Author Topic: Final Fantasy VI - Definitive (Read 128308 times)

Covarr · « **Reply #150 on:** 2011-12-03 18:01:14 »

If I wasn't stupid, I'd have kept a personal backup of that... Instead, I put it on a website that I didn't think would ever get shut down and not on any HDDs of my own

Sorry guys.

nickblames · « **Reply #151 on:** 2011-12-04 00:17:08 »

Oh well, I'll have to make due with the earlier version and my own smoothing out of the literal translation I can rip from the RPGOne teams version.

If I decide it's not too much work I'll announce my own mod and what versions I plan on making.

Talon19892 · « **Reply #152 on:** 2013-05-12 05:17:19 »

I apologize for resurrecting this thread, but the prospect of this getting finished is too good to ignore. Has Changeling been heard from since he last posted here? Does anyone have the more complete version of this, since all the download links are long dead?

Covarr · « **Reply #153 on:** 2013-05-12 18:39:04 »

I haven't heard about it in a few years. Changeling hasn't even logged on since May 2011. If he has worked on it, he hasn't done so or posted about it here. I took a quick look on romhacking.net and can't find anything newer than RPGOne's translation except a bunch of minor gameplay tweaks, certainly nothing like this.

nfitc1 · « **Reply #154 on:** 2013-05-12 19:15:11 »

Honestly though, it sounds like just a compilation of lots of already done pieces put together into one project. At least, I remember lots of these things were done long ago by MasterZed and a handful of others. The most hacking I ever did to FFVI was remake the dark chadernook (which is probably not even his correct name).

Covarr · « **Reply #155 on:** 2013-05-12 19:30:19 »

Quote from: NFITC1 on 2013-05-12 19:15:11

Honestly though, it sounds like just a compilation of lots of already done pieces put together into one project. At least, I remember lots of these things were done long ago by MasterZed and a handful of others. The most hacking I ever did to FFVI was remake the dark chadernook (which is probably not even his correct name).

Most of it had already been done, yes, but the real kicker was putting the far superior GBA translation into the otherwise technically-superior SNES game, something which nobody seems to have done before. Woolsey's translation was decent, but was severely limited by space restraints as well as the need for a very quick turnaround, neither of which was a problem for FFVI-GBA. RPGOne's translation had strong elements of a "Blind Idiot" translation, often being so literal as to totally miss cultural context, not get jokes, and generally ruin the tone of the game. The GBA translation really is the best FFVI translation out there, and short of a FFIV Complete Collection style remake, plugging that translation into the SNES version would pretty much create the best possible version of the game.

So yes, most of the work has already been done by others. Difficulty patches, censorship removal, and general fixes are nothing new. But the idea of a "best of" compilation, especially with the best English-language translation, is absolutely a holy grail for the game.

I wanna go play FFIV Complete Collection now.

Rundas · « **Reply #156 on:** 2013-05-12 20:31:01 »

I use Final Fantasy VI: Stand Guard. Ignore the roms and look in SNES hacks. (I dumped my own physical cartridge) It has an excellent translation that isn't RPGOne or that other guy skyrift or something. It's unique to this hack. It's also got push to sprint, harder difficulty, and Japanese title screen, scenes, and sprites.

Link removed. I know your intention wasn't piracy, but we still can't allow links to sites with ROMs on them. People can search for this hack themselves, if they're interested. ~Covarr

Covarr · « **Reply #157 on:** 2013-05-12 22:43:08 »

Quote from: [CleverNameHere] on 2013-05-12 20:31:01

RPGOne or that other guy skyrift or something.

Sky Render actually joined RPGOne before his own translation was ever completed. RPGOne is the only one of the two worth looking at.

Stand Guard looks like a pretty competent hack. I haven't played it, or even heard of it before today, but if it's got a variable-width font and bits and pieces from numerous translations, it can't be all bad. I'll look into it.

Rundas · « **Reply #158 on:** 2013-05-12 23:36:08 »

I should've thought of the link, I had a brainfart. But yes, I think the translation is much better than RPGOne's because it takes into account contextual meaning more than the nonsensical direct translation.

