Andaron Saga Review
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 มิ.ย. 2024
- Review on the Fire Emblem Romhack: Andaron Saga (SPOILER FREE)
Below is the link to download the Romhack:
/ discord
I am in no way, shape or form involved in the process of creation of this hack and this is merely my opinion after playing the game.
What about you? What did you think about the hack?
Catch me on / axommharth to discuss! - เกม
Thanks for the review. I greatly enjoyed it.
The knowledge I had about hacking and game design at the start of Andaron Saga's development compared the end of it are literally worlds apart. Looking back at it, I wish we had focused more on making the maps quicker to beat and less about making awesome gimmicks and seeing how far we could push the software. Sometimes this wild experimentation came at the cost of player enjoyment.
Ch24 for example, was literally just me going crazy, utilizing everything I've learned to cram as many events as possible into a single map. While creating it was certainly enjoyable for me, it wasn't as fun playing it for some people.
I also regret that the difficulty was absolutely too high on the lower difficulties. Lunatic is for those who enjoy suffering so I'm fine with it being the way it was, but we should have toned down the difficulty on normal and hard by quite a bit.
The hack ended up becoming very dialogue heavy, much to my dismay, especially considering I often criticize other games for being too text heavy. Andaron Saga definitely tries to do too much. 32 chapters + 11 gaidens is quite insane. I think if I had decided to make the hack arond 20-23 chapters instead, it would probably be for the better.
As for the jokey tone, thats something I felt very strongly towards the end of development, but at that point it was too late to do anything about it. I do think its important to have a lighter tone and not be super serious all the time, but we could have cut maybe 50% of the jokes and it probably would be a better experience.
It's still very gratifying to watch someone enjoy a game I spent two years developing, and I have to give kudos to my incredibly talented team who worked very hard alongside me! 😊
I hope to showcase everything I've learned from Andaron Saga in the Rebellion prequel that I plan to release at some point.
Thanks again for this review!😂
I personally thought that on hard mode the difficulty was really good. I didn’t think chapters like 17 24 and 29 were that unfair or bad just a little long but still fun. Especially on my 2nd play through
And I don’t particularly mind the gaidens since they’re optional. I just wish the dialogue wasn’t so inconsistent since it kind of ruins the story for me. Still loved the hack though
Thank you for taking the time to comment!
First I wanna congratulate you and everyone involved in the project. No matter the criticism I gave the final point still stands: This was an excellent rom hack to play and I would recommend it to anyone.
I do actually like a lot of the gimmicks added (particularly the tomb chapter is actually very unique, albeit i can also see it being frustrating). I strongly enjoyed the "randomness" of certain chapters with different spawns and such, that was a very unique and good take that I had yet to see in a FE. So kudos to thinking and implementing that.
I can definitely see that the latter dialogue is a lot better, more mature and well paced than the early game stuff, and it part it's probably because of the reason that you said. Sometimes it does need a revamp from the backend after completing it, just because of the ideas at he end influencing the newer ones or different "writing" styles incorporated. But again, albeit it was my biggest gripe, it doesn't mean it wasn't a great experience and I enjoyed many of the aspects of the game.
The effort, timing, passion and commitment is definitely FELT by the player and I'm thankful for all of your and your teams hard work :)!
As someone who played normal mode being excited for the new story I can say the difficulty was fair. I didn’t struggle with many chapters except Hellheim because bad luck with portals. The difficulty definitely increased in the Timaet arc but that was my fault because like a psychopath I insisted on using every unit. Level 17 unpromoted Estelle couldn’t do much against wyvern knights. However the difficulty got really high in the final chapters because assassins guild in Holtmeier could easily one round my units, and the regalia users were really strong (as they should be) that a skill activation always killed someone
Oh hello rapist
The problem with AS's story is that when I was handed the script, the main continent's name was Eggdrasil and characters said "Oh my devil axe!" like 15 times in chapters 1-3. So I was like "wow this must be a meme hack". But then I found out five chapters in that a lot of [very bad things] happened later on, and it was like... damn I'd better go back and rewrite some of these chapters to make the tone more consistent before launch" but I had no time to do that.
If I had known from the beginning the game was intended to be a very mature/serious game, I'd have made a lot of different writing decisions. In the end, I've decided to do an entire remake of the game on the Lex Talionis engine. We'll see how that ends up in 2ish years or so. Might take longer, we'll see.
Thanks for the review!
Oh shit nice
You did a lot of good, I'm personally a big fan of your work.
Thanks for taking the time to comment!
I actually can see that now that you mention it. As I said in the review, the beginning chapters suffer from this a lot more than the latter ones. Overall I honestly did enjoy the story and they felt high stakes and very well thought. There i things I would've done differently, but also like I said, it's just a matter of preference. Regardless, this was a fantastic work and I commend your efforts and time :)!
mister Klok please make it so that Baudimon and Aylanda don't die, or at LEAST Aylanda. The story is too depressing me no like it >:(
@@ToLazy4Name We'll see.
