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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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.

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Hack Showcase: Castlevania 2 English Re-translation + Map (NES)

Posted on June 10, 2020 by Chris W

Castlevania 2, the black sheep of the original NES trilogy. Not a pure platformer like 1 and 3, but more of an adventure game with rpg elements like Zelda 2. Also made famous by the bad translation of clues and townspeople gossip which made figuring out progressing through the game harder then it should have been unless you had friends who knew what they were doing. Or Nintendo Power. And that infamous Nintendo Power cover that gave kids nightmares. I don’t have many memories of playing this as a kid except off and on renting or with friends. That said, never finished it either. I discovered another improvement to Redacted by romhacking.net user Bisqwit. He took what was done in Redacted and improved it even more! Other features include:

NTSC version (there is also a PAL option)
MMC4 chipset (there are also MMC3, MMC1, MMC5, UNROM and VRC6 options, see the vending machine)
Reintroduced some features that the English releases removed from the Japanese version — Includes the extended ending text, as well as Konami-style Start text on the power-on screen.
Map function — An in-game map is included. It helps understand the layout of the game world, and to know the name of whichever place the player currently is in. It compensates for the lack of actual game manual, which in the Japanese releases included a map. Press the select button to view the map in the game.
SRAM save function — Game can be saved at any time into internal battery-backed memory and loaded later.
Cinematic prologue
Seamless fading between night and day times
Quality-of-life improvements to game controls: Jump down stairs with down+A, hit stun on stairs, Simon blinks when hurt
Extra dialog in select locations — Small changes that improve the game experience without changing the nature of the game.
Language — English.

When I played this I added 3 other hacks to it: the Annoyance Fixes by tkempkes, False Floor & Breakable Block Replacer by Greyfield, and the Game Over Penalty Reduction by NaOH hacks (links provided at the end of this post). The Game Over one reduces the amount of hearts lost at a game over to half instead of all of them. Annoyance Fixes includes patches for a faster day and night transition, getting double hearts, empty space replacing false floors. False Floor & breakable Block Replacer changes the false blocks around the game to a different shade so you don’t have to always throw holy water around. I’ve played this hack with and without these additional patches, patches are compatible with this hack.

This review updated after a new video playthrough on 9/26 with version 2.12.0.1 of the Bisquit hack, and latest versions of the Game Over Penalty, Double Hearts and False Block Replacer hacks available. Review will reflect with and without the additional hacks.

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Hack Showcase: TMNT of Rage: The Final Shell Shock (Sega Genesis)

Posted on June 1, 2020 by Chris W

TMNT of Rage is a successor to previous TMNT/Streets of Rage 2 mods TMNT of rage and TMNT Remix. Final Shell Shock adds more to these previous mods for a better experience. The Streets of Rage cast is replaced with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as they fight their way to save April and stop Mr X who enlisted the help of Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady! This mod is a total throwback to the Streets of rage series and the TMNT Arcade Game and Turtles in Time. So for some of the changes, let’s take a look from the changelog:

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Hack Showcase: Deadpool: The NES Hack with a Mouth

Posted on May 28, 2020 by Chris W

deadpool (ninja gaiden 1 hack)-0

Deadpool for the NES was released by Techmoon in October of 2019, and is available either by a rompatch or downloading the rom hack itself. Deadpool is a total and complete hack of Ninja Gaiden 1, and has elements from all 3 NG games. Everything was changed for Deadpool, even the cinema scenes! Techmoon put a lot of time and love into this and it’s worth playing even if you’re not a comic fan! The graphics are great and the remixed music is fabulous, even having 8-bit renditions of DMX “X Gonna Get Ya” and George Michael’s “Careless Whisper.” This game is also not for kids considering foul language in the cinema scenes. Kinda wish there were little yellow dialogue boxes though. And Deadpool on a moped. There’s also 2 difficulty levels: mercy (easy mode) and merc (hard mode) for your choosing, and I think a boss rush mode when you finish the game and a music test option. What’s also great is the game will save where you left off, so just hit load game when you restart and you’ll be back where you left off! No save states needed! At the bottom of this post are a list of links to get this rom hack and Techmoon’s sites.

So the plot involves Deadpool getting beaten in a duel with DC’s Deathstroke, then being given the Infinity Gauntlet by a mysterious young woman. Trying to keep it safe he encounters a number of enemies, including some heroes and villains across the Marvel and DC universe. Still looking for Francis, Deadpool finds himself in a larger plot involving Death herself and Thanos. There’s more but don’t want to spoil the fun. 😉

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RPG Hack Showcase: Final Fantasy 4 Ultima v2022+ (SNES)

Posted on March 2, 2020 by Chris W

(Note: review and hack showcase video on yt based on version 2022+ as of June 2022.)

Long time Final Fantasy fans know the US release of FF2 on the SNES was a dumbed down version from the original project of FF4.FF4 Ultima fixes all the issues in the easytype FF2, along with later ports prior to the 3D versions of FF4. You can call it the FF4 Deluxe Collector’s Edition package. FF4 Ultima by 8-bit fan, Chillyfeez, and their team team keeps the plot going and makes TONS of changes to everything. The plot script is cleaner and makes more sense, the maps of the overworld, underworld, and moon are even changed! You’ll be surprised when you see the world map coming out of the Cave of Mist! Expect to get lost if you try to take the normal way to the Towel of Bab-il in the underground from the Dwarf Castle! Look out for new areas in familiar dungeons and caves too! Lots of new equipment to mess around with too!

List of features, additions and changes: