About time I make this post.
This is Fire Emblem: Cult of Yarudr, a GBA hack I’ve been working on since 2018. Does this mean it’s near completion?
Of course not!
This is a 37 chapter hack; 28 main chapters and 9 side chapters.
Gee, it sounds like a lot when I put it that way. I guess technically, a single run will only be 36 maps at most because two side chapters are mutually exclusive for… reasons.
The cast includes 56 playable characters.
GBA can normally only handle 50 characters at one time without the buggy ASM used in Vision Quest, so the reason this one goes over the limit is because losing characters will cause special extra characters to join you, meant to keep your fractured army afloat. Yes, this is intended to be a good iron man game. Everything in this paragraph probably invoked Shadow Dragon in your mind, so let me clarify a key difference: The requirement to recruit these special characters is not to lose 90% of your army. Instead, you will get one every five deaths or so. In addition, these characters are not tied to special side chapters. They just show up and that’s it, they’re yours, so you’re not missing out on extra chapters for playing well.
About myself
I played Melee a lot, even though I didn’t know how to do a smash attack for the longest time. I most enjoyed playing as Mario, mashing down + B as Donkey Kong, and playing as the Zelda guy which the game helped me learn was named Link(Weird name but ok). Evenutally I unlocked Marth and Roy for myself, and saw that they were from “Fire Emblem” Japan Only. I also owned the Mario Kart Double Dash bonus disc which had that Fire Emblem data transfer thingy on it, but I never made the connection in my head unlike those people who owned FE7 who see Roy and “Buff Marth with an axe”.
Fast forward many years. DS exists now. My mom kept buying whatever DS games she saw because she’s cool. This resulted in what was basically a bucket full of DS cards. One time I dug through it and pulled out Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, so I played it. There was a blue guy named Marth. Gears started to turn. So once I made the connection, I was already invested. I had to experience the Marth game. Oh, and uh… Roy was also in Melee, right? He must have a game outside Japan now too!
Heh.
When I got into it, I was surprised by it’s features. Your units could die, and then… they were gone! Dead! But this means you get locked out of the game’s content! Ridiculous! In addition to this, you went from one map to the next linearly, and you don’t get to choose where you go or to go back to previous maps, you just keep advancing through the game whether you’re ready for it or not. Preposterous! That’s like an NES game! 
This all went against what I thought I knew about designing good games at the time. It’s all terrible, unfriendly to the player, and intriguing! How could such a recently released game be so archaic, so old-fashioned? And so, I kept playing. I saw this game as a challenge. You can lose your units forever, won’t I run out eventually? Weapons would break after enough uses, and gold was definitely limited. Would I be able to manage?
I simply had never encountered a game like this. And I really liked it. Just the concept that you could screw yourself if you play badly in a game released at this date was very appealing to me. It was different, and unique.
After Shadow Dragon I tried Awakening, which kind of went against everything I just said was so great about Shadow Dragon. Good thing I played FE11 first or I would not like this series. By now I’ve played all of them except for 1, 3, and 12. Yes, the Shadow Dragon fan hasn’t played any other Archanea games.
So that should give you a sense of where my design sense comes from. I like losing units not being a reset, but a small penalty. I like item management and using the right weapons at the right time. I like customizing units and class changing. I don’t like avatar pandering and marriage(by extension, I now hate seeing the letter S 
).
Plot Primer
In the northern mountain range, a small but capable company of mercenaries investigates the old, abandoned Oga Temple. When they discover suspicious activity occurring, battle ensues, culminating in the reveal of an unknown and dangerous force that separates the unfortunate mercenaries. Their morale shattered, they travel south to the castle town of Cedlune to regroup and plan their next move.
