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Print Page - The After Years Research (Spoilers!)
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Library of the Ancients => Final Fantasy IV Research & Development => Topic started by: Dragonsbrethren on August 27, 2009, 01:00:42 PM
Title: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)
Post by: Dragonsbrethren on August 27, 2009, 01:00:42 PM
(I was going to wait until finishing the last tale, but meh, I wanted to get started early.)
General The After Years runs on what appears to be a heavily modified FF4 Advance engine. The engine has been improved drastically, and plays as well as or better than the original SNES engine. There is no slowdown what-so-ever (this is likely due to the platform it's running on), and all bugs from every version appear to have been fixed. The gameplay, outside of new content, is nearly identical to the SNES original, so all of the research in this forum for the original also applies to this version (unlike the DS version which had some pretty significant changes).
The game's translation is based on the DS version. Dialogue in flashbacks is lifted directly from that version, and all of the DS names for things are used. For the most part, that's a good thing (I didn't like a few random enemy name changes in the DS version, but most were either identical to the GBA version or modernized to current standards). The translation of the content exclusive to this version of the game is lacking in comparison, but certainly not bad at all.
Controls I play with the classic controller, and it is nearly identical to the DS version, which was a slightly modified SNES scheme. A is action, B is cancel, X opens the menu, and Y switches characters on the field. In battle, + pauses (+ is always used as Start, while - is Select, since they're in the same positions those buttons would be on a SNES controller), Y switches between characters with full ATB gauges, and holding R runs (no need to hold both L and R). There is no option to remap controls.
You can also play it with the remote held sideways; the control scheme is a bit odd compared to playing a NES game that way. 1 acts like B and 2 like A, which is standard, but + acts like Y, A acts like X, and B paired with a direction on the control pad acts like L or R. It's playable that way, but I'm glad I picked up a classic controller. Unfortunately the game is not compatible with the GameCube controller, so you can't use the SNES to Wii adapter from RetroZone to play it.
You can play the game with up to four people, but since I only have one remote, I haven't tried it out. It likely works identically to playing with two players in the original.
You can hold B to dash in towns, like all of the remakes. There is no option for auto-dash.
Menu Interface For the most part, it's the GBA version. The menus are nearly identical, the text boxes are limited to three lines, etc. The game runs in widescreen, and appears to be set up so that everything will display properly on a 4:3 screen as well. You can make the game run window boxed if you'd like, which I'm guessing is for TV's with a lot of overscan, and also move the screen around. Lots of options to get the best picture possible, more so than your typical console game. Oddly, brightness correction is probably the only thing missing, and that's only odd because so many other options are provided. The font appears to be a TTF, instead of a bitmap, probably for better scaling and anti-aliasing.
The Settings (Config) menu lacks a few options from the GBA version (which was already lacking a lot from the SNES version). One thing you'll notice immediately is the lack of a Bestiary option. The DS bestiary sucked, and they left it out entirely this time... :sad:
Like the DS version, the ATB gauge in battle switches to a action time gauge after inputting a command, which shows you exactly why Jump is slower when you have a full party. (I've mentioned it before, but when you input a lot of commands that execute immediately, like Attack, the time gauge for Jump will stop. This goes for any command or magic spell that takes a longer time to cast.) If I was in charge of this version, I think I'd say "screw faithfulness" and make the timers run even when actions were taking place, queuing the actions. This way any long commands you input would likely execute right after the attacks were finished, same with enemy attacks, and the whole game would be even faster.
Pressing Right when inputting commands in battle gives you another small command menu, with the options to Defend, Swap Rows, and use Band attacks. You cannot bring this menu up by pressing Left, which may throw you off when you want to switch rows for the first time (the Band tutorial pretty much insures you'll see this menu ahead of time, though).
Treasure is displayed in a window right on the battle field after finishing a battle, instead of on its own screen. The cool EXP gauges from the DS version didn't make it onto this screen (on the plus side, you can still get more than one item per battle, unlike that version).
Battle Engine Enemy rows are back, for the first time since the PSX port. Additionally, targeting is back to normal, instead of the awful bottom enemy first targeting used by the GBA version.
Fire and Ice-elemental armor no longer makes the wearer weak against the other. This is likely true for holy and dark, as well. This seems to be intentional, and not a bug, given how well the rest of the game was done.
Like the DS version, you only get a single arrow from treasure chests/battles, and arrows do not decrease in battle.
