Download General Leo Edition ROM Hack

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|                         |
|  Final Fantasy VI SNES  |
|                         |
| - GENERAL LEO EDITION - |
|                         |
|       Version 3.4       |
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|  Release:  06-11-2017   |
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|         - By -          |
|                         |
|       Fauntleroy        |
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|  [email protected]  |
|                         |
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|                   |
| Table of Contents |
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I...........Introduction
II........Update History
III...Setup Instructions
IV............Known Bugs

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|                 |
| I. Introduction |
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+-----------------+

Thank you for downloading my GENERAL LEO EDITION patch for Final
Fantasy III/VI (Super Nintendo Entertainment System version).

Final Fantasy VI is widely regarded as one of the greatest RPG's of
all time, and for good reason.  The game had excellent gameplay and
was epic in scope, but certainly a major part of its appeal was its
large cast of diverse, quirky, and memorable characters.  Even now,
some eighteen years after the game's western release, characters
such as the uncertain Terra, regretful Locke, and defiant Celes
remain widely known, well remembered, and much loved.

One particular character remembered fondly by gamers is General
Leo.  Like Aerith a few years later, Leo's primary role within the
story is to die, and in so doing give both the characters and the
player a reason to press on with renewed purpose.  Indeed, the
brilliance of the character is in how the designers manipulated
the player's response to him.  They made Leo an impossibly cool
character to play, with specialized equipment and a unique ability,
but then let the player have use of him for ONLY ONE BATTLE, after
which the player must watch him die tragically.  This maximizes
Leo's impact both within the world of the story as well as within
the mind of the player. It's great storytelling and even better
game design.

Again, as with Aerith, the whole point of Leo is that we must lose
him.  So, I would not want to go back in time and rewrite the story
of Final Fantasy VI even if I could do so.  Yet... I couldn't help
but think about how cool it would be if there was some way to make
Leo survive and join the party.  His fun factor is off the charts,
and besides that, he's just so darn likeable!  And apparently I'm
not the only one who felt this way, as vast amounts of "Leo lore,"
from bogus revival techniques to Game Genie codes to fanfiction,
propogate online to this day.

So, that's where this hack comes into play.  As with my previous
GOLBEZ EDITION hack of Final Fantasy IV, the idea here is to make
small tweaks to the story so that Leo survives and joins the
party, with the change making sense in context.  Also as with the
Golbez hack, making this change required me to demote one of the
existing fourteen party members to "guest character" status.  It
wasn't easy to decide who to cut, but I finally, if reluctantly,
decided on... Shadow.

So, I'm sure the question at this point is... WHY SHADOW?  Why not
Mog or Umaro or Gogo?  Well, there are a few reasons.

1.) I had to choose a character who was easy to edit.  Umaro and
    Gogo were out of consideration because of their unusual
    characteristics.

2.) I had to choose a character whose special ability wasn't too
    unique to lose.  Shadow's Throw command is a nice ability, but
    it's not as unique or essential as some of the others.

3.) I had to choose a character whose demotion and/or removal would
    not upset the overall progression of the story.  Shadow's niche
    in the World of Balance as the "optional and temporary" party
    member meant that it was easy to keep him in the story while
    also justifying keeping him out of the active party.

4.) I had to choose a character who could essentially switch places
    with Leo during the Thamasa battle, and who would make sense as
    the recipient of the Thamasa grave.

5.) This also allowed me to convert the space used for Shadow's
    dreams into new scenes, and also to convert Shadow's unique
    weapons and throwable items into new equipment for the other
    characters.

So, with that said, here are some of the hack's major features.

1.) The last character to join the team in the World of Balance is
    a fully-realized General Leo.  His equipment can be changed, he
    can equip Espers and learn spells, he has a Desperation Attack,
    he has no graphical glitches when he rides a Chocobo or Magitek
    Armor, he has his own scenario for rejoining the team in the
    World of Ruin, and he has his own part in the ending.

2.) I've created a couple of new small and optional scenes
    involving Leo as well as some of the minor characters, to tie
    up a few loose ends.

3.) There is some mild new bonus content, including ways of getting
    the three formerly inaccessible rages.

