[FE8] Terror Of The Forest (FINAL CHAPTER OUT)

Hello, you lovely anime-chess players! My name’s Zeldacrafter64, as you’ve probably already figured out, and I’m here to share my project with you! I know it’s far from perfect, but I seriously hope you will still have a good time playing it!

(Also, I apologize for my occasional grammar errors, I’m not a native english speaker. Please correct me if you find any, so that I can hopefully improve!)

Download the latest patch here !

WARNING : READ THIS BEFORE DOWNLOADING
There is a bug that makes several chapters unfinishable if you save over the prologue. Don’t do that.

EDIT : Due to the recent rules regarding hack content and age restriction, here’s a list of everything listed under ESRB’s website that I could identify within ToTF. I apologize if I forgot something, so please notify me if you find something “trigerring” I haven’t mentionned here. Note that I have listed the project as 17+, but maybe it belongs more to 15+? All this is kind of confusing to me.
-Depiction of blood and burn scars, some light gore and mentions of torture
-Fantasy violence
-Use of alcohol
-“Comic mischief” (I dunno what that is but honestly I’m just assuming I did it at some point)
-Somewhat strong language
-Sexual Content
-Sexual violence (Especially attempted from one teenager to another. Thankfully off-screen and avoided before anything really squicky can happen. Happens in the middle of Ch13’s long end cutscene, specifically Arya’s flashback)
-Hate Speech (Between fictional races, especially from amazons to regular humans around Ch18.)

What’s new?
-Some more bug fixing.
-Added a bunch of temporary characters, bringing the total roster up to a whopping 76 characters! If you count character who are the same lore-wise but take up more than one unit slot, the number goes up to 79 characters!
-One new chapter added
-Some story details, mostly regarding Arnold’s betrayal, have been changed

I - The Hack's Story (Warning, big text ahead)

A long time ago, war broke between humans and monsters (Wait, isn’t it that game’s into ?). After years of struggle, humans emerged victorious, and sealed the monsters away with the help of powerful artifacts.
Now, a thousand years later, humans have completely forgotten about this war and these artifacts. In this hack, you play as Sylvester, a debuting brigand who will see himself becoming a hero when the monsters banished a millenium ago suddenly resurface. Together with his loyal right-hand man, the leader of what remains of a mercenary group after a mutiny, a teenage amazon seeking strength and validation and more than sixty other weirdos, of course.

II - About this Hack (Warning, ALSO big text ahead)

Three years ago, I started writing a story, about men, about monsters, about fun and about horror. Two years ago, I had an epiphany and realized that my Wii U’s e-shop could allow me to play those game I only ever knew through Super Smash Bros, but really wanted to play : Fire Emblem. After someone pointed out that my characters did share similarities with FE’s characters, I wondered if I could make my story into a game. One-year-and-a-half ago, I discovered Fire Emblem Hacks. If I remember correctly, the first two I’ve heard of were Elibean Nights and Ostian Princess. Amazed by all that could be done on this engine, I downloaded FEBuilder and started making my story into a game.

Except it wouldn’t fit. First off, I decided there wouldn’t be any horses or dragons in my story, just out of spite for their important roles in an usual fantasy setting. How could I make a FE game without them ? Additionally, I didn’t imagine any of my characters according to FE classes, so a lot of them didn’t fit, including the main character ! And to top all that, my story was too long to fit in a 20-30 chapters-long game ! However, I did try anyway, and managed to make two “playable” chapters. During these chapters’ creation, I had to create a new character. An early-game bandit boss. Originally just a Migal recolor, I named him Sylvester. Once I decided to cancel this project, I grew so attached to this guy that I made him an integral part of my story. That’s when I had an idea. If I couldn’t directly make my story into a Fire Emblem, then why not make ANOTHER story ?

That’s how this project was born. The one-shot early-game boss became the main character, and from that point on, everything went easier, eventually becoming the hack you have in front of your eyes.

