Nikkolas

So I tried this at least three or four times and it always happened, but if you exit Dollet Tower and go onto the main scree (not the screen with the doors) you will first trigger a random encounter with a solo Galbadia Red soldier/officer, then the next battle will be 2 Geezards and an Anacondaur. This always happens. This is great because it's the best source of AP and EXP at this point. Just to be safe, I always saved, quit the game, reloaded, and then exited the tower again. So it might only happen when you first load up a game but it always worked for me. Finally beat Elvoret with a Level 19 Squall, Level 17 Zell and Selphie. About 3 o4 4 or 5 Limits from Squall were needed, though. I think this is a bit too much grinding this early on. Then again, there is always the other version so I dunno.

Elvoret at Level 22? I doubt I have to grind all the way up to that but it's pretty gnarly. Especially with Storm Breath which wipes out my entire party unless they're at max HP. Squall is Lv 13, Zell Lv 12, and Selphie Lv 10. Don't really have much in the way of Junctions to help right now, either. You don't have to tell me how to win the fight, just curious if some level grindage is mandatory here.

I gotcha. I'll keep taht in mind, then. I usually use Rinoa, anyway. And I played up through Ifrit on Max so I'll restart with Fixed. I also meant to ask if this requries Triple Tirad grinding? I dunno if you ever played the old Requiem mod but it sure as fuck required A LOT of TT grinding and immediately. So far things seem much more reasonable in your mod.

I did try it with 7.0 but still got the same error. I checked the file and Read Only isn't checked. If all it changes is Rinoa's Angel Wing, though, and she doesn't get that till end of Disk 3, could I start the mod while this is all being figured out? And hey no rush. Thanks for the reply and help and all the effort you put into this. EDIT: Also which would you say is more of a challenge, Fixed or Max Level version?

So I finally saw he instructions in the OP...but now I'm getting this error mesage when I try to follow them: The Main Patch says it was applied successfully but I've tried this multiple times and it always happens.

So I'd like to try this but I have no idea how to apply the patch. The mod comes with Xdelta patch and nothing else. I dunno what to "patch" the patch onto... I'm sorry for being clueless about this kinda thing.

I'm so jaded these days, I can't play older JRPGs without hacks or mods if they are available . I literally haven't played vanilla FFVII since, I dunno, 2009 or before. Often the systems are really good - looking at you FFX - but it's so easy and I can't stand self-imposed challenges like low-level runs. I want the game to force me to use all tools at my disposal, not for me to neuter myself by restricting things. Part of the joy of RPGs is watching the numbers go up. Anyway, at this time, I have played: FFIV The Darkness Within, FFVI: Brave New World, FFVI: Return of the Dark Sorcerer, FFVII: Lost Wing (this was my first ever FFVII game mod. Good times), FFVII New Threat, FFVII Hardcore, FFVII HardType, FFVIII Requiem, first disk of FFVII Ragnarok Rebalance, FFIX Unleashed, FFIX Alternate Fantasy, FFX Punishment , FFX Sin Unleashed up to Mii'hen Highroad, Xenogears HardType. I'd have to say VII New Threat is the best by a clear margin just due to the incredible number of changes done to it. And they're great changes, too. It really reinvents and spices up the gameplay. I'm not sure after that though. That's why I made this thread, to hopefully get the opinions of posters here. What are your favorites and why? I really need to get around to playing Xenosaga HardType.

I'm playing v1.5 for FFX International. Sanctuary and now Spectral Keeper absorb all elements and half physical attacks. The only thing I can think to do is use the Fortune Spheres I've been given to get Miracle Drinks via Mix and have everyone Crit. I saw somebody on YT who knew how to get Trio of 9999 but I refuse to look up how to do it because that's cheating. I might not even have the items for it. You shouldn't need that anyway. This is getting ridiculous. You basically have no real choice in this game at this point. I was using Rikku anyway but now she's useless outside of healing and Mix because bosses absorb elements so even my Gem collection is worthless. my only hope is because we got Fortune Spheres right before Sanctuary and Spectral Keeper that means this was "intended" and future bosses won't be as stupid and require Miracle Drink or anything like that. But I have no idea since I've never finished the mod. Can anyone who has finished it tell me what is in my future? Does hestopdoing this BS?

Well the final boss being hard is not a problem at all. I welcome that. But yeah I think he just straight inflated HP on everybody, including the dumb Defender robots. God those fights are boring, especially the two of them in Omega Ruins. Still, I did try that Sin Unleashed mod for Steam FFX. All that guy did was add HP to every enemy, something like 60% more HP. That wasn't a challenge at all and actually gave me some appreciation for LR reworking the Sphere Grid in addition to increasing enemy stats. I guess I never asked, did you like the mod? You played through multiple versions right?

