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[FE8] [Complete] Vision Quest (v2.1 21-Mar-21 - Final Release)


Pandan
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(FEU Thread: http://feuniverse.us/t/fe8-fire-emblem-vision-quest-6-2-18-v-02-beta-release-is-live/3815) - see here for more details!

Hi all, 

Proud to announce a new hack I've created, titled **Fire Emblem: Vision Quest** . This is an FE8 hack built with FEBuilder. 

Patch Download

About me:
Want to include this section to provide more insight into my design choices. I've been an FE fan since FE7 hit the west. I knew of Fire Emblem through melee and immediately went to purchase the game after my friend showed me the game where "Marth uses an axe and Roy was mistranslated". (For the record, the first chapter he showed me was New Resolve, and the first animation I remember is watching Guy crit-kill a monk. I was immediately intrigued). 

Since then, I've played every mainline FE game. While I've enjoyed all of them to varying degrees, my favorites are FE3 (feels the most Fire Emblem-y of all the games, I'd say), FE5 (neat mechanics, Dalsin's my favorite character in the series, and Leif is my favorite lord.), and FE9 (best cast, worldbuilding and writing). I got into emulation when I wanted to play FE6 in English, and then learned about rom-hacking through Tactics Universe (better known now as The Last Promise). I wanted to make my own hack since I learned you could do it, and used to mess around in Nightmare to change classes around. Once I learned of all the new things available to hackers in FE8 (which was untouched back in the day), I decided to dive in after writing up a script.

When it came to making a hack, I wanted to create a game that would be challenging and fun, while offering enough variance to (potentially) make each playthrough unique. I dislike the newer entries emphasis on skills, so I wanted to implement a more pared down skill system that added unit flavor without making anyone gamebreaking (ie there are no proc skills in this hack, while all foot units get shove). I also wanted to make effective weapons useful and enemies threatening, so I think (From my initial testing) that this game is more player phase focused on the whole, but I'll leave that judgment up to you. I made common throwing weapons weaker and heavier so they're less desirable to use, and gave swords more of a niche by creating a diverse array of effective swords.

From a story perspective, I wanted to make a story that deviated from the norm and focused on small scale events, similar to Thracia. I also wanted the central character to not be of noble birth (and not find out he's a noble later on in the story, I promise). Additionally, while the story does touch on more serious topics, I tried to pepper in some humor and lighten things up. I hope that the story isn't cringey and that you find it serviceable. (I promise the endgame boss is not controlled by a dragon)

**Plot**
The continent of Yaska is home to six nations, but the largest and most powerful is Nevan, an Empire composed of states that swear allegiance to the Emperor. In the rural state of Belaro, Lord Gradin, head of state, imposes cruel taxes on the people and jails those that cannot pay. 

A young farmer, Storch, along with his hometown friends, fear the worst. Seeking to protect themselves and their families, they look to procure funds through less than savory means. Conflicted, the group begins their plunge into banditry in hopes for a better tomorrow. 

**Hack Features**
- Story set on a new continent.
-  43 chapters
- 62 playable characters
- Concept I'm temporarily calling 'inverse branched promotions' (ie There's an unpromoted Axe Fighter and Bow Fighter class, then they promote into Warrior and gain the weapon they couldn't use unpromoted.)
- Custom weapons (and rehashes of Kaga-era weapons)
- Early game Warp & Rescue.
- Generic female enemies.
- Armor knights with 5 move. (because I want you to use them)
- Pared down skills to give units a niche without making anything wonky
- Skills are learned at level 15 unpromoted / 1 promoted
- Universal promotion items
- Stronger bows (and no 1 range BS).
- Fog of War (but not Thracia FOW, I promise.)
- FE5 style trading (SNES is SNEBEST)
- New (and old) tracks
- Escape maps with spooky bosses.
- Tellius style supports.

