[FE8] Fire Emblem: Steel Will (Part 2 Released!) (15/26 Chapters)

[MegaCowsamMan]

(Project Thread Banner W.I.P)

Fire Emblem Steel Will is a romhack of FE8.

With a main emphasis on using what vanilla systems are there to create unique map objectives and scenarios without relying on heavy ASM usage, units that have distinct weaknesses rather then just being plain good, and an FE10 style party split with 3 unique campaigns to explore. I’m making this in hopes of getting better in the future.

Story Snyopsis:
Our adventure entails in the land of Paulo. A land rich with history not a soul could remember. Join our 3 protagonists as they each take differing perspectives into this lush land of mystery…and unfold a secret plot unbeknownst to the entire population…

Trailer(s):

FEE3 2023 Trailer

https://youtu.be/Pevc-CGqm14

Latest Trailer (FEE3 2024 Trailer):

FEE3 2024: FE: Steel Will by MegaCowsamMan

Features

• 3 Unique campaigns with 3 unique Lords
• FE10 style switches between parties!
• Gameplay inspired by FE11, and FE12
• Unique objectives
• Wind magic
• A hub world to explore!
• QoL features
• A base mode between chapters
• Lots of weapons
• Armor Knights that are actually good!
• Mono weapon classes
• A side quest system involving food
• A story that’s…I mean it has one idk
• Full supports (Eventually)
• Skills!
• Enhanced Weapon Triangle
• A good bit of original songs by me!
• No AI of any kind
• …TLP mugs?

Chapter Status

Part 1 (9 Total Chapters):
Chapter 1 (Completed)
Chapter 2 (Completed)
Chapter 2x (Completed, Needs Playtesting)
Chapter 3 (Completed)
Chapter 4 (Completed)
Chapter 5 (Completed, Needs Playtesting)
Chapter 6 (Completed)
Chapter 7 (Completed, Needs Playtesting)
Chapter 8 (Completed, Needs Playtesting)

Part 2 (6 Total Chapters):
Chapter 9 (Completed)
Chapter 10 (Completed, Needs Playtesting)
Chapter 11 (Completed)
Chapter 12 (Completed, Needs Playtesting)
Chapter 13 (Completed, Needs Playtesting)
Chapter 14 (Completed, Needs Playtesting)

Part 3 (? Total Chapters):
14x (Completed, Needs Playtesting)
15 (Completed, Needs Playtesting)
16 (Completed)
16x (Completed, Needs Playtesting)
17 (Completed, Needs Playtesting)
18 (Completed, Needs Major Playtesting)
19 (Completed, Needs Playtesting)
20 (Completed, Needs Playtesting)
21 (Completed, Needs Playtesting)
22 (In Progress)
Finale (No Progress)

Screenshots

Bugs/Notices

The “AS” in the items menu of the stat screen does not display Attack Speed. This will be fixed (Hopefully) in the next major update.

There are grammar issues. And there are a lot of them.

If anybody knows how to disable viewable growth rates via FEBuilder. Let me know. Please.

No, this is not a sequel to The Dark Amulet. Just throwing that out there.

Content Rating

ESRB Rating: E10
Fantasy Violence

Randomized

Here’s a version of Steel Will that’s randomized via Vesly’s Self Randomized Project. However, this will only cover Part 1 of Steel Will.

Click Me For Randomization

Download Link: Download Me

I’d really appreciate your feedback to make this hack the best it can be!

[Kliss88]

Cant wait to try this! FE11 is the remake of the 1st game. How does this one have similarities to it?

[MegaCowsamMan]

Well, a large, Iron Man friendly cast, enemies that’ll hit hard, Manaketes, a rather simplistic story (at least for part 1), a few archtypes from the first game, and characters with generally lower defense.

I’m currently balancing chapter 2 right now. The first demo will have a planned 9 chapters.

[Aswink]

I shall give it a try as soon as its ready

[UnitedStars111]

This looks pretty cool. Can’t wait for the release.

[MegaCowsamMan]

Well, the wait is over. FE Steel Will’s beta demo drops today, containing 9 chapters of content! This is a beta demo though, so it hasn’t been playtested by anyone but myself.

