Topic: Pandora's Box Impressions 2011!

[DrROBschiz]

Wow First off let me congratulate you guys on some impressive work on one of my favorite games of all time. I Plan on sharing this hack with all the people i know who also love this game as it has truly impressed me when compared to many of the other hacks I have seen.

I want to use this thread to comment on all of it but there is SO much to cover so ill break it up in multiple posts.

As of right now I have played through past the "Defend Tritoch" event which was delightfully difficult but not impossible! I am currently at a stand still with Figaro though. I don't suppose you guys have a reference guide anywhere?

Anyways the changes are apparent from the very start of the game and add a lot of flavor to this classic game without PERVERTING it. That distinction is key when comparing this hack to others.

Ok next post ill start from the beginning!

[DrROBschiz]

Initial Impression!

Opening Sequence

Changes were neat. Love that you guys weren't afraid to update the script. I won't say I love all the script changes I have seen throughout the game though. That said for the most part the script is solid and cleans up a lot of the dialogue without injecting too many unnecessary elements.

Next thing I noticed was obviously the change to Magitek armor skills and a new enemy design! I personally loved these changes and thought they were a logical way to change things up. Battle difficulty is in a nice sweet spot I noticed and made battles more interesting!

First Boss

Now we arrive at the first thing that I didn't like. This fight in particular dragged on a bit too long for me. And by long it felt like almost a 20 minute fight! I was thinking that maybe you guys changed up the strategy or "trick" for beating him but certainly could not find it. You basically just heal and fire away at him for 10-20mins. There is definetely room for improvement here unless i am missing something.

[DrROBschiz]

----Battle Changes----

Lets get the big one out of the way. I LOVE the flawless victory rewards! Fantastic idea! I think you guys could expand on it a lot more as far as variety!

XP curve and gil accumulation seem pretty balanced for the most part. Great job as its hard to nail this one down.

Battle Difficulty seems to be at just the right amount. Keeps me on my toes but doesn't frustrate! Nice work!

----Ability Changes-----

Love the 4slot steals and the fact that success rate is tied more highly to your agility stat. Very Logical. I think that it could use improvement to allow for a higher success rate for lower tier items or make it easier to steal from weaker enemies. You want to hook people into using Steal early on and have them consistently use it. The success rate is a tad low in the beginning and discourages its use.

Cyan's Bushido is perfect. I would love to see some all new abilities here but I'm sure that would be ridiculously difficult to implement. I always thought his bushido skills didn't have enough usefulness/variety. The changes you made definetely help.

I like the blitz changes! Makes them a lot easier to pull off! One problem that jumped out at me immediately is that the first 3 blitz techniques aren't very useful/interesting.

It's clear their power has been nerfed or stat modifiers were changed. Currently I just use his regular attack since it outclasses the strength of all his blitz techs. I think this can be addressed by adding interesting properties to his blitz techs. Raging Fists causes confusion, Aura Blast does SAP, so on so forth.  Otherwise its just a flashy way to does the same amount of damage as a claw attack with no boost in accuracy.

Tools are great. Each one so far has been useful and unique. Can't wait to see what you guys did with the other ones. Wouldn't mind seeing some new ones if thats even possible!

Rage was a mixed bag for me. I have to say that it doesn't seem that much better or worse than it was originally. Rearranged sure.. and i like that you can attack with Gau. Still I would like to see AI improvement. Also I think there was a hack on Romhacking.net that gave Gau access to all of the monsters abilities instead of just two. Something to consider.

SHADOW. Wow what a surprise! Nerfed like a mother but still pretty strong. I think this was a logical change as well and enjoyed it. I have to admit that i felt less inclined to use shurikens. I think you guys could have preserved their strength but made them slightly more expensive. Then again with dual wield, his dog, and early access to ninja scrolls maybe I haven't seen all there is to see.  Nice touch throwing Steal into there as well.

Magic seems a tad underpowered but maybe thats just because im so early in the game. Reserving judgement on this one. Also How do i Single target enemies with Fire and Blizzard? It seems silly to remove strategic targeting.

