I’m not really interested in rebalancing the game, no. Character/Class balance really isn’t too important in the grand scheme of things, at least in my opinion. I care more about balance between the Player and Enemy units. Most player units can’t take too many hits, but neither can the enemy. As long as this is true, players should stay engaged throughout the game as the line between units living and dying is thin.
Every character has been changed in some way (Bases, Growths, Weapon Ranks, etc.), though they still keep their standard “Archetype” from FE11. So characters like Linde or Est will still start out relatively low level for the point in the game that they join, but grow into good (or at least competent) units. Another big change is how reclassing works. Some characters have more limited class options (Gordin, Wrys, Matthis, etc.) while others get access to new classes (Like General Jagen or Hero Minerva).
I can’t add any more skills to the hack in its current form because the Skills System patch in FEBuilder conflicts with the reclassing patch I used. There is a way to get around this, but it would require redoing the hack from base FE8 and porting over assets. Like I said I might eventually do this, but that potential version wouldn’t be available for at least a year. Also there’s no guarantee I’ll even bother to make a brand new patch when I could be working on other projects instead. But if I do, I can add a variety of skills that increase unit variety without making the game feel too cluttered.
I was mainly going to talk about like classes, giving some character’s new weapon proficiencies and altering the base stats of various characters instead of using the FE11 base stats for everyone. Though it seems you already did the latter.
Like I was thinking of adding the Cavalier and Armored variant classes might make characters seem less redundant, such as Axe Cavalier Vyland, Sword Macellan, ETC.
Also Roshea in the soldier class is an idea I like and he certainly has the tanky stats for the soldier class. Do you have any opinion on reclassing any of the bosses for variety’s sake?
I feel that the large overlap between classes is fine, even if it seems redundant. Much like in FE1, if either Abel or Cain die you can always rely on the later cavaliers even if they’re weaker. Adding new classes like an Axe Cav or Sword Knight wouldn’t really work anyways since their promoted forms don’t use these weapons, so I would need to create a brand new set of promoted units. But the main difference between classes isn’t supposed to be weapon types, it’s supposed to be stats/niches. This affects how characters can function outside of their primary classes.
For example, Bord has a high axe rank which limits him to Warrior/Hero/Dracoknight. He can still reclass into something like a Paladin, but he wouldn’t have access to important weapons like Armorslayers without investment. If he suddenly had the ability to be an Axe Paladin, he could simply use Hammers to make up for that weakness which defeats the point of varied classes. Suddenly the niche of Armorslayer using Paladins, such as Midia or a reclassed Ogma, is not as important. Limited class selection with unlimited reclassing plays to unit’s strengths in my opinion, but trying to add more variety might actually create units that feel too similar even if they’re in technically different classes.
Well I wasn’t thinking a character’s reclass set would have access to every variant of Cavalier/Knight, but I understand what you mean about it being too much work.
Given you’re using dialogue from the original NES translation, could you add back Sword Armored Knights and Generals? That way, dialogue from the original fan translation, like Emereus’s “taste my Silver Sword” taunt would fit? You could also bring back many original Armored Sword enemies cut in the remakes.
Also it’d give add more use to Armored Knights and Generals as a tradeoff for their low MOW and Sword Armored Knight/Sword General sprites already exist in the GBA style. Finally it’d help Marth’s rapier get more usage against enemy units if it wasn’t always at a WT disadvantage.
I assume it wouldn’t be hard to add new animations given you already added the bow animation?
Dracoknight/Wyvern Knight also seems OP with a critical boost, but that might be intentional.
PS: The abbreviation, FE8U, means an un-patched rom for Sacred Stones, correct? I assume any region will do?
I believe that Emereus’ dialogue was already changed to say “Silver Lance” instead.
Giving enemy Knights and Generals access to swords would help some effective weaponry like the Rapier and Armorslayer deal more damage, but this would also lessen the primary Hammer niche of axe users. Plus I feel that I added enough enemy variety in maps to the point where sword-armors wouldn’t impact things too much. The animation isn’t the problem, it’s just that such a change wouldn’t dramatically alter the gameplay in a meaningful way.
Dracoknights, such as Minerva, don’t actually have a crit boost. Wyvern Knights are a part of the “Critical Force” reclassing set along with Swordmasters, Berserkers, and Snipers to add some variety to that reclassing pool. It’s locked to characters like Navarre and Jeorge to let them become fliers if you really need that type of utility.
Anways, just like GhostCreator said, you have to patch it to the US version.
In case you don’t know, the only way to defeat Gharnef is with the Starlight tome. You can only get it in Chapter 22 if you give up the Lightsphere and Starsphere at the northeast village. But if you didn’t do that or don’t have any strong mages, you’ll have to avoid him and seize the throne.
The Barrier Staff and Pure Water can help you survive, but your best chance might be to use the Warp Staff or surround Gharnef so he can’t move. Hopefully this helps!
A new update, hooray! Version 2.2 includes a couple of miscellaneous gameplay tweaks and bug fixes, such as fixing an error in the arena that caused the game to crash. Apart from that, there’s also a new patch for reverse recruitment! It’s not extensively tested, but nothing should be broken (except for your units).
Hi, I tried to play Fe1 but I didn’t like the graphics of the original game and the remake on ds, so thank you very much for your demake, I had a lot of fun finishing it and without any bugs. Do you plan to do the same for Fe3/12 as well?
I’m glad you enjoyed it! I had thought about doing something similar for FE12, but decided to just focus on smaller projects that weren’t remakes/demakes.
Yeah, that applies to every chapter. They all get removed after you start the map anyway, so it doesn’t affect much. The only reason I didn’t change the event was because it felt somewhat convenient to know that the Reclasser is either in Marth’s inventory or the convoy when you come back to the game after a break, that way you won’t have to search through everyone’s inventory for it.
Thanks for the response. I really like the balancing of this hack’s Hard Mode btw, it’s my favorite Hard Mode to play in a long time. Love the changes to certain units and maps so far as well. (About to start Chapter 6!)
If you reclass to a class with higher HP, you start the map without full HP. Idk if that is something that can be fixed, but it is something I noticed.
Moreover, if you reclass a unit multiple times, they keep the weapon ranks from every class you put them into, at least in the unit menu - so, for example, you can have a Sniper with D rank swords, lances, and axes. However, those extra D ranks are not functional - they do not actually allow the unit to use weapons not available to their class. I haven’t checked if the extra weapon rank display fixes itself after a battle begins.
Yeah the HP thing is just carried over from vanilla when units promote. They’ll go to full HP if you save on the preps screen and reset, although the extra staff EXP could help if you need it.
The constantly visible weapon ranks only exist for convenience, not function. Classes are locked to certain weapons as stated in their unit descriptions, but all weapon ranks still show up in case you want to know what weapons a unit could use in other classes. That way you know that a character like Roger still has C rank Lances even if you reclassed him into something like a horseman.
The Longbow+ can only be used by Archers (NOT Snipers). Is that intentional? Note that the regular Longbow CAN be used by Snipers; this restriction only seems to affect the “forged” variant.
