(2-15 Update: Sorry to bump this so soon, but I found a few more pesky bugs and wanted to get the fixes out ASAP. See the update post for more details - unless you’re new here, in which case read on!)
So there’s been a few mods out there that have included reclassing, but none to my knowledge that take a vanilla GBA game and add reclassing to it. I set out to do just that, using FEBuilder as my editor and the Awakening class system as my guide. I…mostly succeeded? You be the judge. Here’s a list of what you can and can’t do with this patch.
Can!:
- Use a Master Seal at Lv 10 to promote into a 2nd Tier class or reclass into one of two 1st Tier classes. You’ll start over at Lv 1 either way.
- Promote trainees directly into any of their 1st Tier options.
- Use a Master Seal at Lv 10 even when promoted to reclass into one of three 2nd Tier classes. Again, you’ll reset to Lv 1.
- Choose from between seven total classes per unit, with “unique” palettes for most of them (done in the DS style of hair color only because I’m artistically challenged).
- Collect skills from these classes, usually based on their skills in Awakening.
- Fight against units with those same skills - and a few with other surprises - in Hard Mode.
- Buy Master Seals shortly after the route split for 2500 G.
- Buy Rescue staffs shortly after the route split to more effectively (if expensively) raise healers.
- (New!) Buy Second Seals shortly before the endgame to promote or reclass at any level.
- (New!) Buy Trainer weapons shortly before the endgame to quickly raise weapon ranks.
- Level grind to
your heart’sthe stat caps’ content.
Can’t…:
- Gain or lose stat points when reclassing. This is the big one, and the main thing I’m looking for ideas on with this release. I already have a solution, but it would make reclassing a two-step process and call for about 60 clone classes, so I’m desperately hoping for a better one.
- Keep weapon ranks when losing use of a weapon. If you start with swords, then class out of them, you’ll have to start over if you class back into them. The Trainer weapons are the best fix I’ve got for this, but if you have a better one I’m all ears!
- Choose from personalized class sets for each character. Instead characters fall into one of nine class sets, listed in Additional Details below.
- Go back to 1st Tier classes once you’ve promoted. I’ve got a few ideas for this one, but they’re all pretty impractical, both for me and for players.
- Promote directly from a 1st Tier class into the fourth 2nd Tier class in each set. No ideas on this one, I’m afraid.
- Reclass as Tethys, Myrrh, or the Creature Campaign bonus units. Sorry =(
As you can see, the mod’s not exactly finished, with some important features missing. That said, it’s very much playable like this, and I still had fun building up teams in my test runs. Whether you decide to try it or not, feedback is much appreciated!
The mod currently comes in two versions. The first version, 0.7.1, includes the Second Seal, the Trainer weapons and all the latest bugfixes. The second version, 0.8.1, also restores stat gains when promoting…but there’s a catch, detailed in Known Issues. If you think the catch will bug you too much, stick with 0.7.1 instead.
Old Links Archive
Dropbox - Sacred_Stones_Reclassing_Edition_v0_8_0.ups - Simplify your life
Dropbox - Sacred_Stones_Reclassing_Edition_v0_7_0.ups - Simplify your life
Dropbox - Sacred_Stones_Reclassing_Edition_v0_6_2.ups - Simplify your life
Dropbox - Sacred_Stones_Reclassing_Edition_v0_6_1.ups - Simplify your life
Dropbox - Sacred_Stones_Reclassing_Edition_v0_6.ups - Simplify your life
Additional Details:
Class Sets
Individualized class sets might be technically possible, but the only way I know to do it is - you guessed it - clone classes. To avoid having too many of those, I made it so everyone but the Lords falls into one of seven sets total (four for men, three for women). Some classes had to be dropped as a result; Wyvern Knight is completely gone, Mage Knights are gone for men and Assassins are gone for women. I’m looking to add them back in and maybe other classes too, but how much I can do depends on how many clones I need to make to solve my other problems. Here’s the sets for now:
- Males 1: Mercenary, Myrmidon, Thief; Hero, Swordmaster, Assassin, Rogue
- Males 2: Knight, Cavalier, Wyvern Rider; General, Paladin, Wyvern Lord, Great Knight
- Males 3: Fighter, Pirate, Archer; Warrior, Berserker, Sniper, Ranger
- Males 4: Mage, Shaman, Monk (Priest for Moulder); Sage, Druid, Bishop, Summoner
- Females 1: Pegasus Knight, Myrmidon, Archer; Falcoknight, Swordmaster, Sniper, Ranger
- Females 2: Knight, Cavalier, Wyvern Rider; General, Paladin, Wyvern Lord, Great Knight
- Females 3: Mage, Cleric, Troubadour; Sage, Bishop, Valkyrie, Mage Knight
- Eirika: Lord, Pegasus Knight, Mage; Great Lord (only by using Lunar Brace), Falcoknight, Sage, Mage Knight
- Ephraim: Lord, Cavalier, Archer; Great Lord (only by using Solar Brace), Paladin, Sniper, Great Knight
Suggestions are welcome on these too! I may not be able to do them, but I’d still love to see your ideas!
