Fire Emblem: Illuminated

[weaselus]

What is this about?

A Fire Emblem 8 hack that has better dialogue and story progression than the mainline entries.

Disclaimer

The visual and sound fidelity of this game is at a late SNES/GBA level, which may make it unapproachable for many.

Background and Controversial Opinions

I am a Shozo Kaga fan and think Intelligent Systems without him have never made a top quality game. Their best efforts are just decent.

For example, the most acclaimed FE entries - Fates: Conquest and Three Houses - are very high-production value, flagship Nintendo games. However, if all characters in these games had been male, nobody would have heard of them.

Disclaimer: I like Tharja and Camilla as much as the next guy.

Tharja-Realistic.jpg

But excessive Isekai-style pandering, especially since Awakening, means the games are targeted at people who lack character: disobedient youth, neets, women, ***** folx. No way to sugarcoat it. There is a reason why the series became popular with women.

By contrast, the last Kaga game: Fire Emblem 5: Thracia is better than any of the games that came after it. Designs are subdued and realstic, stakes are dire, and even the art direction is somber and appropriate. The game has a Jidai-Geki feel.

And the mechanics are vastly superior to the non-Kaga games, which over the course of decades adopted ALL of Kaga's design ideas.

Speculation

It appears much of the romhack community (on FEUniverse and reddit) is pozzed. One of the most ambitious hacks, Andaron Saga, was delisted because its author briefly groped a female associate at night and in a hotel room. The newest and highest-rated hacks have sole female protagonists and butch/***** characters. The forums abound in female posters who voice their opinions with abandon, as if the fact they are females does not matter.

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Fire Emblem: Illuminated

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People play Fire Emblem for various reasons. For those interested in realistic dialogue and a well crafted story without a girlboss taking center stage, Fire Emblem Illuminate may satisfy. The scriptwriting is better than Andaron Saga or any of the mainline games. Andaron Saga's writing is at a fan-fiction level, whereas Illuminated has a very slight ESL tinge, but reads like a movie script - a delicacy in gaming.

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For the five hours I have been playing this game, I had much more fun than with the original carts. The difficulty was just right on Normal Classic.

Now going back to it. Comments welcome; insults will be reciprocated gleefully.

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[rusty_shackleford]

It appears much of the romhack community (on FEUniverse and reddit) is pozzed. One of the most ambitious hacks, Andaron Saga, was delisted because its author briefly groped a female associate at night and in a hotel room. The newest and highest-rated hacks have sole female protagonists and butch/***** characters. The forums abound in female posters who voice their opinions with abandon, as if the fact they are females does not matter.

Is this the source of the fire emblem-likes with foid/ugly protagonists I keep seeing on steam?

[methoxetamine]

This actually looks really nice. I've actually been wanting to try one of these since I just played most of the series a few months ago and love the GBA games, but I hadn't read into them much yet. I'm sold already after reading the description on romhacking.net and your endorsement. I'm gonna put it on my 3DS and try it out soon

[Oyster Sauce]

Sounds cool. I've been going hard on the romhacks/fangames lately. Any other notable FE ones?

[weaselus]

Is a reaction enough as a response? If not, the answer is yes.

I waded through a few of these hacks looking specifically for story mods that are not LGBxxxx friendly. Some fit the bill but I can't enjoy a RPG without a good story or writing, and this one is the best so far. Another one that I tried but lost steam on is the Shadow of Dawn. Its problem was dual protagonists switching narrative point every chapter. Still extremely polished. Has non-combat stages and uses cinematic devices.

[weaselus]

Sounds cool. I've been going hard on the romhacks/fangames lately. Any other notable FE ones?

Your mileage may vary. For example, to my eyes, FE8 is a lot prettier than FE6 and FE7. Also, there are many gameplay-oriented hacks whose job is to give you a lot of interesting challenges while the narrative framework is loose.

I've fired up about ten romhacks, and while most strive to emulate the mainline games in terms of presentation, they are amateurish. Even Andaron saga is a little smelly in that regard. Not so with Shadow of Dawn and Illuminated. I expect Hag in White, and a few of the most recently popular ones to have great prose and production values coupled with unpleasantly feminist vibes. But there are about twelve years of romhacking behind us, so more searching may uncover a few other worthy ones.

Cheers!

[weaselus]

This actually looks really nice. I've actually been wanting to try one of these since I just played most of the series a few months ago and love the GBA games, but I hadn't read into them much yet. I'm sold already after reading the description on romhacking.net and your endorsement. I'm gonna put it on my 3DS and try it out soon

I went in blind on this one; I am afraid to go look up what romhacking has to say!

