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Chrono Trigger - Valeria 2.0 Re-Balance Mod

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Chrono Trigger is considered easy for veterans due to core characters having high speed making random encounter and boss fights becoming less challenging. You can use Lunar IPS to apply this patch over original Chrono Trigger (U) [!]

This re-balance mod will focus on utilizing roles based on utility and speed. I'll fix other issues and apply re-balance to teches and items including some stuff reworked as below.

 

===Character speed re-balance===

If you group characters based on speed into slow/normal/fast, the pacing will be 6/8/12 making fast characters being too fast and make the game unbalanced.

I will decrease speed on fast characters to make the game moderately more challenging with balanced pacing. Since speed reduction leads to more difficult gameplay, I decided to release version 2.0 with 3 different versions.

Normal - This will keep original speed on playable characters. You can enjoy new content and improvements with Valeria 2.0 without increasing difficulty. Some enemies will act a bit faster though.

Spoiler

Crono: 12 (0)
Marle: 8 (0)
Lucca: 6 (0)
Frog: 11 (0) 
Robo: 6 (0)
Ayla: 13 (0)
Magus: 12 (0)
Enemy's slowest speed: 3 (+2)

Skilled - This will reduce speed on fast playable characters by 2. It will increase game difficulty a bit with slower offensive characters. This one is more balanced and should have been implemented in original game.

Spoiler

Crono: 10 (-2)
Marle: 8 (0)
Lucca: 6 (0)
Frog: 9 (-2) 
Robo: 6 (0)
Ayla: 11 (-2)
Magus: 10 (-2)
Enemy's slowest speed: 3 (+2)

Veteran - This is my favorite speed re-balance used in early development. It's considered a bit too hard for new players so first Valeria release made it easier. I recommend this difficulty for veteran players only.

Spoiler

Crono: 9 (-3)
Marle: 7 (-1)
Lucca: 6 (0)
Frog: 8 (-3) 
Robo: 5 (-1)
Ayla: 10 (-3)
Magus: 9 (-3)
Enemy's slowest speed: 3 (+2)

You can start new game with different difficulty and it can't be changed later. Though it's more difficult at first but it'll get better gradually with speed tabs you found through story progression. Stat tabs are no longer charmable so please use wisely.

 

===Character teches re-balance===

Tech re-balane starts from healing being too powerful on some units making some dedicated support like Marle quickly fall behind. Despite having most powerful Life2 tech, she doesn't have AoE heal or powerful spells to make use of her magic at all.

Robo's healing teches will easily overpower others with some speed and magic tabs so healing re-balance is the the main reason I started this mod. Even Slurp and Kiss can be over powered with a few magic tabs for 2 MP cost too.

Most physical teches will be nerfed a bit and boost dual/triple teches to become stronger. I highly recommend to use dual teches for more damage output. Magical teches however are buffed a bit to make magical strategies working better.

There's also a lot of inconsistencies between unit's role and teches they have like Crono getting Raise after Lightning2 while Marle getting Life2 as the last tech when she should get revive ability much sooner so I reworked a few teches too.

Crono - He's one of fastest unit, having access to most versatile and strongest weapons, can even revive an ally, and have strongest ultimate spell. So I decreased his speed, change his Revive to attack power up buff, and nerf Ultimate spell down to more reasonable level along with last tech on other units. I also added +4 Magic Sword on VerdicBlade to compensate the lost of charmable tab making him more versatile on magical build.

Spoiler

Decrease Cyclone power (10 -> 9)
Decrease Slash power (10 -> 9)
Decrease Cleave power (16 -> 14)
Change Raise to Power increase an ally's attack power by 25% with MP cost 4 and learn before Lightning II
Increase Lightning II power (14 -> 15)
Decrease Frenzy power (29 -> 24)
Decrease Luminaire power (50 -> 42)

Marle - She's one of the most pitiful design in game. Designed with high magic potential but was given role as support character. Her Cure 2 is useless when Cure can almost heal unit to full HP. Her strongest attack is average Ice 2 and lose to Magus version. Her role of support to revive fallen ally won't be available until you get her last tech. Her only redeeming feature haste become needless with endgame haste helm. And she's only healer who can't do AoE heal alone. In this re-balance, I reworked on her Allure to be AoE, Haste to be Revive instead and changed Cure 2 to be AoE making her role as dedicated support becoming useful as it should be. Her ulti is changed to Haste/Evade buff which is a small bonus since HasteHelm can get only one now. I also decreased her speed by 1 in Veteran to balance unit's efficiency a bit.

