Final Fantasy XII: Struggle for Freedom- A Difficulty Mod- 1.9 Released!

[eternal248]

Download here: https://www.nexusmods.com/finalfantasy12/mods/59

Hey guys! Those of you who've been in the FFXII Modding Discord channel know already, but I've been chipping away at making a FFXII mod for the past month or so. The great news is that it's almost done and is in its testing phase! Once I've tested everything, I'll be releasing a public beta for everyone to enjoy.

I mod games throughout the entire Ivalice Alliance, barring Revenant Wings and Vagrant Story. I've made mods for Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and Final Fantasy Tactics A2. FFXII holds a special place in my heart as one of my favorite games on the PS2. I remember coming home every day after school and just spending hours getting immersed in the world, and when I found out there was a dedicated modding community for this game, I immediately knew I wanted to work on this. To that end, I spent a very long time figuring out exactly what I wanted to do to make the FFXII experience more interesting, yet accessible for both new players and vets alike. Struggle for Freedom (SFF), is my vision on how to go about that. Will the changes appeal to everyone? Probably not. But I'm hoping that at the end of the day, people will want to try it and they'll have fun with it.

What does this mod change? Here's a quick rundown!


Struggle for Freedom (SFF) aims to overall be a more challenging/balanced version of FFXII while still being fair and adding quality of life features. SFF doesn't aim to be cruelly difficult.

SFF is balanced around Normal Mode and isn't intended for use with New Game- or New Game+, although there's nothing stopping you from playing with those modes.

There are four versions of the mod included:

1) The Struggle/Freedom Jobs, which feature unique jobs for each character based on their canon roles, each with two set Espers and Zodiark being a Wild Card that can be assigned to anyone. Struggle jobs are linear with little room to diverge from the set License path, whereas Freedom jobs are more open, similar to FFXII's original boards.
Vaan (Sky Pirate) is a Thief/Ninja, focusing on swift attacks with Daggers and Ninja Blades as well as Stealing and evading attacks.
Penelo (Dancer) is a White Mage/Dancer, focusing on healing and buffing while striking enemies with Rods and Poles.
Balthier (Leading Man) is a Machinist/Chemist, focusing on Guns, Spears and Measures and boosting the effects of items.
Fran (Wood Warden) is a Black Mage/Archer, focusing on elemental attacks, both magickal and physical to snipe enemy weaknesses.
Basch (Paladin) is a Knight/Paladin, focusing on defending allies while doling out powerful physical attacks with Swords, Knightswords, Axes, and Hammers.
Ashe (Princess) is an all-rounder, being a combination of a Time Mage/Red Mage/Samurai, focusing on combos with Katana, Maces, Knuckles augmented by Time Magick and Arcane Magick.

2) The PS2 Board, which features the original PS2 board, albeit with TZA's new Licenses added.

3) Rebalanced 12 Jobs, which feature altered versions of the 12 jobs introduced in TZA.

4) Unchanged 12 Jobs, which feature unaltered versions of the 12 jobs introduced in TZA.

Characters have had their stats changed around to better fit their canon appearances:
-Vaan has the highest Speed of the party and decent HP, but has low Magick and MP. Vaan comes with the Foe: HP = 100% Gambit upon reaching the Gambit tutorial, allowing for easier theft.

-Penelo has the highest Magick of the party and decent MP, but has low Strength and Vitality. Penelo also now comes with the Cure spell innately as well as the Ally: HP < 30% : Cure Gambit.

-Balthier has the highest Vitality of the party and decent HP, but has low MP and Speed.

-Fran has the highest MP of the party and decent Magick, but has low Strength and Vitality.

-Basch has the highest Strength and HP of the party and decent Vitality, but has the lowest Magick and MP.

-Ashe falls right in the middle of the group, having an average stat spread among everyone in the party.

Each character has Brawler as an innate License, allowing True Unarmed to be a more viable gameplay type without needing to buy the License or use the Amber Armlet.

