Happy 20th anniversary of Advance Wars’ US release!
Fire Emblem Wars is a full scale Advance Wars 2 rom hack which re-imagines Fire Emblem units as Advance Wars units and Fire Emblem characters as Advance Wars Commanding Officers. The rom hack was created in 7 months by a single person, Kartal, me.
19 new units based on Fire Emblem classes
Mechanically stay as AW units: no miss and critical chance, rescueing, more specialized to form effectiveness triangles
18 Fire Emblem characters as Commanding Officers
15 from FE6, 3 from FE8
38 fully tested single player maps
8 “tutorial challenges”, 30 War Room maps
Improved AI
reconfiguration, not reprogramming: stays within the confines of the original AI
specialist COs prioritize buying their boosted units and units which cover their weaknesses
mech spam exploit toned down and most COs will buy capturing units from leftover funds, after buying stronger units
unique AI for the final map in War Room
Graphics change and update
building sprites redrawn from GBA Fire Emblem and Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War buildings
shoal and reef tiles extended
idle and moving unit map sprites from Fire Emblem Monshou no Nazo (Sister unit modified to be a horseback unit similar to the Troubadour class)
shop screen unit sprites from Fire Emblem Monshou no Nazo
Stricter scoring
obtaining S-ranks is no longer effortlessly easy (280-300 range changed to 290-300, consult the Scoring document included for more changes)
Color Edits
7 alternate color palettes for all COs
Notes:
Always check Intel → Terms for War Room map-specific rules!
War Room turns flashing spring green when all maps are beaten
Design Room turns flashing spring green when all Color Edits are bought from Wars Shop
Also included:
Damage and movement cost charts
My fully organized hacking notes
Mappy maps
Graphic edits as image files
The PDN files were created with Paint.NET v3.5.5. Newer versions, last time I checked, are unable to open them.
Missing features:
Capture and battle animations
Known bugs:
Heroes can’t target Snags
Kept as a nerf
Red Dragons “sink” at the beginning of turn when at 0 energy (“fuel”)
Don’t know how to fix this
Animations are not forced off during Player 2-4’s turns
The event only activates for Player 1. Can’t fix.
The War Room shows part of the minimap within the text window when a large map (such as South Cape) is selected
Implemented badly by Intelligent Systems
Exit and re-enter to fix this
Final War Room map: the damage display for units on the castle gate tiles shows a greater number than the actual damage
I saw some screenshots of this in the FEU discord a while ago, looks cool. Creative stuff.
I tried playing AW once and it wasn’t my cup of tea (albeit I think it was because the tutorial maps weren’t great). Looking forward to seeing how you mixed up the formula.
I like Advance Wars, I played it when I was a kid and rediscovered it a few years ago. It would take me a hot second to get used to the different classes but that’s alright.
Ohh heck yes, been watching some of the development on this on the side these past couple months. Really excited to see this here as both a fan of FE and AW!
oh my god my two favorite things in one hack! Merlinus and red circles!
this hack looks really well done in all seriousness and must’ve taken a lot of work since advance wars hacking software must not be anywhere near as advanced (heh) as the FE hacking tools. If I liked Advanced Wars gameplay I’d totally play this and probably enjoy it!
Thank you all for your kind words. I’ve got praises via private message too. They really felt great.
I’ve configured Marcus’ unique AI too. Posting this for comparison with Perceval’s. The difference is crystal clear. Marcus is a Jeigan, and to be faithful to that, I made him good with low tier units and weak with high tier (promoted) units. He deploys only a few high tier units.
and must’ve taken a lot of work since advance wars hacking software must not be anywhere near as advanced (heh) as the FE hacking tools
@theghostcreator The only tools I use are a map editor and a graphics inserter. I do everything else in a hex editor and write detailed hacking notes with notepad++.
I recorded a video to celebrate the announcement of the new Advance Wars game. A few people were interested in hacking, so I recorded how I made the final tutorial map. The first half of the video is hacking, the second half is gameplay of that map. I have a thick accent, mind you.
I’ve been asked to show more gameplay, so I’ll be recording a short trial map soon.
This looks so freaking awesome. I just dived into Advance Wars 2 last week and I really like it. Optically this looks amazing. Only the big GBA potraits in the Co-Screen look a bit awkward at first (and should be shortened by removing the pixels that overlay with the menu) but it’s nothing too bad.
It’s still a work in progress. Relative to what’s already complete, I have very little to add: it’s just the trial maps. I make most of these myself and test them, often having to play them more than once. I model some after FE chapters (alter them to work in an AW gameplay sense).
That’s all the creative work left. The rest is the music, but that’s the very last thing I’ll try.
So I could say it’s soon now, but knowing myself, it’ll still take time. I just can’t rush it to the detriment of its quality.
This will be the final update on FEWars. The next time I post, I’m going to release it.
Had I not been busy, I’d have created a small video for this. Instead, I’ll post the full unedited, uncommentated test gameplay recording for those interested. Mind you, you’ll need to have played the game to fully understand what’s going on. (But I’m just too satisfied with how this map turned out visually.)
This was on August 14, 2021. The map is War Room map #18. I had successfully imported all the music I wanted (9 days of manually export-importing hundreds of .wav files; the songs sound almost like the originals). Now, I’m at War Room map #28 out of 30. I can’t believe it’s only been 16 days, it feels a lot more.
The War Room is structured to begin with 1-vs-1 maps vs. each CO (FE6 and FE8 characters), followed by 2+ player maps. The last 6 deviate from tradtional War Room maps by adding pre-deployed units. These are also more complex and difficult. The final map will be similar to a (AW) campaign final map, just not as overblown. It won’t feature huge cannons and flying fortresses. I won’t spoil it now. (The idea was conceived after I’d added the COs, before I began making the maps.)
What’s left to do:
The last 3 War Room maps (2 already created, not tested)
Adding slightly stricter scoring
Changing the campaign graphic to say “Tutorial”
Adding the title screen graphic
Making revisions to the dialogue where necessary
(Possibly adding a few versus maps)
Writing a brief guide on the COs and units (visually representing unit relations)
