[FE8] [COMPLETE] Fire Emblem: Flames of Redemption (Version 1.5 out!)

I downloaded the patch ages back but didn’t give it a try. Now that I’ve had time to do so, I can say it’s pretty interesting. I’ve played up to chapter 8, and I have some feedback to share.

Story (spoilers)

This is quite the bold move for the story. The ‘whole amnesiac meets a cute girl’ gets beaten up and tossed in the trash.

However its difficult to buy the fact that 6 people the majority of whom have no little combat experience were able to take down an empire’s capital in 6 chapter (in a lot of FE’s there is the assumption that there is a large army accompanying the lord but here there’s nothing to indicate that) even with the excuse that most of the army were unavailable, but I recognize that the prelude section shouldn’t take too long.

The ‘commoner to consort’ background of the lord is quite interesting, especially with the ‘existing relationship’ dynamic which has some potential.

I also like the fact that the village genuinely was destroyed by Rebekka’s actions and that Jacob and co. have genuine motivation beyond ‘brainwashing’ rather than it being a cop out and Rebekka is did nothing wrong moment.

While I haven’t finished the current build yet, I believe how Roman’s reputation as ‘chopping through imperial forces as a band of 6 superhumans and then suddenly switching sides’ having consequences may be interesting later on, to the local population and imperial soldiers.

Gameplay

Note: This is my experience on hard mode
As a whole I feel like generic enemies are far too weak, and juggernauting with a strong unit is not only possible, but optimal. As a result there a lot of chapters where its just throwing units forwards and watching them go to town on large hordes of generics who get either one rounded or close to such.

It’s fine for the first few chapters but very soon Lily practically stops taking damage and Rowan level capped in 3 chapters withing needing to spoonfeed him exp.

I feel chapter 3 houses are a counterproductive as it takes up turns to actually visit them and the message is ‘hurry up’, and said running enemies weren’t even hard to take down since units can juggernaut fairly easily.

Chapter 4 was probably my biggest issues with the weak enemies since Lily can solo an entire section on her own with a javelin and the constant reinforcements feel like a massive grind.

Chapter 6 was quite annoying in that the chests were on every end of the map and droppable chest keys coming in 1 was very difficult to inventory manage especially since units other than lord can’t directly supply. This is compounded by the fact that units can only trade once.

I suggest perhaps having 1 or 2 droppable 5 use chest keys, and I think adjacent units being able to directly supply from lord and/or Thracia trade would makes it much less irritating to swap around items.

From a glance, units seem to use default skill system class skills. I believe this is inadvisable as fairly little thought has been put into skill system defaults, and many players experienced with skill systems are put off by such. An example of such is the focus mages which gives just enough crit to be able to screw over your game.

I think aptitude is a really pointless skill, just give the unit more growths.

I recognise Sabrina is meant to be funny gimmick unit but she feels awful to use.
She has less defence than Saif, Roman and Reiner and is perhaps one of the squishier units due to her speed.
6 strength is awful especially for a low speed unit.
Such problems are magnified because every other unit has great damage output and can easily 1 hko or 2 hko most enemies, while Sabrina not only struggles with 4 move but even killing. While she can 2 hko Mogalls she is either 3 hkoing or 4 hkoing every other enemy, and it is a genuine struggle to even get enemies down to her kill range.

Sasha was even worse, not being able to 1 hko mogalls while everyone else can. However, I soon discovered that this is because I got an especially bad autolevel.
I greatly suggest against autolevelling player units as this can cause some very iffy stat variations, as shown here:


This the Sasha I had. No str in 4 auto levels.

This is another roll. That makes all the difference from a worthless unit to a mediocre unit varying for players. This isn’t a one time occurrence either, in about 6 rolls I got 6 str archer twice.

Misc Suggestions

Note: Up to chapter 6 I was using the second oldest patch, so some of my suggestions while not mentioned on the post may be outdated.

It seems optimal in chapter 6 to dump inventories of all units into supply before ending the chapter. I feel like having the characters all drop their inventories into supply may be better even going against story gameplay integration because otherwise dropping all items in supply is the way to go.

Speaking of which, its a bit odd that Miriam’s mixes are still very much available, I suggest removing them from inventory and supply in between chapters which can be done.

