Category: Square

  • FFIII: Crosswinds Released

    For the Whirlwind family of mods, click here. For clymax’s projects, click here.

    The Final Fantasy III: Crosswinds mod for the Famicom has been released courtesy of clymax.

    The mod is a cousin of the Whirlwind mod for FFV and is intended to deliver an experience similar to Whirlwind‘s Open World mode1.

    The naming of this mod in relation to its predecessor mod is also a nod to FFIII being a precursor to FFV in terms of the job system.

    The mod is recommended for use with the English fan translation by AWJ. The Japanese version should also be compatible and will also be actively supported.

    The mod can be identified by the “Wind” label in the main menu, just like in Whirlwind.

    Early access to the dev build is available via Game Jolt. You can also get a free dev build via our Whirlwind Fiesta event.

    1. With no job randomization currently planned. ↩︎

    Release Build: Features

    All jobs are granted on New Game start.

    Quick start skips Altar Cave and puts you at Wind Crystal to face Land Turtle.

    All dialogue has been skipped.

    Because there is no Config menu, toggles have not yet been placed for these features.

    Development Build: Features

    For instance, you can now change jobs regardless of level and without needing change points.

    Movement speed has been doubled in overworlds, towns, and dungeons.

    You can now save even in towns and dungeons.

    Spells Exit and Warp can be cast anywhere.

    Early access to the Nautilus airship is available.

    You can even access the Invincible airship early, as this video clip shows.

    The Surface World is now accessible early.

    The Underwater map is also accessible early.

    You can also enjoy no random encounters unless the B button is held while walking, as this video clip shows.

    The Land Turtle, the Statues of the Quest, and the Dark Warriors can now all be skipped.

    The Crystal Key is no longer needed to access the second floor of Crystal Tower.

    The Eureka Key is no longer needed to access Eureka, the optional dungeon.

    Because the room containing the initial cutscene with Xande in Crystal Tower has softlock potential based on certain sequence breaks made possible by this hack, that room has been skipped.

    Chest loot is now fully random. Chest dialogs are now shown.

    Enjoy 16x boosts to character experience, job experience, and gil.

    Note that the number of save slots has been reduced from three to two to support certain features of this mod. You will no longer be able to select to save to the third save slot.

    Party members can now have the same name. This is for future seeding purposes.

    The spawn point has been moved back to the original location.

    Removed restrictions on where the Otter Head can be used.

    Dialogue for monster chests excluded from dialogue skipping. This lets you see the chest pickup.

    Ending dialogue for forbidden weapons each individually excluded from dialogue skipping. This lets you see the weapon pickups. Beginning dialogue still skipped.

    You can now hold SELECT when interacting with an NPC or object, to override dialogue skipping. This enables vanilla interactions with NPCs and objects.

    What do you think?

    If you’ve played FFIII, how would you rate it versus other FF’s?

    If you haven’t played it yet, this mod offers a modernized way to enjoy a classic game that never got a Western release on the system. So what are you waiting for?

    This post has been viewed 303 time(s).

  • Final Fantasy II

    The Most Bizarre Speedrun in All of FF?

    syo is a content creator specializing in analyzing the techniques used by speedrunners in FF games. You can follow syo’s projects via YouTube, Twitch, or Patreon.

    No, not Final Fantasy II (IV) on the SNES. FF II on the Famicom.

    Remembered more for its unconventional (by FF standards) system for character progression than for its existence in the 8-bit era of gaming, FF II gets a special treat for fans, in the form of a feature video from FF-speedrun content-creator syo. (The system would later find a new home in the sister franchise, SaGa.)

    Speaking with FFV Central about what prompted the video to be made in the first place, syo says:

    I became fascinated with the NES version when I learned about the use of the poison status to skip encounters.

    The whole idea is what hooked me to make the video when I first found out about the speedrun.

    Tactical Toxicity

    We at FFV Central certainly didn’t know why staying poisoned would make a run go quicker (before watching syo’s video, that is).

    All we could imagine was the punishment of playing through an RPG with the screen continually blurring in and out (or, apparently in this case, with audio blaring).

