[FF8-PC Steam/Switch] FFVIII Crystal 1.5.6 / Remastered Version 1.1.6

  • Thread starter Thread starter Leythalknight
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Finished disk 1, found two more bugs related to Mug:
I can steal some mysterious 0 s from Iguions and 1 s from Seifer. I checked my inventory, I think nothing important and new appeared (maybe it was some regular item or actually nothing, I dont't know).

Now regarding the gameplay. I am playing this mod trying to keep your intended roles for characters (but leveling all GFs to see gameplay possibilities), here's my ranking:
1) Selphie. Absolute powerhouse. Thanks to buffed magic she has the highest damage currently. She deals more damage than others Limit Breaks (which were nerfed across the board) with a single cast. Thanks to that I basically relegated my other two characters (until Irvine) to simple draw-bots that stores magic for her and occasional item usage (with items having great restorative potency, better than restorative magic).
2) Irvine. Him coming up with Aura ability made me realize that this + Shots is the intended way to play him (and that I missed out on Quistis). Could never get a crit gun to work (I guess I need ridiculous amount of luck for that and endgame), but his highest Str gun rivals Selphie in terms of sheer power. It had a drawback that it sometimes miss, but you can easily circumveint this by using Shots so it will be guaranteed hit. It's really powerful. The only downside is that it requires a bit of setup and some Ammo.
3) Zell. For the first half of disk 1, when I didn't unlock str bonuses, my main method of doing damage with him was not attacking, but actually draw-casting magic from enemies. I think it's a little unfair to him that this method easily deals x3-x4 damage compared to his fists. Though later it normalized after some level ups and a new weapon, but still not on the level of Selphie and Irvine. Chakra is great ability, thanks to many statuses regular enemies will inflict you with (I loved that!).
4) Quistis. I unlocked Aura way too late for her, so didn't realize at first that Blue Magic supposed to be used in normal circumstances, and not at yellow health. For the danger of yellow health the damage of her initial spells is way too low, so I quickly benched her and only occasionally returned her in the party.
5) Squall. Maybe later with some level ups he will deal solid damage, but for now it's really low (even with Renzokuken). I can't bench him, so he serves healer role for now.
6) Rinoa. By the time she comes, my party is much stronger than enemies, can survive a lot of hits, so I don't have the need for white mage (like I had during early game and had to use Squall for that). Her Limit Break deals miniscule damage, she can't cast black magic, so she's like worse version of Squall (who is already one of the weakest). Items command alone basically negates her role for now.

Overall I enjoyed disk 1, but for me it was a bit on the easier side (though harder than vanilla, of course). Difficulty peaks at Ifrit and then gradually comes down and then spikes again at Edea. By the time I assembled full party I could just faceroll through every encounter. However fight with Ifrit is really tense and challenging, where every action matters. But all bosses after that are pushovers. I think the reward for defeating X-ATMO92 is a bit of letdown. You don't really need that item at the beginning of the game. Defensive stats (Vit, Spr) doesnt really matter, offensive play felt more rewarding.
For now, I like what direction you went with, but I think some elements of it are a bit undertuned and doesn't come to its full potential. Maybe some tinkering with numbers here and there will help early game to retain that challenging feel of Ifrit. However this is only after finishing disk 1 and not full game impression. I am gonna continue playing and posting my thoughts!
 
FFVIII Crystal 1.1

Download: https://mega.nz/file/ZDwVyKCL#xAaF2EXFgHzl48I5tZKzGlP2PXFnz1UKkaORttnY7ho

This update may be big enough to be called "2.0," but I think a lot of the changes are how things should've been from the start. Consider it a relaunch.

Some screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/sFzaH4y
(Taken using graphical mods by MCINDUS and FatedCourage)

Content:


A new battle has been added to the Winhill vase quest.

A new battle has been added to the mountain hideout in Dollet, accessible after the events at Trabia Garden.

A new battle has been added at the Sorceress Memorial, accessible after meeting the president of Esthar.

A new enemy has been added to Esthar, accessible after the Lunar Cry.

Unique AI has been added for the Thrustaevis battle triggered during the Obel Lake quest.


Characters/GFs:


- All characters' GF compatibility increased from 400 to 600.*
- All GFs' HP increased.
- Altered GF summon damage values.
- Chocoboy now sells Mog's Amulet for 20,000 gil at each of the first six Chocobo Forests.
- Added Tool-RF, which can be used to learn Elem/Status-related Junctions and the WHT/BLK refinement abilities from items.
- The final reward from the bone quest in Dollet has been changed to Tool-RF Scroll regardless of story progress.
- Aero, Bio, and Break have been moved from BLK-RF 2 to BLK-RF 1; removed Demi from BLK-RF 2, which was added erroneously.
- Esuna: St-Def-J changed to Poison, Darkness, Silence, Sleep, Confusion.
- Dispel: St-Def-J changed to Petrify, Silence, Berserk, Zombie, Slow, Stop, Curse, Drain.
- Devour: HP restoration added to buff-granting effects; altered some enemies' Devour effects.

