Download Unprecedented Crisis ROM Hack

UNPRECEDENTED CRISIS (Version 4.1)
====================

This is a complete hack of Final Fantasy 4 (2 US) for SNES which shows off
many of the features of the hacking utility, FF4kster. There are a few 
assembly hacks which cannot be achieved within the editor alone, but they are
few in number and mostly for convenience or cosmetic purposes.

It may seem at first that the changes are limited to gameplay and the plot is
unchanged, but don't worry, there is a point in the plot after which it
branches from the original and begins an entirely new chain of events.

There are many interesting choices you can make which will impact certain
details of the game. Some of these involve the configuration of your party;
some will remove a character if he or she is present, while others will add a
character if you have at least one empty slot. These changes cannot be undone
later, but each such event has a place to save relatively nearby, so if you
find something happens to your party that you didn't want, simply reset and 
don't finish that event or start a new save file.

Visit the Training Room in Baron for a cursory overview of changes and other
miscellaneous hints and tips.


Applying the Patch
------------------

ORIGINAL ROM: Final Fantasy II(U)(V1.1).smc

Please ensure that your rom is:
 * V1.1
 * Unheadered (should be 1,048,576 bytes)
 * Clean; i.e. it has never been patched with anything else or otherwise
    modified in any way. This includes having been saved with FF4kster. Even
    if you changed nothing within the editor, FF4kster makes changes to a
    clean ROM upon saving, regardless.

Here are some checksums you can use to verify your rom if you have trouble:

CRC32:   23084FCD
SHA-1:   41A74EB369A7A91815529EF99AB1B20E2BDF3E26
SHA-256: 414BACC05A18A6137C0DE060B4094AB6D1B75105342B0BB36A42E45D945A0E4D
MD5:     27D02A4F03E172E029C9B82AC3DB79F7

If your game crashes during the opening, if you get strange end-game weapons
from very early-game chests or monster drops, or if you find clones of Palom
and Porom in strange places blocking your progress, chances are you have
patched the wrong rom, or something otherwise went wrong in the patching
process.


Changelog
=========

4.1
---
* Equip screen now shows current stats and how a newly equipped item changed
  them, including elements, races, and special properties like magnetic.
  (Thanks to Crow! for this patch.)

* Chakra now heals 1/3 your max HP instead of 1/2 your current HP.
  For example, before if you were at 50/300, Chakra would heal you 25,
  whereas now it will heal you 100.

* There is now a bridge from Toroia to the southern section of the map where
  the Misty Mountains drops you off. You can still chocobo over the river,
  but a chocobo is no longer strictly required (and thus the corresponding
  dialogue from Rydia was removed).

* You can now exit the cave with Tellah without the tome and come back
  later.

* Added a scholar to Mysidia who tells you useful info for a price.


4.0
---
* Items cannot be duplicated.
  (EDIT: At least not by the widely-known method; there is still a more
  complicated way of doing it which this fix does not prevent.)

* Hold Y button to dash (thanks to Crow! and Myself086).

* Ciriatto and Malacoda are nerfed a little.

* Float is learned earlier but costs more MP.

* Twins start at a higher level.

* Some characters' stat growth improved.

* Black chocobo no longer automatically goes home.

* Ice Mines music glitch fixed.

* A few treasures changed in various places.

* Cagnazzo shell form glitch fixed.

* Dark Mist AI changed.

* Dark Elf awards more exp.

* "Fiends" can no longer be reflect-petrified.

* Dark Wave and Kick damage scales up better in the mid to late game.

* A couple of minor dialogue changes and typo fixes.

* Fat chocobos no longer require a carrot.

* Serpent Road opens earlier.

* Mount Ordeals opens earlier.

* Twin spells changed, also they learn a new one at high enough level.

* You can no longer flee from the Break Blade treasure battle.


3.1
---

* Thanks to Chillyfeez, the music in the DarkMist battle now loops
  correctly.


3.0
---

* The FF4kster config files for this hack are now included in the zip. Just
  extract the contents of the "config" folder over the default FF4kster one
  and everything will be labelled for Unprecedented Crisis rather than for
  default FF4. If you want to preserve the old config files, you can simply
  make a copy of your FF4kster folder in a new location before overwriting.
  Once again, I am a poor record keeper so even with the updated config
  files, it's possible that some things are not named correctly, but it
  beats trying to use it with the original config files.

