Fire Emblem - Staff of Ages ROM

Nearly two millennia ago, humans came to exist in a dark world shrouded in mist. For a brief period of human history, all was well. This peace would soon be broken; dark creatures emerged from the Black Mists, running rampant and terrorizing humanity. Unable to combat the emerging threat, humans called upon the heavens in desperation, only to be returned with silence. The being that had placed them upon this earth would not respond to their cries of agony, and humanity quickly learned they had been forsaken.

With their backs to the wall and forces of darkness encroaching ever closer, the peoples took matters into their own hands. These desperate times drove humanity to desperate measures; steel weapons were forged from human dread and desperation. But these weapons were not enough; greater power was needed, more than a simple forge could produce. A commanding sage named Velhari turned to the arcane arts and, through further tribulations, created a flaming staff of overwhelming power.

With the weapon complete, all of humanity rallied together in a final offensive for survival; Velhari plunged the staff into the dirt. Light arced through the land, shining pillars bursting forth throughout the corners of earth, and the fruits of man’s desperation rang true. The beasts from the dark turned to cinders, and the Black Mists were sealed away, leaving a bright new world in humanity’s fingertips.

The world would remember its heroine, Velhari, and name the continent in her honor. Her legendary weapon would be forever immortalized at the center of a great city and was dubbed: The Staff of Ages. Free from the Black Mists’ oppression, the peoples of the newly founded continent spread to its corners. The kingdom of Fortuita, located at the continent’s heart, tamed pegasi and rode into the skies.

Arynden, a nation to the west, created a name for itself by mastering steel and magic. To the East, the merchant nation of Riviere and its duchy, Persici, grew strong through trade, and between Fortuita and Persici, the tribal “nation” of Gahum formed. To the north, the isolationist nation of Toska rose. And to the south, explorers trekked through dangerous swamps to found Ezpatha. As time marched on, the continent’s nations grew lax and careless.

Countless years after humanity’s struggle, the Aryndese King Oberon, began attacking Fortuitum villages under the guise of border disputes; these militant actions were the first to be seen in a millennia. In hopes of avoiding any sort of conflict, Fortuitan Queen Kalvesta drew back her nation. Nevertheless, Arynden continued its assaults, with the queen doing little to retaliate. Now, the Fortuitan-Arynden border is at a standstill…

Features

• As we showed off in our FEE3 presentation, Chapter 1-4 – Revolution has received a huge overhaul, complete with a new map, a new and better story, and some foreshadowing bits that make future story beats more cohesive. It isn’t an uber-mega difficult map, as it is only Chapter 1-4, but it should be a bit more interesting to go through than old 1-4.
• Most units have had their personal skill overhauled, in part to increase balance of personal skill power across the board and make units more interesting to pick up and play with. Class skills, especially so for promoted classes, have also been overhauled for the same reason.
• We’ve added quite a few new palettes to units’ promoted class options. We’re not done implementing all of them yet, but we’ll have a patch come down the pipeline as soon as we get our hands on the Team SALVAGED Paladin animation, complete with all promoted character palettes and the new paladin animation.
• Chapter 1-F – Crown of Thorns has, as MarkyJoe might say, been cut in three. This should make the chapter less tedious for being only the equivalent of Chapter 12. It isn’t the definitive ending of the game anymore, and doesn’t deserve to be as big of a labyrinth as it once was. The rewards you gather should more or less be the same, however.
• In an effort to make infantry classes a more viable option in comparison to fliers and cavalry, we’ve increased their power by increasing their promotion gains across the board, alongside granting them new infantry-only weapons: the Pike and Broadsword. These work similarly to the Shamshir in that they’re locked to a certain class tree (the Soldier family and Mercenary family respectively). We’ve also buffed Shamshir up to the standard of these new weapons and locked the Longbow family of bows and all siege magic to infantry classes as well.
• Alusq has composed some new music tracks, which you can find scattered around the game.
• Finally, we’ve added a new class to the game: the Nephalim line! This character class is a mage mounted on a pegasus. In their base form, Nephalim can only use Anima magic, but the class does have two promotion options that extend their magical capabilities: Harrier (which you may remember from Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia) can use Anima and Dark, whereas Deva uses Anima and Light. Julia is now a Nephalim at base, and is the only Nephalim you can recruit in the available maps in this build.

Known Bugs

• Palettes aren’t all in
• HP bars/warnings can’t be disabled
• Warning icons may or may not show up
• Nephalim bases are currently a bit overtuned