[FE8] Cerulean Crescent (31 chapters) [COMPLETE] (2.0 Update: Release the Birds!)

Bug Fix Update (+1) as expected!

  • The +1 is Mending Mode as requested by Benfrosh. It’s beyond my ability to implement, but not for Retina, who did the thing for me! Cheers.

  • I straight up forgot to insert Helisent’s new portrait. Sorry, Basilica.

  • Tower’s promoted class used the generic palette for the past year. It’s a similar colour scheme as the generic palette, so I guess it was very hard to notice.

  • Same for Locust‘s rogue palette
  • Dazzledart not gaining promoted exp after promotion
  • Item text overflow such as brave/arcane bow text overflow
  • IMPORTANT BUG FIX: Tower says Albatross point is on their left when it’s clearly on their right on the map!
  • Poor Berd had two bugs that prevented his happy ending
  • Licorice now works on ch25, greens no longer get cloned
  • Black screen for world map problem should be fixed

  • Ch3 wyvern should no longer have a bizarre interaction with the greens sometimes
  • Many typos n stuff, keep them coming!
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Yeah the slight delay bothers me too. I think on top of what epicer said, a lot of my skills are made in an insanely suboptimal manner which also doesn’t help.

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post 7x-Enan

Oh man, I’m a month late to the update, can’t wait to begin my 5th playthrough! I was a little bummed out to see the Xeo nerfs, but he probably shouldn’t have been able to solo nostank late game chapters, so that’s understandable. He’s probably not like bonkers elder god tier like I had him before, but I’m really excited to use Big Berd!

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I downloaded version 1.12 when that was the most current, but just started my playthrough a few days ago. Unfortunately I didn’t check for an update and will have to replay about 6 or 7 chapters I think. Luckily I’ve loved the first few chapters so far so replaying them won’t be the end of the world! I wonder how much exactly is different between the two versions lol

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I usually tend to yap a ton whenever I post here, so I’ll try to keep this one brief. Doing a misery playthrough of the new patch and I like the changes to Mince’s gameplay early game a lot. In the previous version, it sucked that you had to basically ignore his swarp mechanic if you wanted to keep him trained up, but his new personal weapon makes him into a much more viable unit, arguably top 5 for act 1. I also really liked the changes to the script that makes Krynia’s introduction and condition less of an “out-of-nowhere” moment.
As for what I’m a little mixed on are the changes to Vermillion, Qiulan, and what I can predict are Xeo’s changes. Starting with the chicken, I think the change to feather fury is a neat little stacking mechanic that’s kind of like Chixin, but I do miss his old feather fury’s uncounterable attack for poison strike application. But what actually makes me sad are the changes I saw to qiulan’s songs and despite completely agreeing with them, it really sucks that I only get 3 of each. While I never used Qiulan long term, I really loved using Xeo’s songs in late game misery and I feel he might actually just be unviable for lategame with only 3 uses of prolonged pain. I could be wrong, I need to get there, but I hope that John XVI’s buff can fill the Xeo-shaped hole in my heart.
(Oh yeah, there wasn’t an Acielle buff ;-; )

Im not finished with the game yet, I’ve just returned to note that there is a man name secundes and I have to assume it’s a deez nuts joke right? Secundes nuts?

Anyway, I’m at chapter 17 and am loving the game so far!

What’s up with this staircase to no where?

I’m currently on the CH. 20x and please mr or Ms rivian I’m so curious as to why this is in here? I can’t seem to see any point lol

So i might not be rivian, but when you start the map, there’ll be an enemy unit there that you can kill for some money, but he goes away if you run around town after a few waits, so you have to make sure you kill the guy first.

