[FF8PC-Steam] Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod (v1.2.3 & v1.1b)

[Helm_Smasher]

Speaking of the Remaster at least, in my experience, the frame timings in battle can't really be corrected perfectly.

Still, you can get stable framerates with some oddball solutions like having a Chrome tab open with some text on it, or using an auto clicker of some sort set to repeat middle click at around a 40ms interval, and also using Special K on all cases. Not sure if SK is strictly necessary, since it alone only gives me around 25 FPS on the field and 12 in battle without the quriky procedures I described above; I mostly use it because it has a frame pacing tool and I can keep an eye on the framerates.

Even with fixed framerates you get dips in some areas, and the Limit Break timings can feel off, but I think going forward, the Remaster will get more and more work done on it, while the original steam release is bound to get less (and that one is its own can of worms as well, bug wise), but it really depends on the community.

[Lyrinix]

Bought the remastered version and abandoned a 6h emulated savegame just to try this out!

Love that changes were made to incentivize leveling.

Is the background supposed to still look like pixelated crap?

Thank you!

[circle]

I've been enjoying this mod for the last few days, but I'm a bit annoyed right now. I got to the fight against the two Iguions with only Squall and Irvine, and they absolutely wipe the floor with me. Irvine died in two hits, Squall died trying to bring him back to life. Didn't get a single hit against them. I've had a few game overs in the mod so far, but nothing I didn't feel I could do better at the next time. This one just seems impossible for my characters, and it's not like I can gain any levels or new magic since I'm locked into the parade event.

I suppose it wouldn't be quite as annoying if I didn't have to watch them climb up those boxes like a pair of 90 year olds every time I retry

[Callisto]

Sorry for the late reply, I've been quite busy lately.

@Malekith: Thank you for the detailed feedback and offer to help with creating an Italian version for the mod.

The flower needed to complete the additional sidequest in Deling City can be received from the waitress at Timber Pub after asking the girl at Lapin Beach for ingredients, while the lost cards in Deling City can be found at Galbadia Hotel in Deling City, very close to the Timber Maniacs magazine, hidden between the beds.

Renew can be farmed from Barriers (via Supt Mag-RF), so fighting Behemoths should help with restocking the spell.

As for the Bomb at Fire Cavern, the intended ways to defeat it are as follows:

- trying to inflict Stop on it, which it is not immune to, then using defense-ignoring attacks (Irvine's AP Ammo, Zell's Different Beat, Gravity Bombs, Eden, Moomba etc) quickly until it dies
- relying on Return Damage or Counter to avoid the Bomb's auto heal (the way you used)
- using Kamikaze with a high HP (9000+) character - if it crits, it should one-shot the Bomb at least in Standard Mode
- Selphie's The End

As for the rest of your feedback in regards to Lionheart Mode, it will be considered for the next version, including The End, which will be replaced for both versions. I think it's best to wait until the next version of the mod releases until further steps to an Italian version will be taken, as several new things will be added (enemy attacks, items, sidequests etc). Shouldn't take that long anymore. I'll keep your offer in mind, thanks.


@Helm_Smasher: The HP restored by the Heal Command is a percentage of the target's max HP, so the more HP your characters have, the more HP will be healed. As an alternative, you could try buying Tents and then making Mega-Potions out of them via Carbuncle's Recov Med-RF Ability. If you have the Med Data Ability (I think the earliest opportunity to get it is from Leviathan), your Mega-Potions will heal 3000 HP to all party members, which is more than Heal can ever restore. Buying Tents is admittedly expensive, but if you can afford it, I would give it a try.


@AesonNix: Chimera cards refining into Regen Rings was kept as it is for those who want to farm a few Full-life spells. I never really thought that anyone would try to get a full stock early, as getting 50 Chimera cards takes very long. Well, I'll change it to something else nevertheless. Thank you for the suggestion.


@circle: If the Iguions are an issue you can always return to the sewers as Squall and Irvine by using the manhole behind the truck near the save point. Down there, you can level up and fight Creeps and Red Bats for Life and Drain spells respectively, both of which increasing your HP, Vitality and Spirit by a fair bit. Also try to protect yourself from Fire attacks through Elemental Defense junctions. In battle, try to hit them with their weakness (Earth or Ice I believe), rather than using regular attacks as they counter with Resonance after taking a certain amount of hits. Use Dispel on the remaining Iguion after it used Last Resort on itself to get rid of its Haste and Protect status effects, but leave it berserked, as it will no longer use Magma Breath under Berserk.

