[PSX] Final Fantasy Tactics Redux (working title)

[Gravrain]

Overview

Final Fantasy Tactics Redux (or FFT Redux) is an improvement patch for the North American PlayStation version of Final Fantasy Tactics (FFT). It started off as a personal project, which I've been working on for the past year or so, but I've decided to open it up to the community to get some feedback as well as suggestions for new features. I've also significantly expanded the scope of the project from its initial release here. To summarize its primary features:

• Feature parity with War of the Lions (or as close as can be achieved). This is already being worked on by the incredible team behind The Lion War, and since that's explicitly designed as a starting point for other projects, I figure I'll use it for my own. I'll be waiting for the version with the WotL localization, though, as it might include optimizations or tweaks which I can use for the next point.
• Minor text improvements. While the WotL localization is a vast improvement over the original (IMO), it's certainly not perfect. The new text will be thoroughly reviewed for style and correctness, and subtly enhanced in a number of ways. These changes are primarily for the purpose of fixing errors, enhancing clarity, and adding polish. As such, they aim to be as small and unobtrusive as possible. See the "Text changes" section below for details.
• Exposing as much information in-game as possible. FFT is a highly complex game, and there's a lot of useful information that just isn't available to the player outside of wikis, FAQs, or other out-of-game resources. By exposing this hidden info via the game's help system, new players will be able to learn much more quickly, and players using mods won't have to check READMEs and external documentation as much. Some of this extra information includes:
  
  • Weapon and ability damage formulas
  • Equipment information for special character jobs
  • Hidden innate abilities
  • Job statistics and growth rates
  • Poaching reward items
  • Jump skillset charge time
• Fixing as many bugs as possible. There are already a ton of bugfixes made by community members, but there are still a few minor issues with the game that need fixing. I don't have a comprehensive list at the moment, but I'll add them here as I get around to it. Feel free to suggest any bugs that you know of that should be included!
• Optional gameplay enhancements. For as great as FFT is overall, there are a large number of individual gameplay elements that could use improvement. However, everyone will have different tastes when it comes to this topic, so each change will be made available as an individual optional patch (or as many as possible, anyways). See the "Gameplay changes" section below for details.

In addition to the above features, there are also some potential future features that may or may not get added to the patch, depending on how feasible they end up being:

• General text enhancements. This is a catch-all category that includes porting the font from WotL, adding icons for elements and/or status effects in help text, etc.
• Community suggestions. Ideally, I want this patch to appeal to as many players as possible, old and new alike. As such, feel free to suggest any features you'd like to see included in the patch. This is essentially a learning project for me, so I'll happily add them to the list and try my best to implement them.

Progress

Current completion percentage: ?

I'm currently awaiting the release of The Lion War with the WotL localization to use as the new base patch. Then I'll be able to port everything over and, depending on its feature set, modify it for my own purposes. I'll get familiar with the base TLW patch in the meantime.

Text changes
The following changes have been made to non-event text:

spoiler

• The Geomancer's Attack Boost and the Mystic's Defense Boost abilities have been renamed Martial Strength and Martial Defense, respectively, for consistency with the Arcane Strength and Arcane Defense abilities.
• The description for the Samurai's Shirahadori ability has been corrected; it now includes ranged attacks in its list of triggers instead of excluding them.
• The description for the Ninja's Throw skillset now includes its Move-dependent range.
• Ramza's Squire job has been renamed Apprentice in Chapter 1, Vagabond in Chapters 2 & 3, and Heretic in Chapter 4. This distinguishes it from the generic Squire job and indicates its evolution over time.
• Delita's Squire job has been renamed Apprentice in Chapter 1, for consistency with Ramza's Squire job.
• Rapha's Ashura ability has been renamed Sky Ashura, distinguishing it from the Samurai's Ashura ability.
• Reis's Dragon skillset has been renamed Dragon Spirit.
• Zalbaag's Magicksap and Mindsap abilities have been renamed Manasap and Magicksap, respectively, for consistency with other MP- and Magick-affecting abilities.
• Cloud's Limit skillset has been renamed Limit Break, for consistency with Final Fantasy 7. The term "limit skill" has also been replaced with "limit break" in its ability descriptions.
• Cloud's Brave Slash ability has been renamed Braver, for consistency with Final Fantasy 7.
• Ability quotes have been updated to match the style of the War of the Lions localization.
• The stronger Javelin and Escutcheon weapons have been renamed Master Javelin and Master Escutcheon, respectively, distinguishing them from their weaker counterparts.
• The help text for Weapon Power now indicates that the Parry ability is required in order to make use of Block Rate.

