What's the verdict on the Final Fantasy GBA bonus content?FF1>Soul of Chaos>Earthgift Shrine>Hellfire Chasm>Lifespring Grotto>Whisperwind CoveFF2>Soul of RebirthFF4>Cave of Trials>Lunar Trial>Zeromus EGFF5>Sealed Temple>Four new jobs exist: Necromancer, Oracle, Cannoneer and Gladiator>EnuoFF6>Espers - Four additional espers can be acquired: Leviathan, Gilgamesh, Diabolos and Gigantuar. >Dragons' Den and Kaiser Dragon>Soul Shrine
>>12916451I'll give FF5 a point for giving Enuo a canon appearance at last, but for the most part, they're just lazy asset-flips.
for bonus content i go to romhacking.net or ask claude to add a postgame dungeon with level 90 monsters, not play gba portslop
>>12916451only FF2's content is all around good.FF4's new dungeons are a little weirdly balanced but having extra endgame-level fights is cool and being able to swap your party members is great.FF1's is whateverFF5's new jobs are kinda neat but unnecessary and not as well designed as the main jobs imoFF6's stuff I've never played.
>>12916451Soul of Rebirth is insanely interesting. I wouldn't call it good but it's just really fascinating.
>>12916451I can only speak to the FF6 content, and I'll say it's mostly mediocre. The Dragon's Den is a slog to get through, the new spells and Espers are whatever (the +2 Speed bonus from Gigantuar is nice, though), and the new weapons are, with a few exceptions, just OK or in some cases straight-up inferior to previously existing ones. About the only decent bits are the new bosses, which at least provide some challenge, and the Soul Shrine, which allows you to get more of what was previously unique equipment.
>>12916480FF4's new dungeons are kind of weird, but I appreciate the staff trying to make something unique for the characters and I really can't say no to Kain's dungeon
They're all shit except for FF6's which are okay.The problem is that you're evaluating those extra content alone when you should also be evaluating the kind of changes those ports made to the games too. It's a whole package.
>>12916546I also enjoyed them. I thought the character swap out was fun,If people don’t like them they are not forced to do them either so it’s a bonus that doesn’t damage the original.
FFV is the only one I have experience with. The new jobs range between broken and useless with nothing in between. The new dungeon is convoluted, long, and ass. I only enjoyed the boss rush mode you get after completing it.
>>12916692>>12916692>evaluating the kind of changes those ports made to the gamesthe gbaslop-to-snes romhacks make this moot
The new FFV superbosses are fun to fight but the actual dungeon you find them in is pure cancer
>>12916451I don't think I've ever enjoyed post-game anything in any JRPG. I like games like Nocturne where it just fucking ends and says thanks, now start over if you want.
It's mostly all just pointless, annoying, and a huge waste of time. It's straight-up multi-hour padding in the case of those dungeons. The new jobs in the case of V are just completely pointless/not needed or OP in the early/mid game.They're some of the worst examples of "new content" for a re-release. There's a reason why the Pixel Perfect stuff just completely ignored it.If you like extremely annoying dungeons, then yeah, you're in for a good(?) time I guess.
>>12917809Nothing beats the Lost Sanctum in Chrono Trigger DS. Now that was straight-up horseshit. Literally hours of nothing but running back and forth across the same areas and fighting the same enemies.
So I'm thinking of finally playing V. I'll be emulating so it's between the translated super fami rom or the gba version. Which should I go with?
>>12918446Depends. How tolerant are you of corny pop-culture-based jokes in localization?
>>12918449I replayed Lunar 2 recently and enjoyed those aspects far more than I remembered so I'd say pretty high.
>>12918487Then you shouldn't really be too irritated by FF5 GBA.
As a kid I really liked the ff1 bonus dungeons with a ton of floors, I probably wouldn’t have the patience to play through it these days though
>>12918446SNES original, RPGe translation. Literally no better way to play it.
