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

[Valerion]

Hey Callisto and forum. So I'm having a big issue with the EFIGS file on the remastered version of ffviii. I installed the Demaster folder fine about 3 weeks ago, and the changes were made to the game (spells in inventory in the beginning, double draw point, etc.) So I played through the game, not really thinking anything of why enemy magic attacks were hardly doing any damage to my characters. Lo and behold, later in the game I hit for 9999 capped damage and I finally realized I did something wrong, I forgot to install the EFIGS file. So I went back, patched the regular EFIGS.dll file with the EFIGS.ips file in the mod using the link, replaced the original file with the modded file and changed the name back to "EFIGS.dll". The game runs perfectly fine until I get into a battle. The characters ready their weapons, and then the game crashes with a message saying "an unknown exception has occurred." I can toss the backed up original EFIGS.dll file back in and the game runs normally, but without break damage limit, magic damage balanced and no draw cap. I'm wondering if anyone has a solution to this issue or can tell me what I did wrong, because I want the end part of the game to be as difficult as possible.

Having the same issue.

Tried both the regular and zzzDeArchive install methods. Did you manage to solve it?

[EthanWaber]

[Spoiler warning]

I just finished Omega Weapon/ Ultimecia and damn isn't this mod the best way to re-live this masterpiece. Overall, Ragnarok surely solved a tons of existing problems with FF8 gameplay, giving a much smoother and more enjoyable experience. However, there was quite a few new issues that took place instead (please note that I'm using FF8R Lionheart mode as a benchmark, and I'm aware that it is behind on releases so some points might be overlapped and redundant). Below are my detailed reviews of each character and some problems I encountered with the mod (Lionheart mode), also a few tips for people who have not been able to best the X-atm092 in Lunatic Pandora:

- MAG users feel much more appreciated with cap removal. Selphie's LB wheels in particular feels more useful in early-mid game with less useless spells appearing (getting Flare during Elvoret fight or Ultra Cure during Edea is a god send ). With the updated status resistance though, she doesn't really do much in late game, even for farming (most of the time Rapture is a miss, and Triple Renew/ Heroes is often time more reliable than scrolling to find Fortification). In my entire playtime  I got Catastrophe maybe 2 times? And both were against regular mobs. This is why I dropped her at the end of disc 3, since the random nature of her skill is no longer rewarding enough to bring into big fights. If I ever used her, its for support duty (spamming Mega pots with x2 healing) so I'm kinda feeling a wasted potential here (maybe up the number of casts to x4-x5 and having her break dmg limit like Angelwing? Or give her the Fight/ Flight wheels with one cater to supporting and one for fighting).

- Rinoa: All the talk about her being op with Angelwing in the regular version/ previous patch suddenly became irrelevant in Lionheart mode. Every Angelo move is so underwhelming, well, except for her awakening heal, which is less reliable than Quistis' Whitewind anyway. Mages in general go back to spamming triple Meteor (with exception to Quistis and her nearly 40k hit Shockwave Pulsar at the highest crisis level), which is not what I desire personally. Changing Rinoa Angelwing spell stocks into random spells is an awesome idea, but honestly what ever good is Zombie/ Sleep during the Weapon fights? Those useless status spells unfortunately are occurring way too much for my taste, and serve as several turns wasted. Rinoa's strength multiplier (if you go the natural way she got about 130-150 str with junction at the end?) is kinda negligible, even for her final move, "Wishing star", which again, should have its strength enormously complemented by its random nature (Selphie you here?). Her awakening heal could use some additional effect too (curing Doom could be an option since it was removed from Remedy+).

- Quistis: The best mage of the 3. Damage? You have it. Support? You have it. She's just too good to pass on in hard mode, with White Wind heals through Shell, Ray-bomb inflicting Vit-0, homing missiles inflicting Sleep, micro missiles often hitting for 20k and the insane Shockwave Pulsar move. I have no complaints about her since she served her exact purpose with Blue magic, especially with increased status resistance making her not as op as it sounds.

