what i did here was to first kill that soldier in front of her, break the wall, get inside and have ramon block the entry point, give ramon all your vulneraries as mila wont need them as she will just throw magic behind ramon, the only units that you will aggro are just two soldiers, who ramon easily outspeeds, a merc and a shaman, for me only the shaman posed a problem since by the the time the cavs spawned at the far right, my units were already past the corridor
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1.13 released
- Fixed a softlock if you beat chapter 21x without recruiting either of the recruitable characters.
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Thanks for fixing. Cant believe I’m the only one who didn’t want to cough up 8k for a recruit (x2!) when I already have 4x as many units as I can deploy.
Miss me with that sob story about a “sick brother” or the one about “chopping wood doesn’t pay good” lol I got a whole army to feed you can’t have 8000 gold, nuh-uh!
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I think most people recruit everyone possible, regardless of whether or not they intend on using them. Money is no object to completionists like me!
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Yeah I was kidding 
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You’re more of a monster than I am, and that’s saying something, seeing everything that goes on in the hack. Impressive!
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Even i have to agree with that lol
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I had an idea for some kind of postgame, you still have the ehraim mode maps laying around right?
If you can figure out how to, you could make some actual maps out of those with map nodes leading to them.
Played this hack, and I really enjoyed it. I like the character arc you made with Eirika, and I enjoyed the rebalancings. I also decently like the new characters. That being said, I made this post (and this account, really) primarily to talk about one thing…
Thoughts on the number 1 twist
Okay, how dare you. Literally how dare you. HOW DARE YOU DO THAT TO ME. The logical part of me understands that there is a price to be paid, and that a war isn’t really all sunshine and rainbows, and losing Seth makes sense for that purpose. The part of me that a) likes Seth as a character, and b) hardcore ships Seth/Eirika, however, is SCREAMING IN ABSOLUTE SADNESS AND FURY BECAUSE HOW DARE YOU.
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Glad you enjoyed the hack!
I’ve posted here before, but I’ve gotten a good bit farther so here’s my thoughts, I guess:
(Note: just this one section [class and character mechanics] is getting pretty long, so I may limit this in scope until later today)
Soldier
Amelia not getting cav as a promotion option was a bit of a letdown. Ended up promoting her into soldier and there’s a few things I want to say about soldiers as a whole (though so far that’s just Ramon and Amelia): Their speed is appreciated, and their damage output is surprisingly good, but low survivability means I didn’t level them up, and by the time the routes merge they’re both basically unusable. I may have played a little too conservatively with Ramon, but Amelia I feel like is definitely a bit lacking in defense. Based on other replies to this thread, I’ve seen she can get pretty good, but because of the large cast I didn’t feed anyone stat boosters until the route merge, when I evaluated who I’m really going to use in the endgame. That may have something to do with it, or maybe I just got stat screwed.
Fliers
Vanessa was a challenge to keep alive in the early game, but right after the route split she became really effective. Maybe I should’ve just fed her some XP earlier, since she’s quite a well balanced unit. Props for that. In comparison, Tana is a bit lacking until I got a few blessed level ups that evened out her stats a bit. Her stat-boost convo with Joshua in her first chapter definitely saved her usability on Erika’s route, though, and they’re both viable picks through the route merge, after which I filtered out all but the very best. Neither of them are top tier, but they do pretty well. Susanna’s horseslayer on her first map lets her nab some XP, but her luck and res growths resulted in a unit who can’t take counterattacks, which isn’t in itself bad, but the map design (which I do like, I’ll get to that later) means even if I set up kills for her, she’s likely to be attacked by an archer or a mage, and she even got crit a couple of times. I’d give her a bit more res, seeing as low res is the wyvern riders’ niche weakness.
Speaking of, Cormag, has great damage output, but surprisingly poor survivability. I pushed him to a higher level than any of the pegasi, but by the route merge (and more importantly by the grueling chapter 20), he only had 12 def and 5 luck, meaning he was unable to deal with axe users of any real capacity and kept getting crit by mages even when they wouldn’t normally one-shot him. I’d up his def growth, though I think I may have just gotten luck-screwed, looking at his current growth. I used him 'cause of his personality and 'cause I knew I’d get Glen later, mostly.
On that topic, Glen’s arrival in chapter 21 was well executed, and his stats were good enough to save Erika’s bacon, but not good enough to take the pressure off. I haven’t had many chapters to use him since, and deployment’s been tight, but his role in that chapter was excellent.
Syrene’s not to broken, not too weak, there’s not much else to say.
Cavalry
I did decide to restart my run when I think it was 1.20 that dropped, and using Seth to set up kills this time did make the early game a lot easier. He was balanced well for what he did while he did it.
The other Renais cavs though, honestly disappointed me. I know my Franz generally got bad level ups from levels 10-20/2, so I can’t vouch for his normal strength, but I tried to use Forde and Kyle and right off the bat they were falling off. I kept them around until Innes and Gerik’s crew tightened deployment, but they didn’t really do much and the experience I gave them would have been better used anywhere else. They weren’t lacking in any particular area, but they just had sub-par stats all around.