* Something special happens when you beat the game with solo Cecil (i.e. if
  you remove all your other party members and just go into the final dungeon
  sequence with Cecil alone). A different special thing will happen based on
  whether you did it with solo Dark Knight or solo Paladin.

* Aegis shield has its KO immunity back to make solo runs easier/possible. I
  now have a different solution to the Golbez/Shadow battle lock.

* Someone in the training room now explains a commonly requested tidbit of
  information relating to a certain item.

* Various minor bugfixes hardly worth mentioning.


2.1
---

* Removed KO immunity from Aegis shield. Having KO immunity made it possible
  to get the game stuck in an infinite loop at a certain point if you had it
  equipped.


2.0
---
I am a poor record-keeper and did not exhaustively track every change I made,
but here are some of the highlights:

* Smoother difficulty curve: The previous version had several sudden jumps up
   in difficulty, particularly the transition to the underground. Several
   steps have been taken to smooth out the difficulty increases, including
   changes to monster stats, AIs, and Experience rewards. There is also now a
   new monster domain for the Mist cave when you visit it the second time, as
   well as new treasures (don't worry, you can still get them the first time;
   they'll respawn).

* Angel Wings: The previous version featured a lot of damage floor (i.e. the
   same amount found in the original FF4/FF2US). However, since the damage
   floor dungeons are not optional in this version like they were originally,
   and since they are initially tackled before your characters are likely to
   have learned Float, a couple of compromises were made. First, some damage
   tiles have been removed, particularly on the "treasure route" of Bahamut's
   Lagoon (originally the Sylph Cave). Second, there is an item for sale in
   the underwold shops called Angel Wings which, when used in battle, cast
   Float on the party. Just as Float normally does, it will persist outside
   of battle and remain until you take a staircase or warp/teleport.

* New commands: Cid and Kain were a little boring in the first version, I
   found, so they each now have a new command. Kain has "Lance" (Lancet)
   which is a weaker physical attack, but it drains HP (don't target undeads
   with it). Cid now has "Dash" which causes him to ram himself into an enemy
   much like Umaro from FF6. It deals damage equal to Cid's current HP
   (usually a lot more than his attack would deal) but brings him to 1 HP. It
   is mainly useful as a finishing move, or you can spam it if you carry lots
   of items and/or have someone who can cast Arise or Cure 4 consistently.

* More hints: Baron's Training Room is now full of useful tips, both things
   pertaining to this hack in particular as well as lesser-known facts about
   FF4's game mechanics that are handy to know. There is also a little more
   guidance given, both in certain plot scenes, as well as by NPCs (talk to
   people in Agart!) that provide a little more direction for where to go in
   case the player gets stuck.

* Spell progressions: Certain spells have been changed a little, and many
   characters have had their spell progressions completely rearranged. You're
   still unlikely to have Float your first time through the underground
   dungeons, but you'll almost certainly have it by the time you go back,
   should you decide to do so.

* Weapons: Many weapons have been retooled a little. The Sleep blade, Chaos
   blade, and Icebrand have all been buffed a little, the knives have been
   drastically reworked, and the bows have been buffed slightly. The axes and
   hammers have also been buffed a bit.

* Starting inventory: The player now begins with one of each basic attack and
   recovery item, except for one FireBomb and one Lit-Bolt (Cecil uses those
   during the opening ^_^). In addition, -Sort- and the Trashcan default to
   being at the top of the item screen rather than the bottom (you can still
   move them).

* Speed-run trap: There is a technique speedrunners use to skip the plot
   scene in Mist in the beginning and get access to the Mist shops way
   earlier than intended. You don't want to do this. Trust me. You've been
   warned.

* Party size detection: As mentioned in the preamble above, you are no longer
   given the choice to add a party member to a full party, potentially
   crashing or otherwise messing up your game. This is due to the
   implementation of a technique for the game's automatic tracking of your
   party size. As a result, it can also tell if you are alone (solo Cecil),
   and certain details of certain events have special cases for this
   situation.

Credits
-------
Pinkpuff
Chillyfeez
Grimoire LD
Crow!
Myself086