HELL YEAH! That’s what I wanted to hear!!!
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I’m 300% not okay with that.
EdricxElyse being canon is good. Elyse dying in her early 20s is not. No, being a literal phoenix or something doesn’t change that. Dead is dead, reincarnation isn’t a continuation of consciousness, she’s not her mom.
It’s more complicated than that, but I can’t spoil all that’s to come in the sequel. I appreciate the point and it will be addressed 
Been playing this hack up to chapter 9 and I just gotta ask
WHY IS EVERYONE AN ESSENTIAL CHARACTER lmao
there’s like 1 guy who isn’t essential and that dude is the axe fighter guy who btw I think is the only way to recruit axe cav girl? so i’m in chapter 9 and have no axe unit, i don’t know why but I’ve recruited the axe merc that wakes up in that one defend chapter but he doesn’t join?
the early game’s a bit unbalanced when it comes to weapon types i feel, axes are very easily missed, with again the only axe user being the fighter and him being the key to recruiting the axe cav. Is there any reason for this?
on a better note, the rest of the combat is pretty balanced, I’ve heard a lot about this hack as one of the best hacks people should play.
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A lot of characters are essential characters because I wanted a lot of characters to be involved in the plot in ways that demanded they be alive. So, for the sake of the story, essential character numbers were increased. It’s a somewhat crude, imperfect method, but I never designed the game for ironman in mind, anyway.
Yes, axes can be rare in the early game. Shame you’re missing both Dwalt and Rivkah - they’re pretty good units, but you can definitely beat the game without them.
Rowan will rejoin your party later in the game. And he kicks ass once he gets a few levels and promotes.
Good luck!
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I mean I get there’s the fenix blade squad but why not just do the whole retreat on death thang? I mean sure it can break emersion but a text saying " essential character don’t screw up and let em die" is also emersion breaking so it’s basically the same cost wise. And while not all hacks has to be design for ironman, i think so far early game wise it’s pretty much plausible IF there wasn’t a game over con for so many of the units, like sure fenix’s daughter maybe lord worthy death wise, the lord ofc, maybe hasan but the archer?, the random guy who popped up during chapter 8? I’m thinking like yo why does this random dude that shows up suddenly an essential character lmao
Agreed, it’s too many. I saw it as the best of bad options. Some units being able to retreat while others die just feels… I don’t know, like a bit of a cheat, to me. So, these characters need to live or the chapter restarts. It’s not ideal, of course. More units become non-essential as the game goes on, at least.
I might argue that if that many characters need to survive then having and designing around an intentional casual mode might have been considered?
Though I quite liked how characters get involved in the story more meaningfully in this game, I’d understand someone thinking that the “essential character” popup comes off as a little clunky sometimes. Someone I recommended the hack to very quickly picked up on a certain unit in Ch8 being a temporary unit who leaves, given that Donnal was labeled as an essential character and he wasn’t, which my friend thought was suspicious considering their respective story importance at that point in the hack.
This isn’t really a suggestion to change the hack per se, more just me musing about ideas on paper, but I wonder if a skill that marks units as “essential” without any other gameplay functions would be an alternative worth considering for future projects if the essential unit message is something that is significantly obtrusive to people. A skill wouldn’t be too hard to remove after the unit stops being essential either.
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I just don’t get why essentials are needed, gameplay wise i mean, early Por does a lot of retreat death quotes because the characters are still integral and important to the story but having most of the cast unkillable messes with difficulty, it prevents iron manning for one, it also ups the difficulty of maps because you have to keep most of your army alive.
Idunno I just think it handicaps a way to play the hack, part of the ironman experience is seeing if you can clear chapters with very few units, “non ironman friendly” hacks usually imply they have hard maps and not that many recruits but ofc it also means you can still try to ironman it
This system basically means there’s little chance to ironman, if an essential character dies the map ends, it’s akin to having the army being made up of 90% lords.
The difficulty in hard mode is not THAT brutal that your characters can die immediately but still. Also side note, enemy spawn in middle forts in chap 8.
early Por does a lot of retreat death quotes because the characters are still integral and important to the story
Path of Radiance doesn’t do this though. Titania and Soren retreat, but it has a long set of conditionals for Boyd/Oscar/Rhys/Gatrie/Shinon being alive or dead for those cutscenes.
That’s basically what I wanted to avoid - long sets of conditionals are exhausting. Especially for a character that can die early in the game but still have lots to say throughout the rest of the story. Even then, I couldn’t avoid it entirely. There are conversations with Hilda, as well as with Dwalt, Griss, Alexias, a few others, that only take place if they’re still alive.
I’ll say it again (and again and again 
) - having many essential characters is an imperfect solution, but it serves its purpose. It just demands you keep your team alive - and I like keeping my team alive anyway, and usually restart a chapter if someone dies, game over or no game over. The game not being ironman-friendly is just the cost of the decision.
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Yea I understand, ultimately I’m a new guy playing this already completed project, it’s not my hack and it’s your story. I realize, the two post feels like I’m only criticizing the hack but so far the experience has been good, to be fair many people here have said DA was one of the hacks that have a great story so I’m lookin forward to that. The combat is balanced and either player or enemy units don’t feel dominant, although personally i feel like the fliers are pretty weak combat wise, mage flier girl has a pass because she can double a bit but freya’s personal’s a bit underwhelming, any chance you’d buff hers? maybe it hits res or such
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Amazing Rom hack man.
Really loved the story and the characters.
had fun the entire way through!
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Harumph. I’m not holding my breath.
Are there any other canon paired endings in this sequel?
Careful with what you promise, Vorgus. Edric and Elise’s ending is perfect as it is, even if some people don’t like Elise dying like that, including myself. But sometimes, in order to write something good you have to risk some people disliking some of your decisions. Edric knows this, so you should too. Although it WOULD be nice if Edric and Elise’s child was somehow able to end the reincarnation cycle and live her life as a human. That would actually be a good way to redeem yourself, making their daughter find the long live her mother couldn’t enjoy. Just saying.
Yoo can you add a spoiler tags to the part shout Elyse. I did not know that🙃
This guy gets it.
I do hope you realize I’m not saying to change things on account of me not liking them or some such nonsense. I don’t need nor want placating; if someone’s upset by something you wrote that’s intended to be upsetting, then you’re doing it right and should keep doing so.
But I’m still gonna complain about it.
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