Joined: 7/8/2007
Posts: 27
Location: North Carolina, USA
Well in that case then I guess I need to decide which version of the game to use. From what I understand from GameFAQs is that the US release (FFII) is an easier version of the game, but some spells and abilities were removed from the original release. The GBA version is apparently closer to the original release. That being said, and not knowing too much about the difference between the two, I think I will use the US release.
Also, concerns about this game taking way to long to beat don't seem to be true. The record at SDA is 3:56 (in game), compared to 5:26 for FFVI. Anyways, I'll start working on the luck manipulation and route planning. Any advice is greatly appreciated! :)
The GBA version gives most every character a special ability that was in the original version. For example, Cecil in the original, and in the GBA version, has Dark Wave. That was removed from FF2 for the US release. It was possible to get a LOT of damage out of Palom with Bluff (increases magic damage), and it was theorized that Tellah could instagib the octopus boss with Recall (granted he scored a Lit-3 for the random spell).
I'd say check out which versions of the game are best. Just takes experimentation, I guess. I wish I could be more help, as well, but life is pretty busy for me right now. I'll help how I can, if I can spare the time, but I'll be here mostly for support purposes, but I'd love to see this get along.
use the gba version. the sfc version is obsolete, especially the u.s. version. for example, the gba version lets you run, which will save a lot of time. phil has already made a gba wip up to the first fiend, go watch it if you havent already.
The only downside of the GBA version is the apparent battle lag, but I'm sure you can find the proper settings for that, plus the extra scene near the end of the game talking about the extra cavern.
If you are going to TAS the game on SNES I say use the original J rom.
However if running and understanding all printed text (even though you will probably blast through all text anyways) is too important to pass up, then I would go for the FFIV Advance. Another plus is blowing through the extra dungeons... however Kain's extra dungeon room is horribly time consuming (plus you need to make ~3 trips down all 50 levels to make it to every character's challenge). It probably took me ~20 minutes (if memory serves) to reach the first of the challenges... so on second thought, maybe doing each character's challenge isnt a great idea after all @_@;
Sir VG wrote:
The only downside of the GBA version is the apparent battle lag, but I'm sure you can find the proper settings for that, plus the extra scene near the end of the game talking about the extra cavern.
I don't recall any lag, but it has been about a year since I have played the game so I may have forgotten all about it.. if any lag appears I would assume it would appear when there are more than 3 enemies or some sort of magic. If I can find the cartridge I will do some testing for lag.
adelikat wrote:
I very much agree with this post.
Bobmario511 wrote:
Forget party hats, Christmas tree hats all the way man.
I don't recall any lag, but it has been about a year since I have played the game so I may have forgotten all about it.. if any lag appears I would assume it would appear when there are more than 3 enemies or some sort of magic. If I can find the cartridge I will do some testing for lag.
It's not lag in the traditional sense. To my recollection it's a jerky ATB gauge. Think FFV, with less logic.
As for your mention of the character challenges, The Lunar Dungeon isn't available until after you beat the game, and is only opened to people who were part of the final battle with Zeromus. So it doesn't matter. All that you could do that's not in the SFC/SNES versions is fight the bosses in the dungeon added to the mountain near Mysidia, but even that would take a couple of trips, since in order to face the boss, you have to have the "new" members in your party. So unless you somehow did major manipulation so you could use all 5 members at the same time, it'll take at least 2 trips.
Just remember... The NES version of Final Fantasy was used and accepted even though the GBA version gave you the ability to run.
The NES and GBA versions of Final Fantasy also have major differences between the two. For one, the Bane Sword (or whatever it's called in the GBA translation) doesn't work on the final bosses anymore, and you can get items on the ship in the GBA version to make your life much easier, but it's apparently hell to manipulate, which is why it's been dropped by those that have worked on it. I'm sure there are other differences, but I don't feel like listing all of them.
Joined: 7/8/2007
Posts: 27
Location: North Carolina, USA
Still not sure if I am going to use the GBA version, but the double hit glitch would look cool in the instances where it would save time. The game does look a lot nicer on GBA. In terms of manipulation it seems impossible by using frame advance in game, but there is hope. Somewhere I read that you can manipulate by using quick save, which after testing is true. It takes a little longer to do a quick save then run away from a battle, but it will still save lots of time. After playing around with frame advance at different spots I could make the move counter count up or down from a certain value. So, for example in the mist dragon cave I think two quick saves would mean 0 random encounters. I still having not tried using it before battles, but I think it might have the same result. That would be much more time consuming to manipulate though, but I still need to do a lot of testing.
Joined: 5/2/2006
Posts: 1020
Location: Boulder, CO
Whichever you decide, this is something I would like to see.
personally, I think the SNES version might be a better call if only because (I think) more people played it there then they did on the GBA.
People like the version they are most used to.
Joined: 7/8/2007
Posts: 27
Location: North Carolina, USA
I have spent most of the day messing around with battle mechanics for the GBA version, but most of it has left me really frustrated. The problem is that there is no real way to ensure that you are having the best battle possible, because the damage is predetermined. The only way that I found to change this is to do something in a random encounter before entering the real battle. I feel this is the main reason why I would rather do a SNES run than a GBA run, because it will look cleaner and possibly be faster (even though you lose the move speed). It would be interesting to see the differences between the two runs, but I'll be sticking to the SNES.
All that is left to decide now is should I use the JP version or the US version. Since no one will be able to read the chat either way because it will be scrolling so fast, and because the Japaneses version is the 'hard' version, I am leaning toward it. What do you think?
This would be fantastic, keep in mind even for the original SNES version you're looking at a target of FAR below 8 hours - a full-speed run is on SDA at under 4 hours. It all just depends on how manipulatable the game is - you can't avoid random battles with frame movement delays like Dragon Quest, for instance. Damage formulas don't vary too widely, so most of the speed would need to be in the route planning.
I still think you should use the Japanese version of the game if that is what we have to choose between. Hard type before easy type.
SNES version before GBA version.
Well, quite frankly I don't watch runs in japanese unless it's for a platform game or such because it gets annoying not knowing what is going on at all during the battles (which moves they are using, etc). This game won't be any different and I really hope it is done on the US Version... I say this because I am 100% certain I am not the only one which will not what this run if it's on the japanese version.
Joined: 7/8/2007
Posts: 27
Location: North Carolina, USA
There is a 10th Anniversary Edition of FFIV which is apparently the original release translated into English (like what you talked about Highness), but I am not sure if anything else was changed about the game, even though they said that nothing else was changed. I would not know how to test this and I assume that I would have to either show that the game was preserved in the hacked version or have someone who actually knows how to do that show it :).
On another note, after messing around with FFIV's memory I was able to find some interesting values (like the counter for a monster's attack), but have been unable to find any value that deals with damage calculations. After using frame advance for about 100 frames it looks like the damage changes ever 5-20 frames or so, but I am not sure when the value changes. If anyone has had experience with this game's memory or any general tips searching through memory it would be appreciated, since I am new to this.