Download link is at the top of the thread. Along with new screenshots, and a recruitment guide. A secrets guide will be created for the next update as well.

New Screenshots

Player and enemy units don’t fully have their palettes yet, those will be in the next update, but the gameplay is ready for beta playtesting. If you discover any bugs or glitches, please let my know and I’ll squish 'em! I would gladly accept feedback for the project in all departments.

And yes, the TLP Mini mugs will be resolved. Eventually.

See you next update.

[MegaCowsamMan]

Hello! Minor update to Steel Will, adding the character palettes for Part 1 for both player and enemy characters.

Development on Steel Will has slowed down a bit since I’ve been working on my entry for Celica for the past month, so development of the hack will commence around April 12th to 14th or so after the deadline.

That’s all from me. Patch is at the top of the Thread. Till next time!

[MegaCowsamMan]

Hello! I thought I’d drop by to ask a question. Would you rather the next demo have 3 chapters, or 5 chapters?

How many Chapters for the next demo?

• 3 Chapters
• 5 Chapters

Thank you for your time. Be seeing you.

[Vulgard]

Decided to try this out, here’s my feedback.

Chapter 1

• “Have beef with us” is an expression that doesn’t fit in Fire Emblem, in my opinion. It’s a distinctly modern slang thing.
• Typos abounds. I’m a few sentences in and this is what I see:
  
  
  
  Side note: “Ech” in my language means “Eh.” Must be an eh prince.
• Grammar is also iffy in places. There’s “they are prepared for our kingdom to concluded,” for one.
• “Ceramony” is a consistent misspelling. Then there is “hastely,” rather than “hastily.”
  
  The guy on the left here blinks with his right eye before the left. (From the perspective of the player, it’s his left eye.)
  
  I’m going to become Narcian and order YOUR public evisceration. Kidding.
  This is a consistent mistake in the script, too. I didn’t see a single spot where this mistake hadn’t been made.
  
  Bad choice of text splitting. Splitting at the end of sentences, or where you place punctuation, is preferred. Also, I assume “Duchess’s daughter” was the intended phrase here?
  Oh, and by the way, I’m being selective with the things I’m pointing out. There are more misspellings in the script than what I’m highlighting, for example.
  
  It’s “assistance.”
  
  Um?
  
  
  Oh dear. Not quite sure what’s happening here. This happens with a lot of enemies as well, and fixes itself when I hover my cursor over them a second time. The first time I hover, this bug appears. It doesn’t happen for every unit or every weapon; not quite sure when exactly it occurs.
  
  This should just say “infantry.”
  
  “Innobility” is not a word.
  
  “Duche” is also not a word, at least not in English. And in languages where it is a word, it refers to a duchy, not to a duke (or duchess).
  
  What is a “high heir?”
  
  It’s “sergeant,” not “sargent.”
  
  Well, a Swordmaster has it in his inventory and can use it, so you can’t be referring to the Soldier class here. I hope it’s clear later on who can and can’t use this weapon, because my immediate thought is the Soldier class, and yet it’s not the class the weapon is on.
  
  A tome can’t “wield” magic. It can contain magic, for example. It’s Lealid who’d be wielding the tome’s magic, here.
  
  This is more of a “me” thing, but I find the “1-3 Range” in the description redundant, since you can see the weapon has 1-3 Range if you just check its Range parameter.
  
  Is there a reason for the capital F here?
  
  What’s a “vandaler?”

Alright, now onto the gameplay.

I don’t understand why every enemy here has Spur Magic. There are two magic-using enemies on the map in total – the rest are Brigands, Fighters, Archers, and a lone Commando.

As the screen moves during the animation of Aceine’s Excalibur, this darker bar appears.

The Aceine/Kriege conversation has a spot where a line of text skips itself without an [A] press. Myrad’s battle quote does this as well.

There is a “must of” in the Eric/Lealid conversation instead of a “must have.”

Lealid’s battle animation is cool, but it’s a bit odd that she’s using a staff in these anims when she’s fighting with a tome.

