__ _________________ __ / /| /_________________\ |\ \ / / | | | | \ \ / / | |__ ________ __| | \ \ / / | | | | | | | | \ \ / / /| | | | | | | | | |\ \ \ / / / | | | | | | | | | | \ \ \ /_/ /|_| | | | | | | | | |_|\ \_\ |_|/ / / | | | | | | | | \ \ \|_| / / | | | | | | | | \ \ /_/ / | | | | | | | | \ \_\ |_|/| | | | | | | | | |\|_| | | | __| | |___| | |__ | | | | | | /__| |/_____\| |__\ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | P A L A D I N | | | | | | | \ E D I T I O N / | | | | | | \ 2 0 0 5 / | | | | | | \___________/ | | | | | | | | | |_|/ SUPER NES ROM PATCH \|_| ============================================================================ FINAL FANTASY IIus v1.0 "Paladin Edition" Patch v3.0 ============================================================================ INTRO: Greetings! This is the readme for the FF4ePE Patch. My name is Paladin, and I have been a Final Fantasy 4 fan since I first played the FF-II version of the game in 1991. Since that time I have taken interest in computers and earned a computer science degree. After seeing some of the hacks people had done with cartridge ROM images and Hex Editors I decided to try my hand, along with using some really great utilites available to those in the ROM hacking hobby. So, this was one of my first attempts at hacking a ROM. Even though I had played Final Fantasy IV in every concievable way possible (In Japanese on a *real* SFC, On the WonderSwan Color hand-held, on the Playstation in the FF- Chronicles set, and using the Famous J2e Translations "10th Anniversary" v3.21 English patch for the FF4j-HT ROM) I wanted to "play" with the ROM. So I cut my teeth on Hex Editing, Graphics Hacking, and so forth with a copy of the Final Fantasy II (v1.0) ROM. Now I am releasing it to those of you who might possibly care. ============================================================================ FILES: You should have extracted these two files from the zip archive: README.txt :: This Readme FF4ePE.ips :: The Patch using the International Patch Standard I will assume you know how to patch a ROM or make ZSNES do it on the fly. ***IMPORTANT NOTICES!*** Do *NOT* ask for copies of the game ROM. If Recoil over at CherryROMs.com can't/won't host the Final Fantasy ROMs anymore...I'm not about to either. REQUESTS FOR COPIES OF THE ROM WILL BE DENIED AND/OR IGNORED! While I have a copy of the ROM v1.1, I'm lazy and didn't bother to see if this patch will work with it. So PLEASE patch the v1.0 ROM...otherwise it is at your own risk. Do *NOT* permanently patch your ONLY copy of the FFIIus ROM! Only fools don't make backups. It's not my problem if you didn't, all I can say is hey I hope you like my changes! o_O ============================================================================ DESCRIPTION: Now, this is not a chincy "turn-FF2us-into-FF4HT-patch" where I renamed the items exactly like they're supposed to be from the NTT guide books...and then gave Cecil "Dark Wave"...that's dumb. J2e Translations already did the end-all, beat-all Hi-Fidelity "English Hard Type" patch for the FF4j game and I suggest you find it and use it if you want that version to play via SNES Emulation...or just go play Final Fantasy IV Advance. This is my PERSONAL patch. While my version DOES restore the game to a state more like the original FF4. I, however, have taken a few liberties with graphics, item names, shop lists, character battle commands, and such to suit my personal taste...along with some other spiffy changes that frankly, I like. I did NOT change the storyline much. While I did use Necrosaro's "Thingy" to dump the text (and perhaps I'll jack with it at some point when I feel like optimizing a new script with DTE) this version of the patch leaves the dialogue in the game alone...however grating some of poor dialouge might be. I did try to tweak some IN BATTLE dialogue...just a little... Detailed list of changes: * Edited the Title Screen so it says Final Fantasy IV in a nice blue gradient. Also added text to let you know it's my patch. * Dumped the shadowed font from Final Famtasy VI into the tile graphics table to give a fresh look to the game's text. * Renamed almost all of the equipment and items to suit my tastes. That means that it isn't necessarily the correct name according to official data, but all of them are properly and descriptively named. * Added menu descriptions to items that seemed to have had coding for it before the dummy edits by Squaresoft. * Created or tweaked equipment and item icon graphics so that nearly all types of objects in your item list have a pretty little icon. * Renamed some of the Characters so that their names reflect the offical data shown in the original FF-IV Setteishiryou-Hen. That basically means Edward is Gilbart and it's 'C'ain. Also added some lettering tiles such as "il" to be able to do this. * Renamed the magic spells to my liking...and some monster attacks. * Renamed some monsters...like "EpeeGirl"...holy shit she's holding a sword so let's call it "Sword Girl" awesome!!! Me slaps head...Sorry, some things I couldn't let by... * Renamed and/or created custom graphics tiles to rename the class titles for the characters. Such as "Dark Knight" for Cecil or "Lunarian" for Fusu-Ya etc... * Renamed Battle Commands so that "Dummied" ones could be used. * REPLACED Battle Commands so that all characters have their original commands as (specified by the original FF-IV Setteishiryou-hen) no matter how useless (Rosa's Pray) or useful (Yang's Charge) they might be. Also used FF-VI formatting for the battle menus...that is if the character has less than 5 commands total, Item is always on the bottom and Fight is on top with the other specific commands in the middle or just blanks. * Customized character's battle menus. Paladin Cecil still has Dark Wave...or in this game it's called "Shock" because I like it and was deprived of it's use all those years ago, plus it's badass. I gave