The whole game is present in one patch, yeah.
2 Likes
Bugfixes! (1.0.6) (Saves compatible)
- Made a yellow house into a village in Ch. 7
- Reduced Sparking’s weight from 15 to 9
- Added a warning two turns before the boss spawns in Ch. 20
- Rearranged enemies on Ch. 4 and Ch. 12 to make turn 1 less difficult
- Added additional Master Seals to Ch. 15, 16, and 17
- Made Franz immobile until recruited in Ch. 6, to prevent him from charging to his death
- Improved Franz’s base stats and growths
- Improved Gilliam’s base stats and growths
- Improved Colm’s base stats and growths
- Improved Knoll’s base stats and removed Tome Range +1 to differentiate him more from similar units
- Added a tutorial message explaining CoL’s Sacred Twin weapon mechanics when Nidhogg is obtained (the tutorial in Ch. 13 is still there as a recap, with an option to skip it)
- Improved Rennac’s base stats
- Fixed an item duplication bug involving saving and restarting on chapters with units recruited in the start event
- Fixed the roster ordering causing Isabelle and Jeanne to spawn in the wrong positions in Ch. 16
- Ch. 14 fixed so it no longer ends until Mansel escapes
- Made map music continue through battle animations
- Magic swords now give sword WEXP and count as swords when attacking magically (they hit Res, but interact with the physical weapon triangle instead of the magical triangle)
- Made frany properly appear on ch. 2
- Made frany’s death no longer cause a loop
- Certain Chest Keys no longer open doors
3 Likes
Does that mean no battle music at all?
Nope, there’s still boss music.
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Rearranged enemies in Chapters 4 and 12?
What differences are there now?
How did you fixed the item duplication bug?
And how did you managed to do the magic swords thing?
Sorry if I’m asking many questions XD
I’m just curious.
which is the most important music.
any reason that made you choose to have the map music continue through regular enemies?
Since I actually played a few chapters now. I have to say I like the unique animations.
Hello in the case of marking the original author.,Can this revision be sinicized?
I can’t list the specific changes offhand, but I moved some enemies further away that had been clustered around the starting position. That way, the player doesn’t have to deal with quite so many on Turn 1, but the total number of enemies in the chapter doesn’t change.
This was due to loading units in and adding them to the roster before preps. To fix it, I loaded them as green units and had them turn blue after preps.
I used Magic Sword Rework (included in Skillsystems) to change the “magic type to” 0x0 (which is sword). So the magic swords now do sword-type magic damage at range, and thus can give sword exp. As I understand it, if they’re set to do anima, light, or dark at range, they can’t give sword exp because they aren’t being treated as swords during combat.
This is popular with some recent hacks, like An Unexpected Caller and Dream of Five, since battle music can interrupt the mood of a chapter somewhat (especially more dramatic ones, like CoL Ch. 8 and Ch. 21). It’s not wholly necessary for every chapter, but I figured I would do it game-wide for consistency. Glad you’re enjoying the animations, by the way!
I wouldn’t mind if someone sinicized it, but I can’t speak Chinese at all and I don’t intend to translate CoL into any other languages myself.
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I see, thanks for answering my questions :3
The bug happened only in Chapter 18?
When are we getting the Innus spin-off?
4 Likes
first off thank you for creating this hack and creating a very complete experience and refreshing take on the continent of magvel and the new events that took place with everything that happened in the story really seems to fit well within the narrative and the reinterpretation(?) of what the lagdou ruins are and it being integrated into the story more was just chefskiss
a few things though:
- i used the lyn using og big durandal battle animation for whenever jeanne is using the hrunting (mostly since i decided to just run her as a sword master) and was wondering if there are plans to update or change it
- this is just me being stupid but damn i did not think to try the master seal on isabelle to try and promote her XD i literally got my entire squad promoted up except for isabelle on the final chapter til i tried it there as i was just auto piloting as i got used to lords just outright being promoted only through something event specific or a particular item
regardless thank you for creating this amazing rom hack and happy new years from me in asia :3
2 Likes
Hey, congrats on a very fun hack, I’ve been really loving the new characters, they’re super cute and I love reading their dialogue. I’m in chapter 15 now and I was wondering, is there something special if i bring Joshua? I ask cause i didn’t train him at all, and leading him to enemies he might have some talk interactions with might be quite difficult. There’s also the other special event, I’ll try to figure it out by myself as I am training the unit in question. Thank you again for the super fun hack and happy new year.
