Seas of Novis [v0.1.1]

Seas of Novis is a remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden - well, specifically Fire Emblem Gaiden’s second chapter, “Celica’s Departure”. This game is a total reimagining of the chapter, with entirely new maps, new mechanics, and a modified story that expands on Gaiden as an alternative interpretation of the NES game. Eschewing Gaiden’s mostly straightforward structure, Seas of Novis embraces its RPG side more, with quests and nonlinear progression at its core. Basically: “What if FE2’s second chapter was an entire game?”

This is the first public release of the game, v0.1, which covers a slice of what will be the final game’s content, featuring 2 of the game’s islands.

Why this exists (personal stuff)

Last summer, my then-current SRPG project had been sitting at a very long standstill for months; I was out of ideas and energy, I wasn’t happy with the state of the project that actually existed, and various attempts at juicing up my enthusiasm failed. That project is vaguely faithful to “standard” Fire Emblem mechanics, and what I found I wanted was something that just really broke the mold, and had lots of opportunities for programming challenges I could overcome.

Well, whenever I’m feeling creatively bankrupt, I always seem to come back to Gaiden. I made a short remake of Chapter 1 back in 2019, AGR, which was mostly faithful (besides a new postgame), and now here I am with a very decidedly unfaithful remake of Chapter 2. (Maybe by 2030 I’ll have accidentally remade each chapter as individual games?)

In any case, this turned out to be exactly what I needed to get the creative juices flowing. From mechanic design to massive UI overhauls, the project I had in mind had no shortage of things to keep me busy, so last August, I put my prior project on the backburner (if it hadn’t been there for months already) and dedicated myself to planning out and designing a workable demo for my Chapter 2 remake, titled Seas of Novis.

In December, when I realized this upcoming March would be Fire Emblem Gaiden’s 30th anniversary, I decided there would be no better time to release a public demo of my FE2 love letter. So, I reined in the scope, estimated features, learned how Trello works, and put my nose to the grind. I really, really do think it’s paid off; I’ve 100% completed v0.1 several times in the past week and am very, very happy with the state of the game. I hope you enjoy it even a fraction as much as I enjoyed making it - and will continue to enjoy working on it in the future.

What's in v0.1?
  • 10 unique battle maps, all almost completely original
  • 11 unique encounters (some repeatable)
  • 7 quests, 4 able to be completed
  • A brand-new island, with a new town and a new dungeon
  • A boatload of Gaiden mechanics: single-item inventories, world map, exploration maps, lion statues, group EXP, so on, so forth
  • Combat Arts that cost HP, most of them new or heavily tweaked
  • Spells that cost HP, including some new ones, each with unique roles
  • Learning arts and magic spells by leveling up
  • No permadeath
  • No promotions
  • A slew of QoL and UI enhancements, many of them unique to Seas of Novis
  • Solo-keyboard, -mouse, and -controller playstyles all fully supported and playtested
  • And some new stuff you might not have seen before in a game like this, such as…

timed-hit-CA

This might sound crazy, but there aren’t any ship-to-ship boarding action battles in this demo. There’s so much content on the islands that I must’ve forgotten Chapter 2’s most infamous trait! Silly me. Well, I assure you there will be PLENTY in future versions to make up for it.

Playtimes will vary, but my runs trended between 3-4 hours. When speedrunning, it was more like one hour.

Screenshots

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Download

Latest version: v0.1.1

To play, open “Seas of Novis.exe”. If Windows doesn’t wanna run it, click “More Info” and then “Run Anyway”. I pinky-swear it’s safe. F4 to fullscreen, ESC to close the game, controls are editable in game.ini.

v0.1.1 (current version of the game proper): https://drive.google.com/file/d/10GSmU-Uu_XNPKxTElsCIINxxk_29SeYQ/view?usp=sharing

For the v0.2b demo, same as above, except the file is just “game.exe”.

v0.2b (small preview of content coming in the next major update, v0.2): Seas of Novis (2023 Game Jam Edition) by TheRepeat

Credits

See also credits.txt in the download. Be sure to check out the readme and the known bugs files as well!

