I got my AYN Thor (A new retro handheld that is crazy good), and part of setup (to make things look pretty) includes giving all the games icons and stuff.
Thor has this game manager called Cocoon that looks like the 3DS home screen, and so the games need Icons, art banners for the top screen, etc.
To that end, Cocoon pulls art assets from a site called SteamGridDB. To help FE players out, i recently added support for the following romhacks…
The Morrows Golden Country
Cerulean Crescent
Bells of Byelen
Drums of War
Dream of Five
It will take a few days for them to get accepted, but the site does accept romhacks (For example, mario RPG armageddon, chrono trigger lavos awakens, and Pokemon Unbound).
I will single out Hag in White and Dark Stone. I am personally biased towards Dorcas Emblem and Vesly’s original hacks, FE6/7/8 Self-Randomizers and Pokemblem. No clue what the self-randomizers’ icons should even be, though. Maybe FE7 Denning for FE7’s self-randomizer as all three are the poster children of Vesly’s incredible TiamfLNIayotDI, the quote from Denning.
Also, take a look at this FEU thread and the first link there for completed hacks with at least decent popularity.
Shadow of Dawn is excellent IMO, best execution of a story in a FEGBA rom hack I’ve seen. It is sequel to another game Dark Amulet, which I found pretty good, the sequel was just so excellent. You can tell the creator implemented what he learned from his first project into the second. I think when third hack comes out it’ll explode the series in popularity something fierce. The 10 chapter demo is available in the discord.
I’ll second Hag in White and Sacred Echoes, and even though they’re older I think we’d be remiss to not have Vision Quest, Four Kings, and The Last Promise there.
I also love Curse of Lagdou, but I’m not sure it’s at the level of popularity you’re going for.
Can Call of the Armor be considered popular? It was the first of the telephone hacks, so that merits some special value right? I would definitely recommend it.
Homecoming would be a good addition, you already have the other two Team NQR hacks anyway ^^ (DoW, Do5). They’ve already been mentioned, but Vision Quest and The Last Promise are both soo so influential! Even if they are a bit old.
Parrhesia’s list is very good - it’s worth leafing through to find new hacks anyway. ^^
For interesting/fun in a sort of gimmicky way, i’d put forward Hetja’s Quest. Its a roguelike Fire Emblem with a wide cast, with many customisation options and nice bite sized segments of gameplay (sorta like FEH, except using actual FE mechanics and not the overly simplified (but also complex paragraph powerceeep) version in FEH). Its really fun to play on the go too if you want something to dip in and out of if you don’t have a lot of long lengths of game time.
The Dark Amulet and The Shadow Of Dawn are currently my top picks. The writing is stellar and in a league of its own. If I can only sum it up, it gives the same feeling as George R. R. Martin’s A Song Of Ice And Fire. It’s cruel, it’s gritty, it’s gripping, it’s everything a true War Opera presents. That’s how excellent it is. It isn’t waaay over the top like how other RomHacks are but still has a fantasy aspect to it that remains grounded and knows not to defy the bounds of logic. Worldbuilding is phenomenal. You’ll get a good grasp of the expanse of it once you travel around and start to understand the geopolitical turmoil of the world between the two games. Gameplay wise, it’s still the traditional Fire Emblem GBA with a bit of some Personal Skills and Weapons here and there, but nothing too unfamiliar so any FEGBA fan will have no trouble picking it up right away. These two are not intended to be played Ironman Style (I personally prefer it this way), which according to Vorgus, the creator himself, said that he intended it so because he wanted every unit feel special with more fleshed-out stories and their inclusion in your party meaningful. So if you like keeping your units alive (like I do), this is one of the reasons to pick these up.
Seriously, I cannot stress enough how blown away I was with the level of scriptwriting these games have, and I can no longer hold my anticipation for the 3rd and final installment of the story. I invite you to try it out and have a wild ride.
P.s. This may look like a paid endorsement, but it isn’t LOL. I just want to return the same passion these games bring.
