Hey there! This originally began as an FE8 Rebalance hack for personal use,
but it’s quickly become it’s own thing. The main gimmick of this hack is that
you alternate between Eirika and Ephraim’s armies after Chapter 8.
Other features include:
Altered enemy composition
Viewable Growths by pressing Select
Supportive light magic. (Lowered might, but increases magic. Great for Warp, physic, etc.)
Some altered maps (Chapters 4-7)
Thracia Trade (Technically FE3 Trading…)
Enemy Dancers (HINT: They enter heal AI when below 80% HP)
Dancer Rings for Tethys (+5 Atk/Def, +20 Crit/Avoid)
Casual mode in Options menu (Has not been tested, but should work fine)
Chapter 11 of both routes is inaccessible (Originally a bug, now a feature!)
Press Select on maps to display the Danger Zone
Hard Mode bonuses for recruitable enemies
Semi-unique promotion gains. (EX: Cav->Great Knt has 7 Move, but Knight->Great Knt has 6)
Changed Item Stats, Growths, and Bases (Mostly buffs, a handful of nerfs)
Units promote to level 5 instead of 1. However, Juna fruits lower your level by 5
PRF weapons for the Trainees to make them easier to train
Trainees instantly have access to their super trainee class line
Skirmishes are gone, but you can still grind in Valni and Lagdou if you want
6 new playable characters! (They all appear in the original story, though 2 may be surprises)
Slightly altered dialogue after chapter 8 to accommodate these changes
7743 - FEBuilder, Fixed Phantom Weapon Levels, Multiple units can seize, Phantom weapon changes,
expanded Dancer Ring Effects, Don’t redraw WM route, Faster recovery motion, EXP value for summon, dance, steal, etc., Enemy Promoted Bonus, Prevent Freeze on event, Enter Secret Shop w/o member card, Nosferatu bug fix
Hextator - Anti Huffman
Tequila - FE8 Stat Colors, Display Growths, Display Talk, Stats with Anims off, Show heal amount,
Staff Heal Exp EA, faster level ups, no S-Rank Limit
aera - Toggle Animations with the L button, Force Boss Anim, 3 Promotion Branches, x2 Sure Strike Activation Rate, Great Shield Activation Rate, Silencer Activation Rate
laqieer - Berserk unit battle animation
circleseverywhere - Casual Mode, Chapter Titles to Text, Action after Support/Talk, Map Danger Zone,
skip health and safety
Shuusuke - Normal Mode penalty to bonus
Stan - Dancer AI, Enemy AI will NOT attack if they do 0 Damage, LeaderAI fix, Skip world map
Kaito - Check/Lose Gold Event
Leonarth - Less annoying fog, Level after Promotion
VennoBennu - Auto cursor fix, adjusted mode coefficient EXP gain
Brendor - Remove pierce glitch
Nintenlord - Remove Easy mode
beikehanmu - Changed Devil Axe probabilty (From 31-Lck to 30-Lck)
FE8_GIRLS - Remove Skirmishes
GratedShtick - DSFE Style Avoid
Celerity910 (data found by Gryz) - Hard Mode Bonuses for recruitable enemies
Magrika is Now Canon - Prevent healer mistarget
Brendor - Monster Weapon Display
FE8 - Route Fusion Patch
NOTE: The alternative patch, Joshua-Garcia swap, is the exact same as the normal patch except Joshua goes with Eirika while Garcia goes with Ephraim.
Thank you SkidMarc25 & FoxBluereaver for the suggestions.
MISC TIPS:
Make sure you have at least 10000 Gold before Eph! Chapter 12
Make sure you have at least 8000 Gold before Eir! Chapter 12
Knights and Generals have less terrain penalty (EX: Forests cost 1 Movement)
Member Card is not necessary to enter Secret Shops
BUGS (Currently only graphical):
After completing the secondary lord’s Chapter 9, the game will display
Chapter 9 as the next chapter. (It’s hard to explain, but you’ll understand)
Myrrh’s Map animations display as an Assassin instead of a Manakete.
