Mystic Quest Reborn / Mystic Quest HardType

[JCE3000GT]

Hello, I'm sure most of you know who I am so no introductions needed.

This is a two patch mod.  The first patch (Mystic Quest Reborn) are the changes in what you will see in the videos.  The second patch (Mystic Quest HardType) are just changes to the stats of the characters, monsters and items. 

YouTube videos:

Gameplay:
Basic begining gameplay video

Random Battles:
Random Battle 1-- Added May 4 2011
Random Battle 2-- Added May 10 2011
Random Battle 3 -- Added May 21 2011
Random Battle 4 -- Added October 29 2011
Random Battle 5 -- Added November 1 2011
Random Battle 6 -- Added November 7 2011
Random Battle 7 -- Added November 11 2011
Random Battle 8 -- Added November 11 2011
Random Battle 9 -- Added November 11 2011
Random Battle 10 -- Added November 11 2011

Bosses:
Flamerus Rex video -- Added April 29 2011
Squidite -- Added May 4 2011
Ice Golem-- Added May 10 2011
Medusa -- Added May 21 2011
Ifreet -- Added August 30 2011
Dualhead Hydra -- Added October 30 2011
Dullahan -- Added November 11 2011
Elder Chimera -- Added November 11 2011
Pazuzu -- Added November 11 2011


Current Soundtrack:

MQHT - Ally Joined!.spc
MQHT - Battle.spc
MQHT - Boss Battle.spc
MQHT - Focus Tower.spc
MQHT - Forest.spc
MQHT - Forge Ahead!.spc
MQHT - Fossil Labyrinth.spc
MQHT - Gameover.spc
MQHT - Icy Breath.spc
MQHT - Lava Dome.spc
MQHT - Shrine.spc
MQHT - Tenderness in the Air.spc
MQHT - The Prelude.spc
MQHT - Unknown Fate.spc
MQHT - Unknown Lands.spc
MQHT - Victory Fanfare.spc

NOTE: Starting with the Ice Golem no more boss YouTube videos will be the entire battle to victory to add some suspense and surprise.  I will show you how you can die in these battles though--some on purpose and some not!

------------------------
Progress updates:
Each of the 4 elemental dungeons (with the coins) will get progressively harder.  Grinding will be necessary in this game unlike before.  Things that were simple such as never needing to replenish Ninja Stars, Arrows and Bombs are a thing of the past.  You WILL need to think about conserving these consumable weapons.  Scenario: You have Phoebe and she is out of Arrows and Magic Points...what are you going to do?

The Reborn mod is currently 95% complete.  It is fully playable all the way through to the end credits.  The only remains are the dialogue, text and some misc graphical improvements.  One the beta test phase is complete I will release version 2.1 to the public and worry about the graphical and dialogue improvements afterwards. 

The HardType mod is 100% complete and will be released along with the Reborn mod.

Currently being worked on:
-Importing more music!  (Almost done!)
-Looking for treasure chest data
-Possibly more small graphical changes to NPCs or weapons.

Needs & Notes:
-A public beta release for beyond the Fossil Dungeon will be coming once all of the areas are completed.
-I'm going to need a few beta testers now that the game is at version 2.0b beta. 
-I'm also going to need someone to tweak the dialog to sound more adult and Final Fantasy like.  As in export, edit and reinsert it.  NEED THIS ASAP!
-Sprite/Graphic artists to tweak some area/dungeon graphics to more closely match Chrono Trigger, Romancing SaGa 3 or maybe Final Fantasy 6.
-I have taken a log of my recommended strategies, useful tidbits and some information on progressing through the game which I will turn into a FAQ Walkthrough after enough people go through the mod.


Thoughts and opinions welcomed. 

------------------------
MQHT Site: http://www.jce3000gt.com/mqht.php
Latest beta available for download: 1.5b -- Released Aug 26 2009

[Kiyoshi Aman]

Honestly, I would not call this a 'hardtype' hack; in fact, I would probably suggest using a completely different name for the project as you're pretty much removing everything that makes Mystic Quest the game that it is.

