[FE8] Pirate Project [WIP] [14 Chapters]

[LegendofLoog]

Download Pirate Project (v0.1)

Hello everyone, I’m here to share a community project that has been developing in the FEU discord over the last few months. This release contains 8 chapters, 6 of which can be chosen in any order and scale accordingly. The basic premise for development was simple: Sky pirates (extremely cool) and Mega Man (due to how chapter choices work).

The story follows one such pirate captain named Lua, a former merchant who, after a stroke of bad luck, left civilized society and formed her own pirate crew. After an encounter with her old mentor, she begins preparations to sail further into the outskirts, in search of a mythical treasure…

Some key gameplay features:

• Chapter Sets that can be selected in Hubs
  

• Two new weapon types (Knife/Gun) with a new WT (Tome->Bow->Knife)
  

• Revamped WTA, applying +2 Mt, +20 Hit, and Engage’s Break status (cannot counter for a round)
  

• All infantry/armors have Steal+/Locktouch, with Armors also being unbreakable
  

• All units have a single defining personal skill, with less powerful skill scrolls also being usable
  

• Music that adapts during battle animations, becoming more tense (similar to modern Fire Emblem games with Calm/Ablaze). Battling certain bosses will change the map theme to be the boss theme, as well!

More Details

• Chapter Sets - After completing the first chapter, the player is allowed to select 1 of 6 chapters. Any chapter not done “scales”, with all units in it gaining one level. Once all 6 are completed, the player can then move onto the next main story chapter. Two players may have very different experiences, depending on the order taken with these chapters.
• Chapter Hubs - An extension of the former, the player explores a hub in order to find these chapter givers, indicated by red glowing squares. However, there are other things to do here; various members of the crew and potential recruits can be spoken to in the hub. In the future, there may be more things to do here, such as minigames or sidequests.
• New Weapon Types - Knives help form a new triangle, Tomes->Bows->Knives (like Fates, but not intersecting with the normal triangle). They have a subtype called Daggers which have unconditional Desperation, and normal Knives are just 1-2 range (but no debuffs). Guns are not involved in either triangle and are 2 range weapons that use Skill as their damage stat.
• Item Based Promotions - Not very relevant to the current build, since promotion items show up in the final chapter, but unit promotions are tied to the item they use to promote. For example, a Fighter will promote to Warrior using a Hunter’s Mark, but needs a Brave’s Crest to promote to Hero. This adds a bit more to split promos, adding a tradeoff in item used instead of just choosing the best one.
• Class Traits - All infantry classes can Steal any unequipped item where Wt <= Con and Spd >= enemy Spd. Armors can do this, along with being unaffected by Break.
  Fliers don’t have Canto, though they can gain it in other ways. All mounted units have 25 - Con for Aid but cannot rescue other mounts.
• Break - Just like Engage, using WTA against an enemy will leave them unable to counter for the next round of combat. This is restored at the start of their turn.
• Skills/Accessories - Only one personal skill per unit, and each personal skill is meant to define the unit who uses it. Skill scrolls do exist, but they are generally less powerful.
  Equippable accessories can also be put in a unit’s inventory, which typically grant skill equivalents or stat boosts.
• Mechanical Changes - Levels don’t reset on promotion, and the maximum level is 30.
  Promotions give stats based on difference between unpromoted and promoted class bases.
  Spd no longer gives Avoid, Lck only gives Avoid. Classes have base Lck.
  There is no E weapon rank, and units gain 1 WEXP per round. Thresholds go like this: D from 51 to 75, C from 76 to 115, B from 116 to 175, A from 176 to 250, S at 251.
  The exp formula is overhauled to slow down units that are ahead and speed up units that are behind, while also being somewhat slower than FE8 exp.
• Stat Changes - Weapon Triangle is 2/20 Mt/Hit.
  Hit is increased by 3 x Skl, Avo by 3 x Lck.
  Crit is only increased by weapon Crit and skills, and no Crit Avoid exists.