[weaselus]

Sounds cool. I've been going hard on the romhacks/fangames lately. Any other notable FE ones?

This may be redundant but if you have not played FE5, it dwarfs FE6,7,8,9,10,11, etc.
Around Stage 5 the story turns epic. Also, the visuals of FE5 are better than those of 6, 7, and 8. The best version currently is Lil Manster. Advisory: Kaga games are hard without artificial difficulty. It's like the Ninja Gaiden of SRPGs.

[maidenhaver]

It appears much of the romhack community (on FEUniverse and reddit) is pozzed. One of the most ambitious hacks, Andaron Saga, was delisted because its author briefly groped a female associate at night and in a hotel room. The newest and highest-rated hacks have sole female protagonists and butch/***** characters. The forums abound in female posters who voice their opinions with abandon, as if the fact they are females does not matter.

Is this the source of the fire emblem-likes with foid/ugly protagonists I keep seeing on steam?

Serenes forest? Yes, its one of the sources.

[weaselus]

It appears much of the romhack community (on FEUniverse and reddit) is pozzed. One of the most ambitious hacks, Andaron Saga, was delisted because its author briefly groped a female associate at night and in a hotel room. The newest and highest-rated hacks have sole female protagonists and butch/***** characters. The forums abound in female posters who voice their opinions with abandon, as if the fact they are females does not matter.

Is this the source of the fire emblem-likes with foid/ugly protagonists I keep seeing on steam?

Serenes forest? Yes, its one of the sources.

Serenes forest is a traditional FE site with well behaved regulars. It feels like a haven from twenty years ago (because it is).

Also, thank you for blessing this thread with your avatar.

[weaselus]

Update after 10 hours.

Gameplay

I am at the start of the tenth map, and have been challenged by every map on normal classic, having to redo each one at least three times. In terms of difficulty, this is "scathing" rather than normal. In a concurrent playthrough of Fates Conquest on Hard Classic, it is at exactly the same difficulty rung, "Scathing".

Definition of scathing: challenging and straightforward combat until some overlooked detail torpedoes the run. For example, in Fates: Conquest the enemy ninja may miss but still inflict -6 def on your vanguard unit, turning him into chopped liver on the same turn. The debuff is not reflected on the combat forecast window.

These types of skills, which turn the games' combat framework on its head, should be used sparingly and not profligately like Conquest does.

In FE: Enlightened, I had to redo the stage because a generic cavalry unit with an axe also carried a lance. When attacked by a friendly swordsman, the unit survived the first assault, then riposted on the enemy turn with the lance, obliterating the swordsman.

The only way I could have predicted that was to have opened the enemy unit's equipment window, since the status window and the sprite both showed an axe.

Verdict: I am tryharding a little too much, hence the "scathing" dificulty.

Story and Writing

The writing is also not as good as it started out, featuring reams of juvenile navel-gazing and promiscuous apologies among what are otherwise hardened veterans.

The characters are memorable, but the story has not picked up since the original impetus.

The final verdict will depend on whether the conflict accelerates in the next few stages.

Melodramatic Self-Reflection

I am conditioned by Japanese games to endure bloviating protagonists so I can see more of the world and more of my beloved cut-scenes, filled with yet more redundant dialogue, etc.

[weaselus]

It has been approximately ten days since my last update and also since I last touched Illuminated. I have been playing Heroes of the Storm, Shortest Trip to Earth, Breath of Fire IV, and FF7RI during the holidays, but cannot get back into either Illuminated or Fates: Conquest.

The issue is the difficulty (normal/classic).

You take a small army of strong units and have to defeat three to four times as many stronger units. While this is the fun part of the genre, both Illuminated and Fates Conquest have most of the difficulty in skills combined with special weapons. EVERYONE is wielding either silver weapons, ego weapons, multiple types of weapons or weakness-exploiting weapons. There is a new class of lead weapons that do triple damage to mages, and easily a third of the enemies field them (but none of the friendlies).

We are currently shipwrecked in unknown lands and got attacked by some magic-hating tribe. The map is bristling with units decked out in miniboss gear and stats.

I don't care enough for this tribe or my own melodramatically sensitive troop to wade into this morass of danger one more time. The cost of seeing the next dialog is two hundred difficult decisions (twelve units times sixteen turns). That's house-chores levels of involvement. I'm going to go do laundry now.

Verdict: will pick up again when extremely bored

[Val the Moofia Boss]

It has been approximately ten days since my last update and also since I last touched Illuminated. I have been playing Heroes of the Storm, Shortest Trip to Earth, Breath of Fire IV, and FF7RI during the holidays, but cannot get back into either Illuminated or Fates: Conquest.

