Fire Emblem: War of Lovers (12/30 Chapters)

Story

Five years have passed since the War of Heroes concluded. Marth, the Hero King, defeated the Dark Dragon Mediuth, finally putting a decade of warfare to rest. The Seven Kingdoms of Akaneia were unified, and Marth became Emperor of them all. He also married his wife, Sheeda, making her Empress.

However, Marth has been missing for two years, and his united empire is crumbling at the seams. Akaneia is in a civil war, with the sage Marich and the hero Kris struggling for control at every turn. More distant regions dream of freedom, and rebel for independence. All claim loyalty to the absentee Emperor, but ambitious figures are more than willing to prosper from the chaos.

While Akaneia burned, Marth had gotten engaged with Alear, from the far-off Lythos. His former loyalties had been replaced with loyalty to Alear. But engagement wasn’t sufficient: marriage was on the table. Marth and Alear’s wedding day will prove to be fateful…

War of Lovers evolved from my attempted Hack Jam 2 entry. Though the story outline and basic idea of the gameplay was decided, they were completely unplayable and I chose not to enter. The only feature working was the unit randomisation: at certain points, a random unit will join the party. The fact that I failed to finish didn’t sit well with me, as I usually enter hacking contests. With International Hack Release Day rolling around, I decided to take what work I had put in and try to release something. It’s not 100% complete, but there’s enough to have something worth playing.

Features

  • 12 playable chapters
  • Voice clips
  • Unit randomisation
  • Akaneian and Elibian maps reimagined
  • Dismount
  • Unit variety
  • A close-to-FE1 Falchion
  • The Wing Spear
  • The FE3 soundtrack
  • Marth and Chiki animations

Known Issues

  • The game occasionally reverses the order of a scripted battle in the Chapter 10 opening, locking the game. Restarting the chapter appears to fix it.
  • Ballista animations can be buggy at times.
  • E-rank items are given to characters in the Chapter 11 ending: this is to avoid a crash if a scripted battle is entered unarmed.
  • Some character names are too long for certain menus. All should fit in menus that allow seven tiles for character names.
  • The “L+R: Combine” graphic has a broken palette.
  • Not every character has voice clips, and nobody has palettes.

Screenshots





Download

Click Here to Download
Credits are within the download.

Changelog

v0.31: - 08/12/2024

  • Fixed an immeasurable amount of bugs in the v0.3 release.
  • Largely eliminated placeholder text.
  • Named several enemies with names rendered as (name) in dialogue.
  • Largely replaced Akaneian music with Elibian music in Act 2.
  • Fixed fatal fire trap bug (using Cam’s fix in the Skill System).
  • Killing most Elibian bosses no longer ends the chapter early.
  • Various broken doors now work.
  • Added six new recruitable characters, as alternatives to random gacha units.
  • The Power Ring and Spirit Dust are now functional.
  • Touched up the title screen and important character graphics.
  • Continuing from a v0.3 save should be safe, though event flags will not be
    set correctly for Chapter 12 if you killed the Chapter 11 boss.
  • Continuing from an earlier version will not work.

v0.3: - Elibe: 26/10/2024

  • Implemented the second story arc, set on Elibe.
  • Chapters 7 to 12 added.
  • Fixed another Marth animation crash.
  • Added nine new characters to the recruit pool.

v0.21: 16/11/2023

  • Fixed the Marth animation crash (thanks to Wan and Abzel)
  • Fixed the Chiki animation errors (thanks to Huichelaar’s animation tool)
  • Added proper world-map narration in the vein of FE7 (Sme helped)
  • Fixed several Jam Mode oversights and placeholder text, including a Ch3 crash
  • Character endings play in Jam Mode’s ending.

v0.2 - Akaneia I: 18/10/2023

  • Finished the first story arc in Akaneia.
  • Chapters 5 and 6 added, and writing for Chapter 4 completed.
  • Replaced the battle frame with one inspired by FE3.
  • All random characters now have full-screen CGs when recruited.
  • Voice acting added for Super Smash Bros. characters.
  • Added “Jam Mode”, which alters the story to follow the plot planned for the
    game jam the idea for this hack was first designed for.
    Jam Mode ends on Chapter 5: playing on normal mode is recommended.

v0.1: 01/04/2023

  • Initial release.
30 Likes

This is without a doubt one of the games of all time :+1:

3 Likes

Randomized units are awesome. I wanna see more with that

I’m happy to inform you that I have submitted War of Lovers for this year’s FEE3. My video this year is actually properly edited, as opposed to reading off a powerpoint.
Over the past few weeks, most work has gone into making the trailer. Have a few screenshots.
GachaJam-7 GachaJam-9

I’d at least like to get the first act (or a “fully realised Hack Jam 2” variant thereof) finished by FEE3, but I make no promises or guarantees.

9 Likes

Today War of Lovers appeared in FEE3.

That means it’s update time.

