Fire Emblem: Binding Blade (U)

[Arch]

The Premise

It's sort of generally understood that FE6 is...lacking in comparison to its GBAFE brethren. I've been wanting to do one of these patches for years. Obviously it's a pretty common project concept (hence this topic's name); there's at least four projects that I know of. I've always thought it'd be nice to have a little update for the game. If Intelligent Systems had decided to release Binding Blade as a sequel to Blazing Sword in the west, I feel like they'd have done some cleanup work on the title. Import updated mechanics, maybe draw a few more connections with the prequel, tweak the balance, and just give the game an upgrade in general. That's the philosophy behind this hack; I want to, in a sense, create a true "western release" version of the game. I'm just going to play through FE6 and sorta fix it up as I go along. I'm not trying to do anything spectacularly radical, just a much-needed upgrade.

It's definitely on a smaller-scale than, say, Elibian Nights. It'll be a nice, non-intensive project for me to focus on after my game's released. Until then, I'm just sort of whittling away at it.

Those Magic Changes

• An overhaul of the script. Taking the translation as a base and improving it further. A good localization does wonders for a game.
• General touch-ups to the game. Generic enemy icons have been updated, courtesy of Kitty of Time. Importing updated animations from FE7, fixing errors with the game (such as bosses having no palettes, despite them already existing in the game). I might attempt to import FE7's conversation backgrounds and soundtrack updates as well.
• I'm also looking at changing Roy's promotion time. This would probably be the most "radical" change, but it's something that really needs to be addressed.
• Balance tweaks to make under-performing members of the cast more usable.
• I might add generic palettes for enemies? We'll see if this comes to fruition.
• Increased availability for some promotion items, I know that's an issue.
• Axes with FE7's hit rates. You're fucking welcome.
• Zealot -> Jerrot.

Screenshots






I'm on Chapter 7. I'll post a patch when I'm done.

Edited August 14, 2013 by Stallinbald

[Shugey]

Man, I need I plan for like, six FE6 playthroughs for when all of these are done.

[Klokinator]

With proofreading help from klok on the overtroll skype

No but seriously, thought you were gonna hold off on announcing this xD

[ThisProfileNoLongerUsed]

I'm assuming you're just running through the game but leaving the difficulty as is, right?

Also when did FEditor Adv. decide to cooperate with 6

scratch everything

Edited July 24, 2013 by Rokklaggio

[Klokinator]

FEditor was recently repaired by Omni. It now has, I think, few if any glitches when hacking FE6. All the major gamebreaking ones are fixed now, at the least.

hence all the shitty fe6 fixes and the other shitty shit shit

Edited July 24, 2013 by ManriKlok

[Arch]

I was drafting the topic to post sometime later, but accidentally hit post, then proceeded to say "well, fuck it."

[CT075]

zealot -> jerrot worse change than zealot -> vergil 0/10

yes yes old expected joke

[Klokinator]

I was drafting the topic to post sometime later, but accidentally hit post, then proceeded to say "well, fuck it."

ahahahahaahaha

hahaha

aha

i cant

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

Are you going to do the 2x SE Mods on the hack?(ALA FE7 US)

[gringe]

Pretty cool. Most of them are simple changes which is basically what I wanted too. Would you like a copy of my script when I'm finished? It seems like we have pretty similar goals in mind. It would save you a lot of work, and I'm all for updating the game a little bit as a whole.

In the end, I really would rather not be in competition to update the script.

Edited July 24, 2013 by gringe

[Klokinator]

You guys have completely different goals scriptwise though. Arch is making minor changes throughout the whole thing, while you seem to be effectively retranslating and rewriting a lot.

[Arch]

Pretty cool. Most of them are simple changes which is basically what I wanted too. Would you like a copy of my script when I'm finished? It seems like we have pretty similar goals in mind. It would save you a lot of work, and I'm all for updating the game a little bit as a whole.

In the end, I really would rather not be in competition to update the script.

I appreciate the offer, certainly, but I feel like I'd rather write my own script. I enjoy writing, even though it can be quite a bit of work. Doing this project also allows me to familiarize myself with writing a full-length game script. Since I've been writing on a scenario-by-scenario basis with Elibian Nights, where chapters don't necessarily connect with one another. Editing this script gives me some valuable experience that I'll use as I shift to my next major project.

Although I understand that this means five different variations of FE6, each one has something unique to offer; Kitty of Time's anniversary edition creates a solid connection with the rest of the Elibian universe (FE7, Hasha, EN), Onmi's greatly expands the base game with all sorts of additions, Superluigi's offers a straightforwardish remake (I'm still holding my breath for his triumphant return), mine provides a moderately enhanced "western release," and yours offers another take on the translation and script (from a person with prior editing experience, no less; I'm just a guy with a hobby). It's kinda crazy, yeah, but at least they're all offering a different take on the game.

