Greetings, salutations even! I know this is a tough time of year for many of us, and all I ask is that you all make this the best week you possibly can. If the holidays are a struggle, take time to care for yourself if you can. Hang out with friends, do the things you love, find that sweet gender euphoria, follow what makes you truly happy. Oh, and continue to be yourselves :). Alright everybody, get ready for the largest mega I’ve ever written (I think).

Welcome to the TMGC mega! I have been hyping this up, probably for months now, and it’s my time to deliver on what might be the one of the best Fire Emblem experiences of all time. Buckle up, because this is going to be a long one. Most of the post will have light to no spoilers, but some parts may have a moderate amount of spoilers. With that out of the way, let’s find out what this game has to offer.

What is Fire Emblem? (no spoilers)

Fire Emblem is a strategy role-playing game series where you move your units to fight enemy units on a grid. The simplest way to think about it is like chess, where you have a large team of units fighting another large team of units, while your units are more like characters in that they have personalities. In most entries, these units are also able to have conversations with each other, providing more detail to the characters or the story, while also making the supported characters stronger. The games take place in a medical fantasy setting, with swords, axes, lances, different magics, and staves, with creatures like horses, pegasi, and wyverns.

What is Fire Emblem: The Morrow’s Golden Country (TMGC)? (no spoilers)

TMGC is a romhack of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. It has it’s own story, characters, maps, mechanics, and for all intents and purposes, it’s a whole game built in the engine of Sacred Stones.

Story Outline and Characters (light spoilers)

TMGC features Blair as the protagonist. As a young lesbian lord from the Aercolyn territory within the Dalstinian Alliance, the game follows her around the continent and throughout the many nations. At first, the game features a pretty standard Fire Emblem plot, where one of the nations declares war on a couple of the others, which kicks the story into action. However, it evolves greatly beyond that point, with political drama, suspense, mystery, conspiracy, and so much more that make the story stand out. Of course, I also find the story to be very well written, especially when compared to many other Fire Emblem games. Along for the ride with Blair is Arin, her closest friend and self-taught tactician/advisor. They will also meet and recruit many of their friends and allies, both ones that existed before and during when the story takes place.

A little more on the story (moderate spoilers)

What exactly makes the story of TMGC compelling? Well, it’s the depth. The story involved Blair doing a lot to earn the approval of others, which often has her doing some very ethically questionable things. The plight of the commoner is shown in this game, with entire places on the continent being uninhabitable, yet having poverty-stricken inhabitants. Banditry runs rampant, and yet nobody has attempted to reach out to the struggling masses. The society is still feudal, most of the nations are either ruled by kings or lords. The class divide, that between noble and commoner, is very noticeable, and while it is not explicitly addressed like in some other entries, TMGC makes heavy use of “show don’t tell” with these kind of things. The many aspects of war are also shown, among those who do fight for their country. Mevion, the one country that managed to overthrow it’s king in a revolution, has a lot of revolutionaries who now live mundane lives due to being alienated by a revolutionary movement that was corrupted by opportunists are we still playing Fire Emblem? These people, along with the soldiers/knights of other nations, serve their countries or the people of them, and face the reality that what they fight for is not what they first thought. There are multiple characters that serve their lords and their country, but there are just as many deserters, those dissatisfied with how their lives ended up. There’s also political manipulation. Something happens that should lead to certain people taking power, but through political manipulation puppets are put in place. Countries are occupied by invading forces, and the results of that are felt. The frustrations of working within a political system is felt, as characters try again and again only to realize that it’s never going to work. That the only option when a political entity is inherently corrupt is to fight it.

Characters and Queer Representation (light spoilers, moderate character spoilers)

First of all, the characters in this game are all pretty great, there’s a lot of them, and their supports are written well. The game also lists pronouns for all of the characters in-game as well. Nice touch.

