Screenshot Mr.Night Plays Project Dondon, [edit] FURIOUS RAGE run [Completed for now]

[Espinosa]

Is this the same version of the hack that was already around a couple years back, dondon, or has anything new been added to it?

[dondon151]

it's the same version.

I probably am being too critical since I haven't tried it myself, but the main thing I don't like about it is the trial and error gameplay, which is mostly because of the reinforcements coming from places you can't really predict in ways you can't really predict. Like in the first chapter, there was no way to predict that assassins would come and murderate all the NPCs if you didn't make your units move at top speed IMMEDIATELY off the bat.

right, but there's no way to tell the player that lucius is fucked by turn 4 and serra is fucked by turn 5 without directly stating that. at least mrnight has been conditioned by chapter 3 that bad things happen if he doesn't go quickly and carefully.

Edited April 2, 2015 by dondon151

[MrNight48]

Notes in purple

i'm going to take a moment to defend myself against this attitude, which i think is extremely close-minded.

first of all, keep in mind that i made this hack almost entirely on my own. aside from a few graphical resources and the status weapon patch that were open-use, the only assistance that i requested and received were:

- barth's, astore's, orun's, and wagner's sprites (courtesy of lumi)

- poison damage modification (courtesy of camtech)

Got DAMMIT! I knew some shit was up with that poison damage

i had no clout within the ROMhacking community and frankly, most of the members in that community did not like the concept of project dondon. i also had extreme difficulty finding playtesters because so few users wanted to play a ROMhack that focused on difficult gameplay and eschewed plot, graphics, music, etc. (though i'd like to think that my writing is above average; it's grammatically correct and well thought-out, which is more than what you can say for the average ROMhacker). some had the false impression that there was only "one way to beat the game" and propagated this misinformation to others. thank goodness for lumi and camtech, who both provided me with the few resources that they could spare the time on and also playtested the game.

Actually, despite my bitching, I agree the community should focus more on gameplay and I have noticed somewhat the community tends to not test play stuff that doesn't look new despite having cool ass ideas on chapter design but at the same time, I kind of understand now that I started to do LP's, there is a lot of hacks that went no where or needs time to be finished and is completing for one's time to play them. Not every hack will get tested until requested and when it is played, it may already be too late.

what playtesters i did have never reported any glitches except for the game reset when a halberdier attacks from 2-range. furthermore, i'd like to remind you that even "good" ROMhacks such as elibean nights and dream of five aren't bug-free when they are released, and i never had the motivation to update project dondon after the initial release, otherwise players would have reported the bugs and i would have gotten around to fixing them!

finally, one criticism of some fire emblem games is that they are too obtuse with the information that's given to the player. feplus criticized FE5 for not telling the player that visiting orsin's house with orsin gets him the pugi, for example. one trade-off with conveying game information like this is that it compromises the plot because the characters have to sort of break the fourth wall or point things out that make no sense. i understood this and shaped some of the dialogue to mention these quirks in a tongue-in-cheek way. you don't have the option to complain that the game is too hard and then complain that the story intersects "too well" with the gameplay.

I agree on this point as well. For one chapter I designed, I tried to use thunderbolts to signal the weather was going to change but it ended up breaking said chapter. It made me realize FE's game design of Lyn telling you it was going to rain, was really not so bad and she was actually talking to the tactician, not literally breaking the 4th wall, just feels like she did. To be fair to this hack, if you read the conversations, they do tell the player they need to move their ass but didn't feel immersion breaking. Chapter 2 can still eat a bag of dicks though.

so the point of all of this is that if you have the sort of attitude that dismisses this concept before you even tried it out, then of course you've set me up to fail. i didn't get all the help that i could, so the quality wasn't up to par. that's just how it is.

one of the purposes of the fog is so that wagner can't just brandish the sleep staff willy-nilly and target whomever is within his range. i thought this would be obvious. the sleep staff really does help in chapter 3 because the corridor is vulnerable, but the player has to reveal targets first with either the torch staff or an assassin.

you will soon see me realize this in the update

~strategy~

I probably am being too critical since I haven't tried it myself, but the main thing I don't like about it is the trial and error gameplay, which is mostly because of the reinforcements coming from places you can't really predict in ways you can't really predict. Like in the first chapter, there was no way to predict that assassins would come and murderate all the NPCs if you didn't make your units move at top speed IMMEDIATELY off the bat.