Skills
The biggest change here from the Awakening system is that 1st Tier classes only have one skill. This is because most of the lousier Lv 1 skills from Awakening didn’t make it into Skillsystems. To compensate, 1st Tier classes now learn their only skill at Lv 5, even though it’s usually a Lv 10 skill. (This also helps spice up the early game, which is pretty similar to vanilla SS to be honest.) Most other changes occurred when a skill didn’t get in for some other reason, the skill was too different from its Awakening counterpart, or a class didn’t have a good equivalent in Awakening. Here’s the list:
- Eirika Lord - Lv 5 Solidarity
- Ephraim Lord - Lv 5 “Charm” (Charisma edited to +5 for each stat)
- Mercenary - Lv 5 Armsthrift
- Myrmidon - Lv 5 Vantage
- Thief - Lv 5 Locktouch
- Knight - Lv 5 Indoor Fighter
- Cavalier - Lv 5 Outdoor Fighter
- Wyvern Rider - Lv 5 Tantivy
- Fighter - Lv 5 “Zeal” (Death Blow 1 edited to +5 Crit)
- Pirate - Lv 5 Despoil
- Archer - Lv 5 Prescience
- Mage - Lv 5 Focus
- Shaman - Lv 5 Hex
- Monk - Lv 5 Patience (edited to +15 Avoid to make up for lack of Hit)
- Priest - Lv 5 Miracle
- Pegasus Knight - Lv 5 Relief
- Troubadour - Lv 5 Demoiselle
- Trainees - Lv 5 Discipline (Aptitude is bugged)
- Eirika Great Lord - Lv 5 “Ignis” (Dragon Fang), Lv 15 Rally Spectrum
- Ephraim Great Lord - Lv 5 Aether, Lv 15 Rightful King
- Hero - Lv 5 Sol, Lv 15 Axebreaker
- Swordmaster - Lv 5 Astra, Lv 15 Swordfaire
- Assassin - Lv 5 Lethality, Lv 15 Pass
- Rogue - Lv 5 Lucky Seven, Lv 15 Acrobat
- General - Lv 5 Rally Defense, Lv 15 Pavise
- Paladin - Lv 5 Rally Movement, Lv 15 Aegis
- Wyvern Lord - Lv 5 Quick Burn, Lv 15 Swordbreaker
- Great Knight - Lv 5 Luna, Lv 15 Lancefaire (moved to make room for Galeforce)
- Warrior - Lv 5 Rally Strength, Lv 15 Counter
- Berserker - Lv 5 Wrath, Lv 15 Axefaire
- Sniper - Lv 5 Insight, Lv 15 Bowfaire
- Ranger - Lv 5 Rally Skill, Lv 15 Bowbreaker
- Sage - Lv 5 Rally Magic, Lv 15 Tomefaire
- Bishop - Lv 5 Rally Luck, Lv 15 Renewal
- Druid - Lv 5 Anathema (Vengeance is bugged), Lv 15 Tomebreaker
- Summoner - Lv 5 Warding Stance (edited to +10 Res), Lv 15 “Aggressor” (Death Blow 2 edited to +10 Atk)
- Falcoknight - Lv 5 Rally Speed, Lv 15 Galeforce (included for popularity)
- Valkyrie - Lv 5 Rally Resistance, Lv 15 Bond
- Mage Knight - Lv 5 Slow Burn, Lv 15 Lifetaker
- Dancer - Lv 1 Even Rhythm, Lv 15 Inspiring Tune
- Manakete - Lv 1 Odd Rhythm, Lv 15 Skybreaker
As always, suggestions are welcome!