[circle]

I actually did manage to take them out eventually, took about 5 tries and was a long battle but I got through it in the end!

I thought they had reflect so didn't use magic at all, I'm sure I saw a spell get reflected back when I tried in the first fight. After that every move was so important that I didn't dare to waste it or risk getting damaged myself. Probably made things harder for myself

No longer annoyed, it was doable after all, sorry!
'
Unrelated general question - how effective are status spells in this mod? I still haven't really experimented with them, but is it the case that a lot of enemies and even bosses are vulnerable to certain status effects? It's clear that a lot of work has gone into making everything have a purpose, so I think that they could probably be quite useful. Usually random encounters are easy enough anyway, though, and bosses are tricky enough that I don't want to waste turns experimenting

[Callisto]

You are right, the Iguions are initially under Reflect, I forgot to mention that. They lose it after Carbuncle has been drawn though, making the fight a little easier (at the cost of an extra Dragon Skin drop after the battle). Anyway, good to know you defeated them.

Status magic against bosses is kind of a mixed bag in this mod, just like in the base game. One the one hand, some bosses have been made immune to status effects they are normally vulnerable to, while on the other hand, some have received new weaknesses. I would say that out of all status effects, Slow and Blind have the highest success rates in general, while Silence, Stop and Confuse have the lowest (aside from Death and Petrify, obviously). Poison is also worth trying against humanoid bosses or any other living being (just don't bother with machines), and Vit 0 has its uses until reaching the mid/late game, when bosses start becoming immune against it, with a few exceptions.

To optimize the success rate for status magic, make sure to cast it with your highest Magic characters (ideally Rinoa), as the Magic stat affects status infliction rate as well. When going for status effects through Status Attack junctions, use your highest Strength characters instead. That way you can tell more easily if a certain boss is immune or just resistant against a given status effect, as it shouldn't take long to be successful if you are using the right character (I would prefer an "immune" message instead of a "miss" popping up if a target is immune against a status effect, similar to FFX, but I unfortunately don't have the knowledge to implement that to this game).

[circle]

Am I wrong or did you remove the save points in the missile base after a certain point? I died against the boss there and now I have to do it all again? I guess it's related to the timer, and maybe it's that way in vanilla too, but ugh. I can see myself dying again a few times against that boss, the tank thing itself is fine but it seems very hard to get to the second stage with the soldiers with good health due to beam cannon OHKOing every time

In general the bosses feel a bit too strong for what is ostensibly not a "hard mode" mod. A big slice of luck (in terms of enemy move selection and targeting) seems to play a role in almost all of them, and that makes it quite frustrating at times. I think my characters are decently junctioned and I've put some effort into acquiring high stocks of good magic, but I still sometimes feel like there's not much I could have done differently to avoid a game over

[Callisto]

I can assure you that this mod doesn't have any Save Points removed. In fact, many save opportunities have been added, such as the one after the battle against Base Leader and 2x Base Soldier at Missile Base, so the BGH251F2 boss can be reattempted quickly.

As for Beam Cannon, yes, it does high damage, but I think it's fair for an attack that warns the player before being used. It should also not easily one-shot any character with decent HP and Spirit stats, which most of your character should have by now (with the exception of one Spirit junction). The recommended spells for junctioning to defensive stats are Life, Drain and Regen at this point of the game. But even if junctions aren't optimal, there is always the possibility to use Shell which halves the damage of Beam Cannon and can be directly drawn from the boss.

The fact that BGH251F2 uses only single-target attacks should actually make this battle managable. Are you perhaps unknowingly handicapping yourself by something? For example:

- Do you have Hard Mode from Lunatic Pandora mod package installed?
- Do you have battle speed set to max?
- Stat-junction or any other ability overlaps in your GF distribution?

Especially the max ATB speed set to max has a very detrimental effect to the playability of any mods that are harder than the base game as it goes way too fast, allowing enemies to attack nonstop even while you're selecting targets. I am planning to reduce max speed for the next version of the mod, so until it's done, I can only strongly advise against using it at all.

 

[circle]

I didn't see that save point - it may be because I'm using Percival's Succession mod as well as this one? They mentioned that their mod is mostly compatible with this one but that some additions won't show up if their mod is used

Beam Cannon wasn't exactly the problem, it was just that after destroying that boss everyone was nearly dead due to all having been revived recently. It seemed pointless to try to heal and shell because the likelihood was that that character was about to die again anyway.

