FE: Shackled Power - Chapter 26x (Endgame 3) & Epilogue
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- Опубліковано 2 жов 2024
- The final showdown. Birgitta's Spd is somehow nerfed here, meaning more people can now double her. Despite buying multiple swiftsoles in the final secret shop, and bringing along S rank weapons, I ended up not using any of them.
This is basically the same as the previous chapter, just stat check against most of the enemies with the right weapons. The only one to look out for is probably Nestrix with her Spd debuff Prf.
The A rank light tome, Exonar X, has effectiveness against Birgitta. Someone here is actually able to ORKO her, but I dragged it out for the boss conversations.
---
The romhack is definitely one of the better ones, but not without flaws.
Most characters are really memorable, even the ones I benched long ago, due to their frequent appearances in the cutscenes. Speaking of which, most of them last an eternity, forgivable since they enhance the story, but not with some of the word formatting, which somehow split most sentences into 2 lines even though sometimes they are short enough to fit into one.
Imagine if I write my entire
review like this.
I'm not sure about you guys, but
I'm not a fan of reading the text
this way.
Especially not for
20 minutes straight
while tapping the A button.
Back to gameplay, while the second half of the romhack is the typical reinforcement spam with a few long range assault, but the first half is more enjoyable as it actually tests my strategy, especially with Eileen baiting Fulshir just to get some of the items.
Speaking of which, the item distribution is not so great. Too many elysian whips compared to other promotional items, their appearance timing too. Also, coming from someone who spent mostly everything on statboosters, with 28k gold worth of swiftsoles that I didn't even use, and I still have too many weapons in the convoy because of the enemy droppables. Along with the prep armory selling basic weapons at regular price, it's almost like item management skills aren't necessary.
Some stealables/droppables are given to reinforcements (like Hama's knight crest or the speedwings on the ranger in the Duking's trial) which require prior knowledge or sheer luck, else they can easily be missed, especially if you are able to play fast, meaning those chapters encourage turtle strats for the sake of wasting time if you want those items.
The balancing felt very lopsided, it's excellent at the beginning, where everyone is useful in their own way, and most obstacles require some clever tricks to clear them, but later on there are some obvious powercreeping, along with the lategame bosses being weak overall.
If I can defeat a 28 Spd Hama with a Prf that ignores Def during midgame, will I really struggle against a 22 Spd Birgitta at endgame? Seeing that 54x2 against Birgitta felt like Roy VS Idunn once again, not much strategy, just that one weapon that you are given for free.
Hello. Thank you for playing my hack and showing it off to the world. It's always an experience to see the full, unsolicited thoughts of players experiencing your work in ways you can't begin to work out yourself.
There's a fair amount that could have been better, I'll admit. And you found some glitches I never did and am currently working on fixes to. But at some point returns begin to diminish for me, it having been well over a year since I put out the initial version. I don't want to make anymore huge changes to just let the game sit like how old releases of games did and accept both the peaks and valleys of what I put into it. Besides, if I had to address every single suggestion a player made, the design of the game would get pulled in every direction and just collapse into tasteless soup.
But, again, congratulations on beating the game. If I had to make suggestions for a future playthrough, I'd want to suggest either The Four Kings (For its unique design in both how it handles its maps and its units) or Heaven's Fall (A seemingly obscure hack that I think deserves a bit more attention than it ended up getting). But no need to rush into anything: It was a long playthrough, after all.
Don't know if you'll see this anytime soon, but thanks for making this hack!
If you may, can you please share what inspired your writing style, art style and choice in soundtrack? All three of those things combined really make Shackled Power stand out amongst its contemporaries.
Some highlights for me
* The music is obvious with themes such as Birgitta and Peirhok's themes being my favorites. Fulshir/Nestrix sharing a boss theme (Birdie's theme from SFA3 GBA) is also a nice touch as well as the custom boss theme (at least I think it is?) for the final chapter minibosses.
* Glad that the portraits are custom because it kind of gets boring seeing the same F2U/E portraits in other hacks. Some don't even recolor them. Its interesting that while some portraits share similar eye styles/shapes (Birgitta, Nestrix, Onick, Ruben, Hute, Grant, Aster, etc) there are some that could pass for vanilla like Prosel or Cadence imo. Besides that, characters that immediate stick out are Demi, Barbara, Bodasson, Fulshir, Rikkan i think that was scare claw leaders name, Remy, Geld and the sentry force
* Sicilis finger tap and Lilim hair whip were cool (the trailer has more too!)
