This was quite a fun ride, the start was quite hard and I almost got a game over too. Cecil keep dying on me lol. Too bad the game came to an abrupt end for me for some strange reason as it was made unplayable after falling down the pitfall in the Tower of Babil. Every battle after that it automatically put the cursor to the Change during the battle. Cursor wouldn't move out of there so I couldn't battle, but I could run away. Also happened outside the Tower as well. You can't run away from bosses so the game became unplayable unfortunately... I don't know what happened, either I patch it on a bad rom, or the wrong version (1.0 or 1.1), and on a headered or unheadered rom. I think this should be mentioned on what rom to apply the patch on. I'll say it's the later two rather than the former. Regardless, I've taken a few notes along the way. Well, up until the pitfall. Sigh, I wanted to see Anna in action and see the rest of the stuff... Anyways, the story text stuff is omitted because Zozma mention he didn't do it as of yet.
*Regular stuff
**Bug/Glitch - At least for me, read intro for some info. May be because of bad rom, etc. Would need confirmation from other players if this happened to them. Some bugs are present according to other posters, but these ones are not mentioned.
Oddities:
*Dark Sword's are dark-elemental? So why are they dealing full damage instead of 1 point of damage to Zombie? They are suppose to be resistance to dark-elemental (unless you removed this). Is it because of the holy sword weapon strike visual effect instead of the standard dark sword/katana visual effect.
*Baigan's name is mentioned instead of Anna during the Cecil, Rydia, and Tellah event in the save point location. Such as "Baigan is my only daughter." Same in Dancyan dialogue, but okay during battle text (when Anna talks).
*Sing, the "Song of Silence" with Curse (Dispel visual effect). Inflicts silence or curse? Forgot to rename this?
*Sing, the "Nothing happened" has the Hold visual effect. Forgot to rename this?
*Anna's sprite during Kaipo battle is messed up. Maybe make her join Edward's battle via Adult Rydia in the Dwarven Castle's Golbez fight.
*Usage of the dummy commands brings the message D (which stands for dummy). Pretty sure you're already aware of this, just mentioning it. Is there anyway to remove this? Couldn't do it myself.
*Blind is highlighted, and you are able to cast Sight outside battle. Intended?
*Soul (monster), Item Magic's Flame Rod is not Fire-elemental and uses Fire2's visual effect. Intended? Looks kind of odd to be non-elemental. You should check Ice Rod as well, Ice-elemental? I forgot what it looks like...
*Being able to buy elemental claws in Baron, this can be removed honestly. Should be easily done.
*ElecFish (monster), Suppose to absorb lightning from Item Magic's Thunder Rod. Magnet/Electromagnetic Radiation's visual effect, intended? Non-elemental?
*Cid class/job is FightIt.
*Cid has White, Black, Call menu associated with him under the Magic menu (Main Menu/Field Menu - outside battle).
*Baigan changes to Edward in Toroia at the Edward in bed scene, returns to normal after scene is done.
*After getting the Earth Crystal, you can visit Edward in bed in Toroia. A scene plays there, this scene can be deleted because Edward has already joined your party and he shouldn't be there anymore.
*Baigan's scenario which was taken out (text and such) would fit perfectly after the arrival in the Tower of Zot and before the fight takes place in there instead of just encountering him. This part is probably incomplete by Zozma.
*Poison Axe is too powerful, you also get it too early (Magnetic Cave). Best weapon up until the pitfall (for me). You forgot to remove it? You mentioned this early in the thread.
*Cid has wrong palette in the Dwarven Castle scene before he leaves.
**Golbez battle, the default color (blue) change to pink (not kidding) for no reason, also all character's have already been force to change rows. After the Calca and Brina battle, Edward & Rosa where set in the back row (pre-battle) and were in the front row at the start of Golbez's fight. Cecil, Kain, and Empty (Rydia) were in the back row at the start of this battle.
*Edward wasn't hit by Demolish from the Shadow Dragon (Shadow battle script error, probably look for Yang and couldn't find him and ended his turn).
**Change (Main Menu) no longer works after Adult Rydia joins. It also doesn't work during battle either. Was stuck with Back/Front/Back/Front/Back till the pitfall (endgame for me).
**Giant Bat x4 formation screwed up within the Cave of Eblan. The four monster graphics are bundle together and one overlapping on parts of the other 3 Giant Bats which results in a cluster of glitchy graphics on those three beneath the first.
