Introduction

Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War Remodeling Patch, more commonly known as FE4 RM2.97, or FE4 Binary is one of the productions from the Binary Japanese hackers whom we can thank for FEGirls, Genealogy of Tordo, and FE4 Inflation, to name only some that were mentionned in this thread. Most of their hacks target the Jugdral games, and offer some rather extensive amounts of ASM modifications, like branched promotions, or edited skills.

Binary was made by a user credited as "Habana♦887.bsRoNI", and the latest version dates from at least back in July 09, judging from the last modification of its Readme file.

So, what is this hack about?

The story of FE Binary is the same as that of FE4. There are some minute changes in a few events, but otherwise, the script is the same. Good thing too, because the FE4 English patch does not work for this game, so this LP will assume that you have played vanilla FE4, or at least read Wind God Sety's LP of it. Thus, the updates will mostly focus on the gameplay aspect of things, as it's where most of the changes lie.

What kind of novelties can we expect from this game?

The most important changes are the global rebalancing and modernized mechanics. For instance, Pursuit is no longer the ultimate skill, promotions are branched, criticals don't require a special skill or a silly weapon kill condition, Deirdre and the Joha- brothers aren't shit... Without spoiling too much of the LP, let's just say that on top of all the mechanics changes, there are a lot of new weapons, items, classes and skills to pick from.

That sounds interesting for sure, but is it worth playing?

It depends on how much you've enjoyed FE4, I'd say. If you've played the game already, and wish to replay it for its atmosphere, characters and pairings, then you should give it a try with Binary for a much richer gameplay experience. The difficulty has been raised, but except for a couple of parts, it's not all that cheap. The difficulty curve becomes increasingly steep as you progress through the game, but so do your possibilities. The added stuff and overall rebalancing still make it very enjoyable to play... as long as you remember to always save on a different file each turn.

And if I want to play along?

Here's a link to the patch. Make sure you read the patching instructions in the ReadMe.

How is the LP going to go?

Well, for starters, I'm not going to aim for high rankings. I'm not good enough at this game to afford skipping on love-grinding, backtracking for arena completion, and the like. I'll be getting all items and all the characters of course, and will go for a no-death playthrough. As for pairings, Binary does leave you with an larger variety of choices, but I'm going to go with promotions pairings that fit my playstyle (and comedy value) the most.