Download Bells of Byelen v1 (24 chapters)
Hello everyone, I’m here to share a complete FE8 hack with fully written supports, Bells of Byelen. This release includes 24 chapters and 3 character selection interludes, similar to TRS. There are a total of 73 player units, with 60 in any given playthrough.
This is a telephone hack, similar to Call of the Armor by Team Distant Roads. After the completion of CotA, Team Adversity was formed primarily from this same group, along with a few new additions bringing us to 15 chapter creators. The premise was to create a telephone hack using FE5 mechanics and make an attempt at a more in-depth story, while also using a buildfile instead of FEBuilder.
These added complications increased the development time necessary, as it took us nearly a year to make the hack functionally complete. We then took 2.5~ months to polish the hack and create something more [complete], with a focus on writing a complete set of supports and updating aesthetics. Our development method followed the structure of CotA (more information in the CotA post), with some minor deviations, mentioned under “Operational Changes from CotA” if you’re interested. Detailed credits are in the same folder as the patch.
Hack Features
- Multiple gameplay mechanics developed and expanded upon for this project, such as: Dismount, PCC, Movement Stars, Thracia Escape, Mov/Build Growths, Equippable Accessories
- Uses other FE5 mechanics with some modifications, such as: Capture, Thracia Steal, Fatigue, Leadership Stars, and 1RN
- Modified Hit/Avo formulas, modified Exp formula similar to FE14 to facilitate Fatigue
- Completely written supports that increase based on deployment similar to FE9, with reworked support bonuses similar to a 3H-like system, where they apply on initiation if a support partner is in range of the enemy; Bonuses are unique, no affinities
- Class and item lists reworked from scratch using FE5 as inspiration, along with new custom classes and items
- Custom personal skills for some units
- Equippable accessories that grant skills or stats; FE5 Crusader Scrolls reworked into accessories; Some equips decrement durability when attacking or defending, such as shields and arrows
- 3 chapter interludes where you can recruit 2 units out of 6
Plot Summary
Bells of Byelen’s story follows two officers of the Decian Liberators, a group of rebels fighting to free their home country of Decia from the occupation inflicted on them by the Cythean Empire. Loewe, a Decian who lost everything to Cythes, and Cleo, a Cythean who defected from her post, find themselves leading a weakened rebellion together, following a painful betrayal.
In their quest to free Decia from Cythes, they meet an experienced strategist, Kwame, and they learn that the stakes of their resistance may be much bigger than they know, putting all of Orodreth at risk if they fail…
Team Adversity
Project Lead
LegendofLoog
Spreadsheet Officer
Pandan
Wizardry Lead
Pikmin1211
Chapter Contributors
Ch1: LegendOfLoog, edits by RW
Ch2: knabepicer
Ch3: Kyrads
Ch4: devisio
Ch5: pandan
Ch5x: LegendOfLoog, cutscene event map by RW
Ch6: MintX, edits by pandan
Ch7: Rivian
Ch8: DrGreen3339
Ch9: TDAWS, edits by RW
Ch10: bpat, edits by knabepicer
Ch11: Turtle, edits by pandan
Ch12: Leche
Ch12x: LegendOfLoog
Ch13: DrGreen3339
Ch14: RandomWizard (RW)
Ch15: LegendOfLoog
Ch16: pandan
Ch17: Xilirite
Ch18: bpat
Ch18x: LegendOfLoog
Ch19: ArcherBias
Ch20: devisio
Ch21: RW, edits by knabepicer
Ch22: Kyrads, writing by Xilirite
Ch23: LegendOfLoog, map by RW
Endgame: Xilirite, knabepicer
Supports
LegendOfLoog
pandan
RandomWizard
DrGreen
Xilirite
Leche
bpat
knabepicer
ArcherBias
Levin
Rivian
Assets/Playtesting/Interlude Unit Submission
Pikmin1211
Dainn
hypergammaspaces
WarPath
Levin
sdaht
Knight_Moris
Roze
A_Reliable_Chair
Pushwall
Project Discord
Bells of Byelen Buildfile
GitHub - legendofloog/Teleshack-II: Bells of Byelen buildfile
Note: The unique assets within this buildfile are NOT F2U by default. If you’re interested in using one of these assets, then I would recommend reaching out to the person who is credited for it in the credits list included with the patch and asking them directly. Some hacks may be packaged and released standalone at a later date.
Known Issues
- In general, BoB was tested using mGBA and VBA-M. However, the only emulator that is fully supported is mGBA, so other emulators may have unknown problems. Use them at your own risk, lol.
- Occasionally, when units level up and animations are off, stat increases for Con and Mov may appear to be negative. They are still positive, and it is just a visual glitch.
- Later on in the game, the List command may stop functioning as intended.
- Screens displaying all of your units, like those in the Preps menu, will cause map sprites to overflow when a large number of units are there, meaning that the map sprite that displays for each unit may not be the one that is actually of that class. This also applies to the Support Viewer.
- Pressing Select in the Soundroom to activate Random Mode will softlock the game.
- Leina’s skill, Radiance, may not always apply as intended.
- In the final chapter, status effects may not function correctly on enemies.
- Be careful Escaping last with a Lord unit that is rescuing someone: this may result in a bug where the map won’t end.
Operational Changes from CotA
The most significant difference from how we approached CotA was that we used a buildfile. This increased the amount of work we could do simultaneously, allowing me (as project lead) to make more fixes as we went along while people worked on their chapters. However, due to buildfiles being less familiar for most of our team, it also increased the amount of time needed per chapter for most. There was also a greater willingness to go back and revise things, whether that be story or gameplay, since there wasn’t any need to wait for the patch to be passed around. This approach definitely did sacrifice some of the simplicity of telephone displayed in other projects, but hopefully, it also led to a more polished end product for people to play.