- Onto the physical attackers: While the mod solved the problem with the game's Magic usage, physical attacks became kinda bland and feels very underpowered compared to their Mage counter-part (at least during early-mid-early late game). 2 things stand out, Darkside and Irvine. Irvine benefited immensely from the cap removal allowing him to hit for 70-80k per LB at Omega with decent luck stat and imo is the best of the 3. Darkside is an interesting option to both deal a huge amount of damage and getting to crisis level faster. For me however, I don't like having my attacker to use darkside all the time throughout the game, nor do I want uncontrollable characters with Mad Rush/ Berserk. I think a couple of spells in older FF titles could solve this problem (Drawing - casting Double Hit, Triple Hit, or some Monk's abilities with high crit rate for Zell) but it might be too much work.

- Squall: Lionheart no longer feels like an insta-kill move even at 255 str, which makes sense. His whole kit feels pretty balanced with other finisher doing cap-breaking damage.

- Zell: The over-nerfed char in my book. All of his finisher, at max strength does so little, with the reduced time to input combo makes him irrelevant throughout the WHOLE game for me. The only time I brought him into party was for completionism sake. He and Irvine alone beat Ultimecia's final form no problem, but most of the damage comes from Irvine and his Final Heaven hits for at most 14-15k. Imo with that much work to put into spamming button his finishers could use a boost. Take Squall for example, when he hits 40-50K for absolutely no work at all. I understand that in the mod previous versions/ base game, Zell is too strong for anyone's taste, but right now with his punch rush hitting for 1-2k, its really not worth using Duel, as even using GF is much better and safer in late game if you have high compatibility.

- GFs: Greatest change of all time that I ever dreamt of. Dmg cap breaking and much more useful ability like Return Damage. I appreciate that you took time to shuffle through and reassign their abilities, which make progression much more enjoyable. Having Bahamut hitting for nearly 40K is hella satisfying. Some others, like Cactuar, still needs a complete rework as hitting for 8k at level 100 is not good at all, maybe when he appears he can cast haste on all member, like Cerberus with Double-Triple. Tonberry is in the same department, unless I missed some of his mechanics?

- Bosses: Diabolos fight in particular is more punishing (as he should have been) and feels much more rewarding for overcoming the challenge (his counter Stop/ Pain move when you draw the precious Demi). I love that you can no longer miss a GF by forgetting to bring Draw, and can actually choose to live dangerously by not drawing for a deserving reward. I beat Ultima and only then found out that by not drawing Eden, he has Auto-Shell and Auto-Protect, which is a pain. Bosses in general feel much more like a threat compared to Vanilla, with additional bonus hidden bosses are much of a puzzle (e.g: Fire Caverns fights/boss), albeit with generic/re-used design.

- There are two bosses that I don't like: X-ATM (hidden boss version at Lunatic Pandora) and Omega weapon. Their pattern is easy to spot, with Omega's moves getting more complicated at the end (instantly move 2 times/ Shockwave Pulsar when near death, Terra often after Gravija). However, Omega kinda forces you to use Hero/Hero Wars/ Aura stones with Megido Flames CAN kill my chars at max health. I don't know what is the formula for this move but its kinda annoying that it can hit that hard and ignore defense, most of the time pushes me to use 2 Full-lifes only to be caught up by Terra break. I also have a feeling that Terra break, for a planned move every few turns, is kinda overtuned? I know that Zombie can mitigate the damage along with protect, but the timing is still REALLY tight for my chars at 80-90 Spd. I love that he's now a true Super Boss but a few rooms to breath wouldn't hurt (maybe lower the occurrence of Dispelga for this purpose? as it can eat through Invincible status. That or making Megido Flame the usual 9998 HP hit like the base game did). The infamous X-ATM, which in the document stated that you can only fight him the first time you entered Lunatic Pandora, suffered the same problem with an over tuned SPR stat, making your spell hits basically for nothing. There are 2 ways I used to fight this Mecha Spider, the turtle way with 1 member (with damage return for its 30K single target move) + edea on support duty + 1 phys atker spamming Atk/Darkside over and over again until it dies. OR using the friendship to summon Moomba (I dont know if its intended since the boss is supposed to be immune to gravity attacks, but I guess the item bypass this description with the effect of setting enemies HP to 1) dealing 20k each. The moomba method can also be used with other Gravity-immune bosses but I'm not a fan of spamming it. I tried to complete all the fights without Return damage or Moomba, only in this case of X-ATM since its not hard but time consuming. Not even Omega gave me this much trouble for a missable boss, so I think you should make him available to fight even at disc 4.

