[FE8] [Complete] Fire Emblem: Crowns and Thrones

[RandomMercenary]

Hello there!

Welcome to my new project: Crowns and Thrones. I have been working on this project for while now and I have decided to share the first half of the game.

Crowns and Thrones: what is it?
The gameplay is experimental to say the least, so don’t go into this expecting standard FE gameplay. I’m going to say this: the gameplay is probably not for everyone…
Things like growths and leveling up for example, is not a thing in this hack. More about gameplay later.

The game will be only 10 chapters long. However, there will also be 4 gaiden chapters and 2 prologues. So, 16 chapters in total. As of now, the first half of the game is completed. The first 5 chapters, 2 gaidens and 2 prologues are all playable.

To be clear, this is NOT The Phantom King’s sequel.

Story

Ok so technically…it kinda is The Phantom King’s sequel.

The game takes place after The Phantom King. There is supposed to be a game in-between the two (I’m still working on that). While that one is a direct sequel to The Phantom King, this one has very little to do with the story of the other two. This one can be enjoyed without having played the other two.

So, what’s the story about?

The first half of the story is about Prince Leon, who tries to protect his kingdom from foreign invaders, as well from his tyrannical father King Richard.

The second half will take place 27 years later and has a different protagonist.

Just as with The Phantom King, there are a lot of characters, places, noble houses and territories. That’s why I once again made a bunch of tables and maps for reference. These can, along with the game’s patch, be found in the zip file.

Gameplay

Like I stated before: there is no leveling up and there is no unit growth. All units have fixed stats.

• Units
  There are 2 types of units: Commanders and generics.

Commanders are characters in the story. They have names and are lost when you let them die. Most of them have 1 personal skill and 1 leadership star. You should be careful with your commanders because everytime you lose one, you lose a leadership star as well, which puts you at a disadvantage against your enemy. Most commanders can also choose their promotion at the start of a chapter. Commanders will lose their promotion on the next chapter, which allows you to choose their playstyle for that specific chapter. The amount of commanders you get is very limited!

Generic units make up the bulk of your army. Every chapter you’ll get a set amount of generics. They should be seen as more of a resource instead of characters that need to stay alive. Generics have skills as well, but these are tied to their class. As a result, every class has its own role (Check the classes and weapons table below for more info).

• Weapons
  All weapons need either an E rank or A rank to use. Wether a unit can use a specific weapon depends on how proficient their class is with the weapon type.
  At the start of most chapters you get 50 gold (which is worth about 2-3 weapons depending on how you spend it) to spend on weapons and items. All weapons and items will be lost when finishing a chapter.

• Villages
  Instead of items or weapons, villages provide you with reinforcements. Most villages (castles as well) have shops and armories too.
  

Screenshots

Bugs

• Staff users and dancers can still gain EXP points by using staves/dancing.
• Not really a bug, but in chapter 2x you can move Taufik (Who you need to defend) around by shoving, swapping, pivoting or repositioning him with skills. This is not really how I intended it, but I don’t really have a solution for this as of now.

Please let me know if you find anything else. It would help me immensely.

Credits

• Animations:

[FE5 Lord Custom] [M] Leif Lord by Obsidian Daddy.

[FE8 Eirika-Base] [F] T1 Beta Eirika Fixed by Jono the Red.

[Cavalier-Variant] [M] Generic by SALVAGED.

[Grand Paladin] [M] Seth v2 by Aruka.

[Great Lord-Custom] [M] Master Knight by St Jack.

[Paladin-Variant] [M] Kent by Greentea.

[Paladin-Variant] [M] SALVAGED +Weapons.

[Berserker-Variant] [M] Skinnyzerker Ross by Zomaxiee.

[Archer-Variant] [M] Der’s Improved Repal.

[Crossbowman] [M] Bowgunner by Epicer.

[Sniper-Reskin] [F] Quiver by Nuramon.

[Sniper-Reskin] [M] Quiver by Nuramon.

[Soldier-Custom] [M] FE15-Style by Nuramon.

[Hero-Reskin] [F] Generic +Brown Shield by IS, Pikmin1211, Pushwall, St jack.

[Hero-Reskin] [M] FE7 Coat +Brown Shield by Swain, Pikmin1211, ltranc.

[Mercenary-Reskin] [M] Armored +Axe by Alusq.

[General-Reskin] [M] Baron Cape +Weapons by Leo_link, Nuramon, Iscaneus, The_Big_Dededester.

[Knight-Variant] [M] Generic by SALVAGED.

