[LT] [WIP] FE: Quintessence (New Magic Triangle!) (1st 7 Chs. Demo!)

[jlo]

Surprisingly, not related to FE7 despite the name!
Features

• New Magic Triangle! Erudite (Mind) > Primal (Body) > Spirit (Soul)
  • I was about to fall asleep one night when it came to me: a unique twist to the FE magic formula! The idea of a “person” being made up of three parts (mind, body, soul) has been around in the real world for ages, so it was a perfect opportunity for some FE shenanigans.
  • It started with “mind over matter”, so naturally the rest of the triangle followed that.
  • Erudite: knowledge based magic, similar to wizards from DnD, as well as the arcane magic from Dark Souls/Elden Ring; in my setting, arcane power is the manipulation of light, and can even create solid structures for defensive purposes
  • Primal: inherent power, akin to sorcerers or druids from DnD; there are melee spells that hit DEF, as well as your typical elemental spells that hit RES
  • Spirit: your typical holy (and unholy!) spells, think clerics/paladins from DnD; this is differentiated from Erudite light, as that is the more “sciencey”, physics-based light
• A world divided amongst 3 major nations that each adhere to one of the schools of magic
  • The Magocracy of Verrint: Sees themselves as noble saviors of the world, bringing enlightenment. By force, if necessary. Utilizes Erudite to subjugate their enemies and build vast, industrial cities. The main character, Tallis, is from Verrint. Sees Massahr as feral and barbaric, and Belisse as superstitious.
  • The Wilds of Massahr: Endlessly feuding tribes led by avaricious warlords, who will often raid their neighbors as well. Those who can master the chaotic, natural power of Primal come out on top. Sees Belisse as weak and distracted, and Verrint as all talk, no bite.
  • The Theocracy of Belisse: Humble followers of the Goddess Pneuma, who bestows her powers of Spirit upon her chosen. Constantly beset by both Massahr and Verrint, they rebelled from Verrint some decades past. Sees Verrint as a colonizer, and Massahr as fearsome animals.
• Gameplay
  • Difficulty:
    • I have many unique map objectives, with enticing things to draw the player in multiple directions; I don’t want it to be TOO hard though, on default settings
    • For now, Casual Mode is the expected mode, mostly for writing’s sake; may change to “VIPs still exist but can’t be deployed”, or maybe a permanent injury system
    • Also, MC Tallis dying doesn’t give a Game Over atm. Will do that in the full release
  • Branching promotions + limited Second Seals (character-specific choices)
  • Each unit gets 1 Personal skill
  • Class skills gained at 1/10 for Tier 1, TBD For Tier 2
  • Tellius style base, BEXP, movement, WT-resist (CON can suck an egg!), auto-promote after lvl 20
  • LCK slightly buffed w/CRIT HIT = SKL/2 + LCK/4

Updated as of 3/12/25; Please see latest comment for .4 update log!
Click here for the latest version: 0.0.4-Demo!
Here’s the latest version!

Updates in 0.0.1+.2 + .3 + .4

Gameplay

• Nullbright animation replaced, will no longer hang indefinitely
• Ch3: Flames tiles will not crash anymore, but may need to update for fliers.
• Laurence/Victoria/William stats fixed, no more zooming across the map
• Tallis death will cause Game Over
• Ch2: Escape is now one tile and boss is on it to make it harder to rush the map
• fixed some units’ starting equipment
• will make it so units don’t keep previous class’s skills upon Second Seal (they’ll keep on promotion)

Art

• Updates to weapon type icons, fixed transparency on many items
• Fixed transparency on Arcane Dart
• Updated many Palettes/Animations- many are placeholder for now, but most units should have combat anims
• Tallis 2.0!
• Ch 3 prep music changed
• stat screen background changed

Story/Text

• placeholder text on Rejuvenate and Arcane Specialist removed
• placeholder text on William’s horse fixed

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WIP/Known Bugs

• new title screen needed
• update tiles for broken walls
• all green units need battle palettes
• Arcane Specialist needs new logic
• limit turnwheel uses (turn uses may actually be good now)
• replace placeholder portraits/anims/etc
• make bosses unshoveable
• Forging
• Engraving
• some units don’t have second seal choices
• may adjust difficulty on Ch1 and Ch2 if current changes aren’t enough
• tutorials for folks completely new to FE?

