CoL is dropping [Complete] tomorrow! Almost doesn’t feel real after years spent working on this thing, but it’s finally here.
I do plan to push out further updates to the hack later down the line (as well as bugfix patches as needed, of course), and any questions or suggestions are welcome in this thread!
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Curse of Lagdou is finally [Complete]!
This project defined the last two years of my life. It began as a simple rebalance of FE8, to which I intended only to add a few OCs and call it a day. Eventually, though, the scope grew larger as I learned how to do more things (such as animation, pixel art, eventing, ASM) with the help of FEU’s excellent Discord community. CoL then hovered in this weird space between rebalance and original project, with about 50% of the content original and 50% vanilla. Had it stayed that way, I don’t think it would’ve satisfied either audience.
So, about a 8 months ago, I decided to throw it all out and write an original story. CoL is far from my first foray into creative writing, and not even my first long-form project. Nevertheless, it was a huge and often difficult undertaking. I have FEU’s writing community to thank for the support, where I met awesome people that I’ve grown quite close to today – critique is the best way to eliminate the doubt and confusion that slow down the writing process, and without it, I don’t know if I’d have had the will to finish.
While CoL’s story is overall optimistic and “very wholesome” (as Retina, of TMGC fame, and my other playtesters said), it came out of a dark time in my life. At first, I wanted to write a political story to vent my frustrations about exploitation and greed. FE8 is, on the surface, a weird medium for this, but I found that plot and theme are oftentimes correlated pretty loosely – my favorite story of all time (as of this writing) has a very “4/10 on MyAnimeList”-type premise but houses an astounding anti-suicide message that got me through my lowest days on this earth.
However, as I kept writing, my focus turned inward. CoL still contains the greed and exploitation themes, and they’re important, but I realized I didn’t have as much to say on these topics as I thought I did. What I did have things to say about, however, was my own experience as a young adult. CoL is a story about a girl realizing that no one is born special, that achievement is morally neutral, that “great people” are a shorthand for great bonds and love, and that striving for “greatness” you never chose for yourself will leave you burned-out and empty.
While CoL isn’t perfect and might not reach every player with these feelings, they’re the ones I wish I could have sent to my younger self. I hope I can tell that goofy kid that even if he isn’t the great hero his parents and teachers spun him stories about, he’s still worthy of his life, whatever shape it takes.
I’d like to thank Struedelmuffin, SirSpensir, Xilirite, Magdalene, Retina, Rivian, Vulgard, Bloble, Alexmanpersonguy, BobbyAsaka, Parrhesia, ArcherBias, LuminescentBlade, Contro, Ysor, Bpat, Mibbles, Ultraxblade, and many others for your support. I love you guys. Seeing a “this is awesome” or a “this is so cute” on a piece of my art or writing is enough to get me through the day. Even if the release totally bombs, I’ll carry this achievement for the rest of my life, and it’s all of you who gave it meaning.
While I won’t make any promises, I plan to start working on future projects soon. For now, though, I’m gonna take some time to reflect and soak it all in.
Thanks for everything so far, FEU. With any luck, this is just the first of many awesome things we’ll do together.
44 Likes
I can’t wait to try this! I’ve been thinking for a while how much of a shame it is that Magvel isn’t explored nearly as much as other Fire Emblem settings in either hacks or vanilla. Thank you for all your hard work! I’m working my way through Call of the Armor and Dark Stone at the moment, but this just shot to the top of my list.
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I’m so ready to curse of the lagdou! Congrats on the completion!
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Congrats on completion DT!
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So happy this is finally released! Can’t wait to try it. Quick question before I start, is Lunatic mode playtested? I like things on the harder side but if it’s recommended for a second playthrough that’s cool too. Just wondering. Thanks!
Lunatic mode isn’t thoroughly tested, but if you’re an FE vet it should proooobably be fine (especially if you’re using Revival Mode). The “spoiler” dropdown by the download link contains the chapter select password, so if you want to switch difficulties partway through, you can use that!
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Sweet! Thanks for the info. I’ll try out lunatic mode and if I run into anything egregious I’ll let ya know.
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Do you recommend I start again from the beginning with some of the changes, or am I fine to continue from where I am?
Do you recommend I start again from the beginning with some of the changes, or am I fine to continue from where I am?
Depending on how far you got and what version you were on, there’s a good chance your save file will cause bugs. I’d recommend using chapter select (check the spoiler dropdown by the download link), but you can also start from scratch if you’d prefer.
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Cute protags and supports and paired endings. Gotta dive into this for sure.
I see on the to-do list is more supports, will those have the new characters support some OG characters?
canw e save leon in this hack
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Still in the middle of my replay, but ehhh I can post a review when I want. I’m pretty adamant in my belief that I am not interested in playing a hack heavily based off vanilla(Sohae doesn’t count). Yet, hear I am singing the praises of Curse of Lagdou and the great Doin Thangs. Gameplay wise, Lagdou leans into its systems and doesn’t shirk. Incredibly specific ranges for weaponry, the amazing flanking system fused with the no crits until 50 which are auto crits and so much more just makes the moment to moment gameplay so satisfying and rewards you for getting how it ticks. Vanilla units with a spin from there original incarnation and a whole cast of new characters that I can’t get enough of.Story wise, in this grand stage of stopping the demon king and saving magvel really a much more personal story is being told under the surface. Until now I hadn’t played a hack where the protagonists have said things that resonated with me to my very core. On the art side of things lagdou has such a range of beautiful art, from genuine horror to cute playable characters it has it all and it’s top quality. Do people actually read feu reviews to decide whether they play a hack? Idk, mostly I leave them for the creator. Lol, and really you knocked it out of the park DT keep up the good stuff. Keep squanching out here.
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Others’s reviews does make a different for me whether I will try a Hack or not. So if you feel Good about any hack post your feeling I am sure other peoole beside the creator is reading them as well to see if that hack is worth their time
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ALEX! Thank you! It’s so awesome to hear that my work on the story especially paid off.
Rest assured, the squanching will continue unabated.
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Major Bugfix! (1.0.1) (Saves compatible)
Fixed a bug where the S-rank weapons were not actually auto-repairing as intended.Other fixes:
- Codex now properly gives +8 Skill
- Banner Lance and Rune Axe now properly list their full effects
- Typo in Ch. 14 start event
- Ch. 14 reinforcement AI fix
- (secret) frany now leaves and rejoins the party as necessary, and revives each map
- Swiftwing gives its stat penalties properly
- Rally command has been moved down in the command menu to prevent selecting it accidentally
- Fixed a bug where a weapon would disappear from an enemy inventory if Duessel died in Ch. 18
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I have a bug to report! If you recruit Nilsbury with Isabelle, you can still visit his house with another character and recruit him if you pay him and he’ll teleport to next to his house
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Noted, I’ll fix that in the next patch!
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Hearing reports that units aren’t able to have more than 5 support conversations (10 is intended). I’ll fix that in the next version if possible; in the meantime, all support conversations are viewable in Extras from the main menu.
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Major Bugfix! (1.0.2) (Saves compatible)
Fixed a bug where Cormag would not be properly added back to the party after Ch. 17 ("Prologue"). Gave Estelle some significant base-stat buffs to give her a better chance not to fall off.Still working on the infinite support patch, which turned out more complicated than expected. Hoping to get that resolved soon.
There’s also a bug where if a player unit dies on player phase with Revival Mode enabled, they’ll linger with 0 HP until the next time a unit takes an action. Currently working on a fix for this as well, though given how rarely player units die on player phase it shouldn’t be a huge deal.
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