Some final words: While it still has some issues, this mod is exactly what I'm looking for to wind up playing FF8 the sixth time. For this, I'm incredibly grateful of the work you put in Callisto, and I wish you and your family the best in the upcoming year 2022. Maybe when everything settled down we can go back to building this mod to perfection, but in the mean time, if you ever come back to Qhimm to take a look at Ragnarok, just remember you have a big fan right here. Stay well my dude!



P/s: For other people who are having errors installing/running the mod, try downloading the older depot of FF8R (before the patch), you can find it on Qhimm discord server. The newest patch messed with both Demastered and the mod itself. While Demastered has been fixed/updated by Maki, you gotta wait for Callisto to get the mod files up-to-date, which might not be anytime soon.

[boozek]

How did you manage to pass End of Disc 3, fights with Mobile 8, Bahamut and Adel.
Any suggestions or techniques?

[EthanWaber]

How did you manage to pass End of Disc 3, fights with Mobile 8, Bahamut and Adel.
Any suggestions or techniques?

Hey there,

The 3 bosses you mentioned use strong MT spell (Ultima, Megaflare, Megido Flame), so the best you can do (aside from levelling) is probably slot in chars with higher SPR stats like Selphie, Quistis and Rinoa and decent health (7-8k upwards). Also, you can have Squall/Irvine (Zell has a pitiful SPR stat) - I prefer Irvine since he's fast - on idling support role. Basically give that one member that's not fighting Defend command, Med-data and keep spamming Mega Potions for 3k party-wide heal each (Defend when you feel appropriate, or to find the perfect opportunity to let the other member dies and full-life them). If you're short on gil or the mega potion stock, just apply Triple on that member and spam 3 Curagas and reapply buffs/ regen in case boss uses Dispel like Adel. Put Auto-haste on Selphie and Auto-Shell on Quistis, along with SPR 20 (30)% + HP 20 (30)%, VIT if you die too often even with Protect on (should not be the case if you are in the level range of 70-80). I'll list a few things to pay attention to for these bosses:

- Adel: She absorbs Rinoa's health ignoring Reflect and later applys Reflectga on her and Rinoa. Dispel immediately and Triple Curaga/ Regen on Rinoa (even Renew if possible). She spams high dmg MT spell at the end so maybe have your cursor remembered at Magic - Triple - Flare for your mages to race against her. Heal Rinoa every 3-4 turns and keep everyone on regen all the time.

- Bahamut: Straightforward fight, iirc there's one scripted Megaflare when he's near death, so always keep your party at a healthy level, along with defensive buffs of course. Spam Meteors or Flares to your taste.

- Mobile Type 8: The trickier one. I believe that he'll not do his Megido move during the "Support off" phase (Or On? either way its a rather predictable move), so I guess the problem is you are trying to Mug the stat ups from his drones? Or having too low health to endure that SPR ignore move. Firstly, junction all chars' ST-Def with Sleep AND Reflect, which pushes it to 100% immunity. The counter move will put your chars to sleep and mess with your plan if you are not doing this. Without ST-Defs, just be ready to throw out Remedy/Remedy+ when needed. They are also vulnerable to VIT-0, so if you have a chance, triple cast Meltdown or have Quistis use Ray Bomb. If you have too low health to survive Megido, check back again if your full-life stock is at 100 (farmable by Tool-RF Regen ring from Coeurl), and junction it to HP. If you cant do any of the above, you can utilize the Defend-idling strat to revive the others or be at Phoenix's mercy/ Random Masamune from Gilgamesh. Triple spam Meteor/ Flare with mages or junction Thunder to your Phys atker and spam Darkside.

For all of these fights make sure you junctioned elemental defenses to the teeth (maybe except for Mobile type since the first 2 have the tendency to use a wide variety of elemental MT magic, like Quake/ Tornado. If you feel like it, Reflect/Auto-Reflect your chars and rely on Items for healing. That way you dont need to worry about their Flares. Also, since you had access to the Ragnarok, I assume you took advantage of the Renew (the new Aura) spells? They are readily available after Lunar Cry event using Tool-RF from mugging Behemoths (where you get the Solomon Ring) for Barriers (occasionally Thamasa Soul - which is a nice source for Triple) or refining Fury Fragments from Grendels (farmable in stack of 3 on Island closest to Hell). That spell is a game-changer (and almost crucial to beating Superboss) as it took a lot of time off casting, and the Triple only adds more benefits on top of it. The only spell you would be missing at that time is Ultima, which is not really necessary to beat these 3.

