ROM Hacks: Skies of Arcadia: Legends Maeson Released

[Maeson]

I see. I'm happy that you're having a mostly positive experience!

Your criticism about the MP increasing items is... Pretty legit, I think. I personally never abused it through my test plays, but when I stop and think about it, the opportunity is there, and it is there very soon... I need to think what I do about it, but you're right nonetheless.

I'll see what I do about that fish when I upgrade the hack's RHDN page. I'll also look into the typos. I would be glad if you could tell me which you saw.

English is not my language; so it was going to happen somewhere, lol.

[nl255]

I have tried to apply the alternative patch to the game iso but all I get is a ~7MB output file.  Also, are saved games (memcard saves, not save states) from the 1.0 version of the patch compatible with the 1.1 patch?

[Maeson]

...A 7MB output file? Weird, I just tried to patch a clean ISO with the alternative patch using Xdelta GUI, and it gave me a full GC image that works (I even tried it on my Wii).

If you're having problems with the links here, I ask you to please go to the hack's RHDN page as it has been updated,  I submitted redone patches early today. I'll remove the links posted here just in case. I expected it to take longer to be updated.

And yes, the save files are compatible, the only change is on one boss fight.

[Stormi2033]

Hey , I am new here , but Meason i love your (Patch) for SOA .

But I found an another Bug , at the end of the fight with Daikokuya , you don`t get the Beta Item "expensive wheel" .

I tested  the 1.1 Patch on the Dolphin 4.0 and Dolphin 5.0 emulator (from the site de.dolphin-emu.org).

Also tested out if the Boss Fight with Tortigar functions with the 1.1 Patch, it does not work,
only works with the alternative version of the 1.1  Patch .
You are right with the minions. They must be the reason for the  bug on the Dolphin Emulator.

I hope that helps.

Thanks for your awesome work and have a nice break before your new project.

[Maeson]

So Dolphin doesn't like the Golem-like monsters...

Well, at least removing them solves the problem, great!  Thank you for telling me this! I was kinda bummed out when that happened.

I'll make Tortigar slightly more powerful to compensate. I hope that's the only fight where Dolphin acts different than playing with real hardware. I'll also rename the Alternative Patch the "Dolphin Patch" to be easier to understand.

I'll also get to fix the expensive wheel thing, expect it to be fixed today as I see the problem, it has 2 items to drop, but they can only drop 1. I'll put the Wheel to be dropped via one of the minions (As you'll have to defeat at least one, you'll get it every time).

Thank you for everything. Also I'm glad that you're enjoying this.

Edit:

Okay, here i am again. I updated the patches (Now with Wii and Dolphin at the end) and the readme to explain all this.

Daikokuya fight now works like this:

Daikokuya himself drops Dragon Deck
Youjin drops Expensive wheel
Boo drops Pharax Idol

Battles have a max of 3 items per fight and only 1 item per enemy (And because Daikokuya gave Dragon Deck 100% of the time, Expensive Wheel wouldn't appear at all). This way you would be able to get all 3. You could get multiple Expensive Wheels or Pharax Idols depending on Daikokuya summoning more, but one is decorative and the other doesn't do anything, so there's no problem.

I also corrected a couple of descriptions.

Here's a temporal link for the 1.2 version Dolphin. I'll test it on my end to see if the Daikokuya fight gives all the items and if it works I'll submit it to RHDN.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y0wabwhkkckajr2/SOAL%20Maeson%20mod%201-2.rar?dl=0

Again, thank you for pointing all that to me. Mainly that the alternative patch worked out fine, which was my biggest "fear".

Edit 2: Yeah, I just defeated Daikokuya on my Wii (The bastard keep using Golden Flurry and Eternes, at least was helpful to test more the Risan changes, now it's more reliable) using the Dolphin patch to test, and got all three items. So, done!

What I'm thinking is that, it's kind of silly to make two entire patches for just one change in a boss fight (I Hope is just one). If there are no more bugs on Dolphin like the one in the Tortigar fight (I think it was caused because the field of battle was very small, but again, on a real Wii that didn't happen), I guess I'll make the Dolphin patch the standard and only patch.

I'll have to wait for feedback on how it plays on Dolphin...

[Stormi2033]

Awesome , I tested Patch 1.2 .

The fight against Tortoise works just fine and I also got all of the three Items from the Daikokuya fight.

Expensive Wheel , Dragon Deck and Pharax Idol. So that works 100 %. I played it on Dolphin 5.0.

I´m nearly done with the game again ( next step is Soltis) and I will also look up for the other Beta Items and "possible bugs"  .


I inform you , if something happens. So stay tuned.

For a little SOA laugh  ,check this two Youtube vids out :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iShkwEjP1eY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbfyhCyDbmo

Thank you again Maeson, for your awesome work ! 

[Maeson]

I'm glad everything is okay. I always laugh when Drachma appears and drops that bomb to Belleza. At least she takes it well.

I had some problems with Nintendont, but seems it was a bad update attempt. Now I got it working again.

[Stormi2033]

What a shame,

that the new version does not work on the Wii, but keep going. 

Sooner or later, you will program the perfect version. 