Other than updates based on feedback through Ch6, my next major update will probably be the end of the first act, ~Ch 9 or 10 I expect. Please let me know how this goes, and sorry for the major issues in the first release! When I was in school, I was usually very precious with my work, and I spent too long on first drafts. I wanted to go ahead and get something out there, so thanks for putting up with the jank!

As Reggie would say, my Body-Mind-Soul is ready?

[WiiSportsRemote]

talk a bit how you got the idea for this, eh?

[ShirleyVaga]

sounds like an interesting game. I like the sound of lore around magic.
I think to be able to post links and screenshots you need to make more posts and such?

[jlo]

Sure thing!

I forget how I got there, but I probably found out about FE hacks through YT vids. I looked up highly rated ones and started with Vision Quest. Had a great time with that one! Playing that and watching other vids (coincidentally FEE3 was happening at the same time) I was getting inspired. Also, I’ve been a DM for a number of years now, so the game-creating, world-building process has been pretty familiar for me.

I wanted to do something unique and as I was falling asleep I was struck by an idea–instead of the vanilla dark-anima-light magic triangle, I could use the concept of mind-body-soul! Now, the “advantages” and “disadvantages” between the 3 are somewhat arbitrary, but since we already have the phrase “mind over matter” I figured hey, let’s start with that. I also really like the idea of unusual classes/weapons/skills, so that’s why I have Primal being somewhat physical-based, plus plenty of T2’s that use strength and magic.

I started off by investigating FEBuilder, had some fun with that. But I checked out Klokinator’s guide on which tool/platform to use and I liked how LT was much more streamlined and didn’t have to deal with registries and all that. I really appreciate how welcoming and helpful everyone on LT discord and elsewhere have been!

I haven’t decided on exact number of chapters, but I’m envisioning 4 parts. There are some major spoilers I won’t get into but not everything is as it seems.

[jlo]

Yes, that seems to be the case. Will try posting links/images later…

[ShirleyVaga]

Hope you can do links soon cause I’m interested in trying it.

[jlo]

Test test test…making a post so that I can hopefully share links and pics…

[jlo]

I’m just gong to post a reply here so that I can get link sharing…
Yes I hope I can do that soon!

[PKLucky]

Making an introduction thread in the Community catergory as well as posting replies to other threads helps speed up the process!

[jlo]

Appreciate it, I went ahead and made an intro thread.

[jlo]

Woohoo, the link is ready now!

[ShirleyVaga]

I have to say music choice is good and dialoge too.
I assume many things are still wip like portraits, palettes etc?
I noticed for some reason animations only show when enemy attacks.
Is the arcane dart spell a reference to magic missle?

[jlo]

Good to hear music and dialogue is good so far!

Yeah, I might have deleted it in the OP but lots of art is WIP/placeholder. I also need to actually assign combat animations to all the spells, that’s why some are only showing map anims. I could’ve spent hours more fine-tuning the art, but I needed to just get it out for feedback.

The arcane line is a bit more inspired by the Soul spells from Dark Souls. But! As for Magic Missile, I actually will have that as a spell in the game. It’s very low MT, can’t crit, multi-target, and pretty good range

[GigaExcalibur]

Hello! This project seemed interesting to me so I decided to test out the demo. I would have liked to play every available chapter before giving feedback, but the game crashed in Chapter 3 when I tried to have Laurence attack the southern armor knight. I’ve attached my error log, hopefully the offending cause is discovered and corrected.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/gym2z0lfl4cqrojk4i3tq/debug.2025-02-17_15.43.00.173641.log?rlkey=mue8otdrcasldw9cf8umxxl4g&st=a3xq5av1&dl=0

Despite that crash, I want to talk about my experience playing the three chapters I had access to. And my experience playing those chapters was largely the same: Laurence is unhealthy for the game. It’s very obvious why.

