Not actually sure what might cause this. What emulator is used and do you have a save you can send over?
Also curious if it’s a black screen or a screech of death kinda case.
Pizza Boy GBA (a mobile emulator)
I do have a save I can send over (I’ll DM you in a bit) and its both black screen and a screech of death case.
1 Like
Most units have, other than Shove/Canto+, 1-2 skills in this game. Each skill tends to be highly impactful. The gods gave Rivian a skill, and it was to create Cerulean Coast.
Below there be spoilers.
Characters
i will not be posting stat screenshots because i saved after the party split like a dumbass
Ellerie: Extremely based lord, AoE dance on kill is extremely fun for huge penetrating plays that enemy density is usually just in the sweet spot to allow. The Feng slaps extremely hard with the luck holdable item, which Ellerie is naturally the best recipient of, and allows her to safely collect any boss quote she wants. She’s also a very natural recipient of the Plucker due to the positioning required to optimize her personal skill proc, and her huge HP ramp allows her to become Sigurd on meth in the mid/late game. She might actually be too bulky, but she’s a great lord for an ironman.
Story-wise, Ellerie is a compelling lord. You’re given access to her sympathetic features upfront (exiled backstory, caring about her companions, an acceptable level of adventurer justice) and slowly eased into her more negative, power-corrupted traits, making it more exciting for the reader to decide whether to sympathize with her decisions. Her extremely abrupt decision making does tend to make some story beats feel sudden, but past the first time, it can be accepted as part of her character. The decision to have her part ways graciously with Oriana and Mince later into the story reinforces the rich flavor of her character, as opposed to having turned all bad. Very good lord.
Oriana: Dance. The fact that Blade Dance self-refreshes on Refresh instead of a sword combat fucked me up name-wise, but mechanically the skill is definitely better this way. She can be make use of her ability to do combat after dancing pretty well if you have the funds to feed her more magic swords, which I did, but she’s fragile enough to draw some resets, but that feels right as it punishes overreach with a unit that can already do a ton. I found myself actually missing Shove after her promotion due to micro positioning tricks, but flight and bonus movement are obviously worth the tradeoff in most scenarios.
She’s a simple character driven by entirely understandable motivations (saving her daughter/tryna to live her life), which helps her serve as a neutral reference point as the more opinionated characters debate party conflicts. Her mom friend energy also ties in well with her gameplay role as the more supportive half of the ‘experienced and powerful older folk’ in the initial party.
Tower: Fantastic unit, good mixed bulk for those scenarios where you need to take overlapping mixed hits. Tower does everything mostly well and comes with a big axe which acts functionally as a delete button for pinch scenarios. He’s less able to participate in deranged hyper-mobility strats, but makes up for it by being all-around good and having a fat story promo. His skill is somewhat forgettable as hit rates in mid/late game tend to be pretty consistent, but it’s really nice early on if you need to Feng someone at WTD.
In-story, Tower fills his role of magitechnological conservatism well. He presents the case well for what is essentially magical luddism well and doesn’t press the issue to blades unless he truly feels 100% justified, and that helps to create an anti-progress character that remains highly sympathetic. That being said, his character arc feels unconcluded (which makes sense as there’s still chapters to go), and with the party split immediately after he almost axes Lindros, I’m hoping there will be ample time to put a nice bow on it.
Pomelo: Due to mobility/speed issues, I stopped using him as much after earlygame, but when you’re relatively poorer and not doing as much damage, having an infinite use 3-5 that does splash poison strike is sick af. This is, in unit order list, the first unit I benched, but I should emphasize that almost every unit I used felt cool in their joining chapter (and any succeeding chapters in which I used them before benching). I think there’s some cannon thing you can buy him later on for those that keep using him, but personally I felt that after a certain point he was not suited for the manic divebomb pushes that having a bunch of movement steroids encourages.
Not much to say about Fourteen plotwise. He’s a bro, has his own (kind of bizarre) character arc, and I hope he feels better about himself by endgame. Cool guy.