The following changes still need to be implemented:

spoiler

• The descriptions for jobs with innate abilities now list them using the term "Innate" instead of "Ability." Previously hidden innate abilities are now listed in their respective job descriptions, too.
• Equipment information has been moved from item descriptions to job descriptions. This means that equipment information for special character jobs is now also available in their respective descriptions.
• The descriptions for one-handed weapons now include their handedness.
• The descriptions for ranged weapons now give more detailed ranges. For example, Bows, Crossbows, and Guns list their minimum range, while Poles, Polearms, and Cloths note their 4-directional limitation.
• Add job statistics to job descriptions, including growth rates.
• Add weapon damage formulas to weapon descriptions.
• Add ability damage formulas to ability descriptions.
• Add poaching rewards to monster descriptions.
• Add a Jump success table (like the one found here) someplace; not sure where yet.

I've also made good progress in porting the WotL font, but it's caused a number of bugs to crop up:

• Text printing is broken as a result of changing some glyphs. It sometimes starts printing garbage whenever it encounters a glyph with an odd width (e.g. "S", "j", etc.), but then fixes itself whenever it encounters a newline or another odd-width glyph. Still trying to find and fix the responsible routine(s).
• Not all space glyphs have been decreased from 4px to 3px wide (e.g. those in dialogue boxes). This means that there are more places where the width of the space is hardcoded in the game files. Still trying to find these instances.
• The width of flexible text boxes hasn't updated to reflect the new font spacing, so they contain excess padding on the right side. Need to figure out where and how this is calculated.

Gameplay changes
All of the following bugfixes have been completed:

spoiler

• AI behavior fixes: Corrects various AI behaviors relating to weapon-elemental abilities, the Jump ability, Item range, the Swiftness and CT 0 abilities, and waking sleeping units.
• Critical hit fix: Ensures that critical hits will always deal bonus damage.
• Elemental damage fixes: Corrects the Oil status so that it properly doubles fire-elemental damage, instead of doing nothing. Also fixes elemental abilities (e.g. Holy Sword abilities) by forcing them to override weapon elements.
• Equipment duplication fixes: Prevents equipment duplication exploits related to using Best Fit at the Outfitter.
• Faith/Atheist fix: Switches the effects of the Faith and Atheist statuses for Nether Mantra abilities, so that the former negates damage while the latter maximizes it.
• Iaido graphic fix: Corrects a visual bug during some Iaido animations where units would use a Rod instead of a Katana.
• Items skillset fix: Corrects the ability flags for the Items skillset after applying both the "Innate Treasure Hunter" and "Minor ability reassignments" patches in the Tweaks folder to the same disk image. Don't use this patch unless also using both of the aforementioned patches!
• JP exploit fix: Prevents a JP-gain exploit related to scrolling while a confirmation menu is up.
• Level change fixes: Corrects level-down behavior so that it decreases stats based on the previous level, not the current one. Also fixes level-up abilities so that they increase stats by the same amount as via experience gain.