Franz’s middling level ups until level 10 kept him usable for Ephraim’s route, but he wasn’t exceptional. Locking Franz to a single weapon to keep him from getting OP I understand, and it did a good job keeping him in check, but he may need a point or two in strength to mitigate the damage loss of lances. Lancelocking Forde and Kyle got rid of the WT advantage that would’ve kept them relevant, and I think reversing that may make them more viable.
Duessel may need to have a point or two of speed taken off, as GK’s additional movement makes him an absolute powerhouse. He’s not game-breaking though, and as-is he’s a fine unit. He holds up even if you bench him a few chapters to bring some weaker units to par.
Albertus just exists, I guess. He was good enough to stay deployed through Ephraim’s route, but nothing really stood out about him. I think that may have something to do with the fact that his supports are, as far as I’ve found, unwritten, and I don’t know anything about him as a character beyond the Ch:10 introduction. If he had some more character I’d probably consider him well balanced, but I only remembered him 'cause I checked to see if I’d missed anyone. (Though I get supports are time-consuming to write, so no pressure or anything)
Heavy Infantry
Gillaim carried the early game, though looking back I might should’ve let some weaker units take some of the experience I gave him. I promoted him pretty early after the route split, as my first promotion after Melville, and to rectify the experience gap I didn’t use him again until Hamill Canyon, but even then he was a powerful addition.
My D’Erika got strength screwed, but her defense keeps her a solid unit and her averages may even be a tad trivializing, though the gimmick of low res does a good job keeping her in check, particularly with the mage-heavy Ephraim route.
Fado would be broken except that the game is stocked with powerful magic users base FE8 lacked, so I do have to watch where I put him on some maps. I guess he is a level 12 prepromote, so one would expect him to be a cut above. Once Ephraim promotes he’ll probably outclass his dad.
In general (hehe) I appreciate making armor knights good, and the addition of bows in particular makes general/GK an actual choice, extra attack range or 7 move, though I ended up going general with both. The higher speed I feel like definitely helped a lot too, though it might have been overdone, since eventually they had as much speed as some of my pegasus knights, without the low con.
Gerik was fine inasmuch as I used him, but due to the swords I had available when I recruited him (my own fault), Joshua was clearly the better choice for sword infantry, though I used both when I got the chance.
Once deployment started to become a consideration, I cut Garcia and Harold pretty quick, but thanks to some nearly average level-ups for once, Ross for once isn’t a terrible unit. He lasted me awhile but ultimately didn’t make the post-route cut.
Dolza got benched pretty quick just 'cause he was a prepromote and I wanted to give some other units experience, and he just wasn’t quite good enough to be brought back for the daunting chapter 20. He doesn’t seem like a bad unit, though.
Light Infantry
Even though Elaine was a fighter, she didn’t make it into the heavy infantry section because she doesn’t fit very well into the class. Frankly, her low skill, high speed, and middling-low defensive stats means she doesn’t fit very well anywhere, and I think the only reason I kept her on the team as long as I did was 'cause she was part of Ephraim’s OG squad and 'cause she has more writing than the others. She’s not egregiously weak in any one area, but her statline doesn’t synergize well, particularly taking into account that her primary (and only pre-promotion) weapon type is axes.
Joshua, on the other hand, was, as in base FE8, amazing to play with. Not so powerful that he could solo maps, particularly with his middling def and res, but a good avoid and decent supports (both units and support bonuses), as well as ridiculous speed and a decent strength made him a really satisfying unit without being broken. Had him kill Calleach as per usual, and the stats/RNG provided just the right amount of dramatic tension to make the kills I fed him worth it. All that, and the extra moments of characterization he gets with the writing make Joshua one of my favorite units here, as with base FE8.
Marissa has excellent bases, but she shows up too late to really compete with Joshua, and Gerik usually edges her out as my auxiliary sword infantry. Gerik/Tethys is the support line I usually go for anyway, so I’m not up in arms about it or anything. She’s a replacement Joshua, but if he’s still alive and decently leveled she can’t compete.
Both the thieves felt kinda bad to play with, and I only used them when there was a stealable, non-droppable statbooster or more chests than I had keys for (which only happened like once). I say both because I’m gonna get to Rennac when I get to chapter 20.
Soldiers are kinda light infantry, kinda heavy infantry, so they got their own little section.
Casters
Light and Healers
Moulder’s base stats to a nice job keeping him relevant for longer, and I was looking forward to seeing what he would do in the story until I accidentally gave him an A support with Gilliam trying to heal him. I had to do this multiple times to get an A, and unfortunately “accidental support” is not a valid reset criterion 
. I think once I’m done I may replay it knowing what I know now, and if I do I’ll definitely try to use him longer.
Artur feels a bit weaker than vanilla, but I guess that just means he’s not insanely overpowered now when it comes to monsters and dark casters. Mechanically I like how he works, still a beast against light magic’s traditional foes but unable to solo village of silence. The mount is a nice touch, though I do miss the monk animations sometimes. The choice to have him promote into sage instead of bishop confused me, and I ended up going Valkyrie, but as a general rule he’s nearly as fun a unit as Joshua. I appreciated his convo with Natasha in Queen of White Dunes, both mechanically and narratively.