III - Features

-A total of 25 chapters, including the two interlude chapters!
-70 playable characters total! (Keep in mind you will only have 63 at the same time though). I’m sure you’ll find a favorite in no time!
-Only infantry! On both sides! Horses, Pegasi and Wyverns don’t even exist! Because some people just want to see the world burn, I guess!
-More weapons for some classes, including Assassins and Generals with Bows and Heroes with Lances!
-The most basic bunch of patches you could ever imagine!

IV - Screenshots

titlescreen
ambrose
cazadora
hostage
interlude
lucy
ludmilla
salvatore
shame
statscreen
velvet

V - Credits

(Unfortunately, my dumb *ss mistook the file in which I’ve written the credits for another file and sent it straight into the nothingness, so I tried to find back everything I used and credit them to their respective creator. I apologize for any mistake I’ve possibly made.)

Music :
Ant-Man Theme : KTMILLER
Dining Room : Charles Stiles
Ib_-_Memory : Vaati The Wind Mage
Ib_Memory : Hakumi
Hyrule Castle : Megacowz
Molgera : Christian.litser
Let’s Dance Boys : Cthylhu Sciences Music Division Section 2
Pepper Steaks : MrChris01020
ANT MAN : Roddek
Megalovania : CinderFire
Hyrule Castle : Phosphor
The Schemer = Dekkadeci
Shantae Medley = thebandteacher
Bran-Son = BrainyLucario
Lament Of Innocence = Bumbghork Piano
Don’t Speak Her Name = Forblaze
Mipha’s Theme = DS Music

Taken from the Music Blitz :
Driftveil City - Meilu
Fatalize = Meilu (I think ? Not sure. I’ve inserted so many versions of it I cannot tell anymore)
Power-Hungry Fool = Nyawenyye
Guile’s Theme = Sme
Mute City = Sme
Linebeck = Sme

From the Music Repository :
Sheena’s Theme (ToS)
Zelos’ Theme (ToS)
Rest Of The Heart (ToS)

Portrait :
Myself !
I did use Shin19’s FE6 mugs with blinking frames for some of them, so he deserves credits as well
Arnold’s chin has been edited by my boy Ruby
Marguerite’s latest redesign has been greatly improved by Leo_Link, more than by my own hand lmao

Animations :
Legault Assassin + Bow = Andy, SD9K
Jaffar Assassin+ Weapons = DerTheVaporeon, Glenwing, Andy, SD9K, Jj09 (The repo doesn’t say who did what, actually I only used the vanilla animation and the bow)
Female Hero Lance = Pushwall
Male Hero Lance = Pushwall
Amelia Halberdier = Spud, TBA, Black Mage, Temp, Wan
Male Halberdier = TBA
Female Soldier (Ponytail) = Dr0zz
Female Berserker = eCut, Skitty
Female Warrior = Temp
General + Weapons = TBA, DerTheVaporeon, GabrielKnight, JPN
Armored Brigand = TBA
Tethys + Sword = Circleseverywhere
Cleric Repalette = Eldritch Abomination
Priest Repalette = Eldritch Abomination
Bishop Repalette = Eldritch Abomination (Male and female)
(I could not find whoever made the Female Pirate animation I used, sadly)

Patches :
16 Tracks, 12 sounds : Agro, Brendor
256 Color Title Background Installer : Leonarth
Convert Chapter Titles to Text : circleseverywhere
Actions After Support : 7743
Actions After Talk : 7743
HP Bars with Warnings : circleseverywhere
Lose item : Kaito, 7743
Alusq : Native Instrument Map 2

Thanks to :
BrightFlame (For occasional testing and giving his opinon)
Applejuice (For greatly helping me with maps during this project’s early life)

VI - Recruitment guide

I realize a few characters might be hard to notice, or to understand they’re recruitable, so in case you’re worried about missing anyone, here’s a recruitment guide.

WARNING. I’ve recently been made aware that the current roster goes over the limit, even with ASM on. This means that the last character you recruit during Ch18 if Marguerite’s duplicate is active + either Edward or Mina depending on who you picked will vanish after joining. I’m working on it, please be patient.