And all of the following optional tweaks have also been completed:

spoiler

• AI behavior improvements: Improves various AI behaviors related to movement and status effects.
• Always find rare treasures: Ensures that rare items will always be found when stepping on treasure tiles.
• Berserk units attack everyone: Units with the Berserk status will attack allies too, not just enemies.
• Cheaper Fly: Decreases the JP cost of the Fly ability from 5000 to 2500, reducing the need for grinding.
• Cheaper Jump +1/2/3: Decreases the JP costs of the Jump +1, Jump +2, and Jump +3 abilities from 200, 500, and 1000 to 100, 250, and 500, respectively, reflecting their lesser utility compared to the Move +1/2/3 abilities.
• Cloud joins at party level: Increases Cloud's initial character level from 1 to party level. This removes the huge amount of grinding that's usually necessary just to make him usable.
• Cloud joins with Materia Blade: Equips Cloud with a Materia Blade when he joins the party. This allows his Limit Break abilities to be used immediately, without having to find the hidden Materia Blade first.
• Consistent random-strike abilities: Changes the behavior of Rapha's Sky Mantra abilities, Marach's Nether Mantra abilities, and Reis's Holy Breath ability. Each will now strike exactly six times, instead of a random number between one and ten. This ensures that the abilities deal more consistent damage and also limits their execution time.
• Controllable human guest units: Allows the player to control human guest units during battle.
• Cross button skip: Allows dialogue to be skipped through by holding the Cross ("X") button.
• Easier Riovanes Castle Keep battle: Replaces Wiegraf's Safeguard ability with Brawler in the Riovanes Castle Keep battle. The fight can be extremely difficult for first-time players, depending on Ramza's setup. This change makes the fight a bit easier by allowing Wiegraf's equipment to be broken or stolen, while boosting his unarmed attacks in exchange.
• Guaranteed Zodiark learn-on-hit: Increases the learn-on-hit rate of the Zodiark ability from 90% to 100%, matching that of Ramza's Ultima ability and making it less frustrating to obtain.
• Innate JP Boost: Makes the JP Boost ability innate to all human units. The ability normally presents a no-win situation for the player: use it to progress faster and reduce grinding, or forego it for more unit customization and better strategic options. This change provides the best of both worlds, avoiding the dilemma altogether. (The ability itself can no longer be learned, as it no longer serves any purpose.)
• Innate Treasure Hunter: Makes the Treasure Hunter ability innate to all allied human units. This means that player units will automatically find items when moving onto treasure tiles, while enemy units can no longer do so. (The ability itself can no longer be learned, as it no longer serves any purpose.)
  Warning: If using this feature with the "Minor ability reassignments" feature below, make sure to apply the "Items skillset fix" patch in the Bugfixes folder after applying both individual patches!
• Limit Break improvement: Allows Cloud's Limit Break abilities to be used with any sword, not just the Materia Blade. This means that his signature skillset is no longer restricted by a rare endgame weapon.
• Minor ability reassignments: Reassigns a number of Squire and Chemist abilities to new jobs that better suit their purpose and theming (note that this also affects special character jobs):
  

  Ability name		Old job		New job
  Equip Axes		Squire		Geomancer
  Beastmaster		Squire		Orator
  Safeguard		Chemist		Squire
  Reequip		Chemist		Squire