Speaking of, I feel like Natasha’s two most important stats, magic and resistance, both got nerfed, magic in the base and res in the growth. Maybe it’s just the stronger enemies and Moulder’s relative strength, though the res growth definitely seems lower (though her role as “siege tome tank” got filled by Qastimon, so it’s not too bad). A bit of leveling brought her magic more to speed though, and compared to other healers her avoid is amazing, her dodge survivability alone is worth a slot on the team, at the very least until Artur promotes.
Moulder’s dad (Aristobulous or something) kinda just existed. I feel like he was supposed to be promoted as soon as you get him, but 12 just seems like a wasteful time to level, and once L’Arachel shows up her growths and potential (plus her Ephraim support, but shh), as well as the one point of movement, is enough to shunt him out of the way.
I chose Salvador but didn’t end up using him 'cause prepromote. What can I say, I like bringing earlygame characters up to speed!
L’Arachel got mentioned above, and to reiterate, her growths and mount more than make up for her somewhat shabby bases, I feel like she’s definitely a more viable unit, and I use her for rescues even when there’s no one to heal. Nice to use.
Anima
After chapter five I basically never used Lute again, just 'cause deployment got tight. She didn’t seem like a bad unit, but I didn’t realize how soon I was going to drop Garcia and the few chapters he gathered useless experience probably would’ve been better spent on her. If I play through again I’ll see how she plays further into the game.
Valent just exists, I guess. He was useful for chip damage early on, but compared to casters in general he forfeits some skill for defense. While this helps him survive enemy phase melee attacks, it wasn’t enough to save him from the almost ubiquitous presence of longbows, which meant I had to hold him back while other units cleared the way, as his low skill means he can’t reliably one-round archers. This could also be fixed by giving him some extra con so he can double with Elfire, increasing his damage output/Elfire hit reliability to viable levels. He has fairly good stats, but early maps on Ephraim’s route almost force you to underlevel him.
Saleh was a prepromote, so, as usual, I didn’t use him for awhile. On paper he looks solid though.
Promoted Ewan into dark rider or whatever, mostly enjoy how he plays, though he’s not really a good pick if you don’t grind him before you reach Jehenna.
Not quite sure where to put Dara, so I’ll just stick her here, I guess. I don’t understand how her summon’s weapon works. Sometimes it’s a killer axe, sometimes an iron one. This may be in base FE8 too and I’m just an idiot. Cool unit though, enjoyable to play chapter 21, but not exceptional.
Dark
Imma be honest, I didn’t play very much with any of the dark casters until Tethys and then Na’amah in 21x. Novala was a little flimsy his first chapter, but after that held up fairly well until the route split, after which I stopped using him. Tethys gains experience really fast by killing people, and for a dancer, she’s surprisingly good at it. Fun to use, but maybe could use a nerf of some kind. Na’amah has good damage output, but she’s remarkably flimsy. Died multiple times against the archer at the beginning of 21x. Didn’t use Knoll very much in 21, and there haven’t been many chapters (or deployment slots) that I’ve had since.
Archers
Nemi was amazing, I used her even through the route merge. What can I say? She capped skill and speed before promoting, and her convo with Innes kept her damage relevant for as far as I’ve played.
Harriet is useful for taking care of fliers and the occasional mage, but she’s just all-around weaker than Nemi, and she’s basically only used since she’s the only archer on Ephraim’s route.
Innes was a prepromote, but because I foresaw some further story importance in him and because his statline was just begging to be used, I only benched him for a chapter or two. He really helped with the fliers on chapters 17 and 21, and both he and Nemi are in my top-ish tier (though they still get hedged out by Artur, Joshua, Dussel, and the Armor Knights)
Monsters
Melville was used consistently up until his fairly early promotion (hit level ten in chapter 8), when his experience gain became inefficient enough that I benched him. The improved weapon in chapter 15 is probably helpful, but I never brought him back from retirement, so I don’t really know how he performs late game.
Afria’s 1-2 range made him useful for chip damage, but he wasn’t really good enough to survive enemy phase in good condition. His speed was appreciated, but he would’ve benefitted more from defense.
Qastimon took up the role of “siege tome and all-purpose mage tank”, and while archers still pose a problem to him, he fills that role well. No complaints here, he’s fairly balanced
I’m fair sure I missed some people, but that’s all I can remember right now. Two things I want to mention so I don’t forget when I talk about story and map design later: First, Erika seems unable to support anyone, despite having support partners listed in the “ally” section of the unit list. I’m wondering if this is intentional, and if so, when does it stop and is there a way to communicate one or both of those answers to the player? Second, it feels like experience gain above level 10 is severely hampered, and similarly I’m assuming it’s intentional but is there a way to communicate that to the player, and around when do you suggest we promote?
Anyways, enjoyed playing so far, hope everyone’s having a good day!
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Same here dude, and probably everyone in this thread that so far has played the game lol
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Late, but thank you so much for all the impressions! Loved reading your thoughts on all the units.
As for the bugs… About the second, I had no idea before, but just before I read your post, I happened to read in an entirely unrelated thread that apparently there’s an oddity with FE8 that makes units gain more experience before chapter 8 for unknown reasons? You never go to bed without learning something new, I guess. I believe there’s a patch to remove this, might have to check it out.
