[vivify93]

I did some research, xttx, and it appears the game doesn't work in Nestopia. It should work in FCEUX though.

Great job on the release, Lugia2009! I told some people in this live stream about it, sounds like they're really interested. I also put it on my Wii and it's great. Thanks.

[Kiyoshi Aman]

The new patch has been approved; I guess Dropbox was having a rough day or something. Thank you for your patience, and please enjoy this translation.

[vivify93]

I've played up 'til after getting Tifa, and I have some suggestions.

- During the scene where the train security system discovers AVALANCHE's fake IDs, would it be possible to have one of the more fast-paced songs play to add a sense of danger? Maybe the battle music if another more suitable song isn't available.

- A few item names could serve to be optimized.

Old name > New name
MdPotion > HiPotion
HiMega > Hi-Mega
HiEther > Hi-Ether

- The spell names. Hoo boy, do I have some words about the spell names.

I know that naming the spells this way was Lindblum's decision, but there are a lot of spell names that I feel were poorly chosen. I have some suggestions to make them more consistent and powerful-sounding. I put them under a spoiler cut.

Spoiler:

GENERAL
Take out the -ra / -ga / -ja suffixes, and replace them with simple numbering. The suffixes are used in official FF translations post-1999, sure, but on some spells, it just looks awkward due to the 6-letter limit--Watrga, for example. On top of that, not all spells follow the modern-day FF suffixes. So we get Fire, Fira, Firaga, and Firaja, sure, but out of the blue, there's Blaze, Blaze2, Blaze3, and Blaze4? It just looks bad. Fire / Fire2 / Fire3 / Fire4 and Blaze / Blaze2 / Blaze3 / Blaze4 look a lot more professional.

Also, it looks like the Wind and Water materia also grant Cura and Curaga, but the secondary spell lines weren't adjusted to account for this. It ends up so that, for example, the "Wave" line of spells goes "Wave, Cura, Wave3, Curaga." That doesn't make any sense; if there isn't a Wave2, how can it be Wave3? Spells should be adjusted to make up for this. In my naming method, illustrated below, it would go "Flood, Cure2, Flood2, Cure3". In this case, it makes sense for it to be called Cure2 and not simply Cure, since the first-level Cure spell exists on a different materia. Flood2 doesn't exist at all, so Flood3 should be named Flood2; see what I mean?

WATER
Changing "Wave" to "Flood" would make the Wave line of spells sound a lot more fierce.

THUNDER
A better name for the Rage line would be Shock; it's a thunder-elemental spell in FFXI. "Rage", to me, sounds more like an alternate name for Berserk.

WIND
The "Wind" line has really no business being named as such. Aero is the same amount of letters and is the actual name official games have given the spell.

Squall is one of those spells that gets shortened in an ugly manner to make way for its higher-tiered brethren. (Squall, Squal2, etc.) "Gale" is a shorter name for it, and this way you get to avoid connotations with thunder-elemental spells--and the FFVIII protagonist. I would've suggested "Tornado", but there isn't enough room, and I'm trying to avoid abbreviations. (Trnado, Trndo2, etc.? Um, no please.)

EARTH
"Rock" is another spell that really shouldn't be named how it is. "Stone" is a single-target earth-elemental spell in the MMO Final Fantasies, and fits right in with the allotted space of 6 letters for spell names.

LIGHT
"Holy" is quite possibly the most questionable choice for the damaging light-elemental spells, since Holy is the name of an important plot device in FFVII.

EDIT: Though it's usually branded as a spell that only damages undead in the FF series, Dia would be a great name for these spells. Your team has it cast on them beforehand, and people would be able to recognize that it damages all types of foes.

"Bhamut" looks terrible for an abbreviation. "Bahamt", if a six-letter shortening has to be used, looks a lot better.

ICE
For some reason, the Ice line and Hail line both have spaces between their names and their numbers, when they really shouldn't. So, for example, "Ice 2" and "Hail 4" should become "Ice2" and "Hail4".

I feel like that's wordy and unnecessarily complicated, so tl;dr spell names need to be changed, here are my suggestions.

Old name > New name
Fira / Firaga / Firaja > Fire2 / Fire3 / Fire4

Watera / Watrga / Watrja > Water2 / Water3 / Water4

Wave / Wave3 > Flood / Flood2

Rage / Rage2 / Rage3 / Rage4 > Shock / Shock2 / Shock3 / Shock4

Wind / Wind2 / Wind3 / Wind4 > Aero / Aero2 / Aero3 / Aero4

Squall / Squal3 > Gale / Gale2

Rock / Rock2 / Rock3 / Rock4 > Stone / Stone2 / Stone3 / Stone4

Cura / Curaga / Curaja > Cure2 / Cure3 / Cure4

Holy / Holy2 > Dia / Dia2

Bhamut > Bahamt

Ice 2 / Ice 3 / Ice 4 > Ice2 / Ice3 / Ice4

Hail 2 / Hail 3 / Hail 4 > Hail2 / Hail3 / Hail4

I'm otherwise intensely enjoying everything that's been done so far; this FFVII NES mod is fantastic! 

