Final Fantasy VI Advance: Color Restoration Patch

To accommodate for the undersized, relatively dark monitor of the Game Boy Advance, a variety of colors in Final Fantasy VI Advance exhibit a higher degree of saturation than that of the earlier versions. Consequently, the graphics generally appear brighter, and certain colors diverge significantly from their original specifications. As such, the purpose of this patch, which supports all three versions, is to restore the colors to their former state.

A more detailed description is contained within the document bundled with the release. In addition, a collection of images designed to provide a basis for comparison can be found at the author's site.


Final Fantasy VI Advance
Color Restoration Patch

Version 1.01
Released on June 10, 2011
Last updated on September 19, 2012

By Novalia Spirit
Contact information: novaliaspirit (AIM and Hotmail)
http://novaliaspirit.99k.org/


Table of contents:
1. Description
2. Version history
3. Acknowledgements
4. Legal disclaimer


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1. Description
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To accommodate for the undersized, relatively dark monitor of the Game Boy
Advance, a variety of colors in Final Fantasy VI Advance exhibit a higher
degree of saturation than that of the earlier versions. Consequently, the
graphics generally appear brighter, and certain colors diverge significantly
from their original specifications. As such, the purpose of this patch, which
supports all three versions, is to restore the colors to their former state.

Elements whose colors have been restored:
? The initial fade-in for particular sequences such as the title screen.
? The snowfield and snowflakes from the opening credits.
? Blue and yellow text displayed in menus outside of combat.
? Various shades of grey for text displayed in menus outside of combat.
? Character portraits, including Terra in the form of an esper,
which originates from the PlayStation installments.
? Status icons.
? Versus icon from the coliseum.
? Character sprites as displayed in menus.
? Maps and sprites for locations that do not utilize Mode 7.
? Map timer, whose sprites inherited a custom palette.
? Palette-oriented map animations, such as that of the river surrounding Doma.
? Overworld maps and skies.
? Portion of the gradient overlay that covers the sky.
? Serpent Trench map and arrows.
? Scrolling backgrounds from the mine cart sequence.
? Monsters and espers, including the alternate forms of the legendary dragons.
? Battle backgrounds.

Elements where no modifications were necessary:
? Lightning bolts, clouds, and mountains from the title screen.
? Default parameters for fonts and wallpapers.
? All menu text, with a few exceptions.
? Character sprites as displayed in battle.
? Substitute colors for status effects.
? Blink indicating enemy action.
? Conventional death animation for monsters.
? Magitek armor as displayed in battle.
? Battle gauges.
? Slot reels.
? Attack animations.
? Evasive actions, including Golem and Interceptor.
? Miscellaneous battle graphics: healing and damage numerals, miss
message, cursors, arrows, character shadows, status animations.
? Substitute background colors for the encounter with Chadarnook.
? The reaction of Tritoch during the initial encounter.
? Overworld sprites, excluding the aforementioned overlay.
? Substitute backdrop of the sky for the approach toward Vector.
? Scene depicting the emergence of the floating continent.
? Closing cinematic to the World of Balance.
? Graphics exclusive to the epilogue.
? Screen that denotes the conclusion of the narrative.

Elements whose colors have yet to be restored:
? The logo from the title screen, as the restoration attempt did not yield the
intended result; the alpha-blending process is suspected to be the culprit.

Bugs originally present in the game:
? As indicated in the following section, a fade-in is achieved by gradually
increasing color components. Because of imperfections stemming from the
algorithm, the process is concluded by the direct restoration of the colors.
Certain events that take place on the overworld, namely the scenes involving
the Light of Judgment, disregard this final phase, resulting in slightly
darker images.
? Because of a programming error, the palette of Air Force is inherited by
Missile Bay, thereby resulting in a color scheme that is dominated by
various shades of red and grey.
? As the two forms of Chadarnook interchange, the background colors are
constantly substituted, many of which persist thereafter. In the portable
versions, however, the auxiliary shades retain their original configuration,
permanently forcing the background into a considerably darker state.
? To accommodate the various subsystems, three different arrangements of
character palettes were generated. The first was designed for the battle
engine and retains its original aspect. The remaining sets, associated with
maps and menus, appear brighter and exhibit discrepancies, which are
particularly pronounced in the case of Umaro. The menu palettes in the
American version were restored to their initial state as an attempt to
remediate the situation, which fails to address the crux of the issue.

