Final Fantasy Tactics Advance: Grim Grimoire (OLD!)

[Eternal]

It's high time to release the beta of one of my favorite projects, FFTA: Grim Grimoire, or FFTA: GG for short.

What is FFTA: GG?

FFTA: GG is a rebalancing mod that aims to make the game a bit more challenging and fun by altering some of the broken skills and inserting new things. Currently, I am unable to edit battles themselves, but items, skills, jobs, and skillsets have all been altered.

What are some of the biggest changes?

-No laws.
-MP Regeneration is disabled.
-Mediator/Reaver jobs to replace Gadgeteers/Morphers.
-Some new skills, such as Ultima, Steal Heart, Steal HP/MP, Flee, and more.
-Tougher monsters.

What will I need to play this?

Patching and playing FFTA: GG is very simple.

1) Download Lunar IPS.
2) Download the included .zip file.
3) Acquire a -NORTH AMERICAN- FFTA ROM. Failure to get a NA ROM will result in bugs.
4) Patch the ROM using Lunar IPS and the .ips file.
5) Profit!

Oh no! This battle is too hard/there's a bug! What do!?

FFTA: GG has been fully tested up until the battle where you save Ezel, which is why testers are needed while I try and locate/edit formations. If there's a bug/glitch, please report it here!

Known Bugs:
-Many descriptions for items/skills are wrong. For skills, please reference the changelog below.
-Items that normally teach nothing may show you being taught a random skill, such as Gun Combo, Boltshot, or Morph Combo.
-Enemies may randomly use skills the player cannot access, such as Reflex.

What will be included later?

Formations/battles will be edited to be a bit more balanced and enjoyable. Further, Darthatron and I are looking at redoing the Law system in a new, more interesting and less intrusive way.

Complete Changelog:

spoiler: General Changes

General Changes:
-Laws have been removed.
-Enemy levels scale.
-The party limit has been lowered in each battle.
-Monsters are more mobile and faster.
-Boss Totema/units have generally higher HP/MP and slightly altered skillsets.
-Shops are upgraded by story progress, rather than number of missions completed.
-Colors are less saturated.
-MP Regeneration is removed.
-Reflex/Strikeback/Damage > MP have been removed from player use.
-Blind/Concentrate have been nerfed.
-Gadgeteers have been replaced with Mediators, who use a totally new skillset with skills that alter a unit's status and stats, and can use Guns, Claws, Hats, Robes, Clothing, and Accessories.
-Morphers have been replaced with Reavers, who use Dark themed enemy skills by capturing monsters and taking their Souls, and can use Souls, Shields, Heavy Armor, Helms, and Accessories.

spoiler: New Job Tree

Job Tree:
HUMES   
   
Soldier   
Fighter      2 Soldier
Paladin      3 Fighter, 3 White Mage
   
Archer   
Thief      2 Archer
Hunter      4 Archer
Ninja      4 Archer, 4 Thief
   
White Mage   
Black Mage   2 White Mage
Green Mage   4 Black Mage, 4 White Mage
Blue Mage   3 Black Mage, 3 Soldier
   
BANGAA   
   
Monk   
Bishop      3 Monk
Templar      3 Bishop, 3 Dragoon
   
Warrior   
Defender   3 Warrior
Gladiator   3 Defender
Dragoon      3 Gladiator
   
NU MOU   
   
Black Mage   
Time Mage   4 Black Mage
   
White Mage   
Green Mage   4 White Mage
   
Beastmaster   
Reaver      5 Beastmaster
   
Alchemist   3 White Mage, 5 Black Mage
Sage      3 Illusionist, 3 Time Mage
   
VIERA   
   
Fencer   
Archer      2 Fencer
Sniper      3 Archer
Assassin   4 Archer, 4 Sniper
   
White Mage   
Elementalist   3 White Mage
Red Mage   2 Fencer, 2 White Mage
Summoner   4 Elementalist
   
MOOGLES   
   
Animist   
Black Mage   2 Animist
Time Mage   4 Black Mage
   
Thief   
Gunner      3 Thief
   
Mog Knight   3 Animist, 2 Thief
Juggler      3 Thief, 3 Mog Knight
Mediator   3 Animist, 3 Gunner

spoiler: Item and Stat Changes

Item Changes:
-Most items have received small tweaks to make them more balanced.
-A few items have been given new abilities, such as the Mythril Rod, Mythril Staff, and Reaper Robe.
-Items have greatly increased in price.
-Items that taught certain powerful abilities such as Doublecast/Dual Wield have had their abilities moved to later items.

