New Rom Hack: Fire Emblem 7 - Heroes

[TheTrueGaro]

Hello, people of Fire Emblem Universe! My name is Garo, and I’m new to the rom hacking community! I have come today to post my completed FE7 reskin, Fire Emblem 7 - Heroes.

Have you ever wished you could recruit Ishtar or Eldigan? Have you ever wanted Hector, Lachesis, and Nephenee all on the same team? That is what this hack aims to do.

This hack takes characters from different FE games and makes them playable in one game while keeping their unique strengths and abilities intact. Lewyn with Forseti? Check. But what about Murdock with Wishblade? Also an option. Here are some features of the hack!

• Playable characters from throughout the franchise: (Continent-# of playable characters) Jugdral-14, Elibe-8 , Magvel-6 , Tellius-10 , Fodlan-1
• Personal weapons and legendary weapons, including Holy Weapons from Jugdral
• Powerful player units, but also beefed up enemies
• Unchanged map design, but enemy placement has been tweaked for more challenge/fun
• Unchanged story, but simple, quick-building supports to keep character personality intact
• Increased exp gain for unpromoted units
• And more!

~!! Quick things to know before you start !!~

• This hack was made in Eliwood Hard Mode in mind, so make sure you play that mode for the intended experience! The game will quickly soft-lock on the other modes.

• Most every character is recruited using the Eliwood replacement, Lewyn. This is so you don’t have to keep track of who replaces whom.

• You’ll be getting a lot of strong units, so I recommend playing this game as an Iron-Man to anyone familiar with FE7.

• Because growth rates are so high and exp gain is increased for unpromoted units, I don’t recommend promoting your best units too early, as you could kneecap yourself for those later chapters. Enemies stats get pretty high, especially in the last couple maps. But your call!

• You’re bound to have some questions regarding the game’s quirks, so PLEASE don’t hesitate to check out the readme and the FAQ in the dropbox. I’m confident it can answer/solve all but your most obscure issues! Plus I tried to keep it as spoiler-free as I could.

Link to the dropbox. Download the patch!

Link to the discord. Let’s chat about the hack!

For me, probably the coolest part of all of FE is the final Act of FE10, where the coolest, most powerful people in Tellius come together to kick some ass. That is what this hack is supposed to be, but with my favorite characters from my favorite games.

In addition, I’ve always loved how GBA Fire Emblems play, but my favorite characters come from Jugdral and Tellius. In this hack, you can use badasses from different games while keeping that perfectly snappy and streamlined gameplay of the GBA games.

Your team is going to be super strong, but the enemies will be too. This is meant to be a difficult, but straight-forward and rewarding hack.

I would like to think this hack speaks for itself. I’m not a super experienced hacker, but I’ve been working on and polishing this hack for a year now, and I’m proud of it.

I hope you give this project a try!

~Portrait credits~
(other credits provided in the readme)
Spoilers for playable units!

~Glaceo and x0_000 are twitter users who gave me their permission to use their art.~
~All other portraits were from the repo and/or labeled F2U~

Lewyn: Glaceo
Nephenee: NICKT
Ike: NICKT
Hilda: x0_000
Jill: NICKT
Julia: melia
Elincia: Imperial, Cardcafe
Tailtiu: Glaceo
Haar: NICKT
Ishtar: TheBlindArcher
Astrid: NICKT
Finn: melia
Lachesis: Glaceo
Eldigan: Glaceo
Altena: Vampire Elf
Brigid: Glaceo
Ashnard: Vampire Elf, Blackavar, Chalphy
Travant: Vampire Elf
Wario: ruherech
Mia: NICKT, Pichu, Solum, Nih, Lenh
Leanne: Vampire Elf
Sigurd: x0_000
Arvis: Glaceo
Ilyana: NICKT
Leif: melia
Ayra: Glaceo

[theghostcreator]

@TheTrueGaro

You’ll be getting a lot of strong units, so I recommend playing this game as an Iron-Man

this sentence right here is… Worrying, you said you balanced difficulty but at the same time you’re saying that you recommend iron maning the game because the units are strong, are you sure that’s game balancing? (Although I suppose it’s much like vanilla fe7)

This particular sentence is worrying because if you see unbalanced characters as a gameplay feature rather than a gameplay balancing issue then the hacks you make further down the line (whether that be reskins or original games) you may not have such an easy time balancing a cast when in a position where you should be.

either way I hope this hack finds success.

[TheTrueGaro]

Thanks for the comment! I get why you would be worried that’s an issue.

If I were trying to make a hack with my own units and such, the game balancing would be a lot different. However, in this specific rom’s case, I was a lot more concerned with keeping the characters abilities close to their origins and then balancing the game around that. I recommend playing an iron man because you may lose a unit but in a later chapter, you will get another good one with worthwhile stats. I do think the game is balanced (to an extent, obviously. This is just meant to be a fun romp haha) around characters with high stats. I’m thinking the characters may not be as unbalanced as you’re imagining.

But thanks for voicing a valid concern! I get that you dont want amateur hackers developing bad habits, and I assure you that’s not what’s going on. Because the game is based around playing my favorite juggernauts, I wanted them to still feel like juggernauts, so characters get strong quickly. I did balance (in my eyes) the game around those high numbers, but yes, if I were to ever make a game with a more normal cast, I would balance it differently.

And thanks for giving the post a read as well!

[MercyPlayz]

Are there any custom animations used or are they all the standard fe7 sprites?

[TheTrueGaro]

They’re are a couple customs animations. From the repo and they’re credited in the readme

[Roisourboi]

When does Ike join?

[TheTrueGaro]

He’s Raven’s replacement, so pretty early! He comes with Ragnell, which is obviously busted, but he cant use it until he promotes.

[TheTrueGaro]

Sorry to hear you’re struggling! The some cast members are pretty weak to start, but there should be some reliable members. Eldigan is really reliable, and Dieck should be helpful as well. The cast is always as big as it is in vanilla FE7.

If you want to discuss options for strategies in the discord, we could definitely talk there! We have some players there who are past that chapter, and we’d all be happy to give you tips! Hopefully that helps, and hopefully your experience hasn’t been too frustrating up to this point

[Abyssknight24]

One bug I’ve noticed is that when you take Hector’s route, the units on the chapter that Eliwood joins are not their proper class…

[TheTrueGaro]

Yes, I am aware. As stated in the post, this hack is only playable in Eliwood Hard Mode.

[Abyssknight24]

How do I recruit ike? I’m on the chapter, just not sure who to use to talk since it’s usually Priscilla to Raven.

[rplato0]

You can use Lewyn to recruit every enemy/NPC.

[TheTrueGaro]

Yep, rplato0 is right. Just like it says in the post and in the readme, Lewyn recruits everyone other than Lucius’s replacement (recruited by Raven’s replacement) and Rath’s replacement, who’s recruited by Lyn’s replacement.

If you have any other questions, you’re welcome to ask in our discord server, or you can always check the post/readme

[KecklerHoch]

There seems to be a problem with the game, everytime the Fiora replacement shows up in Dread Isle, she doesn’t spawn in and it causes a softlock