Prologue :
Sylvester - Joins automatically from the start
Zweite - Joins automatically from the start

Chapter 1 :
Achille - Joins automatically during Turn 1
Magam - Talk with Zweite
Luna - Talk with Sylvester (will join at a later chapter)
Palmer - Talk with Sylvester (will join at a later chapter)

Chapter 2 :
Salvatore - Joins automatically from the start
Lancelot - Joins automatically from the start
Laetitia - Talk with Sylvester

Chapter 3 :
Batto - Talk with Sylvester or Cazadora
Armaduro - Talk with Sylvester
Jess - Talk with Achille, and pay 3000 gold. If you visit the house she’s supposed to come from (the one directly to the right of your group’s starting point) before she actually comes out, she won’t appear. This isn’t a bug. Also, if you haven’t recruited her, you will have a chance to get another refresher later on, so don’t sweat it.
Cazadora - Battle with Sylvester, make sure both stay alive

Interlude :
Luna - Step into the tile just above Sylvester’s spawn point (Only works if you’ve talked to her before)

Chapter 4 :
Vicieux - Joins automatically from the start
Lucy - Talk 3 times with Sylvester
Venemum - Visit east house
Bill - Stand on the arena tile
Palmer - Talk with Sylvester (He will not join there yet, and it only works if you’ve already talked to him during Chapter 1)

Chapter 5 :
Starhuka - Joins automatically from the start
Martin - Open Leftmost door
Sally - Open rightmost door
(Note : Opening the door next to Martin’s gives Achille an item that will be useful later)

Chapter 5x :
Everybody here joins automatically. Have fun.

Chapter 6 :
Hans - Talk with Zweite or Velvet
Velvet : Wait on the ruins near the river

Chapter 7 :
Yami - Joins automatically during Turn 3
Igor - Talk with Yami
Valkyr - Talk to Igor with Sylvester, then talk to her with Sylvester
Alex - Talk with Sally
Alyssa - Talk with Igor (Will not join until the end of the chapter, but will stop moving and attacking)

Chapter 8 :
Alyssa - Talk with Igor during Ch7, keep her alive until the end of the chapter
Shell - Talk with Armaduro
Dick - Visit south-west house
Arnold - Joins automatically from turn 5
Tenebrice - Joins automatically from turn 5

Interlude :
Arshan - Joins automatically from the start
Marguerite - Joins automatically from the start
Desiree - Talk with Sylvester (Dick needs to be alive, and either Vicieux or Laetitia needs to be missing)
Note : Talking to Vicieux with Sylvester will give you the choice to let him go, if you wish to get Desiree without killing him or missing Laetitia

Chapter 9 :
Hercules - Joins automatically from the start
Lily - Joins automatically from the start
Octavia - Visit the ruins

Chapter 10 :
Ludmilla - Visit the nearest village (Only joins if Jess hasn’t been recruited/is dead)
Vertov - Joins automatically from the start
Barnaby - Joins automatically from the start
Sofia - Joins automatically from the start
(Note : If Achille has the Weird Notes he got by opening the 2nd door during Ch5 in his inventory, talking to Sofia will give her Explosion, a very powerful tome)

Chapter 11 :
Esther - Joins automatically from the start
Chastity - Joins automatically from the start
Eve - Talk with Laetitia, Vicieux, Sally or Lily

Chapter 12 :
Morgana - Joins automatically from the start
Helena - Talk with Yami, Lancelot or Octavia
Palmer - Talk with Sylvester (Only works if you’ve talked to him during Chapter 1 and 4)

Chapter 13 :
Zugma - Open the chest between Johnny and Jukujo
Jukujo - Talk with Zugma
Johnny - Joins when entering the zone after the two-tiles wide bridge
(Note : Making Johnny wait in front of the door he came from will give him the Raw Meat item, which will be useful later)

