Yeah it’s a feature called ‘flashy crits.’ Boss-killing hits do the critical animation even with normal damage 
Enjoy the hack!
2 Likes
Finished game, some (lengthy) initial thoughts:
(SPOILERS)
…send help, he one-rounds all my units.
I burned through all my siege tomes like an idiot, so chipping away at this guy became a 1-turn nightmare (31 AS with 200+ hit and 59 Atk is CRAZY). I barely cleared this with a lucky crit and warp shenanigans at the final turn (though I think you should probably remove/extend the turn limit after killing him in the first phase? I could see someone being understandably very tilted if they killed the boss only to lose to time on an unprecedented revival).
Speaking of crits, I said this in an earlier post but flashy crits are so cool (funnily enough this made the real crits even more surprising, where sometimes I’m like “damn that animation feels satisfying” to “OH F**K THIS MANS ACTUALLY HIT AN UNNECESSARY 1% 
”).
…I didn’t know whether I want to laugh or cry when I was playing Ch. 9 and 18 respectively. You know what you did. 
Effective weapons aren’t always communicated the most effectively in the weapon description? A few that come to mind are Eleanora’s Prf, Edric’s Prf, and Morgana’s Prf (which are oddly enough all rapier types) and the Holy Weapons. Some of them are obvious in hindsight (like duh of course the lord starts with a rapier) or with context (“Holy” weapons you get only in endgame chests where most remaining enemies are monster types), but making them a bit more obvious towards their use case wouldn’t be a bad thing. That being said, it does make for a nice “aha” moment when you find out (Chapter 2 was a doozy until Edric absolutely cleaved 3 cavs with his Broadsword, my reaction being “ohhhhh” followed by “damn, I could have dealt with the entrance Knights a lot quicker with this”). Galen’s Prf chivalry is also a bit misleading, as “effective vs lance units” does not apply to monsters like the Gargoyles or Wights despite them having a weapon rank in lances, which is probably intended but not an assumption I would initially make off the weapon description.
coughs awkwardly
Granted, these 3 are the exception, and they don’t do it reliably (especially for Hilda, 2 unlucky hits and she’s super dead). Harlan’s PRF is super good though if you don’t have to deal with siege tomes. Tancread gets an honorable mention with Noseferatu shenanigans, but hit rates are low enough in this game where relying on enemy phase life-steal/dodge strats carries a lot of risk.
Speaking of enemy phase, is enemy AI altered? I wasn’t entirely certain but it feels like there’s a focus on primarily attacking in a way that avoids counterattack, rather than securing a kill. This did make for some interesting strategies that involved baiting enemies into attacking my staffers and archers as dodge tanks/HP sponges away from weaker units. Also, thieves are mad aggressive, I think they function like modern brigands where you can bait them away from stealing by getting into attack range.
Reinforcements are very brutal for a game where you’re not expected to one-round enemies most of the time. Some notorious examples that come to mind are the elite paladins in Sophia’s rescue and the 6 final Paladins in the wedding crash chapter. For the most part though, they kept the chapters engaging to where I always felt I should have a rescue-strategy contingency on hand or enough frontliners to take the brunt of an ambush, creating this nice balance between maximizing my player phase while carefully planning around receiving an enemy phase.
I would say in total the game is decently generous with promotion items (only 3 unpromoted units by endgame), even if they seem to come at a crawling pace 
. Trying to maximize all romantic A-supports was kind of tough in certain portions of the game though (I had to deploy max-unpromoted units on more than one occasion in the later chapters), I would recommend at least giving an option to purchase Master Seals in the late-game, even if it’s at a relatively expensive price (5000g for one?), maybe in the Secret Shop? Otherwise, you will get players like me deploying level 20 Alexias as a Bolting mage bot just to get that Hilda A support 
.
Finally, weird bug (maybe) that occurs when I deploy Tancread and Sheila for their support chain, I happened to get their C-support in the gaiden chapter before the magic tower. However, after Tancread rejoins in the following chapter the support is lost? It was weird seeing the C support conversation pop up again in Chapter 15, but the B support also happened in the following chapter, so I don’t think there’s an error with the values but with the eventing? Might be a known bug, but just something I noticed.