Fucking awesome. It even has the older version of International which I think must mean it was before he buffed the Keepers to insane levels. That was what I really wanted to be honest. But I got both! Thank you so much. I think I might actually try to finish FFX this time. I'll be frank, I gave up last time out of boredom. I'm weird, I always have the most fun before these games open up and it's grind time, ya know? My favorite parts of replaying FFVII are never everything before you get the Highwind, at least mostly. Thank you again now and for your helpful advice all those months ago.

Sorry for the necro and I probably should have asked this before. Does anybody here have the older version of Punishment? v1.7 seems so much more reasonable and it's what I'd probably like to use in any future replays.

Good luck, friend. Xenogears is a great game and the mod...well, it definitely makes it more challenging. Maybe too challenging at points for me but I hope you have fun.

This is awesome news! I gotta actually finish the game this time. lol I got so close last time but I think I got stuck at the top of the Cult...er, Reptile Tower and I could not beat the boss. I can't even remember why now but I couldn't win and I couldn't see a way out. I don't think you can Teleport or Warp out of there? It's been a while. Either way that was o my old PC which died so I need to start a new game anyhow. Here's hoping this new run goes better and I can beat the whole thing. Also kinda hoping that the Esper restriction patch might work. Or I might have to put that challenge upon myself. I was curious if you could beat the game without giving everyone Cure spells or the like but apparently you can so I need to do that.

I do agree Necron was a nightmare. I only beat him with luck and I certainly could never beat Ozma. And Zidane is kinda useless until he gets his Trance skills because without the stat bonuses from weapons magic is the only efficient way o do damage. It's just, after having played several LR mods at this point, it seemed to me like he put in the most effort into Unleashed. I'm still gonna try his Xenosaga mods because I love Xenosaga and finally have a halfway decent PC that can emulate PS2 and beyond.

Really? You would say it's better than FFIX Unleashed? To me, he clearly peaked with Unleashed. There he made significant changes to gameplay, altering Freya's, Steiner's, Amarant's and Quina's skills. He also gave the bosses lots of new moves and stuff. He didn't just make enemy numbers go up and your numbers go down. I still consider it by far his best mod, especially when combined with No AP. I beat normal Unleashed years ago and I got to the end of Disk 1 of Unleashed/No AP with no problem and quite enjoyed myself. Although I still have to say Alternate Fantasy is the best FFIX mod at present, IMO. Yeah that was my thinking. Steam has an Autumn sale apparently that kicks off around Black Friday so I'll just wait a week and hopefully get FFX and even X-2 for like $15 or something. Thanks for all your help through this thread. I really appreciate it. If I didn't have this other mod to test out I would probably finish Punishment. But I just don't want to totally burn myself out, ya know? I might still finish it, we'll see.

Also there is an FFX PC gameplay mod somebody elsewhere just told me about: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1413607626 I am very interested in this but I don't have the PC version right now. Maybe next month. But incase anyone else is interested. In fact I might put my playthrough of Punishment on indefinite hold. I just don't know if I have teh patience for LR's mod anymore. Running around the Omega Ruins casting Demi a billion times is giving me hardcore FFVIII Requiem flashbacks. There, Triple-casting Demi was the only way to beat the hyper inflated HP of certain enemies like Chimeras. Here I have to do much the same, just cast Demi over and over and over and over and over and spend five minutes on each fight. If there is another mod for FFX, I wanna give it a shot. It helps that the description of teh mod sounds very exciting. It isn't just raising their numbers and lowering your numbers. It changes up gameplay a lot it seems.

Well how much of a difference could a few points of Luck have really made then. He has to have actually weakened the superbosses to account for the fact he removed stat increase farming. Thanks for the info.

I appreciate the advice. I'll see what I can do. As I said, my main party is Tidus, Rikku and Auron. I got Godhand for Rikku and I don't foresee me getting Tidus' full power CW. So that leaves Auron. Tell me truly though, how screwed am I that I used up all my Fortune and Luck Spheres? You get a couple in Zanarkand and tehGagazet Cave and I used them both for Miracle Drinks against the Keepers. Everyone says Luck is very important, especially against the Dark Aeons, but I have no idea what that is all about. It helps with Evasion or something? I just have Rikku in teh Quick Pockets section right now and am looking sadly at those nodes I can't activate because I used up all my Luck Spheres..... But right now I figure top priority is filling out the three grids. Then comes Gil grinding then comes item grinding. Then I can start beating stuff, hopefully. Honestly, Triple AP seems wasted with the Don Tonberry trick. It would make things go a tad faster but so what? It's very simple and easy and fast enough as is. The main problem is, and this is something you maybe didn't notice because you played the North American version with the Standard Sphere Grid, is that apparently the Expert Sphere Grid is full of empty nodes. So I'm gonna be traveling around the Grid getting a lot of nothing a decent bit of the time. But oh well. EDIT: And I keep meaning to ask, are the final story bosses leveled for people who could beat the Arena and Omega Ruins? I have to max Sphere Grids and have the best equipment to beat the regular story, too?

