So Cassandra has a mid-battle convoy and Radahn has SMASH AND GRAB, got ya.
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Made a quick hotfix. A very small number of changes, but the first change is so important it warranted a fix on its own. I recommend everyone use v.1.1 going forward.
v1.1
- A support conversation in Chapter 14x between Terra and Graff was not supposed to accessible so early in the game, as it has major plot spoilers that shouldn’t be seen until Chapter 23. I have hardcoded it to make this support impossible to see until later.
- The Deadhand Gang no longer shouts at breakable walls in the Prologue
- Fixed some spelling and grammar errors
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Oh wow, congratulations!
Looking forward to finishing this one!.. wait, now that I think about it…
Did I ever finish the first game…?
I think I gotta refresh my memory, because it’s been long enough that I think I’m mixing it up with something else…
Update:
I did not finish the first game. I finished it today.
Now I can start on this…!
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Super excited to play this, loved your work on TDA! Hoping my favorite pairing of Julia + Harlan makes an appearance here
Something else about supports: Isabelle and Amirah can have their A support in chapter 22… A support that starts with Amirah saying that Isabelle “ran away”. If she is speaking about her dissapearance after chapter 22x, then this support should also be hardcoded to a later chapter.
Edit: also, dragonshields not only rise your defense, but your Hp as well. Don’t know if this is intended.
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What glorious timing, I was on an FE hack void (just replaying Sacred Stones variations) and I suddenly see this drop. Can’t wait to play this! Your creations are always going to be on my wishlist of FE hacks to play. Gonna devote the whole week playing this!!!
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Congrats on the release!
I’m currently obsessed with (Turtle) WoW, but since I loved The Dark Amulet so much, I’ll make time to play the sequel for sure!
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You know, @Vorgus , I still have some hope that you won’t be a total ass and force the player to kill Gawain and Desserine. I’m in chapter 26 now, and I have actual hopes that these 2 can be redeemed somehow… Maybe even used in the final game of this trilogy you say you inted to create. Here is hoping my hope is not misplaced 
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let’s goooo, love to hack so fun and extremely dramatic plot
Welp, I finished the game, @Vorgus, and I’ve got some stuff to say:
(Spoilers ahead, read at your own risk. Also, this are my thoughts, not some throughout review on the game.)
Story
First, we have to point out that you WILL NOT understand this game without playing The Dark Amulet. This is not a complaint, it’s just true. This game is specifically designed to be played while knowing the events of TDA. If I had to make a comparison, it would be with Golden Sun. I remember playing Golden Sun The Lost Age before Golden Sun, and I didn’t understand half of the stuff I was being told until I played the first game. Again, this is not a complaint, I just want to make sure that every new player should finish TDA before playing this.
With that out of the way: OH MY GOD WHAT DID I JUST PLAY!!! I knew you were good at writing but my man, you actually nailed it with this one. Everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING, is delicately woven, everything connected. I already had a feeling that Madelina was the Queen of the Dawn (I said so in TDA thread, if I remember correctly), but I did not expect things to go this way. And the plot twists… Oh my god, the plot twists, all of them. From Isabelle’s treason, to Desserine’s redemption and fall… I actually felt like I was right there. Truly an immersive experience.
Economy
Terryfing, truly. In the end, you can somehow manage to always have weapons, but you have to be VERY careful not to waste anything. Every bit counts, and exploiting even the weakest of swords to the last can help you save money to buy the best equipment lategame. Also, there is an option to merge used weapons in the convoy so you don’t waste anything. Also, a single more master seal would do nicely for Radahn’s path (I couldn’t promote one of my units in Radahn’s group until chapter 23, and I am sure I didn’t miss a single stealable or village).
Characters
But the best part was the characters, by a long shot. They feel alive, they make me feel for them, both love or hate depending on the character. In fact, sometimes you both love and hate them at the same time (looking at you, Sevran). The interpersonal relarionships between the characters, their different views in life… They feel real. I feel empathy for most of them. You’ve got a gift for this.
Last but not least, The Chosen
I shall not include Radahn, as he dies before the ending, but he was broken. Having extended bow range and multiple unique bows that grant galeforce made him a very versatile man, always able to move to wherever he was needed with ease.
The Warrior King himself. I missed him, to be honest. I did NOT expect him to suddenly become the main character, however. As always, he is ridiculous. He no longer has rightful king (which is very fitting, by the way
), so he is not as overpowered as he used to be. Give him a pair of boots and you can end the final two chapters in 10 minutes or so.
As for Cassandra, well… She was not bad, I guess. In the beggining and until she promotes, she won’t be easy to use. Low and strenght and not durable for most of the game. In FE7 terms, she would be an Eliwood. Not as fragile as Lyn, not as perfect as Hector. I did like her character writing, from maiden in love, to vengeful wrath, to responsible queen.