>>12918552What makes that version better to you? I have tried all the versions briefly, but it's been many years. For some reason FF5 is one of the only ones I have never been able to get into, but 3 is unironically one of my favorites so I figured I'd give it another try because it gets such praise.
>>12916451i think theyre pretty cooli can see why ppl dont like the massive change in 1s magic system. but also, idfc, since half the magic and stats were borked in the OG anywaysFF5 on GBA is the best FFFF4 was better on the DS remake
>>12919378literally the only thing actually negative about FF5s GBA port is the music, due to the GBA having shit sound. but you can also just fix that with a hack too if you rly care. outside if that, theres very little difference other than the GBA adding a few optional jobs.personally i cant even imagine giving a shit about jarpig battle music desu. its not even like FF5s OST is bad. i just literally dont even hear it after the first few hrs. it just fades away
>>12919505If that's all it is, it's a non issue. I play rpgs with the sound off probably 90% of the time already.
>>12916451i enjoyed soul of rebirthhaven't played any of the other gba ports of ff
>>12918552>crossedstreams.gif
>>12916461>gba portslop bad>vibecoded AI content good
What's the real reason they never ported FF3 to either the Wonderswan or the GBA?
>>12918446Fun fact, the 2nd screenshot on this back cover is the only instance of the protag being referred to as Bartz/Buttz in the original version.
>>12919378The RPGe translation is mostly accurate to the Japanese script including the names of the characters, it also just looks better font wise to the others. SNES original is superior because it's the original, the GBA version just has a lot of filler with the new dungeon and new boss who's just exdeath with a sprite change. The new superbosses are okay I guess, never cared for them.
>>12920458If you're going to ask about the new GBA jobs, I will concede that they're quite cool and look good but I don't find them as good, they're fun if you're a challenge autist.
>>12920458>>12920467I really don't care about translation accuracy at all so that's not an issue. And if the new jobs look cool at least that's enough of a reason to go for that version.
>>12916519It's very grindy if you didn't build up the characters that die in the main game
>>12918487These old-timey games aren't that serious, so it's not an issue unless you're a schizo. I'd be upset if a line like that was in Final Fantasy X and was spoken by Tidus. Even in a serious story like FFX, if a random NPC says it it's whatever
>>12920997That's part of the appeal. It feels like an insurmountable dungeon that they have to go inside little by little and then come back and rest at. I won't say a whole game like that would be good though since that would take forever. But if one had infinite time, it would be great too
>>12918446The main attrait of a SFC JRPG are the graphics and the musics.And you're asking whether you should play a version with worse graphics and worse music. All for the sake of """content""" that everyone agrees ranges from "useless" to "okay". But if you're a "content" guy, sure, go for it, content guys love to eat shit. It's more content.
>>12921346I booted up both this morning to see and on a PSP screen the GBA version looks better and fits the screen well. Music doesn't matter because I play with sound off almost all the time anyway, plus I had both the OST and arranged albums back in the day and have heard all the music plenty.
>>12916451I think they’re really cool FF1 and 4 just gives you floors of new areas so at least there is variety. Kain’s lunar ruins segment actually does a lot of extra story characterizationFF2 is a brand new story (which I like it means they had to put at least some thought into it conceptually) but I lucked out and got the sun sword drop so im unsure if I experienced its regular monotonyFFV has the best content that gels with the game’s mechanics. The final dungeon actually tests if you can utilize the job system strategically to overcome nigh impossible enemiesNever really liked the FFVI dungeonAs far as Tose ports I’ll throw in Chrono Trigger: bonus dungeons are underwhelming and has a lot of fetch quests. The new ending also was just sad
>>12916451SquareEnix bonus content in general is pisspoor.>post end game dungeons full of boring overpowered enemies that still that provide a challenge to you because they can't program interesting combat>rewards like ultimate weapons or over powered abilities that don't matter anyways because there's no New Game+>dungeons aren't even interesting just palette swapped locations you often have to go through 5+ fucking times>the entire "difficulty" comes from a jacked up encounter rate and very few save points making them a slogI can't think of a single one that was fun or worth the time going through.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wHO6iX2-DII just uploaded a hack adding the GBA extras to the SNES version of Final Fantasy VI. It also has a tool included for merging it with MoleMan's old GBA translation patch, if you want the GBA text too. https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/10315/
>>12923332No thanks. I've played it enough times.