Lindros: Benched due to eh combat and the fact that lunging him in with Guidance seemed like a losing proposition most of the time. Still cool when you need him early, and I can definitely see deranged trickshots with Guidance (or just using Guidance to tank individual hits) remaining relevant in the mid/late-game; I just didn’t feel it personally.
It’s nice to have a stuffy know-it-all you can genuinely feel bad for. Lindros smuggling his notes out only to be super betrayed by his mentor is a fairly standard arc, and I honestly wasn’t sure if he would double down on continuing on after the mage tower fight. The fact that he used Guidance to tank Tower in-universe is awesome. Shit like that is cool. (Please fudge your NPC battle numbers so they make more sense, I’m begging you.)
Raylin: idk if she gets sauce later, but this is the first unit where I benched her because I felt she was sauceless. Big move is cool and all but reposition, while honestly very good and I found myself wishing it was on more mounted units later, was not worth the dropoff of combat capabilities. Still great in the few chapters immediately after she joins, but does not feel good as a long-term unit imo.
No plot comments. Not everyone has to have sauce tho, not a complaint.
Reiker: The coolest. Auto-brave when healthy is hilarious, and the extra hits let him stack up wexp real fast to start using funnier shit. He is the best user of the steel lance in any FE game/hack ever. Hits like a truck, is fairly accurate, and his high HP/no DEF/RES makes it easy to calculate whether he’ll survive taking an enemy phase to the face. Goated unit.
No plot comments.
Gecko: A surprisingly complex unit, both on the field and in the meta. While by all appearances she is a trainee or est or whatever the kids call it nowadays, performance-wise she’s actually a romhack soldier with galeforce, which makes her perfectly balanced by CC standards imo. Her all-green growths are non-indicative, as units in this game can have weird shit like 105% growths in their key stats, meaning that Gecko is more of an all-arounder than a growth carry. Her RES allows her to tank in a few unusual situations, and the pan allows her to not get doubled by some extremely fast enemies that might otherwise mince your squishies. Until she gets Dread Fighter, galeforce helps to make up for her foot mobility and allows her to put in double the effort when cleaning up enemies in high-impact penetrative assaults. Optimally juggling Ellerie/Oriana/Gecko refreshes is a minigame in and of itself. Always use this unit.
Gecko being the human entry point into the chicken ascension storyline (other than Ellerie herself) is pretty funny. It’s used just (in)frequently enough to remind you it’s there as a side joke, but otherwise doesn’t intrude on the main story while still giving her some relevance. I do hope it’s somewhat resolved, even if it’s just in her ending.
Mince: Also dropped early, although Swarp+Canto is admittedly really funny. I think I benched every bow user. The net mobility of Swarp+Canto tends to be zero, as opposed to Shove+Canto+ which can be used by certain other units which grants a +1 on spaces moved. Still useful early on, esp before other units start skyrocketing HP.
Mince is the only unit who starts off personally loyal to Ellerie, which makes it an excellent utilization of his role when he chooses to leave with the adventurers at the party split. This opens up a lot of space for Ellerie’s development now that she’s on her own in terms of truly close confidants. He doesn’t have a ton of personal story space outside of his one character trait™, but plot-wise he is an excellent narrative device already surpassing most retainers in Fire Emblem.
Yvette: I appreciate the constant presence of ballistae to encourage archer use, but alas, she was a touch too slow as a unit. Extremely useful in earlier maps when you can’t deal with fliers as well and the ballista one-shots them. Quick Rain kinda doodoo when compared to the REIKER.
No plot comments.
Telon: It’s bizarre how well-balanced “heal fully and gain 50 crit whenever you want” is in the context of Cerulean Coast. He’s actually a little too low-activity for my purposes for this reason, and he got the bench. Hilarious combat unit while I used him, though, great unit to have the brigand screech.
No plot comments.
Vermillion: This is the unit that truly defines Cerulean Coast, and I don’t just mean because of the chicken meme. He comes equipped with insane mobility and an extremely handy toolbox. Astral Strike allows him to be fed kills with surprising ease for a chicken, and Feather Fury allows him to bait bow-users and proc Poison Strike safely, making him a great set-up unit for Ellerie kills. The obscene combination of 10 MOV, Shove, and Canto+ also allow him to micro-reposition any unit and still retreat to safety, an amazing trait to have in casual play when you bungle a unit placement. You can even pick locks and get out safely. Vermillion is everything the coast has to offer.
