ChinaFE: Done. This took a while considering that most GBA FEs probably take around 20 hours or so. This hack took around 40. I did make a trip up the Tower once, and used it a couple of other times to train some units but I doubt that would've added a whole lot more time. My guess at the real root cause is that a few of the missions make you really take your time (at least if you don't want to lose people) because some of the levels are just nasty.
How difficult is ChinaFE? Well, it's certainly much harder than vanilla FE8. As to how much harder...that varies. At the very least the game does take on a certain concept though. It gives you broken but expects you to fight with it. In short, even though you have a lot of broken stuff, the game actually sends enemies that are challenging enough to put up a fight. Your standard grunts are no longer really grunts. We're talking each of these enemies being roughly equivalent to a normal GBA FE boss. Level 15 Heroes with 25 Speed and 22 Strength along with 22 Defense is quite par for course later in the game. The bosses are pretty damn insane. Especially the mid-game ones when you don't have all the broken to play with yet.
To quote NEB, in some ways the game feels like proto-FE10. The enemies don't suck ass like vanilla. You can get tier 3 units. You're given lots of good stuff and you should use it. And you also get lots of units with really stellar growths and bases.
I would not recommend playing this without Save states though. A couple of the chapters had me pretty much tearing my hair out just due to the insanity of what the hack throws at you. Chapter 15 for example just fills the entire area with 25+ AS Heroes and 24 AS Wyvern Knights who can trigger Pierce. Your highest AS at that point is probably 23-24. Meaning that there will be a lot of units that will get doubled and eat painful attacks. Then if you fight off the onslaught of Heroes and Wyvern Knights, you get to deal with the onslaught of Warriors and Peg Knights, followed by more Druids. I was saved from the pleasure of finding out that the bosses move to boot thanks to not doing it blind. Chapter 19 throws in tons of Assassins with Shamshirs, causing them to have 63 Crit. Since Silencer can trigger even at 0 damage, you can't really run around the throne room like you could in vanilla and pretty much have to sit and camp. The game does some really dick moves sometimes so you want to be able to save and reload just in case. Otherwise, it's pretty enjoyable.
Game play stuff
Game play spoilers and all that. Here's your warning. First, like FE10, if pays a little bit to know who you're S class weapon users will be right off the bat. This is partially because there is really only one way to kill Fomortiis if you don't want any casualties: Blitz him down in one turn. The game says that his max attack range is 4 with 2 move, giving him 6 range. However, the game lies, since I've been hit from at least 8+ spaces before. Thus, unless you want to sit and find out his exact range, blitzing him is the way to go. Only the Sacred Weapons and a select few others have enough power to actually deal any damage to him. Also, revised Fomortiis has a really nasty trick in that his default attack is one that deals 50 damage ITD. This causes HP of all things to be very important. If you don't have at least 51 HP, the only attack you can do is the killing blow. Next, the Demon King has 31 Speed. Only 3 people in the entire game have enough speed to double him. It also means if the class has less than 27 Speed, don't bother trying to use it to attack unless its the finisher. With that criteria in mind, some thoughts on the characters I used:
Eirika: Her Defense and Resistance growth got buffed I'm pretty sure. And thank god too since otherwise she would be worse. Much worse than vanilla FE8. This is due to the lack of ability to deal damage and take any damage. 5 Con limits her to Iron Swords to avoid AS loss (and she can't use Steel before Promo unless you want to eat a massive -5 AS loss), which severely drops her attack. The doubling doesn't even make up for it much and she takes damage really bad even with the boosted growths. After promo, still needs a few levels since her speed will still be at 20 and enemies will have anywhere between 18-25 and she still can't use Steel weapons without AS loss. However, she gains a crit bonus on promo and supporting with some of the best units in the game do cover her well enough. Can attack the final boss, although will probably need an Angelic Robe (hint: Don't sell these)
Ephraim: Exact same as Vanilla. Nowhere near as good though. Faster enemies and more magic enemies make it such that he can no longer one man armies. Also gains a crit bonus and still has good supports. Usable after the split, but probably requires a couple of maps of training since the Desert is a terrible place to try and train as the enemies are too powerful. Raised caps means he can attack, although does have to watch out for the HP thing.