  Warning: If using this feature with the "Innate treasure hunter" feature above, make sure to apply the "Items skillset fix" patch in the Bugfixes folder after applying both individual patches!
• Minor skillset rearrangements: Reorders the abilities in a number of skillsets so that they're consistent across jobs.
• More accurate buff abilities: Greatly increases the accuracy of the Protectja and Shellja abilities to match that of Hasteja and Slowja. This gives them a reason to be used over the lower-level Protect and Shell abilities, which are otherwise superior in almost every way. Also moderately increases the accuracy of the Wall ability to match that of Protect and Shell. This makes it more worthwhile to learn, given that it costs more JP and MP than the latter, and only targets a single tile as opposed to an area-of-effect.
• More accurate revival abilities: Slightly increases the accuracy of the Raise, Arise, and Revive abilities. This reduces the likelihood of these abilities missing multiple times in a row, which can be particularly frustrating when it leads to lost units, reloaded saves, and wasted time.
• Non-random encounters: Prevents random battles from triggering when passing over green location tiles on the world map (i.e. on the way to another destination). However, when stopping on a green location tile (i.e. selecting one as a destination), a random battle will always be triggered.
• Party roster adjustment: When the player dismisses a unit from the party, the following unit will take their place in the roster, then the next unit will take theirs, and so on, thereby filling the open slot (instead of leaving it empty).
  Warning: This feature can cause bugs if more than one party member dies in a single battle. Use with caution!
• Phoenix Down improvement: Increases the maximum amount of HP that can be restored by a Phoenix Down from 20 to 40. This gives revived units the chance to survive a hit or two in the early game, which helps avoid expensive (and annoying) KO-revive-repeat loops before other revival abilities become viable.
• Purchasable Zodiark/Ultima: Allows the Zodiark and Ultima abilities to be purchased by their respective jobs for 2,500 JP each. This means that they're no longer missable, and brings them in line with other learn-on-hit abilities. The cost is also large enough that they're still worth getting for free, but not so large that they become excruciating to grind for if necessary.
• Random ability improvement: Prevents units with randomized abilities from auto-learning JP Boost, EXP Boost, Poach, Safeguard, Reequip, Accrue EXP, Accrue JP, or any of the Equip support abilities. These are typically of no use to them, and their removal allows units to select more helpful abilities instead. (Safeguard is included to provide the player with more opportunities to use the Steal and Rend abilities.)
• Random equipment improvement: Improves the process used to select randomized equipment for NPCs.
• Reduced status immunities: Removes status immunities for Poison, Immobilize, Disable, Stop, Sleep, Berserk, and Confuse from enemy human units. This provides more opportunities for the use of these status effects.
• Reflect Arithmeticks: Allows abilities used with Arithmeticks to be Reflected.
• Rename human units: Allows human units to be renamed at the Warriors' Guild, not just monsters.
• Renewable unique equipment: Provides methods for renewing all previously unique or missable equipment. Firstly, more equipment is available for purchase at the Outfitter:
  

  Equipment		Price		Availability
  Scorpion Tail		20,000 gil		After Fort Besselat (Ch. 4)
  Faerie Harp		20,000 gil		After Fort Besselat (Ch. 4)
  Omnilex		20,000 gil		After Fort Besselat (Ch. 4)
  Ivory Pole		12,000 gil		At the start of Chapter 4
  Fallingstar Bag		60,000 gil		After Mullonde Cathedral (Ch. 4)
  Wyrmweave Silk		30,000 gil		After Fort Besselat (Ch. 4)
  Genji Shield		25,000 gil		After Mullonde Cathedral (Ch. 4)
  Genji Helm		20,000 gil		After Mullonde Cathedral (Ch. 4)
  Genji Armor		30,000 gil		After Mullonde Cathedral (Ch. 4)
  Genji Glove		60,000 gil		After Mullonde Cathedral (Ch. 4)

  Note that most of this equipment was already renewable via poaching, with the exception of the Genji gear. However, by moving these items to shops, sufficient space is freed for the second change: all other equipment that's not available at the Outfitter is now renewable via poaching. The revised poaching table is too long to include here, but it's included in the Quick Reference Guide for those who wish to see it, along with a rationale for its contents.
• Save after formation screen: Allows the player to save after the formation screen between multi-battles. Loading such a save opens the formation screen again, while retaining any changes made.
• Shared Move/Jump +3: Adds the Jump +3 ability to the Bard's skillset and the Move +3 ability to the Dancer's skillset. They already share the Fly ability, so it makes sense that they should share these as well, considering that Jump +3 is significantly less valuable than Move +3.
• Title screen adjustment: Sets the initial position of the title screen cursor to Continue instead of New Game.
• Unrestricted Poachers' Den: Allows entry to the Poachers' Den without having the Poach ability equipped.
• Unyielding Blade improvement: Allows Unyielding Blade abilities to deal damage to monsters and units without the corresponding equipment, matching the behavior implemented in War of the Lions.

