Arch

That's just my opinion, bro. DSFE has been pretty bad so far, and my hopes aren't very high for this next one. I haven't played a "good" new FE game since I was a freshman in High School. I'm a college graduate now, lol. What else can I do, except call it as I see it? The problem is that they made a faithful remake of FE1, and have been following that design closely ever since. They scrap the good ideas (rescue, steal, multiple magic types, etc.), and double-down on the bad ones (reclassing enabled FE13 to become GrindEmblem). If I wanted to grind, I'd go to a rave.

I think it's funny that you're trying to tell me what a series of video games is. Like I'm some child who's never played anything but a ROM hack before.I've never said that my opinions are more valid than anyone else's. Why can't I engage in a discussion about game design, informed by my own experiences? You're informed by your experience of playing games, I'm informed in different ways. If offering a different perspective is arrogant, then excuse my rudeness. But from my perspective, this is bad. It's not just about GBAFE, it's what the series has been about since FE1! There's a fundamental change happening. Will the series be better for it? Maybe. I don't happen to think so. It'll probably sell better, though. Do I happen to prefer GBAFE's approach to some design elements? Yes, I do. I also really enjoyed the GCN/Wii era, but that didn't sell well enough to warrant making more games in that style. Love the SNESFE too. DSFE has been bad thus far.

It's interesting, in theory. We'll see how it works in practice. Perhaps this is a better way to handle weapons, but it seems like the same thing could have been achieved if they'd just kept refining the "old" system. A unit would use a Steel Sword in Old FE because they're at a point in the game where they can't access Silver/Brave. One of the core elements of Fire Emblem used to be the limited availability of resources. Vertical progression was the entire point. All of that has been thrown out the window recently; taking out durability was a huge blow to the essence of what FE used to be about. Weight was the first casualty, I suppose. For all the people saying it's "static," there's been a huge fundamental change that's been unfolding since FE9/10 flopped in sales.

Have I done anything to infringe on that right? No? Okay. I've argued my points, if you don't agree then you don't agree. I have my opinions, they are informed by my experience. Disagree if you like, but attacking my character goes beyond simple disagreement.

I'm entitled to the free expression of my opinion. If you don't agree with it, fine. BwdYeti and I agree on basically every point here; two of the top fan game developers in this community are saying that these sound like bad ideas. Hopefully IS proves us wrong, but it feels like FE14 will be a hit/miss. The series is clearly in a state of transition, and has been ever since FE11 (it's the starting point for what I refer to as "New Fire Emblem"). You can see the progression if you analyze closely. The integrity of the gameplay hasn't felt like a focal point of the series for a while; it's only about selling copies of the game. Perhaps they'll sort this mess out with the next few games, but my hopes for FE14 have definitely been dashed by these recent details.

I'm not saying that I could do better. I'm saying that I've seen enough bad ideas in my years of ROM Hacking and watching people make ROM hacks that I can call them when I see them. Call that "arrogance" if you wish. I've got more experience with game design than you, buddy. Weight was a fine concept in GBAFE; it went to hell when they started basing attack speed off of strength. Then, at that point, you might as well get rid of it altogether because you've already. If there's a balance problem, change the numbers! It's easy enough to give females equal CON, or to reconsider the weight stat of individual weapons to rebalance the system without scrapping it needlessly. Magic diversity is worse now than it ever has been. If you want to make multiple magic types more meaningful and improve diversity, add more tomes! The ranged triangle is alright as a concept; the overlap, and further nerfing bows, makes it utterly baffling. This isn't hard, guys. It really isn't. I'm just sick of seeing this series swirling down the toilet.

