[FE8] FE: Dream of Five - Definitive Edition [Act 3 Released!]

[JrpgAddict]

Maybe creators should add in title that both routes are completed from begin to end and that only the supports of 1 route is missing so more ppl try this hack?

I though this was a 1st release to public to get feedback and its not completed yet with both routes having no ending untill i read the comments that it is just the supports that are not done yet, confusing tbh with the route spilt.

anyways ill try this hack next after i am done with Andaron Saga, looks great and the website is amazing!

Also i do have 1 Q for ppl that finished it…

Why are so many chars still in base class or low lv at the end game? 17 chapters per route seems enough to promote some chars into 2nd class or is the exp super nerfed?

[GigaExcalibur]

Why are so many chars still in base class or low lv at the end game? 17 chapters per route seems enough to promote some chars into 2nd class or is the exp super nerfed?

Well that’s because it’s not endgame. The route split is only 10 chapters long, which you’d know if you read the full post:

@Parrhesia

A campaign of roughly 28 chapters

@Parrhesia

A route split of 10 chapters which has effects that carry through to the very end of the game

The current version is a 1st release to get public feedback.

[knabepicer]

The hack is not actually complete from start to end; the current release ends where the routes reconverge, and the parts afterwards haven’t been made.

I don’t think there’s enough promotion items to promote all the characters that you can deploy simultaneously.

[Parrhesia]

Thanks as ever for the feedback in detail. I think with Arcus in particular I was guilty of pulling back too much from the dynamics of old Do5, where the party was constantly hostile to each other in a way that was mostly just exhausting. It’s been defanged too hard, I recognise. Oddly, the new mug - which I’ll insert properly for the next patch, without my conspicuous failure to actually enable hackbox extension - has helped settle characterisation a lot in my head. I tried to leave room in the script so that there would be time to add scenes where necessary, and I’ll try and put some teeth back into Arcus’ characterisation as well as establish his bond with Jolyon, which is kind of on ‘just trust me bro’ levels as it stands.

My work currently is pretty exhausting - not even hard, just, marking eight morbillion in-class essays makes my brain turn to soup by the time I’m home - so we’ll be doing pretty small patches every weekend, probably, just with relatively easy-to-roll-out changes and bugfixes (buffs to a lot of unpromoted Act 2 units are coming, and the Heljefication of Eilene). I’m a teacher, so the school holidays coming up are relevant (and a casual, so I’ll be unpaid through them… sigh), and that’s when the more time-consuming things - the rollout of clearer attribution of music in-game, supports - will come in. And then, of course, I’ll be able to push forward into Act 3.

Going forward, I’m applying for more WFH-friendly jobs where I’ll hopefully be able to Make Hack on company time, but I definitely burned myself out trying to rush Musain through on schedule and will need a bit to rest. But the skeleton for the rest of the game is planned out, at least in plot terms and in characters needed, so once I’m rolling again I think we’ll comfortably meet our self-imposed deadline of FEE3 '24 [COMPLETE].

As regards the Big Argument:

Late Ond Spoilers

The reason the accusation of cowardice hits hard is that Rena has spent most of her life running or hiding, in some sense. It’s a weak accusation, but it hits a nerve for her. But hey, if it doesn’t land, it doesn’t land, regardless of the notes that are scribbled in my margins. I may look at rephrasing to make that more clear.

Sileth getting the chance to talk to Mori about the dictator somewhere around C11 could kill about eighteen birds with one stone, so that’ll probably get crowbarred in somewhere.

[JrpgAddict]

@Parrhesia

As I’ve said a few times, Musain’s supports are not yet completed. Otherwise, yes, the routes are complete.

I did thats why its so confusing cuz i though it wasnt complete but then i read the part above.

I understand now.

[Levin64]

A Reminder

Just as a quick reminder. Mangs and his content are banned, including Andaron Saga. Please don’t bring him or any of his work up in conversation. This is now reflected in the rules post proper, since we’d forgotten to add that in the last rules pass.

By doing this you’re bringing the attention to it, stop.
Please do carry on the discussion. And you @Nikokaro please stop treading on thin ice and testing our patience. The rules are clear, if you have any complains, feel free to DM.

[SirSpensir]

I do think Arcus is a difficult character to handle in general. Musain arc is stuck in the difficult position of convincing the player that their time was better spent with Arcus than with Joylon or any other Musain characters. I’ve been informed that you do have some bigger plans for Arcus down the line, which is exciting to think about, but he still has to do something in Musain for his Musain screentime to feel earned, even if it’s only a small emotional payoff.

Late Ond Spoilers

In hindsight, I should have been more clear that my disbelief is more focused on the character saying it than the accusation itself. If Garath were to call Rena a coward for any reason, I can’t imagine how deep that would sting. But Mori is so obviously wrong in the argument that it’s hard to take anything he says seriously, this is the man who dies to bandits in Musain route because he lacks any self preservation. For me personally, giving Mori more of a solid foundation in the argument would help a lot in having the line work for me, perhaps having Rena argue against Mori’s righteous fury instead of Mori’s stupid, self centered recklessness.

I do want to reiterate that the story is still wonderful to read, Arcus is only a weak character on the Parr writing bell curve. I’d probably call him a good character in many other stories where the bar for good character writing isn’t so high. Take all the time off Do5 you need, you’ve definitely earned it.

[X-Naut]

I was surprised to see this show up on FEE3’s schedule. Do5 was one of my favorites back in the early 2010s and loving the chance to play it again, new and improved! I’m only at the start of Onduris route so I don’t have much to say, but there’s one little thing I wanted to bring up. I noticed Crowe’s accuracy looked pretty low using the Steel Bow in Chapter 3 and saw it only had 70 Hit… later I saw Silver had 80 Hit on one of Farrell’s goons.

So bows are -20/-10 Hit from iron on steel/silver, while for other weapons it’s only -10/-5. Was that intentional?

[Parrhesia]

Glad you spotted it. Definitely not intentional, and it’ll be fixed come the new patch.

[Silver-Star]

Back at it again with the completion of the Musain route. Thank goodness that there’s a separate chapter called the Rubicon. Saves me the trouble of starting from the beginning without going through chapter 6 again. One of the best improvements there is.

The Musain route may not have the challenge in Onduris, but good stuff going on and I’m sure everyone is focusing on the story aspect while I just want to play for the fun of it. Wish there was a good variety of stealables on the enemies to keep the thieves active and more purpose to it.

Musain Route Squad

Better stats compared to the Onduris route. Lancereaver is good for dodging range lances.

Decided to use Garath since I used Kolbane in the Onduris route. His Greatbow is great for chipping damage for others to get experience. Totally sold by his character in Chapter 8Ax.

I crossed my fingers for Crowe to get speed, had to compete with Franseza during the Jolyon rescue chapter. But the competition with slot deployments got in Crowe’s favor and plopped into the team.

Used Lizaveta again for the Musain route. Don’t know why, but I need to support her with Ioan since it’s the only written support there is and learn more about Lizaveta in this route. I hope that the Arcus and Lizaveta support gets implemented in the near future.

Finally got Driscoll into the team and surpassed Garath in the stats department if you don’t face competition with Corbeau who is a prepromoted.

Had to decide whether or not to drop Gabriel for Rozelle, but his speed is good enough and have him on the team. Sorry Rozelle, maybe next time.

Since Ioan is the only wyvern rider who is not Bellona. Did recall that he joined Rena and Lizaveta in the original DOF, but Kolbane took his role which I understand why. Preventing an easy LTC in Chapter 8. Overall, he’s a great flyer with a high defense like an armored knight with wings. Supported him with Lizaveta for the written support.

Madame Marie. Was close to promoting her in the Musain route, which got her into plenty of fights since her focus is fighting. Also useful in unlocking chests and stealing enemy thieves’ lockpicks.

Visharan Iron Knight, Arcus. He’s great on the power and defense, thanks to his anti-magic axe. Hopefully, his character gets to expand more as the story progresses.

Jolyon (previously Enjouras). Digging the French Revolutionist and hoping he gets the sub-lord status in the future. Did miss out on his personal weapon, the “Maythunder” by talking to him with Arcus as a green unit. Is that still a thing in the rescue Jolyon chapter?

Florent (previously Feuilty). This unit fits in the Cain & Abel archetype as the bulky and defensive side.

Marin (previously Marius). This unit also fits in the Cain & Abel archetype as the hit fast, hit hard type of guy.

Lyndra the Black Cat. A really good unit with good stats, had to rotate her around with other units with no support from any of the existing units except for Morwen. Is that foreshadowing or something?

Good bard utility. Nothing else to say.