The first “bug” is intentional.
uh, I get trying to make the enemies a little more challenging but are these intended?
for reference these are the two pre-promoted enemies on chapter 11.
I have maybe two units who don’t get doubled by these two, hell the ranger isn’t even slowed down by his Steel Bow, and the Swordmaster is -1 from their light brand.
that ranger in particular is really terrifying due to basically having 58 attack before defense reduction.
to elaborate, I’m not trying to complain I’m actually asking since I know some stat variance is to be expected but +7 to it’s speed and strength (compared to builder showing their base speed as 12 and 14 respectively) seems off. (further note the Swordmaster only has +4 Pow but still has +7 speed.)
Edit: having nowhere to get get extra exp is actually getting a little irksome since “???” ended up killing the Deathgoyle (he was actually kinda scary with 18 speed and power) 5 bonewalkers the Lamia and the entombed on the very map you need to squeeze exp out of for ewan you clear out one of the few enemies he could actually deal with.
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That may be it, probably something hard-coded in. May have something to do with my aversion to prepromotes, though I think that may also stem from attachment to my starting crew.
I meant to leave my thoughts on story and level design later the day of my previous post, but I decided to finish the game first. I did that earlier today though, so yeah… I guess it’s gonna get subdivided from here.
Final Unit Impressions
This’ll just be stuff that has changed from last time
Early Game Units
Franz died on my Ch20, along with some of my weaker units, but I went back and replayed 20-23 (for reasons I’ll get into in the level design section), and this time I made it out with far fewer losses. I’d promoted him to paladin in both playthroughs of Ch20, and a few good level ups in 21x/22 definitely helped him. His growths are good enough to mitigate a few bad level ups if you stick with him, no complaints here.
Nemi capped speed and skill after promotion, too, and I ended up using both her and Innes in the final battle, which I think was the first time I’ve brought more than one archer to the end in any FE. If anything, she might be a bit overpowered growth-wise, though her low bases did keep her in check in the early/midgame
Artur and Natasha both promoted into Valkyrie, and Artur’s high magic and resistance, as well as fairly decent avoid, and Natasha’s capped speed and luck made them both surprisingly tanky, and Artur a solid offensive unit as well.
Gilliam hasn’t done as well for himself. Despite the movement boost from his convo with Tana right before the route merge, other units can fill his role not-too-shabbily, and have other upsides to boot. He’s not a bad unit, but by the late game, the high enemy damage prioritizes offense and avoid, and units like Franz, Duessel, and Joshua (though the latter got a dracoshield to complement his high avoid) have enough defense to fill in even where raw damage reduction is necessary. Same goes for D’erica and Fado.
Joshua’s still wrecking shop
Midgame Units
Innes is solid, per usual, and he didn’t get stat screwed, so he made it into my final crew wielding the Sacred Twin Bow. Nothing’s changed, just an update on his natural progression, I guess.
Tana wasn’t the greatest, but she a few level-ups in Ch24 brought her mostly up-to-speed, and the sentimentality/dramatic appropriateness in me wasn’t going to give anyone else the Sacred Twin Lance.
When I replayed 21x, I actually cleared the board (instead of blitzing through like last time), and so I was able to feed some kills to Amelia, and I have to say, a few levels really made the difference. Some more defense, coupled with her already middling-to-high skill and speed, with decent strength to boot, kept her as a pretty good pick, but the reason she beat out some otherwise great picks like Duessel for the final battle (and my confrontations with late-game bosses in general) was her amazing personal weapon. I saved that lance like any RPG player other than a FE player would, and it really paid off. That’ll actually be a recurring theme.
Qastimon began to drop off about the route merge, when enemy damage ramped up a lot, but he was still a far cry better than most of my benched units. Bringing him into darkling woods was a must to deal with gargoyle and especially mogall spawns, but he did nothing in the final chapter. I don’t know why I brought him there. He could’ve used a better weapon, and Artur had better resistance than him.
Naamah (probably spelled it wrong but whatever) turned out to be surprisingly good. I used her in 21x, gave her a few kills but saved most for Amelia, Franz, and Ramon (never did end up using Ramon again though). After I realized Tethys wouldn't hit S-rank in dark before the final chapter, and that her dance skill was too good to spend her action on anything else (She's not a great combat unit, not trash, not outstanding, but her defense is good and she's a dancer so who cares about offense), I promoted Naamah to summoner and basically fed her half the enemies in Darkling Woods to get her to S-rank. I then summoned and subsequently fed my summons to Morva until she hit level 20, because screw anti-grinding, Imma grind! (All jokes aside, I do appreciate the way you handled arenas. Helps me keep the game moving. Miss the skirmishes, and I’m usually pretty good about keeping those controlled, but I understand why they’re gone.) She was a pretty good unit, but not outstanding. Her primary utility is something I’ll talk about when I get to the boss battle.