Great game, might come back to do a formal review later. Excited for what comes next, and ready for a bad time. 
2 Likes
Just finished it today, here’s my thoughts:
- Talk to get preference weapons is really nice.
- No duplicate classes! Fun to have a kind of diverse team.
- Normally I don’t care much about story or characters, but turned out they are great in this hack. Though some support convo may look odd, like Freya/Sophia’s one if trigger in later chapters. Also the convo make Edric having close/sexual relationship with everyone at the same time seems funny.
- I played on normal difficulty, because I don’t want too much challenge, here are my thoughts on certain chapters.
Thoughts on certain chapters
- Ch 9: I wonder if people will be softlocked if they don’t use certain units. Meanwhile, find it kind of immersion-breaking that certain units have weapons and can access supply given the event.
- Ch 10: So difficult with enemies from all directions, let alone many treasure chests with two requiring warping. Coupled with lost weapons and whatnot in previous chapter, it is the hardest chapter in the entire game. I regret not getting Elysian Whip in this chapter, because the next one would only be available six chapters later and due to another unknown event usable three more chapters later.
- Ch 13: Difficult to train Alexias and get Orion’s Bolt. After failing twice due to Alexias dying, I just postpone his training and forwent the Orion’s Bolt
- Ch 16: Finally got Elysian Whip, only for the holder (unlock using chest keys) to leave until back at Ch 18 (which isn’t usable there)
- Ch 18: Fun escape map, lucky I trained forced deployed units, otherwise might be softlocked
- Ch 24: Tancred and Ruslan (high HP) helped for tackling Velaina, Shorn giving her final blow.
- I really dislike reinforcements out of nowhere, especially spawn among my units. Just felt a little cheap.
- Nevertheless, at least on normal difficulty, I found the difficulty actually decreased a bit, possibly given a more variety of unit choice. As such, ambush reinforcements were somewhat manageable, though still annoying.
Final Team
The man himself. Strong enough to get some kills. Useful to boost hit for others.
Almost essential for the last chapter (that’s why she’s a force deploy). I only promote her during the last chapter, that’s why she’s unpromote here (taking in preparation screen).
Very nice archer, with her prf she’s very useful in taking down units/doing chip damage safely.
Almost a wall, one of the best unit in my run.
Accidentally hitting A support with Miley, so whatever. Not a bad unit actually, and one of the essential mages in mid game.
A beast after training. Three range magic is really OP.
The Wall. She’s so blessed in my run, funny I was using Rikvah but her Def was so bad (only 9 after promoting at level 20 and getting to level 5 or something) so I trained her instead, and she turned into a beast. Top 3 units in my run.
Dancer, nothing to add.
Given high crit rate, he’s doing quite well. Also his Def and Res were okay in early chapter, and was useful to be put in choke point.
Mainly staff bot, but useful in final maps for effective damages against monsters, especially those dragons.
I didn’t want to use this traitor, and I really can’t understand his reasoning. Still, his another great wall and with dark magic he could kill and sustain himself.
Didn’t use him much actually. His prf is cool, though.
I didn’t want to use this traitor x2, but how could I not use her with her many prfs and fast growth? She just killed.
A flyer. Not the greatest unit but kind of essential in mid-game.
I didn’t plan to bring her, but another staff user was nice.
His skill was difficult to set up, so I didn’t use him much in late game. But there’s no other usable axe user other than Hadima so I just brought him.
Also seems like a visual bug on chapter 24, playing on Pizzaboy GBA Pro on Android, didn’t have other (noticeable visual) bug.
2 Likes
Really? I have to see it for myself then 
Since supports can get into romantic territory in this game during the B support, and rarely during even the C support, plus the fact that Edric has 5 potential romantic partners… yeah, he can get at least a little involved with a few people. But it’s not a full on harem - a bit of flirting, a one-night stand, but he can only A support with one person so he ends up monogamous 
The man has the charisma skill - he’s canonically a flirt!
7 Likes
Curse you limited 5 support for preventing the first ever Protagonist with a Harem in Fire Emblem
3 Likes
good morning. i am having trouble getting the game. can someone help me.