Spoiler

Allure will confuse all enemies with success rate decreased (80+10 -> 60+20%)
Increase Ice power (11 -> 12)
Change Haste to Raise reviving fallen ally with power 8 at MP cost 10 (Lifeline also uses Raise instead)
Increase Ice II power (14 -> 15)
Decrease Cure power (14 -> 10)
Decrease Cure II power (24 -> 10) and increase MP cost (5 -> 8) to heal whole party
Changed Arise to Godspeed doubling an ally's speed and evasion (2x not 2.5x like Third Eye) with MP cost 10

Lucca - Despite people's claim that she's not being that great but her magic is recognized by pro players to be very good unit in many parties. There's not much for her to be adjusted except raising bonus success rate of Hypnowave a little. Her weapons and Marle's also get small buff too.

Spoiler

Decreased Flame Toss power (6 -> 5)
Increase success rate of Hypnowave (60+10 -> 60+20)
Increase Fire power (11 -> 12)
Increase Fire II power (14 -> 15)
Decreased Megaton Bomb power (35 -> 29)
Decrease Flare power (42 -> 36)

Frog - He's also one of the most pitiful one fighting the rock bottom spot with Marle too. He started off as very effective unit with 2MP AoE heal and hits hard with Masamune. However, his usefulness quickly fades away as his offensive quickly fall behind with weaker weapons plus lower weapon growth. His magic growth is not high enough to to make his heal useful enough. To redeem his shortcomings a bit, I buffed his basic Slurp power a little, his Leap Slash will have chance to Slow unit too and Cure 2 is changed to Heal 2 for high power heal with status restored. His weapons gets buff to hit harder too. His Heal will have MP usage doubled though.

Spoiler

Increase Slurp power (4 -> 5)
Decrease Slurp Slash power (11 -> 9)
Increase MP cost of Heal (2 -> 4)
Decrease Leap Slash power (18 -> 15) and add 60% chance to Slow an enemy
Increase Water power (11 -> 12)
Increase Water II power (14 -> 15)
Changed Cure II to Heal II with decreased power (24 -> 20) and heal status

Robo - He's designed to be slow but powerful with abilities to fit all roles effectively with some tabs. He's supposed to be one of the most powerful trump card if you put effort to build him right and I don't plan to change his design much. So besides nerfing tech power like others, I nerfed his healing teches a bit and add MP cost on Laser Spin/Heal Beam. In Veteran level, his base speed is decreased down to 5 needing more effort to maintain his speed until late game.

Spoiler

Decrease Rocket Punch power (11 -> 10)
Decrease Cure Beam power (14 -> 10)
Decrease Laser Spin power (10 -> 9) and increase MP cost (3 -> 4)
Decrease Robo Tackle power (21 -> 18)
Decrease Heal Beam power (10 -> 8) and increase MP cost (3 -> 6)
Decrease Uzzi Punch power (25 -> 21)
Decrease Area Bomb power (30 -> 25)
Decrease Electrocute power (40 -> 34)

Ayla - She's designed to be physical beast who can steal and heal with status restored and it works well that way. Some people may not like forcing Ayla to steal but there's no better design to work on stealing yet. I didn't change her design that much since she seems to be fine as is now except some minor tweaks like adjusting Kiss power with 2 MP cost and decrease MP cost of Charm a little. Her fist also have 5% critical rate bonus added too.

Spoiler

Decrease Kiss power (14 -> 10) and increase MP cost (1 -> 2)
Decrease Rollo Kick power (14 -> 12)
Decrease Cat Attack power (20 -> 17)
Decrease BoulderToss power (30 -> 25)
Decrease MP cost of Charm (4 -> 3)
Decrease Tail Spin power (40 -> 34)
Increase Dino Tail power (9 -> 10)
Decrease Triple Kick power (37 -> 32)

Magus - He's pretty much balanced except his MP cost is a bit too effective so I added MP cost on most of his teches and nerf his dark teches' power a little. His only buff is Black Hole will have 60+20% chance to Stop if not instant death. His weapon StarScythe can inflict Poison. His ultimate tech isn't nerf so it's considered strongest with his magic power.

Spoiler

Increase MP cost of Lightning II (8 -> 10)
Increase MP cost of Ice II (8 -> 10)
Increase MP cost of Fire II (8 -> 10)
Increase MP cost of Dark Bomb (8 -> 10) and decrease power (25 -> 21)
Increase MP cost of Dark Mist (10 -> 12) and decrease power (25 -> 24)
Black Hole also have chance to inflict status Stop with success rate 60+20 if not instant death

After a few test runs, I believe this tech re-balance shouldn't break the game balance and improve usefulness of all units through the game better without one being clearly better or worse.

You can still beat the game with any party combination but using proper strategy and planning will be more important to win the game without imposed challenge.

 

===Items Re-balance===

Chrono Trigger as a few unused items so I brought them back and modify some items to enhance gaming experience. Since some teches are nerfed so I'll buff some items to improve usability without relying on stat tabs too much.