The lack of available healing outside of Vulneraries and Avrick’s Breath of Life skill is a little annoying. Certainly by design, but still annoying, especially since Vulneraries only heal 10 HP and many of the enemies here deal more damage than that. Especially when there’s a unit whose battle animation uses a staff that can’t actually use staves

The chest-opening Commando is a bit weird. He opens the chest, then stands there doing nothing. You might as well have made him a regular enemy who simply drops the weapon that you placed inside the chest.

The end-of-chapter event had “concent” instead of “consent.” That’s one I haven’t seen before.

“They don’t seem to of gone far” → “They don’t seem to have gone far.” Seriously, please stop this. It’s have. Not of.

Capitalization.

Aaaarrrrgggghhhh.

It’s “Tactician,” not “Tactitian.” Also, Sargent again.
Also, holy hell. You spell “ceremony” correctly in the line that comes after this, after misspelling it in the entire start-of-chapter event. Character development!

And then you use “there” instead of “they’re.” Please, stop it.

Roles. Not rolls.
All these spelling mistakes appear to come from pronunciation. You know something is pronounced one way, which leads to you misspelling it in writing, because you make assumptions. Please, check that stuff if you’re unsure.

Parents’ house.
They’re taking care of him. Not there.

Sorry if it comes across as too pedantic or rude. I’m just trying to be thorough, to make sure the feedback is helpful.

I didn’t end up having much to say about the gameplay. It was definitely a map. Had one strange part that I think could be improved. Also, if you want the Thief to be an anti-turtle incentive, I feel like he should appear a lot earlier, because I was almost done with the map by the time he showed up.

[MegaCowsamMan]

Hi, Vulgard! Thank you for giving the hack a go, and for leaving feedback!

Response

@Vulgard

Sorry if it comes across as too pedantic or rude. I’m just trying to be thorough, to make sure the feedback is helpful.

All’s cool. I’m glad I got some sort of feedback, negative or positive, I’m thankful for it.

@Vulgard

I didn’t end up having much to say about the gameplay. It was definitely a map. Had one strange part that I think could be improved.

What is the part in question?

@Vulgard

Also, if you want the Thief to be an anti-turtle incentive, I feel like he should appear a lot earlier, because I was almost done with the map by the time he showed up.

I’ll do that.

@Vulgard

“Have beef with us” is an expression that doesn’t fit in Fire Emblem, in my opinion. It’s a distinctly modern slang thing.

Yeah, about that, I have this internal hack I created years ago (not sure if it’ll ever be released), and forced myself to adhere to the “Speech Terms of Fire Emblem”, so to speak, and when I started making Steel Will, I decided to do away with that. Then I kind of regretted it 6 chapters in, and tried reverting most of it. Seems I let a few slip through the cracks.

@Vulgard

Um?


Oh dear. Not quite sure what’s happening here. This happens with a lot of enemies as well, and fixes itself when I hover my cursor over them a second time. The first time I hover, this bug appears. It doesn’t happen for every unit or every weapon; not quite sure when exactly it occurs.

That seems to be a visual bug with the Modular Minimug Box Patch. I’ll look into that at a later date.

@Vulgard

“Innobility” is not a word.

That’s supposed to be “Nobility”.

@Vulgard

“Duche” is also not a word, at least not in English. And in languages where it is a word, it refers to a duchy, not to a duke (or duchess).

Earlier on, I was using the title “Duche”, to create a new “tier” of hierarchy. But it seems to be confusing rather then creative. I’ll revert it to “Duke” just to keep things from being confusing.

@Vulgard

What is a “high heir?”

Whoops. I’ll fix that.

@Vulgard

Well, a Swordmaster has it in his inventory and can use it, so you can’t be referring to the Soldier class here. I hope it’s clear later on who can and can’t use this weapon, because my immediate thought is the Soldier class, and yet it’s not the class the weapon is on.

Yeah, don’t know what I was thinking there. I’ll change it to “Myrad only”.

@Vulgard

This is more of a “me” thing, but I find the “1-3 Range” in the description redundant, since you can see the weapon has 1-3 Range if you just check its Range parameter.

…You know what? I kinda agree. Vanilla Fire Emblem did it with the Long Bow, but now that you mention it, it does feel redundant. I’ll just keep it at “Aceine’s Tome” then.

