This one caught my eye, and I had to give it a shot. This hack was really well-made, and the companion guide that came with it was a lot of help.

One thing I have to really give the author credit for is the workarounds in place. IE, having the ship able to dock on any shore might have made the trip to Sarda’s cave instant, rather than double-dipping into Earth cave, but rivers were put in place to block access from the shore. Fences were put up around the Floater, preventing the old Warp trick to bypass the Ice Cave loop. Well played, author, well played…

Speaking of which, I have to mention how clever it is to have “unlockable” content. The download comes with a password-protected .rar file that contains the two optional classes, but you have to play through the game to find the password. Nice touch!

THE GOOD: Personally, I liked how the main cast was changed to an all-female party. It didn’t feel like some “hAsHtaG gIrL pOwEr!” kind of crap, but instead, I felt like I was commanding a team of anime babes, and that’s good stuff.

Heal pots now give 50HP out of battle instead of 30.

Some new tiles were added to give some of the dungeons more flavor. IE, columns around the water in the Sea Shrine, overworld mountains LOOK like mountains now, instead of fields of cottage cheese, the starry floor around the warp to Chaos’ lair. Also, the window separating your party from the enemy has been removed. I like it; it feels like a battlefield now.

The new classes work pretty well. The Thief no longer sucks, and I really liked the Archer. She ended up being my main damage on some bosses. I liked the Green Mage: how she looks like Rydia, her whips and her new spell set, though it came with the cost of having no direct offensive spells. The White Mage FINALLY held her own and did some respectable attacks instead of being the weakling with the hammer we all knew.

The one-turn-at-a-time mechanic was mind-blowing! At first I thought it’d slow everything down, but oh no, not at all! Normally, every battle in vanilla, it ALWAYS felt like the heroes just let the enemies go first, THEN attack. I hated that! No, this time, it feels far more balanced and satisfying. Your healer will always get the intended heal off when you get their turn, instead of hoping your target won’t die! I dunno how I’ll be able to go back after that.

THE MEH: While some things were uncensored, like the Medusas being topless (and Kary 2!), others were not, which I would’ve liked to have seen. Such as: the “clinics” being reverted back to churches, and the floor in Chaos’ room reverted to a hexagram. I could take or leave the Eye being reverted to a Beholder. All this seen here: https://tcrf.net/Final_Fantasy#Graphic_Changes

Not a big deal, but still neat: the famous Invisible Woman of Corneria was restored!

Most dialogue was left unchanged, which is fine, but there was one NPC in Ornac who says “Mohawk guy.” Odd. I was also confused by one NPC in Gaia who said something about a dragon in the forest to the south. Never figured out what he was talking about.

You still have to buy Heal potions one at a time, but you’re on an emulator. Hold turbo button and fast-forward.

THE BAD: This will be meh for some, but it’s a big deal to me: there are no graphical changes for your party when you class change! That was always my favorite thing in the original game, and I was really excited to see my Archer become a Ranger, Green Mage to a Green Wizard, etc. Was it a limitation for the hack that had to be done to make way for other features? I don’t know. Manall, if you’re reading this, I have experience with sprite editing, I’d be happy to try to make some myself!

The “Large” enemy type felt a bit too overdone. Large enemies take less weapon damage except from Archers’ arrows, which is why I said she was my main damage source against bosses, most of which are Large. Even a Fasted thief will still do single-digit damage to larges and bosses most of the time outside of lucky crits.

Chaos’ sprite was changed to be… just a white outline. Very strange. What prompted that change and why, I don’t know, but I felt underwhelmed.

BOTTOM LINE: The game is more challenging overall, but not ridiculously so like so many other hacks. I had a ton of fun, and I’m looking forward to another playthrough with the new classes I unlocked. If you’re a fan of the original, you’ll love it. 8.5/10