[FE8][Complete] Fire Emblem: The Four Kings (8/19/22 Update: RR Quickfix)

This is brother.

I approve this project.

Why is Shelby so bad? It is simply unforgivable that he cannot kill anything. He is a pathetic human worm, he should be ashamed. Yes, it may block damage, but it simply cannot kill. It’s a bad character.

I approve to play. Keeping the point is very useful, the goals are good, it is very fair.
However, in the middle of the game, enemy dodging the enemy is so bad, it becomes frustrating. Especially against a meadow bow horse. They are so fast that they actually kiss their wives and children before dodging attacks.

In general, the game and the difficulty are good. But often it gets so difficult that I want to cry

I will review each 1 x 1 letter to finish. (The name may be wrong going fast)

Waltir: He’s strong and generally good throughout the match.

Lionel: He’s like Waltir but faster and weaker. He’s worse throughout the game but stronger than Walter in the end. You must buy magic swords for him.

Zackary: I do not agree to 10 strength max. Otherwise he is very good at his job and weakens enemies.

Bradley: He is strong but weak in many stats. Sad knight.

Shawn: It’s Bradley but he’s good (but not far)

Lidiya: The sleeping crew must be able to fix. Very good user staff.

Chase: faulty unit. His horse and serious damage is very great. Put more horse killer weapons in the game to kill him.

Ufin: Strong but can’t handle damage. Perhaps he will be granted black magic when upgrading to Nosferatu? This can make it good.

Shelby: Bad and terrible. He can only take damage. I never gave him a promotion. Give his personal weapon more damage.

Ava: They are very good at killing things without a counterattack.

Macks: An amazingly strong family man. He’s great and has well-balanced statisticals.

Dorian: I prefer quick reusable characters. It’s good anyway.

Marcii: Why only kill magical enemies? I do not agree with this character.

Zowey: It is powerful near end of project AMAZING OHHHH YEAAAAAA

Vin: I think it’s fine. He cannot be killed with a personal weapon but he cannot be killed with it. It’s Shelby, but it’s good. I haven’t used it much.

Silo: Terrible horse up. He can’t kill anything but he’s long range. I feel ashamed of this loneliness.

Vicktor: Is it okay.

Ron: Amazingly POWERFUL unit. His personal weapon allows him to IGNORE DEFENCE and ELIMINATE (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA) every enemy in the game. His low hit weakness can be fixed by buying stat increases. Make this character worse.

Dragon Rider Man (the name is too difficult): Is it okay. The stats are very balanced, make it less balanced please.

Colt: Another amazingly POWERFUL CHARACTER. He hits his enemies hard and they scream FOR MERCY BUT NO MERCY HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. (Yes it might be slow but it kills them in one fell swoop, who cares?)

Hof: strong

Regis: Why can’t his weapon be repaired? are you scared? Anyway it is generally good and good to use by the staff

Wilson: I don’t understand why it is so bad. If he has a stout weapon why is he so heavy? Strength should be reduced and weight reduced. He is very good at killing enemies.

Tary: Is it okay. Not enough enemies of a bow to make his weapon good (sad)

Patty: Once again, you make the units have very balanced stats! This frustrates me very much! It’s defensive, but that’s bad for a flying unit.

Hero (name hard): Very good unit. Her weapon is amazing and kills in one shot.

Jeremy: He’s okay and good at hiring (oh yeah!). Make his magical staff use more.

Sarah: Bad. A unit that’s only good when you’re moving away? HOW DO I USE THIS WOMAN MR KRASH TELL ME HOW???

Jack: His weapon is very powerful and he never misses it. His statistics are good and he’s good at using bows.

Gideeyin: He’s good at killing but bad at hitting. I prefer to use Ufin.

Nicole: Amazing unit and very good staff. But again, can we not repair?! Why don’t we have fun!

