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Luna [she/her] @hexbear.net

Trans megathread for the week of September 30th, 2024 to October 6th, 2024 - Sacred Echoes posting!

When I decided to host the mega again a bit ago, I had no idea what to make it about (of course). So it fell between two topics: a post on the importance of sleep, or a post on just how much I love Fire Emblem: The Sacred Echoes. Well, I felt like the importance of sleep was well-known, and could always wait for the next time I host a mega. I wanted to make sure I hit the Sacred Echoes iron while it's hot, because I've almost finished my play through at this point, and it might genuinely be one of the best games I have ever played.

Sacred Echoes feels so polished, considering it's a fan-made romhack of Sacred Stones, with the goal of bringing the 3DS game, Shadows of Valentia (SoV), to the GBA. Everything about the game aesthetically is very well-done, from the portraits, to the battle sprites, and literally anything else that could be thought of about a game. This includes new character writing, which helps the game in areas where Shadows of Valentia was a little, well, off. That's what I want to go over first, and although I've made a post before, I had only played a little bit of the game. Being at the end, I've noticed more things, and grown to appreciate this game even more than I already did.

Let's start off with the relevant (and interesting) bits: Sacred Echoes actually does a really good job at representing a variety of backgrounds, while also being diverse in a way that doesn't feel like it's simply to have a token character. This game doesn't suffer from the cracker curse, for example. Although most of the characters are white, there is more than one person of color (

) . In terms of LGBTQ+ representation, it's even better. There are many gay/lesbian characters, whose sexuality actually plays a role in the plot and how they interact with others. There's also an aroace character, Lukas, who goes through a whole arc of self-discovery in his support conversations (support Python). It's good stuff, and not things I would normally expect from a Fire Emblem game. I hesitate to bring up the (possibly) only trans character in the game, Jesse. HOLD ON, NO HESITATION AT ALL! I just decided to do more research, and I wasn't just projecting. He is 100% trans, and it's in supports, and it's relevant to his plot and backstory, so it's just like the rest of them, thank goodness, I was worried he was a token. So yeah, support Clive and Jesse. Good stuff, and good luck getting to the end of the game so they can actually meet, one fights for Alm and the other for Celica...

This is Jesse

Here's some dialogue between Clive and Jesse, in the context of a will:

Clive: Only the following will be yours - your mother's wardrobe, her jewelry box, and all corresponding contents.

Jesse: Urgh. Even from halfway in the grave he's trying to tell me what to wear. So yeah, he's still the same tyrant he always was. Hasn't changed a bit.

In terms of character background, it's more diverse than one would think, and it addresses the issue of feudal class. Not all of the characters are nobles, and one of the main characters is a commoner from a random village. The plot regularly deals with the fact that nobles and commoners do not get along. However, it does not try to redeem most nobles. If they aren't proving themselves with their actions, they're probably shitty. Even if they are supposedly "one of the good ones", there's usually some underlying prejudice that comes out when you might not expect it. I love it so much, and I am extremely impressed that the plot doesn't try to redeem nobility as a whole, but rather allows the noble characters within the cast to have character development that feels less like justification and more like re-education.

Pictured is the class traitor Lukas absolutely destroying Fernand

For other details about the story, I'll link my original post. I don't want to drag this on too long, and I mention most of the improvements there. It also includes where to find the patch for the game, and how to play the game for yourself. If you enjoy SRPGs, or are new to the genre, I recommend this game. It has an easy mode for the newbies, and hard mode for those of us who hate ourselves (/s), and a normal mode for everything in-between

The Echoes cast is amazing, and I love how they interact with each other and the world. Each character stands out, and they feel unique in their relationships with the other characters. Even characters that suffer in SoV, like Faye and the Masked Knight (has a name but it's spoilers), benefit from the Sacred Echoes writing, making them actually enjoyable characters. The villains of the game are also great. I don't want to go too deep, because I don't want to spoil too much, but they aren't just pure evil, and for that I applaud the SoV writers. Berkut is probably the highlight of the game, being the heir to the throne of the empire. I am once again asking you to play the game, because IT IS SO GREAT, and I would not have expected these good of villains to pair with Alm and Celica, as well as their armies.