[gringe]

Well, okay. Fair enough then.

[Mangs]

This sounds great. Fire Emblem 6 is my favorite game. I’ve played it probably 10+ times, and also have a Let’s Play of it on my youtube channel.

If you don’t mind, I’ll just deliver my thoughts on what could make the game better. I’m just spitting out thoughts here if that’s okay;

-Earlier promotion for Roy is defiantly a nice change, though it would be nice if you could avoid a forced promotion by giving him some sort of item such as a master seal or heaven seal so the player could choose when to promote him (he could still get the sealed sword at the same time in the game though, just not gain his promotion from it).

-There is absolutely a lack of promotion items. The second knight’s crest you get especially late in chapter 16 (unless you manage to recruit Percival early, which is close to impossible, but if you by some chance manage it you get it in chapter 13, which is still pretty late).

You do get 6 knights crests in total though (7 if you take the Sacae route), if you open all chests and have your thieves steal everything they can so the amount is no problem, it’s just the second one you get which should happen much earlier, as there are both many cavaliers and armor knights awaiting a promotion long before then.

You get 5 hero crests in total. One you have to steal (but you don’t get it until chapter 22), another is extremely difficult to obtain (save all villages from being destroyed, a VERY tricky objective on hard mode). Overall I don’t think this is a huge problem, but it would be nice to perhaps gain the second one a little bit earlier.

However, worst of all are the guiding rings. You don’t get your second one until chapter 18 if you go the Sacae route, or 20 if you go the Illa route. It is possible to find one hidden in the sand during chapter 14, but this requires you to keep Sophia alive (which can be a pain), and actually get her up northeast in a sandstorm on a map full of wyvern which also has a time-requirement for the gaiden chapter. In all there are 4 guiding rings (not counting secret shop), and the last one you have to steal in chapter 23.

The amount and availability of Elysian Whips and Orion’s Bolt are fine imo, unless you want a pegasi trio for triangle attacks.

-You get one measly secret book over the course of the entire game (2 if you take the Sacae route). I really think the game needs more secret books, especially with characters like Gonzales around.

-Thank god for better axes, but steel weapons in general are terrible in FE6, they should all get a major overhaul. A slight reduce in weight and maybe a single point increase in might would be a real blessing.

-The fighters Lot and Wade are both very underpowered. They have far lower growths than most other characters in the game, even though they get massive promotion gains when becoming warriors, but honestly who wants to waste the precious hero crests on these guys when there are so many good mercenaries and myrmidons in this game?

Wades growths: HP 75%, Str 50%, Skl 45%, Spd 20%, Luk 45%, Def: 40%, Res 5%

Combined: 280

Wades growths combined are much lower than most other characters in the game who are not pre-promoted. Also his 20% speed makes him near useless, as speed is a very important stat. increasing his speed to 40% would make him a much more viable fighter.

Lot’s growths: HP 80%, Str 30%, Skl 30%, Spd 35%, Luk 30%, Def: 40%, Res 5%

Combined: 250

And then we have Lot who’s got even lower stats than Wade. His strength and skill growths are especially horrible, and his speed, while better than Lot’s, still leaves a lot to be desired (pun intended). I think his strength growth should be at least 50% for him to be even considered viable, and maybe his speed upped to 45%.

-The armor knights, Balls (yes I call Bors that) and Barth also leaves much to be desired.

Balls growths: HP 90%, Str 30%, Skl 30%, Spd 40%, Luk 50%, Def: 35%, Res 10%

Combined: 285

Balls is just on average pretty poor. His HP and luck growth are quite good, but his speed, skill and defense can get screwed over pretty harshly. I suggest lowering his HP and luck growth and increasing his strength, skill and defense slightly.

Barth’s growths: HP 100%, Str 60%, Skl 25%, Spd 20%, Luk 20%, Def: 40%, Res 2%

Combined: 267

While his HP, strength and defense gains are all great, his other stats are just abysmally bad, and what’s up with the 2% resistance growth? All he will ever be is a brick wall, which I think can be fine for some characters, but at least a small increasing in skill, speed and luck would be a blessing to this guy.

Wendy’s growths: HP 85%, Str 40%, Skl 40%, Spd 40%, Luk 45%, Def: 30%, Res 10%

Combined: 290

And then we come to Wendy, whose combined growth is far superior to her two counter-parts, but 30% defense on an armor knight? Her growths aren’t bad; they are just not befitting an armor knight. What I would actually truly love would be to make Wendy a soldier instead of an armor knight (I have no idea what she would promote to however).