- Squall/Bahamut:
- Ability unlocks changed as follows:
> Darkside: 35 --> 15
> Return Damage: 25 --> 35
> Cover: 15 --> 25
> Elem-Atk-J: 25 --> 20
> Str+20%: 25 --> 30
> Abilityx3: 30 --> 25
- Decreased Cover's AP requirement from 100 to 80.
- Mega Flare: Power lowered; now ignores Spr.
- Defend status now has a small effect on Crisis Level.
- Renzokuken: Attack power of each hit increased from 9 to 10.
- Lionheart (Limit): Attack power of each hit increased from 9 to 11.

Quistis/Shiva:
- Luck lowered; Weapons' crit bonus lowered.
- Spd lowered slightly.
- LV?Curse: Status attack power increased.
- Acid: Damage lowered.
- Micro Missiles: damage increased (3/16 at level 1, 3/8 at level 2, 1/2 at level 3, 3/4 at level 4).
- Gatling Gun: Crit Bonus increased.
- Ray Bomb: Damage increased.
- Homing Laser: Damage values changed; now ignores Spr.
- Shockwave Pulsar: Crisis Level 4 damage increased.

Zell/Ifrit:
- Altered Str curve to increase growth at earlier levels.
- Luck lowered.
- Spd growth curve changed; Spd maximum slightly lowered.
- Hit of all weapons lowered.
- Crit bonus of certain weapons lowered.
- Duel: Timer slightly increased; input sequences of Burning Rave, Meteor Barret, Different Beat, and My Final Heaven reduced to four buttons.
- Aurabolt: Now deals Vit-ignoring physical damage; element changed to Non-elemental; inflicts Sleep in addition to Darkness; status affliction power lowered.

Rinoa/Carbuncle:
- Angelo Reverse: Fully restores HP upon revival.
- Wishing Star: Power decreased from 22 to 17; now ignores Vit.
- Shooting Star: Hit increased to 255.

Selphie/Tonberry:
- Altered Spr growth to increase growth at earlier levels.
- The End: damage increased.
- Reverted removal of Wall from Slot.
- Altered Slot array for greater spell variety.

Irvine/Cactuar:
- Cactuar: Begins with St-Atk-J*.
- Valiant: Str and Hit increased.
- Ulysses: Crit Bonus increased from 5 to 8.
- Bismark: Str and Crit Bonus lowered.
- Exeter: Base power increased from 24 to 26; Crit Bonus increased from 0 to 12.
- Normal Ammo: Crit Bonus decreased from 20 to 10.
- Shotgun Ammo: Crit Bonus decreased from 15 to 10.
- Dark Ammo: Power decreased from 11 to 8; Crit Bonus decreased from 20 to 15; elemental damage modifier increased from +120% to +150%.
- Fire Ammo: Crit Bonus decreased from 15 to 10; elemental damage modifier increased from +120% to +125%.
- Pulse Ammo: Crit Bonus increased from 50 to 54.

*These changes will not be reflected in save files from previous versions.


Enemies:


- Starfall: Power lowered.
- Certain enemies will now use a more accurate version of the standard physical attack at high levels.
- Increased Evasion of certain enemies.
- Enemies in Lunatic Pandora (final) now use standard FFVIII level scaling.
- With the exception of those in the central part of the Galbadian continent, plateaus on the world map now hold enemies that scale up to level 60; the left half of Winter Island contains enemies that scale up to level 75; and Island Closest to Heaven enemies scale up to 90.
- Enemies on Island Closest to Hell now use standard level scaling + 10 levels and you cannot run away from them, but a "bonus" enemy has been added for winning these fights.
- Changes to level calculation in various battles/areas.
- Fixed battles with bad camera angles/enemy placements.

- Glacial Eye: Acts less frequently; uses Blizzard at low levels; won't use Petrify Stare if Blinded.
- Fastitocalon (Fake): Replaced.
- Caterchipillar: Increased weakness to fire and ice.
- T-Rexaur: Made immune to Confusion.
- Red Bat: Added Blizzard to mid-level Draw list and Blizzara to high-level Draw list.
- Bomb: No longer expands after using Protect on itself.
- Elite Soldier: Attacks less frequently.
- Wendigo: Spr increased.
- Grendel: Thunder Breath changed to a physical attack; Vit lowered and Spr increased; altered elemental resistances; added Confusion behavior; added an additional ability and associated text and AI.
- Elastoid: Str, Vit, and Spr lowered; Spd increased; can now use Dispel more intelligently and follow up with Beam Laser; Beam Laser's accuracy raised to 255; uses Reflect Beam at or below 40% HP; drop and mug rates increased; Slow added to Draw list.
- Chimera: Lowered HP and Vit; Fire/Thunder/Water absorption changed to 50% damage taken.
- Thrustaevis: Uses diving attack less often.
- Creeps: Added weakness to ice.
- G-Blue Mage: AI reworked; Storm Breath replaced with Eerie Sound Wave at high levels; recolored texture.
- Cactuar: EXP gain lowered; fixed issue causing graphical glitches in certain battles.
- Forbidden: Swapped effects of Double Sword and Thrust.
- Malboro: Eerie Sound Wave now deals magic-based percentage damage; Dissolving Acid is now a Spr-ignoring magic attack; Bad Breath now inflicts Zombie.
- Turtapod: Lowered Sleep and Doom resistance; now uses a defense-ignoring physical attack when Confused; added Reflect to its Draw list.
- Torama: Str increased; Blaster changed to a Spirit-ignoring Magic attack; now uses LV5 Death only when below 30% HP; added Confusion behavior.
- Elnoyle: HP, Str, Mag, and Spr lowered; Spd increased; takes increased damage from Fire and Holy; added invulnerability to Poison; status vulnerabilities and Draw list changed.
- Iron Giant: Thunder weakness reduced from 250% to 220%; Earth weakness reduced from 200% to 170%.
- Behemoth: Vit increased; Spr decreased; now has a chance to heal status ailments.