>>12923357Understandable. It does include a tool for converting existing saves into ones compatible with this hack, if someone wants to try it but doesn't want to replay the entire game just to play the GBA stuff. Along with some test saves just to try it all right away (with artificially overpowered characters though, not realistic saves).So anyone can grab a save from here and convert ithttps://fantasyanime.com/finalfantasy/ff6/ff6saves.htm
>>12923332>I just uploaded a hack adding the GBA extras to the SNES version of Final Fantasy VI. It also has a tool included for merging it with MoleMan's old GBA translation patch, if you want the GBA text too.How did you add GBA extras to the SNES versions? Can you tell us how you did that? Could you also add GBA extras to Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy V?
>>12923332>>12923367Well shit, anon. I may just have to try this out with one of my completed save files and see how my parties fare in the dragon's den.
Also, I know it may not be within the scope of the hack, but it'd be nice if a couple of baffling oversights could be tweaked, such as Mog and Edgar's "ultimate" spears actually functioned as spears with the Jump command, as they don't get the proper 2x multiplier for some reason.
>>12923515iirc there's already a japanese hack that adds the dungeon for FFV, but I think it was missing the jobs
>>12923515>>12923517What about GBA backgrounds?GBA has 240x160 resolution and not the superior SFC 256x224.
>>12923515>How did you add GBA extras to the SNES versions? Can you tell us how you did that? Not gonna be shy about it, I used ChatGPT. Had to guide it along and test it a lot, but it was done over a weekend. >Could you also add GBA extras to Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy V?I'm sure it could be done the same way, yeah. I might try that eventually, but I wanted to do FFVI because I've always wanted to play the GBA bonus content in the SNES version myself.
>>12923560
>>12923568All the boss behavior, animations, and everything else should match the original GBA game exactly. I made sure the bosses all follow the exact same scripts and everything. >>12923560Yeah, you'd have to modify those for the SNES resolution. For this hack, one thing I had to adjust was the y-position of some of the boss sprites. The big ones like Kaiser Dragon and Omega Weapon were lower on the screen because it was copying their GBA positions exactly, looked a bit off on the SNES. So I made Omega Weapon match Atma Weapon's position and raised Kaiser Dragon up a bit.
>>12923525>Also, I know it may not be within the scope of the hack, but it'd be nice if a couple of baffling oversights could be tweaked, such as Mog and Edgar's "ultimate" spears actually functioned as spears with the Jump command, as they don't get the proper 2x multiplier for some reason.How many unintentional bugs are in FF6?
>>12923601>All the boss behavior, animations, and everything else should match the original GBA game exactly. I made sure the bosses all follow the exact same scripts and everything.How were you able to add new content without replacing or removing content? Could backporting the Beastiary be done?
>>12923525>Also, I know it may not be within the scope of the hack, but it'd be nice if a couple of baffling oversights could be tweaked, such as Mog and Edgar's "ultimate" spears actually functioned as spears with the Jump command, as they don't get the proper 2x multiplier for some reason.That might be nice as an option at least. But yeah, I just stuck to the bug fixes in the GBA version for now. Evade and Vanish/Doom are fixed at least, along with the Sketch bug.
>>12923612>How were you able to add new content without replacing or removing content? Could backporting the Beastiary be done?This part was a bit tricky. There was enough extra space in the rom, so adding things like the new Espers wasn't too bad. But since the inventory is all stored in 1 byte in the original, items were capped to 256 total. Had to remove that limit to fit all 270 unique items when adding the GBA content. Which initially made some menus take a couple extra frames to load, but then I had it optimize the loading of menus a bit to match the original timing.