Meliza (previously Melisandre). Is it me or is Meliza’s description on the Dream of Five website supposed to say Cleric instead of Mage in the bio? Just saying.

Eudira, a Sibyl with terrible luck. A good addition to the story is the Twin Furies replacing the “Insolent!” and “Impudent!” twins. One of life’s greatest mysteries.

The units that didn't make the cut.

Kolbane (you did your duty on the Onduris route, now let Garath have his chance), Asher (Lizaveta got the speed to avoid doubling on the spot), Cyrille (wish I gotten use out of you, but when with the Christmas cavs), Eileen (Could have used you against the mages in the Musain route), Amelia (She may be good, but went with Jolyon instead), Tricia (Wish I gotten use out of you, but units are quite competitive with stats), Chester (Went with Marie instead since she got better strength stats than him), Cathale (Had used you for a few chapters, but Ioan got good defense and mobility to fly), Corthiva (Wish you turned out well in the long run but, Seren (Is really fast with the speed and accuracy, but couldn’t get strength in the long run and should’ve used the blossom dew when I had the chance), Franseza (had to compete with Crowe, but got the upper hand with redeeming the speed stat. On the bright side, that A support rank really help out Seren.), Corbeau (Used her for a few chapters, but Lyndra won me over you and Driscoll surpassed you in stats.), Annelise (I wish I could use her but deployment slots are tough to compete for units I’m sticking with) and Rozelle (Wish I could use you, but deployment slots are tough and Gabriel is holding the fort). Did keep my word by trying my luck with units to be part of the team on the Musain route.

I would like to say that having unlimited B supports is the best thing to happen to Dream of Five.

[luminescentblade]

@Silver-Star

Meliza (previously Melisandre). Is it me or is Meliza’s description on the Dream of Five website supposed to say Cleric instead of Mage in the bio? Just saying.

I fixed this last night, should be updated now

[Parrhesia]

It is patchday once again! A lot of small tweaks this time.

Patchnotes

• Paladin promotion gains now include E → D lance experience
• Sentinel Str cap raised from 26 → 27
• Eilene: +2 Lv, +3 HP, +2 Spd/Lck, +1 Str/Skl, -5% Str/Skl growth
• Seren: +1 Str
• Franseza: +2 Lck
• Lyndra: -1 Str, B → C Axes
• Jolyon: +1 Mag
• Annelise: -2 Def, +5% Def growth
• Bellona: +1 Lv, +1 Str/Spd/Lck/Def
• Baldur: +1 Lv, +1 Skl/Spd/Res
• Nari: +1 Lv, +2 Spd, +1 Skl/Def
• vi’Shen: +1 Lv, +2 HP, +1 Str/Def/Res
• P: Fixed mention of Border Patrol
• C3: Crowe and Rankin now have boss conversation
• 6x: Extension to closing scene.
• 7A: Chest room Mage now drops Chest Key (x5)
• 8x now forced
• 8x: New scene now added to finale
• 9A: 0 → 4 luck to Renegade faction. Most central units gain +2-3 levels.
• 10A: Warning to disable Autoend Turns for the chapter’s duration added
• 12A: Added three levels to some unpromoted enemies
• 13A: New scene now added at start
• 14A: Fixed status page objective
• 14A: +2 Str/Skl to Ghast class
• 14A: Added nine dogs to Guillaume’s room
• 10B: North longbow skeleton no longer attached to Squad 3
• 10B: Chest room Warlock now drops Chest Key (x5)
• 12B: Hopefully fixed the issue of the map ending early if routed (there is no event telling it to clear on rout flag! What the fuck!)
• 12B: New scene at end
• 13B: No longer displays as Rout
• 14B: New scene at start
• Ancient Sword now correctly a sword
• Ancient Lance now correctly a lance
• Steel Bows now correctly have 80 Hit
• Silver Bows now correctly have 85 Hit
• Warding weapons +1 Mt, -1 Res
• Warding Bow now correctly gives Res
• Arcus’ portraits now inserted correctly
• Sileth unpromoted animation fixed
• vi’Shen’s battle conversation with jin’Sei now plays correctly
• Various bosses now correctly have BGM
• Erroneous Arcus/Amelia support removed
• Opening and then skipping Augury no longer fails to return to the player phase theme

Lyndra was overtuned, partly due to not having the oversaturated footsword competition in Onduris and being free to spread her wings, partly due to being a stretch goal (albeit less of one than Dal, more intuitive in both unlock conditions) and partly due to Devsfavouritecharacteritis. I considered pushing Lyndra down to D axes, but a prepromote really should have good ranks, particularly in the weapon that the unpromoted version lacks. C still takes Silver Axes from her without leaving her in a hole; her bad Con means she’ll always favour swords anyway.

