The Four Kings - Endgame

[@krashboombang1898]

Thanks for playing! Hope you enjoyed. There is also a postgame, with 7 trial maps showcasing side characters in different story scenarios. These play much more like self-contained puzzles, but I get not wanting to record them. There is also a prequel, Deposition, focusing on Daltry before the events of the main game.

[@bobbyasaka]

This hack is the #1 example of why I think it’s important to know what you want out of the hack experience before choosing a hack to try. It knows exactly what it wants to be and succeeds stellarly at being that, even if it means sacrificing some other aspects of the hack, so a person’s enjoyment of it generally depends on how well that vision meshes with the individual player’s preferences. The route split, for example, seems pretty clearly designed to goad the player into familiarizing themselves with every unit. Understanding what everyone does gameplaywise is key to getting past the unforgiving midgame, and then come lategame you already know what everyone does because you wouldn't have passed the midgame otherwise, so it’s easy to pick your favorites and approach the rest of the game your own way. It's a very effective setup, and it creates a vibe that few hacks can replicate. But this also comes at the cost of feeling “forced” to use units you don’t like to a much greater extent than most hacks (I felt like Cielo was basically a requirement for some sections of the game, which made certain parts really unfun when I hated him), or some confusing story decisions like Daltry never getting to interact with Walter, which makes little sense when Walter embodies all of Daltry’s issues with the royalty’s mismanagement of Askia. Many of the hack’s decisions felt like this for me, where they were tuned around maintaining a clear identity at the cost of other things, and as a result I have just as many issues with the hack as I do points of praise. I think most hacks are distinct in the areas that they succeed and fail, and it’s especially drastic with Four Kings in a way that few hacks match. I’m really not the target audience of this one, but there are definitely some things it gets uniquely right, and some things it fumbles or sacrifices on its way to achieving its vision.

[@A_Person_64]

Hi, I wanted to ask if you know of any other games that heavily entwine their story/gameplay in ways similar to how FE does (bonus points if it allows you to tell your own similar) Off the top of my head rn, I can think of 2 such as Journeys (short and more immersive) and Psychonauts (longer and less immersive, but a lot more story throug gameplay), but I want to find more since I like studying stuff like this.

[@bobbyasaka]

Hmm, that's kind of a tough question. LISA and its fangames are the first thing that comes to mind for me, in part because they were a big influence on how I perceive games today. Two of the prominent fangames (Pointless and Hopeful) are just as good if not better than the original, but I think they all have different writing strengths, with the OG being the best at creating a FE-like storygen vibe thanks to its big cast. There's stuff like Rimworld and Death Road to Canada but that's more or less pure storygen rather than having a structured story to follow. I haven't tried them myself but I've heard XCOM, Dwarf Fortress, and Etrian Odyssey be described similarly

[@A_Person_64]

@@bobbyasaka interesting how these are all turn based, RPGs and/or strategy games, but I guess the genres lend themselves more to it compared to action, platformers, racing, shooters (I guess Spec Ops counts?) and etc. Of those 3 games, I can say that Dwarf Fortress is like Rimworld and DRTC in that it's much more emergent narrative based whereas XCOM units are similar to generic units like in Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, Disgaea, etc (I think the spin off Chroma something? is more like FE with actual characters). Etrian Odyssey I don't have much experience with, but I've never heard anything about its story or characters (I thought they were generic characters too?) Funny enough, Kaga shared his current playlist of games which include horse racing games (what inspired FE4 gen 2), the aforementioned Rimworld, Oxygen not included another cast based survival sim) and strategy games like Age of Empires 2, Hearts of iron 4 and Endless Space 2. It shows in Vestaria Saga (too much at times) with how maps play out (storming a fort in FE is just a seize gate chapter whereas in VS1/2 you have to actively dismantle various parts of the fort with events; exhausting, but very intricate) or how character events actively happen on the map all campaign (it can lead to some annoying deployment situations though with how many female units get kidnapped [I wish he'd stop this], compared to Berwick Saga). Ogre Battle on the SNES actually has some these elements too. There are about 12+ endings based on different things that occur throughout the campaign, there are a lot of events that can occur which alter your armies reputation or a team/character's alignment or charisma (overgrinding on weak enemies causes you to look like a thug bullying the weak and lowers your charisma, forgiving a sorceress for turning a region into her own personal lab will drop your army rep tremendously and you can give the holy sword of goodness to the evil demon boss instead of killing him and he'll actually join you for the rest of the game and nothing bad will definitely happen at all 🙃) and even though its a mix of mostly generics and about 20ish unique characters, there are battle quotes for characters who know each other. The Neo Geo prequel is a smaller scale while the N64 sequel sadly has less emergent narratives/them mattering as much, but its story is better in comparison (it goes with branching levels where your response in cutscenes determine units you get or bosses you fight at times).

