As for the bosses… Caellach was actually kind of underwhelming. I feel like he’d benefit from like 3-4 more points of speed and/or skill. And maybe give him a swordreaver or swordslayer so that he doesn’t get mangled by any decent sword wielder.
Summary
Fought him with Joshua (A support with Natasha) and Ismaire, and he only landed like 1 hit out of 8. He was absolutely no threat to either of them. Still a great storyline moment though.
Valter on the other hand was a beast- truly the threat story was building him up to be.
Eeey, another Joshua-Natasha support fan! I think it’s one of the better support lines in the entire game, both mechanically and narratively (not 'cause it’s super deep, they’re just both enjoyable characters and it’s kinda cute). I’m not usually one to ‘ship’ characters in media, I’m usually on the ‘this is too cheesy’ or ‘these writers don’t understand human emotion’ boat, but then I play FE and start pairing characters up like nobody’s business.
All that to say, you picked the right support line.
It’s not about effectiveness. He’s talking about the music. Sacred strength is the music which plays when Ephraim or Eirika uses their respective sacred weapons. He believes that all the sacred weapons should have the same music because it fits the name of the soundtrack.
Perhaps I’ll give Caellach some sort of buff. I didn’t want to make him so powerful because he doesn’t move from the fort, but maybe I left him a bit too underpowered.
I’m afraid not.
Summarizing
On the 21x twist… Yeah, me being evil is nothing new, is it.
I actually had planned the entire exchange between Eirika and Ephraim in Orson’s chambers from the beginning. In the original, the scene ends when Ephraim says Orson was “happy.” That always struck me as pretty… uh, interesting. He calls that happiness? I had fully intended to have Eirika call him out on it.
And as it turned out, it was also the perfect place for her to let go of her anger. Not with the satisfaction of having her revenge finally attained, but as she realizes that she’s in exactly the same position as her bitter enemy.
Oh! I actually tried to do that, but the weapon and character battle theme patches were incompatible with some I’d already installed, so I was unable to do it. Ah, well.
You know the stuff
I actually considered killing Ephraim off there. But I figured people already would hate me enough for Seth haha. Still probably went further than most would’ve dared. But I needed a way to spice things up and to set up the new lategame chapters.
I’ll admit, when it first happened I was fully expecting that to be the end of Ephraim. Though to be honest, if there was any point in the story for Ephraim to get killed off, that would be the most fitting place to have it- him dying making one last attempt to save/stop his old friend.
Now to solve the mystery of who that big doggo is.
And figure out if Lyon actually has as much control over his body/ the Demon King as he thinks he does…
Haha, after Seth, I cannot blame you for thinking I’d do Ephraim in as well. But at this point it would only have been shock value. I got a lot of milleage out of Seth’s death, but with Ephraim I would only have written myself into a corner. So I decided to instead use it to give the white hound more stuff to do - and humble Badass Grado Conquerer Eph a little while at it.
Just made it to Chapter 12, and while I feel good about Erika’s army, I’m starting to really feel the difficulty spike on Ephraims route. The mission with Gheb was an absolute slog and the Duessell mission is kind of the same. Feels like that army is underpowered and I’ve got to tiptoe through the map because everyone is in danger of getting smoked on enemy phase. Those archers behind the walls were just nasty; didn’t really have anyone who could reliably kill them in one round.
Feels like Ephraim got a lot of jobbers and pre-promotes with mediocre stats. Why does my thief have 9 speed with meager growth? Cant expect her to steal very well like that. Her combat is pretty awful too; she gets doubled by anything holding a sword and can’t even stand toe to toe with axe users without some luck.
Amelia’s prf and her bonus for taking out Gheb are extremely welcome. Unfortunately Ramon is a complete liability, considering he’s six times crowned champion of the spear . Had to hide him behind Mia to keep him alive. Maybe boost his base speed just a little so he can at least take out sword users? Hes footlocked and spear locked… and he can’t even win battles when he has triangle advantage.
D’Erica is another unit I really want to like and use but zero Res and 15% growth is pretty harsh on a unit that already has no hope of keeping up and gets doubled constantly. I wonder if she can use a bow. Need to check that haha.
Do you recommend/intend the player to promote early? I’ve got tons of master seals but even my favorite units aren’t close to Lv 20 on Erika’s route.
On the bright side I’m flush with cash again so there’s that .
If I can survive ten turns in this Duessell map I might just burn some master seals and see if that helps. Not gonna lie, it’s a struggle right now.
Sorry if this sounds like complaining. The hack is really fun and I’m enjoying the story a lot!
