Tristian: The Lady of the Lion

[Luchi]

Hi everyone

First off, I don't think either of you know me, so let me re-introduce myself. I'm Luchino, or Luchi for short, and I'm an aspiring game developer who has combined my love of writing, pixel art, FE and JRPGs into one massive project. I've developed a few other games ( my last one of note being over 12 hours long ) but Tristian: The Lady of the Lion is probably my best work yet. =)

The original game topic is extremely popular over at its host site, with nearly 210,000 views and 209 subscribers. It can be found here:

http://rpgmaker.net/games/5537/

I update my blog on a bi-monthly basis.

I signed up over at SF ages ago, but then became extremely inactive due to working on a rather ambitious, Fire-Emblem inspired project. However, because it's a true JRPG, it doesn't really follow FE's grid-based gameplay, but it's still a very strategic-orientated game, even if it does follow the old-school Final Fantasy turn-based combat.

So, allow me to present:



The estimated playtime is wrong. It's more along the length of Radiant Dawn at around 35 hours. >< And 9 playable characters.

Screenshots:

Playable characters:

I was working on a JRPG version of Path of Radiance a while ago with Elincia as the main lord (because let's face it, she would have been far more interesting than Ike), but I decided that because fan-works are low priority for me, I just decided to base Tristian's cast off some of Tellius' crew and went with a new world, new plot etc. while taking elements from the series. World-building is influenced by Jugdral mainly, and Tristian is almost as dark as it in tone, if you look past the bright colours.

Think of Ianna as what Elincia would have been like had they merged her characterisation from both FE9 and FE10, and carried it throughout the entire game.

I hope to have a demo out in late April-early May, with the full game being released in late 2017.

That's it and thanks for reading!

Edited May 20, 2016 by Luchino

[Soledai]

I have a vague memory of seeing something like this before.

Did this ever go by a different name? If so, what was it, and did you ever have yt vids of it?

[Luchi]

No, it never went by another name. Maybe you saw an older video on youtube.

Here is some gameplay footage:

Most of the visuals save the obvious FE edits were made by me.

[Luchi]

I'm not dead.

Some artwork I've done for the game so far. I'm trying to emulate Senri Kita's art-style. Everyone knows she's the best FE artist. <3

WIP of a promoted Tristian.

I'm very slow with my art atm and because developing the game takes up so much of my time, it leaves little room for original art ( hence the FE edits ).

I didn't just go around and choose random FE10 characters though. I'd imagined in my head what some Tellius units would have been like had they been fully fleshed out characters in a typical RPG. For example, I wanted a bad-ass Berserker with a murky past ( and ties to the nobility ) so I'd figured a human version of Tibarn would go down well ( his outfit pretty much screams pirate in any case ). Or just demote Ike to a regular mercenary by the name of Striker; only difference is that Striker is a lovable dolt and Ike is Mr. Personality, but who still goes out of his way to help others ( and develops a little crush on Ianna during the interim ). And he uses axes. And I wanted a Genki Girl-type thief who was leading a rebellion against unwelcome occupiers but without Mia's one-dimensionless personality ( I'd also imagine Mia would have been an amusing foil to Lucia ).

And obviously, Tristian and Ianna is Lucia and Elincia taken up to 11. Ianna is pretty much the single greatest character ( and unit ) in the game. Her character development puts FE10 Elincia to shame. Nor does Tristian remain a static, stereo-typical lady knight. She's the MC for a reason, after all.

I have a co-writer who is helping me with the plot of the game ( it helps that geo-politics is a hobby of his, making for a very solid scenario writer and that he has played FE3 through to FE8 ) and its around 80% complete now. And at almost 30,000 words long in plot outline alone, Tristian is going to be a very long RPG indeed.

Older screenshots

Gotta love her reckless style. As a result, she is often at loggerheads with the far more reserved Tristian.

[I'm gay dabadeedabada]

And obviously, Tristian and Ianna is Lucia and Elincia taken up to 11.

That awkward feeling when your first thought is "So, actually canonically gay."

This looks interesting, though; did you develop the tiles and overworld character sprites yourself?

