Final Fantasy Hacktics

Creating a new character in Final Fantasy Tactics is actually a very simple thing to do. All you need are a few programs that you can download off of the main FFH website and an idea, some character that you wish to appear in your patched game. Whether it be yourself, or a character from the Final Fantasy series or just a custom sprite, it doesn't matter whom or what, because I'm going to tell you how in this tutorial to make them appear in game either way. Read on!

1) The first thing you will need are the programs. You can't just magically make a new unit appear in game out of nothingness, you're going to need the following:

Go to Google and search for these 2 programs

GraphicsGale (which is the best for spritesheets and can be found here on FFH) and
PalSuite3 (it changes pixel colors)

Once you've gotten these 2 programs, download everything that FFHacktics has to offer:

FFTEVGRP (replaces unit portraits and menu)
CDMage (this gets the UNIT.BIN and WLDFACE.BIN)
Shishi Sprite Editor (find .457, its the one I use and works the best)
FFTacText (an absolute must if you are making units from scratch)
FFTPatcher (also a must, it does practically everything stat related)
FFTorgASM (a unique program that does a variety of things)

and of course

Your FFT Iso file and a Spritesheet of your character!!

Awesome, now we are rolling. If you have all of the above, move to step 2.

2) Open CDMage. Open up your .iso/.img file of your FFT game under File>Open(duh!). It will prompt you to make an Image type, select the last one called "Raw Image(*.iso,*.bin,*.tao,*.img,*.bwi,*.mm2)". Click detect in the box that appears. It will create a .cue of the iso, click okay when another box pops up. If it says "Data track has errors in the file system, its content may be displayed incorrectly. Continue parsing?", choose Yes. Click once on Track 1, and on the right hand side there will be 10 folders and 4 other files. Double click the EVENT folder. Scroll down to the bottom of this folder and find UNIT.BIN and WLDFACE.BIN and select both of them with ctrl and then right click and choose "Extract Files..." and save them in the same place as the iso and cue of FFT. Close CDMage.

3) Open Shishi Sprite Editor (.457 or better or these steps won't work). Go to File and then Open ISO, and open the iso. If it says something like "Do you want to extend your iso?", choose yes. Find 12 - Simon and go to Sprite at the top and Export SPR. Save this as simon.spr. Notice that Simon is a TYPE 2 unit, you will have to make sure he stays that way once we put him back in the game. Now go up to Sprite once more and Import either YOUR .spr file or .bmp depending on whatcha got. You will need to change the TYPE to what the imported sprite is, otherwise their arms will look like Rayman in battle if the sprite is type 1. Yes, their arms will float next to their body, not good! So change the type! Now go up to 12 - Simon and scroll down to 39 - Celia (Never Used). Go to Sprite and Import the simon.spr. Celia is type 2 so you don't need to change the type. Close Shishi Sprite Editor.

4) Here comes the working part. Open up GraphicsGale and if you have a portrait bmp and menu icon bmp ready, skip to the next part of this section. If not, read on. First open up the art program and open up your sprite sheet. Get the rectangular box (up on the top in the toolbar) and box in the second unit on the sheet, it should be the one that is looking down but at a diagonal. I would zoom in first because it is hard to do when the sprites are tiny. Make sure the box is 24 by 40 pixels. Now copy this image, make a brand new page and when it prompts you to set the size, make it 24x40. In this new tiny white box, paste your character. It is difficult, but try to center the character here so its in the middle. I would use a reference of any unit you can get from the FFTEVGRP. Save As [spritename] menu.bmp, close it and reopen it in GraphicsGale once again. Now go to the top choose All Frames and change the Color Depth from 256 colors to 16 colors by changing 8bpp to 4bpp and then okaying it. Finally, just save (because it already is a bmp). Now do this exact same procedure but with the portrait, so first rotate the canvas of your sprite sheet counter clockwise under Image>Rotate and make sure the size is 32x48, which should be really easy considering you are boxing in the entire portrait which is 32x48. Paste this image as a new file called [sprite name] portrait.bmp, also once again a BMP file with the colors set to 16!! That is important! Close GG once you got all that done. These are important files if you want your new unit to show up properly in the Menu screens.

