Fire Emblem Graphics Repository V2: Overhaul Discussion Topic

Well everyone, this is it. This topic is all about the Graphics Repository v2 update. I know I posted it a few days ago already, but I haven’t actually discussed everything I’ve done in detail and how this affects the community. So without further ado, let’s get on with it.

Extremely long wall of text incoming.

Fire Emblem Ultimate Graphics Repository: Github Edition

This post is all about my recent overhaul and upgrade to the existing FE Graphics Repo.

First and foremost, I want to start by inviting everyone in the community to our newly opened public Discord for the Fire Emblem Repo.


This Discord has existed for three years now, but it’s always been private and limited to the fandom’s animators, as well as a few artists. Basically, I only invited people I thought would be able to help maintain the repo and/or contribute to it regularly.

But now, this Discord has a new purpose. I feel I should make clear at this juncture what exactly that purpose is, and who should or should not join it.

Join this Discord if:

  1. You use the Repository a lot or plan to use it a lot.
  2. You are a rom-modder or someone who makes/plans to make games in Tactile or Lex Talionis.
  3. You want to get notified of updates to the Repo whenever they drop. We have a dedicated bot that posts new commits, so it’s easy to follow the repo’s updates. I’d like the bot to include my commit descriptions/notes, so maybe I can update it to do that in the future?
  4. You produce a lot of content and plan to add stuff to the repo regularly.
  5. You want to provide input on suggestions/fixes/features for the Repo. Is there something about its navigation we can improve? Let us know.

Do NOT join this discord if:

  1. You just want to ‘talk about Fire Emblem.’ This is not a general discussion server, it is dedicated to creating FE fangames or producing content for said creators.
  2. You just plan to post memes. This is not a meme server.
  3. You just want to talk about stuff. This is not a talk-about-stuff server.
  4. You want to talk about politics. Let’s not.

Things I might add in the future, if the demand exists:

  1. A ‘hack LP’ channel. Hack LP’s are good for giving creators feedback on their projects. This will not include normal FE-game LP’s, randomizer LP’s, etc, unless those are part of a hack.
  2. A ‘FE Game Design’ channel. This sort of thing is useful for developers to discuss how they design their games.
  3. A playtesting channel. Same thing as the LP channel, I suppose, but without the LP-format.
  4. I may add channels for developers to post their projects. There will be strict formatting criteria for these to keep the channels small and compact. For now, you can join this newly created Discord to get a similar result. It allows people to post their hacks and info for anyone to access.

I will include other relevant rules inside the server itself. If you guys think this server sounds like it hits the spot, feel free to join.

Now that we have the new Discord out of the way, let’s talk about everything else involving the new Repo.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  1. Battle Animations, Map Sprites, and Class Cards: Totally reworked!
  2. Navigating the Github Repo.
  3. Installing/downloading the Github Repo.
  4. Remaining problems with the Repo.
  5. Things the community can do to improve the Repo.
  6. Submission Guidelines for creators.

Begin!

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Battle Animations, Map Sprites, and Class Cards: Totally reworked!

The previous Graphics Repository was hosted on Google Drive. It had so many issues that I really don’t want to list them out, but at the forefront were:

  1. Extremely slow upload times. I can upload the entire Github Repo in 2 minutes, but it took me a full day just to upload one category of animations (swords) into the old GDrive’s Battle Animation section.
  2. Slow downloads. If you wanted to download a bunch of animations from the old GDrive, you had to wait for Google to zip up all those folders and files, which took forever and often failed, and then you had to actually download them. It was like downloading them twice in terms of time needed. Yikes!
  3. Cluttered as hell. I made the original GDrive Repo for the sake of Shin’s Emblem Anims site. That’s why folders looked like this instead of this. Shin needed keywords to tie into folders so they would show up properly on the site, but this made the folders themselves practically unreadable.

We don’t have those issues anymore. The new Github Repo is lightning fast and easy to navigate. Currently it suffers from the Portrait Repository and other non-Battle-Animation sections lacking image previews, but that can be remedied! If you have Javascript experience, you can help us fix that problem!