[DrROBschiz]

----Equipment Changes----

These seemed more subtle than the other changes. I would still like to see some interesting equipment variety thrown in but being so early in the game... I still have much to see. I like that all the relics have some type of stat boost.

*Blood sword needs to do damage regardless of whether the character has full hp. Come on now.

[Lenophis]

*Blood sword needs to do damage regardless of whether the character has full hp. Come on now.

Blame the original game for that one. The draining routines will not allow you to do more if you are full in either category.

[gogo13]

First boss was a bit too long but it wasn't really a downer for me at all, I don't know if I'd even bother changing/testing it.

The new dialogue is great

I loved that monsters escape. Monster AI also threw some nice ailments at me

The weapons seem varied and well changed

The armor had some interesting quirks to it

XP/GP from monsters seemed a little wierd and inconsistent, and rife for abuse

The item prices were very nice and seemed to stretch the wallet perfectly

Many of the bosses didn't seem hard

There were points where I had Sabin and Locke 1-shotting everything

The monster graphics, for the most part, were very nicely changed, especially in the Serpent's Trench.

The monster formations were changed also, and I think this was to take out some unnecessary monsters early on to have more later. If this is the case, I think it's a fantastic idea and was well done, because I never felt there wasn't enough diversity of monsters when playing.

[DrROBschiz]

Haha Awesome Glad this board is still active!

By the Way... Do I really have to run all the way back to Nikeah to get the castle figaro to submerge again? I'm not sure if i hit a bug or if you guys changed how to progress through the game. I would Love to see more XD. Or did i hit the demo end already?

[gogo13]

No you have to run back and it doesn't take much time at all

[DrROBschiz]

yup just got past it.

Ok I'll have more impressions up when i get further in!

[assassin]

Lenophis: the Tentacles' draining of a Seized target actually gets around that by clearing a bit.  see the commented disassembly.  i'm not taking a stance on Drainer or Blood Sword here, though.

[DrROBschiz]

----- ZOZO-----

Ok just arrived here and made my mad dash for the chainsaw. I pretty much anticipated that this would be changed but what i did not expect is to run into my first bug.

When i attempt to enter time into the clock it seems to run into graphical glitches as well as completely freeze the game. I am playing this on SNES9x on PC at the moment. I am going to load it up on zsnes to make sure its not an emulator issue.

[Lenophis]

Ok just arrived here and made my mad dash for the chainsaw.

There is a known text wrapping bug going on, and has been fixed. It'll be included in the next release, whenever that is. Not that it matters, cause you can't get the chainsaw right now anyway.

Lenophis: the Tentacles' draining of a Seized target actually gets around that by clearing a bit.  see the commented disassembly.

Where at? I did some quick investigating, and found nothing that really indicates you can take more damage. For instance:

Code: [Select]

Trigger Poison, Regen, Seizure, Phantasm, or Tentacle Drain attack

C2/5B4F: A9 10        LDA #$10
C2/5B51: 3C A1 3A     BIT $3AA1,X
C2/5B54: D0 F8        BNE $5B4E   (Exit if bit 4 of $3AA1 is set.  we already
                                   have some periodic damage/healing queued for
                                   this entity, so don't queue any more yet.)
C2/5B56: BD 4C 3E     LDA $3E4C,X
C2/5B59: 89 10        BIT #$10
C2/5B5B: F0 0E        BEQ $5B6B   (Branch if bit 4 of $3E4C,X is not set)
                                  (Check Regen and Seizure and Phantasm if not set,
                                   Poison if set)
C2/5B5D: 29 EF        AND #$EF
C2/5B5F: 9D 4C 3E     STA $3E4C,X (Clear bit 4 of $3E4C,X)
C2/5B62: BD E4 3E     LDA $3EE4,X (Status byte 1)
C2/5B65: 29 04        AND #$04   
C2/5B67: F0 E5        BEQ $5B4E   (Exit if not poisoned)
C2/5B69: 80 1A        BRA $5B85That looks like it's making sure you have it.