The issue is the difficulty (normal/classic).

You take a small army of strong units and have to defeat three to four times as many stronger units. While this is the fun part of the genre, both Illuminated and Fates Conquest have most of the difficulty in skills combined with special weapons. EVERYONE is wielding either silver weapons, ego weapons, multiple types of weapons or weakness-exploiting weapons. There is a new class of lead weapons that do triple damage to mages, and easily a third of the enemies field them (but none of the friendlies).

We are currently shipwrecked in unknown lands and got attacked by some magic-hating tribe. The map is bristling with units decked out in miniboss gear and stats.

I don't care enough for this tribe or my own melodramatically sensitive troop to wade into this morass of danger one more time. The cost of seeing the next dialog is two hundred difficult decisions (twelve units times sixteen turns). That's house-chores levels of involvement. I'm going to go do laundry now.

Verdict: will pick up again when extremely bored

My common experience with romhacks, "balance mods", fan games, etc, is that they tend to be made by autists who make it way, way too hard for sane, fun play after you come home from work.

[Lord of Riva]

Love me some fire emblem and I just recently downloaded some GBA FE Hacks myself on my modded 3ds. However the "challenge" of these are most often completely autistic so much that playing them is often more of chore than actual fun.

EDIT: have been playing Shadow dragon instead, this disabled persons version of FE and it's sequel (as the remakes) is something I skipped before.

[weaselus]

Love me some fire emblem and I just recently downloaded some GBA FE Hacks myself on my modded 3ds. However the "challenge" of these are most often completely autistic so much that playing them is often more of chore than actual fun.

EDIT: have been playing Shadow dragon instead, this disabled persons version of FE and it's sequel (as the remakes) is something I skipped before.

I really like the idea of making an entire high-quality game that is an FE8 romhack. I haven't found one yet; maybe the lesbo hacks are it?

It strikes me as the cheapest way to make a full save-the-world experience for tactical RPG fans. But, at the bare minimum, it will need a professional scriptwriter and a professional artist to guide visual design. The gameplay and music are hard to get wrong with all the existing knowledge and tunes.

Problems that prevent hacks from reaching greatness:
1. Feminist attitude;
2. Boring scenarios where not enough happens in-between battles. You have visual-novel-level freedom to present your story, but nobody who has taken advantage of it has written at a professional level. Andaron saga has a complex story and ample exposition, but is written amateurishly. This is where a professional writer would have added a whole star to the game experience.

A romhack doesn't have to be verbose as a visual novel, but it could if it needed to. Except it should not be meandering, but succinct, dramatic, and mood-inducing. Think what Shakespeare-level combat dialog could do for the presentation. Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story come to mind.
3. Excessive difficulty. I am a casual chess player of humble ability, but these hacks are kicking my butt and causing me headaches. Video games should not be this demanding.

[N7Kopper]

Update after 10 hours.

Gameplay

In FE: Enlightened, I had to redo the stage because a generic cavalry unit with an axe also carried a lance. When attacked by a friendly swordsman, the unit survived the first assault, then riposted on the enemy turn with the lance, obliterating the swordsman.

The only way I could have predicted that was to have opened the enemy unit's equipment window, since the status window and the sprite both showed an axe.

If this still applies, it's a legitimate criticism. There's many standard patches for FE8, such as one that shows a unit's inventory when you highlight him. Applying that patch would tell you that the cavalryman was a lance guy as well as an axe guy as soon as you looked at him.

And when it comes to the avatar thing, yes. I absolutely agree. Awakening's biggest flaw - it's only real flaw - was that Robin was customisable. He should have just been Robin. Keep him OP, keep him able to husband anyone, add a female equivalent, call her Reflet, make her recruitable and able to wife anyone. Balance the gameplay at high difficulties around the strategic use of your Robin and Reflet pairings along with all the others. Having a good Lucina should be key. (The romance 'em up part of Awakening was an expansion of Genealogy of the Holy War's lovers mechanic. Keep it, even if the wrong lessons were learned. On the super high Captain Autismo difficulties, optimising this stuff is key)

Hell, even keep the Avatar. Make the Avatar like Mark: Silent. Doesn't fight. Leads the army in battle. What the player does. FE7's Avatar worked because you had a protagonist rather than a non-entity general for the same ****. That way you have someone to represent you in multiplayer and Streetpass too.

Also, Mangs was targeted for not being a Woke sped, it had nothing to do with anything he did or didn't do. He's now happily married.