In Saif’s boss dialogue, and as well in conversations in chapter 6 endscene, there’s a lot of ‘…’ that gets skipped over without player input which I think is very weird, either not have them at all or still let the player press [A].

There’s a lot of odd transitions between scenes where palette goes wack or flashes of maps.

Alice has no dialogue, she seems to spontaneously appear.

Ultimately I think from what’s trying to be done with the story the hack stands out, but I think there’s still some polishing to be done.

3 Likes

Hi everyone. I want to thank everyone who has played it, specially the ones who took their time to write feedback. Sorry for not posting for a while; I don’t really like bumping the thread if I have nothing to add, but I have been working on the hack on and off. The new content was finished weeks ago, and I wanted to improve a few things for the final release of the year.

I have updated the OP with patch 0.3.1.

Changes:

  • Chapters 12-14 are now playable. There is a Chapter 12x that appears if a certain character was alive at the end of CH6. These are probably the strangest and more gimmicky chapters of the entire hack. I’d say they’re fairly easy too, but the suffering may carry on in later updates (?)
  • Autoleveling is gone for playable units. Bases have been adjusted.
  • Revamping skill system to focus more on character skills than class skills. The default system is definitely unbalanced when it comes to pre-promoted classes, and the crit chance skills on enemies are a no-no. This will not be done in one update and I’ll keep making changes as I release new versions.
  • Units can now trade more than once.
Changes to previous chapters (here be spoilers)

Units who leave will send their items to the transporter, thanks to a very useful patch. Some items will also be permanently removed at the end of CH6.

Sabrina:

It turns out that the version of her that joins in CH7 was actually the boss version all along. Big mistake that was causing her to have strange stats. It has been corrected, though needless to say it will still affect older save files.

CH3:

  • Ballistae are no more, but the archers remain and move to attack.
  • Added a boss who guards the gate.
  • Citizens don’t tell the player to chase the bandits anymore (who probably died or left by the time they visit the house)

CH4

  • Moved the armory and the red houses. Overall, they should be easier to save.
  • Removed the right wall for immersion reasons.

CH6

  • Removed the bolting mage.
  • Nerfed one of the bosses a little bit.
  • I know this chapter deserves more changes, but I still need to figure things out, lol.

CH7

  • Changed some walls on the bottom left corner so the house is easier to visit.
  • The players gets an extra turn before the house with the Guiding Ring is destroyed.

I also fixed bugs, and added stuff I forgot to include before like descriptions (RIP Lochlan, Queen of Jehanna), one support conversation, Maeve’s promotion palettes, etc.

I’m aware of the balance issues. Some of the feedback has been conflicting and, overall, I’ve been making the hack easier so everyone can get through the chapters. I think it’s for the best, at least for now, but I think I’ll revert some of the changes eventually or try to find ways to make some the chapters harder. Expect promoted enemies to be more common in CH15 and beyond, and more enemy class variety.

3 Likes

ch10,
sniper’s red gem still couldn’t be stolen tho
maybe lemme skip that
(I kinda forgot everything in ch7-9 so can’t make any follow up feedbacks)
but yes some unit’s base stats are scary
the female lord (I won’t specify name) unit has spd and skill maxed b4 lv10
talia had 17 skill despite being a lv1 paragon
the boss is broken too
nullify + 6 def on terrain, with 2-digit def + res
I could only kill him with saif, (overleveled lol)
the units’ stats and growths and base stats don’t seem balanced tho (maybe you can try keeping the total growth at a number?)

in ch11, jacob’s stats is abnormally low, and the hit rate is pathetic
also, a thief will open the door, and let a cavalier kill the npc unit relatively quick

unit not balanced list (opinion only):
emil and talia: both at lv7, emil:22 7 1 14 13 9 6 1
talia:24 14 5 20 20 9 7 3

sabrina’s def lower than saif’s, IDKit’s intended or not
alice starts at 3 mag
Maeve’s spd growth is too much that she will waste most of it due to the spd cap

yes the steal skill doesn’t work on thieves too

some units start from lv1, but have great bases like he’s lv 12 lol

1 Like

Hi there. I’m happy to present version 0.4.0 of my hack, AKA “How is this Project Not Dead?” Edition. I’ll talk a little about why it took so long to release at the end of this post if anyone cares, so without further ado, here are the changes.

Please keep in mind that, while people who kept their save files this entire time can still use them, it’s necessary to restart the game to see some of the changes (mostly the ones related to your units).