Espers have many, many more skills at their disposal and have custom Gambits set up to take advantage of their new skillsets. As such, Espers are far more powerful now. Each Esper also has new passive abilities to further augment their power. Most Espers have a theme to give them each a unique use. For example, Cuchulainn has the ability to corrupt and invert items that he uses, similar to the Nihopalaoa.

Guests can no longer set off traps.

Many enemies have had their stats augmented. As a general rule, most enemies have 2x HP and 1.3x stats, with certain exceptions to the rule.

Certain Steals and Drops have been changed to better fit the balance of the game.

Trial Mode enemies have had their stats severely increased, and no longer give LP.

Certain "broken" enemies such as Dustia and Negalmuur have been severely nerfed.

Many enemies have different pieces of equipment now, such as the Urutan Yensa, who can now Poison the party with their Bamboo Arrows.

Some enemies are now differently sized, making them stand out more.

The Treasure system has been completely changed. Many chests that were not 100% spawn are now 100% spawn, meaning there's less of an RNG element to finding treasure, particularly late-game. For example, the Cleanse chest in Cerobi is now a 100% spawning chest.

Diamond Armlet mechanics have also been changed- now, wearing the Diamond Armlet doubles the ceiling of potential Gil that can be obtained from a chest. Also, the Rare item found without the DA becomes the Common item found with the DA. Knots of Rust and the Meteorite items are now the Rare DA item.

FFXII PS2 players can rest easy- the Demonsbane is now once again in the post-Demon Wall chest.

The Invisible Equipment (Gendarme, Seitengrat, etc.) can now be obtained via the Bazaar and treasure chests. Seitengrat has been moved to a new location.

Certain Bazaar recipes have been changed for balance purposes.

Consumable item Bazaar recipes can now be repeated infinitely, allowing a capable hunter to farm the materials they need to get consumables for cheap.

Many shops have new items, with items like Serums and Teleport Stones being more readily available.

The Hunt Club sidequest has been made to be more interesting.

Each Trophy Rare Game now has a 100% drop of a rare or useful item.

Each of the prizes you can buy from the Hunter's Club salesman is streamlined, so you no longer have to worry about who you give what trophy to.

By getting all 30 Trophies, you are rewarded with the Wyrmhero Blade. The Hunt Club is now the only way to acquire the Wyrmhero Blade.

Many weapons have been completely changed, with weapon types having niches now, making each weapon type more viable and interesting and allowing for more interesting job combos.

-Swords are simple weapons, with many of them having an elemental affinity with which to strike down the foe. Their elemental affinity allows them to be easily boosted by element augmenting equipment.

-Daggers are quick weapons, focusing on quickly debilitating the target with debuffs.

-Axes no longer deal random damage, instead focusing on damage with a higher combo rate compared to comparable weapons.

-Hammers no longer deal random damage, instead focusing on raw damage and debuffs that impair the foe's ability to move and act.

-Maces are versatile weapons, focusing on debuffs and element augmenting with the boon of being able to be used alongside a Shield.

-Measures have been completely rehauled, with each Measure no longer inflicting damage and instead bestowing the target with two buffs 100% of the time.

-Greatswords can no longer Combo and are instead considered to be defensive weapons, with many Greatswords bestowing an Auto: Buff such as Protect and Haste on the user.

-Katana focus on dealing high amounts of damage with long combos. Masamune is now 1H, allowing it to be used with the Genji Shield.

-Ninja Blades are now 1H, allowing them to be used in conjunction with Shields and focus on combos, with Iga/Koga being a devastating combo that takes advantage of Oil and Fire.

-Spears are powerful weapons capable of hitting Flying units, with many late-game Spears having new elemental affinities to strike down targets more quickly, and many can also inflict debuffs.

-Poles can no longer hit Flying units, but are otherwise well-balanced between offense and defense, being able to allow the user to easily evade attacks while being able to string together long combos of attacks.

-Rods are now 1H, allowing them to be used in conjunction with Shields. Many Rods focus on either augmenting the user's magickal abilities or protecting their frail mage users from harm.