If you’re talking about the download link, I think it still should be working? Otherwise, if this your first FE hack, you gotta use NUPs to patch the ups file you got onto a unmodified rom of FE: Sacred Stones.
where can I check the list of all promotion items and how to get them? I want to plan ahead who I’ll promote based on the quantity of each item…
From memory…
- Chapter 7 Hero Crest - kill the boss, unmissable
- Chapter 9 Orion’s Bolt - in the center-south chest
- Chapter 9 Knight’s Crest - kill the paladin guarding the door out, unmissable
- Chapter 10 Elysian Whip - take the warp staff you will find in the north west chest, and use it to get your thief to the north east chest, that’s where the Whip is.
- Chapter 10 Guiding Ring - Tancred is carrying one when he joins your party. Unmissable
- Chapter 11 Hero Crest - southwest village. Brigands will destroy it eventually, so don’t waste time
- Chapter 12 Knight Crest - in one of the chests, they’re all very easy to get before the chapter is finished
- Chapter 12x Regal Armlet - for promoting the main character, Edric. Unmissable
- Chapter 12x Guiding Ring - Talk to Madelina with Julia
- Chapter 12x Dark Contract - Visit the northwest village
- Chapter 13 Guiding Ring - steal it from the enemy sage in the southeast corner
- Chapter 13 Orion’s Bolt - kill the sniper that eventuallly spawns from the northeast stairs. Hit him with 2 - 3 fliers at once to get him down in one turn
- Chapter 14 Knight Crest - speak to Hadrian with Galen
- Chapter 15 Knight Crest - defeat the boss, unmissable
- Chapter 16 Elysian Whip - in the chest nearest to the prisoner, Sophia. Make sure to bring a chest key on Catrine or Freya
- Chapter 16 Hero Crest - kill the enemy hero in the throne room. Bait him out with a high DEF character.
- Chapter 17 Master Seal - visit the northeast village
- Chapter 17 Master Seal #2 - visit the southwest village
- Chapter 18 Dark Contract - found in the middle-center chest, in the room with the enemy swordmaster
- Chapter 19 Master Seal - stealable from an enemy general in the northwest corner
- Chapter 20 Master Seal - found in the most northeast chest
- Chapter 22x Holy Seal - for promoting the troubadour, Julia (she can’t use a guiding ring). Unmissable.
I believe that’s all of them, with the exception of the two Trainee Seals (called Phoenix Rings, in the game). You get the first on turn 2 of Chapter 3, when your first trainee (Hilda) is probably ready to promote. You get the second when your second trainee (Alexias) joins in Chapter 14.
Hope that helps!
4 Likes
thanks
I just finished the romhack, and what a great experience, the story kept me hooked from start to finish, with several interesting and unique characters in story and combat. The author of the project is to be congratulated, he did a phenomenal job. From what I understood at the end, is there a possibility of us having a sequel? Will we have The Dark Amulet 2?
Obs.: Edric is a soulslike pro, dual wielding ultra greatswords = Peak main character
3 Likes
Started this romhack a few days ago and so far really impressed! Amazing job.
I did run into a bug, maybe? After finishing Chapter 9 (finally! it was quite challenging for me), when I get the option to save, it doesn’t seem to work correctly. The save screen shows me that there is no save data, and when I try to save nothing happens. Same thing for when I save on the preparation menu for upcoming Chapter 10. If I restart the game to the main menu, it does have my Chapter 9 data, but I can’t save Chapter 10 over it for some reason, if that makes sense. I do have save states enabled, but only using those makes me kind of nervous. Would appreciate any help, thanks!
Got to matchmake for Wyverns, 10/10 except getting that prevented me from getting the Rad as Hell Steppe Nomad Insurgency ending 0/10.
Okay jokes aside and the giddy sound I made for the aforementioned Wyvern matchmaking, personally really enjoyed this hack’s dedication to “every unit is legit unique!” While I feel some kinda blended together in terms of role (hrm will I use this axe infrantry or that one?) some gameplay redundancy is hardly unwarranted (not to mention much worse in most mainstream games lol) and the ones that felt unique and had cool PRFs really shines. Shorne my love. I feel for edgey sword boi his verbal tick happened to lessen as he got better at swording lmao.
