Hi, I’m Doin Thangs, big #writans man and 2-year FEU veteran! A while ago, I released an early version of Curse of Lagdou Act 1. After consideration and feedback, I scrapped the project and redesigned the whoooole thing from the ground up.
CoL Act 2 has arrived! Play up to Ch. 17!
Download Here!
Versions
0.5.28 - Release
0.5.30 - Hotfix
0.5.31 - Hotfix
0.6.0 - Act 2 release
0.6.2 - Hotfix
0.6.3 - Hotfix
Note: When you start a new game, there’s an option to skip directly to Act 2! This is recommended if you previously played Act 1, since all units have since received a base speed buff. You’ll receive all recruitable units at an appropriate level, as well as obtainable items/gold up to that point. (Jeanne, Bo, and Marshe are temporarily removed from the party for story reasons.)
Join the Discord community! (with emojis)
What is (the new) Curse of Lagdou?
Curse of Lagdou is a completely new story taking place in Magvel during the events of FE8. The plot follows two new protagonists, Isabelle and Jeanne, as they uncover a horrific curse that will usher in the apocalypse. There is no right answer to this problem, and their differing ideals will inevitably collide.
Meanwhile, every aspect of the gameplay has been completely remixed – the entire FE8 cast returns with many new faces, and every unit has a niche. Outplay your enemies with non-random, positioning-based critical hits, CoL-original skills, and a huge arsenal of carefully-designed weapons.
The new version of CoL is no longer a rebalance! Every map is fully original, complete with a plethora of side objectives. The pacing is tight and the enemy placement is sponsored by the greatest minds in FEU’s shadow government.
Act 1 features the prologue through Ch. 8, following Isabelle and Jeanne’s journey north from Serafew as the war begins. As of this writing, Act 2 (Ch. 9-16) is in active development and playtesting. ~23 chapters are planned for the final release.
Finally, a HUGE thank you to Streudelmuffin (Sacred Stones Reforged), SubwayBossEmmett (Ballad of the Bard), Xilirite (Lady of Masks, Dark Deity 2), Rivian (Cerulean Crescent), Vulgard, Alexmanpersonguy, SirSpensir (LTPhone), Magdalene (LTPhone), BigMood (Server 72), Ysor (Scion of Jaskr), Zappypants, Bloble, and many others who’ve provided rigorous playtesting and writing feedback! CoL is hardly recognizable from its initial release, and you were all vital in whipping it into shape.
Major Features
- Modern QOL and design principles, inspired by hacks like Bells of Byelen and An Unexpected Caller
- A new critical hit system that, so far, has been a critically-acclaimed hit
- All original maps
- High-effort story with many new playable characters
- Many new battle animations, portraits, CGs, and sprites by me
- Personal skills applied sparingly throughout, similar to FE5
- New weapon system built for tactical depth (and some fun novelty)
- Branch promotion restructured with meaningful tradeoffs in mind
- Turn autosave - Resume Chapter puts you back at the beginning of the last
Player Phase, so you can easily redo unfortunate turns
Difficulty
Normal Mode: Roughly equivalent to Normal difficulty from vanilla FE8. Recommended for people who have little FE experience, but might be unsatisfying for people who’ve finished an FE game before.
Difficult Mode: Roughly equivalent to Difficult difficulty (lol) from vanilla FE8. This is the recommended difficulty, assuming you’ve got some FE experience under your belt. Should be on the easier end of hacks, but will still provide a satisfying, fine-tuned challenge.
Lunatic Mode: This is for romhack nerds who require a particularly tricky experience. Note that this mode is NOT yet thoroughly tested (I’m leaving this for when the hack is complete) and may feel unfair or unbalanced, especially if you’re unfamiliar with CoL’s unique mechanics.
Story
The dreams and the rot are eternally opposed. Heroes rule over the realm of dreams, where the rot must not encroach.
Enter Isabelle Taylor.
A half-century before Grado’s invasion, the merchant republic of Carcino won its independence from Frelia. The Taylor Textile Merchant Company is one of many born out of the ensuing mercantile revolution. Through the influence of its founder, the enigmatic Master Taylor, Magvel’s age of kings quietly wanes.
The company’s young heiress, Isabelle, is an airheaded ray of sunshine, content to drift along her destined path and pass life’s difficult questions by. She bears witness to the opening salvos of Grado’s attack, and unwittingly rises to power as she is embroiled in the war.
Meanwhile, the plucky Jeanne ekes out an existence in the company’s sharecropping village. She is a young, quiet girl, full of thoughts and incapable of dreams. Forging an unlikely friendship with an ancient spirit, she discovers the pain of guilt and the unknowable beauty of love.
A deadly plague of unknown origin sweeps across the countryside. Renais’s bandits are not what they seem. Powerful artifacts are dredged in secret from deep beneath the earth.
Before the Demon King, there was Lagdou. What crimes did the leaders of this ancient empire commit, and how must Magvel change so that these crimes may be put to rest?
Gameplay
So, how about these crits?
I’m so glad you asked!!! In CoL, if (and only if) you have over 50 crit, your next hit that connects will do 2x damage. If you have less than 50 crit, the number will even be helpfully grayed-out on the battle forecast.
Furthermore, CoL has a bevy of new skills that modify crit chance and change what crits actually do. Some ignore defense, some work like an effective weapon, and some add a particular stat onto your base attack. Different crits are good for different things.
But that’s not all! CoL also adds flanking to the mix. Each ally adjacent to your target grants +20 crit against them. On top of that, weapon triangle advantage grants +15. Killer weapons? Who needs 'em! Surround an enemy and welcome them to Crit City!