-The archers Wolt and Dorothy are also extremely under-used, and for a good reason. Their growths aren’t bad, but archers are a pain to level up in the early game, especially on hard mode. You could claim archers are important because of the sheer amount of wyvern riders in this game, but we have mages (and the FE6 mages are ever so good) with Excalibur tomes for that. This game does have good pre-promoted Snipers though, as both Klein and Igrette are completely viable choices, but I would like to see some love for Wolt and Dorothy, maybe not in the form of growths, but perhaps some increased base stats.

-Bartre, Echidna, Garret. All amazing characters, but with horrible growths. They are pre-promoted, so they obviously should not out-class their un-promoted counter-parts, but they should get a little love, especially Echidna who’s a god damn female hero. I actually used her in my Let’s Play by request from Mr.Entinen, but boy did she get out-shined by the rest of my party. Even feeding her with stat boosters didn’t help.

-The cavaliers Noah and Trek certainly aren’t bad, they just get so massively outshined by Alan and Lance, who in addition to amazing growths also have one of the fastest supports in the game. If you pair them up with Roy, you have a trio of death in a part of the game which is extremely challenging; it’s almost too good not to do!

You can certainly support Noah and Trek as well, but they just don’t come close to the awesomeness of Alan and Lance. They should get slight boosts to their growths to compensate for this, and maybe a faster support.

-Speaking of supports, they are just punishingly slow in this game. Some takes over 200 turns just to reach A rank (not even joking). If you thought FE7 supports were slow, they don’t even come close to FE6. There’s also no support screen which lists available ones, you’ll just have to figure it out on your own (or read a guide).

-If you somehow manage to give thieves a promotion, it would be insanely awesome. Assassins are cool, but if you could somehow incorporate rogues from FE8, that’d be even cooler, I love rogues (even if you don’t manage to give them their pick ability, as long as they just gain the ability to level up after 20).

-I’m not a big fan of Fa, and not of mamuketes in general, but I think it’s stupid that you get a unit that can perform 30 attacks and then do nothing. Maybe decrease her growths a little to not make her insane, and give her either a divine stone with more charges, or the possibility to obtain more.

-When you play on hard mode, the first half of the game is dreadfully punishing, with enemies far stronger than your own characters. The first 3-4 maps in particular are just pure hell, even with heavy usage of Marcus. Once you get deep into the game however, it becomes a breeze if you’ve played it correctly. The last map in particular is a joke, as the dragons cannot perform ranged attacks, and you have a whole array of dragon-slaying divine weapons. The last map needs more enemies than just dragons (even if it goes against the lore), some ranged spell-casters with some sleep, silence and berserk staves would go a long way.

-The final boss and Yahn should both really get a massive boost. They are both a complete joke, and can get one-shotted by Roy with the Sealed Sword. Adding stat boosts to their weapons (like they did on the dragon in FE7) would help out a lot. They could both use at least +20 defense and resistance, so they won’t go down instantly to the first divine weapon that points in their general direction.

Whew, that’s a mighty long post I just wrote. I guess you can tell that I really like this game. Anyway, just me putting my thoughts down on paper, do with them as you will!

Edited July 25, 2013 by Mangs

[thetiger39]

-Bartre, Echidna, Garret. All amazing characters, but with horrible growths. They are pre-promoted, so they obviously should not out-class their un-promoted counter-parts, but they should get a little love, especially Echidna who’s a god damn female hero. I actually used her in my Let’s Play by request from Mr.Entinen, but boy did she get out-shined by the rest of my party. Even feeding her with stat boosters didn’t help.

Echidna is not only a female hero but a female axe user as well. She could use a CON increase.

[Arch]

So, Damas is now a blob of pixels. I hope you all approve of this change.

Whew, that’s a mighty long post I just wrote. I guess you can tell that I really like this game. Anyway, just me putting my thoughts down on paper, do with them as you will!

Definitely a lengthy post, but much appreciated! I'm not going to respond to each point (there are a lot of them), but I'll be referencing your comments as I move throughout the project. I'll do my best to address these issues where I can. As always, feedback is more than welcome, especially when it's so extensive and helpful (especially helpful considering that I've only played through FE6 once, it's nice to listen to the criticisms of a veteran player). If anything else comes to mind while I'm working on this, don't hesitate to share your thoughts, Mangs.

Also, I've added a poll with a few questions to the topic. Just looking for some feedback on a few questions.