- Elvoret: Str increased; can now heal Blindness; now uses a critical attack at certain HP thresholds. This will also advance the variable which determines its action by 1, and the second critical attack will also increase its Spd for the rest of the battle.
- X-ATM092: Gains a slight Str boost after its HP has been reduced to 0 three times.
- Iguion: Increased HP; increased likelihood of using Haste; decreased Slow resistance.
- Base Leader: Lowered HP.
- Base Soldier: Increased HP.
- Raijin (1): Level lowered.
- Cerberus: Str lowered; Slow resistance lowered; no longer uses Quake; Doom replaced with Meltdown.
- Abaddon: Turtle Shell now drops from the boss as well as being a Mug item.
- Propagator (all): High level range changed from 40 to 34.
- Jumbo Cactuar: Spawns with fewer Cactuar kills; Str and Spr lowered.
- UFO?: Uses Abduct 1 turn sooner; increased EXP value from 60 to 250; added Meteor to Draw list.
- Raijin (final): Vit decreased; Spr increased.
- Fujin (final): Spr and Vit lowered.
- Seifer (final): Bloodfest's attack type reverted to standard physical attack; uses fewer attacks after Bloodfest, but is more likely to attack with a critical hit; Str and Spr lowered; Vit increased.
- Adel: HP lowered.
- Bahamut: Fixed an issue in which Bahamut would stop using Breath attacks; increased likelihood of shifting elemental weakness.
- Ultima Weapon: HP and Vit lowered.
- "Sorceress" (worm): Str, Vit, and Spr lowered.
- Red Giant: Made more susceptible to Slow.
- Omega Weapon: Lowered HP; can now counter the Shot command; removed Holy and Meteor from its Draw list and replaced them with Life and Zombie; made immune to Poison.
- Griever: New ability added; Dispel replaced with Light of Penance.
- Ultimecia (final): Dispel replaced with Light of Penance; Apocalypse strengthened; attack pattern changed.


Misc.:


- Updated the included info doc with information on
> new refine abilities
> new item locations
> new content
> Devour effects
> the number of empty slots each GF has as well as which abilities can be safely deleted without losing any functionality, for players who want to plan out how they distribute abilities.

Lowered the prices of the following shop items:
- Shell Stone (1500 --> 1250)
- Protect Stone (1500 --> 1250)
- Demolition Ammo (500 --> 350)
- AP Ammo (500 --> 350)
- Thief's Glove (20000 --> 10000)

- Corrected Steel Curtain's sell price.
- Raised the sell prices of Jet Engine to be in line with other ability-teaching items.
- Merchant's Hat changed to a one-time reward; restored ability to purchase Gysahl Greens from the Chicobo in Chocobo Sanctuary.
- Lowered Sleep status timer.
- Added/changed NPC dialogue to hint at new sidequests.
- Various other changes and fixes.

Future plans
- More new sidequests
- Reworks/additions for some enemies/bosses that still use vanilla or close-to-vanilla behavior
- Diabolos re-rework
- FFVIII Remastered version
- Reorganize the Item list

Also updated the OP with thanks to goodmorninpluto for the feedback.
 
Yo. this mod looks awesome and right up my alley. Thank you and I'm excited to try it.

But just a heads up for you or anyone else who is just coming back here for the first time in months - the Roses and Wine thread is gone because the creator was banned. So the readme instructions included with the mod needs to be fixe.

And since RaW is needed for this mod to work, the Ragnarok Rebalance creator has a link to it
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YU7dP4DkuPt7kCCmkdg8SKnliZ7ygfGD/view
 
Yo. this mod looks awesome and right up my alley. Thank you and I'm excited to try it.

But just a heads up for you or anyone else who is just coming back here for the first time in months - the Roses and Wine thread is gone because the creator was banned. So the readme instructions included with the mod needs to be fixe.

And since RaW is needed for this mod to work, the Ragnarok Rebalance creator has a link to it
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YU7dP4DkuPt7kCCmkdg8SKnliZ7ygfGD/view
Thanks, hope you enjoy it.

Oh, I didn't realize. I'll fix the link in the next update. Thanks.  :)
 
Thanks, hope you enjoy it.

