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Hello, everyone! I'm sure you missed me and my LPs terribly, so I'm going to rectify that. I'll be playing a reskin of FE8 called Master Version, by Bright Vega. The hack's topic can be found here. The objective is to make FE8 more difficult without just inflating stats; I hope the author has succeeded in this regard and look forward to playing this. I'll be playing Ephraim hard mode, which is supposed to be difficult. It should be noted I've not played this before, so any, uh, surprises will be, well, surprising. I'll almost certainly use savestates, but I'll try to minimize their use, and I'll also give a summary of what's different at the end of each chapter. Without further ado, let's master this version! That sounded better in my head. [spoiler=Chapter 1] So, we have a slightly modified title screen. It tells us we're playing something different from vanilla. I approve. The menu backgrounds have been changed, and I gotta admit, that looks spiffy. I will, as previously mentioned, be playing on difficult mode. The text hasn't been changed as far as I can tell, so I'm just skipping through the cutscenes. There's also a nice background for the chapter title, although I caught it a bit late (I'm guilty of mashing the space bar waaaay too often). Our enemies are the standard two fighters and O'Neill, so I won't show placement. I can't tell if these guys have been nerfed or if they were always this shoddy, but either way, they won't pose much of a problem. Also, notice the new background here as well! I'm not a HUGE fan, because it's sometimes hard to read the white text on the mostly-white background, but it's not a big issue, and the fact that Vega changed it at all is a nice touch. O'Neill, on the other hand, got a bit of a boost to his stats. Eirika can't double him anymore! In exchange, he gave up his name for the generic-sounding "Commander", and for some inexplicable reason has A in all physical weaponry. He also drops some gold, which is nice. On our side, Eirika seems to have gained a few new items. The slim sword needs no explanation, and it's nice to see the rapier's got some more uses, but what's this Star Seal nonsense? Tada! It gives +1 to all stats. Not overpowered, but a nice item to have when you're trying to level up some of the newbies. Eirika also starts out with E swords. Nothing new there. I like the vulnerary icon, incidentally. Seth's also got a surprise in the form of an Angelic Robe. I think Eirika would be the candidate for it at the moment, but I'm going to hold off using it for a bit. He also has a silver sword in place of a steel sword, and-hang on, 9 movement? I'm not sure this is a great idea, but I'm going to reserve judgement for now. The usual shenanigans for the prologue. Moving Eirika here allows her to... ...crit-kill the two fighters on EP 1. She does take a hit, but in vanilla, if she's on the forest, O'Neill won't hit her. That being said, I heal up just in case this beefed up O'Neill Commander pulls of some bs. I'm not going to savestate on the prologue now, am I? But no bs ensues. Eirika crits for the win and gets a nice level and some gold. [spoiler=Chapter 1 Changes] All this information is taken from the text files kindly provided in the download. I'm not double-checking them in Nightmare. Growth Changes: Eirika: Str +5, Def -5, Res +5 Seth: HP +10, Skl -5, Spd +5, Def -10, Res +10 Bases Changes: Eirika: Str +1 Seth: Skl +1, Spd +2, Lck -1, Def +4, Res +2, Mov +1 Promoted Unit Caps Changes: Great Lord (F): Str +1, Skl +1 Paladin (M): Spd +4, Def -1, Res +3, Weapons Changes: Slim Sword: Might +1, Crit +10 Silver Sword: Rank -1, Might -1, Hit -10, Uses +5 Rapier: Hit +5, Uses +10 Silver Lance: Rank -1, Hit -5, Uses +5 Iron Axe: Weight -2, Uses +5 Enemy Growth/Bases Changes: None. Thoughts: You took Seth, arguably the best character in the game, and made him and his class even more OP. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this. Iron axes having less weight makes things easier for Ross when he arrives, I suppose. [spoiler=Chapter 2] Our boss again has some cash, and the two soldiers traded in their iron lances for some two-range weaponry and droppable pure waters. They're still shit, though. Oh, hello! A and S ranks get some additional bonuses, detailed below, so this makes this guy slightly more dangerous. Eirika runs towards the fighter. Seth chills in the background. Will have to see whether their bases were changed. Eirika gets a meh level. Gilliam and this soldier demonstrate their incompetence. Some more than others. Franz was supposed to get the kill from Gilliam's chip; unfortunately, he'll probably have to take some damage now. BOTH OF YOU ARE DISGRACES TO YOUR RACE! Gilliam attempts to redeem himself. Hang on, something looks different about these guys... ...Yeah, probably not gonna use this guy. Apparently I'm going to need these. Neener neener neener blah! Forgot to free up his inventory beforehand. I dropped the 4-dose vulnerary. Utterly useless. Seth drops Eirika in front of the boss, he attacks her, and she ORKOs him for a nice level. Money and more money! [spoiler=Chapter 2 Changes] Growths: Gilliam: Str +10, Skl +10, Res +5 Franz: Hp -10, Str +10, Spd +5, Luk +10, Def -5 Bases: Gilliam: Con -2 Promoted Unit Caps: Great Knight (M): Str -1, Skl +3, Def -2, Res -1, Mov +1 General (M): Str +1, Skl +1, Spd -1, Res -3 Weapons: Iron Sword: Uses +4 Iron Lance: Weight -1, Uses +5 Enemy Growths/Bases: Knight: Base HP +3, Def growth +2 Ranks: A rank gives +1 damage and +5 hit S rank gives +1 damage, +10 hit, and +5 crit. Thoughts: Nothing too drastic changed here. Pegasus knights/Amelia become a tad more dangerous because they don't get weighed down as much by iron lances, which is kinda nice.