[FE8] Tales of Kotor [COMPLETE]

Projects
, ,
1

tales of kotor-7

Download Link

Hello everyone, and welcome to Tales of Kotor, the long awaited sequel to Call of the Armor!

This FE8 romhack is in an anthology style format, with 12 different tales all featuring different characters, and can be played in (mostly) any order. Like CotA, this hack was made in a telephone style by different creators making different tales.

Story

A certain soul has found themselves in a blisteringly hot cave, with only an eager serpentine storyteller for company. With little else to do, they pass the time by listening to tales of the rich and storied land of Kotor…

Features
  • 12 different tales, with the finale unlocking after all other tales are completed
  • Dozens of characters: every single playable character from CotA returns in some fashion, and there’s some newcomers as well!
  • Creative and unique objectives, from stopping escaping looters to rescuing orphans! Some maps will feature a “4th army” whose allegiances may turn things on their head!
  • 8 achievements to…achieve!
  • A playable and nameable avatar!
  • Standard QOL improvements from HP Bars to viewable growths
  • New classes, items, music, and more!
Screenshots

tales of kotor-8tales of kotor-9
tales of kotor-11tales of kotor-23
tales of kotor-12tales of kotor-21
tales of kotor-15tales of kotor-26

Download Link

48 Likes
2

So this is some personal thoughts that aren’t immediately relevant to the project, hence going in a separate post. Feel free to skip reading these and just play the thing.

Words

image

This project started basically on a whim. We were all (deservedly, imo) happy with Call of the Armor, and this got brought up as a sort of joke when we were discussing follow-ups, and it popped up a couple more times as we not entirely seriously discussed ideas and doing it. I ended up thinking about it a lot, and after all this time, I don’t exactly recall why, hehe. Maybe it was just the novelty of having a sequel. So a few months later, on October 14, 2021, I officially started the project. Yes, it’s 2 years old.

The project was always slow going, really. It was basically a backburner thing while Bells of Byelen and uh, other things, were going on. But it really did weigh down on me after the first few tales were done to keep it going; it was always a bit of stress that made it difficult for me to focus on my personal projects even if it objectively didn’t require much out of me, and there were a lot of points where I just wanted to call it quits for peace of mind.

This next part I want to be careful with because I am talking only about my limited impressions of other team members’ perspectives: I want to be extremely clear that I am grateful for the rest of Team Distant Roads for any and all contributions they made for the project (a lot of cool work not by me went into it), and at no point did anyone else go “this thing is kinda dumb, why are we ever doing it.” It’s had nothing but encouragement.

That being said, this was never a top priority for anyone, myself included, so it did have lots of delays. I in particular was responsible for one tale taking months on end because I just could not make myself work on it. The fact that it was never a big priority for anyone always made me insecure, especially with just how much longer it was taking than I had initially expected, and I am ashamed to admit that I was sometimes resentful about how many of the tales ended up being by me or taken over/revamped by me, just to get it up to even 12 tales. I really was questioned why bother.

What didn’t help frustration of the time it took was the nature of the project: it’s a series of side stories about characters from a hack that doesn’t… exactly have a fleshed out world. Why was I spending so much time thinking about this damn thing? I’ll freely admit it was based on Elibean Nights, but minus the setting and characters that are incredibly widely beloved, so really what were we doing here? For God’s’ sake, how many people would really care about the story of Alessia, a gotoh character who ended up with a tragic ending and nothing else. How many people even really were interested in seeing more of Call of the Armor anyways? Was this seriously what ate away what became 2 years?

My bitterness on this only really began to shift once I started development of the final tale, and the end was in sight. Not to get too spoilery, but the finale is big, bombastic, and I always was thinking of it as trying to make an appropriate “send-off” for this setting, a testament. But that’s the thing: this setting is comically threadbare. What exactly was there to send off? What is it a testament to?

I realized it was more to the spirit of the thing than anything material. CotA was proof that we could make something together, it was creativity and teamwork and hope and excitement. That was what I realized I was trying to make a love letter to. And it was in that light that I re-evaluated what had actually been done. I really looked at the work on the hack, and realized it was worth being proud of. Was it perfect? No. Was it a waste of time. Absolutely not.

