Rondo of Madness

Rondo of Madness
Created by:	Ephraim225
Showcased in:	Ragefest II: The Sequelening
Engine:	FE7

Rondo of Madness is the winning submission of Ragefest II: The Sequelening, created by Ephraim225. It is a hack of Blazing Sword.

Rondo of Madness, as a chapter, is something of a "theme park" in that there is a lot going on in the chapter, with rather silly traps and cutscenes that give the impression that the author wrote whatever first came to mind and stuck with it. The random humor, random character appearances, and nonsensical events allowed it to take first place in the contest, which the author felt wasn't surprising considering the competition.

Walkthrough

Best mountain range ever.

The player begins the map with the player character, Yogi, Nick, and several generic units: a Mage, two Cavaliers, two Soldiers, and two Troubadours. Most units have limited usefulness aside from the Troubadours, who are both healers and can Rescue anyone. Teodor always targets the NPC Sniper on the first turn, unless a Troubadour rescues the Sniper. The Sniper is fairly strong and useful, but the Troubadour that rescues him is going to be killed in his place if the player does this. Nick and Yogi have strong weapons, but lack the weapon ranks to use them. Fortunately, the Armory sells Yotsmung, a poison Dark tome, for Nick, and Slim Lances for Yogi (the player will need to sell items to get money for them.) Nick is fairly useful with the Yotsmung tome. The topmost village gives a Lockpick, but also spawns enemies. The player character can use the Lockpick, but it's not considered worth your time as few of the chests have useful items. Do NOT visit the house behind the castle yet.

First, attempt to seize the castle you start at. This will spawn Merlinus, who is helpful for distracting enemies later on. Most villages and houses surrounding the castle are traps. The village in the center and the two villages to its left are the most helpful. The center village recruits Eagler, some Fighters, and three Mercenaries wielding Moon Swords, which ignore defense and can be traded to other units. The villages to the left of that recruit Dart, who holds a Chest Key, and give the player a Fire Stone. The village where Merlinus spawns gives 1337 gold. Most enemies are fairly simple to deal with using the Moon Swords, however to recruit Karla, you must seize the castle guarded by Erik, then talk to her afterwards, not before. Luring her away with a disarmed Yogi is recommended, and if damaged enough, she will retreat and heal herself.

After seizing the first castle, you are joined by two Archers with Ballista items, and one of them can be promoted with the Orion Bolt. Enemy units with no map sprites also appear at this point: push Start to verify the locations of all enemies, including the invisible ones. There are two villages in this area: The one closest to the castle makes Kishuna appear. He is an NPC at first, but talking to him changes him to an enemy. His magic seal only works as an enemy, so he can be rescued and placed anywhere before "activating" him, which can be used to Silence Teodor or even the bosses at the end of the chapter. The village a little bit to the south is a trap: Though it spawns Eliwood and Hector, they are also surrounded by Pegasus Knights, including the three sisters, who are able to use the Triangle Attack. The third village in the area recruits Fa, but she cannot fight without the Fire Stone.

By this point, Anna should have appeared, trapped by a Wyvern; her stats are negative, so suspending and resuming (or just resuming after she dies) results in her stats skyrocketing. She can be used as a dodge tank, or, talking to her with Nick gives him Luna, a Torch staff, and a Guiding Ring. Sain also appears, and can be recruited with Karla, but this causes Karla to betray the player and turn into an enemy. You'll have to choose between one of them, and Karla is recommended due to her high critical rates as a Swordmaster (she can be promoted using Eagler's Hero Crest). After making your choice, defeat the enemies and seize the second castle to recruit Canas and Pent. Louise also appears trapped by a soldier in a house in the corner. If Louise dies, Pent also leaves, and Pent has an important weapon equipped. If you haven't left anyone near the house to save her yourself (leaving Nick there is fine, as he can also talk to Anna while he's there) Louise can visit the house she's on to receive a Short Bow, which in this chapter works as a melee weapon. Work fast, however, because Vaida also attacks her at this point.

The Wolfguard also appears at this point. They're normal enemies, but it's worth noting that killing Wolf causes Batta and his men to arrive, though they'll be distracted attacking villages (and never destroying them due to a bug.) Killing Batta causes Linus and Lloyd to appear (with their classes switched around from their Blazing Sword appearances) and will make Paul and Jasmine appear as well. Watch out for them as you make your way to Teodor. At one point he will mention he lost his siege tome: The player can obtain it by killing Wallace and standing where he was, otherwise Teodor eventually takes it back and uses it (Though it weighs him down significantly.) Kill Teodor, seize his castle, and watch the (fake) credits.

The final challenge of this chapter is to kill ten bosses from throughout the Fire Emblem series. Most of them are very easy to kill with Moon Swords, Pent's Starlight (which also ignores defense) and Fa. Denning, Oliver and Brenya have siege weapons, Hardin has the Uber Spear, Rinehart has Dimebolt (Brave effect), Ishtar has Mjollnir (+20 skill and speed) and Garnef cannot be hurt without Starlight or a Moon Sword unless his weapon breaks. Once all enemies are killed at this point, the chapter ends for real.

Reception

This is one of the most successful and popular Ragefests of all time, no doubt. Many people would point to this as a source of inspiration, showing what you can truly do in a Ragefest hack. Its influence can still be seen to this day, leading to hacks like the winner of Ragefest IV, Ragefest Revengeance.