Sanctaea Chronicles

Sanctaea Chronicles, formerly known as Fire Emblem: Ascension, is a tactical RPG currently being developed by Von Ithipathachai in SRPG Studio. The first fully playable version of the game was released on February 15, 2021.

The game borrows many design elements and features from Nintendo and Intelligent System's Fire Emblem series and was even originally intended to be a fangame using the Fire Emblem name, but all mentions of the name were dropped from the game proper.

At present, new halfbody portraits for the game are being worked on by Furan. Until then, authentic GBA-style portraits edited from ones appearing in the original Fire Emblem games released for Game Boy Advance are still present due to difficulties in creating high-quality original portraits.

Project Goals
This project has two main goals:
 * Create a high-quality tactical RPG experience that anyone, casual or hardcore player, can enjoy
 * Help draw more attention to SRPG Studio as a perfectly valid platform for creating the tactical RPG of your dreams

Plot
The kingdom of Rema on the continent of Sanctaea is facing a growing famine. Cato, its king, has his younger brother Claudius help him conquer the other kingdoms and take their food and supplies by force after being refused aid by their kings. Meanwhile, Carol, last of Rema's original royal family, has her home in the kingdom of Ferenca attacked by a usurper of the Ferencan throne and finds herself caught up in Rema's war for sustenance.

Claudius and Carol both grow to question Cato's violent methods of preserving Rema and band together with their friends to seek another way, embarking on a journey all over the continent to find answers while simultaneously fighting off Cato's forces and other threats.

Notable Mechanics
Some notable mechanics seen in Sanctaea Chronicles include:
 * Single RNG (this is what SRPG Studio's engine uses)
 * The Weapon Triangle (Swords, Lances, Axes), which grants Accuracy ±15
 * The Trinity of Magic (Light, Anima, Dark), which grants Attack ±3 and Accuracy ±15
 * Bows (all of which are 2-3-Range) and Fates-style Daggers, which are triangle-independent
 * Bonus EXP (like in Radiant Dawn)
 * C-S Rank Supports, but no Child Units, so don't worry about pairing everyone off; Support building is also purely deployment-based
 * AS = Spd - Wt (you need 5 more AS than your opponent for follow-up attacks)
 * A route split

Development
While active development of Sanctaea Chronicles did not start until September 2018, early non-playable versions of what it would eventually become date back even earlier, with initial brainstorming of ideas beginning in late 2015, shortly after the release of Fire Emblem Fates.

Art Thread (Fire Emblem: Uprising)
The first publicly released incarnation of the project appeared in a Fire Emblem art thread on Serenes Forest created by Von on May 7, 2017. Initially, it was created simply to show off class designs for a proposed class tree of his; this class tree involved a Str/Mag split and contained several classes that would not make it into the game proper (most notably numerous classic Fire Emblem classes including Mercenaries, Brigands, Hunters, and Troubadours), as well a few that would make it in under different names (e.g. Landsknechts, which were originally known as Doppelsöldners). It notably also included original classes such as Dragoons, a replacement for the Great Knight class that rode a flightless dragon instead of an armored horse, and Therians, a shape-shifting race similar to Fire Emblem's Laguz and Taguel.

Once all of the class designs were present, the thread expanded to include OCs with detailed stats and map designs of a hypothetical Fire Emblem game entitled Fire Emblem: Uprising using these classes and OCs. Already, the story and some mechanics presented therein were similar to what would appear in the final game, but with many differences, including an entire kingdom known as the Aegan Islands based specifically on ancient Greece that would eventually be merged with Rema itself, an Avatar character (who would eventually become Ciceria) with variable gender, more early versions of other characters, a chapter set in one of Rema's gladiatorial arenas, and the presence of mechanics such as Reclassing.

Von put updates on the thread and the Fire Emblem: Uprising incarnation of the story on indefinite hold in August 2017, citing his growing dissatisfaction with his class system, his character templates, and certain story elements, as well as the fact that he had reached the limit on how many MB of images he could upload to Serenes Forest. This incarnation of the project encompassed approximately v1's chapters before being scrapped.

Fire Emblem: Ascension
Von created a new dedicated thread on Serenes Forest for the project, now known as Fire Emblem: Ascension, on April 21, 2018. The version of the story presented here was much closer to what would be seen in the final game. Its format was similar to that of the earlier art thread's story, but much more comprehensive, adding in even more detailed statistics and story scripts for each chapter.

Though he was certainly aware of the Fire Emblem hacking scene by this point, Von nevertheless continued on with his original means of telling the story due to a lack of confidence in his ability to learn how to make a good working hack.

In late August 2018, however, Von got word that SRPG Studio had received an English release. After trying a demo of a game being made with the software, he knew immediately that it held vast amounts of potential to accomplish things hackers could hardly dream of and decided he would rather use it over hacking tools.

While updates on the Fire Emblem: Ascension thread continued after Von purchased SRPG Studio and began proper development on the game, these updates were reduced to story scripts to leave more time to get accustomed to the software and formally ceased altogether in late September/early October 2018. This incarnation of the project encompassed approximately v2's chapters.

Sanctaea Chronicles
The Fire Emblem: Ascension title from the previous story thread was originally to be carried over into the actual game, but was changed before its FEE3 debut and initial release on October 30, 2018 due to concerns of cease and desist orders from Nintendo.

Currently, the game is fully playable, but future releases will gradually phase in a new halfbody portrait system and other presentation improvements.

Screenshots
Please refer to the project's Serenes Forest thread for up-to-date screenshots.

Credits
Game Design: Von Ithipathachai

Main Story and Supports: Von Ithipathachai

Support Contributors: AnonymousSpeed, Corrobin, Emperor_Siegfried, Scratchy

Main Character Designers: Von Ithipathachai, Furan

Additional Character Designers: Fenreir, NICKT, Waleed, Zeldacrafter_Swagg,

LaurentLacroix, Jun

Game Engine: SapphireSoft

Title Screen: Fenreir

Map of Sanctaea: Soviet, Von Ithipathachai

Other Backgrounds: SapphireSoft

Weapon Graphics: SapphireSoft, Von Ithipathachai

Class Graphics: misty, miyabirakuda, naka-様, JAPANweb, Kefioso/Maiser6, SapphireSoft, Von Ithipathachai, かしこま☆, スケルトンの人, セナカ, ふわふわ

Spell/Effect Graphics: SapphireSoft, スケルトンの人, スフィルナ

Icons: SapphireSoft, Von Ithipathachai, Yumemishi, セナカ

Map Graphics: JAPANWeb, SapphireSoft, Soviet, Von Ithipathachai, ふわふわ

Custom Plugins: 1-239, Aren, Balberith, Goinza, Lady Rena, MarkyJoe, Masaki AnDoc, o-to, robinco, SapphireSoft, Von Ithipathachai, 名前未定

Special Thanks:

Intelligent Systems

Aren, Scratchy, Airtempest, Nevrikx, and everyone else who gave feedback and continues to give feedback on how the game can be improved