Stat Changes:
-Most jobs have had small tweaks to rebalance their use.

spoiler: White Mage

White Mage:
-Life MP cost up to 20.
-Full-Life MP cost up to 50.

spoiler: Bishop

Bishop:
-Dispel MP cost has been decreased.
-Judge MP Cost down to 0.

spoiler: Templar

Templar:
-Cheer's Range up to 4.
-Lifebreak's Range is now 4.

spoiler: Sage

Sage:
-Bio now has an AoE of 0.
-Ultima Blow is now Ultima, has 4 Range and an AoE of 2.
-Raise MP cost up to 50.
-Gigaflare's power has been reduced.
-Drain is now Dark Elemental.

spoiler: Alchemist

Alchemist:
-Meteor power down, AoE up to 2.
-Astra has been renamed Veil.

spoiler: Soldier

Soldier:
-First Aid now imbues Regen on oneself.
-Provoke range up to 3.
-Mug has been replaced with Revive.
-Sensor now reduces an enemy's Defense and Magic Defense.

spoiler: Thief

Thief:
-Steal Gil has been replaced with Mug.
-Steal: EXP is now Steal: HP, which drains HP from 1 Range.
-Steal: JP is now Steal: MP, which damages MP from 1 Range.
-Steal: Ability is now Steal: Heart, which inflicts Charm from 3 Range.

spoiler: Black Mage

Black Mage:
-Fire/Fira/Firaga's Power have been halved, but now they have an AoE of 2.
-Thunder/Thundara/Thundaga's Power have been decreased by 25%, but they now have +3 Range.
-Poison's AoE is up to 2.

spoiler: Red Mage

Red Mage:
-Sleep now has an AoE of 0.

spoiler: Paladin

Paladin:
-Holy Blade's Power and MP cost have been reduced, now inflicts Blind if it lands.
-Saint Cross' MP cost is reduced to 0, but Power is halved.
-Parley Range increased to 4.
-Nurse now imbues Regen on an ally.

spoiler: Summoner

Summoner:
-Phoenix now revives units with 25% HP, and won't harm Undead.
-Unicorn, Ramuh, Ifrit, Shiva, and Maduin have had their Power lowered.
-Unicorn no longer cures debuffs.

spoiler: Time Mage

Time Mage:
-Quicken is now Comet, which deals damage in a small AoE.
-Last Quicken has become Last Comet. Go out with a bang!
-Haste's AoE is up to 1.
-Quarter/Demi are now Dark Elemental.
-Stop's AoE is down to 0.

spoiler: Warrior

Warrior:
-First Aid now imbues Regen on oneself.
-Downsize is now Dark Elemental.

spoiler: Dragoon

Dragoon:
-Jump now deals double damage at halved accuracy.
-Fire/Ice/Bolt Breath have had their power reduced.
-Bangaa Cry has had its power reduced.
-Wyrmtamer Range up to 4.

spoiler: Gladiator

Gladiator:
-Fire/Ice/Bolt Sword have had their power halved.

spoiler: Fencer

Fencer:
-Swarmstrike now deals full damage.
-Nighthawk MP cost up to 10.
-Checkmate MP cost up to 10.
-Piercethrough now costs 8 MP.

spoiler: Assassin

Assassin:
-Last Breath now inflicts Doom.
-Nightmare now inflicts Sleep and Poison.
-Shadowbind now inflicts Immobilize.

spoiler: Reaver

Reaver:
-Lv? Shadowflare
-Level 5 Death, which casts Death on all units with a level divisible by 5.
-Zombify, which inflicts Undead on an enemy.
-Bind, which inflicts Immobilize and Disable on an enemy.
-Lifebreak, which deals damage equal to lost HP.
-Mutilate, which drains HP from a tile away.
-Soul Sphere, which deals MP damage in a small AoE.
-Miasma, which deals Dark damage and Poisons enemies in a small AoE.

spoiler: Animist

Animist:
-Catnip's MP cost down to 5.
-Sheep Count AoE is down to 0.

spoiler: Defender

Defender:
-Aura now imbues Regen and Astra.
-Tremor is now Earth Elemental.

spoiler: Elementalist

Elementalist:
-White Flame no longer heals HP, now cancels debuffs.

spoiler: Monk

Monk:
-Chakra range up to 1.
-Air Render's Power has been lowered.
-Far Fist's Power has been lowered.
-Earth Render's power has been decreased.

spoiler: Fighter

Fighter:
-Air Render's Power has been lowered.
-Far Fist's Power has been lowered.
-Backdraft is now non-elemental, power has been reduced.
-Air Blast's power has been reduced.