Is this project going to be anyone’s favorite ever? I’m skeptical. But I ultimately stand behind the quality of what’s there. I think it’s a good hack. Again, I’m grateful to everyone who helped bring to life this silly sequel to a silly hack. I don’t regret having started it. And I hope you all enjoy it!

18 Likes
3

Been listening to you guys talking about this game for so long now, it’s crazy that it’s finally here. Super excited to see what the team’s been cooking up! ^.^

8 Likes
4

this piece is real.

well said. that spirit of excitement when making something collaboratively (and that is quality) is hard to define and one of the aspects that makes these projects enjoyable to be part of. Thanks for taking this one over the line.

I think we all learned the perils of pursuing too many different ideas at once. I do think the EN-style structure inherently saps motivation – no part of the story is being held up since it’s effectively all self-contained gaiden maps. No one is ever “on the hook” in the same way the person who hasn’t done anything in a more linear project would.

Glad I could contribute to this – I recall enjoying my contributions to Sovnya’s Tale (the script in particular)

12 Likes
5

I had a lot of fun with the chance to expand the wacky world of Kotor, hope you enjoy it too.

7 Likes
6

When. When the Tales are of Kotor. Genuinely excited to play a newly released phone!

7

Disappointed when I realized Kotor didn’t stand for Knights of The Old Republic.
Then super excited when I saw it was a completed title related to Call of the Armor.
Can’t wait to play this beauty! <3

4 Likes
8

Quick note that I updated the patch (link still in OP) to fix some things:

Patch Notes
  • Gerlof will now be properly deleted at the end of Delano’s Tale, and
    as a failsafe for those who still have him, also deleted at the start
    of Tale Selection
  • Geirhart can now use the dropped Swordreaver in Sovnya’s Tale
  • Maluj can use the Short Ballista in Delano’s
  • Some text fixes

EDIT: Huge BUG found in final chapter, please redownload patch immediately to fix it!

3 Likes
9

Just watched the trailer and hyped! Looks like fun!

1 Like
10

The finale is one that is worth playing two hacks for.

Do it for him (spoilers)

Kotorian Nights-15

2 Likes
11

I always liked Call of the Armor. It was a nice and relaxing game. That was its intent as a vanilla fe8 telephone. I liked it enough that I helped Lowres plan out and theorycraft the LTC he did on 0% growths.

So getting another excuse to return to the pretty fun cast and world of Kotor seemed like a pleasant time.

I was wrong.

I was very wrong.

This hack is exceptional.

(Nearly) Every map is trying its hardest to feel fresh and unique. They basically all succeed.

Some have innate replay value with achievements too. I almost wanted to go back and get them immediately but pushed on to see what new content.

I see myself replaying this time and time again. The whole team should be proud of themselves.

The closest thing I have to a gripe is that we needed escape quotes. I just want to see the characters talk even more.

To be fair I don’t know how this hack would land if you haven’t played call of the armor… but to anyone who has this is an absolute gem.

image
image828Ă—542 376 KB

7 Likes
12

Just came here to say thanks for the hack! :+1:t6:

@knabepicer and team !

2 Likes
13

Been looking forward to this one for a while and it didn’t disappoint. I can’t say I expected such a climatic finale but it’s wonderfully wacky and a fitting capstone in my mind for this telephone duology. While I have my favorites( alessia and taika tales) each map was engaging in some way game-play wise and paired with a wide range of story beats that either had me laughing, empathizing , or feeling genuine sadness for these characters I couldn’t help but play through most of the hack in one sitting. I really applaud everyone Involved in the making of this great Anthology and shout-out to Epicer for weaving the perfect endgame sequence to top it all off. Finished Tales of kotor only a few minutes ago, and honestly I wanna replay Cota now.

4 Likes
14

Dammit
Now I gotta finish beating Call of the Armor.

This looks fun though, so definitely something to look forward to playing when that’s done!

