[FE8] Fire Emblem: Ending Winter (26/48 chapters complete)

[YangWenli]

Inanna, a fire dragon with magical powers far beyond her control, is on the run from her own kind after escaping her centuries-long imprisonment. Driven forward by a voice she alone can hear, she heads for an abandoned temple deep within the borderlands. There, she reopens the portal to Elibe, land of the humans, and crosses over. Terrified their homeland will soon be discovered, a search team is organized to give pursuit. Disguised as humans in a world no dragon has visited in over two hundred years, they set out to find Inanna before her true nature is revealed.

Screenshots

Features

-An epic story set in the same universe as The Binding Blade and The Blazing Sword. The current build covers approximately 50% of it, with 26 playable chapters and 3 interludes consisting entirely of cut-scenes.
-The final cast will consist of 60 playable characters. The game is structured similar to Radiant Dawn, where the focus shifts to different armies based on the story. As of now, 46 characters are playable at some point.
-A tasteful implementation of the skill system, with every character having a unique non-luck based ability to help differentiate them.
-3 difficulty settings to accommodate all manner of players. Casual mode is also available.
-Lots of weapons and spells from other Fire Emblem games, along with some brand new ones.
-Branching promotions, with the classes rebalanced to make every choice meaningful.
-Fixed growths because it makes training growth units more reliable.
-Faster supports that grow when within 3 tiles of a partner.

Series Canon

-The only assumed pairing from The Blazing Sword is Eliwood x Ninian. Nils returns home to the dragon world by himself, while Ninian stays behind and dies shorty after giving birth to Roy.
-The only assumed pairing from The Binding Blade is Roy x Lilina, where the Lycian League is consolidated into a single kingdom after the war.
-The only legendary weapons from The Binding Blade still assumed to exist are the Echesacks and the Binding Blade itself. All the others were discovered, then used to exhaustion in the final battle against Zephiel.
-The “bad/incomplete” ending to The Binding Blade is the assumed one, where Idunn and Brunnya disappear at the start of chapter 22 and are never heard from again. Everything that happens, or is revealed, from chapter 23 onward is disregarded.

To-do list

-Supports are functional from a game-play standpoint, but the conversations have yet to be written. Given the size of the cast, it could be a long time before this gets implemented.
-The title screen is very bare-bones at the moment. If anyone wants to earn some money making something custom, please reach out to me.

Download

[SgtStrings]

Hey this looks like an awesome story, the premise of the fugitive chase seems like a strong core to build the narrative around! Congrats on the post and your work so far!

[HeroAltra]

Yaaay! Another new hack! Looking forward to it completion but will gladly try it out.

[Celice]

This looks really good!! Excited to see updates. Let us know if there’s anything we can help with

[YangWenli]

The difficulty tuning is the thing I’m most concerned about at the moment. It’s hard to get an objective feel for it when you play a chapter that you personally designed dozens of times, so any feedback there will be greatly appreciated. As I said in the to-do list, I also need someone to make a good custom title screen for me (for pay, of course), since that’s far beyond my artistic abilities.

[ReedRacer]

This looks really awesome! I love stuff that expands on the Elibe duology!

Summary

Roy/Lilina isn’t my preferred pairing but it’s definitely the one that makes the most sense for the story. Definitely not a deal breaker or anything, that just made me chuckle.

Seriously, I really like the idea of this. Good luck with the project!

[YangWenli]

Version 1.02 Update:

-Chapter P-4 has been overhauled. The map was adjusted so you now have the option of going right through the middle, and the difficulty has also been turned down. There are now fewer enemies, and the Draco-zombies have had their HP massively reduced.
-A character that appears in chapter 7 now has a unique portrait. A shout-out to MKCocoon for the excellent job.
-Minor changes to the script in a few chapters, to fix some dialog I wasn’t totally satisfied with.

[Rivian]

I really enjoyed my time with Ending Winter. The multi-chapter introductory sequence featuring Inanna then switching to the party of her hunters kinda nails the desire to root for both sides of the chase.

It’s also interesting to see how Dragon Society is portrayed given the Elibe titles don’t really go there, as well as extrapolating how Elibe might have turned out after a few centuries from FE6. As soon as I saw “Etrurian South Isles Trading Company” I was like oohhh no.

Demo actually ends at a really good spot. Looking forward to what comes next.

Pretty brutal twist right off the bat. I don’t know what I would do if my flesh and blood was a… gamer. Really shows how compassionate Inanna is that she didn’t disown her brother right then and there.

It’s pretty great that the villages managed to clock Gamer Brother as a manakete immediately but the guards don’t. Love the explanation as to why.

The fact that Gamer Brother does so poorly against the very first enemy shows how constant gaming has atrophied all his muscles. Good story-gameplay integration.

Insight into dragon utopia? is cool and its cool to finally know how Gamer Brother sunk so low.