[Bregalad]

Looks more like a "complete" hack than a "HardType" hack to me.

Also it looks like you're importing music from Secret of Mana and FF5, I'd just tell you that you should also be able to import from Hanjuku Hero which also uses the same revision of the sound engine.

[JCE3000GT]

Honestly, I would not call this a 'hardtype' hack; in fact, I would probably suggest using a completely different name for the project as you're pretty much removing everything that makes Mystic Quest the game that it is.

Note:  There are going to be two patches available.  One patch has all the changes you see in the videos.  Music, graphics, names and stats among others.  The second patch is literally just changes to the stats.  I agree the first part of your post, I should remove "HardType" and come up with another word to use for the patch that has the graphic/music/name changes.  But, I do not agree that I've robbed anything from Mystic Quest as a game on the patch that has stat changes only.  Your post is exactly the reason why I chose to do this, because "purists" might get too caught up trying to keep the original game's content without sacrifice.  While I'm not including you into that category, your post just reminded me of emails I've already received stating the aforementioned. 

Looks more like a "complete" hack than a "HardType" hack to me.

Also it looks like you're importing music from Secret of Mana and FF5, I'd just tell you that you should also be able to import from Hanjuku Hero which also uses the same revision of the sound engine.

I listened to HH's music and didn't find a single tune that I liked over what MQ, FFV or SD2 offered me.  I will listen to it again just to make sure, but, I'm fairly satisfied with what I have so far.    Thank you for the reminder though! 

[Kiyoshi Aman]

Uh, no. I'm not talking about the content.

I'm talking about the gameplay. Mystic Quest was intended to be a lightweight RPG; i.e., it was intended for younger audiences or people who normally wouldn't play an RPG due to the complexities present in most RPGs at the time. I feel that you're diminishing that value and the game with this hack.

[JCE3000GT]

Uh, no. I'm not talking about the content.

I'm talking about the gameplay. Mystic Quest was intended to be a lightweight RPG; i.e., it was intended for younger audiences or people who normally wouldn't play an RPG due to the complexities present in most RPGs at the time. I feel that you're diminishing that value and the game with this hack.

I understand what you are saying now, but, so far 99% of the feedback I've received is positive with the changes I've made.  Almost a 100 to 1 positive over negative ratio in fact.  The number 1 thing I've heard from people that have played MQ since it was released is: "man if this game was harder it would be pretty good" or "I loved that game, but it was too easy!" even coming from novices to the RPG world.  The number 2 thing I've heard after that was how the dialogue could use some freshening up.     Both of which will be addressed when both patches get released. 

On the back of the box for the US release it does say: "World's first role playing game for the entry-level player.", but, then goes on to say "Don't think it will be a walk in the park." and "This isn't your basic shoot-'em-to-smithereens kiddy game, either.  You'll have to think your way out of some tough spots.  Think you can handle that?". 

I respect your opinion, and it is your choice if you choose not to play it, but I think you're mistaken about the game being diminished with either of my mods according to the feedback I've received thus far.     That is what makes the world do 'round, eh?  Each person's opinion and your choice to play or not to play.    

Thanks for the debate, its been fun.   

[Bregalad]

Yeah count me in the guys who think that Mystic Quest is great but just way too easy. And I'm sorry I haven't mentionned it but your hack looks great, and I love the idea of importing music from other games, I was just saying this not in the scope of a "HardType" hack, but it's definitely a good thing.

Of course you don't have to import music from Hanjuku Hero I was just pointing this possibility. As someone who played a lot with hacking the music of SNES Square games in the pas (aaaages ago when I was like 14 years old, that is 8 years ago), this is interesting to me. However I just hacked SPCs directly instead of hacking the game, and did it just to play and not in the prespective of a true hacking project.
I remember I tried to paste a Secret of Mana song in a Mystic Quest SPC like you do in this hack, and it kind of worked but then all octaves were wrong and the song crashed when it was supposed to loop. Sadly I don't think I still have the SPC but if I ever find it again I'll warn you.