Enemies have the ability to target multiple characters with physical attacks (not an attack chain; a single attack that hits more than one character). Was this available but unused in other versions?
The only possible bug I've found: Occasionally, after setting Berserk status on a character, the ATB bar will fill, then empty, and need to refill again before an attack will be made. This seems semi-random and doesn't always occur, hence why I'm labeling it as a bug.
That reminds me, unlike the DS version, the ATB bar does not empty when receiving a status effect, swapping weapons, etc. This was easily the most annoying part of the DS battle engine, so I'm glad its gone.
Reptiles are called Demons in this. :lame:
Sprites' outlines glow when certain status effects have been applied: Protect, Shell, Reflect, Haste, Slow. This applies for both characters and enemies. The spells work like the originals (they can be applied more than once to gain additional benefits), which will probably throw off some newer players who don't understand that Protect does not reduce damage by half on its first casting.
Monster sprites are tinted purple when poisoned, red when berserk, and pulse green when they have sap (HP leak). Characters also pulse green. Additionally, monster sprites flip backwards when confused, like later games. Monster and character sprites are also flipped when surprised/attacked from behind. I wish this stuff made it into the GBA version...
I need to test it more in-depth, but something has changed about weapons that deal extra damage to certain enemy types. Edge with lightning claws in one hand does very little damage to a machine, rather than the almost guaranteed 9999 he's get in the original. This might invalidate my blood sword findings, if these weapons are no longer doing 4x damage.
Update: Ugh, my initial tests show it may only deal 1.5x damage. Absolutely awful, compared to 4x. This had to have been done to nerf Yang and Ursula in the final dungeon, they'd completely tear through everything in there with the old damage formula.
Haste and Slow affect Doom's counter in this version, as you would expect.
Commands (I'm only covering the new/modified ones; see the other topics for the original FF4 commands)
Awakening Ceodore's command, this refills his HP and doubles his attack and defense power for three turns, then drops him down to single digits of HP. Should the battle conclude before the Awakening status wears off, his HP will be set to single digits afterward.
Bardsong This is the DS name for Edward's Sing command, but it does not work like it did in the DS version. It's like the original, but has received a very interesting change - it can now be targeted manually, and defaults to a single ally. When casting on allies, it uses four beneficial songs (Healing Harmony = Cure, Life's Anthem = Cura, Guardian's Ballade = Protect and Shell, Hastemarch = Haste). When casting on enemies, it uses the same songs as the original command did. Like the original, it can also fail. I'm not sure if Toadsong is sung when a toad, since there was no opportunity in the tale.
Big Throw This is Luca's command. Remember how the dwarven axe was thrown like a boomerang? That wasn't the case in the DS version, and it's not in this one either. Instead, this command allows you to throw any weapon like a boomerang. It does not make the weapon anti-aerial, but it does make it long range.
Bless The DS name for Fusoya's Regen/Spirit Wave command. They changed it again; we all know the original was useless, the DS version made it into a pretty efficient way to restore MP, and this version tried (and failed) to make it even better. The command puts Fusoya into "lockdown" mode like the SNES original, but only for three turns. During this time, about 5% of HP and MP will be restored each turn.
Blessing Rosa's command that replaces Pray, and it essentially is Pray from the DS version. It restores about 10% of HP and MP. Not to be confused with Bless.
Chakra Ursula's command seems to have been lifted from FF5, much like her sprite. This restores some HP and cures some status effects (likely poison and blind, if it really was ripped from FF5, need to test, status effects never really came up in that tale).
Cover-Counter Yang's new command which replaces Gird/Brace. This works identically to Cecil's Cover command, except Yang will counter attack the enemy after taking a hit for another character. The command can be targeted to Yang, but it does not do anything. When in use, it changes to Cease Cover, just like Cecil's command. It should be noted that Yang does not have an auto-cover ability.
Dance Brina's command, and not like the Dance commands from FF5 or FF6 at all. This one uses (semi) random white magic spells on the party. It's known to use Cure, Cura, Esuna, Raise, Protect, Shell, and Blink.
Gil Toss Harley's first command, lifted from FF5. Gets stronger with level; I never really used it since it seemed too weak.
Jive Calca's command. Dance to use a (semi) random enemy skill on all targets. Gives you the ability to inflict lots of status effects, but there are also a few good attacks in the mix, like Thermal Rays. I need to make a list of the skills it can use.