Download War of Lovers v0.2

This version goes up to Chapter 6, which covers the first story arc, set in Akaneia. Let me know if there are any bugs aside from the known issues, and have fun.

4 Likes

Your Tiki transformation issue seems like a very easy fix. It’s because Myrrh’s sprites for transformation and reverting are still in the game. I didn’t create either of the Tiki sprites you’re using, but I did mash together a transformation sequence between the two. It’s on the repository, feel free to use it. You just have replace the battle animations located at C5 and C6.

I did try to install that animation (your name’s already in the credits), but for whatever reason the buildfile Animation Assembler wouldn’t properly read them.

“ValueError: 23 is not in list” is the error message, but I don’t see any 23s in the scripts.

Really? Huh, that’s odd. I’ve just tried it myself by importing the animations I used in Fall of Thabes and it works absolutely fine. Maybe something went wrong with the upload to the repository. Though the FE1 Demake project used the same animations with no issue from the repository.

If you send me your most up to date version of the game by pm I can import the Tiki animations and send it right back. It’d only take a few minutes. Though I can’t do it literally this second as I don’t have wifi access on my laptop until tonight.

Also, is this a reference to my project Pyrath 609, or just a coincidence? Either way, I love it.

For what it’s worth importing it with FEBuilder works perfectly fine. It’s just the buildfile animation insertion tool is complaining, and since this is a buildfile hack, AA.exe is what I need to use.

There was a fair chance I was thinking of it. I do like my Akaneia, so I might play it one of these days.

Can you not import it via FeBuilderGba, save the rom, and then use a build file assembler from there on our?

Running the build script assembles the rom from scratch every time, meaning any change made in FEBuilder would end up being overwritten. I could in theory use a base rom with the transformation animation already installed instead of a clean rom, but that would be a very messy workaround and one I wouldn’t be willing to use.

I’ll figure something out, I’m sure.

How awkward. Well you could make the UPS file from FeBuilderGba for each release with the fixed animation implemented each time, but that would be a tedious process of uploading the file a lot. I wonder why it isn’t working, wether it’s an issue with the transformation mechanic in general or rather there is something specific missing from these specific animation files.

Update.

v0.21: 16/11/2023

  • Fixed the Marth animation crash (thanks to Wan and Abzel)
  • Fixed the Chiki animation errors (thanks to Huichelaar’s animation tool)
  • Added proper world-map narration in the vein of FE7 (Sme helped)
  • Fixed several Jam Mode oversights and placeholder text, including a Ch3 crash
  • Character endings play in Jam Mode’s ending.

Download War of Lovers v0.21

In the end, the problem was Circles’ animation assembler being unable to handle 32-colour animations. Huichelaar made one that can handle 32-colour animations, including your transformation animation. So that problem has been solved, thankfully.

I also decided to record the Chapter 1 opening as a bigger teaser. Here you go.

3 Likes

Happy New Year! It’s been a bit since I updated this thread, so I’ve made another short teaser.

It might be a while before Act 2 is finished - I do intend to rebalance things to align with the intent to make this a full hack. Things to do include writing and eventing the chapters, reducing the level curve so it starts at level 1, and maybe removing the fixed supports. But sooner or later, Marth is going to have an adventure in Elibe. What’s going to happen?

4 Likes

GachaJam-44
I couldn’t find an FE11 screenshot LP and the one for FE1 didn’t screenshot this line so I did it myself.

It’s Valentine’s Day today. What with this hack being called War of Lovers, I think it’s an appropriate day to make a progress report.

Work on the second story arc is well underway. Story writing has reached Chapter 10, and maps for chapters up to Chapter 12 have been picked out. Events are complete up to Chapter 8.

GachaJam-29GachaJam-30
GachaJam-32GachaJam-35
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New characters are going to enter the pool in the next update as well. Here’s some CG previews:
GachaJam-7GachaJam-43

In other art news, I currently have everything using their FE3 item icons - I have FE12 ones programmed in too, and the final icon set will likely be a mixture of the two. Cavalry and armours have been split as well.
GachaJam-41GachaJam-42

That’s about everything. I’d say I’m still some way from a release, but the release will be up to the end of the second story arc: that’s planned to be at Chapter 12. Until then, happy Valentine’s Day and enjoy.

5 Likes

I’ve submitted War of Lovers to FEE3 2024, which is actually the first time I submitted the same hack as last year’s FEE3. Have a few screenshots of what’s been going on.

GachaJam-18 GachaJam-19
GachaJam-20 GachaJam-21

5 Likes

It’s FEE3 day. That means update day. This is what I get for saying “OUT NOW” in the FEE3 video. But I am a man of my word. I’d like to make a more polished v0.31 at some point, but there’s only so much a single man can do.

War of Lovers v0.3: - Elibe: 26/10/2024

Implemented the second story arc, set on Elibe.
Chapters 7 to 12 added.
Fixed another Marth animation crash.
Added nine new characters to the recruit pool.