[Marshall] [M] Zelgius v3 by Nuramon.

[FE7 Eliwood-Base] [M] T1 Vanilla +Weapons by Jj09, PrincessKilvas, Spud.

[FE7 Lyn-Reskin] [F] T2 FE7if Karla by FE7if.

[FE8 Ephraim-Custom] [M] T2 Heavy Infantry by Nuramon.

[FE8 Ephraim-Variant] [M] T1 Vanilla Repack +Weapons by DerTheVaporeon, Pikmin1211.

[T3.1 Bishop] [M] Patriarch by MrNight48.

[Mage-Custom1] [F] Light Mage by L95.

[Mage-Custom1] [M] Light Mage by L95.

[Sage-Custom] [F] Gaiden Priestess by Gamma.

[Sage-Variant] [F] Battle Sage +Sword by St jack.

[Sage-Variant] [M] Battle Sage +Weapons by St jack, The_Big_Dededester, Dolkar.

[Devisian-Custom] [M] Magician v2 by Devisian_Nights.

[WL Reskin] [U] Armored by Nuramon.

[WR Base] [U] Vanilla +Weapons by Mikey Seregon, Alfred Kamon.

[Dark Knight] [U] Great Knight-Style by Primefusion.

[MK-Base] [F] Vanilla +Weapons by Aruka, Kenpuhu.

[MK-Base] [M] Vanilla +Weapons by Aruka, Kenpuhu.

[Troubadour-Reskin] [F] Ponytail Repal +Weapons by Pikmin1211, Maiser6, Lisandra_Brave, TBA.

[Paladin-Custom] [M] Leo’s Duke Knight by Leo_Link.

[Marshall] [U] FE10-Style by Nuramon.

[Eliwood-Variant] [M] Mage Lord by TytheBub.

[Tent Standing] by Gabrielknight.

• Tilesets:
  FE5’s fields by flasuban
  FE5 Castle V2 by flasuban

• Music:

Advance Wars - Andy_s Theme (MrGreen3339).
FE4 - Another Assault (Tristan_Hollow).
FE4 - Army of Agustria (SurfingKyogre).
FE4 - Army of Grannvale 1 (SurfingKyogre).
FE4 - Castle Captured (SurfingKyogre).
FE4 - Conversation 1 (SurfingKyogre).
FE4 - Defense (MrGreen3339).
FE4 - Disturbance in Agustria (Sme).
FE4 - Eldigan the Lionheart (Scraiza).
FE4 - Emperor Arvis (SurfingKyogre).
FE4 - Enemy Message 3 (SurfingKyogre).
FE4 - Fateful Showdown (SaXor_the_Nobody).
FE4 - From Enemy to Friend (pandan).
FE4 - Glory to Grannvale (SurfingKyogre).
FE4 - Victory 1 (SurfingKyogre).
FE4 - Victory is Near! (SurfingKyogre).
FE4 - When The Rush Comes (MrGreen3339).
FE5 - Advance (Dolkar).
FE5 - Adversity (Dolkar).
FE5 - Barbarians (Dolkar).
FE5 - Boss Battle (Dolkar).
FE5 - Conquest (SurfingKyogre).
FE5 - Crisis (SurfingKyogre).
FE5 - Defend (pandan).
FE5 - In Search of Victory - Leif (SurfingKyogre).
FE5 - Map A (Dolkar).
FE5 - Prep Screen (hypergammaspaces).
FE5 - Pressing Threat (MrGreen3339).
FE5 - Pressing Threat Base A (Dolkar).
FE5 - Recruitment (SurfingKyogre).
FE5 - Searching the Enemy (SurfingKyogre).
FE5 - Squadron B (Dolkar).
FE5 - Victory (Dolkar).
FE5 - Victory Minor (Dolkar).
FE9 - Clash (SaXor_the_Nobody).
FE9 - With Us (Sme).
FE16 - Fodlan Winds (A_Reliable_Chair).
FE16 - Somewhere to Belong (Sme).

• CG artwork:

‘Hundred years war’ by Patrick Nicolle.

‘100 years war’ by Patrick Nicolle.

‘100 years war-french warriors’ from Italeri.

‘Battle of Poitiers 1356’ by Andrew Spratt.

‘The march from Leicester’ by Graham Turner.

‘Lancaster’s chevauchée of 1346’ by Graham Turner.

‘Magna Carta Painting’ by Michael Godfrey.

‘A Medieval Court’ from “Medieval Law and Order”. HistoryLearning.com.

