FE8 Hack: Freesia (title placeholder for thread and very early concept)

[Amiratasiru]

I would like to preface that this is very early as a concept, I'd just like to hear people's opinions on my idea so far. Firstly, I wanna say that I've never hacked FE8 before, but I know it's considered the better choice, so I'm going to learn.

Brief synopysis: The story is about an ever-changing world beginning in the centre of the largest continent; the country Umēra, a young country home to many poor and unfortunate people which is about to face a major crisis that will put its existence on the line. The high ranking political powers are making their move, military might is being strengthened across the land. The condemned country is on a time limit. A strange array of characters will soon accumulate from the cracks and upper echelons of society - to save the country, or to save themselves?

The story primarily follows a merchant by the name of Leith with a very broad past surrounding many important people, a mysterious and magical girl Rin with the heart of a pacifist who uses a flute as a weapon, a "resigned" soldier named Nyoman, an isolated young prodigy alchemist/mage Kody and a shut-in princess with aspirations to become a professional fencer named Thuraia.

There're plenty of other characters, but I thought I'd mention the characters that represent the most diversity.

Progress: well... I've written the first two chapters' dialogue. I'm also working on the maps for first two chapters - both gameplay and cutscene chapters.

Hacking capabilities: I'm capable of mapping, basic splicing (though I'll probably just use NICKT's skin pack or FE7/8 characters), writing music and I learned basic scripting a while back. I reckon I could pick it up again with some practice.

Obligatory list of features to likely expect:

- 4-5 part story (Similar to Radiant Dawn, though probably not as long)

- Some new classes (down the road, placeholders will be used for the time being)

- New music (possibly some written by myself)

- 25-30 characters - I'm hoping to write more of a character driven story, so less emphasis on army rosters.

- Hopefully a unique story with characters archetypes not yet touched upon heavily (within the FE fanbase)

- A substantial timeskip within the story (I've already planned where it will roughly take place)

If you think I should give more information, I will add more on the characters and the world they hail from. I'll probably update this later regardless cause I've probably missed a few things.

Edited December 7, 2016 by Rhayader

[SullyMcGully]

Interesting... I'd like to hear more about the storyline, from what you've shown it seems a little bit more innovative than most other FE hacks. I'm afraid I'm not much of a programmer or CG artist, but I'm decent with scripts (as in, plot and dialogue) so if you need some help with supports or other writing projects, I might be helpful.

[TornadoGenerator456]

I'd say this holds a lot of potential. Though potential does not equal a good end project. I just hope you put this idea to the best of it's capabilities. Also the only help I could give you is play testing because well... I'm bad with hacking.

Edited December 8, 2016 by TornadoGenerator456

[Amiratasiru]

Alright, here's a little section of text on some characters and places in this world.

Characters

Leith - The protagonist of the majority of the story, Leith is a merchant who has past ties ranging from many different people. As such, his political knowledge is high. His past also connects to the reason that he's where he stands - being a merchant. He's pretty cynical and generally doesn't like people who aren't efficient with their time. Uses knives/swords.

Rin - The deutagonist of part 1, Rin is from the country Shaffafa, a floating country, where she was brought up by her mother alone on the philosophy of "give to the earth, it'll give back to you". She's a pacifist, valuing all life; hence why she uses her flute for battling. Her body is given power by the earth from her musical energy she bears. With her moving music, she creates a semblance with the earth, allowing her to coat her body with the energy of the earth. She uses her legs while playing her flute when fighting.

Nyoman - A "resigned" soldier from a country that had recently fallen to the disease of civil war. His platoon was massacred due to his misjudgement and bad decision-making, leading him into a shell few - if any can crack open. He simply just lives from one day to the next as a stoic man. Uses axes.

Ezekiel - A new recruit for the Umēran army. He's obnoxious, he's overly enthusiastic and he's not the brightest person - but his heart's really in the right place. He's not good at conveying the way he thinks deep down, but his desire to become a great soldier for the good of his family, friends and homeland shines through. Uses spears and is mounted.

Locations

Umēra - A young country struggling to abide by its suzerain state, Nubia due to ongoing terrorism (bandits and an arising Syndicate group). The royal family is forced to live a very sheltered life just to keep the country intact. This country was formed during a state of time after a war between two other countries that led a chunk of land to become ungoverned land. So, Nubia took control of it, being of the largest military power solely as a shield if war were to ever rise. Part 1 and parts of Part 2 take place here.