All of the aforementioned features are available as individual add-ons. However, the features in this section can't be provided individually for technical reasons, resulting in two different "editions" of the patch: the Basic edition, which doesn't include these features, and the Plus edition, which does. All other optional features are compatible with both editions, so players should decide which edition to use based on whether they want these additional changes or not. It is provided as an alternative base patch.

spoiler

• The MP cost of the Thundara ability has been increased from 10 to 12, matching that of Fira and Blizzara.
• The vertical ranges of the Chakra, Purification, and Revive abilities have been increased from 0 to 1. Their original same-height handicap was unnecessarily restrictive, considering that they also require adjacency. This change increases the utility of these abilities without making them overpowered.
• Rapha's Sky Mantra and Marach's Nether Mantra abilities no longer hit either the caster or their allies, giving them an advantage over other area-of-effect spells.
• The Dragoon's Jump skillset now works incrementally, making its abilities less redundant and more worthwhile to learn. It consists of six "Horizontal Jump +1" and six "Vertical Jump +1" abilities, each of which costs 200 JP and 250 JP, respectively. These abilities all increase their corresponding Jump range by one, and stack with every other of their kind, allowing for a total bonus of +6 to both ranges. In order to maintain 8 as the maximum, the base horizontal and vertical Jump ranges have been increased from 1 to 2. This makes them more useful, too, as the upfront cost of improving the initial range is a bit higher now.
• The Materia Blade now grants a +3 bonus to Magickal Attack, distinguishing it from the otherwise identical Diamond Sword. This synergizes well with Cloud's Limit Break abilities, which usually depend on his MA.
• The Staff of the Magi now grants a +2 bonus to Magickal Attack and boosts the Holy element. This makes it more worthwhile to use and better matches its endgame status. Its description has also been updated to reflect this change.
• The Samurai job now has the innate Doublehand ability, making it a bit more competitive with other late-game jobs.
• The Mime's job level requirements for Squire and Chemist have been removed, as its other requirements are already sufficiently high.
• Argath's Squire job has been made consistent with the generic Squire job. This means that it can now equip Axes, can no longer equip Robes, and its skillset no longer includes Rend Helm or Rend Armor. To help compensate for these changes, Argath's initial Knight job level has been increased from 1 to 2.
• Mustadio's Machinist job no longer loses its innate Safeguard ability after he joins the party.
• Reis's Dragonkin job can now equip all accessory types, not just Rings and Armlets.
• Cloud's Soldier job now has the innate Doublehand ability. Since he joins so late, he's unlikely to unlock the Samurai class without grinding anyways, and this makes him a bit more competitive with other late-game units. (And how else is he supposed to wield those giant swords?)

Credits

FFT Redux is (currently) based on the "FFT: Complete" patch created by Cheetah, et al., which ports most of the WotL text to the original PSX game and fixes a number of bugs.

Many of this patch's features were inspired by Wakkoswami's "FFT: Prime" patch and Tzepish's "War of the Lions Tweak" patch. The former enhances the FFT: Complete localization port, restores the Japanese game balance, fixes more bugs, and adds a few optional quality-of-life changes. The latter is a comprehensive improvement patch for the PSP version of the game with a huge number of features.

