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chuckroCecil, Rosa and all the crew take on Golbez in this “enhanced” version of the SNES classic.
The changes are mostly mechanical early on: They added a new equipment screen, y-button dash, the dummied-out Japanese commands and items, etc. The overworld near Mist is slightly edited, and then there's a second battle with the Mist Dragon. There's a bunch of new equipment available early, such as Healing staffs and Silver Knives available in Kaipo and the Blood Sword in the Watery Pass. Cecil can equip swords in both hands, too, and Rydia's selection of white magic has been expanded. (The Blood Sword means you can stalemate Kain at Fabul, but I don’t think you can ever actually win.) A few sea battles are added when sailing to Baron, but then Leviathan attacks as usual.
Because Cecil has the Hand Axe and the Silver Knife, he can remain fully useful on Mt. Ordeals. Also, Palom is significantly more effective without using MP because there’s a Dancing Dagger in the chocobo forest. There are a bunch of small variations in chest contents and store inventories, but the next noteworthy change is eliminating the grass tile next to Troia so you have to park far away and hike there. (Troia has a modified equipment shop, and the Pass-seller also sellers scanners, exitgates, and dirty magazines.)
I played through the chocobo forest boss north of Troia on the X9-S before getting sick of both the poor SNES emulation on that device and also the difficulty spike in the game at that point. (Clearly, it intended you to go off and do sidequests...or something?) So I restarted, used a few cheat codes, and used some fast-forward as necessary to blow through the early stuff.
Turns out, I missed a bonus dungeon available when you get the hovercraft: The shoals have been expanded, and now there’s a Hidden Grotto and an Ancient Grotto south-east of Kaipo. The former has a sparkling spot that doesn’t seem to do anything; the latter has a treasure cache that provides a whip and a dancing dagger for Rydia and Edward.
Once you have the airship, Agart and Silvera have new equipment for sale, including the old Dark Knight stuff you likely got rid of. You can visit the ruins of Eblan as usual, and pick up an Assassin Dagger, a Drain Spear, and a Zeus Gauntlet. (Plus a dirty Magazine and various consumables.) There’s a new mountain on an island south of Mt. Ordeals; it looks like you need to hook attacked to the Enterprise to reach it. (It’s the “Heavensward Skyway”, but the sparkling spot there just says it won’t waste time with you.) Upon reflection, I think you can use the hovercraft to reach Silvera from Kaipo. And possibly Mysidia as well? I’m not sure of any benefit to doing so, though—I don’t think you could sequence-break.
Besides some mild rearrangement of equipment, Cave Magnes and the Tower of Zot are generally unchanged. Similarly, there are a few new things in the shops, but the Dwarf Castle and Calbrina fight are also unchanged. Rydia, upon her return, can now cast the two Twin spells as summons, has the Sing ability, and can equip harps.
The underworld map seems to have been rearranged to make it more twisty. The lower part of Bab-il adds two new bosses: A Magma Giant when you enter, and a second form for Lugae. When Yang blows up the super cannon, Cecil gets knocked off the bridge and down a level, which I think is new.
While the translation is generally a good blend of new and old, I can’t imagine why they thought “Esperland” was better than either “The Land of Summoned Monsters” or “The Feymarch”. Again, while some chests and store contents are changed, both of these dungeons remain pretty much the same. The underworld map is altered so you have to walk farther to the Sylph Cave and the Sealed Cave, and there’s a new cave added near Kokkol’s smithy (a Magma Grotto with a shiny spot).
The lunar surface has also been rearranged, making a farther walk to Bahamut’s cave and adding a Lunar Spire with a sparkling spot (which informs you that you’re too weak).
The Giant of Bab-il has a third boss added (because that’s what it needed!), as a battle with Final Arm comes before the Fiends. Kokkol and the Hummingways have new store inventories added. (If it wasn’t evident already, Edge can use all of the Dark Knight gear, and you can buy most of it if you didn’t save it. The Blood Sword and Deathbringer have useful properties despite being moderately outclassed.)
Zemus’ Spirit attacks you as soon as you enter the Lunar Subterrene. When you get down to the fourth level, you hit a big challenge boss, Raiden. He fights like Odin, but is much faster, and you need to hit him with a lightning attack after he raises his sword but before he uses Atom Edge to destroy your party.
Once you reach the Lunar Core, Ogopogo guards the Masamune as usual. Then there are some new floors; in the first you can fight Ultima to unlock a save point. On the next floor you can challenge the AI, a much nastier version of the CPU, though you can also say no and just walk past it. There’s another two sealed weapons a few screens later (the Tempest Katana guarded by four Fatal Eyes; and the Lightbringer guarded by three Spirits), plus the Thor Hammer and the Apollo Harp for free. From here, you can go left into a secret passage and fight the Goddess for another sealed weapon, though I couldn’t beat her so I don’t know what it was. Then you fight two Illusions of Zemus, which like to cast Wall on themselves and bounce attack magic onto you.
I tried, after beating everything except Zeromus, warping out and checking out the various sparkling spots. Despite having a level 99 team with almost everything from the Lunar Core, apparently I was still too weak to challenge them. Zeromus himself had been beefed up, but was still more tolerable than some of the bonus bosses. (The ending was unchanged.)
Overall: This changes virtually none of the plot, but adjusts a lot of the gameplay and difficulty curve by rearranging what items are available at what point and throwing in some bonus bosses. I was very irritated by the four bonus areas that are available evenly-spaced throughout the game, but apparently can’t be unlocked until you’ve beaten everything else. (That was a huge waste of potential.) Did you want more of a Hardtype version of the game with more challenge bosses? This is it.