The name for SoA shoul be: Skies of Arcadia Legends remastered by Maeson

or like: Skies of Arcadia The legend of Maeson ^^ 

[Maeson]

The reasons why just says "Maeson" at the end is simple:

1, I'm bad at naming these things, and I don't want to put names that sound too grand... Unless if someday I make a spoof hack, then I'll go as campy as I can.

2 I would like my hacks to share the same name, because that would make it easier to recognize. After all, I did that on the FF3j hack because I needed to put something, and that's how I ended naming other projects I have unfinished (Like a Shining Force 2 hack to name one example). Most of what I do is centered around the gameplay without changing story, so I don't think it deserves a cool subtitle.

Also I find amusing a series of hacks named after the same douche that you could curse at when you die or something.

EDIT:

Okay, these last few days have been quite tiring. I've been having problems with my setup and I couldn't work properly. Thankfully everything seems to be ok right now. But I don't think that matters to anyone.

I will update the RHDN page with the 1.2 Universal patch (Which fixes the Daikokuya drop oversight) and will work for both Wii and Dolphin.

I will also include a 1.3 Patch. I edited the ammounts of Magic Exp. character need to gain new spells, as I find kind of ridiculous the ammounts of experience you need in a few cases (Even more if you're named Drachma. I mean, I get it, he's "bad" at magic, but that doesn't mean you have to grind FOUR TIMES as much as other character to get the same spells when he's already having poor Will and MP).

The 1.3 Patch will NOT be compatible with earlier saves because of the difference in the ammounts of Magic EXP. That's the only change, though, nothing more, nothing else. You would need to star a new game for this.

That's why I'll include both 1.2 and 1.3, so everyone can finish their actual playthroughs with no problem.

[thunderstorm910]

Hi I was wondering if any of you have played Tortigar's Hard Mode hack of the game and would care to compare it to this one?
I finished his hack this spring and found it to be very difficult, truly a fresh take on the game. And so I was wondering if Maeson's hack has the same difficulty?

Here's a link to Tortigar's hack if case you're wondering where it is: http://www.esoarcadia.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=36

I would be very interested in playing Maeson's version of the game in the future, if the difficulty matches Tortigar's.

[Maeson]

I have not played Tortigar's hack, I only saw the video he uploaded to youtube long ago. I didn't know it's existence until I was already messing with the game on my own. Reading the list of changes, I think both hacks would play in a very different way.

As far as I can see, my hack wont be the same type of "hard" as Tortigar's, and it never was my intention to make it that way. What I wanted was to add variety and a little more freedom in battles, while improving the low difficulty of the original to a more interesting level without making it the main point of my hack.

Tortigar's hack seems to focus on what people already spammed during normal gameplay, Justice Shield, Delta Shield, Cutlass Wrath, boost stats through seeds, and make the difficulty around that...

On the other hand, my hack tries to give more importance to magic, so each character can fulfill different roles depending on the situation, and things like Justice Shield got a little nerf (costing more AP), for example.

Even then I don't think my hack goes that far into difficulty as Tortigar's could

So, If you come to my hack expecting the same thing as Tortigar's hack, I seriously think you'll be disappointed.

EDIT:

Another big difference that I'm thinking about is items, unless it's not stated in the features list. I've changed most of them, most important of all the healing items.

In the original game it was really easy to ignore healing magic in favor of spamming items, and if in Tortigar's hack they are the same as vanilla, probably it's easy to spam them too. In my hack healing items are nerfed, to the point that you need to learn magic to keep you up to shape, and you should learn magic with different characters to be prepared if something goes bad.

Also I made fish way more useful, and fishing is a great way to heal yourself out of battles.

[thunderstorm910]

I have not played Tortigar's hack, I only saw the video he uploaded to youtube long ago. I didn't know it's existence until I was already messing with the game on my own. Reading the list of changes, I think both hacks would play in a very different way.

As far as I can see, my hack wont be the same type of "hard" as Tortigar's, and it never was my intention to make it that way. What I wanted was to add variety and a little more freedom in battles, while improving the low difficulty of the original to a more interesting level without making it the main point of my hack.

Tortigar's hack seems to focus on what people already spammed during normal gameplay, Justice Shield, Delta Shield, Cutlass Wrath, boost stats through seeds, and make the difficulty around that...

On the other hand, my hack tries to give more importance to magic, so each character can fulfill different roles depending on the situation, and things like Justice Shield got a little nerf (costing more AP), for example.

Even then I don't think my hack goes that far into difficulty as Tortigar's could

So, If you come to my hack expecting the same thing as Tortigar's hack, I seriously think you'll be disappointed.

EDIT:

Another big difference that I'm thinking about is items, unless it's not stated in the features list. I've changed most of them, most important of all the healing items.

In the original game it was really easy to ignore healing magic in favor of spamming items, and if in Tortigar's hack they are the same as vanilla, probably it's easy to spam them too. In my hack healing items are nerfed, to the point that you need to learn magic to keep you up to shape, and you should learn magic with different characters to be prepared if something goes bad.

Also I made fish way more useful, and fishing is a great way to heal yourself out of battles.