Oh, I didn't realize. I'll fix the link in the next update. Thanks.  :)
No problem. I just got to Galbadia Garden and having fun with the changes you've made.

I do have a few questions, though.
1. Would you say the game gets harder later on?  Maybe I'm just overleveled (Squall is Level 16, Rinoa is Level 18 and Selphie is Level 21) but things haven't been too difficult for a while now.  if this was a normal RPG you'd expect challenge to increase with time but since it's a mod, you usually see a huge spike in difficulty right from the start ya know? I dunno, I don't think it would hurt to increase damage and HP a bit on the enemies.

2.Do you ever get more GFs? I've already "mastered" all the innate abilities on a few of my GF's. Or do you just learn more abilities for the GF's you have?

3. Do you ever get Abilityx3 or Abilityx4? In general I'm just curious how I learn more abilities for my GF's since right now I've been Drawing all my magic and am sorely missing Refine abilities.

EDIT:

Okay just about to do Sorceress Assassination and Shiva is gonna learn Blk Mag RF 1. I guess i's a Level thing, maybe? Oh well, sorry for the dumb, impatient question.

EDIT 2:

Also I kinda cheated with Rinoa using Aero against the Brothers... Aero is a White Magic spell in many FF games but I just got Blk Mag RF 1 and it's Black Magic here. My bad. I def won't do it again.

Edea was a pretty sweet boss fight.
 
Last edited:
Okay a couple big problems to cover in D-District Prison.
eueCUA0.png


If you put Berserk on this guy so he can't do Evil Eye while dying, he's just immortal and will keep fighting.

Also when I tried to Mug Wedge I got the "Stole 0's" problem reported on earlier.
 
No problem. I just got to Galbadia Garden and having fun with the changes you've made.

I do have a few questions, though.
1. Would you say the game gets harder later on?  Maybe I'm just overleveled (Squall is Level 16, Rinoa is Level 18 and Selphie is Level 21) but things haven't been too difficult for a while now.  if this was a normal RPG you'd expect challenge to increase with time but since it's a mod, you usually see a huge spike in difficulty right from the start ya know? I dunno, I don't think it would hurt to increase damage and HP a bit on the enemies.

2.Do you ever get more GFs? I've already "mastered" all the innate abilities on a few of my GF's. Or do you just learn more abilities for the GF's you have?

3. Do you ever get Abilityx3 or Abilityx4? In general I'm just curious how I learn more abilities for my GF's since right now I've been Drawing all my magic and am sorely missing Refine abilities.

EDIT:

Okay just about to do Sorceress Assassination and Shiva is gonna learn Blk Mag RF 1. I guess i's a Level thing, maybe? Oh well, sorry for the dumb, impatient question.

EDIT 2:

Also I kinda cheated with Rinoa using Aero against the Brothers... Aero is a White Magic spell in many FF games but I just got Blk Mag RF 1 and it's Black Magic here. My bad. I def won't do it again.

Edea was a pretty sweet boss fight.
1. I would say so, in part because of how stat scaling works and because I feel more comfortable making difficult fights when you have more tools at your disposal. Also, on Disc 1 there are a few bosses that I think are in awkward positions, like Gerogero and Seifer. In the former case, you can't go back and do things like buy items once you start the train mission (I may make one of the Forest Owls sell stuff to get around this), and in the latter you can only use Squall and I don't want to have a hard Seifer fight followed immediately by a hard Edea fight. Sometimes I'm just waiting for the right idea for an enemy, or I'm okay with them being kind of weak (e.g. Geezard or Funguar).  I'm not looking to make the mod a ball-buster, but if there are any enemies you think are particularly weak, I'll take a look at 'em.

2. No, though I might make them a reward for doing some side content late in the game. (I had intended to make a GF the reward for one of the sidequests I added in the last update, but after considering the implications of it I decided not to.)

3. Yeah. The info doc included with the mod files shows what everyone learns and when. Also, you can use Tool-RF to learn some refine and Junction abilities earlier.

Okay a couple big problems to cover in D-District Prison.
eueCUA0.png


If you put Berserk on this guy so he can't do Evil Eye while dying, he's just immortal and will keep fighting.

Also when I tried to Mug Wedge I got the "Stole 0's" problem reported on earlier.
Thanks. I caught that issue with regards to Stop, but didn't consider Berserk. I'll fix that in the next update.

The 0s thing is harmless, but annoying... I don't understand why it does that considering I'm using the same "Nothing" slot that the game normally uses. A bug with Ifrit, maybe? I'll have to keep making enemies' Mug lists the same/similar as their Drop lists, I guess. Never mind. It's because they still have a Mug chance.
 
Last edited:
I appreciate you being considerate about boss placement and difficulty. In the old FFVIII Requiem mod, he had Seifer cast Flare in your first fight with him which means he could potentially open up the fight with it and oneshot you before you even got shell ready.

...that mod had a lot of bad ideas but it was all we had for a long time. Thank God this awesome mod came along.

