FFT: Second Read: Hardcover Update 31 - October 2024

[ParryPupPup]

After years of hammering away at it and MUCH frustration, I am proud to announce that Second Read Hardcover is finally released after being in Beta for so long!

^{AND PLEASE, DON'T USE ePSXe, IT'S NOT AS UP TO DATE IN ITS CODING AND MESSES WITH A LOT OF MOD FUNCTIONS, PLEASE USE DUCKSTATION OR PSXFIN FOR PLAYING HARDCOVER! Thank you, love you! <3}

What does Second Read mean anyways?
"Mr. Coreander: Ahh, but have you ever read a book twice? Books change each time you read them."
- The Neverending Story 2

Second Read rewrites the original PSX's script with modern English without going full-blown WotL Prose which most people didn't like, but also has its own deviations from the original game's script, but 90% of the original story beats are kept intact. Nothing too crazy was added/changed.
And yes, since I'm being flooded by the question, there are Dark Knights. Level 8 Elementalist and Knight, same as The Lion War. Forewarning, they're not the win condition you think they were.

What's the difference between your Softcover and Hardcover version?
Softcover was the script overhaul with minor gameplay changes.
Hardcover is a continuation of the script overhaul and MAJOR gameplay changes.

For example, Hardcover uses ArmoredKori's Map Overhauls, so the layout of the battles have changed immensely. And the scripting has been overhauled to fit the new maps, so nothing looks out of place when characters need to move about.
Hardcover also changes a couple of the story beats, but nothing too chaotic and out of plausibility.

Besides the story, what else is there?
All new items, armour, abilities and changed mechanics.
The Zodiac Compatibility has been removed.
Male and Female PA and MA is still normalized from Softcover.
Overhauled classes, new classes.
Stat Growths are normalized across the board, meaning you're absolutely free to use a unit in any Job without fear of having to "min/max"
Most classes are the same, except for Mediators, they have been removed in favour of Blue Mages. Dancer and Bard are now both Performers still. Mimes have been removed as they were too niche to get real value out of, but you'll hardly miss 'em, I guarantee it.
Faith was renamed Spirit, for flavor.
Permadeath removal!
Monsters have been completely overhauled and are now MUCH deadlier and a threat to be reckoned with, but if you poach 'em, you'll get some badass goodies for survivin' the challenge! Try tamin' 'em too! They're powerful allies if you find the recruitable ones!
New characters to play with!
Guests are controllable in their battles! No more WTF Rafa! (Except Algus, no-one wants to control him)
Traps are removed as they hardly had an impact on battles and were just a minor inconvenience at worst.
Poaching items are now a 100% drop than trying to find a rare Tiamat and only getting a Phoenix Down or some nonsense like that.
Dual-wielding is innate on a lot of classes, but it's limited to guns, crossbows, daggers, and spellbooks, but surrreely that's enough, right?

And many more things to find out whilst playing! Be sure to read job descriptions to learn the classes' passives and unlocks!

If you have any problems, lemme know! I have a dedicated channel in the Hacktics Discord, or here on the Forums!

For patching and playing this mod, use PPF-O-Matic, the provided PPF at the bottom of this post, and a CLEAN VANILLA ISO/BIN.
Do not patch on top of any other Image, you WILL break something.

Update 31
Removed Magic Weapons, it was causing problems across the board in the early game, wasn't functioning as intended.
Fixed some text goofs with the descriptions.
Removed the charge timer on Innervation, it's now instant.
----------
TLW Credits

Elric
Attack.out Rebuild, Spreadsheet & GUI
Worldmap Rebuild
WotL Event Additions & Fixes
Mod Organization
Vanilla Event Fixes and Jumps
ASM Setup, Application & Testing
Sound Novel fixes and Implimentation
Bugtesting

RavenofRazgriz
Initial Attack.out Rebuild, Spreadsheet & GUI
Initial Worldmap Rebuild
Sidequest Changes & WotL Implimentation

Xifanie
ASM - Altima Teleport
ASM - Event Instruction Upgrade Hack
ASM - Extra Abilities Effects Hack
ASM - Map 120 Edits
ASM - Unit Restriction & Guests in Randoms
New Game Plus Work (not yet complete)
Squashing some bugs