Edit: I forgot to mention that Auto-Potion is also highly valuable on squishy chars like Selphie, especially since her limit break falls off late game and most of the time you have to resort to spamming Meteors. Depending on your needs, you could sell all other potions and leave the one you desired, for my playthrough Auto Hi-Potion is sufficient, 1K HP, not too little not too much. You could rack up on X-Potion or Hi-Potion + if you'd like for this purpose. Hope this helped!

[levantine]

Hey Callisto and forum. So I'm having a big issue with the EFIGS file on the remastered version of ffviii. I installed the Demaster folder fine about 3 weeks ago, and the changes were made to the game (spells in inventory in the beginning, double draw point, etc.) So I played through the game, not really thinking anything of why enemy magic attacks were hardly doing any damage to my characters. Lo and behold, later in the game I hit for 9999 capped damage and I finally realized I did something wrong, I forgot to install the EFIGS file. So I went back, patched the regular EFIGS.dll file with the EFIGS.ips file in the mod using the link, replaced the original file with the modded file and changed the name back to "EFIGS.dll". The game runs perfectly fine until I get into a battle. The characters ready their weapons, and then the game crashes with a message saying "an unknown exception has occurred." I can toss the backed up original EFIGS.dll file back in and the game runs normally, but without break damage limit, magic damage balanced and no draw cap. I'm wondering if anyone has a solution to this issue or can tell me what I did wrong, because I want the end part of the game to be as difficult as possible.

Hey, I have this error too, can anyone help?

[EthanWaber]

Hey, I have this error too, can anyone help?

You need to download the old version of FF8 since the new update (which fixed the PC fps issue) messed up the mod. Instructions can be found on Qhimm discord.

[levantine]

Thx a lot for your answer, could you post the instruction here? I can't find it on the discord

[EthanWaber]

Thx a lot for your answer, could you post the instruction here? I can't find it on the discord

Since its kinda long I recommend checking out this video about downloading old depots from Steam :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44HBxzC_RTg

You can find different depot versions of FF VIII here: https://steamdb.info/depot/1026681/manifests/ . Just replace the one in the video with the one you chose from steamdb. Steer clear of the latest depot update and it should work fine with Maki's older version of Demastered (he made a new ver. for the newest patch but I doubt it's compatible with older FF8 files). Big thanks to Sebanisu and Maki for the original method and Demastered.

[levantine]

Looks like a real threat to play this mod since SE last update x)
Thx an other one for your answer, will try this when I have some time

[ERAISERZEE]

what is the patch for the FFVIII_EFIGS.dll file for this mod for?

[Callisto]

Updated both versions with the following changes:

Remastered

• DL now includes a new IPS patch to ensure compatibility with game version 1.0.2 and latest Demaster patch.
• The Spirit stat of two optional bosses has been corrected for Lionheart mode.

Other than that, some more changes have been ported from the 2013 version:

• Draw point contents are now identical between the two versions.
• SeeD Rank payout values have been adjusted.
• Some Draw points change their contents throughout the course of the game.
• Several Triple Triad cards have had their elemental attributes changed.
• The PuPu card has been slightly buffed.

With the SeeD Rank payment values now being the same as in 2013, the following Remastered exclusive changes have been reverted:

• Increased prices for items at shops
• The harsh calculation of the initial SeeD Rank after returning from the Dollet mission

2013

• The new EXP-None Character Ability is now properly integrated.
• Shiva's Ability list has been slightly changed to prevent conflicts with a certain early-game tutorial (in which Shiva's list is highlighted).
• The Spirit stat of two optional bosses has been corrected for Lionheart mode.

Version 1.3 is still not quite ready, but I'm working on it whenever I find the time. Currently trying to make Auto-Berserk and Auto-Double a permanent status in battle, which is a lot harder than expected. It is no problem to set the two status effects at the start of a battle through a custom Ability, but making them ignore Dispel, Esuna and KO really is.

Also thanks a lot for impressions and feedback lately, and also for answering user questions. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to comment on everything at the moment, mostly due to caretaking business, but I'm trying my best to be a bit more active again from now on.

what is the patch for the FFVIII_EFIGS.dll file for this mod for?

