Final Fantasy C2
Aug. 7th, 2020 05:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroFinal Fantasy C2 is a hack created by Japanese fan Naka no Hito in 2016. This hack takes Final Fantasy IV on Super Famicom (SNES) and transforms it into an updated version of Final Fantasy II on Famicom using FFIV graphics. Clyde “Tomato” Mandelin (of Legends of Localization and the Mother 3 translation) made a fan translation patch for it and a few edits.
Characters start out very weak—a single battle is risky at level 1. There’s a free healing spot in Altair, fortunately. They kept the initial grind from FF2, just using FF4’s standard leveling system. Just to contrast: Your characters start at level 1, and it’s very likely that you’ll die in two hits from pretty much any enemy around the starting area. (And without anywhere near enough money to upgrade your characters.) Minwu starts at level 20 when he joins you; many other characters join woefully underpowered. And just fighting things as you progress isn’t enough—either you play really strategically, or you grind like crazy.
In the end, equipment does matter more than levels: Exploiting elemental and type weaknesses really makes a difference (to the point where strategic play means changing your weapons in any given battle), and high-level equipment makes more difference than a few levels do. I think they added stat modifiers to many pieces of equipment that didn’t have them before, so which weapon or armor piece you use (and many weaker pieces stay relevant for longer because of their stat effects) changes the effectiveness of your characters in a given role. Despite Maria and Lenora both having most black and white magic available, you really want to spec one for high Will and one for high Wisdom.
Full list of notes and observations:
Altair is a mash-up of Mysidia and Fabul. FF4 sprites are repurposed into FF2 characters. Maria starts with a selection of white, black and summon magic and learns more as she levels up. Firion learns “Incant” magic as he levels, the first spell being Smoke Bomb (it’s mostly Ninja magic). He also gets Edge’s Throw command. Guy doesn’t get magic, but has Yang’s Charge command. In general, Firion can equip most armor, swords, knives and ninja swords. Guy has a weaker armor selection but can use axes, hammers, greatswords and the like. Maria uses bows, staffs and rods; and wears mage armor.
Gatrea is Mist, Fynn is Baron. (The soldiers are skill unkillable at your level.) Minwu joins with the hovercraft instead of a canoe. Salamando is Kaipo, with Josef in the house Rosa would be sick in. Josef is Yang, and he doesn’t trust the party. Semite Falls is a modified version of the Watery Cave. You fight Octomammoth about halfway through, then rescue Paul and Nelly, then fight soldiers for Mithril. Nelly returns to Salamando and Josef promises to help in the future. You give the Mithril to Tobul and new shopkeepers appear.
Then you need to head for Bafsk to sabotage the Dreadnaught. Paloon is Tororia, Poft is Silveria, and Cid’s airship will take you several places, including Bafsk. Bafsk is Fabul, and the Mist Cave is connected to the left tower. The Mist Dragon attacks early, and you get the Dragon summon for beating it. There’s a chest with a Pass near the end, and then you confront Borghen and the Dark Knight. They escape in the Dreadnaught (played by the Big Whale).
NPCs are rearranged in Poft, Paloom and Altair to represent the attacks. Minwu leaves to take care of the king, and Lenora (a black/white mage with Pray) takes his place. The party goes to meet Cid (played by Baigan), then does some back-and-forth to eventually be told to get Josef and go to Mt. Ordeals to retrieve the Goddess Bell, then go to Kashuan Keep and retrieve Sunfire. Josef joins you (with Charge, Fortify and Kick), and tells you to get a Magma stone from under the waterfall in Semitt Falls. (Josef and Lenora both join at an unconscionably-low Level 10, and the run to Semitt Falls isn’t enough to gain a level. Grinding much?)
Mt. Ordeals and a desert completely replace the snowfield. On the mountain, Guy interprets a monster’s advice about the bell, which is the closest we get to referencing the beavers. Mythril weapons are very useful on soul-type enemies. At the summit, the Package animation plays and Mother Bomb attacks. Maria learns Bomb after the battle and you snag the Goddess Bell. Borghen is waiting back at the bottom. He’s an easy boss, but sets of a landslide with explosives. Josef tries to sacrifice himself saving you, but Lenora unlocks new white magic and saves his life. You leave him bedridden in Salamando.