Anyway, let’s look at the many changes and improvements I’ve made to the Repo.

Readability and Navigation:

I cannot stress this enough; the new Repo is much easier to navigate.

How to navigate the Github Repo (Spoiler)

Start from the top-level of the Repo:

These are the folders that hold all of the content. You guys are probably familiar with everything outside of the Battle Animation section, since BA’s are what have changed the most. Let’s take a look at what I revised.

When you first enter the Battle Animation Index, you’ll see a list of Categories/Archetypes. Visit one to see their contents. Additionally, at the top, there is a folder called [AAA] - RANDOM MAP SPRITES +APDATA which possesses map sprites that do not fit into any of the existing Categories. These are mostly just random villagers, ‘dead’ units, and non-FE stuff.

The APData stuff is just for rom modders so their map sprites will work. If you use Tactile or Lex Talionis, you can skip it.

Inside the Category folders for animations, you’ll find the following:

As you can see, at the top of every category there is a Class Card and a Map Sprite folder. The FE8 Lords (currently) don’t have Class Cards, but that will probably change if/when people make a few. Note that there are ‘Generic Lord’ Class Cards in the FE6-7 section, so those can work as generics for FE8 too.
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You will also notice the folders labeled ‘Hero-Base’ and ‘Hero-Reskin’ and other such stuff. What the heck is up with that? Base? Reskin? Why did I include those terms?

Well, simply put, 90% of all FE animations are edits of existing ones in some capacity. As such, I had to classify everything in standard ways so they would make sense.

Animation Folder Suffixes (Spoiler)

Base-Suffix: This is an animation that either is a vanilla animation/vanilla +weapons, or a vanilla animation repaletted for other uses.

Reskin-Suffix: Identical to the Base animation in terms of movement, but it looks different stylistically. Typically character reskins or heavy artistic modifications that retain the original attack and movements are considered Reskins.

Variant-Suffix: These are animations that have motions which deviate from the vanilla movements. For example, Eliwood slashing instead of stabbing would qualify as a Variant. Variants can also be Reskins, but Reskins cannot be Variants.

Custom-Suffix: A totally custom animation, such as the Greil Lord, would count as a Custom suffix. Note that there can also be fully custom animations that mimic the style of other animations. For example, Nuramon’s Ephraim Infantry is a fully custom animation based on Ephraim’s character design.

Style-Suffix: This type of animation apes another. For example, an Eliwood-Style Berserker would be a Berserker that tries to look or fight or act like one of Eliwood’s Lord-type classes.

Type-Suffix: Some animations are really weird, like the Sword Brigand. This is a Brigand animation that only possesses a sword, not an axe. Since this is technically a Sword animation, but it uses the Brigand as a base, we call this a Brigand-Type.
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An issue people identified a few months back that the Repo now also works to solve: Removing meaningless and sometimes confusing/contradictory terms such as “Improved,” “2.0,” or other such animation names.

Regarding animation names and titles (Spoiler)

Regarding Repo's Naming Convention
At this time this issue was posted, I took issue with the general tone and the fact that this was a minor thing, but in the end it is something the old Repo suffered from, so I remedied that.

Now, you will no longer find animations with 2.0, Improved, Revamped, or etc unless they are an edit of an old animation made by the same creator. Instead, I use v1, v2, and v3 to show animation ‘increments’ over time. A v2 is not necessarily better than a v1. The ‘v’ could mean Variant or Version. If you see something is listed as a v2 or v3 animation, don’t just use it, but instead consider whether it fits your needs. There are a surprising number of animations with v2’s that lack weapon types from the v1 version, or they lack other improvements the original version got but the second didn’t.

My goal with these new animation names is to remove confusion, improve readability, and equally important; to cluster ‘types’ of things together. It is very important to me that nobody looks at an animation and asks “What makes this animation different from that other one? Are one of these better than the other? Does it even matter?”
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One BIG improvement of the new Github Repo: You can now see animation previews inside the folders! This fundamentally replaces Emblem Anims. These previews still have issues though, so I could really use the help of a Javascript coder to fix some of those problems.