I didn't even have the Aga spells at the time but I thought Auron did respectable damage with just his normal attacks.

So I just learned of the Don Tonberry trick. I tried it out with Tidus and got 13 levels in about a minute or two. So I think I'm gonna be doing this for at least my main trio. I'm sorry dude but I don't see how you could stand to level normally when AP > Overdrive gets you levels this quick and it is gonna take so long to max out even one grid. It is my understanding you need that to defeat the Dark Aeons and probably also the Weapons since you didn't fight the Dark Aeons. And I assume the final story bosses are leveled for parties that beat optional content. Honestly, with Don Tonberry, I don't think grinding will be too bad. This is a No Aeon run so I'm not going to be boosting their stats which seems like it would take FOREVER. I used all my Mimic grinding money so far to get Yojimbo at 3x the prize. I hope the Teleport Spheres are worth it. That's Evade and Counter for two more people. I got a four empty slot weapon for Tidus from a random fight in the Omega Ruins and I have the Flexible Arm just now from the Fayth Cavern. Hopefully those will serve me well when I have tons of awesome items and thus abilities to put on them. I don't think it's possible to max out stats in this, is it? So Stat+ is still worth a slot ,s right?

Out of curiosity, are there any other FFX gameplay mods/hacks out there? Given how popular the game is and the fact it's been on PC for years now, I'm shocked I can't find more mods that overhaul the battle system to make the game different and more challenging.

I'll definitely have to look into this when it happens. I really loved ROTDS but I liked BNW restricting Espers a lot. Combining the two be perfect.

So I wanna talk about Seymour Natus as earlier it was noted the game was fun or properly challenging up to him. I consider him the most fun and challenging boss in the game. Unlike Yunalesca who was just...ugh. Anyway, the main problem with Natus is the Mortibody and its Desperado. So far as I could tell, Desperado triggers if everyone in the party is buffed. He'll still do it on occasion if they aren't but it only immediately triggers if everyone has a buff on them, especially Shell. Natus always starts with ice spells so I could protect against that with my Arctic Winds or whatever creating three sets of Iceproof armor. The problem is, how to survive if we can't have Shell on everyone? My solution was Mega Vitality. I had 2 Stamina Tablets from grinding Rikku up to decent levels on the Moonflow because there's no other real choice. Anyway, my buf layout was this: Haste on Tidus and Auron because Rikku doesn't really need it. And Shell on Tidus and Rikku because Auron with 8000 HP doesn't need Shell. Incidentally, this has been my boss team ever since. I've given up on everyone else except for Yojimbo because physical attacks don't work there and a mage team can actually survive his attacks. Anyway, this was my setup for victory. Auron even Overkilled him with a Crit. I noticed the first phase is substantially harder than the second or third phase. I figured it had something to do with the way X's battle system works. Certain actions elay your next turn more, right? If the same is true for bosses, than Seymour Natus casting Flare and the Mortibody casting Cura cost them more turns than when they were doing the elemental spell attacks. It just felt like Seymour especially was getting less turns once the final phase kicked in.

Okay so I figured out the Cactuar Sandstorm stuff and did all that. ...for nothing. The reward in the village is the Venus Sigil. I now have Lulu's Crest and Sigil, not Rikku's. My hopes for getting Gillionaire are dashed. I can only assume he switched them around and made me have to dodge 200 lightning bolts to get Rikku's full powered Celestial Weapon. I guess I just have to try and find what item is needed to put Gillionaire on equipment. I would be blessed to dodge 100 bolts, let alone 200, especially so long as I don't have No Encounters.

It's good to hear the Omega Ruins are still good for farming AP. This mod demands a ton of grinding so I was dreading the endgame in a way when I had to finally start trying to fill out the grid. But if even in the mod AP is still plentiful here, that'll help a lot. But man, I wish I had done monster capturing earlier. For catching the three fiends on Besaid I got 99 Stamina Tonics. Insane. I could sit on those for the entire rest of the game. I could freely use them for Mix in boss fights for Hyper Vitality. Could have had them for Yunalesca, had everyone at 9999 HP. Oh well. And the 60 Three Stars, One MP Cost for my entire party, could make Quick Hit a viable move now for Auron and his pathetically small MP pool. This game doesn't really tell you a lot I'm remembering. Like, the sandstorm in Bikanel blocking off the one area? It gives you no info on what to do about that. And those Cactuar Statues in the Thunder Plains, I have no idea what to do with them. I figure the two things are related but anyway I hate having to look things up. But when the game gives you no assistance, what can you do? Some games just require a guide. I appreciate all the help you're giving me is the point. Thanks again.