**Patch Download and Instructions:**

- You'll need to use a UPS patching tool, such as NUPS.
- You can download the file here on Dropbox

Edited by Pandan
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wait what the fuck this came out of nowhere and sounds to be pretty freaking cool.

ill give it like an hour and get back to you on some first thoughts.

edit: wait fuck where do i find it

re-edit: sorry found it

Edited by (s)ad touch
lol i fucked up
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okay so just finished chapter 1 and i gotta say, there have been better. overall, i think that the villages created corridors that are too cramped, the enemies(!difficult) should move, as honestly, you can just bait and kill them otherwise, which is really easy and devoid of effort 

there were also just barely too many enemies and they were spread to thin to be engaging. the enemy density should be improved, and you should probably move them a little closer to the start point, maybe put some on the villages, but then delay the escape incentive reinforcements another turn or 2.

the boss was just slightly out of the way and should really be a move once in range and should drop his torch because stealing it is a pain. seriously. that torch is dumb.

the escape objective is LITERALLY just a seize, so call it that. 

i honestly think that you shouldn't have an axe unit that fast on your squad chapter 1. make him a a bunch slower, but a bunch stronger.

you should have a lance unit too so you have more  ways to combat the many lances this chapter.

the starting point feels just wrong somehow, being too far from anything to do turn 1 other than get 1 specific kill.

there is ZERO terrain to benefit from other than the marginally useful villages. i suggest just adding some pillars in in slightly out of the way positions

pretty much all major problems are listed here, but the music should be burned it was gross. use the ephraim route song follow me instead as, not only does it fit the tone of the chapter better, but its ALREADY IN THE GAME. (the remix of alms player phase doesn't sound great, tbh) 

overall not an incredible chapter but far from inexcusable. maybe should have a little more playtesting.

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Thanks for sharing the feedback. Will try to address your points as best I can.

- I'll look into changing the enemy AI a bit. I wanted to avoid enemies charging too much and clogging you up at specific chokes. Part of the reason for the one-tile chokes are to make it so your squishier units don't have to face as much EP combat.

- The boss is set up as such because I view dealing with him to be optional, I think making him move could be interesting. will experiment.

- Have to figure out how to change seize -> escape, so bear with me on that.

- I wanted to design the class to be like sword mercs with axes (so FE5 fighter), you get a more traditional axe user in a subsequent chapter. 

- You get a lance unit in Chapter 3, didn't want to give the player the full suite of options up front.

- Turn 1 is important since it's where you decide who goes where... can understand what you mean, will play around.

- I'll look into terrain options.

- Yeah, I want to make the music work but I can understand not everyone likes pan flutes as much as I do. I'll look into fixing this or removing it.

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Just finished chapter 2 and oh you replied ok

3 minutes ago, Lowen said:

- I'll look into changing the enemy AI a bit. I wanted to avoid enemies charging too much and clogging you up at specific chokes. Part of the reason for the one-tile chokes are to make it so your squishier units don't have to face as much EP combat.

no. you have unit capable of being called something other than squishy. that doesn't warrant 1 tile chokes. the map would be WAY more fun if you had a little more freedom.

5 minutes ago, Lowen said:

The boss is set up as such because I view dealing with him to be optional, I think making him move could be interesting. will experiment.

Good but if ya do, don't give him range.

6 minutes ago, Lowen said:

- I wanted to design the class to be like sword mercs with axes (so FE5 fighter), you get a more traditional axe user in a subsequent chapter. 

I meant that from a balance perspective, he is immediately way better than anyone else due to having good bases, good growths, and a good weapon class. he can be fast and wield an axe, but to make it even remotely balanced, the enemies would need to be tougher, but whatever it was more of a nitpick anyways.

 

now about ch2

Just get rid of the fog.

fog is not fun

also to many pitifully weak enemies.

other than that, the flier you get in the chapter should be faster at base and just ditch the pursuit thing. a more interesting approach would be to maybe give her some kind of protective aura around her that would increase surrounding units bulk and call it wingspan or something. save that pursuit thing for a cavalier or something like that that would make sense statistically speaking.

either way, this chapter was a bunch better than the first, but still needs touching up.

 

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Got it - I'll experiment a bit more with the map. Currently moving around some enemies to mix up the flow and seeing how that plays out.