>>12923606A gorillion lol a bunch were fixed in the GBA version, though not all. I hope Gau can still equip weapons with the Merit Ward, too.
>>12923612I'm sure the bestiary (and music player) is possible too, I know there's at least one hack adding a bestiary already. Just not one that matches the GBA exactly.
>>12923612If there's anything I'd want, it's a smaller font to reduce the weird abbreviations. I know the ROSE hack used a slightly-smaller version of the SNES font that allowed for more space.
Not retro.
>>12923647Something like this?
>>12923632>I hope Gau can still equip weapons with the Merit Ward, too.He can, I left that in.
>>12923662No. Nothing like that. More like this where the text is adjusted to allow up to 16 letters instead of the default 12.
>>12923661>The Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo Game Boy Advance, and Sony PlayStation 2 will now be considered "retro".>Nintendo Game Boy Advancesorry anon, it's retro now
>>12923667Awesome. I have an end game save file with every character around level 20 that I'm dying to test out.
>>12923632>>12923667>>12923674Wind God Gau ruleshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhOuNpDuH_Q
>>12923332I may have to update this to get all the bosses with the proper music. I was testing without headphones and didn't realize at least some of the bosses aren't playing their boss music. Gotta fix that soon.
>>12916451All the SNES/GBA ports are trash thanks to the shitty resolution and soundThere isn't a single GBA port better than the original
>>12923696Fixed, sorry about that. Download v1.2 to get the correct music for all of the bosses. You can either use the upgrade patch for an already patched rom, or patch a fresh FFVI rom with the new version.
>>12923716that's true for all ports
>>12923723>for an already patched romLink us up
>>12923795>Default versionhttps://files.catbox.moe/8l6zch.sfc>Merged with GBA translation versionhttps://files.catbox.moe/55fqui.sfcBoth already have the fix.
>>12923670>>12923797Which is better, ROSE or GBA translation?
>>12923808I haven't seen much of ROSE yet, so couldn't tell you.
>>12923332Just wanna say it's much appreciated that you included patches for both version 1.0 and 1.1, and that the save converter works with both. I just beat Leviathan, and it was a surprisingly close call since I was not completely ready for his attacks and my characters are woefully underleveled (though by choice). That said, any chance of including B-Dash in the next version? It was in the GBA version after all.
>>12923716>>12923728
>>12923951>That said, any chance of including B-Dash in the next version? It was in the GBA version after all.It's actually already in the version with the GBA translation, since MoleMan's translation patch added B-Dashing too.That's a good idea though, I'll try to include it as an option for the SNES translation version too in the next version.
>>12923951>I just beat Leviathan, and it was a surprisingly close call since I was not completely ready for his attacks and my characters are woefully underleveled (though by choice).I had a similar experience fighting him for the first time with a reasonably leveled party. He hits hard and fast, I barely survived with Setzer alone at like 250 HP, then managed to heal and revive the rest of my party.
>>12924025Even worse for me was Gigantuar. My characters are barely above 1000 HP, so while I could deal tons of damage, his death attack of ten 1000 Needles is way too much. I ended up coming up with a strategy where I dealt lots of damage with the Gem Box + Quick + Ultima combo from Terra, then leapt Mog before delivering the coup de grace with a powerful Throw from Shadow, which triggered the last attack while Mog was in the air, so winning the fight.
>>12923951>>12924025Video of Leviathan on SNES?
>>12924034That's an awesome way to win. I always loved surviving final attacks by jumping or summoning Palidor. Coolest way to beat the MagiMaster.
>>12924046Oh yes, I happened to have a most unpleasant experience trying to beat MagiMaster with a very suboptimal team and setup not too long ago, which led me to come up with a similar strategy to get past him. It's very much a last resort for me when all else fails.
