zedorfed66

Hey Ronlyn, I hope you read this before continuing with the mod. I just updated to v1.1. Now the characters learn their 3 last abilities sooner as I mentioned in my previous message. So go grab my newest patch asap! Same to all you other Rude Heroes out there, go get v1.1 if you feel like it. -Zed

Hey. Great vids as usual. Thanks for updating your progress on my mod here at every turn. i really appreciate it. Don't worry about using Third Keys, it's not chickening out or anything. Especially in late game it's more than fair to use them. I was thinking about that Cherubim boss. He went down very quickly. And I mean VERY. I lowered his HP from 10 000 to 7500 since I thought it took a bit too long to beat him, but I might have to fight him again to see if changing back to the original hp would be better. Another thing I noticed is he's supposed to use 'Divine Punishment' just like Seraphim after him. I guess you just got lucky there lol. I gotta do some testing when I'm in the mood for it. I guess in the original players pass level 50 before entering the final stages so characters have learned their final abilities already. I've been thinking about making the 3 last abilities learnable a bit sooner than before. Yes, I guess you're right about the characters learning the 3 last abilities a bit too late. Thanks for the food for thought. This is how you change things I've been trying different things and I thought making characters learn their 3 last abilities 'x1.8' times later instead of 'x2' would be perfect. So Alice would learn Arc 63 levelled instead of 70. It's too harsh to force players to be 70 levelled before facing Amon (and unnecessary). And the first final ability would be Margarete's 'Divine Bomber' and she would learn it 83 levelled. The very last character ability is Keith's 'Gift' and he would learn it 88 levelled.

Happy new year to you too! I tried getting Grail stronger but I just couldn't. I guess he's designed to be a pushover compared to the others. He can still be a challenging one "non-Grailed" (he can be beaten right after you get Yuri back if I recall). You are a very critical type. I guess we are kinda the opposites. But I still try to take all your negatives as advice and see if there's something to update. However I made so sure I had pretty much everything settled when I released this I haven't encountered anything I'd like to change based on your feedback. I don't like changing the ability orders or the character stats or anything like that. I don't intend to make mods like that. I stand by my opinion that this game is well balanced even after the changes I've made to the enemies. But yeah that's just my opinion. Imo it's clever to have characters with power and ability differences.

Hi again. So I decided to make a better 2020 and release version 4.1 of this mod. It only changes the 'Koshoki' enemy's HP back to the original. I pondered for a long time whether it was worth updating this mod just for 1 change but here we are! Have fun.

That's interesting. I kinda wanted to make a super hard mod at first but my thoughts have changed a bit. The way Shadow Hearts games are balanced making the enemies "balls-to-the-walls" hard would only work in some dungeons and some dungeons would be super easy compared to them. Also the normal enemies' stats would be higher than bosses and I didn't want that. And if I made bosses an overkill I couldn't make them faster or they'd totally annihilate the player party. I learned stuff after modding all 3 Shadow Hearts games and made similar changes to normal encounters and bosses alike. The games are all kinda similar in a way and I like the combat in all of them so it was important for me to make the mods as perfect as possible in my own vision. The normal encounters are naturally harder in the 1st Shadow Hearts game simply cause it has different battle system. Then again in that game the bosses are simpler so it kind of balances things up. I think the 3rd game has equal challenge with bosses and normal encounters. In Covenant I think the bosses are more challenging than normal foes.

Happy new year everyone! I'm glad you also found positives to my mod. If I recall correctly I changed lots of stuff with the random encounters between v.3.0 and 4.0. Now they shouldn't ever be able to one-shot you to game over screen if you have the best equipment and enter new dungeons in the recommended levels of the previous ones. Final dungeon enemies shouldn't be able to now either (they're still super fast though). You can level at Nihonbashi park before fighting the boss (it's not unusual to miss this).