Version differences:
? The visual representation of the colors remains consistent between the Super
Famicom and the Super Nintendo versions. The sole exception lies in the
lightning bolts from the title screen, which are purple and yellow,
respectively.
? Character portraits seen in the handheld counterparts are slightly smaller.
As a result, certain colors have become obsolete, additional colors have
been incorporated, and the internal arrangement of each palette has been
considerably altered.
? A number of monsters in the Game Boy Advance editions no longer share a
common palette. Each element duplicated for this purpose thus led to a
corresponding shift in the data.
? Another difference pertaining to the handheld releases lies in the fact that
the absolute degree of brightness is no longer regulated by a hardware
register. Rather, the colors are adjusted on a real-time basis to achieve an
analogous effect from which a number of discrepancies arise, as demonstrated
by the comparatively darker output when gameplay is paused amidst a battle.
? The text displayed in the menus outside of combat, as well as the versus
icon from the coliseum, feature only a single shade of grey in the Game Boy
Advance versions. The palettes are generated strictly by code.
? As a result of the censorship in the European and American adaptations for
the Game Boy Advance, the palettes for Siren and the female form of
Chadarnook were restored to their original state. It should also be noted
that while the distinction is indiscernible, Siren exhibits a palette with a
radically different arrangement.

Supplementary patches:
? Lightning: Converts the purple color of the lightning bolts from the title
screen into yellow. Refer to the preceding list for the rationale underlying
this modification.
? Monster: By reversing the process that served to lighten preexisting
monsters and espers, this patch attempts to emulate the restoration for
those newly introduced, which includes Enkidu. Because of the slightly
inaccurate nature of the reversal process, certain liberties had to be
taken.
? Animation: By reversing the process that served to lighten preexisting
monsters and espers, this patch attempts to emulate the restoration for new
attack animations. Only the following elements of such animations refrain
from utilizing an existing palette: needles fired by Gigantuar, weapons of
Gilgamesh, spheres and bats accompanying Diabolos.

Supplementary patches that have yet to be created:
? A patch that improves the gradient effects for the menus, the world maps,
etc. While these are not colors per se, their effect is sufficiently
pronounced to warrant an intervention.


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2. Version history
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Version 1.01:
- Restored the various shades of grey for the field menus and the versus icon
from the coliseum. Updated the description accordingly.


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3. Acknowledgements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

erokky, for his invaluable assistance with proofreading and for proposing a
substantial number of improvements with respect to the description.


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4. Legal disclaimer
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The contents of this document cannot be reproduced without the written consent
of the author, unless for personal purposes. Permission to distribute the files
included in the archive is granted exclusively to www.romhacking.net.

? 2011, 2012 Jame Coban. All rights reserved.


No-Intro name: 2568 - Final Fantasy VI Advance (Japan)
CRC-32: D67478FE
MD-5: 09DAF6531DED19B7921367084E439B2F
SHA-1: 1850FEDDE7305C4BAF42E0594AAABE17C549D7E2

No-Intro name: 2657 - Final Fantasy VI Advance (USA)
CRC-32: D708F5AB
MD-5: D1C3D1798A3F347FBAB41F151C99DECE
SHA-1: E9A2A58BC56ACE26CB56D0CF5CDAD1A10AA5DEDF

No-Intro name: 2721 - Final Fantasy VI Advance (Europe) (En,Fr,De,Es,It)
CRC-32: D15DEBA5
MD-5: 7F6BF3B4D84F113AA454136E5B53FD77
SHA-1: C5B27ED0870EA64E6A001C5BC367F76571ACE973