four kings, really liked how it played, maps were large and felt grand and epic, plus every unit feels incredibly distinct because prfs go brrr, which is something i personally value really highly wrt unit balancing.
legend of john lingering blood, genuinely the funniest hack i’ve ever played, gameplay is easy but also very funny.
last heavenly throne, the best feeling romhack imo since it has such nice palettes and amazing soundtrack. it + cool story really elevated the overall package ngl, also warp/rescue cards.
journeys, probably the hack i’d want to go back to the most since it’s so smooth to just blitz through - not very long; fun, challenging but not overbearing maps; also has the iconic duo, don & ron.
storge, it’s such a cool premise and honestly i’d like to see more short hacks like it. every unit feel unique and fun to use, and finally a way to make funds rank matter :^)
Dark Lord and the Maiden of Light: Really had a blast while playing it, the gameplay and level design of the romhack are topnotch (one of the lategame map with a big gameplay twist in it really blew my mind) and the scenario and characters feels like a legit Fire Emblem games that could have been released back in the days on the GBA.
The Four King: A very good romhack when it’s come to gameplay. The idea of giving to every character of your roster (at least) one personal weapon is a very clever and simple way to make all members of your army unique, everyone have it’s speciality and can shine in it’s own way. And the split of your army give you a lot of time to try everyone and to see what they can do.
Sun God’s Wrath: it’s a completely mad hack: lot of skills, lot of unique classes, lot of characters and concept to remember, etc. It can be hard to get into it at first due to how many things there is in it but when you do, it’s a very fun and unique hack (but quite hard).
Iron Emblem: Simple and effective, that’s a good way to summarize this hack. The concept is to focus on the idea of Ironman playthrough: all your characters are unnamed units, with very low growth, and when your commander die, it’s the end of the Game. It can be quite challenging, but the level design is good and the general concept makes you accept failures and live with it. In some ways, it feels like a story generator fire emblem, it’s up to you to give a soul to those faceless soldiers that are fighting for you.
The Last Promise: The first romhack I played, like many, so it’s probably more the nostalgia talking. On many aspects it feels old compared to a lot of newer romhacks, and some things in the scenario are hard to take seriously, and the difficulty spike in the later part of the game is very brutal, but it’s still a quite solid game in itself. The character of Anakin (lol that name) is in my opinion one of the well handled aspect of the game, when you see it for the first time this weird monk feels like it will get benched… And then you realize he can do bard job, and let just say that the game give him a lot of time to grow both ingame and in the story.
Sadly I still haven’t played Vision Quest, so I can’t say much about it
1: project ember: Makes FE6 unique in an interesting and legitimately challenging way, I’m just saying it now, Project Ember is the most deliberate and well thought out hack I’ve ever played, it feels like every possibility was accounted for when remaking these boring ass maps into actually fun and challenging ones!
2: vision quest: admittedly I haven’t played much of vision quest but from what I did play it was a very fun hack with an actually good story.
3: sword of heaven and earth: again like vision quest, I haven’t played much of this one but the maps I did play were amazingly well designed, with a story that I honestly kinda tapped out on if I’m being honest… But the gameplay really makes up for my indifference towards the story!
and that’s it! Yeah I don’t really play many hacks, not because I don’t want to, I just can’t really find the right time to sit down and play them and the times I do want to play fire emblem I usually just go to the vanilla games because I’m used to them…
1 - Dark Lord and the Maiden of Light
Everything about this hack is amazing. From the story, the writing, to the characters, to supports, to gameplay, it’s everything I could’ve ever wanted in a FE fangame. I don’t have the words to fully describe how much I love this one. I recommend it to everyone I can.
2 - Fire Emblem: Black Fang
A fun little fan-sequel of sorts for FE7. The main crew is just so much fun to follow, and the game offers both laughs and a moving story. Plus there’s plenty of challenges and gimmicks I haven’t seen any other fangames use which makes for some pretty fun maps. Highly, HIGHLY recommended.
3 - Order of the Crimson Arm
Another fangame with a fantastic original story and fun characters, two of my favorite aspects. It does everything right and is an absolute blast to play. I only wish it had supports implemented. Other than that, it’s a gem.
4 - Fire Emblem: Requiem
This is probably the first fangame/hack of FE I played that had an original story and characters and for that it has a special place in my heart. It’s the fangame that helped me dip my toes into other FE hacks back in the day like Last Promise, Road to Ruin, Midnight Sun, etc. I still replay it every so often. Still fun. To me, Requiem is the baseline for what a good FE fangame/hack should be.
5 - Fire Emblem: Sword of Heaven and Earth
The most recent fangame I played, but I enjoyed it so immensely that I had to put it in my Top 5. So thankful to the translators. Allowed me to enjoy a very fun story with maps that were refreshing and challenging without making me want to beat my head against a wall. It has a good balance and while it has its flaws, it hits the bullseye most of the time.
No number 5, nothing else stands out. Unless you include incomplete stuff. Then…
Staff of Ages.
Heavens Bloom
The way it uses green units is interesting, and sets it apart from other hacks. You actually feel like part of a war
4 Kings
Story is really good, and it has some interesting gameplay.
Barry’s Bandits
Short and sweet, but so fun.
Deity Device
Best hack bar none. This is what story integration looks like. It’s not just something other hacks should strive for, professional SRPGs should take note. This is by far the gold standard the hacking community should emulate.
Absolution by ZessDynamite
Bloodlines by Faerghast
Inheritors of the Crusade by Square Root of Pi (which nobody seems to talk about???)
(gap)
Vision Quest by Pandan
Project Ember by Brunhilda
Honorable Mentions
Blazing Sword by Intelligent Systems
Jokes aside, Iron Emblem might crack the top 5 once I finish it
fe girls the only rom hack i’ve played and it became my fave. This rom hack is not just waifus but fe8 on steroids. It’s actually really fun despite being so unbalancely hard. I’m still stuck at the desert chapter where gets insanely exhausting. There’s just so many op reinforcements with op weapons and only half of my team can take on them. Wendy, Priscilla, Karla, Echidna and Lute are my S tiers that still struggle to beat these reinforcements. Rescuing is almost pointless in this game cuz you know they’re all girls and they have no strength to lift a horse, dragon or everyone.