Dont forget THE AMMOUNT OF SECRETS. I have seen massive differences between playthroughs and the MASSIVE reward in using a theif and playing fast. Knowing how to push the fire emblem games to their max can reward players in a myriad of ways
Thank you for this review! I am one of the betatesters and following this project was a passion I hold dear in me, and I entirely agree with your critique, as biased as I am, there's a lot of points in the story that aren't for me, but I hold it as one of the most grounded and well-paced of the fire emblem hacks out there, and the music and gameplay are definetely peak in terms of hacks out there. I'm glad it was an enjoyable experience to you as it was to me!
Hanakko the goat. Always putting mangs down where he belongs lmao.
Hey Hanakko -- I forgive you for timing me out in chat the other day.
@@hillwin10 I forgive you for your transgresions warranting a time out!
Thank you Senpai! @@HanakkoLove
Well i'm liking it so far.
You bring up an interesting point with the tone of the earlygame vs lategame. I think having a mix of light and dark tones in a story is almost necessary, because only having one feel gets a bit boring. In my experience the more light hearted moments in the beginning really helped to warm me up to the characters and there is even a hint of more depth sprinkled in there (e.g. shom's ch1x convo). I found the timing of the jokes to be worse in the later parts of the game actually. They'd sometimes interrupt heavier moments, and I found that they probably could have crept back in in a more elegant way.
Damn we got destroyed for 10 minute and a half and then " It is a fantastic hack ", and i got some indirect praise at the end with balance and gameplay
Don't worry, it's my Zapp Brannigan tactic of wearing you down before I show some love!
Is there a guide for this game? How do I unlock ch 32?
I'll post the discord link with the info.
discord.com/channels/1117909250451189890/1118953727039111219
@@backalleysurgeon7881
@@fireembros1165 oh for fucks sake. I thought talking to that guy was a bad thing. I had to do that? Goddammit
I have yet to beat the hack, but Story wise, it was alright. Dialogue definitely needed more time though. Gameplay is really good but I do think inventory gets full very quickly (200 convoy space is not enough IMO). Secrets are mostly straight foward and don't break the game if one does not find out about it. Overall a solid hack to play
200 inventory thing has been a problem in almost every hack
?? I only filled to 200 in like chapter 23 and I'm a huge hoarder and it was pretty easy to manage after that
I understand about the inventory. For me 200 capacity for convoy inventory is much enough since those items that are about to break and run out on supplies? Just sell them to the armory, it will not only free up space but it will also get you some gold to buy new stuffs you need.
Yeah. It starts a bit weird and a bit tone deaf but it does get better later on as I see in the latest Mangs streams. Granted some of that tone deafness is still there cause of Ahmed basically being a budget Sans Fucking Undertale. But the gameplay is pretty solid but does feel bullshit at times. I am looking at that one desert temple chapter,Mangs.
@@aetherius6221 It's hard to run out of space since you have so many characters to store stuff on, the issue is if you convoy dump everyone you're not using so you can have everything in one place you run out of room fairly easily around the mid 20 chapters.
Baudimon Andaron Saga
I appreciate this review, thanks!
I'm only on ch17 but I'm loving it so far. My favorite part of this hack is the cast. There's so many characters I like, that I have a hard time deciding who to deploy because I want to use everyone
Oh and really great review! I'd love to see more detailed thoughts in a spoiler video, if you ever feel like doing something like that. Also, very clever name for the channel hahaha
My favorite thing that happened in my playthrough was when Ashcleaver bro rolled up on me near the end of the first arc, I went to chip him with Shom for zero damage with Hoarfrost to get the speed drop, and then next thing I know he's down 51 health from a glacies crit. Basically 10/10 gameplay wise just from that.
Hell yeah cool to see a review of this hack, I hadnt played it yet
Something I've been thinking about that's unique to Andaron Saga is that it's very unusual for the the player base to know the development team as well as we do.
Nearly 100% of us have never had nor ever will have any earthly connection with the people who made the games that changed our lives or even the ones we simply enjoyed. Imagine living in Japan in 1996 and we're calling up Intelligent Systems for some tips from Kaga and the bros on FE4. Mangs and the rest of the development team actually did this for the public at large, and they continue to provide this level of support essentially for free. This level of expertise and availability is to my knowledge unmatched. I've never seen anything like it. And I'm beginning to wonder if there's a hidden price to that.
In the past , a childhood summer playing Path of Radiance would change your life, and push you through multiple playthroughs past the hardest difficulty settings to discover everything. Through your mastery of the game you would begin to convince yourself that you share in a secret that only you and the developers know. This is the baseline in Fire Emblem for secret progression and theorycrafting that plays out over decades. To this day I still wonder if Tauroneo is Rolf's Grandfather. Could it be true?
Andaron Saga is different though because it burned so bright. We didn't get to enjoy the pleasure of living with unanswered questions. It has simply been too convenient for us to ask the developers to soothe or insecurities and hold our hands with step by step guides.