Code: [Select]

Regen and Poison

C2/500B: AD 77 3A     LDA $3A77
C2/500E: F0 CF        BEQ $4FDF   (Exit if $3A77 = 0)
C2/5010: B9 A1 3A     LDA $3AA1,Y
C2/5013: 29 EF        AND #$EF
C2/5015: 99 A1 3A     STA $3AA1,Y (clear bit 4 of $3AA1,Y.  because we're servicing this
                                   damage/healing request, we can allow C2/5A83 to queue
                                   up another one for this entity as needed.)
C2/5018: B9 A0 3A     LDA $3AA0,Y
C2/501B: 89 10        BIT #$10
C2/501D: D0 C0        BNE $4FDF   (Exit if bit 4 of $3AA0,Y set)
C2/501F: 20 8A 29     JSR $298A
C2/5022: A9 90        LDA #$90
C2/5024: 14 B3        TRB $B3     (Set Ignore Clear, and allow for damage increment
                                   even with Ignore Defense)
C2/5026: A9 12        LDA #$12
C2/5028: 85 B5        STA $B5     (Set command to Mimic)
C2/502A: A9 68        LDA #$68
C2/502C: 8D A2 11     STA $11A2   (Sets to only ignore defense, no split damage, reverse
                                   damage/healing on undead)
C2/502F: 4E A4 11     LSR $11A4
C2/5032: A5 B6        LDA $B6
C2/5034: 4A           LSR
C2/5035: 4A           LSR
C2/5036: 2E A4 11     ROL $11A4   (Set to heal for regen; damage for poison &
                                   seizure/phantasm)
C2/5039: 4A           LSR
C2/503A: 90 15        BCC $5051   (Branch if not poison)
C2/503C: B9 24 3E     LDA $3E24,Y (Amount to increment damage)
C2/503F: 85 BD        STA $BD
C2/5041: 1A           INC
C2/5042: 1A           INC
C2/5043: C9 0F        CMP #$0F   
C2/5045: 90 02        BCC $5049   (If under 15)
C2/5047: A9 0E        LDA #$0E    (Set to 14)
C2/5049: 99 24 3E     STA $3E24,Y
C2/504C: A9 08        LDA #$08
C2/504E: 8D A1 11     STA $11A1   (Set element to poison)
C2/5051: B9 40 3B     LDA $3B40,Y (Stamina)    (Figure damage)
C2/5054: 85 E8        STA $E8
C2/5056: C2 20        REP #$20
C2/5058: B9 1C 3C     LDA $3C1C,Y (Max HP)
C2/505B: 20 B7 47     JSR $47B7   (Max HP * Stamina / 256)
C2/505E: 4A           LSR
C2/505F: 4A           LSR
C2/5060: C9 FE        CMP #$00FE 
C2/5063: E2 20        SEP #$20
C2/5065: 90 02        BCC $5069   (If under 254)
C2/5067: A9 FC        LDA #$FC    (set to 253)
C2/5069: 69 02        ADC #$02
C2/506B: 8D A6 11     STA $11A6   (Store damage in battle power)
C2/506E: BB           TYX
C2/506F: 4C 67 31     JMP $3167C2/501D is definitely making sure you are in regen/seizure/poison.

Since this is damage, you would think that it would be handled at drain's draining routine.

Code: [Select]

