Final Fantasy IX: Alternate Fantasy

[Tirlititi]

Hi there!

Final Fantasy IX: Alternate Fantasy is a mod aiming to increase the difficulty and, above all, to give a new fresh experience of FF9 for those who already know the game well.
In the new version you can also recruit Beatrix in the party.

Download/Install:

Since v6.0, Alternate Fantasy must be installed using Memoria's Mod Manager.

Install or update Memoria by downloading and running Memoria.Patcher.exe from its Github:
┌─────────────────────┐
§ Memoria Engine mod[github.com] §
└─────────────────────┘

Note that, for now, Alternate Fantasy must have 'priority' over the Moguri mod if you use both of them.

Below are a couple of screenshots detailing the installation process step by step.

https://i.imgur.com/HgqDJ0W.png
Download and run Memoria.Patcher.exe

https://i.imgur.com/ABxhce9.png
Hopefully the patching process goes fine
If your game is not installed in the standard Steam directory, or in a external hard drive, try moving the patcher to your game directory before running it

https://i.imgur.com/X2Qsqfk.png
When launching the game, the "Install Mods" button opens Memoria's Mod Manager

https://i.imgur.com/tRuVxJ1.png
Download "Alternate Fantasy" from the catalog

https://i.imgur.com/OrYHYTK.png
Don't forget to activate it after installation
In most situations, the Moguri Mod should be moved to the bottom of the list (this is because Moguri Mod 8.3.0.0 packs a couple of assets that are duplicates of the game's default assets; placing it at the bottom has no impact or very small impacts on Moguri's features)

The mod fully works in any of the official languages of the game: English, Japanese (thanks to Moldsax), German (thanks to DSpecht), French, Spanish (thanks to link2015z) and Italian (thanks to TheFF8fan and Argon).

Also, if you use Hades Workshop, the HWS source file can be downloaded from my dropbox folder[www.dropbox.com] (it's in the archive "AF and PCP source files.zip").

What are the modifications?

A lot of them. Most are gameplay related but a few of them are also about the screenplay. There are two kinds of scenario-related changes:
1) A few dialogs that were suppressed during the game's development are put back in this mod. It includes the dialogs from the "Hidden Dialogs" patch plus a few others for which only the texts were kept.
2) As Beatrix can be permanently recruited after getting the airship (optional), cutscenes are changed from this point onward to include Beatrix in them.

Here is a list of the dialogs suppressed by the developpers and put back:
• An extra dialog between Puck and Vivi over Alexandria's roofs, unmissable
• A small line in the ATE "Time To Escape", missable
• A few Steiner lines to ask for Magic Sword, unmissable
• An extra line about Vivi's grandpa in front of Ice Cavern, unmissable
• An extended dialog between Steiner and Morrid, unmissable
• An extra ATE in Cleyra's cathedral, missable
• A few lines in Pinnacle Rocks, after the first meeting with Ramuh, unmissable
• An extra minigame in the occupied Linblum Castle, unmissable
• A couple of lines in the base level of the occupied Linblum Castle, unmissable
• A couple of lines at the Dragon's gate right after, missable
• A couple of lines to setup a rescue plan with Mog, unmissable
• An extra minigame when controlling Vivi in Alexandria for the 2nd time, missable

Also, there are 4 new bosses that can be fought at the end of the game.
For that, speak to Hades after defeating Lich and obtaining a Pumice: he will challenge you with new fights.
• The 3 Black Waltzes fighting together
• The 2nd opus of Tantarian, available only if you defeated it in Alexandria's Castle
• Meltigemini, with pieces of real twins inside
• The 4 Guardians fighting together

And Excalibur II can now be acquired by two different methods:
1) Reach and beat Hades in less than 14 hours,
2) Get all the collectable treasures of the game (there are 4 little mistakes allowed) to obtain the highest treasure rank.
Including a few Mimics, that makes 404 unique treasures to find.
The list is the same as in vanilla (for the locations at least) and can be found in this topic[gamefaqs.gamespot.com].


Gameplay-wise, there are a lot of changes. The battle system has been reworked, always with the aim of having more balanced mechanics and open to diverse strategies.

Here is a list of these changes: it is more or less written in decreasing order of importance, which allows you to stop reading whenever you don't want to know any more.


Changes in the abilities

An extended description of each ability can be found in this spreadsheet[docs.google.com].

