The store houses referred to are the tiles which the bosses occupy.
Will you be releasing any guides for this? I don’t mind not having one now but I’d like to have one hopefully by the time I do a second playthrough. Which is 100% likely lol
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Probably not, myself. If someone else wants to, they can go for it.
minor update, had to fix a potential crash in ch25
also made some minor adjustments to item table
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Thanks to Sherloca for the quick completion and catching a few important things along the way, such as a potential softlock in Endgame A. Hopefully this is the last important hotfix.
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Great game, 10/10. Things that stood out below.
Cocaine
The marketing for this game is up-front that you get some wacky movement tech. However, the sheer amount of refreshing you can do probably outdoes even the game where every unit has Galeforce. Besides Ellerie’s AoE dance and Oriana’s dance + move again, and of course the obligatory galeforce unit, you get another lategame unit that can refresh a unit and move again.
Did you know if this unit’s MOV is bumped up to 12 by any means, you do in fact get an additional usage of this ability? That’s four whole turns! (granted you can’t move at all on the last one, but still)
I’ve not had a better time simply flying through a game before. No matter how much you push the “go” button, the next enemy’s usually just within reach, so there’s no sudden crash at the end like you might get with regular drugs.
Game of Thrones Inspired (as opposed to "Game of Thrones Inspired")
As a disclaimer, Riv has assured me in private that he has never read or watched GoT. However, this is the hack that I believe is actually the closest to nailing the high points of Game of Thrones, difference in tone aside. Although it is not edgy and sexed up, it has an unexpectedly twisted political web, several factions of important sounding people that can and will die unceremoniously, shifting alliances, people with cool sobriquets, and a larger, supernatural threat that feels like it should be addressed more seriously by all factions but ends up taking second fiddle to the political climax, much like the actual Game of Thrones. Cerulean Crescent does this part better, mostly.
Despite the whimsical vibes (which are not just a front; the game is filled with whimsy), the plot would likely appeal to those who like bastardish political machinations and dramatic, plot altering massacres.
Chickens
The unique identity and gameplay role of each of the chickens is masterful. Each chicken has its own combat role: Vermillion being a setup specialist who can handily nuke down less-armored foes, Joyful Jo being the only tanky chicken with a variety of heavy attacks, initiation options, and even a tactical AoE tool, and Empress having ultimate flexibility in how she administers her attacks and moves around the battlefield by virtue of getting 3-4 turns a player phase for free, most of those being uncounterable single hits.
I particularly enjoyed the way Joyful Jo and Empress’s kits tie into their progress along the ascension timeline. Joyful Jo is revealed to have given up on ascension as an immortal; the ability to forgo chickenness and become a land drake represents this well. Empress, meanwhile, is pure chicken, and embodies “the man who has performed 1 kick 10,000 times”; her afterimages use a single, boring attack with no frills, but despite this, she is the chicken with the most flexible combat applications just due to her control over when and where to apply those attacks.
Perspective
The tale of the Crescent gives you insight into units that might normally be considered villainous figures. Many of the protagonists take actions which are at times morally dubious to the player and each other, and each has a genuine sense of internal motivation that makes their actions and reactions believable, with none ever feeling like they’re the “correct” one through the entirety of the story.
In particular, Cerulean Crescent takes a surprisingly serious and detailed crack at the development of technology for war and industry. At one point, the group discovers a way to create what would be, in our terms, autonomous robots. They discuss in-depth the benefits and risks of unearthing the technology for mortal gain vs. leaving it buried, which even culminates in a heated fight. Later on, a similar discussion is had over the decision to militarize the technology. A lot of the rhetoric and reasoning used, especially from Ellerie, would usually be representated in an antagonistic character, rather than the viewpoint protagonist. However, because she’s the focal lord, we gain a great deal of insight into the non-cartoonishly evil rationale that would argue for the deployment of fantasy unmanned drone strikes, a sort of writing perspective I think is uncommon to Fire Emblem stories, both vanilla and hack.
God of the Crescent (Endgame Spoilers)
I suspect many will believe this slice of the endgame to be relatively weak. Near the end of the story, the party discovers that the true cause and direction of the tide is to produce a narrative heroic figure. On a meta level, this is a hilariously on-point rationale for an evil god in a fictional universe, since Fire Emblem games (vanilla and hack) act as vehicles for their authors to produce notable narrative figures while artificially removing the normal moral quandries that would accompany mass warfare. The god argues they produce value for the Crescent by creating mindless automatons that adventurers can feel good killing, much akin to a video game developer generating red units, and it’s a cute parallel.
That being said, I think there is insufficient setup for this particular deity motivation within the hack, even if I like it in a vacuum. I will say that at no point would I have expected foreshadowing in the form of the god themselves taking direction action, as this would be defeating the purpose. However, many figures that could potentially be narrative lynchpins tend to die unceremoniously. I would say this is even one of the best and most beloved features of the hack read: Cold Caller. However, it does kind of go against the divine theming of the land in that it deprives the story of potential climactic confrontations in favor of high-impact shocks and twists, something that Riv, God of Cerulean Crescent.ups is clearly a fan of, but runs a little counter to the motivations of the God of the Crescent. To have such a metatextual villain motivation, I think there would need to be more harmony between the narrative structure and the villain motivation, which I personally find to be somewhat lacking.