Meanwhile, the King of Cedlune makes a grim decision; to execute his only son, Prince Hollan. What purpose could such a ludicrous action serve? General Jark, right hand to the King, resolves to preserve the Prince’s life and help him escape the kingdom. In doing so, he defies the King’s orders and is soon beset by the realm’s knights. Framed as a simple kidnapping, the General faces opposition at every turn…
Features
- Weapon triangle is just +10/-10 hit, doesn’t affect might so damage calcs are quick and easy
- Unique minimug box
- Canto after attacking, but not after anything else
- Capture enemies and take their stuff
- Trading is a free action
- Staff animations are always map-only
- Healing staves are less effective, so higher rank staves are more important
- Static resistance stats
- Unique new weapons
- Revamped promotion items and class trees (using boots, of course)
- A few class skills on a few classes
- Since capture exists, thieves can steal unequipped weapons too
- Some chests have randomized loot
- Emphasis on building weapon ranks
- Tons of new music, every map has it’s own music and none of the map themes are from Fire Emblem
- Funny joke weapons
Portrait Art
I wrote this section for later, as it doesn’t really apply right now since there’s no public release. You can ignore it for now.
You’ll notice that the portraits are quite modest. I’m no portrait artist, and it’s not something I enjoy nor do I want to put the time in to improve at it. So if you like the game(when it’s actually publicly available to play) and you’re good at doing portraits, you can help if you want to.
Credits
ANIMATIONS
Squire - Team SALVAGED(F Cavalier)
Commander - St jack(F Master Knight)
Cavalier - Team SALVAGED
M Paladin - Team SALVAGED
F Paladin - Leo_link, flasuban, Team SALVAGED
Knight - Team SALVAGED
General(Bow) - TBA
Great Knight - Nuramon(Gold Knight)
Thief - DerTheVaporeon
Mercenary - Team SALVAGED
M Hero - Nuramon
F Hero - flasuban, Nuramon
M Swordmaster - Eldritch Abomination
F Swordmaster - Russell Clark
Archer - DerTheVaporeon
M Sniper - Nuramon, Swain, Temp
F Sniper - Wan, Nuramon, Swain, Temp
Ranger - Leo_link
M Soldier - Alusq
F Soldier - Maiser6, Alusq
M Halberdier - TBA
F Halberdier - Black Mage
Spartan - Vilkalizer, Pikmin1211
Dracoknight(Axe) - TBA
Mage Knight(Sword) - Aruka, Kenpuhu
Dark Knight - DerTheVaporeon, Jj09
Dark Flier - TBA, shadowofchaos, Sme, Shtick
Fighter - Leo_link
Warrior(Repal) - Pushwall
Pirate - DerTheVaporeon
Berserker - DerTheVaporeon, Aruka, Kenpuhu
Buccaneer - Greentea, DerTheVaporeon, BwdYeti, Raspberry(Dart Berserker)
Wight - Teraspark, Wan
Swordmaster Alt - Greentea, RobertFPY, Itranc(Karel)
Paragon Knight - Kenpuhu, Aruka(Grand Paladin)
Dracosniper - Nuramon(Armored Wyvern Lord)
War Carriage - Spud(Merlinus)
Cursed Sword - DerTheVaporeon, Team SALVAGED
Great General - Huichelaar(Zephiel Generic)
MAP SPRITES
Squire - flasuban(F Cavalier SALVAGED Alt)
Great Lord - Jeorge Reds
Cavalier - Team SALVAGED
M Paladin - Pikmin1211
F Paladin - RobertFPY
Knight - Team SALVAGED
Great Knight - Pikmin1211, DerTheVaporeon(Gold Knight)
Hero - Nuramon
Archer - DerTheVaporeon
F Ranger - flasuban
Soldier - flasuban
F Halberdier - blood, Dei, dondon151
Spartan - DerTheVaporeon
Dark Flier - L95
Fighter - Alusq
Pirate - DerTheVaporeon
Falcoknight - Blademaster
Seraph Knight - flasuban(Falcoknight Revision)
Paragon Knight - HyperGammaSpaces(Grand Paladin)
Cursed Sword - DerTheVaporeon
Cursed Shield - Nuramon(General)
ITEM ICONS
Emblem Blade - beansy(Binding Blade)
PATCHES
Mkol--------------------------------------------------
Droppable Item Marker
7743--------------------------------------------------
Unsigned Hit Rate
Fix CG Fade Glitch
Dynamically Change The Resire Palette
Change Battle BGM By Chapter
Continue Battle BGM Between Map and Combat
AddEvent: Get Unit Status
AddEvent: Set Unit Status
Add Event: Lose Item
Add Event: SilentGiveItem
Use HandAxs Motion As Generic Motion For Throwing Axes
Call The Support Relation Screen With The L Button From The Status Screen
