited the rippers from Spriters Resource. Then I shared the backgrounds with my hack. Before joining FEUniverse, some people did know about my backgrounds and began using them in their hacks, like Serif.

My backgrounds are with the download link of my hack: Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones RELOADED (also Fire Emblem HEROES CROSSOVER)

In the readme of my hack I credit everything, including the Final Fantasy Advance backgrounds rippers:

Final Fantasy I & II Advance backgrounds ripped by Vanarus and Ryan914; Final Fantasy IV Advance backgrounds ripped by Bean; Final Fantasy V Advance backgrounds ripped by Valoc Dakmyre; I got them from Spriters Resource. All backgrounds were ported by me (Dennis el Azul).

Also, if you need a date of when was the first time they were showed, it was in October 9th of 2020 (a year ago) in this video of mine while I was working in my hack:

Wait, resized you said? I didnā€™t resized them, maybe Iā€™m mistaken mine with others from someone with the same idea. I didnā€™t resized, I adapted them without resizing. Where can I find those, so I can compare? Maybe I was the one who is mistaken here. :sweat_smile: :thinking:

EDIT Again: Iā€™m finding some people had the same idea as me, and thatā€™s amazing. I find Fenrir did the same, not in the same amount and some of them are not in my collection, but others are exactly equal. Itā€™s amazing! :grin:

I was wondering why there were so many final fantasy backgrounds popping up, guess now Iā€™ve found an origin point. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

I took most of the backgrounds from the legendary 7743 here.
https://feuniverse.us/t/ultimate-graphics-repository-new-update-now-using-github/3326/3776

There were a few that 7743 had not resized which I took from spriters resource, and used the in color reduction tool from builder to simply get them to fit in FEGBA proportions.

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Thanks for sharing. Now I understand I was not the only one. Maybe because those backgrounds are great for Fire Emblem setups. :stuck_out_tongue:

You can check my collection if you wish and add some to your hack if you need, I have some backgrounds 7743ā€™s collection doesnā€™t, and some edited ones (one specially for bridgeds).

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