• If anything is missing, let me know!

The patch can be found here: Crowns and Thrones (Link to Dropbox)

Since this project is very experimental, I would like to hear your thoughts on how to improve it. I hope you’ll have fun checking it out!

Thanks for reading.

[Dex]

I played the first chapter and must say I really enjoyed it. The new take is really refreshing and it gives a new idea of using units and the value of a commander cannot be understated. The prologue teaches someone everything there is to know while also leaving some freedom to experiment. I’ll definitely keep up with this hack.

Edit: Chapter 1
A 2 front war wich is pretty difficult if not careful. I liked the anti tuterling incentive a lot and only barely made it. I would have to say that on the lower front after you dealt with the bandits the map for them is done cause the commanders could carry on the end. The upper front for being smaller is more difficult, winning in it is based on chance for me cause only your commander can go up to the sage boss and have a fight with them and even then it came down to chance. I got lucky and hit a low percent sleep stave to take care of the boss.
I want to criticize that the upper front is not prepared to fight the sage at a consistent rate and would recommend maybe adding an archer to the upper army. Otherwise I found the map a lot of fun to play. If the creator has any questions about my experience I will answer them happily.

[Lukirioh]

I love the FE4-5 Map sprites
It looks so great
I would like to play this project someday
It also would be so great to replace the stats / detail screen :3 imo of course
Good luck !

[HeroVP]

Just finished up to ch5 (not sure if it was meant to be playable, but the seize point doesn’t seem to work, so I assume not) and the hack is excellent so far. I played on hard and it’s been pretty much perfectly balanced so far
The story is quite compelling and tightly written, the commanders and generics gimmick is well thought out and unique, and the gameplay is well designed. There were only a few things I found that the hack could improve on.

First of all, some of the missions, especially the Thomas and Henry part of ch1 (where you go to rescue Boudicca) are prone to RNG screwage. The Sage boss and hero generic both take upwards of 4 hits to kill, so I assume the intent is that you are supposed to sleep one or both of them, which makes the map very difficult if you miss your first and/or second sleep, as you then lose the ability to heal for the turn. Henry and Humphrey’s starting area in chapter 2 also suffers from this, mainly due to the lack of healing in their squad. It feels especially strange that you don’t even have vulneraries for that section, as it makes Henry’s army unable to tank more than one or two enemies before becoming death fodder.

Another kind-of weird decision is the split commander promotions. I love the idea behind this, especially how it resets after every map, but some of the choices seem weird. Lady is better than Paladin in almost every chapter, as the characters that get the choice are almost always pinned to the objective or are in no hurry to go anywhere, and paladin and great knight feel too similar for the choice to really matter (pally and wyvern or a foot class or something might be cool). It’s also kind of weird that Claes doesn’t ever get a choice.

Also, sometimes names and chapter titles aren’t capitalized correctly (the first word of it is, but the others aren’t and it looks weird) and something might be wrong with the summon animation, the portrait doesn’t display correctly and sometimes it causes units to turn invisible.

Other than that, excellent hack, I can’t wait to see more of it

[RandomMercenary]

@Dex

I want to criticize that the upper front is not prepared to fight the sage at a consistent rate

Hmm, I suspected that this would be the case. Thanks, I will work on it. And also thanks for your opinions.

@Lukirioh

It also would be so great to replace the stats / detail screen :3 imo of course

I’ll probably change that one to a snes FE style too. Might be fun to make as much of a snes vibe as possible .

@HeroVP

Just finished up to ch5 (not sure if it was meant to be playable, but the seize point doesn’t seem to work, so I assume not)

Ah, sorry for that. Chapter 5, as well as the chp after that, are playable. It seems that a last minute change I did screwed up the seize point. I fixed it now. Also, thanks so much for all the things you pointed out. It will definitely help me improve!

[HeroVP]

Unfortunately, I think the seize point after that (the church) might be broken too

[RandomMercenary]

Sorry

Ok, NOW it should be fixed.

[HeroVP]

Some final minor things with Prologue 2. The masked knight guy will attack the spectators in the stands, and the sage cannot use the physic staff she joins with.

Also, random thing I just noticed with Ch5, why doesn’t Henry have a leadership star or two? It’s weird, because he’s had one for the entire game, but then the initial opponents have no commander, and they are being led just as well? It doesn’t make a lot of sense, and it makes the first actual boss of that map kinda weird because the adds all have a 3 leadership star bonus while you have none

Edit: One more thing that I forgot. It’s kinda weird having female generic classes like swordmaster and female mage use the regular male generic portrait

[Norikins]

For some reason all of the new standing sprites are 16x32. This led to sprite glitching on chapter 3. The system has to render twice as many pixels for a 16x32. Most of the infantry standing sprites can fit in 16x16 without cutting off any pixels. Here they are, now there’s no more sprite glitches. Don’t credit me, this was an easy fix.

