A Dummy

It depends, but in my experience the game ran mostly fine on a NEW 3DS using the default emulator, sound emulation was a bit off from what I remember but the game itself seemed to play fine. (And I think there's some slowdown with certain spell effects like Mantra.) So no not flawless, but definitely playable.

" I dislike, very much, the ability to turn off Exp gains. " I just wanna jump in real quick and say that the game is not balanced around this feature at all, this is primarily here because there are a select few community members like like to run low level games (Or LLG for short) and this is included more for their sake. It does have the side effect of letting you GP grind without leveling, but the hack in no way actually expects you to use this.

Sounds like you never got the Cricket Pie from the Mushroom Kingdom store, so I guess you need to do that first and then when you go to Frogfucious he should tell you to go to Star Hill, which I think doesn't show up on the map until after he tells you about it.

Seems like a neat idea, even if only just as something of an alternate take on the current Stamina usage, especially since for once it's a suggestion wanting to push Stamina more toward a concise defensive stat instead of asking for more Stamina based magic attacks in the game. One problem I see though is doing it right would require a big esper rebalance and redistribution so more characters have access to at least a +1Mag boost of some kind. (Though I gotta admit the idea of a magic based Sabin amuses me, he would finally have a reason to use Quake! lol) If the stat name was to be changed though, I would probably rename it something other than Heart as that sounds like something straight out of Captain Planet. Maybe Vitality? That seems to be what other modern FF games go with nowadays, though I'm admittedly not that good at coming up with names for things myself.

Small but important thing, like important as in this should be mentioned in the OP and probably also included as part of a readme of some kind. The patch is for an Unheadered Rom, if you try and patch it on a Headered Rom you're probably just going to get a black screen on start-up. Easy way I check for this is just using a tool called TUSH (The Utility for SNES Headers) which lets you easily just select a Rom file and it will tell you if it's Headered or not and then lets you add or remove a Header as needed. (In this case you would be looking for Unheadered as I already mentioned, so if it says it has a Header just remove it and you should be good to go.) https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/608/

Personally I actually found the BNW Colosseum to be interesting, as it's more about trading out gear that you might not be using for something more interesting. Some good examples, lets say you want dual Orochis for Shadow, and you're not using Cyan's Masamune because you already have him on the Mutsunokami (Which you have because you didn't really care about Relm's Ross Brush.) so you can trade in that Masamune you're not using for that extra Orochi have have dual throwing knife action. Or you can trade out the Ninja Mask because your setups for both Locke and Shadow give them counters without the need for it, letting you get an extra Cat Hood so you can equip both Gau and Relm with one at the same time. Or maybe none of your character builds end up using the Atma(Omega) Weapon, so you can swap it out to a Mirage Vest. (Very relevant in the new version coming up) You don't use the Avenger, so you swap it out to a Wing Edge, which you can then swap to an extra Punisher. (Which them swaps back to the Avenger if you want.) And of course the list goes on. I guess my point to take away from this is don't look at the Colosseum as "I have to give up my good stuff to get anything" rather look at it as "Here is this piece of gear I'm not using, this lets me swap it out for something I will end up using more." Honestly I'd say the hardest part is that there's usually no taksies-backies in most trades, so you need to already have your characters builds figured out so you know what you will and won't be using and can make decisions accordingly, which can make it tough when you wanna try out something gimmicky but then 2 hours after the fact you realize it doesn't work out quite as well as you'd hope, in which case your best bet is to make a separate save before you fully commit to anything. (Which then can have the issue of needing to replay certain sections if you figure out something isn't working out too well much later after the fact even if you did make a separate save.)

You have to finagle it a bit, but one way you can figure out your EL spread is by removing all gear from a character (don't forget relics!) and then comparing what their current stats are vs their base stats. (character base stats are listed in the printme.) For HP and MP you have an extra step, first you look at the HP/MP you would have at your level (also in the printme), then you add the character's extra base HP/MP to that number, and then compare that number against your current HP/MP. (Or subtract it by that number to see how much extra you're getting.) Quick example of what I'm talking about, lets say I have a level 25 Terra with 890 HP and I wanna figure out how much of that is from EL, First I look at what HP I'd have at level 25 normally (680) then add her base HP to that (+60 for a total for 740) then subtract that from what her current HP is, 890 - 740 = 150, so I know she's getting an extra 150 HP from ELs which can be from 5 Unicorn ELs or 5 Phoenix ELs. This can be made easier if you have access to the character planner in the unlockme. (named BNWCP)

Maybe keep the minor random loot chests around that just contain consumables and Gil but appear at random and respawn, but major chests that contain gear and spells would be the 100% spawn chance one time only chests? Vanilla TZA already kinda does it like this, but many of the major chests still don't appear 100% of the time for some reason so you end up having to go through a specific room 2 or 3 times just to make sure you actually got everything.

