You don’t need to apologize, @DBAV, and you didn’t come off strong. Certain games or setups aren’t for everyone. I understand.
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I was admittedly playing on normal too, though I accidently chose it instead of hard. Was too lazy to go back and change it since I like to scale up on games slowly anyway. It was just like “Ah, yes, one of these hacks.” Just not my taste. I like difficulty and I like a good challenge but when the creator (and sole tester) comments “even I lose a character or 2 sometimes” it’s just not something I’m looking for. Interesting story though!
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yes… I’m a rather bad player so I got stuck in chapter before lael promotion too (normal mode)
anyways congrats on finishing, although I probably won’t ever see the ending
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Congratulations on the release, i will enjoy it a lot XD
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Thank you. The writing with the events probably took me the longest.
I don’t mind going through the game and making Normal mode a lot easier. I can probably remove a lot of reinforcements and change equipment to only iron and steel, but it will take me some time to create different encounters on Normal as well as re-test. Perhaps this was premature of me to release.
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quick question is sterling in hard or maddening mode as recruitment guide says hard while growth rates page says maddening mode exclusive?
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Sterling is exclusive to Maddening mode right now. I might make him exclusive to Hard/Maddening after redesigning the Normal difficulty though.
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I beat the game last night. I think the simplest way I can describe this game is like playing vanilla FE8 Sethless, but with way higher enemy bulk and way more reinforcements. Enemy defense is absolutely out of control in this game, to the point that I was using almost entirely magic just to reasonably kill anything. And even magic wasn’t always good enough, because enemy resistance wasn’t super low either.
Enemy scaling was also super weird, as enemies hovered around level 4 or 5 for a long time, making exp gain quite low for a while. But then when there was about a third of the game left, they suddenly get super jacked, still being really bulky but also now hitting very hard, too. And the reinforcements on some maps were just way too much. There would be some maps where reinforcements would be coming every single turn and spawning ~10 enemies all across the map. I get not wanting maps to be stagnant, but this is just too much.
The player unit quality didn’t help either, as I felt it was very similar to vanilla FE8 (Leah is basically Eirika, Vergil is basically axe Franz, Boone is basically Ephraim, Caden is basically Innes, etc), with the exception of Joseph who is just outright broken because magic fliers with good stats will shit on any game. Got him an A support with Wise too, so he became almost untouchable. FE8 player unit quality but FE9 maniac mode enemy quality is certainly a recipe for a bad time.
That being said, there were four maps I thought were actually pretty good and really enjoyed. Chapters 9, 10, 17A, and 18. I thought these all hit a sweet spot for the ratio of player power to enemy power, as I was just strong enough that their bulk wasn’t a pain, and the reinforcements weren’t so incredibly stifling. 17A in particular is probably my favorite, as it’s got two good stealables to go for, two enemy status staffers to play around, and a new unit joining, Wanda, who gets to be very useful thanks to her Flame Lance. The reinforcements in this map were just enough to keep me moving. Make more maps like this one, it was great.
As it stands, I think the two biggest improvements this game needs is a drastic decrease to enemy bulk (not just defense, but HP and res too) and fewer reinforcements overall. I also was not a fan of all the player phase zone events, since I kept stumbling into them and triggering them at awful times. Stuff like that should be made more clear.
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I am sorry that you didn’t enjoy this game, @KrashBoomBang. I have reflected on your comments as well as some of the other comments and decided to take the game down for now.
I spent a long time making this game, and I sacrificed a lot to get the game where it is now. I suppose I wanted to release the game and have people celebrate what it is now… but of course this is the Internet, and it only takes a couple hours for people to start adding their two cents. We can certainly tear it apart later; it is easy to do that.
Anyway, I will continue to improve the game, and I will get to the feedback provided eventually, but right now, I just want to enjoy what I completed. I will still keep people updated on my progress, and there will be more content to come.
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Whoa man, I don’t think you need to go that far. Criticisms are always gonna arise when you make anything and put it out there. Making a complete romhack is an achievement unto itself. Even if other people point out flaws, that’ll just help you improve the game further. Taking it down means you won’t get as much feedback, and the game won’t improve as much.
Now it sounds like you really enjoy what you made, and that’s great. When it comes to making a hack (or making anything), you should make sure that you enjoy what you made. But when you’re sharing something for other people to try out, you have to take feedback rather than just retreating like this. I hope you can put the game back up and update the game based on the suggestions you’ve gotten so that the game can get better. Like I said, there were some maps I really enjoyed, and I’d love if the rest of the game could have that level of quality.
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Hi, I literally made an account to tell you that I really am enjoying this game. I’m at chapter 14 and having a great time with it. For reference, I’m playing on Hard mode.
I came here to tell you not to take the download down for two reasons. First, assuming the game is bad (which it isn’t), the community can help give you feedback to improve on aspects of the game.