To see the previews: Just scroll down inside the Animation Directory folders! That’s all! Just scroll down!


I’ve had enough people complain that these are ‘missing’ for me to think this is worth repeating. We have them!

If, however, you click the blue link that should take you to the animation’s folder…

It actually doesn’t work correctly. It gives you this URL:
https://github.com/Klokinator/FE-Repo/blob/main/Battle%20Animations/Infantry%20-%20(Lnc)%20Soldiers%2C%20Halberdiers/%5BCustom%20Drag%5D%20%5BU%5D%20Dragoon%20by%20Mercenary%20Lord/%5BCustom%20Drag%5D%20%5BU%5D%20Dragoon%20by%20Mercenary%20Lord
When it should give you this one:
https://github.com/Klokinator/FE-Repo/blob/main/Battle%20Animations/Infantry%20-%20(Lnc)%20Soldiers%2C%20Halberdiers/%5BCustom%20Drag%5D%20%5BU%5D%20Dragoon%20by%20Mercenary%20Lord/
It duplicates the %5BCustom%20Drag%5D%20%5BU%5D%20Dragoon%20by%20Mercenary%20Lord/, so when you click the link, delete everything after the second-to-last slash and the link will work.
This is a problem with the Javascript file. We really need a Javascript coder to fix this, as I’m clueless.


Credit Files and You:

Inside every Animation Folder, there is a CREDITS.txt file. This section will explain the features of those files.

CREDITS.txt (Spoiler)

First, these files are incomplete. There are animations I had to perform guesswork on. If the community could help me identify and improve crediting, that would be great.

Here is a typical CREDITS file.

Here is an ideal CREDITS file:

Do you see the difference? One of these just says “Uh three people worked on this I guess” and the other says “ALRIGHT BOYS, HERE IS EVERY PERSON WHO WORKED ON THIS GORGEOUS ANIMATION SO YOU CAN REALLY RESPECT AND APPRECIATE ALL THEIR HARD WORK!”

Be the big guy. Help me give more detailed credits to every folder.

Another type of credits file is something like this one:


You will notice that I have included issues the animation has. This not only informs the community what animations need fixes, but what issues a creator might run into when using them. If you see an animation with a note, why not pitch in and give the poor thing some love? With a good v2, you can breathe new life into old anims!
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Commonly Asked Questions about the Github Repo:

I’ve heard a lot of questions on various Discord servers regarding the new Github Repo. Here are answers to some of the most common questions.

Q&A Time! (Spoiler)

Q: Why overhaul the Repo? Why not leave the Repo as it was on GDrive? I liked the GDrive Repo!
A: The GDrive Repo was so agonizing to work with for every contributor that it was not worth the trouble. Additionally, it suffered from a bunch of issues that, in order to fix, would have taken 10x the effort compared to just porting to Github. The porting process was painful, but definitely worth the price.

Q: Will Emblem Anims ever come back?
A: No. We don’t need it, the Github repo has even better preview functionality and doesn’t cost money for poor Shin to run.

Q: Why list animation errors? Aren’t these criticisms subjective? Won’t this hurt the creator’s feelings?
A: Animation errors are a problem because many animations in the repo are years and years old, made well before FEBuilder’s advent. Some of these animations simply aren’t timed correctly, or they don’t look smooth, or they have small but annoying issues. As artists, it is our job to accept criticism and use it to improve ourselves. Considering all the criticism I’ve used to improve the Repo, I don’t think I’m making a controversial statement here.

Q: Okay, but why rename animations? For example, why rename [INSERT X ANIMATOR]'s animation from X to Y? Just use the original name!
A1: Standardization is the path forward. My goal with the Github Repo is to take all the issues with the old Repo and solve at least 90-95% of them. That means giving animations standardized names, but with unique identifiers. I actually retained as many names as I could from the old Repo and only made changes to those who didn’t really have any community presence I’ve detected.
A2: Also, the same people who complain about animation name changes are still going to rename the animations once they put them ingame, so do you really care about the holy sanctified names bestowed upon them by the original creators after a whole ten seconds of thought? [Press X to doubt.]

Q: Where can people go to find out about Repo updates?
A: On the Discord.

Q: Where can people post suggestions and required fixes?
A: On the Discord.

Q: What if I find missing credits? Where can I post to tell the Repo team?
A: On the Discord.

Q: Where can I find active support for Repo issues?
A: On the Discord.

Q: But-
A: On the Discord.
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Installing/downloading the Github Repo.

This part is pretty simple. I made a full post dedicated to getting people to use the Repo.

How do I use the new Github Repo?

For those of you who just want to download animations, just read this part:

That’s it!

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Problems with the GDrive and Github Repositories.

The new Github Repo is not perfect. It has a lot of flaws, but far fewer than the old GDrive Repo. Better yet, practically all of these can be fixed by a Javascript coder! Seriously, if you know Javascript, please hop on the Discord! Help us, Obi-Wan Codenobi, you’re our only hope!

Problems the GDrive Repo had which the Github Repo solves.

In the GDrive Repo, there were many longstanding issues I’ve fixed by switching to Github. Here are most of them.

Longstanding Issues with the GDrive Repo (Spoiler)
  • Many animation categories were massive, while others were tiny. The Infantry category had 320 animation folders, but Fliers only had 49. This lopsidedness is no longer an issue, as now most categories hover around 50 folders. I will add new categories as future needs arise.

  • There were many animations listed with weird weapon types. For example, the Sword Brigand was listed under Axes, even though it only had a sword. Well, now it’s listed under Brigands, so I’ve solved that problem and other similar ones.

  • Animations used to have completely random names. Not only were there Repalettes, but also Palette-swaps, Palette-splices, and other random shenaniganry. Now, everything is standardized and you should always know what you are looking at.

  • Credits used to really suck. It was just a long list of names, like:
    [T0][MISC][Refresh](Bard Elffin +FE7-8, Magic)[M]{IS, Black Mage, Temp, Wan, Eldritch Abomination, Orihara_Saki}
    or
    [T1][MAG][Troubadour](Deacon Repalette +Sword, Magic)[M]{Pikmin1211. GabrielKnight, Maiser6, Lisandra_Brave, TBA}
    Not only did this make it hard to read through folders, but it also didn’t give any sense of scale regarding who played what role in the animation’s creation process. Now we have CREDITS.txt files which solve that issue.

  • ‘Broken’ animations and animations with issues previously had to be segregated into the dreaded Insertable - Needs Improvement folder. No more! I will integrate all of those into the main Repo and use the CREDITS.txt file to list any issues the animation has. People can then use the animation while knowing the issues it has.
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Problems which can be fixed by a Javascript coder:

Firstly, inside the Battle Animation Repo, I would like to make four changes.

Four Changes (Spoiler)

Links to animation folders from inside the Readme.md files annoyingly repeat the animation folder in the URL, making all the URL’s not work.

I would like weapon gif previews to jump to a new line after filling up three slots instead of shrinking to the atomic level.

I would like to make the previews themselves look more like…

Instead of:

Basically, just remove the initial still image. It’s not that important to include and it eats up a LOT of vertical space in the Index and Category sections.

And finally, I would like to add a ‘folder blacklist’ for the readme.md creator so it won’t add broken folders to the animation gif previews.

See that ‘team animation’ broken thumbnail? I need a way for the Readme getter to not include those folders. Palette folders also appeared there until I manually removed most Palette folders myself.
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Next, I would like to add image previews for the Portrait Repository, maps, etc. I will need the existing javascript files I use to compile the Battle Animation Repo also work for all the other folders, too.

Folders needing a Javascript Coder (Spoiler)


The fact we cannot see these images makes the folder functionality FAR worse than what we had on Gdrive. This is very high priority and needs a fix.

Finally, it would be cool if we could get Readme files that, in some way, allowed people to listen to and playtest music from the Music Repository.

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Problems that cannot be solved by Javascript.

  • We need better credits for all the animations and such inside the repo. This is just work that will take time.

  • We need people to make sure the ‘Primary Creator’ listed is correct. Typically, one person works on 70%+ of an animation, and others supplement them. I refer to that person as the Primary Creator. So, Ephraim Infantry by Nuramon means Nuramon is the primary creator. There are quite a few animations where I just guessed who the creator was out of the names supplied. If you can help us improve those, we’d appreciate the help.

  • Going along with the previous point, if someone repalettes a Vanilla animation, they get listed as the primary creator. However, if they repalette someone else’s custom/variant/reskin, I still list the other guy as the original creator. I only do this so the reskinned variants/customs will stay together. I’m trying to ‘keep them grouped.’

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Things the community can do to improve the Repo.

I need a lot of help from you guys. I am only one man. I may seem like an inhuman monster capable of autistic feats of insane mental endurance, but I have my limits, and time is one of them. The Repo is made by the community, for the community. That means you guys need to step up and help me and the rest of the Repo’s team out if you want to see the Repo improve further. If all people do is complain about the Repo’s issues, but they don’t offer help when we so badly need it, do they really even have the right to complain?

(Answer: Yes, you do have the right to complain, but you look like a real asshole if you don’t offer constructive help. It’s entirely a matter of manpower and not of any particular skillset.)

  • Lots of Repo folders have incomplete or flawed credits. If you see a credit file that simply says “Made by XXX and YYY and ZZZ.” then that needs some love. Check to see where the animation originally came from, dig up the details, and post them on the Discord.

  • If you see a folder that says “Animation Variant by XXX” but you know that person wasn’t the primary creator, let us know! Maybe even include detailed credits, as per the above?

  • You can also submit Pull Requests by following the steps in this tutorial. Jump to the fourth section regarding Contributors and you can submit huge, sweeping improvements to the repo. Want to overhaul the mapping section? Tilesets? Something other than the Battle Animations/Portraits (I have those in a good place)? Clone the drive, make your huge edits, submit the pull request, and tell me on Discord what you changed.

  • If you are a Javascript coder, we especially need your help. See the previous post for more info.

  • If you want to contribute animations, portraits, maps, or whatever else, just look at the next post to see what to do.

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Submission Guidelines for creators.

So you wanna be a Pokemon Master cool dude/dudette who submits stuff to the Repo, huh? Sounds great! You’re the heart and soul of the Repo, so obviously your contributions are important.

Even so, the biggest and most important reason I made the Repo three years ago was to affect change in standardization. Before, people would haphazardly throw animations in random folders, they wouldn’t check the palettes, they wouldn’t do simple QOL, and so on.

In the modern era, the Repo has high quality standards. Every folder is organized in a structured manner. The following details will help you determine how to format your battle animations and portraits.
(Side-note: I haven’t yet overhauled the map section, background, or any other parts. That means I only have a vague guideline for them of “keeping stuff somewhat organized.” Expect this to change in the future when I get around to overhauling those sections.)

To submit an animation, you must do the following things.

How to Submit an Animation (Spoiler)
  • Make sure it works and doesn’t have errors/glitches/bugs. If it does, you can submit it, but you need to include those in the CREDITS.txt file. We get it, not everyone knows how to fix some obscure animation bug. Just let us know so someone with experience can fix the problem, or so people bothered by the problem can avoid it.

  • Import your animation into FEBuilder. Then, use the Dump All command to dump all of the frames into folders. Limit yourselves to one animation type per folder. For example, if you make an awesome custom animation that has a basic sword, an Alondite version, a Sealed Sword, an Axe/Handaxe, and a Lance, each of those will go in their own folders.

  • Name the folders according to these types:

    You can give the animations a variant name, like (Exaccus) or whatever, but inside the folders, always make sure to only Dump All with a basic word, such as Sword, Lance, Axe, Handaxe, Magic, Dragonstone, etc. Do not use Dump All with a name like Sword (Exaccus FE7) or that will break my Readme-getter.