* The anachronisms in the setting are something I actually like and honestly made the setting feel more believable in a way? Things like Birene turning adjacent lands into oil drilling sites, Grant and Darrel doing community service, Remy and Bodasson wearing sunglasses, the bandit rings and the scare claws not being earlygame bosses and more im forgetting were all a breath of fresh air. The TMNT music, more grungier artstyle/map palettes/UI, writing tone and references to saturday morning stuff really made Altina feel unique which is why when Lilim called Fulshir "Big Bird" or Prosel called Rita "Rita Repulsa" it didn't really feel forced or immersion breaking.
* Guerilla/Lieutenant is one of the coolest custom classes I've seen. The Lieutenant dodge animation is also slick 👌🏿
* This hack does something similar like Order of the Crimson Arm and DLATMOL where side characters have scenes in the plot along with support convos, boss convos and even unique things like defeat convos and battle convos vs generics (Alta entering combat for the first time)
I guess in a nutshell, despite playing like a vanilla FE with a few changes, it really feels unique to the point where I forgot it was a romhack at times.
@@A_Person_64 Uh I don't mind sharing.
-Writing-wise I just flowed in stuff I like. I'm a big retro guy and not a big RPG guy (I've only played FE6/7 in full) so I just make cool guys sound off at each other. Mostly like stuff in Megaman X, I'd say. Or Fist of the North Star and Yu-Gi-Oh. Those had great trash talkers.
-Art-wise my biggest inspiration is in the old Capcom arcade fighting games, which is pretty evident in designs like Peirhok and Aspria. So I generally liked bold, cartoonish colors. But going both ways is good to make the serious guys stand out more. Changing eye styles is either spreading more unique features or style inconsistency, so let's go with the former.
-I went with TMNT music because I really like the turtles. I'm big into grungy guitars and metal, so it fit nicely. Helps the whole cool-guy aesthetic where the maker was just trying to put in stuff they unironically think is cool. Making fun of yourself/your writing choices with characters is really uncool IMO.
If it weren't UA-cam comments I'd put more together, but hopefully that answers your questions well enough.
@@sphealnuket8686 Thanks! 🙏🏿
Perihok portrait is like he comes from a straight up horror game. Omg Prosel, you didn't have to kill him in a gruesome way.
finally siaoz using S ranked weapons (rarest occasion )
This one's a doozy, I apologize in advance-
1:04:08 Mmm, I dunno about that one, buddy. I think you're a teensy bit more like your dad than you'd like to admit. The evidence was on that wyvern that was shot down a while ago, not even capable of speaking properly... seriously my guy there's no axe marks across his eyes, did you gouge them out yourself?-
Also I'm just gonna headcanon that Lilim actually feels completely devastated over every Odin related thing, but is keeping up her usual cheery self to not have people question or tell her about how its not her fault or whatever. It's not an uncommon thing for children(?) to pretend that things are fine, after all
Okay so I know I keep mentioning that time he went off on Marilyn, it just sticks out _that_ much to me. Usually, the only faults of Fire Emblem Lords are that they trust too easily, or that they're inexperienced when it comes to war, or something else that doesn't quite cause them to snap and do something _really_ rash and questionable. But this guy does. Multiple times, actually. It doesn't mean he's not working for the best of everyone he's responsible for, or that he's secretly an asshole who likes making people suffer, it just means that he's a good person pushed in all sorts of directions and responding as accordingly as he can. And it makes sense when he does the things he does, he's not being rash just for the sake of the plot. I appreciate the fact that he's allowed to be flawed, it makes him feel that much more like a person.
Curious to know how old he is, tho, cause I don't think that's been disclosed anywhere in the game and it usually is
And Marilyn too, she was a nice take on your usual cleric. Leaving aside her "fucked-up-really-bad" moment that ended with a new resolve, she's also one of the few who's doubtful of their patron and acknowledges that prayer is not, in fact, going to solve all of your problems. Maybe she's not physically imposing, but she is strong in a way that I feel very few of us are. Most would have simply decided to take out their anger on others (which we've seen much of in this game), or simply turned into assholes over it, but she saw her chance to atone and took it, not once wavering. Also she took the whole wall thing like a champ so there's that too
It's weird, though. Seeing the ending of this one gives me a similar feeling to when I finish reading a particularly captivating book. Like, anguish? The sorrow of knowing that the journey's over? That doesn't happen very often with these ROMS, and somehow the one with the meme reputation of TMNT music and odd portraits has captivated me more than the "serious" ones could hope to. You shouldn't judge a book by its cover, indeed :0
And we never did see his cape, in the end. I was right _and_ wrong, what a feeling
Rest well, siaoz, this one's been quite the journey ^^
Ironicly one of the early complaint of this game is that it's too hard. That said as it stands, the game suprisingly balance and even the longer map were balanced out with save in the middle of the path.
