Insane Difficulty: fix-only Patch - Insane Difficulty

I still find it weird that people want a fix-only patch instead of playing the actual hack. The original game has terrible balancing, IMHO, and the fix-only patch just makes the balancing worse. If people don't want increased difficulty, they can play the hack with the lowest difficulty setting.

The "Wuss" mode is probably closest to the vanilla version. I tried fighting the Black Rabites of the vanilla game and the Wuss mode side by side, and I think the Wuss mode is still harder - though not hard by any means. In the vanilla game, casting merely Power Down on the Black Rabite makes his physical attacks do 1 HP damage, while in the Wuss mode, a combination of Protect Up + Power Down reduces the damage of his physical attacks to ~86 HP.

Basically, I use the Wuss mode if I just want to experiment and breeze through everything, Easy mode if I want a casual playthrough, Normal mode if I want challenge (all my playthroughs have been on Normal so far), and Hard mode if I want excuses to break my controllers.

Sefie1999AD, on 11 January 2016 - 02:03 AM, said:

I'm not certain I'd call the original balancing terrible - because there is none. almost free items that replace entire classes, negatively broken spell casting, buffs + debuffs that can reduce damage to 0, Kevin,... you know the rest

Sefie1999AD, on 11 January 2016 - 02:03 AM, said:

vanilla Black Rabite does damage? he dies to Evil Gate + Holy Ball!
the intended degree is vanilla difficulty ~ easy hack
but... well, vanilla buffs+debuffs are way OP, and damage formulas broken.
let's just say in vanilla you die without a question if 2 Nightblades/Bloodwolfs/whatever start the fight with their MT techs.
because 320+ attack x2.5 = easily 800, capped at 999 attack power
reduced by at most 300 defense = 500+ damage = 2 hit game over
in the easy hack it would be... 150 each or so? at least very far from a wipe

Sefie1999AD, on 11 January 2016 - 02:03 AM, said:

well, then they fit their names perfectly

This is my first reply after play testing the fix only patch..

I have noticed the game is a little harder with the patch applied (strong enemies can
crit you now) and even though you can crit them too, it does raise the chance
you'll get bursted down and die in a string of crits before you can respond.

I have noticed that Mind Up while applied to Carlie Lowers the amount of healing she
receives from Heal Light, Its been so long since I've done a run through the game
I don't remember if it is supposed to be applying magic defense on friendly spells.

Sefie1999AD, on 11 January 2016 - 02:03 AM, said:

I think your looking at decade old SD3 veterans that realize that the more Praetorius changes things the higher the chance hes going to do something they really don't like.

And since they're not hackers themselves they want the bug fixes preserved for the original game as well, since a hacker with the skills to bug fix it has finally taken a interest in the game.

Looking at the class changes I think there is a lot in there that the old players are going to hate, and there is enough of them in there to make me say no to the hard type patch. =/

Though I believe the classes have needed serious tweaking for a long time, but it really needs to be something different then that.

Dreyeth, on 27 March 2016 - 03:54 AM, said:

Well, what do you think why I named it "fix-only" patch and not "fixed and for once somehat balanced" patch.

Dreyeth, on 27 March 2016 - 03:54 AM, said:

This is the way it always was in vanilla; m.def up "protects" against healing, stupid but that's the way it was there.
Also one of many things changed in the "good" patch.

Dreyeth, on 27 March 2016 - 04:00 AM, said:

A: there's no o in my name
B: balance-wise vanilla is such a mess that I HAVE to make "unliked" changes; Byzel, Kevin, how buffs/debuffs work, damage formulas, etc.

I'm not complaining at all I love having this, I expected it to be worse after hearing about how you had to nerf Hawk because of crits, I expected it to break the game hard.

My comment just means that in some areas it was easier, but I wasn't expecting it to make some areas harder (which it did) and that was welcome.

I like your formula changes your changes (nerfs?) to buffs and debuffs stacking everything was too powerful, though I still like a good party designed around having all the buffs and debuffs, they just shouldn't be that powerful when you have them all.