Credits

If any of this interests you, please give the hack a try! All feedback is welcome, and I’ll try to address any bugs/issues that spring up as quickly as possible (all testing done with mGBA v0.8.4).
Further, if you’re interested in joining the development team, all of it is done via the #community_project channel in FEU’s discord. Forms for Hub B signups will be there shortly if you’d like to help create chapters, but spriters/musicians/wizards are all welcome as well!
Download Pirate Project (v0.1)

[GigaExcalibur]

You guys should totally check this one out! Just look at these awesome skills.

[IYNH]

You had me until “new weapon triangle”

[Pandan]

the hack is epic. I normally am not hot and heavy on skills, but this hack’s implementation and choice is unique. A fun vibe for sure.

Congrats loog and team

[7743]

All infantry/armors have Steal+/Locktouch, with Armors also being unbreakable

Nice. It looks like kaitou. lol

[Alexmanpersonguy]

Another awesome community project that shows how creative it can be. Gorgeous sprite work and a unique setting featuring sky Islands it’s accompanied by an original OST that elevates the swashbuckling experience. Personal skills are unit defining and impactful, which in my eyes is a great thing. Alot of replayability already in this 8 map experience with 6 of them being able to be played in any order. Looking forward to more!

[LegendofLoog]

Figured I’d push the thread to mention that a few bugs of varying importance have been fixed (for a bit, there was a crash caused by Leandra’s animations. The patch should mostly be fine outside of occasional enemies gaining odd stat bonuses, which is likely tied to Tonics.

[LeskLyfeld]

Played the hack, enjoyed most of it - a pretty strong initial version with both individually compelling units to use and recruit as well as varied chapters in a free-form selection, allowing different progressions and playstyles depending on the chapter order as different characters take a larger role due to their earlier availability depending on your choices.

Review

Mechanically, I enjoy this, leaning into A-5 as one of my most liked chapters due to the unique weapons spread across it and what they entail for the player’s weapon supply for the rest of their game. Having varied objectives across the current chapters (Survive, Rout, Boss-slaying, two-step Escapes…) allows the game to not run stale, as well as their mini-side objectives the game sometimes throws into the player, turning some chapters into something more than just ‘Escaping’ or so.

Beyond the goods of this hack, my gripes are far and in-between, and beyond petty complaints such as the secret reward of one of the chapters (Forest Friend, a skill that allows characters to traverse Forest tiles with 1 mov. cost and Thickets with 2 mov. cost) being somewhat overshadowed by Acrobat, a later reward in another chapter that effectively grants better mobility boosts (beyond Thicket trespassing, which are normally impassable), my main issue so far is that the ‘Hub’ (current Act 1 phase) feels awfully empty, with only three potential recruitment convos and the mission selection NPCs, alongside the conversations with the OG crew NPCs (that are good and are an extra step towards characterizing characters).

I think that both adding ‘generic NPCs’ in the style of other patrons in the pub or as the villagers of some houses (or crews) the more missions are done (or have some change with such progress) could give the Hub a bit more liveliness, as it grows empty the more events and chapters you do.

Alternatively, NPC sub-quests on a very lesser note (standard fetch quests as part of other chapters or defeating specific foes) could potentially open the way for small additions into other chapters (ranging from simple quests such as acquiring an axe for a shipwright to gather more logs, to character-picky quests requiring some sort of threshold to clear - f.e., choosing a character that must get 10 steals within an arc, and on success, you gain a reward after completing such mission, to more targeted quests, working as a slight personal arc on a character requiring them to do something specific within a chapter to progress).

In short, my only subtractions to this already promising project is that the hub (which can potentially work as a relief segment) dies out in interactions very early.

Beyond this, I have enjoyed this game, and I will await further updates.

