RPG Hack Showcase: Final Fantasy C2 (SNES)

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Chris W

Hack Showcases and RPG Hack Showcases are a series where I show off various game and rpg hacks. I try to stick with hacks that improve gameplay or add quality of life features, completely or partially change the plot and characters, along with additional content, dialogue, graphical and sound improvements. Non-rpgs I try to give a full run to, or at least enough for a solid review. Rpgs I will stick with titles that have enough changes in the beginning to show off, and when I can, show parts later in the games where more differences appear. There may be spoilers in the reviews and videos. Some of these I may stream fully in the future or play on my own. Reviews are open to later revisions due to bug and content updates or me playing them and finding anything new I wish to bring up.

Final Fantasy C2 was originally released in 2016 by Naka no Hito. This hack is special as it takes the Super Famicom Final Fantasy 4 and transforms it beautifully into an updated version of Final Fantasy 2, the black sheep of the FF games originally released on the NES, and later ported to PSX, GBA, and PSP. The Professional Japanese-to-English localizer Clyde “Tomato” Mandelin, who is known for making the fan English patch for the GBA Mother 3 who runs the Legends of Localization website, dropped an English patch for Final Fantasy C2 recently in 2 different flavors!

There is a version A and version B of this patch. Version A uses the original hack’s FF4’s graphics. Version B changes the enemies FF4 enemies into that of enemies in FF2 with upgraded graphics. Tomato even recommends most people to play version B (version B is the one I played for this review.) A readme file included shows how to patch the hack if you’re not familiar with using ips files, along with a number of other changes including: quality of life improvements, a 5 member party with party swapping late in the game, new spells and gear, a treasure tracker just for fun, and more! Links to a news article about this hack and the website to download this included at the end of this page. So I was excited to play this spur of the moment! I love FF4 after playing Free Enterprise and the Ultima hack for the past month and wanted to see what this brought to the table. Plus I have little experience with FF2 so this would give me a chance to play without dealing with the wacky leveling system.

With most romhacks, strongly suggested to check out the readme files for advice on the changes to hacks and any gameplay tips, especially with rpgs. Readme files for rpg hacks can contain additional gameplay advice, etc, and it’s worth subscribing to hacks you like on RHDN to keep up with updates for bug fixes, additional content, etc.

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Hack Showcase: Metroid mOTHER (NES)

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Chris W

Metroid was released for the NES in the US in 1987. The game followed the adventures of Samus Aran as she traveled through Zebes to eliminate the threat of Metroids and Mother Brain. The game featured a very large map and item collection where you cannot get to some areas without another item. The game had a password which saved your progress and item collection, and saved you at the starting spot where you last died in the different areas of the planet. I had this as a kid, but the yellow cart re-release. i loved it even though I had little clue what I was doing aside from random tidbits i could find from Nintendo Power issues. Metroid: Zero Mission is the same game, but with a more fleshed out backstory, and features added in later Metroid titles.

As of this writing this hack is at version 1.0 released April 23, 2014. This hack was released by dACE in 2014 which is a combination of a few other hacks which add numerous quality of life features to this old title:

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Who Framed Roger Rabbit Gameboy & NES Review

Posted on July 24, 2020 by Chris W

The NES and Gameboy Who Framed Roger Rabbit games were released in 1989 and 1991 as tie-ins to the Disney Who Framed Roger Rabbit movie. Rare programmed the NES game and it was published by LJN, the Gameboy title was designed by Capcom. Both game play differently through the events of the movie. The NES game taking control of Eddie Valiant to solve the mystery of Roger Rabbit, the Gameboy title you take control of Roger himself to fight the Weasels and then confront Judge Doom. I’ve recently played and finished the Gameboy title for the first time and revisited the janky NES game after not playing it since I was a kid. Mistakes were made.

GAMEBOY ROGER RABBIT: The Gameboy Roger Rabbit has you playing as Roger trying to figure out who killed Marvin and get the deed to save Toontown from Judge Doom. Each chapter of the game has you solving a puzzle or 2 to get items to fight one of the 4 weasels. You’ll meet up with other people from the movie who help you out, and your life consists of 3 hearts. Losing all 3 hearts mean a game over and you start over at the start of the chapter again. Carrots are found around the overworld which will restore a heart, but they don’t regenerate until you game over and restart. Graphics in this game are very large and well-drawn and the music can be annoying at times. Controlling Roger can be janky sometimes, but other than that Roger will do what you instruct of him. This game is actually fun! Each chapter is a bit different with a puzzle or gameplay element, from shooting weasels with a toon gun to driving Benny the Taxi. Judge Doom’s warehouse is a maze to solve before fighting Judge Doom at the end. Graphics when you finish a chapter are vibrant and resemble a comic book or cartoon. It’s not very hard, but getting to the end of a chapter by finding the right person or item to get can be annoying and involve a lot of backtracking. A password is given when you finish a chapter for continuing your adventure. Losing to a weasel at the end of a chapter means restarting the chapter from the start, but each chapter isn’t very long but going from point a to b to fight the weasels can be annoying.

I GIVE GAMEBOY ROGER RABBIT 4 OUT OF 5 CARROTS!!

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RPG Hack Showcase: Phantasy Star Retranslation (Sega Master System)

Posted on July 10, 2020 by Chris W

Phantasy Star was the first in the series of Phantasy Star rpgs which had a wonderful blend of sci-fi and fantasy involved in the plot and gameplay. Released in 1987 for the Sega Master System in Japan, and in 1988 in the West, the Phantasy Star games were known for their mix of fantasy and sci-fi, along with magic and high end sci-fi ideas. The journey takes you across three planets of the Algol System on a quest of revenge for Alis Landale, one the few female protagonists at the time. One the concerts introduced in this series was evil being a sentient being, called Dark Force. You could of course save your game to return to it later via battery. Your party in this game consists of Alis, a talking cat named Myau, a warrior named Odin, and a wizard named Lutz. One big difference between this and Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior/Quest was the fact that the dungeons and towers consisted of 3d first person mazes, meaning you didn’t have the top-down view from outside, meaning you needed to map your way to find your way to finding treasures and traps. PS was later ported to other systems in the US and Japan, and later the Sega Ages collections for Playstation 2 in Japan, which improved the graphics and sound, quality of life features, and a mapping feature. As of this review, version 2.00 of this hack was released on May 25 2020.

Aside from this, I don’t have much experience with Phantasy Star. I fell in love with the series starting with 4, and dabbled around with 2 and 3 over the years. Currently is/was playing PS1 on the GBA Phantasy Star Collection port, currently (as of this writing) at the tower which I think(?) will lead me to the Air Castle for the endgame with Lassic.