This scene just rocks.

[YangWenli]

Thank you for the kind words! I’m glad you enjoyed it.

[MegaCowsamMan]

Jus’ rapped up the latest demo. Had quite a bit of fun with it, especially withe the narrative. Here’s my thoughts on the game.

Writing

Writing I’d say is the strongest part of this hack. It has a very nice, easy to understand flow, and a solid main cast to follow. Amar and Malcolm were particular stand outs to me. Amar’s conflict with his sister Inanna was pretty nicely done so far with how realistic I find their relationship. A+ for that.

Malcolm was pretty rad as well. I particularly like how he gave Amar and Rashid another chance after they lied to 'im for so long. I like the potential parallel’s that could be drawn between Amar, with both of them having problematic siblings, and how they both deal with that conflict. Also his wife’s pretty cool.

Though, one issue I have with your narrative, was with Inanna. Now, I understand she’s been locked up for a long time, and feels awful estranged from her brother, but she does not come off as likable in the slightest to me. She’s often a jerk to everyone around her, whether it be Amar, her mother, and Lily, who she just up and kidnaps without her consent. I understand flawed characters are ideal for interest, but I can’t find a reason to enjoy her presence either. I often side with Rashid to just deal with her somehow. Jeez.

Gameplay

Gameplay was pretty solid from what I played. Nothing too impressive, but good enough for me to continue. Map design was nothing too special, but nothing frustrating, or odd in my experience.

Barney and Hakim were my strongest units for sure. Barney was an excellent mage killer, with his high skill and strength one-shotting anyone with a tome no problem! And he can take a hit or three, with his meaty base HP and growth. Hakim was as solid as a rock. All his stats were solid enough to meets the benchmarks necessary to excel against the enemy design of this game.

This isn’t my preferred game design personally, as I usually wish for more enemy weapon variety, tighter anti-turtle incentives, and generally higher stats, especially in defense, but what we’ve got was serviceable enough to me, especially with the narrative being as enjoyable as it was so far.

Another thing was the first 3 or 4 chapters were quite a drag. Inanna was never really bring in much danger, and if she was, she could just fly off and heal no problem. I find them to just be there to serve the plot, and not much else, since the gameplay there is as shallow as it is. It’d be pretty neat if you were given the option to skip it after beating the game once or something.

Random Notes

Bosses are quite weak, despite most of them being able to move. Perhaps a few auto levels could help.

Enemy weapons are somewhat boring, with most of them using iron or steel weapons, not much in variety. I’d suggest giving a few more effective weapons, and perhaps even introduce some new weapons, like another tier of weapons. Something to consider.

Something I notice in chapter 4, is that if you get to the last stretch of the map fast enough, you can just funnel the reinforcements from below quite easily. Maybe you could make that gap a two tile instead of one.

Naha kinda stinks compared to Timothy, who joins not too far away. I don’t think you should nerf Timothy, but perhaps Naha could use something specific to her, like a PRF weapon, or a mount possibly.

I found it odd that none of my units could talk with Inanna. I know it’s a gameplay issue, but I don’t know, I found it rather odd really.

I enjoyed this hack very much, Yangwenji. Thanks for the project!

[YangWenli]

Thank you for playing. What difficulty were you on?

[MegaCowsamMan]

I played on hard mode, with classic mode enabled.

Edit: I also played it as a blind iron man, if that’s important.

[YangWenli]

Okay, that’s good to know. The pre-release feedback I got was that the game was too difficult, so I may have under-tuned it too much in response. I’ll definitely consider increasing the hard mode enemy bonuses, adding reinforcements, and buffing the boss units. I’m more hesitant to give more enemies effectiveness weapons, since I personally find them such a pain.

Spoilers

You can talk to Inanna in chapter 10 with Amar, and it changes her AI so she no longer moves around the map. The reason Rashid and Zaida can’t talk to her is because I want them to get re-acquainted at the end of the chapter, for story reasons.

[YangWenli]

Massive update. Part 2 of the story is now available, mostly covering a different cast of characters. It’s certain to need more tuning, but I decided I’d get more feedback releasing it as-is as opposed to asking for private beta-testers. It features:

-12 new chapters, capped off with a lengthy interlude.
-23 new playable characters.
-Tons of balancing changes to the existing cast, with levels, stats, skills and supports all having been adjusted.
-Many weapon stats have been modified.
-The difficulty has been increased, with enemies now being more durable and receiving larger hard-mode bonuses.
-Leadership stars added to bosses, boosting enemy hit by 5-25 depending on rank.
-Level cap for promoted units raised to 30 with stat caps as high as 40, in anticipation of the final game being quite long.
-The option to skip the prologue section and go directly to chapter 1 has been added.

