You Either LOVE 4 Kings Or You HATE It|| Romhack Recommendations/Reviews
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- čas přidán 8. 09. 2024
- 4 Kings by @krashboombang1898 is the hack I've gotten the most mixed responses on, and I think it really falls into the "Love It or Hate It" camp. While I have plenty to criticize about the final product, I firmly fall into the "love it" camp, and hope that this review can convince toms other people to check it out as well. If you are interested in playing it, you can download it here: feuniverse.us/...
In Romhack Recommendations, I talk about Romhacks I enjoyed, go over the features I enjoyed about them, and try to give a general review/recommendation as to what to expect if you choose to play them. Remember that all these hacks are made for free by members of the community who are passionate enough to spend tons of time working, so even if you personally do not like a specific hack, be kind in your criticism.
Having a cast full of people who hate each other and are dicks constantly sounds funny and enjoyable and might be the reason I try this out.
It does kind of feel like the writer doesn’t know how to write compelling character dynamics and so made them belligerent as a way to have them bond… in theory. The brothers really felt like they hadn’t even grown up together and it was astonishing how little they seemed to empathise with each other; they felt like bickering children, not even teenagers. And the other dynamics were… kind of flat from memory?
I never took Eva & Walter's relationship as Eva instantly falling in love with Walter in the early game , just as her hanging out with him because they're kinda similar and the least asshole-y to her among the main cast , which eventually developed into a romance
If you're looking for a distinctly opposite experience as a palate cleanser, I just finished Drums of War and absolutely adored it. I suspect it would contrast your opinions on 4K quite nicely, with fantastic writing and good queer rep, in exchange for gameplay that eh...it's generally fine. Occasionally good, rarely poor. Also a good contrast with 4K since it's super vanilla, basically just GBAFE plus Shove. But the writing is truly exceptional and outclasses not only every other hack I've played, but the majority of mainline games as well. From the FEU thread it does look like the creator is a novelist, and their experience with the craft definitely shows.
Oh I love that hack and yeah the story is amazing
Personally, I loved it more than I hated it so I'm in the love camp? 4K has a vast arrangement of characters with their quirky personalities that are incredibly memorable and that I still think about to this day like that Nomad with the sky shot bow. The maps were challenging towards the latter half but beating each one always made me feel very good. Of all the romHACKS I've played, it sits highly up there.
This was a great video. I fully admit that I'm in the dislike camp (for the gameplay reasons you listed primarily), so hearing an in-depth explanation for why someone might actually like the gameplay was insightful.
Should note that if anyone is interested in a game similar to this at least in terms of gameplay pacing, Drums of War might be worth a try. No skills and no str/mag split, meaning the mechanics are a fair bit closer to vanilla in some areas, but the writing is a *lot* better, probably tenfold better (Roxelana clears the siblings in every conceivable way especially), and its core gimmick is honestly pretty fun to work around if you don't mind how fast the game demands you play it.
I'm sorry that what I made was upsetting.
I really liked the gameplay, I think you're approach to map and unit design is close to peak, and this is definitely a game that I'm going to do multiple replays of. Regarding the representation stuff, I recognize your positive intentions, and hope that my feedback did not come off as a personal attack as that's not my intention, but rather a reaction from someone with a different lived experience than yours. There's no such thing as perfect art we can only strive to improve with each new work that we make, and I'm excited to play the prequel hack as well as any other future projects with you attached to them.
Nah its awesome. I would prefer if turn limit affect rating like mark ending result in blazing blade than complete fail. But it still great.
Don't quit your day job 😮
For a personal thought, on the Sky Shot bow specifically… was there a reason it was limited squarely to 4 spaces away? I’m not criticising, but I might have thought going for either 4-5 or 3-4 spaces away would have been a little more… I dunno, inventive? More flexible, without being a game breaker?
Please understand I’m not saying you were wrong to do what you did, I just couldn’t help thinking that stuff like that (the gimmick that most stuck out to me) would have seriously highlighted gameplay opportunities. That’s all I’m saying.
To Dani: even as someone not in the community, it struck me as odd how multiple enemy generals who were sympathetic characters ultimately could be recruited… except for the one LGBT+ one. Of course you’re not saving the most evil ones, but it really feels like a time capsule of a narrative choice.
And yeah, I forget the names (been a while since I checked this out), but you know who I mean.
For anyone wanting to play Four Kings, I would heavily advise you play the Normal mode rather than Hard, even though Hard was the intended difficulty.
Hard mode really expects you understand the game mechanics. Shelby is a good example, where him being a summoner lets you use his summons as bait, which feels integral to handling situations. If you didn’t have him trained before the route split, your experience will be much harder. There are so many moments where it felt like trial and error was needed. There’s a wyvern mountain chapter that basically requires the Skyshot, a four range bow. The wyverns move in positions where they can only be reasonably handled by Skyshot, and if I had used it too many times before the chapter, the weapon would have broke and I would have been left with no options.