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Why did you not give any hint in game that Isabella a special character can be promoted using master seal because regular Player will expect that a special character can only promote with a special item, event or lord shield also Why not tie her promotion to a special item @DoinThangs ?
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maybe you guys are playing older versions, the most recent one does tell you that she can promote at any time.
3 Likes
i was using the latest one but also dw it wasn’t a complaint on my end (if it came off as that) just my monkey brain going on autopilot not even trying to tap A on a master seal on isabelle until i saw “final” chapter
Thanks for this because I would have assumed she needed a special item lol.
1 Like
This is a very charming project! I just finished my first run (Lunatic) and had an overall positive experience. It wasn’t particularly hard, but there were a few chapters where I had to actually execute well or I’d biff it. The change to the critical system was really fun to utilize, though I stopped relying on it in the lategame since unit power meant I didn’t ever really need to crit to set up a kill unless my strong units were clustered together on the other side of the map. It was relaxing in a way.
Below are some of my thoughts on the units I used, and other miscellaneous things that occurred to me throughout the run. Noteworthy is that I played with random growths instead of fixed, even though I prefer fixed in most Lunatic(+) experiences. Spoilers, obviously.
Units
Jeanne is a cool lord unit. Hrunting is too strong basically from the moment you get it until the end of the game, and turns her into a res-tanking monster that hates mages. I liked her arc, though it felt a bit uneven considering she gets over her death wish heroism pretty easily, but I guess that serves to showcase that she’s willing to work with the supporters around her (particularly her sister) where someone like Isabelle isn’t.
Speaking of Isabelle, I think I won the defense lottery. I can’t tell by how much I’m over given the total level I achieved, but capping well before reaching the final chapter was silly. She’s a bit below average on speed, so the only way she ever doubled was with Excalibur since I didn’t have a better user for that in the army. Her ability is fun to use with her high defense in mind and Dracabael once she gets it, as she could pretty consistently oneshot enemies who weren’t high res. I think her arc is a little more interesting, but doesn’t receive enough screen time compared to trying to hit a lot of the Sacred Stones baseline beats from an altered perspective.
I like spear fellas. He was particularly fun to use, but I didn’t end up making much use of Lunge ever. If he had ended up a little faster or a little more defensive, I might have been crit fishing on him more often, but instead he was always just short of a kill. Shame, really, but that doesn’t matter because he was a fun character for his supports and his little place in the story to get things moving in the right direction.
Marshe had a wyvern and thoroughly passable stats. I sent them around wherever Nilsbury and Vanessa went to either soften enemies or get last hits as needed. Wyvern Lord was probably a mistake because I never really found all that much utility in using all of the available weapon types. Had they made it to B in Lances, maybe would’ve gotten to use Skyscream and try air-tanking or something. Alas.
If it has hit points, she ensures that does not stay the case for long. This unit’s whack. She’s busted good, she has great style, and she can’t double to save her life, except lol jk suddenly she can toward the end of the game when enemies seem to get bogged down by their class and can’t achieve 15+ speed. Increased bowrange and her inability to stop critting for +30-someodd damage meant that she was my go-to for killing thick fellas.
frany good. cute brigand. strong.
Colm’s base stats and his growths impressed me way more than Zara’s when she joined, but I committed to having her keep Bo company all the way to the end. I think Luna felt… fine on her. It worked well in the early game and then felt like it was only middling toward the end when she couldn’t secure kills on crits anymore just because her strength had fallen off and critical-granting weapons that she could reliably double with just weren’t hitting particularly hard. Maybe I could’ve committed to overdoing it with weapon weight just to ensure she got a big hit in.
Estelle was a perfectly serviceable Jeigan, and then felt terrible to use all through the middle game as anything but staff utility. Light Brand’s terrible hitrate combined with her “lol nah” strength meant that she wasn’t contributing basically any damage after the first act. She’s a little weird as a character in the story and I’m not entirely sure if I feel anything about her at all, positive or negative. She’s a vehicle for things to happen and to try to humanize Isabelle, but I just don’t think it worked for me in particular, though I could understand her role doing it for other people.