Looking forward to a sequel!
Some quibbles/feedback
–I played 1.6 and saw apparently reinforcements were heavier earlier. Whew lad, I felt some of the early chapters the reinforcements were on the verge of encouraging turtling instead of moving forward so mein gott what were they like before. I’m hardly gonna naysay anti-turtle incentives (I think people complaining about XCOM 2 timers need to gitgud if that helps inform my opinion), but relative enemy to unit strength generally meant you really could not engage two fronts at once so early reinforcements encouraged hanging back vs pushing forward.
–Honestly if you continue playing around with unit availability I think some warning or heads up would be useful. It’s fun and nice to have excuses to vary the party but man I feel sorry for anyone who didn’t train certain units for Chapter 18 or used promo items on those unavailable in after 8. Auto inventory dump (and some “pre assigned” items) or hell even Banner Saga style “refund” for leavers might be nice
–Re the writing. I will say liked the story and loved the reveal (reverse reveal?) at the end, but for the female characters in general my faves were definitely Freya, Rivkah and Hadima because they felt like they had the most internal life going on. Freya has being abandoned and wanting to redeem her family name, Rivkah seeing the decimation of her people and fleeing her past, and of course Hadima trying to find redemption and meaning. As a massive shipper I hardly hate romance, but I felt the strongest moments for Rivkah especially were any support but Dwalt’s. Yes messy misunderstanding with Gareth time! Though for Romance Freya and Edric was COMPLETELY my jam, smashed the two together like Marth and Caeda come again.
2 Likes
dude I just saw this portrait blink how did you add that to the Hack @Vorgus ?
I love this Hector with Sword animation thank you for including it in the hack. 
2 Likes
Bug Report concerning Edric’s Aether skill activation:
When Ever Edric’s Aether skill activate and his battle animation start the screen turn white and only after a certain amount of time does it return to normal and I can see Edric perform his sword swing.
Also I love Nadya’s Sprite and battle Animation 
Hey Diealot - that’s a very odd event. Edric doesn’t get Aether until he promotes - I’m not sure how or why you have an unpromoted Edric with that skill.
Totaly agree that Nadya looks great! Found that animation on the repo and had to use it!
2 Likes
I have to come clean I cheat to boost exp gain for my units and breaking their level cap in the process. So I guess that is why Edric got the Aether Skill even though he is not promoted yet. In this image Edric pass level 30 so it reset him to level 0
For example I get Harlan to level 21 and he learn the skill assassinate which I think he would have gotten if I promoted him
Same with Miley
Why did no one tell me that Dwalt get a secret weapon by talking to the boss of chapter 7?
Zedard’s Battle Sprite is so cool. 
I just finished this hack, and I really enjoyed it. It was a good story well told, and the challenge seems to have been pretty appropriate because I beat it on hard and I’m not an especially good player. I was able to get a lot of the secondary objectives, though not all.
I did notice there were some typographical issues, especially in the early game. For a moment I was afraid that might become a problem for me (I’d just put down Code of the Black Knights because I wasn’t comfortable with its writing) but fortunately it was minor stuff like a repeated “and” or a missing “a”. That’s no big deal.
I liked the characters. They all had strong personalities both in conversations and in therms of gameplay. Some I enjoyed using a lot, like Shorn, Alexias, Harlan and Hilda. Others I couldn’t get to work too well, like Dwalt and Rivkah. I can see how their skills encourage a certain play style, and I tried to lean into it, but they just never seemed effective because that play style comes with unacceptable risk much of the time. As such, I had to drop them from the roster in the final map.
Bonus points for writing the support conversations that happen before the start of the game.
The epilogue leaves open the possibility of a sequel. If that ever happens, I’ll be there for it. If it’s anywhere near as good as this hack, it’ll be a must play.
P.S. The Harlan-Julia paired ending is canon, I decided.
4 Likes
Thanks so much for your comment, BTAxis - glad to hear you liked the game. I have two pieces of good news for you:
- There is a sequel currently in development. It should come out this summer. It is called The Shadow of Dawn and takes place 10 years after the ending of The Dark Amulet
- Julia and Harlan A Support is a canon paired ending - they’re together in the sequel.
10 Likes