I really wanna know how his ascension ends. I’m excited for Empress to be written so I can see if she’s also a Dark Sect type or if she’ll be a Righteous Sect counterbalance to Joyful Jo.
Chalice: Also too non-mobile to use, but was a great deploy for a long time to help other units meet kill thresholds. Harm buffing staves is also hilarious, and Chalice randomly being a physical tank was extremely useful before other units got their bulk online.
No plot comments.
Iosaf: Didn’t really use, big rock is funny though. You can get The Best through Mutate, which is super hilarious.
No comments, fantastic recruitment though. A unit that immediately gets better after you recruit them is a rarity.
Krynia: Real talk: I only trained her because she was plot relevant. I was like, “fuck, this trainee is ass”, and then she went sicko mode. Shadowflame is amazing spot-tanking for when you have no other way to bait a dense formation. Her skill is sort of forgettable: she’s not good enough pre-Shadowflame to be leaving at low HP for memes, and post-Shadowflame she can kind of just shrug shit off.
I liked that she went “kill 'em all” the moment she went from plot device damsel to dragon. That’s some Coast ethos right there. It also made a lot of sense for her to join Ellerie to continue fucking shit up. Curious to see how her story concludes.
Rohesia: I was tempted to take her to the end due to her extremely funny skill, but ultimately decided against once I got a ton of other units that could do funnier things/just kill without critting/do funnier things and crit a ton. Really satisfying to use, and the Fancy Stabber is great to pull off of her and put onto someone else who does a ton of combat, like Gecko.
No plot comments.
Marlow: Actually the first unit that I felt was so unimpactful that I didn’t give him a second glance. Healing is so last season: real Gs fucking die.
No plot comments.
Whipjack: Insane fucking combat potential, but not enough movement sauce. I see why people like him, but you simply cannot go insane with the strats if you use him over someone like Gecko.
I felt some dissonance between how much of a loser the plot treats him as and how easily he can fuck shit up. Like, dude is packin’.
Francisca: Same basic zone as Raylin: movement skills on a flier is funny, but she’s simply not goated with the sauce in the same way that a unit like Vermillion is.
No plot comments.
Acielle: I used her because I like the dweeb delusional type characters. Logmancy is actually extremely fun, and the log itself fulfills a role that feels like a subset of Vermillion: soften units up with uncounterables or micro-reposition and advance using Canto+. Acielle herself is my anti-magic nuke, with Torment + auto-double to blow anyone out of orbit that needs to die. I’ve only used Obliterate like once or twice, saving that shit for a rainy day. If you ever want to buff her for some reason (I don’t think she needs it), give the log flying movement costs to make it on par with Chixin mobility.
Murky: Cool unit, still in the main roster. Staves + Canto+ is all you need, and Dissect is a really funny spot-kill tool for extremely bulky foes.
No real plot comments, but this was the first CC unit to make me think “uh oh so this is how we go from the start of the story to poisoning wells”.
Qiulan: Cool unit concept, but not quite explosive enough to justify a spot on the permanent roster, since her movement is mid, and after a certain point, most combat units can cheese out ORKOs without bardsong help, and healing is still for lames.
I was considering whether or not to kill her off after realizing she’s just fucking around, but she’ll probably just retreat anyway. Funny character.
John: I fucked up and built a wight archer thinking I would want a bow user, but this cursed him to be boring. A centaur dude would’ve been more appropriate for my team comp. The skills are actually cool, though.
Represents the culmination of Lindros’s character arc. The creation of this unit is a cool moment, certified coastal.
Chixin: This is a force-use character. While technically mobile enough to justify inclusion in a hyper-schmovement team, I’m only using Chixin because it’s a flying sword. With that said, it’s a passable mixed tank with Iron Wave up, especially after a kill.
I would’ve hoped Chixin would get more interaction with Tower or Lindros. Instead I got the Chixin/Hagen pairing, which is kind of like pairing Lois Lane with Kite Man.
