[FE8] [WIP] The Cursed Canto v0.4

[hukurowl]

Fire Emblem - The Cursed Canto.zip

An arts festival in a random backwoods fiefdom is crashed by a horde of undead! Now it’s up to a minor Lord and her thespian friends to Rally the survivors, defend their home, rob from the rich, give to the poor, uncover an ancient magical secret, and expose the royal conspiracy behind it all.

Hi there, this is my first attempt at a romhack after playing (and loving) a few of 'em and lurking around the community for a while. I was surprised how hard the hyperfixation hit me once I started experimenting with FEBuilder and decided to commit to throwing together what I hope will be a tight, 10-chapter experience that is simple yet functional, enjoyable, and unique.

Core Features:
-Escape Maps
–Get chased by zombies!
-Maps with alternative win conditions
-Shove
-Canto+ on promoted cavalry
-Reworked Bard & Dancer classes that Rally instead of Refresh, can equip weapons, and get promote options
-Hybrid Str/Mag units
-Monster allies
-Halberdier
-Wind magic
-Unique split promote paths for every character
–No recruitable cavalry units, but every character has one mounted promote option
-Extra skills through leveling

v1.0 Goals:
-10 full chapters with medium-to-large size maps
-20 total characters
-full Support conversations
-provide a moderate challenge level without feeling unfair or excessive

Currently, there are 5 maps that I have fully playtested and consider mostly complete, and the rom is playable through Chapter 7. The writing is very barebones at the moment, but I think I have enough scenes in there to get the general idea across, and I’ve included a plot outline in the download in case anyone’s curious or needs help following along. Writing is not my strong suit, and I expect it to be the last part of this project that I finish, but I’d like to tell a simple and fun story that “feels” like it fits in with the GBA era of FE games and makes for an enjoyable campaign, and I think it’s within my capabilities to do so.
Currently, some characters start with Support ranks with each other, but no Support Conversations are written yet and half the cast doesn’t have working Supports yet.

To be honest, I don’t expect this to get a lot of attention, and I’m also possibly posting this too early in the creative process. I’m just hoping to share a little personal project I’ve been working on to keep myself sane this year, and maybe solicit some general advice from the more knowledgeable folks around here. I’ve reached a pretty good pace working on this in my spare time, and hope to hit 1.0 by the end of the year, so ideally more polished versions will be quick to follow this initial post.
The download folder includes a .txt file with credits to all the assets I’ve used from the Repository. I think I’m generally following the community guidelines correctly, but if anything looks wrong, please let me know. I’m here to learn and experiment, not steal assets or pretend something is mine when it isn’t. Any custom code/UI is not mine, it’s all via the free patches available in FEBuilder.
Massive thanks in general to everyone involved in maintaining the Repository, it’s a beautiful community resource that I have so much respect for. And thanks for having a look at my hack!

Changelog

0.43
-added Battle Event to end of Chapter 2
-more text
-adjusted character Skills

0.42
-adjusted enemy spawns in Chapter 5
-minor text fixes
-added missing classes to Effective tables for monster-slaying weapons

0.41
-increased Soldier class and Tristan’s base Def by 1 each
-Gallavan’s inventory is now sent to the Supply at the end of Chapter 2
-minor text additions
-added Attack Village AI to skeleton reinforcements in Chapter 2
-raised Gallavan’s base stats & reduced his growths to 0
-adjusted enemy spawns in Chapter 4

Credits

Custom Portraits:

Dorothy(Myrmidon) - Tom776
Hanon, Echidna(v2), Alen(Femv2) - RedBean
Niime(FE8 colors, braid) - Plant_Academy
Patty - Melia
Village Hunter - Enthusiasm
Teodor(Morph) - Ghostblade
Messanger(FE6-7) - UltraFenix
Sigurne(Hands) - UltraFenix, Garytop, Mewiyev
Cath as Rickard - Wasdye
Pirate Lady(v1) - Cygnus
Erk(Rebecca) - CavalryUnits
Grom Hellscream - Garytop

Custom Map Sprites:

Halberdier - Dei, dondon151
Bow Lord - ArcaneEli
Great Lord - StreetHero

Custom Battle Animations:

Lynbecca - Jeorge_Reds
Elffin Bard - UltraFenix
Elffin Sonneteer - Marlon0024
Dancer variant - Circleseverywhere, Sirknite31
Halberdier - TheBlindArcher, Spud, MeatofJustice, Rexacuse, tatata
Pirate female variant - Nuramon, MarioKirby, Wan, Itranc, Alice
Warrior female variant - Temp, helmfried
Ranger variant - Skitty, Feaw, SaintRubenio, tatata

