FFT: Emergence (PSP)

[BleuVII]

Final Fantasy Tactics was made in 1997, and remains one of the best Tactical Roleplaying Games on the market. In 2007, it was remade for the PSP and ported to IOS/Android. In 2017, this project was created to try to make a better FFT experience. Everything about the game, from concept art to battle data, was examined to see what hints were left of original design choices. Several themes started to "emerge" from this investigation. FFT: Emergence is the result of this exploration.

Here is a high-level overview of the changes:
  * The Job progression has been re-organized to be more intuitive and sensible. For example, Lancers are gained from training Knights, not Thieves.
  * There are 49 new abilities to learn. 19 were previously enemy-only, and 30 new abilities were created by removing duplicates between classes.
  * Magick charge time and damage formulas have been tweaked to bring mages into balance.
  * Faith is no longer used in Attack and Healing Magick.
  * Many job classes have been tweaked. The following classes were completely redesigned:
      - Soldier (aka Knight) - Given the original Archer ability to charge attacks
      - Archer - Able to inflict statuses through special arrows
      - Cleric, Wizard, Enchanter, and Mystic (aka White Mage, Black Mage, Time Mage, & Oracle) have all shuffled spells around to allow for deeper specialization within each job class.
      - Magus (aka Dark Knight) - redesigned to be an armor-wearing mage class with access to 8 spells previously reserved for enemies.
  * Every special character has been modified. The biggest changes are:
      - Ramza. Slowly becomes a Dark Knight over the course of the story, able to learn the Dark Sword techniques from fighting against Gaffgarion
      - Mustadio. Gains all of the "Sap" abilities, so he can reduce enemies's Power, Magic, Speed, and MP.
      - Beowulf. Swapped spell animations with the Mystics to give his class more personality. Does not require swords to cast his spells.
      - Luso. Given a unique class consisting of the Astral Magicks.
  * Every storyline battle has been tweaked to give players a greater variety of enemies and a smoother difficulty curve.
  * Many items and weapons have been updated.
  * And, of course, the animation slowdown has been removed.

Taken in total, FFT: Emergence offers new gameplay possibilities while still retaining the theme and feel of the old classic. With a difficulty level similar to the original game, any player can pick this up with confidence.

[3lric]

Well done, but I'm moving this to project ideas until it is released. You need permission to post it in completed and even works in progress requires something playable.

[BleuVII]

Well done, but I'm moving this to project ideas until it is released. You need permission to post it in completed and even works in progress requires something playable.

Totally understandable. I meant to put the patch in the original post, but I'm currently trying to puzzle out why the raw ISO is 20MB larger than my patched ISO. PPF Studio is detecting the file size difference and refusing to make a PPF.

EDIT: This appears to be the fault of UMDGen when I replace fftpack.bin, then rebuild the ISO, it is rebuilt 20MB smaller. I'll be searching around for answers on that one.

[3lric]

No problem. Are you able to get the file size down with compression via winrar or 7z? Maybe that will help.

Unfortunately, I know little to nothing about making a patch for the PSP version. I would maybe suggest coming onto IRC and harassing Eternal about it.

Once you get it worked out, I will move the thread back to completed.

[BleuVII]

Just figured it out. UMDGen is just too GOOD at patching. When I used CDmage, I was able to maintain a consistent file size. The bad news is that I have to wrestle with FFTactext again, which likes to punch psp hackers in the gut on a regular basis. Basically, I can't save and reload. Everything has to be done in one session. Bleh.

[BleuVII]

The patch is now UP. Please check the original post for the attachment.

This is version 0.99. I noticed an embarrassing error right when I booted it up, which is that the Squires can NOT summon Migardsormr. The spell name should be Moogle Charm. I also noticed that the Fire Bow lists it as an Ice elemental. As I said before, FFTactext is brutal for WotL, so fixing these two small things will likely take 4 hours. I'll get around to it eventually.

[HebrewToYou]

Really looking forward to trying this out once you've released the bugfix version.

[BleuVII]

The bugfix will only be a textfix. I've spent the last 5 months ironing out the bugs. There probably will be some bugs that people discover when playing it, but you can totally play from start to finish as long as you get over the shock value of summoning a Moogle on a spell named "Migardsormr". Saves will be compatible with version 1.0 when I release it later this week.

