Fire Emblem: FE8 Expanded
Hi there, I’m Kurayamiblack and this is my ambitious “solo” mod, “FE8: Expanded” which I have been working on for over a year. I say “solo” in quotes because I’ve been developing it almost entirely alone but alot of what I did wouldn’t exist without the efforts of others before me. Thank you all. This project is technically complete but open to further modification or additions if needed.
Firstly, for those of you who just want to skip straight into a download, BAM:
DOWNLOAD:
SCREENSHOTS:
The patches are for Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (U) version.
The download also includes screenshots, a Changelog, Original Script Changes log, and Credits.
For everyone else who wants to know what they’re getting, I hope you enjoy the read. Click on the headers below to read about each subject.
Purpose of this Project:
Originally, this mod was just a test bed to see if certain ideas worked in an FE game if designed around properly. As development continued (successfully), it took on a life of its own and the purpose of the mod changed. The new purpose of this mod is to fully express my creative game designing visions in a way that will also be enjoyable to as many other people as possible while expanding FE8 in as many ways as possible, from gameplay to the story itself. To give people my flavor of what they want and see if they like it.
This project at its heart is an experiment meant to be explored in as many ways as possible. It does not strictly conform to expectations. Some units for example have growth builds one may consider “bad”, yet the game has ways to make that unit function despite this. Maybe a strategy change, or unit groupings, or equipment. The fun is in finding out how to make it work and maybe find new value in different concepts. Not everything or everyone will be useful in the same playthrough, but different playthroughs may yield very different perspectives. I hope you can explore those perspectives and have fun doing so. 
The game was primarily balanced around Hard Mode with “No Skirmishes, Valni, Lagdou, or Arenas” with minimal permanent stat-up item use (Energy Rings, Speedwings etc.). This was to make sure the game was beatable, challenging, and still enjoyable for people who operate with the bare minimum. This could be considered the “intended playstyle” but the game still allows for the use of these other features for players who enjoy a more dominant style of play. Why not try both and see how differently the approaches affect gameplay? This game wants to be experimented with and experienced differently. 
How It Plays:
FE8 Expanded is it’s own new system of base stats, growth rates, item stats, class balance, and more. It is not attempting to be Sacred Stones in terms of gameplay, but very much so still is Sacred Stones in story and setting which has been expanded on through 6 new characters, their relationships, and a bit of extra dialogue sprinkled in here and there to help the world feel a bit more alive even if the dialogue itself may be unneeded in some places.
Fire Emblem is in a sense, a strategy game. This mod focuses on that aspect by increasing the difficulty and challenging the players to use their assets creatively. It is not about delivering the same Fire Emblem archetypes or character roles. It’s about the player themselves figuring out how best to use the assets they are given. The game has 3 primary phases. Phase 1 is everything before the Eirika/Ephraim story split. During this time, the game is at its most restrained as players learn the new mechanics available to them (such as the positioning skills, or the changes to basic weapons, class stats etc.) in a setting most familiar to standard GBA Fire Emblem. Phase 2 is during the split story, where the difficulty rises as class promotions and skill system relevance begin to open the game up and things become more free flow. Phase 3 comes when Eirika and Ephraim reunite. At this part of the game, the difficulty increases one more time as enemies are greater in number and equipped with much better weapons. The player should by now have learned how to take advantage of almost everything available to them including the Held Items that are increasingly given to you, and the game encourages you to get creative with your options.
The foundation for the gameplay is very different from standard Fire Emblem in alot of ways, but very much the same as well. This mod focuses on the feel of managing your units and assets over delivering expected character/class/archetype roles. It is an experiment in how Fire Emblem could be if wasn’t restrained by traditions, but still tried to respect them.
Highlights:
Some of the mods biggest highlights revolve around additions to the general gameplay systems. This mod does use the FE8 Skill System mod and all the quality of life changes that come with that (too many to list). Beyond that, this mod’s highligts are as follows:
- Base stats for all classes and weapons completely redone from scratch
- Emphasis on class identity
- Higher growth rates and stat caps for all characters/classes
- Increased difficulty with larger differences between selectable difficulty modes
- I waged a personal war against 1-space-wide corridors on maps
- New basic items besides Iron, Steel, and Silver so that all non-S rank levels have a standard weapon available
- Bows and Axes reworked as weapon types (more info on this later)
- Positional skills (Pivot, Swap, Reposition, Shove, Smite) given to all non-magic classes and distributed by type to add to depth of map gameplay (enemy AI does not utilize these skills)
- Weapon effectiveness plays a bigger role (more info on this later).
- 6 new playable characters (Gerardo, Devin, Odion, Laurel, Elias, and Sara) with support convos, cutscene dialogue etc. with care to make them fit into the narrative and feel as naturally as I could.
- Skills are class locked and chosen carefully to provide varied experiences and try to make all options feel valid, impactful, and enjoyable.
- ALL of the maps in the game received some type of change. Some minor, some major. From actual map design, to new events, to dialogue, and more.