I think Byzel should be changed just as much as you do.

If they're going to invalidate some characters they might as well invalidate everyone and leave you free to pick the party you want, or be removed and not invalidate anyone.

I think the game needs another character that can do stat up buffs without Byzell, it shouldn't just be Lise's light classes, that forces her into every party that wants full buffs, this game has always had a few characters that can fullfil the same roles as another.

Byzel has never really mattered much to me because I've always ignored it after the first class change.

Personally I'd patch the were wolf power up when hit bug while he gets hit and give stat buffs to Kevin's Bashkar and at the first class change, having another buffer you shouldn't have to wait until the final class change for it.

The super heavy melee have always had slight support ability side to them, and as a character that gains almost no abilities, having him be another buffer sounds just about right.

Lise probable needs a little more attack magic then she gets to put her squarely in line with Hawk preferable at the first class change and something to set her final classes more apart.

Praetarius5018, on 27 March 2016 - 04:11 AM, said:

A: It was late I was probable sleep deprived.

B: Those are all welcome changes nothing anyone would complain about.

C: This is kinda derailing the fix only patch post, can this be moved to a different post?

Dreyeth, on 27 March 2016 - 05:56 PM, said:

I had to nerf him because of double hits, straight up double damage at same attack was too much, especially for Kevin who can match Duelist Duran in his broken wolfform.

Dreyeth, on 27 March 2016 - 05:56 PM, said:

great to hear that

Dreyeth, on 27 March 2016 - 05:56 PM, said:

yes, that were real nerfs.

Dreyeth, on 27 March 2016 - 05:56 PM, said:

Could've added Shadow Zero Eye (Black Curse) instead of Darts to the black market, bam, no longer need a dedicated debuffer. I mean the 4 main saber are there, all important buffs, anti-magic, the heal light&tinkle rain replacement oils. The only role not invalidated are debuffer. So, at least be consequent there, Square.

Dreyeth, on 27 March 2016 - 05:56 PM, said:

This is where my problem back then started; who else is even qualified to learn buffs?
Lise has them.
Charlie is already loaded with heals, sabers and tons of damage spells, basically no free slots or already too many good spells.
Angela... always 12/12 spell slots full. But could otherwise work.
Hawk. Dark has debuffs, Light has different buffs, doesn't need more stuff.
Kevin - god forbid no. He's already leagues ahead of entire parties in physical power. If he had the right 1-3 buffs, Light Lise would NEVER see use at all. Unnerfed Light Kevin was imo already way too OP, one STR less doesn't really matter that much when he has heals and (self only) power up.
Duran - thematically I could see some buffs on Knight/Lord but powerwise... paired with heal again "too much"


change $D2:C9AF (12C9AF in a hexedit of an unheadered ROM) to 00 to disable Kevin's auto-power up

Dreyeth, on 27 March 2016 - 06:15 PM, said:

How so? This patch fixes some immediate/simple shortcoming of the original game.
Aren't we discussion more or less those?

Quote

This helps so much. Now he's not a one-man slayer of gods.

Slight necro-post. Haven't been back for awhile, but was one of the original people to ask before the fix-only was made.

Just replying to the people saying that they don't understand why this version was wanted because buffs and debuffs are broken.

I have never used buffs or debuffs, in casted or item form, ever in Seiken Densetsu 3. My first clear of the game was with Kevin as a God Hand, Duran as a Paladin, and Carlie as a Bishop. All I do is melee and heal. Tried to mix it up when this patch came out with a Lise/Hawk/Angela playthrough to make use of the crit and evade bugs that had been fixed.

From what I remember you need to use Level 1 Tech i-frames in the hardtype patch to dodge one shot kills on some bosses. That would not be fun at all to me.

RustyIsBad, on 13 June 2016 - 11:44 PM, said:

this sounds like a perfect idea, I should add it in the next update