I freaked out too when I first saw that shit, then went "ah-ha!" when they went off and opened both doors they could get to. This is where you make note that the AI can end up helping you if you take it into consideration which is an concept you quickly need to master or cri everytime as you gameover.

Is this the same version of the hack that was already around a couple years back, dondon, or has anything new been added to it?

I got the same version of the hack couple years back. Not sure if he recently updated it as in like a year or so.

Ch 3 pt 3? deconstruction and fucking around.

the team

fuck you too game

go over here to clear up that group

as planned

savestate here to dick around.

check the range. Means I have to hug the walls

open the door with the sword killer matthew is holding because that side is nothing but swords.

dorcas dies already

try to see what I can do to rush the front

lucius is the next to die in the death note

took care of the group down here at the expense of more people dying.

then barth takes one for the team.

then raven croaks

gonna have to throw that door key to oswin for he will probably be the next to die.

I make note here that opening that door too late will mean your thief will be shot.

I move on

then serra dies.

got here pretty fast considering. I just had to kill off everybody to do it.

sweet

and this grade S douche bag spawns swordmasters in his room. ugggh, so basically, if you open the door, you have to bum rush the room and have people dead.

or you will be dead.

do some scouting and see I can pretty much sleep anybody.

then matthew dies

out of the darkness this bastard comes.

then hector finally dies.

ok this time I hang back just to see how many waves are there really.

\

nothing on 4 which is surprising

on 5, you get this guys.

took care of most of them by barth just misses the final blow.

and raven pays the price

turn 6 I kill the dude but nothing spawns.

nor does anything in 7

nor 8,

then these dudes show up in 9

and they all have brave weapons. how fun. (super sarcastic right now.)

couldn't kill them all

then lucius dies

nothing up here for awhile, lets see how his bro is doing

not great apparently

not sure how I can use this honestly

then 12 comes

and tells you to go fuck yourself if you are still at the entrance and not close to beating this

just look at this shit.

OI! WTF GAME THAT'S SUPER CHEAP!

another way for longbow assholes to get you.

hmm seems i can sleep these fuckers. was going to try to save the staff like i usually do but I can make my life easier this way.

also tried to spawn block them and it doesn't work, dondon thought of every damn thing.

next time is me actually doing the chapter.

Edited April 3, 2015 by MrNight48

[momogeek2141]

Come on, Night! You've got to manage your exp better!

[dondon151]

not very often where 19 atk bolting sages are "super cheap" lol

also i think that middle chest has a boots

[MrNight48]

ok.... after playing the chapter I ended up torch glitching due to all the fucking siege shit. only to see chapter 4 and cry tears of blood. After all this I have come to the conclusion that the reason this hack is pissing me off so much is the lack of LP progress. So here is what I am going to do. I am going to put this LP on a hiatus and only update it when I feel like I can beat in a legit way. Until then I will LP something else because all I will say right now is how much bullshit it is and I feel like....i don't know. I just.. I honestly don't know. A lot of work went into this hack for me to just cheat through it, but at this very moment, its not fun. its fucking draining to play it and I couldn't explain why right now. I will explain all the shit that happens on hectors side

- increasingly powerful waves will spawn at your starting position, so you have to move fast

- which will force you into 2 groups that will always do a shit ton of damage and there is really nothing you can do about it. you have to take hits.

- You also have to hug the walls all the way to the throne room or get hit by balistas

- You have to sleep the sages in the center or they will most likely hit hector's group with 10 use boltings. that is what I found a bit cheap because 10 turns is a very long time, so I can't even wait it out. so to recap by the time you start, you are constantly under fire of at least 3 siege hard hitting weapons.