spoiler: Moogle Knight

Moogle Knight:
-Mog Peek range up to 8.
-Mog Lance MP cost up to 15.

spoiler: Beastmaster

Beastmaster:
-Control skill range up to 6.

spoiler: Archer

Archer:
-Cupid is now Flee, which imbues oneself with Haste.

spoiler: Ninja

Ninja:
-Ninjutsu is now 0 MP.

spoiler: Hunter

Hunter:
-Sidewinder MP cost up to 15.
-Sonic Boom's Range is down to 3, now deals half damage at full accuracy.

spoiler: Sniper

Sniper:
-Doubleshot MP cost up to 15.
-Death Sickle MP cost up to 20.

spoiler: Juggler

Juggler:
-Smile now imbues an ally with Regen.
-Dagger now inflicts Poison rather than Disable.

spoiler: Green Mage

Green Mage:
-Protectga, which adds Protect in a large AoE.
-Shellga, which adds Shell in a large AoE.
-Dispelga, which cancels all buffs in a large AoE.
-Esunaga, which cancels all debuffs in a large AoE.
-Regen, which adds Regen in a small AoE.
-Blindga, which adds Blind in a large AoE.
-MP Gift, which sacrifices some MP to heal an ally's MP.

spoiler: Mediator

Mediator:
-Stall, which inflicts Slow.
-Insult, which inflicts Berserk.
-Invite, which Captures an enemy monster.
-Flatter, which lowers DEF/RES.
-Frighten, which lowers SPD and inflicts Immobilize.
-Mimic Babus, which inflicts Sleep.
-Bribe, which exchanges some Gil for a chance to remove an enemy.
-Praise, which increases the damage of the target's next attack and boosts their Critical Hit rate.
-Intimidate, which lowers ATK/MAG.

spoiler: Totema

Totema:
-Mateus' power has been lowered.
-Exodus' power has been greatly lowered, but now deals HP damage and inflicts Immobilize and Slow.
-Famfrit's power has been greatly lowered, but now inflicts ATK/MAG Down.
-Adrammelech's power has been greatly lowered, but now inflicts DEF/RES Down.

spoiler: Special Jobs

Special Jobs:
-Bind MP cost down to 10.
-Logos Range up to 4.
-Logos now inflicts Slow, MAG Down, and Poison while doing damage.
-Abyss now inflicts Blind and Silence as well as damage.
-Omega now deals 400% damage rather than 200%.
-Azoth MP cost up to 30.
-Spellbind now inflicts Immobilize in addition to its other effects.
-Life Render range up to 5.
-Heart Render range up to 5.
-Ripcircle's power has been increased.
-Furycircle now inflicts Blind and Berserk.

spoiler: Monsters

Monsters:
-Zombify Range up to 4.
-Miasma's power is increased and is now Dark Elemental.
-Meteorite MP cost down to 15.
-Blowup is now Fire Elemental.
-Guard-Off is renamed Expose.
-Guard-Off Range up to 3.
-Mighty Guard Range up to 3.
-Flame Attack Range up to 4.
-Mutilate MP cost down to 0.
-Dragon Force Range up to 3.
-Hastebreak Range up to 5.
-Rend now lowers DEF/RES as well as dealing damage.
-Matra Magic now deals low damage at 8 Range.
-Knife MP cost down to 0.
-Poison Claw MP cost down to 0.
-Karma Range up to 3.
-Voodoo Range up to 3.
-LV3 Def-Less is renamed LV3 Expose.
-Twister now deals costs 0 MP, is Wind Elemental damage and inflicts Confuse.
-Goo Range up to 4.
-Drain Touch MP cost down to 0.
-Angel Whisper's MP cost has been lowered and now imbues Regen rather than Reraise.
-Bad Breath now affects all surrounding units.
-White Wind's MP cost is increased.
-LV?Holy MP cost reduced to 0.
-Limit Glove range increased to 3, MP cost reduced to 0.
-Night now has a range of 4 and an AoE of 1.

Credits:

-Darthatron, without him this mod wouldn't be possible. His tools are amazing and his help invaluable. Thanks a ton!
-TyrantTanuki, aka Edea, for formation data and text tables.
-Chimp and Zareb for feedback and support.
-PickleGirlFanboy for his abilities spreadsheet.
-Xifanie for her help with Excel.
-OrangeFluffySheep, whose LP was an amazing (and humorous) asset to me, pointing out what was broken so I could fix it.
-And you, for playing it! </cliche>

All feedback is welcome and encouraged! Hopefully this will make FFTA a bit more enjoyable for those who didn't enjoy it much before. Enjoy!