Rennac. Ooooh boy, Rennac. Rennac is an interesting unit to me because while he has great stats at the time, especially for a thief (though I didn’t use either of the others, so what do I know?), he doesn’t grow very well. Luckily, his stats, particularly his buffed speed, are good enough from the start to keep him viable through the endgame (for the record, I used the Ephraim recruitment). He’s not a great combat unit, but he has decent enough avoid and he can finish off nearly-dispatched foes pretty well, which is nice with this high offense/moderate defense enemy makeup. I mostly kept him around, however, because I didn’t want to waste space in other characters’ inventories to hold keys, and because his speed (both move and speed) helped navigate terrain, bait enemies, or stay behind and keep low-level mooks away, and he served in these roles particularly in tandem with magic users. So he was a thief who actually did thief stuff well, kudos for that. My hesitation with him is less with him and more with his recruitment, which I guess is another Ch20 thing. That’s probably going to be the longest chapter.
L’arachel’s growths paid off nicely, making her an excellent healer and decently durable. I promoted her to Valkyrie like Artur and Natasha, but forgot to train up her light rank, which meant she was relegated to a support role in the final battle. Ah well.
Lategame Units
Drau was a fine unit, but Amelia was basically the same thing, and she had her prf weapon, so…
Bastion was a level 20 prepromote in a role Franz was filling great, so… he got benched. Even on his debut level. Story-wise though- Wait, there’s a section for story stuff.
I didn’t use Glen after 21 until 26, but he was still combat viable, as that’s when I realized his inherent S-rank in axes meant he was my de facto Garm wielder unless Duessel could shape up, and since I had mostly used his lance, he didn’t. Glen is pretty well designed. I didn’t notice too many specifics other than his surprisingly high resistance and growth, but he’s fairly balanced.
And I think that wraps it up for the units!
Story (Spoiler Warning)
The story stuff, being, y’know, story stuff, will be a little less organized. I’m appreciating fanfiction, not writing a book report.
Before Ch8
Harold’s introduction is probably the first thing I’d consider a change worth mentioning (minus some minor setup for the Fado stuff). He’s an interesting character, but other than switching sides at the very beginning and his mini-scene at the end (neither of which I have a problem with, btw), he doesn’t have much substance to his guilt other than self-pity. I think it may be due to his minimal characterization, which I attribute to his lack of supports. I don’t claim to be a master or anything, but if you’d like I could try to write some.
Novala is probably the memeiest meme character I would believe was part of a mainline game if I didn’t know better. His only competition is Serra (and maybe edgy young Karel), who actually was in FE7, but my point stands. Peak FE humor, though I am a little disappointed we didn’t get to see any of the priest characters or Na’amah mock him mercilessly. Maybe there was an in-battle convo I just missed, but either way he was fun whilst I used him.
The Fado stuff was pretty well handled, there’s not much else to say on that topic.
The choice to have Ephraim actually get captured is interesting. That is what I thought happened on my first playthrough of SS, but after that I guess I’d never really thought about it. It was integrated well, still not sure if it’s better than the original though.
The Ch8 Twist
I’m going to be honest, I saw it coming. Orson’s presence on the title screen, the note on the original topic that major story changes start chapter 8, and good ol’ plot intuition told me, from the very start, “Seth’s gonna die, isn’t he?”. That said, even knowing it was coming, it still hit hard, probably due to two big factors:
- Seth is a great character, and his unwavering loyalty is something people in general, and me in particular, aspire to and value in others. He could’ve gotten offed by a lightning bolt and while I’d feel cheated, I would feel, just 'cause it’s Seth.
- You picked his best line from later in the game, his “charge and hope” line. That one gave me chills even when he wasn’t in mortal danger, and now you feed it to me while he’s dying? I was like |—>| that close to tearing up. I’m not prone to tearing up.
Midgame
This isn’t particular to the rewriting, but I do enjoy seeing Erika’s route’s perception of Lyon and Ephraim’s route’s perception of Lyon back-to-back. I think seeing them close together makes for a better understanding of the character.
In general, I appreciate what you’ve done with Innes here, he was always enjoyable but the way he obviously cares for Erika makes him downright likable. His supports with her once she recovers still portray him as a bit of a prick though 
.
Margaret did a good job of bringing some character to the Frelian Crew, though I wish I could’ve seen more interaction between her and Albertus. Same goes for Ramon, actually, both Margaret-Ramon and Ramon-Albertus interactions I feel like would be fun. So props for what characterization the three have.
Fado’s introduction on Ephraim’s route was well executed, though the scene where he beats up that “next Obsidian” guy felt kinda redundant.
Glen’s survival was handled pretty well, I feel like Cormag not knowing about the whole thing made it a little less impactful. I understand how that would’ve been hard to work in, though.
In general, Bastion’s appearances were intriguing, but I think some of them could’ve been handled better. (This will also talk about him in all chapters preceeding Ch28, so spoilers for the lategame, if you just want to read midgame stuff) I don’t really see why he appeared in Ch13 at all, for example, but it would’ve been fitting (retroactively, of course) for him to show up to crash the party in 27. In addition, Lyon says things like he was his “first mistake”, but we don’t get any clarity on that.
