[FE8] Four Kings: Deposition, a prequel to Four Kings! (8/10/21 Update: Better Rewarp!)

Daltry hack title screen

Here’s something you don’t see very often: a prequel to an existing hack. This is Four Kings: Deposition, a short prequel to Four Kings! This story is centered around Daltry, one of the main antagonists of Four Kings, and shows how he began and how he became the man he is in the main story. Of the three main antagonists of Four Kings, I felt that Daltry was the weakest one, since he didn’t receive a lot of screentime or backstory, and his few appearances were kinda generic, so I wanted to remedy that with a new story all about him. This hack also features new characters, who will be added into the Four Kings main story in a future update, so you won’t have the usual prequel issue of “where are these new characters in the original story?”

The game is built off of Four Kings as a base, and features similar gameplay. Think of this hack like a “DLC” pack to Four Kings, in the same way that Cindered Shadows relates to Three Houses. It’s recommended you play Four Kings before this, for both story reasons and to have an understanding of the gameplay, but it’s not totally necessary if you play on normal mode.

Other important stuff:

  • There are 12 playable units total (and some generics for the last two maps). All 12 characters will participate in the story, but they also all cause game overs if they die.
  • Consequently, this game features DSFE save points on every map as checkpoints, so use them!
  • Characters all start with supports, with no need to build them up. Affinity bonuses are the same as Four Kings, which are the following:

Fire: 1 attack, 2.5 hit
Ice: 1 defense, 2.5 hit
Lightning: 5 crit, 2.5 hit
Wind: 5 avoid, 2.5 hit
Light: 5 hit, 0.5 attack/defense
Anima: 5 CEva, 2.5 hit, 0.5 attack/defense
Dark: 2.5 hit/crit/avoid/CEva

  • There are a total of 8 chapters. Since it’s a pretty short hack, every playable unit starts promoted and with high weapon ranks and good starting weapons.
  • Also because of the short length and very tight cast, enemy stat progression is relatively slow, so playable characters are pretty sufficient on just their base stats.
  • There is no money management in this hack, and thus no shops (not even a prep screen shop). All items are acquired from new units, enemy drops, or from visiting villages.

Screenshots:
Daltry hack thread image 1Daltry hack thread image 2Daltry hack thread image 3Daltry hack thread image 4Daltry hack thread image 5Daltry hack thread image 6Daltry hack thread image 7Daltry hack thread image 8Daltry hack thread image 9Daltry hack thread image 10Daltry hack thread image 11Daltry hack thread image 12Daltry hack thread image 13Daltry hack thread image 14Daltry hack thread image 15Daltry hack thread image 16Daltry hack thread image 17Daltry hack thread image 18Daltry hack thread image 19Daltry hack thread image 20

Special thanks to jellyunicorn, RubyCastel, PappySoda for helping out with some portraits, and a very special thanks to racecarart for drawing the CG image for the ending!

DOWNLOAD THE PATCH HERE! (Updated 8/10/21) Please give it a try and let me know what you think!

28 Likes

I blink for a second and suddenly one chapter becomes eight.

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The hack only has 4 chapters so far. Give me another couple of weeks and the other 4 chapters will be done.

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Oh wait I lack reading comprehension lol, didn’t see the 4 there.

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we do play fire emblem after all

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Updated the patch link in the main post, as chapter 5 is all set! This one takes place at the same time as Four Kings chapter 1, around the same area too! Give it a try and let me know what you think!
Daltry hack chapter 5 image 1Daltry hack chapter 5 image 2

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Updated the patch link in the main post, as chapter 6 is now finished! Daltry and company have their first run-in with Gideon and his black market cronies, as well as another meeting with a shadowy figure… Give it a try and let me know what you think!
Daltry hack chapter 6 image 3Daltry hack chapter 6 image 2

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i wonder who this shadowy figure is, maybe i should play the premidsequel to fire emblem: four kings: deposition, fire emblem: four kings

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The identity of the shadowy figure will forever be a mystery.

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Using highly advanced photo editing I think I cracked the case on 4k deposition

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Another couple of days, another chapter! The patch link in the main thread is updated to now include chapter 7. Daltry and his army finally assault Castle Askia, hoping to kill the king. Only one more chapter to go!
Daltry hack chapter 7 image 3Daltry hack chapter 7 image

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Did he come back alive.

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Remember, this is a prequel where you play as the bad guys… You can imagine what happens to him in the main story when he goes up against the good guys.

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And with that, the hack is complete! I’ve updated the patch link in the main thread with the full release. Daltry and company storm Castle Askia for their final battle! Or is it just the beginning? Special thanks to racecarart for drawing the CG image used in the ending! You’ll have to beat the game to see it yourself, though.
Daltry hack chapter 8 image 2Daltry hack chapter 8 image 1

With the prequel done, my next step is to go back to Four Kings and update it accordingly. I’ll be adding characters from the prequel into the main story, and making a few other gameplay and story changes, so look forward to that!

6 Likes

The map design was pretty simple all around (besides the black market), but it all fit quite nicely, all the units felt like they had a purpose in terms of gameplay although the low luck on many of them was annoying despite the two Hoplon Guards. The enemies’ relative power compared to your units on the first chapter seemed a little off, Daltry’s middling base speed and low luck really made that chapter feel like a pain due to how little space you get to move, but it was hardly the worst thing ever, just got me off guard. Absolutely loved the change you did on Jeremy’s Rewarp, he was such fun to use with the status staves.

Tomahawk Daltry rocks.
AXEtry

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Glad you enjoyed it, but holy crap, that’s a lot of axe rank! How’d you get him from D to A in such a short amount of time?

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Really just got him to use the iron axe a lot and worked from there. Exact gains were C at the end of chapter 1, B halfway through 4 and A at the start of 6. The stationary armor enemies (when i wasnt in a rush) were a decent target to build up his axe rank, as were the cavalier reinforcements in chapter 5. Did have to work for it and mostly ignored swords unless i really needed to since i figured getting S in swords wouldn’t be relevant, but still felt good to manage this lol.

Perseus means there really wasn’t much of a reason to bother with the Brave Axe, but the high hit rates with Tomahawk really came in handy, as did the Killer Axe. Much as i like Celia, her hit wasn’t the best (when not backed up with supports), so another user was welcome.

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Caught in 4K
Great hack though!

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So @Renoud found an odd bug where chapter 2 preps would softlock on a black screen when viewing the map, and this was fixed by just resetting the emulator. I have no idea what would cause this, since nobody has had this happen before, but if it happens to you, now you know what to do.

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And just like with regular Four Kings, Deposition has received the same update, so Jeremy’s Rewarp is no longer buggy. Enjoy!

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