Rockman/Megaman 2 Easy Type (v0.8) (Looking for play testers and feedback)

[DragonMage98]

What is Easy Type?
Easy Type is my first serious attempt at creating a romhack. Instead of making one of those kaizo romhacks of Rockman/Megaman 2, I decided to go with a different approach; reducing the game's difficulty while rebalancing all of the weapons to a reasonable degree. As you can probably guess, I named it after Final Fantasy 4 Easy Type. I know it's a completely different game, but I think it carries the same message here. It's basically Rockman/Megaman 2 without the frustration, but still enjoyable for all skill levels.

Features:

• Certain sections in all levels have been adjusted to reduce difficulty
• Various 1ups and E Tanks are easier to reach without using any of the Items
• All weapons' energy consumption have been adjusted


• Atomic Fire consumes energy based on it's charge level, instead of 1, 6, and 10
• Air Shooter, Leaf Shield, Bubble Lead, Quick Boomerang, Metal Blade, Crash Bomber and Item 1 consume 1 weapon energy (Time Stopper, Items 2 and 3 have been left untouched)
• Various weapons have been adjusted


• Reduced the charge time for Atomic Fire
• You can now shoot up to 3 Bubble Lead on screen
• Significantly reduced the fuse duration for Crash Bomber to detonate
• All bosses weaknesses have been adjusted


• Mega Buster deals only 1 damage to all bosses (except Boobeam Trap)
• Originally in some cases, Atomic Fire charge levels 2 and 3 dealt the exact same amount of damage to certain bosses. Now Atomic Fire charge level 3 is guaranteed to deal the most damage out of the charge levels
• All bosses no longer get healed from certain weapons and get deflected instead. (The only exception to this is Time Stopper)
• Some bosses have new weaknesses (some of which are actually references to the Gameboy games and even the arcade titles)


• Quick Boomerang deals slightly more damage to Bubble Man
• Air Shooter deals more damage to Quick Man
• Time Stopper with full weapon energy can now one shot Quick Man, instead of dealing up to 14 damage
• Crash Bomber can be used against Metal Man
• Quick Boomerang deals more damage to Mecha Dragon
• And a few others (play the game to find out!)
• You can now use (almost) every weapon against the final boss! No need to rely on Bubble Lead just to beat the game
• Reduced damage received from physical contact from all bosses by half (Added in Version 0.6)
• Reduced damage received from bosses projectiles by half (work in progress, added in Version 0.7)
• Some slight quality of life improvements (Added in Version 0.7)


• Rockman/Megaman's health and weapon energy meters fill up much faster (including E tank usage)
• All bosses health meters fill up much faster when you begin fighting them
• Wily stage map path draws much faster
• Optional English .ips patches


• First English .ips patch contains an entirely new English script. The title screen's subtitle has been translated to Mystery of Dr. Wily. All names are based on their Japanese ones, like Rockman, Dr. Right, Clash Man, etc.
• Second English .ips patch is similar to the first English patch. Title screen is changed to Megaman 2. Although, the title screen doesn't have the Mystery of Dr. Wily subtitle and all names are based on their English versions (i.e Megaman, Dr. Light, Crash Man, etc.)
• Text being typed out in the weapon get screens have been sped up slightly (Added in Version 0.7)

More details such as credits and version history can be found in the readme.txt

Download link:
Rockman 2 Easy Type (Version 0.8 )

The romhack is near complete. I've done enough play testing on my end to share a stable play test release. I'm currently looking for some additional play testers and feedback before I officially release this. I'll give it about 2 weeks from now, just to give people enough time to thoroughly play test, give feedback and such. I'll try responding to any messages whenever I can.

[Red Soul]

Nice initiative. I always felt Mega Man 2 was overrated on the gameplay department (even though the music, visuals and Robot Master designs are so good and memorable). The vanilla difficulty is incredibly uneven and frustrating in a lot of places (Wily's fortress might be the most egregious case).

In general I feel the second trilogy has a better overall balance as far as difficulty goes (I mean, my favorite classic game is MM6, and I know that's a massively unpopular opinion).

I'll certainly give your patch a spin, although I can't promise to be a full on proper tester, I will be sure to share my input with you here.

[Pethronos]

Hi DragonMage98! Thanks for sharing your proposal.

Readme says that you must apply the Easy patch first, and then one of the translations, but that way, subtitle appears messed. Are you sure that English patches don't contain the Easy changes? Please check it. Greetings!

EDIT: Ok, subtitle is messed only in Rockman version. Megaman version is ok. Gonna test, mate

[DragonMage98]

Version 0.6 Update! Reduced damage received from physical contact from all bosses by half. I do plan on trying to reduce damage received from bosses' projectiles by half. Although, that might take a little bit of time to figure out where the damage is located in the rom.