Yeah I'll get rid of the hatchet then, thanks.

I see what you mean, Arckady is def a standout unit, but you also don't really get a proper Jeigan and his defense is lackluster so you can't overextend him (At least in theory and from the playtesting I've done). 

It's funny you say that, I felt the first chapter was way better, but I suppose difference in style/opinion.

Will look into replacing Natsuko's skill, wasn't sure what to give her. Haven't learned how to do custom skills yet.

Edited by Lowen
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on to chapter 3

wait no fuck this map.

way to many fucking enemies. 

11 speed mercs that fuck up whats his face not-a-lord

2 super weak units that you need to protect

that are GREEN UNITS. 

IN 1 WIDE CORRIDORS!

WHYYYYYY

ITS STUPID

this map is not very good. im just going to be honest.

the mercs should be slower, make marlen the sword cav guy stronger at base, specifically in bulk as 4 made 6 by !elite sword bonuses is NOT very good defense.

also make the high right on the map, fighter with a hand axe not wield a hand axe. its tedious and just makes marlens 1 job in this map more tedious.

have the enemy brigand rushing to top left start turn two not turn 1 as you just don't have enough options otherwise as in order to not have the top right village destroyed, otherwise you need to have not-a-lord rush to marlen ASAP or no village!

PLEASE place that lance knight farther left, and set the ai to go to not-a-lord, then get rid of that merc bottom left as well

the starting postition is WAY to far away from everything and everyone should be further forward.

this map is not fun and ill finish it later

 

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Hey man - there's no need to caps lock when sharing feedback. I hear you.

Some good points, I'll tweak the hand axe, but both Marlen and Larisa have enough bulk to survive a few turns. There's another way to save the top right village, but it may not be as obvious of a first move to do so. 

You can recruit Marlen with both Lera and Storch, so you have flexibility in who you send up. 

EDIT: Oh realized that the talk screen doesn't show this, but Larisa can also be recruited by Storch. You can recruit her with Marlen too, but that's just a talk conversation.

Edited by Lowen
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Chapter 1 is a good looking map, with a few different paths, but the enemy placement is too sparse. I'd have the enemies more clustered, e.g. have the bulk of fighters and archers in the north, with just a couple of armours/soldiers impeding your progress in the south, to make how you divide your forces a more interesting dilemma.

Chapter 2 is fairly straightforward for the size of the map, the caravans are a bit too easy to defend. Again, I feel it doesn't make the best use of the map's features. The forests in particular are space that might as well not exist.

Chapter 3 has a strong start, the NPCs aren't in immediate danger, but will get chipped to death if you mess around. The reinforcements coming from each corner of the map makes them too easy to pick off.

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Thanks for sharing.

Will look into Chapter 1 and fix enemy placement. I am doing some work to open it up a bit as well.

Yeah, I see what you mean. The forests are more or less there to slow down the rate at which enemies come at you rather than a place for you to fight in. 

Where would you recommend reinforcements come in from instead in 1-3?

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I see, there are enemies in the forest. I went straight up towards the caravans, so they didn't affect me. They should be a bit closer, or the forest thinner so they will be more able to harass you if you ignore them like I did.

I'd put the eastern reinforcements in the boss area (have the second wave be bandits who will go for the eastern villages if you're not controlling the eastern stairs), and the southwestern reinforcements come in from the north so that they're kind of out of the way, but will back up/join up with the northwestern reinforcements more easily.

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@Lowen yeah but come on. This map is a BIT of a spike. the density of the enemies needs to be tweaked i would say, as in, maybe don't have quite so many reinforcements behind you? they dont really serve much of a purpose considering that the main bulk of the enemy is ahead of you, not behind, making it altogether trivial to defeat them.

17 hours ago, Lowen said:

Some good points, I'll tweak the hand axe, but both Marlen and Larisa have enough bulk to survive a few turns. There's another way to save the top right village, but it may not be as obvious of a first move to do so.

I know they can survive a while, but if the lower left merc is pulled by one of your units, then larisa doesn't go into recovery mode turn 1 ally phase, so she dies turn 2 EP, so maybe something to look at and edit.