-Staves are now 1H, allowing them to be used in conjunction with Shields. Staves focusing on augmenting elemental damage- particularly those of spells- to devastate the enemy.

-Bows are now slightly faster, with many late-game Bows able to augment elemental damage, particularly those of their Arrows, with many Arrows having new elements, such as the Bamboo Arrows being Water Elemental, and the Parallel Arrows becoming the Silver Arrows, which are Holy Elemental.

-Crossbows are now able to Combo and ignore the weather, making them more accurate and ultimately able to inflict more damage.

-Guns are mostly the same, still capable of ignoring stats to deal decent damage regardless of level. Two Guns are now Gunblades, which can Combo and deal damage based on STR, but can swap out ammo to change the sword's element.

-Hand-Bombs are now Knuckles, weapons that deal damage based on Strength and Speed. Knuckles focus on raw damage and combos together to deal heavy damage. Knuckles use Claws as ammo, and Claws can be switched out to change their element and status effects. Certain Claws also have special effects, such as dealing damage based on Magick instead of Strength.

The FINAL FANTASY weapons (Vrscika, Mina, etc.) now have new weapon models. The Invisible Weapons also have proper models now.

Guest weapons such as Larsa's Joyeuse can now be obtained and used by the party by stealing from certain bosses.

The previously unused Hero's Blade is now Ashe's starting weapon.

Armor is mostly the same, with many differences being found with Shields and certain pieces of armor bestowing elemental augmentation.

Shields- in addition to focusing on evasion- now also focus on reducing elemental damage, with there being a Shield to guard against each of the 8 elements. Zodiac Escutcheon is now the best overall shield, Gendarme is now the most elementally resistant shield, and Ensanguined Shield bestows Auto: Decoy onto the user.

Many previously uninteresting pieces of armor such as Pirate's Hat and Bone Helm now offer new effects.

Accessories have been retouched, with many no longer having random elemental affinity.

-Thief's Cuffs have been fully removed and replaced with Giant's Gloves, which grant +HP and +Vitality. A new License, Master Thief, allows a character to permanently have boosted Steal rates.

-Firefly no longer cuts EXP gains to 0, rather, it grants immunity to Instant Death, Syphon, and Fractional Damage.

-Steel Poleyns no longer grant immunity to traps, instead it boosts damage dealt by the Attack command by 20%.

-Quasimodo Boots now reduce all damage taken by 30%.

-Winged Boots now grant Swiftness 2 (50 LP version) to a character if they don't have it already in addition to Auto: Float.

Many, many abilities have been altered in some form or fashion. This ranges from MP Cost changes, to element changes, etc.

-Black Magick is largely the same, focusing on elemental damage with some big changes. Aqua is now Water and comes with an upgraded form- Waterga- finally accessible to the player for use. Each elemental spell family has its own niche use. Fire spells can inflict Oil for increased damage, Blizzard spells are AoE, Thunder spells have reduced casting time, Water spells are MP efficient, and Aero spells can inflict Immobilize to pin down foes. Scourge now can inflict many debilitating statuses at once, and Toxify is able to inflict both Disease and Sap at once- making it the first time a player has access to a Disease spell. Flare is instant-cast to make up for its long animation, Poison is AoE, and Bio can inflict both Poison and Sap.

-White Magick still focuses on healing and buffing with some major changes. Protect and Shell last longer and Regen is AoE and lasts longer, making those buffs more viable early-game. The status clearing spells such as Poisona are now AoE, making them more useful compared to items. Esuna now clears statuses that those status cleansing spells don't, such as Stop, Slow, and more. Renew is worth the high MP cost now by virtue of it becoming instant-cast, and Holy is AoE now with a shorter animation, and has a small chance of Stopping foes.

-Time Magick remains a good blend of buffs and debuffs, but with some big changes. Gravity and Graviga have been replaced with Quake and Quakega, spells that deal Earth Elemental damage in an AoE, giving Time Magick users a reliable method of dealing damage with an element that wasn't seen often in Vanilla FFXII. Vanish is now AoE, with Vanishga being replaced with Gravity, which reduces HP by 50% in an AoE.