- Then when you finally somehow, open the door. The boss calls in reinforcements that moves, its not just 2 swordmasters but 2 sages and a bishop with healing physic staves. yes the sages fucking move and yes, you are now in range of 2 eclipse druids while still being attacked by snipers in siege weapons.

Now here is what I have to deal with this

- no thieves so I have to put up with the shit fog till the throne room were, honestly is too late.

- 2 healers who can't really heal because all I have is a mend staff really. physic is pretty much done and I have a torch staff which means if I want to light my way, I have to give up healing somebody or attacking somebody.

- 2 slow ass generals who can't tank. they are pretty much paper because 3 hits means they are dead which says a lot when 25 hp serra can always take 1 hit before she drops. Their move speed is absolute shit so if I don't manage their movements closely, they are too far behind for when I need them most.

- a hero who is useless because he is super weak

- Dorcas is pretty much a sniper at this point and can't counter one range units. However he is still insanely useful due to the brave bow, 40 hp so he can at least be a hp tank,

- Hector is breaking his damn back for all this carrying he is doing. him and dorcas are pretty much the dps of this time. serra too when she doesn't have to heal.

- Most of the weapons I have are shit.

So all of this together equals me moving a break neck speed only to crash into fucking spears/brave sword and get turned into a pincushion from siege units. I can't use crits nor do I rarely dodge. That's the biggest thing I am noticing now even though it has always been like this since chapter 1. I can't fucking dodge for shit, while having units that feel like paper despite having tanky classes. It also doesn't feel like a fire emblem game anymore, because the stats are locked for the player but the enemy can get sightly better stats every time they load nor can you even level grind to at least have some kind of control over these events.

i honestly can't tell if this is hard, bullshit, not balanced, or meant to be done in a very specific way.

Edited April 6, 2015 by MrNight48

[TheMoniker]

Well... all I can say is good luck. Really, I've always found disabling XP to be a bad idea, as it makes combat feel unrewarding and pointless, and it seems it's hitting you full stop. I mean, so much of this stuff would be more forgivable/bearable if you actually GAINED STRENGTH as time went on... but, you don't.

[MrNight48]

So as I was searching on how i can increase vulnerary heals without asm, I came across this

http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=43745&p=2693348

that is a player who cleared the first chapter in 8 sick turns.

what does this mean? It means it may very well be possible I just suck at LTC type maps because I can't even grasp the concepts of those strats. many times I felt like that player should have lost a unit but yet, tricked the AI into doing what the player wanted.

so I will go on a journey on LTC mountain to train in FE7. No I won't LP it because honestly some of the strats to LTC require me using units I hate or don't get to train my favorite units. Maybe i can learn how to tackle this hack after that.

Well... all I can say is good luck. Really, I've always found disabling XP to be a bad idea, as it makes combat feel unrewarding and pointless, and it seems it's hitting you full stop. I mean, so much of this stuff would be more forgivable/bearable if you actually GAINED STRENGTH as time went on... but, you don't.

yeah, the fact I am not gaining any exp to get stronger is what's killing me. I just feel stuck ramming my head on a brick wall at this point.

Edited April 6, 2015 by MrNight48

[TheMoniker]

And so, Mr. Night's journey to become stronger and defeat the hack that nearly defeated him begins... Eventually, we will hopefully reach the triumphant return where he succeeds. EVERYONE PREPARE FOR ACTION MOVIE STYLE.

[dondon151]

Well... all I can say is good luck. Really, I've always found disabling XP to be a bad idea, as it makes combat feel unrewarding and pointless, and it seems it's hitting you full stop. I mean, so much of this stuff would be more forgivable/bearable if you actually GAINED STRENGTH as time went on... but, you don't.

the problem with allowing EXP gain and growths is that it's impossible to design a chapter around expected player stats. there's bound to be variance from growths to begin with, and a player who ends up grinding EXP on a previous map will invalidate most of the painstakingly tested design choices. additionally, because this is GBAFE, someone is going to RNG abuse to cheese all of the difficulty anyway.

the combination of no EXP gain and limited weaponry rewards the player for minimizing combat. also, defeating progressively more difficult maps should be immensely rewarding in and of itself.

yeah, the fact I am not gaining any exp to get stronger is what's killing me. I just feel stuck ramming my head on a brick wall at this point.

so chapter 2 and chapter 3 enemies are pretty similar in power level, and most enemies in this ROMhack have to be close in power level precisely because the player gains no EXP. there may be a smattering of stronger enemies in later maps because by that point, you have the tools to deal with them in the form of better weaponry. obviously in chapter 1 if the best weapon that you have is a steel axe and in chapter 3 the best weapon that you have is a brave axe, then you're better equipped to deal with a stronger enemy in chapter 3. that's pretty obvious.

chapter 1 enemies are much weaker in power level for a good reason: you have to spend much of this map doing actions other than attack, so the enemies are there more to get in your way than to destroy you.

what does this mean? It means it may very well be possible I just suck at LTC type maps because I can't even grasp the concepts of those strats. many times I felt like that player should have lost a unit but yet, tricked the AI into doing what the player wanted.

chapter 2 can be 6-turned, chapter 3 can be 7-turned, and chapter 4 is either 5 or 6-turn minimum.

when you try to play faster, you have to synthesize your observations about the chapter design and the enemy behavior, and you have to also set goals while optimizing the amount of damage that you take and the amount of damage that you do. you can't just bang your head against the wall and hope to succeed that way.

Edited April 7, 2015 by dondon151

[MrNight48]

stuff

thanks for the advice, it did help in my training

Proof of my progress

and yes, this was pure legit with savestates. soon I will be able to return.

[momogeek2141]

He's back! The Hero has returned!

[TheMoniker]

That screenshot, considering all the other updates, is almost heartbreaking...

Still, I'm looking forward to the conclusion of this LP of a hack even I was never able to finish... or get past the first chapter of...

[MrNight48]

Too Legit to Quit

will show the winning legit route after I eat, piece by piece from savestates.

Edited April 29, 2015 by MrNight48

[MrNight48]

Ch. 3 pt. 1 Man with a plan

ok I did some major changes this time. Don't believe me? Then let me show you how

I gave healing items to people who need it and swapped some weapons around. Also raven has the elixir because he will be going fast to lure them all while heading for the door. Barth has a vulnerary because he will fight off the sins while taking siege hits due to his hp never being full and will be behind the group.

serra murders the gen for more healing items, hector 1 rounds the soldier, and oswin chips so dorcas can kill while leaving an opening so the hero will attack him which allows serra to live.

heal up oswin and raven goes full throttle while blocking the path that would have killed dorcas.

see that brave sword using asshole? with 5 movespeed I didn't realize I can SKIP this bastard.

equip the lance and move closer to where I want him to be next turn.

all according to plan

I open that shit with astor

THIS time i put that fucker to sleep. In the failed almost run, dealing with that guy caused the mvp ourun's team to be a turn late and not be ready on turn 9.

kill this fucker

#gotta go fast

move serra down and heal with her ill-be-gotten goods

then have barth take her place to murder the spear dude

move hector down right next to her and heal

counter strats are back and stronger than ever. Trust me, getting raven there in turn 2 makes shit way easier.

chip with oswin instead of dorcas. I need dorcas in range next turn for something else.

have dorcas heal up while going there too.

also finish the hero off with lucius

counter chip, raven will survive with 1 hp (you will see this damage management shit a lot)

this time, have wagner 1 shot this sin for an important pure water for later.

move the other 2 down here, set orun ready to counter on EP

with this, barth will survive and kill the other sin next turn.

kill these bastards while moving forward. note dorcas(so is hector but hector is fully healed so he won't be targeted.) is in range to get sniped and that is fine for he healed last turn to take that hit.

use the elixir while putting raven right outside of bravesword gen but can counter chip down the spear dude that is coming.

torch that area so I can see and get ready to fire off another sleep staff

with this, barth never has to worry about the back line again and has enough hp to aggro the bolting sage for the rest of the chapter (except in the win route it went to dorcas after 2 turns but still)

counter and take a bolt.