Human Kite This is Zangetsu's ripoff of Jump. Works identically, from what I can tell, seems to take slightly longer to "charge," though.
Illusions Izayoi's command, she dances and confuses a single enemy. Success rate seems pretty high; it's probably level based, but I'm not sure.
Pray This replaces Porom's Cry command. It seems to work just like the original but casts Cura - it may actually be percentage based, but there wasn't enough HP difference in the tale to notice it.
Piercing Sight Harley's other command. This casts Dispel on an enemy and can set an elemental weakness. The game does not tell you which weakness was set, unfortunately. I really had no opportunity to test this one (I should see if it can be targeted at characters to test the Dispel part, at least).
Pressure One of Golbez's unique commands, this casts a paralysis spell on a single enemy. The success rate seems standard for Paralysis (see DL2's status thread).
Risk Strike Cid's new command, it doubles his attack power but reduces (halves?) his hit rate.
Salve This is the DS name for Edward's Heal/Medicine command. Like the DS version, you get a menu to select an item, and then that item is used on all characters at full power. It uses one item per target, and will fail if you do not have enough items (it will let you select that item though, which is kind of annoying).
Shuriken Gekkou's command, it's like Throw, but only shurikens (both kinds) can be chosen.
Smash and Grab This replaces Edge's Steal command; it's probably just an alternate translation for the Plunder command from the GBA version. It works the same way - attack and steal at the same time.
Steal I said I wouldn't cover FF4 commands, but it's worth pointing out that this has moved to Tsukinowa, and that he does a happy dance after successfully stealing. I wonder if we can make Locke do that in Pandora's Box...
Taunt Goblez's other command. This makes the next enemy attack target Golbez. It works sort of like Runic in FF6; all attacks will be directed towards Golbez until he does something else. Multi-targeted magic is not affected by this.
Tenketsu Ursula's other command, gained near the end of the tale. This is like attack, except occasionally you hit a weak point or elemental weakness and do double damage. That seems to be random (as in, having the correct claws on does not guarantee the elemental weakness hit, and not having them on does not prevent it).
Bands (Will add later)
Items and Equipment See aspire's savestate hacking guide here (http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?topic=1118.0) for a full list. I just want to note a few things here:
0x2BBlood SwordAttack: 45 Absorbs HPMight not do extra damage against giants or flans. I need to retest this since my finding about enemy type weaknesses.
0x18CQueen’s WhipAttack: 5 Can turn enemies into pigsThis weapon is essentially the piggy's stick, but with abysmal attack power and limited to women. Any female character can equip it, not just Rydia and Harley. Of course, that means there is one character who can make great use of this: Ursula. Attack power doesn't matter to her, so it's a great weapon to pair with a claw when fighting magic users.
Graphics The character sprites are now 16x24, instead of 16x16. The new sprites were clearly based on ones from FF6 (some, like Cecil, are almost painfully obvious), but I think I see a bit of influence from Square's other SNES RPGs. The old 16x16 sprites are used in flashbacks, and parts of Porom's Tale. The characters only seem to have the same animations they would in the original, they're not nearly as expressive as FF6. On the plus side, the battle animations are more inspired by FF4 and look a lot better than FF6's "jump in walking forward pose" attacks.
Almost all of the other graphics have been taken from FF4 Advance. This means that, even though there is a ton of space on the screen, some monsters are still tiny compared to the SNES originals. There have been some minor changes made, mostly to add a few new tiles in dungeons, such as the rocks you can climb in the mountain tileset. There is one new tileset, which doesn't really fit FF4's style. There are also a few new sprites added here and there.
There are a few new monster graphics. The first encountered is the Mysterious Girl's battle sprite, which honestly doesn't fit FF4's style at all. There are also edits of the worm and Malboro sprites, which are really good looking. I only wish there had been a few more; you fight Kirin, but it's just a palette swapped Chimera. It would've been great to fight the FF6 sprite. That wouldn't have taken any more work, since the assets are already there (and they obviously had access to them to make the character sprite edits).
There is a gradient "fog" effect coming from the left and right side of the screens in dungeons. This obscures some of the dungeon, and is probably intended to reduce the screen size a bit (the original dungeons seem tiny in this game, since you can see almost the entire map at one).