-Green Magick has seen some drastic changes. Reverse was very broken in Vanilla and has been replaced with Drainga- a spell that drains HP from multiple foes in an AoE, effectively fully restoring the user's HP while dealing that damage. Decoy is now considered a buff, has had its duration increased, and has perfect accuracy, while Oil is more accurate. Oil will now wear off over time.

-Arcane Magick has remained mostly unchanged from Vanilla, albeit with some minor MP and Power changes.

-Technicks have received the largest overhaul of all skill types in the game. First Aid now restores a flat 15% of the target's HP, making it useful for conserving MP between fights. Wither and Addle have been replaced with Blitz and Erase- the former dealing weapon damage in an AoE and the latter removing all statuses from a target. 1000 Needles is now instant-cast, making it great for finishing off bosses with damage resistance. Traveler now bestows Haste/Vanish/Float on the user, while Numerology reduces the HP of enemies in an AoE by 25%, while Horology removes Time Magick-based effects such as Slow and Stop from the party.

-Esper abilities and Finishers have been buffed, making them far more devastating than they were previously, with the exception of Zeromus' abilities, which were nerfed slightly for balance. Many Esper abilities now inflict debuffs as well.

Many consumables have been changed, although for the most part they have effects similar to how they were in Vanilla.

-The Fang items no longer deal percentile damage, instead dealing elemental damage similar to -ra level spells.

-Baltoro's Seed now bestows defensive buffs on an ally, whereas Domaine Calvados bestows offensive buffs on an ally.

-The Meteorite items have been renamed for clarity upon getting them from chests, and they have a variety of new effects, primarily focusing on dealing heavy damage to enemies.

-Black Orbs now act as normal drops from enemies in the Penumbra in addition to their "Press X to Collect" versions. This means you can get Black Orbs without needing to mash X to collect them if you don't want to.

-The "Foe: Vulnerable to X" Gambits have been renamed for clarity to "Foe: Not-Immune to X".

Thank you for playing! Please send any feedback, bug reports, or even just general comments on whatever thread or board you found this mod on. I'll do my best to keep an eye on everything and reply to feedback as it comes back!

[MoonlitDNC]

Might have missed that then, there's months of posts over three different sites to keep up with. Either way, the mod is great & is absolutely the reason I bought a PC copy of TZA. Back when I played on PS2 at launch it definitely felt like a lot was lacking. I'm perfectly cool so far with 1.8.4 fixing pretty much every complaint I ever had about FF12, so if 1.9's notes look like stuff I'd be interested in I'll definitely update, but I'm also 100% content with things staying as-is (at least early on; it's possible I could get 20 hours in and that changes).

I haven't been this excited to play FF12 in ages, and I'm sure everyone else wants you to continue, so keep up the good work!

[「Lukja」]

So as a first timer to this mod, do I want to get the Struggle or Freedom jobs first? I don't mind a little bit of a challenge.

[Melodia]

Depends. Do you want a truly linear licence path, or do you want to be able to licence what you want within the confines of each board?

[eternal248]

@Moonlit: It's all good! I know there have been quite a few posts going on here recently. The 1.9 current changelog is below, should you wish to take a look. Thank you for your support and kinds words! :)

@Lukja: What Melodia said is accurate. By choosing the Struggle boards things are a lot more linear and you can't just go for the Battle/Magick/Swiftness/HP+ Licenses right away. The Freedom boards allow you to gun for those Licenses and the Quickenings earlier on, making it slightly easier overall, especially early/mid-game.

For those curious, this is the current 1.9 changelog. I'm sure more things will eventually be added, but this is where we're at for now:

MOD EDITS:
-The mod has been updated to be compatible with Nexus’ Vortex installer.

NPC EDITS:
-True New Game+ has been re-added and can be triggered by speaking with a new Nu Mou NPC at Clan Centurio’s Clan Hall.
-Two other new NPCs have been added- one at Eruyt Village, one in Archades- with whom you can speak with to learn more about certain Ivalice lore.