No really, this is a spoiler for the very end
Vigarde was his first reanimation, and he was a mistake (sparing Fado, after all). Moreover, we’ve not really had it made clear when, why, or how Lyon tried this soul-transfusion stuff on a dead enemy, or why it didn’t work. Is Seth just too valiant, or whatever? It gets a nice payoff in the epilogue, but it’s full of loose ends.
Lategame
Where possible, you used both Erika’s and Ephraim’s route cutscenes, but I’m noticing that in cases where they’re mutually exclusive, you chose Ephraim’s. Now for one of these, I get (though I do feel a bit like Ephraim got screwed over), but for the rest I’m wondering why you made that choice, particularly in a hack where Erika is more of the protagonist of the two. I don’t have an issue with it, I’m just curious.
Jude (I think that was her name) was a nice addition and a great character, though you’d think the way Lyon talks about the Demon King’s desires that she’d realize siding with the maleficent force of chaos may not be in her best interests.
Regardless of the justification for it, the story once arrived at chapter 26 and the following 27 was great. Joshua killed Calleach (again), Glen got his battle quote with Selena (though he retreated afterwards 'cause magic), and as soon as I saw the paladin in Ch27, I knew what was up. I wrecked my way through the first half of that map (discovering two glitches along the way, I’ll mention them in level design), and then I opened the door and got pissed off. Like the “narratively satisfying” and “you deserve what’s coming to ya” and “at the characters, not the author” pissed off. So the good kind.
After that things proceed like normal, until I finish the boss fight, and all the characters are saying their stuff, which is pretty cool, I like that, and oh, Melville’s a girl, and Novala’s arrested, and oh, there’s the doggie again and- oh wait, he’s speaking, and-
Nonononononononono! Why? How could you do this to me? Is this kind of torture even legal? It has got to be some kind of emotional abuse! HE SAID IT AGAIN!
More On That
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
More On That (That Isn't Irrational Screaming)
I had initially theorized, based on Lyon’s comments on it, that Lyon had been kind of reverse exorcized from his own body, and was fighting the Demon King by possessing a demon, while the Demon King was under complete control of Lyon’s body and yadda yadda yadda. Well, I was wrong. I dunno, I just thought that oughtta be put down somewhere. I had no clue it was Seth, but that just made the reveal hit harder.
Suffice to say, I did tear up this time, if only for a few seconds.
Dunno where else to put this, so... Na'amah & Qastimon
Moulder and Aristobulus both got phased out before they had a chance to meet Na’amah (with the exception of her recruitment, ofc), and she was benched for most of the time, anyway. So she didn’t get many supports. However, her support with Qastimon was nice, really liked it. I’m not gonna get analytical or whatever. I just liked it. Ran it to it’s A-rank conclusion.
Level Design
I’m gonna keep it brief, just gonna mention some trends, talk about one or two specific maps in each section, and bring up a few bugs
Earlygame
Maps up until 6x (the first new one) were pretty good, really enjoyed not having to deal with fog. Thought the wyvern rider in Ch1 was pretty well-placed to show off Gilliam’s bow rank.
6x was well-designed once the three trapped characters managed to get away, but I’d probably make the upper-map reinforcements show up a turn later just to give them some time. I had to replay that one a good few times because I got RNG screwed and they all died. After that though, I farmed those reinforcements for as long as I could before I killed the Halberdier guy. Or “killed”. Whatever. He died in the end. I’d recommend cutting the reinforcements off after the first general, or buffing them rapidly so farming them isn’t viable for long.
Ch8, likewise, was a good map once I figured out how to rescue Erika. The answer, btw, was to equip her with healing items, change to the lancereaver (if I recall correctly, the guard that attacks you turn 1 gives you one [nicely done if so], but I may have just given it to her via supply), and use Franz, Artur, and Joshua to mop up the mooks on the other side of the door, which, thanks to Melville and Nemi, was secure, and thanks to Colm, was unlocked, turn 1. It took several tries, but I managed to pull it off, and after that it was fine.
Midgame
Again, not having to deal with fog was great. In addition, the execution of mage enemies (both the way you executed their placement and the way I executed their hitpoints) was much appreciated.
And now, the long-aforementioned chapter 20. This one would have been great if any one of the things I’m about to list were easier.
- Poison weapons, particularly on the left hallway. Not to much of an issue by themselves, but they slowed everything down (so I wouldn’t lose a unit to low health via poison or an action to antidote [I think I’d used the last of my antidotes previously anyway]) and exacerbated the following issues.
- The berserk staff. That thing was ridiculous. Berserk staves in general are ridiculous, but the range (and the RNG) on this one was egregiously bad.
- Fado. He’s a powerful unit, but he’s holed off by mages and an armorslayer myrm that mean he can’t contribute until and unless he takes them out, which requires a lot of baiting to stay alive.
- Rennac. Oooh boy. I get that it’s totally a Rennac thing to do to put on the boots, and that they were helpful on him and I did get more later, but they made him a ridiculously difficult recruit. I was one turn late opening the left hallway and blocking him off, and he escaped. I blocked him off in a way that inexplicably made his escape AI suicidal? He attacked me and died on the counter (unequipping was certain doom). I was fine with either method of recruitment, but even L’arachel on her horse could only recruit him when my troops were smashed between the anti-Fado squad and the luna-wielders galore, and no matter what I did with him he ended up dying. Only by somehow triggering his AI survival mechanism (maybe by standing on the tile he usually moves to on the turn he usually moves to it?) was I able to completely freeze him in place, and he just sat there until I cleared the board and recruited him.
