Category: releases

  • Star Beasts: Comet Version Released

    Hack of Pokémon Blue (GB)

    News of the latest major release of the Star Beasts hack is brought to us courtesy of our contributor YeOldeLoremonger (RHP), who designed the town layouts and gave feedback on the overworld and world map in the release.

    It is believed that Asteroid version will no longer be supported moving forward. Meteor version previously already had its support dropped.

    Project lead Soul Valor (RHDN) gives the following update via PokeCommunity forums. You can find the Github repo here.

    Worked on over the course of more than half a decade, Star Beasts is a Gen 1 total conversion and homage to the first generation of Pokémon games.

    Started as a passion project to make a playable version of Vast Fame’s Shi Kong Xing Shou for English speaking audiences, Star Beasts became its own project with entirely new fakemon designs and a new region.

    Star Beasts 3.0.: Comet Version features an entirely new Dex of Fakemon and a mostly new region (Relas) with a focus on exploration.

    Some of the new features are as follows:

    • A completely overhauled soundtrack! Almost none of the music from the original games remains!
    • An overhauled Pokedex, complete with backsprites, that fixes balance issues and replaces uglier designs and makes older evolutionary families more consistent.
    • Even more overhauled movesets, with even more new moves!
    • The Fairy, Steel and Dark types!
    • A new region, Relas!
    • New types of trainers with different rosters and improved AI!
    • More dialogue and areas than the original games!
    • Rebalancing of the game to make it more accessible to newcomers, including plenty of NPCs that give you hints on where to find rare Star Beasts! And, as if that weren’t enough, there’s documentation on every Beast! (Although the game is best experienced blind, use your discretion!)
    • Various quality of life improvements, such as an experience bar!

    So, what do you think? Comment below, or check us out on Discord.

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  • Boco’s Final Fantasy V Released

    Featuring Inu Megapack Integrated with RPGe Translation

    For the first time, the widely hailed work of Japanese romhacker Inu (dog) has been amassed for testing and integration with the monumental RPGe translation before being released as a standalone, no-frills megapack.

    Why the name “Boco’s FFV”?  Well, dog is man’s best friend, and Boco is Bartz’s best friend, so to speak, so there you go.

    Although certain hacks have used some of Inu’s work in the past, it is unclear how big of a fraction of Inu’s comprehensive body of work was included.

    Some of these works did not provide any integration with an English translation.

    Furthermore, those certain hacks added additional features, sometimes well beyond those that Inu intended to offer in his body of work.

    Project Status

    Additional documentation may be available later here or via Discord.

    • Phase 1: Inu’s bugfix patches for FFV – 76/76 integrated (1 excluded) – RHP publication here
      Examples: power-drink glitch, item-duping glitch
    • Phase 2: Inu’s improvement patches for FFV – 7/8 integrated (1 in conflict, 3 excluded) – see below
      Examples: GBA dash, improved item sort
    • Phase 3: Inu’s QoL loose patches for FFV – 16/18 integrated (2 in conflict, 6 excluded) – beta available today via FFV Central Discord
      Examples: pass turn in battle, L/R character scrolling in menus

    Prior Hacks that Use Inu’s Work

    Be sure to check them out and support each modder’s work.

    • Pixel Freemaster by Nintenja
    • Clean Edition by xJ4cks for FFV and Autumn Challenge (FF5r)
    • Tweaks by T92 [RHDN]
    • Ancient Cave by anonymous [RHDN]
    • Heroine Trilogy (FF5r-IC) by waterga (menu translation by clymax; full translation available via FFV Central Discord)

    For a demo of Phase 3, see the video clip below.

    So, what do you think? Comment below, or come check us out on Discord.

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  • Liberation Mod of Super Metroid Enters Closed Beta

    For clymax’s projects, click here. You can also follow him on YouTube or Twitter.

    The Liberation mod of Super Metroid on Super Nintendo is now in closed beta courtesy of clymax.

    This mod is unofficial and is unaffiliated with Nintendo.

    Like all of clymax’s rando mods, it’s a self-randomizer, so just simply reset the game to play a new randomization.

    [Editor’s note: this section was added on January 4, 2026.]

    Release Build: Features

    The release build can be found exclusively on our affiliate, Romhack Plaza, here.