Brunya: Best character in the hack, hands down. Have fun trying to beat the game without her. Has everything. Damage, durability, utility, great growths and usability. Also one of the three people who can double Formortiis.
Nergal: Possibly the second best character if not at least the third best. Starts off with his infinite use S class tome that deals massive damage and basically rapes everything until the very last battle. Luck is a little low, but at a point when you need to worry, his defense is usually high enough to tank those. And when he can't, you get the Hoplon Guard. Also pretty much has everything, although lacking in S class in everything means he can's use Excalibur.
Fiora: Probably the fourth best character in the game. Starts off with ridiculous bases, has ridiculous growths and flies. Possibly should go Falco instead of WK as she already has lots of Con to use even spears without being weighed down. Have to check caps on this, but if the difference in strength/speed isn't by more than 1 point, I'm leaning Falcoknights as better for her (more Res room growth AND an extra weapon to switch to).
Celica: Another top tier unit in the game. She has so much defense that it's silly. AND she joins early, providing you with a much needed second tank unit. She also promotes early than your actual lords, which means you get a horseback swordsmaster with defense really early. Also, the Falchion is a 50 MT weapon and although anyone can use it, she's usually the best candidate due to her stats.
Clea: Used her a decent amount. Above average possibly. Strength is a huge concern for her and it wasn't rare to run into situations where she just dealt 0 damage >_>. However, flying means utility so even if you don't decide to use her for combat, you can use to ferry weaker units.
Tana: Pretty good! Good attacking flyer and she joins with stupid bases and enough time to train her and grow. If the first few levels don't work out, dropping her is fine too. Also has good support options, so she's a pretty good choice if you want a solid character to invest in.
Amelia: Effort, but pays dividends in the last few chapters (and Desert too if you stick with her all the way through). More stupid bases for her level and has an astounding 70 levels to grow, meaning if you decide to milk out all the levels, you'll likely get a really powerful character. You can also choose to quick promo if her core stats are high enough, giving her more versatility than others. Also can fill in a S class weapon of your choice.
Hellene: Starts off pretty damn broken. I didn't get as much use out of her as I thought I would. Regardless, still a top tier pick on almost any team since she starts off with pretty much everything. Free S class weapon choice here too, although she should largely go with axes (not weighed down by any).
Sonia: Not uber top tier, but pretty good. Her big issue is joining mid-game and having to compete over one Earth Seal until the last chapter in the game (and haha to using it then). Brunya's pretty much always going to be better. This doesn't limit her utility though, and she's great until the last chapter or so.
Clarine: Great bases (again!) and pretty awesome growths all around. On horseback is good for mobility and has the added bonus of being able to quick promo should you choose. Loses out on supports with her very limited list and doesn't join until mid-game. Still, worth spamming staves for though.
L'Arachel: Can't really justify her on the other hand. Don't recall her bases being great, but she does grow decently. Arguably worse than vanilla FE8 since there's so much competition for staff users, let alone with Clarine being better. You can use them and support each other! That's something.
Isadora: Great early, iffy later. Res is actually an issue later as the gorgons and eyeballs and normal enemy mages have enough magic to hurt a lot. You can still barrier/pure water, but even then, it's not always enough. The defense/strength/speed combo is a godsend early on though.
Pent: Arguably, he should be up there at the top. I used him a lot less than I thought I would though (probably because Brunya is better and so are the other sages you get). Also notable is that his third tier is worse than the female sages, which makes him the worst choice to use as the Earth Seal on.
Klein: Dropped immediately after the first two levels when I realized he would way too much babying to be good. Starts off really weak and uses bows only is kind of a turn down.
Cecilia: Average-ish? She's like a jeigan. Great early, bad later. Her bases don't cover her enough here (notably Speed was an issue for me) and she's too weak later to do much except staff use and possibly poke around enemies.
Guinevere: See above. Except replace speed with Defense. Gets 2HKO by pretty much everything and then some. Also has less power than Cecilia, which means the damage she deals isn't that much better when doubling.
Other characters either looked really weak to start off (Sophia), or had bases that were debatable (Ursula). There were other issues for some other characters. For example, Dark Magic being really expensive, hurts Sophia even more. Competition for third tier being limited also restricts who you should use. Come time to defeating the final, it required Hoplon Guard juggling (so bonus points if you fly or are on horseback) and a combination of at least 7 attacks.