[@nicolamorena4623]

For Shaun's 2nd prf there was a conversation with Gideon during the army reunion. The 2nd prf is a brave magic sword which is good considering Shaun magic growth

[@PhenomBuster13]

This looks like a pretty solid hack. I like the core idea behind it, and I like it's approach of letting players basically use whoever they want via the route split before really forcing you to bench people. Story wise... NGL, the story here feels like a bit of an afterthought. It's not terrible, but the characters aren't really anything special or anything we haven't seen before, the arcs are predictable, and the ending is... weird. Teodros comes back from the dead, and then we restore his sanity, and everything works out because of that, when the villain's main motivation is being unable to let go of the past? But then we have a famous figure from the past come back to make everything work out? Dumb, that. Overall, this is a hack I would try, even if I'm not terribly impressed with the writing.

[@bellduke6417]

“What’s the great quote from your final boss four kings?” “Rrgh… Hngh… Grrah”

[@ryanprjgamingchannel9437]

Well, can't believe the final boss is a boss that also runs away from your units. Huh.

[@BR-dj1bo]

Congratulations on beating Four King! Here's to the next LP!

[@steel19812]

When Emily got promoted, her hair grew.

[@NIDOKING]

Grats on another finished hackrom! Let's see what's next~

[@chrosairs7057]

57:55 They were also granted inmortality. 59:50 Nicole being Nicole. 1:00:17 Teodros still become the strongest country in the continent. 4 kings beaten! It was really fun

[@uncreativename1236]

congrats on the clear! for a potential future hack to play, I’ve been having a good time with The Morrow’s Golden Country myself unit design is generally nice and the fixed growths mode is fun

[@alejandro_rodriguez_99]

I suggest this one too

[@A_Person_64]

School started again, so I won't be here as much :/ Four Kings reminds me of Advance Wars 1 with it's puzzle-oriented design. This is both good (you can see the author's intent more clearly) and bad (feelings of being railroaded, enemies with high crit on 1-2 range weapons, etc.), but never to the point of Advance Campaign levels (Kanbei's error...Rivals...). The army splitting is similar to both TearRing Saga and Vestaria Saga as well. iirc, the creator of SP said that 4K is what got him into FE romhacking and I can see some parallels between the two Storywise, it has completed support chains, which were not as commonplace until recently. I honestly don't like either Lord, Ava, or most of the characters (Zachary was fine), but I appreciate the creator for expanding on the world and various members of the cast (who aren't the main characters) with things such as the postgame trial maps, a prequel mini-campaign staring Daltry (4K Deposition), and two ROMhacking contest entrees (The Lady and the Princess + Ruins of Lost Ambition). It's something I'd like to see an actual FE game do (the closest we got were the DLC chapters for FE12, the children's DLC for Awakening/Fates, and Rise of the Deliverance for FE15). Funny enough, the expanding of the 4K universe and wanting to see more things do that brings to mind Code of the Black Knights. The story/characters were hit or miss, but the gameplay mechanics it used to enhance its storytelling were cool (when the events weren't breaking) and would like to see an official game or at least more ROMhacks do. Aesthetically, it looks fine and settles on using vanilla tilesets and a couple of splices/F2U portraits, but has a unique character screen background. The music is hit or miss for some people, but I like it. Shackled Power made me appreciate ROMhack identity, whether it be gameplay, writing, artstyle, or (especially) soundtrack. The title screen theme is from F-Zero Maximum Velocity's menu theme, and one of the earlier enemy phase themes is Stark Farm, from the same game. However, a lot of tracks are taken from the Sonic Advance series (or Pinball Party; I don't know if there's any from Sonic Battle), and like Shackled Power with the TMNT 2007 GBA soundtrack, it gives the game its own identity since there's certain sound effects that ALL the GBA Sonic games use in their tracks (keeping the Genesis twang alive, I guess). If you want some recommendations * Drums of War has strong main character/worldbuilding writing and has a unique mechanic of either recruiting bosses or ransoming them for gold. * Eligor's Spear is VERY challenging (it's up there with FE12 and Conquest), but intentionally so (like I said earlier, you can see the author's intent more in the gradual difficulty spikes instead of it just being random or amateurish), and the story isn't really focused on a war between countries. * Bells of Byelen takes inspiration from Thracia 776 (I'm not sure if you played it before) and has interludes where you can recruit a couple of units out of a group of them at various points in the game. * Dark Amulet is a recent one I've been hearing about having a good story. It has FE10-styled "drop-in, drop-out" characters who cause game overs if the die so YMMV. * Call of the Armor and its much shorter sequel Tales of Kotor are much more vanilla in design compared to everything else mentioned beforehand. Tales of Kotor is styled after Elibian Nights, where you choose which tale (chapter) you want to play and then complete the objective/bonus achievement with that tale's cast of characters.

[@MorphBall1]

I heard Eligor's Spear was made with save states in mind. I never played it but I would be interested in seeing how siaoz would manage.