>>Art
  • Mapchips by flasuban, Time Fantasy, McMagister
  • Charchips by JAPANweb, Fluffy
  • Press Start 2P font by CodeMan38
>>Music
>>Plugins
  • Automatic Enemy Stats by Goinza
  • The original Mark Single Enemy Range, HP Costs, Weapons and Items as Original Data, and Combat Arts by Goinza
  • Movement arrows by Cube and McMagister
  • Various QoL plugins by Cube and namae kakkokari
  • Walking Maps by namae kakkokari
  • EXP Bar by wiz
  • The original Hit Flash by RogueClaris
  • Enhancement Pack and Targeting Lines by MarkyJoe1990
  • The original Dumb Counter and Single Menu by piketrchechillas
>>Special thanks
  • Eclogia, for the mountain guide.
  • Flasuban, for the forest advice (not to mention the awesome recolor of the McMagister tileset!).
  • Goinza, without whose advice I’d never have been able to realize my plugin ideas (and extra thanks for being customer support for his plugins).
  • The SRPG Studio University discord for all the help and support, especially the individuals who encouraged me in public or private whenever I’d gush about my progress on this game. You know who you are, and it really means the world.
  • My family, for being shockingly supportive considering how hard it is for me to explain the concept & appeal of this game to them LMAO
  • Intelligent Systems, for making such a fascinating game thirty years ago to the day.
Changelog
  • v0.1 (14 March 2022):
    – Initial release
  • v0.1.1 (21 March 2022):
    – An oversight that skipped the necrodragon’s first phase has been removed
    – Novis Cemetery’s objective now properly displays the remaining enemy units
    – Cavern Hive now properly shows the objective window

Short of any game-ruining bugs in need of fixing, I’ll be taking a rest after this release, so the next significant content update won’t be any time soon (i.e. probably not this year). If you’re the type to worry about starting a WIP project in fear of a new version coming out in the middle of your playthrough (like me), I wouldn’t fret.

Thanks for playing!

27 Likes

:eyes: You have my attention.

5 Likes

Gaiden! Epic!

5 Likes

Just updated to version 0.1.1 with a handful of small bugfixes:

  • An oversight that skipped the necrodragon’s first phase has been removed
  • Novis Cemetery’s objective now properly displays the remaining enemy units
  • Cavern Hive now properly shows the objective window

Saves will transfer from v0.1 without issue. :slight_smile:

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Hi everyone! I’ve been hard at work on Seas of Novis for the past year. The next big release, v0.2, will have a TON more content, while continuing the emphasis on HP management gameplay, deep unit distinctions in a small party, off-the-wall game mechanics, and high-concept map design that is still brief enough to not wear out its welcome. Well, v0.2 at large still needs to sit in the oven for a good while, but in the meantime I’ve released a demo with a sneak peek of v0.2 content - 3 new battles, including the game’s first boat map!

About each battle
Map 1 - No-Man's-Land

This map is part of a sidequest that, in the full release, will be unlocked by defeating the necrodragon boss, which you may remember being sort of a stand-in for a “final boss” of v0.1. In this sidequest, Mae is trying to master a very powerful spell, “Aura”; killing monsters on this map with Aura will permanently lower the HP Cost of the spell.

While Celica is excited about any means to become stronger, Boey takes issue with this method of learning Black Magic…

Map 2 - Skirmish on the Bay

This map is the first part of one of the two central quests of Seas of Novis: “Slay the Pirate Prince”. That main quest involves defeating the “prince of all pirates”, Barth, and loosening his bandit navy’s stranglehold on the Novis Seas; this is one of the main conflicts of Seas of Novis as a whole.

For this map, Celica knows of a blockade of pirate ships surrounding the sea’s most populous island, Sethrick Isle. She assaults one such ship in an attempt to break the blockade and free the people of Sethrick Harbor.

This is a boat map! Hooray! I did it! That’s Chapter 2 everyone, you can all go home!

This is a map of tight spaces and a strenuous turn limit, plus an optional chest to loot - and if you stick around long enough, enemies that drop nice goodies will appear. The pirates are well-equipped and outmatch Celica’s puny band, but luckily, Celica and company receive some unlikely help…

Map 3 - Battle at Sethrick Harbor

This map immediately follows the previous in-story. Right after the skirmish with the pirate ship, Celica heads straight for Sethrick Harbor to liberate it from the now-invading pirates.

