Hey all! I’m new to this modding thing. I picked it up during the pandemic because I had a lot of time on my hands. This mod started with me just using FEBuilder to customize FE8 to my personal taste. Then I fell into this rabbit hole of modding and started making a lot of changes to it. I started using this mod to learn the ropes and test out a couple of ideas that I’d want to implement if I decide to do fully custom mod in the future.
This is an FE8(U) mod. The goal of the mod is to make the game more difficult and make it “lore friendly/realistic”. What I mean by lore friendly is that I made some changes that I think make the game make more sense within the context of its story, and some changes were made based on how much sense it would make in reality, kind of.
DISCLAIMER: For the difficulty, EASY is equal to FE7 normal, NORMAL is akin to FE7 Hardmode, and HARD is equivalent to a Lunatic/Maddening mode.
Some of the major changes are:
- Basic quality of life improvements.
- Balanced the game to be less enemy phase dependent.
- Unpromoted units have varied stat caps instead of all capping at 20.
- Promoted units have different and often increased stat caps.
- The new LVL cap for most promoted units is 25 (This is mostly done for the creature campaign, which is now a greater challenge).
- Unit roles and mechanics have been changed.
- Expanded weapon options and utility.
- Combat mechanics have been changed as well.
- SKILLS!!! (I know some don’t like, but it has its reasons)
For a more detailed change list, check below:
Details
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Weapon triangle buffs and de-buffs have been changed, making it more important. Based loosely on how those weapons would operate in real life. The logic is as follows:
* Sword vs. Lance: -25 Hit to signify reach disadvantage.
* Sword vs. Axe: +15 Hit and +2 Attack to signify the versatility of the sword over a
cumbersome axe.
* Lance vs. Axe: -10 Hit and -3 Attack to signify nullifying reach advantage with aggressive
style of axe users who would close the distance.
* Lance vs. Sword: +15 Hit and +2 Damage to again signify reach and piercing damage.
* Axe vs. Sword: -20 Hit and -1 damage to signify the cumbersome style of Axes vs the quick and
fluid style of swordsmen.
* Axe vs. Lance: +5 Attack to again signify aggressive style and brute force. -
Magic has also been changed. To fit my own fictional vision of how magic would work. The bonuses are not as uniform as the Weapon triangle. The logic is as follows:
* Anima vs. Dark - -5 Hit and -4 Attack to signify the idea that Dark magic draws from the
same Natural/Life energy as Anima but absorbs/destroys and corrupts it.
* Anima vs. Light - +15 Hit and +2 Attack to signify the versatility of Anima magic over Light
magic.
* Light vs. Anima - -20 Hit and -1 Attack to signify that Holy magic is a friend to Nature/Life and
does not wish to destroy it, despite its wielder’s intensions.
* Light vs. Dark - +25 Hit and +3 Attack to signify Holy magic’s purpose of abolishing
darkness.
* Dark vs. Light - -20 Hit and -5 Attack to signify Dark magic’s inferiority to the gods.
* Dark vs. Anima - +15 Hit and +4 Attack to signify the power found in dark magic and its
corruption. -
Support Bonuses have been changed and improved (Closer to Radiant Dawn type buffs). They are now more important, and some unit affinities have even been changed to create synergy with other units. The support bonuses (per Support Rank) are as follows:
* Fire: +1 Attack, +5 Avoid, +10 Critical Chance.
* Thunder: +5 Avoid, +5 Critical Chance, +10 Hit.
* Wind: +15 Avoid, +5 Hit.
* Ice: +2 Defense, +5 Avoid, +5 Crit Avoid.
* Dark: +2 Attack, +1 Defense, +5 Critical Chance.
* Light: +1 Defense, +5 Hit, +10 Crit Avoid.
* Anima: +1 Attack, +1 Defense, +5 Critical Chance, +5 Crit Avoid. -
Supports also work like later games where you can support with 5 people but can only have ONE A-Support.
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Leadership Stars work differently than stated. Player Stars grant +2 Hit and +1 Avoid per star, while enemy and NPC Stars grant +5 Hit and Avoid per star.
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Effective bonus has been decreased to 2x, except for most of the Sacred weapons and bows, which have 3x effectiveness.
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Hit chance cannot go below 15%, so you and the enemy always have a chance to hit. (Realism: in real combat no one ever has NO chance of hitting you)
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Magic/Strength split.