General changes

-Chapters 15-17 have been added.
-Stealing actually works now. Yes, I know it’s been a long time coming and should have been a priority in earlier versions. Unfortunately, people will have to restart the game for this to take effect if they already have all the thieves, as it’s related to the skills they have.
-Skills have been adjusted for every class.
-Removed Rally skills altogether.
-Installed some QoL patches that a friend recommended to me.
-Gave support conversations to the people I forgot last time.
-Replaced some songs that I didn’t like or were always meant to be placeholders (like the first map theme and Taisen 4).
-Lochlan now has unique battle theme (don’t fight him, though).
-Stl Longbow now has 2-3 range. It was fun while it lasted.
-Reworked leadership stars.
-Give Miriam a unique tome.

Map changes

CH1:
-Adjusted the AI so it’s more of a threat.
-Some of the late reinforcements don’t grant EXP when killed.

CH6:
-Adjusted the top right of the map and added a breakable wall for easier navigation.
-The paladin reinforcements are weaker.

CH9:
-The mercs now disappear after the monsters spawn.

CH11:
-The druid boss is stronger.
-Lyla should be safe for about 10 turns.

CH12:
-Fixed a bug where you could kill Ralph before his cutscene.
-Enemies are a lot stronger in Hard mode.
-The reinforcements don’t grant any EXP.
-The Pursuer will chase you after a while.

CH12x:
-Fixed the bugged chest.

CH13:
-Brad no longer has Renewal.

Unit changes

The following characters received overall buffs and/or have a higher join lvl.

Alice: Overall buffs.
Emil: Overall buffs. Also replaced Gamble with Adept.
Skyla (better bases)
Patrick (better bases)
Talia: Received both buffs and nerfs to some stats. Also removed paragon.
Joseph: Replaced Aptitude with Black Magic, increased natural growths.

Also slightly nerfed Roman’s and Janna’s growths.

Known bugs

-Some of the cutscenes still have glitchy effects, specially in CH6.
-Reiner will show his death quote in CH8 even if he’s retreating. Losing him there doesn’t affect anything.

Why was I gone for so long?

I’m in a different place than I was when I started this hack last April. Since then I’ve started a full time job and I’m also working on a different game not related to FE or SRPGs. Even though I put it on hiatus, I’ve never had any desire to cancel the project entirely.

I decided not to make something too ambitious for my first project so I could actually finish it, but one thing I completely underestimated was how time-consuming writing supports would be. The new maps in this version have been finished for months, but I decided not to release anything until I finished the support conversations for the new characters. I think those have improved a lot compared to the early ones, so I hope people get to see them, as there is a lot of development and lore in them that isn’t seen anywhere in the game.

In any case, I took that time to make further improvements for the hack, so I thank everyone who played this and sent me feedback.

8 Likes

so this hack is now Complete?

game seems interesting, I’m gonna play it.

1 Like

Sorry for the late response. Not yet, there will probably be at least two more patches worth of new story content. Next patch probably won’t take as long to release.

Hi again. I’ve updated the OP with patch 0.5.0. I’ve also added new screenshots that show later parts of the game, and updated the recruitment guide.

The next patch will be the last story update. I wanted to finish the few remaining chapters before releasing another update, but I figured the ending will take me a while to complete.

Changes:

  • The hack now has a unique title screen!
  • Chapters 18-20x are now playable. 20x appears automatically despite the name.
  • Every single support conversation should work properly.
  • Lochlan can now (and should be) defeated. It’s probably better to wait for his last appearance, but defeating him in any chapter works.
  • Changed Violet’s palette to something nicer.

And… that’s pretty much it. I wasn’t able to submit it in time for FEE3, so maybe I will submit the finished version next year, or a different project entirely.

As always, thanks for playing!

7 Likes

Now i’m ready to play it! Here I go!!!

1 Like

Don’t worry, take your time with it. I’m sure that there will be a next time for next year’s FEE3. I might as well play it when I have the chance to do so. Wish you luck with the next update in the near future.

1 Like

I was going to wait until it was [COMPLETE], but I started a new run up the end of current build anyways
It was a good time.
I played on normal, because I didn’t not feel like playing ‘a mode for a masochist.’

Act 1

I’ve posted about this last time, so this will be brief.