[LegendofLoog]

Hey all, I added a new patch, v0.1.1, which pushes a few more bugfixes and did a general lookover with unit stats/skills, with some generally meh units (Biko, Hermen, Medwyn) getting significant buffs. Also, development of the next hub will begin on 1/1, so if you’re interested in it, it’ll be taking place in FEU’s discord as mentioned in the OP.

[LegendofLoog]

Hello, I updated the patch to v0.1.2. This patch again makes some small tweaks to unit stats (nothing major), but it also adds a large amount of cutscene eventing by Mufflebuns to make story beats more dynamic in the hub chapters, which should make the narrative more engaging.

Also, promotions and classes have been finalized, and while they aren’t very relevant yet since promo items show up at the tail end of the demo, some of them can technically be accessed. All classes have 2 promo options, as in FE8, but here, both are accessed by using a specific promo item, of which there are six. For example, Pilar, as a Ninja, can access Master Ninja (Knife/Sword) using a Brave Crest and Trickster (Knife/Tome) using a Magi Ring.

The hope is that this provides more interesting promotion tradeoffs than everyone using a Master Seal, while also not being as restricting as something like FE6. Also, with Break existing and strong WT bonuses, different weapon types will likely matter more (with monoweapon classes getting a unique trait instead).

Lastly, Hub B development has begun in the discord, so if you’d like to contribute in any way, feel free to join! The next set of chapters (around 6 more) should be finished sometime in March. Until then, this will be the last patch, barring any minor bugfixes that may crop up.

[LegendofLoog]

Hello everyone, Hub B development has largely finished up, and a new release with 6 more chapters has been added to the download link (now a total of 14 chapters). It took a lot longer than I had hoped (for a variety of reasons, some being my own motivation issues), but I want to thank Kyrads and RandomWizard in particular for helping to get some of the chapters over the line for release.

The hub itself is fairly WIP, but all the chapters can be accessed as they were in Hub A, with the final chapter of the set being accessible after all are done. When Hub C releases (which will hopefully not take as long as Hub B did), Hub B will be more fleshed out. For the time being though, I hope you all enjoy this version and the new chapters/units!

[Pandan]

good stuff chief

[LegendofLoog]

I uploaded a new version that fixes a fairly large bug where, at the end of A-4, Razvan/Desiderio/Pilar were all being erased from the game. It fixes a couple others too, but they’re not as important as this one. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[LegendofLoog]

Updated the patch again to fix a couple bugs (one in Chapter 3, one when hovering over promo items on map at times) that caused game hangs. These should be the last of any serious bugs that crop up.

[SubwayBossEmmett]

Uh, hi.

I really really love what I’ve played of pirate project.

Like this game at its core is really something special and unique and I really want the best for it.

I love the open ended nature of the maps, beautiful and memorable scenery, the strong items to buy, the impactful unique skills, the economy to engage with, and the amazing feat of having such well balanced characters in spite of the unfixed stats. Not to mention its distinct and custom audio identity standing out impressively well.

However… uh, I have made a large-scale thesis on why I’m pretty “miffed” on it’s plot right now and hope it takes time to re-correct it’s course.

I know Hub-B dialog doesn’t exist yet and some of these issues might get slightly amended by this but still I have larger structural issues that’d I’d like to discuss.

Pirate Project Plot Issues

Lua and the Skysabers aren’t pirates they’re mercenaries looking for work.

1a. There’s a lot of grief that Ravzan has over becoming a pirate that never is channeled by taking any actions because Lua never condones doing anything amoral, let alone walk away from any situation without being a pristine saint unless they are committing acts against a scammer/scoundrel.

1b. The organization TORCH exists to quash pirates which does make sense in universe.
Lua’s crew only takes on jobs requests by others that pay. They don’t even have a tangible goal until the end of act 1 and are just there vibing/survivng as a part of the ecosystem of the town. You’re only pirates because the cast wants to call themselves pirates. Not to mention TORCH is literally working with former/bad pirates to stop you guys who have never (been caught) starting shit or raiding people. Unless they believe the Blackhearts about the end of 1-5.

