Final Fantasy Elements—version 1.1
A challenge and balance hack for FF1. Much design, much difficult.
I recently released version 1.1 of Final Fantasy Elements, a ROM Hack for the NES version of Final Fantasy I. You’ll need an emulator to play ROMs, and you’ll need a ROM of the original game as well as an IPS patcher. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about the process.
Changes and improvements over the original game (“vanilla”) include:
The Intelligence and Luck stats actually work.
All spells work.
The classes are balanced—fighters (Viking) are no longer overpowered and thieves (Rogue) are no longer useless.
The challenge level is higher, on the whole, but the game is fair and can be completed without significant grinding.
The magic system has been completely overhauled and improved; magic-users are no longer outclassed by fighters in the late game. New, powerful spells have been added—RUIN, SAGE, HEX, GLRY, and SURG, among others.
Enemies, and especially bosses, have more HP and a greater diversity of attack patterns, making the game more tactical.
Equipment and magic matter more than levels—the game is still challenging if you’re slightly overleveled, but beatable at low levels if you know what you’re doing.
Several difficult bonus dungeons and bosses have been added.
Powerful endgame weapons and armor have been added. Elemental weaknesses and monster-type targeting (bugged in vanilla) now work.
Unfair encounters (e.g., large ambushes) have either been removed or made rare. Stun lock is uncommon and usually avoidable.
FF Elements uses the same 8-element system as most modern final fantasy games: earth, fire, water, air, lightning, ice, dark, and holy.
NPCs give useful information about the mod; they will teach you how to play.
Rare encounters are less rare; you won’t have to fight through 128+ trash mobs to complete your bestiary.
Dialogue and storyline have been adjusted, creating an entirely new plot. Whether this is an improvement or an embarrassment is a subjective call…
The mod is built on top of Pinkpuff’s (Final Fantasy Negative One) and Robert August de Meijer’s (Final Fantasy Ultra Champion Edition) work and could not have been done without their prior art.
Adjustments in version 1.1 include:
The canoe is no longer necessary to get to Onrac, or to finish the game at all. Thus, you can fight the fiends in any order.
The XP and GP of difficult encounters in the midgame have been increased.
Special areas for fighting specific monster types (e.g., one for dragons, one for giants) have been added to the overworld.
Late game bosses no longer regenerate HP; this has been counterbalanced by increasing their Absorb ratings to keep the fight duration constant in the average case. The reason for this change is that: (a) it punished “slow burn” strategies, reducing strategic diversity, and (b) because it sometimes turned tense battles into unwinnable ones, which sucked.
NPC dialogue has been tweaked to be more helpful.
It’s no longer possible to soft-lock the game by landing next to the Ryukahn port.
Changes were made to enemy attack patterns in the Time Rift to make the dungeon more interesting.
The “secret” inns are less expensive, but there are now only two of them instead of four.
The rewards in the Forbidden Castle are better.
Minor class-balance adjustments were made; for example, the Cleric is now a better runner than the Priest, correcting a slight imbalance in aggregate stats.
A really janky way of beating one boss in particular has been made harder (but is still possible) to pull off.
Magic defense matters more.
Two endgame weapon locations were swapped to make the ordering more appropriate to the character arcs.