Also back then when I was 14 I made a SPC of song of Prelude 3 in C# by Johan Sebastian Bach entierely coding using Square's sound engine. This song probably have no place in a Mystic Quest hack but if you're ever interested to see it just say so.

I think you should also be able to easily import music from Final Fantasy 4 and Romancing Saga 1. They use different versions (each) of the sound engine, but the data is stored in a very similar fashion so you'll just have to swap a few command bytes. The modern Square games that uses the fourth revision (FF6, Chrono Trigger, ...) uses a format that is more altered and it'll be a pain to convert it.

Finally, in the conversion that are already done i'd say it is mostly fine BUT sometimes the volumes could be more balanced (especially the high-hats which are inaudible), and the octave sounds not always right to me... Also sometimes it sounds like you're using "Brass" instrument when you should be using "Trumpet".

Well if you have any questions regarding the music in FFMQ don't hesitate to tell me cause I've hacked the sound engine completely, I just never made any project out of my research so I'd be happy if it'll ever be useful to a project.

[Vegetaman]

So is this just a difficulty and graphics update, or are there actually new areas to explore or more enemies in the game? Either way, it looks cool, and I hope to get a chance to play it over Thanksgiving. Nice to see this game getting some attention. 

[Jigglysaint]

Want me to find treasure chest data?  I can't see it being that hard, though I never really made any serious attempts before.

Okay I found it.  All sprite data is mixed in with I think is level data, or at least level headers.

At 3AF3B in an unheadered rom, there is a list of relative pointers that lead to a room's header data.  The count starts at 2B013(unheadered rom).  I haven't tested too much, but as for the Cure Spell chest in Foresta, that's located at 3B2E7(uneadered rom) and looks like this:  05 5D 25 A6 13 24.  The first byte is the chest contents, and the game automatically checks your gear to see if you have it already.  If it does, it's empty(and shouldn't load on your next entry).  The next 2 bytes are x and y locations, and the 2 after that seem to have something to do with the sprite's type.  The last byte is the graphic index, and seems to increase by 1 when opened.  Afterwards, 00 means there's another sprite, and FF terminates the room's data.

Edit:  Actually I stand corrected.  Event chests seem to be from 00 to 1C or something, and it's not any type of item, it's prefixed.  I sense though that it could be easier to just create a new flag system so that any item can be put into a chest.  Shouldn't be too hard to find if I can know item ID numbers.

Basically the good news is that treasure chests can be placed anywhere and contain anything.  A good remix of this game would make the better chests harder to find or harder to obtain.  Really since most places contain a refillable chest, it can easily be relocated and restocked to offer more rare items.

Edit:  Actually on further inspection, each sprite is 7 bytes long.  The First byte is the event flag to set when the chest is opened(or sprite is modified somehow).  When set, the event is hidden(which is why red chests disappear).  The second byte is the chest contents ID, which I still need to find.  Third and 4th bytes are x and y, and the last 3 have to do with sprite type and graphics.

[JCE3000GT]

So, who here can take up the job needed to rewrite and insert the dialogue?  Dialogue is not my strong suit so I am in desperate need for someone to rewrite the story to sound more like Final Fantasy and more "adult".  That's why I post it here since there are plenty of talented script writers located here.   

Any takers?

If not I will just leave the story as-is () and release the final patch before xmas.  It would be a shame to leave the story's dialogue as-is, there is a lot to be expanded on.  Like, what happened to Benjamin's village?  More Dark King background?  More explanation from the story's key NPCs on their roles?  A more in-depth dialogue between each of the party members and Benjamin?  And maybe some additional language from each of the boss monsters holding the Crystals?  Just to name a few ideas...