16x16 Standing Sprites

[RandomMercenary]

I see! Thanks a bunch, I really appreciate that!

[Waddle-Moogle]

I’ve only played the prologue and first chapter so far but I must say I’m blown away by how much this changes the game feel. I don’t know if it’s emulating mechanics from other games or romhacks but I am very impressed and brought back to games like AW, AoE and Warcraft even. I still have some things to say but overall I really liked it and will happilly play the rest.

Random observations

Everything I will say here is just rambling, don’t take it especially at heart, I just tend to be very exhaustive.

• The very first cutscene (after the first battle) offers very strong characterisation for the main characters and setting and I really liked it. However I feel that the in medias res approach of the tutorial is a bit abrupt and I even thought that in meant that there would be no story at all outside of the Lore section that I then started to read. Maybe at least a small scene of the enemy setting up, “Long live the Marugnat!” or something just to show the player that there IS story here. The writing and setting are very good by the way, classic yet engaging with a lot of details that offer a fleshed out world very quickly.
• Graphically it is a treat too, love the SNES aesthetic. Between this and the unique gameplay it gives a really strong identity to the whole package.
• Gameplay wise it is so weird but I like it. I need to completely rewire my brain to play this, not optimizing XP gains, sacrificing units and wasting good weapons away since nothing matters, and it is actually quite cathartic for me to not play so defensively and frugally for once (you know, the usual “not wasting my potion I might need it later” syndrome)
• It might be an “only me” issue but I assumed that stat boosts would carry on between chapters since it was not clearly stated unlike items and promotions. However it’s not that bad, tutorials are here for experimenting too.
• I’m not particularly fond of skills in general, however by giving the same set of skills to the same generic classes it actually works a lot better that I anticipated with every type of unit feeling more unique and having a lot more personality than just “sword but different” and I really liked that. (Canto+ is still busted though, here and everywhere else.) Plus them having sometimes specific items actually leaves of lot of room for interpretation and character attachment for generics (“No! Not my javelin guy!”). I just wished that not all of the generics had the same soldier portrait at it makes looking for specific units a bit of a pain. Coats of arms to represent each faction look very cool though.
• Also an “only me” problem but I actually forgot to “seize” Henry’s castle because storywise it didn’t make sense to me since they never actually lost control of it. I remembered to do it at the last second when I was stuck at the wall with Leon wondering what to do, complaining before that the “upper team” had nothing for half of the chapter. I was also quite confused that Boudicca couldn’t open the gate of her own castle, but gameplay wise I understand why only Henry can do it.
• If I can be brutally honest for a second, “Crowns and Thrones” is a very generic title. =/ In fact I mistook this romhack for several other romhacks at first glance until I noticed it was a fresh thread. It’s especially weird how boring and unnoticable it feels when everything else in the actual game is so fresh and original.

Minor glitches

You probably know most of them, or they might be already fixed (I downloaded it when it came out). Played on mGBA.

• Some (not all) Militia have the wrong flavor text.
  
• Continuing to read some lore entries past the last line caused visual garbage.
  
• There are small minor visual garbage that randomly appears around map sprites and portraits.
  
• Healing with units with +1 range doesn’t display accurately.
  
• Healing ang Bolting still gives XP. I even leveled up some units, here for example after killing the stationary Wyvern boss in chapter 1.
  
• Chapter 2 title is off-centered.
  

Wish you the best of luck for finishing this great hack.

[RandomMercenary]

Thanks for your thoughts and ideas, I’m glad you like it! I will definitely try to improve some of the points you made.

And yeah…I really had no inspiration at all when trying to come up with a title for the hack.

[Waddle-Moogle]

I wanted to wait until I finished the demo before posting more, but I definitvely have to show you this right now. I’m terribly sorry, but I think I completely broke the AI of chapter 2x.

“Where is the king?” “Do you see him?” “Stop pushing, behind!”

“So… anyone game for beach-volley?”

By warping the king around, stalling the left side with some fodder, and blocking the entrance of the right side reinforcements, the enemy units just conglomerate towards the throne, not knowing what to do after that. I suppose this was NOT the intended solution. You should probably lower the amount of warp staves for this level or completely rework the AI.