Thyme: I tried using her because I thought it’d be funny, but there’s not quite enough magic units after she joins to justify it. I actually like the lower density of magic (and generally low RES values of physical units), but it does mean that Spellthief is merely balanced instead of being the funniest shit of all time. Plus I already had Vermillion/Oriana for locks.
No plot comments.
Basil: I could just use someone who’s already strong at 1 range.
No plot comments.
Aigo: I got this guy killed on his join map and didn’t reset for him. His skill just wasn’t worth it, since I’m not fielding anyone who needs help killing a weakened enemy. His death did prevent someone I actually cared about from dying though, so he did his job.
No plot comments.
Foxberry: Cool unit, kept as part of the main roster for now. Her combat is kind of garbage, but 1-3 range rescue and Canto+ is exactly the sort of positive-on-use micro-advancement my strats call for. The fact that she gets EXP after using her chain thing is also very cool.
Based recruitment, I had no idea that shit was coming.
John XVI: Extremely funny, but sadly too slow as a unit to use. I got The Best and Weakest Link as a mutate on my successful run of her join chapter and never felt sadder.
Joyful Jo: A mix between Vermillion and an always-on Krynia. Easily one of the best units in the entire roster, boasting the ability to microposition, make big pushes, kill outright, splash AoE, and tank. Absolutely gnarly.
If you finish Cerulean Coast it will be the first ascension story to ever conclude and not suck ass. How does that make you feel?
Dune: I am surprised I didn’t use this unit, but I was at least glad to witness the full power of Double Time in the lowres LTC. Ultimately I’m prioritizing group hyperpushes, meaning mounted units with good combat getting Ellerie’d/danced, meaning Dune’s ability to suicide if I’m bad is less useful than you’d imagine.
As dull as the unit description would suggest, which is peak writing.
Nerysa: Powerstaff is funny, but she heals for like half the efficiency of a good staffer, and I’m kinda stingy with the fun staves.
IMO Nerysa would’ve made for an interesting enemy plot-wise, like a levelheaded counterforce to Ellerie’s war hawk takeover, but being a blue unit with quad S-ranks does take priority.
Tasel: I didn’t use him because he’s a bow unit. Honestly, I probably could’ve, but I was already attached to my other units at this point.
No plot comments.
Oren: Way too straightforward of a unit for the Coast. Great gameplay/narrative blending, immediately benched.
Plot comments as above.
Lilac II: Amazing unit, being summoned by himself is the pinnacle of comedy. I haven’t really leveraged swarp/lunge as much as I could, but wallwalk 1-5 range luna is already peak for softening up units for Murky or some other shit. Lilac is there too, I guess, he can shove people or some shit.
No plot comments, but he is a mood.
Hagendire: I wish I’d taken the chance to use his ability to kill him off, but instead I was subject to Chixin/Hagendire. Curses.
No plot comments.
Ivadne: Dope. Nukes most units at 1-4 range, great user of Meteor, PRF Canto+ to remain mobile, basically one of my ideal units (and has insane DEF to boot). Fantastic on the tower map as using stairs resets her to “not having moved”.
No plot comments.
Xeo: 3-5 range poison strike is cool, but the ramping damage thing is not since I’m tryna be fast as fuck. Same issues as Pomelo.
No plot comments.
Unari: The third unit that I got killed. The injector makes her the perfect kind of unit for me, healing without sacrificing forward momentum. Sadly, I fucked up. Being able to make anyone doubleable is also really funny. Probably the ideal unit to tank dogs or smth.
Despite being one of the party’s enemies for a long time, I thought this unit was fairly reasonable most of the time, so it actually felt bad seeing her be reduced to playing at Ellerie’s pace, as she might’ve made a good “level-headed character” replacement for all the other level-headed characters that are leaving.
Caloogo: Based for being one of many units in this game to unceremoniously murk an important adversary. Extra based for joining us immediately after. I might reconsider my no-bows meme policy as this unit could potentially be amazing for security mobile kills.
Amazing recruitment.
Seahawk II: Ship Chu is an insane weapon wtf.
The reveal of this unit is super hype. Deus ex machinas that join by chapter 10 are goated.