In particular:
• Some abilities are short-ranged, meaning that they are influenced by the character's row [in vanilla, only the attack command is] and back attacks. They also can't be used against out-of-range enemies.
• Some abilities can deal critical strikes [in vanilla, only the attack command can], which doubles their damage.
• Some abilities use the properties of the character's weapon, which includes its element (if the ability has an element, both are taken into account) [in vanilla, only No Mercy, Stock Break and Shock does that], the bonus given by killer abilities and the weapon's status if the supporting ability Add Status is enabled [in vanilla, only the attack command does that].

• With Bandit enabled, stealing all the 4 items of an enemy cannot take more than 10 attempts:
The super-common item is stolen at the 1st attempt,
The common item is stolen for sure after 1 unsuccessful steal,
The rare item is stolen for sure after 2 other unsuccessful steals,
The super-rare item is stolen for sure after 3 other unsuccessful steals.
When Master Thief is also enabled, only 1 unsuccessful steal can be done between each successful steals (so all the items are stolen after 7 attempts maximum), and the most rare items have the priority.
When Bandit is not enabled and the first steal's random check fails, the counter of unsuccessful steals is not increased [as in vanilla, the first random check is "Random(0, Caster's level + spirit - 1) ≥ Random(0, Target's level - 1)" ; this check is bypassed by Bandit].
Zidane can still steal items with luck, in which case the counter of unsuccessful steals neither increase or reset.

• The trance of any ally can be manually triggered using Zidane's Transcend skill provided that the gauge is already at 50% at least.
• Beatrix has a double-cast Seiken + White Magic trance.
• Quina's trance has changed to Double Blue.
• Scan cannot miss anymore [in vanilla, it misses against most bosses and several special enemies],
• Summons are special for 3 reasons:
1) As in Vanilla, their power increases with the number of jewels that you own (except for Odin for which it is a penalty), up to a +49 bonus [+99 in vanilla],
2) Their power increases each time you cast them, up to 50 times for a bonus of +50,
3) The first time you cast a summon in a battle, it gets priority over the other commands: it is summoned before the other commands in queue, even if the ATB gauge was filled after. When Dagger and Eiko are both in the battle, summons get priority once for both of them.
• Stellar Circle 5 and Meo Twister increase the critical rate on the enemies, adding a 33% chance to the default critical chance (non cumulative).
• Gravity damage are now effective against all the enemies, including bosses. Their power is divided by 4 against bosses [in vanilla, Gravity spells always miss on most bosses].
• Using a Soft on a stone-type enemy cuts its current HP in half. It deals 1/8 of a boss's current HP against a boss instead [in vanilla, using a Soft on a stone-type enemy immediatly kills it].

Note that some weapons get a special power bonus with the Attack command (thief swords and knight swords are empowered by spirit, rackets are empowered by speed and Save The Queen is empowered by level). As in vanilla, this bonus only applies when using the Attack command.

Supporting Abilities

Auto-Shell, Auto-Protect, Cheat Fate (immunes against Doom) and Fidget are added to several characters.
When Fidget is activated, the character changes row everytime s/he attacks.
Bright Eyes, Restore HP, Reflectx2 and Gamble Defence are removed.
Accuracy+ now immunes against Blind [in vanilla, physical attacks cannot miss with Accuracy+ even under Blind, the only effect of which is then to remove the character's evasion against enemy attacks].
Protect Girls triggers anytime [in vanilla, it triggers only under 50% of Max HP].
Cover triggers under 50% of Max HP [in vanilla, it triggers only under 17% of Max HP (yellow HP)].

The way that most damage modifiers work has changed:
• When accumulated, the damage bonuses give +50%, +100%, +125%, +150%, +162%, +175%, etc... (the theoretical limit is a bonus of +200%, which is 3 times the base power),
• For Steiner's trance, these bonuses are doubled to +100%, +200%, +250%, +300%, +325%, +350%, etc... [in vanilla, Steiner's attack command gets a +200% bonus instead of the usual +50% given by Trance; it is not the case anymore],
• The damage penalties cancel damage bonuses,
• If there are more damage penalties than bonuses, the damage are halved that many times.
Damage bonuses include Killer abilities, elemental equipment boosts, target's elemental weaknesses, Berserk or Trance, target's Sleep, target's Mini, back attack, special supporting abilities (High Jump, Concentrate, Power Throw) and MP Attack (Attack command only).
Damage penalties include Mini (for most of magic attacks), short-ranged attacks from back row, multi-targeting a spell that can be single-target, target's elemental resistances, target's defend, target's shell or protect.
Critical strikes (damage x2), summon short forms (damage x0.67) and physical attacks under Mini (damage drastically lowered) are not concerned by the above.
[In vanilla, the damage are multiplied by 1.5 for each bonus instead, except that killer abilities, elemental boosts, weaknesses and resistances are applied no more than once each.]
Damage bonuses are marked visually with a small blow effect for each bonus at impact.

