is the project playable yet?
Hello!
I cannot express how excited I am to share all the exciting new things for Shantaemblem. We have put a ton of work into this year’s FEE3 Trailer, so if you haven’t watched that yet, head to the top of the page and take a look before you keep reading!
To address the elephant in the room and the most exciting thing, we have brand new AMAZING portraits by the one and only TheBlindArcher. (More on the way!)
I am so grateful that he took on all of these portraits, as they have breathed so much life into this project. I cannot recommend him enough for commissions. Thank you so much TBA!
We’re not done with portraits yet! Throughout Shantae’s journey, she will learn various transformation dances that will change her appearance. So to accommodate that, here are a few of Shantae’s transformation portraits! (By me.)
The exciting news doesn’t end there. We have a couple of new animations to share, but not just battle animations, no sir. We have all new Idle animations for all of the main playable cast!
These were really fun to animate. While it’s not a competition, It’s fun to find ways to make a project unique. And while I do realize I am spoiling potential surprises, hopefully people will still smile and appreciate them while they are playing.
Promotions have been something I’ve been toying with for a while. When you are making fully unique classes and characters with animations specific to those characters, a single promotion is quite a bit of work. So I’ve decided to meet it somewhere in the middle. So below are some new animations for some characters wielding new weapon types that may or may not be utilized in a promotion.
Here is another quality of life animation. Squidsmith wields a hammer in the Shantae games, but not every axe is a hammer. How do we solve this? By just… giving her an axe.
Surprisingly, she isn’t the only character wielding a hammer in the Shantae games as the Quake Dance fits the same bill. So I decided to give her the same treatment!
Not done just yet. Here is ANOTHER variant of the mermaids I’ve done. This time I’ve given them a dancing animation. I take no credit for this though as the original animation is from DaTonDemand’s Lamia, but I thought it would be a nice edition for those who have been using my mermaids.
Did you think I was done with Rottytops just yet? Well I hope not because I have one final animation for her. Rottytops is a zombie and zombies eat things like brains, lobster girls, and dogs owned by tiny chefs. (Thankfully not the last one, you get the reference or you don’t. Play the Shantae games now!) So here is a new animation of her doing just that!
Like the Rottytops animations I posted last time, I’m always trying to improve existing animations that I have made. One animation that also needed a bit of a glow up was Misako. The changes may seem minor, but they were much needed. Other characters received a few smaller but nice updates such as Harmony, Bolo, Ninja Shantae, and Vinegar, with Harmony receiving a new Staff animation and updated dodge.
And with that, we have reached over 120 animations! Yep, 120! The scope of this project just keeps getting bigger and bigger despite the amount of chapters remaining the same. I’m actually almost finished with making all the animations I need for this hack. There are several animations I still have not shown as to avoid spoilers and there are a few unarmed animations thrown into the total as well.
In closing
What an FEE3 so far, huh? It’s crazy to think how long I’ve been working on this project. When I first came up with this idea, I didn’t think it would take this long. While I’ve thoroughly loved working on it, I must admit it’s taking a toll on me. My goal as of now is a late 2026 release date, but even I’m not sure that’s possible even though there are only 2.5 main chapters left to make. My project partner Mek has been amazing to work with and I wouldn’t trade him for the world. However, additional help would be incredible to have. So if you would like to help via portraits, UI, songs, map sprites, map polishing, or any other art related thing, we would be happy to have you! Positions are open because… well it’s just the two of us.
Thank you to everyone who watched our video and have supported us all this time. It’s comforting to see the amount of people who have liked the main post for something as niche as Shantae without us even putting out a demo. It truly means a lot.
I still have a few animations to make so hopefully I can have a few small posts leading up to the release. I’m running out of big things to share. Really what is all left for us is to finish the chapters and polish what we can. If there are certain aspects of the project besides animations you all would like to see, let me know. I should also be putting out a call for playtesters in the next couple of months.
Well, until next time. Take care, drink water, play Armored Core, and play Shantae!
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New Trailer looks amazing. Every sprite looks fantastic.
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The trailer looked so peak.
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I cannot wait until this is playable, the hype is real.
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This feels like such an ambitious project. I wish you all the best of luck!
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Out of curiosity, will going back to grab things you missed or grind be allowed?
Admittedly, there are many aspects of this project that are very unconventional compared to vanilla FE games and other ROM hacks. So here is short list of weird things everyone will see in this hack.
Quirks of this Rom Hack
- The 12 main cast members are required to complete the game. A unit’s defeat will result in a game over. They will be deployed at all times.
- Extra characters have specific recruiting conditions but are non essential unless told otherwise.
- There is no grinding and there are no arenas. However, there are four gaiden chapters to gain additional exp.
- The chapters of the game are interconnected and can be traversed freely. However, they will not contain any enemies. You are able to complete quests or find treasure that was not gathered while playing the chapter.
- Several character’s promotions are locked behind gaiden chapters or special conditions. Only a few promotions are guaranteed.
- Gaiden chapters are timed and can only be completed between certain chapters.
- Shop locations are set and equipment can only be purchased at set locations. Shops can be visited between chapters.
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