[shulbocka]

I did some research, xttx, and it appears the game doesn't work in Nestopia. It should work in FCEUX though.

All the betas have worked on NestopiaX (on Xbox) up until the finished version, but that might be differently updated than the PC version. I tested the english translation patch from the dropbox link, and it worked, but patching the rom using the Advent Children patch didn't. It's definitely disconcerting. 

[haxSon]

This in my opinion is one of the best (if not <i>the</i> best) hacks I have seen the past couple years. Thanks for releasing the completed patch!

[mrrichard999]

All the betas have worked on NestopiaX (on Xbox) up until the finished version, but that might be differently updated than the PC version. I tested the english translation patch from the dropbox link, and it worked, but patching the rom using the Advent Children patch didn't. It's definitely disconcerting. 

Unfortunately because the mapper it has wont work on Mednefnx-NES on the Xbox either. Going to have to be a PC or other platform play.

[Blasteroid]

i waited to play this until you released it! i've not played very far, yet, but i expect this is what i'll be playing everynight for the next month.

the description of the potion says it heals 200, but when i use it i see a green text that says 500.

did anyone notice that the music that plays after the battle was won is from zelda II? =P

I did some research, xttx, and it appears the game doesn't work in Nestopia.

Nestopia 1.30 added mapper 163 support. if i recall correctly you can not use a patched file anymore, you must use the On-the-fly IPS Patching. I just tossed the unpatched ROM at it and it loads up just fine. Your IPS patches, I think, need to be the same name as the ROM and placed in the patch folder. You can change paths via the settings.

[Kiyoshi Aman]

- The spell names. Hoo boy, do I have some words about the spell names.

I know that naming the spells this way was Lindblum's decision, but there are a lot of spell names that I feel were poorly chosen. I have some suggestions to make them more consistent and powerful-sounding. I put them under a spoiler cut.
[...]
"Holy" is quite possibly the most questionable choice for the damaging light-elemental spells, since Holy is the name of an important plot device in FFVII. Simply calling it "Light" might suffice.

The Dia line is probably a better source of inspiration here.

[vivify93]

The Dia line is probably a better source of inspiration here.

Yeah, that's what I thought at first, too, but Dia has consistently been magic for damaging the undead only. But, and if I'm remembering right, you would have had the light-elemental damaging spell cast on you by enemies before you gain access to the actual Light materia. So I suppose there's no difference; I'll edit my previous post to include this.

[Spooniest]

I'd like a refresher on what specifically has been edited for space in the rom (as compared to the original PSX version)... Someday I'll land and have the chance to sit down with your work, Lugia...

[xttx]

i waited to play this until you released it! i've not played very far, yet, but i expect this is what i'll be playing everynight for the next month.

the description of the potion says it heals 200, but when i use it i see a green text that says 500.

did anyone notice that the music that plays after the battle was won is from zelda II? =P

Nestopia 1.30 added mapper 163 support. if i recall correctly you can not use a patched file anymore, you must use the On-the-fly IPS Patching. I just tossed the unpatched ROM at it and it loads up just fine. Your IPS patches, I think, need to be the same name as the ROM and placed in the patch folder. You can change paths via the settings.

yes i think soft patching does work for this on nestopia unless i did something wrong. can someone else confirm as well? I placed the ips file in the patches folder and even one in the directory to make sure and it still loaded up. I had the rom and ips file named the same thing.

[shulbocka]

A credible source on another forum is helping me get this working on NestopiaX, and has confirmed that soft patching does work for this on the PC version of Nestopia, but it didn't work for NestopiaX on my Xbox. PC users are indeed in luck.

[xttx]

when trying to load this into nestopia it throws this error in the nestopia logfile.

Cpu: warning, ISB opcode executed
Cpu: warning, LAX opcode executed
Cpu: warning, DCP opcode executed

can anyone help with this?

[Lugia2009]

Thanks for the support everyone! 



It is unfortunate that this game has such an unusual mapper that is not supported yet by so many NES emulators.  I'm really not sure why this version of the game isn't working on Nestopia.

- During the scene where the train security system discovers AVALANCHE's fake IDs, would it be possible to have one of the more fast-paced songs play to add a sense of danger? Maybe the battle music if another more suitable song isn't available.

That would be pretty cool, unfortunately, there's no event command to call music though...

Old name > New name
MdPotion > HiPotion
HiMega > Hi-Mega
HiEther > Hi-Ether

That'll be no problem.

I know that naming the spells this way was Lindblum's decision, but there are a lot of spell names that I feel were poorly chosen.