Shaffafa - The floating continent that Rin came from. It's known for its neutrality and extensive knowledge. Over the years it has become a wonderland for scholars, even containing controversial information on history and conspiracy theories. Its political minds are among the greatest across the lands making them targets for other countries, but this is in an age where fly technology doesn't exist so reaching Shaffafa is incredibly difficult, having it thereby ignored by other countries despite its small size.

I'd like to keep the information dispersion gradual for now, so it mainly concerns some knowledge you'll learn early on + a country that probably won't come into play for a long while yet. I've also produced a map for the prologue, which takes place in a bar. I don't know how I feel about it right now but it's not meant to be anything too fancy. I might post it on my (very inactive) map thread later if I make any changes to see what people have to say there.

Edited December 9, 2016 by Rhayader

[SullyMcGully]

Looks pretty cool. So are there any particular gameplay changes you want to make? I'm particularly interested in Rin. From what you've said so far, it seems she's like Nils or Elphin as a musician, but she also uses earth magic, which has never been featured in an FE game before (to my knowledge).

Also, some info on things like classes and skills would be interesting. The storyline seems good enough, but there isn't a whole lot of gameplay information to catch people's attention.

In the meantime, you've picked my interest, so I'll be keeping an eye on this project to see where it goes. I wish you the best, but in the end, it all comes down to how determined you are to see this through. The forums are full of abandoned/half-baked/cancelled hacks, but every great hack was a tiny, fledgling effort at some point or another.

Edited December 9, 2016 by SullyMcGully

[Glaceo]

you know, i actually like the idea of these barrels, it might look like random tilespam at first glance, but the barrels are supposed to be the benches where the bandits play their usual poker game, and the benches are supposed to be those, quite creative, but i feel like there should be two benches per barrel

[Amiratasiru]

Looks pretty cool. So are there any particular gameplay changes you want to make? I'm particularly interested in Rin. From what you've said so far, it seems she's like Nils or Elphin as a musician, but she also uses earth magic, which has never been featured in an FE game before (to my knowledge).

Also, some info on things like classes and skills would be interesting. The storyline seems good enough, but there isn't a whole lot of gameplay information to catch people's attention.

In the meantime, you've picked my interest, so I'll be keeping an eye on this project to see where it goes. I wish you the best, but in the end, it all comes down to how determined you are to see this through. The forums are full of abandoned/half-baked/cancelled hacks, but every great hack was a tiny, fledgling effort at some point or another.

Rin does play a similar role to Nils and/or Elphin and she does use magic as well.

I haven't really considered skills yet because I want to get the core ideas out on the table first before getting into the specifics. Some things regarding weapons however, I intend to follow a similar formula to FE9, where equipping knives will be a skill.

I do have intentions of bringing in a fair few new classes, however.

Flautist - Rin's unique class, she brings out the potential within nature, creating a semblance with it to fight as an ally. Weapons: Earth magic (& possibly Strike, meaning she uses her legs for combat, strengthening them with magic)

Merchant - Leith's unique class, higher movement than the average foot unit. Weapons: Uses swords & knives.

Axe/Spear/Sword/Bow Soldier - A slight reconstruction of the spear soldier class to have each physical weapon have an infantry class. I don't intend to do a complete overhaul as that's a little much to go for, so the idea was tweaking the fighter, archer and myrmidon classes to befit the appearance of a military soldier. Not high on the priority list.

I have a couple others in mind but I don't want to overextend myself yet.

Finally, I'd like to say I'll get at least the first part done down the line, but I'm not an expert hacker so I'm going to go at my own pace, mainly working on things to show for the hack. I've been wanting to write a story befitting a Fire Emblem title for a while and have finally come up with something I felt was worth sharing, so I'm gonna give it the 'ol college try.

you know, i actually like the idea of these barrels, it might look like random tilespam at first glance, but the barrels are supposed to be the benches where the bandits play their usual poker game, and the benches are supposed to be those, quite creative, but i feel like there should be two benches per barrel

I'll be honest, it wasn't entirely my idea as Bloodlines has a bar map. I noticed the mapper was using the barrels like that and I thought it was very well-suited. And yeah, while it does look random, I did do a fair bit of reconstruction while designing it because I had a vision in mind. I will try adding benches on both sides and see how that goes.