Title: Re: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)
Post by: bond697 on September 06, 2009, 12:57:30 AM
i'm playing through the first story, and am almost done, but i'm wondering why the ice shield defends against "demon" attacks and fire attacks, but the fire shield only defends against ice and nothing else? odd...
:edit: [spoiler] that hooded man has to be either real kain or cecil himself somehow goddamn it. no one tell me, i wanna find out. [/spoiler]
:edit: 2
noooooo, not now! i can't believe it just ended like that. anyway, i'm done. i'll take it to the right thread.
Title: Re: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)
Post by: Dragonsbrethren on September 10, 2009, 09:19:08 PM
Disregard anything I've said related to enemy type weaknesses. They damage formula has been modified for these; they no longer do 4x damage, it's closer to 1.5x, and that's being generous. I'll do some more testing, but I don't think I'll have any better news. I suppose they did this to stop Yang and Ursula from being too useful, but it really puts a damper on Loki's harp, which is just screwing Edward even more.
:edit:
Further testing confirms it: A measly 50% increase in damage output. :sad:
Title: Re: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)
Post by: Dragonsbrethren on September 12, 2009, 07:19:48 PM
Added a bit of commentary about the Queen's Whip to the equipment section.
Title: Re: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)
Post by: Deathlike2 on October 06, 2012, 01:00:40 AM
:bump:
This probably will be my only commentary to this game. All of my comments are based on youtube vids... and perhaps I'll play them at some point.
I will say that the game seems to be done "right". However, there are some flaws...
The Wii version for the most part despite being a bit more faithful to FF4 (visuals, particularly the numbers)... it suffers from "menus could be fucking better". Maybe it's just me, but I stare at this screens a lot and the very least they could improve details of equipment and stuff like the other FFs in the SNES era and their GBA ports.
The PSP version I applaud for being fairly consistent by its updated graphics. Of course, I'm reread the threads about it... this is a handheld after all. It's polish for what the Wii version didn't do.
On the other hand, I abhor some of the vids... if only because the people that record it don't seem to have played any prior FF4 version before and use really really really stupid tactics to win. FF4 is heavily scripted battle-wise... far less functional than FF5 and FF6... and fortunately this seems to be made up through semi-overpowered combos. I'm not sure what else to say there.
I will have more to say in due time.
Title: Re: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)
Post by: Dragonsbrethren on October 06, 2012, 04:03:28 PM
It's definitely not as abusable as the original, only because the racial multiplier has been nerfed into the ground. The moon stuff is kind of interesting, but mostly annoying. Honestly, the racial multiplier probably needed the nerf, it's way too good in the original, but I would've liked to see it only drop to 200% damage instead of the 150% they went with.
Been kind of wanting to give this another go; the story's pretty atrocious, but the gameplay is pure FF4. If you want to try it, there's always Dolphin. People were playing the DLCs before they were officially released in that, so I guess it works well enough for the game.
Title: Re: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)
Post by: Deathlike2 on October 06, 2012, 05:13:59 PM
The story isn't as bad as it looks. There are some issues certainly (in the mini-chapters) and some really really bad ideas (reuse of every boss monster and then some).
I get the feeling racial defense doesn't do too much though.
Although, when I see the classic Behemoth attacking at will on its own (readjusting its speed)... that's a tweak I'm all for...
What I like: Individual monsters that would be immune to Quake are shown as floating New monster attacks Put the game up to FF6 standards (messages and effects during battles) Bands (this version of CT's Multi-Tech idea) Charm status on monsters PSP's version of coloring the ATB (Haste/Slow) Improvements of some characters - vote YAY to no more Fake Cry Dualcast - Makes Porom the best White Mage in the game (yes, over Rosa) - and yes, I'm aware others can use it, but having the ability to Revive (Arise) and Heal everyone is far more important than dualcasting Meteor/Flare when both spells have their own issues Condemn is on par with FF5/FF6, except 10 seconds is far more serious than anything else Porom is suddenly hot, full stop. Palom isn't a jerk, just a more mature jerk. Golbez is a natural bad ass. Kain is far more than the Dragoon he was. Children of the characters could arguably be better than their parents. Resurrection of Luca's Dolls - brings chills FF5/FF6 inventory (too much crap to worry about)
What I hate: Charm on characters = random physical attacks ONLY (I did like the occasional fear of Meteor to rain down from Rydia in FF4) Color Collision statuses (HP Leak is practically the same color shade as Protect) Optimal equipment automation (but, that is incurable for various reasons) Filler characters - especially those that are not permanent members... they are needed, yet they are guys that I wish dead! Useless characters - does anyone need another Tellah or FuSoYa? One ninja too many Holy elemental is the defense of choice on some monsters - crippling Cecil's existence Edward still sucks Edward's secret gf conflicts me - you are the accountant, yet have the ability to throw $$$ away as a skill - who is wearing the pants here?
