Final Fantasy III: ReturnerScum's Final Fantasy VI

Hey Adventurers,

This is a remake of Gogo13's http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/707/ with some extra little changes to the silly parts of the dialogue to make it less immersion-breaking. Gogo13's version made some nice professional changes that other versions did not, but in the end it was a bit too slow and hard. This game should be fine for anyone who can win normal RPGs or JRPGs. Just read the readme in the download for a better intro to this version, and check out the easy-to-read documents in there also to easily see what's changed (everything has been rebalanced, just like FFVI:BGE). Once you see those docs it'll be clear that this version comes from a real love for this game as it is truly one of the best games of all time and deserves to be played by as many people who genuinely love RPGs.

Some changes in the future might happen based on feedback, such as how fast heroes level up in the WoR.

If you come across any bugs send a private message and it'll get checked out.

Thanks and GL HF,

ReturnerScum

ReturnerScum's Final Fantasy VI
v.98
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ReadMe
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Overview
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It is undeniable that Final Fantasy VI has one of the greatest stories of all time. This version is an attempt to maximize the gameplay for the player, as heroes throughout that story. If you peruse the supporting documents of this package, you will see that almost everything has changed in value, with many nice new flashy abilities on top of that. The monster AI is different, almost all items have been renamed and weapons should look cooler, much cooler than your nude female characters on Skyrim. Sparse changes have been made to the dialogue, to edit out some silliness of the English translation. The only thing that hasn't been changed, that I can think of, are the character art and monster formations.

This game is not meant to be difficult, but it is not amazingly easy like the original. Strategy and understanding will help, or you can grind (or use ZNES to rewind bad moves). Save-states are a time-saver, as is fast-forward if you're tired of those sweet sweet SNES animations.

One thing that might shock some canonical fans are the removal of two hero skills: Slot and Sketch/control. This version replaces them with what I've found to prefer as gameplay options, and every hero is a good time.

Rest assured that although this game was edited for my own tastes, I think you will find it to be a great adventure.

Best of luck saving the world,
-ReturnerScum

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What You Need to Know
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Getting Started (Installation)
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I began this project with the US 1.1 headered ROM with the checksum below. If you don't use the right patch for the ROM you have, the game will not work. ROMs usually do not come headered, and can be headered via utilities such as NSRT.

The most popular FF6 version used is 1.0 unheadered, so try using that patch first.

To patch the file to the ROM, use an IPS patching tool such as Lunar IPS or IPS Patcher (included with this release). I made the game using Znes 1.51 and Lunar IPS, and the FF3 US v1.1 ROM. The patch was made with Lunar IPS.

FF3 US ROM 1.0 Initial Stats before Patching (info found via NSRT)
Checksum 0x5F32
CRC32 A27F1C7A
MD5 E986575B98300F721CE27C180264D890
Note: Applies to both headered & unheadered ROM (the header was created with NSRT)

FF3 US ROM v1.1 Initial Stats before Patching:
Checksum 0x8A60
CRC32 C0FA0464
MD5 544311E104805E926083ACF29EC664DA
Note: Applies to both headered & unheadered ROM (the unheadered was created with NSRT from 1.1 with these stats)

Stats after Patching
Checksum Bad 0x0A02 != 0x8A60
CRC32 1EB7793EB
MD5 7E63FE9017BB678179D86B4A28EF34E0

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Item Terminology
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Big sword = 85% hit rate, -20 evade
Piercing = dmg ignores defense, which can be cancelled by some creatures with "ignore ignore defense"
Prismatic = uses every element
Unavoidable = can't be dodged
inc.MDmg = increases magic damage 25% (stacks up to two times)
inc.Mgc = increases magic damage 25% (stacks up to two times)
inc.phys = increases physical damage 25%
b.row = same damage from the back row
revenge = Damage increases as your HP is lower than maximum HP
Prot.Allies or prot. = Your hero takes damage for allies when they are at low HP
100%Hit Rate = 100% Hit Rate, meaning accuracy is normal
100HR = 100 Hit Rate, meaning accuracy is normal
75HR = 75 Hit Rate, meaning 25% chance to miss against 0% evade
100%Hit = Hits everytime, very different than 100%Hit Rate
KWL = Killed when low hp
RWL = Redemption when low hp (healed, life3)
QWL = Quick when low hp (2 turns given)
1/2MP = MP cost is half for spells
GhostHP = healing causes damage, death spells can restore HP
Final Fantasy 3 Roulette anti-switch patch

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Important Changes Elsewhere Undescribed
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THE GAME IS MEANT TO BE PLAYED IN THE BACK ROW, unless you can get away with the front row, for more damage!