And so it ends. This hack have been geniuenly suprise me, i thought little when it first release but it has now grew on me. I already finish myrm emblem, looks like i find a new worthy hack to play.
Now this is final chapter. War in this hack ends today.
31:54 that portrait of Spawn Perihok is horrifying damn.
Gotta say Prosel's ruthless streak, as crazy as it is, is a very refreshing take on the Lord template. Perihok looked like something out of Evil Dead. GJ Shackled Power dev
Terrifying detail about Deadlord Peirhok is that his Wyvern Mount went from Red to White. Even Orpheus wasn't spared from the gore.
Don't know if I'll have enough space to type it all out....
1/3: Endgame 3 and Epilogue
Birgitta is NOT possessed by Alolan Fomortiis, but lost in her vendetta and I'm happy that Girulian recognizes that and decides to join you (she did entrust Gothen to him after all so he's protecting it). The title screen theme and the prologue trio calling out to each other in their final map quote is hype. Oh, looks like Aspira's spawn got a new portrait, the earlier ones were WAY more creepier looking. Her death quote is pretty sad though 😞
PEIRHOK'S PORTRAIT, JESUS CHRIST! Still bothers me till this day, HE CAN'T EVEN SAY HIS BATTLE QUOTE COMPLETELY! Way back at the end of chapter 21, when you see Prosel's portrait move up and down after Peirhok dies...that's the result.
I don't know how to feel about Nestrix being a spawn (her portrait is creepy though). She died only 3 chapters ago in the same location and Birgitta said she couldn't use Nestrix as the holder of the legendary dark tome...but still managed to get her body in time for now.
39:10 The bosses do have unique conversations with certain characters as you saw with Lilim and Odin (i'm happy they could resolve their circumstance). Even the one's in Endgame 1 with Sicilis and Duking, there are some. There is also one more person I think has a conversation with Birgitta which is pretty surprising. I won't spoil who it is, but I'll give a hint (HE'S PRETTY SLOW)
Epilogue has a more...melancholy tone to it (aside from Marilyn keeping her resolve and telling Aster off and the bit with Sarium at the end). Yeah Birgitta/Nestrix are gone, but Gothen is still in shambles, Birene still has to deal with the political trappings of being an empire, Prosel is REALLY tired, Marilyn has her sidequest to do, Sarium is still alive and CYRUS DIED! At least we get Rita/Eileen repairing their mother/daughter relationship.
2/3: Shackled Power and replying to OP
Like a lot of others, I feel like I took the fact that we have more completed romhacks for granted and thought nothing of this at first beyond just surface level memes of haha funny TMNT music or the unique portrait artstyle (the creator definitely got better overtime and I like that he updated them). The tone of the soundtrack, artstyle (and the map palettes) and the writing reminds me a lot of 90s dark age action comic books and something you'd watch on Saturday morning (the TMNT music, the wrestling references and the power rangers one in 19x did not feel out of place at all). All of this gives Shackled Power a really unique identity. Please listen to the TMNT 2007 GBA ost, the music in there is so good. Act 2, S3 is such a good song and it hit differently in Chapter 21 part 2 because it feels sort of like its supposed to be Peirhok's theme? Nestrix/Fulshir's theme is from Street Fighter Alpha 3 - Birdie's Theme and is another good theme.
Story wise, it was pretty good. I like that a lot of characters get to speak even outside of support conversations (which exist and are fully complete BTW, a lot of romhacks now still don't have them). Birgitta being the antagonist from start to finish and not the demon king breaking out was great, Nestrix was an interesting take on a Gharnef like character with her not really caring about DK and just wanting him to possess Birgitta to destroy Altena for decades of corruption along with her working with mercenaries and not a cult (which made the antagonist feel much more alive with their own agendas and not just Duma/Loptr/Grimleal/Agarthan cult member #64). Peirhok's story was pretty sad even though I knew somehow he wouldn't join us. Prosel has been described as a Hector type lord done right and I agree. Kid has a lot on his plate and realistically breaks while Marilyn was always broken and just couldn't acknowledge it. The overall theme of this game seems to be actions from a previous generation affecting the next and family dynamics (Birene's royal family, Eileen/Rita, Kainis noble family/Odin/Nestrix, Darrel/Ray/Kassandra, the bandit gangs and probably more that I'm missing). Cutscene length did get LONG at times though. I think it was Chapter 10 or 11, but it was 2 scenes that were 10 minutes each.