This map is littered with visitable houses. All of them give different useful goodies as you might expect, but they also have the nice effect of fully healing the unit that visits, PLUS giving them passive HP recovery for the rest of the battle, which will help your efforts to aggressively push deeper into the city. So be judicious when deciding who should visit each house! And be quick about it too, or thieves might destroy them instead. And keep an eye on the turn count - the boss with the cool sword is getting impatient…

Difficulty Options

This demo takes place immediately after the events of v0.1, so we’re a good way into the game here, and the difficulty reflects that. While Normal Mode is the intended experience due to the way it allows you to use all of your tools to their fullest, I’ve also added a Casual Mode for those who would be less comfortable diving headfirst into the game. (No relation to FE’s Casual Mode - this game already doesn’t have permadeath!) Casual Mode means all playable units deal +3 damage, receive -3 damage, and have +5 Hit innately. It might not sound like much, but this is a very low-growth game so trust me, that +/-3 is huge.

If you have never played Gaiden, Echoes, or a previous version of Seas of Novis, I recommend playing on Casual Mode (at least on your first run) as you get comfortable with the game mechanics. Normal Mode is certainly harder than the source material, for reference.

Screenshots




The SRPG Studio community is currently running a “Build in Progress game jam” with the goal of getting our more reclusive community members to finish a slice of their game and show it off to the public. This “v0.2b” build of Seas of Novis is a result of that game jam.

Don’t forget to use the Mastery Draught! I think you’ll like its effect.

Check it out here: Seas of Novis (2023 Game Jam Edition) by TheRepeat

And if you do check it out, I’d be super grateful if you filled out the feedback form on the itch page. <3

Hopefully you’ll be hearing from me again soon!

3 Likes

Also, the world map has seen quite the overhaul since the last time I showed it off!

v0.1

v0.2b

1 Like

It’s Gaiden’s 31st b-day, but also the first one for Seas of Novis! :tada:

I wish I could say I was dropping the next big “Release 2” version on today’s anniversary, but sadly there’s lots left to do. Still, I won’t leave without dropping a few tidbits on the game’s progress!

Much of Release 2 is focused on the game’s next big dungeon, the Sethrick Wilds: a forest cursed by a malefic witch. The first release was mainly an open-ended, sidequest-focused structure, but Release 2 marks several significant moments in Celica’s story and as such will have a lot more emphasis on characterization and plot.

Have some screenshots before I go!

New maps

All of these are of course a work in progress.




The game is coming along nicely! I’m optimistic I’ll have another playable release ready in 2023. Thank you for your patience!

2 Likes

I’ll definitely check out the Game Jam version!

I haven’t kept up with this project in fear of spoiling myself of your latest development. Looking forward to it!

1 Like

image

shit

Happy 2 years I suppose! Almost spat out my dinner when I realized it was really today already. Well, might as well give a progress report. Seas of Novis v0.2 is still being worked on*!

*Not actually at the moment since my laptop has been on its deathbed for a while lol

Gameplay

Here is a demo video of a handful of cool new features I’ve implemented in the past year!

https://youtu.be/_l7pvVj62ts?si=-aylw2CVJueGJs8T

In the video description I expound a bit on some of the changes, and some of my goals for the gameplay of Seas of Novis. Give it a read if you’re interested!

v0.2 Progress

All but 2 battle maps in the game have a playable design, and only a few more aren’t complete or close to complete. Rebalancing will come and full-game playthroughs might throw wrenches in things, but I’ll optimistically say this aspect of v0.2 is about 80% done.

Being a Gaiden fangame, there’s a lot more to the gameplay than just the actual battles. Most of this version of the game revolves around the second dungeon, the cursed Sethrick Wilds. Most of this dungeon is traversable, but visual polish and eventing have a long way to go. On top of that, the new town, Sethrick Harbor, hasn’t been started on yet (outside of data in my spreadsheets lol). The exploration side of v0.2 is, I’d say, 25% done.

Lastly, the story… I’ve had trouble with some connective tissue that has taken some reflection to figure out, to the point that it was stalling game progress and as such I’ve forcibly set it on the backburner. Once the gameplay is mostly ready, I’ll be able to focus on the story with a clear head, and make gameplay adjustments as needed. Most of the dialogue is unwritten or confined to txt files on my (near dead) laptop; I’d say this is 10% done at most.

Sticking points

This part may or may not interest you. Mostly personal anecdotes and whinging over design woes.