Finally, this patch wouldn't be possible without the FFHacktics community. The forums and wiki are an invaluable resource when it comes to modding FFT. Additionally, a number of ASM hacks made by members of the FFH community are included in FFT Redux:

spoiler

Author		Hack name
Assorted		Abilities in Math skill skillset can be reflected
Dokurider		AI Ability Settings Fixes (Vanilla)
Dokurider		AI doesn't distance itself from targets
Dokurider		AI is now more likely to stay in place
Dokurider		AI Jump Fix
Dokurider		AI Usage - Faith/Reflect
Dokurider		AI Usage - Float
Dokurider		AI Usage - Protect/Shell/Wall
Dokurider		Attack All Units while Berserk
Dokurider		Critical AI Distancing Fix 1.0
Dokurider		Sleep Breaking Behavior Fix
Glain		All (and only) player human units can find items on moving
Glain		All formulas apply elemental (v2)
Glain		Crits always deal bonus damage
Glain		Equipment duplication glitch fixes
Glain		Gained JP functions as if Gained JP UP was always active
Glain		JP scroll glitch actual fix (Disable paging on confirm menu)
Glain		Level down fix
Glain		Random unit equipment more selective
Glain		Save after battles after formation screen
Glain		Unit slots backfilled when unit is removed from party
Raijinili		Rando-spells always do max hits
Raijinili		Un-Truth Faith/Innocent bugfix
Razele		Secret hunt ability isn't needed to enter Fur Shop
Razele		Soldier Office can rename any units (including humans and special characters)
Unknown		Draw out visual bug fix
Xifanie		Cross Skip v3
Xifanie		Incremental Jump Range
Xifanie		Sets the title screens default option from New Game to Continue
Xifanie		Smart Encounters
Xjamxx		Mighty sword WOTL

[nitwit]

For item/skill/job/etc descriptions, it might save resources (both yours and in the game) to have a routine that prints their stuff to the screen, and then have a string for the fluff. This can save screen real estate if you add color-coded element icons (I know I've seen them somewhere) or develop icons for status effects.

Being able to press select and familiarize yourself with the jobs, skills, and items would make it easier for users to pick up a mod and play without consulting a guide. Especially if class stat growths, innate skills, and so on are legible to players from within the game.

This would be a big undertaking, to say the least.

If you want to go off on your own with the translation, you could name the Teleports lesser and greater, or warp and teleport. The arguments for it are franchise canon and succinctness, and those against are familiarity and presumed legitimacy of author's intent.

[Akashachi]

While I think the initiative is admirable, we will be getting soon a new release for The Lion War mod that will also feature the WotL translation, and since TLW also adds the WotL content to the game (and more) I think your mod would be better suited to be built with their resources, once the translation patch is available.

[Gravrain]

For item/skill/job/etc descriptions, it might save resources (both yours and in the game) to have a routine that prints their stuff to the screen, and then have a string for the fluff.

Could you elaborate a bit more on what you mean by this? I'm not quite sure I understand.

This can save screen real estate if you add color-coded element icons (I know I've seen them somewhere) or develop icons for status effects.

That's an interesting idea, I hadn't considered using icons for elements/statuses. I'd have to find space for the graphics; maybe in FRAME.BIN or something? To be honest, though, the item/ability/etc. descriptions aren't a huge issue in terms of space, so I'm not sure how much would be gained from doing that.

Being able to press select and familiarize yourself with the jobs, skills, and items would make it easier for users to pick up a mod and play without consulting a guide. Especially if class stat growths, innate skills, and so on are legible to players from within the game.

This is one of the goals for my patch: to have as much information available in-game as possible. I've added equipment information for special character jobs and previously hidden innate abilities, both of which were relatively straightforward, but I was also thinking about adding job stats, damage formulas, poaching probabilities, etc. at some point, which would pose much more of a problem in terms of space.

I think your mod would be better suited to be built with their resources, once the translation patch is available.

You're absolutely right. I was on the fence about basing my patch on TLW for a while, but after learning of TLWotL the other day, I'll probably port everything over once it's released.

Edit: I revised the OP to reflect the new details and scope of the project.

[nitwit]

Could you elaborate a bit more on what you mean by this? I'm not quite sure I understand.