Anyway, I did manage to win the second time around because Selphie managed to hit for 17k damage using Calamity! I don't even know what that is, either because it's new or because I never really used her much before this play through, but it was a real wtf moment.

I think I'm just getting annoyed at dying in the game and then moaning here that it wasn't fair, so sorry about that, I'll try not to. I do still think the bosses feel a bit hard and luck based in general, though. I'm interested to see if that opinion will hold the further I go, because the game feels like it's starting to open up in terms of magic availability and damage potential. I don't know if that will mean things get easier or harder or maybe just stay the same

[heromic]

Hi, callisto, i'm enjoying so much this mod! <3
i'm brazillian and have the translation to my language and i'm trying to merge with your mod, at least just the main quest. it's all on field.fs
what did you changed on it? can i replace it with my field.fs with the translation?
or it will mess heavily with encounters, quests and other things?
i cannot manually add the texts on your arquive using deling because.. it's more than 10.000 lines of text, aaaaahhh!
is there any easier way with some program to replace so much text without ctrl+c, ctrl+v for each one of the textboxes in the game?

[heromic]

another thing: to counter the extreme benefits of Triple i opened Doomtrain and added allmost all the side effects: slow, poison, darkness, petrifying, zombie, curse and vit0!
so if you want to be overpowered with triple meteor you must endure those side effects!
same with double, but just with slow, poison and petrifying.
they also now have an extremely hard resistance to draw.
oh, and because all of this, all remedy items, esuna and gf treatment ability removes double and triple too!

[edit] i play your mod in normal version and i've made many changes on kernel.bin with doomtrain to suit my personal tastes.
if i wish to change to lionheart mode can i keep my kernel and replace just the other files from lionheart? (enemies being the most importante to be harder)

[Callisto]

I didn't see that save point - it may be because I'm using Percival's Succession mod as well as this one? They mentioned that their mod is mostly compatible with this one but that some additions won't show up if their mod is used

Yes, you couldn't see that save point because of an incompatibility with the Succession mod. Which is unfortunate, as this save possibility was added to save the player from redoing the boss battle against the Base Soldiers (who are no longer the pushover they normally are) in case they get a Game Over against BGH251F2. Any new sidequests will be unavailable with Succession installed as well, but as far as I know, Percival is working on making both mods fully compatible with each other, which I would really appreciate.

If you are not interested in any of the new sidequests and challenges (see mod documentation for more details), then I'd say just leave Succession installed, as pretty much everything else works as intended with both mods active. Otherwise, you might want to replace the 3 field files inside the lang-en folder with the ones from Ragnarok mod download package.

Anyway, I did manage to win the second time around because Selphie managed to hit for 17k damage using Calamity! I don't even know what that is, either because it's new or because I never really used her much before this play through, but it was a real wtf moment.

Calamity is one of the new spells that are exclusive to Selphie's Slots, and it's arguably her best (and will definitely be after the next update, as The End will be removed). At the moment, it shows up only very erratically - a little too often early in the game, and too rarely later on - due to a mistake I didn't notice for a while. In the next version of the mod, it will be unavailable if Selphie's level is below 30, and increasingly more common after level 30 to balance things out.

I think I'm just getting annoyed at dying in the game and then moaning here that it wasn't fair, so sorry about that, I'll try not to. I do still think the bosses feel a bit hard and luck based in general, though. I'm interested to see if that opinion will hold the further I go, because the game feels like it's starting to open up in terms of magic availability and damage potential. I don't know if that will mean things get easier or harder or maybe just stay the same.

Well, if you keep looking for new spells to junction, don't run away from every random encounter, watch your GF distribution to avoid Ability overlaps and utilize your characters' strengths in battle, the upcoming parts of the game shouldn't be too difficult, especially not in Standard Mode. If things become too frustrating, I would definitely check on the points I mentioned above (battle speed, Lunatic Pandora Hard Mode) to rule out the possibility of any unintended additional difficulty. Providing information on specific issues with bosses would be helpful too, of course.

Hi, callisto, i'm enjoying so much this mod! <3
i'm brazillian and have the translation to my language and i'm trying to merge with your mod, at least just the main quest. it's all on field.fs
what did you changed on it? can i replace it with my field.fs with the translation?
or it will mess heavily with encounters, quests and other things?
i cannot manually add the texts on your arquive using deling because.. it's more than 10.000 lines of text, aaaaahhh!
is there any easier way with some program to replace so much text without ctrl+c, ctrl+v for each one of the textboxes in the game?

Hello and welcome. The most important changes to field.fs are in the following sections:

- all Fire Cavern field IDs (129-136)
- Centra Ruins (279, 282)
- all Chocobo Forests (287-292)
- Dollet Mountain Hideout (328)
- Dollet Pub -> queen_dol -> talk (336)
- Dollet Lapin Beach (338)
- Dollet Lapin Beach sidequest progress variables in many other fields, mainly hotels
- Lunatic Pandora (396)
- Esthar (411)
- Esthar (432)
- Lunatic Pandora Laboratory (472)
- Dr. Odine's Laboratory (524)
- Tomb of the Unkown King (787, 792)
- Ultimecia Castle Storage Room (588)
- Ultimecia Castle Waterway (591)
- FH Residence (617)
- FH Residential Area (628, 631)
- Winhill Vacant House (649)
- G-Garden Classroom (703)
- G-Garden Dormitory (707)
- Deling City Caraway's Mansion (721)
- Deling City Gateway (731)
- Deling City Hotel (736, 737)
- Deling City - City Square (742)
- Deling City Sewer (763)
- Galbadia Missile Base (774)
- Timber Forest Owls Base (894)
- Timber City Square (899)
- Trabia Canyon (948)

There are many more smaller changes elsewhere, but the list above should at least cover most of the sidequest changes, including new sidequests. Unfortunately, I've never made a list of the actual script changes under each field ID, so I'm afraid you'd have to spot them yourself for now.

As for the Triple spell, your ideas to balance it sound interesting, but I've been planning to replace it entirely with a new spell for quite some time. The issue has been brought up several times, and I think it's about time to drop it for good.

The kernel.bin file is actually very important for Lionheart mode, as some elemental defense junctions have been changed and some enemy attacks are different. So I would advise checking that and making adjustments where necessary before switching to Lionheart Mode.

[Hayate Ranger]

Hi there!
Has anyone tried to get the mod working on Linux for the Remaster?
Installation steps are OK, but nothing changes ingame...
I have tried multiple proton versions.

[heromic]

Unfortunately, I've never made a list of the actual script changes under each field ID, so I'm afraid you'd have to spot them yourself for now.

So i can copy each field you've listed and copy your entries of the script changes on these same fields and paste on the translated archive and go with it? i really want to enjoy the mod in Brazillian but with your changes (i will translate them too on the process)
what about the other tabs? (walkmesh, encounters, etc)

**EDIT** the edited field.fs in brazilian appears to be protected. i can edit the ragnarok file but can't edit the translated field.fs file. i can't add nothing. is this file really protected? how can i bypass this? i didn't knew this can be done with these type of archives.

[Rainku]

Hello! Been playing this mod again, since it's essential to make the most out of Final Fantasy 8's systems. Really love this mod!

I play it a bit diferently though, I pretend that I can use the "instant limit break" feature once per battle if I hit an enemy with elemental weakness. I pretend I can only choose 1 party member's limit break when that happens, haha! It's simply a personal choice, since I don't always like having to heal after every small fight.

Just a quick couple of questions: Is there a document listing the exact spell and GF ability descriptions along with any other changes? Because for some reason when I cast Dispel it does a 0 dmg number and nothing gets dispelled? Or is it that it now only dispels certain things? Also where are the hidden Iguions in deling city sewers? The clue states it's near the shaft of the presidential residence. Yet I've looked around that part of the sewers and been running everywhere else in the sewers and can't seem to find them.

[Callisto]

So i can copy each field you've listed and copy your entries of the script changes on these same fields and paste on the translated archive and go with it? i really want to enjoy the mod in Brazillian but with your changes (i will translate them too on the process)
what about the other tabs? (walkmesh, encounters, etc)

**EDIT** the edited field.fs in brazilian appears to be protected. i can edit the ragnarok file but can't edit the translated field.fs file. i can't add nothing. is this file really protected? how can i bypass this? i didn't knew this can be done with these type of archives.

Yes, copying all the entries should be fine, but it's also important to update any additional text while keeping text numbers identical. For example, if there is new dialogue in Text 12, you'd need to use Text 12 in the Brazilian version as well, as there will be conflicts if the text IDs don't match.

Other than script changes, there are also many changes to enemy encounters, so make sure to check that tab as well.

As for the protection you mentioned I don't know how to bypass this. Maybe myst6re, the creator of the Deling tool knows more, so I'd suggest asking him about that matter.

Hello! Been playing this mod again, since it's essential to make the most out of Final Fantasy 8's systems. Really love this mod!