- Not every dark mage needs to have luna. And not all of them do. But it took a manual inspection to figure that out.
I think some of those things were part of the original game, but altogether it’s just too much. It’s a very… challenging level. Eventually I just cut my losses and moved on, though I did come back to it and work out a winning strategy. And some good RNG. Maybe I’m just bad at the game, though.
My failure to get Rennac and my loss of Franz were large motivators for me to replay through Ch20 on, especially since I knew they’d both be appreciated in the Rausten level. In addition to that, though, my general lack of power in the 21x squad caused me to blitz through it. These two chapters were the primary reasons I decided to replay.
Lategame
In general, the lategame maps were pretty good.
Again, no fog on 25 was nice. Jude’s coming onto the scene surprised me somewhat, but I had Joshua, Natasha, Gerik, and Tethys up there already, so it wasn’t an issue. I got rid of both of the bosses and missed two chests by accident, but I didn’t really need them. Don’t even know what they were.
27 has one glitch and one thing that needs to be fixed but I don’t know what to call it.
Error:
So yeah, that tile’s a fence, fairly sure that’s not supposed to be like that. Just thought I’d mention. As for the glitch: If you kill all enemies on the board (after the revenant reinforcements stop) before opening the door, it’ll play the ending cutscene and cut to Erika and Moulder standing in an empty room with the same floor as the actual cutscene (possibly just the first room), and it’ll idle there. Forever. Also, I don’t think there are any enemies who drop keys, and while this wasn’t a problem for me, it’s a potential softlock (well I guess you can just restart the level and come back once you’ve bought a key, but you get the gist of it). Other than those three things, however, it’s a great level.
First stage of the final chapter was nice, I was primed up to storm in with all my troops from one side, opened the gate on the other side, and was just thinking, “You sly dog! You caught me monologuing!” And it had happened with the bridge earlier too, so I really should’ve known. Made good use of the Arbalest on this one.
Now I’m not an old, grizzled FE veteran or whatever, my experience with the game is limited to GBA, GBA Romhacks, and watching other people play engage, so I may not be qualified to say this or whatever, but I don’t care, 'cause the Demon King had a battle worthy of his name! My final team consisted of these guys:
Final Team
Erika
Ephraim
Innes (Sacred Bow)
Tana (Sacred Lance)
Joshua (Sacred Sword)
Glen (Sacred Axe)
Artur (Sacred Light)
Na’amah (Sacred Dark)
L’arachel (Sacred Staff)
Amelia (Semi-Sacred Lance)
Nemi (fliers)
Tethys (duh)
Qastimon (honestly not worth it at this point)
Franz (sword + move)
Natasha (Warp Staff & supports, plus 3 Valkyries go brrrrr)
Rennac (needed him to open the doors last chapter)
I am a gamer, and as a gamer that means I save up resources. I also save up good weapons in FE. That may have made the game harder for me, but it paid off, because I was barely, barely able to scrape out a no-deaths victory here. After that one really embarrassing attempt where I accidentally got Ephraim killed straight off the bat 'cause I forgot they would summon minions. Turn 1, I used Na’amah’s eclipse to, well, eclipse the center Demon King. Then I warped Joshua over, and he got a 15% crit and another 100% hit and took him out round 1. That meant I didn’t have to deal with the monsters he summoned. I then proceeded to rescue him, heal him, and blitz the crew over to the one on the left, which got eclipsed and then taken out by Artur and Glen on turn 3 or 4. The rest of the crew was duking it out with the summoned monsters, and I used Latona to patch everyone up. Tethys helped Na’amah get just in range of the third Demon King on turn 5, so he got eclipsed, firing off it’s last use (I’m really fortunate they all hit, but she had some pretty decent hit, so that wasn’t an issue.) Two more turns of fighting through monsters, only not dying to the dracozombies 'cause I had Latona and some high level promoted mages (namely Artur, Na’amah, and Natasha, with L’arachel using the Sacred Staff), and Amelia managed to double the last demon king with her prf lance, barely doing enough damage to ORKO it after it had been eclipsed.
All that to say, one of the better boss battles I’ve come across and it was great fun to pull out all the stops for this one.
Sorry for the wall of text. At risk of sounding redundant, this was awesome to play, and thanks for making it!
2 Likes
Don’t apologize for the wall of text! I do love reading a wall of text about my stuff haha. A few detailed responses:
Spoilers for everything basically
I had hoped taking one turn longer to show up would make Rennac easier to recruit. I guess I may’ve gone a little overboard haha. Still, I’m super proud of the gag with the boots, so that’s definitely staying lol
Happy you thought Glen was well designed! Giving S axes was a bit of a last-minute thing, actually. I figured it’d be nice to have a few sure-fire S rankers, and Glen seemed like the perfect candidate for it.