Apollo is a trans man. It’s not revealed that he is at first sight. He’s a man, lives as such, and doing none of his supports leave it at that. However, as his supports are triggered, he gets into more and more of his past. A support chain with the Archbishop reveals that he was rejected, and may have been kicked out by, his parents. A support chain with another trans enby character has them recognizing their similarities, even if they transitioned to different genders. It was good to see a trans character in the game, and while I have not seen all of the supports, I would hope that some of the others manage to go into this as well. To get the lore on this, as far as I know, make sure to do the support chain with Apollo and Vladimir.

There’s also many non-binary characters, including a protagonist character (Viridian) that gets their own arc of the story! Not to mention that sooooooo many of the characters are gay, bi, or pan it’s amazing. I could go over all of them, but I don’t actually know all of them! So, I need to go over a special example. TMGC’s poly characters. Heavy character spoilers, of course.

There’s also everyone’s favorite genderfluid (maybe) enby (maybe) possibly agender (maybe) assassin with a heart Olson. She goes by she/they/he pronouns. I have not seen much to this character, I’ve just gotten them, but his introduction already has her requesting a great title, and they’re a really good unit in combat (100% crit rates and a skill that insta-kills on crit). All hair the Ser Duke-Duchess o7

If Blair gets a B+ support, and crucially does not A support, five of the other women, they all get married at the end and start a polycule. I do not know exactly how the ending goes, I messed up the support chains, but I do know who the people are. Arin, Natasia, Avan, Yuyu, and Estelle. For the poly ending, Blair can only support these five people, which will make more sense once I go over game mechanics. This might be the most queer fire emblem of all time.

Mechanics (no spoilers)

On the topic of supports, each character can only have up to five supports. I’m guessing this is due to hardware limitations, and this is fine for many characters. However, for characters like Blair or Arin, supports have to be done more carefully, considering whether or not you like a character enough to go through a support chain, or even going through another playthrough to see all of the supports. These supports increase stats between the characters, just like in normal FE, but they can also allow for other things, such as class promotions or new weapon proficiency. These can be game changing, with some characters gaining classes that make them the best characters in the game, to once mediocre characters gaining a weapon proficiency that makes them stand out. This not only makes supports more rewarding, but allows for more replayability, with more builds available to the player. TMGC also takes features from other Fire Emblem games in an attempt to create a definitive experience. While the GBA games are great aesthetically and aged really well, they were lacking in some aspects that later games would innovate on. For example, Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn make use of a Base Area that the player can use to go over supports and buy items and such. TMGC adds this, also changing supports to be story-based rather than combat-based a lot of the time. This means that characters don’t have to be fielded to go through their supports (most of the time). Considering how many characters are in this game, it’s a really helpful inclusion. TMGC also adds the save points that were in the DS games. This means a mistake doesn’t necessarily equal a reset, and it’s great for quality of life, especially considering how big some of these maps can get. Of course, it’s a double-edged sword. Not saving can leave you losing a lot of progress, and saving in a bad spot means you either have to either reset the whole level, or continue on without certain characters. Yes, this game has permadeath and only permadeath, there is no casual mode. However, there are also SOOOOOO many characters. Losing a few characters won’t be the end of the world gameplay-wise (I’m still a perfectionist for supports and story, although R.I.P. Butch, there goes My Hero), and you won’t likely find yourself unable to complete the game. TMGC adds personal skills as well, something that was featured in certain entries of the series, removed for the GBA games, and the added again for the following entries. These really make each individual character stand out. For example, you can have a normal mercenary, or you can have a mercenary with a hit chance skill, who can level up high stats except for skill. The game likes to do this a lot, and it allows for certain units to be strong while posing some sort of challenge. There are of course alternatives to these units, I don’t have to use Gaylord if I don’t want to (yes there’s a character named Gaylord, yes he’s really good, and yes, he’s straight). Something really interesting about certain skills is that they become combat arts. For a certain amount of weapon durability, skills like Luna (ignore defense/resistance) and Sol (heal HP in damage dealt) can be triggered manually on the player’s turn, rather than having a chance of activating during an attack. This can allow for many interesting strategies. There’s one boss that has really high resistance, defense, and legendary tome when most of the characters aren’t even promoted. However, Kenneth (a dark mage) has the Luna skill, which I can manually activate to come up with a plan to kill the unkillable. As a reward, I received a gem I could sell for 30,000 gold (that’s a lot). This also ends a defend map early, meaning it could be easier to keep certain weaker units safe. Back to the Tellius games (Path of Radiance & Radiant Dawn), TMGC adds movement skills! Characters can shove, smite, reposition, swap, etc. with other characters. This allows for great strategies, and I’ve found myself utilizing shove in order to push a certain unit into position a lot. It’s quite fun, and going back to the vanilla games is always a shock when I find that I cannot, in fact, push my units around for extra movement.