Got stuck on this map. I defeated all the enemies, but the map doesn’t complete:

Theres an enemy in the area in my screenshot? I did not see one

EDIT: I see the guy now I restarted! Thank you I was racking my head trying to figur it out lol

Alright, finished act 2 without any issue and I’ve got a couple thoughts. Firstly, I’m glad that Xeo wasn’t as nerfed as I thought, having 9 of each song doesn’t change too much about his gameplay, it’ll just make it harder to solo an entire side of a map with prolonged pain. I still think he’s a top 5 character if you’re playing at a reasonable speed, but if you take your time he might run out of songs. John XVI is absolutely bonkers, I have been really impressed with her performance with her stalk prey. I’ve previously said that she’s fieldable in the hardest lategame misery chapters at base, so her buff giving her so much extra movement along with a free mutate makes her arguably better than gecko if you’re willing to reroll a chapter opener for galeforce. She’s much less reliant on being refreshed by ellerie or oriana turn 1 because she no longer needs to spend a turn doing nothing mutating. I’ve also used a couple new characters for this playthrough, but I’ll go over how they’re doing after I finish my playthrough and write up a big unit rundown.
As for what’s coming in the chapters ahead, I think I sold my rescue staff at some point, which is going to make a lot of the lategame chapters super sketch, but at least I get to see if lategame misery is possible without a rescue.
I also found a couple of minor spelling mistakes, both of which were battle dialogues that john XVI had with the boss of chapter 17 and one of the bosses of chapter 20. I wish I took screenshots.

I fixed this issue by not capturing anyone this chapter.

Same as above, I had to restart because I captured. I’m guessing its because the catch and release mechanic doesn’t interact well with the scripting to move us onto the next phase of the map.

Played the hack, really enjoyed it! I enjoyed it far more than I expected haha. While I’m personally not a fan of skills, especially complex ones, I’m glad that this hack implements them in a way of variety. Like, some units i didnt’ use simply due to complex skills and gameplay, but others like the starting crew I really loved! Personally, I loved all the movement skills, so mince, pomelo, yvette, lindros, chixin, Ellerie (goddamn Ellerie is so fun) and the others I had a blast with!

Story

OMG OMG OMG OMG ELLERIE OMG. I adore the story for pushing Ellerie to her limits! And also letting the whole ordeal be, less dramatic and more melancholic/ acceptance? To get my meaning, I expected the falling out between Ellerie and Oriana to be fists thrown and shouts and a massive break up, but it was just a spiral quiet resignation. Loved it. And I actually appreciate you for not dragging out the story! I started and expected the game to end when you reach the workshop, lo and behold it went WAY beyond that, able to see Ellerie’s rise and fall. Another thing I liked was simply showing history repeating itself, especially in both endings. And i loved leaving in VERY CLEAR flaws for the characters, and actually sorta not letting them be resolved? Like, its lyndros’ sin for his indecisiveness, mince’s and pomelo’s lack of confrontation (they both lowkey could stop and confront ellerie and lyndros but didnt, chalking the incident to ‘it’ll be fine’), Oriana’s naive morality, Tower’s stubborness, instead of having them grow as a person, i actually kinda like the showcase of all of the characters sucking and contributing to the Crescent’s downfall in their own way. You made a fantastic story Rivian!

on a quick note, love every bit of the sarcasm and dryness in the hack. this somehow isnt a serious hack while being the most tragic lmao, i dunno how you balanced all of that but you did and thats amazing!

I’d actually love to see more of your storytelling prowess, you’ve got a great knack for it!

the crew

heres my favourite characters

lead by example is amazing. didnt put her on the front lines actually, mostly because half the army is ahead of her lol.

pomelo’s landboat is the most lifesaving and life detrimental thing in existence. cannons and ballistas? mwah. however that 8 move always convinces me to rush ahead and smack an enemy, much to pomelo’s incoming demise. kinda played around with leaving him in the back so he can rush in with a big hit.

guidance is so fun to exploit, if only if lyndros can take front lines, he’d be unstoppable.

i have said out loud, “screw it” and threw yvette in a horde of enemies just to kill em with crocodile in 1 turn multiple times. number 1 delete button.

delete button number 2, only relatively crappy by his reduced mobility in comparison to the cast. i had the idea late to give him fancy stabber, but that wouldve been a glory to see.

the one, the only, the absolute storm cloud of chixin. this guy ZOOMS and thats all i ever need in a unit. thunderclap BOOM is the best thing, somehow always gets a clean 1 shot kill, exact or near exact damage and all

her prf saved many lives. thats all that needs to be said. also FLYER YAY

i actually wasnt gonna use him, but i didnt have a dark magic user and he was a good pick for SETTING UP ellerie kills with her seahawk flag, everyone else was too strong

only used him in act 3, surprisingly strong. i thought he would land on the bench, buthe surpassed my expectations.

