[FE8] Fire Emblem: A Bastion of our Own (New 3.18.2026 Demo)

[hhshark10]

A Bastion of Our Own is an FE8 romhack that takes place in the realm of the Everweald that follow the intertwining paths of two deuteragonists. Aereus, an acolyte of a monastic order called the ‘Pyroclast’ who can summon a strange, flame-like creature. And Aurelia, who is a rural, salt-of-the-earth, upstart mercenary who’s decided to try and take on the mantle and learn what it’s like to try and be a leader.

Features:

• A summoner main character, who is capable of summoning a spark which can be ‘attuned’ into several different, very powerful forms.
• A major choice is presented to the player at the end of each chapter, many of which have effects or implications several chapters later.
• Currently 35 playable units in this 14 chapter demo.
• Branching Promotions
• Recruitment based gaiden chapters for recruiting some units.
• Fates-style weapon triangle (Swd/Anima < Lnc/Knives < Axe/Bows)
• Slightly stronger weapon triangle (+/- 20 hit, +/-2 Might)
• Overall weapon overhaul (see gameplay section for more info)
  -Added knives as new weapon type. (No fates-debuffs, they’re strong enough)
  -Dark/Light combined into weapon triangle ‘Neutral’ magic.
  -Strong 2-3 range bows, but no 1 range bows.
• Light-moderate use of the classic skill system
  -Playable characters and bosses generally get one personal skill.
  -All infantry receive shove, all mounts receive canto.
  -Few class based skills (+Crit skills, convoy lord, and rogue/thief skills)
  -A few skill scrolls can also be found.
• No skills should be proc % based. Instead, some characters will have skills which are battle arts that consume durability and can be selected to activate on player phase.
• Units should send items to convoy in death, when the convoy is accessible.
• Stealable/Droppable Item indicators on enemy units
• Many talk conversations will also provide items and hints.

Screenshots

Background

I’ve been playing Fire Emblem since I received FE8 in the 3ds ambassador program years ago. I’ve since played through nearly every English release, with my favorites among them being FE6, FE8, and Echoes.

I’ve wanted to make a romhack for nearly 10 years, since back when I was still in high school. I still have some original design documents, most of which are absolutely terrible and never went beyond the planning phase. That being said, there were still a few things in these that I managed to keep to this day.

In the past few years I had became engrossed in DnD, which is a clear inspiration for many of the changes in this game. In fact, I am using some story beats and inspiration from my campaign into this rom hack.

This has been in development since April 2024, and I’m really happy with the amount of progress I’ve made since then.

Gameplay Changes

My goals when creating this game were focused around trying to make something very replayable that is relatively ironman friendly. Many chapters will have additional bonus objectives and rewards for finishing chapters quickly, giving players the tools they need to do so.

In Fire Emblem design, I have a strong belief in unit specialization and differentiation. Each unit should have their own strengths and weaknesses, otherwise it becomes too trivial to juggernaut on one or a few units.

There are many anti-turtling incentives and punishments, nearly in every chapter. This is because I always find myself playing ‘safe’ and turtling if there is no penalty against doing so.

Major gameplay and weapon changes:

-Weapon triangle is now +/- 2 might and 20 hit. The weapon triangle is based on the FE: Fates style, so Swords/Anima > Axes/Bows > Lances/Daggers > Swords/Anima.

-Light and Dark magic are now combined as a ‘Neutral’ type, as they are neutral to the weapon triangle. To differentiate them outside of simple stat changes, dark magic is usually very powerful, however is not able to follow-up attack. Light magic usually has little or no power to their tomes, but instead grants a magic buff to the user. This makes light magic pair well with staves to increase healing or range when equipped.

-Daggers do not provide any sort of stat debuff, unlike in FE: Fates.

-Bows are now mostly all 2-3 range. There are no 1 range bows.

-Staves heal slightly less than they do typically.

-Bronze weapons raise weapon experience quickly.

-Poison consistently does 5 damage per turn now. The sleep/berzerk status only lasts for 2 (effectively 1) turn.

-If an item has ‘-1’ listed for it’s hit rate, it will always hit. If it has a ‘-1’ listed for it’s critical rate, the weapon will never be able to critically strike.