Wisp
Endgame X
Ending kino. Completely trivializes any complaints I had about Endgame A.
Fengyan
Goes harder than the unit that changes damage to 99 if their HP is higher than the foe’s HP (yes this is a real unit).
Play this hack.
14 Likes
BigMood well said about the plot intricacy. The quality of characterization and intrigue in the plot really snuck up on me. early on I was so dazzled by unit design and convinced the sarcastic and lighthearted tone of many characters meant that this was just a gameplay hack. I was wrong. Game gud, writing gud, characters believable.
I second - 10/10, play it.
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Completely trolled me with the wisp drop down lol.
Grateful for the praise. I acknowledge endgame A is not a strong point especially since its a rather late climatic addition to a plot that originally would’ve gone without it if not for adding that entire route. Glad endgame X works out though, ending on a high note.
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Okay hot take time- because while CC I think is great overall, there’s one thing that it doesn’t quite manage to nail.
Spoilers! Major Spoilers Ahead!
I’m sorry but it feels like there’s more than a few starting character plot points that never get satisfying resolutions, and they left me with a sense of wanting more or wondering if there was something I missed.
Examples include (but are not limited to):
Locust and Big Berd not having any closure to their arc- they seem to (suddenly) part ways, with Big Berd having no idea where Locust has gone off to… and Locust seemingly doing one final job herself… but we never really learn why she did so. What caused them to seperate?
Lilac. While his issues are depressingly relateable, it feels like he was being set up to do something… that never happened. He just winds up being impotent by any other name regardless of route where he gets ending.
Empress and Jo both seem to be content to let potentially a psuedodeity Verm go- despite both having concerns about it, they ultimately do nothing about it. Especially Jo- you’d think he’d be more rattled by the thought that, essentially, Verm proved that Brightbeak was right.
Murky has a past with Quilian, but this is never I think really expanded on or really explained- only implied. But more relevantly, Murky has the corpse of a God… and we never really get any further than that as to what she does with it. (Other than presumably conduct more experiments). And she’s also implied to be working with Lindros and Nerysa on the War Golems on the ship, but iirc, we don’t get anything further on that afterwards.
Whaetly and her group never get their payment, I think, at least not from what we see on screen… even though this feels like it was building up to something.
Hightide in Kalor Keep feels like it’s a buildup to something, but what? We never get to know… and I only got an answer myself recently on the CC Discord (it’s apparently Plucker related… which reminds me also).
Talon having an implied crush on Chalice makes sense but if I’m being entirely honest, I feel like it kinda comes out of nowhere.
Now you could argue that for some of these, the excuse of “Well that’s life”- and while that’s all well and good, as a note (not that this applies to this hack necessarily), that does not excuse lazy writing (as in leaving character arcs unresolved/given unsatisfying conclusions, etc). Just because it’s realistic doesn’t make it quality writing automatically.
Some other thoughts as well:
Quilian also is (fittingly) way too damn hubristic for her own good- if she had done her basic research on Ellerie, she’d have realized from the get-go that her plan was basically doomed.
I think that if Lindros has one major flaw, it’s that he had the spirit of the Oakhall ideals in mind, but he ultimately lacked the true conviction to back them up. Not necessarily an example here, but an observation I’d point out… and also sadly realistic. (“Evil wins while good men do nothing.”, et al).
Actually, that’s something I’ve noticed a lot of- a lot of the times, Ellerie wins or else gets what she wants because the people who could stop her either a.) Don’t have good intentions in mind, b.) Only do so when the damage is already done… and in the process cause only more damage.
People have ideas- but hardly anybody puts them into practice… hey, meta-commentary!
Plucker needs some more clarification- it’s apparently supposed to involve retroactive costs but uhhh… that… I feel like thats not made entirely clear how exactly it works. (And why does Jeziel’s granddaughter seem to know what happened to Segwardies but not Jeziel?)
The Epilogue chapter really kinda makes you have (or at least for me) a “We won… but was it really worth it?” Moment.
If there’s morals to the story, it’s these:
1.) If you want to be a good person, either be prepared to have to stand up to your friends sometimes… or get ready to have to make some serious comprimises and either way, be ready to live with the consequences.
2.) Sometimes, some things really are what they sound like. (IYKYK).
3.) Evil wins because good men do nothing.
4.) Holding onto anger and hate just creates further tragedy. This is why I think Roseanne with Heavybread in the end would make Ellerie scream in fury- because Ellerie can’t comprehend why the hell Roseanne wouldn’t go down the same route Ellerie did. And hey, they’re even in the same position- just them and a single lone retainer (or cook, in Mince’s case).
5.) The people who succeed/accomplish world-changing things are the ones who have the will to carry out their dreams.