I kind of wish there was an actual preparations screen, as having to constantly trade between units on map gets a bit messy.

I also noticed that the supports are not shown, which presume is a result of the all weapon ranks display patch.

I guess this a minor gripe, but no matter how it is explained to me, even in 20x, I still have a hard time believing that six blokes took down an the Empire’s Capital. Ah well, there’s no pleasing some people.

Janna epic.

Unit Balance

In a full 180 from what I said last time, I had a lot of fun using Sabrina. Her offensive stats are terrible, but provoke is an absurdly powerful and galeforce is a drug. Eventually she became an all purpose killing machine, but maybe it should have just gone to Saif.

Roman was a killing machine. 25 effective str before promo was ridiculous but after promo he was unstoppable, and provoke is a very powerful skill.

Even with her seemingly high bases, Rebekka didnt feel all that great, but after promo she was almost guaranteeing a kill on anything with Luna.

Saif is such a unit. Good bases and with +7 dmg from his skills for basically just breathing, and with good move to boot.

Ralph was a funny unit, big stats, massive HP, still good at both offense and defence.

I felt a lot of sword units felt very redundant compared to their peers. Leading this pack is Emil, who has very similar bases to Skyla yet lacks move, and duelist blow doesn’t quite make up for it. Worse yet, he joins right before Jordan who is almost objectively better, and Maeve has almost the same stats with better speed. I could say the same for Talia, who is similarly almost entirely absolete compared to your units.

Similarly Maeve is almost made immediately absolete by Ashton who joins so close to her yet is better at almost anything, and then Anna puts the final nail in the coffin. (Even without her part 1 stats, rest in peace 19 str Janna.)

A lot of the later recruits felt like they had stats more on par with the enemy, yet compared to your trained crew they are so far behind.

I thought the archers could be a tad stronger. The combat felt enemy phase focused, and the archers don’t have greater offensive stats than their peers.

Naval Warfare

These are some of the most creative maps I’ve ever seen. The whole different types of ballista effectiveness and cross map battle gimmick allowed a break from the old party of mass murderers, and was a refreshing change of pace. I’m a bit disappointed that that was all we got of it.
I think it would be funnier if the harpoon was an instant kill, as even then it probably won’t find much use.
I do think Brad shouldn’t start with Harpex, as it makes me think he will shoot.

Proc skills

Long story short, not a huge of a proc skills, on player or generic enemy units. A extra layer of crit isn’t particularly interesting and can get it by surprise, and I don’t find that fun.

Misc

Some later bosses appear to not have boss quotes, and Rebekka vs Jacob seems to have duplicated a few lines.

Voids curse doesn’t work on enemy phase, which allowed large exp from the pirate waves on the port.

Looking forward to what might be the last update, only a bit more to go!

6 Likes

I really appreciate you doing another run.

Act 1

Yeah, supports don’t show on the status screen because of the weapon rank patch. The real reason I haven’t implemented a prep screen in the early chapters is to avoid spoiling a certain thing from CH6. I know it’s silly and that it only shows the classes, but it might still make it a little obvious. I know there’s a patch to remove that menu entirely, however, the prep screen is now the only way the player can check their support progress because of the other patch. I’ll still try to come up with a better solution.

Balance

Roman has been the most difficult character to balance because of his unique situation. He can’t be too weak to be unusable in part one, so it only makes sense to limit his mid to late game potential. I’m nerfing his growths and promotion bonuses further in the next patch. After a certain point I have to say that I’ve stopped playtesting as much on Easy and Normal and I pretty much always play on Hard, which is really not as masochistic as it was originally intended. Rebekka should not double as much in that difficulty, though her personal tome is still strong. I have plans for the other sword users, but I admit they won’t be easy to balance.

The one thing I will disagree on are the archers. Short bow is 1-2 range, there are stronger longbows in the hack, and snipers get +1 range eventually. I think Sasha is the better one that takes effort to raise, while Cyan can be promoted when she joins and she’s already strong there. In any case, they are very useful, specially with the abundance of enemy siege tomes and status staves in the late game (a couple of which are hard mode only).

tl;dr incoming roman nerfs, will update difficulty descriptions, I’ll try to rebalance the sword users and I think the archers are actually good.

