[Lex Talionis] [Complete] Captain's Log v1.6.1

[carrosa]

Click here to download! v1.6.1

Captain’s Log is a single chapter fangame originally submitted for CELICA, now with significant changes from the original release. The game uses the Lex Talionis Engine, and is thus a standalone game rather than a patch for an existing FE rom.

Features:

• Skills and Combat Arts tied to each unit, fueled by an MP system
• Multiple Seize points
• Daggers, and a Lord who wields them
• Bosses with multiple HP bars, in the style of Engage
• An option to display a summary of a unit’s unique mechanics when you first select them
• Mouse control support

Story: Captain Asef Riahi has lived a very long life. His hard-won extra years have come at the cost of a great many memories. Sifting through his dreams, he searches for glimpses of his past crew, longing to commit their stories to paper.

How To Run

Double click the captains_log_v1_6 application, and the game will boot.

Controls and Options:
The default Lex Talionis screen size is pretty small, but you can increase it all the way up to fullscreen in the Options.
You can play with keyboard, mouse, and/or controller. To set up your preferred controls, go to Extras - Options from the title screen or during gameplay.

Default Keyboard Controls
X=A,
Z=B,
S=Start,
Arrow Keys,
A=L,
C=R

Enjoy!

Screenshots

Credits

Portraits

Abzel (Asef)
Abzel, carrosa (Old Asef)
Goldblitzx (OC 21)
LaurentLacroix (OC3)
MeatofJustice (OC 14)
amema003, ZeldaCrafter, JiroPaiPai, Nickt (GAMERS OC)
Monk-han (OC Proud General Version 3)
SirNicee (OC 4)
VelvetKitsune (OC1)
Kanna (Atey OC)
AmBrosiac (Mage, no face, Version 6)
ZeldaCrafter (OC2)
PumpaRum (1)
Toa (OC 6)
XVI (Kieth)

Icons

Batima (Poison Dagger, Regal Dagger, Silver Dagger, Steel Dagger, Iron Dagger, Knife, Stilleto
Alice (Dagger)
2WB (Dragonbow)
Tactics Ogre - All Icons (Ripped by EldritchA, Indogutsu Tenbuki)
ZessDynamite, rainlash, LordGlenn, suneohair, and others (Skill Icons)
Jubby - Lance 3
Zane - Axe 33

Map Sprites

Der (Archer-F improved, War Cleric F)
IS (Assassin M Legault, Bard M Elfin)
flasuban, Tordo45 (Cavalier F Revision Axe)
SALVAGED (Cavalier M Sword)
TAS20xx (Dark Mage U FE 3-4)
Nuramon (Dread Fighter F)
Melia (Saint F)

Class Cards

SALVAGED (Cavalier M Sword)

Battle Animations

Pushwall, Glenwing, JJ09 (Jaffar Assassin - Sword/Knife Combo)
Leo_link, Iscaneus, DerTheVaporeon (FE13 - War Cleric)
DerTheVaporeon (Archer Reskin F)
Nuramon (Custom M Arcanist, Dread Fighter F)
UltraFenix (Bard Base M)
Leo_link, Pushwall (Cavalier Variant F)
BBHood (Lex Talionis Spell Effects)
Skitty, Pushwall (Cavalier F Axe)

Backgrounds

Jaqueline Martin - www.jaqmart.de (Title Screen Background)
WAve, ZoramineFae (FGO - Indoor Library)

Tilesets

Final Fantasy 5 - Ripped by Xyssia (Ancient Library, Ship Exterior, Ship Interior)

Music

Assassin’s Creed: Mirage (A New World Awaits, The Round City, The Wild)
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (The Clock Tower, The Forest Queen, End Credits)
Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse (The Lone Grave, Darkest Night, Risky’s Uncertainty, Boss Battle, Unfinished Business, If Only I’d Known)
Shantae: Half Genie Hero (A Mysterious Fountain, The Sky Bridge, Tower Chase, Uncle Mimic’s Song)

Special Thanks

Fullerga7, Ramm, mag, and the entire Lex Talionis Discord for all their help, particularly with eventing.
Maple, ms.joestar, and all the friends whom I’ve shared in my love of Fire Emblem with.

Lex Talionis engine created by rainlash

Captain’s Log created by carrosa

Click here to download! v1.6.1

[carrosa]

Huge thanks to everyone who’s checked out the game so far! If you’ve played through it, I’d love to hear your thoughts. I’m starting work on a full-scale project based on this game’s world and cast, and so any feedback would be incredibly useful and highly appreciated.

A small update is on the way, mostly just for some minor fixes and presentation tweaks.

[diealot]

will check it out once the update drop to fix the remaining bug. Thanks for giving us this short 1 chapter fangame

[carrosa]

Patch 1.4 is done! This update was a touch more substantial than I had originally planned, extending beyond minor fixes into unit balance changes.