I’m so sorry I retired his pegasus and gave him a wyvern. I didn’t mean anything by it. Armsthrift meant he kept Ephraim’s Reginleif alive from the very beginning of the game until the end, and made him able to just full-time Vidofnir once he got his hands on that. He was reasonably good at res-tanking in the early game, and I liked that enough about him to just leave the Charm on him the whole game. Getting Luna from Wyvern Knight really kept him in the running for me since that strength clearly isn’t doing it on its own. His supports are also very fun, I loved them all.
She had good growths until about level 15 and then she stopped getting meaningful stat-ups in magic/strength/speed. She was thoroughly fine as a mystic, but my earlier problem with Light Brand leads me to suspect that it’s just not a very good pick compared to going another route, especially as I never had anyone who reached S Light to use Ivaldi.
Quirky axe cav! Kind of bad stats, but who cares, quirky axe cav! Rally Move is kind of bad with only giving +1 move and not letting her canto after. Didn’t use it much because rarely was it going to make the difference for my army. She’s perfectly fine, and that’s fine by me.
Bro capped magic like 6 levels ago. Love that for him. Gleipnir just eats enemies in one hit. I liked using this guy a bunch. If Isabelle hadn’t taken the Swiftsole, it probably should’ve gone to him to ensure he could actually keep up with the other fliers. Shame about his no supports. If I hadn’t experienced sunk cost, I would’ve started using Iidel or Maete instead (maybe even both!).
L’Arachel strong. Paragon is nutty. Her growths are kind of whack, honestly, and being able to use magic before promoting meant that she was getting fat chunks of exp right away.
She’s still Vanessa, but now she gets to use swords (which have tons of utility) and later bows? Sick. Her with a Two-nock in the final few chapters felt like I was cheating. All that movement and then getting to have 3-4 range on top of that, chef’s kiss. Really was delighted to see the special promo.
Additional Thoughts
It’s hard to get away from the feeling of “I’m replaying major beats of Sacred Stones, but the world is even darker and bleaker than it was during the events of Sacred Stones.” Ordinarily I don’t mind that sort of thing, but the problem was that it didn’t feel entirely natural for a lot of the new characters to be around the preexisting ones, and it felt like the story was doing a paint-by-numbers in the first and second acts, just with a darker twist on the original plot. Further deviation from it would have pleased me more than just sticking to it, but I recognize I have a particular taste.
I think the characterization of the new characters was charming and lovely. I liked them, in case my usage of them in my army even if they were middling in some cases was any indication. If anything, I wish the base Sacred Stones cast weren’t there tempting me with things like Galeforce or whatever Knoll’s skill was called. While I think the game rushed Isabelle’s breakdown, I do think it also hinted at it being there from the outset just because of how rocky her relationships with the people around her always were. I think exploring more of that and spending less time on using the set dressing of Magvel’s still-living nations would have been a stronger use of screen time. All that said, the hack isn’t particularly long (I beat it in three or so sittings), so I don’t feel like this is the worst thing.
Lagdou. Big FFXIV Ancients vibes. The chapter where Isabelle and Jeanne get to see the horrors visited on its people in particular was impossible not to compare to Amaurot. If you know you know. Overall I think this was a very interesting characterization of a dead civilization and provided the most unique extra bits the overall story (rather than the character-driven bits) got. Reveling a little more in the harrowing aspects of a society staring down the barrel of its demise by its own hands could have been very cool, especially in trying to find more parallels to the messed up way people were treating the current events instigated by the Demon King (plague, monsters, flesh-warping). It’s good to see our army’s reaction to these things, brief as it is, but maybe a few more conversations between units about how stuff is getting really messed up would help.
Overall, map design was pretty good! The pace of the early game maps was intense on Lunatic, but it wore off by the end of act 1. Until that point, I had to be particularly careful about where I placed my units or how many enemies I was willing to aggro at once. I think I would’ve enjoyed it more if it stayed as challenging throughout, but that’s on me for picking a difficulty that’s explicitly not been tested or tuned to as fine a degree as the easier two. Some maps could use additional incentive not to turtle up on one spot; the one where you’re securing a path for villagers across the map or escorting the Pontifex back to his place in Rausten were both good! The swathe of dragons in Grado actually incentivized me to stay and farm because they moved slow and weren’t praticularly threatening. I could’ve ended that map the moment they started pouring in, but I didn’t.
