My most recent and arguably most ambitious project to date, Brave New World is a joint effort between myself and a fellow by the name of Synchysi, the result of which is a complete overhaul of perhaps the most beloved entry in the long-running Final Fantasy series.

Our mod proudly features...

• Character-based esper restrictions & new stat boosts that promote greater diversity and allow for customized development

• New and reworked formulas which rescue everything that isn't magic or magic evasion from the dump-stat heap

• Rebalanced equipment, items, spells, and skills that aim to remove dead weight and give players more (and better) choices

• A complete overhaul of enemies from their stats to their behavior to better challenge veteran players and newcomers alike

• Tons of bugfixes, as well as remedies to many of the game's more annoying aspects (such as rage hunting taking a lifetime)

• A new script that restores much of what was lost in translation and builds on existing plotlines and characterization

• Much, much more

But even though much has changed, I think one player who blogged about our mod put it best when he wrote, "...the goal seems to be to celebrate what makes FFVI the game it is, rather than undoing it and making an entirely new game out of it." Verily, Brave New World is beyond all else everything I feel that Final Fantasy VI could (and should) have been if at least half of its dev team wasn't on crack. And as the above post continues on to suggest, our mod was created to be accessible to brand new players as much as it was to people who've played FFVI dozens - or even hundreds - of times.

• 1.8.4 - Fixed a major bug introduced in 1.8.2 that prevented esper equip bonuses from functioning
• 1.8.4 - Corrected the spelling of two enemy names (Trillium and Djinn)
• 1.8.3 - Fixed a minor bug in the config menu where window colors would not reset to default if A was pressed while on the "B" slider
• 1.8.3 - The Clean New World patch now properly updates the version displayed in the config menu
• 1.8.2 - Fixed a major bug from in the previous version that caused the piranha fight to be unwinnable
• 1.8.2 - Fixed a bug where Phantom was only giving +4 M.Block instead of +10
• 1.8.1 - Fixed a bug in the config menu where commands could not be rearranged in the "short" battle menu and the multiple controller option could not be set up at all
• 1.8.1 - Removed an exploit where Rizopas could be skipped by killing Piranhas with a counter-attack
• 1.8.1 - Corrected a minor error in the BNWCP
• ---
• Added a new hack that allows espers to provide on-equip bonuses just as equipment would
• Added a new hack that greatly improves the display of positive status effects on your party in battle and allows Scan to report all status effects on enemies
• Corrected an overflow error in the physical damage formula
• Slowed down high-level character growth by adding a third experience "hump" after level 30 and pulling the "soft" cap back from 40 to the late 30's
• Per the above, also nerfed one of the game's more notorious grinding spots
• Phoenix Tears now revive characters to 3/4 of their max HP (instead of 1/2)
• Set Crusader's stat bonus to Speed+1/Stamina+1 (instead of Vigor+1/Speed+1)
• Added the "randomly counters" property to the Zantetsuken
• Removed the Atma Weapon's HP bonus and set the Omega Weapon's to HP/MP (instead of just HP)
• Removed the Gungnir's HP boost and slightly boosted the Longinus's battle power (150 -> 160)
• The Excalibur now has a unique appearance (it was previously identical to the Apocalypse)
• Lowered the defense on the Mythril Kite (20/20 -> 15/15) and renamed it to "Targe" to distinguish it from heavy shields
• The "protect near-death allies" effect on some relics should no longer activate when certain statuses are present or if the attack originated from an ally
• Fixed a bug where using Dice with a Black Belt would cause three dice to be thrown instead of two
• Fixed the incorrect stats on the Circlet (now set to Mag+5/Stam+3 instead of Stam+5/Mag+3)
• Added a hack to allow Gogo to use MP for rod crits without needing Magic or Lore set as commands
• Modified the "Blind Accuracy" hack to allow blindness to affect the Jump command
• Enemy "special" attacks which inflict instant death no longer ignore death immunity
• Fixed a bug where the Ice Rabbit dance step was not healing HP like it's supposed to
• Made significant changes to the enemy scripts for Wrexsoul, the Battle on the Bridge, and the final tower of bosses (excluding Kefka)
• Edited Vargas's battle script to make the Blitz execution more obvious/less punishing to new players
• Chadarnook no longer absorbs Fire or Bolt damage
• Zone Eater is now immune to the bserk status
• Pugs should now fight back in the Colosseum
• Fixed a broken animation in Wrexsoul's intro
• Swapped the palettes of the Starlight and Moonlight animations
• Removed the Mythril Dirk that was mistakenly left up for sale at Figaro Castle
• Symbols no longer appear to compare equipment being purchased to what you already have equipped
• The "hidden" screen which shows everyone's equipment now also displays equipped espers
• Removed the small overlay which identifies the skill sub-menus (i.e. Espers, Spells, Bushido...) and displays the MP cost of a chosen spell
• Per the above, spell costs are now visible by default in the main menu panel
• Removed the non-functional "Optimize" command from the equip menu and the also non-functional battle speed slider from the config menu
• Condensed the list of known rages in the skills menu (only the first 64 slots are used now)
• Modified the text for EL bonuses in the menu to read "EL Bonus" instead of "At Level Up"
• Evade and mblock are no longer shown as percentages in the menu (since they are out of 128, not 100)
• Some minor dialogue edits (along with a few other small changes not worth mentioning)