Luceel: Tired of balanced units. But that’s fine because they fly. Has a tank weapon that’s actually good for damage (like Stupid Shelby but better)

Emily: Amazingly POWERFUL. The unit that grows into an absolute monster. You have to level it up simply because it’s the best character in the game. No other character is as good as Emily and it obvious. Why did you make it so good?

Alisha: Bradley but magical (and good).

Elias: Amazing unit. The third best player in the game. With boots he can move very far after an attack.

Candice: She’s Vin, but she’s a magical bad character. Her weapon is good but it is very difficult to make her next to the characters. Can you make the weapon affect a longer range?

Cindy: good but another balanced character oh my GOD.

Sally: Fourth best character in the game. She’s like Fire Emblem 6 Lilina, but she’s amazing. I love this unit.

Marvin: he is fine. I didn’t have enough stats to hit.

Terri(b)l (joke make sense?): When I recruited him I almost lost my mind and left the game. YOU ARE ADDICT TO BALANCED CHARACTERS but WHY. I don’t like it sorry haha. (Please less balanced characters next game?)

I approve of this project very much

Good luck Mr. Krash you did a great project :slight_smile:

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Glad to hear that you enjoyed the game! I didn’t want the unique staves (sleep, rewarp, rescue) to be repaired since they’re so strong already. Hammerne can definitely be used on Regis’s Maelstrom tome though.

If you’re upset about balanced units, I did make a prequel hack about Daltry, the main villain of Lionel’s story. Though Daltry is a balanced unit… but his friends are all pretty unique!

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Bilal here, I would like to apologize a little on some of my brother’s… interesting thoughts.

Some of his troubles were because he was checking the game’s old version by FEBUILDER
while playing on the newer version. (It is how he thought crazy things like the Maelstrom not being repairable without even trying it inside game.) Don’t ask me how he did something so silly like that, he is confused as well.

I know many things about how he thinks and plays Fire Emblem series are considered outdated by now. You may be able to tell easily from how he thinks about some units. He is newer than me to Fire Emblem, so he plays a bit strangely and unrefined. This is ok because he is learning.

Four Kings was a good project to force him to not do some of his weird habits, going very slow or not even moving. At start he was mad at this but later he thought it was good. I’m happy he didn’t complain about the reinforcement enemies on his post.

Summary: Sorry if some of his complaints have made you feel weird. I am sure it’s nothing compared to his fun, thank you for adding to Fire Emblem community with a good project.

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Hey, no worries dude. Just glad he had fun!

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I have almost completed the entire game of Four Kings and it was fun to enjoy for me. When I first played this from the ROM hack in January this year, I just went into Hard mode and only made it halfway through the game until it seems to be difficult to beat at this state. Then 5 months later, Krash made an update in June and it made me want to replay the game in normal mode instead of Hard mode to see the new changes he made and I got to say, it’s a big improvement for me and anyone who played it before the update. It was a long road for me, and I realized that The Four Kings had me enjoyed the characters and the story.

Anyway, here is my final team before and after I beat the game.

Lionel

The Four Kings_01

Lionel as one of the two main lords seems to be more adapted with speed, skill, and luck. His strength growth does not seem to go up in the early game, but after a Metis Tome and an Energy ring, He’s started growing much better and become a deadly Crit Machine being a Swordmaster Promo. Overall, this unit went spectacularly amazing.

Zachary

The Four Kings_02

Zachary as a Jagen Rogue seems good to have with Restainer that can halves enemies’ HP and leave the killing blow for other units to gain EXP. His stats seem to have a Limiter behind its story and gameplay-wise which gives him awesome promotion gains and some stat boosters as well.

Walter

The Four Kings_03

Walter as a unit and a lord favors Strength, Skill, and Defense which builts him as a tanky powerhouse. His story and character development changed him from scaring away most of the 20 mercenaries without any of their help, then decided to make up to them by apologizing to them and make amends for his first impression at the beginning of the story and it really pays off at the late game which makes it so satisfying. Really like the interactions with Ava and their chemistry throughout the story.