Fixed Return Magic non working on Necron or behaving differently than in the PSX version of the game (multi-target spells are now multi-target returned).

Statuses

The duration and speed of statuses has been reworked.
They are now independant of the fighter's spirit, except for Doom and Gradual Petrify (the more spirit you have, the longer it takes).
Haste and Slow respectively decreases and increases the status duration and respectively speed up and slow down the ticks of Poison, Venom and Regen.
[In vanilla, the more spirit you have, the longer statuses last, except for Doom and Gradual Petrify that are running faster with higher spirit. The ticks of Regen are also faster while the ticks of Poison and Venom are slower.]

Blind makes the target selection unreliable, for both the enemies and the player characters:
https://i.imgur.com/k6HEQDa.png
In this situation, Garnet is blinded:
- single-targeting Vivi or Zidane will be unreliable (either one can be aimed at in the end) because they are both on Garnet's right side,
- single-targeting oneself is reliable,
- single-targeting Quina is reliable because s/he is the only one on Garnet's left side,
- single-targeting any enemy is unreliable (any enemy can be aimed at in the end),
- multi-targeting is reliable.

Float gives a +30% evasion bonus against physical attacks if the attacker doesn't float.
Remedies cure Poison, Venom, Silence, Blind, Stop, Mini, Gradual Petrify, Confuse, Heat and Freeze [in vanilla, it doesn't cure Confuse, Heat and Freeze].
Phoenix Pinions cure Doom (they also cost and sell cheaper).
Vanish is efficient against more attacks (all the short-ranged physical attacks).
Defending protects against many negative statuses: Silence, Blind, Confuse, Berserk, Sleep, Heat, Freeze and Gradual Petrify.
Confuse triggers a back attack bonus half of the time [in vanilla, only back attacks at the start of battles and running away can trigger a back attack bonus].
Silence drastically lowers trance increase.

Poison and Doom can now be inflicted to several bosses.
For Poison, the damage per tick on bosses is 1/64 of Max HP instead of 1/16.
For Doom, a boss doesn't die at the end of the countdown but looses 1/5 of its Max HP instead.

Heat and Freeze last only a short time. Freeze lasts 1.5 times longer than Heat.
Vanish and Sleep last longer.
The ticks of venom are 1.5 times slower than the ticks of Regen or Poison [in vanilla, they are 2 times slower].

Steiner's Break abilities can be used against bosses but are less effective [in vanilla, they are just as effective as usual]:
• Power/Magic Break: bring to 80% of the boss's normal stat, instead of 67%.
• Armor/Mental Break: bring to 67% of the boss's normal stat, instead of 50%.
These can be used again if the enemy somehow changes its stat through a special ability.

Enemies

Reasonably increased the stats of enemies and made them harder through their AI.
The Max MP of the enemies have been drastically lowered in order to get emptied in a decent amount of time through MP damage.

Changes to the party's abilities reflect on the enemies' abilities.
More statuses are inflicted by enemy attacks and spells.
More abilities can be critical strikes, especially the physical attacks [in vanilla, a non-missable physical attack, like Ark's Boomerang, doesn't have critical] or the breaths.

The class of several enemies has been changed. Enemies are not automatically "birds" as soon as they are floating or flying, and there are more "humanoids".
Classification is less restricted by gameplay constraints [in vanilla, a few bosses are not "stone" or "zombie" despite the evidence because it would mean a free win; it is no longer the case].

Ragtime Mouse's questions are modified.
Quina may eat humanoids [in vanilla, they are non edible, like most bosses].

Miscellaneous

A few chests have a changed content. In particular:
• The Dragon's Hair and the Kain Lance are switched, making Dragon's Hair only available in late game,
• The Tiger Racket is only available after the return of the mist and seeing a cutscene with Quan (this specific optional cutscene is thus delayed),
• Several Hammers can be obtained; Hammers can be used by Vivi, Eiko and Dagger to improve their strength,
• Several acclaimed prices in Treno's Auction House have a delayed availability (Dark Matter in particular).