Under normal circumstances Chapter 32 might have taken years to discover. We might have lived for years with the false hope that their could be a way to save those who are dear to us. I personally might have spent years trying to promote Jakka into a Dragoon. All of that and more is painfully exposed, measured and clarified. Such a curse that we each rob ourselves of that future to the extent that our willpower can endure our curiosity.
In gaming I don't believe I've ever seen anything like Andaron Saga. It's the most powerful Fire Emblem game I've experienced since my own golden age. I still marvel at it and don't believe its real. What do think?
Yes, I agree completely that a lot of the dialogue, especially around the beginning of the game, is quite dreadful and almost got me to stop playing.
I also have to say that a lot of the story beats in the mid-to-late game felt forced, where the writers really wanted the party to go to certain parts of the world they created.
This isn't terrible, but since it seems a remake is being considered, this is something to take into account.
I really enjoyed the twists in the story and the vast majority of characters, and really appreciated the A-support bonuses and various small branches that give the game more replayability than most other Fire Emblem games.
Generally, the map design was a little all over the place, but it makes sense considering they were made by three different individuals with different philosophies.
Some maps felt very good to play, while others felt bland, and yet others are kind of unfair if you play them differently than how the creator intended.
I agree that more dialogue cues about what will go on during the chapter would be helpful.
The soundtrack and the visuals are honestly stunning, and really were the biggest highlight for me.
Has some of my favorite units ever, i love the way enemies are built to have very high damage but low other stats to make the difficulty very defensive in general with many powerful bosses to make you think offensively as a nice pace-change. Really keeps things fresh and fun. The story was very good overall but my biggst issue was that i think somehow the tone of the main story and of gaiden talks got mixed up. Why are most of the jokes in the chapter dialogue? Why are most of the gaiden talks super serious? A chapter tone more similar to FE4 with its heavy, dark andbroad story strokes and gaiden talks similar to the fun, lighthearted and occasionally powerful Tellius base convos and saving most of the jokes for them I think would have both improved the tone and pacing of the game's story. Broadly, I think the first half of the game has incredibly tight, engaging story but sort of falls a bit flat in the middle parts of Jakka's arc. His lowering action after Baud's death and rising action seiging andaron were both very well done and powerful but I really found Timaet/Styxia weirdly willing to overpraise jakka and he was treated much too similar to a friend rather than the opportunistically contracted merc that was needed in exchange for a favor. Was very standard FE build an army of alliances tropey in a way I wouldve expected a bit less campiness to be present in at the very least. Overall, probably the best or second best gameplay of any FE, hacks or mainline, and a good and fun but somewhat tonally dissonant story.
I agree with your assessment of the story. The story itself was good for the most part but the dialogue should've been more consistent in tone. Personally I had a bigger issue with it in the later stages even if the jokes weren't quite as immature as in the beginning because I think it makes sense to start with a lighter tone and then get progressively more serious.
Still one of the best stories I have seen in a fire emblem hack/game, one of the few where I was actually invested and wanted to see what is going to happen next.
Since you're doing reviews of fan-made Fire Emblem games, how about reviewing Bells of Byelen?
It features most of my favourite mechanics from the Fire Emblem series and implements them really well!
There's also an optional gameplay mode you unlock a few chapters into the game that I really liked!
I'll take a look around and see If I can find it and if it strikes my fancy :)!
I thought you said Balls of Byleth and I was like "what the hell"
Nice video. I generally agree with your takes and criticisms.
If I had to compare Andaron Saga to the mainline Fire Emblem games I've played thus far, its probably my second favorite.
I appreciate the uniqueness of the map designs, and I was fine with the fog of war maps generally, though there was a bit of fatigue I'll admit.
I most strongly agree on the dialogue early on, though not necessarily the examples you used. I had bigger issues with the memes and "cringe" early on. To me the problem wasn't that the jokes were immature per se, but that they were presented poorly. (well, some of them were just flat out immature period enough to be just bad, so I'll agree there) A good chunk of the characters themselves are immature to an extent so its understandable that they might be saying questionable jokes and things like that, but when the way they speak like something out of a tiktok or a stream chat or sound like a 2020's modern teenager, that takes me out of the immersion of the moment.
I will say I can understand that its a romhack and the developers probably had to have fun in their own ways with this game so I can understand to some extent some of the quirks, but its still something that makes it harder to look at as a work to be compared with the Fire Emblem games.
I disagree somewhat on the value of gaiden chapters, but as you said that's a personal preference. I felt like they offered a nice respite and I appreciated the dialogue, though maybe they could've been done a bit better.
I also agree, that the story writing was good enough to overcome the shaky start in dialogue and the fact that the problem lessened as time went on. Its a good story.
Solid review, overall I agree with you and you covered a good amount of the game's value (and places where they might've been able to improve upon).
Some of the jokes in Andaron Saga felt to me like the food dialogue in Vision Quest, at first its like "haha funny" but after it happens again i become more unfazed until i just don't react to them at all. And its not bad, i mean its jokes and memes, so its not a big deal for me.