Hi and thanks for giving my mod a whirl! Here are the optimal levels to take on the bosses in their respective dungeons: 2 Apoina Tower 5 Ardennes Forest 8 Paris Subway 12 Wine Cellar 14 Rhondda Mine 17 Manmariana Island 18 S.G. Headquarters 20 Neam Ruins 25 St. Marguerite 29 Winter Palace 31 Mirror Palace 33 Gallery of the Dead 35 Hermitage 39 Idar Flamme 42 Apoina Tower 2 45 Battleship Mikasa 49 Otherworld 51 Nihonbashi 56 Hojo Research Lab 59 Purgatory 63 Immortal Mountain 64 Azabu Kamiyashiki 68 Queen's Garden 72 Tiffauges Castle 78 Doll House 86 Black Forest 86-89 Dog Shrine 92 Neam Ruins Underground 99 The Vessel If I recall correctly all optional content can be done at least 92 levelled. After that it's simply the leveling in 'The Vessel' before taking on the final bosses.

Hey again and Merry Christmas! I hope you had a fun one and nothing else is bothering you save for my troublesome mod here ;P I tried entering the Arcane fight with Zhuzhen lvl 55 and I can say it could be beaten on those levels but it wouldn't be fun since you would be using all your time playing super duper defensively. I'll be leveling him to 60 and try again just for the sake of the test. Then again I'm wondering why would wouldn't you be using Alice in bosses when she has a perfect kit designed for them? It's like trying to make things harder than they should be. I believe it's canon to try going with Alice anyway since you get extra dialogue before the boss. But yeah I'll be leveling Zhuzhen and seeing how it goes.

Yuri was simply made the star of this show. He would actually best Alice's Arc with his Sandalphon fusion's Revive which would heal and revive everyone to full health. I made a change to that so it no longer heals to full health. He also has group instakill with his 3rd tier Dark and Light fusions so Halley wouldn't be better than him either with his 'Black Hole'. He also has a version of blood suck with his Seraphic Radiance fusion (life steal + group heal). I actually like it this way. There's always Shadow Hearts: Covenant if you want a more balanced Yuri (LOL). Zhuzhen specializes with his group magic spells and when maxed out has the highest magic defense. Then again he is not as good as Halley in late since he doesn't have group instakill. Halley also has revive to full health which is why he is recommended in the final party with Yuri and Alice.

Hey again. It's fine, just relax and take your time. It's only a game afterall Yuri is supposed to be like Zhuzhen's big bro in late game. He's basically the number 1 character so he's better than everyone else. This was less of the case in Covenant and you could actually leave him out of the party in that. Like I stated in my first post I wasn't able to modify the scaling enemies. So basically all Graveyard business is completely the same as in the original, save for Seraphic Radiance (thank god!). I felt a bit anxious for a while for not being able to mod the scalers, but it is what it is. Character skills are more powerful the later they're learned. Zhuzhen learns 'Corpse Arm' early on so it's powerful at the time he gets it but in comparison is less powerful than Keith's 5th ability since Keith learns 'Hecatoncheire' in way later levels. Some characters in the game are more late-game than others and their abilities are good for different purposes.

Well done with the ongoing quest for Bacon. I apologize for giving the wrong idea before. There indeed is some grinding suggested to be done in every area. I hope it's not too big of a burden. I wanted to ramp the suggested level for final boss to 99 instead of the 50ish of the original. Alice is actually very useful in fights cause of her Gospel ability. Without it 'Rudie' will kill your characters with his 3-hit combo if he happens to crit even if you're in the suggested levels. Alice and Zhuzhen should be ok in battles if you have Gospel or some other defensive spell in effect. The in-battle effect items have the pro you can have their effects without having to equip your characters with additional accessories. You can only have 3 accessories on your characters afterall. I really didn't want to change any of them. Some of them are more useful than others and players can have the freedom to choose what they wanna use.

Congrats on beating the Asia section! Cool vids, I gave them likes. Other than the changes in enemy stats there's no other changes than allies learning their 3 last spells later (levels multiplied by 2) and the change in Sandalphon's Revive skill. Actually Zhuzhen's 'Corpse Arm' AOE will be useful in his mid-game. I wanted to push the last 3 abilities for endgame since it starts with Alice's Arc and it's way too soon for her to learn it 35 levelled. The ideal level to face Amon in the last storyline dungeon before Float is 70 so I saw this as a clear sign that players should aim to be at that level before facing him. And since the last ability learned is Keith's 'Gift' which he learns at 49 levelled in the original it was clear I wanted to double the level amount. The enemies in Nemeton Underground should prove to be rather difficult so it's only natural to level some to keep up with the game. In my opinion the different in-battle effect items only add to the gameplay. If they were to be taken off the game would feel more bland. It works in Covenant cause the battle system is more fast paced and interesting. In SH2 you will be using more different buffs and effects in the form of different Crest Magic and Fusions where in SH1 you will be only using the set character abilities and 1 Fusion monster per battle. I guess Shadow Hearts came a bit under marketed and without a doubt FFX overshadowed it with a heavy hand. I find Shadow Hearts story to be excellent with Yuri as one if not the best characters I've experienced in a videogame.