End of Act 1 Intro:

End of Act 1 Enemies:

The game wants to both have the end of Act 1 being a low point for this commander of Torch facing their loss but the rest of the game paints it as par for the course

End of 2-5

I’m really not a fan of taking an aggressively easy cop out to make your one enemy faction that has an excuse for not being maliciously evil to still be maliciously evil.

Lua and her crew try to emphasize bonds early

2a. The game aggressively undermines this by stating it’s only been a few months since Lua became a captain, let alone her friend’s captains.

Pilar’s entire character feels at odds with this relationship too, being a person of a few words but deeply trusting those they have faith in. Which begs the question how they first really met Lua if she was so recent to becoming a pirate.

2b. With a strong lack of anything that portrays Lua as a quick learner/changed other than she just is a great captain within a few months as a fact.

In fact Elodia the commander is the closest person to commenting on this by randomly commenting that Lua is a novice? After they tell us it has been their largest failure in their career.

Otherwise Lua just is a excellent pirate despite the short amount of time with no further explanation.

2c. The game’s immediate jingling of keys of Lua’s backstory and tragedy only to do nothing with it for what is the next 50% of the game is very unsatisfying. It alludes to her wanting revenge after the Hub1 map briefly but is still vague.

See the image above where Orlanda states it’s only been a few months.

Not knowing the specifics of Razvan’s rescue via Lua isn’t inherently bad but for how much it’s been mentioned surprised it hasn’t been dealt with. Could be amended by Hub-B dialog in the future though. A lord backstory teased after ch1, then doing nothing with it after for so long just is bewildering.

2d. The game makes a triumphant moment of Lua stating her goal to grab treasure before the main military does as pirates. However, that begs the question what were they following her around for? For payment? It’s never established and feels out of loyalty and friendship which once again feels incongruent with the rest of the narrative established.

Nothing in our party dynamics has changed since we unlocked the first hub as we have reached the end of Act 2.

This might get amended via Hub dialog when it’s added but as of finishing all Hub B maps everyone feels written identically. Other than Desi not wanting to lose at poker again.

The Hub structure could have allowed for more focused paralogues (like Desi Ernst) for everyone but just feels like strictly side-questing for Hub A and B so far. The only exception is A-1 setting up a further grudge with blackhearts and it’s disappointing to see a unique structure feel squandered so blatantly at what is stated to be the 50% mark.

I really can’t think of a game that’s driven me to write up a review so critical, but I think it’s because I see the rest of the love and effort put into the rest of the game and believe the plot shouldn’t hold it back.

also p.s. pls buff my failboss prince

he is too epic to be fucking worthless without a lightbrand

[Gabe_Is_No]

Just started playing the hack. Gotta say, this is one of the most unique hacks I’ve played. Like the idea of tackling certain missions on your own pace. If I had to address some complaints, it’d be that some character portraits are character from The Sacred Stones, which warps my mind into thinking they’re in the game. Don’t know if it’s intentional or if it’s some placeholder, but if like to see who these characters are (Like Indio and Jaime just to name a couple) Last thing, literally give Herman just one more base speed. It barely gives him enough speed to double things (since I feel like he doesn’t double things as often as I think he does). Of course these are pretty minor things and doesn’t interfere with the gameplay.

[LegendofLoog]

Yeah, the FE8 mugs are just placeholders. I can report that Hermen did get one more point of base speed (on the dev version).

[ATHATH]

so basically

[Sara]

I utterly love the the lords design in this. Keeping my on this.

[LegendofLoog]

Right, I should probably post the FEE3 video here since it’s up, lol. Big thanks to Pikmin1211, bpat, and pandan for helping record this, and to the whole team who’s contributed to the hack so far. No news on the next update, but Hub C is in progress currently. If anyone wants to join the crew behind making this, feel free to join the FEU discord and hang out in the community_project channel!

FEE3 2024: Pirate Project by LegendofLoog