*Flame is not Fire-elemental? Rubicant didn't absorb it. Intended?
**After pitfall, Edge disappears (Intended?). Next random encounter makes the cursor on the battle list automatically move to the Change option at the start of battle, cannot chose it nor get to the regular battle menu (Fight, etc). You can run away (L & R), but you cannot perform any actions during battles or boss battles = game unplayable anymore...
Since I couldn't continue normally, I tried finishing the Tower of Babil with a normal FFII rom and saved outside. They bring that save to your version. Change glitch still occurred. I loaded to my last save (before pitfall after rubicant is dead), and I could fight normally until after the pitfall and Change glitch occurred once again. I decided to hack to game to see the remaining visual spells and stuff. So the next part is oddities thru hacking/looking at data/etc.
*Cockatrice: It doesn't drop from cockatrice or it's palette swap. I know it's unnecessary and unneeded since Rydia learns it via level up, just thought I'll mention it.
*Nova is highlighted, and the player can Mini/Size the party outside of battle. I didn't test mini status character(s) in battle sprites. Mini portrait appears on Main Menu.
*Imp/Goblin summon, one way to make it useful is to make it act like Needle (SwordRat enemy ability). MP cost for Imp should be increase if this is done.
*Mist Dragon made into a Holy-elemental attack.
*Sylph made into a Dark-elemental attack.
*Blizzard Lance cast Flood/Tidal Wave/Big Wave/Tsunami, shouldn't it be called Trident instead?
*Gypsy (Boomerang) found in Magnetic Cave. Nobody can equip it... yet. Anna's weapon? Why so early? You forgot to remove it by chance? By the way, why Gypsy? I can't figure this part out... A pun?
I know the following can easily be change by my own power, but for the hack as a whole. I'll suggest these thing to improve the hack. In the end, it's up to you. This part is nothing major, only minor stuff. Up to you to take it or ignore it.
*Wrench icon (Hammers), there is a unused Hammer icon within the font/icon data that could go on the hammers. This icon really looks good.
*Edward cannot equip Gaea Hat and Gaea Robe, but can equip the Wizard Robe. Honestly, Edward should be able to equip Gaea Hat and Gaea Robe regardless. Error on your part that you made it not equippable to Edward or intentional?
*Cecil is able to equip the Boomerang? I cannot see/imagine a Dark Knight (or a Knight for that matter) equipping a boomerang or fight using a boomerang. My guess is that you wanted a weapon for the magnetic cave section, right? Well, in FFIV Easy Type. They gave Cecil such a weapon. I believe it's called Pig's Stick/Bamboo something/etc. Whatever it's called, it was a non-metallic sword. This weapon made a return on the GBA/PSP release with extreme buff up stats. Google it or ffwiki it for more info. Changing the Boomerang to a non-metallic sword would be better. You could call it Wooden Sword (or another non-metallic name scheme) or something if you don't like Pig's Stick/etc.
*Cecil can equip Gaea Hat, Gaea Robe, Bandanna, Karate Vest, and Black Robe. I can't see a Dark Knight/Knight equip light armor (Robes/Clothes) at all. Is this the same as the Boomerang, you needed armor for Cecil for the magnetic cave right? For non-metallic armor, you can convert/recycle the Iron Equipment. Kain's starting equipment becomes useless after he leaves the party. Obviously, rename Iron to a non-metallic name. You could check out other RPGs for naming schemes for equipment types (Gold, Silver, Mythril, etc). Mirror and Dragon(scale) comes to mind. I would go with Dragon which fits perfectly for Kain's starting armor, and I know that Dragon Equipment appears as Kain's best/high-level equipment in the re-release of FFIV. But in the SNES, those were called Dragoon if I am not mistaken. So you'll have Dragon and Dragoon equipment in your hack. In all FFIVs, Dragon equipment is non-metallic. FFwiki it or look at the Dragoon armor's SNES coding.
In conclusion, this is one fantastic hack that could become one epic hack once it's completed. In fact, I enjoyed this hack more than the original game itself. I also like the new swords designs, new spells, new playable characters, etc. I truly hope it gets finish someday because it has so much potential to be even more awesome than the original game. Thanks for sharing your "as is" new envision of FFIV Zozma, and good luck if you one day decide to finish this "lol" patch.