Honestly, the scene of Eirika rebutting Ephraim about Orson being ‘happy’ and how it was a tragedy might’ve been my favorite scene in the whole game so far. That and Seth sacrificing himself for Eirika in ch 8 have been my two favorite moments.
You make some fair points. Since I got to have some fun with a full OC group, I figured I’d experiment and do some wild things with my units, but I guess it didn’t translate into a very foolproof group haha. Syrene doesn’t work that well as a Jeigan, and a lot of Ephraim’s group are big growth units that start off pretty bad.
Except Albertus. Albertus is just kinda sad lol, which is why I threw him a bone later. You’ll see what I mean, hopefully. Perhaps I should buff his bases a bit, though. He’s the only person in Eph’s team who should be able to tank at base, but he might not be that good at it.
As for Ramón… well, you might’ve noticed, but he’s kind of a meme. Maybe I should make him the 9 man instead of the 7 man. I like the joke of having his bases be hilariously symetrical except for his outrageously high skill, but you’re right that the guy struggles a bit too much.
If you want a suggestion, I think insta-promoting Aristobulus with the seal he comes with turns him into Ephraim’s true Jeigan, dealing solid damage with his great base stats. You’ll have to make do for tanking until Duessel arrives.
Summary
Holy crap that’s one helluva Champion of the Spear (six times crowned). D’Erica’s about right, her growths are insane, but that Ramón’s amazing. Wahaha!
Summary
Glad you liked it so much. I enjoyed writing it very much, myself!
Thanks for the ideas! I… hadn’t noticed the 7 thing until you said it . I won’t give up on Albertus. Ramon is on thin ice though. One more lousy level and he’s getting benched lol.
So far my favorite new unit is far and away SKREEEEEEE!! He’s a very good boy.
I’m not getting the Ismaire rescue objective on Scorched Sand. Maybe I’m missing something, but she can only be rescued. No one can talk to her (even if the status screen says they should), and no one can use staffs on her or anything.
This has got to be one of the best FE8 Rom Hack i have ever played this is awesome! Even more better than the vanilla based game that this is based on since the story is the same but different events that never happen in the vanilla based game. But…one sad thing about this is
Spoilers
the loss of Seth i mean, when i saw this happen in my playthrough this game just…hit me so so good. It reminds me of the loss of Scarlet in Fire Emblem Fates who was one of the best units in the whole game and i hate it when they kill off the best people to play on your side in the game. Even Eirika can’t stop making the sad face cause to me it felt like she really does care for him deep down inside her. But does her sad face stay like this? Cause to me i kinda don’t like it to be honest with you and i was wondering if she goes back to her normal cheery happy face?
You know what I don’t miss playing this hack? Fog. Fog is trash. So are torches and torch staves. It’s so much nicer to play without all of that.
Summary
Just hit chapter 20. I looked at the map and saw stealable boots on a unit with 14 speed. My Lisollette has TEN speed at level 12 . I had to promote her to assassin to get the +4 speed bonus (and I saw she gets another speed bonus from a conversation with Valent). So I should have enough to steal some things finally until I get Rennac.
I think Lisolette could stand to have her base speed get bumped a little. Her growth is 45% and her base is 9 (I think, maybe 8) so she needs a few lucky levels just to be able to steal anything. That is made harder by the fact that her combat is very poor initially and she can’t enemy phase at all. I missed a red gem and an energy ring in Chapter 18 because her speed was too low and I didn’t want to sacrifice a speedwing on a unit I probably am not gonna use once the parties merge. FWIW I also gave her a slim sword for +2 speed but that unfortunately doesn’t appear to factor into the steal calculation.
Pierce on Snipers! Thank you . Should have been like that in the base game.
Assassin getting mv+1 is outstanding and finally makes the case for that class over rogue (especially since both can steal). Vanilla assassin was unfortunately worthless.
And god giliam
Overall I ended the hack and its over all the best story rework of fe8 that we have for now (and iam ending here becuse my english is bad)
. Had to hide him behind Mia to keep him alive. Maybe boost his base speed just a little so he can at least take out sword users? Hes footlocked and spear locked… and he can’t even win battles when he has triangle advantage.
.
. I won’t give up on Albertus. Ramon is on thin ice though. One more lousy level and he’s getting benched lol.
. I had to promote her to assassin to get the +4 speed bonus (and I saw she gets another speed bonus from a conversation with Valent). So I should have enough to steal some things finally until I get Rennac.
. Should have been like that in the base game.