The first chapter really needed a rewrite to match the tone of the later chapters, I think it fixed itself rather quickly after it.
Based Review, as someone following the project and a ""Beta"" Tester, its nice to see others experience AS.
Like you mentioned, my biggest issue was all the fog of war. I'd like to replay because there is so much good in the game but I don't want to deal with all of that fog. Ch 14 in particular had no business being in fog, especially coming off the previous map. What's odd to me is that Mangs stated they didn't put enemy ballistae and siege tomes because it just slows the player down, which I agree with, but I'd argue FoW is much worse about slowing the player down, yet they put it everywhere.
While I definitely understand criticism for some of the dialog, that didn't actually bother me too much.
I’m replaying for the third time, and the fog doesn’t bother me at all. After a few replays, you can learn the game and enemy placement fairly easily.
@@zekdom Good for you. I don't want to have to play the game three times just to learn it, though.
@@redfoxoffire Don’t you have to play a game multiple times to learn it? Isn’t that par for the course, RPG-wise? (Assuming we’re not relying on guides, of course.)
@@zekdom You have to play a game multiple times to *master* it. I only play most games these days once. There's simply too much out there to dedicate more time to everything.
If you're cool with the FoW in this game, more power to you. But I hate it, and "play the game three times and it won't be a big deal anymore" isn't convincing.
@@redfoxoffire Sure. My dad is similar: consume once, then move on.
I just think Andaron has a lot of replay value anyway because of all the skill-support combos you can obtain. In other words, the game is designed to be played multiple times, and you’ll learn the game as part of the “replay-process”.
By the way, I’m thinking about branching out to other romhacks. Do you have a Top 3 Fire Emblem romhack list?
"Hey Klok, got anymore funny jokes about video games?"
"Lance is another name... for penis"
"nanda"
Yeah. I feel Klokinator seems to be a weakness to a more serious tone for the story to be honest. I mean there is a bath scene between Baudimon and Jakka that feels straight out of a Gachimuchi Skit than a serious story.
@ZX-Gear if its the scene in the spring, then apparently it was orginally intended to be a much more grounded heart to heart between the two, but got turned into one big joke later
@@Aeivious Yeah,Klok wrote the dialogue for the game.
@@ZX-Gear Klokinator didn't write all the dialogue, and if anything he toned down the silly meme-humor.
This is still a bit of a spoiler video, but you really did do a great job on it. I hope to play more when i finally get the chance.
Greatly enjoyed Andaron Saga, my main issue being the fog of war thing. I had no particular issue with any of the reinforcements, and I actually enjoyed the dialogue quite a bit. For me, the main thing I actually dislike is when inexperienced writers take the concept of "dark/mature" and run wild with it, which is something I'm glad the writer didn't do here. Are some jokes out of place? Sure. Could the diction be improved upon? Maybe. But these are things I will easily accept than a story that attempts to be grimdark just for the sake of being "dark and mature". The first arc of the game before "the big twist" was actually some of my favorite parts to experience because the overarching tone was dark despite things being lighthearted relatively speaking. Go to Timaet and see what the big deal is. Typical FE stuff. The bond between Jakka and Baudimon was believable to me BECAUSE of the goofy dialogue they have with each other. One moment I did enjoy in particular was Baudimon genuinely reprimanding Jakka for instigating the entirety of Ch3. Jakka, being who he was, playing it off and trying to make light of it. With Baudimon not playing into any of it. Had much of the interaction between them had just been "We were war buddies during the rebellion. There is no joy. Only death and despair. We must move. Every day is a reminder of the people we lost" I don't think the actual bond beyond just fighting together would have been showcased well at all. And to me, it makes things all the more satisfying as Jakka grows noticeably more hellbent on taking down the main antagonist. Even with his joking nature past Ch12, he jokes less as a means of having fun and, as mentioned by his profile, a means to cope with trauma.
This next one is something it looks like people feel the opposite about, but I liked the number of Gaiden chapters, and even finding myself excited to reach one. The problem I have with the Gaiden chapters isn't length or anything like that, which can be skipped in a matter of moments if it really came down to it, but some characters not using the available opportunity to have their character put on display. A character like Colter, for example, isn't in many of the Gaiden chapters. Which I find strange because as one of Baudimon's friends, I imagine his dialogue would have almost as much importance/meaning as Jakka's post Ch12 and his role in Ch13. What makes this a great game for me isn't just the story and gameplay, but the fact that the Gaiden chapters gives some dialogue, even if a little, to characters beyond their first few moments of relevancy. Even when they aren't important super plot important characters and especially if you don't happen to be using them for one reason or another and won't be seeing their supports. To give an example of one of my favorite interactions in the game, was one between Jakka and Fred, though I don't recall which Gaiden it was. Fred, a relatively minor and even comical character in the early parts of the game, puts Jakka's view of the main antagonist into question. Jakka, obviously, isn't having any of it because he's set in his ways, and you can't blame him. But Fred, all the while, presents his points validly, even if Jakka, or even most people, wouldn't agree at all. It wasn't something that needed to have a full C-A support dedicated to, and a skippable conversation for those who didn't want to see it, but plot relevant and great to experience nonetheless. I personally don't think Gaidens should be lessened or removed unless its deliberately cutting down on the ones that are strictly filler (like everything Buggi related, for example) but I understand its up to the devs to make that decision and whatever makes them happiest.
