God, what a finale. The tragedy of the Unnecessary Difficulty Spike is one that shall be remembered for ages. Simple lore. Xenon takes off his mask after being defeated, confirming what everyone already knew: He's Ephidel. He's just Ephidel. Even though he dies, Nergal's basically already been summoned and we just need to kill him. Renault uses the last of his strength, letting himself finally die after so many years, to teleport us back to the temple we were at in Chapter 19, allowing us to enter a strange door and fight Nergal... well, kind of. This isn't Nergal so much as it is a manifestation of his darkest, most nefarious desires. It's basically a ghost, a spectre, and the goal here is to eradicate this while Roy is busy trying to get rid of Idunn. If that's handled, we'd get a quick little cutscene explaining what everyone (well, 75% of the cast, anyway) planned to do afterwards, since for some reason the actual character endings were never written. Saya and her friends return to Sacae, the knights return to their countries, several decide to go on journeys. It's all very simple stuff. Even with the end parts, this was a fun journey. Glad to have offered some context as to what's going on. EDIT: Just noticed the run ended on Episode 38. 38% made the thing. The coincidence of coincidences.
Really appreciate all of the details here. It's been cool to see the context and learn a bit more about the game. Thanks again for offering to help. I'm sure I'm not the only one who appreciates it. Yeah man the difficulty spike here is so sad. The hack was fantastic otherwise.
And that's a wrap on SOHAE. This hack made me feel a very wide range of emotions, and it's all the more impressive at how much the hack made me feel only through it's gameplay. This hack holds up really well and has some of the most enjoyable gameplay among any [complete] game I've played. I'm glad I had a chance to play this and I'm grateful to everyone here who shared comments and also notes on the story - glad to see that the LP has helped renew interest in this hack. Reflecting on this playthrough, I'd say SOHAE is still my #2 [complete] hack of all time behind Primefusion's The Road to Ruin, and the first 20 chapters was probably some of the most fun I've had with an FE game - I think that's why the last 7 chapters being such a huge difficulty spike upset me so much. Betrayed by the romhack I loved... That said, this hack is incredibly innovative and largely well-designed, especially for when it was made (2013-2015). Really cool project and it's one I certainly would want to play through again sometime. Knowing how the game ends, it would be a lot easier to figure out which units to prioritize, supports to grind, and the general pace the game wants me to play at chapter by chapter. Think this one has a lot of potential on a repeat run. Thanks again for joining me on this journey.
It seems like this was made at a time when the ethos was still that players should try to maximize exp and that jagens suck. So tsagan is super op, but the endgame is insane so you are actually punished for using him too much. It's a russian doll of self fulfilling prophecies. If you were to go into this game under the doctrines of the past, you probably wouldn't get blindsided like this and would experience a much smoother difficulty curve, with a slightly harder early game and much easier late game. The developer didn't feel the need to warn anyone because everyone was fretting over exp by default at the time. This game is a glimpse into a world where our fears about jagens were correct the whole time. And honestly, I think that's pretty cool, as long as you know what you're in for. A lot of players back then really enjoyed trying their best to balance exp and train growth units; the only problem is that they were unknowingly preparing for an endgame challenge that never existed. But in SoHaE, it *does* exist, and exp management *does* matter a lot, and you are juggling that with unique map gimmicks to boot. The fire emblem dream we thought we woke up from is now a reality.
Thanks Pandan. Despite your palpable distress in the endgame chapters here, this was a real joy to watch. Plenty of learnings and fun moments along the road too.
This is a message from Lord Nergal. “I have become a Dragon in the Sword of Heaven and Earth.” Getting to see an overlooked piece of hacking history was super interesting! I wonder how much we would talk about it in the modern times if it got more of a spotlight in the English community when it came out. Thanks for another fun let’s play showcase!
You're welcome! And yeah, I agree. You can tell that 38% tried to recreate FE6 with how he rebalanced numbers, while so many FE7 hacks in the west focus on FE7 style. I think the gameplay here holds up a lot better because of it IMO.
From summoning dragons to becoming one himself, Nergal really getting his fill of quintessence now, huh? === That Dream of Five comment I made a few vids back was not entirely meant as a joke. Something defo went awry as the run ran on; while Gim and Tsagaan became the beefers the rest of the crew could only try to keep up even with the sheer amount of T1 enemies this ROM hack throws at you(either due to poor levels(Saya, Sergei, Jeff, later Rostov) or some other shenanigans(rip Feeler)). The difficulty spike certainly caught you by surprise, not helped by the language barrier. My supposition to how this run fell apart is probably a combination of all those plus classing up some characters too soon - I know I'll be taking my time to class up for my practice run to see how much better I fare. Definitely a lot to like for a ROM hack made in a time just before FEBuilder was birthed with neat map and gameplay concepts and a hard and fast adherence to FE6's gameplay style, for better or worse. I actually vibe with the returning Morphs storyline but this time they're more like actual peeps, character and unit design on the whole is pretty solid all around(the mage units and Feeler being stark examples for both ends of the spectrum), and the maps are fine until endgame where the quality dives a mite. Still this is a nice project and one I won't mind playing through a second time soon. Cheers for the run, Dan! (u ' v')b
Thanks man, and yeah I agree. I think as the game went on I got a better sense for how 38% expected the player to play, and I probably went a bit faster than was intended. Not sure what a few extra levels would've done given how crazy endgame is, but I'm definitely keen to give it another go. Curious to see how you do!