It's actually very important and should not be ignored during mod installation, as it adds features such Draw cap-removal, 9999 damage limit removal, magic damage increase for party members as well as enemies, adjustments to Darkside, Return Damage, Cover, Kamikaze Abilities, Angel Wing damage multiplier etc - pretty much everything that's inside 2013 exe file.

[levantine]

Back to say that all work perfectly with the downgrad method but well looks like our Calisto resolve the problem for last version
Thx you dude

[EthanWaber]

Welcome back,

Take your time Callisto, I'm just glad seeing you posting again lol. Dunno why but reading posts in this thread today put a smile on my face, 2022 is looking like a good year

[levantine]

A quick question about rinoa, in vanilla game it's better to not learn the early angelo skills for having a better chance of proc his last one in end game.
Is it the same in this mod or I can learn every pet magazine I find?

[Callisto]

@EthanWaber: Thanks. I'm also glad there's still some activity and general interest here, which helps with the motivation to finalize version 1.3.

@levantine: It made sense in the base game to not learn Wishing Star, to get Invincible Moon procs even at Crisis Level 4, but Invincible Moon has been changed to "just" a free Megalixir in this mod, so I would say skipping on Wishing Star is not as tempting as it usually is.

Some players also decide to not learn Angelo Strike to have a higher chance of triggering Angelo Cannon because it hits all enemies for about the same damage as Angelo Strike, but in this mod, Angelo Strike has a much higher damage potential with the 9999 damage limit removed; it also inflicts 100% Confuse on an enemy not immune to it to make up for the attack only being single-target.

In the end, I would say you can't really go wrong with learning them all.

[Tingcos]

@Callisto Rank 1 Seed back at it again with Lionheart difficulty. I'm playing off stream this time.
I know you've balanced the game for it but I'm doing this with no card mod for extra challenge.

So far I'm having a blast, Just wrapped up disc 1 last night and felt pretty good about the scaling throughout. I didn't go out of my way to grind large amounts of exp but did find myself tacking a few extra fights in areas to draw new magic or get a few gf abilities that are close to leveling.

I really like how you've paced magic out. Every enemy I have found so far has been exciting to see what new magic they have and the stat progression is enough of an upgrade to be meaningful without blowing the game wide open.

The boss fights have been great, I love how you added extra depth and strategy rather than bonking with limit breaks (though one particular limit break stands out)

Xatm: I went for the 50ap boss reward because I wanted to challenge myself and he was rough. Huge physical AOE and ray bomb make it almost impossible as a sustain fight.
I did manage to win but was disappointed that there were no additional rewards for such a challenging early battle.
I found salvation in Selphies Slots, landing spells like meteor x3, holy x2, meltdown x2 and Flare x1. Her limit break does and continues to do a ridiculous amount of damage for most of disc 1.

I never really considered using Selphie in a regular playthrough but they pay off for a good slots is so huge that I found myself leaning on her as the spellcaster/ Slots wildcard and used the other two party members as support casters (to buy time to roll slots safely). She has been a may stay in the party since and probably my favourite character so far.

Granaldo: What a fight, I died several times figuring out what to do.
I made the rookie mistake of killing the Raldo asap and had to deal with the ff8 equivalent of a raging wasp. I could not survive the agro magic/phys mix of the angry bee but by keeping one Raldo alive and blind, the match was much more managable. Fantastic idea for rewarding damage control.

Diablos: So I learnt early not to use draw against him, being punished with stop is rough. A good way of restricting Demi draws while still having it available.
Over all great fight, again leaned hard on Selphies limit breaks for big damage.
 
President: This guy was a push over, I think he needs more hp or more threatening damage/ a gimmick like zombie chance on hit.

Brothers: I seriously considered doing this at a later point in the game because it was so hard.
Being pelted by large phys/magic damage made protect and shell a tall order to keep up, especially with the mad cow special that does about 70% at my current stats. I opted to start the fight with Selphie on low and try my hand at some big rerolls. after a few retries I had a good start with 3x tornado for 2.5k a piece into a calamity for 17k, suffice to say that was a satisfying wipe.

Seifer/Edea: Either I'm a better player this time round or these two were a lot easier to handle this time round
Seifer I can understand because its a 1v1, its hard to make it challenging but also not be a complete cockblock as there is a point of no return save just before him.
Edea: Rinoa was on double healing duties, Irvine was back up healer and Squall was big boi renzokuken dps. I used the lack of AoE killing spells to keep everyone up, esunaed and healthy enough to tank the spells. She has a great mix of spells/status effects to keep a player on their toes, would probably have gone differently if I didn't have doubles.