This time last year, I was optimistic I’d be able to finish v0.2 in 2023 and was not even close to correct. Now, in 2024, despite being obviously much closer to done by technicality, I’m more uncertain about a 2024 completion than I was about the 2023 one. I talked about the story being a blocker for a while, and I’m not going to expand on that right now, but I had other issues hold me up as well.

Code goliath

The vanilla UI in SRPG Studio is serviceable, sure, but I wanted great UI, which means rewriting huge amounts of code. I haven’t even tackled some of the biggest UI projects I’ve wanted to take on and it’s still taken a huge amount of time. I’m happy with my work, but it sure would’ve been nice to have a second me work on the actual game during that time!

Plus, there are other mechanics I’ve worked on that have taken huge efforts to code. The AOE plugin, for example, is by a (very talented) Japanese creator named o-to; getting this monstrosity to be compatible with my codebase was a herculean effort. Not to mention a bunch of original mechanics I’ve made that I had to implement from scratch. Extremely tough coding problems left and right - which is part of the appeal of making this game, don’t get me wrong! I’d much rather have these tough projects than make a vanilla-feeling, unpolished game. But that doesn’t make it not hard, and doesn’t make it not immensely time-consuming.

Technical difficulties

I got this laptop just shy of a year ago and it has always sucked. I’ve procrastinated getting a new one because these fuckers are expensive, but this piece of trash has also been a deterrent. It sure loves to randomly black screen when I haven’t saved in a while. Anyway, I’m kinda happy it’s almost dead because it’ll finally get me to go buy a new one.

Art

One of a few things holding me back on the story is that it’s a really dour plot, and you’ve got this delivering melancholy dialogue.

Look, the FE2 portraits have grown on me, and I even have recolored versions that look a little nicer that the player could toggle to, but some of the more dramatic cutscenes are a bit hard to take seriously with this grinning goof delivering the lines.

If any artists are reading this (or if you, dear reader, know any artists looking for work), I’d be happy to pay for some nicer portraits of the Gaiden gang. Otherwise, it’s a problem I’ll have to learn to stomach.

(On the bright side, I’ve changed fonts from PressStart2K to Silver, which is a huge upgrade.)

Fire Emblem: Team of Five

In v0.1, you’re only given 5 units, and that’s true for a big chunk of v0.2 also. It is very hard to make very many interesting scenarios in a Fire Emblem game with such a miniscule party. This design decision I made early on has been hounding me since the game’s inception! But I’ve made a lot of (I think) interesting mechanical additions to address this design hurdle, several of which I talk about in the description of the video above.

I have the best friends in the world for dragging me into playing Baldur’s Gate 3 with them, because A) the game is a banger, and B) BG3 is a top-down, turn-based, positioning-focused, tactical RPG that is a banger game despite only allowing a small party. If that isn’t exactly the game I needed to play while I was going through this crisis with Seas of Novis! Things like item usage not taking your whole action, AOE arts and Boey’s Echo art (inspired by Action Surge before I quickly realized it was literally just Engage’s Echo and named it as such) all arose thanks to Baldur’s Gate 3’s influence.

Distractions...

A few weeks ago I made a really cool project for a 1-week game jam, “The Mercy Killing of Partheus”, and it has been inside my brain ever since. I’ve wanted to make a game with its mechanics for a long time - Super Pivot, Fates’ Attack Stance, and most of all, a big party with spread-out objectives - and finally opening the floodgates by making Mercy Killing has me wanting to put SoN aside and just refine these mechanics in a different game instead. Even just typing this is making me excited to work on that game instead.

I just worry putting SoN aside would be, essentially, the death of SoN. I don’t know if this is a common concern for romhackers or other fangame creators too, but it’s been on my mind for almost an entire year now. Last April, I tinkered with the idea of making a M.A.R.T.H. entry utilizing Attack Stance, and ever since then I have been obsessed with a hypothetical game like that instead. It’s so silly, but I’m not joking when I say this was a huge detriment to my progress on Seas of Novis in 2023.

Oh yeah and I totally forgot my wrist was fractured for the first quarter of 2023 lol. That’ll slow ya down.

Anyway, all that aside, hopefully version 0.2 will release in 2024. It won’t be super soon, but I’ll try my best! Thanks for reading. :fire:

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