NOTE: THE CURRENT DEMO IS FULLY PLAYABLE AND BEATABLE UP TO THE SOLO BABUS BATTLE.

[Eternal]

First Aid's a real pain in the battle with Montblanc at the beginning. I'll upload a version tomorrow where it costs 5 MP so it won't be annoying anymore.

[Eternal]

I updated the main post with a fix to make the first battle less annoying. First Aid costs 5 MP now, so the AI will only be able to use it about 2 times in the first fight.

[Eternal]

I've noticed a crapload of little (and not so little) bugs as I've begun my personal tests. I'll have a new patch up tomorrow.

[Rfh]

FFTA was my first tactical game, and quickly my old favourite game. Since this, I've played a lot of tactical games.
I played FFTA when I have 7 years and I think that is a easy game, I remenber that when I played it, I only reset some Jagd battles and someone. it need raise the difficulty and destroy all unbalancing things in lategame. Raise also the difficulty of all missions. Well, I perceive that this is a very good patch, you rebalance a lot of destoying things, but this is my ideas:

-The party limit has been lowered in each battle.

Why? With more units, more funny, but not too like tactics ogre that allows 12 units. I think the best is 8 units. FFTA allows 6 units, please conserve this, and instead of a way to raise difficulty edit the enemies units abilities, equipment etc.

Assassin:
-Last Breath now inflicts Doom.
-Nightmare now inflicts Sleep and Poison.
-Shadowbind now inflicts Immobilize.

Assassin is a uber-game-breaking-job. I like your ideas in this patch to rebalance it, but what do you think about create an ability that cause damage with 25% or 33% chance to cause KO? I'ts interesting thing. And I have a question, what happen with Rockseal?

Time Mage:
-Quicken is now Comet, which deals damage in a small AoE.
-Last Quicken has become Last Comet. Go out with a bang!
-Haste's AoE is up to 1.
-Quarter/Demi are now Dark Elemental.
-Stop's AoE is down to 0.

Why? Quicken is a good ability, conserve it.
Please, down haste AoE to 0 or also you can create Hasteja with more MP that has AoE 1. Haste is the best buff in the game.
 

- I like yor ideas that remove or balance some Ultima attacks, rebalance summon, but what do you think about Dualcast?
This is a breaking ability, maybe add additional MP cost? or only can cast Red mage spells?


And one thing more... Why is it on USA version and not in EUR? EUR contain a lot of languages, and some people can play it better.

[Eternal]

Currently, I have no idea how to edit enemy equipment or skills. They're not setup like FFT, and currently there are no tools to edit formation data. Therefore, it's easier for me to just limit the party by one so the enemy isn't as terribly outnumbered.

As for 25%/33% hit abilities, I can't edit accuracy in FFTA on individual skills at all unless they inflict damage, and even then, the lowest I can go is 50% accuracy.

As for Quicken, there are a few reasons I killed it. For one, I hate the potential of any Quicken chains. Secondly, with Quarter/Demi being Dark Elemental now, I wanted to give Time Mages a non-elemental damage spell they could use against the many enemies immune to Dark.

Dualcast is going to (eventually) be ASM'd to only allow Red Magic to be Dualcast.

Unfortunately, many of the changes made will simply bug in the EUR version. We had a tester accidentally patch the EUR version and he had many weird bugs.

[looper]

Just played it: Nice Work!

Also as yearlong player it's a little bit confusing, that some effects are different, but I really like the Hack^^

k, I died in the first mission ~3 times, but what would the hack be, if it would be easy?

[Eternal]

The current beta that's uploaded here works up until Ultima Crystals. I want to release an update tonight or this weekend that goes up to Muscadet.

[Rfh]

I'll play it. I like this patch.

[Eternal]

No, I haven't forgotten about this update. I'm still fixing up a crapload of little tweaks.

[cat5isalive]

First of all, I like the progress so far.   I've just played up to the Ultima Crystals (and subsequently game-over'd)

Fire, Ice and Lightning spells having different ranges and effects was a nice touch, I had fun playing around with them.   As for the apparent lack or restriction of reaction abilities, I'm a little put off because the skill slots just seem rather empty.   I agree with removing reflex and some of the other more broken reaction abilities, but I think that counter would be fine to put back.

With the level scaling, I'd have to say that it seriously discourages switching out party mates as the enemies will just kick your shit in if you have anything aside from a max-level party.  I'd suggest switching to an average clan level scale.