Awesome. These changes sound really cool, and would affect the streamlined gameplay that Skies becomes after a while, in a positive way! (justice shield -> increm -> pirate's wrath etc.)
Would you consider making a Hard-mode for your hack, so that people who are looking for a more of an extreme challenge can get that from your version of the game?

Thanks

[Maeson]

Well, my hack bumps up the difficulty compared to the original game, it just that probably isn't as extreme as Tortigar's hack.

I could make an alternate version with stronger enemies, but I really can't bring myself to go back to hack this and test the entire game again, I'm pretty burnt out. Maybe in the future.

[thunderstorm910]

Well, my hack bumps up the difficulty compared to the original game, it just that probably isn't as extreme as Tortigar's hack.

I could make an alternate version with stronger enemies, but I really can't bring myself to go back to hack this and test the entire game again, I'm pretty burnt out. Maybe in the future.

Cool, man. I'll definitely check out your hack in the future tho. 

[nl255]

Well having played through most of the game with your hack (v1.1/1.2) it definitely improved things in most cases.  Here is what I noticed.

1.  The first boss was nearly impossible and pretty much a pure luck based mission even with both characters knowing sacri, mostly because of extremely limited restoration items and no way to rest and heal up, thus you need to only fight a bare minimum of battles (just barely enough to learn the sacri spell) if you want to have enough resources left over to even a chance of beating the boss.  Fortunately that is the only super hard point.

2.  Although the first boss fight is extremely hard, some of the other early game bosses are actually easier in some ways.  Especially the

Spoiler

executioner

[close]

, given how easy it is to get the sacrum spell early on.

3.  Due to increased cost of justice/delta shield, getting 4x silvite rings ASAP is a must, definitely before fighting

Spoiler

Piastol

[close]

.

[Maeson]

Hmm. I could make the first boss less of a threat, for sure. In my test playthroughs I didn't have a problem, but of course, once you play something enough times, things get "easier" I suppose...

About the executioner, I could try to make the battle harder. I guess it feels less of a theart compared to the blob just before it (Which is easy to see for me).

About the Justice Shield/Delta Shied, that was intended. In my point of view, they are too good for what they cost, and is very easy to spam them in vanilla.

That said I played the game without using them not even once to see if it was doable and I did just fine. instead of using them I was healing and removing statuses, it was more fun for me to play without them, actually. I also played the game with accessories to protect me against status effects and without them to be sure it was beatable either way.

I'll take a look at the two first points later today.

Thanks for your feedback!

[jmjohnson85]

Well having played through most of the game with your hack (v1.1/1.2) it definitely improved things in most cases.  Here is what I noticed.

1.  The first boss was nearly impossible and pretty much a pure luck based mission even with both characters knowing sacri, mostly because of extremely limited restoration items and no way to rest and heal up, thus you need to only fight a bare minimum of battles (just barely enough to learn the sacri spell) if you want to have enough resources left over to even a chance of beating the boss.  Fortunately that is the only super hard point.

2.  Although the first boss fight is extremely hard, some of the other early game bosses are actually easier in some ways.

I'm in total agreement here, especially on point #1.

[dukejp]

Hi. I want to test your hack in the Pal spanish version, but i cant find the pal version, only the ntsc 1.4 in the RHDN hack page.
And i have another question: the Pal to 60hz patch, sync up the video to 60hz, thats ok, but the audio? I remember many patchs of the psx era, pal to ntsc, syncs the video but the audio still have 50hz speed, causing a desynchronization between the audio and video.  In fact, playing PAL converted SOA in my NTSC Dreamcast years ago i have this problem. The more long the in game scene, the more lags the audio.
Thank you for your hard work.

[Imaynotbehere4long]

I started playing this patch recently as my first run of Skies of Arcadia. I just made it to the Pirate Island, and Erinn the Item Merchant told me that healing crystals recover HP anytime and anyplace "unlike spells that require MP." However, I can totally use Sacri outside of battle. Was this a mistake in the original game, a mistake with your redone scripts, or do healing spells have restrictions that I'm not yet aware of?

Also, since this is my first experience with any Skies of Arcadia, I'll try to keep you updated on how the patch translates for one's first experience. So far, the only other thing I'd like to point out is that the extra enemies added to the first boss (Antonio) are kinda pointless since the player can just Pyri them to death before they can do anything. With that said, the boss itself was still tough; I could beat it on my first try, but I had to reset a few times before I could beat it without either of my party members dying (I basically had to waste a Sacri crystal when one of them had ~300 HP on the off chance the boss used that lightning attack). With that said, I enjoy these more challenging RPGs, so I don't think too much should be changed about this fight (if anything).

[dukejp]

I started playing this patch recently as my first run of Skies of Arcadia. I just made it to the Pirate Island, and Erinn the Item Merchant told me that healing crystals recover HP anytime and anyplace "unlike spells that require MP." However, I can totally use Sacri outside of battle. Was this a mistake in the original game, a mistake with your redone scripts, or do healing spells have restrictions that I'm not yet aware of?

Erin says that because the healing crystals DO NOT require mp to use (thats is the diference). Its not a error: Erin just establishes the difference between crystals and spells.