I have definitely seen a general increase in difficulty so far and I agree with your reasoning. Too often JRPGs became trivially easy with more options so I'm glad you are reversing that, making it more challenging with more options.

Speaking of boss placement and selling items though, I just beat NORG and I'm very grateful he's so easy compared to how he was in Ragnarok Rebalanced. I was totally out of Phoenix Downs and very worried his fight would e a nightmare like the last mod I played. I had a team of Irvine  and Quistis, sending Rinoa to the Missile Base so they had one great healer and I, with Irvine's heal gun, had another . But this meant I had no one who can use Raise so I was worried.

You don't need to tell me exactly what the added sidequests are but can you tell me when/where they occur?  Just curious what I should be on the lookout for.

In any event, this mod is extremely interesting and I will recommend it to people on other FF forums I frequent. For somebody who has played FFVIII as much as I have, you've really re=energized my interest in the gameplay. I intend to see this through to the end and hopefully my comments can help a little bit.
 
I appreciate you being considerate about boss placement and difficulty. In the old FFVIII Requiem mod, he had Seifer cast Flare in your first fight with him which means he could potentially open up the fight with it and oneshot you before you even got shell ready.

...that mod had a lot of bad ideas but it was all we had for a long time. Thank God this awesome mod came along.

I have definitely seen a general increase in difficulty so far and I agree with your reasoning. Too often JRPGs became trivially easy with more options so I'm glad you are reversing that, making it more challenging with more options.

Speaking of boss placement and selling items though, I just beat NORG and I'm very grateful he's so easy compared to how he was in Ragnarok Rebalanced. I was totally out of Phoenix Downs and very worried his fight would e a nightmare like the last mod I played. I had a team of Irvine  and Quistis, sending Rinoa to the Missile Base so they had one great healer and I, with Irvine's heal gun, had another . But this meant I had no one who can use Raise so I was worried.

You don't need to tell me exactly what the added sidequests are but can you tell me when/where they occur?  Just curious what I should be on the lookout for.

In any event, this mod is extremely interesting and I will recommend it to people on other FF forums I frequent. For somebody who has played FFVIII as much as I have, you've really re=energized my interest in the gameplay. I intend to see this through to the end and hopefully my comments can help a little bit.
It's a shame that the only Squall/Seifer 1v1 happens on Disc 1 and immediately before a battle that I want to be a challenging introduction to sorceresses, 'cause I'd love to have a more difficult one later in the game. Maybe I'll try to work something like that in someday.

If this isn't the case already, I may make Joker continue to appear in the Training Center to sell items until after NORG is defeated. Glad you got some use out of Exeter, though.  ;D

Sidequests/additions to existing sidequests:

A battle has been added to the Winhill Vase Quest.

Dollet, after the events at Trabia Garden.

Within Esthar, after the Lunar Cry.

The Thrustaevis battle triggered during the Obel Lake Quest has unique AI and an additional reward.

The Sorceress Memorial, after meeting Esthar's president.


The sidequest section of the included info doc is a little more detailed about what you need to do should you need it.

I'm currently working on another sidequest--or rather, building on one introduced in the last update; once I'm done, I'll release it along with fixes to the issues you've found.

I appreciate the kind words and the feedback.  :)
 
Last edited:
So you weren't kidding, things definitely get harder and all for the good. Galbadia Garden was one wild ride from the random encounters to Cerberus to Seifer 2. Edea 2 ironically was the easiest thing by far. With Haste on everyone she gets basically no turns and once it was just her, she only cast Stop over and over and over again and I think 2 Maelstroms. The real kicker though was the fact I swear each of my party members got 3-4 turns in for every single turn from her.

Seifer, my fave character, got a worthy boss battle at last. He certainly didn't get it in the original but I died more on this fight than any boss yet. Very creative mechanics, although I swear he just kinda bugged out and went crazy sometimes, attacking like 5-6 times in a row. My game also froze twice, only when two of my characters were down.
The "cast Zombie on characters in yellow health" mechanic is certainly intriguing and made me have to forfeit my other status defenses for Squall and Quistis. Quistis of course doesn't need Blind or Silence immunity since Acid isn't effected by either but I did have to give up Squall's Blind immunity after afew failed attempts when I realized how absolutely Zombie was fucking me up. I kept Silence on Rinoa's ST-Def though because of course. She rarely ever got low on health anyhow. Always gotta keep the healer safe.  I'm gonna miss her for the next few hours.


But yeah, dunno if you play Shin Megami Tensei but Seifer here reminded me a bit of an SMT boss with getting 3 or so moves in for his turn. Or like the Final Fantasy III remake where bosses get 2 moves in for their turn. I dunno if there's any rhyme or reason to it since sometimes he only got one move in.

Finding those Dispel, Protect and Shell Stones at Winhill was an awesome surprise, very useful. Gonna have to go load up on those now with Rinoa gone.

Thanks for the sidequest lowdown. I still got a little while before I have to worry about any of those except Winhill which I already finished and Dollet which I forgot about and gotta do now.
 
