Tbh, I chose to do the Ahribaal route second because it felt more fitting from a plot standpoint.
Still not sure which one of my save files I’m going to bring to the end… all will be revealed in due time I guess.
Spoiler
It is my personal belief there is no better final boss than a huge naked guy who wants to punch you.
Well, it’s all cool either way. I’m just glad I’ve given enough incentive for people to think on which route to go through.
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Spoilers
While I haven’t actually beaten Maximillion yet, I’m not entirely sure I like him as the final boss because he’s really not that compelling of a villain. His whole shtick seems to be “I want power because I can” to the point of going on an immature quintessence-fueled roid rage that I’m assuming would have destroyed his body anyway. While it’s not actually written into his character, I can reason that Zahhak was a lot better as a character since you can reason that his reason for killing Brauma was to emancipate humanity from draconic rule and give them a chance to forge their own destinies without an insane dragon bearing over them. I guess what I’m saying is I would have preferred it if the final boss were Brauma instead of Maximillion. In fact, it probably would have worked better considering Freesia was suppose to betray the gang at some point and “I wanted to resurrect my mother” makes for a much better motive for Freesia to hold on to the Sanguine Codex.
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Spoiler
His goals are the same as Raum’s which is making the empire great again and expanding it. And he does not see the empire having a future if Arjun is emperor, better to take that mantle himself. His ambitions of course become more grandiose as the story goes on because he sees the potential in the magic he is messing with.
I don’t know where you’re getting this from. Given her attitude, one can make the assumption she would be a villain later, but I never planned on making Freesia betray the party.
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Spoiler
That doesn’t really mean much when Raum’s reason for wanting this was also non-existent. “Unifying the continent” is a goal, not a motive. It doesn’t tell me why either of them would want such a thing. All I can infer is that Raum’s motive is him being pigeonholed into the Rudolf role and Maximillion’s is simply that he has access to the power to do so.
Chapter 23-2. It was one of the visions they saw on the way to fight Zahhak. Based on the setting of the vision this was apparently suppose to happen in chapter 25. Sure she mentions that it’s an illusion set up to deceive everyone, but that undercuts the purpose of such a scene especially when the one that follows is Zahhak killing Brauma and Freesia confirms it did actually happen. As such there’s absolutely no reason to believe the vision seen earlier isn’t something that’s going to happen later.
Spoiler
Because the empire is a shadow of its former self ever since the wisemen problem. They don’t like that the country they defended from the nomads for years began rotting from the inside. That’s the entire reason why they seized power for themselves.
That was supposed to be an ambiguous vision to make the player think maybe Freesia might turn tail later. But when the scene happens, she chooses not to. I never planned for Freesia to actually betray you.
Spoiler
I remember that as an explanation for why Raum commanded loyalty at all, but that doesn’t explain why he thinks it’s a good idea to risk allying with the Dark Sect to take over the rest of the continent. The same goes for Maximillion. If this were really their motive then they’d already achieved it simply by ruling Deimos. There’d be no reason to go beyond that.
Then that defeats the purpose of the scene especially when the accuracy of these visions was confirmed by Freesia saying that Zahhak did indeed kill Brauma. You could call it a red herring, but it’s not a very effective one when it wasn’t used to distract from anything particularly meaningful.
They saw the Dark Sect as a convenient tool to use and throw away later. They aren’t going to be satisfied with ruling the empire as it is since they want to pull the empire up and make it even better than before. I could go on but I’m getting really tired of this conversation so just think what you want.
All I wanted to clarify was Freesia was not intended to become a bad guy and you thought she was. If you think it’s bad writing, whatever, it’s on me.
Is there a page where I can see growth rates, I have a really bad lvl 8 tactician with 5 mag and 6 speed, so i need to know her growth rates to see how screwed she is.
I’m against showing growth rates. That said, I can’t stop anyone from using the tools available to have a look themselves. If you want to know though that is below the average but she’s only level 8 so it’s too early to call her screwed.
Thanks I’ll try.
Alright, I got around to finishing it. Now what else do I have to say about the remainder of this hack…
Further notes from the routesplit onward
- I love the concept of Ahribaal’s Chapter 21x. The fact that you added a dialogue that can only be triggered with Chandra and Kathe deployed makes me wonder how many other dialogues have been crammed in here that I missed… I sent Kathe into the first room because of that dialogue
also he says “did you try to cheat?” which gives me a feeling that there’s a third option to this chapter somewhere… - I put Ardoome on the peninsula in chapter 22 but didn’t get a Pursuit Ring :c
- Wait, chapter 23 wasn’t the final boss? …well the page here DID say it has 27 chapters, I guess…
- Playing as a dark druid was a lot of fun tbch.
- So Maya leaves the party and rejoins at the beginning of each chapter? Hmm… well, it’s nice that she’s available for the entire time I guess.