As for the story itself, I greatly enjoyed. it The story was serious enough to be invested in, but straightforward and light enough to digest without getting bogged down by too many unnecessary details. I don't know if a sequel is in the works due to the nature of the ending, but I do wish more of what the antagonist was working for, demons, and Lightbringers were present at the forefront in the story. The lattermost is indeed important to the plot, don't get me wrong, but it feels secondary to the conflict at large given the nature of Baudimon and Jakka's motivations and what they are trying to achieve. Assuming nothing else had to change, I would have personally removed the Styxia arc, and used those chapters and adjusted the remaining chapters a bit, to incorporate the aforementioned topics more. I just feel characters like Ayla, Zakarias/Dawn, and "Albert", should have had more direct relevance to the endgame given the actual goals of the antagonist. Ayla was relevant early on, but slowly became a background character until the end. Which, makes sense, given the focus of chapters 15-25 but you get what I mean.
The gameplay? I basically have no complaints for. Almost. Personal skills give flavor to characters, even within similar niches. Fun to play with. And getting the Ch23 skill for Jakka helped me make quite a bit of kills with allies. Regalia weapons were not only fun to use, but fun to acquire given that you could get them "early" for going out of your way/doing something difficult. After getting Galeshot and Hailey S rank in bows, she became an unstoppable menace to society, it was great. Victoria was an amazing player phase unit due to her ability to nuke most things due to her personal skill, Estelle's skill is amazing, and I'm sure nobody even needs to bring up Helga. That said, and it could just be on my end, trainees were a bit too difficult actually train up. More than usual, that is. Even having made sure to feed Natalie as many kills as she could get, engage in combat, she continued to feel behind, despite feeding her significant amounts of exp for several maps straight. Other than that, and the previously mentioned fog of war maps that were in abundance, I absolutely enjoyed the gameplay.
All in all, I had an excellent time with this rom hack. I'm looking forward to replaying it a few times to experience some things differently. If you actually read all this and didn't skip it like a COWARD, props to you lol.
------------------------------If you're WEAK and need a tl;dr (issa joke, you're not weak. you're only weak if you bench Thea):
I liked that the beginning wasn't edgy grimdark because it made the impact of the main twist hold more meaning.
I agree with the fog of war complaints. All of them. In fact, I hate them. Burn them all. Except Ch24. Most fun chapter I've played in awhile.
I feel like we don't get enough of the demons and Lightbringers at the forefront outside of supports and would trade Styxia's spotlight for them.
Excellent gameplay and gameplay variety overall. Could be skill issue on my end, but trainees were harder than usual to actually train even with commitment.
I'll still hold my full thoughts in the comments here for when I do my own review but I can at least say this was a giant achievement in ROM hacking. Good job on the review.
Would you consider doing a review on Vestaria 1 and 2? Not many review even exsist of it. Vestaria is the direction FE would have gone if Shouzou Kaga was still in charge. (The game is purely passion project made by Shouzou Kaga and volunteers) its freeware, but if you look a the steam or GOG version its 19.99 because your paying for the english location. Its been around for a year or two now but I'm just surprised how little anyone in the FE YT space talks about it.
I have heard of Vestaria but unfortunately have never played it :(. If I ever do get around to playing it, I most certainly will do a review!
I think I agree with you the story is good but the dialogue can be very miss sometimes it doesn't feel like not only not very medieval setting but as you said no one would speak like this. the music and gameplay are top tier imo
The worst thing is the reinforcements, for me. It's one thing to have spawns so the map isn't empty, and anti-turtling incentives, and so on. It's another thing to get barraged by endless waves of enemies every single chapter. I got to a point in chapter 25 where I was throwing my hands up and saying "Stop it!"
I think the story itself is good. The dialogue is a bit corny and "self-aware" in the first part of the game but it gets better, mostly. There is still a "why are they talking about this?" moment or two. I will say there was no reason to go to Styxia at all and it was totally tacked on.
About Styxia, Jakka needed all the allies he could get in order to take down Mortimer.
Have you played any other fire emblem games ?
I suggest you replay any fire emblem's late game and see how much reinforcements we throw at you comparing to them.
Also chapter 25 is ... a freaking necromancer chapter, of course they are gonna try to submerge you in undeads, there isn't even 30 enemies on the map at the start !
@@PH_777 To be fair to the other person, about the lategame thing, just because Fire Emblem does a bad thing doesn't mean we need to do it too. We can do better than that. And about chapter 25, the amount of reinforcements was good for the most part up until the end when the dragons come. I agree with them that this was too much. In my experience I had to spend like 7 turns retreating south just to deal with the 12+ strong enemies chasing me, while Darius goes "Let's go kill my father already!".