Chapter 14 :
Satsujin - Joins automatically from the start if Jukujo, Zugma and Helena are all recruited and alive
Arya - Joins automatically from the start
Trashie - Joins automatically from the start
Walter - Joins automatically from the start
Alicia - Visit village with Sylvester or Zweite

Chapter 15:
Gerard - Enter the first house clockwise (Required to end the chapter)
Vivian - Enter the last house clockwise (Required to end the chapter)
Amy - Give the Raw Meat (Obtainable by bringing Johnny in front of the doors he came from during Ch13) to Lily and talk to her. (She will reappear later if not killed, so don’t sweat it if you don’t have it)

Chapter 16 :
Suzanne - Joins automatically from the start
Willy - Talk with Sylvester

Chapter 17:
Theodore - Joins automatically from the start
Andrew - Talk with any female character (YES, ANY. MADLAD HAS 27 DIFFERENT RECRUITMENT DIALOGUES)
Ambrose - Enter the south-west house

Chapter 18 :
Barbara - Talk with Sylvester
Abigail - Talk with Sylvester
Brut - Talk with Abigail or Barbara
Marguerite - Joins automatically from the start

Chapter 19 :
Golem - Talk with Arnold, Tenebrice, Arshan or Suzanne
Amy - If not recruited or killed during Chapter 15, you can recruit her now by talking to her with Willy
Edward - At the end of the chapter, choose “Yes”
Mina - At the end of the chapter, choose “No”

VII - Known Issues (IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ)

-There’s been some problem with save files. I HIGHLY reccomend using a savestate every time you end/start a chapter. Thanks for understanding. (Also, not saving wherever you saved your first chapter appears to be safer, but don’t count on it too much either)
-Unfortunately, your save files from previous playthroughs will be corrupted. I did all I could to avoid that, but there was no use. My sincere apologies…
-There is a secret event during Ch20. I won’t tell what happens or how to trigger it, but if you do manage to do that, the game will bug heavily. This is simply fixed by going back to the main menu and then resuming the chapter.

Do you want to be a part of this train wreck I call a project? Do you have Discord? Then that’s great, 'cause here’s the project’s discord server : FE : TotF

Thanks for your attention ! I hope you’ll have fun playing this hack, even with all its flaws !

49 Likes

Looks really good uwu
Hope you finish it, gl!

Thanks ! It really means a lot !
If you ever decide to give it a try, please tell me what you thought about it !

@Scraiza This should be the true title of your hack, but it seems someone else has swooped in and taken it.

1 Like

New hacks is always welcome here.

@Scraiza This should be the true title of your hack, but it seems someone else has swooped in and taken it.

Oh, well… Great minds think alike, don’t they ?

New hacks is always welcome here.

Thanks ! I was afraid there would be some kind of hack overdose these days, given how many people are given the opportunity to make their stories come true. Glad to hear that !

1 Like

Welcome to FEU. Showing up with a patch for your project is always a good sign. Would you be interested in submitting it to FEE3, the yearly community showcase? All projects are welcome.

Okay, (first) new update ! I have released a version fixing the most important and annoying bugs. Although, with my computer dying on me last week, I’ve lost a lot of progress, I hope y’all will appreciate the newest version !

1 Like

Finally ! After what seemed like an eternity, I have made an update I’m proud enough to share ! Remaking Ch5x was the main goal, and took me a whole lot of time (In total, I’ve changed it more than 5 times)

I hope some of you will have the patience to play through the game again, and that you will enjoy it ! If you have any feedback, I’d be more than glad to listen to it !

6 Likes

Playing through this now. Gotta say, this hack is a fun little thing so far!

No mounted units on both sides? Interesting maneuver.

I’ll have some feedback ready in a bit.

That’s great ! I’m glad you’re enjoying the hack so far, and I’m eager to see your feedback !

Alright here’s my feedback so far. I believe I made my way up to Greed is a Mad Mistress.