The changes are mostly mechanical early on: They added a new equipment screen, y-button dash, the dummied-out Japanese commands and items, etc. The overworld near Mist is slightly edited, and then there's a second battle with the Mist Dragon. There's a bunch of new equipment available early, such as Healing staffs and Silver Knives available in Kaipo and the Blood Sword in the Watery Pass. Cecil can equip swords in both hands, too, and Rydia's selection of white magic has been expanded. (The Blood Sword means you can stalemate Kain at Fabul, but I don’t think you can ever actually win.) A few sea battles are added when sailing to Baron, but then Leviathan attacks as usual.
Because Cecil has the Hand Axe and the Silver Knife, he can remain fully useful on Mt. Ordeals. Also, Palom is significantly more effective without using MP because there’s a Dancing Dagger in the chocobo forest. There are a bunch of small variations in chest contents and store inventories, but the next noteworthy change is eliminating the grass tile next to Troia so you have to park far away and hike there. (Troia has a modified equipment shop, and the Pass-seller also sellers scanners, exitgates, and dirty magazines.)
I played through the chocobo forest boss north of Troia on the X9-S before getting sick of both the poor SNES emulation on that device and also the difficulty spike in the game at that point. (Clearly, it intended you to go off and do sidequests...or something?) So I restarted, used a few cheat codes, and used some fast-forward as necessary to blow through the early stuff.
Turns out, I missed a bonus dungeon available when you get the hovercraft: The shoals have been expanded, and now there’s a Hidden Grotto and an Ancient Grotto south-east of Kaipo. The former has a sparkling spot that doesn’t seem to do anything; the latter has a treasure cache that provides a whip and a dancing dagger for Rydia and Edward.
Once you have the airship, Agart and Silvera have new equipment for sale, including the old Dark Knight stuff you likely got rid of. You can visit the ruins of Eblan as usual, and pick up an Assassin Dagger, a Drain Spear, and a Zeus Gauntlet. (Plus a dirty Magazine and various consumables.) There’s a new mountain on an island south of Mt. Ordeals; it looks like you need to hook attacked to the Enterprise to reach it. (It’s the “Heavensward Skyway”, but the sparkling spot there just says it won’t waste time with you.) Upon reflection, I think you can use the hovercraft to reach Silvera from Kaipo. And possibly Mysidia as well? I’m not sure of any benefit to doing so, though—I don’t think you could sequence-break.
Besides some mild rearrangement of equipment, Cave Magnes and the Tower of Zot are generally unchanged. Similarly, there are a few new things in the shops, but the Dwarf Castle and Calbrina fight are also unchanged. Rydia, upon her return, can now cast the two Twin spells as summons, has the Sing ability, and can equip harps.
The underworld map seems to have been rearranged to make it more twisty. The lower part of Bab-il adds two new bosses: A Magma Giant when you enter, and a second form for Lugae. When Yang blows up the super cannon, Cecil gets knocked off the bridge and down a level, which I think is new.
While the translation is generally a good blend of new and old, I can’t imagine why they thought “Esperland” was better than either “The Land of Summoned Monsters” or “The Feymarch”. Again, while some chests and store contents are changed, both of these dungeons remain pretty much the same. The underworld map is altered so you have to walk farther to the Sylph Cave and the Sealed Cave, and there’s a new cave added near Kokkol’s smithy (a Magma Grotto with a shiny spot).
The lunar surface has also been rearranged, making a farther walk to Bahamut’s cave and adding a Lunar Spire with a sparkling spot (which informs you that you’re too weak).
The Giant of Bab-il has a third boss added (because that’s what it needed!), as a battle with Final Arm comes before the Fiends. Kokkol and the Hummingways have new store inventories added. (If it wasn’t evident already, Edge can use all of the Dark Knight gear, and you can buy most of it if you didn’t save it. The Blood Sword and Deathbringer have useful properties despite being moderately outclassed.)
Zemus’ Spirit attacks you as soon as you enter the Lunar Subterrene. When you get down to the fourth level, you hit a big challenge boss, Raiden. He fights like Odin, but is much faster, and you need to hit him with a lightning attack after he raises his sword but before he uses Atom Edge to destroy your party.
Once you reach the Lunar Core, Ogopogo guards the Masamune as usual. Then there are some new floors; in the first you can fight Ultima to unlock a save point. On the next floor you can challenge the AI, a much nastier version of the CPU, though you can also say no and just walk past it. There’s another two sealed weapons a few screens later (the Tempest Katana guarded by four Fatal Eyes; and the Lightbringer guarded by three Spirits), plus the Thor Hammer and the Apollo Harp for free. From here, you can go left into a secret passage and fight the Goddess for another sealed weapon, though I couldn’t beat her so I don’t know what it was. Then you fight two Illusions of Zemus, which like to cast Wall on themselves and bounce attack magic onto you.
I tried, after beating everything except Zeromus, warping out and checking out the various sparkling spots. Despite having a level 99 team with almost everything from the Lunar Core, apparently I was still too weak to challenge them. Zeromus himself had been beefed up, but was still more tolerable than some of the bonus bosses. (The ending was unchanged.)
Overall: This changes virtually none of the plot, but adjusts a lot of the gameplay and difficulty curve by rearranging what items are available at what point and throwing in some bonus bosses. I was very irritated by the four bonus areas that are available evenly-spaced throughout the game, but apparently can’t be unlocked until you’ve beaten everything else. (That was a huge waste of potential.) Did you want more of a Hardtype version of the game with more challenge bosses? This is it.