I could not leave her behind. As Edric’s only support, she makes him nigh invincible and, in turn, he makes her incredible. Her improved 2 ranged frost spear make her a perfect angel killer.
Literally nothing to say. She is nerfed, as she does no longer have the hawkeye skill, but it isn’t like she needs it. Great as always. I wish her child could have survived… Hell, I wish she had survived. But it is what it is. The kiss of death got her too, in the end.
Can’t say the same about her husband. The nerf actually hits with this one. He was only useful to support Miley most of the time, or to kill mounted units. His end was perfect, by the way, being the only person in existence (as far as we know) to actually land a hit on the Tyrant of Light AFTER beating every single angel that came his way. A knight to the end, his bravery shall be remembered.
An actual monster. His skill thunderstorm skill make him a serial critical hit lander, specially after his promotion. His personality, after his aunt’s death, was moving. Being able to forgive the woman who killed her like that, and even fall for her. I don’t know, man, it hit me. Hard.
And speaking of the devil, here she is. Her pref weapon and latest skill made her able to destroy most enemies before she could be harmed.
Simply amazing. His lack of supporting characters in the final chapter made him a little bit worse, but not enough to fall behind. Another of those characters with a great arc. He really smashed and grabbed through his enemies.
Genuinely insane, I don’t know what you were thinking. He is weak to magic, sure, but he can pulverize them in a single hit. We are lucky we can’t use him most of the time, because he is a monster. Pablo de Tarso was not beyond redemption, ruthless as he was, and looks like he wasn’t either.
Maya was not particularly good or bad, really. She was most useful, sure, as an ambulance, but that’s about it… Just kidding, she had the best staff in the game, I wouldn’t have survived without her.
What an absolute beast. Before promotion, he was more or less useful depending on the chapter. After promoting and getting that stat booster skill, things change. One of the most dominant characters in the game.
Same goes for her. She is a little hard to keep alive when she appears but, with a little nurture, she becomes this. Her double lion skill makes her strong and paired with Ricard, invincible.
Finally, a swordsmaster. Not just that, but a magekiller as well. Pairing her with Sevran makes her untouchable and if you give her a pair of lucky boots, someone who can keep up with him. Good thing at least one of them has brains.
Again, incredible writing. Her powerstaff skill made her automatically the best healer in the game. Even if you don’t have supporting characters for her, she will always be needed.
Absolutely goated. Statwise, he hasn’t changed much from the previous game. His personality, now that’s something. Seeing him change from what he was to a what he ends up being was a delight. Finally, the boy turns into a man.
LOOK AT HER! Simply divine, isn’t she? She isn’t too different to TDA, not even her personality has changed. I mean, she is wiser and more mature, but that’s about it. Still made it to the very last chapter, as you can see. Impressive as always, Hilda. Long live the queen!
A more than worthy archer. Not as useful as Radahn, of course, but still great. He landed an impresive amount of critical hits for no apparent reason, and I loved him for it. Also, thank god he was there. If it hadn’t been for him, Cassandra would be dead.
Honorable mentions
Her romance with Radahn felt a bit rushed, specially considering that Radahn’s entire character arc is about mourning his daughter. I mean, he was fast to move to move on from his wife, apparently. Not bad, mind you, just not what I expected. She was a solid unit, but that’s about it.
My poor guy can’t have a rest, can he? He has lost his ability to use dark magic, but can now use every staff and invoke monsters to use as decoys. Not good, not bad, but always useful. Here is hoping he can bring back Sheila from the limbo she is in.
MYBABYBOYOHMYGODICANT! Hullo, I am the nicest, sweetest, most well intentioned to have ever existed in fiction. He wasn’t even that good in battle, not even as a tank, but he is the best.
Final thoughts
Honestly, I can’t find many flaws in the game. Many flaws that compromise the game’s quality, I mean, flaws that would make me feel like this game isn’t the 10/10 I believe it to be. Hopefully someone else can make a harsher review so you can learn from the errors I may not have seen in this masterpiece. Also, what of Gawain? I hope he makes a comeback in the final game.
To be honest, your third game can’t come fast enough. I just finished this and I’m eager for more. I’ve seen developers letting their projects fall into oblivion before. Some never finish their first games, some never finish the sequels they were doing, and some moved on to try their fortune elsewhere. Honestly, I hope you are able to deliver the third game you wanted to make and give some closure to this incredible journey… After some rest, of course, you deserve that.
Congratulations, Vorgus. For real, thank you.
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Thanks, @LewynCollins - this will be fixed in v1.2. The trouble with making ‘plot relevant supports’ that connect to events in the game is that their timing can be quite delicate. I’ve now hardcoded it so Amirah and Isabelle cannot A support until at least Isabelle’s return, later in the game (Chapter 25 minimum, if they’ve always been deployed together and hit C and B support as quickly as possible).