run down here and heal matthew for the next part

kill dude and open door while being in position to counter kill the hero. (can you believe orun dodged a 75 on EP? definitely related to hector)

have serra rekt this guy's clean off

so hector and raven can run down there to counter chip both heroes. See that space in front of hector? that is where the death range begins where you get hit by both snipers. So its important to hug the wall and make sweet love to it for your life!

rescue serra out of danger

thought about taking her and dropping her off but letting oswin ferry her is better because it saves tile space I need to cross the brave sword troll safely.

full heal dorcas too so he can take another bolt while making sure lucius is safe. Now is where I heal barth while he is running from the reinforcements that will kill you in a few turns.

death to this poisoned hero but not without being annoying.

hector will always be left with 1 hp here, hence is why raven is nearby to supply the elixir and boxed off otherwise he would be dead from both of those heroes.

orun shrugging off scrub damage.

another bolt to da face

see this motherfucker?

Sleep his ass, make sure to savestate before you do because its game over if you miss. I am not shitting you, dealing with 2 bolting siege sages will kill somebody.

funny enough, I never had to rng abuse or savescum for it to work. sage takes a nap every time. guess he is getting too old for this shit.

now matthew must run in here and start chipping this druid before he wakes up in 2 turns.

heal and trade to astor. astor is in front of the door.

chip or kill, doesn't matter if he misses the second one. however if he misses both, go back to savestate till he does chip or hit em with a steel sword. Point is your run is over if you do not at least chip this bastard.

trade to full heal while still being close to the wall. the wall is love, the wall is your only damn way to win

lucius kills this one, if your second hero is still alive, oswin can kill while carrying serra, don't worry about dropping her off but do if you can.

I say don't worry about it because dorcas will pick up the slack next turn while getting him ready to cross.

on ep, only dorcas will take a bolting up in the face.

the longbow bitches will come, you have to kill her next turn.

matthew takes 5 hp poison damage which is why astor has the sack full of heals so matthew doesn't shit himself to death.

anyway kill the druid

before moving astor, MOVE orun to the gen so he can chip but not near the walls so the longbow bitch doesn't attack him or gets hit by an eclipse.

throw matthew his heals and get the very important sleep sword.

that tile there is where eclipse range begins.

so get wagner close but not too close

dorcas will drop off serra while moving forward to be in healing range.

move hector here, he will lure the longbow bitch in range for dorcas to show her how to die.

move my units closer for the next phase. note lucius stands next to serra and physic heals dorcas, NOT above raven where the longbow bitch will go and chip damage him. lucius can not get hit and needs to be full hp for the plan to work.

MURDER!

matthew heals

while I give him the sleep sword, note this part because if matthew gets hit with eclipse, go back to the savestate made before this and don't trade the sword because either matthew or astor can do it. astor is less damage but guaranteed.

move ourun here after he counter killed the gen for better position.

will upload part 2 later.

[TheMoniker]

Excellent... YOU CAN DO IT...

(Well I guess you already did but whatever)

[MrNight48]

ch. 3 pt 2 if these walls can talk

have serra murder this general

full heal dorcas again

hector must be at this door so you can seize with very little resistance next turn

i use to put them right next to hector but the AI changed in the winning route and somehow the longbow bitch would wait till dorcas was chipped down so she could kill him instead of shooting at serra before dorcas gets chipped down. thats right people, this hack learns.

if you choose matthew to sleep chip, make sure he uses a pure water.

wagner MUST sleep that fucking druid, no matter what I did, i could not kill him with 2 units who could double because the druid would full heal with high nos damage. the boss is only weak to magic and wolf beil but you need hector to seize ...wait in hindsight i could have saved a sleep staff use...DAMMIT!

trading

here is where dorcas dies to 2 snipers, longbow bitch, and an eclipse

so oswin will take the some hits instead

heal and move dorcas there to aggro 2 sniper hits while oswin takes an eclipse

trade and full heal again

raven must go here

barth will take one last bolting

last time they take damage

just in time too

damn, he even took an eclipse too, but no worries

in this shot matthew took damage but in the winning route he dodged which is why i said astor is more reliable because...