Ava

The Four Kings_04

Ava as a unit and character really gives me a way for her on how I appreciate the Beautiful Bandit. Her stats are really impressive and amazes me in every way and enjoy it. Really good unit for a former bandit.

Terril

The Four Kings_05

Terril as a unit and character really changed a lot with All-around high stat growths which makes you use him at all cost and he will become a really powerful Lance King and it makes him super good in the late game.

Zoe

The Four Kings_06

Zoe is a very speedy Troubadour and her growth can be a little low to have. But her Hammerne helped me out with restoring some of the personal weapons that are so useful, it helped me in the long run. Let’s not forget that once she acquired the Holy Sword, she smites anyone by this Divine Blade! Also, I paired Zoe up with Vin and it feels nice to have in Chapter 26, trust me… it’s worth the investment.

Marcie

The Four Kings_07

Marcie the Mageslayer. No description is needed. She finds any magic user, she murders them in cold blood. Very big Resistance Tank right here.

Max

The Four Kings_08

Mad Max - Family Man and Fury Claymore. Having a mercenary class and the Claymore is really good to prevent any kind of counterattack from the enemy. Truly a good unit with Capped Strength. Paired him up with his wife, Alicia with an A Support.

Vin

The Four Kings_09

Vin is a Dodge Tank Legend. He may be part of the Navarre Archetype, but a dodgy one. His Strength growth starts off in a rough start, but with an Energy Ring and some blessed RNG, he got really good and loved his support with Zoe and the story and motivation of protecting someone that felt similar to him in the past. He’s only limited with 2 supports and his Main Gauche which makes him useful in getting the enemies’ attention and chip them as well. If you are a fan of Navarre Archetypes, then this unit is good to have.

Patty

The Four Kings_10

Patty the Tanky Pegasus Knight, never thought of seeing one in any Fire Emblem game or ROM hack. Her personal weapon is an Armorslayer and a barricade skill all in one. Really bulky one to have.

Dorian

The Four Kings_11

Bulky Bard Dorian. Built like a wall, but required a Hoplon Shield to prevent any crits from the enemy. Really useful. Used a Swiftsole on him to keep up with the others in the movement.

Shelby

The Four Kings_12

Shelby as a tanky Dark Mage is good to have. The Munio helped him to tank the heavy hitters and when he gets his promotion, you can spam Phantoms to draw enemy fire away or use them as bait. Really good to have on your team.

Ron

The Four Kings_13

Ron is the Mr. Satan of the Fire Emblem Universe and his Justice Pike is so good and satisfying to kill a defensive enemy. The Spear of Justice will always prevail!

Emily

The Four Kings_14

Emily may look like a Joke Unit and an Est at the same time. But when you put the effort into her, she will become a Lethal Joke and Actual Unit at the same time. Plus she promotes into a Master Knight and it’s so satisfying to have on your team. Used a Metis Tome on her and she gains stats like CRAZY! Gave her Con boosters to ease the weight from the weapons she uses. Emily made her Grandpa, Dean the Slayer proud in the afterlife.

Alicia

The Four Kings_15

Alicia, The Magical Wife of Max and Sage Mother of Elias and Sally. Thought about keeping Sally in the team, but she’s too powerful and she overshadowed a couple of the Mage Quartet and decided to use Alicia in the team with a good rank in Staffs. Paired her up with Max.

Nicole

The Four Kings_16

Nicole the Queen. Another healer to have and she’s more of a Staff-bot and she’s little of a combat-utility. Got nothing to say.

Lydia

The Four Kings_17

Lydia, The healer of the Mage Quartet. Her Sleep Staff is so useful in stopping Thieves and enemies with stealable stat boosters in Chapters 14 and 15. Paired her up with Chase to see their Paired ending.

Jack

The Four Kings_18

Right Hand Man of King Ladon. Don’t know what to say about him. Just add him on the team to see if I can get the Paired Ending with Nicole, heard it’s a funny one.