Patch Notes

• Unit Changes:
  • Asef: +1 Strength (10 to 11).
  • Mira:
    - Swordreaver added to inventory
    - +7 Luck (5 to 12)
    - Stagger Strike: +5 Hit (10 to 15), Removed Crit Penalty, -1 AP Cost (6 to 5)
    - Leg Sweep: Removed Hit Penalty, -1 AP Cost (6 to 5)
• Item Changes:
  • Silver Dagger: -5 Crit (5 to 0)
• Added new Player Phase music that plays when two of the three points are seized
• Unit death quotes now play in combat rather than afterward
• New palettes for Dalilah and all three bosses
• AP on the stat screen now displays as AP rather than MANA
• Fixed a couple typos and a text skip
• Hid a background status effect used for Mahin’s Spider Fang to avoid player confusion

[carrosa]

I made a tier list template for the playable characters. I’m really curious what people think on how the units compare to each other. Here it is! https://tiermaker.com/create/captains-log-characters-16336411

[diealot]

Just a little nitpicking but I would like to see the save screen to be more center aligned:
From This:

with this it look like something is pushing it down and the blank spaces don’t look good
To This:

Considering this is a 1 chapter fan game why is there so many save slot?

I gave it my best shot but the battle was too difficult, I Lost. I try it 2 times and both time all my unit die. I guess I didn’t utilize their skill to their full potential. Not to Mention the bosses can be revive after killing them the first time. That is a broken skill man.

[carrosa]

Hey, thanks for giving the game an honest shot. I really appreciate it.

I think having more save slots was just a matter of “why not” because Lex Talionis can support something crazy like 30 or so slots. As for how they align, I’m pretty sure that would require engine hacking. And even then, most games that I see with an abundance of save slots usually start as the top of the list anyway, FE or otherwise, so personally I’m not sure its worth the effort.

As for the map itself, what were the biggest pain points in terms of the difficulty for you? You made it up to young Asef and took out his first health bar, which makes me think one of two things:

1. You got to him second or last but had too many prior deaths to kill him.
2. You rushed to him first and didn’t have enough firepower for his squad.

Do let me know if I’m wrong though.

The vast majority of people I’ve seen play it go clockwise around the map, fighting Arman, then Farrokh, and finally Asef. I’ll admit I haven’t had as much testing done when tackling the bosses in a different order. It might be a good idea to better signpost to the player that seizing your first two points will each give you a strong new unit, so that its clearer that trying to bomb rush young Asef without them is very risky. Or worst case, I could seal off his squadron until the player defeats the other two bosses, so there’s no chance you can fight him and his group without Kaveh and Dalilah. I’ll look to have some more testing done to getan idea of what would need to be changed, if anything.

[diealot]

I have a confession to make after the 2nd try I was so mad at losing that I went jnto the Lex Talionis Engine and edit the stat of every useable characters to 20 and then I beat the game. This screen shot was taken at that moment when I was about to beat the game.
Also originally I had the team split up 3 guys go top and 3 guys take the bottom left. As you can tell my decision to divide and conquer did not work.

[carrosa]

Lmao, I respect the dedication. Yeah, this is not a divide and conquer type map. It was designed for the player to take advantage of all of their units together, which is a lot harder if they are split up.

[diealot]

Duly noted

[diealot]

@carrosa I was wondering why you choose to include the Globe Teleportation at all the location near the sieze point when you seize the first book case on the top left ? All it did was teleport you to the middle of the map where the Giant Globe is. I don’t see any function in that?

[carrosa]

The main purpose of the globe teleport is to enable you to approach the top right from different positions. It’s also an extra bit of insurance to keep the map pace going in cases where you might otherwise need to backtrack, depending on what you do between approaching Farrokh’s group and redirecting towards the young Asef.

The idea was originally implemented in an earlier version where the map was way too big, but I liked how it felt even after condensing the map size, so I kept it.

[carrosa]

Another update’s here to fix bugs, rebalance units, and get the Turnwheel working properly!

Patch Notes

Unit Changes:

• Mira: -3 Skill (14-11) +5 Res (4-9), fixed a bug that caused her to have 5 Mov instead of 7
• Naghi: New Prf Weapon (Summit Axe, 1-2 Range)
• Kaveh: -2 Mag (15 - 13)
• Dalilah: Crit +30 replaced with Crit +20

Slightly increased the stats of the reinforcements, and added two more Berserkers to their second wave
Fixed Turnwheel bug preventing it’s use, now there are three turnwheel uses
Fixed Prf text display for Asef, Hamid, and Naghi
Minor typo edits

[carrosa]

At this point, I’m happy with where this chapter is. Barring any new bugs popping up, Captain’s Log is in a state where I don’t expect to make more updates. The only remaining change I’m thinking of will be a new palette for Mahin’s staff animation, but I’ll need to manually edit the animation to achieve what I want.

It’s been really surreal to see other people play something I made. Thanks for all the support and feedback, I really do appreciate it.

[carrosa]

Here’s another, potentially final, update for Captain’s Log, focused on presentation.

Patch Notes

• A new custom portrait for Asef by Abzel
• Edited map sprites for most characters that match the skin tone of their portrait
• New palettes for Asef, Mahin, Hamid, and Naghi
• Boss music now begins playing at the start of a fight rather than after dialog, and persists until the boss is defeated like Three Houses/Engage
• Altered music across multiple points in the game, including a new title screen theme and a new boss theme for the younger Asef
• Small dialog changes and typo fixes
• In-game credits finally working

[carrosa]

Well that didn’t take long lmao. 1.6 introduced a couple bugs that I’ve just patched.

Patch Notes

• Kaveh’s greyed out map sprite now displays properly
• Dalilah can use her own Shamshir again
• Fixed a typo