[@Vrindlevine]

I'm hoping for Drums of War next :)

[@A_Person_64]

Same

[@nerothewateruser8030]

Honestly, I too completely forgot that they got those waystones and kinda didn't give them back. Hooray for magic cell phones/instant delivery devices :D Nice of them to have a new legendary tome animation instead of just Forblaze/Giga Excalibur/Ivaldi for the 34,420th time in a row. Variety is nice ^^ Theodros was sane for like, 3 minutes and then just immediately zeroed in on his descendent's boyf. And neither of them sputtered or anything, they just got husband-ed/wifed on the spot and took it in stride. They were waiting for the perfect moment and took it, it seems A persistent question of mine is how much older Terril is compared to his brothers. Lionel is somewhere around early twenties, at least, but it doesn't really say anything about Terril or Walter. Like come on, the former looks old enough to be their father... Huh. Interesting 👀

[@jasserescorcia4357]

Timestamps 00:00 of course 01:19 Chapter preparations 13:50 Chapter starts 14:44 Chapter actually starts 53:09 Final Boss Fight 56:29 Ending

[@bubblebeampiplup8132]

“Why are all of these guys helping the man, he’s gone- oh, they’re constructs.” “WHY WOULD THOSE TWO GREEN UNITS OPEN THE GATE, DO THEY NOT SEE THAT INSANE MAN COMING THEIR WAY?!” Sidenote, methinks why the final boss is weak like that is either A. He can’t control his new powers, hence why he’s weak, and B. Since he starts so far way and blocked off, and he’s mobile too, might as well make him weak in some way. Its not like someone will 1 turn him right…Right?

[@krashboombang1898]

The whole concept here was "final map where the challenge is in catching the boss." He's not super hard to kill, but you have to move fast before he escapes. Thought it would be a cool idea, and I'm happy with it.

[@bubblebeampiplup8132]

⁠@@krashboombang1898 Yeah honestly, same here. I actually dont like how most hacks go for the “defeat final boss within X turns” cause it’s been overused, but here it works so well that I have to give the devs kudos for it. Edit: realizing this right when I pressed send: you’re the dev aren’t you? Now I feel silly typing all that like I was responding to any netizen. -Also, I managed to forget that there wasn’t a turn limit. el oh el- Well, my point still stands: kudos for making this final battle actually interesting. Sidenote too, playing Berwick, I have a soft spot for final bosses that are easy to beat but hard to reach, and I saw what you were going for, and hey, if you’re happy with it, I’m not one to judge in the end. -Admittedly my headcanon still is that he’s weak on purpose because the power’s too much for him-

[@marcosleong4613]

1 turn is possible if you have 100% growths on regis and jeremy.

[@A_Person_64]

@@bubblebeampiplup8132 FE4 is one of my favorite endgames since it plays like a multi seize map instead of defeat boss and has set formations to overcome (the status stave magic users at the start, the wall of barons by freege, the true final bosses of the game, the pegasi trio, the sidequest with getting SSJ Julia and finally the deadlords) Berwick Saga's endgame is insane (and then you look at Vestaria Saga 1 and see Kaga's been playing Tower of Druaga).

[@steel19812]

Endgame time! Lets go!

[@zenfreak7241]

Dream of Five up next?

[@flohogamer]

Ahh, another wonderful playthrough finished. For your next hack, I'd recommend Code of the Burger King (meme-based hack with surprisingly good gameplay) or Darius the Conqueror (dark, but well-written story and characters).

[@cattonorio]

Congrats! Try TMGC next

[@IAARPOTI]

Omg you didn't say siscon but yeah same. I don't like the same ending with Zoe and Vin.

[@ladyriethegoldendelmo5441]

Hey mate do u want to try Fire Emblem: Darius the Conqueror hack next?

[@MorphBall1]

Silly final chapter, didn't feel like one at all tbh. Gameplay was fine, though the units felt more like walking prfs than whatever their respective class was. Story was meh, felt like it was just there as an excuse to have some gameplay. At least it kept dialogue to a minimum instead of going on and on about how deep the power of friendship is. Main Characters were honestly pretty cringe. Ava was a mary sue, Walter was a simp, Lionel was a crybaby... at least Zachary was alright I guess. I liked the secondary characters more, the mage quartet was fun and Zoe and Vin were cringe in a funny way. Despite Vin's prf being broken af he was still my favorite thing in this hack. Watching him dodge everything was just so funny, he became a FE romhack icon to me.

[@AverageParfaitCookieEnjoyer]

My recommendation still stands, andaron saga What I said about it in my previous comment if you didn’t see it: In the game, supports actually give you useful stuff (for example a mage named shom gives a archer named runa a fire tome and runa learns anima magic when they reach b support Each chapter has 1 in 50 chance for a "secret event" to happen, for example in ch. 13 (which is a prison break chapter) the secret event is a character named crixus will show up in a cell and can be recruited If you want to play through all chapters, choose lunatic mode, as the last chapter (23x) requires a secret objective to completed in every chapter (they're called secret lunatic objectives if i remember) the secret lunatic objective for chapter 1 is to visit every house, for chapter 2, a swordmaster named Cassandra appears in the top left corner of the map, the secret lunatic objective is to talk to her Along with 23x you need certain requirements for chapter 23, but to avoid some spoilers I'll say them if you actually play andaron saga And the boss of chapter 1 is recruitable in chapter 10, in chapter 1, there's a mymidon named thea and a thief named Colter you get on turn 2 engage both of them in combat with the boss and keep all 3 of them alive, if you did it right a small converasation between colter and the boss will appear, thats how you know you will get him I’m looking forward for the next hack you play