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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Hello!
I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year from myself and the Shantaemblem team! I say “team” because I happy to announce that a few additional people have offered their support to our little project and I am excited to share the amazing things they have contributed since FEE3.
First up from me is brand new animation for the one and only Hypno Baron. For those who may remember, I made an animation for him a while ago. Its bad… So to rectify my mistake, here is a brand new one that better captures his calcium figure.
I’ve made this available on the repo thread.
One of my biggest fears as this project progressed was having to do with music. Its just something that I unfortunately didn’t have a skillset in. Well thankfully I don’t have to worry about it any longer because! I would like to introduce and welcome Corshba to the team! He saw my emergancy flare for help and promptly came to my rescue. Here are just some of the pieces of music he has composed for the project.
A Risky Strike
Labyrinth
Ret-2-Fight
Ret-4-Battle
The Sky’s the Limit
Underground Movement
Yes, COMPOSED! These are not simple ports of songs from the Shantae games but remixes and reimagining’s of songs from both Fire Emblem and Shantae mixed together. If you would like to stay up to date on the music he produces for Shantaemblem or just in general, the link to his Youtube channel is above! Corshba, thank you so much joining this silly project!
I think one of the cool aspects of the Shantae games are how unique the characters are. They silly, quirky, stylized and ahem appealing to look at. With so many side characters in these games, I needed a bit of help to flesh out the characters of Sequin Land. Thankfully, Retrogamer has offered some help. A FEU native and working on his own project, Parallel Emblem, he has contributed some lovely portraits to Shantaemblem. Take a look!
One of the more overlooked aspects of FE romhacking is map sprites. If you haven’t noticed, I have a LOT of unique classes. Sadly, I’m not particularly good at map sprites. Graciously, the talented Briver here on FEU has offered his skills to bring my animations to the open world.
What he has done to truly capture these characters in such a small form factor is nothing short of remarkable.
While still heavily in the works, FEU’s resident cartographer, Atlas, has offered to spruce up my maps for Shantaemblem. I am excited to see what magic he can bring to the project so that it can live up to the high quality people are expecting from it.
I mean it genuinely when I say if it wasn’t for these folks here, I don’t know if Shantaemblem would get finished this year or live up to the quality I envisioned it would have. It means so much that these people would take time out of their day to help make this project a reality. It is a blessing and an honor to work with you all. Corshba, Briver, Tinkerbatgamer, Retrogamer, and Atlas, Thank you.
As far as the project goes. I am inserting the lengthy script for Chapter 13 now. After that, all that is left is Chapter 14 and a VERY LENGTHY polishing process. With the new maps I’m getting from atlas, all the chapters will need to be rebuilt from a gameplay standpoint. So I’m practically restarting development. So I’ll put out one more call. If you have experience designing chapters from a balance or gameplay standpoint, feel free to reach out to me. I would love your input or assistance as to what makes a chapter feel fun to play. We are still waiting on the reimagined maps so it a be a short while.
Well, thats it for now. I should be back in a few months with some more stuff to share. Until then, thanks for reading.
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with each post the hack seems way and way better. the music really gives both fe and shantae vibes so it’s really chef’s kiss
the new sprites and the redone map are sweet awwell .
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As soon as the Playtests open I’M IN! I need this so badly!!
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Hello! As we are getting closer and closer to the release of Shantaemblem, I thought I would share a couple of announcements regarding the current Status of the hack.
☆ All main chapter scripts have been written, inserted, and evented! ☆
You read that right, the entire story has been written and completed! Now that all those scripts are good to go, we can shift our focus to creating CGs, playtesting, and game design. The scripts will be tweaked as needed through playtesting but the hardest part is finished.
The remaining script items revolve around 2 of the gaiden chapters which are nearly complete, minor bits of dialogue, and Support conversations. There will be a whopping 90 individual conversations across the cast.
In these last three months, I have been absolutely astonished by the additional support Mek and I have received. From Music from Corshba, Map Sprites from Briver, map adjustments from Atlas, and portraits from Retrogamer, I can confidently say that if it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t come even remotely close to our end of the year goal.
However, there is still lots of work to be done and we can use all the help we can get! If you are able to do any of the following and would like to contribute, then we will happily accept!
What we need!
- Class Cards/Portraits - The Shantae Universe has lots of diverse characters, many of which have not been fully realized yet.
- Map Designer - There are 3 late game maps that would benefit from another set of eyes and hands. If you like to tinker with one of these maps, or some of the others, please let me know!
- Map Sprites - Shantaemblem has several unique classes and with unique classes comes unique map sprites. Thanks to Briver, we are closing that gap but the more help we have the better!
I want to be as transparent as possible and just come out with it. Shantaemblem has 8 major graphical bugs that will ultimately bring this project to a halt if they are not fixed. A few stem from the Halfbodies patch while others have spawned from unknown sources. However, out of these 8, I believe most of them should be a relatively easy fix, although they go above my current skill set. If you think you would be able to fix even 1 graphical bug, please contact me! These are the identified graphical bugs
Bugs!
- Item drop shadow garbage sprite: When a weapon is equipped, a garbage repeating sprite will show up as the drop shadow of the weapon.