@@Posby95 Reinforcements are not a bad thing, it all depends of the execution, but in this case it's clearly someone getting overwhelmed and not able to deal with the Necromancers and Kangax fast enough, most certainly someone that should have played normal mode.
You spending 7 turn retreating is fine, it's a safe way to deal with it and it is intented, however "better" players will have a quicker answer to kangax, once again if you are not very good at fire emblem, consider normal mode.
@@PH_777 Didn't get a notification for this when you first posted it. The problem wasn't the difficulty of chapter 25, the problem was that the number of enemies was annoying. I beat the chapter without losing anyone (or I only lost one unit, I don't remember it's been over 8 months). I wasn't "overwhelmed," I was just rolling my eyes when new spawns came in. In the siege chapter (I don't remember the number) when you're defending the town it made sense that new enemies kept spawning in and I was fine with that.
I don't think other FE games have the same approach to reinforcement design as this outside of the GBA games to my memory.
Honestly, best fire emblem gba rom hack to date.
I do want to say that although it's rare some people and families to refer to the parental figures by their first names
This is true, but more so if they're estranged or in a position of power/orderly for each other. The situation I'm referring to didn't really have that and was touted as a loving "common" family.. which is why it was so weird to see the names pronounced as opposed to just "your dad". Even later on, the dialogue that refers to what I think is actually keen on for an estranged relationship, Darius still calls Khangax father, which is more in line with how you expect that strange relationship to be.
I haven't finished the game yet, but my biggest gripes are the dialogue and some of the sillier characters like Jesse and Ahmed. Like sometimes the writing will be really good but then you'll get whiplash like someones edgy 13 year old was allowed to write a few paragraphs or make a character. Maybe I'm just getting old and humorless, dunno.
I also think theres just too many characters. Also might just be a me problem.
Still, enjoying it so far overall.
I loved Ahmed 😂💀😁
At first, I was skeptical of Ahmed as comedy relief, but he actually does get funny lines in there. His dialogue with King Kangax is Ahmed at his best.
I find Ahmed OK because he is the comic relief, and it works, in my opinion. And Jesse well... it's a "interesting" character, I like him very much
I agree with both you guys. Ahmed is the classic funny skeleton guy. Like a Skeletor, or classic 90s skeleton Warrior. Like something from the 90s shows Goosebumps or are you afraid of the dark.
Final final final final FINAL update coming soon I hope 😂
Personally I’d say it’s a pretty good outside of that map with both fog and mage knight coming out of it with brave tome and it’s not even a late game map
The support gives cool bonuses and they are unlocked by units being deployed together so you don’t have to spam end turn to get them HOWEVER it’s style five support total so if you wanna support a unit you better hope you didn’t trigger a support with another that you bench cause otherwise you can either go fuck yourself or send a unit to the cemetery
It’s a pretty good hack outside of that and maybe the game feeling like it hate trainees where for example a trainee join with two prepromote, do the prepromote have a weak weapon to soften enemies, of course no they don’t only top tier weapons which are guaranteed to one round
Funnily enough, the trainees have the potential to be better than their counterparts. Namely Natalie and Christina in comparison to Jesse and Theodor. Especially Christina who can receive an early regalia in Rosethorn.
Ralfnir is really good with Wrath. Especially with Ragnarok.
Elmer has the means to be granted Wrath from Ralfnir, Dazzle from Estelle, and Lone Wolf (albeit from a Secret Event). Giving him the potential to be a great nostank.
The hard part is moreso in training them in their join chapter to promote them ASAP.
I loved it, im a huge slut for fire emblem content so ive been having a blast. Id say most of my critisims are the same roughly being
1. Out of place dialouge
2. Way too much dialouge.
3. Some chapters being way to long.
4. Felt like every other chapter was fog of war.
5. Do we really need a death squad on every map? Cant we just win a map once in a while?
Overall very good, but the design inconsistencies between different creators what makes or breaks some maps for me. I know well that some people on the dev team like making stupidly hard chapters designed to make you rage, thats just not fun, some like making a traditional fire emblem map etc. I think they needed to have a much more cohesive design philosophy
bro?
Death squads? sure, theres a few, like in ch 7 or 11, but i didnt come across them on many maps.
why does jakka talk like that
Yea characters were very trope heavy in the beginning and i thought it would be like that the entire game, that would have been cringe and got old, but thankfully like you said the story matures and the characters mature as the game progresses and gets better, im almost done, with it and its a top FE game to me imo
Honestly I feel like you hit the nail on the head, the writing is very good most of the time but when its shaky its very noticeable, I don't know how to feel about Natalia and Jesse all of a sudden being serious characters instead of jokes when you get closer to the end of the game, I think this is one of the better hacks I've played without a doubt but If I had to compare it to something in particular it would be Sun God's Wrath, well both games clearly want to tell a serious story but are being held back by early inexperience, in SGW's case its being the sequel to a super low effort hack so it was working with the best it had, and AS being the creator's own inexperience at the start with romhacking, But both games have super tight gameplay and the stories still are enjoyable for what they are.