Curious, how did you handle splitting up the army? That one screenshot seems to imply Seth does not go with Erika on her route (which seems rather crazy since he’s more her knight than Ephriam’s who gets a Duessel to be his Seth) or does the player get to choose which units go which way?
I divided the groups based on what I thought made sense for the story while keeping them somewhat balanced gameplay wise. (EX: Both routes get 2 mounted units and 1 healer)
Eirika: Vanessa, Moulder, Ross, Garcia, Neimi, Colm, Forde, Kyle
Ephraim: Franz, Natasha, Amelia, Gilliam, Lute, Artur, Joshua, Seth
My logic was that Eirika got Innes in Chapter 10 as well as Saleh later on, meaning she gets 2 pre-promotes throughout her route. Also, Innes effectively fills Seth’s role from a story perspective since he retreats instead of dies. Duessel, on the other hand, doesn’t show up in the main story after Chapter 10 since he doesn’t retreat from battle. Finally, Eirika tells Seth to serve Ephraim in the base game if you choose his route, so I just thought that it would be cute to have them trade their knights.
Makes sense, though I would have put Joshua in Erika’s route due to his story importance there when she gets to Jehanna Hall, though it’d be a shame to split him and Natasha up it is important that Natasha goes to Grado due to her story arc too. Maybe trade Garcia for Joshua? Garcia’s military knowledge would help in the main army against Grado and Ross going a different route to prove himself to his dad would add some more character development between the two (especially if they have a convo as they split).
Kyle and Forde going with Erika instead of Ephriam feels a little strange still, but it does make sense that Franz would go to the route opposite his bro to prove himself.
How are you handling units like Tana or Cormag? I assume Erika get’s Cormag due to Glen’s arc ending in her route? Or is that one of those surprises I need to play to see?
Thanks for the suggestions! I originally wanted Joshua to go with Eirika for the reason you described, but his main reason for joining is because of Natasha (Although, he has no reason to stay if she’s dead…)
Each character also has a short scene right before the route split describing their motivations, but I’m open to swapping them or even just making an alternate patch.
As for units that are recruited after the route split, I’d rather not spoil it. However, if you really want to know, you can check the dropdown below.
Tana, Cormag, etc.
Tana is recruited by Ephraim to give him a flier. It’s a shame that she has to be a damsel in distress, but it just makes sense gameplay wise.
Cormag is also recruited by Ephraim. It’s a shame that he doesn’t have his story scenes in Eirika’s route, but I felt that his “Vengeance” Arc was just inferior to his “Deserter” Arc in Ephraim’s route. Even if he doesn’t have story scenes, his supports just make more sense in Ephraim’s route, I feel.
Gerik, Tethys, Marisa, and Ewan are all in Eirika’s route. Gerik’s Mercenaries have a connection with Caer Pelyn, so it makes sense for them to stay in that area.
L’Arachel, Dozla, and Rennac went to Grado to rid Magvel of monsters. It doesn’t make much sense that they would go from Rausten to Za’ha woods, then immediately head back home. I feel like they would continue in the direction they were going.
There are 4 other characters that join before the routes recombine, but I’ll keep them a secret.
While I can understand Joshua staying with Natasha, I still think it’s a bit jarring for him to not to go on Erika’s route, him being the prince of Jehanna and all. Sure, he’d be worried about her, but I don’t think it’d be too strange that he asks someone to watch over her in his absence (I remember having read a fic where he specifically does that to Franz, who’s the POV character).
Following on what you said about Franz wanting to prove himself to Forde, Ross and Garcia could also split temporarily because they trust the other will make it through alive and they will reunite, so one of them could trade places with Joshua in Ephraim’s route and the party would still be relatively balanced. But well, that’s just me.
I’d almost say it’d be more thematic Joshua goes with Innes since Innes is the one going to Jehanna, Eirika to Rausten, I mean yeah sure you’d be without him for like what, 1 chapter until you meet back up with Innes?
Alright, I’ve just added an alternate patch that sends Garcia with Ephraim and Joshua with Eirika. You’ll need to patch a clean rom, but you should keep your save as long as the .sav file has the same name as the new .gba file.
Thanks for the alt version! This also gives Ephriam an Axe user (and thus some use for Garcia!)
