Andromeda, a -story driven, soulslike, challenge-oriented- romhack from @Eretein
What is one thing about your project that you feel has had a lot of/the most time and effort put into it?
Eretein: A lot of time — about a year —was spent arranging Andromeda’s fully custom soundtrack. If it slaps, it’s in Andromeda. Or is it supposed to be the other way around?
Andromeda’s score is composed mostly of orchestral rock arrangements and power metal coupled with the odd, broody prog or alternative track here and there. We have a full symphonic rendition of Knight of the Wind playing in Chapter 1, complete with the guitar solo.
Yes, that’s right. A full-band arrangement of Knight of the Wind from Sonic plays in Chapter 1, and the song choices only get more intense going forward. I mean, we have Undefeatable from Sonic Frontiers blasting over enemy phase in Chapter 3. Through the Fire and Flames by Dragonforce (from Guitar Hero of course) plays in a secret boss fight in Act 1.
The boss fight — and its accompanying sound design — is something I’m very proud of. I’m told that this particular boss had players at the edge of their seats, since it comes out of nowhere, the music suddenly turns up to eleven — right when you think you’re about to win — and the boss looks like it flew straight out of an endgame Fire Emblem chapter.
This Act 1 boss has higher stats than vanilla FE8 demon king, if I’m remembering correctly. At this point in the game, your guys haven’t even been promoted yet. It’s a bit of a scary hidden boss to stumble onto if you haven’t gotten used to Andromeda’s soulslike design philosophy yet. Where as early as the Prologue, you’re given access to the tools to defeat bosses with question marks for Hp and over 50 points in attack. You just have to use them. And you get to listen to sick tracks while you’re at it.
What was/is the most enjoyable part of working on your project?
Eretein: Let’s talk design.
Andromeda isn’t an attempt at following after the footsteps of its predecessors. But, despite being influenced by some older hacks, I like to think that Andromeda, the dark horse that it is, succeeds at carving its own identity. Hey, we’re the new kid on the block, so we have to be bold and knock down doors. And, for me, coming up with great design and knocking down doors is the most enjoyable part of working on this game. That means doing things differently in bold new ways, as a departure from traditional Fire Emblem.
What do I mean by being bold in design?
Well, Andromeda is bold enough to introduce a familiar self-healing jaegan lord in a one-unit, cinematic Prologue (where one-unit Prologues are a big no-no according to the council of FEU). Her deal is that she exchanges bulk for damage and damage for bulk. On the fly. Her entire niche hinges on whether you need a bursty attacker or a beefy tank, making her a jaegan who can adapt to your style as a player.
If that doesn’t interest you, Andromeda’s also bold enough to have a myrmidon lord, with a 1–2 nosferatu sword and really high movement — a whopping max of 10 Mov! Who can also walk on water and mountains!
Andromeda’s bold enough to have a cleric lord who just dishes out mini-Fortify heals at Level 1. She can also hit back and do chip damage, unlike most early game staffers, and tank with Miracle and her unique Prf. There are no boring priests or clerics here in Andromeda.
That’s not all.
Andromeda also has a siege lord who can spam long-range spells all day and hit multiple units from across the map in the same turn. If you don’t like technical gimmicks, Andromeda also has a dark mage lord that just one-rounds everything, but melts on enemy phase — a classic glass cannon. Any one of these lords would be grossly OP in another game, but in Andromeda, they are just as intended.
In Andromeda, units are broadly categorized into four archetypes: strikers, bruisers, tanks, and utilitarians. Strikers are glass cannons and are meant to be the damage dealers of your party. They need tanks to protect them. Unlike most Fire Emblem titles, tanks in Andromeda readily gain access to the tools they need to aggro and survive via equippable accessories.
The Army Standard grants Provoke, but decreases Speed, making it unsuitable for strikers. This doesn’t affect tanks much, since their bulk allows them to get away being doubled. The Sacred Rune heals its holder at the start of their turn, but imposes a penalty on damage potential. Generally, equippable accessories demand trade-offs that balance them out.
Sitting somewhere in between strikers and tanks are bruisers — the units who can take hits, do some damage, and usually offer some sort of small utility. Bruisers are good at chipping and eating counterattacks, but can’t burst down enemies as well as strikers or mitigate damage like tanks. In short, they’re the safe picks.
Last but not least, utilitarians are the odd units who are unusually weak or seem useless at first glance, but open up interesting ways to play the game once you start looking deeper. Zane, the second thief that you recruit in Act 1, is the purest of all utilitarians in Andromeda. He has control over the anima triangle at base, meaning he can reliably chip around 50% of the classes in game via effective damage.
Oh, by the way, his class isn’t Thief. He’s a Mage. But his personal skill gives him the abilities of a Thief, plus more. The cheeky Spring Thief also reduces damage taken by female allies around Zane by… 5 points. That’s a lot in Andromeda’s context. Putting Zane beside a female tank or bruiser suddenly enables them to get more mileage out of their bulk, and allows more risky strategies that aren’t typically viable (such as the Goldstar/Caelestis Sofia tank build).
In Andromeda, every unit has their own identity, and the game is designed to encourage raising a well-rounded party to tackle the campaign. Always, and always, in Andromeda you’re given the tools and the choice to deal with whatever trick the game pulls off — be it menacing bosses you have to kill, swarms of reinforcements who want to keep you in place, or something as simple as weapon durability running out.
A fresh, fair, and challenging modern Fire Emblem experience, without descending into overly complex gimmicks or mindless RNG, is what Andromeda aspires to be.
What is one thing about your project that you wanted to talk about that you didn’t have the opportunity to include in your video?
Eretein: What’s in the works?
Right now, Andromeda is putting its feet up on Act 1 Complete. I consider the current demo a pretty good indicator of what’s in the full game. It contains complete supports (you read that right!) for the cast and 11 playable chapters, including a cinematic Prologue, a shopping-style Interlude, and a secret Paralogue. Since you’ve seen the trailer, you must’ve some idea on what this Paralogue is. But, hey, if I keep writing about the Paralogue, it won’t stay secret for long.
What I won’t keep secret however is what’s being cooked for the next release. Do you guys think having 8 inventory slots is a bit too much? How about third-tier classes? A reclass system? 250 equippable accessories and the Starfall soundfont? Feat progression reminiscent of DnD? A sane implementation of Inky’s Arcane Omniscience? Rejoice! For prelim says that these features are entirely possible with today’s tech.
In 2025, around this time of the year, Andromeda is slated to have an Act 2 release. This release may strip out barely touched features like the dynamic grieving system and the generic replacement system. Why? Data from FEBuilder’s autofeedback says that most players like to reset when someone kicks the bucket, or they play on Casual mode. I do that too lmao. So, I’m sorry. I’m only one dev, I don’t have much support or a dedicated team, and I can’t keep coming across edge cases and running tests for every one of them. Quality assurance is very important to me as a developer.
But much like a hydra after having one of its heads torn off, Andromeda’s third beta might spawn the following features. It depends on how hard I procrastinate…
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Modern danger indicator. Toggle danger radius for units individually. Useful for positioning tanks in chaotic battlefields.
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Global Shove & Pivot. Now everyone can make use of these cheesy repositioning skills, including enemies to make sure you have an extra bad time.
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Skill Progression overhaul. Instead of learning set skills, units now have branching skill paths, giving the player freedom and flexibility when building their team. By design, skills are minimalist in implementation, but impactful in gameplay. Say no to +4 As, embrace +9999 As instead. No proc skills or gimmick skills that require an essay to explain how to use them either.
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Reclass System. At Level 5, units can choose to reclass from a pool of 3 classes, enabling adventurous builds like Sniper Fleur, Bard Isabelle, and Dark Flier Lorelei. But, skill acquisition has been curved against cumulative level, meaning it takes longer to learn skills the more a unit reclasses…
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Third-Tier Classes. I always wanted to implement this, but I ran out of freespace. Thankfully, I discovered a way to have your lizards grow into salamanders without bricking the rom.
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Aggro overhaul. Now Provoke only snatches aggro away from allies within a certain distance of your tank, making it more challenging to position units properly.
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Expanded inventory slots. Now Swordmasters can carry up to 8 Killing Edges. Gear Emblem is the new Skill Emblem.
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Expanded Accessories. What’s the use of a bigger inventory without the gear to stash in it? Now there’s 200+ new equippable accessories waiting to be used, each granting tiered stat boosts to better fit your progress… and perhaps other effects.
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Revamped Minimug Box. Inspired by the legendary GORGON-EGG, the minimug box has been overhauled to fit a portrait, a reactive Hp bar, and 8 Stats along with 8 Items and 8 Skills. Gotta hit that 888 somehow.
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Sleek new UI. Inspired by Awakening, Grand Order, and even Baldur’s Gate, Andromeda now ships with UI elements that work with the game’s unique strengths.
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Starfall Soundfont. Thanks to Alusq, Andromeda now has a crisp remastered sound. Including 30+ new custom tracks to make the soundroom reach 100.
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Arcane Omniscience revamp. Now true to what her personal skill says on the tin, Inky has access to every single tome in the game, without being restricted by puny things like inventory slots.
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A second paralogue. What happens to a certain grandmaster of terror after the first paralogue, anyway? There’s a mystery here, waiting to be uncovered…
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11 new chapters. Follow Fleur who once again acts the moral compass of the party, as Lorelei and Inoel commit war crimes against an entire kingdom. What happens when the compass breaks? Your choices still count, and the game’s keeping track of how many innocent mooks you slaughter… Oftentimes, the high road is a difficult path to take. Grinding, being greedy, grabbing two chests instead of one to make the game ‘easier’, isn’t without consequence.
Looking back at what I’ve written, finishing the game will probably take me ages. See y’all in 2030.
What inspired your project’s creation?
Eretein: Andromeda started out as a writing prompt.
Fun fact: I moonlight as a novelist who dabbles in fanworks as a hobby and as a way to feed my inner child. Yeah, I’m a massive nerd who just churns out words all night for my editor to suffer through.
Joking aside, the prompt went something like: “Hero saves the world, but can’t save themself — the story after.” This prompt is interesting, right? Gives you the Frieren vibes. I could do something… experimental with this, I said.
For the longest time, I wanted to write a fic for Fire Emblem. So, I thought, let’s go with our favorite time-travelling princess. What happens to Lucina after her unpaired ending? Yours will be a happy future is just oozing with potential. But, and it’s a big but! I’ve already completed another novel-length fic about another time-travelling heroine, and that also deals with her afterstory. So, I thought why not do something different.
I don’t wanna do Guardians Two. I don’t wanna cut onions again. So, maybe a game. Maybe I should put my day job as a programmer to better use (unfortunately writing books doesn’t put food on the table). Maybe I’ll do a Fire Emblem game. And so Andromeda was born.
What got you into making Fire Emblem fan games?
Eretein: The Last Promise opened the gates.
BONUS QUESTION
What is it specifically about Fire Emblem that you like the most?
Eretein: The turn-based gameplay. It gives my fingers a break. As an author and as a programmer, that’s a godsend versus carpal tunnel.
