SEIKEN DENSETSU 3 (aka Trials of Mana) HACKS DISCUSSIONThis is the thread for Seiken Densetsu 3 hacks for SNES. Most of the links are patches by me, but I'm willing to put others' works, as long as they are compatible with my hacks (if they're not, then I'm willing to work with you to make them compatible). I created this thread, because I've been getting similar questions from multiple people, and I felt that this is a great way share information. Feel free to talk about anything SD3 related, including other people's works. I'll be updating this particular post, whenever I feel that there's a change that I need to address to everyone. Everything listed below is compatible with each other.
Better Monsters and Maps, by hmsong
Better Starting Stats, by hmsong
Black Rabite, by hmsong
Class Balance + No Skill Counter, by hmsong
- You have an option to either use No Skill Counter or not use it.
Gemstone Valley Dorian Bug Fix, by hmsong
- This won't be necessary if you use either Better Monsters patch or praetarius5018's Bugfix patch.
Item Shop Changes, by hmsong
Less Grinding, by hmsong
- Compatible with Better Monsters patch and Class Balance patch. However, apply them first, then apply the Less Grinding patch.
Useful Energy Ball, by hmsong
- Compatible with Class Balance patch. However, apply the Balance patches first, then apply the Useful Energy Ball patch.
- If you are using praetarius5018's bugfix patch, then I suggest you to
NOT use this Useful Energy Ball patch, since his bugfix patch fixes the critical hit bug, and the Useful Energy Ball will overwrite that.
Evade Changes, by hmsong
- Praetarius5018's bugfix patch is REQUIRED for this patch to have any effect. Also, apply this AFTER applying the bugfix patch first.
- Compatible with Better Monsters patch and Less Grinding patch. However, apply them first, then apply the Evade Changes patch. If all are applied, the order goes:
1. Bugfix.
2. Better Monsters.
3. Less Grinding.
4. Evade Changes.
Bugfix Edition, by praetarius5018
- Compatible with Seiken Densetsu 3 (J) and fan translation, but not with the official Trials of Mana (U).
Hues of Mana, by Red Soul
Trials of Mana Sample Swap, by _aitchFactor
Applying Notes (regarding hmsong's hacks):
- This is specifically for No Header ROM. If you only have a Headered ROM, then you can use TUSH to remove the header.
- Compatible with the English NCorlett-translation patch. But again, you need a No Header ROM. If you are using the translation patch from Romhacking.net, then you need to apply the translation to a Headered ROM first, then use TUSH to remove the header. And then you can apply these patches. It might be easier to find the English version of No Header ROM.
- Compatible with the new Trials of Mana ROM, released in 2019. But again, you need a No Header ROM.
- Compatible with praetarius5018's bugfix patch. However, some of my patches (ex: Class Balance, Better Monster, Less Grinding) overwrite some minor things from the bugfix patch.
I got multiple questions about the No Header ROM (and about the compatibility with the 3-player hack, in which case is NOT compatible due to it being for Headered ROM), so I'm gonna post a link to the SD3/ToM ROM site. It has the pre-patched 3-player No Header ROM, so use that, if you desire so.
MOD EDIT: No ROM links. It's 2021, people know how to find SNES ROMs themselves. People interested in SNES hacks would be advised to learn about the very easy ways of applying patches and learning how to add/remove headers themselves.
My Edit: Whoops. I didn't know you can't post links to ROM sites. My bad. Won't happen again. In any case, just use google, "Seiken Densetsu 3 Rom 3 player", and you should be able to find the pre-patched 3-player No Header ROM in one of the sites.
I'd also like to share information about the game. Here is some not-so-obvious information regarding the original game:
- Many of the enemies and bosses will counterattack with powerful skills if you hurt them with screen-freezing skills (magic, techs, items, etc). This threw off the balance for many characters/classes.
- AntiMagic not only cancels the magic buff/debuffs (stat change, sabers, barriers, etc), but it also erases the target's natural element absorb/reflect. That means that if you use AntiMagic on an enemy that normally absorb Fire, it will now receive normal damage from Fire. However, AntiMagic does not erase element immunity/resist/weakness.
- Saber magics not only give melee attacks the element, it also gives the melee power +10%. It also overwrites whatever power buff/debuff you had earlier. So if you use Power Up (+33%), then use a Saber magic, you will only get +10%. But if you use the Saber magic first, then use Power Up, then you will get both the element effect and +33%.
- Both Poison Breath and Fire Breath look like they do Tree and Fire damage respectively, but they both do Non-Elemental damage.
- Demon Breath looks like it does Dark damage, but it actually does Fire damage.
- Cutter Missile and Axe Bomber look like they do Fire damage, but they actually do Non-Elemental damage.
- Many of the God-Beast unique skills (ex: Ice Cradle, Air Slasher, Hell Cross, etc) are actually Non-Elemental. That means, they don't get power up from particular days. Still, there are plenty of skills that have elements, so it's still wise to avoid fighting them on their elemental day.
- Counter Magic reflects all spells/skills that does elemental damage. That means, it's able to reflect back things like Rocket Launcher and Jutsus, but not Carlie/Lise's summons. In addition, it wont' be able to reflect the skills that don't do damage, like Heal Light, Sabers, or any of the buff/debuffs.
Here is some bug information regarding the original game:
- When a character/enemy casts a spell, the casting time still moves while paused. This can be abused to erase the casting time. On the other hand, this can also work against you, such as when the enemy is casting, or you use TransShape (its time still runs during the pause).
