I thought he was just fucking with Glen even more by giving him an actual weapon. But the description says “but… Glen Only” instead of just “Glen Only.”
Oh, and does Bone do anything special on the desert map? It’s in the guide I was just wondering.
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The image of Tiffany just casually threatening some dude’s life is hilarious
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thx for the poilers 
edit: I appreciate the putting in spoiler/blur the images <3
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I tried hard to make the only spoilers be that A) you fight the heroes in this hack (which is kinda the premise) and B) there’s still civilians at Narube River (and that you can kill them)
But I’ll go ahead and blur, unless the author says it’s fine
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we done (a few days ago actually but i got lazy)
the gags were funny but otherwise the stat difference meant several maps just boiled down to “undeploy everyone except fomortiis and valter and just have them + draco spawn kill everything” which was kinda not super engaging (this was also after i made the decision to remove fomortiis’ growths for post-game because it’d be even easier than it was otherwise)
plot was funny but gameplay was otherwise annoying (sniper hell was truly a decision when no amount of defense saves you from getting ganged upon by 30 atk longbow snipers with pierce), and the last map was just a complete mess that i gave up on trying to not cheese it with eclipse spam lmao. sniper hell might be better if i allowed myself to mine glitch the uber spear but eh
some other shoutouts going to boudica of all things finding use on sniper hell map (mostly because i needed something with good atk to help kill snipers and boudica’s 18 defense is still pretty good as long as you don’t get pierced in the face) and zabba getting to silencer stuff lmao
this is probably the last time i’ll touch this game but overall it’s been a good ride, on to other hacks now
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Not so related but with the name of the game being dark stone instead stones i was curious and looked up the wiki and realised the 5 heroes of magvel would make for some fun units.
Especially grado. I don’t think I know of a class that wields dark magic and axes.
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Well done! The postgame, admittedly, was a bit of an afterthought, I mostly just did it to have a bit more fun with the hack after it was done. I didn’t put much thought into the gameplay, and it shows. I’ll try to do better with my next postgame.
well I meant in gba games + hacks
and now I wonder if the grado hero would be on a mount
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I’ve finally found time to do this, been real busy quite lately, time for more 0 str gaming(accidentally killed Bazba and made Tiffany unuseable lmao)
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Would it not be worth making her a bishop for slayer anyway?
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Finished now, and had some time to collect my thoughts. I have to say I really enjoyed this mod. The writing was stellar as always, the characterization was on point (aside from the changes you made on purpose, which were also really good), and the gameplay updates were interesting and mostly for the better. Princess’s Lament is my favorite FE mod of all time, but everything was lining up for this one to dethrone it.
Until the endgame.
Crit (full game spoilers, obvs)
- I decided I’d try the Fomortiis route first, so I could finish with the happier ending. As you might have guessed, my first problem came with Glen. It was already getting a little sus that he would stick with this army…but Glen giving up and siding with the Demon King went from sus to flat-out ridiculous. Keeping up the route symmetry wasn’t worth this. I also had issues with how Riev was booted (Fomortiis jumped the gun and Riev should’ve done more begging) and how everyone in the army stayed but Selena (I’ve been trying to figure out their reasons, but frankly I shouldn’t have to). But probably the biggest problem was the ending, which felt like an unfinished rewrite of the Lyon route. In fact some of the rewrites didn’t work either (#NotMyTiffani). I could go into more detail - and did, lol; the first draft of this paragraph was five paragraphs - but suffice to say the Fomortiis route left a very bad taste in my mouth.
- So did the Lyon route get rid of it? Well, it was certainly better. I wasn’t pulling my hair out anymore. In fact, the only big problem I had with Lyon’s route was…Lyon. The premise of this mod, if I’m reading it right, is “Lyon really was a bastard”. And that’s fine; the OG Ephraim route pretty much agrees, after all. But I still didn’t expect him to still be talking about killing and slaughtering, even after subduing the Demon King. (Especially when his reaction to Glen was “take his weapons, please”.) The mod says he has a sentimental side, at least for Tiffani and Eirika. So why is he still not listening to it? Why, after gaining the power to stop earthquakes, is he turning his friends into corpse puppets?? Others might think Lyon’s that big a bastard, and I acknowledge it’s up for interpretation. I’m just explaining why the Lyon side didn’t quite work for me either.
- One last story thing, this time pre-endgame: why would Selena be surprised in 26x that it’s the Demon King’s power? Lyon already told her that back in 5.
- Okay, gameplay notes. The biggest issue is the new support system, which is an improvement but still too restrictive. Even after viewing optional convos and restarting, I still had to deploy all the red convo units and anyone who might have good battle quotes if I wanted to see all your writing. This frequently forced me to leave out units I would have otherwise used. If you’re planning to go with this system again, maybe you could ask if we want to see the convos before deploying? Or maybe that’s too easy, I dunno. Just a thought.
- I was also disappointed in how many bosses only had 1-range weapons. It doesn’t matter how Legendary they are when they never even touch me.
- Finally, I would have loved to see the Imperial Six get Overclasses instead of demotions. Granted, starting with that many prepromotes might be…insane, but I think tougher enemies could’ve made it work.
Having said all that, the rest of the mod was fantastic. There’s a lot of things I still love about it, and while most of them have already been mentioned, there’s a number I haven’t seen yet that really need to be. To wit:
Praise (also full game spoilers)
- The music. I’ve never seen an FE mod that does music as well as this one. Just the battle theming alone deserves a mention. I preferred the tracks that came from other Fire Emblems, but the others sounded good too, and it was nice seeing some of my favorite games in the mix. (You like Castlevania, don’t you…?)
- The graphics. Specifically, yours. Most of the animations were great, and the portraits have definitely improved since Lament. Only one that threw me off this time was Agrippina, just because of the angle.
- Knights getting their traditional movement buff through a support convo - and the genius of Saar. The genius…of Saar. I think I need to lie down.
- Chapter 13. All the higher-ups shitting on Gheb was beautiful; Selena barely containing herself was sublime. The only way it could’ve been better is if Selena sank the boat if you lost.
- Dara’s arc. I already liked the lost-faith angle, but I liked her mentoring Ismaire even more. Easily the most-improved character in the mod, unless you count Melina going from a namedrop to the epitome of pathos.
- Chapter 18’s Tiffani/Lyon convo. Everyone mentions Tiffani. Nobody mentions the hug. melts
- Chapter 18’s ending. Having Zabba kill both Saleh and Gerik (boy did that take some doing) and the aftermath sure were satisfying. I do agree that she got too much attention, but at least this time it was mostly optional. …unlike a certain priest and his extended family, heh.
- Ismaire flying into a rage instead of surrendering immediately. I did have to look up what to do next to recruit her, but I still appreciate the twist and the boost to her character. Or the acknowledgment of her greatness, depending on your interpretation.
- Using Tiffani’s problem with names to twist the knife with Melina was just…chef’s kiss
- As soon as I saw a village in the volcano, I knew. Each time seeing granny was better than the last. And the first one was already good because hey, free experience! If I ever see her on a new character poll, I’m going to stuff the ballot box.
- Medusa. Medusa, Medusa, Medusa. What an awesome lore expansion, and what an awesome demonic character. This is demons done right, Fomortiis. Granted, she’s still a cartoon villain, but at least she has cunning and playfulness to her. Her support convos in 26 were highlights of the mod for me.
- And yet my favorite support of the mod came from…Gheb?? How the hell did you manage that!? When you said the postgame had meta humor, I didn’t expect it in the main campaign, so his absolute scorchfest in 26 had me rolling. “Prioritize the children”…that’s just mean! That’s mean, man!
- L’Arachel scooping up Rennac if you let him get too close. I didn’t think you would or even could do this, so I was thrilled to see that you did. Adding to his speed when Lyon got him back was just icing.
- In a mod full of excellent battle quotes, 27 takes the cake. (And that’s saying something, since 28 has like 30 of 'em.) Lyon and Dara were both amazing, but poor Boudica’s has to be the highlight. I only wish I could’ve gotten her the kill.
- “Historians concluded they were good friends” is fucking grim.
- Valter is absolutely the baddest guy. Yes you are, Valter. Yes you are. pat pat pat
- starts searching OnlyFans
- starts modding Lyon into Fates
I’ve also got some bugs to report, I’m afraid. They’re all pretty low-priority; in fact you could probably get away with not patching them. But they’re there to add to the next update, if you make one.