So is this just a difficulty and graphics update, or are there actually new areas to explore or more enemies in the game? Either way, it looks cool, and I hope to get a chance to play it over Thanksgiving. Nice to see this game getting some attention. 

I was hoping to have the latest V2.0 released before Thanksgiving but I am not satisfied with the final dungeon's monster stats.  So, only 1.5b is out for download at the moment.  Hope you enjoy at least some of it. 

Yeah count me in the guys who think that Mystic Quest is great but just way too easy. And I'm sorry I haven't mentionned it but your hack looks great, and I love the idea of importing music from other games, I was just saying this not in the scope of a "HardType" hack, but it's definitely a good thing.

Of course you don't have to import music from Hanjuku Hero I was just pointing this possibility. As someone who played a lot with hacking the music of SNES Square games in the pas (aaaages ago when I was like 14 years old, that is 8 years ago), this is interesting to me. However I just hacked SPCs directly instead of hacking the game, and did it just to play and not in the prespective of a true hacking project.
I remember I tried to paste a Secret of Mana song in a Mystic Quest SPC like you do in this hack, and it kind of worked but then all octaves were wrong and the song crashed when it was supposed to loop. Sadly I don't think I still have the SPC but if I ever find it again I'll warn you.

Also back then when I was 14 I made a SPC of song of Prelude 3 in C# by Johan Sebastian Bach entierely coding using Square's sound engine. This song probably have no place in a Mystic Quest hack but if you're ever interested to see it just say so.

I think you should also be able to easily import music from Final Fantasy 4 and Romancing Saga 1. They use different versions (each) of the sound engine, but the data is stored in a very similar fashion so you'll just have to swap a few command bytes. The modern Square games that uses the fourth revision (FF6, Chrono Trigger, ...) uses a format that is more altered and it'll be a pain to convert it.

Finally, in the conversion that are already done i'd say it is mostly fine BUT sometimes the volumes could be more balanced (especially the high-hats which are inaudible), and the octave sounds not always right to me... Also sometimes it sounds like you're using "Brass" instrument when you should be using "Trumpet".

Well if you have any questions regarding the music in FFMQ don't hesitate to tell me cause I've hacked the sound engine completely, I just never made any project out of my research so I'd be happy if it'll ever be useful to a project.

Thank you for the offer and information.    But, I have decided to not add any additional music.  Everything in terms of the audio is completed.   

Want me to find treasure chest data?  I can't see it being that hard, though I never really made any serious attempts before.

Okay I found it.  All sprite data is mixed in with I think is level data, or at least level headers.

At 3AF3B in an unheadered rom, there is a list of relative pointers that lead to a room's header data.  The count starts at 2B013(unheadered rom).  I haven't tested too much, but as for the Cure Spell chest in Foresta, that's located at 3B2E7(uneadered rom) and looks like this:  05 5D 25 A6 13 24.  The first byte is the chest contents, and the game automatically checks your gear to see if you have it already.  If it does, it's empty(and shouldn't load on your next entry).  The next 2 bytes are x and y locations, and the 2 after that seem to have something to do with the sprite's type.  The last byte is the graphic index, and seems to increase by 1 when opened.  Afterwards, 00 means there's another sprite, and FF terminates the room's data.

Edit:  Actually I stand corrected.  Event chests seem to be from 00 to 1C or something, and it's not any type of item, it's prefixed.  I sense though that it could be easier to just create a new flag system so that any item can be put into a chest.  Shouldn't be too hard to find if I can know item ID numbers.

Basically the good news is that treasure chests can be placed anywhere and contain anything.  A good remix of this game would make the better chests harder to find or harder to obtain.  Really since most places contain a refillable chest, it can easily be relocated and restocked to offer more rare items.

Edit:  Actually on further inspection, each sprite is 7 bytes long.  The First byte is the event flag to set when the chest is opened(or sprite is modified somehow).  When set, the event is hidden(which is why red chests disappear).  The second byte is the chest contents ID, which I still need to find.  Third and 4th bytes are x and y, and the last 3 have to do with sprite type and graphics.