matthew will die thus ruining the strat.

so i went back to winning route savestate to show whats suppose to happen

astor can do the strat as well. orun that op.

so if you choose matthew and he dodged, he can now sleep the druid

the killing of the asshole druids who block your way to victory.

oh wow wagner does a lot of damage. this is where I realize i could have saved a sleep staff if serra could tank the nos druid. will go back later and see.

what the? wagner gets a custom convo?

then you kill with lucuis, if he misses, your run is done lol.

cause oswin does not do enough damage to pick up the slack. I'm not really sure if this part is a little bit luck based.

does hector get a custom convo?

nope .-.

boom, the boss be dead

and i

WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

FUCK YEAH

cause I beat you, dem the rules sir

YOU BITCH!

bu-but, I WON FAIR AND SQUARE, HE IS SUPPOSE TO TELL ME ALL HIS PLANS AND THE WHY LIKE VILLIANS ARE SUPPOSE TO! THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!

damn, hector is surprisingly knowledgeable all of a sudden.

oh shit, TO CAELIN!

shut up hector, let the mvp's join our team.

wait its been 12 years? holy shit hector time has been good to you.

yay!

LIKE A BOSS!

the story didn't glitch this time.

anyway will show chapter 4 soon and why I cried tears of blood after my torch glitch exploration. I think i can beat it legit this time though.

Thoughts on this chapter:

Micromanagement, tons of micromanagement. Chapter is not forgiving for any wasted movement/unit management on both sides. This chapter also requires the player to know the distance of all siege tomes/weapons by heart. Failure to do so means deaths, deaths everywhere. Once again it feels like I am punished because my equipment is almost done and I may have restart just so I can go into chapter 4 with every possible useful item needed (you will see why). Also fuck the chest, as soon as you open the door, the units in the middle will rush to the unlucky thief you unknowingly sent to death,

[TheMoniker]

Well, I'm glad you won so we can see the TRUE INSANITY that is the final chapter, but again, my main problem with this hack is the insane trial and error. Savestate abuse is pretty much required, or your run will end up... like this, even after TONS of strategizing it was still somewhat luck-based at multiple points... I really think this would be better if it was a bit less INTENSE on everything, you know? The tightness of the strategies required is a like a vicegrip(though obviously you'd know best since I haven't played it myself...)!

[MrNight48]

Well, I'm glad you won so we can see the TRUE INSANITY that is the final chapter, but again, my main problem with this hack is the insane trial and error. Savestate abuse is pretty much required, or your run will end up... like this, even after TONS of strategizing it was still somewhat luck-based at multiple points... I really think this would be better if it was a bit less INTENSE on everything, you know? The tightness of the strategies required is a like a vicegrip(though obviously you'd know best since I haven't played it myself...)!

I get the feeling when I started replaying this hack that abusing savestates was intended so new players can plan properly. then once they figure it out, then they can do it savestate less. It's just not a good hack for blind LP runs like I foolishly tried to do. Once you accept savestating in this hack is a legit method, the hack becomes less frustrating. However the nonstop pressure of this hack doesn't make the hack bad, just exhausting but I think I am starting to understand where this hack is coming from. It's difficulty reminds me of the old Nintendo games, where you had learn how to beat it by playing it over and over because it was insanely hard.

Ch. 4 Scouting

caelin, wall of story in bound (over 60 pictures of story)

useless kent

yeah, you must attend to this matter not some paper or some shit like that.

isn't this part of ostia now? BITCH THIS IS MY HOME!

wait did they fire sain? HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA

so sain just chills at the castle bothering kent, then goes to town to check out the babes? There is no fucking way he gets a sweet deal like that for the rest of his life.

...sain what have 12 years done to you....

I disagree

"wait till the plot happens mi'lord"

that spy network on point

got to admit, I like the story, especially how this was done. I'm curious to know more.