Edited December 9, 2016 by Rhayader

[Amiratasiru]

Though it hasn't yet been finalised, I've written out the dialogue for the first three parts so far. Currently working on the 4th part. Might start on the maps for the parts' dialogue I've finished. I'm using wordpad for writing the story, so I just copy-pasted it to google worksheet. Hopefully I fixed it so it can be shared to publically: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1W4k1yjrbnOmcPYlb2lRXZUbzyvdzm7kASz3A1JBAYb0/edit?usp=sharing

Edited January 11, 2017 by Rhayader

[SullyMcGully]

Nice writing... kinda. OK, I actually couldn't read anything because Google said I needed your permission. Three parts, though. You've been busy...

[Amiratasiru]

Nice writing... kinda. OK, I actually couldn't read anything because Google said I needed your permission. Three parts, though. You've been busy...

Yeah I don't know how to use google worksheet. Is there a way to make it public for everyone?

[Eliwan]

Share Button (blue with a person and chains, the link icon) -> "link sharing" -> click the bar that says "OFF - only specific people can access" and select the desired "anybody with the link can..." option.

[Amiratasiru]

Share Button (blue with a person and chains, the link icon) -> "link sharing" -> click the bar that says "OFF - only specific people can access" and select the desired "anybody with the link can..." option.

Ah I see. I did that before but I wasn't sure if it was correct. Thanks for letting me know.

[SullyMcGully]

OK, I read it. Pretty neat. I liked the way you gave every boss a distinct personality and backstory, WITHOUT filling the script with meaningless dialogue detailing characters you will kill momentarily. Each playable unit has a lot of personality as well, which works when you just have four of them. However, I'm interested in seeing how this will work out when you have many more units in play and many more personalities to juggle.

A few critiques: 1) If Ezekiel is going to be a main character, you might want to tone him down a bit. Over-the-top units work great in the background, but they can be annoying when they are plot-relevant. 2) In the same vein, you might want to move his interactions with Nyoman into a support/base conversation. 3) Succubuses (I don't know what the plural is there) and a few of the other plot elements here are new ground for Fire Emblem, from a mythological standpoint. I'm not saying that there's anything particularly wrong with that, just be aware that the more outside influences you add, the less it will feel like a Fire Emblem fangame and the more it will appear to be a work of its own, which is a good or bad thing, depending on your intent.

In the meantime, keep up the good work! I'm looking forward to seeing some more progress.

[Amiratasiru]

OK, I read it. Pretty neat. I liked the way you gave every boss a distinct personality and backstory, WITHOUT filling the script with meaningless dialogue detailing characters you will kill momentarily. Each playable unit has a lot of personality as well, which works when you just have four of them. However, I'm interested in seeing how this will work out when you have many more units in play and many more personalities to juggle.

A few critiques: 1) If Ezekiel is going to be a main character, you might want to tone him down a bit. Over-the-top units work great in the background, but they can be annoying when they are plot-relevant. 2) In the same vein, you might want to move his interactions with Nyoman into a support/base conversation. 3) Succubuses (I don't know what the plural is there) and a few of the other plot elements here are new ground for Fire Emblem, from a mythological standpoint. I'm not saying that there's anything particularly wrong with that, just be aware that the more outside influences you add, the less it will feel like a Fire Emblem fangame and the more it will appear to be a work of its own, which is a good or bad thing, depending on your intent.

In the meantime, keep up the good work! I'm looking forward to seeing some more progress.

I want the player to familiarise themselves with these first few characters as that way it will give time for later characters to be given some development. Leith and Rin especially, but Nyoman and Ezekiel will consistently play a large role in the story just not as much so as them.

1) Yeah, that's kind of the idea of him being annoying. He's going to be facing some pretty big character development over the course of the first chapter/story arc, so it won't stick for a long time. I might do so at some points, but the general idea is that he is meant to either be seen as amusing or frustrating due to his sheer innocent and naive personality. He and Rin are supposed to contrast with Nyoman and Leith's cynical, cold exterior.

2) I'm not sure yet if I'm going to implement support conversations. I'm leaning towards the Radiant Dawn style of support convos, though they'd be unique to each character, as there will be plenty of dialogue between characters that having long supports will be unnecessary.

3) I believe it's Succubi. I searched it up for a dialogue point. I'm not going to go overboard with mythical creatures but I do want to bring some in to add new variety to the roster. I might create my own type of monster hybrids as I do have some ideas in my head.

Edited January 12, 2017 by Rhayader