Intelligent Systems, wut are you doing? As if Awakening weren't baffling enough in its own right; I just don't understand. The series' progression since FE11 has been absolutely bizarre. Take out weapon weight in FE12/13, replace it with static battle stat boosts/penalties. I'd bet that most weapons have attack speed penalties. Why not just bring back the thing that actually made sense? Take out second weapon triangle, but replace it in spirit with something even more illogical. Magic as a sole weapon type is already a step back...now we have to make Bows even worse to shoehorn Magic into a second triangle? Throwing weapons could be interesting, but tying the two triangles together is absurd. Imagine if Swords -> Dark in GBAFE (but Dark magic is barely even a thing anymore, so oh wellllll). The overlapping triangles are absolute nonsense. Even if "Dark magic" returns, variant types of magic will likely be class-based weapon locks going forward. This is terrible for class diversity, since Magic has lost its diversity nearly entirely. Take out weapon durability; except for healing staves/items. What about siege tomes? Are they just straight-up gone? Maybe this would work if fighting were tied to some sort of fatigue stat, but their "rethinking of weapons" feels like it's not going to work out gameplay-wise. Add Casual Mode, follow it up with "I can't lose" mode. This all sounds like stuff a bad ROM hacker would come up with...

...Good idea, but I'm not going to be that cruel. Only thiiis cruel (in Hard Mode): He'll keep summoning Phantoms, one-by-one, until you kill him. As you can see, they now walk through walls. If you don't take care of him early on, you might end up regretting it!

Eliwood is the tryhard lord. His battle quote had to reflect that (also I changed "bastards" to "dastards" because it's the right thing to do). Speaking of things to do. Arch all you ever post anymore are stat screens. Sell your VBA, kid. I'm working on Rath's Tale Hard Mode, and it's really really really quite fuuun. There've been a few substantial changes to the tale's gameplay as of now. First off, the treasure chests have been reconfigured since they're tied to an achievement. Now, you'll get items based on the number of chests you have opened--starting with some shitty Bronze Bows and such. Your first key is an enemy drop, and the second chest key is your fifth item. Open all thirteen to unlock the achievement. Gotta watch out for Rogues, though; if one opens a chest, another Rogue will pop out of the chest! Don't ask me to justify that in the script, just roll with it. Before, there were chests based on luck like desert items; this was kind of painful to play with, since most people would get Bronze weapons and fake Elixirs and some would report bugs about Elixirs not working (but only in Rath's Tale, teehee). Secondly, I've redone my laziness reinforcements. Six sets of stairs (leading to what, idk, it's a cave under a cave?), where various enemies will spawn, either every 4th turn, or every 2nd turn (starting after turn 10 in Normal Mode). Before, I just dumped all the stair units into one batch of spawns every so often. There'll be more of a consistent enemy presence throughout the cave. Also you'll notice that Wayra actually made his way to the map. I've taken out Prasad's crit in the opening sequence (still gets doubled tho like a scrub), but Wayra makes an appearance as a boss only in hard mode. Now reclassed to Summoner, he'll conjure up Phantoms, who receive no movement penalties from any tile. Basically, his minions will chase you through the cave maze, running through walls. He can only keep one at a time, thank goodness. Welcome back to the troll king's cave.

Finally decided to go through with this after seeing Alusq doing it in his new hack. Every ally gets a one-time battle quote the first time they enter combat, akin to the generic ones bosses get. #ArchStopAddingFlavorThings #JustFuckingFinishAlready

I was thinking of doing this for EN a while back and hearing what you had to say about it I'll probs go add this too. Great to see your project, bud! Didn't notice this until just now, but I'm digging your approach. The altered magic trinity is neat. Wry no FEU post?

Just so people know work is still happening. Bows get a second Iron/Steel/Silver series since Lances/Axes got them, courtesy of BwdYeti (he named them, I did not). Starsphere actually looks like Starsphere now, thanks to Lord Glenn. He also did the Rusty Coin icon, which is replacing the unusable Ragnell found in Pent's Tale. SECOND UPDATE: More icons from Lord Glenn. Most of the icons you see in EN are made by him, and he has generously chosen to release them all for public usage on FEU.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm26053498 If anyone is interested in seeing what SRPG Studio looks like out of the box, here's a good video demoing a map we're all quite familiar with. You need a nicovideo acct, though. I've been watching this to help brainstorm ideas for what klono mentioned above. I think it uses all of the classes, too, which should help provide a better answer to the question of "what can we make solely through edits to the existing assets." I've also updated the first post with these recent developments.

It might mean that there's been such a strong outpouring of support already that he feels he should have enough contributors to get things completed. Either that, or he has something specific in mind. I guess we'll find out soon enough!

