Sturgeon doesn’t have a proper death quote set.
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There’s a bug where a note about Eirika and supply convo appears from FE 8 in chapter 3.
Was Edelgard an inspiration to Kalea… ? 
Just look at her character smashing everything down. Even that Pirate King called her a demon Princess. Also, are you going to put some advanced skills in future ? Like both special enemy and ally characters have their own unique skill.
Enjoyed the game so far.
MVP : Chiasa. (Future Kelik)
I drafted up the concept for Kalea in 2017, before even drafting the VQ script, so long before I knew anything about Edelgard. I don’t think the two characters are particularly similar outside of “noble lady axe lord” and maybe some aspects of their demeanor, but I am also not super well read on Edelgard so maybe Kalea feels like a rip off? If so, it’s unintentional. Would appreciate any insight from anyone more familiar with 3H to comment.
Nah, I don’t want to add skills here. I want to make something simpler with an old school feel, so I do intentionally did not add skills nor intend to do so. From my experience with VQ, I felt like I was paring down the impact of skills on the game until many players felt they were hardly noticeable, and decided it wasn’t really worth the headache or in line w/ the design goals of this project. I’ll probably use “skills” on items (like Miles’ prf) more in the future, but we’ll see when I get there.
Some other news - right now I am taking a break from hacking to focus on some personal stuff, so I’ll revisit the bugs when I have time and motivation. Not sure when that will be, but I don’t intend to put out any releases until I port everything to buildfiles.
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I just got to say that I am a huge fan of the design philosophy you have gone with this time. The slower exp, the capture focus, not having skills, less doubling… along with the whole fe1 style cast I’ve got to say that for me personally, it’s like a perfect blend. I hope you don’t mind if I draw inspiration for my project?
Lastly, I hope your personal stuff goes well, and that you keep safe.
All the best.
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Appreciate the kind words. Feel free to, I mostly borrowed from the sources I listed under “inspirations” in the OP.
It’s been fun to mess around with, although I’ve seen a lot of feedback that the units feel really “samey”.
My advice is figure out the pieces you like and do a twist that suits you best.
What’s exciting about the hacking community right now is that there is a strong willingness to experiment with different numeric systems and gameplay styles that deviate from GBAFE. It’s interesting to see how people approach this, although right now I’ve definitely come to appreciate simpler, stripped down FE.
Even LoT can feel too mentally taxing for me sometimes, but I think that’s largely a function of the enemy stats/placement, as well as capture.
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Hey Pandan,
Huge fan of VQ by the way (perhaps my favorite FE experience of all time if I’m being completely honest). Just started LoT and so far I’m enjoying the changes you’ve made (especially capturing, it adds a new element of strategy to the game and I’m excited to see how you use it in maps later in the game). The game already feels very similar to Vision Quest while also presenting something new, which increases the allure. I do have a couple of questions and suggestions though:
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definitely noticing the slower XP gain; I was thinking that maybe increasing the base xp for non-lethal combats (where the player unit lands a hit) so that units get a little more for simply participating might be a good idea. This would further encourage the use of chip units (which will be more abundant given the increased threshold for doubling) that wouldn’t have to worry as much about getting (or, more to the point, being fed) kills in order to stay relevant.
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I like the idea of skills on weapons and/or proofs, but I feel that a slightly-better-than-iron sword that slightly buffs nearby ally’s attacks (Valentine) deserves more than 30 uses, especially when Miles is forced to use several uses right off the bat because it’s the only weapon he starts with. This could be remedied by giving Valentine more uses or giving Miles an extra weapon to start. (I should note that this is more of a minor inconvenience, not a major turnoff, so I’m fine with whatever you decide)
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I actually stumbled upon this hack the other day after I had just finished a run through of VQ because I was looking to see if there was any news about a sequel (and I was pleased with what I found). I know this is in some ways less of a sequel and more of a derivative project (at least at the moment), but I was wondering if you are considering or planning on addressing some of the loose ends (the Dark Order, Titus, Lera, Storch, Horvath, etc.) from VQ’s story in this hack. I should note I haven’t gotten very far in the hack, so this question might be answered upon further play.
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Is there a discord for this hack and/or VQ? If so I can’t find it on this page or VQ’s page.
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Are you planning on adding magic/physical hybrid classes or is the inclusion of mag and str stats on all units just for magical weapon calculations?
Overall, very good and promising work so far, I’m looking forward to future updates!
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Hey there - thanks for the kind words and feedback. Happy to answer these questions:
Will need to play around more with this to see. I personally don’t think the chip EXP is too low if you’re at or below level of the enemies, but the way the formula works (to my knowledge), is that the scale is more severe - ie units like Ballard get very little EXP for chipping, about the same as Duck, which can feel bad.