Also, as of this last patch, I can't say I've ever seen the shop update at *any* point in the storyline so far.  I think that updating the shop with the storyline is a nice balance practice, but seriously, almost all of my 2nd tier classes were just waiting on new weapons to be released in order to job change.  We can't test some of your classes if you don't release enough weapons in the shop to fulfill the prereqs.   Also the current system has me sitting around with 200,000 gil and nothing to spend it on.

On the matter of nerfing or removing particular skills or pushing them further back into the storyline, nice idea, but in practice I've just found that whatever skills you don't nerf (Haste, Sleep, Poison) just wind up taking the place of previous 'broken' skills.  If the goal is to balance the game and encourage all builds to be viable, you need to either slightly buff all of the skills or slightly reduce the difficulty of the monsters because at the moment, only 'cheap' strategies will allow you to progress through the game.  There needs to be a little leeway.

[Eternal]

Counter's actually still around, so feel free to use that if you come across it.

Regarding shop updates, the first one is actually directly -after- the Ultima Crystals. Sorry about that- they've been fixed now. >_>

In regards to level scaling, you can use five members in each battle, and you start with six. Even if you swap in/out one of those party members, you shouldn't have too much trouble in each fight. An easy way to do this is to use Marche in each story fight, and the generic Hume you're given at the start in non-essential missions. I'm fairly certain special units will join at party level, so that shouldn't be an issue when that's applicable. Same for randomly joining generics.

I forget if the version you played has non-AoE Haste, but if it does have AoE, that's been removed for the next update. The source of AoE Haste now is Hastega, which is going to be found on the new Green Mage job. I guess it's a matter of preference, but I like Poison how it is currently. It's a good way to speed battles up with the extra damage each round, but it's by no means vital.

Monsters are- as you can imagine- a bitch. I'm trying to balance their stats, and a lot of them feel better balanced in the update I have planned. The biggest change is to Dragons, who have been flat out nerfed from the version you have. I by no means intend for monsters to straight-out crush you, so I'm definitely taking that to heart.

Thanks for the feedback and welcome to FFH! I'll hopefully have the new update up sometime this week.

[ReNemesis]

Love the Game. But personally the Mage classes at the beginning seem very underpowered. I actually lost the first mission, it took me several times and to change Marche to Archer to finish it(which is perfect, it requires tactical advantage now). I've won maybe 2/7 clan battles. I'm adjustng to the new tiers of the classes available and, as I am stuck with beginner gears, I find that clans generally rape me.

- Issue= the party members who are underleveled cannot level up because they get swarmed by enemy units.

- Black Mage has dismal damage. I'm understanding the need to 'balance' magic. The problem is magic has always in a sense been balanced. MP does not regen so the amount of spells available per battle is miniscule. Mages die very fast(a balancing technique universal in most rpgs), the are of effect/range is modded which is fine. Though Fire has potential to hit a;l enemy units that usually is not the case. On average 2/3 units are in damage range. Fire deals half the avg damage of blizzard. I think it should be more like 7 or 8/10. Blizzard is still a viable option this way, as it does more damage. Thunder does decent damage, but like all magcs has limited use. Thundara is hardly better than thunder, it is almost a waste of mp.
   + increase damaging power of magic, NOT to its original scaling(it can be proven consistenly under/overpowered depending on level)

I'll keep playing

[Eternal]

Black Mages have been tweaked a bit for the next update (which I'm still trying to balance the Babus solo fight). I've managed to make Fire ignore allies, which will hopefully make it a bit more useable. Thunder/Thundara/Thundaga are getting +2 Range from the version I released earlier.

In general, I agree that units feel quite vulnerable right now, but that's also being looked at.

Although the current version is unbeatable after a certain point, I'm still making progress and balancing a bunch of stuff out.

[ReNemesis]

When are the Level/Shop updates by chance?

[Eternal]

First upgrade is after the Ultima Crystals, IIRC (which are ridiculously overpowered in your version), the other is after Solo Babus.

[Rfh]

I see a problem about Drain and steal MP, Drain always drain 0 HP and steal MP cause 1 damage.

[Eternal]

Those are already fixed, don't worry.

[Rfh]

I forgot breaths. Did you fix the dragon breaths? They always inflict Astra. I played up to the four totema fight, and I haven't seen any problem. About OHKO attacks (Death, Rockseal and Break) I think that there are owerpowered. Once the MP of my assassin allow to use Rockseal twice, the battles become much more easy... Maybe raise the MP cost of this abilities?

[Rfh]

More things to fix: Backdraft and Bangaa Cry cause very big damage. And when a vampire use drain it disappeared and when it moves the game freezes.