I'll admit I tend to end up a bit overleveled myself in the WoB just because I wander around the dungeons more to make sure I got everything, especially Zozo and the IMTRF, in my last playthrough I think I had Gau at level 18 after the IMTRF just because I used him for both sections and basically had to stop using him for the rest of WoB just to stop him from getting overleveled. (Though the reduced encounter patch should hopefully help with this incidental grinding through exploration.) On Locke being so prevalent in the WoB, although he gets a lot of use here I think it's balanced out by how late you're normally going to get him in the WoR with Phoenix Cave usually being one of the later stops you make. (Unless of course you go out of your way to spelunk it early.) But basically if you want to avoid a character getting overleveled, you need to switch to a B-team whenever you go to the next location, switching off your higher level guys the just got done in one dungeon for the lower level guys in the next one. The unfortunate side effect of this is that is can kinda suck if you have a favorite character that you like to use, but at the same time you don't want them them to get overleveled and ROFLstomp everything they come across. (No.Exp Egg coming back when? )

So basically what I was exactly asking for when I first saw it. Thanks for the update!

Woah, and here have I been recently playing XII and noticing how unfortunately easy it is to overlevel and just roflstomp everything without even trying, and noting that regualr enemies usually die too fast for setting statuses on them to be worth it when you can just kill them in 2 hits. Unfortunately I only have the PS4 version of FFXII:TZA and not the PC version, so I won't be able to play it, but I'm definitely interested in how this continues to develop. (Certainly gives me a good reason to pick up the PC version on a sale at some point.)

I don't know about the other bosses, but it almost sounds like part of the problem with Hidon is that players aren't given a good reason to keep killing off the Hidonites throughout the whole fight after the first time, probably not something directly damage related but something strong enough that just getting damaged by Black Omen would be preferred. I don't know what exactly though, like maybe he starts using Rasp a bunch if the Hidonites are left alive for so long, and that timer gets reset after clearing them, so if you try to just leave one alive your MP starts getting drained away but if you keep on top of clearing them you don't lose as much of your resources over the course of the fight. (Or something along those lines anyway.)

I know it's just brainstorming, but I'm honestly not too keen on the idea of nerfing the Gem/Soul boxes mp reduction when it's already a late game item that you only get one of, especially if it's only for the sake of trying to make Chakra more appealing. Though if too much MP is really a problem I guess nerfing the Circlet to +25% mp could work to also make the Magic Cube a little more special, but then that creates a problem of why would you use the Circlet over the Red Cap in many instances. Another thing I wanna comment on is that I notice items are being considered as a factor of how MP self sustaining a character is, but many casual players including myself are going to prefer the free option when possible even by KT at least for randoms, so that right there is why I would consider using Chakra with someone like Terra or Celes so that way I could save my supply of items for the bosses. (And totally not also because I end up forgetting to stock up on items before going to KT and I'm already half-way through so I don't wanna have to go back, nope. ) I think the main issue is it's just that Chakra and Mantra are all Stamina Sabin really have to offer with an added bonus of being able to decently hit a Holy weakness with Aura Bolt which can be nice. Maybe if Mantra leaned more heavily on Stamina instead of HP that would probably help, as it sounds like part of the problem is that Terrato Sabin steals some of Stam Sabin's thunder by being better at using Mantra, maybe change the its formula to 1/10 (Users Current HP + ((Stamina * 2) * Level))? Another thing that could indirectly buff Stam Sabin is maybe buffing Sonic Boom to more appropriate end game power levels to like 42 or even 45, about the same power as Setzer's pre-nerf Airship Slots, which I think is fair considering even with Magic gear on and the Nirvana Band Sabin ends up with around a whopping 39 magic and doesn't get it until level 30 besides, while Setzer has access to a +2 Mag esper and starts with his Def Ignoring wave clear option that also sets Sap and doesn't have to level up for it so it made sense there why 45 power was too much.

If possible, perhaps have it still respect resist if you only resist a single element and neutral the other, only going to neutral damage if you resist one/ weak the other. And maybe also keep Null one/Resist other to null the damage rather than resist. Or I guess maybe a more direct way of putting it, maybe have it be: Fire Resist + Wind Neutral = Resist Fire Null + Wind Resist = Null

If you keep this up you're going to have a bad time, and basically ruin the hack for yourself most likely, even level 10 is pretty high that early on in the game and that's about what level you're expected to be at when you return with Banon. Basically any issues you run into at this point are going to be on you, as the hack is designed that you can just go through the game fighting randoms along the way and you will always be around the level that's fair with room to grind for an extra 2 or 3 levels if you feel like things are a bit too hard for yourself.