Angel/Toshiko
De-WotLize Dialogue in WotL Event Ports
Translated & Fixed Sound Novel Images
Title Screen & Lead-in frames from WotL Movie to Title Screen

Pride
ASM - Rumor Edits
ASM - ARH Lite - TLW Edition

Choto
ASM - 1E4 & 1E5 Become Adeptness & Sturdy
ASM - Barrage & Weapon Strike Rewrite
ASM - Extra Generic Class

Glain
ASM - Bravestory Fix
ASM - UWEntries

Twinees
Sprite Fixes & Edits

Valkirst
New Ashley Riot Sprite

FFMaster
WotL Opening & Intro Movie Ports

Nyzer
WotL Event Fixes

Celdia
Allowing merge of her ISIA patch for Consolidation.

Retrotypes
Several event fixes.

Bugtesters
Nyzer
HebrewToYou
Blue
Ansehelm
NinjaWeazel
Retrotypes[/b]

[Pandemoniu]

Congratulations! Looking forward to giving this a go!

Second Read changes the original's script to be easier to read and understand in modern English without going full-blown WotL Prose which most people didn't like, so Second Read aims to be a middle of the road option.

without going full-blown WotL Prose which most people didn't like

most people didn't like

Considering how much I effin' love TWOTL's script overhaul, seeing this makes me wanna cry. TT_TT

"Most people". . . TT_TT

[Andre Pratama]

I really enjoyed your mod but I can't continue chapter 4 because the game freezes

[ParryPupPup]

I really enjoyed your mod but I can't continue chapter 4 because the game freezes

Well... an explanation would say a lot more than just saying it freezes, yeah?

[twigglypuff]

How would you say the difficulty of this mod is? It doesn't have to be 1.3 levels of insanity but does it offer a much bigger challenge than vanilla?

Edit: Chapter 1 seems to be super easy so far, mostly due to the fact of how OP Delita is. I'm hoping it gets more interesting.

[DalltonGatto]

Bro. I love this mod but at the begining of Chapter 4 the game freezes after the talk with Rapha and Marak

[ParryPupPup]

New patch is ready! Aruu!

[louied]

Hello! Just wanna say the mod is great and I can't wait to play it! (In the middle of another mod currently).

I've noticed watching someone play on YouTube that there's a dual wielding bug. Units can double hit when dual wielding a cross bow and dagger/sword. So if a unit say 4 tiles away targets another unit, they hit with both their crossbow and dagger/sword each. Idk if that's intentional but I wanted to bring it up to your attention.

Here's the video with the example happening, timestamped. https://youtu.be/Vsb8LUc9FQ4?t=2677
In case the timestamp doesn't work, go to 44 minutes and 37 seconds.

[Laphicet]

This is a great mod!

Just a question though: are there still hidden items? I'm particularly at Nelveska Temple and was wondering if there are hidden items in the ground since the Move-Find Item ability was gone.

Also, aren't Ashley and Balthier supposed to join the party in their respective events? Or was this changed as well? Because Ashley Riot didn't join me in Zeklaus Desert, and Balthier didn't join me in Dorter slums.

[ParryPupPup]

Hello! Just wanna say the mod is great and I can't wait to play it! (In the middle of another mod currently).

I've noticed watching someone play on YouTube that there's a dual wielding bug. Units can double hit when dual wielding a cross bow and dagger/sword. So if a unit say 4 tiles away targets another unit, they hit with both their crossbow and dagger/sword each. Idk if that's intentional but I wanted to bring it up to your attention.

Here's the video with the example happening, timestamped. https://youtu.be/Vsb8LUc9FQ4?t=2677
In case the timestamp doesn't work, go to 44 minutes and 37 seconds.

Is it in fact intentional. If a Dagger is paired with a Crossbow in the Left Hand, and the Dagger in the right, the Crossbow is used to gauge the range needed to throw the dagger. (Not away, just attack with it.)
Same thing with a Gun. If a gun is paired in the right hand, Crossbow in the left, the Gun's range is used.

Just don't put a dagger in the left hand, or the range will only be 1, I may see if I can increase that to at least 3 for daggers.

[ParryPupPup]

This is a great mod!

Just a question though: are there still hidden items? I'm particularly at Nelveska Temple and was wondering if there are hidden items in the ground since the Move-Find Item ability was gone.

