FE4: Is It Safe?

[Hrothgar777]

This honestly shouldn't be its own topic but for lack of a general question/answer thread I don't see what other choice I have. If this post violates the TOS (which I've read) then I apologize and I will redact it.

Given that it's now September 2024 and the fabled FE4 remake hasn't materialized, I am strongly considering a playthrough of FE4. To be clear, I am not asking for a link to the ROM, as I know it would go against site rules (and because I'm pretty sure I found it anyway). What I'm asking is this:

Is the software in question safe?

I have a Windows computer that I personally own but also need for my side job, which admittedly I don't spend a whole lot of time on and makes up a small fraction of my income. My sister also uses it for one online college class. This computer doesn't have antivirus, and a built-in function or mode to this effect had to be disabled for me to download software I need for the aforementioned job. Would it be a big risk to download the SNES emulator, the ROM, and the English patch on said computer? In your opinion, would it be irresponsible for me to take this risk? Would it help if I installed antivirus first?

Edited September 10 by Hrothgar777

[Zapp Branniglenn]

You have a Windows computer? If it's the modern Windows 11 then you must have Windows Security on there. I remember it was called Windows Defender on older versions. Search those terms up on your taskbar and thumb through it. That's your antivirus software, and it's exactly as good as the most heavily advertised antivirus softwares out there. Anyone that says otherwise is trying to sell you something. Internet Browsers also have their own layer of security, like forcibly stopping you from downloading stuff that it thinks is suspect. Windows antivirus software works without your input. But you can still open the app and see what's up whenever it mentions an action was taken.

Also, if you're reading this post from Google Chrome click on that symbol to the immediate left of your URL to see your browser's assessment of the website. If it says your Connection is Secure and Certificate is Valid, those are good signs nothing bad is about to happen. If it doesn't, well the most common reason is that the website is very old and hasn't been updated in many years.

Every Emulator you'll see recommended on Google searches tend to have their own website. I recommend getting stuff from trustworthy sources like that, both for safety and making sure you've got the most up to date version. For instance, last year a major security issue was discovered in the version 1.6 release of Project 64 where a malicious author's rom hack could theoretically run and manipulate files on your computer. That's spooky, but a lot of people moved on from that older version of the emulator (and really from P64 in general). That's the only scenario I can think of where using an emulator runs a risk to your PC. Just practice basic safety in internet activity and you'll be fine. Don't give out credit card or other sensitive info. There is no emulator or ROM that is being sold on the internet, it's all free, usually open source.

[Hrothgar777]

Turns out there is a version of the game that you can just play on a website. For a few minutes there I thought I'd lucked out and would be able to bypass all of the above steps. Sadly that version was the Japanese original and the controls were a nightmare, so I'm back to square one.

1 hour ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

Also, if you're reading this post from Google Chrome click on that symbol to the immediate left of your URL to see your browser's assessment of the website. If it says your Connection is Secure and Certificate is Valid, those are good signs nothing bad is about to happen. If it doesn't, well the most common reason is that the website is very old and hasn't been updated in many years.

IIRC that only tells you about the website itself, not whether or not any downloads found on the website have malware in them. But yeah, checking the website's certification is a reasonable first step.

1 hour ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

You have a Windows computer? If it's the modern Windows 11 then you must have Windows Security on there. I remember it was called Windows Defender on older versions. Search those terms up on your taskbar and thumb through it. That's your antivirus software, and it's exactly as good as the most heavily advertised antivirus softwares out there.

Huh. You're right. Apparently it still works. I was sure I'd disabled something to download the work software, but if I still have functioning antivirus then that makes me feel a little better.

1 hour ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

That's the only scenario I can think of where using an emulator runs a risk to your PC. Just practice basic safety in internet activity and you'll be fine.

What I'm mainly concerned about is the ROM itself. From what I read, the best practice is to download the emulator directly from its "official" website, which I've found for the emulator I plan on using. And there are translation patches here on Serenes Forest, so I'm not worried about that either (more of an issue is figuring out how to actually use a patch on another program, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it). But I just found a random link to the ROM. I don't know if there is an "official" site for it, and I can't ask. So if I go ahead with this, I'll just have to flip a metaphorical coin and hope the link is safe.