In the lategame, more bosses that would aggro after a certain turn or based on a proximity trigger (rather than just aggroing when you get in range or not moving at all) would make the experience a lot more frenetic. The feeling of lazy bosses felt especially so after dealing with the first couple turns of the Jehanna map. I think I carefully crept my way through over like 30-40 turns just so I could maximize experience distribution for as-yet unpromoted units, which felt like it could have been avoided by having Riev start moving in after a certain point, or even Valter. I was surprised at how patient he was while I got set up on him.
I want to end all my thoughts by reiterating that I really, really, really enjoyed this hack and look forward to seeing more like it from DoinThangs in the future. All your characters were extremely charming. Thank you so much for making this, and thank you to everyone who contributed.
3 Likes
Feeling kinda burnt out on playing more Fire Emblem lately, but I want to give some thoughts/feedback on CoL that I’ve been ruminating on since I’ve been sick for Christmas.
For context I have beaten ch18 on lunatic.
Gameplay
Is CoL and fun and creative game?
Yes absolutely. The crit system and rare balanced class branching + the unique method of how 1 2 and 3 range are considered as options. It is rare for weapons to have more than 1 targeted range as an option (barring 2-3 bows), it was a clever way to make Isabelle and Jeanne stand out relative to the cast when they’re force deployed. Frequent on the fly decision-making that was impactful in how you engaged with the enemy in weapon selection and your order of operations. All of this was established so early. Enemies weren’t always easy to defeat, so just enough incentive to use the crit system while not just denying progress without it makes for such a strong fundamental to work off of.
Does CoL iterate on its systems?
Unfortunately, I feel like the game tries to grow into more and more gimmicky items/weapons (Dark Pact/Red Eye Beads/Bow range modifier etc). It instead opted to iterate on the idea of refreshing or unlimited durability weapons. It was quite annoying getting insane S ranks of a weapon type before getting anything better than a C rank version of a weapon.
With regard to weapon scaling, it really did feel like the game didn’t know how to scale past Keen weapons with regard to damage output and was scared to give you them. Unless they were a prf/class lock or just one of the Sacred Twins. I got the tome for A light 4 maps after the S light tome. That’s the most extreme example but it does still apply to Anima, only chapter 2 silver sword before S Sword, S bow chapter 10 but still no silver bow as of beating ch18. Nilsbury joined with a brave lance but still no silver lance going into ch19. Just got garm Garm, but the game did give you a brave axe in chapter 14 at least.
The reason why I am harping on this, is because I feel like it went so directly opposed to the strength and intended flow of the first act of the game. Where you really had to weigh your options and what items you slotted into your unit’s limited inventory space. Does this unit need to get worried about getting weighed down? How about their accuracy? Should I commit to 2 and 3 range or just make them very strong at 2 range with multiple options here? Does it play into a skill they have?
Then Hrunting showed up. Jeanne (especially with boosters she could pull out of the convoy) easily became the #1 solution for answering most things. She had some of the best res in the army, if not the best. Unbreakable 1-2. Good dodgetanking.
This is also while everyone else still continued to use the same weapons they were exposed to by chapter 5 for the most part, unless they were blessed enough to get access to an S rank (split weapon rank units are eating shit in this regards since they cannot keep up).
The S ranks are:
-Have no opportunity cost to being used since they repair every map
-Better range than most options of the weapon type
-Better accuracy than every other weapon
-Gives significant stat boosts, way beyond FE6’s S ranks
I am not sure if this is a chicken or the egg situation if the weaponry focus changing led to less inspired enemy placements, but I felt over the course of Act 2 the enemy placement generally degraded and was less thoughtful vs Act 1.
Writing
Is CoL well written?
Yes, absolutely. DoingThangs has an effortless seeming ability to capture an insane breadth of character voices whether old or new. Not to mention the variety in the tone the story is attempting out. Not many FE games really want to lean into creepier/horror elements, and DT makes it look done with ease.