Thank you for fixing the issues with the recent patch. I was really excited to play it after seeing lionheart mode being implemented last year but unfortunately the steam client got borked by windows 10.
This is by far one of my favorite game mods and you truly elevate this game to another level with these changes.

I'm looking forward to disc 2!

[PublicWiFi]

This mod is great so far, I'm just having some trouble finding a good spot to level before the 2x Iguion during the assassination arc in disc 1.
All of my known spots are nerfed (like using zombie on Vysage and nuking them with phoenix down).

I get wrecked by the Iguion's and I think its because Irvine is just too low level. I've been grinding outside of the city but its been slow going.


Anyone know of a better place to grind a few levels?



EDIT: Nevermind, I just junctioned fire/fira to elm-def and it was a lot easier lol

[levantine]

Hello Calisto,I find a bug in your mod.
During cd2 in the prison when Irvine apear with master class to shot galbadian soldier (just before rinoa kick her ass lol), during this animation, Irvine haw no head, and just after game crash.
I manage to passed this by uninstal the mod, pass this sequence, and them re instal the mod (no conflict with geforce ability by done this).

[Tingcos]

Rank 1 Seed reporting in again,

Disc 2 is finally complete, I try to avoid grinding where I can but jeez these fights have been pretty tough.
I had to go out of my way and level up/ accrue magic to deal with some of them.

Overall Selphie is proving to be far too inconsistent and has been replaced by Rinoa, I think this is where her slots starts to roll worse magic than the start of the game so .
Oh well, Rinoa has a stronger magic stat and wild card Angelo assist which is proving more useful than I thought.
Quistis fits in the support role, Matra magic has been extremely useful on more occasions than I expected.
Zell feels pretty much useless and Irvine is only a slight upgrade to him(curse ammo is somewhat useful in regular fights), I think at this stage my preference is leaning toward heavy magic use like my first playthrough on standard.

I am having a hard time against regular foes, so much so that I cant even sit and draw to 100 especially with anyone other than Rinoa (due to high magic stat).
Regularly using life/Phoenix downs in-between and during fights because theres just soo much damage being chugged out all the time.
Not complaining mind you, just didn't expect this much resistance.

District Prison boss - Oh boy 4 enemies, usually 3+ enemies is enough to team wipe with bad turn usage.
If a GIM52A gets an aura stone, its GG unless you've downed a few enemies or have protection active.
I found for the first time I had to use GF summons for extra HP and aoe damage.
Once the Biggs are down, the robots are no issue but getting over that initial hump is tricky.

BGH521F2 - Easiest fight of my life, Selphie + Quistis double water spam. I cant even remember if it had any damaging attacks.

Oilboyle - Just like the original, classic Fire weakness. Gets cooked fairly easily.

NORG - Eye opener of a boss. If you run in expecting to just roll face, you are in for a crude awakening.
Letting the orbs go to red is a death sentence, the magic spam was unhealable for my party.
Zell and Squall on eye watch duty while Rinoa starts double pumping the Def with Shell/haste.
Once ready to roll open the shell and blast him with bio. Poison is really important for this fight and I learnt status effects on bosses are going to be a big deal where applicable in future.
This took me a ton of retries to finally beat but man was it satisfying.

BGH521F2 rematch - Stay alive. I learnt the hard way in standard last year that this guy hits very hard very early but has a gimmick where he tapers off after x turns.
Priority set to defence with shell/protect and constant healing. I noticed that defend ability was moved to Alexander so its not possible to use that this time round.

Raijin/Fujin - Another wall off a boss and sadly I hadn't trained enough to compete on even footing. Additionally I had saved in zells house so any chance to train was out the window.
Fortunately I had Selphie in the party which means I can take advantage of Raijin not attacking women (sometimes anyway)
First Raijin fight was a bit tricky but straight forward, He hits like a truck and the soldiers are no joke either. I had to lean on using Doom to time them out because my damage was so low.
Second fight was mainly about preparing Selphie for a solo fight against Fujin. Raijin in this fight is merciless with the damage, learning a new combo that instakills without protect.
Fujin has a decent mix of attacks and spells, one that even reduces the enemy to 1 HP. A cheeky tactic is to reflect Raijin and catch some of Fujins Shell/protect buffs.
Probably my hardest fight to date, even when Fujin is eventually downed Raijin decides he CAN hit woman now and I did get game overed by a cheeky 1800 melee hit.

