Final Fantasy Hacktics

I downloaded the COP patch yesterday at school. Then I started patching it
with a new and fresh FFT ISO. After the patching process, I immediately opened
my ePSXe, and ran the COP-patched ISO.

As usual, the splash screens started with the default SCEA(+patched), and then followed
by the Squaresoft screen. Then, I skipped the vanilla intro video sequence. But then
there's this wonderful NEW TITLE SCREEN!! Very nice. The font used resembled how unique
Call of Power is, while retaining the FFT feel with the Ivalice map as the background.

*NEW GAME*
Quickly, the older version of the intro's sequence was shown. Yes there were some various
typos, coz' we know that it wasn't fixed in this patch, right? But I still can't stop
myself from suggesting something! Going back to ePSXe, I pressed the F4 key twice to turn
off the FPS limiter first, then read the intro script.

The first display says:
*The realm of Ashronor is far from perfect; crimes are common*

Ahh yes, first of all, I think the font face used was a bit old-school. It had a
fixed width, flat, and somewhat solid kind of rpg style font, and it ruined my mood
of imagining things while I'm reading the script. I prefer a "celtic-styled', "roman
-styled" or "scripted-style" for the font in order to maintain that feeling that
there's a problem.., not on what we see, but on what we feel. Kokojo told me to
find a better font, but I didn't, so this is partly my fault, too. On the other hand,
it was more of a safer font to portray. I think the colors were only 2 for the font,
and it's a timesaver. I guess Kokojo did 'KISS'(kept it simple & safe) this part.


Continuing onwards..
*But life was peaceful, until magic was found*
*The first mages proudly professed themselves gods, and in their pride they
enslaved the common man*
*No one could fight back*
*This become a way of life: Nobles and commoners*
*But as time passed, the slaves learned the way of magic, too*
*It did not help their conditions*
*Nobles worried, and in fear, increased the workload and the taxes, crushing all hopes*
*As the situation was critical, a hero emerged. His name is Gospel.

Okay.. the words were fine, but not executed fully.
I'm not good at this, but here's what I suggest:

"Ashronor: a realm far from being an utopia; crimes(transgressions?) were a commonplace.
Nontheless, life remained serene.. but was corrupted.. when magic existed. Early mages vainly
proclaimed themselves as gods, and with insolence they enslaved impervious men. Nothing
could supress them. Men.. was then divided into nobles and commoners. Bewilderingly, as
time flowed, slaves learned to wield magic as well, but it did not alleviate their caste.
Nobles feared what happened, and they retaliated by increasing taxes crushing all hopes."

Hmm.. I think that's enough for paraphrasing. That almost took a while. Now comes what I
can really contribute to this patch: aesthetics. After this patch it might look like this:

[attachment=1:2ey5a38m]gospelmock.bmp[/attachment:2ey5a38m]


Don't worry, it's just a mock. I can still make him look better.
Get the concept? Now that made me realize that we(I?) should put custom images in each
default image slot.

First = Ashronor map
Second = Mages
Third = Increase taxes (maybe showing money)
Fourth = Gospel showing up

That's all I can think for now, I still have 70+ pages to read for our exam, but still,
I will continue with this shit. Skipping the intro now....


Before that, I named Gospel Gospel and set his birthday to January 1. Then, the video
sequence w/ crappy humans shows up, and I quickly press enter. Now this is strange.
Is this patch working or not!? I'm looking at a blank black screen for 10 seconds! Oh wait,
something appears! (that was a long wait, please fix it kokojo)

*DAYLIGHT!*
Wow, the setting is very nice and is executed well. Gospel's sprite looks handsome as
Zozma, to tell you the truth. There are some minor typos in the dialogues but for my sake,
I won't cover them. There are 4 human sprites present in this event: Gospel, Ilya and 2
squires. I can't wait for jimmy to finish Gospel's sprite! IMO, Ilya should get a custom
sprite soon, too. The only strange thing for me here is the squire standing still. He didn't
do anything. Maybe he should take a step! After some pretty event editing and dialogue, the
chapter 1 image\logo shows up. Pretty nice, I must say! But I think we should lessen the
saturation value of the image, because there will be some text over it. Compare these two:

[attachment=0:2ey5a38m]copscreen1.bmp[/attachment:2ey5a38m]



Which one do you guys like better? I feel that the image looks a bit old and will blend
with the darkness of the setting, so I made it look less saturated and darker. Also, I
slightly blurred the pic to make the text more clearer.

DAY TWO.

Looks like I didn't finish reading those 70+ pages for my exam. I just ended up
reading 65 pages. No big deal though, coz' I get to play COP! OKay now, let's continue.

For the 1st and 2nd battle, I didn't write while I'm playing.. My computer lags periodically
when the battery is full. But, I still remember some good points.

First of, I like how LOW the HP and damage are. It gives a lot of balance and space for higher
-level characters for the next patches. I started the battle killing off one female squire.
Then, with the help of Ilya and a ranged male squire, I concentrated on beating up Islie,
while Schaefer was inflicting status to other foes. The battle's not really hard, but they
did manage to get Ilya to critical condition. And because of that I was forced to use Gospel's
TACTIC! Yeah! The skill was interesting but the effect(like the bard's skill fx) was a bit off.
Then, I tried messing up with Ilya's element skills. They're decent, but lacks uniqueness bet.
one another(more of this on balancing). Maybe because I'm still starting? Hmm.. Anyway,
at the end, I put Ilya and my ranged squire on the roof to take advantage. And lastly, Gospel
slashed Islie(HE NEEDS TO FIX HIS LOOK) at the back to end the first battle!

Immediately after, there goes some event. SICK EVENT, I must say. Schaefer threw Islie
in the water! Really nice.

-Are Schaefer and Ilya flat characters? Coz' right now I think that they deserve a custom sprite.
-There were typoes like Medecine, etc.
-Message cutting needs some fixing. Kokojo, you should fill up the message box as possible.

After the battle, A new event quickly started, which I think is nice.
The black witch (can't remember her name) makes her first appearance together with Arale. I didn't pay attention
on the dialogue so I won't care about them for now. IMO Arale should have black clothes, too,
coz' she doesn't blend with her sister. LOL. After the event, I was drawn to the formation
screen. Hmmm.. let's see.. what's new here was the treasure boxes. the LOOT. This loot system
is nice, but can be further improved. :)


Then when it's Ilya's turn, I used Lucky star. How lucky! With at least 5 save-load states,
I manage to hit the adjacent 2 enemies! Interesting skill. :(
Well.. see ya again next time..

(http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r228/MiKeMiTchi/SpriteWorks/COPEVENT.png)

Gospel having Tactics + Synergy can be a BEAST. Equip robes on him too.

It is possible to do cheap combos in this game, especially using 2 classes.

Move-Find Items can be really helpful, look for them.

Everyone gets 25JP per action. Using spillover JP, you can master classes very quickly, or get some techniques for your guys.