Gameplay wise, it starts off strong, but surprisingly doesn't really drop in quality as much as other romhacks in the lategame. It still eventually became reinforcement spam and siege gating, but not too bad. I agree that it gives WAY to may resources combined with the convoy being 200 slots than 100 (OP had a lot of irons, steels and silvers leftover, GBA FE has made me automatically sell them in favor of killer weapons and whatever you get as rewards which is why I never shop that much. Romhack creators tend to give more resources than needed and even after the shopping chapter you still had another 2 maps to shop along with droppables/rewards). This game has a lot of step on switch maps though lol. GBA Romhack druid powercreep struck again with Madari. You'd forget that Niime was more a staffbot, Knoll was a staffbot with summons, Raigh/Canas weren't that OP and lol Sophia if you played so many romhacks.
I'd recommend this romhack, but not for first time romhack players. That still goes to Elibian Nights since it has a familiar setting and small chapters to ease newer players in and then TLP, OOTCA and DLATMOL are pretty much FE7 with a few extra changes to keep the familiarity, but slowly become accustom to romhack quirks. Shackled Power is pretty high up for me though, definitely was a sleeper hit.
3/3: What now?
I think I posted this game after 4 different romhacks and finally got to see you play it 🙏🏿 (I honestly didn't think I'd see SHACKLED POWER - PROLOGUE on the day that I did, was pretty surreal to see that it actually got chosen)
Someone else can post their recommendation.
Thanks for playing!
(Spoilers for the slow dude you mentioned)
That conversation was absolutely foul. Grant trying to have his revenge over the incident with Freyja and Brigitta can't even remember him.
"You will know my name in hell!"
@@chrosairs7057ah, so it was Grant. I had a feeling ever since I spoiled myself by seeing his support chain with Krunk
14:12 You crippled her legs with magic.
28:29 He is the origin of this situation, but yeah even if he goes up to Brigitta she one rounds him.
29:25 Soldier level up.
31:57 You did split up his head back then, how could that body even be useful.
46:13 Hopefully that will ease Lilims guilt, her big bro backs her up all the way.
51:35 Stay dead, Marilyn without her act is so good.
1:05:38 Demon killer tome.
1:10:14 He learned a ton looking from the bench.
1:12:22 Better late than never.
1:16:28 Guess he kept his promise to Helhein.
1:18:56 Even with A with Prosel this stays the same, I was kinda hoping for him to be a personal guard like Krunk, but hey bricklaying ain't bad at all.
This truly was a great hack, and there is so much more lore to be found in supports and random interactions, like how Eddie's family survived thanks to the sage you recruited and boss convos. Hell even Peirhook that I'm quite sure you can't recruit has convos available in the support viewer.
Hopefully you take a rest with this one, more than 1 hour in most vids of this run and 2 on many is def taxing.
46:12 im not crying u are you
45:55 Glad she got this and you made it happen!
1:03:48 Less useful than FE6 Karel has its merit, I guess lol
Congratulations on finishing the game, and I'll hope to be around for your next pick!
The only FE hack i could recommend is the dark amulet because the other you have already played lol
Obviously , Carrie and Eliza have boss kill convo with odin , Nello with aspira (More sadness Nellobro's) , Marylin with nestrix and Valkain with Onick.
Birgitta being weaken after the trashing she received the chapter earlier make sense but at least her build is custom made to kill Aster so its in character for her lol . Gleamstone is effective against her but it the gleamstone so lol
After all of this, thank you for finishing this romhack. It was a blast to see a gameplay.
Great Playthough, can't wait to see the next FE romhack you'll do next(or any other games). But for now, rest well.
Hey @thesiaoz, Four Kings and Call of the Burger King seems kinda nice romhack
1:18:03 F
In 45:51, that is a good unique conversation to these two characters. The characters that made a conversation with these enemies is very interesting. Overall, this is one of the best fire emblem hacks i have ever seen. Well done!
Does anyone recognize the name of this song on 45:51, it is a great theme song. It is not tmnt 2007 music.
@@jinchan9150It is entirely custom made percevalko?
kinda sad of how birgitta is way too weak…
Damn that was good.
So whats the next one?
TMNT 2007 GBA music!