- Every single playable promoted class has a minimum of 2 playable characters who can become or already are that class.
- Lots of unused content utilized where reasonable. As much unused content as possible was given purpose and availability. (Mines are post-game only. If you know, you know).
- Slayer ability was removed from Bishops and now all Light Magic were given effectiveness against monsters regardless of the user.
- Two new classes added to the game. Holy Savant (replaces Sage as a promotion option for Priest and Monk) and Monarch (special class for Fado and Vigarde).
- Changes and expansions to the game’s story and lore to dive deeper into the original worldbuilding and even correct flaws, errors, and oversights from the original.
Quality of Life Changes:
There have also been alot of intentional smaller changes to help the game feel more open and accessible during gameplay. Here are some of the major ones:
- Many item descriptions updated for clarity (or to add personality in a few cases)
- Class descriptions changed to display movement type, usable weapon, and learnable skills so that when choosing a promotion class, you have an idea of what it’s gameplay characteristics are.
- Samshir and other locked weapons that are not character specific have been unlocked so that everyone can use them.
- All promoted classes have a minimum weapon rank of C for all of that class’s usable weapons including staves.
- The Con stat differences between genders of the same class has been removed.
- No characters have a negative Con stat
- Rain no longer affects movement and is a purely aesthetic feature now.
- The Restore, Barrier, and Hammerne staves now have a range of M/2 just like Physic, Sleep etc.
- Hold items now exist which grant abilities or stat buff just for having it in a character’s inventory.
- Sacred Twin Weapons now have Held item effects that grant the user abilities or stats even when not equipped.
- Sacred Twin weapons fixed to have x3 effectiveness like normal weapons instead of x2.
- Gleipnir is effective against monsters.
- Magic swords/lance/axes now deal x2 effective damage instead of x3, but their base damage is much higher to let them be viable for low Mag statted physical units.
Potentially Controversial Changes:
As with all mods, there are some things people might see and immediately think “that’s gonna ruin things” before they even try it. There are also things that people have a natural bias against and will dislike on principal alone even if you made it completely fair, functional, or even straight up fun. The following are changes I worry might rub some people the wrong way just for existing, but I encourage people to give them a chance and see how it is implemented and how it works within the new system provided. Here are those changes:
- Archer range changed from “2” to “2-3” to give archers the range advantage their class should have and keeps them from competing with mages for distance value. Mages previously had the same 2 range access but with 1 range option that bows lacked. Mages also had access to flier effective damage with wind magic and hit Res instead of Def, making them hit harder too. They could even carry siege tomes with them while archers only have access to ballistas via specific map hardpoints. Bows needed something unique to them and I decided it should be uncontested range, especially since the flagship promoted Bow class is literally called “Sniper”. Bow’s weight have been increased however.
- Bows are effective against all mounted units (except the armored Great Knight) instead of just fliers. They were already effective against high mobility fliers so I changed them to include other high mobility classes such as horses. This gives archers the role of area control against high movement units, encourages players to swap frontline classes to strategize around more obstacles, gives armors a decent role approaching archers safely, gives early game player archers kills they can use to perform a job and keep up in levels, and even makes sense IRL since archery was primarily used to counter cavalry mobility.
- Elemental magic now has effectiveness against different types of enemies. Fire beats armor, thunder beats horses, wind beats fliers, and ice beats dragons.
- Axes received a noticable damage increase and accuracy increases, but also suffer weight increases. This changes their weakness from missing alot to lack of double attacking often but gives them the damage to make those single hits count.
- Some classes gained new weapons, but Mage Knights had staves removed and replaced with swords to promote a more combat oriented option when choosing between it and Sages. They were given the Arcane Blade skill to make swords usable and make 1-range combat beneficial. They were also indirectly buffed by the changes to magic swords which Mage Knights and Valkyries greatly take advantage of compared to all other sword classes.
- Due to Mage Knights not having staves, Troubadours can only be promoted into Valkyries since no other promoted Horse Staff class exists.
- Sages no longer have Light Magic.
- Disabled a common modded feature that displays damage dealt over a unit’s head during battle animations.
- You are now forced to deploy both Eirika and Ephraim in all story chapters after “Ch15: Scorched Sand”.
Other Noteworthy Changes:
- All class specific promotion items awarded in-game have been replaced with Master Seals instead.
- Class specific promotion items were converted into Hold Items that grant benefits or skills to the unit carrying them.
- Weapons grant more Wep Exp per hit the higher their weapon level is. E and D rank weapons grant 1, C and B rank weapons grant 2, and A rank weapons grant 3. This makes getting an S rank easier, makes training multiple weapon levels on the same unit easier, and encourages the use of higher rank weapons which the game is also balanced around.
- Support levels increase faster and support levels can be gained a 2 range instead of just 1.
- All new weapons ranks added to old classes have battle animations courtesy of publicly released Fire Emblem community resources (creators credited in a txt document included with the mod).