There's tons of little items with effects in Shadow Hearts that i have never even used. Flash Badges happen to be one of them. None of the items should make this mod overly easy since the enemies have dramatically higher stats. And since players need to be pretty much maxed out at the end I wanted to leave options for those who keep having hard time. I did some other changes than just up the enemy stats. I made the characters learn their 3 last abilities later in the game (multiplied levels by 2). Those that would learn ability at lvl 32 will learn it at lvl 64. I also changed Sandalphon fusion's Revive ability (ring and spell status). These changes are listed in my original post. I'm not very good at modding these games tbh. Shadow Hearts series is super easy to mod overall. Every value is clear and easily accessible in the game iso. But like I have stated before I prefer to have these games as close to the originals as possible with only game-breaking stuff addressed. I think these games are very well designed overall (even this 1st Shadow Hearts).

I really enjoyed that video, well done ^^ That dungeon is one creepy place with exceptionally tough enemies. About the pit fights. That's weird. They should be challenging at least to some degree. Some of the enemies remained untouched (mainly the different versions of Wind Shear) but most of them are from the main campaign with the more recent ones being tougher. LiLi is the toughest of the bunch. I did a test run with Zhuzhen and he's only able to beat her after Kowloon (about lvl 27). But I'm pretty sure Yuri is able to beat her at about 22 leveled.

Hey. Well done. I hope you don't feel too bad about using the Flash Badges. I've never used them but they seem to help if you're lower than the recommended levels. I think you can do the Shanghai pit fights immediately when they become available. I'm not completely sure about that tbh but that's what I think. You must do them before entering Kuihai Tower if I remember correctly. You should be able to do them at least at that point.

Hey again Ronlyn. I hope your weekend is going smoothly. There might be a way if the version is NTSC-U. It all depends whether the code sections are in exact same places in the game images. Even if they're not you should be able to paste the edited changes into the undub version if both the original and undub version are same region (in this case NTSC-U). However in order to do so you will need to compare the 'orig. unmodded Covenant' and 'unmodded undub Covenant' to find the changes between them. I think you will need a program called "delta maker" in order to do this. Once delta maker has created you a file that is used to change 'orig. unmodded Covenant' into 'unmodded undub Covenant' you can do that even with the 'orig. modded Covenant'. The change that occurs will not affect the modded values, and even if they're not in same places in the code they will be moved automatically. I think the program you need is delta maker. I have been modding FFX International undub and I'm able to transfer the modded values the same way between the 2. Edit: I think the program is called "delta patcher". Haven't been using that in a while but if you need help in this matter I can get more deep into it.

Making the characters always get turns before the enemies removes the challenge from fights to the point of making them boring imo. The normal encounters already have 3x their original hp, starting from Smuggler's Boat 4x and the late game enemies 6x. As long as you're in high enough levels you will find the normal foes bearable. However one is still able to play the mod on lower levels but with added challenge. In the suggested levels the enemies with highest agl get the initiative as often as the player's character with highest agl value. I wanted to make it this way. I'm sorry if it bothers you. In low levels the foes also deal more damage and they'll be able to one shot party members if they happen to get crits with their basics.