Currently many mods are slowed down (or just screwed if they don't change them at all) by skill/item/job/etc description editing that reflects their changes. If you had some routine or set of routines that made the descriptions automatically formed from the actual data itself (by a few subroutines that read descriptions and form strings to print), or if the various menus were more informative, that would negate the need for most description editing.

This would broadly improve the quality of most mods that use it, and it would make it easier for everyone to make a more polished mod.

That's an interesting idea, I hadn't considered using icons for elements/statuses. I'd have to find space for the graphics; maybe in FRAME.BIN or something? To be honest, though, the item/ability/etc. descriptions aren't a huge issue in terms of space, so I'm not sure how much would be gained from doing that.

I think Xifanie was working on it years ago, you'd have to check with her if I'm correct.

This is one of the goals for my patch: to have as much information available in-game as possible. I've added equipment information for special character jobs and previously hidden innate abilities, both of which were relatively straightforward, but I was also thinking about adding job stats, damage formulas, poaching probabilities, etc. at some point, which would pose much more of a problem in terms of space.

Already covered this earlier in this reply, but looking at the formation->character menu there's a bit of wasted screen space.

https://files.catbox.moe/j7rmxk.png

I'm fairly sure that the top left-center part is reused in battle, given that it looks just like the battle character quick display, CT is present, and the HP/MP/CT gauges are present. If it's just graphics or code that's reused is anyone's guess, but the shading seems to be present too.

Actually implementing auto-generated descriptions is probably more important than better menus. Descriptions can fit a lot of esoteric stuff, while menus could only reasonably be improved with elemental info and maybe status effect immunities. You know, the stuff that takes up most of your time in a mod where you have to click on a bunch of job, item, and skill descriptions to figure out what to use on a target.

As for how they would appear, I'm not sure. Maybe a blank elemental icon that you manipulate in various ways to display the elemental affinity.

Halved could have the icon half filled with it's color. Immune could have the color completely blank. Absorb could have an elemental icon full of color with a small heart icon appear above it. Weak could be the same as absorb but have a small minus icon (or a sad face, or a skull) appear in place of the heart.

The icons themselves could be:

• Fire - A red/orange flame.
• Ice - A blue/white 6 sided ice crystal.
• Bolt - A white-yellow gatorade-style lighting bolt
• Water - A blue water droplet.
• Earth - A brown or gray rock.
• Air - some sort of green-white air whisp.
• Dark - Purple-ish black skull icon, or a grinning demon.
• Holy - White orb.

This page has the FF12 element icons.
https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Marilith_(Final_Fantasy_XII)

If the sprite based status effect icons are obvious, you won't need to do any menu work. There is a spreadsheet to edit them somewhere I think, I'd ask Raven or post in the discord.

[RetroTypes]

The description for the Samurai's Shirahadori ability has been corrected; it now includes ranged attacks in its list of triggers instead of excluding them.

Party roster adjustment: When the player dismisses a unit from the party, the following unit will take their place in the roster, then the next unit will take theirs, and so on, thereby filling the open slot (instead of leaving it empty).
Warning: This feature can cause bugs if more than one party member dies in a single battle. Use with caution!

I do believe the bug with Shirahadori/Blade Grasp is the ability itself, not the description (thus the name, Blade Grasp lol). It was intended to not block ranged attacks. Both Glain and Razele have hacks included in the patcher suite that can adjust what weapon types can trigger Blade Grasp. If you're going to be making gameplay adjustments anyway, you might as well nerf it to where it was intended, since it's one of the strongest reactions in the vanilla game.

Also, instead of whatever party roster hack you're using that can cause bugs when multiple units die, I'd recommend just using Glain's "Switch unit number with L1 and R1 buttons (formation)" hack, so that the player can adjust the party themselves, with even more options.

[TTGL23]

Will this mod use the PSP faction names? I know some people might be divided over the PSP character names, but it does seem the PSP faction names do make things more clear, like Order of the Northern Sky vs Hokuten.