I’ll look into seeing if I can increase the value of chip, but honestly I am pretty happy w/ the general pacing and level curve, and chip EXP plays a big part in that IMO. The angle you present regarding “encouragement” is one I hadn’t really considered, but that’s largely because the OHKO is pretty rare outside of specific matchups or weapons (ie Duck’s brave axe, effective weapons, etc.), at least so far. More testing and building will need to be done before I can commit to any changes.
Yeah I get that - I’ve gotten into debates before about PRF weapons and I’m generally of the mind that using a PRF a few times until you get something else is not really a big deal. In this case, I think it diminishes the value of capture to give him another weapon upfront. He can also take Duck’s iron sword, too.
Yes - while pretty much everything is still roughly drafted past the point I’ve built (e.g. the first arc), there’s some detail I have to flesh out. Some of this will be driven by technology availability (like can I do a Tear Ring Saga / RD Part 4 style party split and do multiple paths at once?), which would impact plot and characters. Of the characters you mentioned, I intend on Lera, Titus, and Horvath playing major roles in the back-half of the game, but not at the expense of the two lords (Kalea and Wulandari).
I want to avoid an FE10 scenario where all the new characters get narratively replaced by old ones, so I will probably keep the playable cast to like ~12 returning characters, with most returning as NPCs or enemies, if at all. I have a few things planned out that I will not spoil regarding how some of the VQ cast will play a role.
I have a private server for the folks directly involved in development. The public server got really big (~600 users) and I shut it down to focus on building stuff again. Sorry.
As of now, probably not. Ideally the Lords will promote into hybrid classes, but the exact specs are still TBD.
I decided early on that rather than make generic hybrid classes, I’d attempt to make some funky units that make better use of the non-traditional offensive stat, while also making some of these weapons more readily available and affordable. I’m a big fan of classes that break w/ the convention of their class and have funky spreads, and so I’m trying to facilitate that through the magic stat for some units.
However, I haven’t really messed with it much in this build and plan to introduce more later. Chapter 9 has a unit, Miller, who is a wyvern rider with a big magic stat and a PRF magic lance, but has poor strength and defense. I’m hoping I can implement more funky weapons to make these offbeat units more interesting to use without being busted.
My goal for the early game was to see if I could make compelling gameplay (or at least gameplay I would personally enjoy) given the mix of systems and number changes I made, so I stuck pretty close to vanilla-ish conventions for the unit designs.
When I made VQ, a lot of the units with funky spreads came as add-ins later on in development, once I knew the base game was beatable w/ more standard units. I predict I’ll replicate that again as I build and see how the game comes out.
I’ve committed to taking a break through the new year and will assess how I want to proceed then. Right now I’ve had little time or motivation to hack, so I apologize if I mislead you or others w/ these types of posts since there’s a possibility I never get much further than what we have today, but I do really appreciate the feedback and questions. It helps me sharpen my own thoughts and gives me new ideas. Thanks again for posting and sharing, and I hope this post is helpful.
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Hey all,
I’m canceling the project.
I won’t drone on about details, but the short version is that I have a lot going on in my personal life (mix of good, bad, and time consuming) and don’t have the capacity to prioritize working on this.
I need more time and a clearer head space to realize what I set out to achieve, and I’d rather not build than put out something half-hearted.
I’ll share more notes on what was intended later on (ie plot and gameplay stuff, lore stuff, etc), but I’d been kicking this idea around for the past month or so, and some recent news has confirmed that I need to spend my time elsewhere for now.
If anyone has any q’s about the project, feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to answer.
Grateful for all the feedback and support over the years.
Thanks everyone.
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Hope everything works out for you, I know I’m not the only one who hopes it’s picked up again even if it’s years from now. Sometimes the Lengths of Time between content updates can be years for whole team of folks. Really enjoying VQ. I’ve played the first 3 parts about 4 times and yet to finish due to phone problems and losing memory. Anyway GL HF!
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I am sorry to hear that, i hope everything goes well in your life. If you decide to return to this project or you work in other projects, i’ll be paying attention.
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After everything you’ve done for this community, you’ve more than earned a rest. Best of luck with whatever comes next for you!
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Hope it all goes well. All the best to you!
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Aw heck, I can’t say I’m not disappointed, but after all you’ve done in the past 2 years or so you definitely deserve your rest.
See you on the flipside
-Gold
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Thanks all - we’ll see, most likely not going to come back to this unless there are some pretty unlikely changes to my situation.
I’ll draft up some notes on what was planned when I have a few hours.
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It’s a real pity that you cancelled this project, buddy. Then again, real life obviously takes priority over everything else.
I wanted to point out that you are a very creative and brilliant author. Vision Quest is certainly one of the most quoted, played and appreciated FE Hacks ever, and if this second project was of the same technical and professional level, then we have lost a sure masterpiece.
Like it or not, we’ll get over it.
Good luck, from a fan of yours.