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Most Fliers suffer a movement penalty while indoors (Realism: a flying mount like a Pegasus or wyvern would realistically have a hard time flying indoors, while “innate” flyers like Myrrh or gargoyles would not), as well as during rain and snow.
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The CON of Mounted Units now accounts for the mount as well. Meaning that mounted units are now harder to rescue. (I just didn’t like the image of a medium sized character picking up a man and his horse, moving far and later dropping them lol)
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To account for that change, the base CON value of the Mounted Aid Calculation is 35 for male, and 30 for female. Wyverns also no longer use Mounted Aid Calculator.
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Terrain costs have been edited for most classes. For example, cavalry cannot use pillars.
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I attempt to make every playable unit viable, meaning that you can pretty much choose any unit and they’ll work if you keep them up to LVL. At Normal difficulty at least.
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Every single class has been made unique in their own way. Through caps, growths, and skills.
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I tried to make every class useful in some capacity as well. A perfect example is the archer class; generally considered mediocre, they are more useful thanks to the bow rework (more detail below) and they have some advantages against certain enemy types. Hint: Aim for the eye!
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Changes to some class descriptions. I would suggest reading them, cause some have hints for new weaknesses.
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There are “mini-boss” classes, meaning more threatening than other enemy classes. Like the Cyclops, Bael Queen and Berserker.
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Again, THERE ARE SKILLS! If you don’t like skills, you probably won’t like this mod. I try to keep it sensible and balanced for the purposes of that class, but they’re there.
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Magic is very dangerous in this mod! There are also a lot of new tomes, most of which have a skill attached. (Realistic: If magic was real, it would be extremely powerful and dangerous! But most magic units are glass cannons, so the idea is that they are so dangerous that you want to take them out before they can harm you.)
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Minor dialogue tweaks, mostly to warn of gameplay changes in some chapters, and new units.
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Either Eirika or Ephraim can seize in ANY chapter reguardless of route. So can Seth, “in the name of the lords”. Innes can seize in Eirika’s Route Chapter 10.
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11 New Playable Units (v2).
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Every unit has their personal skills and stats reworked to fit their lore/backstory.
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Trainee Units have a much better pay off for investing in them, not only are they generally stronger in the end, but they also have a third promotion option. Ross can become your sole axe-wielding Cavalier, Amelia can promote to a Wyvern Rider, and Ewan can become a Monk (he also retains his Anima rank when promoting to other class paths other than mage, mage gets better promotion gains to compensate).
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Tweaked the EXP formula slightly to also make training your units a bit easier.
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A lot of weapons have been reworked and all have been rebalanced. For example, Most bows have bad accuracy (because archery is hard), making them more tailored to archers since they gain a skill very early that gives them +40 Hit.
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A lot of new weapons and weapon types, like “heavy” weapons.
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Staves have various ranges.
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Magic weapons, like Lightbrand and Runesword, grant +Mag stats. To make it more usable by physical units.
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All royals and some other characters have a personal weapon (usually unbreakable), except Joshua (kind of).
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Certain weapons give passive stat boosts. So do promotion items and stat growth items, either use them for a permanent effect/stat boost or trade an inventory slot to just hold the item for a passive boost (they also have skills attached, but idk if they work since the items cannot be equipped).
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Unit placement changes and map edits to increase difficulty and decrease tedium, respectively.
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New “secret” events in certain chapters that grant items or skills.
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Bosses are now designed to be on-par or stronger than what your strongest unit should be at the time (except Seth early game), especially later in the game. Most bosses will require more strategy or a team effort to be defeated.
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Item prices and gem value have been adjusted to fit the new game economy (tomes are generally much more expensive than physical weapons).
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Eirika and Ephraim both have a second promotion option; if you withhold promoting them when prompted at the ending cutscene of Chapter 16.
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Eirika mode is generally easier than Ephraim mode respective to the difficulty. The logic being that Ephraim is facing the main/elite forces of the continent’s strongest army in Grado, while Eirika is just going up against hired mercenaries, and whatever soldiers Grado can spare in Carcino.
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Tower of Valni and Lagdou Ruins serve as a Challenge Mode now. You can still use the first couple of floors to train, but as you go higher it will get significantly more challenging, even for low level promoted units in the upper Tower.
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Floor 1 of the Tower now gives double EXP to make the grinding option a little less tedious.