I think I'll do it, and in the unlikely event that things do go south then I have enough money to buy another computer. Thanks for the help.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

The main thing you need to worry about when trying to get the file is if it is or contains a .exe, if you go and download a ROM of whatever SNES games it may be and you ended up with a .exe file, that's an obvious virus/malware file and you should ditch the file, DO NOT open it.

Typically the downloaded will be a .zip or .rar file that you can open up to find the actual ROM inside it and those are usually have .smc or .sfc file extensions which means you're good.

"Official site" for a ROM is pretty much answered by "NEVER" with the only exception being the SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics on STEAM. Those are pretty much the exception to the rule and it's the publisher themselves selling you the ROMs in this case.

Edited September 11 by Dr. Tarrasque

[Hrothgar777]

2 hours ago, Dr. Tarrasque said:

The main thing you need to worry about when trying to get the file is if it is or contains a .exe, if you go and download a ROM of whatever SNES games it may be and you ended up with a .exe file, that's an obvious virus/malware file and you should ditch the file, DO NOT open it.

Typically the downloaded will be a .zip or .rar file that you can open up to find the actual ROM inside it and those are usually have .smc or .sfc file extensions which means you're good.

"Official site" for a ROM is pretty much answered by "NEVER" with the only exception being the SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics on STEAM. Those are pretty much the exception to the rule and it's the publisher themselves selling you the ROMs in this case.

Does this apply for the emulator itself? If the emulator's properties end with .exe, does this make it untrustworthy? Say it comes in a zipped folder, but inside the file billed as the emulator is of the .exe variety.

 

(Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I really don't know jack about computers.)

Edited September 11 by Hrothgar777

[Eltosian Kadath]

15 minutes ago, Hrothgar777 said:

Does this apply for the emulator itself? If the emulator's properties end with .exe, does this make it untrustworthy? Say it comes in a zipped folder, but inside the file billed as the emulator is of the .exe variety.

 

(Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I really don't know jack about computers.)

The emulator probably ends in .exe, and that is safe. Usually its the ROM that is the potential danger, as it is trivial to find a very reliable source for the most up to date of your emulator of choice, and Dr. Tarrasque's advice sums up the main dangers of finding a ROM on google.

[Hrothgar777]

Alright, so, I can officially add FE4 for the list of emblem titles I've played.

This ordeal, I think, was valuable not just for the end result but as a learning experience. I'm part of that younger generation which is less adventurous and tech-savvy when it comes to the internet, whereas this forum is filled with people from the "limewire generation", for lack of a better term. Today I had a small taste of what it was like in those early days.

 

Anyway, I somehow managed to take the first of two castles (Prologue) without losing anyone. The enemy just reconstructed the bridge and a bunch of fresh baddies poured onto the map. I'll pick up tomorrow, assuming that when I saved in-game the emulator actually saved my progress. Otherwise I'm not sure if I'd have the motivation to do it again from scratch...

I may or may not create a thread documenting my playthrough. I would assume this isn't encouraged, but for a very slow subforum it might not matter.

Edited September 11 by Hrothgar777

[Jotari]

 

3 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

I may or may not create a thread documenting my playthrough. I would assume this isn't encouraged, but for a very slow subforum it might not matter.

There's never been issues with play logs here. In fact, we have one right now that's gone through the first five games.

 

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

5 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

Anyway, I somehow managed to take the first of two castles (Prologue) without losing anyone. The enemy just reconstructed the bridge and a bunch of fresh baddies poured onto the map. I'll pick up tomorrow, assuming that when I saved in-game the emulator actually saved my progress. Otherwise I'm not sure if I'd have the motivation to do it again from scratch...

Very cool! Glad you got it figured out and set up. FE4 is one of my favorites in the series, and definitely one of the more "atypical" experience. I hope you get a lot out of it.

Yeah, when you save, it creates a save file that the emulator pulls from. Alternatively, you can use save-states within the emulator itself. Just be sure not to "load" an old save state that overwrites your current progress!

[Jotari]

53 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Very cool! Glad you got it figured out and set up. FE4 is one of my favorites in the series, and definitely one of the more "atypical" experience. I hope you get a lot out of it.

Yeah, when you save, it creates a save file that the emulator pulls from. Alternatively, you can use save-states within the emulator itself. Just be sure not to "load" an old save state that overwrites your current progress!