Since I'm here, other minor problems I noticed:

• One of the Citizens in chapter 2 doesn’t have a portrait nor the “Civilian” job.
  
• The Citizen name doesn’t have flavor text.
  
  *2x’s title is a bit off-centered too, plus “king” is not capitalized.
  
• The generic wyvern units don’t have a portrait.
  
• The “Flanged mace” weapon’s name is slightly cut off at the end.
  
• 2 enemy units carry weapons that they cannot use.
  
  
• Taufik doesn’t have a class (I assume “King”?).
  

I’ll keep the rest of my praises and criticism for after I finish.

[RandomMercenary]

@Waddle-Moogle

I’m terribly sorry, but I think I completely broke the AI of chapter 2x.

Nice, congratulations. Looks like there’s much work to be done regarding that chapter.

[RandomMercenary]

Hello everyone!

Today I proudly present to you: the [Complete] version of Fire Emblem: Crowns and Thrones!

Yes, I’ve reached the end of development of this project and I’m very proud of it.

So, what’s new?
First off, it is complete now…obviously. That means that the last 5 chapters (and 2 gaidens) have been added. Furthermore, I fixed some things and added some as well.

For example: I changed the stat screen background to give off more of a FE4 vibe. And also replaced weapon icons with FE4/5 icons to give this project even more of a SNES feeling.

Also, I changed the consumable stat boosters into stat rings like how they worked in FE4.

And with that I want to wrap up this project. Of course I am still hoping to receive your feedback and thoughts. Like I stated before, this is a very experimental project and I would love to hear your opinions on it. I will keep improving and I will keep fixing bugs in the future. The most recent version can be found in the original post.

Thanks for reading and have a nice day!

[Gunnar]

I liked the Phantom King, so I will give this I try. I’m always in for any kind of “atypical” FE Hacks, so this is more than a welcome.

[HeroVP]

Hi, really enjoying the final release.

The use of leadership in this hack is especially cool, it’s typically an afterthought in hacks, but the placement of commanders in this hack is really strong, it makes it feel like an actual push-and-pull, where Leon can take out a boss to make it easier for Henry’s squad, and vice versa.

I do have a few quick issues with this build so far though (playing on hard mode, if it matters)

1. Boudicca’s squad in chapter 1 has a really hard time holding out against the death blow fighters. If she loses even a single unit, she’s really likely to just die, so it’s kinda weird that she faces that much crit early on.
2. A lot of units have both canto and canto+, or sometimes just canto twice, it would just look a lot cleaner if the redundant skill was removed
3. Leadership in the Diepongoro maps is really weird. I understand for gameplay reasons that you can’t just give the player a massive leadership advantage, but having one enemy have 20 leadership stars when the literal king of the nation has 5 is a little ridiculous. The boss of this map, iirc, is never seen before this moment or after this moment, and no one makes a comment on their strategy or morale being especially strong or anything. It just feels weird. Maybe if it was split up better (ie: the king has 15, a lot of your commanders have 1 or 2 less to compensate, and the enemy has like 4 commanders with 5 each?) it would feel more natural, but idk.

Again, great hack, having a lot of fun, very excited to see the ending

[RandomMercenary]

Thanks, great to hear that you’re having fun!
All your points have been duly noted.

[HeroVP]

Another quick thing, not sure if this one is intentional.
In chapter 6, there is a generic commander with Reginald. Is that supposed to be Henry, or is it always a generic?

Edit: Maybe I’m just bad, but chapter 6 on hard seems almost impossible. The squads, especially the middle one, seem way too small for the amount of actions you need to kill all the threatening enemies. Walton also has like, 70 hit on most enemies, which is not great, considering he needs to galeforce every turn to keep his squad alive, and he doesn’t double. Also, unless I’m mistaken, there’s only one door key, so the bard and Walton can reunite, but they can’t get to Reginald. Am I missing something obvious?

[RandomMercenary]

@HeroVP

Another quick thing, not sure if this one is intentional.
In chapter 6, there is a generic commander with Reginald. Is that supposed to be Henry, or is it always a generic?

The generic commander is meant to be a generic. There are points in the game where I decided to put in a stronger generic to balance the game.

@HeroVP

Am I missing something obvious?

The intention is for Walton and Lefric to try and hold out until Reginald can escape and end the chapter, making that the anti turteling incentive. But maybe Walton’s squad is indeed a bit rng dependent. I will take a look at it. Maybe add another generic commander there.