What I'm confused about: Shell/Protect - Does it work like the original or is it the more modern stuff? Haste/Slow - I cannot tell if it is similar to the original, or more closer to the more modern FFs (the only difference being that Haste/Slow cancels its opposite, so you would have to cast again to get to the status you want) Slowing bosses twice was neutering every boss in the original.. now it's just make them slow once....
Title: Re: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)
Post by: Dragonsbrethren on October 06, 2012, 05:59:35 PM
His badass factor is significantly reduced by running around nearly naked.
I apparently tested Protect and Shell and determined they work like the original (in the Wii version at least; I doubt they'd change it for the PSP), not sure on Haste/Slow, though.
Title: Re: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)
Post by: Grimoire LD on October 08, 2012, 10:37:05 AM
It seems they may have made Haste/Slow into separate status ailments (because let's be honest, it should have been that way from the start) Protect/Shell still seems to work the same, I had to spam Shell with Rosa and Izayoi (with the Elfin Bow) to survive several of Shinryuu's most powerful attacks. Racial Defense doesn't really come into play until you're fighting Dragons in the Lunar Subterrane. There you can see the real worth of Dragon Shield, Gold Hairpin, etc.
Also you cannot tell me in good faith that Edward "sucks" He has The best skill in the game to instantly recover the whole party for 4000 Damage with 5 X-Potions (and more if one or more party members are dead) He also still has really good speed and Loki's Lute, while not As impressive (due to the lowering of Racial Multipliers) it's still a good weapon dealing 2000-2500 damage without fail.
As for Golbez, I don't mind that he wears basically a toga with a cape.. His design is very Buddhist for whatever reason and I think it fits his character well.
I've levelled everyone up to at least 79-80 in TAY and the only "useless" character is the Doll not equipped with the Assassin Knife and Final Outfit. I found each character to have their place and role to play. The Ninja's are all fast and even Gekkou can do 2000-3000 damage en masse with his final learned skill (Blast, I believe it's called) and Tsukinowa and Zangetsu have one of the best bands with instant Haste to all party members. Izayoi is female which allows her to equip the Minerva Bustier and the whips are probably better off in her hands than in Rydia or Harley's hands.
Now I will say they could have done a better job with Harley and what really annoys me is that they Planned for that. She was originally supposed to have Blue Magic and Knowledge (which does *gasp* double damage with consumable items! Y'know! Like a Scholar that her bio says she is?) But no. She was given an... interesting skill in Piercing Sight, but she needed something for Her to take advantage of the skill and so many things shouldn't have been immune to it. She has very good Wisdom but she has no reason to use it.
The PSP version was their chance to fix all of that, but instead they went for a direct port with, hardly any fixes as far as I could tell despite remnants of unfinished plans still in the overall files of the game that would have taken a day or two of testing to get right.
However that said I really do enjoy the game. So many party combinations and it's overall just a lot of fun, at least to me. It was so good, I bought it twice! (One on WiiWare and again on PSP)
Title: Re: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)
Post by: Deathlike2 on October 10, 2012, 11:20:53 AM
Does Poison only apply the status now instead of being a status+damage attack? That's the only difference I can tell off the top of my head...
Also, Golbez's new look is fine. All that heavy DK armor dragged the man down. :tongue:
Title: Re: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)
Post by: Grimoire LD on October 10, 2012, 04:25:34 PM
Yes. Poison purely applies the status. I recall power-leveling Leonora to see if there was any change in dialogue since she learns Poison at Level 20 or so. You can use it to kill the dolls rather than the novice version of the spells. I guess instead of fixing that 1 damage bug with Venom they just decided to axe the whole thing and go with a pure status formula.
Title: Re: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)
Post by: Deathlike2 on October 10, 2012, 07:52:30 PM
My only other question is.. is there a corresponding change on racial defenses? One would argue that reducing the attack power of a monster by half is way too strong.
