Okay so the big bug I have now because I got through the prologue, I just had to turn off the battle animation which I don’t like doing. Is in Chapter 1 the game keeps freezing whenever, Sam is or when he attacks, now at first I thought it was freezing when he was using the iron axe but it also was freezing when he was attacked holding ‘Old Reliable’
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14Vhj_utwkmQPxAAGu5w_fx6mZnxCDeJB/view?usp=drivesdk
Thanks! I’ll leave a more detailed review when I finish the last couple of chapters
Sorry for the stream of posts, but as I updated the patch, I realized that I left the final playable Chapter not going to the END OF BETA chapter, meaning it went to the next chapter instead (which is entirely unfinished). I apologize about this. I’ve updated the patch again to 3.2.2.8 and it should put you in the right place after Chapter 18 is finished.
@YourFriendNik Hey there, thanks for trying out Illuminated. Personally, I’ve never heard of battle animations crashing the game this frequently, so I’m wondering if it was a patching or emulator issue. Can you tell me what you patched the ups file to? Which emulator you are using? A few more details may help me get to the bottom of it. Thanks!
I think it was just the emulator I was using because now everything is working great
Hey everyone, due for a bit of an update. It’s been a bit.
Still working away when I can! I have finished the interlude and half of the shop chapter following Chapter 18 (the last playable chapter in the current build). The interlude was a much larger endeavor than I originally anticipated because it is actually fully playable. There is a lot of story I needed to cover after Chapter 18 and I wanted to have some of it be interactive rather than just a lore dump.
In other news, I started a new playthrough of what is currently available in the hack and I’ve been making a lot of small tweaks (and a few larger tweaks) to the game. Most noticeably for the smaller tweaks is that several of the chapters have been tweaked to be a bit more forgiving in the early game, either through later reinforcements or more varied enemy placement.
The two larger changes are:
In Chapter 12, Ganten was given access to PatchUp Kits as well as a few skills to make his functionality much more than an escort. This also helps alleviate an issue that almost demands a secondary healer (via promotion) for the chapter.
A new character gets access to using PatchUp Kits at some point in the game!
Probably the change I’m most excited about is that Gerry, the kid with a dream of glory, has become much more of a player chosen character. Here is how!
Before choosing his promotion class (from being a trainee), you now have the option to change his growths. Whichever growths you pick you will keep regardless of the class you end up picking for him, which means you can have Gerry as a “Light Cavalier” while also having a bulky build (or as a Field Knight with a speedy build).
Work will continue as time permits. By my count, there are 12 full chapters (including shop chapters and interludes) that remain in the game.
Thanks for reading. Until next time!
Wow I love the concept of being able to chose the kind of growth of your character, make for a lot of replayability, especially for a trainee 
Hey everyone, Friday update coming in.
Couple things. Had some time off this week so was working a lot on Illuminated. Got some progress done on the Shop Chapter following Interlude 5, but the bulk of my work this week was solving some gameplay things.
First, mentioned earlier this week in discord, but barricade has been changed to function in a much more fair way. If a unit with barricade is doubled, the second hit previously was halved in damage. This now only functions at more than melee range, meaning mages can still one round knights (but will face a counterattack because of it).
Secondly, with some huge help from @Vesly in the community, was able to get barrier and pure water back to functioning with RES. This change was much harder than I thought it would be and Vesly was a massive help in figuring it out. Expect an early game barrier staff now!
Final change relates to changes about Chapter 18. There are spoilers here, you have been warned!
Rajia now comes with a dancer ring. There are three different ones in the game and they all refresh AND bestow a buff (but smaller than FE7 buffs). She starts with one of these three rings.
Big credits to 7743, Sme, and Stan for making patches that allowed this to be possible!
Really excited about these changes as they were some of the last few I wanted to make to the core gameplay. There are only two changes that I have left to make, and they are related to Summon/Heal/Dance EXP.
Firstly, I’d like to see if I can change them to give separate EXP values for the different actions.
Secondly, because summoning in Illuminated summons a green phantom and not a blue one, the game does not have a check to see whether or not a summoner can summon again. Essentially, this means that, right now, summoners can always choose to summon during their turn (even though only one summon ends up on the field, the first one is just replaced), meaning essentially free EXP every turn. WIP on that one.
Anyway, thanks for reading! And thanks to everyone in the community who helps and makes patches to even make this hack possible! You guys rock!
Hey everyone! It’s been a while… Over two months actually! Wanted to give a progress report on Illuminated.
Real life has picked up steam in the past few months, so progress has been slower recently. That’s not to say that Illuminated hasn’t seen some new stuff, though! Here’s a few new things (not in the current available build just yet):
The interlude and shop chapters were separated. There is a huge amount of story drop that takes place after Chapter 18, so what used to originally be packed into one chapter is now packed into three. Part of the reason progress has been slow is because there was so much writing to do. I think now that the majority of that is behind me, Chapters 19-23 and their gameplay can now be focused on.
I went back and made the early game more approachable. With only having 2 or 3 units in the first two chapters, they could demand some fairly precise placement (especially on hard). This has been reworked a small amount so there is a bit more flexibility while still maintaining the demanding edge on hard.
Balance updates for playable characters and enemy class growths. Nothing substantial (except maybe for one or two of the playable characters).
Vesly’s multiline item description! Thanks Vesly!
A 1-2 range sword that is not a magic weapon. And on that point, every physical weapon now has a magic weapon in its arsenal, including bows.
Some new tunes!
I’m aiming to have the next build be available around the time that FEE3 is starting. It will include the three chapters after Chapter 18 (which are more story based chapters) as well as Chapter 19, which has a gameplay mechanic that took me forever to figure out how to implement.
Here’s some screenshots! (My ever growing credits list has been updated as well)
Thanks for reading! Until next time!
The new classes and chapters looks very cool !
Hey everyone, November update coming in.
It certainly has been a bit since I updated the thread. Real life stuff has picked up a fair amount this year and time to work on Illuminated comes in pockets. However, Chapter 19 is nearly done, Chapter 20 is in gameplay production, and I’ve nailed down the maps for the rest of the game (excluding the finale). Little by little, Illuminated is coming along.
Truthfully, however, the majority of my time working on Illuminated over the past two months was building out a New Game + mode, including a feature that I’m calling Mercenary mode. Essentially, after the game is completed, you will be taken to an area where you can add modifiers to your next run, like keeping your characters stats, getting an infinite use Juna Fruit, etc… Fun little things. The big thing, however, is the introduction of Mercenary Mode, which I will explain below.
Essentially, I wanted to have a way to change up Illuminated quite a bit in a second playthrough. Because the game’s gimmick is effectively playing with a small roster, Mercenary Mode makes it to where you can recruit 16 mercenary units along the game, effectively doubling the roster. I have already gone back to all chapters and accommodated for these changes. Mercenary Mode includes:
I’m really excited about these changes, and now that it is built out, it will only be a matter of testing at this point. I’ve had one or two playtesters in the Illuminated discord give me some thoughts about it and it seemed to be received pretty well (thanks @Roazorro and @Ilmoro). If you have any interest in trying it out, stop by the Discord and shoot me a message and I’ll get you a patch.
Work will continue when I have the time. Thanks for reading, here are a few screenshots!
Hey everyone! It’s been a while, hasn’t it?
Wanted to drop an update on how Illuminated is going. I still continue work when I have the time and have finished some stuff since the last patch. Currently, the game is finished up through Chapter 20. With 7 mainline chapters to go, a gaiden, and probably 1-2 interludes as well as a shop chapter, there is starting to be the slightest of light beams at the end of the tunnel.
I am also updating the current patch that is in the main (first) post as the previous one was very, very old. The new patch contains so many new things, including songs, characters, chapters, animations, artwork, quality of life patches (thanks @Vesly for the droppable icon asm) and even includes the aforementioned secret mode spoken about earlier in the thread (details on how to unlock are disclosed at the end of the current beta, but if you’d like a cheat code for it, shoot me a DM and I’m happy to share). On a numbers side of things, from the last patch, this one includes an interlude, something akin to a gaiden, a shop chapter, and two more playable chapters.
I have a loose, loose hope that maybe I could finish Illuminated by the end of the year. Will see how things go. I’m continually grateful for those who pop by either here or on discord to tell me that they’ve enjoyed the hack or enjoyed the story and I’m equally as grateful for those who took the time to tell me that they didn’t enjoy it. This hack has been a side passion project for almost five years now and it has developed immensely due to feedback of all shapes and sizes.
Thanks for reading! Until next time!
Edit: I may be editing this post in the very near future as some minor changes come in for Chapter 20. In the meantime, because it’s fun to have some actual images in posts, I wanted to preview some UI elements I have been working on. I still need to learn the finer details in implementing these screens but I’m happy with how they are turning out so far!
The game looks fun, but I’m having problems with the Prologue. It crashes when I initiate the fight against the shaman. It could be the ROM I’m using, but I’m not sure
Hey @Gabe_Is_No , sorry that issue is happening to you. I’ve seen this reported a few times, especially with mobile emulators, and I believe it has something to do with the battle animation for the magic tome Candescent (originally the Thoron magic animation).
A quick workaround would be to turn off the battle animations for Jay. If this doesn’t work, please let me know and I’ll dig into it further. Thanks!
I have disabled animations for Jay, thinking that he’s the one causing the problem. Tried to use Sam in the next chapter and I still have it crashing
I’m thinking (or maybe hoping) at this point it may be a emulator issue as I’m not sure how to address it further, sorry! VBA, mGBA, no$gba, and some mobile emulators have been fine. Would you mind telling me which one you were using?
I’ve been using John GBAC as the emulator I use on mobile
Gotcha. For what it is worth, I’ve had a few people report issues with Illuminated and John GBAC. For those on mobile, people have had success with MyBoy. Hope this helps if it all, thanks!
Monthly update!
Chapter 21 is finished! By far my largest endeavor in a chapter thus far with a lot of different gimmicks going on. Happy with how it turned out. The OP has been updated with the newest patch.
Speaking of updating to the newest patch, there are some new things with it. Firstly, thanks to the incredible help of @Ilmoro, there are a whole ton of new, updated palettes in the game (especially for a certain unlock-able mode).
Also with this patch is something I am calling “Casual Punish.” Now, when starting a new game, there are technically three options for the casual/classic split. When selecting Casual now, you will be given the option in the prologue for two different types of Casual Mode:
Phoenix: Typical casual mode, units return next chapter unharmed.
Punish: Casual mode, but fallen units return next chapter with a 25% Max HP decrease that is permanent.
Given the low roster count, this was my attempt at making the base game a bit more “Iron Man” friendly while still increasing the stakes a bit.
6 Mainline chapters to go, 1 shop chapter, and 1 gaiden remain!
Thanks for reading!
Aw, thanks, i really had a good time doing the palettes and playtesting, i love this hack
Bug report: I used the growths booster on Finch, but after promotion, he lost the bonuses.