-Some units are temporary and will join for just a chapter or two. You will be notified of these, and they will send their inventory to the convoy when the leave. Additionally, you will be notified when there is a reward for saving units or other bonuses.

-Promoting units is now done through a menu command rather than through master seals.

-Some items are untradeable, but there are ways to get past this limitation. It’s recommended not to do so for mostly gameplay-story integration reasons.

-Units should send their items to the convoy on death, once the convoy is accessible.

-Supports are assigned, and grow at longer distances than typical of FE8. You can also support up to five people, rather than 5 total supports. Support conversations are not written at this time.

Feedback

I am highly interested in any and all feedback about what you like and do not like about the current state of this demo. If you do, please provide information as to what difficulty you are playing on.

For story feedback, I’m very worried that I’m too verbose in my dialogue and I need to cut a lot of it down or out. Please let me know if you would agree or disagree with this.

A particular worry right now for me is on turn based objectives. I’ve designed some of these so they feel reasonable, but tight to hit. But as I am designing this, some of these might be too strict. If you feel they are too much so, please let me know which ones in particular.

Most portraits and class cards are used from the repository, but I have been trying to make an effort to make or edit based on vanilla or F2E assets. Many of these are rough and could use some extra polish, but they should mostly be fine for placeholders right now.

Credits and Patches

I am ever thankful to FE universe and everyone within it that has provided countless free to use resources on the repository that has been made available.

Some credits listed may currently be planned, but not yet inserted, but I wanted to make sure to list these too.

Title Screen Art: My good friend, Pablo. Also goes by given_failure.

7743 for FEBuilder and everything that went into it.

Character Portraits:
MegaCowSamMan
Cravat
RandomWizard
CapibaraInSpace
Laurent
AmBrosiac
Garytop
Levin64
SirNicee
Amema003
ZeldaCrafter
JiroPaiPai
NickT
Alusq
Dutch Introvert
Tobiki
LaurentLaicrox
Valak
Al
Goldblitzx
Der
CanDy
HyperGammaSpaces
Beansy
Raymond
Ghostblade
Yasako
Armory
ObsidianDaddy
LonkFromCalifornia
MeatOfJustice
Levin64
Jopettajah
GenericPretsel
Alexsplode
L95
Roxannity
Zelkami Yasuko
ZoramineFae
Lenh
Spealnuke
Flasuban
Matthieu
RedLightning
Cynon
Epicer
King
Mel
SSHX
Helix0981
Imperial
Serif
Smokeyguy77
XVI
JeyTheCount
UltraXblade
Epicer
Its_Just_Jay
Plant Academy
Levin
Feier
Fatman
LonkFromCalifornia
ZessDynamite
Eden
Miguel-Rojo
Parhesia
Vlak
Blade

Battle Frames, stat screen, map palettes:
Cynon

Battle Animations:
Huichelaar
Jotari
Ayr
Eldritch
Pikmin
Der
GabrielKnight
Leo_Link
Dutch_Introvert
Salvaged
Vilkalizer
Delvsian_Nights
MK404
St.Jack
Pushwall
Nuramon
MeatOfJustice
Solum
Zeldacrafter
Alexplode
Sme
SphealNuke
Redbean
It’sJustJay
Metero
Camus Regan
Fiuke Bnuy
Temp
Spud
Ultrafenix
Seal
Flasuban
Markex133
TyTheBub
Velvet
Marlon0024
Ririk
BatimaTheBat
Skitty
DatonDemandSeliost1
VelvetKisune

Class Cards:
SwordofHeavenAndEarth
Salvaged
N426
Pikmin
Jj09
Nuramon
Leo_Link
Der
Skidmarc25
TBA
Melia
Spud
SphealNuke
SamirPlayz
Rasdel
Blademaster
Itranc
Melia
WhydidImakethisaccount
Scriza
Laurent Lacroix
Flasuban
FaerieFruit
DarkJaden
RobertFPY
L95
Zoramine
Epicer