FEBuilder Patch Credits

Patch Name:16_tracks_12_sounds @FE8UFE8U
Author / Source:16 Tracks/12 Sounds Fix (credit Agro/Brendor) https://feuniverse.us/t/fe7-fe8-16-tracks-12-sounds-patch/895
Patch Name:256 Color Title Background 20180610(Installe@FE8U) @FE8U
Author / Source:Leonarth [FE8] (and maybe FE7) Leonarth's ASM thingies - #10 by Leonarth
Patch Name:256 Color Title Background 20180611 (Inst@FE8Uller) @FE8U
Author / Source:Leonarth [FE8] (and maybe FE7) Leonarth's ASM thingies - #10 by Leonarth
Patch Name:AoE Area of Effect(@FE8Unstaller) @FE8U
Author / Source:Vesly Vesly's ASM / C - #19 by Vesly
Patch Name:AutoGenLeftOAM Reduce capacity by dynamically creating L@FE8UftToRightOAM. @FE8U
Author / Source:7743
Patch Name:@FE8Uix CG Fade Glitch @FE8U
Author / Source:Port:7743
Patch Name:Convert Chapter Titles@FE8Uto Text_ver2(Install) @FE8U
Author / Source:circleseverywhere,7743
Patch Name:Actions After Su@FE8Uport (Contemporary Style) @FE8U
Author / Source:circleseverywhere Compatability:7743 Contemporary FE style talk and support commands - #13 by circleseverywhere
Patch Name:Actions A@FE8Uter Talk (Contemporary Style) @FE8U
Author / Source:circleseverywhere Compatability:7743 Contemporary FE style talk and support commands - #13 by circleseverywhere
Patch Name:CritCap. Fixed critca@FE8U from appearing in excess of 100% @FE8U
Author / Source:Contro Contro's Code Collection - #6 by Contro
Patch@FE8UName:Map Danger Zone (Select: Toggle) @FE8U
Author / Source:circleseverywhere
Patch Name:Draw attack effect on map anim@FE8Ution when battle animation off(Installer) @FE8U
Author / Source:Vesly Draw Sprite Animation https://feuniverse.us/t/veslys-asm/1@FE8U011/27
Patch Name:Remove Enemy Control Glitch @FE8U
Author / Source:Brendor Compatability:7743 Enemy Control Glitch Fixes
Patch Name:Display Escape menu @FE8U
Author / Source:7743
Patc@FE8U Name:Add Event: Send unit’s all items to transporter @FE8U
Author / Source:7743
Patch Name:Add Event@FE8U Simple Escape event that can be easily created 20200305 @FE8U
Author / Source:77@FE8U3 , aera
Patch Name:ExModularSave with Supply 200 ver20220401 @FE8U
Author / Source:Stan https://github.com/FireEmblemUniverse/SkillSystem_FE8/tree/master/Engine%20Hacks/ExpandedModularSave
Gamma Suppl@FE8U Expansion, Vesly
Patch Name:FE8-Battle Stats with Anims Off ver2 @FE8U
Author / Source:Vesly Vesly's ASM / C - #67 by Vesly , Tequila Teq's Minor Assembly Shenanigans - #51 by Tequila
Patch Name:A@FE8Utack and capture enemies with reduced speed like FE5(Tequila Version) @FE8U
Author / Source:Tequila https://feuniv@FE8Urse.us/t/teqs-minor-assembly-shenanigans/1655/29
Pat@FE8Uh Name:Rogue Robbery @FE8U
Author / Source:Tequila
Patch Name:01command_@FE8Uack @FE8U
Author / Source:Hextator Compatability:7743
Patch Name:48com@FE8Uand_hack @FE8U
Author / Source:Hextator Compatability:7743
Patch Name:Anti-Huffman @FE8U
Author@FE8U/ Source:Hextator Compatability:7743
Patch Name:FillAIDangerMap Efficiency Fix 20220712 @FE8U
Author / Source:7743 / Orignal: HyperGammaSpa@FE8Ues Hypergammaspaces' assorted ASM - #8 by HyperGammaSpaces
Patch Name:fix_lz77decompres@FE8U @FE8U
Author / Source:Tequila
Patch Name:Use @FE8UandAxs motion as generic motion for throwing axes @FE8U
Author / Source:7743
Patch Name:m4a hq mixer @FE8U
Author / Source:@FE8Upatix GitHub - ipatix/gba-hq-mixer: This repository contains multiple versions of my so called "HQ mixer" for GBA games which use the m4a/mp2k sound driver. · GitHub , FE8U porting 7743
Patch Name:Magic Sword Rework(Installer) @FE8U
Author / Source:Sme https://feunive@FE8Use.us/t/smes-asm-and-miscellany/4445
Patch Name:ModularMinimugBox: VisionQuest Style with ItemList(Installer) @FE8U
Author / Source:Pandan,Scraiza, ZaneAvernathy https://feuniverse.us/t@FE8Ufe8-modular-minimug-box-2018-its-here/4235 (MIT License)
Patch Name:Simple setting of Sacred Weapons 2(Installer) @FE8U
Author / Source:7743
Patch Name:Skill SkillSystems 20220703 @FE8U
Author / Source:Credits: Circleseverywhere, Monkeybard & Black Mage for most of the skill icons; Blaze for Stances skill icons, Tequila, Rossendale, StanH, Leonarth, Teraspark, sd9k, Kao, blademaster, Snakey1 for skills, Primefusion for the test map

