Final Fantasy III: General Leo Edition

This hack alters events of the game so that General Leo joins the party after the events at Thamasa in the World of Balance. The story has been tweaked in various ways so that this development makes sense in context. Shadow is demoted to "guest character" status in order to make room for Leo.

General Leo is a fully-realized party member. His equipment can be changed, he can use Espers to learn spells, he has a unique Desperation Attack, there are no graphical glitches when he rides a Chocobo or Magitek Armor, he has his own scenario for rejoining the party in the World of Ruin, and he has his own scene during the ending.

Other changes include: new scenes and more screen time for minor characters, many new equipment items, the restoration of the dummied rages, modified shops and treasure chest contents, and more.

We are currently on Version 4.0, the ninth release of this hack. This release is an entirely new product created using the https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/1267/ utility.

Thank you to everyone who tries the hack!

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| Final Fantasy VI SNES |
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| - GENERAL LEO EDITION - |
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| Version 4.0 |
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| Release: 06-10-2022 |
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| - By - |
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| Fauntleroy |
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This hack alters events of the game so that General Leo joins the party after the events at Thamasa in the World of Balance. The story has been tweaked in various ways so that this development makes sense in context. Shadow is demoted to "guest character" status in order to make room for Leo.

General Leo is a fully-realized party member. His equipment can be changed, he can use Espers to learn spells, he has a unique Desperation Attack, there are no graphical glitches when he rides a Chocobo or Magitek Armor, he has his own scenario for rejoining the party in the World of Ruin, and he has his own scene during the ending.

This patch uses the original Ted Woolsey translation as its base, but there is a lot of reworked dialogue, as well as quite a few all-new scenes. There's also a handful of secret and bonus content.

Those of you who played earlier versions of this hack will be glad to know that... SHADOW IS BACK! He can be recruited for the Sabin scenario (both ghosts are still available if you skip Shadow) and for the stretch between Kohlingen and the Opera House. He'll also join again on Crescent Island.

4.0 is a complete rebuilding of the hack from the ground up, primarily using the awesome FF6Tools utility. FF6Tools made it so much easier for me to create a cleaner product with fewer bugs (though it's always possible that one or two still slipped by me). Give it a look if you're interested in making your own hack.
https://everything8215.github.io/ff6tools/ff6tools.html

Other major changes include:
* Character names are no longer all in capital letters.
* Many menu options in all capital letters are now mixed-case.
* Various items, spells, abilities, etc. were renamed to match more recent series naming conventions, and GP is now Gil.
* The full set of attacks under the Magitek menu can be used by everyone.
* Rare items are listed in the order received, and disappear from the list once their purpose is served.
* Enemies generally use the names used in the mobile and Pixel Remaster releases.
* Faster walking speed is always in effect except for specific moments when the game requires the slower speed (Narshe invasion, opera performance, etc.).
* Treasure chests, shops, and Metamorph results were rebalanced.
* Chest contents no longer change over time, so go ahead and open them immediately.
* Empty chests in towns now contain items.
* All human enemies are weak to Poison, including the mask-wearing monks who used to absorb it.
* Shadow will no longer randomly ditch after you hire him.
* Gau starts with the Rage for every enemy that can possibly be encountered up to the Narshe battle.
* Rages are listed alphabetically in Gau's menu.
* It's possible to get the three Rages that are normally inaccessible.
* The x1 spell learning rate is retired; x2 is now the lowest rate.
* All Espers give level-up bonuses, but they're modest (+1). Only the last two Espers boost HP and MP (by 10%).
* The opera has new lyrics, so study them before going onstage!
* The whole party comes along for the flight to Vector, so you can change your party while the airship is docked at Albrook.
* The entire party is present for the reunion after the battle at Thamasa.
* Interceptor is present on the airship whenever Relm is there.
* Celes and Leo are automatically added to the party for the Floating Island, but you can bring four characters instead of three.
* It's much easier to tell which fish are safe and unsafe during the Cid convalescence sequence.
* Items such as Potion, Sleeping Bag, Mythril Shield, etc. can now be bought in the World of Ruin.
* The Falcon is empty at first, but can be crewed by friendly NPCs you encounter along the way.
* It's no longer necessary to choose between the Ragnarok sword and Magicite. (You'll see.)
* Gogo can equip all male-only and female-only equipment.
* Don't wait to upgrade the Odin Magicite. (You'll see.)
* X-Magic (or W-Magic or Dualcast) is no longer available, but you'll get something else instead.
* It's possible to have all Blue Magic spells before entering Kefka's Tower.
* Relm's last name is changed from Arrowny to Magus during the ending in order to create space for Leo's last name.
* All party members appear during the flight from the final dungeon.

Also, this hack uses the following patches developed by others:
* Alphabetical Rage by Assassin
http://assassin17.brinkster.net/patches.htm
* Always Sprint by HatZen08
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1228/
* End Game Names by madsiur
https://www.ff6hacking.com/wiki/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=ff3:ff3us:doc:game:ff3us_ending_names.zip
* Evade Bug Fix by Terii Senshi
http://www.rpglegion.com/ff6/hack/evade.htm
* RMOVE to REMOVE by Gi Nattak
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4770/
* That Damn Yellow Streak Fix by Assassin
http://assassin17.brinkster.net/patches.htm

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| Setup Instructions |
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You will need the 061022leohack.ips file as well as an unaltered copy of the SNES American release ROM.

Final Fantasy III 1.1 (U.S. version)
Dump Name Final Fantasy III (U) (V1.1) [!].smc
Filesize 24 Mbits
Header No
CRC32 C0FA0464
MD5 544311E104805E926083ACF29EC664DA
SHA-1 057ADA1C641E3E0B3CA34E6E4F4EB1B05A87143A
SHA-256 10ECCC5D2FAB81346DD759F6BE478DCB682EEF981E8D3D662DA176E1F9A996BC

After the patch is applied:
CRC32 73192B0E
MD5 FDA8D7B4FF5B7B53F82E37831292004C
SHA-1 60C0D88A0D33CC539B4E578DFE4AE02741B696CD
SHA-256 8AB642B327A4BC174F91359E82E78E656C365075657D556E0E6042AAD2BD5C3A

Please do not ask me for ROMs; I will not provide them.

I recommend using the Lunar IPS utility to apply the patch to the ROM. As of this writing, you can download Lunar IPS here:
http://fusoya.eludevisibility.org/lips/

To apply the patch:
1.) Open Lunar IPS and click the Apply IPS Patch button.
2.) Select the 061022leohack.ips file.
3.) Select the ROM to be patched.
4.) You're all set! It's that easy!

As far as which emulator to use, I personally like Snes9X. Snes9X has its own website:
http://www.snes9x.com/

Final Fantasy III (U) (V1.1) [!]
Final Fantasy III (USA) (Rev 1)
No-Intro: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (v. 20210222-050638)
File/ROM SHA-1: 057ADA1C641E3E0B3CA34E6E4F4EB1B05A87143A
File/ROM CRC32: C0FA0464