@Vulgard

Is there a reason for the capital F here?

No. I’ll fix that.

@Vulgard

I don’t understand why every enemy here has Spur Magic. There are two magic-using enemies on the map in total – the rest are Brigands, Fighters, Archers, and a lone Commando.

Well, there are more magic enemies later on. I chose Spur Magic because I was trying to find a skill that wasn’t too game altering, while also not being unnecessary. I never really noticed it while playtesting honestly. I think I’ll change it to Frenzy, or Fiery Blood instead.

@Vulgard

As the screen moves during the animation of Aceine’s Excalibur, this darker bar appears.

Magic Animations is the one thing I know next to nothing about. I’ll look into it at a later date as well.

@Vulgard

Lealid’s battle animation is cool, but it’s a bit odd that she’s using a staff in these anims when she’s fighting with a tome.

The original animation doesn’t have a “Tome” option. Just stave animations. I’m not well versed in battle animations admittedly. I’ve made my own, but they’re only reskins. I’ll look into it though!

@Vulgard

The lack of available healing outside of Vulneraries and Avrick’s Breath of Life skill is a little annoying. Certainly by design, but still annoying, especially since Vulneraries only heal 10 HP and many of the enemies here deal more damage than that. Especially when there’s a unit whose battle animation uses a staff that can’t actually use staves

Yes, it is by design. I was considering adding 15 heal Vulneraries, because I knew not having a healer might be annoying, but I was never sure. What do you think?

@Vulgard

The chest-opening Commando is a bit weird. He opens the chest, then stands there doing nothing. You might as well have made him a regular enemy who simply drops the weapon that you placed inside the chest.

Ah, that seems to be an AI issue. Assuming the escape point was blocked off, the AI changes to stand still until the escape point could be reached. As for why I didn’t just give him the weapon, I wanted to encourage the player to split to get the Kabutri, and save the village.

@Vulgard

“They don’t seem to of gone far” → “They don’t seem to have gone far.”

Yikes.

@Vulgard

All these spelling mistakes appear to come from pronunciation. You know something is pronounced one way, which leads to you misspelling it in writing, because you make assumptions. Please, check that stuff if you’re unsure.

I will make note of that for sure. I was quite hasty writing wise at the beginning admittedly.

Thank you once again for leaving helpful feedback. I’ll create a thread and see if I can get some playtesters to help out, and get some friends to proofread.

[Vulgard]

@MegaCowsamMan

Then I kind of regretted it 6 chapters in, and tried reverting most of it. Seems I let a few slip through the cracks.

I don’t think it’s necessarily terrible for you to just ignore the general unspoken rules of “language in a Fire Emblem game,” but I feel like if you’re going to do that, you should set that expectation through either a very light-hearted tone or some other measure.

@MegaCowsamMan

Earlier on, I was using the title “Duche”, to create a new “tier” of hierarchy.

I don’t hate that inherently, although I do feel like if you’re going to invent a new set of noble titles, they should be more distinct from regular ones, or it should be clear in some other way that those are intended titles and not misspellings.

@MegaCowsamMan

Vanilla Fire Emblem did it with the Long Bow

It’s not a huge deal, that’s why I said it was more of a “me” thing. I’m personally not fond of many vanilla descriptions, because I feel like they underinform or unintentionally mislead the player at times.

@MegaCowsamMan

Well, there are more magic enemies later on. I chose Spur Magic because I was trying to find a skill that wasn’t too game altering, while also not being unnecessary. I never really noticed it while playtesting honestly. I think I’ll change it to Frenzy, or Fiery Blood instead.

I was just confused by every enemy having the skill on a map where it doesn’t have much of an impact. If you’re going to put the same skill on every enemy… well, I suppose you can do that? It’s just that in this case, the presence of the skill was irrelevant.

@MegaCowsamMan

Yes, it is by design. I was considering adding 15 heal Vulneraries, because I knew not having a healer might be annoying, but I was never sure. What do you think?

I’m generally a supporter of this, unless your hack has very small numbers or you’re deliberately going for the DSFE healing experience (as in, “healing once from any source may not be enough for your needs”).