:edit: Edward is still meh IMO. If you can say alternate healer (FF5's Chemist comes to mind), that's still not really my cup of tea when his songs ultimately are random-ish to begin with (although, it's hard to pass up free multitarget Haste).
I've also reconsidered my stance on Dualcast on Porom... but Leonora really suffers from really really slow level learning. Porom's Agility is only slightly better overall....
When it comes to Harley, having a character that's an innate version of FF6's Debilitator sounds great.. but one would think to combine her with some sort of magic.
Having some sort of "Blue Magic" would work, but it tends to suffer from the selection of "monster skills" and coding how you'd learn it... FF6 had it easy (although Joker's Doom is a lame "hack" for L5 Doom) and FF5 had it somewhat challenging (must be hit by the spell, so learning L5 Doom was a doozy). A semi-chemist (FF5) role would've made some sense... but it would be nicer if she had have some sort of special list of spells...
I think Protect/Shell works differently from the original... even though stacking probably works, but the damage logistics seem to change though. Something with a high magic power of Flare or Holy surely shouldn't do that much less damage (do the math yourself).
:edit: The Economy Ring does make Edward a little broken. Technically, the potion doubling should be more like a 1.5 multiplier.
By comparison, Asura on a good day heals 4000-6000HP (though, I dunno what her spell power is in FF4:TAY).
:edit: Am I reading this correctly? Jump seems to do critical hits...?
Apparently dishing critical hits and having the critical hit miss is possible...
Title: Re: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)
Post by: Deathlike2 on October 12, 2012, 01:08:31 PM
A few more things I've seen.
Black Hole removes Sap (HP leak), which used to be a Dispel feature... hmm...
With Poison having been set to simply apply the status, would that actually fix the bug in FF4 (setting it from Damage+Status to a Status attack)? Kinda doubtful...
It seems to me that they "put back in" the weak spell multiplier in the scripted sequences. Most notable is the Tellah vs Golbez sequence and the FuSoYa+Golbez vs Zemus sequence. I wonder....
Big Bang seems to have his the Sap (HP leak) component. I'm very disappointed... That was the sheer reason you didn't want to use Holy elemental magic on him.
During the Zemus battle, I don't quite get why Slow didn't change Zemus's color... I believe it has to do with it being a scripted battle. Hold should/would never work on him, but it's probably a reaction to resistance. It seems to be a more visible change. The status will "hit", but proceed to do have "no effect".
:edit: Zeromus EG's bounced Reflect is not applied to the character... I wonder if that's magic evasion related (high magic evasion in the SNES ports did actually BLOCK Reflect from working) or if it's intentional.
:edit: Demon is simply the renamed term of "Reptile".
Title: Re: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)
Post by: Grimoire LD on October 16, 2012, 10:50:47 AM
Interesting. I thought Demon was applied to enemies like Santana's and the like. So "Demon" is just Reptile? I guess that explains why the Ice shield blocks it then.
Title: Re: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)
Post by: Dragonsbrethren on October 16, 2012, 08:02:35 PM
I knew that but forgot to edit it into the OP, sorry for any confusion. I added it now. Kind of funny, they go from lizards to insects to reptiles to demons (did they at least correct that for the PSP version?).
Title: Re: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)
Post by: Deathlike2 on October 16, 2012, 11:16:14 PM
Quote
The only possible bug I've found: Occasionally, after setting Berserk status on a character, the ATB bar will fill, then empty, and need to refill again before an attack will be made. This seems semi-random and doesn't always occur, hence why I'm labeling it as a bug.
I don't think it's random. It might have to do with "reseting" the ATB after going under Berserk status. Of course, videos would help show this...
From a berserk use video, it resets the ATB, then when it gets green, it uses "yellow" for the action delay (the same type of thing when Jumping or casting a spell).
Although, there's some reference to some Berserk based bug for dead characters. It seems like they have to have died while under Berserk to "hold onto" that status. Reviving out of battle doesn't reverse said status.
I'm starting to think that Haste/Slow still work like the old game. The best way to test this is through the damage of HP Leak/Sap. The damage is limited and finite, so it is easier to test that using what we already know.
Also, many items seem to ignore Reflect status. Spider's Silk for instance in the older games did NOT ignore Reflect (since it is based off of the spell Slow).
Title: Re: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)
Post by: Grimoire LD on October 17, 2012, 12:25:43 AM
I don't believe so. Demonsbane still claims to do greater damage to Demons, the Ice Shield still reduces the damage done by "Demon type enemies".