There’s also a lot of new classes, spells, weapons, animations and so much more!

I’m realizing that I’m treading a lot of the same ground as I did in my last post, and I’m trying to think about what else to write. The thing is, I don’t know what else to say. I don’t want to spoil the game for you wonderful people! So, you’re going to have to play this for yourself, especially those of you familiar with Fire Emblem.

For those of you unfamiliar with Fire Emblem, this might be difficult to pick up. If you’re willing to figure things out, or DM me for help (seriously, I’m willing to, don’t be shy :)), go right ahead! It’s a great game. However, there are definitely better games to help you get into Fire Emblem as a series. I would recommend Fire Emblem: Three Houses for the Nintendo Switch, or Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia for the 3DS. These games both go over basic Fire Emblem mechanics, while having some of the things TMGC takes inspiration from. Both games make use of combat arts, for example. They are also both really good games, and I would consider Shadows of Valentia to be one of my favorite Fire Emblem games, especially in it’s presentation. And yes, if I do a Fire Emblem mega next time, it’s going to be a Shadows of Valentia mega. Those who saw the last time I hosted the megathread are sure to recognize the characters :)

If you want to play Fire Emblem: The Morrow’s Golden Country, you’ll need a GameBoy Advance emulator (I use MGBA) as well as a copy of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (shouldn't be hard to find). From there, download the patch (sorry for google link, the patch is regularly updated) and apply it to the Sacred Stones rom using RomPatcher. From there, you have a functioning TMGC rom and are ready to play.

I think that’s going to be all from me today. Again, I hope the holidays go well for all of you. I know this is a tough time of year, and I wish you all the best of luck. I also encourage you to keep up the posting in both the mega and tracha. I’ll likely spend some time in tracha myself, and who knows, maybe we can even talk about Fire Emblem. Don’t suffer in silence, feel free to vent frustrations. Love you all, let’s have a great week!

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Join our public Matrix server! https://matrix.to/#/#tracha:chapo.chat

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As a reminder, please do not discuss current struggle sessions in the mega. We want this to be a little oasis for all of us and the best way to do that is not to feed into existing conflict on the site.

Also, be sure to properly give content warnings and put sensitive subjects behind proper spoiler tags. It's for the mental health of not just your comrades, but yourself as well.

Here is a screenshot of where to find the spoiler button.

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I love this track so much, it manages to set the mood for the dungeon it plays in perfectly. I hope you all enjoy it too! It almost brought me to tears while I was listening to it before.

So, the story behind this. I really enjoy this version of the song, I love Ashe's vocals, and I feel this this sort of atmosphere portrays completely different emotions compared to the more djenty version on the album (although I still really like the album version). However, this track proved as a sort of test run with Ashe, meaning that it was released on a platform (probably something like myspace) and then re-uploaded to YouTube. I could not find these tracks anywhere (I looked), and what caused me to check was the fact that someone went and took the videos down off of YouTube. As of that point, I could no longer find this version of the song, and could not listen to it.