C2/0C2D: AD A2 11     LDA $11A2
C2/0C30: 4A           LSR
C2/0C31: 90 2A        BCC $0C5D   (Branch if not physical damage)
C2/0C33: AD 82 3A     LDA $3A82
C2/0C36: 2D 83 3A     AND $3A83
C2/0C39: 10 22        BPL $0C5D   (Branch if blocked by Golem or dog)
C2/0C3B: BD E4 3E     LDA $3EE4,X
C2/0C3E: 89 02        BIT #$02    (Check for Zombie Status on attacker)
C2/0C40: F0 03        BEQ $0C45   (Branch if no zombie)
C2/0C42: 20 21 0E     JSR $0E21   (Poison / Zombie status for zombies)
C2/0C45: AD AB 11     LDA $11AB   (Status set by attack 2)
C2/0C48: 49 A0        EOR #$A0    (Sleep & Muddled)
C2/0C4A: 29 A0        AND #$A0
C2/0C4C: 39 E5 3E     AND $3EE5,Y (Status byte 2)
C2/0C4F: 19 FD 3D     ORA $3DFD,Y
C2/0C52: 99 FD 3D     STA $3DFD,Y (mark Sleep & Muddled to be cleared from target,
                                   provided it already has the statuses, and
                                   the attack itself isn't trying to inflict or remove
                                   them)
C2/0C55: B9 B9 32     LDA $32B9,Y
C2/0C58: 09 80        ORA #$80
C2/0C5A: 99 B9 32     STA $32B9,Y (Flag target to be released from Control at end of
                                   turn)
C2/0C5D: AD A4 11     LDA $11A4
C2/0C60: 89 02        BIT #$02
C2/0C62: F0 11        BEQ $0C75   (Branch if not redirection)
C2/0C64: 20 ED 0D     JSR $0DED
C2/0C67: DA           PHX         (save attacker index)
C2/0C68: 5A           PHY         (save target index)
C2/0C69: 5A           PHY
C2/0C6A: 9B           TXY         (put old attacker index into target index)
C2/0C6B: FA           PLX         (put old target index into attacker index)
C2/0C6C: 20 2F 36     JSR $362F
C2/0C6F: 38           SEC         (enforce 9999 cap for redirection for attacker)
C2/0C70: 20 76 0C     JSR $0C76   
C2/0C73: 7A           PLY         (restore target index)
C2/0C74: FA           PLX         (restore attacker index)
C2/0C75: 18           CLC         (now enforce 9999 cap for redirection for target)
C2/0C76: 5A           PHY
C2/0C77: 08           PHP
C2/0C78: 2A           ROL
C2/0C79: 45 F2        EOR $F2     (get Carry XOR attack's heal bit)
C2/0C7B: 4A           LSR
C2/0C7C: 90 04        BCC $0C82   (branch if:
                                    - we're checking attacker and attack "reverse" drains
                                      [e.g. because target is undead or absorbs element]
                                    - we're checking target and attack drains)
C2/0C7E: 98           TYA
C2/0C7F: 69 13        ADC #$13
C2/0C81: A8           TAY         (point to Healing instead of Damage)
C2/0C82: C2 20        REP #$20
C2/0C84: B9 D0 33     LDA $33D0,Y (Damage Taken / Healing Done)
C2/0C87: 1A           INC
C2/0C88: F0 01        BEQ $0C8B   (if no [i.e. FFFFh] damage, treat as zero)
C2/0C8A: 3A           DEC         (otherwise, keep as-is)
C2/0C8B: 18           CLC
C2/0C8C: 65 F0        ADC $F0     (add Damage/Healing so far to $F0, which is the lowest of:
                                    - attack damage
                                    - HP of target [or attacker if reverse drain] )
                                    - Max HP - HP of attacker [or target if reverse drain] )

C2/0C8E: B0 05        BCS $0C95   (if total Damage/Healing to this target overflowed,
                                   branch and set it to 9999)
C2/0C90: C9 10 27     CMP #$2710  (If over 9999)
C2/0C93: 90 03        BCC $0C98
C2/0C95: A9 0F 27     LDA #$270F  (Truncate Damage to 9999)
C2/0C98: 99 D0 33     STA $33D0,Y (Damage Taken / Healing Done)
C2/0C9A: 28           PLP
C2/0C9C: 7A           PLY
C2/0C9D: 60           RTS But nothing stands out there, either. There's got to be something I'm missing.

i'm not taking a stance on Drainer or Blood Sword here, though.

Oh, but you are.

[DrROBschiz]

Awwww No chainsaw eh? Well Ill be moving on then!

The murderer goblins were a pretty cool new enemy BTW.

[assassin]

But nothing stands out there, either. There's got to be something I'm missing.

it's cleared in C2/51B2, and checked in C2/0DED.

i'm not taking a stance on Drainer or Blood Sword here, though.

Oh, but you are.

am not! :P  i'm just saying it can be done.

[DrROBschiz]

Bummer!!!

Looks like I won't be able to Get past the opera scene until that word wrap issue is fixed.

Also I know i read that certain characters are set to not be able to learn Magic. But I am not getting any magic points at all for any characters, Celes Included!