[Beginner question] Why are the GBA Fire Emblem games most popular for ROMhacks?

[display_name]

Hi everyone,

I'm asking this question as someone who is curious but doesn't have any experience with FE hacking. I find the 3DS games to be more playable because unit information is automatically displayed on the top screen and highlighting unit ranges is more powerful but most hacks use the GBA games as a base. Why is this? I'm guessing the answer is something like 'Well it is possible but the 3DS games are more complicated and it would take ten times as long to get stuff done.'.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

The biggest reason is just the accessibility of FE Builder as an easy to use, constantly updated program with a lot of users sharing documentation, sprites, animations, etc. And being around to answer your questions. 

The second biggest reason is that most FE modders are older fans with greater nostalgia for GBA era's aesthetics and mechanics. And modern hacks have since invented more comprehensive UI that matches the information displayed in the dual screen Fire Emblem games. Highlighting all enemy ranges at the press of a button is standard stuff for a GBA hack. Also I personally prefer the Press R to Learn More experience over having to glance at two screens at once for 100% of the info.

My third best guess why GBA hacking still gets attention is that any computer, phone or laptop from this century could run VisualBoyAdvance, while 3DS and Switch emulation is still imperfect even on the most powerful hardware. And any developer wants their game to be accessible to more players.

Edited May 6 by Zapp Branniglenn

[Vicious Sal]

GBA games also just existed for far longer. The concept of fangames and hacking didn't pop up when the 3DS games were released. People were making their own projects long before that and thus GBA has more tools available. The amount of data is also less, so it's easier to figure out what everything is and does. That also aids in creating tools for more easily editing the data.

 

[Jotari]

4 hours ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

My third best guess why GBA hacking still gets attention is that any computer, phone or laptop from this century could run VisualBoyAdvance, while 3DS and Switch emulation is still imperfect even on the most powerful hardware. And any developer wants their game to be accessible to more players.

I think his is actually the most salient reason. GBA FeBuilderGBA didn't come out of nowhere. The GBA hacking scene already existed before that, it was created because of that scene. And people probably gravitated to the GBA games because they are more accessible that the SNES and easier to emulate than anything afterwards.

Also, who doesn't love those GBA animations? Trying to hack a Tellius or DS animation would involve actually learning to rig a model and animate in a way that looks good (and SNES models just don't look nearly as good).

Edited May 6 by Jotari

[Revier]

FE7 was many people's first Fire Emblem game, and solidified the GBA FE look and feel for many a player. As such, people have a lot of nostalgia for the GBA games, and gravitate towards making fan content for them. The GBA being a relatively simple, easily understood system with lots of people documenting it and creating content for it further pushes things in that direction.

Edited Friday at 05:28 AM by Revier