I know you can save it with flier girl, but thats still only 2 options in the end. 

to be honest, most of the difficulty in this hack comes from the design limiting the players aggresive options way too much (as i like to play fast-ish) , that and basically no-one having even decent base defense before larisa, and that isn't something that i find that fun. overall, you should probably open up the map design overall.

Don't get me wrong, this hack has plenty of potential, just that i think there are a many minor things that overall add up and hurt the experience. remember, perfect balance is not fun. honestly, this hack needs a traditional jagen character, to help out early game. dont make them busted like seth, or fe7!marcus just like an actual stat rip from fire emblem 1 jagen.

so yeah. maybe i should try normal mode to see if its more fun. whatever. sorry for being a little pretty rude about all of this but eh. hope that the hack ends up amazing but for now, i have a lot of problems with it. all of them fairly simple but ay whatever.

 

Edited by (s)ad touch
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9 hours ago, Baldrick said:

I see, there are enemies in the forest. I went straight up towards the caravans, so they didn't affect me. They should be a bit closer, or the forest thinner so they will be more able to harass you if you ignore them like I did.

I'd put the eastern reinforcements in the boss area (have the second wave be bandits who will go for the eastern villages if you're not controlling the eastern stairs), and the southwestern reinforcements come in from the north so that they're kind of out of the way, but will back up/join up with the northwestern reinforcements more easily.

Hmm let me play around with this - thanks for sharing.

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  • 2 months later...

I liked the start, I would like Storch to have maybe an Iron Sword as well. Esfir's battle animation is slightly glitched at the end (black spot). I've only been playing 15 mins, but it seems like a good idea. Portraits are a little confusing but I'll live, Storch still has the female looking Eirika sprite and battle animation (those are hard to do, maybe a mercenary instead). The Gaiden Alm theme sounds good but wierd with the pulsing noise in the background, the modified FE7 attack was OK, the Verdane Army theme starts off as just horns, no melody, and the defense FE4 theme sounds a little off. Other than that, excited to keep playing this!

 

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On 8/7/2018 at 7:15 PM, dannyquil said:

I liked the start, I would like Storch to have maybe an Iron Sword as well. Esfir's battle animation is slightly glitched at the end (black spot). I've only been playing 15 mins, but it seems like a good idea. Portraits are a little confusing but I'll live, Storch still has the female looking Eirika sprite and battle animation (those are hard to do, maybe a mercenary instead). The Gaiden Alm theme sounds good but wierd with the pulsing noise in the background, the modified FE7 attack was OK, the Verdane Army theme starts off as just horns, no melody, and the defense FE4 theme sounds a little off. Other than that, excited to keep playing this!

 

Thanks for the feedback! Helpful to know - the art issues should be partially resolved in the latest release, need to spend more time to spruce up the music a bit.

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Hey all - FEE3 Demo v.03 is now live! There are a few additional changes, but the major issues with gameplay (Natsuko's level 10 cap) are resolved.

Download Vision Quest v.03 here!

This will be showcased at FEE3, stay tuned!

Additionally, I am looking for artists to help out with mug sprites - we have some great concepts now and are looking for someone to take it to the next level and help with talking/blinking frames. Message me here or on the Discord channel if you're interested in helping us out. Thanks again.

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@(s)ad touch how do you mean busted? link not working?

edit: I tested the download link and patched a clean FE8 rom, are you sure you have the right type of rom? let me know what the issue is so I can troubleshoot for you. Thanks!

Edited by Lowen
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1 minute ago, (s)ad touch said:

dropbox doesn't like me very much, it just says "the folder 'vision quest...' does not exist"

have you uploaded it properly or am i just screwed? 

It looked fine on my end, could be an access issue? Try this link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wusjn8kgi024cey/Vision Quest v03 FEE3 Demo.ups?dl=0

Or this: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vzoxf17kfhhizp1/AAADOT6NxaqRvUMNmGh5vkIYa?dl=0

Edited by Lowen
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