Class Map Animations:
Der
Pushwall
IS
ArcherBias
Seliost1
DoraDrago
Ryn
N426
Pikmin
Zoramine
Flasuban
Taratino500
Salvaged
Rasdel
Primefusion
Kemui52
Dutch_Introvert
L95
Eldritch_Abomination
Rdroyn
Dondon151
MeatOfJustice
Unknown
Sphealnuke
TopazLight
FEGirls
Agro
Alusq
Alice
Alexplode
Tordo45
EA
Blademaster
Hanakko
Feier
Rexacuse
Peerless
VelvetKisune
StreetHero
Blood
Marri
ArcaneEli
MaxLimit
Yikes!
Faeriefruit
Augenis
Flasuban
Nuramon
Yellowtoad

Spell Animations:
Seal
Sacred War
Shyuterz
Blazer
Jubby
Arch
Orihara_Saki
Sme
Mikey Seregon
Hiroto
Scriaza
St Jack
Aegius
PurpleMage
Bonzai
IS
Norikins
Teraspark
Horikins
Orihara_Saki
Comaythanki
Seliost1
St Jack

Item Icons:
SacredWar
Ereshkigal
Leif
Ryan914
Batima
Beansy
FuriousHaunter
GeorgeReds
Kyrads
Lisandra Brave
LordGlenn
Zane
Celice
EldritchA
IndogutsuTenbuki
GabrielKnight
Seal
Zarg
TopazLight
Zelix
Peerless
EldritchAbo
Serebii01
Ingodutsu Tenbuki
TacticsOgre LUCT
AtelierLabs

Map Tilesets & Palettes:
Zoramine
Der
Lu
N426
Wave
Randomwizard
HyperGammaSpaces
Vennobennu
Atlas

World Map:
Mapgen4

FEMapCreator - for base design help
BwdYeti

Music:
A Reliable Chair
Pandan
Thegis
Runa
Sme
Mr Green3339
Mychahel
Psyche
MeatOfJustice
Saxor
Feier
Alusq
Dolkar
Pikmin
SurgingKyogre
RealxViperz
7743
MonopolyRubix
Miffe
SurfingKyogre
Nyawenyye
RealXVipers
HunterAurzo
Kaidras
Tak
UnitedStars111

