Thanks! The battle platforms have been removed. There is a handy patch in FeBuilder that does this!
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End of month update:
All of the gameplay for chapters 17-1, 17-2, and 17-3 has been completed. The only thing left to do is finish up the end events for Chapter 17-3, so the three part chapter is almost finished and I’m happy with how they’ve come out. I currently have a playtester or two running through them for a bit of quality control, and if you happen to have any interest, feel free to pop on over to the Illuminated discord if you’d like to do a bit of QC as well.
Looking towards the end of the year, I’m hoping to have Chapter 18, the fourth interlude, and the fourth shop chapter completed. That would put the playable chapter count to 20 and leave the last two arcs to be completed. The story is really starting to get to a point where things are fun to write and I’m having just as much fun writing the chapters as I am making the gameplay for them.
No pictures this round. Sorry! I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Thanks for reading! See ya next time!
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Hey everyone, end of year update coming in.
So I didn’t really reach my end goal of finishing Chapter 18 and the following interlude. December ended up being a busy month for me. However, I believe, with @Vesly’s help, I have finally solved the convoy issue (big shout out to him). This was a pain in the rear given how old my skillsystems is, but I am cautiously optimistic that the supply expansion to 200 now works.
17-3 is finished. Some work on Chapter 18 has started. Something that I have to do now is replay my hack up to Chapter 18 because the convoy expansion breaks saves (sorry guys). I also need to make sure that ModularSave still works, as I’ve had some rare issues loading from a Suspend.
Big ask, but if anyone wants to do a playthrough, I’d be happy to share the current patch with you. Would save me a bit of time getting back to Chapter 18, but no worries if not. Probably gonna start up a file on Easy and try and blaze through it.
Happy new year everyone! Tell next time!
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i’d be down, i go by the same name on FEUCord if you’re in that
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Sure, that would be awesome! I’ll send you the link via Discord. Thanks so much!
Please add weapons in armory I am out of weapons on Most of my units & now some of them are totally useless.
Hey @Saifulislam, thanks for giving Illuminated a playthrough. I tried to make it so that the party is a bit short staffed before the first shop chapter for some story reasons, but I can fully understand how it feels really dumb to not have a weapon for them. I think I’m gonna go back and add some weapons to the armory because while I like the story reasons for it, it’s no fun to have units you can’t use.
As for Illuminated development, small update for the month. The majority of real world work I do is in the winter and spring, so development has been very slow through January. Not much to report. Will probably check in at the end of February with another small update.
In the meantime, I think I’m going to make the armory changes and go ahead and upload the convoy expansion patch that I had playtested (and looks to be functioning properly). As mentioned, this will break current saves (unless you use a save state and then finish a chapter, which will delete everything in your convoy but leave the save intact after saving). Also made Chapter 11 a bit easier. Will update this post when I have the patch uploaded.
Thanks!
Edit: The new patch is up (check the OP for the patch). Like I mentioned, this patch breaks saves unless you use a save state as mentioned above. There are new prep screen armories in Chapters 4, 7, and 10.
Also, for anyone reading, I would like to offer a small bounty of sorts that I would be willing to compensate someone for helping me with. I’ve spent enough time trying to fix it to where I’m losing time working on the actual hack, so I’m gonna open the floor to anyone who might be able to help. As mentioned in the past, writing a new custom build is not really an option for me at this point either. If you have any interest, feel free to PM me and we can discuss it.
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I want to override the barricade skill to only work at ranges 2 or greater. I still want it to negate 50% damage on the second hit. The barricade skill is much more complicated than many other skills than I’ve worked on and I’ve hit a bit of a wall on where to find and make this change.
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A long, long time ago, I changed the pure water / barrier pointer to work for the speed stat and not the resistance stat. I even made an item called QuickSilver to go along with it and thought it would be a fun item for the hack. As I’m looking at things though, I’d rather change it back to the normal pure water / barrier RES buff, but because I made this change in my CustomBuild so long ago (and can’t do another custombuild), I’m having trouble finding the pointer to speed and changing it to RES again.
Edit 2: Sorry for the spam of edits. Had some time to work on Illuminated last weekend and did a playthrough of the Chapter 17 trilogy. Made a lot of adjustments to economy and enemy placement in these chapters to make them much more sensible. Figured I’d update the patch while I was at it. No new content otherwise. Thanks.
Thanks for reading!
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Hey everyone, it’s been a while! If you’re reading this, I hope you’re doing well!
Just wanted to pop in for a very small progress report. For those who follow the hack, I regret to say that there hasn’t been much progress since the last update. I’ve been slaving away trying to figure out how to work HTML/CSS/Javascript and it’s been keeping me really busy. Much of my free time has been devoted to that endeavor.
By no means is Illuminated dead. Just a bit on the backburner for a moment while I figure out some web design stuff.
In other news, there are two cool things about Illuminated that I’m happy to share with you.
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First, after some repeated feedback about how long the opening sequence is (including the cutscene-esque prologue), I have gone back and added a truncated version of it. The prologue still plays the same, but the World Map event now offers the player a choice as to whether they want the full, embellished version or the short and sweet version. It is a simple Yes/No choice before it starts and it can be seen below.
Quick and dirty fix, and yes you can still skip the whole thing, but just wanted to add that option. There are some that have told me they like the level of detail in the beginning, some that say it is too much, so this is my attempt to split the difference. -
I was reached out to by a fellow FeUniverse member, @Epholo8, who expressed an interest in doing an LP of the content that is currently available. I was more than happy to oblige, and if you’re interested in seeing the first episode of the LP, you can find it here:
Part 1 | Fire Emblem: Illuminated | World Building In The Form Of An Interactive Cutscene! - YouTube
(The decision to make a truncated opening sequence may have been inspired from watching this video… There’s a lot of story in it 
).
Anyway, until next time. Keep on keepin’ on!
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I’m having trouble in chapter 7 confused about objective to save opheila, how to do that.
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Hey @tascott668 , firstly welcome to the FEUniverse community! We are happy to have you here!
Secondly, to answer your question, check the spoilers below:
Summary
On turn 4, Ophelia will come out of the fort all the way at the northeast of the map. You will have to talk to her with Cordelia without killing her. After that, the map objective should change.
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Hey everyone, quick update coming in!
It’s been really, really cool watching an LP of the hack, courtesy of @Epholo8 . It’s given me a bit of drive to get back to some hacking and I’ve been really enjoying getting back into it. Some things that have been happening:
New stat screen! (credits to @SaXor_the_Nobody and @knabepicer for some of the elements in it)
Chapter 18 is essentially completed. I need to write the end events for the chapter, which may take a bit, because I would consider this chapter the end of an arc. I’ll be pushing a playtesting build tonight in the Illuminated discord for this chapter… Hopefully it plays alright!
Like I mentioned, it’s been awesome (and very insightful) watching an LP of the hack. If you are curious to watch it, @Epholo8 is a great streamer and a good Fire Emblem player with some great insights. I’ve been enjoying watching the videos… Maybe you will to! Here is a link to the first chapter… He has gotten through Chapter 7 up to this point.
Thanks. Until next time!
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I’ve been having a wonderful time playing, thanks for all your hard work in making such a fun game!
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Hey everyone, small update.
Been patching up a lot of smaller things in the hack and things are really, really starting to smooth out a bit (which I’m really, really stoked about!). Couple of patch notes:
- Fixed some tile change issues.
- Fixed a few soft locking issues.
- Cleaned up a lot of economy prices.
- Made Chapter 8 slightly easier.
- Adjusted skill acquisition for promoted units. This is more or less taking away one skill from promoted units (which in the large majority of cases was a proc skill, which is no fun to play against on enemies). Promoted units now gain skills at level 10 and 20, and no enemy unit in the game will be level 20 (unless they are late game bosses), meaning only player units can get proc skills.
- Reinstated the first secret shop and moved the second secret shop.
- Added two new tomes to the game. One is Plasma Burst, an anima tome that acts as a reaver (so every weapon type except bows now has a reaver), and the other is Gamma Ray, a light tome with 30 crit.
- A few new songs have been added.
- All of Chapter 18 is now in the game. The game will send you to END OF BETA after clearing it.
- NEW PATCH: Thanks to @Roazorro, fixed an issue with Chapter 10 end events not displaying properly depending on decisions in the chapter.
Still plenty to do to see the hack’s end, but in the meantime, I’ve taken a bit of a detour and started developing the only gaiden in the game. It is a direct callback to one of my favorite SNES RPGs, and I can’t wait for players to experience someday (if they can unlock it!). I think the map is somewhere in this thread now that I’m thinking about it.
All in all, coming along. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time!
EDIT: Hotfix. Newest patch has been uploaded and can be found in the OP. Has the same number as the last patch but fixes the problem mentioned above in NEW PATCH.
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Hello! I’ve played this hack a couple of years ago, and now that my long break from Fe is over I decided to try it again and see how things were going. I’m currently on chapter 4, hard mode, and wanted to share my feedback on it
Also, I don’t remember at all how this site works so I don’t know how to do those list/spoiler things, meaning this reply will be long, sorry!
First of, the units.
I think most of the units are pretty well done honestly. The idea of a combat medic is great, and while I also think having a cleric which also works as a thief is a nice idea, it creates a huge problem in one of the early chapters, which I will talk about later.
I noticed you’ve nerfed several skills, which I suppose was done to make them less strong and less impactful, but I think you overdid it.
Of the early skills, none of them make any difference for your units in the early game, but the enemies’ ones do. And a lot.
Jay and his buffs make barely any difference for any ally he supports. 5 avoid and 3 crit may as well not be there at all, and you wouldn’t notice it.
Clinton having pursuit makes very little sense. Why would a nomad have a enemy-phase centered skill? Sure, he has a 1-2 range prf, but considering how much you’ll be using to even survive the early chapters, you probably don’t want to spam it.
That being said, I think the units are all cool in their own way, so besides that I don’t have much to say about them
As for chapters:
Chapter 1 is great, I think it’s very well done in how you need to pick your fights carefully. However, I doubt whether I would have been able to complete it if Jay didn’t get some lucky crits. 1 enemy requires both your units to take down, and there’s a lot of them + you need to visit a village, the ruins, and get the chest if you want all the rewards. Possible, sure, but I don’t know if it is without luck.
Chapter 2 was pretty infamous back when I played this hack the first time.
Just like that time, I feel like having two side objectives so far from one another can be annoyed when you also have a turn limit for the chapter. And also, risking it all for 1 singular point of speed doesn’t feel worth it.
Chapter 3 was fine. I like having to use the Savior skill to run away and reunite with the others above. Also like how a house tells you to go to another one for an extra reward, really nice touch. I feel like killing both bosses is kinda impossible in hard mode, however. Not only do they start moving together with the overpowered reinforcements at the bottom of the map, but none of your units can fight them efficiently. You need 3 out of 4 of your combat units to take down one boss, which will likely result in someone dying the next turn.
Lastly, chapter 4, or as I like to call it, hell.
You’re supposed to hurry up, but:
- nobody in your army is good at combat on their own, so you’ll need to use multiple actions to just take down 1 enemy.
- your unit with the most mobility, Clinton, can’t really make use of it because he’s not tanky or fast enough to get in range if enemies without having somebody else with him, and because there’s a horses layer soldier right at the start. Your only move turn 1 with him is to chip the mage above (the opposite direction of where you’re supposed to go), which he won’t one round or double unless you’re extremely lucky with level ups.
This two stupid enemies here. You can’t steal from them without invalidating your healer for a turn, which is impossible since every enemy is so damn strong, accurate, and tanky. Even my most tanky unit, Sam, can’t take more than 1 or, if he’s really lucky, 2 hits without dying.
That + the fact that getting past this choke point is near impossible, with reinforcements coming from all sides + the boss moving + a bandit that causes a game over if you’re not fast enough makes this chapter just, not fun to play.
Maybe this is an issue of hard moving giving enemies too many stats, and not completely intentional, but I felt like I should point it out.
I’ll probably start over but in normal mode, and see if anything changes.
Lastly, one thing about almost (if not all) the maps (I’ve got only to chapter 4, but I do remember some maps from way back 2-3 years ago):
Not every map has to have a anti-turtling incentive, imo. Or well, in this case it’s more like “you have x turns until you just die”. Some maps should have it, and some shouldn’t. So that a player doesn’t feel constant pressure every single map they play.
I don’t want to sound like I’m bashing on your hack because I genuinely think it’s great (I mean, I instantly recognized it once I saw the thread here, and I still remember most of the nice story and characters as well).
I hope this was useful!
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Hey @Pietroloz, good to have you back. Thanks for giving Illuminated a try in its current form and for leaving some feedback. Much appreciated!
I’m gonna try and tackle this from top to bottom best I can.
Skills for the most part were actually not really nerfed. Enemy stats are generally bit a stronger, however, which may make it seem like skills aren’t as impactful as they once were. If Jay’s skill is only offering 5 avoid and 3 crit avoid, something funky must have happened, because his first skill out the gate grants +10 hit and +5 avoid to allies within 3 tiles, which in my opinion is a very helpful skill.
As for Clinton, having Pursuit fits more in line with Clinton the character and not Clinton the battle unit. Clinton doesn’t generally like a fight, but when forced into one (through enemy phase), he can punch back. Plus, this also makes him great for baiting enemies that will attack at two range.
As for the chapter feedback, I will start off by saying that the difficulty has certainly changed since the last time you likely played. With a difficulty split, hard mode is intended to carry that label for a reason and it’s difficulty is higher than it used to be. However, and I don’t mean to sound dismissive when I say this (frankly there is no way to say this without coming off as a jerk), but I have had a decent amount of playtesters say that hard mode is playing pretty fairly right now. If you feel the difficulty is bothersome, I would actually love to hear (if you haven’t already given up on the hack) how Normal plays for you if you wanna try lowering it. I do all of my playtesting on Hard first and try and dial it back from there, so I think that difficulty should hopefully be a bit more manageable.
As for specific chapter difficulty, glad Chapter 1 suited you well. Chapter 2 still has an infamous start, but on normal mode it should be a bit easier to navigate. Easier enemies should give you more breathing room and anti turtle incentives on all of the chapters as well (as well as the fact that normal has less enemies). Chapter 3 certainly takes some careful maneuvering to take down both bosses, both only Garrett is mandatory if you feel you can’t do both. And lastly, for Chapter 4, I would say you have a bit more time than you think in that chapter. I also think I may go back and add an event that has the village destroying bandit show up one turn later on normal mode. The choke point you mention is certainly there, but you do have time in that chapter to go around it as well if you can’t fight your way through it.
Lastly, for the anti-turtle incentive, I get it. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I am making this hack as much for me as for anyone else who wants to play it. I want to go back and add a mode that removes a lot of these anti-turtle incentives so that everyone who plays Illuminated can play it in a way that they find enjoyable, but for now, I am going to continue designing chapters with pressure. I personally never liked turns in FE that were simply just moving units, so I try and make it so that every move has a bit more weight tied to it (and that’s where those incentives usually push that).
I didn’t take your post as bashing and I’m genuinely grateful to have your feedback. I’m grateful to have any feedback at all really, but just like you, I don’t want to sound like I am not listening to your concerns. I hear you. But many of the current design decisions are about making an experience for all types of players, and if I haven’t hit that just yet, I hope to in the future once I finish the hack and can do some fine tuning.
Thanks!
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Hey @Seven, thanks for the bug report. I have personally never seen this happen, and this certainly isn’t intended. Though it seems like a funny idea for a chapter haha (when the darkening is intended).
Could you give me a few more details so I can try and dig into this? I tried this chapter twice after your bug report and did not run into this issue, so I want to try and nail it down. What turn did it start in? Did it happen repeated times? I see you’re using VBA, as do I, and I have had some random issues in the past pop up when using the speed up function, so were you using the speed up function?
In any case, thanks for giving Illuminated a playthrough!
Oops… I was using the speed up function. That might be it.
Third time’s the charm
So I replayed the chapter and it happens whenever I pull the first switch and move my units further up.
It’s not related to turn count because on my first run of the map I played super slow to heal up my units before fighting again.
It gets darker not by turn count, but as I move further toward the last jail cell (and the boss).
edit: I played the chapter and without speedup and it still started bugging out.
Alrighty, thanks for the bug report. Will look into it further and see what I can figure out. Thanks so much. Will update if/when I have a solution.
Edit: Isolated and fixed the issue, should no longer happen. The OP has the updated patch in the folder. If a similar thing happens on another chapter, please let me know. Once again, thanks for the bug report!
So ahhhh I recently started playing the game and in the prologue, when Jay faces the dark mage, the text box doesn’t say anything and kinda softlocks the game. I think, I’m still very new to this emulator stuff.