And as for your later comment about the game, the story, and its characters… it’s hard to put into words how much I appreciate you (and others) immersing yourself in the narrative, and experiencing the story and what it has to offer. It’s why I do this. So glad you enjoyed it! And I’m already sketching out the third and final game! 
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Has anyone made custom box art for things like the retroid pocket? It scraped one for dark amulet automatically surprisingly.
Always a pleasure to play your games. And about the support thing: yeah, I know it’s hard. I still remember all the problems Elyse, Sophia and Otello gave you back in TDA . Those were the days…
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Another day, another update. Enough important issues have been identified since I released v1.1 to warrant another update.
v1.2
- In the Prologue, your units now get their turns back once the boss dies. This should make it easier to escape in the post-boss-death event.
- Fixed Dracoshields giving HP in addition to DEF. Now they just give DEF
- Fixed a bug in Chapter 23 where all enemies being removed from the map could end the map early, before the final boss appears. This should be mostly impossible to pull off, now.
- Fixed a door in Chapter 18 that was not labelled as a door, and thus could not be opened. Now it can be opened.
- Added a droppable door key near the end door in Chapter 3, so it’s a bit easier to escape from Gawain even if Radahn is busy.
- Made it impossible hit A-support for Amirah and Isabelle prior to Chapter 23, to avoid some spoilers revealed in that A-support conversation that should not be seen before the end of Chapter 22x
- Fixed spelling and grammar errors
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Congratulations for complete this hack.
Love ur storyline as usual. Just finished today. Cant wait the next sequel.
For this hack since some unit use proc skill please update the animations, its kinda strange with old proc animations.
And gladiator range crit crush the room for me, dunno if it just me since i edit some character with febuilder.
Again its room is totally worth playing. Congratulations
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Congrats on the release! I’m gonna play this right away, after being away for my birthday week
Very great game done played it and beat the entire game
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Having fun with the game (probably should have replayed The Dark Amulet since I realize I don’t remember all that much) and just wanted to point out a minor thing in ch 13!
The civilians in the cutscene have different portraits from each other (one black haired, one brown) but the 3 green npcs on map start all have the same, black haired, portrait. Obviously not a big deal but might be nice for immersion to have them be the same as the ones in the cutscene!
is one of these songs inspired by Kingdom Hearts? I couldn’t place it for the longest time, but I love it
Through the first 10 chapters so far, writing is great per usual, and even though it’s been a while, I remember more from TDA than I thought I would
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What an absolute triumph you have here, Vorgus. The Dark Amulet was a good hack, a solid hack, which is more than most of us can lay claim to. But I couldn’t place it in the same bracket as the best ROM hacks; Vision Quest, Hag in White, Shackled Power, Dream of Five, etc.
Shadow of Dawn earns its spot in that bracket. It builds on everything that you started with in TDA and improves it. It’s honestly almost perfect sequel which is a rare and beautiful thing to find even among much bigger budget titles. Your character writing has always been spot on and yet within the gap between TDA and SoD you’ve managed to perfect perfection. I laughed, I cried (Walter and Graff’s support convos punched me in the gut), I cheered when Edric and the gang were on screen.
The cast was great, I liked both Radahn and Cassandra as protagonists and I was invested in both of their stories. Dual protagonists can be a tricky thing, but you did an awesome job juggling the overarching plot between them. TDA did a great job world-building but SoD was a massive improvement and you did a great job threading in bits and pieces of it through the dialogue from NPCs and support convos. Walter was my favorite character from both gameplay design and writing standpoint,
The ending was so good and has me absolutely craving the final installment. Your final villain absolutely earned their place in the pantheon of great FE romhack villains.
My only nitpick was that the portraits were a mixed bag at times. Ezra is just recolored Legault, Gawain is Seth with Valter’s hair. I think Terra is a Titania FEGBA portrait but with brown hair? It kind of took me out of the game at times. I know asking for custom portraits or high quality splices is a bit much, but I think it would help bump the third game’s quality up even higher.
The only bugs I encountered was on one of the last maps where you meet up with Edric for the first time and he’s in the middle surrounded by the Dawnsworn and Ghormar. The map sprites were all janked up and pushed down into the right corner of the spaces they occupied. A lot of the map sprites turned into wyvern riders. Serut’s map sprite also morphed into a wyvern rider at some point if I wasn’t clicking on her. Thankfully the game didn’t crash on me. I’m playing on mGBA.
I also have to deduct a point because of the player phase battle music. You had literal perfection in TDA using Saturos’ battle theme. Smh, 0/10 hack /j.
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