Bugs (good grief, MORE full game spoilers)
- The game crashes and restarts at the title on VBA. (Am I really the only one using VBA anymore?) I managed to fix it by screengrabbing the title screen on mGBA, then patching that in using the 256 Color Title Background patch in FEBuilder. I was able to reproduce most of these bugs in mGBA, though.
- Some of the tutorial messages still pop up on Easy Mode. (Okay, I probably am the only one using Easy Mode. It was for testing purposes, I swear!) Unfortunately, they’ve all been changed, so you just get random nonsense. In fact one of them freezes the game, though you can just press Start to continue. The ones I found came after killing the boss in Chapter 1, on the world map at the start of 2 and 3, and at the start of Turn 2 in 5.
- When saving after a chapter, the chapter number isn’t shown. For any other save or load, it’s shown.
- Tiffani’s death quote () is missing an [A] press at the end.
- Using a Compact Axe with Boudica freezes the game. She just stands there, holding a non-throwing axe, forever. This probably has to do with the throwing-axe coding, but everything looks fine in FEBuilder. Replacing the animation didn’t help either.
- Using a Hatchet with Erkki shows a Great Knight. Found this when I was looking at the animations, heh.
- In 22, if you press start to skip the Aias/Lieselotte convo, the game freezes. Adding “Disallow scene skipping, but allow dialogue skipping and fast-forwarding” to the start of the event fixes it.
- There are no convo notices for Nate/Deni in 24 or Medusa/anyone in 26. If you make any fixes, make this one. Medusa must be seen.
- In 25’s convo, Rennac doesn’t get 1000 gold. He gets…an item called 1,000 Gold. (And it sells for 500!!!)
- If you have a Talk option that can only happen under certain conditions, the status screen doesn’t care. For example, in 26 and 26x, the status screen shows that Lyon can talk to Rennac if you deploy both units. This persists until he actually does talk to Rennac, after he defects. Similarly 27 shows that Nate can talk to Novala, even if you already did it in 26x. This persists until the end of the map, since they can’t talk twice.
- In 27’s convo, Ismaire says “turned Joshua into ’ a factor’”, extra space included. This is the only typo I remember though!
Okay, I think that’s everything. I’d do an endgame team post, but I got impatient and started cheating with FEBuilder eventually, so you’d just see a bunch of maxed stats lol. (Don’t feel bad, I do this with most mods these days.) It may have gone sour towards the end, but still, thanks for another great mod and another great time! Now let’s see if I can get to Angeroy in Eckesachs…
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Murray Christmas everyone(he died on both of my playthrough so I really can’t get his stat as image lmao
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murrey christmas to you too
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Thank you for the praise and the feedback both! Too bad about the bits you didn’t like, but I’m glad you still enjoyed it overall. I do agree that stuffing the maps full of conversations was a bit clunky, but it was the next step in my “I hate GBA supports and will do anything not to work with them” arc. My next hack is going to have a far more elegant solution to the conundrum.
…I really need to start showing more of it one of these days.
Anyway,
Murray('s Brigade) Christmas, everybody!
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Starting in 10 min. Happy New Year Y’all
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I know you mentioned you’re not a fan of Blazing Blade, but looking back at this and Egg-sacks or whatever it was, I am honestly curious to see how it goes.
Like, who are the lords? Is Lyn-mode just Lundgren hunting Lyn down through the plains with the help of his closest ally…Batta the Beast? Would Brendan be a lord taking Eliwood’s spot as he controls the Black Fang, with Nergal assisting like Hector normally would? Can I punch Jaffar because the base-game never gave me the opportunity to kill him with Matthew if I wanted to? Perhaps you could even use Morph versions of certain characters like
Dark Stone Spoiler
what happened to Valter?
Do we get terrorized in the desert by Pent?
Also, Jerme!
So many possibilities…I’m just eager to see what you do next, cap’n
What I do next is a fully custom hack that is going to have exactly nothing to do with Blazing Blade. But other people can do FE7 Bad Guys in the style of my hacks!
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Playing the hardest difficulty and trying to get all the support convos has humbled me dawg. I didn’t get a single one of the Renais Castle chests lolll
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