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Releases / [FF8-PC Steam/Switch] FFVIII Crystal 1.5.6 / Remastered Version 1.1.6
« on: 2020-03-04 17:37:54 »
FFVIII Crystal 1.5.5 / Remastered Version 1.1.5
Introduction
FFVIII Crystal is a rebalancing mod for FFVIII that began as a self-imposed class-based challenge playthrough roughly 10 years ago and still retains some of its features. It attempts to make each character more distinct, dial back some of the overtuned mechanics and abilities of FFVIII, and make the game more challenging while keeping the "flavor" of the original game.This mod is intended for the English 2013 Steam release of FFVIII and is playable from start to finish.
Steam-2013: Nexus / itch.io
Remastered PC/Switch: Nexus / itch.io
Donations
Characters
Enemies
Most enemies now have a fixed level in order to accommodate the changes to characters and leveling, though bosses and certain enemies still scale in some fashion. Many enemies use abilities they didn't before, and some are new. Enemy AI scripts have been adjusted to make them smarter and less wasteful of their turns, with some having new AI scripts altogether. Bosses have been made more challenging and given new abilities and mechanics.
Undead status has been removed from enemies, and formerly undead enemies now tend to have high Vit and a weakness to Holy and Fire. Sleep now halves an enemy's Vitality for the duration. Curse can be inflicted on enemies and reduces their Str and Mag by 20%.
Magic
Offensive spells have been strengthened across the board while curative spells have been weakened slightly. Demi, Aura, Double, Triple, and Meltdown are now enemy-only spells. A low-level Holy-element spell, a low-level Earth-element damage spell, and a high-level Water damage spell have been added. Pain now deals Poison-element damage, effectively making it a high-level Bio. Death has become Doom, which inflicts Doom and deals non-elemental damage.
Command Abilities
In an effort to make FFVIII's special commands more interesting, worthwhile, and distinct from other abilities, almost all of them have been replaced outright and most of the remainder have been altered in some way.
- Double: Spends 1/4 current HP to grant the user Double status.
- Mad Rush: Spends 1/2 current HP to grant the user Berserk, Haste, and Reflect.
- Chakra: Restores a percentage of one character's HP and removes a handful of status effects.
- Defend: Defend now costs 1/4 of the user's current HP.
- Darkside: The damage multiplier has been decreased while the damage dealt to the user has increased.
- Pray: Restores HP to all allies.
- Nightsword: Vitality-ignoring damage that drains HP and inflicts Curse.
- Shock: Physical damage and Poison to all enemies.
- Aurabolt: Vit-ignoring damage that inflicts Darkness and Sleep.
- Aura: Spends 1/4 current HP to grant the user Aura status. Aura's effect on Crisis Level has decreased, but its duration has increased.
- Kamikaze: The user sacrifices themselves to deal Vitality-ignoring damage and inflict Vit 0 on all enemies; also the player's only source of Vit 0.
- Devour: Stat increases have been replaced with helpful status effects; the amount of HP lost by negative Devours has been decreased or removed.
- Card: Unchanged.
- GF: The command itself is the same, but GF HP has been lowered, G-Returners have been removed, and Compatibility is now a fixed value.
Miscellaneous
- New items and battle items have been added.
- Several new sidequests have been added and existing ones have been adjusted to give more significant rewards, including abilities not learned by the characters' GFs.
- There are now more choices that can lower the player's SeeD rank points.
- Shops have been given more unique inventories.
Changelog
Installation
Credits
Programs Used:
Doomtrain by alexfilth, Maki, and JWP
Deling by myst6re
Ifrit by Gjoerulv
Ifrit AI beta by JWP
Cactilio by JeMaCheHi
Quezacotl by JWP
Rinoa's Toolset by Maki
MnGrpEditor by Nightshade
JunkShop by alexfilth
Roses and Wine/Hext Tools by DLPB
Many thanks to everyone involved in creating these tools.
Thanks to Sega Chief for showing me how to fix enemy data files; to JWP for many of the exe edits used in this mod and for sharing them publically; to Callisto for locating and sharing the SeeD salary values; to Colly for the mngrp.bin Thingy tables; and a huge thanks to UpRisen, goodmorninpluto, Nikkolas, and Dorklord for feedback and bug-finding.