wild that these final chapters are thrown at the player to slog through without the usual accompanying big buff S rank weapons, thanks for the series Pandan, got me interested to try the homrack out myself in the future
I'm glad you finally finished it? haha. It's been quite interesting following this let's play. The difficulty spike seems to climb pretty high in the middle of the game and certainly the units sometimes don't help you much, Saya doesn't seem to have leveled up too much strength, which makes her another Lyn... her strength growth is 40, maybe that's why. I should raise it to 45? Honestly what I'm most interested in is to complete the translation, and after that people will probably just tell me what things could be improved and what not. Although I think that would be more of a separate patch than the original. There are many things that the author didn't complete, like the supports and some endings. I've already finished chapter 14, I don't know if it's because of the text or because I'm taking my time to polish it, but sometimes I feel like I'm making slow progress xD Anyway, in the future I will let you know through this comment when I make the post in the FEuniverse forum, so stay tuned. Have a nice day!
@@heartlesscaesar4427 I'd discourage whoever translates it from rebalancing the game - It would be disrespectful to the author's vision without their explicit consent to rebalance the game imo. That said, no one can stop them from releasing it if they choose to go that route, but I assume most people just want to read the story and play the game as intended.
@@nadnap i think PE (or lil manster or whatever it goes by these days, w/e fe5 translation) had a good compromise by offering the raw experience translated + including alternate patches that potentially improve the experience. although of course translating a mainline game is way different than translating a romhack lol
@@jellyunicorn8347 yeah I like their approach - translation with the same QoL as original and then an updated version that's more "playable". Not sure what was changed in those patches outside of some menu things to make the game more transparent. Rebalancing is def a different territory in general yeah.
![[Part 37] Sword of Heaven & Earth - Ch26. Save States PSA](/img/n.gif)
God, what a finale. The tragedy of the Unnecessary Difficulty Spike is one that shall be remembered for ages.
Simple lore. Xenon takes off his mask after being defeated, confirming what everyone already knew: He's Ephidel. He's just Ephidel. Even though he dies, Nergal's basically already been summoned and we just need to kill him. Renault uses the last of his strength, letting himself finally die after so many years, to teleport us back to the temple we were at in Chapter 19, allowing us to enter a strange door and fight Nergal... well, kind of.
This isn't Nergal so much as it is a manifestation of his darkest, most nefarious desires. It's basically a ghost, a spectre, and the goal here is to eradicate this while Roy is busy trying to get rid of Idunn. If that's handled, we'd get a quick little cutscene explaining what everyone (well, 75% of the cast, anyway) planned to do afterwards, since for some reason the actual character endings were never written. Saya and her friends return to Sacae, the knights return to their countries, several decide to go on journeys. It's all very simple stuff.
Even with the end parts, this was a fun journey. Glad to have offered some context as to what's going on.
EDIT: Just noticed the run ended on Episode 38.
38% made the thing.
The coincidence of coincidences.
Really appreciate all of the details here. It's been cool to see the context and learn a bit more about the game. Thanks again for offering to help. I'm sure I'm not the only one who appreciates it.
Yeah man the difficulty spike here is so sad. The hack was fantastic otherwise.
And that's a wrap on SOHAE. This hack made me feel a very wide range of emotions, and it's all the more impressive at how much the hack made me feel only through it's gameplay. This hack holds up really well and has some of the most enjoyable gameplay among any [complete] game I've played. I'm glad I had a chance to play this and I'm grateful to everyone here who shared comments and also notes on the story - glad to see that the LP has helped renew interest in this hack.
Reflecting on this playthrough, I'd say SOHAE is still my #2 [complete] hack of all time behind Primefusion's The Road to Ruin, and the first 20 chapters was probably some of the most fun I've had with an FE game - I think that's why the last 7 chapters being such a huge difficulty spike upset me so much. Betrayed by the romhack I loved...
That said, this hack is incredibly innovative and largely well-designed, especially for when it was made (2013-2015). Really cool project and it's one I certainly would want to play through again sometime. Knowing how the game ends, it would be a lot easier to figure out which units to prioritize, supports to grind, and the general pace the game wants me to play at chapter by chapter. Think this one has a lot of potential on a repeat run.
Thanks again for joining me on this journey.