Define Multiple Prohibits The Crit By Item
Change Image In Upper Right Of The Preparations
Simple Setting Of Sacred Weapons 2
Accelerate Recovery Motion
Change Lv Bonus Value To Be Given To The Enemy’s Promoted At Hard-Mode Difficulty
Item ID For Which You Can Get Money By Drop
Prevent Freeze For Camera Event 0x26
Prevent Freeze For Unit State Event 0x34
Prevent Freeze For Event 0x3B
Fix PlaySoundStepByClass HardCode
Fix Display Glitch Where Save Slots When Play Time Of Over 100 Hours
Nosferatu Bug Fix(Resire)
Remove a And an From Got Item Popup
Support Conversations Room Unlock
Sound Room 100% Unlocked
7743/Huichelaar---------------------------------------
Custom HandAxs
7743/circleseverywhere--------------------------------
Convert Chapter Titles To Text Ver2
circleseverywhere-------------------------------------
CSA Creator For FE8U Ver2
Map Danger Zone
Drumfix
Toggle New Game Music On/Off
Toggle Health & Safety Warning
Toggle New Game Intro Cutscene
Toggle New Game Text
Eclipse Damage (1)
Tequila-----------------------------------------------
FE8-Battle Stats With Anims Off
Attack And Capture Enemies With Reduced Speed Like FE5
Rogue Robbery
Add Event: Set Unit State Conditions
Fix lz77decompress
Show Heal Amount
Modify S-Rank Limits
circleseverywhere/Tequila-----------------------------
HPBars With Warnings
Agro/Brendor------------------------------------------
16 Tracks 12 Sounds
Brendor-----------------------------------------------
Remove Enemy Control Glitch
Monster Weapon Display Fix
laqieer-----------------------------------------------
Berserk Unit Battle Animation
aera--------------------------------------------------
Boss Animation ON
Dance Animation Off
Limitless Trading
ngmansion---------------------------------------------
Set Preparation BGM By Chapter
Kaito-------------------------------------------------
Add Event Condition: Item Check
Stan--------------------------------------------------
ExModularSave
Skip World Map Fix
Fix CAM1/CAMERA2 Going Out Of Bounds
Fix Proc Names Not Being Cleared
Change Formula Of Automatic Growth Auto Level Of Enemy
Toggle Difficulty Select Skip
UnitActionRework
Hextator----------------------------------------------
01command Hack
48command Hack
Anti-Huffman
HyperGammaSpaces--------------------------------------
FillAIDangerMap Efficiency Fix
Don’t Draw Portrait On Item Select menu If Unit Is Generic
Snakey1-----------------------------------------------
Fix Dodge To Front Glitch
ipatix------------------------------------------------
Improved Sound Mixer
Sme---------------------------------------------------
Magic Sword Rework
NosResire
Change Duration Of Bad Status Effects
Gryz--------------------------------------------------
Enable Faster Movement By Holding A
Vennobennu--------------------------------------------
Adjust Mode Coefficient Experience Gain
Autocursor Fix
ZaneAvernathy-----------------------------------------
ModularMinimugBox
Scraiza-----------------------------------------------
NarrowFont
Pikmin1211--------------------------------------------
Remove Fog From Background Of The Save Menu
Zeta--------------------------------------------------
Leadership Skillsystems Version
Leadership Param Skillsystems Version
Vesly-------------------------------------------------
Fixed Glitch: Capture Target Glitch
Alusq-------------------------------------------------
SOUND NIMAP2
kao---------------------------------------------------
Melee/Ranged Different - Spell Loader
Leonarth----------------------------------------------
Disable Stat Screen Platform
GratedShtick------------------------------------------
DSFE STYLE AVOID Do NOT Double The Speed For Avoid Rate Calculation
Magrika is Now Canon----------------------------------
AI: Prevent Healer Mistarget
Fati--------------------------------------------------
Skip:Game Opening Demo
MintX
Thracia Rescue Trading AKA Infinite Give And Take
Discord
Come hang out if you’re cool, we can talk about the project and stuff.
Scuba's Boot Emporium
Download???
Soon… SOON!
Is that my name in the credits??? You love to see it.