- Deadlords were cool. I wonder who the other deadlords would’ve been… I’m guessing Adda, Durga, Khan, Clovis, Whitney (that luck stat), Chandra, Jenna, and… the bishop, idk, Nox maybe? Funny how Max found Moloch important enough to be resurrected though. I guess he just left that good of a first impression huh.
- On that note, the final chapter was incredibly tense. Had I not killed the boss the turn I did, I definitely would’ve lost a unit or two.
- This hack marks the first time I’ve had to use the Barrier staff in GBA. Jenna just barely didn’t have enough bulk to tank Volund…
Some spoileriffic bugs
- In Ch. 21x, the enemy sniper moved on the tile and the “send your next fighter” message showed up. Enemies still spawned in the first room until I had a player unit step on it.
- Channing has no death quote. The dialogue says he just vanished though sooooo…? I can’t tell if this was purposeful, or a bug.
- The cutscene with Nox joining the group also didn’t pan the camera to where Nox and co actually were. As far as I can tell this only occurred when I killed Max on enemy phase.
- I didn’t get an ending for the three recruited units in the final chapter.
This happened to me as well.
General thoughts
So, what can I say about this hack? Well, first off, it’s definitely become one of my favorite hacks I’ve played so far. Story was solid and the majority of the player characters were enjoyable to have around. I think this hack’s greatest selling point is how many cutscenes there are that involve the non-lords. I’m still under the assumption that these just don’t trigger, or they are altered, if the necessary characters are dead. Either way, it was a nice bit of fresh air to see them getting involved in the storyline. The amount of conditionals you must’ve had to do sounds overwhelming.
Shermie was my MVP. She’s one hard-hitting little lady.
I mentioned this before, but my main thoughts from a gameplay standpoint was something along the lines of “this reminds me of Tear Ring Saga”. The first half or so of the game gave me the impression that unit stats would generally remain on the low side. This started to dissipate around… I think either the Clovis related chapters, or the Jenna ones. The units I found the most interesting were Alva and Khan, who were both surprisingly thicc for their respective classes. Kathe was also quite fun to use if only thanks to the Guan Dao turning her into a Swordmaster with lances.
Maps were big. Whether this was a bad thing was dependent on the map. Sometimes they were fine, other times they felt like TLP Chapter 19.
My biggest complaint about this hack is still the enemy characters, and I didn’t want to delve too deep in my original post as I hadn’t completed the game, but I’ll expand a bit on that point now that I’m finished. The game introduces a cast of villains who look promising and colorful at first glance but never really go anywhere. The question on my mind when judging how villains are used on a map is “if this character’s gameplay and story role was replaced by a generic Three Houses ‘Brigand Leader’ or ‘Knight Commander’, how much meaningful content would we lose? Could a generic faceless enemy do the same thing as them without detracting from the game in some way?”
- Reya was good, she provided a bit of nice lore on the dragons. Chandra was great for obvious reasons, aside from being a playable character she was our first source of info on the Ahribaalites. Bart was decent if only because of his convo with Eli. Bortz was alright. Musis and the magic user he was protecting were pretty good, though I wish Musis had a battle convo with Khan… the nomads were alright as well iirc.
- I really would’ve liked to learn more about Jasmine and his family. Especially Jamie, since Jamie’s only lines are his battle quotes. Jamie in particular reminded me of Donovan from FE4; he felt like a boss who is there to be a gameplay obstacle and has little to no story relevance. But at least these two have some personality to them, as compared to, say, someone like Dooj from Chapter 6.
- Dindu brings nothing to the story aside from having an intimidating design and a cool battle quote. You could replace him with a faceless enemy and nothing changes.
- Bootes has… 1 line? 2? The only thing I could glean on him is that he’s basically Glass from FE7, except with less charm. He felt like a filler villain.
- I already mentioned Dracul in my other post, and I’m sure he’ll be gleaned on when supports come out since he’s so closely tied to Enterre. But for a major arc villain, boy is he underwhelming in the memorability department.
- G’don and Mstislav feel like they could’ve been way more interesting, especially Mstislav’s ambition/promotion that never really goes anywhere unless you fight him with Durga. I like the tension between the two, but aside from that conversation he really comes off as just another enemy. He doesn’t even say anything when he shows up on the map. I feel like a cutscene between Mstislav and G’don when Durga isn’t around – where Mstislav dreams of ascending to a better position in life and complains about Durga’s style, and G’don reacts to it in some way – could go a long way in giving these two a bit more character.
- If the concept of artificial humans wasn’t relevant in the chapters after his death, Eligor’s reveal would have come off as Lewyn saying “I’m Forseti all along” at the end of FE4. It meshes well with the story but it comes out of nowhere and the only clue I can see of this is his description, which describes him as having an unnatural presence. It doesn’t help that he comes off as pretty generic “bad guy” in his first few appearances. Like Mstislav, Eligor doesn’t have any dialogue when he shows up on any of the maps that he appears on, which screams “replaceable” to me. His little mental crisis in his final map was pretty solid, but the rest of him still falls kind of flat.