Overall things could be better, but I think its still a must play experience for anyone that wants some of the newer gameplay features of modern fire emblem, but without the (to a degree) cringy writing of modern fire emblem.
I'm not gonna say your opinion is invalid, but the signs about Jesse are there right from the beginning. The very first ship gaiden has him talking about being hunted. If you recruit him with Natalie you get a much more serious convo. He has a schizo episode in Timaet too.
Now, Natalie, she's a bit goofier from the beginning, but there are... small signs. It depends on who visits her house. I wanted to make sure I led people to believe initially they were just dumb joke characters until you later find out why they act so oddly together. Maybe I just didn't pull it off well, idk.
@@Klokinator Yeah like In hindsight it lines up actually, Like I remember the Timaet and Ship gaiden stuff, But since I sent Natalie away I really didn't put two and two together until chapter 26 with her, also I recruited her with Fred I believe the first time which felt kinda generic.
I think the idea works, But if I was suppose to come to that conclusion before chapter 26 for both of them then it didn't end up working for me, again Jesse I half way saw signs of a deeper character but Natalie was a complete blindside due to that i sent her away.
I'm not sure if I'm alone on this, especially because even the developers seem to agree, but I honestly didn't have much of a problem with the dialogue at all.
I mean, I had some issues here and there. I grew to love him eventually, but I thought Angelus was kind of abnoxious at the beginning. I also feel like the playable dragon's writing got pretty lame in the late game lol. I liked most of the jokes, thought I agree some of them felt out of place, but nothing that bothered me too much.
I agree that sometimes the dialogue is a little too... "Romanticized"? Like the example you gave, but again, nothing I had to much trouble with - although English isn't my first language, so I suppose that could be the reason I wasn't troubled by it?
When it comes to Baudimon and Jakka, they do say a lot of silly stuff, but personally, I just see two best friends acting dumb with each other. Even the sauna scene, it was just Baudi making fun of Jakka, I honestly don't see anything wrong with it lol.
Their friendship is one of the most important plots in the game, and it felt very real to me. These dumb interactions only contributed to that, at least in my opinion.
Despite a few problems, I think the writing, world building and story in this game are fantastic. It's very dialogue heavy - I'm on chapter 30 with 65 hours lol -, but I'm gladly stopping to talk to any character and read any support, because I'm really enjoying my time with every bit of story, character and world building. I honestly don't remember being this invested into a Fire Emblem game since the first few years I got into the franchise. Maybe I'll see more flaws in consecutive playthroughs, but for now, this is a nearly perfect game to me - except for the fact that the endgame difficulty spike is driving me nuts LOL
I also had no problems with the amount of dialogue. It's definitely a lot, but I think there had to be that much or it wouldn't feel anywhere near as grand, like an epic. I think it was for the best.
My thoughts exactly!
Same. Although i agree about the dragon, people are going way too hard on the game's dialogue when it was definetely not as cringe as, let's say, Engage, nor heavy info-dumping as FE4. I think it was alright, and you eventually get used to their "modern" way of talking...
Ahmed, however, got a bit annoying at times
yes
Andaron saga is amazing.
Well I find this game preeeeetty good, and I'm going to bring my opinion:
I decided to download this game because I heard that Mangs and his team made a Fire Emblem hack, and I saw this quiet interesting.
When I started to play it's very difficult to me to engage with the story, especially on first chapters (1-9), but it happens in all fire emblem games, any fire emblem game that I started playing was an automatic 10/10. Unless all those "difficulties" I read all the story and try to explore what kind of world it has, because I think that a game is about that, exploring and enjoying a story.
Later when the "plot-twist" (that all FE games have) happened, I felt like I really started to go on with the game and story, the dialogues very enjoyable. But I'm not gonna lie, since chapter 22 and onwards the "gaiden chapters" began to overwhelm me and I simply skipped some them didn't interest me, and yes, it is sad, very sad... anyways, I found that a lot of chapters have their own essence and the gameplay is also very good.
One thing that I don't like is that all the characters can be GODS if you train them and it's makes every unit very... repleaceable. And talking about it, I feel like the story is really attached with the plot-twist and it can feel a little strange... but not all story is only that, the exploration of the continent is pretty, we can enjoy a world with a great lore and a rich exploration of Andaron.
Oh! and the characters of course, some of them can be just called like "typical FE characters" and on the other hands we have interesting characters that have an interesting background and story behind them that I REALLY would like to explore in a sequel/prequel.
The inclusion of special abilities and gaidens chapters were a perfect decision in my opinion, maybe because I am a big fan of Tellius games, gaiden chapters specially gives me the chill of just reading how my team was doing it, but as before I said sooner or later you are going do not care about it.
The supports can be better, anything more to say, they are perfect
And now the narrative... uhm, I can't really give an opinion because I speak spanish and my english is OK but I can't criticize it.
The music is the best thing of the game, not gonna say anything more
ANYWAYS the game is wonderful, I loved every chapter and every story development, it never got boring, and like a casual man and a casual fire emblem fan I enjoy it like a child!