Patches:
16 tracks 12 sounds
Switch character ending’s title name in ending with flag
Switch character ending’s text with flag
AutoGenLetOAM Reduce capacity by dynamically creating LeftToRight OAM.
Disables the Prep store for a particular map (Install)
CasualMode (Ver Flag 0xB0)
Fix CG Fade Glitch
Dynamically Change the Fire and Elfire palette (Installer)
Dynamically Change the resize palette (Installer)
Change Battle BGM By Chapter
Set Victory BGM By Chapter
clear unreleased works: ROM END3
Continue Battle BGM Between Map and Combat 20181124
Continue Battle BGM Between Map and Combat 20200819
Continue Battle BGM Between Map and Combat 20220321
CritCap: Fixed critical from appearing in excess of 100%
Dancer AI
Map Danger Zone (Select: Toggle)
Draw UTF-8 Text
drawfix
Switch Portrait images by class, flag 20220807 (Installer)
Switch Portrait images by class, flag 20231104 (Installer)
Remove Enemy Control Glitch
Display Escape menu
Add Event: Split Menu 20230401
Add Event: Change All of unit or class at once 20210413
Add Event: Get Unit Status
Add Event: Set Unit Status
Add Event: Lose Gold
Add Event: Lose Item (unit)
Add Event: Lose Item (All units and transporters)
Add Event: EventWriter
Add Event: Give the unit experience points 20220120
Add Event: Force rescue to Event
Add Event: Send unit’s all items to transporter
Add Event: SilentGiveGold
Add Event: SilentGiveItem
Add Event: Simple Escape event that can be easily created 20200305
ExModularSave
ExModularSave with Supply 200
ExModularSave with Supply 200 ver20220127
ExModularSave with Supply 200 ver20220401
ExtendWeaponDescBox 20220912 (extends weapon description from 1 line to 3)
Allow fast forwarding of battle animations with the A button 20220324
Allow fast forwarding of battle animations with the R button 20220531 (Install)
FE8 Battle Stats with Anim Off
FE8 Battle Stats with Anim Off ver2
Attack and capture enemies with reduced speed like FE5 (Tequila Version)
Rogue Robbery
Enable Locked Weapon Prf constraints on staffs and items as well
MinimugPalette Using Text Buffer
MinimugPalette Using Soundroom Buffer
01command_hack
48command_hack
Anti-Huffman
FEditorMagicCSASystem_FE8U
FillAIDangerMap Efficiency Fix 20220712
Fix dodge to front glitch
fix_lz77decompress
Fix the weapon level of the Summoned Phantom’s weapon level of the possessed
Group AI
Use HandAxe motion as generic motion for throwing axes
HPBars_with_warnings
HPBars_with_warnings Cache
HPBars_simple
Icon Display (Install)
Improved Sound Mixer
Deny Deployment From Preparations (Installer)
Less Annoying Fog
Magic Sword Rework (Installer)
ModularMinimugBox: 2018 Default With Skill (Installer)
ModularMinimugBox: 2018 Default (Installer)
ModularMinimugBox: FE7 Style (Installer)
ModularMinimugBox: Kaitou Style (Installer)
ModularMinimugBox: REDFE Style (Installer)
ModularMinimugBox: RUNABOX LHT Style (Installer)
ModularMinimugBox: VisionQuest Style with ItemList (Installer)
ModularMinimugBox: VisionQuest Style without ItemList (Installer)
ModularMinimugBoxV2: catball Style (Installer)
ModularMinimugBoxV2: catball second Style (Installer)
ModularMinimugBoxV2: Vesly Style (Installer)
Set the recovery amount of multiple heal staves (Installer)
(OLD) Change to have multiple units that can seize
Change to have multiple units that can seize 20200302 (Installer)
Multi Tile Marker Display (multiple exit markers on the map) (Installer)
Multiple Vulnerary (Installer)
Narrow Font
Switch the death quote for each unit who is killer
No S-Resire
Prevent Rescue (Installer)
Prevent exchange of valuables ListVersion (Installer)
Menu PromoteCommand: Promote to a higher class (Installer)
Add Event: FE7J style Red Fog Quintessence Effect
Change image in upper right of the preparations (Install)
Expanded the setting of the ring effect used by dancers (Installer)
Execute event script instead of support conversation (Install)
Change Max HP limit to use setting in class editor
Set whether transporter can be used for each map (Installer)
DurabilityBasedItemEvent
Skip the event using the opening world map
SOUND_NIMAP (Native Instrument Map)
SOUND_NIMAP2 (Native Instrument Map)
Stairs 20191031
Add blink to portrait image on status screen
Change support conversation to 5 people instead of 5 times (By Area)
Prevent exchange of valuables (Installer)
UnitActionRework
Aum Patch (UltraXBlade)
Dropable/Stealable Item Indicators (Scraiza)

Current Build / Known Issues

The current version goes until chapter 13, for a total of 14 gameplay related chapters as well as 2 recruitment based chapters.

UPS File link: Dropbox

Please report bugs or issues alongside any general feedback. The different difficulties have some descriptions that are based on general estimations against other FE titles. Currently, I think they are slightly easier than what the descriptions say, but as I’m the creator of this it’s hard for me to say. Please give me feedback if you feel the description does not align with the difficulty.

Known Issues / Current limitations:

-There is a glitch with stealables/droppables not showing correctly in battle preparations. Some units might get erroneously flagged as having these when they do not. This corrects itself on starting the chapter.

-Some items show a ‘-1’ critical rate, which is set up so that they will never critically strike. However, the ‘danger’ icon still shows up, as if they had a high crit-rate like a killer weapon.

-Ballistae range on enemies does not show their extended range. I believe this is something to do with my current version of FEBuilder, but I find myself unable to fix this. Ballistae are not common, and it’s recommended to deal with them quickly.

-Combat Arts are not always addressed properly in the battle forecast. You may have to do some math to figure out damage when using these combat arts. I apologize, I’m aware of other hacks that implement these in the forecast, but I don’t think I have the skills or capability of implementing this.

-Currently when Aereus’ spark ‘talks’ to him for attuning, the new class will not show up until they wait. If anyone has a way of being able to show the updated class image right away immediately after the talking ends, I would be very interested.

[MercuryMerc]

Going to play right now! Looks great!

[ElPinguinot]

The initial premise make me curious ! Looks a bit like the one of Tyranny, in a world after the bbeg won !