Since I won’t get to play until this weekend I have one final question (Then I swear I’m done badgering you!) Has Joshua’s arc with Carlyle and his Mum been restored too with the swapping of the 2 characters? That’s one of my favorite “Out of nowhere” moments in the series.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure that Joshua’s Arc has been completely restored. Also, don’t feel bad about “bothering” me. I really enjoy hearing people’s feedback since it just improves the project as a whole!
I just started playing this and so far it’s awesome, in chapter 8 and the changes to the maps are better imo. I had two questions if you don’t mind, did you bump up the overall difficulty? I’m doing hard mode, it’s been a while since i’ve played vanilla FE8 but it feels much harder (in a fair way). Also I know you mentioned 6 new playable characters, are they going to be secrets to getting or will it be straight forward once i get to those levels?
Glad you’re enjoying it so far! I definitely made the game tougher, though some parts later on might seem unfair since I didn’t test the lategame as much as the earlygame.
As for the 6 characters, 4 of them join automatically. The other 2 only show up if you have a certain amount of gold. You’ll need 10000 Gold at the start of Ephraim’s Chapter 12 and 8000 Gold at Eirika’s Chapter 12. It seems kind of steep, but you get a white gem from Innes and L’Arachel, so it shouldn’t be too hard.
No, I don’t plan on including skills. I wanted this hack to be very faithful to FE8 and I feel that skills are a little too game changing for my taste.
However, Sacred Trilogy is a rebalance of FE8 that has skills and 3 promotion branches for most character. I haven’t played it myself, but it looks really nice! You should check it out if you haven’t already. There’s also The Sacred War which seems to make a lot of interesting changes, particularly to the maps and the post game.
This hack looks great, before playing it could you answer a few questions?
Does this hack solve the controverted story? I mean Cormag and other contradictions.
Are you going to change anything in the game or just fuse both routes logically? like new ending or new challenges at the creature campaign.
Since it’s a route fusion hack I guess the answers are yes and no but I’d like to hear it from the creator, thanks for your hack!
If you’re talking about how characters like Cormag appears in both routes, they join in only one. Here’s a list of which characters join which lord. (I copy and pasted it from another comment)
Tana, Cormag, Etc.
Tana is recruited by Ephraim to give him a flier. It’s a shame that she has to be a damsel in distress, but it just makes sense gameplay wise.
Cormag is also recruited by Ephraim. It’s a shame that he doesn’t have his story scenes in Eirika’s route, but I felt that his “Vengeance” Arc was just inferior to his “Deserter” Arc in Ephraim’s route. Even if he doesn’t have story scenes, his supports just make more sense in Ephraim’s route, I feel.
Gerik, Tethys, Marisa, and Ewan are all in Eirika’s route. Gerik’s Mercenaries have a connection with Caer Pelyn, so it makes sense for them to stay in that area.
L’Arachel, Dozla, and Rennac went to Grado to rid Magvel of monsters. It doesn’t make much sense that they would go from Rausten to Za’ha woods, then immediately head back home. I feel like they would continue in the direction they were going.
There are 4 other characters that join before the routes recombine, but I’ll keep them a secret.
Don’t worry about missing them, they join automatically.
The ending is still based on which Lord you chose to go with after Chapter 8.
There’s also no new postgame challenges, but there is technically one new character that joins during the Creature Campaign. I made Hayden join late in the main game, so I replaced his Creature Campaign slot with Morva. You recruit him by killing 200 monsters in the Lagdou Ruins just like in the normal game.
I love the idea of this hack! But I have a question. I’ve played the game sooo many times that I always skip the dialogue. Is there any chapters dialogue that I shouldn’t skip?
Chapter 9 of Eirika’s route, Chapter 11-13 of both routes, Chapter 15, Chapter 17, and Chapter 19 are the only ones that have been changed.
You really only need to see the chapter start events. The end events are pretty much untouched.
Already reached Hamil Canyon on Eirika’s side. A tough challenge at first, but I’ve managed to get by. It’s been pretty fun so far.
Speaking of, after playing the first two maps in the split routes, I had a little hunch on who’d be some of the new chars, and I turned out to be right on the money XD