LICENSE EDITS:

STRUGGLE/FREEDOM:
-Black Magick 11 (Waterga/Toxify) is now available slightly earlier on Fran’s Struggle Board.
-Basch loses the Excalipoor license and gains a Battle Lore on the Struggle/Freedom Boards.
-Vaan gains the Excalipoor license and loses a Battle Lore on the Struggle/Freedom Boards.
-Vaan loses Time Magick 8 (Gravity/Warp) and gains Time Magick 12 (Quakega/Hastega), further emphasizing his domain over speed/swiftness.
-Balthier loses Black Magick 7 (Bio/Blindga) and gains Time Magick 3 (Vanish/Balance), allowing him to use his high HP pool as offense.
-Fran loses Accessories 12 (Gillie Boots/Steel Poleyns) and Arcane Magick 2 (Death/Darkga) and gains Accessories 13 (Berserker Bracers/Magick Gloves) and HP +310.

REBALANCED:
-The Rebalanced boards have been reworked once again and are now closer to their Vanilla variations, albeit designed with the Second Boards in mind and are designed with Esper choices in mind.


EQUIPMENT EDITS:
-Blood Sword now inflicts Sap at a 100% chance.
-Demonsbane has +10 ATK now and has been removed from treasure chests and shops, making it only obtainable by defeating the Demon Wall.
-Deathbringer now inflicts Doom at a 10% chance.
-Mina now inflicts Disease at a 25% chance.
-Vrsabha now inflicts Death with a 5% chance.
-Karkata now inflicts Death with a 10% chance.
-Kaiser Knuckles have had their ATK decreased from 40 to 36.
-Excalipoor is now Anastasia. This is an 85 ATK Sword that has 0 CT, allowing for instant attacks.
-Rose Corsage no longer gives +5 MAG, but does bestow Immune: Doom as well as Immune: Silence.
-Winged Boots no longer grant Swiftness 2 and SPD +5, but now also grant Immune: Wind.
-Power Armlet no longer has Immune: Reverse due to Reverse being fully removed from the game, though it now grants +5 MAG.
-Amber Armlet no longer boosts Unarmed damage as everyone has Brawler innately and it does not stack and having the Unarmed boost removed from the description will reduce confusion.
-Fuzzy Miter is now Rood Inverse and grants Auto: HP Critical to the user, triggering any effects that occur when the user is HP Critical, such as Last Stand, Spellbreaker, Adrenaline, and others. This item is obtained by defeating Shadowseer and is rewarded by Montblanc.

STATUS EDITS:

-Float’s duration has been increased to 150.

ABILITY EDITS:

-Revive now revives a fallen unit with 5% HP. This may initially seem like quite a nerf, but this gives Revive an interesting use- bringing party members back into HP Critical so they can benefit from an increased Combo Rate and trigger Adrenaline and Spellbreaker.
-Bonecrusher now inflicts Immobilize and Slow.
-Fira/Fira/Firaga now have a set 15% chance to inflict Oil.
-Aero/Aerora/Aeroga now have a set 30% chance to inflict Immobilize.
-Dark/Darkra/Darkga now have a set 15% chance to inflict Blind and AoE have been increased from 6 to 10 to match other spells.
-Quake/Quakera/Quakega now have a set 15% chance to inflict Slow.
-Poison’s accuracy has been increased from 80% to 100%.
-Esuna/Esunaga’s descriptions are now more clear about what specific statuses they remove.
-Immobilize’s description now also explains that Immobilized enemies cannot evade attacks.
-Poach now has 0 CT, making it more useful and easy to use, especially when combined with a Foe = HP Critical Gambit.
-Blitz’s formula has been changed to deal normal weapon damage.
-Shades of White’s accuracy has been improved.
-Traveler no longer bestows Vanish.
-Cyclone’s Power has been reduced from 240 to 220.
-”Maelstorm’s” name has been corrected to “Maelstrom”.
-Holyja now inflicts Blind, rather than Reverse.
-Boon now inflicts Confuse, rather than Reverse.
-Darkja’s power has been reduced from 250 to 230 and it now inflicts Doom, rather than KO. The on-hit status chance is increased from 50% to 100%.