My comments about the plot/general gameplay are largely folded into the character comments.
4 Likes
So some good news and bad news. The bad news this is another one of those “wonderful” horizontal updates, where there are technically no new chapters.
The good news is that I have been making progressing, now starting work on c25.
I am also grinding down the writing debt, good way through c20x-c22.
Pictured: proof I’ve not spend the past month only editing numbers
I completely lied about not touching early game again, and a significant amount has changed that I feel like I should probably make the changes public.
Universal Canto
This is the big one. Every unit now has canto. A win for infantry and makes maps with a lot of visits or rescuing less painful. I am not ready for the actual consequences of this change.
An application is Wisp becoming a mini warp. (Though she could do this with fancy stabber before.
This then leads into…
Canto+ Armours
Canto armours no longer have a significant mobility advantage over their infantry peers, which I think is harmful to their class identity. To rectify this, armours now have canto+.
Additionally, I want Mince to have a bit more mobility and to separate Ivadne’s canto+ effect from her prf, so it works out.
(Note, old saves should also get canto+ upon starting a chapter.)
Unit Changes
One thing I noticed is that mounts tend to feel quite weak in a lot of hacks as an overcorrection for vanilla mounts being good. This has led me to re-examine my own hack, and realise- HAHAHAH THE FUCKING FOOTIES ARE GETTING BUFFED AGAIN
Ivadne’s prf having wary fighter helps her tank a bit more often.
Also having canto+ I imagine will help.
Oren got a whopping 5 con boost, allowing him to be never weighed down by heavy weapons he needs to one round.
His prf no longer gets him instantly doubled and killed by magic units.
All mounts now have +5 aid, just to keep Oren being always rescueable.
Krynia got a very minor stat buff as well as a real res growth. Her skill also now adds all her missing HP to damage instead of half.
Xeo got a sizeable buff to his HP and defence so he can build his stacks a little easier, and also some more skill because dark is already a shaky accuracy weapon type.
John XVI healing buffed to full heal, range of the heal requirement increased.
Hagendire got +3 speed and more speed growth. This does literally nothing except let him be brought off the bench easier during the party split.
Misc Changes
Lindros now has some specific lines if the avatar is named after his close friends or himself.
Most bosses were also buffed across the board by a little bit.
Gambler’s Folly now only reduces luck by 15.
Fancy Stabber is now 1-2 range as universal canto has significantly devalued it.
Bujie now grants 10 res as well.
Bunch of other stuff who cares.
Leadership Stars
Leadership stars used to be entirely superfluous, granting +3 hit and was more of a lore thing. Now they actually give +3 avoid, making player units a little more dodgy across the game. (Hopefully not enough to dodge tank the whole game!)
Leadership stars have also been given to later bosses since I just forgot about this mechanic.
Cheers to the cool folks helping me playtest.
15 Likes
Had to update patch for two major bugs.
No canto in the canto patch (amazing) and defeat boss maps not properly working on enemy phase.
6 Likes
The recent change to give all physical units at least 5% magic growth is already paying off I see.
7 Likes
Hey there! Really incredible hack and so on, one of my favourites.
I think I’ve found a bug for ch17, where after killing the bosses the end cutscene reshows ch1’s and the background of the ruined house as the dialogue would start.
No dialogue is given though and it softlocks on the background. Tried skipping ahead and it also doesn’t seem to work. (also new so I can’t share screenshots for the moment).
I use VBA, and was also running with the 100% growths patch itself
(might need to shift over to the main one?).
From ch17’s dialogue, I couldn’t see any obvious triggers I needed (I’ve managed to kill the main boss before they fire off, from memory this also doesn’t cause his item to drop if he doesn’t get the dialogue).
Whether or not I finish the map early, it all results in the same softlock.
1 Like
This one is pretty silly, I set the wrong chapter end event for the chapter clear, thanks for the catch.
I’ve updated the patch in the download link with this fixed.
Minor character changes since last patch:
Caloogo’s skill now gets +15 damage instead of +50 crit.
Foxberry’s skill now ignores defence instead of guaranteed crit, and also gained 30 crit.
4 Likes
is whipjack rf weapons add?