Click Here to Download

4 Likes

Hello! I said on the discord that I really wanted to try this hack out, and I finally got around to doing so! I played through Turn 9 of Chapter 11, for reasons I’ll detail later in this post…

I enjoyed the vibe of the hack immensely. I especially liked Alear and Kris’ characterizations, and the twist. Would definitely be interested in playing more of this hack in the future!

I know you said the balance was poor, but I really didn’t feel that way outside of some characters being total garbage. My average unit felt very fun and useful, and didn’t feel more broken than the important characters or each other. They’re on the stronger side, but I think that fits in with the Chiki and Marth in this hack. 4 units I noticed as especially poor, however, were Meta Knight, Dedede, Peppy, and Slippy (although I don’t mind Slippy being a meme lol). I pulled Meta Knight and Toad at nearly the same time and Toad outclassed MK in every stat (both were at level 1!) despite being a thief.

Anyway, here’s some other things I encountered:

Unpromoted classes do not have Canto, but promoted classes do. Probably intentional, but it caught me off guard.

Yoshi joins with a Silver Sword, but has C rank swords and A rank lances.

In Chapter 7, the text leads me to believe the enemies should be Brigands, but they are listed as Kris’s.

Chapter 9 says the objective is to Seize the castle, but I won by defeating the boss. Besides this being an issue of unclear communication to the player, it prevents a safe shopping opportunity that I would have liked to have. The stretch of Chapter 6-10 has no safe shopping opportunities, which I found to strain my resources.

In Chapter 10, I tried to use Toad to open the door by Sophia, but it just used up a Lockpick use and did not open the door. I was only able to decipher that Sophia and Wolt were unrecruitable by checking their Weapon Ranks. I’m unsure if Sophia and Wolt are intended to be recruited eventually or not.

After Chapter 10, Lilina’s textbox completely bugged out. Happened with Tiki after in the next cutscene as well. I play on mGBA.

In Chapter 11, there’s no event tile to open the door in the northwest corner of the map, making two deployment slots useless. On Turn 9, I had already defeated Diamant, so the game entered a softlocked state upon trying to call the event at the end of the player’s turn.

I’d like to post screenshots, but I think I have to post some more on this website before I’m allowed to do that. :disappointed:

2 Likes

Thanks for giving things a spin! Right now I’m currently in the middle of a big bugfix and polish update: I really rushed things out the door for FEE3. To respond to things individually…

I’m putting focus on the story here, so I’m glad you liked it.

All the listed weak units were actually implemented just before release, and I had actually failed to give them proper base stats. As a result, their stats are the class base. I’ll give them real bases next release: in the longer term I’m planning a broader revamp of the random unit pools.

That actually wasn’t intentional: upon investigation, the new classes (lance knights, etc.) don’t have it, but the old ones (cavaliers) do. Will fix for next release.

Noted: I’ll switch that to a silver lance.

Brigand is the correct name: this has been fixed in the current development version. I had used Kris’s as a generic placeholder I forgot to correct.

Seize is the intended goal: I’ll make sure to fix that.

They are ultimately intended to be recruitable and saving all the green units give a reward. What I’m planning is some sort of system where you can choose between a canon Fire Emblem unit and a random unit from who-knows-where, which I hope to include in v0.4.

Noted: Chapter 10’s dialogue is fairly choppy overall: I made some plot revisions just before release and did not properly revise the dialogue. I have found the text overflow in these scenes and will fix for the next version.

The door bug has been fixed for the next release.
Killing Diamant’s meant to end the chapter early, but much of that event is unfinished. Dialogue assumes he always dies, but the conditional event hasn’t been programmed. The crash will be fixed in the next release.

You should get the permissions after 24 hours and posting something in another thread, typically an intro thread. Once you get the permissions, I’d like to see who you got!

Thanks for playing! I won’t give a solid date - that’s what got v0.3 out in such a buggy state - but I do hope to release a v0.31 soon that fixes every issue you’ve raised.

3 Likes

Things may have taken a bit longer than anticipated: I ran into nearly seventy bugs and other things to take a look at on my playtest! But enough waiting, it’s time for

War of Lovers v0.31 - 09/12/2024

  • Fixed an immeasurable amount of bugs in the v0.3 release.
  • Largely eliminated placeholder text.
  • Named several enemies with names rendered as (name) in dialogue.
  • Largely replaced Akaneian music with Elibian music in Act 2.
  • Fixed fatal fire trap bug (using Cam’s fix in the Skill System).
  • Killing most Elibian bosses no longer ends the chapter early.
  • Various broken doors now work.
  • Added six new recruitable characters, as alternatives to random gacha units.
  • The Power Ring and Spirit Dust are now functional.
  • Touched up the title screen and important character graphics.
  • Continuing from a v0.3 save should be safe, though event flags will not be
    set correctly for Chapter 12 if you killed the Chapter 11 boss.
  • Continuing from an earlier version will not work.

Click Here to Download

4 Likes