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Thanks for the write-up Telos.
Spoilers
There’s a few things that should have gotten more but ultimately didn’t because of how the interludes played out, e.g. Chalice/Telon (so the conclusion there was hasty) and Murky/Qiulan (had other roles that needed to be filled) but a lot of things were simply tangential to the main plot and thus weren’t intended to get a deep dive.
I figured Lilac’s plot arc as simply accepting the status quo is fitting of someone who desires change but lacks the will to bring about it himself, especially with his mentor figures all disappearing during the final stretch.
Locust and Berd’s conclusion is simply Berd puts in effort to start over, but Locust is unwilling to put in the effort.
Maybe Wheatley could’ve gotten some scene, but there isn’t much else besides “legitimising the old religions under Ellerie’s rule” and 26x already covers that.
Hightide was also a reference to how the whole map doesn’t get used and there’s not much more to it.
Ellerie was intended to be the kind of person who is a good friend but you know is up to an awful lot of no good, though taken the extremes.
I did intend to make Rosetta and Ellerie parallels in some aspects, which change things a little from the the original idea from Rosetta, which was just a riff of the noble lord archetype.
In retrospect, “not willing to put in the effort for change” does underpin quite a few things and I didn’t notice it was so prevalent until you pointed it out.
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Yw!
And honestly, I get that.
Spoilers
I could be wrong but I could have sworn that Lilac was part of the Oriana endgame route; unless you meant something else for the final stretch.
But I do agree with a lot of these- which is why I don’t really hold it that much against the hack in those cases.
My main issue with Big Berd and Locust wasn’t necessarily the conclusion you described, it’s just…
I honestly wish you could get one final sidequest from Big Berd to pass on a message to Locust about at least where he is if they see her. They’ve been friends for so long it feels like that I figure he’d want that much. Even if there’s no real reward for it, I feel like it’d be some closure… and being real here, the end part of CC gets really goddamn depressing.
Stopping Quilian is the last truly unconditional “Hell yeah!” Moment for the player… and from there it’s war crime after war crime after war crime.
Y’know it’s funny. In my experience, those two things lead to terrible friends… and arguably, Ellerie is one even if she doesn’t realize it.
Mainly, at least Rosetta is wholly honest with her staff- Ellerie outright lies when she says that there was no other way. All the destruction the War Golems cause in Yalunzar is solely because she wanted revenge on Rosetta- that’s literally it.
Yep. It didn’t occur to me either until I was thinking about it and realizing that this was something that popped up fairly frequently actually. That and moral cowardice, but in this case the two go hand in hand.
… and also if you think about it, on that note, Tower and Oriana are semi-hypocrites as liberators against tyrants when you consider that Krynia is basically a dictator on the route that happens… and they let her be for so long. (IIRC that is).
Granted that’s going to change by the end, but I digress.
Also also- why did it never occur to Ellerie to go check the War Golems after seeing what Betrayer did to Lindros and Nerysa?
Like I would honestly be worried about the fact that, y’know, Betrayer could have set them all loose (and especially when they don’t have complete control over them)… oh wait.
As I was writing this I think hit the answer-
Ellerie only cares about her revenge- and it blinded her in this case to do the obvious thing. Rather than set the Guild invasion aside for later (especially on a route where you hit Yalunzar with a great deal of destruction in 24), she goes for revenge and as a result loses everything she had… even though really from the sounds of it, Yalunzar would have been forced to concede in the event of a prolonged siege.
No need to charge the walls- just wait until they get starved out.
… but that doesn’t make for as nearly as epic a conclusion, does it?
It’s kinda funny how something that started off as a mainly action-comedy by the end of it turned into a brutal deconstruction of, essentially, the kind of underdog story that Ellerie has. Me, personally, I’d classify her as being like Genghis Khan- someone who undeniably was great at what they did, but at the same time, so brutal that it really calls into question if the ends truly justified the means or not.
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Hey, really loving the game so far, but I think I’ve managed to softlock myself in
20x-3. I think because my Oriana is dead (obviously a bad play on my part to let the dancer stay dead, but y’know), the game prompts me to choose who to deploy, but then doesn’t give them any movement, so I can’t get to the seize point and progress. (I am relatively new here, so I’m not 100% sure if this is the proper etiquette (or if this is a known issue), sorry).
No worries, it’s never wrong to ask about issues in this thread.
Oriana was supposed to be resurrected if she was dead, but I’ve somehow deleted that part (or never put it in and I have dementia?)
Updated the patch with fix, reloading 20x-3 again with the new patch should be fine.
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Thank you!
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Whoever came up with the forced deploy units for escape maps idea should be hired imo
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Not to worry, the individual in question has been fired from the council of idea guys.
(The feature is staying in though.)
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Zububai recruitment, asking for help
Hey there- I’m totally loving this hack, but I have no idea where to go on Chapter 18 to recruit Zububai. I saw what you said about graves but I can’t find any graves on the map.
this shit rocks. i never used wisp but i really really really like her plot stuff
It’s one of these things.