Yeah it is in the current released version.
2 Likes
I lied about not touching early game again.
Jack of all trades gets to be a provoke tank, crit fisher and also generic skillsys staffer.
He deserves better.
Why not.
I thought this would be funny. Also story-gameplay integration something something.
Amazingly, some more units (infantry) got buffed as well.
- Lindros got +5 base skill and 25% growth to use dicer of dan better.
- Qiulan acting her buff also refreshes herself.
- Pomelo went from E rank to C rank axe base since no one uses axes on him anyways.
Finished gameplay for c25 and c26. Maybe I can finish the whole thing before writing again.
13 Likes
This will be a long one.
I saw somebody else give their opinions on the cast, and I felt the need to do the same for the sake of providing more feedback for this ROM hack. Note that I’m currently on Chapter 20 with the patch before the recent buff affecting Iosaf and a few others.
Summary
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Ellerie: Solid lord, especially with Fengyan and Tethia’s Tear. I mainly used her as a staff bot, which was really nice since she has access to the whole Supply chain where I hid most of my staves. The only complaint I have is that the Scorched skill didn’t feel worth it since I don’t use Ellerie to tank hits, and missing a few stats for that meme skill was kinda eh.
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Oriana: Easily one of the best units. Dancing + an extra turn is phenomenal.
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Lindros: I was surprised at how often I used his Lunge skill. Phenomenal utility. It’s definitely saved me a few times and has helped me pick apart troublesome foes. Guidance making him only take 1 damage at full HP is always nice.
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Mince: I found Mince to be useful, especially since high Def was lacking at the start of the game. Swarp can be occasionally useful, especially since Mince can tank hits well and let me play aggressively.
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Gecko: The GOAT. Raising a weak unit to be deadly is always fun. Amazing stats sans Defense. Frying Pan is a great PRF and I still use it from time-to-time for the extra Speed and Defense.
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Vermillion: I love using this character with the Plucker’s Gift item. Having 12 movement is insane! Strength level-ups can be shaky, but having a free Poison Strike and the ability to wreck low-Defense enemies is amazing. The unique promotions were also cool. I usually use Vermillion to loot chests since 12 movement makes it a breeze.
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Iosaf: He felt filler at first (I haven’t used his buffed form yet), but grew to be very good. His PRF is amazing for eliminating or weakening far away foes. He’s also amazing with Xonssuaencsy.
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Murky: She’s a shady character, but having guaranteed critical hits is OP when combined with this game’s numerous chip damage (like Pomelo’s cannon). Otherwise, a solid staff bot.
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Wight: I named mine Skelly after the Chrono Cross character. My Wight has Celerity and Relief, which makes it a mobile tank and I enjoy using it. I love the feature of creating a monster, and would be something to look forward to if I decide to replay the game.
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Krynia: She was super weak at first, but I decided to use her since she had an A-support with Oriana. Krynia is amazing with Shadowflame and I often use the Seahawk Flag on her. Her only drawback is middling speed, but that’s fine since she’s otherwise very good.
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Thyme: I wondered if the plot involving her and Lidross was dropped. She threatened to break his kneecaps and that didn’t go anywhere? Other than that, she’s fine. Her Magic is low, but most enemies have weak Res stats. Also, her anti-magic niche is awesome, so I wish there were more magical enemies to make her feel more rewarding.
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Tasel: S-Rank bows is nice, but I usually use Tasel to petrify annoying enemies and as an additional way to access the Supply convoy. The other potions felt pretty niche, especially the one that causes Berserk.
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Joyful Jo: I love playable chickens. Joyful Jo is the tankier, yet slower counterpart to Vermillion. Both have been very useful to me, but I wonder why they don’t have a Support bonus since they interact with each other a lot.
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Zububai: They are very useful since they have an S-rank in so many weapon types. Having 30 Strength and Skill at base Level with her skill is quite OP. I haven’t used the Warding ability much since Zububai usually cleans up after Mince or Joyful Jo tank some hits.
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Ivadne: Guaranteed crits when not moving is pretty cool, especially since her signature tome has 1~4 range. One thing I didn’t mention with Mince is that I love how Armored Units have Canto+ since they historically have trash mobility.