Can’t wait to see the future of your project !

[MercuryMerc]

Alright, so I just played the prologue, and I already have some feedback. I think the fates weapon triangle is… a bit harsh. Bows lose their neutrality with it, and that hurts them, especially since neither of the starting archers have very good base skill/skill growth or defenses, and breaking through the several units near the end of the prologue is rough, even without considering the anti-turtle reinforcements. I honestly feel like it’s kinda luck based whether or not all of the starting group even makes it through, the armor knights from the left near the exit making that especially true. As for unit individuality, Flavia and Cornelia are very different units, but Cornelia kind of outclasses Flavia in general. Flavia is faster, but has terrible skill and strength, and no defenses to rely on. The res being especially unhelpful considering you don’t want your archer to be fighting mages with the Fates triangle. Her skill is also the only one I’ve seen that is an activation skill, which further hurts her, making Cornelia much more realiable.

[hhshark10]

Thanks so much for the feedback, I really appreciate it!

Response

The knight reinforcements are probably too fast, especially for a prologue chapter. I wanted tension going from the get-go in this. In my last round of testing, I was actually too slow and they came out in front of me, but I had a fun moment where I was able to get everyone through on the right path through the cracked wall. But, depending on positioning, I can see where you’re coming from.

Flavia is probably a slow burn, once she gets speed going she can double much more with steel bows for good damage. I was hoping that the slightly stronger weapon triangle would help hit rates, but she’s definitely a one trick pony. You’re probably right about her personal skill too, I will experiment more with different skills.

On the mage, I’ve usually used Vitus to deal with him, but you are absolutely right that overall the initial team doesn’t have the loadout to deal with mages well. I will either remove him entirely or change him to a scout for WTA and better reliability dealing with him.

[MercuryMerc]

If Flavia had Galeforce or something, then that would encourage her use while also having her skill do the same thing, just more reliably.

[Lightseeker]

Question what canyou use to play the demo?

[hhshark10]

This is a Fire Emblem Sacred stones romhack, I believe as per the rules you would need to track down a romfile of the base game. Then you would need a patching tool (I think NUPS is the one most people still use? It’s the one I use, in any case.) and use the .ups patch in my first post and patch it onto the rom.

[Lightseeker]

So if i had the original game on a folder would i put UNPS on that same folder and boom?

(Sorry this is my first time trying to play a romhack and im on phone so haha)

[knabepicer]

See this thread (and maybe check out the rest of the pinned posts) How to Patch a Rom v5

[Lightseeker]

So ive been playing and my game froze when i used an antitoxen other than that game went well im in chaper 4 so far

[hhshark10]

Thanks so much for playing! I apologize for the crash, I was aware of a glitch with it however it was just a visual glitch on my end. Maybe it’s some kind of difference with the emulator being used, but regardless I realized where I messed up the item effects for it, and upon testing it looks like it’s fixed now.

I’m putting up version 0.2.1 ups in the downloads folder for a fix on this as well as some general balancing based on feedback and another run of playtesting I’ve done.

0.2.1 Patch Notes

Prologue anti-turtling reinforcements will now arrive 1-2 turns later.
Prologue mages replaced with scouts to increase reliability.
Slight enemy AI changes on several maps.
Hard mode enemy bonuses slightly turned down on chapters 5, 10, and 11.
Lowered the might of poison weapons (which is still stronger compared to vanilla)
Fixed Antitoxin bug/crash.
A few typos fixed.

Unit balancing:
Aurelia’s base skill from 0->1
Changed Flavia’s personal skill to voice of peace
Flavia’s skill growth changed from 20->50
Flavia’s def growth from 10->20
Flavia’s luck growth from 80->70
Flavia’s base skill from 1->3
Tycho’s str growth from 55->65
Tycho’s knife rank from E → D
Lykon’s base mag from 2->4
Lysander’s str growth from 45->55
Lysander’s def growth from 25->35
Tiberius’ def growth from 20->40
Tiberius’ base def from 2->3
Nestor’s base res from 2->4
Ceto’s str growth from 80->65
Ceto’s def growth from 25->35
Petrus’ base def from 7->8
Petrus’ base speed from 7->8

[Lightseeker]

Is it possible to recruit cassiaor no

[hhshark10]

Yes, Cassia can be recruited by Hestia. I believe there is a hint in her dialogue, and you can check the talk slot in a characters stat page to get guided about anyone that might recruit certain units.