Eilene had the early peg Bad Feel, so I’ve injected some Heljefication to hopefully make her more satisfying from the outset. It fits in-story anyway, given she’s had the best training of anyone in the early chapters. Annelise originally had 1 less Str/Spd and felt awful and 3RKOed everything. Her 0.1 form seems slightly overtuned and reports have supported this, but I can’t touch her offensive capabilities, so defence it is. The unpromoted Onduris infantry were all pretty bad and have become generally better, while Bellona paled compared to Ioan. The two of them might get nudged back down later in line, but we’ll see how this configuration plays. Jolyon and Seren needed slight nudges and got them. Marin and Florent might be nerfed slightly down the line.

Some of the tail end of Musain has been slightly buffed in order to be less of a difficulty slump. 14A in particular should now be less of a fait accompli in the closing stages, or at least give something to think about heading in. But they’ve been fairly gentle increases, and there may be more to come. To help compensate and help with the general ‘scattered chests’ issue, another chest key now drops early on both routes.

I’ve added scenes and made a couple of rewrites to make Arcus provide more friction and then more vulnerability. Ultimately, there wasn’t room for a lot more; Musain is, as-is, overstuffed. Nevertheless, I’m hoping a little can go a long way. Sileth got two additional scenes to help support her questioning of plot developments, making them less abrupt and positioning her more concretely both in-story and on the meta sense as Jolyon’s equal.

Warding weapons were terrible. Warding weapons are still terrible, but -1 Res bumps them down to be the same resistance as pure water / barrier, which appeals to my sense of neatness, and +1 Mt means anyone might use them ever. Now I hope they’re situational (sparkling terrible).

10A has a weird issue where the newly-rejoined units don’t ‘count’ for Autoend Turns, so until / unless I can fix it, there’s now a fourth-wall-breaking disclaimer. It’s my least favourite solution, but it’s what we’ve got. The other most serious chapter-specific issue, with 12B, has hopefully been fixed, albeit in a really janky way. Besides that, there were a number of miscellaneous fixes. Thanks to everyone who has reported issues and helped with fixes. I’ll probably keep this cycle of a new patch every week or two weeks going, until things calm down and seem fairly stable, at which point focus shifts to new content.

Roadmap:

• More supports
• Music sourcing (I’m looking at potentially using a patch to help, but experimenting with that was beyond the scope of what was already a pretty beefy patch)
• Finally doing the Musain route journals
• Once my current contract runs out, knuckling down and properly starting on Act 3.

[Parrhesia]

Apologies for the inconvenience, but there was a minor but unmissable visual glitch in the patch just posted. If you’re on Musain route and downloaded the file since I last posted, upload the new v. 0.1.2 that’s just been uploaded. If you’re on Onduris route it doesn’t matter.

[UltraxBlade]

10A has a weird issue where the newly-rejoined units don’t ‘count’ for Autoend Turns, so until / unless I can fix it, there’s now a fourth-wall-breaking disclaimer.

The issue can be resolved by using UNCR to remove the “undeployed” status from them – the preps screen inherently assigns Undeployed to any unit in your party who isn’t selected for deployment, and loading+REVEALing them onto the map doesn’t remove Undeployed, causing autoend turns and the deployed units count on the chapter status screen to not see them.

[luminescentblade]

Since there’s quite a bit of dialogue additions this update and I figured a lot of you have already finished at least one route so maybe your save’s currently at Crossroads already but you want to go back and read the dialogue updates

and I know there’s a bunch of you that overrode your Rubicon files

If that’s the case do not worry I got your back

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14pajec1-SYZ1ZRUapgl15DNEZSyYyMZ6?usp=sharing

I have made save files for every chapter, and sometimes bosskills when applicable. Note that Onduris was done prior to our decision to reclass Kolbane so he’s still a merc in that route, but I will make another set of Onduris saves with soldier kolb whenever I have time. Musain’s saves are also a bit more detailed because they’re done second and I had a better system going then so when I do Soldier Kolb Onduris run there’ll be a couple more points of interest also.