QoL Changes
Like a lot of FE8 mods these days, this one includes some Quality-of-Life changes. In this mod all of them came with the Skillsystems patch, which is the 20220703 variant from FEBuilder. This gives it the following upgrades:
- Str/Mag split
- HP Bars with Warnings
- Faster unit movement
- Damage numbers in battle
- Battle stats (and attack effects) with anims off
- Convoy expansion to 200
- Display Weapon Rank on levelup
- Press Select on map to see danger zone
- Press Select on status screen to see growth rates
- Different stat colors depending on growth rates
- Ballista ammo displayed in inventory
- Final hits on bosses always display crit animations
- Improved music and CG processing
- Removed Health & Safety warning
I chose not to add any more than these because I didn’t know which were considered vital and which were more contentious. So if there’s any vital ones not listed here, please let me know!
Screenshots
Known Issues
Most of the issues are detailed in the “Can’t” section above, and after some fairly thorough playtests I haven’t found many bugs I couldn’t squash. Here’s the few I have:
- When a unit first promotes to a 2nd tier class in 0.8.1, its palette will be generic in battle. For example, if Neimi becomes a Sniper, her hair will be green, not purple. This will persist until you A) reclass, or B) use the Fix Palette command the unit now has in battle. (A sloppy fix, I know…but hey, at least it doesn’t waste a turn!) This does not affect prepromotes, Great Lords or certain classes like General where you can’t see the user’s hair anyway.
- The new method of “using” the Lunar and Solar Braces is mid-battle only. This was to avoid using the Split Promotion patch, which FEBuilder warns against. You can use them no matter what level you are, which I left in because the only fix I had made you waste your turn if you were underleveled. You may also see a slight graphical glitch, but it goes away quickly enough.
- There’s a few things included with Skillsystems I didn’t use, but the only ones I actively removed were the Leadership system (because this mod’s too easy already) and the Anima Triangle (because I didn’t add any Wind tomes). Leadership is still displayed on the stats screen, though, even though no one has stars anymore. No idea how to fix this.
- The Indoor and Outdoor Fighter skills are slightly bugged in that Floor tiles are counted as being outdoors. No idea how to fix this except to restart the mod with a custom skills build, which I’d rather not do (and would cause other problems anyway).
- At one point during the Tower of Valni, I randomly learned Dragon Fang with Ross. No idea how to reproduce, no idea how to fix.
Credits
Thanks first and foremost to 7743 for FEBuilder. All hail 7743. Far and away the most comprehensive game editor I’ve used. Great stuff. Thanks also to the authors of the various patches I used, which include Skillsystems by circleseverywhere et al and the following patches that came with it:
- 01command_hack by Hextator
- 48command_hack by Hextator
- 16_tracks_12_sounds by Agro and Brendor
- AnimaTriangle by Snakey1
- AnimNumbers Damage pop-up in battle anime by Huichelaar
- AoE Area of Effect by Vesly
- Attack and capture enemies with reduced speed like FE5 by Tequila
- Battle stats with anims off by Vesly
- Critcap - Fixed critcal from appearing in excess of 100% by Contro
- Display Escape menu by 7743
- Draw attack effect on map animation when battle animation off by Vesly
- ExModularSave with Supply 200 by Stan
- FillAIDangerMap Efficiency Fix by 7743 and HyperGammaSpaces
- Fix CG Fade Glitch by 7743
- fix_lz77decompress by Tequila
- HPBars_with_warnings by circleseverywhere and Tequila
- HPBars_simple by circleseverywhere and Zane
- Leadership Skillsystems Version by Zeta
- Magic Sword Rework by Sme
- Map Danger Zone by circleseverywhere
- m4a hq mixer by ipatix
- NarrowFont by Scraiza
- Remove Enemy Control Glitch by Brendor
- Rogue Robbery by Tequila
- Stairs by Snakey1
- Switch the death Quote for each unit who is killer by 7743
- Toggle Health & Safety Warning by circleseverywhere
- UnitActionRework by Stan
In addition, thanks to the authors of the patches I installed myself:
- Anti-Huffman by Hextator
- Modern Character Growths by Venno
- 3 Promotion Branch Options by 7743
- Lose Weapon Ranks on Promotion by Venno
- Display/Hide Weapon On Promote by chap
- Define multiple classes that can discover desert treasures by 7743
- Special Event for each Item by Vesly
- Special Event for each unit by 7743
- Get/Set Unit Status by 7743
And of course, biggest thanks of all go to the developers at Nintendo. Where would we be without them.
Please give credit if streaming this mod or using it as a base for another one (though I can’t imagine anyone actually doing these things lol).
Thanks for reading!
thanks though
In case you’re still wondering, you can promote Neimi to Ranger only after promoting her to Sniper (or Falcoknight/Swordmaster). It’s a system limitation I don’t think I’ll be able to get around, unfortunately.
Here’s the new skill list: