Though I have very little to show for it at the time of writing, I have begun working on my first ever Fire Emblem ROM Hack! I will be updating this as time passes with a playable demo and updates as they occur, but for now, I’ll go ahead and share some of the intent and vision behind this game.
It has been two decades since the untimely passing of Lord Erryk Albion of Pavence and the disappearance of his firstborn heir, Justain Albion. In that time, the council elected Justain’s younger brother Emhyr Albion as a puppet king, ruling behind the scenes and driving the nation into increasing degradation. Discontent stirs among the common folk, and as their voices grow louder, the king’s mental state deteriorates, and the council’s fist cracks down harder. Though they believe their cries fall on deaf ears, their voices have begun to carry to the neighboring island of Lesser Tremayne and its inhabitants; notably Sir Tristan Barlowe and his ward, the still-living rightful prince Justain Albion.
The Goal of the Hack
The goal of this ROM hack is to emulate traditional Fire Emblem GBA gameplay and try to capture the essence of what made those games enjoyable. Many ROM hacks implement incredible skill systems and feats of mechanical mastery; I’m striving to create a more relaxed, conventional ROM hack that can serve as a jumping off point for beginners. In truth, my goal is to provide an experience that both new fans of the series and veterans can both appreciate. I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel here.
Planned Features
- Traversable World Map - Though this is a rather controversial mechanic, I have always enjoyed FE8’s world map skirmish grinding. One of my goals with this hack is to have a playable post-game similar to Creature Campaign while also allowing the option to grind in the main campaign. Though this may affect the hack’s difficulty, I am open to disabling overworld encounters in Hard mode specifically for a more hardcore experience.
- Tellius Style Supports - Support building in the GBA Fire Emblem installments has always felt like a chore to me, so I want to have units build support simply by deploying them on the same map. This, alongside strategic use of affinities, means you can plan around your supports and further customize your teambuilding.
- FE5 Capture Mechanics - This is still fairly questionable due to the overworld encounters potentially trivializing money management, but I would love to implement capture. It fits with the theme of the playable cast being privateers at the start of the game, and it gives CON an additional utility outside of Rescue / weapon weight.
- Fully Custom / Commissioned Unit / Map / OST Roster - I’ve already been in contact with and employing the aid of some talented artists / hackers (credit to Latte, ZoramineFae and Jeorge Reds to get the cast & world map looking incredible. I want this game to feel like an authentic FE GBA game, and these people are making that vision come to life. In the future, I hope to get fully custom UI and a fully custom OST for the hack.
- Tutorial Mode - A good portion of my planned player base are my IRL friends, many of whom have never played a strategy game but have expressed interest in doing so. I want them to be able to pick this up, learn the mechanics, and then branch into either other ROM hacks or mainline games. In the same vein, I want you all to be able to use this as a tool to get new players interested in the series.
TL;DR
I’ll try to post more updates to this soon. You can message me on Discord at itsjustin6303 or on here if you need to reach out! For now,
WIP Hack announcement for traditional FE8 hack, maybe has capture
!