Pictured is the Masked Knight being a gay little guy. The other guy (Saber) is threatening his life...

Everything about the game design is also amazing. It's GBA Fire Emblem, so the animations are peak and the pixel art is stellar. The maps are improved from the original SoV maps, and they are definetly much better, and much less repetitive. Classes in the game are fun in how they work, each character being able to promote 2-3 times. Mages also work really uniquely and well in this game, with spells costing HP to cast. They learn spells as they level up, rather than by purchasing tomes, which makes for (in my opinion), better gameplay. Sacred Echoes also adds the GBA weapon and magic triangles!

All in all, Sacred Echoes is a great game, and even if you never ending up playing it, you now know of its existence. It stands out as a great romhack, as well as a great Fire Emblem game, AND it has the gay. Can it really get better than that?

If you want my original (and more in-depth) analysis, check out my original post. It's mostly about what Sacred Echoes improves upon the original Shadows of Valentia.

Hope you enjoyed my little nerd-out session, and have a good week everyone!

DOWNLOAD SACRED ECHOES: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/o9v75blehaid1re2i8qou/ALhV8LN1A59jdFIP6HYRH3c?rlkey=d7fl1m8qh9gl7ztmnim33euu1&e=1&dl=0

PATCH TO AN EXISTING SACRED STONES ROM: https://www.marcrobledo.com/RomPatcher.js/

Join our public Matrix server! https://matrix.to/#/#tracha:chapo.chat

As a reminder, be sure to properly give content warnings and put sensitive subjects behind proper spoiler tags. It's for the mental health of not just your comrades, but yourself as well.

Here is a screenshot of where to find the spoiler button.

1.7K comments

  • hi, does anyone wanna make the mega in the upcoming weeks? if so, reply to this post and i'll add you to the list!

    the list as it stands:

     
            Eco* (10/7 - 10/13)
    oscardejarjayes* (10/14 - 10/20)
    HelltakerHomosexual* (10/21 - 10/27)
    GayTuckerCarlson* (10/28 - 11/3)
    Luna* (11/4 - 11/10)

    ā€‹ * after name denotes someone who has posted before and will be skipped by first-time posters

  • āš ļø Alert āš ļø

    āš ļø My facial hair is falling out āš ļø

    This is not a drill.

    I know I just said like two days ago the laser therapy wasn't working, but it just started falling out, and now there are hairless patches.

    I am entering reverse puberty. The hair came in patchy, and it will leave me patchy.

    Pour one out for a real one, folks

    My beard had a legendary run
    Wish I could gift it to a transmasc, but it's only fate now is to be subject to the ion cannon.

  • I've reached an important milestone!

    ::: spoiler CW: Self harm It's been over 2 weeks since I last cut myself. The large, gaping wound I got from last time scared me so much that I've pretty much completely lost the urge. It opened my eyes and made me realize I was going down the wrong path. It feels so nice to no longer be dealing with this, it really just made everything worse for me. :::

  • I'm on the gender carousel. Hi! Good to see you all again!

    Since my facial hair has started falling out, I'm in hard girl mode again.

    Tbh if I just keep bouncing between girl and NB, I'll be perfectly happy

  • Me and my sister decided to have a "girls night" last night, and it was really fun! We paired some of the clothed I had bought earlier, played some card games, she painted my nails, and I showed her some of my newer character designs. I feel a bit bad, because I kind of info-dumped here, but she said she was interested. I don't know whether or not it's true, but I'll take her at her word.

  • recently i've been feeling so weirdly confident in my presentation that i feel like getting misgendered is the other person's problem not mine. What, you can't tell a pretty girl when you see one? what are you? fucking dumb?

  • One of my favourite emerging insults is to say that something or even someone was "made up by a guy". This works handily because many things in our world are in fact made up by guys. It's also becoming kind of a stim please help

  • Least favorite effect of estrogen: I canā€™t clean up dog shit without almost puking. My wife could never clean up dog shit so itā€™s always been my job and now Iā€™m constantly at risk of making an ever bigger mess than what Iā€™m cleaning up. What the fuck.