Naval Warfare

Thanks. I honestly wasn’t expecting the most positive reaction on those, and I personally do enjoy those chapters. I have a little surprise for the final story update. About the Harpax, I’m assuming you’re talking about that one escape chapter. Yes, I guess approaching him can be scary. I will remove it until he joins.

Skills

I have to agree there, I don’t love proc skills either. I might replace them with something entirely, like I did with rally skills. And it sucks that void curse doesn’t work on enemy phase, thanks for letting me know. I will have to lower the reinforcement count.

So, thanks again for the feedback! The chapters, cutscenes, and character endings are all done, so expect the final story update soon.

8 Likes

So as promised, here is version 1.0.0! The download link can be found in the OP.

General changes
  • The story is now finished! Character endings, including paired endings, are included.
  • The change literally everyone requested: Battle prep is now unlocked earlier, in CH2.
  • Uninstalled the 8 weapon rank patch. Supports cannot be seen during preparations anymore, but they show up on the character’s status screen again. I think this is not a big deal, as there is only one “hybrid” unit in the game, and not being able to see their weapon rank will not affect much.
  • The last weapon ranks (A and S) now need less weapon EXP. I don’t think anything broke, but let me know, as it was a pretty late change.
  • New main menu theme, based on FE3’s. Also new preparation theme for some climatic battles.
Balance changes
  • Roman’s growths were nerfed further, as were his promotion bonuses. He turned out to be very weak during playtesting, so I’m giving him his personal axe earlier (in ch7) so he’s easier to train. When he rejoins in ch16, he will regain this weapon with full uses.
  • Joseph joins at lvl 4 instead of lvl 2.
  • The two playable Myrmidon now learn Critical Force at lvl 7.
  • Lowered Skyla’s and Reiner’s CON so they can actually rescue something.
  • Janna has been nerfed. Her OP personal skill has been replaced with Gamble.
  • Despoil has been removed from all thieves, and it’s now Maeve’s personal skill. She keeps Desperation.
  • Ashton joins at a lower lvl. Stats adjusted. His personal skill is now Infiltrator.
  • Lowered Netherworld uses from 35 to 30.
  • Increased Harpoon POW to 50.
  • Some bosses were nerfed.
Skills
  • Most proc skills have been removed, with the exception of Lethality, Astra, Black Magic, and Aether, which is now Hero only (sorry, lords).
  • Sages learn Discipline+ instead of Ignis.
  • Paladins learn Trample instead of Aegis.
  • Generals learn Short Shield instead of Pavise.
  • Assassins don’t learn Lifetaker anymore.
  • Druids and the female Summoner now learn Hex and Thunderstorm instead of Corona.
  • Great Knights learn Charge instead of Luna.
  • Falcoknights learn Mage Slayer instead of Trample.
Map changes
  • Better visuals in some maps.

Ch1:

  • You need to be closer to the boss for the reinforcements to spawn.
  • There are less reinforcements.

Ch7:

  • Gave Alice some dialogue.

Ch10:

  • The female Sniper now drops an Elysian Whip.

Ch12:

  • Less reinforcements that grow stronger over time. The final wave spawns berserkers instead of pirates.

I am here once again thanking everyone who helped. People who playtested and offered feedback are credited in-game at the end of the story. Speaking of the credits, they kind of look like crap, but at least they’re legible. Anyways, as always, I’ll fix any bugs and make any changes I can think of to improve the experience.

14 Likes

Congrats on a full release!
Not everyday a full length hack finishes, looking forward to closing up the story.

5 Likes

You had me at playable fleets.

1 Like

A quick question, what is the recommended difficulty should I start off with? Normal or Hard?

Currently playing and, while the plot itself and how has it been presented currently is quite nice, I’ve noticed a probably unintended error - on Hill’s death quote, Janna’s portrait and death quote seems to appear instead.

2 Likes

Congrats on completing the hack! Have heard good things, looking forward to trying this myself down the line.

2 Likes

This is probably coming a bit late since the hack is finished, but you can fiddle with this patch in FEBuilder to move the support ranks down to not look ugly when a character has a lot of weapon ranks.

I have a Master Knight with seven weapon ranks in my hack, and I used this to fix the status screen.

1 Like

Noticed a couple bugs in the prologue. Hills death quote is Anna’s death quote (or whoever the character that looks like her is) and Romans hair turns black for a quick second whenever he attacks. Also wondering what the intended difficulty is.

1 Like