TREASURE EDITS:
-Embroidered Tippet now correctly spawns 100% of the time in the Feywood.
-Darksteel Mace is now exclusively awarded for completing the Darksteel hunt.
-Seitengrat’s treasure location has been fixed and is no longer obtainable after getting to the Feywood.
-Lead Bolts can now also be obtained from the Necrohol of Nabudis in a chest in the Hall of Slumbering Might.
-Erase is now available for purchase from the secret shop at the Necrohol of Nabudis and is no longer obtained from a chest in Giruvegan.
-Blitz is now obtained from the Erase chest in Giruvegan.
-The chest previously containing Blitz in the Pharos now contains Shellga.
-The chest previously containing Shellga in the Great Crystal now contains the Seitengrat.

ENEMY EDITS:
-Ba’gamnan now has a 100% chance of dropping the Vrsabha.
-Crystal Knight’s 100% drop is now a Megalixir.
-Helvinek now drops the Dragon Mail as opposed to the Grand Armor.
-Oversouls now drop Hi-Ethers as opposed to the Staff of the Magi.
-Ash Wyrms now drop a Kagenui as opposed to the Koga Blade.
-Bunes now drop Tridents, rather than Gungnirs.
-Dr. Cid is now neutral to all elements.
-Orthros’ MP issue has been fixed.
-Flowering Cactoid now no longer deals 0 damage.
-The Shambling Corpses in Adrammelech’s room now have Avenger as their 1% drop, rather than Platinum Daggers.
-Enemies no longer use the Lv. X abilities, though Prime Lv. Death remains as Zalera’s ultimate attack.
-Lindwyrm now uses Break and Sleepga.
-Gilgamesh now uses 1000 Needles, Flash, and Goblin Attack, referencing the Blue Magick abilities of FFV.
-Zodiark now uses Scourge, Poison, and Toxify.
-Tiamat’s HP has been reduced and it now casts Immobilize, rather than Disablega, making the fight less of a slog.
-Elder Wyrm’s MP issue has been fixed.
-(Spoiler) on the Shiva now ignores EVD at HP < 20% rather than 50% and uses an X-Potion instead of a Hi-Potion. He also no longer casts Reflect and gains Counter at HP < 40% and Counter Plus at HP < 20%.
-Many enemies who flat-out ignore Evasion now do so at a lower HP threshold, making them still dangerous at lower HP, but making it so Shields and EVD weapons aren’t completely useless against certain foes and are still good at mitigating damage early/mid-fights.
-Dr. Cid 2’s HP has been decreased slightly.

NPC EDITS:
-Some AI-controlled NPCs have had some AI updates to use more interesting abilities than before.
-Bangaa Hunters will now use Cura and Haste rather than Cure and Protect, as Bangaa cannot learn Cure and Protect in FFTA/A2, but do learn Cura and Haste from their Bishop and Templar jobs, respectively.
-Amalia now casts Dark in the fight against the Imperial Soldiers in Garamsythe, as opposed to using a Dark Mote (change made to prevent issues in an upcoming update).
-Larsa now uses Bubble rather than Protect and can use Shades of Black in the fight against (Spoiler) on the Sky Fortress Bahamut and can also use Cura.
-Gabranth (Guest) will now use Circle of Judgment and Sentence in the fight against (Spoiler) Novus.

ESPER EDITS:
-Cuchulainn now properly has the 0 MP Cost Augment. Note that this change will only take effect upon beginning a new game. As this is a very minor edit that doesn’t affect much, it is not advised to start a new game just for this.

SHOP/BAZAAR EDITS:
-Blizzara is now available slightly earlier, at Eruyt Village.
-The Bazaar recipe once yielding Kagenui now yields a Sakura-saezuri instead.
-The 2x Phoenix Down Bazaar recipe has had its cost reduced from 400 to 350 Gil.
-The 5x Potion, 3x Handkerchief, 3x Gold Needle Bazaar recipe has had its cost reduced from 700 to 600 Gil.

