Fire Emblem: The Dragon Herald (103.3% Complete FE8 Hack)

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Download w/ Readme

Hey fellas,

I’m getting around to doing something I’ve wanted to do for a long time now, which was to make a Fire Emblem romhack post where the hack was 100% done (minus whatever bugs other people find, of which there will likely be plenty). FEBuilder has helped tremendously in existing the grossly underleveled hackers such as myself. When I say it’s done, I really mean it.

It’s got:

  • Total original story with original setting, except Anna still exists
  • One route because I am but a man
  • 22 chapters with an intermission
  • 30-something characters
  • Fully complete endings and supports, with all supports unlocked in the support viewer except there are some character spoilers so don’t view until finishing the game if you care about that sort of thing
  • Assets I jacked from the community repo because I have no artistic skill
  • Potentially unlimited bugs because instead of testing I just sort of played the game through once

NOTE ON ASSETS: I didn’t make these, so if you wish to use portraits/animations/whatever for your own hack please refer to the credits. Anything I’ve listed in the credits is F2U stuff I sourced from the repository, but reach out to the original creators if you intend to edit anything. My maps are free game I guess but you’re much better off referring to someone else’s maps, trust me.

Here’s some

screenshots

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Oh yeah, and since this is my first real post, hi everyone, I’m BigMood, I like Fire Emblem.

Download link is at the top.

Possible Bugs
  • Upon resetting, your save for that particular chapter could possibly disappear at random. It is unknown if this is an emulator-specific thing or what, but it is recommended to make a copy of your .sav file after a chapter clear, just in case.
  • In chapter 17, the optional reward for escaping with more units appears to be bugged.
  • Loading from a save state may freeze or crash at certain cutscenes. It is recommended to simply reset your game and resume the save file normally if this occurs. Note that this presents an inherent risk when using the DS FE patch; however, you should be able to load a DS FE patch save file using a regular patch rom if such an issue occurs for the purpose of getting past any save state-related issues.
Updates

2020-01-31 - Added warning text for reinforcements (Chapter 1).
2020-02-01 - Added specific rules text for Chapter 1, added more information for Chapter 2 house visit, relaxed turn requirements very slightly for both chapters.
2020-02-02 - Pow text change, a little extra light.
2020-02-03 - Fixed turns remaining counter for Chapter 5.
2020-02-04 - Fixed Lawrence/Byrd C support.
2020-02-05 - Removed Chapter 7 forced deployments.
2020-02-06 - Fixed hyper-inflated stats in Chapter 10, lowered reinforcement density for fort units in Chapter 7, added more treasure pre-Chapter 10.
2020-02-07 - Fixed unit checking freezing on the summoned unit check.
2020-02-08 - Added two green units to Chapter 7. Added warning text to the new Devil spell.
2020-02-11 - Fixed flag check error that made it impossible to recruit Shouko.
2020-02-14 - Added an early lootable high-ranked staff. Also less droppable Swordslayers, more something else.
2020-02-19 - Added a stealable Fili Shield, increased Spellblade anima base rank to C.
2020-03-21 - Fixed snow map tile animations and Chapter 14 BGM.
2020-04-29 - Fixed cavalier movement penalties, fixed chapter-ending bug in Chapter 6.
2020-05-01 - Updated unit loading in Chapter 7.
2020-05-03 - Added AI hint and rescue drop reminder to beginning of Chapter 10.
2020-05-26 - Minor Chapter 3 text fixes.
2020-06-07 - Fog of war chapter mechanics hints.
2020-06-13 - Unlocked all support convos in the Extras menu support viewer.
2020-07-28 - Enabled usage of Paralyze for enemy in Chapter 14.
2020-08-04 - Early map shading fix attempts.
2020-09-28 - Boat no longer moves through land (hopefully).
2020-10-04 - Fixed villages being visitable after bandit sacking.
2020-10-06 - Byrd now joins at level 9.
2020-10-08 - Prologue typo and text fixes.
2020-10-09 - Mounted unit footstep sound fix.
2020-10-11 - Byrd actually joins at level 9 now, also Chapter 1 door fix to prevent ambush spawning.
2020-10-12 - Fixed bug introduced by Chapter 1 door fix.
2020-10-26 - Chapter 10 direct control option.
2020-11-05 - Moved Hero Crest from Chapter 11 drop/steal to Chapter 10 drop.
2020-11-06 - Added missing dialogue to Chapter 7x.
2020-11-09 - Minor unit stat tuning.
2020-11-10 - Clarifying text for Chapter 12 slower clear condition.
2020-11-14 - Removed Nightmare that was left in accidentally.
2020-11-16 - Minor text fixes.
2020-11-19 - Hint text for commander AI.
2020-11-22 - Support conversation length trim.
2020-11-24 - Minor text fixes.
2020-11-28 - Added optional mid-map save patch.
2020-12-04 - Update to Filch recruitment hint.
2020-12-21 - Minor text fix.
2020-12-31 - Minor text fixes.
2022-03-01 - Added Normal mode.
2023-02-17 - Applied patch to fix event freeze if Filch does not exist.
2023-08-14 - Clarified Ch 11 reinforcement info, force-deploy added for Ch 14.
2023-09-08 - Buffed Cassie’s special weapons.