Second, the game isn’t bad, it’s just a little rough when you’re going in blind. It feels more like fe6 hard mode than anything that other people have said. If you don’t know what’s coming it’s difficult to prepare. If you do, it feels fantastic. I know this because I played the game at a prior release and got WALLED in chapter 11/12. I was playing the first 10 chapters plus prelude, using units I wanted to and benching ones I didn’t want to put effort into. I got to chapter 11, and… only had boone that wasn’t getting destroyed by enemies because I benched Caspian and Myles. I barely got through that chapter only to be further walled in the next with the rest of the units from pre-time skip that I didn’t use being the new recruits. Boone and Rob couldn’t hold 4 fronts by themselves and I hate using save states, so I had to drop it, and waited until the full release to try again.
This was MY FAULT. But now I knew. I used Caspian and Myles during the first chapters (Caspian became really good actually) and chapter 12 was very enjoyable as a result of my units being actually useful.
Do not get disheartened. This is a game that reminds me of some of my favorite fire emblem games. The maps require strategy and a bit of luck and multiple tries to get through, and I enjoy that kind of strategy and challenge. This is something special, and even great things can always be tweaked and refined into something even better.
Please put the file back up. You made something great that you should share with the world to make it better. Criticism isn’t easy to take, but it can help you make something you love even better.
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I agree - it’s still very worthy to be up here, just like anything else it just needs some work. The fact it’s one area (level scaling/enemy stats) and literally nothing else (characterization, plot, animations etc.) means that we like the game enough to come and try help make it better.
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I was always intending to put the game back, @KrashBoomBang and @Pemdas. I was just feeling like the game might not be in a “ready” state, and I don’t want to add further frustration to people’s lives at the start of 2021 - especially for people who feel like they cannot complete the game. That isn’t a good feeling.
I am fine with criticism and feedback, and I have already started rebalancing the entire game and making a more chill Normal mode for those who just want to go through the game more casually. I get this feedback. I predict this will take probably take me a couple months to complete… and will require me to retest every difficulty.
@Pemdas, you make some very insightful comments. The game really is much easier if you know what is coming to you. Leveling up Caspian and Myles (also Liang) does make the game a lot easier beginning in chapter 11, and yes, Caspian can become a really strong unit. That being said, that could be poor design too or frustrating to players not knowing what they are getting into. It is difficult for me to grasp the difficulty at this point after playing the game so often. I just know everything.
@KrashBoomBang. Yes, Joseph is a pretty strong unit. I even nerfed him in the latest release to make him have less attack power, and he still turns out strong. Wise is also quite good, and is an amazing support candidate for Joseph. Their support affinities really complement one another as they both appreciate the extra attack power. They are very different characters when it comes to personality, but I like that they become buddies too. I don’t know if they break the game though. I am thinking they are S or A tier units though. There are always a few units too good not to use.
I’ll leave the game out there. It just might not be a completely balanced game yet… I don’t want to frustrate people or ruin peoples’ day.
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Thanks, @Marimo. I will do my best with improving the level scaling/enemy stats. That is just very tricky for me at this time as I have been in the weeds for so long.
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@Ribombee, @Marimo, and @DBAV, I discovered an issue with the Normal mode difficulty where it is actually mapping to maddening mode stat gains on enemies. I have created a patch for this: FE_LonelyMirror_FullGame_v1_01. I hope that it will at least be a less frustrating experience for you.
My intent still is to go through Normal mode and reduce enemies and take away any nasty weapons on enemies though. You will need to wait for this.
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A few friends on a discord server analyzed the rom, we think you have applied the change easy mode penalty to bonus patch and didn’t account for it. Your Easy mode bonus is always 4, normal mode bonus is like 1-2 and hard mode bonus is 4-5, so normal(your hard) is the easiest while easy(your normal) is about as difficult as hard(maddening).
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Yes! That is exactly what was happening. I just commented on this above. I had always assumed that the easiest difficulty would be ignoring the modifiers, but I suppose that is incorrect. I applied a patch for this. All of normal mode (easiest difficulty) will have a 0 as a modifier now. That should address the issue for now. Thanks for investigating though. 
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I have to repeat others in that my main issue is the enemies being very bulky and taking many hits to kill, not so much their actual weaponry.
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I did lower many of the enemy speed, defense, resistance growth rates by between 5% to 10% for a lot of classes in the latest patch. I honestly have no idea how that will reflect the balance, but it should make them overall less tanky. I kind of doubt that it is a perfect solution, but maybe it makes things bearable for now.
Another question I have: Are there specific chapters that are overwhelming for reinforcement spawns? The only chapter I have heard is Chapter 23. I personally enjoy the chaotic aspect, but my perspective on this game is totally skewed at this point.
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Congrats on the release!! I am excited to play this game again!
I know how much you worked on this game, and I understand that you probably just wanted a couple weeks to clear your mind before addressing all the feedback you’ll get. Releasing a ROM hack isn’t easy.
I want you to know that I really like what I’ve seen of the game so far. I love the map design, story, and characters. I know you’ll figure out some of the wonky enemy balance and spawns.
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