Hi all
With renewed interest in FF7 Original due to the Remake starting to be released, I figured it might be useful to let everyone know that the hex-edits mentioned in the past from 2009 still work on the achievement-enabled Steam version, although the patch program mentioned in the thread doesn't work now due to incorrect .exe file sizing.
Specifically:
"Changed two jumps from 0x74 to 0x75(JE to JNE)
0x0063767d(0x236a7d in EXE file) - looks like ANIMATION switch
0x00634992(0x233d92 in EXE file) - looks like SPEED switch"
Changing these two locations in a Hex editor (I used HxD) has had the desired effect even in the newer ff7_en.exe file; whatever changes have been made to it seem to be somewhere after the referenced (0x236a7d and 0x233d92) Hex values, so those locations are still thankfully valid.
The easiest way to apply and remove the edit is to have two copies of the .exe file, one modded and one not, and swap out the name to ff7_en.exe as required for the version needed.
I'm not sure if providing the modified .exe file here directly for convenience would be allowed or not (I'm erring on the side of caution and not providing it without advice), but the edit is easy enough to do.