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Thanks for the kind words, glad you enjoyed it.
Yeah, it’s very much a “real life” thing. The other main issue is how much more labor intensive writing a sequel is - I was DM’ing w/ Permafrost about this earlier, but there’s so much more to consider when doing a direct sequel, and a lot of the time is spent figuring out and reconciling any differences, so production and writing were taking a lot longer, too.
If I had more time, I maybe would’ve powered through it, but given that I was barely finding more than an hour of free time each day to dedicate to it, it would’ve been very difficult to pull off.
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Shucks, it’s all good, Dan. You don’t have to apologize. It’s sad news, but it’s not like a hack needs to be [COMPLETE] to be fun. I really enjoyed what I did play while play testing for you, after all, even with the funny/strange bugs. I hope things get nicer for you irl dude. I know how it feels to be swamped with stuff. Good luck, and remember: stay safe.
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Hey, Dan! I understand how you feel, bro. My time get very consumed this year as well, and Vision Quest helped me a lot to survive to all the school problems i’m having this month, so what i want to say is that if you someday try to restart the project, i would be glad to help with the story-writing, as a fellow writer would do. I don’t know if it would be so good as your writing, but i know i would try my best. Happy Christmas and a prosper New Year!
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Thought I’d share a few notes about what was planned beyond the scope of the first demo. Since the release of v1 of VQ, I’ve gotten lots of questions about “Sequel hooks” and everything entailed in the next game. While I’m of the mind that note everything needs to be neatly tied with a bow and that the threads left hanging can be open to interpretation and discussion, I did aim to resolve more items when scoping LoT.
Please note there are spoilers below for both games. This was pretty hastily written and some of the stuff, especially later, wasn’t fully baked in my own mind. I had a rough outline of where I wanted things to go, and generally intended to flesh out the details as the story took shape. the general plot beats were pretty much set in stone, but some of the more minor details around characters and who did what was still up in the air. I apologize if this is unclear to anyone.
Plot structure:
The plan for LoT was to create roughly 40-50 chapters w/ a Tear Ring Saga style route split for ~7 chapters where you follow each of the lords. While I did not want to use the same chapter naming schema as VQ, I did mentally break them out as parts.
Please note this is incredibly rough and I’m happy to answer any q’s if things aren’t clear. A lot of the connective tissue was still hazy, but there were plot points I wanted to explore that would help guide the story down the path I wanted.
I’m assuming anyone reading this will have played VQ at least, so apologies if there are items I don’t explain with much depth - it’s explained more in detail there.
Part 1
Part 1 - 1 to 12
This is what made it into the game.
Kalea is the Princess of Mahala (daughter of Queen Akela, the NPC in VQ 2-4). She is in line to rule and around her 22nd birthday, abdicates her duty and leaves home w/ her retainer, Uilani (daughter of VQ Hokulani) to become a sea merchant on the western side of the continent, mostly doing spice and silk trades between Mostyn and Freyung.
Prior to the events of the story, she meets Ballard in Freyung and charters him as a boat captain, employing some of the stowaways as shiphands to help them earn some money back home. Later on, she meets Duck in Mostyn and hires him as a bodyguard and guide. It’s only a few months later that the story begins.
To summarize what’s seen in game: Kalea returns to Freyung and learns that there is civil conflict brewing between the King of Freyung, Anakoni, and his bastard half-brother, “Prince” Cashew. King Anakoni is mildly unpopular, both for his lineage (his mother is a common Mahalan woman, which was frowned upon by much of the aristocracy of Freyung) and for his unwillingness to help people in need, with critics claiming he kowtows too much to the wealthy foreign merchants that leave much of Freyung relatively weak and destitute.
On Cashew: After the events of VQ, Cashew learned that he and his sister were products of an illegitimate relationship between the former King, King Cardgage, and a local townswoman. Cashew and his sister were sent away to live in the countryside.
While Cashew was away during the events of VQ, his sister passed away from illness. His parents too were getting older, and between the events of VQ and LoT, they reveal on their deathbeds that Cashew’s only existing family is his half-brother, King Anakoni. Cashew, seeing the state of his country after traveling abroad and recognizing its weakness, seeks to create change. When he is met with threats from King Anakoni, he begins to organize a rebellion.
King Anakoni tries to convince his advisors to take a soft approach and reason with his half-brother, but his generals and advisors disagree, with one General betraying Anakoni and going to fight for Cashew.
General Sterling and his sister, Lady Sorcha, as well as his advisor, Trachsel, all support Anakoni and try to convince him to take a more hardline stance. Over the course of these weeks, Sterling’s counsel is rebuked by Anakoni, giving Trachsel the idea that perhaps Anakoni is not fit to rule, and convinces General Sterling, the cousin of King Anakoni, to follow through on a coup de tat attempt to consolidate power and put himself as King. Sterling and his sister reluctantly accept this plan, and they put it in motion, using Kalea and her group as a pawn to weaken Cashew’s forces. In the interim, they put Anakoni under house arrest, with Sterling and Trachsel taking control of the court and military.