TRAP EDITS:
-Stasis Traps now inflict Stop, rather than Disable/Reverse.

MISCELLANEOUS EDITS:
-The bug causing character portraits to appear on the License Board screen rather than the Zodiac Signs has been fixed.

[Serafie1999AD]

Originally posted by eternal248:

-Darksteel Mace is now exclusively awarded for completing the Darksteel hunt.

The change list sounds promising! I had to reload my save and check my inventory whether I have Darksteel Mace. I defeated Darksteel a few in-game hours ago, so if I didn't have the Mace by now, there would be no way of obtaining it after installing SFF 1.9. 😂

Will you implement Giza Weather Eye's "wait until the weather changes" feature too? So far, I've simply installed the Weather Eye mod on top of SFF.

Are you planning to make Pebbles useful, for example, so that you could sell them for additional Knots of Rust in the Bazaar?

[galneon]

(Lazy post warning, but in the interest of not being spoiled ;))

I finally bought FF12 on Steam after finishing FF12 on PS2 around the release date (well, slightly before release, actually--anyone remember that fiasco? :P). Then I saw a patch for this version was just released in April.

The patch hasn't broken or otherwise negatively affected this mod in a way that would require me to wait a while for an update before playing, has it? I more or less re-purchased the game because I knew there were awesome difficulty mods for it. Should I play when my GPU upgrade arrives later this week, or wait a bit longer for a mod update?

Thank you, and forgive my laziness! It's been well over a decade since I played the original and I just want to have as virgin an experience as possible.

[Hinnyuu]

Originally posted by galneon:

The patch hasn't broken or otherwise negatively affected this mod in a way that would require me to wait a while for an update before playing, has it?

Not anymore :) The mod was updated after the patch, and is now fully compatible again.

I'm glad that you're jumping into this straight away, I keep repeating myself but to me SFF is really the definitive version of the game.

[galneon]

Originally posted by Hinnyuu:

Originally posted by galneon:

The patch hasn't broken or otherwise negatively affected this mod in a way that would require me to wait a while for an update before playing, has it?

Not anymore :) The mod was updated after the patch, and is now fully compatible again.

I'm glad that you're jumping into this straight away, I keep repeating myself but to me SFF is really the definitive version of the game.

Glad to hear that! TBH, I've been through so much stuff since I played it on PS2 that it will be like a first experience for me, except much more interesting. :)

[Silamon]

Originally posted by Hinnyuu:

Originally posted by galneon:

The patch hasn't broken or otherwise negatively affected this mod in a way that would require me to wait a while for an update before playing, has it?

Not anymore :) The mod was updated after the patch, and is now fully compatible again.

I'm glad that you're jumping into this straight away, I keep repeating myself but to me SFF is really the definitive version of the game.

It really is so far. I was incredibly disappointed playing the vanilla version and realizing how easy it actually is. This difficulty mod is a lot closer to what the game felt like to me playing it the first time.

[Kokoro]

If i started a game with 1.8.4 version of the mod would I be able to update to the new version with no issues?

[eternal248]

Hey Kokoro, yes, your saves will carry over. I don't anticipate there being any issues with the upcoming 1.9 release.

The 2.0 release- which will be much, much later this year- may require a new game/save for some things to carry over (such as some anticipated Esper changes), but even then your save would still carry over, Espers may just not work 100% properly if you carry it over.

[Kokoro]

Originally posted by eternal248:

Hey Kokoro, yes, your saves will carry over. I don't anticipate there being any issues with the upcoming 1.9 release.