Also, because it's not immediately evident, you can save at the start of every turn in Genealogy. It's on the menu that comes up when you select an empty tile instead of a unit. But you can only save if you haven't moved with any unit yet (but shopping and using the Arena don't count). In that regard it's far more generous to reset play than the other older titles, though if you go for high ranks the game actually does record things if you reset, but I wouldn't recommend a ranked run on an initial playthrough.

 

[Dr. Tarrasque]

I recommend using at least 2 of your save slots on a playthrough. One to restart the chapter if things go really south and the other be your turn-by-turn save. 3rd slot could be used as another checkpoint such as when you conquer a castle so you don't have to restart the entire chapter if things go bad.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Welcome to the world of FE4 then! Hope you cleared your schedule, this game is a month long commitment lol.

5 hours ago, Dr. Tarrasque said:

I recommend using at least 2 of your save slots on a playthrough. One to restart the chapter if things go really south and the other be your turn-by-turn save. 3rd slot could be used as another checkpoint such as when you conquer a castle so you don't have to restart the entire chapter if things go bad.

I recommend using all your save slots on each playthrough. Cause FE4 is one beefy big boy game that I can't imagine running more than one playthrough of at a time. Though since it's an emulator I can just copy the .srm file to a new folder and cycle saves if I had to swap between them.

Saving to a new slot in-game after each "Act" of a chapter is a good way to have checkpoints in case your home base is suddenly in danger. Blind players don't know when an unaffiliated army may start moving for instance

Edited Wednesday at 09:59 PM by Zapp Branniglenn

[Hrothgar777]

1 hour ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

Welcome to the world of FE4 then! Hope you cleared your schedule, this game is a month long commitment lol.

Thanks, lol. I lost interest in the last two games I tried to play (Unicorn Overlord and Shenmue), but my attention span tends to be a little more durable when it comes to Fire Emblem. So fingers crossed, I guess.

At the time of writing I've already beaten the Prologue but I missed my chance to snag the Speed Ring, since my approach was slow and cautious whereas the game explicitly penalizes this. Going into the new chapter, it looks like the Arena is my new best friend, but just like level grinding in other games this has the potential to suck the fun out of it, especially if I end up repeatedly resetting because too many people lost.

1 hour ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

Saving to a new slot in-game after each "Act" of a chapter is a good way to have checkpoints in case your home base is suddenly in danger. Blind players don't know when an unaffiliated army may start moving for instance

Understood. I ended up having three save files for the Prologue alone, so I'll probably fill them all up for the longer maps.

Edited Wednesday at 11:15 PM by Hrothgar777

[Pengaius]

for what it's worth from my own experiences the Google Play store has a bunch of free emulators that are mostly pretty good and will have actual human reviews. So if you have an android phone and feel the inclination to check out FE 5, 6, 7 or 8 you can do so pretty safely. (And in my opinion fe4 works better as a pseudo mobile game, letting you do a few rounds of Arena or taking a turn whenever you have a few moments free.)

[Hrothgar777]

12 minutes ago, Pengaius said:

(And in my opinion fe4 works better as a pseudo mobile game, letting you do a few rounds of Arena or taking a turn whenever you have a few moments free.)

To be honest, doing it on my phone sounds a little too adventurous for me. I could hardly bring myself to download it onto a laptop. Maybe one day.

13 minutes ago, Pengaius said:

So if you have an android phone and feel the inclination to check out FE 5, 6, 7 or 8 you can do so pretty safely

Putting the phone issue aside, I might check out the GBA series someday. But Thracia is higher on my bucket list, and that's assuming I don't run out of motivation to clear Genealogy. These maps are humongous, after all. I keep grinding at it and I still haven't beaten Chapter 1.

[Jotari]

41 minutes ago, Hrothgar777 said:

To be honest, doing it on my phone sounds a little too adventurous for me. I could hardly bring myself to download it onto a laptop. Maybe one day.

Putting the phone issue aside, I might check out the GBA series someday. But Thracia is higher on my bucket list, and that's assuming I don't run out of motivation to clear Genealogy. These maps are humongous, after all. I keep grinding at it and I still haven't beaten Chapter 1.

The maps are huge, but there's only 12 of them in the game and in most of them there's a good quarter you don't need to visit. So I'd reckon it's actually shorter than most other games in the series. I'd encourage you to at least finish chapter 5. You'll know for sure then wether you want to keep going or drop it.