Also nice to hear you enjoy the little things I added to Innes’s character. I didn’t touch the vanilla supports at all, so I do expect there’s probably an inconsistency or two here and there. Innes reverting to being a jerk is probably one of them, though you could call it him being Tsundere haha.
Harold does have a conversation with Novala in Creeping Darkness, but it doesn’t amount to much more than another quick Novala gag. He’s the most whatever character in the hack lol, he exists because I stumbled upon his unused portrait in FEBuilder and thought “hey it’d be neat to have a playable brigand!”
You are right about the lack of scenes a lot of these characters have. Since their supports are unwritten, they end up feeling kinda like early Kaga characters haha. Perhaps one day I’ll get around to it.
At risk of sounding conceited, I am quite proud of the idea to turn Seth’s iconic line against Orson into his final words when he is killed by Orson. And then again when he dies again. It’s like poetry, it rhymes!
For why I used more Ephraim scenes… During the period between Orson and Ephraim’s mistake, Eirika is supposed to be feeling conflicted about herself. After spending so long blinded by revenge, she no longer trusts herself, so she’s allowing Ephraim to take the reins of the army. Until he no longer can, of course. Perhaps I could’ve conveyed this more clearly, though.
Fado beating up the mustache man exists solely because 6x is missable. I didn’t want Fado to feel like he’s coming out of nowhere with no build-up if 6x is missed, plus 6x is so much earlier in the game, so I threw in that little scene as just a little reminder (and if you missed 6x, revelation) that Fado is around and doing things.
You get a few more details on Bastion’s creation if you deploy him for the finale. Instead of a one-liner like everyone else, he gets an extended flashback where you see the moment Lyon created him. Basically, the idea is this: Riev took Seth’s body after his burial to turn him into a reanimated corpse like Vigarde. This is when Lyon had one of his final moments of true lucidity. He realized he would soon be irremediably lost, so he took the soul of Eirika’s sworn protector and infused it into the body of a particularly strong monster.
He hoped Seth’s loyalty would continue beyond the grave and that he’d use his newfound power to protect her as he had done before, in order to ensure that she’d survive long enough to stop the Demon King. However, the process was imperfect, and from the beginning Lyon knew Bastion would not last.
That’s why he randomly appears in the twins’ path - he’s doing his best to protect them without destroying himself in the process. Though I will admit the earlier appearances do feel rather clunky, in retrospect.
The whole bit with Eirika? came to be entirely because, while making the Sad Eirika portrait, I accidentally made her look really angry instead of sad. Then I added a grin and the result was so funny I just knew I HAD to use it somewhere. Glad you enjoyed the whole church segment. I thought it was cheesy, but the fun kind of cheesy. And the dialogue was just plain fun to write haha.
You didn’t miss much with Na’amah’s family, as she has no supports with either of the priests. Their interactions take place in map conversations and cutscenes. If you benched Moulder you just missed out on a conversation they have in the egg chapter, that’s about it.
Duly noted your points on the maps. Perhaps I will see about removing those pesky poison weapons, at the very least, since they don’t seem to add much. Could’ve sworn I fixed the unintended rout in chapter 27, though! Dangit… The one fence tile is just silly, I’ll see about fixing it.
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Well, it’s been a while. Engage and other things distracted me, but I finally got around to releasing another patch. It’s just a simple fix patch, nothing all that big.
1.14 released
- Changed a line in chapter 10.
- Fixed the generals in 6x not moving.
- Tweaked some weapons in Father and Son.
- Fixed a couple of wrong tiles in chapter 27.
- Added some extra dialogue if the boss of chapter 22 is not killed.
- Added patch: Adjust Mode Coefficient Experience Gain by Vennobennu.
- Changed the text that pops up when a support is not written. I still think it’s kinda funny, but it confused a lot of people.
- Added an enemy with a key to prevent a softlock on chapter 27.
- I am still not sure what causes the automatic rout if all enemies die in chapter 27, so I’ve decided to do an inelegant solution: I’ve placed a stationary enemy really out of the way so you can safely rout the church’s forces without ending the map ahead of time.
4 Likes
1.15 released
- Removed Seth’s steel sword again.
- Restored battle music to the Valter fight in the prologue.
Incidentally, my pal Shaky Jones at Serenes has started a LP of this! Never would’ve thought this little thing would get so far as to have a screenshot LP of its own. Please go give him views. He deserves them. Probably.
3 Likes
Who’s supposed to be able to recruit Lorell? The only map convo I saw from preparations was Tana/Joshua and I’ve got 15000 gold. Honestly, a recruitment spoiler chart would be lovely in general, I’m not sure if I was supposed to be able to recruit the knight in Waterside Renvall either. Really enjoying the hack otherwise; you’re nailing the writing tone and style of FE8 in a way I very rarely see other hacks do.
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There actually is a spoiler recruitment guide. It’s included in the download haha. You must’ve missed it.
As for Lorell in chapter 9, he is not recruitable. He’s just a miniboss, kill him without remorse.
The knight is very obvious… If you have played Berwick Saga. Which I know not everyone has, but I could not resist the reference.
D'Erica's recruitment
She has to escape the map alive, and then she joins later on.
Glad you’re otherwise enjoying the writing!
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