[Lex Talionis] Fire Emblem: Heir of Darkness

Fire Emblem: Heir of Darkness

Story

On the continent of Bragmarr, a land once torn apart in a war between the Fell Dragon and the Divine Dragon and his heroes, the sparks of war and conquest begin to light once again, while a great evil unlike anything ever seen in their history begins to blossom in the most unlikely of places.

Baron Craig of the Barony of Eire, desperate for a change from his rotten and barren lands, has designs for the throne of the peaceful kingdom of Mons. With the reluctant help of a traitor from within the castle, him and his 4 children storm the castle, eliminating the royal family one by one in a bid for the throne. A lone prince manages to escape. Unable to find the young prince, Craig instead focuses on bringing the kingdom to order, staving off rebellions, establishing relations with other nations, and providing a prospective future for his beloved children.

Hazel1_no background

You are Hazel, the 3rd of his 4 children. A seemingly unassuming lord on the outside, her appearance belies a far darker side. Unendingly ambitious, she prides herself in her strength and cunning, willing to get her hands dirty to get what she wants. With her two retainers, Hazel happily follows her father’s footsteps, assisting his domination of Mons.

But as Craig’s conquest continues, the mystery of the lost prince looms, nations grow uneasy, a mysterious cult stirs… and Hazel’s heart grows darker still.

Overview

Fire Emblem: Heir of Darkness is not a typical Fire Emblem game. Take the classic story of a fugitive prince, who builds an army of commoners, knights, nobles, and mages to retake his kingdom and defeat the evil dragon and flip the story around. This story focuses on Hazel, an ambitious, lance-wielding villain protagonist who seeks to establish her family’s dominion over the kingdom of Mons. Together with her retainers, she recruits all manner of bandits, criminals, corrupt nobles, reluctant mercenaries, and other dark characters to further her plans.

Ambitions
  • 20-26 chapters, with some gaiden chapters.
  • Take a walk on the dark side and recruit various characters, many of which are based on classic villain archetypes such as dastardly bandits, mad kings, corrupt nobles, sadistic dark worshipers, and a bloodthirsty knight, as well as a few heroic characters who have found themselves on the wrong side of the war.
  • Be wary, as some of your soldiers may find themselves swayed by the charismatic heroes, losing any items you equipped on them, and turning your hard-earned exp into another enemy to face. You’ll be given a few clues, but you’ll ultimately have to be vigilant. Hints will get more obtuse as the game progresses. Enemies will always talk-recruit if able.
  • Enemy dancers!
  • Tellius-style base camp menu
  • FE9-style support system. No “End Turn” grinding here!
  • S and A+ endings for many characters.
  • Have fun being an unabashedly evil villain, complete with maniacal laughter!
  • Dynamic emotions for Hazel
  • Killable green units!
  • Full CG images
  • Place yourself on the other side of classic objectives.
  • Hopefully some original music, but tracks will be taken from other sources if I feel they fit.
  • No AI portraits will be used.
Probable Content Warnings

This game is intended for 17+ audiences.

  • This game as a whole is dark, one where evil wins for a change. Although there are a few comedic and even heartwarming scenes, these are intended to break up the narrative.
  • A certain character has a love of blood and death, and occasionally uses terms such as “disemboweled” or “gored”. He’s intentionally super edgy.
  • An early chapter will have Hazel take part in the royal massacre though battle animations, including siblings of the prince.
  • The death and loss of family is a major theme for a few main characters. In addition, they may also witness said death’s firsthand.
  • An optional gaiden chapter will allow you to forcibly draft a young recruit, in a dark twist of characters such as Amelia, Donnel, and Mozu. The character’s survival is up to you, but their solo ending is not a happy one even if they do.
  • Characters may occasionally be depicted with blood on their mugs.
  • No real bad guy henchmen were harmed in the making of this game. No, seriously, Darth Vader would raise a brow.

If you enjoy this concept or have any questions, feel free to let me know in the comments!
Unfortunately, I’m both very busy, money-limited, and new to hacking. This will take a while to get off the ground, but I will hopefully have a proof of concept eventually.

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im interested in this

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This one I would advise against, if your story requires someone to be fully nude you’re better off either editing that section or just not having them on the screen at all

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Fair enough. This one was one of my more tentative things. Thanks.

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Ok it got me intrested. Well most skip dialog and any story cutsceans so i dont think self amputation text will really matter. But still it not wrong in any ways like its war times there is bound to have war crimes and other phycologicaly bad stuff which your tipical fire emblem games exclude since it was made to be available for all.

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Sign me up! I love darker/more adult themes and can’t wait to try this bad boy out. Super interested in playing the not so nice guys and having them potentially turn on you is such an amazing concept! What’s the progress on it if I may ask?

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Uh, recently started hacking, in general. Plus, I’m a busy man.

Why? Its for mature audiences and it’s not even showing the nudity…why can’t adults…adult

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I’m interested in a darker fire emblem. Happy to play a villain in a war guy that is actually for a more mature audience.

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Because that stuff is not wanted here nor needed here

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OP let us know if you want the topic reopened.

Ok, a bit of a status update.

As you can see, I made the decision to move to the developing Lex Talionis engine, to better mold the game to my vision. Rest assured, when development completes, I will try to make a GBA port that will fit within the limitations of the hardware while remaining true to the vision of the original.

As for progress, I have laid out the idea for the 6 starting levels, as I plan to have a demo available in June, depending on my schedule. Job hunting and school have been stressful, and learning game design has been tough, which is why there haven’t been updates. I’ve decided to simply use music from other games that fit the context for the time being, although I may try to commission some original tracks.

The biggest hurdle for me right now is map design. I have never been great at determining “map feel” even for official FEs and I’m even less experienced at actually spriting and designing them.

As for what I HAVE done, I have a lot of the cast filled out conceptually, and the plot is taking a solid form. I have a number of portraits that will need cleaning up, but for the time being, I will probably use placeholder portraits in the demo that give the general vibe of each character.

TL;DR I apologize for the lack of updates or progress, as this is my first game, school and unemployment sucks, and ADHD sucks even harder.

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Thanks for the update! I’m sure the final project will be awesome don’t burn yourself out and remember you’re doing something you enjoy. Trust me, I understand the ADHD struggle!

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