The instrumentals on this song were actually released at a different point, with different mixing. They had released an EP with a different vocalist, so that was the official release of this version of the song. However, the difference in mixing and vocals really matters, and I feel like Ashe's vocals specifically were a much better fit for the song. My saving grace came in the form of a video on YouTube that was likely missed or left up, due to the fact that it combined the vocals of the EP version and Ashe's version. So, it was simply a matter of splitting the stereo track, and centering the mix. I now had a bootleg copy of Ashe's version, on a mono track, with slightly worse upload quality on behalf of the dual vocalist mix I took it from. This is that version, and it's why it starts around the time the vocals enter, and why it might sound a bit compressed.

Either way, I hope you all enjoy this song as much as I do, they never quite did something like this again, but I think it really suited Ashe's voice. Their album, Altered State, really did as well, but this invokes a different sort of feel, not one inherently better or worse.

Hi everybody! I've just come off of playing a good amount of this game, and I just completed one of the parts of the story. I'm going to talk about it later, because I need to vent and it feels so heavy. First, I need to talk about what this game is, and why you should play it.

What is this game?

The Morrow's Golden Country (TMGC) is a strategy RPG that runs in the engine of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. It is a Fire Emblem romhack, but it has so much going for it, to the point where I think it doesn't only set a standard for romhacking, but a standard for Fire Emblem and SRPGs as a whole.

Background, Plot Outline, and Worldbuilding

You play as Blair, a young lord (I can hear you all groaning, hear me out) from Aercolyn, a territory within Dalst. Dalst is run by an alliance of lords, one of which was Blair's father. He was charged with treason and exiled, for reasons unknown. Blair is now put in a position where she wants to restore the place her family once held in Dalst. She's kind of just being pushed around and used as a tool though. Her closest friend and self-taught tactician, Arin, says as much, although Blair continues on with her actions.

Without any heavy spoilers, the game starts out with a seemingly simple (although very well-done) plot. Blair has to re-gain the trust of Dalst, but an evil empire (Yg'stra) seems like it's planning to conquer the continent. It's then up to Blair and friends to stop it. That whole plotline feels like a whole game, and while it's well done, it isn't the masterpiece others had made it out to be. YET. Why yet? Because that's only the first 1/4th of the game, give or take a few decimal points. The game goes deep into a conspiracy, with many twists and turns that are well executed, leaving me feeling like this story was well written, and at times leaving me absolutely devastated. I go over what completely wrecks me later, but that's basically what the plot is.

To motivate you all further, I feel like I need to emphasize. This is not a story among lords. The main character is a lord, and some of the other characters are as well, but this is a story of the whole world. There are rebellions, nations with differing political structures, political conflict, as well as physical conflict. The worldbuilding is very well done, and the world feels lived in rather than being a place for lords to mess around. The weight of the actions the ruling classes take is felt. The people who are exploited and impoverished are shown, and the high rate of banditry that is present in so many of the Fire Emblem games is addressed, and many, if not most of the criminals, are humanized, showing their desperation. To motivate you all again, and without heavy spoilers, many battles will occur before you truly realize who you were fighting. Many times, opposing armies' motivations will be revealed, leaving you with a feeling of understanding, or even outright horror at what you have just done. It's a great story, with well-written characters, even beyond FE standards. If this game was released on it's own, without the context of Fire Emblem or the FE label back in like 2005, it would likely be remembered as a standout in the genre, if not a classic GBA title (or a hidden relic that wasn't very popular, you get my point I hope).

New Mechanics, Gameplay, Etc.

TMGC introduces many new mechanics that weren't in the original FE GBA games. These make it feel fresh and unique. There are many new items that players can use to boost the growths of their characters, rather than just stat upgrades, for example. However, this is just the start of the changes.