Press the B button input to run!

Relm has skills, you just have to equip her with an esper once.

Everything is expensive, and money is hard to get. Sell your elixirs on rainy days.

Shadow will now never leave your party randomly at the end of battle.

Terra's morph is now infinite but she incurs double damage and deals double damage, for physical and magic.

All of the rages have changed. You will be able to find a superior attack/spell in rages at each level of the game. However, at present there is a chunk of the rages mimic their monsters to the point of being a bit boring (no Quasar/Goner rages). For the most part, rages don't have skills that come from Dance or Lore.

Throw now ignores row, defense, and has 100% hit.

Slow/Haste effects have been doubled. Reflect is now much more powerful, and does not go away with time, and hard to remove.

Jump now gives 100% chance to hit and deals +50% damage.

Runic is no longer gone after Celes chooses to use a new turn. If Runic is used and has not absorbed a spell, it will continue to be in play and Celes may continue battle as normal.

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Helpful Tips for the Patient Reader
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Following Djibriel's walkthrough will make you less frustrated, and laugh a lot. It will tell you how to get each item and not miss out on anything.

I suggest 30-50 tonics for the fight against TunnlArmr and when in Zozo, and for Number 024.

MP is maxed out at 999 by around level 75, so esper bonuses with +MP% should be valued lightly. +HP% is still not very useful either, except for the last 10 levels, which would give an extra 1,000 HP.

There are some monsters you have to run from; You just aren't strong enough at that time.

Some bosses may seem impossible. They are not! Be the hero.

Save in the WoR, because if you run into Doomgaze, he casts a death spell to everyone as his first action.

There is no +2 Vigor esper bonus, but 128 vigor should be as powerful as the most mPwr you can get, so level up your heroes with that understood!!
The max vigor you will need is 43, assuming you'll use all item slots giving +7 vigor, which would be unpractical to do. 55 or 60 vigor is usually enough.

When you reach the World of Ruin, the outdoors are tough! Some areas are just too strong. And now it's just you and the world, where you'll have to find ways of getting money and items--the storyline isn't pushing you to the next treasure pile any more. Also, leveling up is really relaxed for levels 26-50, but getting those uber levels takes smarts or dedication, or both.

With the Ragnarok Magicite, you don't get anything you otherwise wouldn't later on, but it's very later on. With the Sword, it is a level 30 sword with good damage and a randomly cast spell, but not an item worthy of keeping until the end. It depends if you are strong on casters or fighters at the time. The Ragnorok sword, however, can be traded for a better legendary item at the colloseum, effectively increasing the amount of ultimate items you can have.

Paladin Shield is great for the time you get it, and is useful throughout the game on light armor characters, but somewhat uncompetitive to heavy shields gained at level 65 areas and above. It cannot be used by Relm or Shadow, unless with a Merit Award.

There is a utility downloadable for finding Doom Gaze, if you're brave enough to hunt him.

You will probably need Bahamut before you can beat Fanatic's Tower. The MagiMaster is very difficult.

Debilitators can be bought in the WoR auction house for almost 10,000,000 GP and traded in the colloseum for top-tier weapons.

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Random Problems and Bugs
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Hyperwrists, when a hero has negative vigor, gives 128 vigor. This is not intentional and I ask that you do not abuse this if you want the game to play as it should. The Psycho Cyan bug is the same problem. Also, please do not abuse the "2 Handed Weapon" bug that allows you to use two hand slots, when it initially tries to only allow one slot.

Physical damage seems to overflow back to 1 if a monster does about 24000 damage before any damage enhancements (crit, etc.), so calculating how much a monster does can be tricky if this overflow applies.

When Ultros meets Relm, he is already at such low HP that Relm will talk to him without you fighting him. Normally Relm would need to sketch Ultros, but killing him easily is the way to advance now. I only changed his HP, because I believe that scene should end quickly.

If a monster becomes turned into a zombie, then the monster will disappear and be untargetable, but will remain in the fight until all monsters have been turned into zombies or killed. The zombie monsters will act like zombies and usually attack their friends, but sometimes wierd things can happen, such as they heal friends instead of hurt them.

The battle of Kefka vs. Ifrit sometimes bugs out. Just retry and it works.