4.) Shop inventories are completely revamped.  The shops tend to be
    better stocked with items that are more useful at the point in
    the game when they are reached.  It's also now possible to buy
    items like Mythril Shield, Dried Meat, etc. in the World of
    Ruin.

5.) All Espers give level up bonuses, but many of these bonuses are
    toned down.  Additionally, the "x1" learning rate is now
    virtually extinct.  Most former instances of x1 have been
    converted into x2.  Additionally, Raiden now teaches both Quick
    and Meteor, so there is no reason to not immediately upgrade
    Odin into Raiden.

6.) Enemy Rage, Sketch, and Control ability sets are expanded and
    improved.  All Control sets now include the maximum of four
    abilities to choose from.  Rages are listed alphabetically.

7.) No more NAMES IN ALL CAPS.

8.) This hack also includes the following supplemental hacks
    created by others:

    HatZen08's True Duel patch
    http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1099/

    Terii senshi's Evade Bug Fix patch
    http://www.rpglegion.com/ff6/hack/evade.htm

    Assassin's Alphabetical Rage patch
    http://www14.brinkster.com/assassin17/patches.htm#anchor3

    Assassin's Auto Swordless Runic Fix patch
    http://www14.brinkster.com/assassin17/patches.htm#anchor14

    Assassin's That Damn Yellow Streak Fix patch
    http://www14.brinkster.com/assassin17/patches.htm#anchor21

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|                    |
| II. Update History |
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06-11-17 - Version 3.4 Update Release included these changes:
    - This is strictly a bugfix release.
      * Gold Shield accidentally put into Vector armor shop.
      * Sabin potentially learning the Bum Rush randomly in the
        World of Balance due to a misplaced byte.
      * Gigantoad not having enough MP to cast the Rippler spell in
        its ability list.
      * Gerad and the Crimson Robbers wandering all over the place
        when disembarking in South Figaro.
      * Random typos.

01-06-17 - Version 3.3 Update Release included these changes:

    - You can now switch your 3rd and 4th party members aboard the
      airship during the mission to the Magitek Research Facility.
    - It's no longer necessary to defeat the Ghost Behemoth in
      order to get General Leo to rejoin the party in the World of
      Ruin.
    - New minor story content, new townspeople, and other little
      goodies were sprinkled throughout.
    - Gogo can now equip ALL male-only AND female-only equipment.
    - Venom Claw weapon reintroduced.
    - Rare items are now listed in the order you get them.
    - Minor rebalancing of monster stats, rages and sketches,
      healing item power, item prices, etc.
    - Correction of some minor typos and graphical glitches.
    - Colosseum wins and opponents completely redone.
    - Blue Magic and Colosseum guides now included with patch.

  This version of the hack can still be downloaded at:
  www.mediafire.com/file/z2h1s3b35333a2n/leohack01-16-17.zip

01-18-16 - Version 3.2 Update Release included these changes:

    - This release is virtually identical to 3.1 except that many
      small typos are corrected.  Save games and states from 3.1
      should work with 3.2 with no problems.

  This version of the hack can still be downloaded at:
  www.mediafire.com/file/kitq0bp31zwzs2l/leoHack01-18-16.zip

10-01-15 - Version 3.1 Update Release included these changes:

    - Lots of new dialogue and expanded scenes throughout both
      the World of Balance and World of Ruin.
    - Many of the harder-to-get Blue Magic spells can now be
      obtained earlier or more easily, and all can be obtained
      prior to entering Kefka's Tower.
    - Some Blitzes, SwdTechs, and other abilities were renamed
      to enhance continuity with other games in the series.
    - Esper spell lists and learn rates were rebalanced.
    - GP is now gil.
    - A few new items were introduced.
    - Minor adjustments to item stats, shops, etc.
    - Some small bug fixes.

  This version of the hack can still be downloaded at:
  mediafire.com/download/v4v3y46rp24g3nr/leoHack10-01-15.zip

01-01-15 - Version 3.0 Update Release included these changes:

     - LOTS OF NEW CONTENT!  Including:
         * Celes and Leo must now be taken along to the Floating
           Continent, and this results in new dialogue bewteen
           them, Kefka, and Emperor Gestahl.
         * A bit of new Gau story content in the World of Ruin.
         * A bit of new Sabin story content in the World of Ruin.
         * A comeback attempt by Ultros in the World of Ruin.
         * Two new late-game weapons and one new late-game armor!
         * The three Goddesses of Magic now have proper names and
           also have dialogue before the final battle with Kefka.
     - Also:  various very minor adjustments to item properties,
       enemy stats, learn rates, MP costs, shop inventories, etc.
     - A few minior bug fixes were implemented, which I doubt
       anyone but me will notice...!
     - Lastly, I found some spots in the ROM where Holy was still
       referred to as Pearl, and these are now fixed.