2nd favourite character of the hack behind lyndros. shes just so whimsical. used her over buying the tactician (and i bought her for Oriaana’s group.)

used her for act one then dropped her cus chixin is just so damn cool

weirdly powerful in her own way, ive spent fortunes to make sure Oriana AT LEASST had a pocket spell on her

hes the best. no further elaboration.

THE pegasus knight. her heals came in clutch but i didnt really use it to its full potential. just a competent pegasus knight!

hated this unit with a passion, only got 3 strength level ups and thats around the end of the game. his dumb smirk made me keep using him (im not kidding, i saw him and said bench, then he got clowned on by raylin and i just had to keep using him. their support was lowkey NECESSARY for them). gave him the eye cus 2 extra move helps him out

used her for hurt more than heals. there honestly wasnt a single dedicated staffer. i wish i couldve abused those cool staffs but alas, hoarding mentality, and she only has 5 slots

did not use tonic unless absolutely necessary. however, him being on oriana route was the best thing ever as he just sniped everything he could.

diid not use until oriana route. crit came in handy.

honestly, fodder unit. did not abuse her skill cus i forgot it existed. BUT. HER CHARACTER. OMG. i used simply because she was a SURVIVOR and i love survivors.

i was kinda sad when i dropped him due to the obligatory “jagens are bad” agenda (he isnt, i just prefer growth units)
oriana’s route reminded me of how goated he is.

and thats all. again, fantastic hack! keep up the greatness!

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I started this romhack a week ago and I’m loving it. Making a team with units so different from each other and with so many skills.

I have a question though. Can Gecko promote twice? Is there a promotion available after promoting once from villager to duelist?

Gecko and any other units that automatically promote at level 10 do have another promotion at level 20.

I’m like 85% sure

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Alrighty, finished my second misery playthrough and wanted to give my thoughts again.

Units

For the most part, a lot of the units are around the same spot as they were from my first misery playthrough, but some units were adjusted based on their buffs and nerfs alongside some reconsiderations that I had. In terms of how I’ll be judging the cast, I’ll be judging their performance in a decently LTC style where I’m trying to kill every unit and get every objective as fast as possible. I’ll also be giving bonus points on how units perform on chapters 24 and 25 which are what I consider the hardest chapters in the game. Also I’m not gonna be talking about everyone again because that’s a lot of work.

TLDR:

Gecko: I had put Gecko at the top of A before, but I feel like she’s solidly in S tier now thanks to Mince. I’m not sure if I should be giving the credit to Gecko, but I’ll give it to her anyways, I like Gecko. Mince being able to reposition Gecko to get in range and, more importantly, get out of range of enemies makes the wyvern hell that is chapter 3 a lot easier. As always, Gecko has your highest damage potential early on, outside of Oriana’s wind sword, so she’ll be consistently getting 2 kills every turn. This means that she’ll probably promote around chapter 6 and 16. In the chapters following her first promotion, she’s the best user of the plucker’s eye as she’ll be able to blitz through 2 problematic enemies with either the cutlass or her frying pan and once you get the pair of levin swords in chapter 15, she’ll be able to 1-round pretty much every enemy type for the rest of the game.

John XVI: I really wanted to start with John first, she is an absolute monster. The amount of consistency that stalk prey adds to John is just crazy, on top of her fantastic 1-range combat. In chapter 24, John is the best unit to dedicate a section of the map to because of her heal and the ability to hit galeforce, decapitator, body slam, or whatever other crazy combat/mobility skills there are. Did I think she needed a buff? Not particularly, but I’m not complaining.