1. Name Translations: Because these questions are always fun, right? Deke/Rutoga vs. Duke/Rutger. They're paired as a set because Deke and Rutoga were made "official" by SSBB, and using one without the other seems wrong to me. If I'm going to keep Rutger, I'm still gonna change Dieck. So, I figured I'd put the two options to the test and see which is preferred. I'm leaning towards Duke/Rutger, personally.

2. Ambush Spawns: This is definitely a hot topic. Basically, we've got three options; remove ambush spawns, keep them, or do a hybrid of the two (Awakening-style ambush spawns for hard mode). I'm interested to hear what everybody's got to say. All three of these options are easily feasible.

3. Roy's Promotion: There are two ways of doing this that I'm bouncing around in my head. Option One, move the forced promotion up to the end of Ch16, when Roy becomes the leader of Etruria's Allied Army. Option Two, hacking a Heaven Seal into the game and giving it to Roy in Arcadia.

[Klokinator]

What chapter does Roy promote in normally?

[Arch]

He promotes at the end of Chapter 21/21x. He's a Level 1 Great Lord in Chapter 22, the chapter where you fight Zephiel. He has a whopping four chapters as a tier two unit.

[Klokinator]

Jeeeesus christ wow.

Well my personal recommendation would be to leave his stats and growths as-is and give him the seal in 14, OR to give him +1 movement and force promote him in 16.

I only say he needs +1 movement because seriously, lords need to be faster damnit. No reason the lord has to be the shittiest unit on the field at any point in the game, let alone the entire game.

[Chocolate Kitty]

Duke Rutoga

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

Roy: From my personal experience Roy's problem is somewhat because during mid game or so, he started to et 1 - 2 shot by bolting more notably during the route splits

And his Rapier blows even with 3x Modifier, which is comparable to Marth's Rapier, except while the strongest enemies in Marth's game is 14 Defense, it is much stronger in this game

I guess chapter 16 would be an Ideal level to promote for Roy, in particular because the chapters before those are either horse heavy, or Axe heavy.

Gonzalez: One thing that is quite a hot topic in FE6 is the fact that Gon-Gon joined on 2 separate routes at different level, 5(Lalum) or 9/10(Elphin). Many considered the former being superior thanks to 4-5 extra level with exact same stats upon jointime. I disagree, because the later can be instant promoted, but Hero Crest competition is a problem for the latter, and Gon-Gon in general faces problem from having Axe only basically forever and we all knew how much Axes misses in FE6.

That being said, I think managing the latter's stats into below average stats would be ideal, but ehhh

Armor Knights: I think they need higher base in general. 9 Defense with 40% growth while still having low speed is pretty laughable

Edited July 25, 2013 by I have a Dragon Boner

[Wayward Winds]

Hmm, maybe with an improved script I'll finally have the willpower to drag myself away from that arena in Ostia... (Because the translation I'm currently playing really isn't providing me the incentive to continue).

On reinforcements, is there any way you could try both ambush and regular spawns within a mode? It could make enemies more of a threat when they are a surprise in story terms, and would also provide a bit of variety. I know ambush spawns are a nuisance, but at times they really do work. So prioritise regular spawns, but chuck in ambush spawns every time it either makes sense from a story point of view... or you suspect the player might be getting too... comfortable.

(Waits for the barrage of complaints for even daring to suggest the idea...)

My only other suggestions based on what I know would be to make Wendy and Sophia less obnoxious to begin raising, because few people like being presented with a level 1 character in chapters where they'll die from a funny look. At least Cecilia has the excuse of 'reasonable' stats.

...Uh, how many names do you expect to fiddle with beyond the two above?

[Onmi]

On reinforcements, is there any way you could try both ambush and regular spawns within a mode? It could make enemies more of a threat when they are a surprise in story terms, and would also provide a bit of variety. I know ambush spawns are a nuisance, but at times they really do work. So prioritise regular spawns, but chuck in ambush spawns every time it either makes sense from a story point of view... or you suspect the player might be getting too... comfortable.

FE6 already does this, one set of reinforcements in Chapter 7 on Hard Mode arrive and don't ambush, followed by ambushers.

So to answer your question, yes.

Edited July 25, 2013 by Onmi

[Klokinator]

I think Duke is a bad name choice, simply because he could be called "Lord Duke" or "Sir Duke", where Duke sounds like a title and not a name, making him seem like a double titled individual instead of a person with a name. Deke/Rutger is the preferred translation, in my opinion, because the names make more sense.

[Tryhard]

I think Duke is a bad name choice, simply because he could be called "Lord Duke" or "Sir Duke", where Duke sounds like a title and not a name, making him seem like a double titled individual instead of a person with a name. Deke/Rutger is the preferred translation, in my opinion, because the names make more sense.

but THE DUKE!

I would take THE DUKE.