- Not sure what Thomas did for Max to trust him with a legendary tome, not to mention get him involved in the later stages of his plan. I was thrown off a bit to see him so late in the game. What did he do to be a part of Max’s inner circle like that? Thomas’s plot relevance in the late game is kind of a joke, you could replace him with a faceless “mysterious mage” like in 3H chapter 6 and absolutely nothing would change, aside from not getting to see him call Suzhen a “skank”.
I really like the concept of his map though, the shifting objectives were a fun twist.He was interesting when he first showed up, especially his involvement in the Clovis scenario but after that he wasn’t notable whatsoever, which was kind of a letdown. - I’ve got mixed feelings about Weaver. He’s built up as this scheming conniving dude, kind of like Riev in FE8, and in the Ahribaal route they call him the leader of one of the main branches. Weaver’s death being fake changes nothing aside from showing the player that Max is a backstabbing rat, considering how he doesn’t do anything whatsoever after his “death”. I’m tempted to say he would’ve been better if we saw some more on-screen deception and planning, especially post-“death”, though that would come with ruining the reveal of “he’s still alive”. With my previous example of Riev, we see him pulling the strings of other generals and working closely with Lyon’s plans throughout the game. Conversely all Weaver really does that’s notable (that I can remember lol) is chill with Max for a few cutscenes, kill Cameron, plot to kill Jenna, get “killed”, and return out of nowhere to accomplish nothing. I will say his battle convo with Chandra was pretty neat though, it reminded me a little bit of Hart from LISA: The Hopeful. Twisted as he was, dude never had anyone who cared about him, and at least Weaver found some solace in Max’s companionship.
Alright, that’s enough criticism on my end for now. At the end of the day, even with my criticisms about the enemies, I still had a hell of a lot of fun playing the hack and enjoyed the story quite a bit. I get the feeling that a lot of work went into this project, and it definitely shows. Nice work, and I’ll be looking forward to supports whenever you get around to completing them.
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Glad to know you enjoyed it. And thanks for the reports. That Epta crashing thing really puzzles me in particular.
Nice of you to bring this up in particular. I’m sure that came off as weird for most people. But there is a reason for that. I didn’t know there was a actually a soft cap on how many characters in FE7 you could actually recruit until it was too late. Once the limit is reached, you can still recruit characters but the ones at the bottom of the preparation screen lose all their stats except the stats related to the character’s class’s base stats. And Maya unfortunately just so happens to be right where the limit is. You can witness this happening to the characters in the post game bonus preparation screen. I actually don’t know if I should remove her and the others from the roster or not. But some people seem to really like throwing them into the arena I put on the map there for kicks so I feel like I shouldn’t. I’d like to find a way to remove or increase that soft cap but… I really doubt that will ever happen. So I just improvised the best way that I could.
Yeah certain things are different if a certain character is dead or alive. It was pretty overwhelming so it doesn’t surprise me when someone occasionally posts an error about them.
I’d like to state that Alva is my favorite character when it comes to stats.
You know, after working on a hack myself I can really appreciate the small maps from fe7 and 8. Some people say those maps being small are a detriment to the games but I respect the hell out of whoever made them for being so neatly compact. And believe me, there were maps that were bigger and I compressed them down the best I could. I was just a dumbo with too much time on my hands so I’m just glad I managed to make some hits along with some of the misses.
Well, as I said, some of the boss characters will get additional backstory information in the supports. Though some bosses really are just throw away enemies with better stats, admittedly. Not every enemy needs a backstory after all. But in particular, in the case of Jasmine, I’d like to say I really love him a lot. And if I ever do get around to making a sequel or what have you, I’ve decided at the very least one of the playable characters will be a relative to the Jasmine family.
Damn, he actually does. See, Khan is the problem child of the hack because I’ve had to change his character slot multiple times for one reason or the other. So some of his stuff, like his battle quotes vs Musis are still assigned to an older character slot. So, that’s my bad on that lol.
Thank you for sticking around for the whole ride. They’re coming along, but as I’ve said, it’s a slow process.
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That’s a pretty smart workaround tbh. I assumed it was because she was plot important for the last few chapters ngl, rather than a limitation like that. If I ever go over the limit I might adopt that technique
I wonder if one of the two we saw had children…
Hmm… could this be related to how he has 8 speed as an enemy but like 14ish speed when he joins you? I’m also now curious as to what other conversations he should have had that I didn’t see.
I have a question involving Chapter 22 on Ahribaal route. Is Prince Arjun required to recruit Durga?
Spoiler
No, she joins automatically at the end of the chapter.
He sure as hell shouldn’t be. You recruit her automatically at the end of the chapter because a certain general wants to pull a big brained op on Gamliel.
Alright, thanks.
So, uhhh… Do you have a list for all the characters of the game?
i haven’t been on this topic for a while, is there any new patches or stuff i should be aware of?
and did that issue with the game crashing on VBA ever get fixed?