I play it a bit diferently though, I pretend that I can use the "instant limit break" feature once per battle if I hit an enemy with elemental weakness. I pretend I can only choose 1 party member's limit break when that happens, haha! It's simply a personal choice, since I don't always like having to heal after every small fight.

Just a quick couple of questions: Is there a document listing the exact spell and GF ability descriptions along with any other changes? Because for some reason when I cast Dispel it does a 0 dmg number and nothing gets dispelled? Or is it that it now only dispels certain things? Also where are the hidden Iguions in deling city sewers? The clue states it's near the shaft of the presidential residence. Yet I've looked around that part of the sewers and been running everywhere else in the sewers and can't seem to find them.

Hello, and thanks for the kind words.

Most of the changes and additions to spells and GF abilities and their effects are mentioned in the opening post, but they can also be viewed in-game from the menu (Tutorial -> Information). The descriptions are rather short, as the space in there is tight, so if you need more information, feel free to ask. The exact damage calculation for the Step Mine Command Ability is [total steps taken / 1000], for example (the step count can also be viewed from the Tutorial). Moomba also uses the step count formula, but with a lower divisor, so it's more powerful than the Ability, but only single-target. I guess I should add a document that contains things like this to the download package as well. Thanks for reminding.

If casting Dispel results in displaying 0 damage, then mod installation is incomplete and some essential features will be missing (Draw cap and damage limit removal, magic damage formula alteration, Vit 0 resistance for enemies etc). Make sure that the Ragnarok_mod.txt file is at the right location (FFVIII parent folder Raw -> Global -> Hext) to enable all mod changes.

As for the Iguions rematch, head one screen to the left from the screen that has the ladder that leads to the Presidential Residence, and wait there for a couple of seconds to make the Iguions show up. It only works if you have asked Caraway about the Iguions before, so if they won't appear, make sure to talk to him first.

[Rainku]

If casting Dispel results in displaying 0 damage, then mod installation is incomplete and some essential features will be missing (Draw cap and damage limit removal, magic damage formula alteration, Vit 0 resistance for enemies etc). Make sure that the Ragnarok_mod.txt file is at the right location (FFVIII parent folder Raw -> Global -> Hext) to enable all mod changes.

Uh oh! Well I'll tell you what happened.. I'm playing the demastered version of the game with graphical mods.. I think I accidently installed the Lionheart mode one instead of the Standard one, cause when I played the game some bosses just seemed really really tough. I got to the prison one where there were 2 redgaurds and 2 robots. I then thought I maybe installed the wrong one, so I went and installed the standard one instead. This time only 1 redgaurd and 2 robots appeared and battle didn't seem as bad. Do you think this messed it up? The draw cap seems to still be fine as I'm getting about 38 per draw on some spells. But if you say that dispel isn't suppose to show a 0 dmg number then there's gotta something wrong...

When I re-installed it, I did the same thing by copying the standard mode files into the demaster folder. (so thats both the data and texture folders at their place). After seeing your reply, I then repatched the "FFVIII_EFIGS.dll" file and replaced it with the original in the ff8 folder to see if that may fix it. Went into the game and dispel still had a 0 dmg number pop up.

So I don't know if the only option is to replay now? Is there still maybe some way to fix it?

An unrelated question: I know this might not be possible, but I thought I'd ask anyway. Is there anyway to make the combat system a bit more snappier like FF7? You know like have the atb continue to go regardless if an animation is playing or not. Cause every action you take in FF8, causes the atb bar to pause, whilst in FF7 it allows you to que more actions before it pauses.

[Callisto]

Oh, I didn't expect the Dispel issue to happen in Remastered, but after taking a look at the Remastered files I noticed there's something wrong in the Standard version. So updated the Remastered Standard version with a fix just now (starting a new game is not needed, just repeat step 4 from Remastered installation process), sorry for the inconvenience.

Making the ATB bar continue during spell animations should be possible. I actually checked ATB bar behavior recently to make it stop when selecting targets in Wait Mode, so the instruction for animation handling should be there as well. I'll take a look at it again, but I can't make any promises, and I would probably implement this change for Active Mode only.

[Rainku]

Oh, I didn't expect the Dispel issue to happen in Remastered, but after taking a look at the Remastered files I noticed there's something wrong in the Standard version. So updated the Remastered Standard version with a fix just now (starting a new game is not needed), sorry for the inconvenience.

Hey no prob! Thank you for fixing it!

Making the ATB bar continue during spell animations should be possible. I actually checked ATB bar behavior recently to make it stop when selecting targets in Wait Mode, so the instruction for animation handling should be there as well. I'll take a look at it again, but I can't make any promises, and I would probably implement this change for Active Mode only.