5) This will only take a few seconds if you have done the previous step carefully and exactly. If PalSuite3 doesn't recognize your portrait and menu bmps, then you probably need to change the colors in GraphicsGale from 256 to 16. Open up PalSuite3 and go to File>Open and open up the 24x40 [sprite name] menu.bmp. Now go to Edit and then Resize and change the value from whatever it is to 16 and okay it. Save this as the same name [sprite name] menu.pal, which means change (Important!) it to a RIFF Palette (*.pal). Not any other palette. Do the exact same procedure for the [sprite name] portrait.bmp. Up to now you should have 1 of each of the following: 1 menu.bmp, 1 menu.pal, 1 portrait.bmp and 1 portrait.pal. If not, then you must have skipped something, stop now and reread what I wrote. Close Palsuite3.

6) The FFTEVGRP is our next stop. What will happen once you complete this is that the character will appear fully in the game; in battle, in the menu and also all portraits will be displayed. Note: First test your sprites without the palette (.pal file), if it doesn't look right in game then Import PAL. Open up FFTEVGRP and open for now the UNIT.BIN. Find the right menu character which is 0A Simon and replace it with your menu character by means of Import BMP..., then under Import PAL..., import your menu pal(but only if its weird in game). Simple. Finally, click Save file. Now go up to the top to File and open up the WLDFACE.BIN and find agian 0A Simon, and see how its the old white mage's portrait? Import BMP... and Import PAL... (again only if its colors are off in the game) of your sprite's portrait and pal. Click Save file. Close FFTEVGRP.

7) Open up CDMage again. Since the sprites are good and ready, you are going to import them into the game itself. Open up the FFT iso and find the EVENT folder once again. This time first click once on UNIT.BIN and right click to Import File, which will be your UNIT.BIN. After this, right click on the WLDFACE.BIN and import your WLDFACE.BIN. Close CDMage.

8) Details, details, details...well we are gonna do this correctly, right? Open FFTacText and then ISO>Import either PSX or PSP ISO and well I think you know what to do. For me the FFTacText Editor takes like 30 seconds to a minute to open, patience is a virtue... Select Text at the top and choose QuickEdit to save us some precious time. Now in this part I will call the characters job [Job Name], so if you want something else, just replace it. So the first thing under the QuickEdit is the JobDescritptions, scroll down the list until you find 19 Bishop. This is Simon's job, even though in game you never see it, there for its useless. Cool, a free space to create a custom character! Write in the right box something like this:

The [Job Name] is a custom character{Newline}
imported by [your name]. This job{Newline}
doesn't have a discription yet.

Of course write what you believe is necessary here, not this ridiculous nonsense I wrote (especially in the brackets "[ ]"; from now on fill the brackets with what you need).

Now change to JobNames in the middle bar and scroll down once again to 19 Bishop. Again never used in game, again name it this time [job name] in the right box. After this, under SkillsetNames, this may seem strange, but we are gonna use Teta's/Tietra's Magic and change its name to [skillset name], because Teta/Tietra never participates in battle, except when she is taking a nap in the snow up at the Fort...nevermind... Now find 35 Magic and rename it [job's skillset name]. Under SkillsetDescriptions, scroll down again and replace 35 which reads originally this:

Delita's sister Job command. Magic{Newline}
taught by her brother only she can{Newline}
use.

Change this to something like:

[Job name] job command. Uses the [skillset name]{Newline}
to kill enemies.

Notice how "Newline" is enclosed in these { } things, that is used in code to distinguish a newline. In JobRequirements, type the same thing you have for JobDescriptions but add under the text the conditions for job change, its 38 Bishop here:

The [Job Name] is a custom character{Newline}
imported by [your name]. This job{Newline}
doesn't have a discription yet.{Newline}
No conditions for job change.