TMGC adds a base area, similar to that of Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn. It's like a buffed level prep area. Support conversations are managed here, and are managed chronologically based on the level, rather than with points earned through combat. This means that even characters who are permanently benched can be used in supports. This is a really great change, one that really adds to the quality of the game.

TMGC also adds save points in the maps, areas where characters can use free turns to save progress. Rather than starting a whole map over again, save points can be used to continue battle where you left off. This does eliminate the original resume function, but some of these maps are on a massive scale, so it was a really nice change. It also allows for resets if you make a stupid mistake, in a way that isn't as punishing as a full reset (but can be), but not as overpowered as something like Mila's Turnwheel or Divine Pulse (undo actions).

TMGC also adds a robust support system, and many characters have supports with each other. It's locked to five supports per character, I'm guessing due to hardware limitations, but for many characters it's enough. These are good support conversations that can not only flesh out characters or be entertaining, but change how the game is played. Supporting the troubador Avan with Blair for example will allow Avan to use Anima Magic, something that couldn't be done without the support. There are many other examples of this, and it allows for different character builds based on the support chains chosen, meaning the game gets even more replayable. I do think some characters could do with more support slots, like Arin or Blair, but again, I think it has to do with the ROM limitations. Additionally, supports chains are locked in once they are started, meaning that once all 5 slots are full, no more support chains can be started, even if the characters in those supports die.

It adds so much more, so much in fact that I can't really go over it here. Individual weapons, so many unique spells, unique battle animations and classes, it's all so great, and you should really just check out TMGC for yourselves.

Horatio

Oh my gosh I love Horatio so much. He has to be the prophet of Fire Emblem, the messiah himself. He gets his own theme song, for Opistus's sake! He gets his own weapon, that YOU get to name. Do it for him.

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That thing that hit me really hard. Story spoilers, of course, but if you aren't going to play or you don't care too much about the story, I would appreciate the read.

There's a section of the game that focuses on the Viridian Mercenaries, a group of commoners that take jobs in order to survive. They're a lovely bunch, and they're all great characters that you can get really attached to. You can see their relationships, see how noble they truly are, how they wish to serve the common folk as they make their living. You get to meet their families, see those who have made the company their found family. And then you get to see it all get taken away.

Before the final battle of their part, you have to choose three people to go on a scouting mission. It's risky, and it's insinuated that those you send will die. You have to pick three of these people you have grown attached to, and send them to their deaths. That isn't even the worst of it. The battle is a survival mission, where you fight the army of nobles who see you as a nuisance and nothing more. The whole time, they talk as if you mean nothing. In the end, you do. They excitedly talk about testing out their new magic in order to try to defeat you, and it's once you complete the survive mission that it's revealed: you're all going to die here. The mission dissapears, and none take it's place. Hordes of strong enemies start appearing in order to decimate your team. If you somehow survive, mages come out that have 100% hit chance and do 300 damage per hit. The magic they use is really long range. They essentially summon magic missiles that kill your team, one by one, as you watch their death quotes appear on screen and the death music play. Before this point, death was something avoidable, and you now have to watch them all, some of them caring for each other in their last moments, as you realize the three you sent on the scouting mission would be the ones to survive.

There are two child units available in this part of the story. I brought both of them into that battle. There's a unit you need for one of the good endings that I had already messed up. I brought her into that battle. The main character and their partner, who had recently been realized as such, both got sent into that battle (although the MC had to). It wrecked me, on top of a few things that happened before. I haven't played the game since, and I started writing all of this soon after.

Before I wrap things up, I want to talk about homosexual and polyamorous representation in this game, but there are going to be spoilers involving the characters. You have been warned

Polyamory in my vidja game? I messed up this ending, and I'm sad that I have to wait until I replay the game.