I recommend starting a new game. Old saves should technically work, but I make no promise of support. The most likely problem you’ll have is supports being bugged, because who can support who has been changed around. Some later chapters may also be more difficult than intended, because of changes made to unit balance and resources allocation in earlier sections. I’ll try to make future updates more save-compatible going forward.

[DomNorto]

This looks really fun! I need to put this on my backlog and keep an eye on it.

[YangWenli]

Version 2.01 Update:

-Changed leadership stars to only give +3 hit each rather than 5, with the maximum currently going as high as 7. The old system was making enemy hit rates scale up too quickly.
-Bosses have had their levels and stats raised, to varying degrees.
-Decreased the number of poison weapons in chapters 9 and 18.
-Iron Longbows (formerly Reach Bows) can now be purchased. Steel and Silver variants will be added in later chapters.
-Some minor tweaks to character balance.
-Fixed cut-scenes not displaying the correct numbers during scripted battles.
-Fixed chapter 22 ending a turn earlier than intended.

[YangWenli]

Update 2.02

-Wind magic is no longer universally effective against fliers, only the newly introduced Arcwind spell. It replaces the Elwind you receive in chapter 6.
-Cavalier reinforcements in chapter 11 take longer to show up from the back, and don’t go on for as long.
-Added extra reinforcements to chapters 14 and 16 on later turns.
-Reinforcements for chapter 17, including thieves, have been pushed back a turn.
-NPC units in chapters 7 and 21 have had their stats improved, so that they’re now on par with hard mode enemies.
-Changed around some boss equipment.
-The bolting boss in chapter 22 no longer moves.
-Fixed a glitch where Emily was unable to promote.

[YangWenli]

Update 2.03

-Decreased the number of mage and cavalier reinforcements in chapter 20, increased the number of brigands.
-The chapter 18 and 21 bosses now only move on hard mode. The chapter 21 boss also moves a turn later.

I apologize for all the updates. I should’ve given the game another play-through before releasing it to the public, but I was too eager to get it out there.

[YangWenli]

Update 2.04

-Fixed bosses in chapter 18 and 21 not moving on hard mode due to an eventing screw-up.
-The chapter 7 boss now moves starting turn 11 on hard mode.
-Adjusted the map in chapter 8 to make choke-pointing the enemies at the start a little easier.
-Minor adjustments to boss levels and leadership stars, mainly for lore reasons.
-Changed some enemy growth rates. Mercenaries are now a little faster, axe users a little bulkier.
-Some changes to character balance. Marcellus, in particular, is now a fair bit better.

[YangWenli]

Update 2.05

-Nathan is now an Axe Cavalier, giving you more than two options for an axe-user in part 1. The number of enemy Mercenaries in chapters 2 and 3 have been decreased to account for this. I also dropped him and Chris back down to level 3 at base, as him not getting doubled by sword enemies on hard mode is less important now. Existing saves should be unaffected, this will only impact new games.
-Zaida is now allowed to die in chapters 1-3 without causing a game over. Using flags and conditionals, I found a way to prevent her from being resurrected in chapter 5.
-You can now recruit Ivor in chapter 4 with Amar or Barney.
-You can now recruit Katy in chapter 7 with Amar, if he talked to Sara in chapter 4.
-You can also recruit Charley in chapter 18 with Amar. No more need to deploy a potentially base-level Malcolm on a map filled with strong and mobile enemies.
-The bosses in chapters 1, 9, 14 and 15 now move after specific turns on hard mode, following advanced warnings. Basically, if they aren’t on a throne, in fog, or leading a defense map, they start rushing you at some point on that difficulty.
-You now get a Silver Sword for saving all the villages in chapter 8. The one in chapter 17 has been replaced with a Silver Axe.
-Increased the number of available unit slots by one in numerous chapters, except chapter 5, which now has one less.
-Soldiers in chapter 7 now use iron weapons, because they hit too hard and were too easily doubled with steel.
-Pushed the hard-mode exclusive Cavalier reinforcements in chapter 15 back a turn, and removed the Pegasus Knight reinforcements entirely.
-Increased the number of enemies in chapter 16. The boss also has better equipment, and the reinforcements go on for much longer. Fighters were switched to Iron Axes.
-More unit re-balancers, mostly of magic users, who’ve all been made slightly better.
-The Summoner and Bishop class now have 5 move, so you actually have a reason to choose Druid or Sage on promotion.
-Fixed a bug where darkness affinity gave +2.5 attack per support level.
-Fixed a bug where a thief in chapter 1 would endlessly destroy a non-existent village.
-I finally figured out what was causing the inaccurate numbers during scripted battles. Turns out, it was hard mode bonuses. I found a fix, but it required moving around some unit IDs. If you happen to be in the middle of a prologue chapter, I recommend restarting it, or the boss may be bugged.

This should be the last update for a while, absent any player feedback. Thank you all for your patience.