Some of the personals are felt like odd choices. Marcie is a peg knight that has a lance that basically counters any mage that she fights, meanwhile Patty is a slow peg knight that has a lance that increases her def, but doesn’t help her tank hits due to her low spd, and her def cap on peg knight not helping her. Cindy is a bow armor knight, but her personal is a bow with 3 range and high accuracy, but why would a armor knight, who’s job is to tank hits, want a weapon to attack further? Wouldn’t it make sense for it to have Point Blank, which would help her enemy phase?
I found the mid game way too strict, and was expecting end game to be filled with siege tomes and ballista spam. Surprisingly, it was rather mild all things considered, which caught me off guard, but appreciated.
Overall, Four Kings isn’t bad, but this hack is way better once you know what to expect. Mid-game was personally too much for me to enjoy, but early and end game were fine. I’m surprised people had trouble with early game, because it wasn’t that terrible for me.
I played hard mode blind and didn't run into too many issues, but of course Your Milage May Vary. I definitely think mid game is the hardest part of the game but I found it's difficult to be extremely satisfying, rather than frustrating.
Cindy's personal bow is a 1-2 range weapon though? So it's exactly the thing you're asking for.
@@MegiDolaDyne I mixed up her personal with the Longbow, oops.
Interesting stuff here. Seems like the gameplay has some elements of FE6, most notably the really strong earlygame enemies and anti turtling incentives put into the maps, even if I'm not the biggest fan of FE6's design philosophy. And I like how diverse the selection of prfs are in this hack. Will defo give this a look into the future
A lot of the negatives with the dialogue sound like they'd be _funny_ to me, but I wouldn't know unless I could read the tone of course. Anyways, thanks for this interesting review, I'll keep it on my radar for sure.
I haven't played 4 kings yet but from the way you describe what you like and don't like about it I would highly recommend souls of the forest if it isn't already on your radar! It's some of the most fun I've had with any fire emblem game and cast in a while. It also has a really diverse cast who's representation seems to have been done a lot better than here! It is still being updated but there's a fully playable campaign with (imo) the best story I've seen in any hack!
Theres a prequel and a one shot sequel that you can play. I think KrashBoomBang is building a nice Four Kings universe that is unseen in the Romhack community.
You onow what you should play? Bandit emblem. Its a short but sweet (6 chapters) romhack where you play as a gang of early game brigands vs. The lords party.
Ij addition to your weak party members, you also get hordes of generics and other things i dont wamt to spoil. Its a genuinely great hack.
The only thing i meed to warn you on is the secret card in chapter 5, domt bother it literally does not do anything
It sounds like a very interesting idea, but probably too hardcore for me.
Funnily enough, I remembered the "everyone has a personal weapon" gimmick but forgot which hack it was from, it was something I was thinking of borrowing for a potential FE Hack idea but probably wouldn't go through with.
Yet another romhack to add to the list.
Thank you for the recommendation, I was looking for a romhack to play since I had just finished another hack (Host of the Dark) recently. I give this one a shot and see if I like it or not.
You sold me. Ill definitely try this
I dropped this hack during the prison chapter. I tried to block off the reinforcements but they all just flooded to the nearest available space. That was the final straw for me since I was already turned off by its style of difficulty.
I started out liking it but then when every enemy had tomahawks Short Spears and win swords. I had to cut it off. It just got annoying at some point. For me it felt like oh I can't make a good nap design so I'm just going to give everyone one two range and call it a day. A lot of the Maps became very tedious since you had to approach the enemy then the enemy could get retreat and hit 2 range then rince repeat. Also in a lot of cases the weapon made the character so once their weapon disappears then they were essentially pretty useless more some than others. But I will say one thing. I like the route split that made you use two two different teams without having to bench anyone.
I’m definitely going to check this out the personal weapons seem super cool
So, I've been playing 4 Kings recently because I was watching Mekkah playing it on stream and it looked fun. I'm only at the route split right now, but I've been having quite a good time. In... relatively mild... defense of things like the joke about the peeping tom, I did feel like the joke was, at least in some ways, supposed to be at his expense more than anything else, because of how he goes "Wait, why are you looking at me like that?" right after he says his creepy line. It came across as more "look at this absolute _scumbag,_ he's so awful, let's laugh at his worldview" than anything else to me. I suspect that was the intent, as well. That said, the fact that it comes off worse to... well, to people who have more actual experience with that sort of asshole than a cis man like me, is pretty obviously not great.
Also, at least with the early bandit chapters (can't speak to the late one yet), the whole point of "oh crap, maybe we really _are_ neglectful" felt like a poignant one to make right after the rebellion in the village. So there's some interesting things going on there thematically. I can't really argue that they could have been better written, though, and I hope Krash touches up the script at some point, because I think there's a lot of real potential there.
Anyway, this was really well laid out. Subscribed.
The end of this video does raise a question. Is it better to have bad representation, or no representation at all?
Representation like this usually stops me from having a good time and is one of the reasons I'll probably never touch this rom (another is that I prefer games where iron manning is intended).