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John XVI: She’s an interesting gimmick character. Mutate can potentially make her busted or just give her okay skills. I enjoyed using John XVI, but she was the last person I dropped from my team of 14 since I like the aforementioned characters prior to Ivadne more.
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Foxberry: I love her design, but she feels weak. I feel like Backstabber would be better for a Bow or Tome-user who had a long-range attack of more than two spaces. Chain Hook is like a nerfed version of Rescue, but with infinite uses. I feel like she needs a buff of some kind to stand out more. Maybe Chain Hook could also “Rescue” nearby enemies for more uniqueness?
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Qiulan: S-Rank light is amazing, but Qiulan feels awkward to use. Her long-range attacks are weak, but the only buff that feels worthwhile to use is the one that gives +10 damage, which is really good early on. BTW, what happened to the Lance Lass that Quilan can talk into being an NPC?
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Yvette: She was a mainstay for me in the early and mid-game. Mince otherwise outclassed her, along with other good Bow users like Tasel. Ballistas were nice to use, though.
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Pomelo: I stopped using him pretty early into my run when I found more interesting characters to use. Powder Blast is nice for the early game since you don’t have too many broken tools by then. His growths are pretty bad, though.
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Acielle: I love characters of her archetype like L’Arachel. The log summoning mechanic is pretty neat, so Acielle is definitely somebody I would want to use on a different run since she is pretty good.
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Raylin: I like how fliers don’t feel overpowered in this game. At the same time, Raylin feels unremarkable. Francisca is a flier with a unique PRF, so Kaylin feels even less impressive by comparison.
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Francisca: Another okay flier, albeit with a good PRF. She seemed good from when I used her, but I enjoyed a lot of the cast, so I couldn’t use everybody. A Wyvern Rider with weak Defense is a bit odd.
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Telon: He’s great from what I’ve seen from him, but I chose Krynia as my early-game lance user. He’s basically the faster and more crit-focused version of her in exchange for far less bulk and no dragon form.
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Reiker: The Brave effect is OP and Reiker has great Skill and Speed, making him very deadly on player phase. He’s one of the best characters I chose to ignore, although his low STR tended to lead to my lances breaking a little too quickly.
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Chalice: A Shaman with high Defense and low Resistance is pretty cool. She has a ton of Magic for the early game, yet I found Murky’s extra mobility more useful.
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Tower: Solid Jeigan with an amazing promotion. He didn’t feel too useful past the early game, especially since enemies don’t dodge much with how generous this game’s weapon triangle is.
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Rohesia: She’s great at base, especially since her PRF weapon has infinite uses and can hit up to two spaces away. Always critting with regular weapons on player phase is also sweet. I didn’t care much for her character, so I opted to use other units I found more interesting instead. I will say Rohesia is definitely good.
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Marlow: I’ve seen the Amaterasu skill in other ROM hacks and I love it. However, Marlow feels very mid. He has high mobility, but terrible bulk, so he doesn’t seem suited for the front lines. Likewise, keeping him back doesn’t feel useful since my units aren’t getting hurt there often.
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Whipjack: Corpsedrinker is very strong for tanking a unit or two on enemy phase. He’s solid and seems like he would be much better in the late game since his Body Slam skill scales off his good HP growth.
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Chixin: I like Chixin, yet I have no shortage of monsters on my main team (a shallow reason, I know). Potentially having up to 15 mobility is wonderful and never needing a normal weapon is also an underrated reason to use Chixin.
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Basil: He feels like the most nothing character in this rom hack, even though there aren’t many Dark magic users. That’s a shame since I like Thyme and her interactions with Basil are amusing. Maybe he could have a PRF that targets either the foe’s Defense or Resistance, depending on which is lower since he is a Mage with high Strength?
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Nerysa: S-Rank in all magic types is delightful, but are offset by her meh stats. She’s definitely good since her weapon ranks and extra action upon using a staff are unique.
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Dune: She feels like the best flier of the bunch (if you don’t count Vermillion). Siphon Spear is a cool PRF, and sacrificing 12 HP to move again can be very useful. It’s a shame I can’t use more characters since so much of this cast seems interesting.
