The Weird, Weird World of FE4 Hacks

Hacks.  Some are simple-- let's raise stat caps to 30 in FE5!  Let's update the FE4 mug shots to Thracia 776 style!  Screw the Jugdral gang, let's have Marth's crew in FE4!  Some are... really, really weird.

When I first learned of hacks of FE4 retooled to "star" Ayra, Tiltyu, and such, they seemed kind of masturbatory to me.  Would I want to play a whole game centered around Tiltyu and her kid?  Ah, NO.  Then I did some digging and learned how truly whacked they are.  The "Pimp Daddy Levin" hack Ammie made is intuitive compared with some of these.  And since these are hacks and not fanfiction, they operate under some weird constraints in spite of the bizarro custom classes and stat changes-- characters literally replace characters from actual FE4, one to one.  Gender-swapped characters get the death scream of the original character-- so, if you put Azel where Aideen is supposed to be, Azel ought to scream like a girl if he dies.

A brief overview!

Genealogy of Ayra:  Stars Ayra.  OK.  But there's a twist-- there are only nine male characters, each of them with a fixed set of kids assigned to them.  Azel replaces Aideen, Finn replaces Ayra, and so on.  Lex replaces Dierdre.  The ladies get to match up with the handful of dudes.  OK.  But it gets weirder!  How weird?  Well... how about Leaf being a Gen1 character alongside the likes of Lex and Azel?  How about Levin with no holy blood at all, and Fury as the major Holsety carrier?  How about FE5 exclusives like Karin and Miranda mucking it up with Gen 1?  How about Pegasus Knight Sety?  No, really.  This game also features non-evil kawaii Julius and a blue-haired Nanna and Delmud.  With automatic minor Dain blood.  Yeah.  And Arion's a dancer.  Sprites are redone, too.

Getting a feel for how bizarre this is?  Like, Trabant replaces Sylvia, so he's likely to fall for Fury, who replaces Levin, so you have to be careful to make sure Princess Fury hooks up with Levin, who's the replacement for Fury.  @_@

Oh, and characters you think of as "good," like Claude and Kurth, show up as bad guys.  In case you wondered where they fit in the equation.  A large theme of these hacks tend to be Sigurd and Cuan and such as Bad Dudes.  And evil Dierdre.

Genealogy of Tordo: The Tiltyu show.  The opening sequence linked here should give you an idea of the weird going on.  Tiltyu and her loyal peeps Rinehart, Ovo, and Muhammad set out to rescue Lady, uh, Laylea of Jungby.  And Tiltyu's tactician appears to be about seven years old.  No wonder they all die.  Here's some more of it, from Chapter 5; looks like Levin and SomeChick, I mean Ethnya, are the Cuan and Ethlin of this game.  Here's the pairing guide.  One hallmark of this is the custom classes and bizarre weapons.  Sylpheed?  Espions?  Lindwurms?  Is this Pokemon?

More pairing discussion here.  There seems to be a continuation of this hack, or an update, or something, called Revolution.

Genalogy of Narga: Stars Kurth.  Focuses on his generation, which means you pair up "senior citizens," apparently.   This grosses some people out.  Here's a hint-- Reptor replaces Ethlin.  Langobalt replaces Lachesis.  Turned on yet?

ETA: Videos on Nico Nico proved that rumors of septuagenarian love are entirely true, and I don't understand wtf is going on in this hack.  One of the videos I watched showed Leaf and Altenna holed up in their evil den of evil before sending Finn-- first gen Finn-- out to apparently engage and trash Arion in an NPC battle, which made Trabant and a bunch of other characters upset.  Said other characters appeared to be Queen Rahna and one of Levin's uncles, or maybe it was the guy who shares a portrait with Levin's uncle and the chick who keeps magic axes in the lake of Verdane.  You've got me.  I don't think any amount of FE4/5 knowledge can make sense of this one; it's going on its own terms.

Genealogy of Fala: Stars Alvis!  I wanted to play this one because A) Alvis and B) I hear it really, really warps one's view of canon FE4.  But it's not translated so I wouldn't grok it anyway, and the hack was never completed.   Still, it sounds promising.  Alvis sets out accompanied by his fine lady companions Aida and Vaha, shortly to be joined by dear brother Azel, Azel's wife Tiltyu, and their little apprentice Olwen.  Etc.  This one, like the Ayra game, has a genderswap theme wherein the kids are fixed to a small number of father characters, which means most of the Gen1 cast is female.  Including genderswap Ardan.  Really.  Upside?  Playable Eltoshan.  Downside?  Playable Langobalt.  He breeds in this one, too.

There are many more-- a version starring Lex, ones that focus more on stats and such instead of sweeping plot and characterization changes.  And of course there are many hacks of other games.  But these FE4 ones sound like daft, daft fun, at least for one playthrough.  Too bad I can't read a word of it, but I did get a Nico Nico account so I could watch the Genealogy of Ayra playthrough there.

ETA: Genealogy of Neir.  The adventures of Lex and his son Arthur, appropriately daft.  Lots of Asvel.  And... female Eltoshan.