So you weren't kidding, things definitely get harder and all for the good. Galbadia Garden was one wild ride from the random encounters to Cerberus to Seifer 2. Edea 2 ironically was the easiest thing by far. With Haste on everyone she gets basically no turns and once it was just her, she only cast Stop over and over and over again and I think 2 Maelstroms. The real kicker though was the fact I swear each of my party members got 3-4 turns in for every single turn from her.
Edea used to be faster, but iirc I thought she was too overwhelming that way so I toned her down. I'll look into her AI first and decide if she needs any stat buffs after that. Maybe I should make her get faster after Seifer dies, if nothing else.

Seifer, my fave character, got a worthy boss battle at last. He certainly didn't get it in the original but I died more on this fight than any boss yet. Very creative mechanics, although I swear he just kinda bugged out and went crazy sometimes, attacking like 5-6 times in a row. My game also froze twice, only when two of my characters were down.
The "cast Zombie on characters in yellow health" mechanic is certainly intriguing and made me have to forfeit my other status defenses for Squall and Quistis. Quistis of course doesn't need Blind or Silence immunity since Acid isn't effected by either but I did have to give up Squall's Blind immunity after afew failed attempts when I realized how absolutely Zombie was fucking me up. I kept Silence on Rinoa's ST-Def though because of course. She rarely ever got low on health anyhow. Always gotta keep the healer safe.  I'm gonna miss her for the next few hours.


But yeah, dunno if you play Shin Megami Tensei but Seifer here reminded me a bit of an SMT boss with getting 3 or so moves in for his turn. Or like the Final Fantasy III remake where bosses get 2 moves in for their turn. I dunno if there's any rhyme or reason to it since sometimes he only got one move in.
Sorry about the crashes :( I'll see about fixing them--based on what you told me, I have an inkling as to why that occurred. One question, though: was the remaining character Zombified?

Glad you liked the fight otherwise though, as it's actually the one I'm most proud of. Dunno if I'd call myself a fan per se, but I think the game really underutilizes Seifer both in the story and in gameplay and I wanted to rectify at least the latter. I approached his fights with the concept of "Someone who fights dirty", and of all the ideas I had based on that, the Zombie thing is my favorite, lol. The first time I tested his fight, he used Zombie on someone right as I queued a heal for them and I was like "YES!" (I once considered giving him a version of Zombie that would ignore immunity, but I thought that would be too mean...)

Seifer has a lot of action chances, which is why he'd sometimes take many or only a few. He initially turned out that way as a result of my inexperience, but I decided I liked it on him and kept it. Makes him feel more like the "speed" to Squall's "power"...and lets him weave Zombies between his sword strikes.  8)

Finding those Dispel, Protect and Shell Stones at Winhill was an awesome surprise, very useful. Gonna have to go load up on those now with Rinoa gone.
Hopefully I'll eventually be able to fix the issue with Edea... She was supposed to have Pray and Double in addition to an unlimited spell selection.


On another note, the next battle addition is currently in the testing phase:

f3c8cDG.png[
 
Last edited:
I'm afraid I can't recall for certain if the lone survivor was Zombified or not. I wanna say Rinoa might have been in my last crash but I really can't say. I also stupidly saved over my save right before the Seifer fight but I still have one before the Garden Battle and I intend to replay up to the Seifer fight to try and record it so I'll see if I can experiment a bit if you need.

Speaking of Seifer being a tougher boss like he should be, did you do anything to Seifer 3? I've been wary of getting Odin because Gilgamesh ruins the final, climactic showdown with Seifer and I hate it. I might just forego Odin since he doesn't even have Double or Triple anymore.
 
I'm afraid I can't recall for certain if the lone survivor was Zombified or not. I wanna say Rinoa might have been in my last crash but I really can't say. I also stupidly saved over my save right before the Seifer fight but I still have one before the Garden Battle and I intend to replay up to the Seifer fight to try and record it so I'll see if I can experiment a bit if you need.
No worries, I'm pretty sure I know what's going on now. If you want, I can send you some updated enemy files before your replay to ensure that Seifer's fight won't crash.

Speaking of Seifer being a tougher boss like he should be, did you do anything to Seifer 3? I've been wary of getting Odin because Gilgamesh ruins the final, climactic showdown with Seifer and I hate it. I might just forego Odin since he doesn't even have Double or Triple anymore.
I did, though I feel I used my best ideas on Seifer 2 and Seifer 3 isn't as fun. I increased the number of turns needed for Gilgamesh to appear and defeat Seifer for you, though if you have Odin he'll still appear when you deplete Seifer's HP, of course. If Odin's level is greater or equal to 45, you can Draw Meteor and Arise from him, so it may be worth it to wait. Ultima is better than Meteor in this mod as it should be, but the latter is easier to get ahold of. I'd say neither spell is as appealing a reason to wait after the release of 1.1, but Drawing them from Odin may help in getting the thing that caused Odin's high-level Draw list to become less appealing.


EDIT (12/31): I found a few problems (including the trigger for the Dollet sidequest somehow not making it into my release files...  :oops:), I'm gonna release an update later today.
 