    The opening cutscene is skipped. So is the intro sequence at Ceres Station.

    Red doors can now be opened with your beam shots.

    Same goes for yellow doors and green doors.

    Gray doors have not been made openable, due to instability issues on certain maps.

    You can now enter Tourian without having defeated any of the bosses.

    Development Build: Features

    Redeem early access to the dev build through participating in our community.

    Examples of participation include our Rando-Speedrun Pilot here, or any “Whirlwind Fiesta”-adjacent event we hold that includes this mod.

    Planet Zebes is preactivated.

    Missile Expansions give you twenty missiles instead of five missiles.

    Simple Baby Skip now possible, but the camera remains locked, and Samus wraps around the screen before finding the room exit.

    Mother Brain’s third phase is now skipped. So are any related cutscenes.

    Speed blocks are not yet breakable by the normal beam. Many other types of blocks are, however.

    Your jump height while submerged is no longer reduced.

    Demonstrating the open world in the dev build.

    Blue gates and green gates may be openable from both sides using beam shots.

    Demonstrating Plasma Beam plus Spazer Beam. For a far superior version of this feature, check out Spazer Plasma Mix here.

    Exclusive Interview with Spazer Plasma Mix‘s Author

    November 16, 2025

    clymax: I made a poor man’s version of your Plasma Spazer Mix. Took me a few hours yesterday.

    JAM: Why a poor man’s version?

    clymax: Because i had an idea recently and wanted to see if i could get it to work. This approach, basically. Damage boost is 2x.

    JAM: Oh, I see.

    clymax: I made two hack routines for it. One for normal (Plasma Spazer etc.) shot and one for charged (Plasma Spazer etc.) shot.

    JAM: For the actual damage or for multipliers for the each enemy?

    clymax: These two routines are 20 bytes each. They work by preventing the spacetime beam crash by making the vanilla game engine only see Plasma as ON if both Plasma and Spazer are ON.

    Actually, i have a third hack routine that handles the multiplier. That one is 16 bytes long. The hack multiplier changes the damage dealt, by doing the damage twice.

    JAM: That’s an interesting solution.

    Demonstrating random drops. Currently, duplicates can be rolled.

    Item locations are the same as in vanilla. Items at these locations are not randomized.

    All one-time collectible upgrades are in the pool of rando drops. Energy Tanks, Reserve Tanks, Missiles, Super Missiles, and Power Bombs are not.

    Incorporates the Kraid Hyper Beam crash fix in support of the new Plasma-Spazer beam combo.

    A new beam has been added to the pool of random items in a new update.

    So, what do you think? Which 2D entry is your favorite in the Metroid series? Comment below, or come check us out on Discord.

    Related Post

    Mod Showcase: Spazer Plasma Mix for Super Metroid

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  • Achievement Badges Now Available on FFV Central

    Will Platform Pokémon Clover

    For clymax’s projects, click here. You can also follow him on YouTube, Twitter, or Retro Achievements.

    Today marks one month from Pokémon Clover being deplatformed in terms of fan-made achievements on the Internet.

    Today, FFV Central is pleased to announce that achievement badges are now available for players to earn.

    Badges are currently awarded based on video evaluation by achievement verifiers.

    Over twenty-five titles are currently supported. All genres and platforms are eligible to be supported.

    Players and eligible achievement designers are welcome. The latter will also act as achievement verifiers.

    1. FFV Central will strive to be a bastion of freedom of speech, transparency, and accountability.
    2. There will be no departments. No “authoritarian regime” as Salsa put it. The platform will be guided by libertarian principles.
    3. Any achievement designer can design achievements for any game.
    4. Players’ legit achievement unlocks will not be removed against their will.
    5. The work of achievement designers will stay their own.
    6. The work of an achievement designer will not be vandalized by another achievement designer or removed against the will of the achievement designer.
    7. Hack patches will not be cloned or hosted without hack author permission.
    8. Legally sold paid mods are eligible to be supported.
    9. Progression, beat, and completion achievements will not be supported. Games are meant to be beaten or completed.
    10. Softcore achievements will not be supported.

    For more details, please check us out in any of our sister Discords.

    A separate announcement will be made when Pokémon Clover achievements are available. If you are interested in assisting in that effort specifically, please reach out to us.

    [Update on November 4: Clover added.]

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