1 Like
15

Hi I just got to the final chapter and I found an issue, once me or an enemy completes an action like attacking or waiting it ends the chapter and stops me from getting the final achievement. I’m playing on pizza boy if that helps.

16

This bug should’ve been fixed in the update around when I posted this, when did you download the hack?

17

When the post was put up.

18

Please update the patch then.

19

Thoughts so far: (Killian, Delano, Gu, and Alessa’s tales done):

Spoilers for Gu's Tale:

Gu’s tale was just… man. That was dark but in a good way.

I honestly legit panicked when I realized I had to open all the chests that contained items.

I actually thought that the ending of the tale was gonna be them putting Gu down as a mercy-kill while he still had all his mental faculties intact…

I also noticed that Gu doesn’t have his Wife’s Ring anymore either- personally, I like to imagine that it’s because he knew exactly what he was getting into with this… so he left it back at home as a keepsake for Drouin.

I also feel guilty now because, I realized, I missed Drouin’s friend on my run of Call of the Armor… auuuuuuugh. (Because I have a feeling he was recruitable by visiting the arena with Drouin).

Seeing Abdul and Lily again was nice- I liked using them both in Call of the Armor.

That said, though Lily felt really damn cumbersome at first; that 4 range weapon threw me for a solid loop at first.

The beginning of Gu’s tale actually reminded me of something from Lost Light, a comic series I was reading… though with key differences.

Spoilers for Lost Light

In it, one character was going on a rampage similar to Gu’s- tearing stuff up with his enhanced strength unknowingly while he was sleeping, with them having to be restrained by someone else each time.

The main differences are that Gu’s rampages are something he knows he does- the character in question didn’t until someone else told him… and their stories end very differently.

That tangent aside, it honestly hurt to see Abdul like this-
“I burned through the last of my wife’s old tomes… for this?”

God, that went hard; I can feel that anger towards not Drouin himself, but rather, the whole situation- that they fought through all of that for essentially nothing… and that goes double knowing that Abdul I believe dies a year after the events of Gu’s tale.

The whole “Fading Chill” tome is the icing on the cake because I honestly used that thing a lot during my run of Call of the Armor… (I didn’t break it, but it was low on uses by the end…)

The callback to Abdul and Gu’s Talk convo also hit me in the feels, too…

Easily my favorite of the tales so far. 10/10.

Killian's Tale:

This one was okay- though how did that Super Pupil guy get to use Illusion if that’s Drouin’s personal spell…?
Maybe he helped Drouin develop it?

I’m not gonna lie- seeing Smelly Joe die like that at the start was kinda funny.

It took me a hot minute to figure out how the hell Killian was supposed to win for the achievement- I thought anyone going up to him would cause it to fail… serves me right.

Overall 7/10. This was a nice story… the power of friendship cliche and subsequent lampshade hanging had me chuckling.

Delano's Tale:

Delano is good for morale.
This entire chapter felt like a “Me and the Boys” moment- saving all the villages in particular was tricky, but fun… if nervewracking.

Seriously, that lancereaver Hero is a dick move lmao.

I did not get to use the Boss… because I killed everyone else before I managed to get Delano to talk to him.

7/10. Something about this feels like a meme and I can’t figure out why. Not a bad thing; just an observation.

Alessa's Tale:

I wanted to see what happened to Alessa- and this was also the first tale I did.

I loved Geirheart, so seeing him again was nice.

He actually killed Sphearo and the final boss in my Call of the Armor run… as much of a pain in the ass he was to get there, but that’s neither here nor there.

Also, I immediately figured out that “Shiva” was Vivek… or at least, I think he is.

8/10. A glimmer of hope ending is definitely nice.

Overall, loving this so far. Snake girl I took with me on Interlude 1- I relate to her so much.

This was worth beating Call of the Armor for so far.

(Accidentally hit send. Paiiiin).

EDIT: Post is now fully cooked. Enjoy!

2 Likes
20

As a passionate fan of CotA, it is very exciting to see its sequel released. I finally have time to play it recently and I just cleared Floor’s tale. It’s still as enjoyable as CotA.

1 Like