Blair, the main character, has a poly ending with 5 of her companions. In order to do this, you have to support Blair with her 5 companions, and only those five. There's one more step that I don't know, and it's so hard to find this information, but I'm sure it's on the FEUniverse post somewhere**. Either way, the partners are Arin, Natasha, Avan, Yuyu, and Estelle, in case any of you wanted to go for that ending specifically. Yes, Blair is specifically a Lesbian as well, but I'm not sure about some of the other characters in the polycule. Still sad that I messed this ending up.

Also, a tip to remember, especially if you didn't read the thing that hit me really hard. Send Estelle to scout when that becomes an option. You'll thank me later.

**Edit: I found it out. Avoid A ranking any of the potential partners. That will unlock the ending.

That's all I've got for now, I'm tired and I just whipped up this post in about an hour. I know I've said a lot of this same stuff for another rom hack I went over, Sacred Echoes, but this really is the best FE game I have ever played. It beats Sacred Echoes. To put things into perspective, Sacred Echoes is a great Fire Emblem game, and it's really well made and I still recommend it. However, TMGC sets a whole new standard for Fire Emblem, and is a great game, PERIOD. The story is great, obliterating the typical Fire Emblem standards (even Sacred Echoes), and the characters are great, going beyond Fire Emblem and just being good characters. They beat Sacred Echoes as well, although the cast of Echoes holds a special place for me. TMGC is just on another level entirely, and I don't know if another romhacker, including myself, or even Intelligent Systems themselves, will ever be able to create a better game.

If you want to play TMGC, you must first download the link here. You must then obtain a copy of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones and apply the patch to the rom using this rom patcher. It's a GBA game, so MGBA will run it with few hiccups. I hope you all enjoy this game as much as I have!

Here's the original post where the game was shared. Might contain information to help you and answer questions you may have.

This post was a long time coming...

Who wants a bit of a fun fact?

From the song's Wikipedia page:

> Gerard Way has said this song, "Skylines and Turnstiles" and "Headfirst for Halos" are the most important songs on the album. Way has also stated "Vampires Will Never Hurt You" is his favorite song of all time, and his favorite vocal performance he has ever done.

Body Text

So yeah, there is a literal void you can enter in the game (and fish in)! While it looks like a glitch/bug, it actually seems to be completely intentional, as a message will display when you enter the void, and when you leave it. So, how did I do this?

Step 1: Private Island Prop

Stand near the pictured wall in the main building. Looking towards the wall, place a private island prop.

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Step 2: Enter Private Island, Then Leave

Yeah, do that. Travel to the island, then leave the island.

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Step 3: Proto-Void

Where you will be at this point is the proto-void. No messages will display, and you will be able to see inside of the main building, but I believe fishing inside of it still acts like the void.

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Step 4: Void

Walk/Sprint into the proto-void until you fall. At this point, you will respawn in the void, and see this message in the chat.

(I got rate limited !catgirl-cry, the message says: "you feel a light breeze")

Step 5: Back to the Light

By walking/sprinting into the real void, you will eventually fall and respawn back into the main world. The message shown will be displayed in the chat.

(Still rate limited, the message says: "you feel warm once again")

That's it! I've heard rumors from my siblings that there's a special fish that can only be found within the void. It requires higher-level bait (I think), so I will let you know if it actually exists. Or there's probably an article about it on one of those gaming news/guides websites.

!dont-laugh

When I was a young boy, my father

Took me into the city to see a marching band

He said, "Son, when you grow up would you be

The savior of the broken, the beaten and the damned?"

He said, "Will you defeat them? Your demons

And all the non-believers, the plans that they have made?

Because one day, I'll leave you a phantom

To lead you in the summer to join the black parade..."

When I was a young boy, my father

Took me into the city to see a marching band!

In traditional fashion, any account owned by me (the person behind the screen) must have it's first account be a music post. So, here's MCR. This is a song from my new repeat album. It's hardcorey, it's metalcorey, it's emoey, it's punky, and I had no idea MCR had an album like this until @imogen_underscore@hexbear.net told me about it. So, thanks, I've really been enjoying the album this song is from.