The rebellion starts to heat up as Kalea gets involved in the conflict. Under Sterling’s orders, Kalea knifes through much of the Freyungi countryside and defeats Cashew at a number of strategic locations. This ultimately culminates with her group leading the attack on his castle. During this time, Kalea meets Chieftess Wulandari (daughter of VQ Waluyo and Ketut), who is captured when her father receives a letter from Cashew, requesting aid in his conflict w/ the King. Concerned, Waluyo sends his daughter and a few close attendants to scope the situation and report back. She is then captured by some of Cashew’s forces, later freed by Kalea.
Uilani and Duck suspect something is up when they assault the castle and General Sterling is nowhere to be found. Kalea, seeking glory and with her eyes set on earning favor, charges forward and defeats Cashew. However, after a difficult fight, Sterling and Trachsel appear, capturing the beaten Cashew and the weary Kalea and Chieftess Wulandari, who Kalea rescued but a few days ago.
Kalea and Wulandari are separated from the rest, setting up the 2nd part of the story.
Part 2
Part 2: ~ 12 - 18 (about 6 chapters)
Kalea and Wulandari are held in jail. They meet Sambal, one of Wulandari’s retainers, who is also held there. They are freed by Otilie, who is now under employ of Queen Akela of Mahala. Sambal stays behind to cover their escape and perishes.
At the end of VQ (Endgame X), Otilie leaves Gunnar and goes to Mahala, recounting what she had seen. The Queen, recognizing that something dire was happening, employs Otilie as a spy and continues to monitor the situation.
Otilie tells Kalea she was sent to rescue her after hearing she was captured. I wanted this part of the game to feel like Manster, so you can imagine a number of gameplay-focused chapters without much dialogue and recruiting a cadre of criminals and wrongly captured soldiers to escape. They eventually make rendezvouses w/ Duck and Uilani.
At the end of the part, Otilie tells Kalea and Wulandari about what happened in Orebro w/ Gunnar and the others. She reveals that the charm Kalea carries (briefly alluded to earlier in dialogue) is actually the Fire Emblem. Wulandari fills in the gap about the migration of her people to Mahala after the war, and Otilie fills in the story about why that migration took place - it was for Kuchingi, who housed the emblem, to take it somewhere far from Orebro, in order to avoid it falling into the hands of Ove’s followers following the War of Origin.
Otilie also shares intelligence from Nevan, saying that Horvath has returned and is now at Titus’ side. Helga and Duck are both shocked to hear this, and fear for the worst. Otilie mentions that she suspects Titus, through Horvath, is exerting pressure on King Anakoni in order to use Freyung as a launching point for invasion of Mahala, while also gearing up forces to attack Kuching and Mostyn, in order to weaken them before they can prepare an adequate counterstrike.
Otilie suspects that Horvath is using Titus to get the emblem, essentially retrying the same plan he tried with Festan 20 years prior. The only difference is that now he’s adding Freyung to the calculus, and using his influence to weaken other nations from within.
It is here where Otilie reveals that there has also been civil unrest at home in Mahala, w/ a north vs. south divide putting the Queen in a difficult spot as she tries to prepare for a potential invasion.
After much deliberation, Kalea agrees to go home w/ Duck and Uilani, while Wulandari goes to Mostyn to gather support to protect the Kuchingi border from a potential onslaught. They each take about half of the forces, and go separate ways.
This was meant to be executed as a Tear Ring Saga style route split, where you follow each Lord’s story in the same playthrough, but get to choose which units go with each Lord.
In addition to Wulandari and Kalea’s stories, Part 3 is where you meet Titus.
Part 3 is taking some time to put together since it’s pretty confusing w/ multiple perspectives and groups, but I’ll share that and the ending parts later on. Note that I did not intend to use “parts” in the same sense that I did in VQ, but rather that I used it as a mechanism to break up the different arcs of the story, as well as intended dev and release points.
Even trying to hash it all out now makes me realize how I bit off much more than I could chew. It would’ve taken a lot of time and discussion to get everything to a polished state, so I appreciate your patience and again apologies if anything is unclear or if it doesn’t make sense.
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Wow, pretty nice story. I believe you didnt want LoL to be a very direct sequence, with Storch being again the protagonist. I like that, but i fear that bringing up a lot of new characters and stories, you will need to take care to not create another Titus or someone that could follow his steps. I’m really liking the story as it is, and i believe you dont need to put the same characters again to be the army units, just because the fanservice, just show them up (as green units if necessary) sometimes, dont let the fans desires or expectatives to force you to something you dont like. Create in your time as you want, and i know we will like it. At the end, the only thing i can say is: Thanks Pandan!
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