Movement is a highly valued stat in Fire Emblem since units with higher mobility are able to reach objectives faster and provide more flexibility in positioning. But when high movement is given to a unit with enough offense to annihilate every enemy and the maps aren’t designed to accommodate this powerhouse, the presence of this unit removes any ounce of difficulty in the game:

• I beat the prologue in two turns. The only reason it took two was because Laurence was 1 point of Str off from ORKOing the boss and the boss lacked a ranged weapon to suicide into Laurence with.
• I beat Chapter 1 in three turns. I sent Laurence up the right side to clear out every enemy for Tallis to talk with Dudley while the other units were solely on shove duty. None of the green units were in danger, although I did skip out on the house since it was out of the way.
• I beat Chapter 2 in three turns as well, but this wasn’t because Laurence is broken. After Franco rescues the stranger on turn 2 he can just fly himself to the arrive point and end the map without anyone having to fight the top enemies at all. It’s also trivial to keep William and his horse alive.

It’s a shame the game crashed on Chapter 3 since it seemed to not be trivialized by holding forward with Laurence, but regardless none of the first three chapters were balanced in the slightest. Maybe they would’ve been more challenging if I restrained myself from using Laurence but that might’ve had the opposite effect by turning the maps into overly long slogs.

Because of Laurence’s dominance, I couldn’t get a good feel for how any of the other units operated. I think Tallis had the opportunity to one-shot a mage with Nullbright? Victoria also has 12 movement which would be cool if she wasn’t in the shadow of Laurence. Stella and Franco seem mid but it’s too early to say for sure.

I highly, highly recommend turning Laurence’s movement down to put him in line with the other units. Maybe place some enemies down who can actually threaten him as well to discourage brainlessly throwing him into the fray. That would automatically make the other units feel better to use since they have more time to contribute.

In terms of story I only have one strong opinion. I think the opening event to Chapter 1 is very clumsily handled.

The conceit of Quintessence is supposed to be the interplay between the three components of its magic system: Primal, Erudite, and Spirit. The opening exposition is highly philosophical, tying each type of magic to the abstract aspects of our being Body, Mind, and Soul and forming a distinct country prioritizing each aspect. This is a very interesting setup for a world and story with a lot of potential for different dynamics and worldviews!

Which makes it so disappointing that the first interaction we see between these groups is the villagers loudly and publicly ostracizing a foreigner for being able to levitate objects. It’s an extremely unsubtle and trite way of representing prejudice. The thematic core boils down to “xenophobia bad since being xenophobic makes the guys who can move bricks with their mind accidentally drop their bricks on children,” which is the least interesting way of telling this story. I’m sure this conflict will be fleshed out and given more nuance as the game goes on but this chapter is a very poor introduction to it.

Shifting gears from gameplay and writing, I want to list some areas in which this game is lacking polish. I’m sure you know about all of these but I want to list them out for the sake of them being fixed at some point:

• The title screen is still The Lion Throne.
• The Scholar and Naturalist classes have no battle animations.
• Tallis’s death doesn’t cause a game over.
• Most item icons have the green color that’s supposed to be transparent.
• Rejuvenate and Arcane Specialist have placeholder text.
• The stat screen background doesn’t fit the stat layout at all.
• Some generic battle palettes are completely inverted and no player units have a battle palette.
• The turnwheel has infinite uses?
• William’s horse is called “Soldier” and its description is the Grado soldier description.
• When the Wyvern Riders reinforcements show up on Chapter 2 turn 2, the cursor flashes on a random tile far away where they spawn.
• The Wyvern Rider grayed-out map sprite is miscolored.
• The music for Chapter 3’s prep screen is WAY too loud.
• Most of the portraits clash with each other artistically. Some are vanilla FE8, some are F2U on the repo, and William’s portrait commits the grave sin of having the wrong outline color.

I’m aware that most of the graphical assets are placeholders, but a little bit of polish goes a long way.

I apologize if I’ve been overly critical of the first three chapters in this writeup, but I do genuinely believe this hack has a lot of potential. I just want it to find its footing and tweak the elements that don’t work. Good luck on your development!

[jlo]

Thanks so much for the detailed response! Y’know, I thought I had more of the WIP things listed out, but yes you’ve covered the ones I knew about plus some new issues.