  This version of the hack can still be downloaded at:
  mediafire.com/download/hd4h6umx0gm67ut/leoHack01-01-15.zip

01-25-14 - Version 2.1 Update Release included these changes:

     - Esper bonuses, spell names, spell lists, and spell learning
       rates have been mildly adjusted.
     - Slight adjustments to item stats, treasure chest contents,
       shop lists, and Metamorph item packs.
     - Corrections and minor adjustments to dialogue text.
     - Some tweaking to townsperson sprites and palettes.

  This version of the hack can still be downloaded at:
  mediafire.com/download/8unmuwwbrmsygsw/leoHack01-25-14.zip

11-01-13 - Version 2.0 Update Release included these changes:

     - The Eight Dragons have all been beefed up.  They are not
       "super bosses" by any means, but they will pose a greater
       level of challenge than in the original game.
     - Rages are now listed alphabetically.  Additionally, Gau now
       begins the game with the Rages for all enemies up through
       the point where Gau joins the party.
     - All chests in towns that were empty in the original game now
       contain items.
     - Various minor adjustments to shops, treasure chests, Rages,
       Control's ability lists, etc.
     - There are also several new rare/key items, just because,
       including the Slave Crown and Diving Helmet.  Also, the game
       now gives a "Received the ___" prompt when getting any key
       item, so you won't miss them.
     - Numerous large and small bug fixes, plus various minor
       adjustments.

  This version of the hack can still be downloaded at:
  www.mediafire.com/download/2izp6k96br26le3/leoHack11-01-13.zip

10-02-13 - Version 1.1 Update Release included these changes:

     - This patch introduces fixes to LOTS of bugs both large and
       small discovered in the 1.0 release.  There are no
       substantive changes to the actual content of the hack.

  This version of the hack can still be downloaded at:
  www.mediafire.com/download/mtz3n6q1y5s7myh/leoHack10-02-13.zip

09-22-13 - Version 1.0 Initial Release

  This version of the hack can still be downloaded at:
  www.mediafire.com/download/9x9oeb8mwi335na/leoHack09-22-13.zip

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|                         |
| III. Setup Instructions |
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You will need the 061117leohack.ips file as well as an unaltered
copy of the Final Fantasy III SNES American release ROM.

Recommended ROM:
* Final Fantasy III (U) (V1.1) [!]
  * Must have header
  * Unmodified ROM CRC32:  326CF6A2
  * Patch Applied CRC32:   A158396E

Please do not ask me for ROMs; I will not provide them.

I recommend using the Lunar IPS utility to apply the patch to the
ROM.  As of this writing, you can download Lunar IPS here:

http://fusoya.eludevisibility.org/lips/

To apply the patch:

1.) Open Lunar IPS and click the Apply IPS Patch button.

2.) Select the 061117leohack.ips file.

3.) Select the ROM.

4.) You're all set!  It's that easy!

As far as which emulator to use, I personally like Snes9X.

Snes9X has its own website:

http://www.snes9x.com/

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|                |
| IV. Known Bugs |
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1.) After the events at Thamasa, when the party is reunited:
    * Do NOT rearrange the order of your party members.
    * Do NOT talk to Gungho.
    * Board the airship and let the scene play out.
    * Afterward, go below deck and immediately swap out your party
      members. It doesn't matter who you switch in or out.
    * At this point, the bug is cleared and you can proceed.
    * Failure to follow these instructions may result in a crash.

2.) It is now possible to use the Warp spell to make a quick escape
    from the Fanatics' Tower.  If you do this, however, you'll find
    that your characters are still restricted to Magic and Item in
    battle.  To undo this, simply reenter and then exit the first
    area of the tower that has enemy encounters.

Please contact me if you find any additional bugs.