  • After dumping the animations and getting the folders sorted, add a CREDITS.txt file. Inside, list all of your credits piece by piece. Make sure to double-space the new lines!
    Instead of:

    Do this so it shows up on the Github repo properly:

  • Next, put all of your dumped and properly named folders and your credits, palettes, whatever else inside a dedicated folder. To name the final folder, there are a few guidelines I can list, but honestly even if you mess this part up it’s only a ten second fix on my end, so it’s not important.
    These are example folder names in the new Repo:

    If you’re not sure about Base/Custom/Etc, here are all the suffixes:

Base-Suffix: This is an animation that either is a vanilla animation/vanilla +weapons, or a vanilla animation repaletted for other uses.

Reskin-Suffix: Identical to the Base animation in terms of movement, but it looks different stylistically. Typically character reskins or heavy artistic modifications that retain the original attack and movements are considered Reskins.

Variant-Suffix: These are animations that have motions which deviate from the vanilla movements. For example, Eliwood slashing instead of stabbing would qualify as a Variant. Variants can also be Reskins, but Reskins cannot be Variants.

Custom-Suffix: A totally custom animation, such as the Greil Lord, would count as a Custom suffix. Note that there can also be fully custom animations that mimic the style of other animations. For example, Nuramon’s Ephraim Infantry is a fully custom animation based on Ephraim’s character design.

Style-Suffix: This type of animation apes another. For example, an Eliwood-Style Berserker would be a Berserker that tries to look or fight or act like one of Eliwood’s Lord-type classes.

Type-Suffix: Some animations are really weird, like the Sword Brigand. This is a Brigand animation that only possesses a sword, not an axe. Since this is technically a Sword animation, but it uses the Brigand as a base, we call this a Brigand-Type.[/quote]

  • Final step: Download BwdYeti’s repo formatting tool. Drag and drop your final folder on top of the .exe file included, and it will fix your animation by cleaning up FEBuilder’s gifs and removing duplicate frames.

    If you did it right, you should see something like this:

    And that’s it! You’re done! Just send that to the team over Discord or on the forums or whatever else! You can also Pull Request on Github if you know how to do that; it’s up to you!
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Next, we have Portraits. These are much simpler.

How to Format Portraits (Spoiler)

Portraits consist of three types:

  1. Existing FE Characters from FE1-Modern.
  2. Non-FE Characters, listed in the Non-FE Properties folder.
  3. OC Characters made by the community. (These are extremely disorganized and I need to work on improving them, but it takes time to edit 4,000 individual files, so just bear with me.)

Existing FE Characters use the following format:

[Character Name] (Variant) {Creator(s)}
Examples include:

The reason I use this format is because, generally speaking, you want to identify the character first, followed by their variant. If you want to look for alternate Eliwoods, having all of the Eliwoods grouped together is valuable.

Non-FE Characters use the following format:

[Overarching Property], [Character Name] (Variant) {Authors}
Examples include:

I use this method for similar reasons as the above, but to keep characters sharing the same name from different franchises separated, I put the franchise name first. For franchises with tons of games, unless it’s absolutely important to include the game’s subtitle or number, just use a basic descriptor, like Final Fantasy instead of Final Fantasy 7 Galaga Edition Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry Series and Knuckles the Echidna.

OC Characters use the following format:

{Creator(s)} - [Character name] (Variant)
Examples include:

The reason for this format is because in the case of OC’s, it is much more important for people to group things by authors wherever possible. Characters are often also so OC that they don’t actually have names, etc. This folder is EXTREMELY sloppy but I haven’t had the time to fix it. It’s a remnant from the old Portrait Repo before I took over.

If anyone wants to help me clean it up, be my guest! I’ll see you on the Discord!
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And… that’s it!

You have reached the end of this extremely long topic. Klokking in at over 32,000 characters, or 5.5k words, there’s a lot to read.

Even so, I had to write this topic to alert the community to how much the repo has changed and what you guys can expect moving forward. If you have thoughts, criticisms, or other such things, please post them below! I will try to address them to the best of my ability!

Thanks.

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Created github issues to track the 4 javascript problems detailed in this post. If anyone wants to contribute, please check the progress of these changes on github!!

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A post was merged into an existing topic: The Fire Emblem Graphics Repository (And Music!)