Xeo: Xeo’s still the goat, the nerfs weren’t enough to stop him. Inevitable fate in melee range into a hullcrusher, 80 damage prolonged pain into any boss enemy, next.

Empress: Not much more to say about the Empress, but access to swords means that she now has access to silver blades and rondel daggers, which I think is really cool with afterimages.

Mince: One weapon is all it took to put this boy at the top of A. The pot is an amazing tool to have at all points in the game, it fixes every problem that Mince had in previous patches. Mince actually has very good combat due to the strength of bows in this game and being able to use both his swarp and bows on the same turn makes him an easy deploy whether you’re trying to raise him or anyone else in your team. I’m gonna also give him bonus points for his hidden promos in chapters 9 and 23 he gets for killing the sun shooter as both of them are a huge boost in Mince’s capabilities with +1 bowrange and bird of prey. All you gotta do is give him an arcane boy midgame and he’ll perform for the rest of the game.

Foxberry: I finally got to use foxberry, both in a previous normal ironman and again in this misery playthrough, and I think she’s a really solid character. Thanks to the +1 range buff to her hook, Foxberry essentially got a +1 move buff to herself and the person she’s pulling and this allows for some really high tempo turn 1s with Ellerie. Even ignoring the buff, Foxberry was always a really good combat unit with her personal pretty much guaranteeing a 1-round of any enemy that was being flanked and foxberry herself sometimes doesn’t even need her personal because she’s just really fast and strong. Her performance in chapter 24 is also very nice as a lot of the enemies are usually a little bit too far away for Ellerie to get into a good position every turn, so having Foxberry ferry her around with chain hooks makes Ellerie really shine.

Dazzledart: Dazzledart is a very good unit that has a bit of a slow start when you get him. I recommend sending him to Orianna’s route, though I could see him being useful on chapter 24 for sniping the wyverns in the corner with airborne. He is really helpful on clearing the top left side of chapter 25 alongside his other chicken brethren as he has really good coverage with effective attacks with da shoota and an incendiary bow.

Rohesia: Rohesia hasn’t changed between patches, but after using her more, I can say that she’s safe to start deploying in chapter 12 where the enemies are around her level and she begins getting decent enough experience from kills.

Tower: The changes to Tower’s personal to basically always give himself and other units WTA is incredible for the first few chapters as he’s able to tank 3 hits rather than 2. Just that alone bumped him up a few places in my eyes as a sort of diet Unari.

Dune: Dropped her down quite a bit from my previous list due to her combat just being so terrible despite the utility that double time has. What Dune provides for the team is a sort of band-aid for mistakes that you make when clearing enemies or getting objectives. If you realize that you’re just a few points of damage off of killing an enemy, Dune can double time halfway across the map and do a little chip to enable your gecko kill. If there was a chest you forgot to get, Dune can zoom right over there and get you your 5th silver axe that you’ll definitely use. Dune can be really useful in chapter 25, but her role is just to circle the map and visit every house and open every chest so your real combat units won’t need to. I’m not saying she’s unusable or anything, you can get her kills with an umbral lance and invigorate, but she really just isn’t worth the effort. She’s basically a worse wisp in many ways.

Archer John: I think this one is probably the best john you can make? With deathblow and bowrange +1, he can dish out some respectable damage, but in the end he just feels like a worse Mince. Not even the extra skill he gets in Chapter 17 saves him.

C and D tier: So the way the tiers work here are that everyone in B and above are units I find useful in either their starting chapter or a chapter after. The units in C and below are units I find bad even in their starting chapter.

Big Berd: Yeah, unfortunately he’s really really bad. On Oriana’s route, he struggles with keeping up with the rest of the party unless he uses a wind tome, which makes his bad accuracy even worse. You can’t even give him the Autogrip without gimping someone like Iosaf who’s just a better character with the same accuracy issues. On Ellerie’s route, he can set up kills for Ellerie and then get in position to get danced if there’s no one else who you want to be danced, but I don’t know if I should call it a strength that he isn’t able to kill anything by himself. He’s just a mediocre mage with bulk and accuracy issues along with bad mobility, even Acielle is better.