Overall, this ROM hack has good characters and how they stand out with their personal weapons and utility use. I give your creativity level on Personal weapons an A+. I’m looking forward to what’s in store for you.

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Glad you enjoyed it! Especially nice to see Ron getting used, given he was one of the two units buffed in the recent update. Also good to hear you played normal mode, since that is recommended for a first playthrough. Hard mode is better when you already have some understanding of the game. Think of it like FE6 normal and hard modes.

If you’re interested in more of my work, or just want to see more from Ibril, I made a short prequel hack about Daltry with some similar gameplay.

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Finally got around to doing this one. I’d say it was memorable, in both surprisingly impressive ways and incredibly painful ways.

All I can say is this – there was no moment in this hack more satisfying than the sheer unbridled catharsis of realizing that my Lydia had almost capped magic, and therefore she could cause the ROM the exact same pain that it caused me in the form of faraway siege staves.

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Well, at least it was memorable. Though I wonder if infamy is better or worse than indifference.

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I’m not fully sure where I stand yet in terms of this, but I can see merit in the argument that a memorable hack is better than a completely unremarkable one, regardless of whether that memorability is positive or negative.

Anyways, my stupid quips aside here’s some actual, slightly more structured commentary.

Gameplay

I usually don’t consider myself to be the best gauge of gameplay, since I primarily play hacks (and FE at all) for story reasons. However, the game’s main mechanic seemed to be unit individuality – not just because of the Prfs but also because almost everyone promoted into something unique. I found that emphasis to be interesting and fun in practice, so props to you for designing that. though I wish I realized Shelby became a necromancer earlier.

The split party system was interesting. It felt like every character (except poor Marvin) had a chance for the player to test them out and see what made them unique, and I think this meshed well with the aforementioned individuality that you tried to give all the units. It effectively gave me a good feel of each unit and their capabilities, which I thought was neat! The side effect of this was that by midgame it felt like I needed every single unit I had to just barely scrape out each victory. Maybe this is just me being bad at Fire Emblem, but I honestly have no idea how you’re supposed to get through the midgame if you’re doing an ironman run.

The usage of boltings and status staves on enemies with super huge magic in the midgame was interesting in concept. I read it as an attempt at encouraging the player to use the Silence staff more often, but in practice it felt more like an annoyance than anything. Zachary getting ORKOd by a Bolting for the 10th time comes to mind here as the worst example since as a player, I felt like I was getting game overs from sheer RNG, and I had no idea how to handle some of these circumstances without RNG burning or using Silence (which I couldn’t do as smoothly since my Silence users on Lionel route had piss poor magic). That said, I did appreciate you trying to make items like SIlence more valuable when they’re often so forgettable in the main franchise.

The prison chapter in the early game (Chapter 8 I think?) was probably the highlight of the hack for me. Super fun, loved the pacing and the concept of a break-in-and-rescue style mission.

I hate early-game pegasus knights that snowball into war machines so thank you so much for making Marcie so niche.

There weren’t as many small gameplay lore touches that I’ve come to expect though that’s partially because DLATMOL has spoiled me when it comes to having amazing story details in hacks but I did enjoy the ones that I saw. Things like Dominic having an axe rank to reflect his original class despite being in a ship, Gideon rescuing the corrupt nobles only to take their items as “reward”, Shaun and Gideon’s convo post-lords meeting up, Ian and Locritus having twin weapons, Hoff’s weapon and that one boss’s weapon having 3 range because they were built by the same guy, etc. I always appreciated things like these when I ran into them.

Story (spoilers)

As a general assessment on the story – I wasn’t super interested in the plot as it felt rather standard FE (man, I saw Feran’s death coming from a mile away), but the characters were engaging. Ron, Lydia, Dorian and Shelby were my personal favorites, but I also liked Gideon and Viper quite a bit and I wish I learned more about Hoff since he seemed chill.