And to end... Congratulations to the developers for creating this beautiful game that ruined my hours of sleep =)
I thought it was really really good. My major complaint is that theres way too much thats secret and theres no guide as far as I can tell. Very unclear how to unlock certain things.
In a way, it’s kind of like the old days before we could Google strategy guides. We have to figure things out by accident, or by word of mouth.
It’s frustrating, but there is something nice about learning through community interaction.
Well your luck cause mangs made a video talking about all the secrets in the game.
Oh yeah, some of these units are ridiculously busted. Dawn and Helga are the most busted units I've seen not in awakening. I send Dawn against 30 enemies and she doesn't have a scratch, Helga can cross half the map in one turn and can nosferatu tank for days.
My biggest complaint is honestly the Jakka arc, I wish we could have followed the light bringers story and had aylanda become the main protagonist instead. She was a much more compelling character imo. I've only got 3 chapters left and right now I have no clue how they're gonna tie everything together.
Helga is lowkey more busted than most awakening units, Aversa is the only flier that can use nosferatu without some form of shenanigans and she's basically post game.
At 4:45 which chapter is this?
Maybe its 32 if i had to guess, can't confirm though as i have not played it.
@rafaelrocha2458 is correct.
It is chapter 32!
@@fireembros1165 any idea as to how you unlock it?
@@sadaharu4515 There are a bunch of requirements. Isabelle needs to be alive and promoted, Colter needs to be alive, Albert needs to be alive, Emilia needs to be alive and have obtained "morbid curiosity" as a skill, and you need to be within a turn limit for every chapter (so no turtling).
@@morphball2314which is the turns limit?
If it goes away and the maturity kicks in I might continue. So far its been bad gamer speak and both MCs are unlikeable.
Fog of war bit too much but dialogue way too much. Nearly fall sleep then recuit characters or get certain items no clue
Recently played this, dropped it at chapter 17. The story and writing is fine but the gameplay design is atrocious, you rarely see map design and units this poorly considered in Fire Emblem games.
English is not my main language, sorry if my grammar is bad.
Not a big fan of this hack to be honest. I kinda feel bad to say that because I know there was a lot of work behind but I feel like this could have been done better.
The dialogues are very cringe in my opinion. The two first chapters are way to heavy in dialogues.
Most of the characters are chaotic/immature or are caricature. There are not really grey characters but only black or white...
I often watch Mangs and everytime he did play a game (either a FE hack or Triangle Strategy for exemple) he was extremely critic towards the dialogues and their heavyness. Sadly not only he is guilty at doing the same thing, but he did even worse...
The scenario lacked depth and doesn't make any sense to me, especially in the end. The main antagonist's motivation was complete BS in my opinion.
The map were well designed, some of them were unique however from around chapter 12 I felt like there was only one way to play this game : Crit, kill, and crit. Just crit bro.
And sadly it gets worse as the game progress. It's litteraly an hack and slash but turned based.
The soundtrack was very good.
And even if I didn't like the hack I could feel the dev passion behind.
I can see all these points except the scenario lacking depth one. The story is far more dynamic and far less black and white than most FE games.
i disagree with the classic fire emblem unit balance. almost every unit can be good and i dont like how most units dont have an archetype. Classic example is Isabelle; WHY is she SO fast?!
My opinion personally is that they made all the characters look like bad guys, i understand they're supposed to be the good guys but i don't see how they were any different from the villains.
The writing is so bad in this game, especially early game (almost painfully cringe) that it makes it very hard to get through.
Ur opinion
I think beginnings issues(and issues later on) stem from mangs poor taste in humor, I've heard the gameplay is pretty good but I'll be staying away from it due to mangs history in the FE community
You can say what you want about Mangs but I feel like the others who worked on the project deserve appreciation for their work
I understand why you would have that opinion on Mangs, but I struggle to understand how you can find yourself able to watch his streams giving him views, and yet you cross the line at playing his hack that you could perfectly play without even recognizing who made it?
@@mado-wh4jv The funny thing is Mangs heavily criticizes dialogue on FE rom hacks and he ends up guilty of basically the same thing.
@@GamerGarm He said that he wrote some dialogue or the base for it, and then better writers expanded upon it or added more conversation of flavor to give it more substance. It's not uncommon that in FE hacks things like supports are written by groups of people.
@@GamerGarmExcept Klokinator is the one that did most of the dialogue
Imagine playing a video game and wanting a character to sound "real". Just go outside if you want to talk to real people.
The problem is this odd tone of characters not sounding authentic to the situation their in, thats what he means by "real"
Imagine being so ironic that mangs complained about Engages character being so out of left field yet he creates dialogue like Engage
@@valemontgomery9401 there's no difference. If you complain about a certain type of writing in a game, why mimic it in your game?
@bigoof6369 I didn't say that the rom's writing was good. I'm just tired of people thinking that just because something is more "real" that it's inherently better. I have more of an issue with the maker of this video.