The Atma Weapon can sometimes cause the party action menu to not appear if the game is being fast-forwarded, especially if fast-forwarded for a long time.

Shadow's battle action can become stalled rarely, losing control of the hero until killed and revived.

Shadow's throw has thrown to all enemies if such targeting is possible, and Shadow moves forward by half of the field.

Emulators seem to have rare problems with the battle sequencing, making the battle menu not pop up. I believe this is due to fast-forwarding.

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Level of difficulty progession throughout the World of Ruin:
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Level Area
22 South Continent Outdoors Area
24 Owzer's Mansion
26 Cave to S. Figaro
27 Castle Figaro Basement
29 Kohlingen Outdoors
31 S. Figaro Outdoors Area
33 SW, & North - Narshe, Miranda, Zozo, Jidoor Outdoors - Grass, Desert, Forest, Wasteland
35 Mt. Zozo
37 Cave to Veldt
39 Thamasa Outdoors - Forest & Grassland, Wasteland
41 Solitary Island
43 Narshe
45 North East Outdoors - Grassland, Wasteland, Forest
47 Narshe Caves
49 Phoenix Cave
51 Triangle Island Outdoors
53 Triangle Island
55 Daryl's Tomb
57 Ebot's Rock
59 Fanatic's Tower
60 Air (Doom Gaze)
64 Cyan's Soul
66 Cave to the Ancient Castle
68 Underground Palace
70-75 Kefka's Tower

(You probably can't win at level 75)

**note: Black Dragons and Hoovers are level 45, Tyranosaurs are level 61, and Bracheosaurs are level 70.

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Patches Used & Credits
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All edits of this amazing game stand on the shoulders of countless hours of toil and expertise from the FF6 editing community. Most of the names involved are listed as the authors of patches I've included in this game, but the essential name who is not there is LordJ, who created the FF6usME editor which is 95% responsible for the making of this version (and whom is still making his editor better, as if that's possible). Also, this version was created from the base of FF6 Eviltype, by SageAcrin, which was then further edited in large amounts by Gogo13, and enjoys all of the benefits from that version which I haven't altered, such as parts of monster scripts and much of their elemental weaknesses.

The following great patches were implemented for the game. Their names and authors are listed, and their benefits to Final Fantasy VI will forever be a legacy.

EvadeFix - Terii Senshi
Rage missing 3 fix - Terii Senshi
Rippler status fix - Terii Senshi
1-way status immunity fix - Assassin
Magic Damage Overflow fix - Assassin
Alphabetical Rage patch - Assassin
Recapture the Glory fix - Assassin
Multi-Steal-Fix v1.01 - Imzogelmo
The Elemental Display v1.1 - Lenophis
Offering + Sniper Sight modification - Lenophis
Ignore Defense v1.10 - Drakkhen
Ignore Ignore-Defense v1.81 - Drakkhen
Ignore Ignore-Defense for Characters - Drakkhen
I condemn thee to hell! - Lenophis
For What Ails Ya - Lenophis, Imzogelmo, Kejardon
FF3us Invert Damage if Undead fix - Master ZED
SwordTech Ready Stance 1.0 - Hatzen08 (note, this was manually entered into my ROM due to a 3-byte difference)
Runic Forever 1.0 - Hatzen08
True Duel 1.0 - Hatzen08
Dash Button - MasterZED


Also credit goes to Warrax for the idea of making heals only targetable to allies. Much help was given from Lenophis, Izmogelmo, Drakkhen, Warrax, Assassin, and others for specific coding issues, such as changing items given instead of found in chests, modifying jump damage, and pointing to the necessary information to make changes to slow and haste.

AND YOU

FF3 US ROM 1.0 Initial Stats before Patching (info found via NSRT)
Checksum 0x5F32
CRC32 A27F1C7A
MD5 E986575B98300F721CE27C180264D890
Note: Applies to both headered & unheadered ROM (the header was created with NSRT)
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FF3 US ROM v1.1 Initial Stats before Patching:
Checksum 0x8A60
CRC32 C0FA0464
MD5 544311E104805E926083ACF29EC664DA
Note: Applies to both headered & unheadered ROM (the unheadered was created with NSRT from 1.1 with these stats)
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Stats after Patching
Checksum Bad 0x0A02 != 0x8A60
CRC32 1EB7793EB
MD5 7E63FE9017BB678179D86B4A28EF34E0