Special note: The “sequel” hack is out: Isekai Emblem: The Tales Two [Complete, v1.2.4]

While it is a direct continuation of this story set in the same universe, it’s not super related to this hack so bear that in mind.

60 Likes
2

I welcome the addition of another complete hack because those are rare in the community but the lack of developer play testing makes me concerned and I think there’s a high chance this project would benefit from additional bug fixing and rebalancing before pushing out a release as ‘complete’. We’ll done nonetheless on the amount of content produced.

9 Likes
3

Welcome and congrats on finishing a project.

4 Likes
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Yeah I get what you mean. It’s okay, if I ever get around to fixing everything, I can just call it, uh, Complete+ 101% done (guaranteed to hit even in FE6 RNG)

8 Likes
5

All the GBA games have the same RNG though~

1 Like
6

Nice, it’s good to see more finished hacks appear. The lack of playtesting worries me, but I feel player response will influence its fate into being good.

Regardless, I look forward to playing this.

7

Well this is gonna be on my “to do list” for completed hacks. Nice to see another hack finished.

3 Likes
8

Always a pleasure to see more completed hacks!
This’ll be on the ‘to-review’ list…

1 Like
9

Congrats on releasing a full project! I’m sure you’ll want to go back and iterate to improve the experience now that you’ll get some folks to playtest it and share their feelings.

I see a fog of war map and I am immediately intrigued.

2 Likes
10

Yeah, now that I’ve posted, if there’s stuff that needs repair I’ll go back and fix it.

Part of my goal was to use as little skill as possible when creating this game though and that included social skills so I didn’t ask anyone to help playtest lmao. I had to break character like once or twice on the discord to ask for help because I absolutely destroyed myself in weird glitches but nobody’s perfectly imperfect.

1 Like
11

Wow, can’t wait to play though it! (I hope you’re okay with a big pile of notes when I’m done.) :smiley:

12

Congrats on the release! Always love to see a completed hack come around. I’ll be playing it here soon and will gladly give feedback on it!

13

The Dragon Herald: (overall so far 8.5/10)

These are my general thoughts while playing through the game, of course it will have spoilers based on chapter, but ya know.

=-=-= PRolouge =-=-=

  • MC’s blinking animation is off causing a weird effect where her hair lowers every blink.
  • Is the MC named You? or is it supposed to be you (like a self insert character?)
  • Catch employers off guard at port - that line was auto skipped and it plays at the ending scene of the level.
  • Overall level was hard? Only because I tried to train the herald and the axe users hurt the Lance duo down bot.

=-=-= Ch.1 Port Town =-=-=

  • Sad to see there is no QoL patch for enemy ranges, but it’s fine.
  • Thank GOD an axe user. A decent axe user? THANK GOD.
  • Slaughtered almost all mercenaries, then they turn green… WHOOPS.
  • Killing the Knight automatically opens the door? Don’t know if intended or not.
  • Spawning the Paladins RIGHT outside the boss room is iffy too. If you aren’t positioned right, that can easily end the whole chapter. Id suggest moving them all the way to the right so you at least get a turn or two to finish the map. Or just make the boss say something like they are almost here. I figured the 13minutes was a reference to 13 turns, but a warning closer to when they pop-up is nice too.