Also, aren't Ashley and Balthier supposed to join the party in their respective events? Or was this changed as well? Because Ashley Riot didn't join me in Zeklaus Desert, and Balthier didn't join me in Dorter slums.

All intentional, they're not joining as I couldn't balance their abilities to be truly interesting and unique. I gave Mustadio Balthier's Quickening from 12 as they're related though, making him somewhat more useful.

Ashley, I couldn't figure out the calculations for his abilities, so I removed him from the playable roster. Making them, and Cloud for that matter quick cameos and nods to other titles.

And no, Move-Find Item was removed.

[ParryPupPup]

New update!

[ParryPupPup]

Ack! A new update?! He's at it agaaaain!

[wyat_erp]

Played the mod. absolutely fantastic so far. Currently on chapter 3. Just gonna say that I noticed some things:

1. Mana shield randomly becomes critical:quick in the middle of battle.
2. After the zeklaus desert event battle with Ashley Riot, he's not in my party. was that intentional?
3. description says Mime job has been removed. Unlocked it with one of my generics after having all other jobs reach level 8.

will post more if I see any bugs or some minor stuff. Very great mod. Playing with my girlfriend on different saves. Thanks!

[Jester09]

Playing the mod right now. Update 18

Noticed a big with the pugilist revive ability that don't revive just wipe off mp from enemies.

noticed other minor bugs like missing text on shinobi and missing text on news in the tavern.

Apart from that only in chapter one and loving it greatest mod ive played.

Keep the good work. ty from Brazil.

[Challengerdeezy]

Hello ParryPupPup. I'm doing a let's play of your mod. I'm playing Update 18. I'm really enjoying the mod but i'm experiencing game random freezes during combat. I don't know why. For example in episode 3 of the lp, I cast cantrip fire on a enemy in Mandalian plains. The game froze up. The recording session i had today, the game froze again at Zeklaus desert after I killed  an archer with Delita's normal attack. I'm using duckstation emulator but i don't know if it is a bug or it something on my end. Anybody else having these issues?

[gamehero]

In chapter 2, after the executioners fight with gaf during the dialog with delita vormav ovelia and the cardinal game just freezes. cant seem to progress past this point.

[Jester09]

My game is freezing in chapter 2 after the gaffarion execution fight in the vormav scene. I'm using a emulator called happychick in my phone, work fine in the normal version of the game. Ty for the mod.
After a few days i have just tried in other emulator and the game keeps freezing in the same spot. Hope it helps, this time used the ducksstation emulador.

[ParryPupPup]

Just so everyone's aware, I'm unfortunately quite aware of some players' games crashing - it seems to be an issue with DuckStation that's out of my control right now. This issue has not cropped up before. I have done entire streams and not had the game crash like that, so it's DuckStation's fault. As for the fix with The Substitute scene where Volmarv Revelios to Ovelia that she's not the real Ovelia - that was my fault, I was working on adding punch to that scene before with Juravis. One line of coding to remove and it'll be fixed.

I'm also cooking up a little something. Revive was planned to be something else before I took a hiatus, I'm back on it. I've already fixed the problem. But yeah, Revive will not be revive. Also, say goodbye to Shinobis as you know them.

I have had too much trouble trying to fix Shinobis being actual ninjas in that they're survival, espionage, and martial arts experts (not hollywood ninjas who just throw shit) so in the next update, poof, they're gone. They'll be replaced with... Shinobis (For real this time) XD

[gamehero]

Just so everyone's aware, I'm unfortunately quite aware of some players' games crashing - it seems to be an issue with DuckStation that's out of my control right now. This issue has not cropped up before. I have done entire streams and not had the game crash like that, so it's DuckStation's fault. As for the fix with The Substitute scene where Volmarv Revelios to Ovelia that she's not the real Ovelia - that was my fault, I was working on adding punch to that scene before with Juravis. One line of coding to remove and it'll be fixed.

I'm also cooking up a little something. Revive was planned to be something else before I took a hiatus, I'm back on it. I've already fixed the problem. But yeah, Revive will not be revive. Also, say goodbye to Shinobis as you know them.

I have had too much trouble trying to fix Shinobis being actual ninjas in that they're survival, espionage, and martial arts experts (not hollywood ninjas who just throw shit) so in the next update, poof, they're gone. They'll be replaced with... Shinobis (For real this time) XD

Awesome thanks for the update will be looking out for it!