Big Hill

Big Hill title
Big Hill, first screen

Story

The internet is full of stupidity. And one of the highest forms of it involves the art of “shipping”. Shipping, for the uninitiated, is where one imagines two characters in a romantic relationship, hence the term. And since Genealogy of the Holy War allows the player to freely pair off members of their army, it is a fertile breeding ground for the dreaded “shipping war”. Since in FE4 pairing characters gives tangible gameplay benefits, arguments about who should be paired are rampant. Some just care about if they make a cute couple, while others are more interested in gameplay benefits. The ideal pairings satisfy both of these.

At some point or another in 2018, two Fire Emblem Universe regulars participated in their usual squabble. For argument’s sake, let us call them Mario and Kaga. Mario believes that the second protagonist of FE4, Celice, should marry the healer, Lana. Kaga instead believes the swordswoman Lakche is his best match. The two had slipped references to each other’s ships in various rom hacks, culminating in the two going back and forth on who Celice ended up marrying in a let’s play of Corrupt Theocracy and somehow ending up with a hybrid between the two women. This angered someone, who punished the two shippers by sending them to the dreaded “Big Hill”.

Big Hill is in truth the third chapter of Mystery of the Emblem, Abducted Princess. It is best known for a long walk around a big hill, along with a drawbridge to cross. The stupidity of Machis is also an aggravating factor. To make matters worse, the chapter was in the Fire Emblem 1 engine! Could Mario and Kaga, along with various other FEU members, escape the Big Hill?

Information

Big Hill was my April Fools hack for 2018. Aside from the fact that it utilises the Fire Emblem 1 engine, there is little of particular note here. It is an accurate recreation of the layout of Fire Emblem 3, Chapter 3. The storyline consisted of a long-running in-joke between myself and MC, the writer of Void’s Blitzarre Adventure and fond of most of Shouzou Kaga’s works. We often made fun of our FE4 shipping preferences, but it was all in good fun. The Corrupt Theocracy incident mentioned was from an actual LP, where the hack was broken beyond any and all recognition. Sadly, it was never completed, due to the fact the game broke so badly and enough save files got lost that the hack never got past the Battle Before Dawn clone. I will link said LP here, though please refrain from bumping the thread.

Project Status

Big Hill was an April Fools Day hack. Upon the completion of Chapter 1, the final section of FE4 Chapter 1 loads, but the game crashes before gameplay can begin. All houses are also broken, and character names are completely unedited due to time restrictions. The chance FE4 Chapter 1 will be made function is near-zero.

Gallery

ANNA: "...they argued about ships. Mind you, shipping wars are dumb things."KAGA: "...FE3 Chapter 3. It seems that fight we had just warped us here."MARIO: "...Oh. Amazing. We're stranded in a candidate for the worst map of FE3."Combat, with MC wielding the FalchionThe stat screen, depicting Kaga's face in gameA status screen, showing Mario's sprite in game.A status screen, showing various circles as a portraitA status screen, showing a Black Mage from Final Fantasy 1

Downloads and Links

Latest release (1/4/18): Here

Fire Emblem Universe thread: Here