Fire Emblem: The Sacred Echoes
is a ROM hack first released in 2020 by FE Universe user HyperGammaSpaces. As the title would suggest, it's a demake of Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia in the Sacred Stones engine, bringing over many of Echoes' unique features and traits (such as the magic system, dungeons, and CGs for certain scenes in the story) while also adding and tweaking certain gameplay and story beats to provide a fresh experience.
Tropes in The Sacred Echoes:
- Adaptation Expansion: Several new scenes are added to fill in parts of the story that were originally passed over, including a deeper focus on Fernand's character arc.
- Adaptational Badass: Celica has several of her more divisive moments in the original story rewritten, particularly towards the endgame; while Jedah successfully turns Celica into a Witch and forces her to fight Alm, who then unseals Falchion and (temporarily) kills her with it in Shadows of Valentia, the romhack shows Celica remaining Defiant to the End, unlocking the “true” Ragnarok Omega spell to fend off Jedah and forcefully pry Falchion off of Mila’s corpse. Her subsequent Disney Death results from her pushing herself far beyond her limits to use the spell and attempt to wield Falchion, the latter of which was unsuccessful because she doesn’t have Duma’s Brand like Alm and Emperor Rudolf.
- Adaptational Gender Identity: In Sacred Echoes, Jesse is reinterpreted as a trans man.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Fernand's dynamic with Clive is changed from the simple We Used to Be Friends it was in Echoes to Fernand instead being Clive's Unlucky Childhood Friend who, already in a downward spiral after the deaths of his family, saw Clive's relationship with Mathilda as a betrayal and resulted in him isolating himself even further from the rest of the Deliverance.
- Adaptational Sexuality: Several characters are rewritten to be more explicitly queer (or at the very least curious) compared to the original games; most notably, Fernand now seems to be exclusively attracted to men, with his implied feelings for Mathilda being nowhere to be found.
- Butch Lesbian: Acantha is implied to be one of these, being an androgynous-looking Lovable Rogue who largely dislikes men despite engaging in traditionally "manly" hobbies like gambling and drinking. It helps that she almost immediately takes a shine to the very feminine Silque.
- Canon Foreigner: Sacred Echoes features two new optional characters that weren't in Echoes or Gaiden; Acantha the Thief (who can be recruited in the same chapter as Silque) and Hyas the Axe Fighter (who can be recruited in the same chapter as Atlas).
- Old Flame: Nomah and Mycen used to be an item when they were younger, but drifted apart with time. If their Support together is maxed out, then it's possible for them to rekindle their romance.
- Video Game Demake: A demake of a 3DS game that's already a remake of a Famicom game, to be technical.