Lastly, a huge thanks to everyone in the FFVIII modding community. I couldn't have made this without you and your efforts.
Introduction
FFVIII Crystal is a rebalancing mod for FFVIII that began as a self-imposed class-based challenge playthrough roughly 10 years ago and still retains some of its features. It attempts to make each character more distinct, dial back some of the overtuned mechanics and abilities of FFVIII, and make the game more challenging while keeping the "flavor" of the original game.This mod is intended for the English 2013 Steam release of FFVIII and is playable from start to finish.
Steam-2013: Nexus / itch.io
Remastered PC/Switch: Nexus / itch.io
Donations
Characters
Spoiler: show
Enemies
Most enemies now have a fixed level in order to accommodate the changes to characters and leveling, though bosses and certain enemies still scale in some fashion. Many enemies use abilities they didn't before, and some are new. Enemy AI scripts have been adjusted to make them smarter and less wasteful of their turns, with some having new AI scripts altogether. Bosses have been made more challenging and given new abilities and mechanics.
Undead status has been removed from enemies, and formerly undead enemies now tend to have high Vit and a weakness to Holy and Fire. Sleep now halves an enemy's Vitality for the duration. Curse can be inflicted on enemies and reduces their Str and Mag by 20%.
Magic
Offensive spells have been strengthened across the board while curative spells have been weakened slightly. Demi, Aura, Double, Triple, and Meltdown are now enemy-only spells. A low-level Holy-element spell, a low-level Earth-element damage spell, and a high-level Water damage spell have been added. Pain now deals Poison-element damage, effectively making it a high-level Bio. Death has become Doom, which inflicts Doom and deals non-elemental damage.
Command Abilities
In an effort to make FFVIII's special commands more interesting, worthwhile, and distinct from other abilities, almost all of them have been replaced outright and most of the remainder have been altered in some way.
- Double: Spends 1/4 current HP to grant the user Double status.
- Mad Rush: Spends 1/2 current HP to grant the user Berserk, Haste, and Reflect.
- Chakra: Restores a percentage of one character's HP and removes a handful of status effects.
- Defend: Defend now costs 1/4 of the user's current HP.
- Darkside: The damage multiplier has been decreased while the damage dealt to the user has increased.
- Pray: Restores HP to all allies.
- Nightsword: Vitality-ignoring damage that drains HP and inflicts Curse.
- Shock: Physical damage and Poison to all enemies.
- Aurabolt: Vit-ignoring damage that inflicts Darkness and Sleep.
- Aura: Spends 1/4 current HP to grant the user Aura status. Aura's effect on Crisis Level has decreased, but its duration has increased.
- Kamikaze: The user sacrifices themselves to deal Vitality-ignoring damage and inflict Vit 0 on all enemies; also the player's only source of Vit 0.
- Devour: Stat increases have been replaced with helpful status effects; the amount of HP lost by negative Devours has been decreased or removed.
- Card: Unchanged.
- GF: The command itself is the same, but GF HP has been lowered, G-Returners have been removed, and Compatibility is now a fixed value.
Miscellaneous
- New items and battle items have been added.
- Several new sidequests have been added and existing ones have been adjusted to give more significant rewards, including abilities not learned by the characters' GFs.
- There are now more choices that can lower the player's SeeD rank points.
- Shops have been given more unique inventories.
Changelog
Spoiler: show
Installation
Spoiler: show
Credits
Programs Used:
Doomtrain by alexfilth, Maki, and JWP
Deling by myst6re
Ifrit by Gjoerulv
Ifrit AI beta by JWP
Cactilio by JeMaCheHi
Quezacotl by JWP
Rinoa's Toolset by Maki
MnGrpEditor by Nightshade
JunkShop by alexfilth
Roses and Wine/Hext Tools by DLPB
Many thanks to everyone involved in creating these tools.
Thanks to Sega Chief for showing me how to fix enemy data files; to JWP for many of the exe edits used in this mod and for sharing them publically; to Callisto for locating and sharing the SeeD salary values; to Colly for the mngrp.bin Thingy tables; and a huge thanks to UpRisen, goodmorninpluto, Nikkolas, and Dorklord for feedback and bug-finding.
Lastly, a huge thanks to everyone in the FFVIII modding community. I couldn't have made this without you and your efforts.