Excellent work as always Jiggly.     Thank you. 

[What Defines A Monster?]

I understand what you are saying now, but, so far 99% of the feedback I've received is positive with the changes I've made.  Almost a 100 to 1 positive over negative ratio in fact.
Thanks for the debate, its been fun.   

Uh huh.

Let's see some of that "positive feedback".

"I thinks you shouldn't replace FFMQ music,because music of FFMQ is best in series."
"I think having to fight against the RNG in the first battle of the game is pretty silly."
"t is pretty retarded that you can either miss so many times or the Behemoth can Critical hit you more than once almost regardless of what stats I give. lol"
"But why change the music? Isn't this game praised for its soundtrack above all else? Why fix what isn't broken?"
"For my taste it is a bit too hard JCE3000GT. The fact that you have only two characters to command doesn't make it easier."

And that's just from the tiny few that have actually bothered to watch and comment on your YouTube postings.

Myself, I can deal with "stupid hard" hacks- I play them all the time. But why the hell did you screw with the music? Mystic Quest's music was one of the one things that DIDN'T need "fixing", especially the battle music. The stuff you've inserted just sounds like pure crap, like just really bad BAD old style MIDI synth junk.

[JCE3000GT]

Uh huh.

Let's see some of that "positive feedback".

"I thinks you shouldn't replace FFMQ music,because music of FFMQ is best in series."
"I think having to fight against the RNG in the first battle of the game is pretty silly."
"t is pretty retarded that you can either miss so many times or the Behemoth can Critical hit you more than once almost regardless of what stats I give. lol"
"But why change the music? Isn't this game praised for its soundtrack above all else? Why fix what isn't broken?"
"For my taste it is a bit too hard JCE3000GT. The fact that you have only two characters to command doesn't make it easier."

And that's just from the tiny few that have actually bothered to watch and comment on your YouTube postings.

Myself, I can deal with "stupid hard" hacks- I play them all the time. But why the hell did you screw with the music? Mystic Quest's music was one of the one things that DIDN'T need "fixing", especially the battle music. The stuff you've inserted just sounds like pure crap, like just really bad BAD old style MIDI synth junk.

Hmm lets see, should I even bother with you?  Yes, lets.   

"I think having to fight against the RNG in the first battle of the game is pretty silly."

"t is pretty retarded that you can either miss so many times or the Behemoth can Critical hit you more than once almost regardless of what stats I give. lol"

This was also in the untouched original game, you could still lose to the Behemoth if he Critical Hit you.   

"For my taste it is a bit too hard JCE3000GT. The fact that you have only two characters to command doesn't make it easier."

This is a limitation of the original game, to only have two characters.  Why is that any different now?   

And that's just from the tiny few that have actually bothered to watch and comment on your YouTube postings.

Myself, I can deal with "stupid hard" hacks- I play them all the time. But why the hell did you screw with the music? Mystic Quest's music was one of the one things that DIDN'T need "fixing", especially the battle music. The stuff you've inserted just sounds like pure crap, like just really bad BAD old style MIDI synth junk.

You do know of an invention called electronic mail or email right?  There is also an invention called private messaging from all of those interweb forums.  You cannot assume the YouTube comments are the only comments I get right?  Doing so is very narrow minded.  I get plenty of email and PM messages from people who actually have something positive to say.  And thus making your point moot.  *edit*  Also keep in mind that this has been out for over 2 years, that is plenty of time to receive feedback. 

Now, on to the good stuff.  First, if you had even BOTHERED to read the second sentence in the first post I stated that there are TWO versions.  One with the challenge and extra content and one without--that means no music would be changed.  So that means the other two comments you posted are now also nullified since the second patch doesn't replace or change any music.   