"Oh fuck, communal submissions have been going for two days and all I've got is an e-mail box full of mismatching incomplete stuff sent by people who didn't read the directions..." Welcome to our lives, Kaga. inb4 he calls up Inafune and figures out how kickstarter works. Even if he still intends to release it as freeware, Kaga could probably get enough funding to make the game and pay his small staff.

I didn't mean to be insulting, but honestly, you have to at least be able to acknowledge his contributions in creating the series we've all gathered here to discuss. FE wouldn't be the same without Kaga's creative influence, he defined it from the outset. Its kind of insulting to Kaga that "fans" of his brain child shrug their shoulders at him and discredit his role. Ya don't have to love the games he directed, just show some respect instead of trying to swoop in and hate on people's hype. The godfather is back! The guy who helped set the stage for this entire spiritual reboot revolution we're experiencing today, no less.

Put your two cents in, get a dollar back . If you can't, at the very least, appreciate Kaga's contributions to the series, you ain't a real fan. He's been out of action for a decade (Berwick released in 2005). So what? Shouzou Kaga the spiritual creator of Fire Emblem, and he's announced that he's assembling staff to start developing a game. It's news, buddy. Will the game be good/bad/meh? I guess we'll figure that out when we all end up playing it. But wait Blazer doesn't play FE he just hacks it.

We all know that what we really want is for fans to remake Kaga Emblem games, but can't crowd-fund that oops. Can't trust IntSys's remakes ever again; not after the anachronistic Shadow Dragon and New Mystery shoehorning the avatar into the plot... I appreciate Kaga's games largely for what they could've been, not necessarily for what you see on the cartridge. With enough time and resources, I know that he could really produce something special. We've never gotten the "perfect" Kaga SRPG (FE5 felt rushed, TRS was too long), and here's to hoping that he finally delivers what we know he can. He's got the vision, just needs to refine his execution. Apparently Berwick Saga was pretty good. I'm going to remain optimistic about this until proven otherwise.

Full translation sheds some interesting light on things. Chiefly, Kaga decided to pull this together after fiddling with SRPG Studio for 10 hours? That tells me that this is something he's wanted and envisioned for some time, he stumbled across the medium that could empower it, and now his idea might come to fruition. Hypehypehype. That aside about the music is interesting, too. Yuka Tsukiyoko obviously comes to mind first, but she still seems to be a contracted Nintendo employee? Since this is a non-commercial game, Kaga might be at liberty to take submissions from Tsukiyoko regardless, which would be awesome. Minako Seki worked on TRS with him (and presumably Berwick, too).

I was thinking along similar lines. If western fans reached out and contacted Kaga, he'd probably be open to that sort of thing. It might be worthwhile to draft some sort of "community letter" in Japanese, expressing our support and indicating demand among English-speaking audiences. People who intend to contribute to his efforts some way (either willingness to help with a translation effort, artistic help, etc.) could be signatories and we'd send it to his e-mail address.

He emphasized the need for map sprites and battle sprites; check out SRPG Studio's styles, I think he/his team will modify what gets created so long as assets are accrued for the base program. It'd be helpful if we had a more concrete idea of what classes he envisions, though. Can we just set up a Kickstarter on his behalf? Here Kaga, take our money and "do it right."

Hopefully he was inspired to "do it right" after seeing the bastardization of his brain child that was Fire Emblem: Awakening.