Cain Yang's "Kick" in addition to Jump. Dark Knight Cecil acquired Yang's "Guard". Made sure to give the data records for Golbez and Anna useful battle commands in case I or you want to use cheats or LORD_J's FF4H sram editor to add them to a party just for kicks. * Changed nearly ALL of the shop menus for all the Weapon, Armor, and Item Shops all over. That is they sell different stuff. You can now buy formerly dummied items like Antidote, Soft, Eyedrops, EchoHerbs and the like. However you will still be able to find or win in battle the original items the game was coded with in treasure chests and such because I haven't found the data tables in the ROM to change these things yet. You will also find things for sale that were never meant to be on sale...however those things that ARE for sale that might be rare...they are ungodly expensive. So you won't have to take days to appropriate some things now...but you'll still have to fight a lot of battles to earn the gold required. Unless you cheat...but then if you're gonna use GUNSLINGER then why buy anything anyway. Just put all the best equipment on and go on down the road right?...or better yet use LORD_J's FF4h to hack your S-RAM file...or you could try playing it this way? * Changed prices of items and equipment. Guess what, Heal (now called Remedy) costs a more appropriate 5000 GP. You might find the "extra summons" available to buy someplace in the game but you're not gonna like the price! Other such changes. * Tweaked some character Battle sprite graphics. I said earlier that I gave Cecil "Shock" (aka Dark Wave) even after he becomes a paladin. Well...each character in the game has a tile set for their battle sprite. Each set includes a 24x24 area for a "special action" sprite. Paladin Cecil's is his silly "lifting cape" move for the cover command. This had to go. I created a custom version of him holding a sword simialar to like he did as a Dark Knight instead...and it works for Cover...which I don't use much anyway unless Rosa is hurting. This also necessitated a change for his casting stance too... even though I like the hands glowing deal...I made it make sense. Completed the tile set for Anna, and fixed the palette her sprite references if you put her in an active party, this way you really can use Anna and Golbez in a party. ALSO I never liked that Golbez was supposedly a badass in BLACK and his appearance was always DARK BLUE...so I changed his palettes so that he IS clad in BLACK. One of these palette changes effected some sprites that shared it...but instead of blue they're wearing black now to...and you know what...it looks good that way. Also, tweaked Paladin Cecil's map sprite palette so he doesn't look so much like a clown with all those gaudy colors. * Changed the save point tiles. I didn't need huge "S" shapped symbols in the floor to let me know it's a save point. (Those were ACTUALLY in Final Fantasy IVj Easy Type!!! I had to use the Hardtype ROM to retrieve the six-pointed star graphic I replaced the S's with.) * SPECIAL! Used Yousei's MAP EDITOR to make some changes to the overworld map. There is a way to go somewhere on the map to level up quite early in the game, you could also use it to skip a bunch too if you want to cheat the game (at your own risk). I tried to add a place for where the Tower of Zot might have really been...(did it bother anyone else that you never really SEE the tower itself?). I guess since it gets destroyed it doesn't make any sense but whatever. H A V E F U N P L A Y I N G ! ============================================================================ CREDITS! ============================================================================ There are several names I'd like to give props too for either creating a really cool hacking tool or having information available that made this patch possible! Yousei: The Palette editor that he created is an awesome tool. He also made a ROM editor that had invaluable documentation on the ROM within the ZIP file I downloaded. It's what got me going. The Tower of Bab-il: Somewhere, sometime in the past I downloaded a whole slew of ROM hacking docs from FF-IIus. Tower Of Bab-il's Documents are located here: http://rpgd.emulationworld.com/ballz/el/bab-il/index.html Kent Hansen: Tile Layer Pro...is the BEST graphics hacking utility and my favorite part of ROM hacking. Without this I'd be very sad. LORD_J: Famous for his FF-VI hacking tools, but his FF4h SRAM editor made it quick and easy to make "debug" changes within the game by editing saves. Necrosaro: Thingy32 was a really great way to dump the text and assign long descriptors or DTE to byte codes that Hex Workshop just didn't support. The MCA/Elite: SNESTool is my tool of choice for making IPS patches and using them to perm-patch ROMS. THE ZSNES TEAM: My FAVORITE SNES emulation software. This patch was tested and played, as are all my ROMs, in ZSNES. Zophar's Domain: For being a one-stop-shop for emulation and tools for hacking! ============================================================================ Disclaimer ============================================================================ If you like this patch, feel free to distribute it so long as you leave all the documentation (this README) and included files in the ZIP archive for download. YOU MAY NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES DISTRIBUTE THIS PATCH WITH A COPY OF THE FINAL FANTASY II SNES ROM OR A COPY OF THAT ROM WITH THIS PATCH ALREADY APPLIED TO IT! If you use this patch as a basis for your own hack, please credit me in your documentation. Latest updates (should be) available at: http://ff4.paladinet.com/pages/ff4emu.html Please visit my Final Fantasy IV Website... The Final Fantasy IV Chronicle :: http://ff4.paladinet.com Enjoy! ~Paladin paladin[at]paladinet.com ============================================================================ Copyright (c) 2005 PaladiNet.com, all rights reserved.