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There are also unique items that can only be gained through the Tower and Ruins. Just to spice up the end game.
Notable Glitches:
- Promoting within a chapter may crash the hack. Promote in the World Map “Manage Items” or Prep screen to be safe.
- Promotion options display a dash as the third option. Selecting (even hovering over) that crashes the game.
- Unit management screen bugs out (only visual, doesn’t crash game) after obtaining a particular set of units introduced in Ch. 14 Ephraim. I’m not sure what causes this, the units are inconsequential, just some gimmicky units. If you do not want that, select the second “No” options at the end of CH. 14 Eiphraim or beginning of CH. 17.
- Riev animation in the Final Chapter can freeze the game. Though it’s rare, save state before engaging to be safe.
Minor Bugs
- After Ch. 1, the “Manage Items” option may not appear on the World Map on Easy. (Likely due to the removal of the tutorial) But this issue corrects itself after Ch. 2.
- Some visual glitches in some chapters if you don’t kill enough enemies before reinforcements, but it doesn’t affect anything else as far as I can tell.
- A few minor visual glitches with dialog, not a big issue.
- For some classes where their class description uses 3 lines, it does not display the first line in the promotion menu. Only a visual glitch.
This mod is now COMPLETE, though I will still be around doing some maintenance. Fixing some glitches here, doing some minor changes there. I am also open to suggestions for balancing, based on your experience of the mod.
I’m super open to tips and general advice. I am still learning when it comes to modding, so feedback and modding tips are welcomed. Might do this for FE7 too.
Screenshots
Secret Events (SPOILERS)
- Ch. 2 - Move onto Garcia’s village with Garcia before Turn 7 to get a Battle Axe. He won’t be able to use it yet, but he’ll get there soon and it’s really useful, or give it to Seth lol.
- Ch. 6 - The southern island by the village grants gold, the “Malefic Aura” Skill but brings that unit’s RES down to zero in exchange and you’ll be poisoned for 15 turns. It’s up to you if the cost is worth it, or you can use it on someone who already has bad RES, like Garcia
- Ch. 8 - The library has a ton of obtainable items if Artur and Lute stand on appropriate tiles. There’s a convo between Artur and Lute that tell you about it. But another secret is that Gilliam can get the “Short Shield” skill if he “searches” one of the right pillars. – There’s also an early game Spirit Dust in the water by the throne room which Colm or Vanessa can access.
- Ch. 13(Ephraim) - You get “Voice of Peace” from the weird house to the south of Selena.
- Ch. 14(Eirika) - You get a Shamshir for standing on the stairs at the left map border with Joshua.
- Ch. 15 - There’s an early Fortify in the Lake by Jehanna Castle. (Pegasi have thief desert search, so it’s easy to get)
- Ch. 17 - The southern church grants some tomes if you have a holy character stand on it, those are Moulder, L’Arachel and Natasha. You can also summon green unit phantoms by standing the cemetery with a summoner.
- Ch. 19 - (Not a secret but can be missed if not paying attention) Talk to Galahad with your lord and pay attention to the convo. Also Gerald has a special convo with Galahad that gives him the “Resourceful” skill, doubling his effectiveness bonuses, making his “Slayer” skill an absolute. And Dozla gets “Axefaith” by talking to L’Arachel. L’Arachel can also talk to Mansel for a Fortify and “Staff Savant”, which increases all staff ranges by 1 for her.
Credits
Thanks to all of these creators for their patches that made my modding journey easier.
• 7743 (For the FEBuilder and its many patches, making this all possible!)
• Agro
• Brendor
• aera
• Tequila
• circleseverywhere
• laqieer
• sme
• Leonarth
• Stan
• Hextator
• Snakey1
• Midori
• Zane
• ipatix
• Gryz
• Avernathy
• Kirb
• Scraiza
• TR143
• Zeta
• Monkeybard
• Black Mage
• Blaze
• Rossendale
• Teraspark
• sd9k
• Kao
• blademaster
• Primefusion
• Shuusuke
• Datagne
• Crazycolorz5
• beikehamnu
• krib
• Venno
• Magrika
• FE8Girls Chap
• vennou
• vilk
• Omni
• boy
Download here. Here’s a Dropbox link.
Apply to clean FE8(US) file.
Current Version 2.5.2 [100% COMPLETE]
Previous versions are still available in the ‘Derelict’ Folder.
