Download Phantasy Star IV General Improvement ROM Hack

+--------------------------+
|                          |
|     Phantasy Star IV     |
|                          |
| SEGA Genesis / Megadrive |
|                          |
|   General Improvement    |
|                          |
|       Version 1.0        |
|                          |
|   Release:  10-06-2019   |
|                          |
|          - By -          |
|                          |
|        Fauntleroy        |
|                          |
|  [email protected]   |
|                          |
+--------------------------+

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|                   |
| Table of Contents |
|                   |
+-------------------+

I...........Introduction
II....Setup Instructions
III..............Credits

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

Thank you for downloading this General Improvement hack for
Phantasy Star IV, a classic RPG for the SEGA Genesis/Megadrive
system. Phantasy Star IV was one of the first console RPGs with
truly modern presentation: excellent characterization, a crystal
clear translation, and an excellent, fully-customizable interface.

If you've ever played the game, you know that it doesn't really
need a lot of help to make it palatable to modern audiences. But
still, there's always room for a little general improvement! :)

Gameplay
--------

There's one new technique: NER. This technique is learned by Alys
and Rika before they learn SANER. (It didn't make sense to me that
the stronger version of the technique was in this game, but the
basic version was not. Both were in Phantasy Star II.) The dummied
technique FEEVE was changed into NER; in fact, I believe FEEVE was
likely intended to be NER at one point, judging by its connection
in the code to the "AGILITY is UP" message.

The BROSE technique now works on machines and non-living enemies
only, as in Phantasy Star II. (It attemps to instant-kill all
machines present.) There were a few living enemies in the vanilla
game that it would sometimes work on.

All skills max out at 10 charges. This is still plenty of uses for
most skills, but for really essential skills, like Recover and
Medice, you'll need to be more strategic as to when to use them
vs. other abilities or items.

Seth's skill charges now increase as he levels up.

The successs rate of status ailments, debuffs, and instant-kill
abilities were slightly increased.

Few changes were made to who can use which skills and techniques,
but here a few notable exceptions:
 * Chaz can no longer use BROSE, making it unique to Gryz.
 * Gryz can cast CORROSION at high levels.
 * Demi can use FLARE, as Wren does.
 * Kyra can use SHIFT.

While there aren't any new combination attacks, there are more
ability combinations that will trigger them. For example,
Triblaster can now be triggered by any of these combinations:
Any FOI or FLAELI + Any WAT + Any TSU or TANDLE.

There are lots of new items. A few more redundant items were
repurposed, and all of the dummied-out items were turned into new
items that can be obtained normally. Most of the new items are
callbacks to other games in the series.

For the most part, who can use what equipment hasn't changed, but
there are a few notable exceptions, such as:
 * Only Rune can equip the wand from Ladea Tower.
 * Everyone except for Demi and Wren can equip all shields.
 * Demi can now use the strongest gun, and returns with one already
   equipped at the end of the game.

Various adjustments were made to treasure chest and shop contents,
item prices and status, technique TP costs, technique and skill
stats, enemy stats, etc.

Also, the two dummied-out enemies have been restored.

Presentation
------------

The biggest change in this hack is the completely reworked script.
It would be a sin to alter the story or characters of this most
wonderful game, so I didn't. Instead, I focused on ironing out
some awkward phrasing, clarifying points of ambiguity, looking for
opportunities to emphasize who each of the characters are, giving
party members more opportunities to chime into conversations, and
increasing the number of lore references to the other game.

Names of, well, just about everything tend to shift from game to
game in this series. I tend to favor whichever name was used first,
with a few exceptions. Here are examples:
 * Algo rather than Algol
 * Palman rather than Parmanian
 * Dezorian rather than Dezolisian
 * Alis rather than Alisa
 * Lutz rather than Noah
 * Lassic rather than Lashiec
 * Luveno rather than Lubetz
 * Altiplano rather than Alplatin
 * Gaila rather than Gaira
 * Alsulin rather than Alshline
 * Laerma rather than Laeruma
 * And probably more that I'm forgetting!

Many items, enemies, abilities, etc. had their names changed to
make them more consistent with other games in the series.

Most of the Hunters Guild missions have different titles.

Text always runs to the end of the text box now.

The awesome music used for Seed's lab now plays on Zelan as well.
You only get to hear this great tune for a short time in the
vanilla game, but now you can hear it whenever you want, once you
have the Landale. (It's a remix of dungeon music from the original
Phantasy Star.)

Bug Fixes
---------

Generally, you can no longer accidentally skip an option when
pressing the confirm button while scrolling through a menu.

Shield elements are no longer applied to weapons when both a shield
and a weapon are equipped. (This appeared to be unintended.)

The infamous "Level 99 glitch" no longer occurs.

Escapipes and Telepies are no longer used up if you accidentally
select them in battle.

Townspeople with scripted movements can no longer cause crashes.

These are just some of the more visible glitches. There are tons of
behind-the-scenes ones addressed as well that you'd probably never
notice.

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+------------------------+
|                        |
| II. Setup Instructions |
|                        |
+------------------------+

You'll need the 20191006psivpatch.ips file and an unaltered copy of
the Phantasy Star IV Genesis/Megadrive English language ROM. Please
don't ask me for a copy of the ROM; I won't provide one.

Recommended ROMs:
* Phantasy_Star_-_The_End_of_the_Millenium_(U)_[!].bin
  * Unmodified ROM CRC32: FE236442
  * Patch Applied CRC32:  96CCAF0D

The recommended ROM is sometimes labeled as:
* Phantasy Star IV (USA).bin
* Phantasy Star IV.bin

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 20191006psivpatch.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 Kega Fusion.

Kega Fusion has its own website:

http://segaretro.org/Kega_Fusion

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+--------------+
|              |
| III. Credits |
|              |
+--------------+

I'm the creator of this hack. All of the ideas, for good or bad,
were my own.

However, I never could've completed the hack without some special
assistance along the way.

I have to thank lory1990 for creating the amazing Phantasy Star IV
Disassembly document, which made most changes an absolute breeze.
He's created similar utilities for all of the classic Phantasy Star
games, so check them out! He was also extremely patient and
gracious in answer a million questions I had about implementing my
goofy ideas.

Thank you lory1990 for making this project possible!