  • estrogen has been putting me into such a good mood that i'm genuinely starting to get a little concerned. Like, it's fine for trans girls to feel a little dysphoric sometimes, you can have a bad day, you can feel a little sad. But no, I'm honest to god feeling incredible all the time and literally nothing life has been throwing at me is turning that mood down! Wow!

  • I was arguing with people who play vampire the masquerade. One guy was concerned his character punching someone would attract too much police attention, I laughed and said the cops would probably not notice an assault. Someone else chimed in that you had to suspend your disbelief and remember this is a heightened world of darkness - because, to him, of course the cops would investigate every split lip.

    I was... mystified by this gulf of experience. I've been in fights, I've seen fights, I've tried to report assaults many years before I got on ACAB. Cops don't do jack shit, they might show up 15 minutes later and MAYBE take a statement. But these other two insisted that, no, the irl cops would get you to court and you would get recompense or justice if you were assaulted even off one punch and you running away. Which is just not even close to what I've experienced, not just in urban centres that have that as a reputation broadly but even in my small home town and small college town. The only thing the cops have ever seem to done is harass the homeless, be annoying or crack skulls about drug charges, wellness checks and escort for bankruptcy/getting evicted, and maybe homicide.

    It was very illuminating - in nursing school we had to take a class on things like poverty and it's impact on health, we had to play a game where you were a single parent and had to make it through the month without debt. My classmates couldn't do it and thought it was unrealistic. I made it but made choices like skipping dental care and car repairs so my kid could afford lunches or a new backpack - all normal stuff I've had to do or my parents had to do.

    There's this charmed class of people that think there are social safety nets or someone is out there to protect you. But it's all a glamour (unless you're wealthy I guess), if you EVER need it it's not there for you. The appearance is there so people don't riot I guess.

  • Taylor Swift just dropped yet another "album", this time it's literally the same songs just rearranged.

    And what do you know, she's dropped a couple spots on billboard this week. I'm so bored of her and her petty shit

  • This is gonna sound very trite to anyone over 30, but from my first grey hair over a year ago, I now have several, enough to be visible in my bangs.

    My current plan is to do nothing about it. Idk if there's a better one. I do feel like I'm slightly too young for this, in an "I'll be ready for greys in my 40s not now" way, but evidently that's not the case

  • Sleep is important. That's why I always make sure to stay up late, scrolling through this website. I think I've encountered a paradox, where I'm tired but I have things I want to do. My brain then cannot process the fact that I need more sleep, or remember the fact that always have to wake up early in the morning. The paradox continues, I get more tired, I need more sleep, I can't process why I need that sleep, I keep reading, on, and on, and

    on, and...

  • It's weird watching the whole world rapidly fall apart in the news mega meanwhile everything is going so well for me personally. Oh wow, I got a new hair appointment scheduled to shape my eyebrows? That's great, also, the brewing regional war is finally about to pop off in the middle east

  • MY BRAIN CANNOT HANDLE THE EXISTENCE OF MINECRAFT CREATE

    MINECRAFT AND INDUSTRY

    AND YOU CAN BUILD TRAINS?? AND TANKS?? AND SET UP INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES TO AUTOMATE THEIR CREATION AND AUTOMATE RESOURCE EXTRACTION????

    AHHHHHHH autism autism autism im fuckin dead on the floor

    oh 5 hour youtube video on a minecraft create playthrough this is my greatest weakness

    if i descend any further and actually get it ill either drop it after a week or never talk to other people again

  • Shaving my mustache was, turns out, a pivotal thing for the gender euphoria.

    It's like I got rid of all this extra stuff, and now I look in the mirror and I actually see my face, the way I did when I was a kid. It's really something

  • I finally realised that I have utterly lost control of my hair. It's more than twice as long as it was five years ago, I use a comb and oil and stuff and it looks fucking terrible. It's a huge frizzy mess and the bangs work less than 30% of the time and the ends are probably split and the curls barely stay even though I skip combing unless I shower, arrrgh it looks so much worse than when it was just down to my chest, what the fuck. I do not deserve it.

  • Has anyone else here ever clocked someone because of how cool they are? There's this creator I like who I won't name, but I always suspect she's trans whenever I watch her videos, because it just seems implausible to me that a cis person could make such great content when it comes to certain topics.

1670 comments