I'm sure you've all been following the recent blossoming of the "Kaga Effect" with glee. Someday, they'll look back and call it the "Infaune Effect," or something akin to that--but we all know that Shouzou Kaga was the original spurned creator turned spiritual rebooter. Keiji Inafune left Capcom in order to produce Mighty No. 9, a spiritual reboot of Inafune's beloved Mega Man franchise. Recently, it was announced that the creators of Banjo-Kazooie, who gradually left Rare after Microsoft acquired the company, formed their own studio and followed in those same footsteps, announcing their own spiritual reboot Yooka-Laylee, which shattered fundraising records by becoming the fastest video game to reach $1M. Today, we've got speculation that Castlevania creator Koji Igarashi is also looking to join the trend. Who set the precedent for the spurned creator's spiritual reboot? None other than Fire Emblem's own godfather, Shouzou Kaga, of course. Recall the legal troubles Kaga faced after leaving Intelligent Systems and Nintendo behind to form his own studio, producing a new game titled "Emblem Saga" exclusively for the rival Playstation console. After lawsuits had run their course, Kaga's game was renamed to TearRing Saga; Nintendo's attempts to stop the game's release outright ended in failure. These cases have been cited in companies' recent decisions to allow former employees to develop these spiritual reboots without taking legal action. Well, there's some more big news today on that front: the trailblazer himself, Shouzou Kaga, has announced his comeback! About two weeks ago, I got in touch with VincentASM about some rumors that'd been shared by Japanese members posting on Fire Emblem Universe. It started in a topic about a new SRPG Studio program, which was released on April 10th by SapphireSoft. The popular theory, it seemed, was that Shouzou Kaga himself was the creator for SRPG Studio. The first instinct was to scour his blog for clues; Kaga's postings have become more frequent since 2015, which seemed to be another hint towards some sort of comeback. Earlier in the year, Kaga wrote about an unreleased fan game he worked on back in 2010 called Vestaria Chronicle 687-693. Yesterday, Kaga shed light on his involvement with SRPG Studio in a post on his blog. Kaga explains that he has exchanged messages with the creator of SRPG Studio and expresses his support for the project, then remarks with amusement at the rumors persisting that he was, in fact, the creator. More surprising yet, the godfather of Fire Emblem indicated that he has already amassed a staff of ten people to work on producing a game with SRPG Studio. Kaga notes that they have limited time and resources to work on the game; he is unable to provide an estimated release date at this time, but promises to share future updates through his blog. The biggest issue Kaga relays is the lack of assets to build the game with (map sprites, battle animations, effects, map tiles, parts, background music, sound effects and background images--especially the first two). In lieu of crowd-funding, Kaga has opted for a partnership with SRPG Studio. It's unsurprising that he'd surprise us with an alternative take on soliciting fan support for this comeback project. Kaga seeks to crowd-source the development of resources for his intended new game, outlining the following conditions for contributions: 1. May be modified by Kaga to fit his game's stylistic sense. 2. Will belong to Sapphire Soft by right; everything else still belongs to the author. 3. Conform with Sapphire Soft's terms and conditions. 4. Be allowed for use in the production of sequels. 5. Absolutely must not infringe somebody else's copyrights (eg. taken from another game). If all of the above have been acknowledged, users may e-mail their contribution in a zip file (the address can be found in an image on his blog), along with any usage conditions. Should the assets be accepted, Kaga will reply back. Anybody who contributes to the project will receive special thanks in the finished game's credits roll. Hopefully, we'll be seeing an English translation of SRPG Studio in the future. Huge thanks to Vincent for providing the synopsis of Kaga's post (he'll be posting about it on the front page shortly), and to FEU members klono, LetsGoForIt, and MisakaMikoto for keeping us updated on these developments. tl;dr Based God Kaga is back, everyone, and he's about to put your RPG Maker projects to shame. IMPORTANT UPDATE: Read this post. Kaga has expressed that he will be prepared to offer further specifications in one month, and requests that donors await that further instruction before submitting contributions. Once the details come through the wire, we're planning on making a dedicated submission topic to help organize the efforts among western fans. Also, he knows that we exist now! Kaga was surprised to learn that he has foreign fans. From the sound of things, he'd prefer to work in the shadows for the time being. Let's all be good citizens and not spam his inbox, kay?

Probably not the update everyone was hoping for (I promise that a finalized patch will come out of nowhere sometime soon). But man, I had a great time doing this interview with Ghast; his monthly hacker's digest was awesome, and I highly recommend everyone give it a watch. Really great opportunity to clarify the pronunciation of "Elibean," hopefully I said other things too that people find "enlightening." That was Ghast's description, but my mantra basically is: take what's useful to you, leave the rest. If one person finds something of value, then it was worthwhile.

4/20 yeeeeeeeeeeee It's the absolute best day to release this.