    On what else stood out when making the video, syo says:

    For [the] glitchless [speedrun category], I was surprised to learn that it’s significantly faster to have Firion solo carry the game, it seems wrong but it’s just how smart people figured out how to abuse the progression system.

    Here at FFV Central, we’ve also seen the surprising effectiveness of solo carries versus party-oriented approaches, and it’s interesting to see this strategy come up in FF II.

    For instance, notorious in the community of JRPG achievement hunters, the All Party Combinations Subset for Final Fantasy on Retro Achievements1 was ultimately designed to require party members not only being alive but also being within a certain level range of one another.2

    On what syo may have done differently in the video, syo says:

    Something I wish I’d touched on a bit more too is that on the overworld, encounters are always after a set amount of steps, so its very fast to just save 1 tile before an encounter, get the encounter, and then soft reset.

    This tricks the game into thinking you got the encounter and lets you continue walking freely.

    Sounds only slightly harder than entering the menu to do the same in the overworld in FFV. And much easier than memorizing a step route (typically the fastest option).

    Leaderboard Denied

    Speaking to FF Central further, syo lamented the lack of a recognized speedrun category for FF II’s English mod, despite some of the fascinating quirks this game offers to players. Says syo:

    I’d really like to see . . . [interested] reader[s] . . . try their hand at speedrunning the game. The [FF I & II speedrunning] discord is a great place to get started, and with enough interest, the goal of getting these categories made will come naturally.

    What do you think? Are you a fan of FF II on the Famicom? Do you think there should be a speedrun category for FF II in English?

    A Plan Forward

    If you have ideas to help make the leaderboard happen, check out the speedrunning Discord mentioned above or reach out to us.

    For example, for the English mod to both be eligible for a category and attract runners, the English mod would need some playtesting to confirm that all the time-saving glitches in the Japanese version remain intact in the English mod.

    It’d be preferable that such runs be recorded so that they can serve as a reference for the leaderboard moderators.

    Some measure of the time difference between the Japanese and English versions should also be documented.

    The modding team at FFV Central can investigate porting these glitches back over from the Japanese version if needed.

    This post has been viewed 28 time(s).

    1. Bravo to our community members who have bested this subset on Retro Achievements. A feature post may come soon. ↩︎
    2. But only after one of our modders (solidification) raised solo carrying as being a potential exploit, to the achievement author. ↩︎

  • Final Fantasy V Advance

    Bonus-Jobs Run by Supraprika

    Supraprika is a content creator specializing in covering FFV and challenge runs. Supraprika’s challenge runs are co-commentated with friends. You can follow Supraprika’s projects via YouTube.

    Fans of FFV may know that the Advance version locks four new jobs behind the endgame.

    Three of the jobs require collecting the four tablets in the Merged World.

    The final job requires beating the final new superboss.

    But what is it like to do a full run using just the bonus jobs from start to finish?

    Yes, a challenge run in the style of the Four-Job Fiesta, modified to access the jobs from the start.

    Using a cheat code1 for this purpose as confirmed when asked by FFV Central, Supraprika answers that question in this video.

    What do you think? Should there be an achievement for completing this run? What’s your favorite bonus job?

    1. Our modding team after an independent investigation believes this can be done via RAM writing value 0x80070080 to memory address 0x200DF7C. Unlike other codes available on the web, this one is intended to unlock the bonus jobs without also unlocking the vanilla jobs. Reach out to us if you need troubleshooting assistance. ↩︎

    This post has been viewed 27 time(s).

    Want help with this or other cheats? Check out our cheats pilot here. We also offer multiple FFV mods on SFC that let you unlock jobs early.

  • Comprehensive ATB Enhancement for FFVII

    The Comprehensive Active Time Battle (ATB) Enhancement mod for Final Fantasy VII (PSX) now has a release candidate available courtesy of RoSoDude.

    Players who wish to playtest the release candidate are invited to stop by our Discord.

    An announcement will be made when the mod is formally released.

    This post has been viewed 18 time(s).