[Spring]

Do not upload it as a .gba file, instead as a ups patch

I’ll go over the demo once you do, and provide some feedback

The Rules

The Golden Principle: Treat one another with respect. Do not distribute ROMs or other illegal or plagiarized content through the chat. No posting or linking to: suggestive content, pornography, hentai, or other inappropriate materials. No slurs or other expressions of bigotry. This includes, but is not limited to, racial, religious, gendered, sexual, homophobic, and/or transphobic slurs. No flaming, baiting, or bullying. This applies regardless of whether a specific member of the community is …

As rule 1 says, no roms

[hukurowl]

D’oh, sorry! Fixed.

[Spring]

Alright, I reached ch3

First up, the units’ base stats and growths feel extreme, the growths too high and bases too low

Sam and tristan should not have the same starting defense

At ch1, it feels bad to use my rare weapons(light brand and tristan’s inv)

Esme having rally, swords and staves feel like too many options, stretching her very thin, feels like she might not work as any of her roles, apart from rally bot

I would really have appreciated an iron sword or two on ch2’s inn, specifically for Gallavan and sam

It’s a bit deflating to have Gallavan die on the end of ch2, as I actually gave him the boss kill

I feel like his growths make him too shiny of a unit

On that note, also make it so his inv is sent to convoy after death, some players may put important items on him

Just saying, this is my own opinion

You may have actually wanted to create, say, a hack with deflated starting stats but high growths as a theme, in which case that note of mine is useless

Thank you for making it, and I’ll play more tomorrow

[hukurowl]

Thanks so much for the feedback! “Low bases, high growths” is absolutely what I’m going for. I wanted those first two chapters to feel hectic and desperate, and the lack of weapon availability is supposed to add to that, with the intention that players might have to lean on Gallavan and the Rally skills to survive, and won’t get out of it with as many rare weapons as they’d like, though I understand that might be a bit mean and bait-ey considering the unavoidable death.
As I add more dialogue, I’m hoping to make his death flags really obvious to the player so they can intuit that it’s a bad idea to feed him too much XP, and his excessive bases and growths are supposed to help sell that. Maybe I’ll increase his bases a little more and drop his growths down to 0 instead, that way he won’t look worth investing in.
I agree with your suggestion to transfer his items on death though, that would help it not feel so bad.
Out of curiosity, do you know how to send a unit’s current inventory to the supply in FEBuilder? I haven’t been able to find a command for it in the event editor.

[hukurowl]

I do expect to be tweaking all the stats more over time though; dial back the growths if they turn out to be too extreme and adjust some of the bases (I actually never noticed Thief had a higher base Def than Soldier, that’s weird)

[knabepicer]

There’s a patch that adds such a command, it’s not available out of the box.

[hukurowl]

Found it, thanks! File’s been updated.

[Augenis]

Having finished the first two chapters, Tristan is wow. Bright Lance + Provoke when almost all your enemies are undead allows him to accumulate an enormous amount of easy kills, and he grew quite well for me, so he’ll probably be the dominant unit for me later as well. Skillsys Provoke is really really strong.

What happened at the end of ch2? Why does Gallavan just randomly die with no fanfare?

[hukurowl]

He stops to fight the Lv. 10 Wight + two dogs chasing you through those missions and dies to give the rest of the gang a chance to escape, I just haven’t written the scene yet

[hukurowl]

Just made another update, the ending of Chapter 2 should make a lot more sense now.