So, what's this "new weapon system"?
While I’m an FE8 fan, the game is infamous for vacuuming up hordes of weak enemies in very long enemy phases. Particularly towards the lategame, maps like Darkling Woods can be a slog.
In CoL, weapon ranges are where it’s at. Now, if you plan to park yourself on a forest with a hand axe/javelin and expect to mop up all the enemies around you, you’ll be quickly swarmed – because javelins and hand-axes (now called thrownaxes 
) have 2-only and 3-only range respectively!
Many weapons (including swords) have had range adjustments such that turtling is much less productive and you’re better off playing aggressively. Rush enemies at ranges where they can’t hit you, and equip the right weapons so they can’t find holes in your defense either.
Furthermore, physical weapons have received stat boosts based on type: Lances give DEF and axes give RES, while swords have low weight and a wide variety of effects.
Other Stuff
Feedback/Suggestions
Please submit feedback/suggestions in the Discord or reply to this thread! Please also join the Discord if you’d like to help playtest future releases – this is a HUGE help.
Age Rating
CoL is PG-13. The story features no sexual content or profanity beyond a few uses of “damn” and “hell”. There are scattered moments of light horror and violence, and a few scary images. The story touches on themes of loneliness, self-sacrifice, and depression.
Credits
Created in FEBuilderGBA, an amazing tool by god-king 7743, glory to his name
Created using SkillSystems by the Skillsys team, with modifications by me
All custom assets were either created by me or borrowed from the free-to-use repo
Please don’t use any of my custom assets without permission, unless they’re in the free-to-use repo or my graphics thread
Magic
Luna and Impale animations - Mikey_Seregon
Sol and Adept animations - Mariode
Wind Sword/Secula animation - Me
Music
FFTA Pub Theme - A Reliable Chair
FFX Enemy Attack - A Reliable Chair
FFT Trisection - Alusq
FE4 Verdane Remix - Pandan
FE7 Precious Things Remix - Pandan
Battle Animations
Wyvern Rider Helmetless Repal - eCut
Generic Necromancer - Eldritch
(F) Merc - Russel Clark, edited by me
Axe Paladin - Me
(F) Assassin - Me
Mystic - Me
Battlemage - Me
Mage-General - Me
(F) Swordmaster - Me
(F) Thief - Me
(F) Brigand - Me
(F) Highlander - Me
Halberdier, Soldier, and Axe Cavalier - SALVAGED team
Male Pegasus Knight - SixThousandHulls
(F) Long Hair Mage Knight Repal - BatimaTheBat
Improved Archer - Der
Map Sprites
Battlemage - Me
Mage-General - Me
Mystic - Me
Female Brigand - Me
Highlander - Me
Axe Wyvern - Flasuban
(F) Monk - Teraspark
Axe Cav - SALVAGED team
Axe Paladin - L95
Sword Cav - Agro
(F) Merc - Flasuban
(F) Nomad Trooper - Pikmin 1211, Maiser6
(F) Ranger - Flasuban
Other
Crate Class Card - Laurent Lacroix
Threshold Crit System - commissioned from Scraiza
Difficulty Select Graphics - Halbreadier
Tilesets
Desert Bastion - Hypergammaspaces, Zoramine Fae, Venno, N426
Castle v2 - Flasuban, N426, Zoramine Fae, Venno
Super Fields - WAve, RandomWizard, Beast
Village v2 - Flasuban, N426, Zoramine Fae, Venno (alt. palettes by me)
FAQ
“What difficulty should I pick?”
95% of people who managed to find this hack should probably play on Normal. The hack is designed for Normal/Classic and playtested on that difficulty. Easy is for people with little FE experience who just want to enjoy the story, and Difficult is for turbo nerds who don’t care that they’re playing an unsupported difficulty. You can submit feedback from Difficult mode, but please don’t complain about how hard it is (I do plan to test and tweak it once the project is finished, along with Easy mode).
“Where’s Eirika and Ephraim?”
While at first I wanted to put my own spin on these characters, Eirika and Ephraim’s story was already told in FE8. Throughout this project, much of the story feedback encouraged me to scale back the vanilla content and focus on my original characters, and I think the hack is way, way better for it. CoL works best as a character study of its two protagonists, rather than an attempt to fix or rewrite the issues of FE8’s vanilla plotline.
“Why not just make a hack in an original setting?”
CoL began life as a rebalance for my personal enjoyment and snowballed from there as I fell in love with the tools, community, and creative process. I wanted to make something really weird and unique that would let me explore every aspect of hacking, and so far I’m really happy with the product. Writing within an existing story was also a fun challenge and helped me grow my skills a lot.
“Why am I gaining supports so fast? What is happening?”
I made support-gain proximity much larger (5 tiles) and removed the limit on the number you can have per character, making it much easier to see all the supports you want in a single playthrough. The bonuses have been drastically reduced, though, and mostly just add crit-avoid for a smoother lategame experience.
“Are there proc skills in this hack?”
Nope! Some skills replace your unit’s critical hit with a different formula or effect. If you see a proc skill, that’s what’s happening.
“Why are there so many girls?”
i like them 
What are your credentials? How do I know you’re based and not cringe?
Play the hack and find out!
I’m a gay nerd artist and writer, with many years of experience in each. I got FE8 when I was in gradeschool. I’ve played FE4-11, TRS, Berwick Saga, and I’ve made mods for several other RPGs. I’m an FE5 enjoyer. I have two adorable cats.
woah hold on this cooks
