ROM Hacks: FF4 Ultima v2022 Has Released!

[RHDNBot]

Update By: Lilyily

It's been a whole year since the last release, and what a year it has been!  Many people would look at a romhack like FF4 Ultima and think to themselves "What more can they possibly fit into this game?"  Multiple "final" versions later have answered that question.
 
And yet, the fantasy STILL isn't final!

What began four years ago as a discovery that Final Fantasy 2 on the SNES had a lot of removed features and, with the right set of skills, could be transformed into something almost unrecognizable from its Vanilla counterpart, FF4 Ultima is best described as a "deluxe" version of the base game.  However, with the amount of love and care put into this romhack that would be an understatement!  The enjoyable story with themes of redemption and sacrifice remains comfortingly familiar, but the experience built around it is fresh and fun.  The core FF4 story is all here, yet the romhack features expanded areas, new enemies and bosses, new items and equipment, an arsenal of new spells  and rebalanced characters.

From party member swapping to exciting new encounters, developers 8-Bit Fan and chillyfeez have brought a whole host of exciting new features to a timeless masterpiece and with this most recent edition continue to build upon a storied history of successful releases.  Notable new features in v2022 include:

-A full-featured bestiary, complete with descriptions!  Find them all by scanning each unique enemy!

-A new epic encounter with a classic final fantasy favorite that loves to hold grudges!

-Powerful new items, weapons, and spells for more gameplay options than ever before!

-A chilling new area to explore!

-Menu access to the big chocobo from anywhere!  No more full inventory woes!  Big chocobos around the world will now impart their wisdom if spoken to.

-Menu UI improvements for a better experience!

-A fan favorite joins the party for the first time in FF4 Ultima history!  Where does their allegiance truly lie?  Command their powerful, unique spells and abilities if you can manage to find and recruit them to your cause!

-Through a partnership with RetroAchievements.org, achievements are now a reality!  Collecting everything and exploring every inch of every map has never felt more rewarding!

All these additions AND more can now be experienced in Final Fantasy Ultima v2022!  On behalf of the Final Fantasy IV Ultima dev team, thank you for your continued support. At almost 35,000 downloads, so many people have enjoyed this labor of love. Here's to hitting 40k!

Credits:

Developers: 8-Bit Fan, chillyfeez

Achievements: RetroAchievements.org

And the many beta testers!  Thank you!

If you are curious about this project, please see the links below:

http://www.8bitfan.info/

https://discord.gg/4MqjwJt

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4134/

https://retroachievements.org/game/1072

RHDN Project Page

Relevant Link

[ff4tweak]

Bye 32k version, hello 2022 version!

The new bestiary looks great, every time I see the work done in this hack I wonder how is it even possible, great job guys. I am looking forward to read some of those hilarious descriptions prepared for us.

[wmacmonagle]

very impressed!WTG!  lets add White Horse with some kind of omen where Triton (Little Mermaid), has to get Sebastian's Bless to ride instead of seahorse? =)

A++++ on games reviews!!!

cya bud,
wmac

[8.bit.fan]

Bye 32k version, hello 2022 version!

The new bestiary looks great, every time I see the work done in this hack I wonder how is it even possible, great job guys. I am looking forward to read some of those hilarious descriptions prepared for us.

Hi ff4tweak!

Thanks for the kind words!
Hope you'll check it out and enjoy the hack! And feel free to reach out to us on the FF4Ultima discord if you have any questions and/or comments!

Cheers!

8.bit.fan

[StratosVX]

I'm definitely one of those that keeps wondering how you can possibly fit more into the game. I loved past versions of this hack and I really look forward to trying this version. Thanks for the update!

[8.bit.fan]

I'm definitely one of those that keeps wondering how you can possibly fit more into the game. I loved past versions of this hack and I really look forward to trying this version. Thanks for the update!

Hi StratosVX!

Thank you for your kind words!! 
That's awesome to hear! Hope you'll enjoy this one even more!
Feel free to reach out as well if you have any questions and/or comments!!

Cheers!! 

8.bit.fan

[Chaud]

The only sad thing about this is that I am slow to play, so whenever I am relatively advanced in the game, a new patch comes along that makes me want to start over from scratch.

Great job as always! 

[T92]

I'll play this after Live a Live.

Thanks. 

[8.bit.fan]

The only sad thing about this is that I am slow to play, so whenever I am relatively advanced in the game, a new patch comes along that makes me want to start over from scratch.

Great job as always! 

Hi Chaud!

Barring any critical bug fixes, this will be the version to play for the foreseeable future.
Hope you'll enjoy it and feel free to reach out if you have any questions or comments! 

Cheers!!

I'll play this after Live a Live.

Thanks. 

Hi A29!

Sounds great and hope you'll enjoy it!
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or comments! 

Cheers!!

8.bit.fan

[[email protected]]

Barring any critical bug fixes, this will be the version to play for the foreseeable future.
Hope you'll enjoy it and feel free to reach out if you have any questions or comments! 

Have these things been addressed in the latest version (from a review):

"There are also some points where it is clear this is not done by a game designer, and it takes away from the experience significantly. For one, Yang is utterly broken. With midgame weapons, he does 4x more damage than Cecil with the Crystal Sword. Some landscape was edited for seemingly the sole purpose of increasing walking distance by forcing you to land airship farther away, which didn't add anything but made for tedious navigation and very unnatural looking world edits. Very bizarre choices. Some new monsters are well designed, but very overshadowed by some that are horribly designed. Take one called "movers", which appear in some chests late game and thus cannot be run from. Appearing in groups of three, each with almost the max HP the game allows for an enemy, triple that of the late game Behemoth, they take forever to kill. Which would be ok, but unless they are killed at the same time, they revive the others at full HP. Ok, tedious, but would be manageable even at crazy high HP levels, but then throw in that damage is bugged so you can't keep track in your head (elemental effects sometimes stack unseen damage). So just use scan spell to monitor? Nope, can't do that, if you cast a spell on them they spam one hit kills called "laser". Ok, so use bahamut over and over to drop HP evenly since summons bypass the spell counters? Maybe, but sometimes one of the three is immune to all non physical damage and it misses. Gale (previously "weak") doesn't work either. This is the type of stuff you have to deal with, it's not that it's difficult, it's just annoying. I spent an hour fighting them before turning it off while still alive. That is pretty unacceptable for a game that is designed to be completed in 12-15 hours for a random enemy to take an hour to kill. There are more examples of bad game design that you'll have to endure."

[nest0r1]

How do you access the NG+ in this game?

[thr]

How do you access the NG+ in this game?

NG+ is unlocked after beating the game once.