Fire Emblem: The Lonely Mirror (Full Game - FE8 ROM Hack)

Report here: so I just noticed I unlocked a diferent chapter 15 in version 4.0, after taking route 14C. This new chapter 15 is called Threads of Chaos and is WAY different than the original chapter 15 from previous versions. The problem is, in the attached documents there is no rune guide for that diferent chapter 15 or how to recruit Parvati, since in the recruitment guide it says to visit the southwest village that is in the original chapter 15, not this one. This other map should be included in the attached guiding documents.

Weird,. I’m playingon difficult too but the event did trigger to me… Are you playing on “difficult” from the friendly patch or “hard” from the classic patch? That event only triggers on the highest difficulty of both patches.

Ooooooh… That’s why

From my perspective it was always pretty clear that Travis wasn’t supposed to be from Celyste. Every Celystean man grows a beard over the timeskip except for Travis. I’m pretty sure they mention it in dialogue that it’s something Celystean men do. He’s never mentioned when Winifred, Boone, Caspian and Ariel talk about being kids either. I always assumed he was a recently joined member of the merc group.

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That is true, but it could also be that he’s a little younger than the rest or that he can’t grow a beard, there are men like that.

I am happy to see there’s a 4.0 update. I played through the game back in early 2021 and it was probably my favourite rom hack I’ve played. I think I’m gonna have to play through again but this time I think I’m gonna try to go for an Amanda and the boys playthrough. Beards for life.

So I recruited Mercer in Ch15, but he came with an iron sword instead of his personal weapon (as stated in his character profile in this thread). Did I miss a requirement in his recruitment?

If Mercer joins in Ch 15, he does not start with his special sword. However, on chapter 17, if Mercer moves in the area near the Secret Shop, he will be given Merciless from Anna. I gave Mercer his sword late on his earlier join to not completely downplay Saoirse.

Also, sorry, I will need to update the guides at some point.

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welp, I’m already past ch17, guess I’ll use him next playthrough

Hi, I have to create this account just to say these following things:

I really loved this room hack of yours, played for literal hours. I was already on chapter 27 when this 4.0 update came so i restart a new game right away (and bc i missed some gaiden chapters too). I have a few questions:

  1. Could you add some wiki, archive or post showing all the promotions avaliable for each character, so anyone else can see it?
  2. Young Sterling on Chapter 2 looks so cute and the new dialog choice between study dark or light magic made me wonder: monk Sterling will come with what kind of equipment or status?

Thanks, the new portraits styles are amazing, now they are matching each other. rip big head Boone (thank god)

I have updated the 4.0 Classic version to 4.1 Classic and it is available now. 4.1 is compatible with any of your 4.0 save files, and it includes the following fixes:

  • updated Caspian’s fighter battle palette.
  • updated Violet’s shaman battle palette.
  • updated Cash’s monk battle palette.
  • fixed an issue with triggering Tynan’s sidequest on Ch 11 (should work now on all difficulties).
  • fixed boss battle bgm for Astoria and Melchior.
  • increased Joseph’s base stats and level for easier and more consistent Prelude 3.
  • increased Myles’s base stats and level for easier and more consistent Prelude 3.
  • increased Riley’s base res by +4.
  • various minor text corrections.

Note: These changes will eventually make their way to the Friendly branch too, but it is double the work to do it all at once. I will update the Friendly branch after more updates have been done.

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Happy you’re enjoying this hack, @ruiva!! :slight_smile:

I have added a Class Guide as a supporting document that shows the promotion path for all the characters. Most characters do have something unique too - even in the same base class. For example, Wanda and Fletcher both start as Lance Knight, but have slightly different promotion options. Same with Saoirse and Mercer. Hope you find this helpful.

Sterling will begin as a monk if he studies light magic. His base stats will be slightly different, but the biggest difference is he’ll have a lot more res in exchange for some power. Sterling does have a poor res growth, so it does help him in that area; though, I find that an energy ring really helps Sterling get going if you choose monk. The monk line also gets access to Seraphim, so that’s another nice bonus as you enter the endgame.

Note/Trivia: Sterling is the only playable character who has access to Druid and Prophet classes.

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Hi @caladrius , I was reading them back and wondering if you intended to continue doing your character spotlights that were based off a poll a while back. I really loved seeing the little art piece that went with them but also reading about your takes on them as the creator of the game. If you do, it would be lovely to see anyone, though personally I’d hold interest in one of the new characters or my boys Atticus or Liang!