I didn't give any requirements for job change, but you can if you want, naturally. Alright, now that in theory your whole new job is totally complete in name, there is just one thing left to do. Go back up to the top and make the drop down bar under Text appear, select ATTACK.OUT. You should see Unit names, scroll down to 123 Dish and rename this to your very own custom name, probably your own name or something like Aeris or Bartz or whatever, it doesn't matter. This will make your own character's name appear in game :) Next again under Text on the top is OPEN.LZW. Change again 123 Dish to the same name (don't make spelling errors!) and finally after that go to Text and choose WORLD.LZW, the second to last on the bottom. Switch to 9: Unit names and 123 to yours again and then switch to 10: Unit names and name 123. So, you should have renamed 'Dish' 4 times, make sure you did! Now save this as a .ffttext just so you won't in the future havta do all this again. Then go to ISO and patch your ISO and wait for a while, up to 2-3 minutes unfortunetly. Patience, young Padawan! Close FFTacText once you get the "Success" message.

9) Save the best for last! Open up FFTPatcher and read on carefully! Go to File>New PSX/PSP patch, like always depending on whatcha have. Click the Jobs tab. Find 13 Bishop, this is the new job we just created in FFTacText over Simon's, its still going to be called Bishop here but in game it will be changed to whatever, so don't worry. Now you are going to have to change the stats on your own, don't fret because you can always just copy some other units stats if you don't know what you want. Sorry I can't help, but I'm not a mind reader ; ) Now, change the skillset on the top here to 23 Magic, Teta/Tietra's skillset. After you are done giving your unit some stats, click the Skill Sets tab. In here find 23 Magic and change Cure and Wish to whatever you want and use any blank spaces for more techniques/magic. You can also change the Reaction, Support and Movement abilities to whatever makes you happy. One last thing to do here -once you are content with your new skills- click the ENTD tab.

Now you can have your new character literally appear in game when and where you want, but I will show you how to make them appear in Gariland Magic City, the games first real battle. Not in Orbonne Monestry for 2 reasons, 1. you wouldn't see your character again for about 10 battles and 2. you would have to change around way more events in the ENTD, which is annoying actually.

First we are going to change all of Simon's apperances to 3A which stands for Celia (Never Used). Go to 100 Beginning of game inside Orbonne. Find in the upper right box Simon and click on him once. Below this box there are a whole bunch of sub catergories, like Sprite Set and Name, ect. All you have to do is change his Sprite Set to is 3A. Do this also under the following event numbers (where Simon appears): 110 and 11E. Up until now, these 3 events are the only times Simon appears. (There may be the 2 events at Orbonne where Wiegraf and Izlude are storming the place for Zodiac Stones, but I can't find them on the ENTD, meaning you might see your character in those scenes, weird...). Once you have done everything with Simon, go to 188 and you should see a list like this:

Ramza      Ramza      Squire
Delita      Delita      Squire
Generic Male   <Random>      Squire
Generic Male   <Random>      Squire
Generic Female      ...ect. You get the point.

Click the first Generic Male, right under Delita. Change this Squire's Sprite Set to 13 Simon. Change the Name to 7B Dish. Change the default "random" Birthdate to a desired birthday. The Job should also be now set as 13 Bishop. The units Level should remain 1, but if you want you can change this to a higher level, making the first few chapters or the entire game too easy, meaning more boring. My advice: leave it at 1. The Faith and Brave can be altered, but remember not to make them too faithful or too cowardly or they will leave your party after the first battle. Leave the Pallette, Unit ID, X, and Y alone, don't change this. Jobs unlocked determines how many jobs will be unlocked, so if you select Black Mage for example, the unit will have a default of a level 2 Chemist. The Initial direction, Team Color and Target Unit ID should stay as they are. Now if you have a female character, change Male to Female in the box above, leave the rest as is. Below there are the Skills, the first Primary should remain as FF <Job's>, the rest can be altered again to whatever you please. The same goes for the Equipment, you can have your character start with a unique weapon or different armor(s). Leave the Unknown and Spoils alone in the lower part. Go to 183 once you are all set up. Find the Generic Archer Dish and change his name to <Random>. Good, you're all set!

10) Go to File and Save patch... or Save as PSP patch... to save yourself some future work. Next go to either PSX or PSP and then Patch ISO. Click the "..." and locate your iso file, then click OK. Wait a few seconds and once this box closes and returns you to the FFTPatcher program, you're done. Run your patched game and if you followed the instructions exactly, your new character will appear at Gariland Magic City! Congratulations!