I kind of wish we got a tiny bit more more context for all the bosses on that one ship map? I was told they were all prequel cameos, but as someone who hasn’t played the prequel yet they just left me kind of confused from a narrative standpoint. It wouldn’t need to be a lot, just a blurb or two explaining who they are I guess for an unfamiliar player.

here's a major complaint about the story

I think my biggest gripe with the story’s plot involves how the narrative handles Walter and Lionel, and their dynamic with Daltry. Specifically, the early game’s story frames Walter as the politically inept brother very clearly. He kills his own countrymen, he fires all Terril’s mercenaries, and he’s just kind of an ass for a lot of the early story. Then in the midgame, the story introduces Daltry as a response to the Askian royalty’s mismanagement of their country.

So why is Lionel the one who goes to fight Daltry? It feels like the game tries so hard to show that Walter is a shitty leader, and then it has Walter avoid the consequences of shitty leadership by fighting a different enemy so Lionel is left to do the dirty work. It makes me think back to the scene where Walter busts Lionel out of prison and the first thing he does is make Lionel cry, which even happens soon before the route split.

One potential alteration I would have preferred if the first few chapters made it clear that Lionel sucks at ruling too (aside from him moping about it). With Walter we get to see him make bad decisions but I don’t really remember any Lionel decisions that are outright harmful to his people in a way that the players see with our own eyes. Showing Lionel’s mismanagement would build on Daltry’s “wow you suck at ruling” convo with Lionel, forcing Lionel to come to terms with his pre-established poor political decisions (perhaps he even could be saying something like “at least I’m not as bad as Walter, look at how bad Walter is” in his mind to make himself feel better emotionally).

Alternatively I would’ve sent Walter to deal with Daltry and Lionel to deal with Viper and the other baron whose name I’m forgetting right now. But I’m not as certain about whether that would work or not.

I dunno man, it just feels like Lionel kind of got the short end of the stick and had to janitor up his brother’s mess. It does make it feel ironic that Lionel feels left out though, since he helped address the repercussions to Walter’s actions for him.

Finally… holy shit Dante is a fucking idiot. Like dude, why would killing Feran then and there have robbed him of his glory? Or alternatively, why not wait until WHILE Feran is duking it out with Walter and Lionel’s army and then kill Feran after both sides are weakened, Javarro style? also I wish he had a convo with Bradley since they’re great foils to each other

Units used

Leon-el T. Zenair

I liked seeing Walter temper himself down a bit and I enjoyed seeing Ladon take him down a peg. I know I just talked a bunch of shit about him, but his development was enjoyable enough.

I’m skipping Zach since his stats aren’t interesting, but Jagen Gotoh was hype asf.

Ava was fine.

funny coinflip man. He was a fine enough character.

I really wish I got to see more of his support with Hoff. Running out of things to say after talking about everything hits close to home and I wanted to see how it was explored further.

I liked that she got a mini-arc throughout the game, and especially her dialogue in the endgame.

I don’t usually use units solely for their gameplay value, but… BOW ARMORRRRRR

Thank you for making a Pegasus Knight who I actually found to be well-balanced.

He gets 3 prfs so the player can see his peerless swordplay in full view.

thank you female Clement for making this game better

Her A with Shelby was nice.

this is after promoting the funny TLP man at level 18 or 19.

Relatable character.

I think he had a support with Regis? I forgot, but I want to read it now. also I procced that 2% growth let’s gooooo

Ron, Ron, Ron. I love Ron to bits. I enjoyed him in the same way I adore Samto from FE3 – using him felt like I was taking this boastful yet pathetic everyman and building him into the legend he tells everyone that he is, so he can finally get the skills to back up all his talk. I just wish there was some payoff at the end from using him instead of the “haha Ron got kicked out of the army” end he got, but as is he’s still pretty great, still probably my favorite character in the hack writing-wise.

also here he is killing the final boss

You can’t tell me he got kicked out of the army after THIS, lol

something something hard tight spaces

This guy reminds me so much of Bat the nomad leader from DLATMOL and I appreciate that a lot. It’s so obvious he’s up to something beyond just loyalty to Lionel, and it’s always refreshing to see an ally who wasn’t totally loyal to the Lord. His ending was great too.