Last edited:
FFVIII Crystal 1.1.1
Updated battle.fs 1/6/21

Content

- A new battle has been added to the Fire Cavern, accessible after the events at Fisherman's Horizon on Disc 2; altered some dialogue to act as a hint.
- Fixed issue in which Dollet sidequest battle wouldn't trigger.* because I forgot to include the trigger

Characters/GFs:

Squall:
- Lionheart (Limit): Power increased from 11 to 14.

Rinoa:
- Angelo Cannon: Inflicts Confusion.
- Angelo Strike: Inflicts Slow instead of Confusion.

Enemies:

- Slightly increased enemy levels in D-District Prison.
- Fixed remaining instances of stealing 0s from enemies.

- Thrustaevis: Increased HP threshold at which its AI changes.
- G-Blue Mage: Fixed issue preventing enemy's death when inflicted with certain statuses.

- Seifer (2): Fixed issue causing crashes.
- Omega Weapon: Can now counter after a certain number of Limit Breaks have been used on it.
- Ultimecia (1): Always has Double status.

Misc.:
- Updated readme with a working link to Roses and Wine.
- Updated info doc with information on new sidequest; corrected listing of Bahamut's abilities.

Known issues:
The Aberrant Key items that replace the Occult Fan magazines can still be used in the menu.


*If you already triggered the scene at the Dollet Mountain Path that starts the battle, you can open your save file in Hyne, go to HexaEdit on the left side, click the Field tab at the top and change this byte from 80 to 00, or if you'd prefer you can send me your save file and I'll do it for you. Sorry for the inconvenience.
 
Last edited:
Hey dude can you fix my save file? I think I did the Dollet quest and nothing happened so maybe that is what you fixed in the lasted update?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KVxHxQLGCJEfngfX14sGkzY9YAmxYEuy/view?usp=sharing

Also I had another freeze when fighting Vysage, Lefty and Righty at the Great Salt Lake while Selphie was Cursed and trying to use Slot.
Dunno if that might have something to do with the memory problem you mentioned or if you can fix that while doing this.

Thanks again.
 
Hey dude can you fix my save file? I think I did the Dollet quest and nothing happened so maybe that is what you fixed in the lasted update?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KVxHxQLGCJEfngfX14sGkzY9YAmxYEuy/view?usp=sharing

Also I had another freeze when fighting Vysage, Lefty and Righty at the Great Salt Lake while Selphie was Cursed and trying to use Slot.
Dunno if that might have something to do with the memory problem you mentioned or if you can fix that while doing this.

Thanks again.
Here you go: https://mega.nz/file/dHBTCaTR#GppxgWLKcxvqL4nOPUh2JJgYVDxqUF79Kav5f5uMYb0 If it doesn't load, you may have to use Hyne to manually sign the save (it's under File). Just place the save in the same folder as your other saves and Hyne will find your metadata.xml file for you. By the way, the character level shows up lower on the save preview because Hyne assumes 1000 exp = 1 level, but it'll be correct when you load the save.

I'll look into those enemies and edit this post with a fix.

Edit: The crash was caused by a bug with Ifrit in which it misinterprets checks on the status of other enemies...at least, that's what it has to be, because I've changed Vysage, Lefty, and Righty's AI very, very little. Anyway, I edited Vysage's file and battled the three of them for a while and no crash occurred. Here you go: https://mega.nz/file/MaY1iAAK#kBWkh9I8Bc0XgiDI6-ac3kqOdTvh6Z4_rDw7aVrN8AU Thanks for your patience.
 
Last edited:
Thank you for all your help.

Would you say the Deep Sea Research Facility (up to Bahamut at least) should be done before Lunatic Pandora and completing Disk 3 or after? I made it up to Bahamut...and died because I'm a fucking idiot who didn't  use the menu before the fight to heal. But my main point is, I gained so many levels from just walking there. I'm worried of overleveling and making the story too easy.

My main party is:
Squall Lvl 47
Quistis Lvl 40
Rinoa Lvl 36

All I recall for certain is by the time I lost, Rinoa had gained 5 levels.

What level do you think this game should be beaten at, by the way?
 
I realized that I forgot to hex edit Adel the last time I updated, so here's a new battle.fs: https://mega.nz/file/YbpymBpQ#38_JoRmfIv-I-LmAHVzSzBD8av9n5mdiDOHyTrRf6Tc Her model shouldn't explode into a million colors now.  :|

Thank you for all your help.

Would you say the Deep Sea Research Facility (up to Bahamut at least) should be done before Lunatic Pandora and completing Disk 3 or after? I made it up to Bahamut...and died because I'm a fucking idiot who didn't  use the menu before the fight to heal. But my main point is, I gained so many levels from just walking there. I'm worried of overleveling and making the story too easy.

My main party is:
Squall Lvl 47
Quistis Lvl 40
Rinoa Lvl 36

All I recall for certain is by the time I lost, Rinoa had gained 5 levels.