@MegaCowsamMan

As for why I didn’t just give him the weapon, I wanted to encourage the player to split to get the Kabutri, and save the village.

That’s what I did; it just later turned out that me splitting was unnecessary, because the Commando refused to move. On principle, the idea is sound – it just didn’t work the intended way in execution.

I’ll tackle some other chapters at some point and write about them here, which I hope will be helpful.

[MegaCowsamMan]

@Vulgard

I’m generally a supporter of this, unless your hack has very small numbers or you’re deliberately going for the DSFE healing experience

Yeah, my hack generally has smaller numbers in lieu of DSFE. It’s my favorite era, and my main inspiration for this hack.

@Vulgard

That’s what I did; it just later turned out that me splitting was unnecessary, because the Commando refused to move. On principle, the idea is sound – it just didn’t work the intended way in execution.

According to my playtesters, it seemed to be an AI issue, since they didn’t face any issues. Maybe I’ll add another escape point to remedy this issue a bit.

[MegaCowsamMan]

Hello! A minor patch drops today! Manly for chapter 1. It simply implements some changes suggested from some insider playtesting, which you can hop on here if you’re interested. More will be implemented very soon.

Part 2 of the hack is well underway, I just have to complete a few more chapters, and playtest through them a bit, then I’ll work on Part 3. Till next time.

Edit: I put in an older patch, but now it’s updated. It features a new character in chapter 1.

[SamsungGalaxyS24]

Damn This man should be the head of the grammar police (Kidding of course)

[MegaCowsamMan]

Hello! Very minor update. A few fixes for chapter 2, and some minor playtesting additions. More will be on the way soon. Till next time.

[MegaCowsamMan]

Hey y’all! FEE3’s currently runnin’ as we speak, and as sheduled, Part 2 of FE Steel Will has released! Here’s the trailer if ya find yourself interested:

FEE3 2024: FE: Steel Will by MegaCowsamMan

Oh, and here’s a changelog of, changes:

Changelog

#1 Added the Mercury weapon tier:

#2 Modified the Mage promotion system:

#3 Removed Personal base stats from generic enemies:

#4 Fixed a lot of typos throughout the game:

#5 Changed Aceine’s Excalibur animation:

#6 Changed the Aura Lance to D rank instead of C:

#7 Nerfed some reinforcements in chapter 4:

#8 Modified the Weapon Triangle:

#9 Buffed Blade Weapons:

#10 Tweaked Silver weapons:

#11 Rewrote some scenes in chapters 6, 7, and 8:

#12 Changed the Sniper Classes skill

#13 Added actual content into the Fortress shops:

#14 The Corsair class was added. They’re basically pirates who attack villages:

#15 Pirates have an extra move in water:

#16 Various grammer fixes and ajustments:

#17 Fixed a visual bug with the minimug screen:

#18 Gave Dess a Heal staff:

#19 Tweaked some of the map palettes:

#20 Lowered the uses of Trainee weapons:

#21 Nerfed the Reaver weapons:

#22 Implemented and edited a modified script of the chapter 1 opening by @AthenaBaer:

#23 More I’ve forgotten, that’s for sure:

I’ve also added the recruitment guide as well. Word of caution though, Part 2 has not been nearly playtested as much as Part 1, so try to go into it as such. Also, some of the art is in an incomplete state, as my artist, @TheNobodyArtist is on break (brake lol) for the time being.

Here’s also a QnA that @d_h put together in case you’re interested.

This has been quite a journey to say the least. thanks to everyone who’s playtested, and, uh played, my own little hackrom.

Have a good one y’all!

[Vorgus]

Hey @MegaCowsamMan, any reason you had to clarify in the top post that this romhack is not a sequel to The Dark Amulet? Such an oddly specific clarification

[MegaCowsamMan]

Someone asked in the trailer comment section:

I added it to the notices section in case anyone was confused.

Side note, Dark Amulet honestly does look like something I would play. Perhaps I should give it a try sometime.

[tweetyboy]

Is this done with the supports fully done?

[DATonDemand]

How did anyone jump to that conclusion lmao