Thoughts so Far (Note: Contains Spoilers):

So uh, there are a few bugs, but nothing that’s particularly game-breaking. (Mainly that the text for I think Armaduro and whatnot when they show up doesn’t disappear after they emerge; it stays when ‘Enemy phase’ comes up on screen.). Oh, and the sound room seems to have a bit of trouble keeping track of what songs you’ve encountered.

I like the tone of this hack (and I would be willing to go through the rom and correct any kind of spelling for you if you like.) a lot. Personally, I like Sylvester- you’ve done a good job of putting up the character of this guy who’s surprisingly likable, while also being, you know, still a Brigand. (He’s arguably one of the strongest units once he gets going also, in my experience.).

I also like how you do paint the medium in the sense that most of the class descriptions all sound like they were written by Sylvester. (Since he is telling the story, after all.). Those little narrative touches like that all give the hack a nice comedy tone.

Love the choice of music you picked. Hearing the theme for Papers Please is always a nice surprise.

Now, onto the gameplay…

Having no mounts like horses and flying units on either side is honestly an interesting game concept; because it means that you can’t rely on the usual OP shenanigans that cavaliers and units like that would provide.

This sounds like gameplay would be a lot slower because of it, but the way the maps are set up, it generally doesn’t feel like a slog. (I do like how in the Prison Break chapter, for example, you actually have an immediate shortcut that can allow you to defeat the boss quickly, or else take a longer route to it for better rewards.).

Armor Knights having four move, for example, seems a lot less prominent when (at least in my experience), the maps are generally short enough to where they don’t feel as outpaced by the army as they might normally. (Armaduro having good bases, if weird growths, helps as well.).

Now, as for my main complaint gameplay wise… it has to be how strict gold appears to be. Like, for now, it’s fine, but I am beginning to worry a bit about running out of weapons.

(Also, although you have a Supply, which I appreciate, I do find it a bit confusing that we can’t access it during an actual battle.).

Greed is a Mad Mistress so far is the chapter I have complaints for- mainly if you’re trying to actually level up Lucy. (Which reminds me, her Beginner’s Prf. for some reason has the description for Barricade+; which I assume is a mistake since going by how it looks, it’s supposed to be a Promotion item for her, I think?).

Anyways, I say this because Lucy really, really starts off in a bad spot. (Thank god you can talk to her three times with Sylvester in the same turn to recruit her; idk if that’s a bug or not, but if this wasn’t the case, I’d feel like it get irritating fast, somehow.).

Lucy herself is… well… she’s a weak little Recruit, and there are lots of enemies that can utterly rip her apart if you’re not careful. (I find it takes a Rally Str. from Batto to get her to do decent damage, and generally a Rally Defense from Sylvester to give her some way of surviving what comes at her.).

Like I understand she’s supposed to be bad, and then you train her up to be good, but her low defenses and (initially) low power in a hack that (seemingly) favors a more aggressive playstyle makes training her a particularly hellish exercise. (She can’t even double an Archer with a Steel Bow when she’s holding her Slim Lance at base level; which is really sad considering he only effectively has 3 Speed, and she has four.).

Even the enemy sword units she has WTA can either double her, or else will generally tear her apart in two or three hits.

Also, the healer you get in that chapter is… honestly, I don’t see the appeal in using him unless you either lost the female one you got earlier, or you want two healers. He’s… well, not that good at his job (which I get given his backstory), and his personal Skill compared to the female healer’s is pretty much useless until he promotes. (Because he can’t defeat enemies.).

Sure, he’s tankier, but healers aren’t supposed to be taking hits to begin with; so it’s kinda lost on him. (Personally, I think that if he joined as like, say, a Bishop or something he’d be much better because he at least can fight.).

Also, that guy who heads into the arena and you recruit by heading in there is a bit… too close to the boss. Like, I haven’t recruited him yet, but I hope that the boss doesn’t move; otherwise, there’s going to be a problem here…

Anyways, that’s all for now!

