Bells of Byelen
is a ROM hack of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones created by Team Adversity, a group of hackers led primarily by Loog. The hack is a Spiritual Successor to Call of the Armor, a hack made by many of the same hackers, with both using a "telephone"-styled format for development: Each developer would make one chapter, then pass the ROM onto another member of the team so they could create their chapter, continuing until the hack was considered finished.
The game focuses on the Decian Liberators, a rebel group which seeks to save their home country of Decia from the reign of its invader, the empire Cythes. Specifically important are two young commanders who act as the Lords: Cleo, a defector from Cythes, and Loewe, a young man who was taken in as a child by the Liberators after his home was destroyed and his mother disappeared. After a prison break goes south, the group are forced to travel the continent in search of allies, with their travels leading to events that will impact far more than just Decia or Cythes.
The game is modeled heavily after Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, down to including several mechanics such as capturing and the Pursuit Critical Coefficient that weren't in Sacred Stones. That being said, the game makes efforts to avoid being as beginner-unfriendly as Thracia by virtue of actually telling the player information on what mechanics are in the game and how said mechanics work. It also includes features from later games such as fully written supports which help to expand upon the large cast of characters, as well as unique personal skills to help set said characters apart from a gameplay perspective as well.
Tropes in Bells of Byelen:
- Anti-Grinding: If a unit reaches their maximum fatigue level (equal to their max HP), they can no longer gain any sort of EXP, whether normal or weapon EXP.
- Crutch Character: Mira's stats appear to be fairly weak for a prepromote, but she's actually able to contribute a lot early due to her high weapon rank giving her access to Silver Swords, and thief utility is especially helpful as you can potentially not get another thief until Chapter 7 (unless you choose to recruit Mish, but even then they're not playable until Chapter 6).
- Dark Is Not Evil: There are a few playable dark mages who are hardly evil, such as culinary enthusiast Fangai or reformed cultist Tippany. Kwame is also a Dark Bishop when he finally becomes playable. Though ultimately Kwame turns out to be a straightforward Dark Is Evil example at the end.
- Enemy Mine: Korovai of House Freyse isn't exactly an upstanding character, but the Liberators are more than happy to work with him due to their mutual distaste for Cythes. At least, until Cleo finds out the reasoning for the attack on Buldak's hometown.
- Extra Turn: Movement stars are back, allowing most units a very small chance at a second action. If that isn't reliable enough, you also recruit a dancer, Jacinth, in chapter 13, just over halfway through.
- Eyepatch of Power: Kwame, a very important character and talented mage, wears an eyepatch. Loewe also has to wear an eyepatch after being shot in the eye by Tao.
- Fog of War: Returns to the Thracia style of all-black fog, not out of technical limitations but out of a desire to be loyal to its inspiration.
- Guest-Star Party Member: A handful, for example Dragana and Korovai, who join for a single chapter each before leaving your party for differing reasons.
- La Résistance: The Decian Liberators, through and through. The members all come from a variety of backgrounds, yet are united in the common goal of wanting to kick Cythes out of Decia.
- Magikarp Power: Most units will join around the average of your party, give or take a few levels, though there are a handful of outliers.
- Jenny is a somewhat low-leveled Rook Knight who only joins if you saved one of the villagers in the first chapter. Her bases are poor to start, but Paragon and her ability to use both swords and lances mean she can find a use on your team even before she reaches her Gold Knight promotion.
- Tiberius is level 7 unpromoted at a point where most of your army is getting ready to promote themselves. Like Jenny, his stats are poor, though he doesn't get Paragon to compensate. What helps him is his personal weapon, the durable magic sword Darkbrand, and his incredibly powerful promotion to Master Knight providing strong promotion gains, a horse, and access to staves, making him a solid combatant and healer in turn.
- Two examples can optionally join in the third interlude. Ojasvi can join at level 1 unpromoted, and thus will have to rely on taking kills with her personal weapon for a while before she can promote to Master Knight and make use of its terrific promotion gains. Tao is a less extreme example, but still joins at level 10 unpromoted and needs to wait a while before he can become the powerful Sniper his growth rates suggest.
- Mercy Rewarded: Choosing to capture enemies instead of killing them, as in Thracia, lets you take all of their equipment assuming you or a nearby ally has the inventory space.
- Mr. Exposition: Kwame is your mysterious advisor and ally who first appears in Chapter 5, and from that point becomes the primary source of the game's exposition, especially when clues into his part start being revealed.
- Mutually Exclusive Party Members: There are three interlude maps with five or six potential new units each, each of which tends to have more unusual builds than normal units. You can only choose two new units per map.
- Prison Episode: The first three chapters take place in a prison in Selese, a region of Decia which sided with Cythes in the war. Naturally, this arc is heavily modeled after the Munster prison arc in Thracia, down to having one of the lords being imprisoned and needing to be rescued.
- Timed Mission: A handful of maps have strict turn-based time limits, though just as often a map's time limit comes from incredibly strong reinforcements. Take too long and these powerful enemies, whether bosses such as Boro in the first two chapters or generic soldiers, will show up to swarm and overwhelm your comparatively weaker army.
- Utility Party Member: Thieves and Thief Fighters have incredible utility, even compared to Thracia. Like in Thracia, they're able to steal just about any item if their Build stat is high enough, though your thieves will likely need a bit of help with Body Rings or build-boosting scrolls before they can steal anything particularly strong. They can also pick locks, and unlike in Thracia, they don't need lockpicks to do so.
- Video Game Stealing: Uses Thracia's stealing mechanics, making Thieves incredibly useful as a result. If your thief has enough Build, they can render enemies completely defenseless and net you some nice weapons.