I think the moment I promoted him was when everything clicked and I realized most people had unique promotions.

You, Teodrosian knights…

Thanks for bearing with my disorganized thoughts. Overall, there were parts of this hack I really enjoyed and parts that didn’t mesh with my tastes at all. I’m not sure whether I’d say it was solely good or bad, but it was enjoyable and I had some fun with it. And I have to give you props for not only completing the hack but also making more prequel content, along with writing the entire script over one summer. There’s no way I’d be able to write that efficiently, so color me impressed.

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Interesting to see your full thoughts, being someone who values story and writing more than gameplay (at least, that’s what I’m gathering from this). My only real question is, what difficulty did you play on? Since you specifically mentioned enemy siege magic users with super high magic, and this actually gets affected by playing normal mode. The strength/magic split patch doesn’t like negative autolevels, so enemy magic stats tend to actually be higher on normal than on hard mode. Though I did add buyable pure waters in the prep screen shop in the last update, but I don’t know if you were playing on that or not (or just didn’t notice).

If you try the prequel or the post game maps, I hope you have fun! I’m also currently writing a sequel story about Lionel, so hopefully that’s something to look forward to as well.

Oh, and Ron does actually rejoin the Behanzin army and stays there, but only in his paired ending with Jack. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Congrats on your playthrough with The Four Kings. Glad you found it interesting and engaging. I finished my playthrough of The Four King a month ago and found the gameplay more unique with Units and their personal weapons. Based on the levels on your final team, I have a wild guess that you played it on easy mode. Normal mode may be your recommendation for your first playthrough, but easy mode may be your start on playing Four Kings.

Seems you have Zoe and Vin on your team. I got mine on my final team and got them both A-support and a paired ending along with little special event at Chapter 26.

You should check my final team as well. You might get a little kick out of it.

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You’re making a sequel story about Lionel? Since when?

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I’ve been writing the script on and off for a while now. It’s not something I’m hyper invested in right now, but I’m chipping away at it.

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Ok. Good luck, take your time.

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Yeah definitely, writing is important to me. I hope I didn’t come across as too harsh though. I forgot to say it in the previous post, but I was surprised and impressed to see supports between the main characters developing after passing certain story events, Tear Ring Saga-style.

I haven’t gotten around to trying the postgame maps yet, though I took a peek at them all (the one with Gideon as a boss looks like it’ll be fun). And at some point I’ll give the prequel a try as well – I want context behind all those cameos now, and I won’t say no to more Daltry screen time.

I’ll keep an eye out for the sequel as well lol.

I played on Normal! I guess that explains what was up with the siege users being as oppressive as they were. And I didn’t actually notice that there were pure waters in the prep shop haha, but I guess that’s partially on vanilla FE conditioning me to think that the prep shop is only stocked up with the basics.

Huh, that’s a lot more overlap between our teams than I expected. Good taste.

(also holy shit I can’t believe you actually used Emily.)

At least he gets the respect he deserves in one ending.

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Oh hey, surprise update! @knabepicer went and made Jeremy’s Rewarp staff no longer buggy by installing @Teraspark’s version of it. Check it out!

The patch link in the main post has been updated. Expect the same update to come out for Deposition shortly.

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This was a nice little birthday surprise lol now I can finally use rewarp. Never bothered with it my first play through so this should be fun lol

Looks like the Rewarp Staff has been nerfed.

Haha, sadly no more accidentally teleporting into a wall halfway across the map. Truly Jeremy is now F tier.

And as is the case with any patch update of anything, there was a small bug to fix, so the patch link was updated again. Same thing for Deposition.