2 Likes

More Feedback:

Thoughts on 5 and 5x:

At the end of Greed is a Mad Mistress, why do we not get any gold to use in the next fight?! Especially since we never used it to pay the innkeeper?!

Also, the new journeyman trainee, Marty… those bases and those growths… oh man; at least Lucy had a decent Skill and Luck growth.

Luna doesn’t mean crap if he can’t hit shit when it counts. (And unlike Lucy, he doesn’t come with a promo item.).

Chapter 5 as well… that Purge tome… the one in the room next to the light mages…

I just recruited the freaking Light Mage… hell, Achille did it because he’s the only one who can use lockpicks…

That light mage even bragged about it…

So why the hell does he not remember that they have someone who can use the Purge?! (Okay so maybe it’s cause she doesn’t have the weapon rank for it, and there was that creepy feeling, but still…)

Also putting Counter on that Swordmaster dude is evil. Evil and Clever.

Thank god that Hero is so goddamn strong…

Oh and also some bugs from Chapter 5:
Sally and Sylvester’s Talk convo just plays Achille’s recruitment convo with her.

Achille’s words to Marty at one point have this weird [ ] effect.

As for 5x…

The only thing I’m going to say about is that Battle Against a True Hero is a really good choice to use for the map theme.

(As well as how I personally feel like Arnold and company are a bunch of assholes.).

that’s not yours to distribute blood

5 Likes

you’re scaring me because there’s no :b:ontext

1 Like

Alright, new update!

I’m trying to improve on a lot of things, but the gameplay is still lackluster… I need as many playtesters as possible, so if you don’t know what to do of your summer vacations, then search no further!

Pretty weird some entombed have 3X hp but some has 51 hp
And they give too much exp (u can ude void curse skill or nerf their level to avoid playables getting a level per kill) my team has a bunch of lv20 but no promotional item now lol
Enemy turn still progresses slowly (maybe they run in the FOW slowly (zombs)) and Arnold can swim somehow
(I think i saw someone not mentioned in the excel file’s portrait again in batto caza support)
Does the late joinets get better growth but kinda low bases?
Second Secret character appeared yet?
Hero desc didnt include lances too
Yami nearly capped level bruh
Sry by discord acc had problems so couldnt log in there

Is anyone also stupid to a point they watched the full Johnny dialogue?
Who is this shirley and the guy under the closet wtf kinda creeper (aww man)
So since grace die and chapter will end and zugma (and dick) cant swim, arnolf cant carry zugma there too, so u cant get the chest?
Wot if sophoa nuked nikage at first turn lol (that was so muda)

Actually calcium can be obtained from bones

So… Sylv is someone who joined the game’s uncle?

Wait am I supposed to try ch14? The boss had physical weapon ranks, and no weapon equipped
And satsujin starts at lv0 and full skill and speed? Lol other 2 guys too
And trashie has no mag growth only str lol (10 spd u must be kidding) nvm just the average druid u will see
Btw ch21 is finalr right? U need to add more stat boosted promoted enemies

I love the character description! I love to see that this hack will be completed! Good luck!

1 Like

Thanks for your feedback! I’ve corrected a few of the issues you’ve mentioned (Especially those from Ch14 characters)
It sucks that you can’t connect to discord anymore… Hope you find a solution soon.

(Also I changed back to 16 chapters because I’m a big dumb stupid guy that can’t count)

prologue counted I think?
no, still waiting for the appeal for account
totf_1594435124487
So a unit will disappear somehow overlapped with that fighter
If u pin the unit from unit menu it will cause the cursor to disappear
(Wtf is trashie speed and con, doomed to get doubled everyday)
Why does rhoam has excalibur in his inventory and anima+sword rank
Arya had staff and anima rank???
Btw what i mean stronger promoted units i mean those who has more decent stat distributed around (so wont get dounled that often and can hit consistenely)
Not just in one stat so 22 mag with tomefaire mages can one shot sylvester (30 def is rather acceptable in my opinion cuz u can ude mages to bypass)