It’s beyond clear how much heart and themselves are put into their more emotional scenes. DT does tend to enhance a number of them with gorgeous cgs but I absolutely don’t think they’re a crutch. Just two strong elements melded together beautifully.
Jeanne’s scene with Hrunting at the end of Act 1 playing the Demo this summer is what absolutely hooked me in wanting to follow your storytelling along.
Did Curse of Lagdou use Magvel well?
I feel like sometimes the conversation around this game becomes “Does this game need to be in Magvel?”, and I think that’s a boring question.
A far more interesting one is asking how well did CoL use Magvel.
Unfortunately, I think the answer is not particularly well when looked at as the whole.
It’s clear that DT really enjoys specific characters in Magvel quite a bit, but ultimately an air of apathy coated more of the game than there should have been.
At more times I found myself distracted by the aggressive formality that appeared for half of the fe8 cast. It is jarring more than anything else when there’s a unique and colorful scene between an OC and an original fe8 character (Vanessa/Franziska, Isabelle/Rennac, Innes/Innus) contrasted next to 3 brushed away characters into a corner barely given the time of day.
The disconnect from OCs and Vanilla cast goes further than lack of supports as well, but too many times I just found myself asking “wait what” taking me out of the experience.
“Why is Marisa guarding Gerik’s cell?”
“Why is Franz guarding a castle in Frelia instead of being with Eirika and Seth?”
“Why is Morva a dracozombie in the Lagdou Ruins instead of by Darkling Woods?”
“Why does Saleh not get to talk to his cousin after setting up Estelle and Dara connection?”
“Why does Cormag have half a sentence across 2 Grado defectors?”
“Why is Duessel just standing there listening to Lyon say he’s the demon king to Ephraim and Innes?”
Selena. Dear god what have you done to Selena.
This is literally just me going unhinged and hater mode @ how CoL has handled Selena
Selena is bastardized beyond comprehension.
She just is another character now. It’s like the intro to Fluorspar’s Oath was never read, which is hilarious since Eirika and Seth are on the map before the start of ch18.
She talks about how much she is in service to HER EMPEROR, not Grado the country.
“It is a fluorspar… His Majesty presented it to me when I was promoted to general. This gemstone is proof of my commission. It’s one of Grado’s treasures… I received it years ago, but I remember that day like it was yesterday. His Majesty smiled so kindly. His voice was filled with dignity and affection…”
“…… His Majesty is most compassionate. You see, I’m a commoner. I was raised in a desolate, impoverished village. My family couldn’t afford our taxes. No one could. We were desperate. Some of us considered…horrible things to make enough money to survive winter. Then, supplies began to arrive. We were told they came from the emperor himself. He sent them to us, a poor frontier town who couldn’t even afford to pay taxes.”
“Neighboring kingdoms must have thought the emperor mad, I can only guess. But His Majesty did not care about his standing among kings. He cared for his people. He saved us.”
“That spring, I went to the capital and became a soldier, then a knight. I wanted to dedicate my life to the emperor who had saved it. I felt I understood his dream, I felt I shared his vision…”
Ch17:
DK!Lyon:
“Haha there’s nothing left of prince Lyon, it’s all Demon King baby!”
CoL Selena:
“Duessel you’re a traitor to the throne.”
Ch18:
DK!Lyon:
“Fetch the civilian meatshields!”
CoL Selena:
“…”
Like yeah, she runs away and defects next chapter, but this literally isn’t Selena anymore. Selena is literally about caring for her emperor to a fault. She still wanted to be a good person but wants to be loyal to the person that saved her.
For some reason CoL!Selena has been morphed into a weird loyalist patriot to the person sitting on her throne.
this all makes me feel like vanilla Selena’s death quote
Tldr do I like Curse of Lagou?
Yes, I do. It’s brimming with so much creativity, however I do still wish I liked it more than I currently do, mostly due to a lack of following up on its own ideas.
11 Likes
I just wanna say that having access to four Summoners at once is some of the goofiest fun I’ve had in Fire Emblem
There is no greater joy than sending a line of Phantoms with shockingly good stats to maul Lyon
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How do you recruit franni? Im in chapter 3. She was in my party for chapter 2 now shes gone 