[Gryffe]

Just recently finished this hack on the 0.1 patch, going through the A route (going to keep B for a 1.0 playthrough) and I have a few thoughts as a former Drums of War enjoyer.

First off, this hack is piss easy. Now there’s no judgement of value attached to this assessment whatsoever - easy hacks absolutely have their place and every chapter has been ENTERTAINING and WELL-PACED, which I think supersedes difficulty in every regard. I’ve never been bored by DoF.

I’m bringing this up for two reasons: first, that gave me serious whiplash after Drums of War, a hack that can be very tight on most chapters and never lets you grow complacent.
Blitzing through DoF beating every chapter first try with no unit lost and every side objective completed after that experience has me worried this is less DoF being intended to be an easier experience and more so overcorrecting based on the feedback you received for that previous hack.
The second reason is that one single chapter in particular made me a liar regarding my streak of victories and had me abusing that “rewind to start of turn” function harder than a drunken divorced dad - for the worst reason I’ve ever seen put into a map.

That one FoW map with the sergeant on A route

Okay, who the hell thought that putting 8 moves mounted archers AND pegasus knights launching a pincer attack IN A FOG OF WAR MAP was a good and fun idea ? Right after the character that’s almost guaranteed to have the only Illuminate staff in her bag is split from the party the very chapter before that ?! It’s not just a terrible prank, it’s pulled off at the shittiest time for it too, where the one tool you can use to defend yourself against it is taken away the single moment in this hack where it’s actually needed and can’t be replaced by a thief / torch. Baffling.

Unrelated to that map, if you decide to ever buff the enemies in the Rena / Colbane / Troubador escape-to-the-Resistance map, just put a spare heal staff they can’t use in one of the defector’s bags, my cleric’s heal staff broke during the previous chapter so I traded the troubador’s away mid-chapter and I only realized after saving my game that left her with nothing but the illuminate staff in it.

Also, it’s incredible how broke you are in this game. I finished the A route with 2k in the bank buying nothing but iron weapons and heal staves and doing every side objectives + selling every elixir. That made every shop in the game and cool special weapon in their inventory utterly irrelevant because you have the budget for ONE of them (buying a Shine tome was what brought me to my knees if I remember correctly).
It’s not THAT bad since the game drops plenty of cool weapons, but reading that you buffed the warding weaponry because “nobody uses them” had me giggling - no shit nobody uses them ; they could have silver weapon might and give +15 res, if I can’t afford them, I can’t AFFORD them ; stealing from shopkeepers isn’t a mechanic in this hack.

Again, just like the difficulty, it’s not inherently a bad thing, there’s no written, Holy rule that FE must drown you in gold, but it does make the frequency of shops, and the occasional buffs to purchasable weapons, puzzling when you have no incentive to EVER interact with those mechanics.

Also, I want you to know that Godbane fucks, he’s the coolest unit in this hack and he outscaled Rena at every point in the game.
What’s that ? Triangle advantage ? More like triangle SUGGESTION, amirit ? inserts screenshot I forgot to take of Godbane demolishing axe users on the final map

[LewynCollins]

I’ll have to agree with you about the money part. Also, Kolbane was already better than Rena in the original game too, he has always been.

[knabepicer]

I dunno, I had a fair amount of cash usually, on Musain route. Not a massive amount, but enough that I could pick up a couple slims in Chapter 1/5, a Shine (and more slim) at 5, and a couple reavers at 9, and that was basically enough to get through without liquidating elixirs (I have 1.6k at the end, along with the white gem). You get a lot of free weapons on this route since the 6x units just drown you in weaponry after they leave, so I never felt like I needed to blow money on irons to stay equipped.

[Gryffe]

For the sake of being as precise as possible, I double-checked : I actually have 4,7k left ; I think I sold some trinkets before starting the map for real. Not counting the Diamond you get from it, obviously, since there’s no game left to spend it on at the moment.

It’s more than I previously thought, but certainly not ‘a couple reavers more’ funds.

Admittedly, to complicate things further, I’ve been VERY agressive with my staff usage to bring the non-combattants to 20, and those suckers are 600 a pop. So I can actually see you managing to spare that much cash if you don’t break a heal staff every odd chapter…

[Anonymous]

Sorry, I meant a full release. Like, when is the game going to be completely finished? It says 28 planned but 25 finished.