Post by Southpaw Hare on Sept 25, 2017 15:58:40 GMT 1
So I recently encountered an interesting mod for the GBA remake of Fantasy Fantasy 1, dubbed The Mod of Balance. It's very impressive, going to great lengths to rebalance basically the whole game while staying true to the flavor and thematics of the original. The most notable change is that, instead of having just the original 6 classes which (spoilers) upgrade later on, it instead breaks them up into 12 completely separate classes. In some cases, the original upgraded classes kept what made them distinct from their base class while being powered down to be balanced with the others, while in other cases, some unique concepts have been formed.
Here are the 12 classes, separated into groups of 2:
Additional changes to the game include revamped enemy AI, a wider variety of equipment and spells, and generally harder gameplay (the GBA remake was made easier than the classic NES game, so this mod brings the difficulty back up to the classic, and then perhaps a bit more still). And of course, compared to the NES game, the GBA Remake still also offers more detailed story and cutscenes, better graphics and sound, a bunch of horrible bugs fixed, and a bunch of other more modern nice-to-haves.
So yeah! Pretty neat mod! You can get it here: www.jeffludwig.com/finalfantasy/download.php
Here are the 12 classes, separated into groups of 2:
- The Fighter / Knight become the Knight / Paladin respectively. The character that is now called the Knight remains very similar to the original Fighter, being a strong physical combatant that is good at both offense and defense, but has no magic. The Paladin gains defense (having the highest overall toughness in the game) and some white magic, at the expense of offense, making them a Tank/Healer.
- The Rogue / Ninja follow a similar pattern. The Thief is relatively true to the intend of the original, although he is substantially buffed (in the original FF1, the Thief was horrible, and then also his special ability was bugged and didn't work on top of that), being super fast and doing a bajillion hits. Meanwhile, the Ninja gains some black magic and is possibly even more offensive, while lacking defense.
- The White Mage / Wizard has been broken up into Priest and Enchanter. The Priest is most similar to the original White Mage, able to use most all of the White Magic. The Enchanter, instead, focuses mainly on Buffing spells, which apparently have been quite improved in this version compared to the original.
- The Black Mage / Wizard is now split into Archmage and Battlemage. The Archmage is, again, very similar to the classic Black Mage, being a powerful Dark Magic Blaster while having horrible physical stats. The Battlemage trades out some spellcasting specialty for some extra survivability, being able to wear heavy armor and being relatively tough.
- The Red Mage / Wizard, which was a Jack-of-all-Trades class and my favorite from the original, has now become the Ranger and the Sage. The Ranger is closest to the original concept and is the most most all-arounder in the game, capable of fighting somewhat well and casting most magic from both schools, while specializing in nothing, with a slight lean toward physical combat. Meanwhile, the Sage (which is a very important job in later Final Fantasy games and their lore) focuses on all forms of magic fully, but is physically the absolute worst and squishiest of all the classes.
- The Monk and the Master retain their names, which I find somewhat awkward (how can one be a low-level Master, semantically?). The descriptions of them are the least clear, but from what I can tell, both characters can fight unarmed and unarmored, but the Monk can do well with or without equipment and is more of an all-arounder, while the Master goes strictly without equipment and is more of an offensive character. Notably, from what I can tell, both seem to have some "Monk Spells" specific to their classes (and maybe ninja? I dunno) that not even the mages get.
Additional changes to the game include revamped enemy AI, a wider variety of equipment and spells, and generally harder gameplay (the GBA remake was made easier than the classic NES game, so this mod brings the difficulty back up to the classic, and then perhaps a bit more still). And of course, compared to the NES game, the GBA Remake still also offers more detailed story and cutscenes, better graphics and sound, a bunch of horrible bugs fixed, and a bunch of other more modern nice-to-haves.
So yeah! Pretty neat mod! You can get it here: www.jeffludwig.com/finalfantasy/download.php