Gameplay notes

• I know exactly why Laurence/Victoria were busted, I’ll get their stats fixed. Sorry!
• Ch1: with Laurence/Vic having stats fixed, hopefully Ch1 won’t be too easy. If it’s still too easy, I may make it more dangerous for the green units. However, I’m still cognizant of this being very early in the game, so I don’t want it to be too hard
• Ch2: I knew it was an option to end the map early, and some players like to do that sort of thing. Personally I prefer hitting all the interest points/treasures etc. But, it might be a better challenge if everyone has to get to the escape point; I would have to figure out what to do with the injured horse though…
• Ch3: I should have that bug fixed. I think it was actually an LT error, but I found a workaround. It was specific to the Flames tiles
• I’ll probably nerf Nullbright a bit

Story notes

• I agree it is a blunt introduction to the prejudice angle. But then again, I think the real world has an unfortunate history of blunt prejudice too. I mean, the townsfolk make me angry, and I wrote them! And really that is the point of this story beat, to show how unwelcoming different groups can be to each other, especially with Belisse being a former colony of Verrint. Plus, this is Tallis’s fish out of water situation, where she realizes just how bad the real world can be outside of her studies.
• How would you introduce this conflict? For this part of the story I want something to shock Tallis and force her to act, or escape, or something. Ch3-4 is actually a large pivot point to her mission, and the events of Ch1 are pretty integral to it.

Misc/polish

• *The title screen is still The Lion Throne.
• Yeah, title screen WIP
• The Scholar and Naturalist classes have no battle animations.
• WIP
• Tallis’s death doesn’t cause a game over.
• I realized that was in the demo but I figured it was fine, easier for testers to get to more of the game. But I’ll probably turn it on in the next version
• Most item icons have the green color that’s supposed to be transparent.
• I’ve already got a fix for the weapon types! Will need to update all the weapons too
• Rejuvenate and Arcane Specialist have placeholder text.
• good catch, thanks!
• The stat screen background doesn’t fit the stat layout at all.
• yeah I’ll probably change the background and/or the layout
• Some generic battle palettes are completely inverted and no player units have a battle palette.
• yup, WIP. Still getting used to LT’s anims and palettes
• The turnwheel has infinite uses?
• similar to the no game over, I left it in for a quicker experience; there’s a bug I have to fix for the uses though
• William’s horse is called “Soldier” and its description is the Grado soldier description.
• wdym, that’s intentional
• When the Wyvern Riders reinforcements show up on Chapter 2 turn 2, the cursor flashes on a random tile far away where they spawn.
• good catch, ty!
• The Wyvern Rider grayed-out map sprite is miscolored.
• more LT palette goodness
• The music for Chapter 3’s prep screen is WAY too loud.
• I liked the track for the emergency of the moment, but I’ll go ahead and replace it. Don’t think I could turn down the volume on just that track
• Most of the portraits clash with each other artistically. Some are vanilla FE8, some are F2U on the repo, and William’s portrait commits the grave sin of having the wrong outline color.
• oh yeah, lots of placeholders. vanilla portraits will def be replaced, maybe I’ll deal with outline colors if I have time for polish later on

Again I really appreciate the detailed feedback, and I’m glad to hear you see potential. I’ll try to get these fixes out soon!

[jlo]

Okay, please see the OP for the newest version with lots of fixes!

[jlo]

Hello hello, I have a new update ready that should actually make it possible to play through the first 6 chapters! So many fixes for bugs and missing items/art. Phew! Now that this is done, I can get back to working on Ch 7 and beyond.

Major Bug Fixes and Updates

• Rejection animation no longer hangs forever
• Heal and Rejuvenate give Exp
• Branding Iron gives Exp
• wyvern knight combat palette fixed
• enemy healers won’t heal walls…
• bosses that weren’t giving exp correctly now do
• When Victoria leaves the party their items will go to convoy
• Allies can use convoy next to Tallis
• Tallis/Laurence and 1 or 2 others have stats adjusted so their not OP
• Doors are removed correctly after unlock
• Ch3 Armory works
• Enemies in Ch4 no longer pass through player units (too OP)
• various dialogue/event fixes
• various gameplay updates, for balance

BTW, you can technically progress into Ch7, but it’s just unfinished.

Sorry it was in such rough shape from the start, though I guess that’s what playtesting is for. Thanks again for your interest and I’m real excited to hear your feedback, plus showing you what’s on the horizon!