Seifer / Edea - Oh god. This was a nightmare.
I thought the last fight was rough, this takes the cake. Seifer always starts the fight with a huge melee swing at Squall which is mostly always followed by Edea Maelstrom when she gets ATB. That combo alone had me see the game over screen several times before I got to play.
I learnt fast that I need aoe healing or this is impossible at my level, fortunately Leviathan has some interesting abilities.
TIL of the power of "item" and Med data. Remedy+ is the perfect counter for maelstrom and med data mega-potion healing for 3k to the party is insane.
With healing out of the way and some focus fire onto Seifer, Edea wasn't too bad solo. Almost forgot to draw Alexander in my excitement.

I really enjoyed the fights in this disc. I have had to junction and leverage a ton of abilities and strats I wouldn't normally have employed. Counter-picking ailments and elements has never been more important for me than in this current run.

Chur chur and I'll report back at the end of disc 3

[teichmann]

Hi guys, i have a question, if i use the ragnarok lionheart mode, i can use magic booster option from ff8 steam? I'm late game and it's boring draw magic to take 100 of all magic. I thinking use the magic booster to stay 100 of all magics i have in game, i can do this or the mod is down if a use the option?

[Arpadiam]

have small question, finished installing all the lunatic pandora mods and wanted to know if RR is compatible with it

saw that this mod changes some stuff that also LP changes so wanted to know if anyone tried merging both mods

[Callisto]

Xatm: I went for the 50ap boss reward because I wanted to challenge myself and he was rough. Huge physical AOE and ray bomb make it almost impossible as a sustain fight.
I did manage to win but was disappointed that there were no additional rewards for such a challenging early battle.
I found salvation in Selphies Slots, landing spells like meteor x3, holy x2, meltdown x2 and Flare x1. Her limit break does and continues to do a ridiculous amount of damage for most of disc 1.

Yes, the battle can be rough depending on the resources available. Probably the safest way to go is having a few Double spells left for Selphie and make her some Thundaras with the two Magic Stones that are dropped by Elvoret. With that, X-ATM092 should go into repair mode quickly enough (after dealing around 2300 HP damage). During that phase, it is best to not damage it any further until it gets up again, as the key to winning is triggering the self-repair sequence 5 times. Instead, the idle time should be used to roll through Selphie's Slots until you get something powerful enough to strike it down again immediately after it gets up to avoid any of its attacks for the time being. Right before X-ATM092 stands up for the last time (when all of its ~11000 HP need to be depleted in one go) you should have Protect and Shell on all party members which is most easily done with Selphie's Fortify spell.

As for the rewards, you should have gotten either a Power Wrist, Orihalcon, Hypno Crown or a Force Armlet, as in the base game.

Selphie's possible spell combination at the beginning of the game is admittedly way to good sometimes. Her Limit Break is intended to be powerful due to its luck-based nature, but 3 times Tornado, Quake, Meteor, Flare or Holy was actually not planned and will be adjusted to 1 time max at lower levels for aforementioned spells, and max 2 times for all -aga spells and Meltdown.
 

President: This guy was a push over, I think he needs more hp or more threatening damage/ a gimmick like zombie chance on hit.

I think this boss is fine on Standard Mode, but yes, for Lionheart, it can be a little underwhelming. For the next version of the mod, I already set some counters for Cura and Fira, and gave it the Zombie spell, but now that you mentioned it, I think an attack with Zombie on hit might be even better than just the spell. I'll think about it.

Quistis fits in the support role, Matra magic has been extremely useful on more occasions than I expected.

You mean Micro Missiles, right? If so, then yeah, this one is especially useful against many high HP normal enemies later in the game and benefits a lot from having the damage cap removed. Gravity Bombs work similarly, do a little less damage, but hit all enemies and there's no need to be at low HP to use Limit Breaks, so I'd recommend getting them. They can be bought from Odine Shop in Deling City with Tonberry's Familiar Ability learned.

Zell feels pretty much useless and Irvine is only a slight upgrade to him(curse ammo is somewhat useful in regular fights), I think at this stage my preference is leaning toward heavy magic use like my first playthrough on standard.

