Shining Force: Shining Force Join Order Randomizer

This patch makes the game randomize the timings at which characters join, with the exception of Max himself and the non-promotable characters: Domingo, Musashi, and Hanzou only randomize between each other, and Jogurt remains fixed. Characters' starting levels are also swapped to match whoever's spot they replaced.

Some character inventories are also affected: Domingo swaps equipment with whoever replaces him (so as to not have a Katana or Doom Blade by chapter 4) and Lyle's weapon is replaced by the same initial weapon as Hans if Lyle's starting level is less than 8 (so as to not have an Elven Arrow at the start of the game).

Cutscene sprites and dialogue are not affected, but join messages are changed to match the new character, with the exception of the first group of 4.

Characters' stats are entirely untouched by the main patch, which may lead to some balance issues: since Bleu and Adam originally start at very low levels and had stat progressions with that in mind, Bleu and Adam's unpromoted classes get extraordinarily high stats and whoever replace them start with really low levels. This side-patch is available to somewhat alleviate these issues, with some bonus starting level changes (details in readme). There's also an alternative side-patch that only upwardly adjusts starting levels and leaves Bleu Adam's stat progressions intact.

Join Order Randomizer
v1.3.1
(apply patch to US version of SF1 ROM of .BIN format)

This patch makes the game randomize the timings at which characters join, with the exception of Max himself and the non-promotable characters: Domingo, Musashi, and Hanzou only randomize between each other, and Jogurt remains fixed. Characters' starting levels are also swapped to match whoever's spot they replaced.

Some character inventories are also affected: Domingo swaps equipment with whoever replaces him (so as to not have a Katana or Doom Blade by chapter 4) and Lyle's weapon is replaced by the same initial weapon as Hans if Lyle's starting level is less than 8 (so as to not have an Elven Arrow at the start of the game).

Cutscene sprites and dialogue are not affected, but join messages are changed to match the new character, with the exception of the first group of 4.

Characters' stats are entirely untouched by the main patch, which may lead to some balance issues: since Bleu and Adam originally start at very low levels and had stat progressions with that in mind, Bleu and Adam's unpromoted classes get extraordinarily high stats and whoever replace them start with really low levels. An optional patch is available to somewhat alleviate these issues by making the following changes.

join level changes by character slot:
Khris lv 2 -> 3
Anri lv 3 -> 4
Arthur lv 4 -> 5
Amon lv 5 -> 6
Balbaroy lv 5 -> 6
Diane lv 6 -> 7
Pelle lv 8 -> 10
Vankar lv 8 -> 10
Kokichi lv 7 -> 10
Guntz lv 9 -> 11
Bleu lv 9 -> 15
Lyle lv 8 -> 16
Alef lv 15 -> 20
Torasu lv16 -> 20
Adam lv 8 -> 20!
Hanzou lv 10 -> 13

stat changes:
Bleu AT base 10 -> 12
Bleu AT growth1 35 -> 25
Bleu AT growth2 37 -> 44
Bleu DF growth1 22 -> 19
Bleu DF growth2 55 -> 58
Adam HP base 15 -> 10
Adam HP growth1 18 -> 16
Adam HP growth2 44 -> 50
Adam AT base 10 -> 12
Adam AT growth1 25 -> 23
Adam DF base 14 -> 8
Adam DF growth2 53 -> 58

There's also an alternative side-patch that only upwardly adjusts starting levels and leaves Bleu Adam's stat progressions intact.



v.1.3.1 (20200623)
fixed Pelle's join event breaking in v1.2.1
fixed priest save/load resetting all join events to only Max
made priest save/load fix be semi-retroactive (as long as data hadn't already been blanked out)

v1.2.1 (20200620)
actually fixed join messages (still except for the initial group of 4)

v1.2.0 (20200620)
fixed join messages (except for the initial group of Luke/Ken/Tao/Hans joining all at once)

v1.1.0 (20200618)
enabled randomizing between Domingo, Musashi, and Hanzou
added swapping out Musashi or Hanzou's equipped item
added dynamically changing Lyle's starting weapon between Elven Arrow and Wooden Arrow

v1.0.1 (2020618)
fixed Domingo unintentionally swapping with the regular cast

v1.0.0 (20200618)
initial release
randomize character join order
(domingo and jogurt don't change)
(musashi and hanzou only swap between each other)
match starting level
join messages are wrong (blank name)

Database match: Shining Force (USA)
Database: No-Intro: Genesis (v. 20180824-045026)
File/ROM SHA-1: 7CBB3ED31C982750D70A273B9561A9E1B2C04EEA
File/ROM CRC32: E0594ABE