Respect that the creator tried tho!
Oh i played it one too, on hard no less. Maybe it was bad decision... (not a fire emblem veteran at all). Oh well.
I had great fun and regardless and i loved the personal weapons (except justice pike, Ron felt so bad to me its not even funny). This made even seemingly similar unit (like Marcie and Patty) very different. In fact despite me having bulky Shane in middle game (weird, i know) he still did very different things than Bradley who was very slow and strong, so his 2-3 ranged spear was very useful. The only unit whose purpose didnt get was Zachary, but to be honest he is built as a chip dealing unit so... well use him to train others (especially since he is clearly Jagen-type unit, he doesnt need training until late game).
I also really liked how enemies had creative tactics (boltings, berserk staffs) and how reinforcements were telegraphed well but sadly in late-game this changed into brave weapon spam which just felt very lame. The other hack i played (Call of the Armor) did enemy difficulty in other, more interesting ways.
There was also one particularly annoying map - the one with wyvern hunting where you fight Ian. Too many Wyverns. Too many. TOO MANY! i counted like 40! You do have archers, yes and also one of your fliers have weapon effective against fliers but it was simply too annoying as i had to turtle the most i could every turtle in history of turtles due to this and it was boring and frustraing instead of fun. In fact it felt like antithesis of the games philisophy of "better move quickly" as theres almost always time limit. No, not on this one. There is no time limit whatsoever but in a worst way...
Oh, i also liked the story, especially dynamic beetween main duo, but i dont wanna spoil anything. Yes, they are pricks to each other to say at least but it's because they are brothers and siblings often do thatto each other, especially in teen - early 20's which they seem to be in. However it gets clearly obvious that Walter realises he shouldnt be so cocky and when he stops being Cocky McCockson that he is pretty likeable in the long run (it is one of two reasons why Ava seems to like him even at the start. The other reason is that he happens to not be a bandit and also her former bandit "friends" are big pricks). In fact Walter genuinely seems to care about ava and often spends time with her even when he doesnt have to. Plus they have way better dynamic than Lionel and his closest non-family friend Zachary.
However i have no defence for "overly loyal people" like Ian and Dante. It just felt forced... Who acts like that in real life??? In fact Dante is clearly "meme" character since his other companion is Virgil. Har Har DMC reverence.
Regarding third section, I honestly had no clue Harriet is a trans person, I just thought Harriet is female merchant (then again i had little to no supports of Harriet and ones i got were related to Harriet being... well a pirate-hunting merchant).
The peeping tom joke also was simply kinda funny to me since it is clear that his comment gets condemned by... well whoever happens to enter his house. Plus hey, it ties to the lore - as the region where he lives is famous for pegasi knight training regiments, so clearly theres lots of them.
As for bug guy... i just thought he enjoys bugs and is very patriotic that's all.
Sounds like fun game gonna play it myself
I like how articulate your feelings are, both in gameplay and writing. From your descriptions, it definitely sounds like a work where I'd gather a similar holistic experience to yours (appreciating the gameplay while grinding teeth at the plot), but the issues with diversity and relationship/social standards portrayal sound like a potential deal breaker for me. I agree on your message to the romhack creator as well, but I don't think I'd have the patience to convey the issues as gently as you did.
Regardless, I really enjoyed your essay! Kudos, Dani.
I’m a Four Kings defender, units are generally unique with their prfs, the large maps focused on status and endurance, and a generally fun story. I always have a fun time playing the hack
I remember playing this hack years ago like before the mid map saves. I hated it. Got to the route split with the map where you get a sniper and sage and just stopped having fun. Silver weapons in chapter 3 is evil. Glad others can enjoy it tho.
Weird coincidence that I watched a review of it yesterday
Huh that's really funny. Who else made a 4K review?
@@DaniDoyle Xetetic did it, it is decently old though (3 years ago) and if I am not wrong he played without savepoints due to that. It is called "Fire Emblem: The Four Kings | Romhack Review"
seems like you use music from every game I played as a kid lol
Do I hear Age of Mythology music?
Yes
The only thing I liked about this hack was the music and you didn't even bring that up once, lol.
Honestly the music gave me a headache so I played with it off
Very questionable gameplay decisions. GTFO reinforcements in every map sounds exhausting and unfun. Low hit rates could just be fixed by... simply giving more Skill to playable characters instead of relying on band aids like save points and buyable stat boosters? And silver weapons on chapter 3 enemies is dumb unless you're not supposed to fight them (like in an escape map). Honestly not a hack I would like to play, from the sounds of it.
Harriet got me simping a little ngl, what's her personal do
effective damage vs axe uses (like bandits etc)
YO AND SHES TRANS TOO
REPRESENT GIRL
Enemy units with Silver weapons in chapter 3? Massive groups of reinforcements but the dev still feels the need to overly buff them as well? balancing is difficult i suppose
I had fun playing the game haven't finished yet though and the story seems decent