Hey again. Looks like you've made some good progress. You're way lower level than what is intended at this point. But if you're fine with that don't let it bother you. It's simply just the optimal level before taking on the bosses, nothing too serious. The bosses' HP is often multiplied by 1.5 (which was the case with Yamaraja) and sometimes by 2. Here are the suggested levels before entering the bosses: Plains: 5 Zhaoyang Village: 9 Fengtian Sewers: 16 Dalian: 18 Smuggler's Ship: 20 Trials 1: 20 Trials 2: 22 Trials 3: 22 Kowloon Fortress: 27 Kuihai Tower: 38 Bistritz: 41 Blue Castle: 44 Rouen: 49 Orphanage: 55 Mental Hospital: 60 Nemeton Underground: 70 Doll House & Float 1: 79 Cave Temple & Float 2: 89 Ancient Ruins & float 3: 99 Basically when everyone on your team is at these levels it's optimal to take the next boss. I upped the exp and cash received in all the areas. In some more and in some less. Especially in the areas where you need to level up more you will receive more than in some other areas. But yeah, you don't necessarily need to be in those levels. And you're right, 'Heaven's Fiend' is very important fusion on Yuri early on. Alice will also be very important later on with her 'Gospel' and 'Arc' spells. This is basically the game where you want to have Yuri and Alice on your party until the end. Halley is the default for 3rd and is probably the best choice since he also has revive and healing spell and also 'Black Hole'. He is simply the best for 3rd but other choices may work as well.

Hi again Ronlyn and thank you for giving my mod a whirl! I'll try to answer to everything you have pointed out while trying to help at the same time. Siberian Express: There are never 4 Wind Shears in one group in the train. It's always either 1 or 2. Yuri should be fine as a by-passer. Plains: Lvl 1 Alice will always be able to survive with at least 1 HP even if the 'Vampire Bat' (the strongest enemy in the area) happens to hit with critical. As long as you have full health and mana before the fights you will be able to survive every time as long as you play correctly. Even as only Yuri and Alice. If you run the game on PCSX2 you can test this out by making a save state after a surprise attack. I have tested this in every single area of the game. As long as you have the best weapons/armor at that point you won't see a game over screen. However there are all of these things to take in consideration along with being on correct levels and having enough items if you need to use them. Zhaoyang Village: I decided not to buff the health of the 'Hellcats' since I thought of them as children compared to the rest of the enemies. Yuri will be able to one shot the 'Green Flyer' enemies with his Earth element monster's magic spell. Which you should be doing especially before you get Zhuzhen on your party. I wanted to keep the game experience as close to the original as possible without changing status effects / shop prices or anything like that. It is also my way of respecting the vision of the people who created this game. You are not expected to buy any protective accessories at Zhaoyang Village other than Bandannas. Later on in the game you will be able to buy way more freely. Just measure what things are more important or if you want you can alternatively grind until you are able to buy everything. It is optimal to fight the 'Felinus' boss at lvl9 (same as Yamaraja). I'm sorry for making you feel awful while playing through my mod. I hope you will start liking it more if you decide to continue another time. -Zed

Alice is the squishiest party member followed by Zhuzhen so yeah she'll be taking a lot of beating in this mod sadly :(((. You're supposed to be lvl 5 before entering the Raging Tiger boss. Overall there's some leveling required here and there. You will also need to be buying more items throughout the game since enemies and bosses take longer to defeat. I'm sorry if you feel overwhelmed by that. Magic overall is more powerful than basic attacks so you might be able to one shot some foes with Yuri's fusion monsters' magic spells. And it's pretty much always better to have Yuri transformed since it gives him extra stats.

Have fun!

Hey, ronlyn. This is not an extremely hard modification. Just somewhat challenging (like my other Shadow Hearts mods) while still being fun to play so there shouldn't be much problems. The last bosses can get more brutal if you've gotten used to power level since they're supposed to be done maxed. Then again you can still use the 'Seal' items to power up (which are not required to beat the game at lv 99).

Hey, thanks for giving my mods a go yep you are supposed to be 8 levelled before that boss. And since both of them are able to use magic it's better to have Gepetto with the non-elemental dress. That's actually the first boss that has significantly higher agility. You will be needing enough Thera items in the bosses to come along with Talismans (in late bosses you have powerful healing magic so that's not as prevalent then). I suggest you keep several save files just in case for there will be segments in the game where you're trapped on boss and can't buy items before beating them (one wouldn't necessarily notice these points in the game since the game is so easy). Let me know if you need help on anything. I'll be glad to help ;P

Lol. It seems all the old school horror games tended to have weird dialogue at least in some point. I guess the whole weirdness makes them more scary.

Lol. Koudelka has its' charms in the whole dark evil setting and all. And actually I don't have the same complaints about the game most people do. For example I don't care about the slower paced gameplay (due to technical stuff). The problems are pretty much all on the modding end. I'll probably totally skip Koudelka in my list of projects and focus on something else instead.