[Spring]

Okay, so I’m a bit stuck on ch3

the fog of war combined with the sheer amount of units to the left makes me play very slowly or perish

It also just feels too big, especially because of the forests, which feels like there are too many of

Alex’s house/village doesn’t close(sprite wise) afted visiting it

Do the dancer and bard promote? Or do they level to 30? Probably should say something about that

Reggie feels way too strong, because of her base defence + speed

Why does scraps have bowfaire? I may get it later

Please say that any unit death is a game over

The breakable wall feels like a trap, honestly, because then you have to go both ways with the lord

I’ll keep playing later, just a bit busy today

edit: also, when the boss attacks, he talks to himself

Should be just one sprite of him

[hukurowl]

-I noticed the boss talking to himself in my own testing yesterday, the current file should have that fixed. I thought using “FFFF Visiting Character” would display whoever he was fighting, and have learned that is, in fact, not how that works.

-Scraps shouldn’t have Bowfaire, it’s only on the boss version of his unit and not the ally version, I just missed it. It’ll be removed in the next update.

-Same for Alex’s house, thanks for catching that. I just forgot to add Tile Changes for the small houses, I’ll add em in my next pass.

-Dancer and Bard do promote, I added that to the initial post. Currently Dancer goes to Swordmaster/Mage Knight, and Bard goes to Sage/Mage Knight. Esme should keep her Staves when promoting to Swordmaster, and I added Swords to Mage Knight so they both have a proper hybrid promote option, but I haven’t tested many of the promotes yet to make sure they work properly. Currently Mage Knight is just using Ranger’s sword animation, so I’m sure that’s gonna be jank in some way. But I should be able to fix that with some more custom animations from the Repository.

-I’ll change the Game Over back to just on Lord death, that was something I was screwing around with and forgot to switch back before uploading here, sorry.

-Thanks for the feedback on map layout and stat balance, I’m probably gonna cut the growth rates on all characters next upload, and take another look at Chapter 3’s map. I was making a lot of tweaks over the last day or two and re-uploading the file, so if you’ve got the version where Scraps is still talking to himself, you may want to download the newest version because I made some improvements to Chapters 4 & 5, mostly related to enemy spawns (and your save should carry over fine). But I’ll go back and give Chapter 3 the same treatment for my next upload. And I’ll probably tweak the layout so there aren’t quite as many trees blocking the roads. Or, maybe turn off the rain if it turns out to just be annoying people.

[hukurowl]

I’ll hold off on uploading any more changes for a few days, though. I have a busy weekend full of real-life crap coming up, and I also realize making a bunch of rapid, small changes to the file immediately after making my first upload probably wasn’t a great idea.

[Spring]

Finished ch4, feels a bit weird… why not just rout?

Then, ch5, armor gang

Feels way too much like making me use my axe units regardless if I want to

Well, axes, quinn and micah

Maybe more class diversity? The 1-2 range on everything hurts a lot, too…

[Semicolin]

So, I’m at chapter 3, and any character dying seems to cause a game over. I think. Samantha and Esme at least do. Is that going to be the case for the entire game? Because that’s honestly enough to turn me off from playing the rest of it. Although if there’s a specific reason why that has to be the case, I guess it’s not something that needs to be changed, and I might give it another shot when the writing is done and use savestates to get through.

Regardless, I’ll give feedback on the two and a half chapters I finished:

Feedback

There were a couple of spots where it felt like there were just huge blobs of enemies coming my way and the only way I could get through was to just arrange my units in a defensive formation and hope enough of them missed. I don’t know if it’s just how I played that caused this or if it’s actually the way the enemies are set up.

I really think that Gallavan should have growths, because when I saw he had 0 in every stat my immediate reaction was “okay, this guy’s gonna die at the end of the chapter.” Which…I was wrong, it was the next chapter, but I think the point still stands. I think even having just 5-10 in each growth rate would alleviate this issue.

Gallavan mentions this “fiend with his hounds” but said fiend is not visible and way far away in the fog, so his appearance didn’t hold any weight for me. Also how can he see this person 30 tiles away when he can only see like 4 in front of him, lol. I would maybe have the “fiend” be the person to start the dialogue, or play a sound effect if that’s the reason why Gallavan was alerted.

I didn’t see any reason to fight the boss of chapter 2 when you can just go around him to escape. Assuming you are intended to fight him.

Extremely minor thing that doesn’t even necessarily need to be changed, but when Micah visits the house to recruit Alex, Alex tells Micah that “we” are going to help them - as if Micah isn’t the person standing right in front of her.

Finally, I don’t know if the portraits are just placeholders or early versions at this point, but I couldn’t look at them without thinking of the characters they are palette swaps of (and in my head just referred to them as said characters). Samatha and Quinn’s are different enough that I would probably stop associating them with Cath/Erk with time. The colors on both the portraits and battle palettes seem a bit rough, though I’m not an expert on the visual side of things so I can’t really put into words why they seem off to me.