Project Thabes
is a Game Mod of Fire Emblem: Awakening made by a group of people on the GameBanana forum, under the lead of Heritor. The project aims to overhaul many of Awakening's issues while preserving the original, incredibly broken experience. It's not meant to be a rebalance per say, more of a remix.
Many changes are done to the gameplay. Classes and characters are tweaked with the goal of increasing class diversity and shrinking the viability gap, though it's not intended to be extremely balanced either. Items and weapons also have some of their stats modified, and new ones have been added.
However, the mod also adds content to the story such as new Supports, including new S-Support options for Chrom, as well as new Supports for Robin-only characters and the Spotpass characters. (In that regards, it's also compatible with the Gay Awakening patch mod, which is included in the zip-file of Project Thabes.) Two characters who were Killed Off for Real in Awakening can also here be saved and recruited, becoming full-fledge characters with their own planned Supports as well. Finally, there are fixes to dialogue, plot holes, and minor additions of info that was given post-Awakening, such as information from the Valentian Accordion and other sources (hence the project name).
The mod is still in development. The current version is 0.9.8. While not completely finished (most notably some Support chains are still placeholders), it gives a good idea of what the mod will be like.
Note: Only tropes that differ from the original game are listed below. Since most of the entries will discuss the changes made by this mod, beware of spoilers. Obviously, there are also unmarked spoilers for the original game.
The Project Thabes Mod provides examples of:
- Anti-Frustration Features: One of the mod's goals is to remove issues of the vanilla game. Most notably:
- Weapon durability has been increased.
- Gender-locked classes have been made available for everyone.
- There are a lot more Support Chains and S-rank options, especially if one also uses the Gay Awakening patch, which help players experiment more pairings. Chrom can now potentially romance any girl he meets before Chapter 11. "Robinsexual" characters also have more S-rank options (and more Support Chains in general).
- Olivia joins the army before the beginning of Chapter 11, allowing players to train her (or to advance her Support Chain with Chrom) with random battles.
- Adaptational Job Change: Many characters have their promotion trees completely reworked. Lissa, for example, loses her Troubadour class ifor Dark Mage.
- Ascended Extra: Two characters Killed Off for Real during the first arc of Awakening are potentially Spared by the Adaptation in this mod, and their stories are expanded by a couple of Support chains.
- Phila is a Sacrificial Lion in Awakening. In Project Thabes, she'll survive her wounds, and will later regroup with Chrom.
- Mustafa is a one-chapter opponent, albeit a memorable one. In Project Thabes, he can be spared, and later recruited in Chrom's army.
- Big Damn Heroes: During the climactic battle against Gangrel, Mustafa will show up if the player met some requirements, and can be talked to and recruited.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: Mustafa can only be recruited if the player defeats him with Chrom and leaves at least 5 enemy units alive, to go along with his last request when he asks Chrom to spare his men after his defeat.
- Heel–Face Turn: One of the mod's main features is to allow players to recruit Mustafa. If Chrom shows mercy by sparing enough of his soldiers, an indecisive Mustafa will show up during the last battle against Gangrel. Chrom can then talk to him, and convince him to fight for his cause.
- Kick the Dog: Gangrel made good on his promise to kill Mustafa's family if he backed down from the fight against Chrom, as revealed by Mustafa's supports with Henry, which also gave the former a reason to join Chrom's army.
- Old Soldier: Mustafa often has this dynamic with other people he interacts in Supports. Compared to most of the other Sheperds, he's a war veteran, and usually acts as an Old Master. His official bio states he's the most likely to give advices.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Mustafa and Phila can both be saved and recruited.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Cordelia, who suffered from a case of All Love Is Unrequited in Awakening so severe that she didn’t even have a Support Chain with Chrom, is able to marry him in Project Thabes.