=-=-= Ch.2 Flare Ruins =-=-=

  • Holy magic weapons they weren’t lying, but more importantly it’s a big map, that’s super box shaped. So I’d change this map around to not be as… big or box-like. Add some corners, weird protrusions or something.
  • IDK if it’s me but Byrd seems to be shafted a bit. Last chapter two people had anti-armor weapons, this map is really big and they have magic weapons. Since the beginning I just gave Lawrence the iron spear cause why not he can use it without penalties, but the more I play the more shafted Byrd gets without my intervention. (Just speaking of which, like 30sec after I typed this, the Brigand double magicked her and the merc killed Byrd. So like… yeah.) There is also a crapton of Axe users which sucks since you have two lances, one axe, your squishy and no damage MC and then Oifey.
  • Managed to nab the Nightblade for MC. when fighting the boss I used the light mage so she switched to her steel sword, then boom. killed her and got nightblade.

=-=-= Ch.3 Christmas Cavaliers =-=-=

  • Not much to say here, there is good varied objectives. I placed my units wrong so I missed the house in bottom right. Rushed the top left village and saved from brigands, archers and horses made chapter harder, but I had my axe user and lance user on wrong sides so I raised the difficulty alot myself. All in all solid chapter.
  • idk if the shrine in the middle can be activated or not. I visited several times with several people including once everyone was dead. I just assume it’s to show us that character for later in the story. (oh jk)

=-=-= Ch.4 Dear god that a rank S wpn =-=-=

  • Not gonna play this chapter, but it has varied weapons against you which is nice so you feel threatened. Decent map and feeling a thief coming along soon. If there is a thief gonna try and nab the boss’s super weapon and/or get the killer lance from the soldier.

=-=-= finale =-=-=

  • so far so good with everything. Biggest nitpicks, is early game the MC is really really really weak. I think I got lucky with her STR growths so now she’s decent, but ohso squishy. Byrd is thrown to the waste almost immediately, I feel like terrain is more favored for enemies not players, Alot of enemies who beat you in the weapon triangle or matches you so early game is a little hard. Besides that it seems to be a solid hack and I hope it stays strong!
1 Like
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Thanks for the feedback!

Prologue: Yes the MC’s name is You. Certain characters have really meme names lol. I’ll fix the text skip.
Chapter 1: Yeah I couldn’t actually figure out a way to get only enemy ranges without the skill system on FEBuilder, but if there’s a way I’ll throw it in. I’ll add in a warning since it can be easy to miss the 13 turn thing.
Chapter 2: I’m actually glad you gave feedback on Byrd since she’s the most volatile unit in my personal testing (was insanely good one run and insanely crap the next). If I hear from others consistently in one direction I might buff her, but otherwise armor knights are kind of meme anyway. Or maybe I’ll make her a sword armor lmao
Chapter 3: You know I should probably make it so that the shrine event turns off after one visit to prevent people from wasting turns being curious.

I’m pretty stoked someone played this much already and provided feedback. I’m trying not to rebalance too much because I think having slightly shitty balance is also part of the FEGBA charm but I’ll definitely take peoples’ responses into account in terms of player frustrations.

15

Checking FEBuilder’s patch list suggests that it’s called ‘Map Danger Zone’.

1 Like
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No social skills% too grueling, abandoning that run

(Thanks m8 upd8ed)

17

Hey there,

Congratulations on the release, it’s always exciting to see new projects.

However, upon just playing the first two chapters of the hack, I’ve already encountered some fairly major design flaws.

Let’s start with the prologue, which isn’t too bad. It’s simple enough. The enemies are strong enough to make you think, but I found the most reliable strategy to be hitting wait and healing on the first boat to eliminate immediate threats, followed by mopping up. Not too bad, per say, but could use a little urgency near the end, such as the boss moving/different placement, to disincentivize enemy phase play.