"COME WATTSON! THE GAME IS AFOOT!"

oh hey its medicore wil

that doesn't sound good. that doesn't sound good at all.

be a cold day in hell before I believe you didn't mean to overhear sain.

shit!

indeed. *screen shakes*

so no one noticed a giant siege weapon till it was too late? holy shit kent you have become shitty since I last commanded you.

my thoughts exactly

oh no. not only do I have to protect npc's but I now have to recruit every defected soldier too? next you are going to tell me only hector can do it...

and there is the plot.

all 11 units

in this big ass map

with an asshole boss.

with legend using enemies (sure there is only 2 but I do not like the way they are positioned right next to the boss.

of course there is a purge

oh but that is not the best part I swear, let me start the chapter.

apparently I can kill the boss in 6 turns. guaranteed 4 turns of pure hell

ok

I WAS KIDDING! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-

OF COURSE ITS A GAME OVER!

and there is anna with decent stats I may show later.

so you start here with 3 added units. They are decent but not orun good. oh and its a game over if any of those 3 die.

yeah this is the final part, the npc's are all over the fucking place. fun fact, You can literally get a game over in the first turn. So once again micromanagement is key before turn 1.

these group of guys

will be upon these npc's in turn 2

the sin can open the door and kill anna in 1 turn so make sure to snag that swordmaster's attention and then anna will survive a hit from the sniper.

yeah, will update this when I beat it because there is no point in me showing all the deaths trying to figure this one out.

Dondon did say 4 is the most unfinished one but seems it can be beaten so I won't rip on this one like i did in chapter 3.

So will play this and then move on to my next LP (already have one and mind and need a break from fire emblem lol)

Edited May 1, 2015 by MrNight48

[MrNight48]

Never mind taking another break.

Just in case I never return, here are my final thoughts on this hack

chapter 1 is amazing, it hooks you in and makes you crave for more. Chapter 2 still pisses me off but it is a solid chapter. Just have to learn how to do it and take the beatings. Then you hit chapter 3 and this is where it starts to fall apart. The chapter works but there is too many annoying things the player has to do that really sucks the fun out of the hack. (basically remembering where the enemies are and tons of got damn tile counting siege weapons) When I beat it, it didn't feel rewarding, just you won now a even more hard chapter with equipment that is about die if you didn't play like you was suppose to. So this leads to chapter 4. All the brave weapons are in chests I have to go get myself, Saving the green units means once again I have to throw my units in unreasonable danger just to lure them to me. Can chapter 4 be beaten? I have no idea but what I played just now I can say I do not want to.

Overall, considering when it was made, it has a lot of effort put into it that was very damn good. I do say one should play it to see if they like it because the gameplay is pretty solid but it is a niche hack through and through. If nothing else this hack did push me to learn different strats. Now as for the hate and complaints this hack got, its not on the level of "its terrible and should not be played" but of "this hack is brutal, just...brutal" and will even say its a bit luck based. I say that because it is entirely possible to miss 85-90 hits and then straight up lose because of it. Also thinking the AI is guaranteed to do one thing, only to completely do something else to the point it ruins your run is not helping its case. Making the player rely mostly on AI manipulation to win is not fun because you can never really be sure what the AI will do. It's like believing you can start up your car the next time simply because it worked the previous times so you never plan for when the car doesn't start. Same thing I felt in this hack was doing, giving the player so little ways to win that are 1% chance to fail and is saying you can not fail because the odds are so low. Other than that, the hack is pretty awesome when it can be.

Edited May 1, 2015 by MrNight48

[TheMoniker]

To be entirely honest, I probably am being too critical of the hack. Looking at it again, it isn't bad, it just seems so insanely, unnecessarily brutal...

[Ansem]

you're a filthy casual, thats why

i thought the hack was difficult too, but i understand that it was not made your average FE'er. it requires critical thinking, and that is was made the hack so refreshing.

[dondon151]

WHOA i hadn't checked back on this in a long time.

chapter 4, if i recall correctly, isn't too hard to survive as long as you get down the first couple of turns. basically you have to deploy in the right positions and then quickly kill off the immediate threats.