Talon19892 · « **Reply #159 on:** 2013-05-13 06:10:17 »

This is the first time I've played through the game, or any Final Fantasy for that matter, and I would prefer a version of the game that is closest to what the original game was designed to be like. That's why this project intrigued me so much. From what I've seen of the GBA translation of this game that's definitely the version I want to play through. I found his Beta 1 patch by digging through this thread, and I'm playing through that version now and enjoying it, but it's not perfect. It has a bug in it where if I use the 'ARRANGE' command in the Items menu it drops all my potions and phoenix downs, apparantly it's because the items were re-classified (or something) as 'RD LAN' which the game doesn't recognize and deletes. It's not a deal breaker, but it's obnoxious.

I've e-mailed him and sent him a PM on the off chance he notices at all.

Rundas · « **Reply #160 on:** 2013-05-13 20:51:09 »

Don't use this mod. It will never be complete and, as far as we know, has ben abandoned. He won't answer you because he doesn't use the site. I suggest you use ff6: stand guard. Read my previous post with the orange text for a few reasons.

Hellbringer616 · « **Reply #161 on:** 2013-05-14 02:58:14 »

Can someone please explain how the snes version is better? I've only played the GBA one, that I recently hacked for better colors and better music/sound. We're those the only issued?

nfitc1 · « **Reply #162 on:** 2013-05-14 03:11:31 »

Quote from: Hellbringer616 on 2013-05-14 02:58:14

Can someone please explain how the snes version is better? I've only played the GBA one, that I recently hacked for better colors and better music/sound. We're those the only issued?

I've played the SNES one extensively and the GBA one moderately. The only things I'd say the SNES has over the GBA is the resolution of the images and the sound quality is higher. The GBA screen is 240x160 while the SNES can be 512 x 448. Retranslating would mean expanding the 24-meg game into a 32-meg one. That's not that hard a conversion (I don't think), but no one's taken the time to do it.

Hellbringer616 · « **Reply #163 on:** 2013-05-14 13:13:04 »

I know resolution, But i think the background images were the same size, Just SNES expanded the images (could be wrong)
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091016222204/finalfantasy/images/4/48/FFVI_Gba_vs_Snes.png
As seen here the image looks the same, just one is brighter to compensate for the dim screen on the GBA

Covarr · « **Reply #164 on:** 2013-05-14 15:16:43 »

Quote from: NFITC1 on 2013-05-14 03:11:31

The only things I'd say the SNES has over the GBA is the resolution of the images

The graphics are the same resolution. Only the output resolution is higher, which allows for more content to be shown on the edges of the screen.

Quote from: NFITC1 on 2013-05-14 03:11:31

The GBA screen is 240x160 while the SNES can be 512 x 448.

It can be, but FFVI does not use the SNES' high-res mode; it runs at 256x224, only marginally bigger horizontally than the GBA (though considerably bigger vertically). I doubt it can be made to run at 512x448 without considerable reworking to the game's graphics engine.

Also, if we wanna get really pedantic, the SNES runs at 512x480 or 256x240, but the difference is pretty much black bars at the top and bottom, an area of screen that AFAIK no game ever rendered to.

Quote from: NFITC1 on 2013-05-14 03:11:31

Retranslating would mean expanding the 24-meg game into a 32-meg one. That's not that hard a conversion (I don't think), but no one's taken the time to do it.

It's been done. RPGOne's translation did just that.

Quote from: Hellbringer616 on 2013-05-14 13:13:04

I know resolution, But i think the background images were the same size, Just SNES expanded the images (could be wrong)
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091016222204/finalfantasy/images/4/48/FFVI_Gba_vs_Snes.png
As seen here the image looks the same, just one is brighter to compensate for the dim screen on the GBA

The background images are indeed the same size, but the brightening frankly screws up the tone of the game when played on anything but an original, non-backlit GBA. Areas that are meant to be dark and moody become far more bright and pleasant.

Many GBA games were developed with the intent to work correctly on both a GBA and a Game Boy Player (or if it was late enough, even a DS). This is apparent in games like A Link to the Past, which offered a brightness setting, so that GBA users could still see, but GB Player users weren't stuck with washed out colors. In spite of being pretty much the last major GBA release, I'm pretty sure FF6 Advance doesn't have a setting like this. IMO, this is in and of itself a strong argument in favor of the SNES version.

nfitc1 · « **Reply #165 on:** 2013-05-14 17:53:23 »

Quote from: Covarrfetch'd on 2013-05-14 15:16:43

It can be, but FFVI does not use the SNES' high-res mode; it runs at 256x224, only marginally bigger horizontally than the GBA (though considerably bigger vertically).