- Post game content (primarily Lagdou Ruins) received difficulty increases and new rewards at the higher floors.
- Battle animation color pallets changed for several characters to more closely represent their character portrait looks.
New Character Recruitment and Support Guide:
For anyone having difficulty figuring out how to recruit the new characters, get all the Supports for them, or see their battle quotes, here’s a short guide for that:
Gerardo:
- Recruited by talk with Garcia
- Supports with Garcia, Moulder, and Joshua
- Battle Quotes against Bazba and Caellach
Devin:
- Recruited by talk with Ross
- Supports with Ross, Amelia, and Ewan
- No Battle Quotes
Odion:
- Recruited by talk with Vanessa or by having him survive the chapter.
- Supports with Natasha, Saleh, and Knoll
- Battle Quotes against Riev (in both chapters where Riev is a boss)
Laurel:
- Recruited by talk with Eirika or by having her survive the chapter
- Supports with Seth, Forde, and Kyle
- Battle Quotes against Tirado and Orson
Elias:
- Recruited by talk with Cormag
- Supports with Cormag, Duessel, Lute
- Battle Quotes against Valter
Sara:
- Recruited by talk with Tana or Innes
- Supports with Tana, Innes, and Syrene
- No Battle Quotes
Additionally, Joshua can also be recruited by Gerardo in addition to Natasha.
Known Issues:
- Typos. I did my best to proofread them all out but I’m still only human. I’m sure something slipped by somewhere.
- Sometimes one unit within a support pairing will reach the threshold for initiating a Support Conversation before the other, resulting in moments where for example Cormag can initiate a support with Artur but Artur cannot initiate that same conversation until he spends another turn or two near Cormag. Annoying, but not a serious issue.
- It is possible to soft lock your game. I have added the ability to save your game right before the Demon King fight but due to admittedly fixable complications that come at the cost of story flow, I’ve opted to NOT have a battle preparations screen here. This means that if your Sacred Twin items are being carried by units you did not bring to the previous chapter, there will be no way to retrieve them since there’s no preparation screen and those items aren’t in your convoy. If you save the game under these specific conditions, you may be locked into a battle with the Demon King that you cannot win since the Sacred Twins are the only items that deal damage to him. But you’re not cocky enough to specifically store all your super weapons on benched units right before fighting the final boss… Right?
- Due to an odd glitch involving the added save screen on Chapter 21x, it is possible while viewing your team’s stat pages to scroll past your currently deployed team and view units you did not bring. Returning to the map from these screens may freeze your game, causing you to start the Demon King fight over again. This glitch is not harmful to your save data, but may be startling when it occurs. Currently there is no known way to fix it without removing the save spot which I find too valuable to remove.
- Weapons that inflict Sleep, Silence, or Berserk on an enemy (for example Flux, Eclipse, and Garm) may end combat as soon as the debuff is applied. This can be good to save you from a counter attack or an enemy double attack but can also be bad by canceling your own lethal double attack.
- Sometimes, leaving a chapter and resuming it mid-combat may change the outcome of the RNG rolls. Also, I once had Ephraim die to poison damage and Game Over, then I resumed chapter instead of restarting. Ephraim still died again but the Game Over screen didn’t trigger a 2nd time and I was able to resume gameplay without my main lord unit.
- When a status condition is cured at the start of a turn, the animation for it does not trigger.
- Easy Difficulty sometimes has a “stat underflow” issue which ends up making a stat super high instead of low. This difficulty is largely untested but the issue doesn’t seem to be too common, nor does it seem to affect defensive stats so working around it should be doable.
- Lagdou Ruins apparently freezes on a black screen upon completion of the final floor.
- The side effects this mod has on the Arena is completely untested. Good luck with that.
- A ballista once shot my Gilliam and put him to sleep. Never managed to replicate this and nothing associated with it had thr skill Deadeye on it (or any skill at all). Just be aware.
Personal Challenges/Inquiries:
To encourage more experimental gameplay, I’d like to challenge players to dive as deep into this mod as possible and play it in as many ways as you can find enjoyment in. I challenge you to answer the following questions:
- Get all the new supports and expanded lore. Does it all fit well within the original setting?
- Read through the entire story to identify as many changes as you can. Do they improve the story or not? Do some chapters feel more alive?
- Test out all of the classes and see how they perform. Are they fun to use and why?
- Explore the effectiveness of different units and their growth rates. Do any of the weird or “bad” characters add anything interesting to the gameplay when used long term?
- Find as many different ways to approach a chapter as you can. How does team composition affect difficulty, strategy, or the flow of each chapter?
- Take advantage of whatever you can and see if anything (other than optional extra grinding) breaks the game.
- Analyze and break down the game like you would an official title. How does this game hold up in isolation as its own thing? How does it compare to other official titles? Is it a worthy mod among the sea of other options in your opinion?
I spent a year polishing this game as best I could. I hope you give this project a chance and I greatly hope you find it fun and enjoyable. Thanks for your attention.