The elemental weakness given by pieces of equipment are now given in their description [in vanilla, they are hidden].
The Cotton Robe money trick was removed (they sell a bit less).
A couple of weapons can be used by several characters (for instance, Dagger can use the... dagger).
The ultimate weapons give a big boost to main characteristics (Strength, Magic, Speed and Spirit).
A few minigames have been tweaked.


Note about the version "Beatrix-only"

That version is meant to provide additional content without changing the difficulty or the gameplay of the vanilla (non-modded) game. It includes:
- Recruitable Beatrix (with cutscenes, abilities, trance etc.),
- Hidden scenes cut by the devs,
- The optional stuff that Hades offers (4 extra bosses and their rewards; the extra bosses are slightly easier since they inflict less statuses, but their damage and HP are the same as in the main version of the mod),
- Thunder Slash fix (that's the only non-optional gameplay aspect I kept in that version).


Enjoy !

[Tirlititi]

So, with my mod, Beatrix is available after the events in the Mount Gulug. She's a full-fledged party member except that she has no trance.

Getting her sooner in the game raises 2 problems:

- The scenario: if you only want her gameplay-wise, then you don't care about that aspect and I would recommend you to use either Memoria (both tools called Memoria can add her to the party) or Cheat Engine. If you want scenario consistency, however, you have to think of (1) when and why does she join the party, (2) what does that change that she's with you and (3) what happens to the sub-plots that previously involved her.
Examples of problems in (2) would be that you're 9 during the Desert Palace/Oeilvert split, so more than 2 teams of 4 (plus there are 8 prison cells...), or that she'd probably have some interaction with Kuja and/or the jesters in Gulug etc...
Examples of problems in (3) is the fact that finding her in Alexandria (and her giving the Garnet stone) is important when Zidane looks for Dagger. Personally, I had to think of some reason for the Red Rose to take part in the White Dragons Battle (I thought to involve Mikoto at some point and decided that it was more logical that she gets on the ship after the team enters Memoria...).

- The cutscene freeze: unless you use Albeoris's Memoria tool, which has a protection against this problem, or use Hades Workshop to fix the problematic cutscenes yourself, the game freezes during some events if you have Beatrix in the team while she's not supposed to be there. Indeed, in cutscenes like the ones in Oeilvert, where everyone in the team comment what they see, Beatrix has no scripted events (but the game will ask for these scripted events). She will be missing during the cutscene and the game will freeze as soon as she should react. Using Albeoris's Memoria, she will be replaced in cutscene by another character who has available scripted events (but then pops out from nowhere just during the cutscene). Using Hades Workshop, you can add those missing scripted events to her so she appears and reacts normally during those cutscenes.
However, the Desert Palace script in particular is very tricky in that regard. The fact that you'd be 9 characters instead of 8 is really a big trouble there. Even adding very basic reactions can prove to be tricky/tedious. Here are tips for doing that:
http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=14315.msg242890#msg242890

So, I hope that answers your question ^^'
I personally think that, if you want Beatrix only because she's cool, then you shouldn't bother using something else than Albeoris's Memoria (unfortunatly not compatible with this mod yet though) or Cheat Engine or Gjoerulv's Memoria (that are compatible).
You need to be dedicated to make a proper well-looking mod with modified cutscenes (but that's quite an accomplishment and people who went through it can be proud of it).

[The Grumbleskull]

I really appreciate the in depth answer. I'm still definitely interested in trying this mod out, just not familiar at all with any of the aforementioned programs/tools. After her entrance into your party post-gulug are there any specific cutscenes you'd recommend avoiding with her? I played through FF8 with laguna kiros and ward and it had very similar issues to those described. But with a lot of saving I muscled through.

-I'm all for a story-friendly way to add her. I've just always loved the idea of playing games as npcs or guest members instead of the main team. Just adds a new feel to it I guess.

[Argon]

Regarding Beatrix end trance glitch, could copying the regular model file and changing its name to what the game searches for when she "enters" trance work as a temporary workaround? Does the game even search for the model the same way it does for the other party members or is it different?

[Tirlititi]

@The Shockmaster: No, there's no cutscene to avoid with my mod: I fixed the potential issues in all the cutscenes after Mount Gulug.