Zell and Irvine's usefulness mostly depend on weapon upgrades and leveling up. After reaching certain Strength values, they should be able to compete with the damage spellcasters do, especially when using the Darkside Ability. I know that the investment to make them worthwhile in current versions is a little high, so I'll try to make them do more acceptable damage from the get-go.

I am having a hard time against regular foes, so much so that I cant even sit and draw to 100 especially with anyone other than Rinoa (due to high magic stat).
Regularly using life/Phoenix downs in-between and during fights because theres just soo much damage being chugged out all the time.
Not complaining mind you, just didn't expect this much resistance.

Most normal enemies are vulnerable against Slow; Blind should also work somewhat reliably. Just keep in mind that when trying to inflict status effect on an enemy, use your high Magic characters if you want to do it by casting a spell, and your physical attackers if you want to cause it through Status Attack Junction, for maximum success rates.

Raijin/Fujin - Another wall off a boss and sadly I hadn't trained enough to compete on even footing. Additionally I had saved in zells house so any chance to train was out the window.

There is the possibility to leave Balamb for more training before doing Fujin and Raijin, but it's pretty well hidden. It involves the Big Bad Rascal that lives in Zell's house. Check this link for more information.

Thank you for all the feedback in general, it was a very interesting read

Hello Calisto,I find a bug in your mod.
During cd2 in the prison when Irvine apear with master class to shot galbadian soldier (just before rinoa kick her ass lol), during this animation, Irvine haw no head, and just after game crash.
I manage to passed this by uninstal the mod, pass this sequence, and them re instal the mod (no conflict with geforce ability by done this).

I checked this and it seems to be a problem with the Demaster tool. Opening the demaster manager in your game directory, and then unticking "Disable field character resolution limit" fixes this.

Hi guys, i have a question, if i use the ragnarok lionheart mode, i can use magic booster option from ff8 steam? I'm late game and it's boring draw magic to take 100 of all magic. I thinking use the magic booster to stay 100 of all magics i have in game, i can do this or the mod is down if a use the option?

Yes, using the magic booster still works as usual in this mod. No conflicts at all.

have small question, finished installing all the lunatic pandora mods and wanted to know if RR is compatible with it

saw that this mod changes some stuff that also LP changes so wanted to know if anyone tried merging both mods

Ragnarok is compatible with all Luncatic Pandora mods, but I would recommend not using the Lunatic Pandora hard mode as it will add features that will further increase Ragnarok's intended difficulty curve (such as decreased physical damage output by party members and increased damage output for enemies).

[MrMadakey]

So I just started playing this mod, now I'm just wondering if I'm missing something about the ATB system?

So naturally on mods like this I usually set my ATB to wait. However it seems like that hasn't done much for my current playthrough. Not saying it's too hard just wondering if I've made my life harder by doing this.

I understand that enemies rarely skip their turns, so I'm assuming it has something to do with that.
Just wanted to be sure rather than assuming.

[kx101]

It looks like there was another update on steam (for 2019 version) to version 1.0.3 on Feb 2nd.  I have tried to install the mod today but it crashes on launch now.  Based on some other reading, I think the crash could be caused by the new steam update.  I am able to launch vanilla game fine, only crashes after installing mods.  I tried repeating the install several times from a clean steam download, but same result.

I have played this mod before on standard mode in the past.  Was looking to come back and try Lionheart mode.  Might have to patiently wait for the creator to update the mod for compatibility with the new steam patch.  Thank you for the time and effort you have put into this mod

[Callisto]

A compatibility version for Remastered 1.0.3 is now out.

Installation must be done with zzzDeArchive for now, as Maki's Demaster patch has not been updated yet. If you have used Demaster prior to game version 1.0.3 and want to play this mod now, I'd strongly recommend reinstalling your game from scratch before mod installation to avoid start-up issues (mod setup instructions are included within the DL package). An alternative method will follow as soon as Demaster patch is ready.

@MrMadakey: The ATB system works as usual in this mod. Your impression about something being wrong could stem from the fact that the ATB bar doesn't stop while selecting targets, even if it's set to wait. Also keep in mind that some enemy attacks are counter attacks (such as Biggs' slash attack, or Diablos' Haste, to name a few in the early-game) or abilities that are set to be used consecutively, like the Brothers heal followed by an immediate attack regardless of ATB settings. All in all, I would recommend leaving ATB filling speed to default setting or even lower, to make it easier to keep track of the course of battle.