Incidentally I was trying out Roxie this run since I usually use her and while I had to baby her a bit and her speed can be iffy for me that Nosferatu tome puts in work!!! I finished playing through the Chapter 14C set of maps and they were pretty neat. I liked how the first map had some neat rewards if you went for all the forts while the boss was nearby. For the second map, though, getting the party around the map and splitting for all four switches took forever, haha. I’m still having a great time with it! Trying to see how many paired endings I can squeeze out while still having strong enough units to finish the game.

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Tier list need portrait and character update, in a few days I will finish the game and post a full and personal review

Would love to update the tier list with the new portraits, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to delete pictures on the site. . . or I have not figured out how to do it. I’ll probably have to make an entirely new one after I am done with all the portrait updates.

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Speaking of, how many more portraits do you guys have left to do? Just curious. I’m waiting on a second play through with all the portraits and stuff redone. Thanks for coming back and updating this gem!

i dont really comment on hacks very much but wanted to say im very glad this game is continuing to be updated because it’s definitely one of my favorites for a plethora of reasons

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Hey @Tangrow, it’s cool to hear that you enjoyed reading the character spotlights. A lot went into each of them. I would of course take the time to think about and write each of the character spotlights, but I was also personally paying out of pocket for the character artwork. I worked with maotorata on Fiverr; she is fantastic if anyone is looking for a character artist. Highly recommend.

In any case, I receive a number of backlash messages about The Lonely Mirror – either making fun of the game or being a little needlessly harsh. I understand that this “Fire Emblem game” isn’t going to be everyone’s favorite (or even anyone’s) FE hack, and that’s perfectly fine. It just felt like a downer on all the time I put into the hack, and I questioned whether I could even respect myself for making Lonely Mirror. That feeling was what inevitably made me stop the character spotlights. No sense putting in more time and money.

I am of course grateful to the people that truly love The Lonely Mirror, and I like to tell myself that it is a “sleeper hit,” and maybe one day more people will give it a go.

For today, I will treat to an Atticus spotlight as you requested.

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Atticus is a recently requested character spotlight, so I figured “why not” for old time’s sake. I cannot say whether these spotlights will continue in any capacity though as mentioned in my previous post. Hope you enjoy the spotlight on main The Lonely Mirror thief, Atticus.

Background:

Atticus is a reformed thief employed as an intelligence gatherer for Ametona and working under Count Brett. In his early years, Atticus was home to the streets of Ametona and made a name for himself by petty thievery and conning nobles. . . until he was caught. Brett ultimately saw something in Atticus and offered a full pardon in exchange for his services. While Atticus is forever grateful to Brett for introducing a life outside of thievery, it is in Atticus’s nature to live by his own rules. He does what he wants; though, it is for good. Usually.

Atticus was stationed to gather intelligence on King Corwin’s confrontation with Celyste at Granrei, and there he witnessed the chaos caused by Vetti’s Harp as Ametonan and Celyste soldiers were driven mad and made to attack friends and foes alike. After Corwin’s death, Atticus recovered Majestra – the king’s sword – and continued to survey the state of Granrei. After Princess Leah and Brett arrived, Atticus was able to provide the sad news of Corwin’s death and information on the current state of the war with Celyste. This ultimately drove Leah to want to meet with Prince Joseph regarding the war.

Atticus was part of the group responsible for ending the Ametona-Celyste War and helped in driving away the Proclaimers from Celyste.

The fear the Atticus experienced while in Granrei, drove Atticus to continue tracking the Proclaimers while hoping to get strong enough to take them down. This brought Atticus to Burga where he secretly may encounter the White Lions during their confrontation with Shane in the noble district where he gifts them a Dragonspear during a house visit event. Regardless, Atticus is made aware that the White Lions surrendered to Burga and were detained, and he decides to take matters into his own hands by breaking them out of prison and joining their cause.

Appearance:

Atticus is a young man with short, purple, tousled hair. During the Ametona-Celyste War arc, his hair is longer and more freeform, while after the time skip Atticus’s hair is shorter and more controlled. Atticus wears earthy tones. His cloak is a faded green and his tunic is brown. He also has a scar on his cheek after the time skip.

Growth Rates:

HP Pow Skl Spe Lck Def Res
75% 45% 50% 70% 40% 20% 20%

Unit Analysis:

Atticus growth rates are aligned to what one would expect of the thief class. Atticus has an incredible Speed growth (the highest in the game), and also has respectable growths in HP, Power, and Skill. Atticus’s Luck is also decent enough where he won’t suffer from critical hit chance against non-killer weapon enemies. Atticus does have weak growths in Defense and Resistance and on average will likely not see too much high than 10 in either stat at max level.