[Luchi]

Eh, I don't blame you for thinking that. Whether players interpret their relationship as platonic or romantic, you can't deny their strong bond with each other. But Tristian and Ianna are basically how I'd visualise the two if Elincia really was a main character in a well-written story ( I think I'm one of the few that thinks FE9's plot stinks of cliche with an over-rated Lord ). Both heroines have their own separate character arcs though. Developing a game is a lot better than writing fan-fiction, after all. And female heroines are just more interesting to write. Period.

Regarding the game, all the tilesets/character sprites/menu graphics/sprite battlers were made by me. I hope to have a six hour demo ready by late August-early September. I'm looking at 4 hours per chapter, with 10 chapters in total.

I'm making progress, albeit slow, but I'm edging towards that six hour mark.

[Starman]

Welcome back

And nice to see more progress being done with this project

The visuals look nice from these pictures

And the short bio for the female leads sounds interesting as it stands

Hoping for the best on this project

[Luchi]

For those of you still interested, here's the demo download. It's honestly a lot better subscribing to the project itself over at this site and keeping up to date with the game, since I'm rarely active over here.

https://www.rpgmaker.net/games/5537/

Just be sure to read all the instructions. =)

And given that this is an FE fan forum, I've been working on something else as well. it might appeal more to those interesting in Tellius and difficult battles particularly.

I've been working on this particular game for the last 2.5 years. No demo though. It's pretty hard trying to balance a mere 15 beorc units...

[FallenVanguard]

Looking forward to giving this a try, and letting you know of my thoughts!

[I'm gay dabadeedabada]

1.) THERE'S A DEMO NOW :O

2.) My goodness, the relationshipping in those screencaps. lmao

Any info on what that second game is?

[Luchi]

The second game is based off the last chapter in RD, set in the Tower of Guidance. I always felt it was too easy and far too anti-climatic, so I went and raised all of Ashera's golden-armoured soldiers all the way to level 60 ( using their base stats on this site as a guide for level 1 ). As you can imagine, their stats are quite monstrous ( a Warrior has 116HP/93 ATK on normal mode, going up to 145HP/117 ATK on Lunatic) and for Yune's chosen to be any match, they too, were Blossom-trained, with no stat-caps and I used a combination of growths from FE9/10/13 to make them the best they could be ( Ike, for example, has a 85% HP/70% Str growth from FE13, but keeps his 55% Spd growth from FE9. It doesn't mean he is fast though. A General on NM is faster than him ).

The biggest change is that the original game doesn't play out like a traditional FE ( the battle scenes are a clear indication ), but are rather fast-paced and frenetic, and feels a lot more climatic as a result. Ashera's Chosen are merciless, and the player will really need to manage their resources. Even the Ike/BK fight is no longer a Hammertime fest ( which in itself is interesting. If Ike gets KO'd, his support partner needs to duel BK ). You only control two units for the duration of the entire game ( my reasoning being Yune blessed a mere two with all her power, resulting in those incredible stat-gains ).

Examples:

Ike - Level 60 Vanguard

107 HP

55 MP

68 Str

47 Mag

76 Def ( his armour + Ragnell )

58 Spd ( 63 base SPD -5 from Ragnell )

Micaiah - Level 60 Dark Shaman

95 HP

68 MP

52 Str

71 Mag

39 Def

75 Spd ( 65 base SPD + 10 from Divineflame )

Miccy wrecks stuff with Balberith and can multi-target. That alone makes her better than Ike ( since she really is Yune now ). She also absorbs Dark magic and can drain foes of their MP stat.

The game itself only takes around 45 minutes to clear the 5 stages. And anyone can strike down Ashera. No permadeath either. Mixing and matching units adds to the replay value of the game. Magic also targets multiple foes, making units like Miccy/Soren amazing if you can keep them alive long enough. The same ruling applies to the enemy mages.

But I'll put a topic under the Fan Projects section for this particular game. Too many mechanics to discuss ( like affinities and weapon types ).

[Luchi]

Updated screenshots. I'm busy with some cinema scenes now.

[Rezzy]

Looks nice, like SNES or GBA era graphics.

That awkward feeling when your first thought is "So, actually canonically gay."

The feeling I get, looking at the bottom picture. Although, if that's what you're going for, that's nice, coming from someone with firsthand personal experience with that sort of thing.

[Luchi]

Tristian and Ianna are canon, yes.

[I'm gay dabadeedabada]

welp time to draw fanart