Second, I'm glad you voiced your opinion at the music since it is clear that Final Fantasy V and Seiken Densetsu 2 have such "bad BAD old style MIDI synth junk music".  I'll be sure to let Kikuta and Uematsu know how you feel.     You feel they don't fit fine, but, they do not sound like MIDI junk.  And for the record I never stated that the music needed "fixing" in MQ, I simply replaced the music because I wanted to and I could.  You still have the option of not playing it, and, I do recommend that you personally do not.  Because you obviously will not enjoy it having such bad assumptions and strong emotions about it.   

Next time before posting I suggest more reading skills and tact and less assumption and drivel.   

[Bregalad]

Well I am a total fan of FF5 and Secret of Mana music, but I'd say it needs some fine tuning when ported to MQ, that is what I already commented - you use the instrument "Brass" when you should use "trupet" a couple of times and the volume of some instruments is wrong, so are the octaves too.
I guess "old style MIDI synth junk" was a bad way to word this - as MIDI synths tends to have unbalanced instruments, that is a MIDI file meant to be played on a synth will have instruments unbalanced on another synth due to some being louder and quieter.

[What Defines A Monster?]

Bregalad-

It's obviously not worth the time to even bother discussing with JCE3000GT. If you noticed the previous post, he responded to legitimate critiques of his hack (you know, the one he claimed had "100 to 1 positive") with nothing but weak rebuttal attempts.

Your points, on the other hand, hit the nail on the head.

When I say his replacement music sounds like bad MIDI, I mean that it sounds like he took classic tunes, ran them through a low quality FM-synth MIDI DOS card, then shoved them into the game. That should be specific enough.

He claims that he uses "FFV" and "Secret of Mana" music... but he isn't.

This (skip to 1:35) is NOT the equivalent of this, no matter how much he thinks it is. His version of the FF prelude theme is equally atrocious. THIS is FFV's Prelude, not whatever it is that he's using.

The Super NES had (has?) a unique, superb wavetable system. That was one of the reasons why it it was such a standout system for Square's RPGs- they could put amazing orchestrations through their paces on the system. Taking pieces like Prelude and Angel's Fear and reducing them to what sounds like FM synth does a disservice to both the original Mystic Quest music AND to the material you're replacing it with.

Seriously, he treats any and all honest assessments of his "work" like he's defending HIMSELF. And that's never, ever a good thing when it comes to a ROMhack.

[BRPXQZME]

If you think that sounds like FM synth, you have a terrible idea of what FM synth sounds like.

[What Defines A Monster?]

If you think that sounds like FM synth, you have a terrible idea of what FM synth sounds like.

I could argue about this, but in all honesty-


I don't want someone to get personally offended by the opinions of a couple people. I think it's still a great accomplishment to be able to add and replace music into a ROM, and it takes skills. The viewpoints of myself and Kiyoshi shouldn't be taken at all as personal insults, because, at least in my case, it's just an outside viewpoint of what I see. Don't take it personally, all right?

[BRPXQZME]

Angel's Fear

you keep saying that’s what it is

[What Defines A Monster?]

you keep saying that’s what it is

I've removed the part of my response related to musical taste (accents and dynamics) because it detracted from this point right here-

These are just the opinions of a couple people. I think it's still a great accomplishment to be able to add and replace music into a ROM, and it takes skills. The viewpoints of myself and Kiyoshi shouldn't be taken at all as personal insults, because, at least in my case, it's just an outside viewpoint of what I see.

Don't take it personally, all right?

Allow me to reiterate- these are all just the opinions of a couple people, and should not in any way be taken as an attempt to diminish your accomplishment. They are simply points of personal taste, which vary from person to person.

Way to go in managing to put forward a hack like this!

You should really be proud of your accomplishment. Regardless of whether or not I agree with it taste-wise, it's something you should most certainly be proud of getting done.

[Jigglysaint]

Can anybody give me data on how inventory is stored in ram?  I am trying to find where the chest index values are so I can potentially change the contents of chests, since not all items can be found in chests.

[JCE3000GT]

*edit*
Nevermind, not worth my time.  Delete me.