Some weapons for Marle, Lucca, and Frog are a bit underwhelming so I buffed them a bit so they can perform better before getting final weapon. Marle's Valkyrie can hurt pretty well against magical enemies to make up for no ultimate attack.

Consumable items have price increased too making HP/MP/Status recovery teches becoming more crucial to use although Ether is cheaper and HiEther is more expensive.

Spoiler

-Potions price scaling changed from 10/100/700 -> 50/200/800
-Ethers price scaling changed from 800/2000/6000 -> 500/2000/8000
-Panacea price increased (10 -> 100)
-Revive price increased (200 -> 500)
-Shelter price increased (150 -> 250)
-Removed stat tabs from charmable enemies
-DarkSaber will be dropped from defeating Magus in his castle with increase attack power when allies are dead
-VedicBlade has Magic +4 bonus added
-Swallow has damage increased (145 -> 150)
-Suzaku has critical rate increased (7 -> 10)
-Rainbow has damage decreased (220 -> 200)
-SilverBow has damage increased (20 -> 25)
-RobinBow has damage increased (25 -> 35)
-Sage Bow has damage increased (40 -> 50) with Magic +2 bonus added
-DreamBow has damage increased (60 -> 70)
-CometBow has damage increased (80 -> 90)
-Valkyrie deals 2.0x damage to magical enemies
-PicoMagnum will be dropped from Guardian with damage increased (20 -> 25)
-PlasmaGun has damage increased (25 -> 35)
-RubyGun has damage increased (40 -> 50)
-DreamGun has damage increased (60 -> 70)
-Graedus will be dropped from Azala with damage increased (60 -> 70)
-Megablast has damage increased (80 -> 90)
-Wondershot has damage decreased (250 -> 220) and critical rate increased (40 -> 50)
-Masamune has damage increased (75 -> 80)
-FlashBlade has damage increased (90 -> 100)
-PearlEdge has damage increased (105 -> 115)
-RuneBlade has damage increased (120 -> 130)
-DemonHit has damage increased (120 -> 135)
-BraveSword deals 2.0x damage to magical enemies and has damage increased (135 -> 150)
-Masamune II has damage decreased (200 -> 180) and critical rate increased (23 -> 50)
-MirageHand has Speed +1 bonus
-StarScythe has chance to inflict Poison status
-Ayla's Fist has 5% critical chance increased
-MistRobe has Magic +2 bonus added
-GlowHelm has Strength +4 bonus added
-SafeHelm has defense increased (38 -> 42) and is removed from charmable list so you can get only one per playthrough
-GoldenStud and GoldenEarring are removed from charmable list so you can get only one per playthrough
-HasteHelm has decreased defense (35 -> 20) and is removed from charmable list so you can get only one per playthrough
-SeraphSong will be dropped from defeating Ozzie in Magus' castle regenerating 5MP every 10 seconds
-Relic will be dropped from defeating Great Ozzie in Ozzie's fort showing enemy's HP and protect all status

Some items are very interesting and allow new strategies like SeraphSong. Most items are buffed and some endgame content are re-balanced with some buffs and nerfs applied.

This Valeria mod shouldn't make the game significantly harder. If you play your card right, it might be even easier than original game. This re-balance will make strategy becoming more important to beat the game efficiently. :)

Download: https://www.mediafire.com/file/7j60kd8eukazdhr

Edited by Windows X

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Hello,

I've got a bug report for you. Using Falcon Hit on Giga Gaia's head results in combat hanging. The game's not frozen; if my third character's turn is up I can browse their menu.

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Oddly enough I observed the same behaviour using Twin Charm on Golem Boss. Combat doesn't advance at all but the game is not frozen.

EDIT: Looks like Twin Charm hangs combat against everyone. I tested it against Golem Boss, Magus, and Spekkio at any rate. Falcon Hit worked normally against the Beasts before Mt. Woe and Giga Gaia's hands but hung the game against Giga Gaia's head.

Edited by snifit

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In addition to Charm and Rock Throw breaking the game in all sorts of situations (along with dual techs they're used in), the Sunken Desert sidequest seems to be broken. The hole in the desert doesn't appear on the world map so I'm not able to complete it.

Also the description for Frog and Ayla's dual Tech Dropdown is "Inferno Toss" which seems wrong.

All in all I liked the reduced speed on the characters. I didn't use any Speed Tabs or Haste on my playthrough and the Lavos Core was actually a pretty good challenge. Our damage output was so high with dual Techs that the Black Omen was trivial, but Lavos was certainly a challenge. I also remember Magus' Castle feeling pretty good as well (although Ice Water made the non-boss encounters there trivial as well). Thanks for the mod!

Oh, one last thing. What happened to Crono, Frog, and Ayla's triple Tech?

Edited by snifit
Oops, didn't realize I had to talk to the gardener in Zeal to start the Sunken Desert!

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