[MarredOne]

This looks super interesting to me. I feel invested after just completing the prologue.

I’m not too great at feedback on balance etc, but will try my best.

What I CAN do reasonably well is find typos. Would that be helpful for this stage of your project?

[hhshark10]

Thanks so much for taking a look at this! I definitely appreciate all feedback, even if you’re less confident on balance I’d love to hear about what you like and don’t like in the gameplay. Pointing out typos is much appreciated too, please feel free to send me a personal message with anything you’ve found.

[ShirleyVaga]

So I played the prologe and it’s quite a good start.
I like when the story and gameplay match.
Out of curiouisity what happens if you lose anyone in the prologue
does it affect the scene with the group ganging up on the boss ?
Things i noticed (I use visualboyadvance- m ) if you let the game go through the class roll it crashes. The ingame guide didn’t mention anything about the knives etc so I was surprised on the weapon triangle being different. Lastly some in battle palletes dont match up with some characters and some have some odd colourations.

[hhshark10]

Thanks so much for taking a look too. Losing a unit is fairly standard, even in the prologue you would lose the unit. I’m pretty sure this version makes sure the cutscene plays out the same even if you lose everyone.

I am planning to fix the class roll, fully finish palettes, and update the in-game guide that so it mentions the same changes as in the first post. I was holding off because I’m still tinkering around with some changes and there might be some differences in future versions.

[MercuryMerc]

Is this still being worked on?

[hhshark10]

Thanks for checking in. It’s probably a good time to post this, since I’m at a bit of a crossroads. But I’ll lay everything out for transparency.

As a whole, yes this has still been getting worked on. Awhile back I decided I wanted to rebuild the game because the current febuilder patch of skillsystem had several bugs, and some alternatives had more features. I spent some time on looking into using the c skill system versions, but decided I would use the updated skill system on the github, since there’s some new features I could use.

So for the past 6 months, I’ve worked on the following:

• A first pass at making every remaining map. (21 more maps with route splits. And just tiling, so not including edited map palettes, unit placements, eventing, etc. These will definitely need further refinement, and many early maps in the demo will need complete re-dos.)
• I’ve recolored nearly every character portrait I’ve gotten from the repository.
• I’ve finished battle palettes on every character. (Which was a lot with branching promotions)
• I’ve added a personal information page for every character.
• Added to/Fixed class reel
• Lots of class/character/item revamps. For example, I’ve implemented the combat art skills that cost durability to use.

Here’s a few screenshots of this progress, just for reference.

Screenshots

That being said, about two weeks ago I ran into a pretty critical issue in my development. There’s a bug where units only show their attack range for the first item they have in their inventory, all other potential range is ignored. (I.E. if a unit has a iron lance and then a javelin, they look like they can only attack one tile away instead of two.) I don’t know how this happened, but I feel like trying to update FEbuilder may have caused it or perhaps an issue with importing a patch, but I have no idea.

I consider this issue significant enough that it makes the game unplayable due to providing incorrect information to the player with the potential to mess up many runs. Somehow, all of my backup files have this same issue, despite that it seems like it was just introduced recently. I’m unable to fix this, and I haven’t seen anyone with this same issue, so I think I might need to rebuild everything. While it’s a time sink to rebuild, I don’t have to create everything again, just re-add/import everything.

I say I’m at a bit of a crossroads because I’ve been taking a small break for these two weeks thinking about what to do. I’ve actually been brainstorming a new story that revolves around a summoner lord with some interesting mechanics I want to tinker with. So I’ve been debating either making a new project (recycling everything I can) or forming that into this existing project and change many of the story plans to make it more interesting. Because my original intention for this project was for it to have a simple story, but lately I’ve been worried that it might be too simple, and this might be a good way to spice it up. Of course, maybe this is just feature/story creep, and I need to reign it in. But this would be the time to think about this, while I might have to rebuild everything anyway.

Anyway, hopefully this provides a good and transparent update for the progress I’m going through. Apologies for the big blocks of text. Any feedback is welcome, especially any advice on moving forward.