It seems like this was made at a time when the ethos was still that players should try to maximize exp and that jagens suck. So tsagan is super op, but the endgame is insane so you are actually punished for using him too much. It's a russian doll of self fulfilling prophecies. If you were to go into this game under the doctrines of the past, you probably wouldn't get blindsided like this and would experience a much smoother difficulty curve, with a slightly harder early game and much easier late game. The developer didn't feel the need to warn anyone because everyone was fretting over exp by default at the time. This game is a glimpse into a world where our fears about jagens were correct the whole time. And honestly, I think that's pretty cool, as long as you know what you're in for. A lot of players back then really enjoyed trying their best to balance exp and train growth units; the only problem is that they were unknowingly preparing for an endgame challenge that never existed. But in SoHaE, it *does* exist, and exp management *does* matter a lot, and you are juggling that with unique map gimmicks to boot. The fire emblem dream we thought we woke up from is now a reality.
Thanks Pandan. Despite your palpable distress in the endgame chapters here, this was a real joy to watch. Plenty of learnings and fun moments along the road too.
This is a message from Lord Nergal. “I have become a Dragon in the Sword of Heaven and Earth.”
Getting to see an overlooked piece of hacking history was super interesting! I wonder how much we would talk about it in the modern times if it got more of a spotlight in the English community when it came out. Thanks for another fun let’s play showcase!
You're welcome! And yeah, I agree. You can tell that 38% tried to recreate FE6 with how he rebalanced numbers, while so many FE7 hacks in the west focus on FE7 style. I think the gameplay here holds up a lot better because of it IMO.
From summoning dragons to becoming one himself, Nergal really getting his fill of quintessence now, huh?
===
That Dream of Five comment I made a few vids back was not entirely meant as a joke.
Something defo went awry as the run ran on; while Gim and Tsagaan became the beefers the rest of the crew could only try to keep up even with the sheer amount of T1 enemies this ROM hack throws at you(either due to poor levels(Saya, Sergei, Jeff, later Rostov) or some other shenanigans(rip Feeler)). The difficulty spike certainly caught you by surprise, not helped by the language barrier. My supposition to how this run fell apart is probably a combination of all those plus classing up some characters too soon - I know I'll be taking my time to class up for my practice run to see how much better I fare.
Definitely a lot to like for a ROM hack made in a time just before FEBuilder was birthed with neat map and gameplay concepts and a hard and fast adherence to FE6's gameplay style, for better or worse. I actually vibe with the returning Morphs storyline but this time they're more like actual peeps, character and unit design on the whole is pretty solid all around(the mage units and Feeler being stark examples for both ends of the spectrum), and the maps are fine until endgame where the quality dives a mite.
Still this is a nice project and one I won't mind playing through a second time soon. Cheers for the run, Dan! (u ' v')b
Thanks man, and yeah I agree. I think as the game went on I got a better sense for how 38% expected the player to play, and I probably went a bit faster than was intended. Not sure what a few extra levels would've done given how crazy endgame is, but I'm definitely keen to give it another go. Curious to see how you do!
wild that these final chapters are thrown at the player to slog through without the usual accompanying big buff S rank weapons, thanks for the series Pandan, got me interested to try the homrack out myself in the future
I'm glad you finally finished it? haha.
It's been quite interesting following this let's play.
The difficulty spike seems to climb pretty high in the middle of the game and certainly the units sometimes don't help you much, Saya doesn't seem to have leveled up too much strength, which makes her another Lyn... her strength growth is 40, maybe that's why. I should raise it to 45?
Honestly what I'm most interested in is to complete the translation, and after that people will probably just tell me what things could be improved and what not. Although I think that would be more of a separate patch than the original.
There are many things that the author didn't complete, like the supports and some endings.
I've already finished chapter 14, I don't know if it's because of the text or because I'm taking my time to polish it, but sometimes I feel like I'm making slow progress xD
Anyway, in the future I will let you know through this comment when I make the post in the FEuniverse forum, so stay tuned.
Have a nice day!
My Grape hit a 68% dragon axe twice, in two rounds.
Sorry I'm late and if you answered this before? But why do some letters like H and J become Hearts? Is it just JP FE lacking those letters?
The menu patch I used (made by Kirb) was made in a day using some automatic translation tools - it's an issue with how H's and J's were processed.
I hope 38% allows for rebalancing when the translation patch gets complete.
As far as I know, 38% is long gone from the community. I hope they're doing okay.
@@nadnap then whoever makes the translation can rebalance it with no strings attached ?
@@heartlesscaesar4427 I'd discourage whoever translates it from rebalancing the game - It would be disrespectful to the author's vision without their explicit consent to rebalance the game imo. That said, no one can stop them from releasing it if they choose to go that route, but I assume most people just want to read the story and play the game as intended.
@@nadnap i think PE (or lil manster or whatever it goes by these days, w/e fe5 translation) had a good compromise by offering the raw experience translated + including alternate patches that potentially improve the experience. although of course translating a mainline game is way different than translating a romhack lol
@@jellyunicorn8347 yeah I like their approach - translation with the same QoL as original and then an updated version that's more "playable". Not sure what was changed in those patches outside of some menu things to make the game more transparent. Rebalancing is def a different territory in general yeah.
Luna crit or bust :(