>>12920843If it's what you wanna play then go for it, don't let me be the bridge between you enjoying the game.
>>12923951>>12924018You can try this version out too if you want dashing: https://files.catbox.moe/hhc78i.sfcIt's the patched SNES Advance rom with SilentEnigma's Cancel Button Dash hack (itself building on MasterZED's old dash hack) https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5772/Here's a tool for patching SilentEnigma's version of B-Dashing into the game too, will work with either the regular or MoleMan merged version of the patched rom:https://files.catbox.moe/ly88v5.html
QRD on the differences between FF6 SFC and FF6 GBA?
Reminder that Kitase didn't see anything wrong with the mobile ports>“I am actually curious to know — I believe the port version, the one you can get right now, does use the more brushed up artwork that’s a little bit more refined,” Kitase said. “Do fans want to see the older version that’s not as refined? Is that the sentiment?”>“Yes,” I said, explaining that North American gamers have not reacted positively to the iOS and Steam versions of Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI>“Understood,” Kitase said. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
>>12924537A lot of westerners hate on the look of the sprites in the pixel remasters, but they're not aware that they are actually very close to the high res character artwork that was associated with Final Fantasy in Japan. We interpreted them differently, but if FF 4,5 or 6 had come out in higher resolution originally this is what the sprites would have looked like.
>>12925134I'm aware of that (love the old chibi art like that), but it doesn't look quite like it. A big issue is the feet, for example. Just a single overlapping foot, it looks cheap and weird.Like compare the chibi Umaro art here to the sprites.
I threw together an all-in-one options patcher for SNES Advance. The options have passed compatibility checks, and targeted gameplay tests, but I haven’t done full playthroughs of every combination of course.You can choose from Cancel Button Dash, clymax’s Turn-Based mode, RoSoDude’s Modern/Classic/CTB Wait battle systems, Spanish translation, GBA fonts, and longer item and monster names. Select which variant of the battle system you want, and combine it with the other supported options like dashing, Spanish, or GBA font.The patcher just runs locally in your browser and will work with both the supported Regular and MoleMan builds (Spanish requires Regular). Supply the original optional patches when prompted, or your US Final Fantasy VI Advance ROM to import the GBA fonts.The ZIP also includes a readme with instructions, download links, and credits to the original authors.
>>12920458Even if you don't like the new content you're not ever forced to interact with it, you can just ignore it and continue with the main game.
>>12925539Isn't that "Modern ATB" thing just how the game works normally?
>>12925552Not quite, it's a bit different, more like FFVII's implementation. It's this hack:https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/8513/https://youtu.be/Yn07vQFCMks
>>12925553Oh, I see, that sounds interesting. I never liked how default VI handles ATB, so that (or Classic ATB) might be worth a replay on its own.
>>12925539Fair warning - the GBA font isn’t fully correct yet, the text box font spacing is still off along with some other issues.
>>12925574Should be a bit better now. >>12925539Updated this to add compatibility with Ted Woolsey Uncensored Edition too. Won't currently work with some things though like the Music Player.
>>12924537This kinda reminds me of certain reports of Japanese devs being flabbergasted at people intentionally recreating the graphical limitations of old consoles in new games. For a lot of these devs, limitations were exactly that, something they had to deal with back in the day simply because that was their lot, and they were always more than glad to push past those limitations when possible, so to see people intentionally try to go back out of some sense of aesthetic is just weird to them. Perhaps Kitase sees it that way as well.
>>12924537>>12926227If it's devs that are still active today, then this point of view makes sense. If they're still in the industry today these people live and breathe modern gaming and they probably love it otherwise they'd be hating themselves and their jobs. You can't expect a modern gaming dev to have the same opinion as retro fans. If you asked them they'd probably also think old = bad game design and re-releases "QoL" that allows you to max out all your stats with the press of a button are improvements to the game. Generally, I disregard the opinion of someone still working in the industry unless he proves himself