[BleuVII]

Version 1.0 is up! This was the file I meant to post on Tuesday. Let me know of any bugs you come across.

[TigerKnee]

Reading through the changelist, you've made quite a bit of changes to the point that I would not consider it a "rebalancing mod" at this point, rather it feels something akin to Celdia's Class Patch where the old concepts are redefined into a new form.

Still, that's just semantics. I will try to find time to explore this patch, since it seems to be a bit more creative utilizing only the basic PSP version tools.

[BleuVII]

Thanks, TigerKnee.

I'm starting a list here of known errors.
+ Balthier's Plunder Devotion/Cynicism do not inflict the correct statuses, and have the wrong animation. (Seriously, how did I screw up that badly on those two?)
+ The Archer's Skillset is named "Martial Arts" instead of the correct "Marksmanship". This was not an error in my fftactext original file. I think FFTactext actually skipped the line, and I didn't notice it in my once-over. That happened in my original release too. The skillset description, however, is correct, so if you press "Select" you should be able to tell which is which.

Also potential additions for V1.1. Share your thoughts below.
+ I have learned that "Defending" is a status that can be inflicted, so I will add it to Aegis and Astral Light for sure. I'll add the ability to cancel it to Dispel. I'm also thinking of giving the Archer an ability to cause other allies to "Defend", doubling their evasion. I would probably have to sacrifice Balthier's "Plunder Gil" or the Thief's "Steal EXP" to make room for this.
+ In the same way, I've learned that Charging Magick, Charging Attack, Singing, and Dancing are also treated as statuses that can be canceled, so I'm considering giving the ability to cancel these to either Squires (a high-cost spell called Interrupt), Mustadio (Snipe Stance), or Balthier (Plunder Stance).

[twotonedearly]

Hey all, I've run into a problem trying to play this hack on PPSSPP. In the opening battle the game crashes every time I choose to attack with one of my party members.

I also noticed some text glitches. I'm sure I patched it right with PPF-O-matic.

one other question, does the lag fix patch work with this hack?

[vrork]

Hello! I love the changes you made, but i must say that i am VERY SAD what you did to the DK (Magus). I always loved to having one generic being a DK. Is there any way to make it possible again? I imagine you wont edit your mod, but is there anyway for me to give the Magus the DK skills?

[BleuVII]

Hello! I love the changes you made, but i must say that i am VERY SAD what you did to the DK (Magus). I always loved to having one generic being a DK. Is there any way to make it possible again? I imagine you wont edit your mod, but is there anyway for me to give the Magus the DK skills?

Sure. FFTPatcher will let you edit the skill set however you want. You will have a Dark Knight though. It is now Ramza's default class in Ch.4.

Hey all, I've run into a problem trying to play this hack on PPSSPP. In the opening battle the game crashes every time I choose to attack with one of my party members.

I also noticed some text glitches. I'm sure I patched it right with PPF-O-matic.

one other question, does the lag fix patch work with this hack?

What you are describing is what I saw when I applied the lag patch to my game. I am going to try to release  a patch with the lag fix built in sometime soon. That patch will also fix the small errors I've already noted.

[vrork]

Sure. FFTPatcher will let you edit the skill set however you want. You will have a Dark Knight though. It is now Ramza's default class in Ch.4.

Is there any way to make that job avaible to generics then?

[BleuVII]

Is there any way to make that job avaible to generics then?

Yes. Use FFTPatcher and drop the abilities into the skill set. I will not be making this change on the official patch though.

[vrork]

Yes. Use FFTPatcher and drop the abilities into the skill set. I will not be making this change on the official patch though.

No worries. ETA for next patch btw?

Edit: Me again, the class is still the DK in the FFTPatcher right? what is then code of it? Also, can i give skills to the onion knight to learn? I never saw the point of it before, but i dont know if it is hardcoded or not;

[BleuVII]

Hmm... 2 weeks? I've got a lot going on with my second job right now, so I won't get to it this week. Saves should be compatible between patches, so as long as the archer skillset misnomer doesn't bug you too much, you can get through chapter 3.

[vrork]

Ah cool! Good luck with your second job.

Me again, the class is still the DK in the FFTPatcher right? what is then code of it? Also, can i give skills to the onion knight to learn? I never saw the point of it before, but i dont know if it is hardcoded or not.

[Stories8106]

Does this include the slowdown patch?