That would be AWESOME! If you can make the animations still play whilst the atb bar moves, that would be so cool! I wouldn't mind switching to Active Mode in that case! Ofcourse it would be even better if one could play in Wait Mode and have the atb bar pause during command selection but still continue during animations, but if it's too much to do that or if some people like the atb bar pausing during animations, then I'm all for it being in Active Mode!

[Volsung9]

Hey,

Is there any chance to use this mod with another language than english ?

Isn't it possible to use those difficulty changes without replacing any text ?

[Konei]

Hey there, I installed the mod using the zzzAchieve method (didnt get it to work the other way lol) is there any way to get the HD Backgrounds to work on Remaster after you installed the mod using zzzAchieve?

[Ayoyo]

Back at it, finally... And this time for real, too. Lionheart mode, here I come; we've been destined to meet since the day I started crying for a hard mode, haha..

Anyways, I'm guessing you never found a way to disable exp so gotta keep the levels low the old-fashioned way? And related: are Selphie's slots tied to her level still, resulting in her suffering  the most as collateral damage from a low level run?

Also, I seem to remember seeing a post where you talked about ATB stopping in wait mode when you have the cursor on enemies, but it's not stopping for me. Should I be worried? And lastly, is there a definitive way to make sure I'm playing the hard mode instead of normal? Thanks in advance, old dog... So glad to see you're still working to make this thing better.

[Callisto]

@Volsung9: There is unfortunately no easy way to create multi-language mod versions for this game, due to its complex file structure and the fact that almost all files that contain gameplay-related data also have some text in it (such as kernel.bin or mngrp.bin), so every language version uses different files. It would be a very time-consuming task and would require the help of native speakers especially in the case of porting additional dialogue, enemy attack names and sidequests over.

@Konei: As far as I know, installing the Demaster patch is required to get the modded backgrounds to work. If you have difficulties setting it up, I would suggest asking Maki for help. If you rather think the problem is getting the mod to work with it, feel free to ask here for more detailed setup instructions.

@Ayoyo: Welcome back. I did manage to make a new ability that disables any EXP gain for the character who has it equipped, but it's not included in the current version of the mod yet, as it's only done for 2013 at the moment (and of course, there are still a lot of other things to work on). It's probably not the most elegant solution to disable EXP, as implementing a toggle from the menu would be more convenient (I tried, but just couldn't do it). If you are interested in checking out the new ability for your run, let me know and I'll send you a couple of files that adds it in.

Selphie's slot selection is still partially tied to her level, as always. The impact is rather negligible though, and she can pull a Calamity even at lower levels with a little luck. Her Ultra Cure and Fortify spells are also easily accessible at all levels and always useful in boss battles.

As for the ATB stopping when selecting targets, it's also just not implemented in the current version yet, and I'm hesitant about that one to be honest, as the ATB would also stop when fishing for spells in Selphie's slots, basically giving her unlimited time to get the desired spell, which I think is a little broken. Haven't found a way around it, unfortunately.

The easiest way to tell which version you are playing in-game is checking the time limits for the Fire Cavern. In Standard Mode, the lowest possible time limit is 5 minutes, while it's 10 minutes in hard.

[Ayoyo]

I'll gladly test it, supposing it's not likely to crash and burn the game in horrible irreversible ways.    Toss 'em my way via PM or something.

Oof, shame about the slots thing and ATB. I gotta admit, I never enjoyed having to combat the timer when trying to put the cursor on the right enemy in a split second or duck under a menu every time someone's turn comes up in order to get some thinking time. Probably the worst instance of this is when you're trying to throw a clutch healing item/spell on someone and you're trying to hit the right party member with the weird camera angle but lo and behold, some asshat gets their turn in the split second it took you to throw the heal and kills the party member, wasting the heal. Wonderful.

Yea I got the hard mode, then. No difficulties so far; X-ATM was a fun one without doubles (forgot to draw them) and reaching the beach in time afterwards was a nailbiter. It didn't hit that hard but the actual challenge of the fight seemed to be damage optimization to kill the thing in time. I quite liked it, although the boss' attack pattern does get a bit stale. IIRC in addition to regular single-target physicals there's only the AOE physical and the laser bomb, and the laser is the only one that has any kind of special effect but I'm not even sure what that status was, didn't seem to do much of anything.

[Robgatti]

@Callisto I'm jumping back in and would like to try the No Exp patch if possible!