That's still a screen ratio of 8:7 vs 3:2. The world is more square on SNES.

And the vertical cropping on the GBA is the point I was making. It's a little annoying in-battle having the text smaller than it was, and the text in field went from four lines to three.

Quote from: Hellbringer616 on 2013-05-14 13:13:04

I know resolution, But i think the background images were the same size, Just SNES expanded the images (could be wrong)
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091016222204/finalfantasy/images/4/48/FFVI_Gba_vs_Snes.png
As seen here the image looks the same, just one is brighter to compensate for the dim screen on the GBA

Those SNES images were cropped to have the same shape/size of the GBA counterparts.

gjoerulv · « **Reply #166 on:** 2013-05-16 09:52:00 »

Quote from: gjoerulv on 2010-03-14 03:11:18

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM....

That's quite the time ago, but I know I have it somewhere... give me some time to check.

Is this it? I think it's the newest ips you released.

Are someone looking for this? It's not the newest update, but still about 70% complete.

Hellbringer616 · « **Reply #167 on:** 2013-05-16 13:04:08 »

Well, I can't fix the rendered resolution. But since I now play it on vba-m, I patched the ROM to have the Snes music instead of the GBA, and I also patched the backgrounds so they are dark like the original. I wonder if there would be a way to patch the render area like pcsx2 patched games for widescreen?

Covarr · « **Reply #168 on:** 2013-05-16 15:31:55 »

No GBA emulator can render at non-native resolutions; at the most, they are upscaled. Really, no 2D system at all has been emulated like that. I don't know if it's possible, but it would take more than just a romhack to do it.

Hellbringer616 · « **Reply #169 on:** 2013-05-16 17:59:41 »

Although that could be true with the GBA, i am almost positive that there is a widescreen patch for Odin Sphere, which is a 2D game

Covarr · « **Reply #170 on:** 2013-05-16 18:11:42 »

It's a 2D game on a 3D console. The PS2 (or pretty much any 3D system later than Saturn/PS1) doesn't generally render sprites or 2D pretty much at all; it renders flat 3D objects with flat 2D textures, to a flat plane. As such, it's rendering everything with cameras, which can be hacked to be expanded.

Classic 2D systems? They don't even understand the concept of cameras or physical location; everything is measured either in simple programmer-made variables (such as locations of offscreen enemies) or screen position. To expand a 2D game on SNES, GBA, or a similar system for a wider display area would require both the emulator AND the rom to be hacked for just that purpose.

Hellbringer616 · « **Reply #171 on:** 2013-05-16 19:15:47 »

Ah, sorry i misunderstood you. After rereading it now makes sense. I thought you meant system like game engine. Not system like console

Talon19892 · « **Reply #172 on:** 2013-05-22 04:14:10 »

I've been playing through with the beta version of this hack for a while now with zero problems but on the third Ultros fight when Relm joins your party her 'Sketch' ability seems to crash the game whenever it's used. I tried using a patch that's supposed to fix that to no avail. I've tried a number of things to try and keep the GBA translation and I don't think I'm gonna be able to fix it by any means.

I did check out the FF6 - Stand Guard version, and I wasn't big on the translation, or the increase in difficulty (I'm a newbie to jrpgs in general). I wanted to have the same names of things that everyone else who played the US version knew (a la Celes instead of Celise, Espers instead of Eidolons) but I'm not sure if I have much of choice anymore, as I really don't like Woolsey's translation. I've applied the Stand Guard patch to a copy of the original US version, and yet when I try to start it up I get a black screen and the game doesn't play. Is there something more I need to do to make Stand Guard work?

Rundas · « **Reply #173 on:** 2013-05-22 15:58:07 »

No, just apply the patch to your standard FF3 English rom.

Talon19892 · « **Reply #174 on:** 2013-05-23 03:18:08 »

Alright I got it working. Is there any way to remove the 'hold cancel to dash' thing? With the sprint shoes equipped it's just obscenely fast, and i felt like part of the challenge was fighting through areas and gaining experience.