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Hagendire: Having 2 leadership stars is nice, and being a speedy character with Provoke is cool. I didn’t have the patch that buffed him quite a bit, but I imagine he’s a lot better now.
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Wisp: I don’t get why Wisp has a B-support with Ellerie. Otherwise, Wisp has high mobility in her Wisp form, but can’t attack. It’s a cool trade-off and Wisp is strong at base.
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Aigo: Aigo is also quite strong at base. Weak Link seems quite niche. Then again, I’m not much for utilizing skills based on adjacent units. He’s a solid filler option.
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Lilac: I didn’t use him, but his skills are quite good. His summon is less spammable and braindead than Acielle’s, but has way more utility. Lidross is already my Lunge bro, and I didn’t need a second one.
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Oren: He’s good, but I didn’t use him.
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Xeo: He feels like the more useful Bard since he can chip away a foe’s HP with Futile Struggle without awkward adjacent positioning. The other two songs also seem useful in runs where Xeo is used more.
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Unari: She’s pretty neat. Healing an ally for 20 HP and being able to move again is really good. Her personal skill making enemies have 0 AS is excellent.
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Betrayer: How come he isn’t listed in the unit recruitment list? Personally, I would have rather recruited the two mage girls in the same chapter since they seemed interesting, whereas Betrayer is pretty forgettable other than his meme-worthy name. Another downside is that I find using his skill to be a bit cumbersome since Betrayer isn’t bulky to be by himself like the Wight is, and other characters have much easier Critical Hit conditions by comparison.
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Caloogo: I did not expect him to whack the Archsage guy. I was anticipating to use Thyme against that boss. Other than that, Caloogo is quite good.
I will say, Cerulean Coast feels like the best ROM Hack I’ve played thus far. I’ve played other good fan projects like Sun God’s Wrath and Bloodlines, too. The writing is good, and I enjoy seeing the descriptions from Ellerie’s perspective. Similarly, the twists, like the regular guard wiping out the Cold Caller, is also pretty cool.
The game’s cast oddly feels well-balanced, even though there is so much overpowered skills in action.
As far as game-breaking bugs go, the chapter with the Betrayer had a weird soft-lock where killing the final boss at the castle with Gecko caused the map tiles to be corrupted, then proceeded to repeat the whole following cutscene twice before lingering on black. The same thing happened when Murky killed the boss, so I had to skip the cutscene to proceed.
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Thanks for playing and leaving your comment, I’m glad you enjoyed it!
It looks like the cast didn’t feel too unbalanced, which is promising.
The bug with c18 was elsewhere reported and should be fixed in the current version.
Lance Lass will return, eventually.
I legitimately forgot to add the Betrayer to the recruitment list (you’ll never guess what he does later.)
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What is the Scorched skill? That doesn’t sound familiar to me.
Scorched: Every 25% HP lost adds 25 hit and crit.
You can get that skill in 17x if you let Ellerie take the Fire Emblem challenge, which involves her eating some apparently disgusting food. You can choose which stats will be lowered.
I didn’t find it useful since Fengyan + Tethia’s Tear one shots most enemies and I find Ellerie to be more useful for staff utility. Hit rates don’t seem to be a problem in this game, either.
How much do the stat get lowered by?
It’s been a while since I got the skill, but it was small stuff like -2 Speed being an option IIRC. There were a few categories to sit through.
I reached ch 20x today, i have to say, amazing hack so far, very unique, can’t wait to see what happens in the future.
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Really exciting news for everyone.
We’re moving forward with a new free-to-pay model.
No worries for all the f2p gamers out there, you’ll still be able to experience the intended content the correct way.
Now announcing, CERULEAN COAST ADVENTURER MEMBERSHIP.
For just 29.99 AUD per month, you can unlock:
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BONUS CHAPTERS
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PREMIUM CLASSES
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MEMBER ONLY WEAPONS
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NEW MOUNT MECHANICS
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SPECIAL EMOTES
Thank you to the community for being so supportive. We really think this new direction is best for Cerulean Coast and are very excited to roll out new MEMBER ONLY content!
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