The 2.0 release- which will be much, much later this year- may require a new game/save for some things to carry over (such as some anticipated Esper changes), but even then your save would still carry over, Espers may just not work 100% properly if you carry it over.

good to know. thank you very much for your fast reply

[Raadush]

Hello guys, as a new player of FF XII, do you recommend playing vanilla or play straight with this mod? I dont want the game to be easy, I want challenge. And if with mod, Struggle or Challenge? And are there any other essential mods like for visuals and stuff? Thanks a lot for your help :)

[Serafie1999AD]

Originally posted by Raadush:

Hello guys, as a new player of FF XII, do you recommend playing vanilla or play straight with this mod? I dont want the game to be easy, I want challenge. And if with mod, Struggle or Challenge? And are there any other essential mods like for visuals and stuff? Thanks a lot for your help :)

The difficulty of FFXII TZA depends a lot on how much you look at guides and have meta knowledge of the game and its mechanics. If you're on a blind playthrough, the story mode is rather easy, while the optional content is rather hard. A good thing about this game is that optional quests are available right away, and they steadily increase in difficulty, while in other FFs, they usually open up about 2/3-3/4 in the game. This game rewards planning your setup, equipment and strategies, while grinding will be less effective, so if you check the guides for the best class combinations, ways to cheese some really strong equipment in the early game, and the best ways to fight some enemies, the game will become very easy.

The SFF mod will make the game more challenging, but not hardcore difficult. It's more like a rebalance mod than a "I'll make this game so tedious that you'll be constantly tossing your controller when every enemy takes 5 hours to beat and can OHKO you" mod.

Here's a list of which FFs I consider the easiest and hardest, to see where FFXII's difficulty level roughly takes place:

Easiest
FFVIII
FFVII
FFVI
FFI GBA/PSP/mobile
FFIX
FFXIII-2
FFX
LRFFXIII on Easy
FFXII TZA
LRFFXIII on Normal
FFII GBA/PSP/mobile
FFXII
FFXII TZA with SFF
FFIII
FF Tactics
FFI NES/WSC/PSX
FFII NES/WSC/PSX
FFV
FFIV
Hardest

I didn't include FFX-2, since I've only beat the main game there, and not the postgame parts, and I didn't include LR's Hard mode since I haven't done a complete NG+ run there.

[Raadush]

Originally posted by Serafie1999AD:

Originally posted by Raadush:

Hello guys, as a new player of FF XII, do you recommend playing vanilla or play straight with this mod? I dont want the game to be easy, I want challenge. And if with mod, Struggle or Challenge? And are there any other essential mods like for visuals and stuff? Thanks a lot for your help :)

The difficulty of FFXII TZA depends a lot on how much you look at guides and have meta knowledge of the game and its mechanics. If you're on a blind playthrough, the story mode is rather easy, while the optional content is rather hard. A good thing about this game is that optional quests are available right away, and they steadily increase in difficulty, while in other FFs, they usually open up about 2/3-3/4 in the game. This game rewards planning your setup, equipment and strategies, while grinding will be less effective, so if you check the guides for the best class combinations, ways to cheese some really strong equipment in the early game, and the best ways to fight some enemies, the game will become very easy.

The SFF mod will make the game more challenging, but not hardcore difficult. It's more like a rebalance mod than a "I'll make this game so tedious that you'll be constantly tossing your controller when every enemy takes 5 hours to beat and can OHKO you" mod.

Here's a list of which FFs I consider the easiest and hardest, to see where FFXII's difficulty level roughly takes place:

Easiest
FFVIII
FFVII
FFVI
FFI GBA/PSP/mobile
FFIX
FFXIII-2
FFX
LRFFXIII on Easy
FFXII TZA
LRFFXIII on Normal
FFII GBA/PSP/mobile
FFXII
FFXII TZA with SFF
FFIII
FF Tactics
FFI NES/WSC/PSX
FFII NES/WSC/PSX
FFV
FFIV
Hardest

I didn't include FFX-2, since I've only beat the main game there, and not the postgame parts, and I didn't include LR's Hard mode since I haven't done a complete NG+ run there.

Thanks a lot, really helpful. Now i come to FF XII pretty blind but Im the type of person looking for guides and combinations and trying to min max characters, so I think SFF it is then :)