[Lex Talionis] Fire Emblem IV-V: The Holy War (FE4 & FE5 Remake)

You have your work cut out for you sir! FE4 was balanced around the ability to save anywhere, anytime, so the original designers were more than happy to make the game unforgiving at parts. I don’t know the limitations of the Lex Talionis Engine, but I’m guessing it only supports suspend-style saving, perhaps erring the game towards easy by default; as the maps are so large and there’s so much more opportunity to make a crucial error late in a map and be forced to start over.

Moreover, a lot of the encounters in FE4 were designed with the idea that you’d only have your mounted units in the battle, because they inevitably have to rush across the map to save a village or something, but with the rescue system, you can bring Arden or Azel or whoever you want with you on your village-saving crusades. So identical encounters with identical units might be overall easier, but you could also argue that that is just the skill ceiling on the game being raised along with the save system being taken away.

Though the ability for any and every unit to double attack (without needing the pursuit skill) does change everything drastically. Lex being able to double on fools makes him so much more powerful before you get the Hero Axe, though I’d imagine that’s only fair, as Brave and Legendary weapons can’t be repaired and spammed in this remake, and characters would need some kind of power boost to compensate.

And I’m guessing the GBA games don’t have comparative skills to replace powerful skills like Wrath, Nihil (skill and crit nullification that Julia/Julius/Alec/Seliph had), or Meteor/Moon/Sunlight; or things like the sleep status from the sleep sword. I played through FE 6 and 7 only once though, and 8 only twice, but I don’t remember skills like those being anywhere in them, so I imagine you’d have to program them in yourself if that’s possible, or find a way to produce a similar effect. (I also wonder what you’re gonna replace the pursuit ring with, if you add it in at all, since characters don’t need it in the GBA style.)

And good luck on finding an alternative method of recruiting Holyn, the Arena system in FE4 was unique in how deep and detailed it was compared to every other game in the series. I imagine that can’t be easily replicated in the GBA-style.

Of course, I’m not expecting an identical recreation of the game, feel free to make sweeping changes to the core balance of FE4 as necessary, given the tools you have.

1 Like