Atticus is the player’s ONLY guaranteed thief in Lonely Mirror with Liang possibly being missed and with inconsistent availability and Eliza being available late in the game only if the player allies with Judge Amanda. Thus, Atticus is the most consistent option for thief utility – able to provide increased vision in fog of war, steal items, and open chests through much of the game.

Assassin and Whisper are the two promotion options available to Atticus, and both options are great choices. Assassin provides the Lethality ability and access to Bows to allow Atticus to have more flexible offensive options. Atticus is the only character in the game with access to Whisper, and it provides increased movement and unlimited lockpicking ability.

Thief utility is not the only thing that Atticus offers. His solid Power and Speed growths and the ranged flexibility of knives make Atticus a very strong combat unit if trained. Nevermore, the S-ranked knife, while difficult to procure, is the best endgame weapon thanks to the 1-3 range, high crit rate, and monster slaying capability, and Atticus will double everything – easily one rounding the most difficult enemies in the game without fear of retaliation.

Atticus’s main weakness is his support options and affinity. While Atticus does appreciate the avoid from the Ice affinity, it does not improve his offense. This means if Atticus gets subpar Power growth, there is no easy way to improve his damage, resulting in him being difficult to train. Secondly, Atticus could find deployment competition from Liang or even Myles; however, there is no clear winner between the three guys as each offer their own pros and cons.

Overall, Atticus is practically too good not to use in some capacity. His thief utility will make a lot of chapters much, much easier such as Chapter 17B or Chapter 18x. Outside of his utility in the early game, Atticus can be one of the strongest combat units at the end of the game if wielding Nevermore, which is arguably the best weapon in the game and with limited users – Atticus being one of them. Furthermore, Atticus could be considered the best wielder of Nevermore due to having sole access to the Whisper class as he will always have better movement and attack option compared to any other user (assuming no Boots). Make it a priority to give Atticus some levels in the early game before meeting the White Lions, and he will not disappoint.

Support Options:

Atticus’s affinity is Ice, which provides boosts to Defense, Hit, Avoid, and Crit Avoid. The avoid and crit avoid are very nice for Atticus; however, the other bonuses are less important to Atticus. Atticus would prefer bonuses to Attack or Critical Hit. Atticus’s support options may be a little awkward in terms of the bonuses they provide; however, a bonus is better than no bonus at all:

  • Brett - Fire
  • Liang - Anima
  • Roxie - Thunder
  • Parvati - Ice
  • Sterling - Light
  • Mercer - Thunder

Brett is arguably Atticus’s best support partner as the Fire affinity adds offense bonuses that Atticus desires most while also providing a max avoid bonus. Atticus also happens to be one of Brett’s best options as Brett is locked to Dark and Ice support options.

Roxie may be one of the few characters looking at Atticus’s Ice affinity as her preferred choice. The added Hit, max Defense, and max avoid bonuses that Thunder-Ice provides really helps her tanking ability as well as giving Roxie a little more hit rate to dish out strong magic attacks. Atticus also does not mind the max avoid bonus that Thunder provides him. Mercer, who is also Thunder, has better support options to boost his critical hit and would rather look elsewhere. Mercer is probably Atticus’s worst support option.

Supporting Parvati and getting double Ice affinity bonus is probably Atticus’s most convenient option due to Parvati rejoining around the same time as him. The bonus does provide both units with max defense, avoid, crit avoid, and hit rate, which are great for an Atticus that does not have power issues.

The Light affinity bonus that Sterling provides is honestly among Atticus’s better options, because Light boosts his offensives with attack and critical hit bonuses; however, Sterling has a more convenient support option in Lael available and would likely look to Atticus as a B rank support option in most cases.

Liang’s Anima affinity is probably the most awkward for Atticus. Liang is often a unit competing with Atticus for a deployment slot early in the game as both provide the thief utility. While both units can be used together, Liang has stronger early game options that are better for him, and Atticus may be the same. All that mentioned, Anima-Ice bonuses work quite nicely together and provide max defense and avoid bonuses. Consider this pairing if wanting to use all the “thief” characters in a run.

New 2023 Polls:
I created a new character poll that has been entirely refreshed. There are character that were not previously in the old poll or late joiners to the poll, so I am curious to see how different this one ends up. I also started a chapter poll for those that want to partake. I am curious which chapters are the most enjoyed. There are a ton of them in this game.

Favorite Character Poll (New 2023 Poll):

Favorite Chapter Poll:

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Thank you so much for coming on and telling me that you enjoy Lonely Mirror. It’s awesome to hear the appreciate for the game I made and all the hours spent in FEBuilder mode can be attributed to something. It made my day. :slight_smile:

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