Acielle: buff plz

Chapters

Just wanted to highlight some notable chapters and make some addendums to my thoughts on chapters in the past.

Chapter 3: So I previously said that this was one of the hardest chapters on misery mode, but Mince’s new personal weapon makes it a lot more manageable as you can be more aggressive with gecko and still be able to pull her back while also letting mince run away from the pocket spell merc.

Chapter 10: I hadn’t brought up this chapter in the past, but this one is also really tough as a pair of any of the promoted units on this map will kill everyone, sometimes even Krynia. I also think this is the only chapters where chixin and all of the johns other than the axe john are really good, so if you’re interested in using them, use them here.

Chapter 25: I’m talking abotu this chapter before chapter 24 because I believe this is actually the hardest chapter in the game. In terms of enemy quality, chapter 24 is definitely higher, but chapter 25 has an overall weaker team and makes less good use of items like the morale module and odd device. What I mean by this is that you have 12 units in chapter 24 and 10 units in chapter 25 and out of those 10 units, none of them are Gecko, Krynia, or John XVI. Keeping up with the waves of monsters that spawn here can be a nightmare, so this is the only chapter that I’ve felt the need to rush to the end for. I think the hardest section to clear is the bottom left, so focus on getting rid of the root there last. Oh and bonus gamer tip, use Mince to swarp Cherise further into her area to clear it faster.

Chapter 24: So this chapter isn’t the hardest one anymore, but that’s because you have access to busted units like the aforementioned 3, Foxberry, Nerysa, Xeo, and Lindros. Use your morale modules, use the odd device, go crazy, this is pretty much the last real Ellerie chapter before the victory lap that is the rest of the game.

Bugs

So there were 2 main bugs I ran into, one that was a slight annoyance and one that heavily impacted my playthrough. Firstly, during chapter 22, Mince killed the sun shooter and got his hidden promo, but he also leveled in the same combat that he got the kill, which causes the game to soft lock when the next unit engages in combat. I got around this by leveling Mince on a different enemy and then killing the Sun Shooter.
The next bug was really bad and I’m not quite sure what caused it, but I seemed to be losing items when transferring items between the two armies. Since I’m a dirty min-maxer, I would try and use a majority of my stat boosting equips and limited staves on one team and then return them to the convoy with a character that had convoy access, but by doing this I somehow lost my rescue staff between chapters 22 and 23 and my plucker’s between chapters 24 and 25. I could maybe be misremembering and accidentally sold my rescue staff, but I have no idea how I lost my plucker’s. As for how this happened, I can only guess that returning items to the convoy via the Seahawk can cause some of them to go missing.

Misc

I suppose here I’ll write my appreciation of some stuff. In chapter 26, there’s a special conversation between the boss and Ellerie and I was really hung up on the way Ellerie calls them a garbage human being. It just felt really jarring to me for some reason (not that she’s wrong), but the script change felt more fitting. I felt this was necessary to bring up

I like the changes in economy with the offering of the 10k +5% growth for everyone and the two levin swords. At that point in the game, i remember having a lot of gold during this time during my iron man and nothing to really do with it, so this was nice.

I had actually finished the game a few weeks ago, but I had completely forgotten to finish this writeup, game is pretty decent, I’ve done like 4 full playthroughs now. Thanks for making it Rivian

Just finished a misery +15% growths run after having played the pre-definitive edition just a few months ago and still love it. One question tho, what are the requirements for the plucker gaiden? I never got it this playthrough but did in my original one. I thought it was just getting Plucker’s gift way back in 3x which I did this run and still didn’t get the gaiden.

it should just be receiving plucker’s gift in 3x, but did you let someone die and lose it? im not 100% sure but it could be tied to having the item