What level do you think this game should be beaten at, by the way?
No problem.  :)

Enemies and bosses in late-game sidequests as well as those in Lunatic Pandora and Ultimecia's Castle will all scale based on your level, so no need to worry about out-leveling the enemies. I tend to do all of the sidequests before entering LP, but it shouldn't make much of a difference either way.

Were those levels gained just from fighting the Ruby Dragons, or were you moving while the light was shining?

The last time I played through the mod, my three most-used characters were in the 60s and 70s; the other three were lower. (I tend to cycle through characters, but this time I let a friend I was streaming the game for choose the party throughout the game, and he had a thing for Rinoa and Quistis...  ;D). That was before I added the new sidequests, though. (One reason that I decided to introduce new sidequests was to reduce the amount of grinding the player would need to do in order to, say, learn all of a character's abilities or level to 100.)

Everyone gets their last GF ability at level 50, so I'd make sure they're at least that high. Also, Omega Weapon is always level 100, so you'll want to raise your characters to around 100 if you want to fight it. I may eventually introduce another boss or two that are always set to 100, as well.
 
Last edited:
Cool cool.  I did walk while the blue light was shining because I was dumb and forgot about it triggering encounters.

I have no idea how you're supposed to defeat Bahamut without Selphie and her awesome Double ability to exploit his weakness. I tried with my usual team - like your friend Rinoa and Quistis are my favorites but Quistis and Squall just weren't gettingit done in terms of damage. Meanwhile, Selphie beat him all by herself doing 6200 damage a turn. Squall nd Rinoa were just on support and heal duty. Great fight, the second hardest all game next to Seifer 2.

But I think I fucked up and "cheated" by accident.. I'm right after getting Rinoa and first thing I did was go to Esthar touy items and then head to the Deep Sea Research facility. I got Hi-Potion+ and Mega Potions from Johnny's Shop. But when I go back after beating Bahamut to resupply, the shop says closed. But if you keep clicking on it enough, it will be open to buy items. Is that a mistake?

I guess I shouldn't have had those Hi Potion+ or Mega Potions....


Also I keep forgetting to mention, it seems like the Confused party AI is programmed to use the rarest item while confused? I had 2 Mega Remedies I Mugged from somebody A while ago now I did all the Chocobo Forests and when heading to the Sanctuary I stuck around trying to see if the Malboro was still there to steal a Tentacle from to learn Bad Breath. It was. When he used it on my party, a Confused Irvine used the Mega Remedy so Selphie or somebody could immediately then mug a Tentacle off the Malboro and then we fled.

Bad Breath is always so good to have in this game. It alone makes Quistis Queen when dealing with every non boss encounter.
 
Cool cool.  I did walk while the blue light was shining because I was dumb and forgot about it triggering encounters.

I have no idea how you're supposed to defeat Bahamut without Selphie and her awesome Double ability to exploit his weakness. I tried with my usual team - like your friend Rinoa and Quistis are my favorites but Quistis and Squall just weren't gettingit done in terms of damage. Meanwhile, Selphie beat him all by herself doing 6200 damage a turn. Squall nd Rinoa were just on support and heal duty. Great fight, the second hardest all game next to Seifer 2.
Quistis and Zell can exploit Bahamut's Fire and Thunder weakness with Limits, and Irvine can do good damage with Fire Ammo. You can also Junction an -aga spell to Elem-Atk. Also, though they don't do great damage, normal attacks of any element will not add to Bahamut's Mega Flare variable. Lastly, you can still use other abilities to damage him if you're willing to let the Mega Flare variable go up, and by now you can get several that ignore defenses and/or have high base power. I agree that it's a lot easier with Selphie, though. Admittedly, it's a fight that would work better without restrictions on magic usage. I may lower his Vit a bit, but not so much that you can ignore the mechanics. Alternatively, I may allow you to put Bahamut to sleep for a brief period, limited to a certain number of times, to give you a few small windows in which to deal increased physical damage to him.

But I think I fucked up and "cheated" by accident.. I'm right after getting Rinoa and first thing I did was go to Esthar touy items and then head to the Deep Sea Research facility. I got Hi-Potion+ and Mega Potions from Johnny's Shop. But when I go back after beating Bahamut to resupply, the shop says closed. But if you keep clicking on it enough, it will be open to buy items. Is that a mistake?

I guess I shouldn't have had those Hi Potion+ or Mega Potions....
Nah, that shop is like that in vanilla too.

Also I keep forgetting to mention, it seems like the Confused party AI is programmed to use the rarest item while confused? I had 2 Mega Remedies I Mugged from somebody A while ago now I did all the Chocobo Forests and when heading to the Sanctuary I stuck around trying to see if the Malboro was still there to steal a Tentacle from to learn Bad Breath. It was. When he used it on my party, a Confused Irvine used the Mega Remedy so Selphie or somebody could immediately then mug a Tentacle off the Malboro and then we fled.

Bad Breath is always so good to have in this game. It alone makes Quistis Queen when dealing with every non boss encounter.
Good to know. IIRC, The party's confusion AI won't use items that have the "single side" flag set, so I'll change that in the next update.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top