@Argon: One problem is that the game doesn't search for any model for Beatrix. If you're familiar with programing and arrays, the trance models are basically an array of 8 models like "TranceModel[ ID of the character ]". Since "TranceModel[ ID of Beatrix ]" doesn't exist, there's a bad index error.

[Argon]

And you'd need that C# script. Got it.

[The Grumbleskull]

Sounds cool, I'll definitely give this a shot then. Thanks for the info.

[Argon]

Originally posted by steiner:

@Tirlititi
So in order to have a trance model of Beatrix, an array would have to be added for Beatrix?
Is it now possible to add new models into the archives!?
Any ideas how I go about doing that? In the CIL code?
Same for those other temporary characters?
I would rather add a trance model for the visual feel of it. And Beatrix won't feel, left out.

Sounds to me like you'd have to add a ninth model to the existing array rather than adding another one (8 models for 8 party members I guess?). I don't know if that's easier said than done, and then you'd have to expect the game to search for that specific model I guess.

For the model: I found a fanmade trance Beatrix that can be downloaded, although it has PS1 graphics; if it turns out that modifying the game to give her trance is possible, then maybe we could ask the artist permission (never do anything like this without asking permission first) to use the model for the mod and "update" its graphics. If all of this turns out to be implementable of course.

I would link the model but mobile steam is being a ♥♥♥♥♥ right now.

[Kupuntu]

I just found this mod and it looks very interesting. I've been playing FFIX since its release and my favourite challenge is Zidane solo. I wonder if that's doable here? It's actually quite easy in the vanilla game. Has anyone attempted it before with this mod? I read most of the thread and there were mentions of level 1 run (which is a lot more popular, of course).

[SenMithrarin85]

Originally posted by Kupuntu:

I just found this mod and it looks very interesting. I've been playing FFIX since its release and my favourite challenge is Zidane solo. I wonder if that's doable here? It's actually quite easy in the vanilla game. Has anyone attempted it before with this mod? I read most of the thread and there were mentions of level 1 run (which is a lot more popular, of course).

Zidane solo would be near impossible in this mod.

[Moogy]

I replaced the DLL

Originally posted by Tirlititi:

You can use both. You need to import Alternate Fantasy's .hws file in Hades Workshop and just enable the "Custom Backgrounds -> 64" macro.

I did that for you there: just use this DLL in place of your current Assembly-CSharp.dll.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3ebzpbe0h5xybul/Assembly-CSharp.dll?dl=1

I replaced the DLL, and Memoria is all blurry, cant see anything. The menu works fine and the world map, even though i havent seen any differences in backgrounds.

Im using AF and just added the DLL in the link you posted here.

[Argon]

Originally posted by Moogy:

I replaced the DLL

Originally posted by Tirlititi:

You can use both. You need to import Alternate Fantasy's .hws file in Hades Workshop and just enable the "Custom Backgrounds -> 64" macro.

I did that for you there: just use this DLL in place of your current Assembly-CSharp.dll.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3ebzpbe0h5xybul/Assembly-CSharp.dll?dl=1

I replaced the DLL, and Memoria is all blurry, cant see anything. The menu works fine and the world map, even though i havent seen any differences in backgrounds.

Im using AF and just added the DLL in the link you posted here.

Could you give us some screenshots? I'm about to install these mods myself.

[SenMithrarin85]

AF and the background mod both mod a particular file. What I do to avoid conflicts is firstly add the background mod to the game and then use hades workshop to generate the modded steam files and then paste them on top. Both mods co-exist peacefully via this method.

[Moogy]

Aah ok well Hades is really complex rigtht? Im not much of a modder or coder so i have trouble with it.

I used PSX emulation cheater at some point, is that similar?

[SenMithrarin85]

Originally posted by Moogy:

Aah ok well Hades is really complex rigtht? Im not much of a modder or coder so i have trouble with it.

I used PSX emulation cheater at some point, is that similar?

Not as complex as you might think. Its just a case of this:

Open hades
File>open then find the ff9launcher.exe
Choose English US
File>Open mod then open the AF.hws file (leave all boxes ticked or unticked as they are)
File>Save Steam mod which will create the steam files

If using the background mod, before the final step, go to the CIL code tab and then to macros. Under the custom background macro, change 32 to 64 and then click apply macro. After which do the final step above.

Then its just a case of copy pasting the steam files on top of the game's exisitng ones.

[Argon]

Huh. Does this mod work with Dwight's sound fix? I noticed they both have a resource.assets