- Support Menu Portrait Bug: When viewing a character’s supports, 3 to 4 garbage tiles will appear. Appears to be a weapon rank icon
- Item trading portrait glitch: When trading items during a chapter, the portrait on the right will linger and glitch. First portrait does not display properly.
- Using Items during Preparations: When trying to use an item during preparations, The cursor will glitch, the name tag is covered, and there is a garbage sprite at the bottom right.
- Option details during preparations: When pressing ‘R’ to inspect an option on the items menu in preparations, the description will glitch causing the screen to glitch.
- Status Screen Portraits: Portraits not aligned to a certain height will glitch and appear below the portrait box on the status screen. Changing screens will cause the effect to linger.
- Status Screen Portraits Height: Portrait Heights are unable to be change and will cause the eye and mouth frames to glitch
- Dancing Ring portrait glitch: Dancing with a Ring and backing out will cause the portrait to linger on screen
While animations are slowing down, we still have a few new ones to show!
Up first we have an animation for Ammo Baron sporting a massive tank; the very one he used in Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse.
I actually started this animation over two years ago but have finally got around to finishing it.
Now, there has been one Shantae transformation that I’ve promised to complete for a very long time. Well, I finally got around to it despite it being the hack since the very start of the project. Finally after a long delay, here is the Spider Transformation!
I know, its pretty simple. The reason why it took so long was because I couldn’t figure out or decide how I wanted to put Shantae on it. Well, I finally decided and this was the outcome.
Here’s a bit of a surprise, a brand new Shantae transformation! What new dance has she learned this time? Well, Tuki wanted a partner who could dance like she could, so she decided to teach Shantae how to transform into a Lamia!
This now brings Shantae’s transformation count to 10. I think this may be the max amount I can reasonably fit inside, but I just thought it would be a fun inclusion.
Now that all the Half Genie animations are wrapped up, here is the completed Class Tree for Shantaemblem!
One of the earliest animations I did and my first ever fully custom animation was Risky Boots, Queen of the Seven seas. Well, that was several years ago and I’ve improved a lot since then. So I thought I would take some time and spruce her up. So here she is!
I will admit that I still don’t think she is as good as she could be. I don’t have as much time as I wish I had to improve her further, but I still think what I have here is a major improvement from before.
With that, the total amount of animations I’ve made for this project has reached 125, with only 5 animations remaining before we have everything we need! Yes, only 5 more animations till I can put a bow on my animation journey.
Most likely the next and final animations you will get to see before release (there are spoiler ones you won’t see) are some long awaited refreshes of the Tinkerbats made by TinkerBatGamer. I’ve been sitting on them for some time but haven’t converted them over yet. My apologies TBG…
We have not slowed down on this front at all. So here are a few new Shantae tracks composed for and brought over to Shantaemblem by the Legendary Corshba!
She’s Got Moves
Up to No Good
Game Over
Risky’s Revenge
Oh, this isn’t all of them. There are a lot more songs that he’s made since last time. If you want to hear the rest of the new Shantaemblem pieces, you will have to go to his YouTube channel for that.
Between the commissioned portraits from The Blind Archer and contributions by Retrogamer, we have a few more portraits of the various characters you will see across your Journey through Sequin Land.
TheBlindArcher
Retrogamer
At the top of the thread, I have some character cards showcasing the animations of some of the cast. I also use it to show off Mek’s amazing art! So here is a little character spotlight on Lobster Siren!
I have had a lot of people ask me about this and my answer as of now is twofold. Thanks to Atlus, I’ve been able to finalize several maps, but many of them have yet to be revised. So I’m hesitant to begin when maps are very much subject to change. The other side of it is how open I want playtesting to be.
Before the average joe gets their hands on the hack, I want it to be the best it can be, which means I would like the most experienced people to play it first. I… don’t know what this means… and I’m not sure what that would look like. That’s something I’m still exploring. All that to say, playtesting may not be as open as some may hope. If you have experience playtesting and giving feedback, please tell me what you’ve done and I will most certainly take you into consideration!
Three months down, Eight months to go. We are reaching the end of the wire for sure. Truthfully, I’m very nervous. I’ve released a few small hacks before and never really got feedback on them, but this is my first ever big hack, spanning 4 years of development. I don’t know how it will be received, if it lives up to expectations, if it’s good, if it’s bad, or even if it will make a splash. I’ve thought about that a lot. But this is for me. This is my project. I wanted to prove to myself that I could commit to something so far out in the distance.
These next few months will hopefully revolve around further polish and HOPEFULLY graphical bug fixing. While the animations may stop, there is still so much being made by my amazing team.
To my team and other people who have read this far… Thank you.
I look forward to sharing more and hopefully some good news in the future. Take care.
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I had said it and i gonna say it again, its amazing the soul that this hack has, you can see all the love being pour, thank you for all, take care, ivsend you all a hug.
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Looks real dope! Can’t believe you and your team made it this far with this romhack. Hope y’all finish this soon!
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Something about the lobster staffer makes me think of a game where other unit is either an actual animal or a humanoid monster and she is the only ‘humanoid animal person who looks like a human with a costume” and that’s her joke, that she is anime in a game which otherwise rejects anime.
So uh… thanks for that thought. Not sure I’ll ever do anything with it though.
Anyhow, good luck with the project! Art is amazing and inspiring. You’ve gone so far, it’s just a little further now.
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