racketboy.com

I'm thinking about trying out a bug fix / improvement mod for the first Final Fantasy on the NES, but there's a ton to choose from. I can sort through the read me for each patch and make an educated guess which one I'd like best, but I was wondering if anyone here has experience with any and can recommend one.

It seems like most of the improvement hacks also include various bug fixes (apparently the game had a LOT of bugs). Whatever bug fixes that hack includes is great, but I'm mostly looking for improvements. Now this is an area that everyone has a different opinion about. There's a few things about the NES version that annoy me, and those are the things that I wished were improved. I'm not looking for a hack that changes too much of the game, just something that makes it more playable.

As for my annoyances with the game, it's mostly how slow and tedious it is. Battles take FOREVER, and so does purchasing items and upgrades in towns. And I suppose the walking speed also doesn't help. I hate not being able to run in the earlier FF games. So I suppose the biggest improvements I'm looking for is anything that helps speed along the game play. The first time I played this game was the PS1 remake, which I played through and beat more than once. But the NES version, I've never been able to make it very far in because of how slow the gameplay is. I wish the NES version played more like the PS1 version, in regards to speed.

So, does anyone have any experience with FF1 mods?

This thread went 3 years with no replies, but I figure since it got 25k views I'll answer my own question.

GFF (Grond's Final Fantasy) - https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/652/

This is a very awesome hack, but not my favorite choice. Still, GFF might be for you. It fixes bugs and has a lot of quality of life improvements. Too many to list, so just check the link if you want to know. There's a few things that I really like about it. It animates some tiles like water which gives the game a lot more lively feel to it. It gives you a save command in the start menu, so you can save you game at any point on the overworld map just like in other FF games. Names of most things are expanded. You can dash by holding B. The in-game map looks better and loads faster.


Final Fantasy Restored - https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1631/

FF Restored is another highly praised hack, and the one I went with (along with some additions). Like GFF, it fixes the known bugs in the game. And it has quality of life stuff like holding B to dash, auto sorting usable items at top, etc. What I really like is the added "buy 10" option for item shops. Again, too many things to list.


Final Fantasy Hasted - https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/7482/

FF Hasted really works best when combined with FF Restored, and that's the combo I ended up playing. Hasted does a lot of things. Again, too many things to list. But probably my favorite is character poses in shops. Using character's normal, celebrating and stunned pose when selecting armor or weapons dictates if they can equip it and if it's better than what they currently have equipped. It also adds a tweak (that you can revert back) that characters don't attack an empty space after an enemy is defeated. And as the name implies, it speeds up many things like transitions, victory celebrations, etc.

I went with Restored + Hasted mainly because of the shop poses, buy 10 option, and not attacking empty spaces. Otherwise, GFF would have been more of a contender for me.

One thing that did kind of bother me about Restored is that it cut off the peninsula of power. I mean, I rolled the credits and still very much enjoyed the game, but I thought it was stupid to axe it. Luckily, there's a patch for that!

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4675/

It also reverts all of the items names in shops, which I have to admit, I like the new names.

Both Restored and Hasted have optional patches to customize the game to your personal preferences. I went with a patch that took out the ship mini game to make room for new music. So bosses and sub bosses now have their own music, which is awesome. There's an anti grind patch for Hasted, which I experimented with, but I found it made the game too easy and completely over-leveled you.



So long story short, if you're looking to play Final Fantasy for the NES with bug fixes and quality of life improvements, then go with either Grond's Final Fantasy or Final Fantasy Restored. If going with Restored, there are numerous optional patches including FF Hasted as well as other addendum patches.

Indeed, those are good hacks if you want to experience the original more or less as intended.

But there are also hacks that go further, offering a fresh yet familiar experience. My favorites are:

Jeff Ludwig's Mod of Balance (GameBoy Advance version)
http://www.jeffludwig.com/finalfantasy/

Pinkpuff's Negative One
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/789/

And my own, hah! Final Fantasy Ultra: Champion Edition
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3067/

I guess I'm in the minority in that I liked FF1 letting characters attach empty spaces.

I felt like it added a bit more engagement to combat in that you had to estimate probability of taking out a single enemy based upon the attack strength of the various members of your party.

Maybe you're in the minority, but you're definitely not the only one who likes it. In the hack I used, there's a few optional patches included and one of them is to restore that behavior.

To be honest, I didn't mind it years ago. I just accepted it as a quirk of the game, and looked at it as requiring extra planning. But these days, I'm more like...

Limewater wrote:I guess I'm in the minority in that I liked FF1 letting characters attach empty spaces.

I felt like it added a bit more engagement to combat in that you had to estimate probability of taking out a single enemy based upon the attack strength of the various members of your party.

I also prefer this! The whole point of strategy combat is making tough choices, right?

Not only tough but strategic choices. Do you use an attack to finish off an opponent, knowing it's likely overkill, or instead focus on a heavier target that would be harder to take down, knowing that a weaker character can later mop up the weaker foe...and will that weaker enemy get a chance to attack.

Ack wrote:Not only tough but strategic choices. Do you use an attack to finish off an opponent, knowing it's likely overkill, or instead focus on a heavier target that would be harder to take down, knowing that a weaker character can later mop up the weaker foe...and will that weaker enemy get a chance to attack.

Yeah, for sure, It is hard/weird to get used to at first, and I can see a lot of people finding the non auto targeting annoying, but if the player keeps at it, than it is engaging and helps with each battle having some more depth rather than hold down the confirm button until enemies are dead, use potions, continue.

Similar to this topic, any good mods for FF III on NES? That is the GOAT, for that console, IMHO.

Honestly, lack of retargeting feels less like a strategic choice and more of a "we didn't think of that" or "we didn't have time/ROM space to implement that". I don't consider it to be a signification strategic factor. Most of the same issues about how to distribute your attacks apply even with re-targeting.

Rydon wrote:Similar to this topic, any good mods for FF III on NES? That is the GOAT, for that console, IMHO.

This is the one I went with: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6869/

It's based off the old gold standard English translation by AWJ, Neil Corlett and SoM2Freak.

marurun wrote:Honestly, lack of retargeting feels less like a strategic choice and more of a "we didn't think of that"

That was my initial reaction to it the first time I experience the NES version.