The -ra -aga and -aja were done by me, kind of a last minute decision.  But you're right, they were better with the 2, 3, and 4 at the ends.

GENERAL
Take out the -ra / -ga / -ja suffixes, and replace them with simple numbering. The suffixes are used in official FF translations post-1999, sure, but on some spells, it just looks awkward due to the 6-letter limit--Watrga, for example. On top of that, not all spells follow the modern-day FF suffixes. So we get Fire, Fira, Firaga, and Firaja, sure, but out of the blue, there's Blaze, Blaze2, Blaze3, and Blaze4? It just looks bad. Fire / Fire2 / Fire3 / Fire4 and Blaze / Blaze2 / Blaze3 / Blaze4 look a lot more professional.

WATER
Changing "Wave" to "Flood" would make the Wave line of spells sound a lot more fierce.

THUNDER
A better name for the Rage line would be Shock; it's a thunder-elemental spell in FFXI. "Rage", to me, sounds more like an alternate name for Berserk.

WIND
The "Wind" line has really no business being named as such. Aero is the same amount of letters and is the actual name official games have given the spell.

Squall is one of those spells that gets shortened in an ugly manner to make way for its higher-tiered brethren. (Squall, Squal2, etc.) "Gale" is a shorter name for it, and this way you get to avoid connotations with thunder-elemental spells--and the FFVIII protagonist. I would've suggested "Tornado", but there isn't enough room, and I'm trying to avoid abbreviations. (Trnado, Trndo2, etc.? Um, no please.)

EARTH
"Rock" is another spell that really shouldn't be named how it is. "Stone" is a single-target earth-elemental spell in the MMO Final Fantasies, and fits right in with the allotted space of 6 letters for spell names.

LIGHT
"Holy" is quite possibly the most questionable choice for the damaging light-elemental spells, since Holy is the name of an important plot device in FFVII.

EDIT: Though it's usually branded as a spell that only damages undead in the FF series, Dia would be a great name for these spells. Your team has it cast on them beforehand, and people would be able to recognize that it damages all types of foes. I had originally suggested calling it "Light."

I haven't gotten it yet, but if the materia that grants Cure and the light-elemental attack magic is called "Holy" materia, it should probably be called "Light" materia.

"Bhamut" looks terrible for an abbreviation. "Bahamt", if a six-letter shortening has to be used, looks a lot better.

Also, it looks like there's two entries for "Cura" (One by the water spells, one by the light spells) but "Wave2" is missing. Just a heads up in case something got named improperly.

ICE
For some reason, the Ice line and Hail line both have spaces between their names and their numbers, when they really shouldn't. So, for example, "Ice 2" and "Hail 4" should become "Ice2" and "Hail4".

Ok, I like these ideas.  I'll go ahead and make the changes.  Thanks

the description of the potion says it heals 200, but when i use it i see a green text that says 500.

Oops, I'll go ahead and fix that.

I'd like a refresher on what specifically has been edited for space in the rom (as compared to the original PSX version)... Someday I'll land and have the chance to sit down with your work, Lugia...

You mean what's been left out of the game that was present in the PS1 version?

[vivify93]

Lugia2009, did you also catch my realization of Cure2 and Cure3 being on the Wind and Water materias? Because I made some edits to that post adjusting for that personal discovery. Basically, Wave3 and Squal3 shouldn't be named as such, since there doesn't exist a Wave2 or Squal2. So when you rename them, they should probably be Flood2 and Gale2.

Thank you so much for this mod, and thanks for listening to my suggestions.

[zts24]

This is very awesome. Great work, what a big improvement. I gotta ask anyone know of a way to play this on my Ipod 4 all i get is black screen. Im guessing its due to the emulator compatibility.

[Midna]

I personally don't have a problem with the -ra -ga -ja suffixes and don't see why other people would. It's part of the FF spell name pattern.

[Spooniest]

You mean what's been left out of the game that was present in the PS1 version?

Precisely.

[vivify93]

I personally don't have a problem with the -ra -ga -ja suffixes and don't see why other people would. It's part of the FF spell name pattern.

Well, I don't have an actual issue with the new-age FF suffixes. Not only does it give the FF series their own unique brand of magic names, but the suffix system is pretty much more or less how it's always been done in Japan, ever since FFI on NES.

The problem with them being in FFVII NES is that there isn't enough room to fully display the majority of them without resorting to truncations that look, frankly, ugly. FFVII NES has the longest spell name allotment of the NES FFs, six letters, but it's not enough to spell out, for example, Waterga, Flarega, or even Tornado and Thunder, much less Tornadoga and Thundara.

I would be all for using suffixes over the numbering system any day, but not when it means Cloud has to cast "Tndoga" or "Thndra".

[Mirby]

Shouldn't the Earth elemental spells be Quake, not Stone? After all, the original game did have a Quake materia, and it still fits for the character limits.