AS for whether Slow/Haste still work the same... difficult to say. I know you only need one casting of Slow on an enemy rather than 2 to get the full effect so they might have changed the +/- parameters of a capped minimum.
Title: Re: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)
Post by: Deathlike2 on October 17, 2012, 11:03:03 AM
Racial modifiers are related when it comes to weapons and armors.
Demons are simply renamed Insects/Reptiles (whatever they decided to call them in each incarnation of FF4). It's easy to verify when you compare the monsters that have those racial modifiers. They are more or less the same (assuming you are directly comparing FF4 PSP vs FF4A/FF4).
The reason why there IS a new weapon (for FF4:TAY) is because you have to look at the overall scheme of things when it comes to that racial type.
I'm not sure of the TAY data (since noone has looked into it in depth), but the only base FF4 equipment that dealt with this race is the Ice Shield AND the Ice Rod. You would never know this by the weapon description.
Also, think about the application of the racial distribution as it relates to armor in classic FF4.
Undead - Crystal armor set, Ragnarok, "Paladin" armor set, Holy arrows - mostly useful for Mt. Ordeals Ghouls - Silver/Mythril armor set (including the Silver Ring) - too few monsters use this designation when you can BUY the Silver/Mythril armor set Mechs - all Hammers (which Cid never gets to smash with), Maxmilian (FF4A, only armor), Thunder Claw, Lightning Arrows - bad situations with either Cid equipment Flan - Blood Lance/Sword, Flandango (FF4A only) - no armor for this set until the TAY version (Ancient Sword is better than your options since it is accessible earlier) Giants - Charm/Fairy Arrows, Ogre/Poison Axe, Charm/Fairy Claw, Giant Gloves - plenty of weapons, resistance requires a rare drop Dragon - Dragon armor set, Wyvern Lance, Dragon's Whisker, Artemis Arrows, Gold Hairpin, Crystal Ring (rare drop) - hard to not find a dragon in the Lunar Subterrane Mage - Rune Ring, Mage Masher, Elven Bow, Silence Arrows, Rune Staff (rare), Aegis Shield - there's plenty of mages to deal with when you get all of this stuff Reptile - Ice Rod, Ice Shield - Ice Rod barely used for physical attacks on the Turtle, Basilisk, Gargoyle... Ice Shield used against the Black Lizard and Lamia... that's about it
So, when you look at it, the Demonsbane only corrects the fact that there isn't a viable weapon to take care of that racial modifier.
Title: Re: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)
Post by: Deathlike2 on November 02, 2012, 11:35:57 PM
Small question here...
Does the Fire Scarf work the way I think it does?
Considering how the Absorb bit works, I doubt it was restructured in the PSP version. I read only one Gamefaqs report that when combined with the Protect Ring (and perhaps other elemental resistant equipment) that it caused absorption of the additional resistances.
:edit: Resist: All = Fire, Ice, Lightning... or does it mean more than that? Mystic Veil resists Holy.. so I somewhat doubt the other elementals are being resisted...
Title: Re: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)
Post by: Grimoire LD on November 10, 2012, 11:54:33 PM
The Fire Scarf absorbs Fire, that seems to be it, nothing else special to it. I did not try it with the Protect Ring but that would make sense if it's using the same old Absorb criteria.
Resist All is just Fire, Ice, Lightning as you guessed. The only thing to resist Holy as far as I recall is the Mystic Veil (I thought there was something else as well...)
Title: Re: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)
Post by: Deathlike2 on November 11, 2012, 01:19:50 AM
I need this tested out. I've seen at most two threads regarding absorb with regards to the Fire Scarf.
See if this can be combined with the Mystic Veil. There's a pretty good chance it will work.
I can think that one of the other heavy armors is Holy resistant, but I don't think anyone has spent enough time to find out (the test is simply to see if Holy hurts a hell of a lot less).
Title: Re: The After Years Research (Spoilers!)
Post by: Deathlike2 on November 15, 2012, 11:29:14 PM
I guess it should be said that I have some plans on finding a way to *cough* play this. It's either this (the PSP port) or that (the DS port) that I will look into next...
So, let me know what I should be aiming for.
I sincerely hope they fixed the Back Row bugs... because it quite possibly could be the only thing that fails me consistently.