Nice initiative. I always felt Mega Man 2 was overrated on the gameplay department (even though the music, visuals and Robot Master designs are so good and memorable). The vanilla difficulty is incredibly uneven and frustrating in a lot of places (Wily's fortress might be the most egregious case).

In general I feel the second trilogy has a better overall balance as far as difficulty goes (I mean, my favorite classic game is MM6, and I know that's a massively unpopular opinion).

I'll certainly give your patch a spin, although I can't promise to be a full on proper tester, I will be sure to share my input with you here.

I definitely agree in regards to MM2's vanilla difficulty being inconsistent. Whether it be some weapons being straight up broken or unnecessarily difficult level design. But yeah, play it as much as you'd like. (MM6 is actually one of my personal favourite classic Megaman games, too! It was actually the first Megaman game I beat as a kid)

Hi DragonMage98! Thanks for sharing your proposal.

Readme says that you must apply the Easy patch first, and then one of the translations, but that way, subtitle appears messed. Are you sure that English patches don't contain the Easy changes? Please check it. Greetings!

EDIT: Ok, subtitle is messed only in Rockman version. Megaman version is ok. Gonna test, mate

Hey there, sorry the readme caused some confusion. I updated the readme for a bit more clarity that all of the .ips patches contain the gameplay changes present in the main non-English patch (Rock Man 2 Easy Type.ips) You should be able to patch any .ips first onto a vanilla Rockman 2 rom. Hope that clears things up

[Red Soul]

Version 0.6 Update! Reduced damage received from physical contact from all bosses by half. I do plan on trying to reduce damage received from bosses' projectiles by half. Although, that might take a little bit of time to figure out where the damage is located in the rom.

Oh, that's such an excellent change! contact damage always annoyed me so much in Mega Man games. In the X games is a lot more tolerable because you get so much more mobility (though Zero's knockback is ridiculously exaggerated in X6, but that's beside the point).

In the classic series there is very little in the way of mobility and dodging, so that's a welcome change.

[DragonMage98]

Oh, that's such an excellent change! contact damage always annoyed me so much in Mega Man games. In the X games is a lot more tolerable because you get so much more mobility (though Zero's knockback is ridiculously exaggerated in X6, but that's beside the point).

In the classic series there is very little in the way of mobility and dodging, so that's a welcome change.

Yeah, that's very true! Especially since you can't slide in Mega Man 2. Reducing contact damage by half did make a difference in some fights, most notably Air Man. Originally, physical contact damage from Air Man was 8, which is a bit excessive for pre Wily stage boss fights. Whenever I was play testing Air Man using the Mega Buster (pre Version 0.6), dealing 1 damage against him while he dealt significantly more damage with physical contact resulted in a lot of close shaves and clutch moments. These fights should be a bit more fair and easier to deal with.
November 12, 2021, 01:10:21 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Okay, I'm currently working on reducing the damage received from bosses projectiles by half. It's currently a bit trickier to find compared to physical contact damage. I've been able to find the damage received from Metal Man and Wood Man's projectiles. Since they're located somewhat close to each other in the game's code, I have a vague idea where the other robot's projectile damage might be located. I want to say somewhere between 3EDA2 to 3EDAD in the ROM map?

Code Select Expand

3EDA2 to 3EDAD:
04 04 02 04 03* 04 04 04 00 08* 04* 04

3EDA6 = Damage received from Metal Man's Metal Blade
3EDAB = Damage received from Wood Man's Leaf Shield
3EDAC = Damage received from falling leaves in Wood Man fight

NOTE: This is based off of Rockman 2's ROM map

That's what I've been able to figure out so far. I'll keep you guys posted about my progress in the meanwhile. Feedback is always welcome.

EDIT: Version 0.7 update! Implemented some slight quality of life improvements: Megaman's health and weapon energy meters fill up much faster, all bosses health meters fill up much faster as well, Wily stage map path draws faster, and text being typed out in the weapon get screens have been sped up slightly in the English .ips patches. I've also included the version number in the .ips file names, just to avoid any confusion on which version you might have. (Should've done that in the first place, but now I have)
November 16, 2021, 03:17:00 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Version 0.8 update! Fixed a couple of things and improved some stages. I adjusted the text speed in the weapon get screens in the English .ips patches so they weren't too fast. I'm also considering officially releasing this romhack sometime next week. I'll still keep you posted until then

[DragonMage98]

Sorry for the radio silence, I got busy with some stuff in my personal life for a bit. Anyway, I fixed my first post to show actual screenshots correctly. I should've done imgur links instead of links from dropbox. I'll play test this a few more times and wait for some more feedback before I officially release it.