Other good romhacks?
#1
20 April 2016 - 07:56 PM
I love this romhack. It breathes new life into a game I love, and it's full of good game design ideas. I wonder, are there other romhacks out there that give other games this sort of treatment?
I recently started playing Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, but I'm a little upset about how experience and ability points are awarded in this game. You earn points per action, so casting a slow spell that takes out a whole crowd of enemies will earn you less points than hiding in a corner and pointlessly spamming Focus or quaffing potions. I'd love to see it changed to a more traditional system where all party members get the same number of points at the end of a battle. I'd also like to see JP Boost removed and the game balanced to not require too much grinding for casual play.
Perhaps a similar treatment could be given to Final Fantasy 2? Or at least a change so that you don't have to practice every spell individually, so Ultima can actually be good the moment you get it.
What other beloved games could use some major fixups?
#2
20 April 2016 - 08:10 PM
FF2 seems like it has so many underlying issues that it wouldn't be a good base for a mod. In the sense that you're better off modding something else or writing from scratch.
#4
20 April 2016 - 09:25 PM
Emmy, on 20 April 2016 - 08:10 PM, said:
Oh cool. Is this your hack? It seems to have some of the qualities you described. It'd be pretty cool if someone could figure out how to award XP at the end of battles though! I'm sure if the geniuses here could make that whole esper bank system someone should be able to figure this out.
#5
21 April 2016 - 07:13 AM
Rynzer's FF4 Hack is here
ROTDS is fun if you like feeling like you're on crack.
MMX HT is great if you hate your hands.
#6
21 April 2016 - 07:34 AM
Seriously, BNW and NT may be two very different mods with very different base games, but I'm convinced their target audience is the same.
#7
21 April 2016 - 08:22 AM
There's a Japanese hack called T-Edition which adds customizable costumes for characters that unlock new abilities while changing their sprite, and it adds a quest system to NPCs. You talk to a bartender, they tell you that there's a scary monster in a cave, you go kill it, and get a reward. I have only seen videos of this one but it seems pretty rad.
FF5 for GBA has a fantastic hack that allows you to set every single one of your commands when switching jobs rather than just two. You can break the game pretty easily this way, but it's pretty damn fun.
#8
21 April 2016 - 09:42 AM
squirrelpup, on 20 April 2016 - 07:56 PM, said:
I recently started playing Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, but I'm a little upset about how experience and ability points are awarded in this game. You earn points per action, so casting a slow spell that takes out a whole crowd of enemies will earn you less points than hiding in a corner and pointlessly spamming Focus or quaffing potions. I'd love to see it changed to a more traditional system where all party members get the same number of points at the end of a battle. I'd also like to see JP Boost removed and the game balanced to not require too much grinding for casual play.
Perhaps a similar treatment could be given to Final Fantasy 2? Or at least a change so that you don't have to practice every spell individually, so Ultima can actually be good the moment you get it.
What other beloved games could use some major fixups?
Return of the Dark Sorceror, also on these boards is an excellent FF6 hack. The scope of BNW is a complete rebalance of the original that fixes a multitude of flaws and adds new dynamics to the game. It represents what FF6 should have been. ROTDS is a completely new game, set in the world of FF6 with different characters, new custom cut scenes, new spells and espers, new bosses, a new world map, completely revamped dialogue and graphical overhaul that makes it look more vibrant and beautiful than FF6 originally was. The difficulty of the game is much higher than BNW, but still doable.
#9
21 April 2016 - 11:23 AM
I also really like the Chrono Trigger mod here, but it does not overhaul anything in the game, it is just really good.
#10
21 April 2016 - 11:47 AM
#11
21 April 2016 - 11:53 AM
That said, Monster Tactics sounds like a fun idea, and I'll check out some of these other things too, thanks!
Hey, here's a longshot, but has anyone modified an RPG to completely remove the experience/equipment treadmill? I'd love to see a game where no equipment is definitively better than other equipment, and higher level characters are not definitively better than lower level ones. Experience points could still be used to unlock more complex abilities that could be used for greater strategery though. Closest thing I've found so far is Undertale, where you can beat the game with 0 exp without too much difficulty, and I guess "weak mode" in FF12IZJS exists, and no exp mode in BNW, but I don't think the game was intentionally designed around it. Heck, even Tactics doesn't seem to care about experience levels much compared to learned abilities, though the equipment treadmill picks up the slack. BNW equipment approaches this, but there's still a lot of stuff that obsoletes other stuff.
Btw, FF4DS actually feels like a complete re-imagining of the original game that makes all the encounters more dangerous and interesting. I don't see first-party remakes of this quality often.
#12
21 April 2016 - 11:56 AM
Removing Exp systems would take ALOT more work than it sounds, I think; changing entire sections of code because it is so integrated.
#13
21 April 2016 - 12:12 PM
#14
21 April 2016 - 12:25 PM
#15
21 April 2016 - 12:51 PM
Thunen, on 21 April 2016 - 12:25 PM, said:
I wonder how they handle two-handed? In the iOS version, equipping two-handed prevents you from equipping anything in your off hand. Also, I guess this means you can't turn off stuff like rapid-fire?
#16
21 April 2016 - 01:17 PM
Rapid Fire is an activated ability, so you have to select it in battle to use it.
#18
25 April 2016 - 06:43 PM
Secret of Evermore Gameplay Balance Patch is another keeper. Weapons and
FF5 Spoof is a hilarious take on the original, if you don't mind being a bit offended. For instance, Black Mages are now called "Mexicans." After the tutorial showing you how to change your job...
So there's that.
#20
26 April 2016 - 09:11 AM
Hart-Hunt, on 21 April 2016 - 07:34 AM, said:
Seriously, BNW and NT may be two very different mods with very different base games, but I'm convinced their target audience is the same.
You are not alone on this. Honestly, I feel that while 1.3 paved the way for this site to get a ton of hacks, these two will forever be my go-to hacks that I recommend for people.
But that's just me, I feel like 1.3 could use a bit of a scrubbing to clean it up a bit around chapter 4.