- Agility raises both ACC and EVA, but the very concept of ACC and EVA doesn't work. That means, Duran's shields and Speed Up/Down spells have NO EFFECT on anything. Having said that, Agility affects the strengths of numerous skills, such as throw items (Dart, Hand Axe, etc) and skills (Silver Dart, Axe Bomber, etc). It also slows down the chest trap wheel spinning speed (and how quickly it stops the wheel).
- Luck is supposed to raise the Critical Hit rate, but the very concept of Critical Hit doesn't work. Naturally, skills that raise critical hits, i.e Energy Ball (and its relative items) has NO EFFECT on anything. Luck stat however still affects how many traps are on the chest trap wheel.
- A character/enemy can only be inflicted with ONE status effect (SE). So if a character is affected by one SE but attacked with an attack that causes another SE, then the first SE will be overwritten by the second SE.
- There are skills that are supposed to cause Burn SE (Blaze Wall, Fire Breath, and Demon Breath), but Burn SE was never implemented, so if you use those skills on an enemy, it will instead overwrite whatever SE it had with the non-existent Burn SE (which is equivalent to curing SE).
- When bosses use Counter Magic (i.e. Gildervine and Mispolm), it doesn't reflect all elements. Specifically, it reflects only Air, Water, and Fire elemental attacks; it does not reflect Earth, Light, Dark, and Tree elemental attacks.
- Skills/items that affect Magic Effectiveness (ex: Mind Up, Fire Jutsu) affect Magic Defense, even more than the skills that only affect Magic Defense (ex: Magic Shield). Big thanks goes to soul_knight for this information.
Naturally, some of these were changed in my patches or praetarius5018's bugfix patch. Read the attached documents of the hacks for details.
Feel free to post some strategies (more for post-hacks). I'll update this section if the suggested strategy is practical. I won't post the absurdly powerful game-breaking bugs though (ex: eliminating the cast by pausing the game). Some of the strategies only work after certain hacks above are applied. I'll start off:
- If one of your characters is about to die (HP is fluctuating between 0 and 1), then immediately pause the game and have that character use a spell. While that character is casting, use a recovery item (ex: Round Drop) on him to give him a second chance at life. This can still fail though, but it is better than 0%.
- An enemy/character can only be affected by one SE, so if you're affected by Silence SE, then you can use the Chibikko Hammer to overwrite the Silence SE with Chibikko SE, then use the Chibikko Hammer again to cure the Chibikko SE. Chibikko Hammer is not only infinite usage, but it can multi-target, so this has many uses.
- You generally want to start the boss battle by casting Lunatic (or Moon Coin) on the boss. It lowers boss's Max HP by 20%, which means you just instantly did 20% of its HP damage (against Black Rabite, that's 10,000+ damage!). Of course, this only applies when the boss's HP is at full health. Using Lunatic after doing a lot of damage is meaningless.
- Black Rabite is tough, and one of the reasons that it's so tough is because it uses powerful spell combo when it's HP gets below 50%, then uses dark spells on itself to get its HP to above 50%. And when you damage it again and the HP goes below 50% HP again, it'll repeat the same spell combo pattern. The most effective way to get past its deadly combo is to use AntiMagic (or Specter's Eye), so that it can't recover its HP with dark magic. This all seems intentional by the the devs, as Specter's Eye was something you can buy in the Black Market, and instead of using normal Heal Light, it indirectly heals itself with dark magic. Very clever.
- DeathSpell and Turn Undead seem like excellent spells, as they can do 999 damage (esp DeathSpell). However, they're not as good as they seem, because they cannot do any damage against any enemy above your level. And by the time you get your 2nd class change, you'll pretty much be outleveled for the most parts of the game. Of course, if you grind, then you'll get to actually use those spells effectively, but in order to grind, you need to fight a lot, and for the majority of those fights, those spells will be useless. Still, if you level grind to the appropriate level, then you can use those against the bosses.
- Use Aura Wave to increase the Tech gauge of a MT Lv2/3 Tech character, then immediately have the character use the Lv2/3 tech to do a lot of damage to all enemies on the screen. While the spell is being casted, you can do some damage to tough enemies, and the Lv2/3 tech will finish them off.
- If you want to make your characters' EXP the same, then you can use Gunpowder to kill one of the allies, then have the lower EXP character kill the enemies to even the EXP.
- Against a tough group of normal enemies (ex: werewolves), use the Magic Seed to freeze all enemies, then quickly kill the tough enemies with the normal melee attacks, before they get the chance to counter you with powerful attacks. Having said that, some enemies are naturally immune to Freeze SE, while others are temporarily immune to Freeze SE due to them in the middle of casting a skill. Still, it's a viable (and maybe a bit expensive) strategy that works throughout the entire game.
- Against Shadowzeros, use the Luna Statue x2 during the Luna Day to quickly finish them off -- this will not trigger the transformation, unless Shadowzeros are already damaged. Other spells can work too, but it's a bit risky, because they either do too little damage or do too much damage (which triggers the transformation).
If you have any suggestions or find errors, feel free to post them here. My skills are limited (I only have extremely basic understandings of hacks), but I might be able to work out a solution on some things.
If you want to PM me, then you can do so
here. If the link doesn't work, then you can click my name, then click the name next to "Forum Account", then click "Send PM").
Topic: Seiken Densetsu 3 (aka Trials of Mana) Hacks Discussion (Read 78569 times)