Now, onto the next chapter. This is where some serious issues pop up. First of all, this map is much too large and empty for only having 4 (and by the end 6) units. There’s a lot of movement just to get around, and it can be very punishing to be out of position and have no way to get back, such as to recruit a character or address reinforcements. A condensed map makes this chapter much more enjoyable and engaging.

My first run of this chapter, I took my time, dealing with each group of enemies and getting the houses/recruitables. Other than what’s stated above, not too tall or unreasonable a task. And just as I was about to open the door… to my surprise, FOUR overpowered paladins spawn on top of me, with no warning whatsoever, just as it seemed things were winding down. Needless to say, I was very frustrated at the lack of warning, and had to start the chapter over.

My second attempt, I played much more aggressively, and got to the door/side objectives much faster. However… one of the green mercenaries has an armor slayer, and despite making desparate moves to prevent what I thought was a soft lock, this merc killed the armor with the droppable door key. Which was my only way to get to the boss and finish the chapter, or so I thought. It turns out I didn’t need it, but I was panicking at the time, and had absolutely no way of knowing otherwise.

Thus, I found myself screwed over by an unclear time limit when playing cautiously, and thought I’d soft locked when playing aggressively, all on just the second chapter. These are both situations I could easily foresee a blind player being in, a player who has no idea what to expect from the game, and such situations need to be accounted for by the designer. Time limits need to be clear; potential for soft locks need to be eliminated entirely.

I plan to give it another go and try to keep playing, but I urge you to take this feedback, as well as test your game more yourself in various different ways. Testing and implementing changes is arduous and often not the most fun, but it’s worth it in the end for a better product.

Best of luck as you continue to work on this. From the story, dialogue, and eventing, it’s clear this is something you’ve put some time into, and care about. I say this all to encourage you to keep striving and make this hack the best it can be, in all facets.

7 Likes
18

I’ve played more and got to the Shouzou chapter. Most of my ppl are level 12-14, with Lawrence at 20 promoting at the beginning of the chapter, You at lv15. But oof this chapter is kicking my rear. Most enemies are tanky and hit you hard. Some even have stats the beat the bosses. Which makes me wonder am I somehow underleveled, or are these guys high statted?

Not to mention Taiga can’t kill the foes in one round doubling them in the center which was scary to learn. And dear god is Cleric A, Cleric B and Thief so squishy, one random hit and they literally get one shot.

19

Hello there,

I played through the first 3 chapters of the hack so far and i would like to give my feedback so far.

Prologue:

  • Was fine. I could feed some kills to You with the help of Taiga.

Chapter 1:

  • As other people said, it’s not super clear that the 13 minutes mean that you have 13 turns until those paladins show you the power of mounted units.
    I tried to play the chapter slowly and saw myself getting flooded by enemies while i was trying to hold the lines in those narrow passages to the right when i played it for the first time. Sadly I didn’t notice that one of the mercs had an armorslayer while I was trying to approach the archer while fighting through the enemy hords.
    In my second try i got deleted by the paladins. So that was kinda frustrating.

Chapter 2:

  • I don’t want to lie. This one was pretty difficult for me. All the magic weapons gave my Byrd and slow archer nightmares.

  • Some enemies didn’t move when i moved into their range but they did when i put weaker units there. That was kinda frustrating.

  • I didn’t reach the monk lady in time, because i tried to play it slowly against all those magic weapons. Maybe I’m shit but I think it would be nice that you make clear for the players to make haste and where the green unit will come from.

Overall:
-That’s just my opinion and maybe I’m just bad but i found it a bit difficult and unappealing so far. The maps are pretty big and open, enemies have pretty good weapons and the mercs are fast enough to double some units with the magic weapons.

+Byrd has some awesome palette.
+Pressure against turtling.
+You don’t see a troubadour-like protagonist every day.

20

I want to put the two files in this archiver.
Then, automatic update from FEBuilderGBA will be possible.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/145137778710151168/673109937760632852/DragonHerald.updateinfo.7z

Please install in the same position as ups.

DragonHerald.ups
DragonHerald.updateinfo.txt
logo.png

MENU->Run->Work support
Document: https://dw.ngmansion.xyz/doku.php?id=en:guid:febuildergba:work_support

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5 Likes