Then you take the airship to Kashuan (Eblan Castle). Gordon (Edward) is there waiting for you. (His useless ass joins at Level 5 with Edward’s full skills.) Most of the chests contain monsters. Egil’s Ghost (Scarmiglion) guards the torch in the underground area. When you retrieve the Sunfire, Scott’s ghost appears from his ring and grants his power to Gordon, turning Gordon into a level 1 Paladin (and like Cecil’s transformation, he starts strong and levels quickly; he has Cover and White magic).
We see a cutscene of Hilda and Cid getting captured, as a ploy to ground the Dreadnaught and allow the party time to sabotage it. And thankfully, there’s a chocobo forest near Kashuan to get us back to the hovercraft.
A chocobo is also the best way to get to the Dreadnaught (played by the Giant of Bab-il). You use the Pass to enter, free Cid and Hilda, and fight the CPU. You throw the Sunfire into the engine, Maria recognizes the Dark Knight as Leon, and you escape in Cid’s airship. The king askes Gordon to lead the army, Minwu to find Ultima, and Firion to go to Deist and find the last Dragoons; then he dies. Gordon leaves and the party needs to find a way to Deist.
In Paloom, Leila offers a ride in her ship, tries to shanghai the party and fails, so she joins them. (Leila has the Steal command and some Black magic.) Apparently this hurts the ship’s chocobos, and the ship can’t sail to Deist anyway, so they need to go find a black chocobo to get there. Deist, east of the desert, is played by Tororia Castle (and the treasures are free for taking). The party needs a pendent from the cave to talk to the last Wyvern. The dead dragoon with the pendent is just inside the cave (it’s the Antlion Cave); and the Wyvern teaches Maria a bunch of summon magic before giving them its egg to put in the Life Spring. The party fights the Antlion and drops the egg in the spring, checks in with Deist and then returns to Altair.
In Altair, Hilda is acting strangely and invites Firion to speak to her alone. She’s the QueenLamia; so you kill her. Gordon joins the party and Leila leaves, and you head for the Coliseum to save the real Hilda. It uses the Damcyan map, and the Emperor sics Calbrena on you when you arrive. You try to kill the Emperor, butu it’s a trap, and the party is briefly thrown into prison until Paul saves them. Then, they need to rescue Hilda from the (empty) castle, and send her home with Gordon.
In Altair, the army has mobilized to retake Fynn. Leila rejoins you in the castle. (It’s still Baron Castle.) You fight three identical battles, then make it to the throne room and fight Baigan. Once the castle is liberated, Hilda charges you to find Minwu in Mysidia; though you’ll need the White and Black Masks first. The White Mask is in the Underground Waterway. Oddly, Lugae is wandering around down there and he has the mask. Also, Fynn Castle has a “Mirror Chamber” you can use an item on, and the King’s ghost is in the basement and if you can beat Odin, grants you that summon.
From Paloom, you can sail to the Southern Isle (the Eblan Cave). In addition to providing nicely higher-level equipment, the cave lets out in the underground near Tomra; and the treasure hoard there has the Black Mask.
Mysidia (played by Agart) is south of Altair. You can put the White Mask on the Goddess Statue there, and the sealed cave (Cave Magnes, complete with gimmick) has the double to put the Black Mask on. You need to fight the Dark Elf/Dark Dragon battle with the magnetic field active, but winning gets you the Crystal Rod.
There’s a spot in the desert south of Mysidia where you can pick up the Wind Crystal.
From Paloom, you can sail to the Mysidian Tower, but Leviathan sinks the ship and Leila goes missing. (There’s also a scene of Lenora talking about her backstory with Minwu and her psychological problems with casting White magic.) The Sylph Cave stands in for Leviathan’s interior. When you get to the Sylph house, they teach Maria their summon, and Ricard (played by Kain) joins the party. The exit features a battle with a LndMalboro, then a fall, then landing outside the Tower of Bab-il in the underground. There’s a cave nearby that’s a “Dwarf Base” (the cave under the Dwarf Castle), and you’re warned not to return to the top of the tower after getting the magic there because of a bug.
The tower features battles with each of the four fiends (in the usual order), then Minwu attempts to kill himself unsealing Ultima, but Lenora saves him (and learns more White magic in the process). Then you need to fight a fake Minwu (the Dark Knight Cecil battle) and Maria and Lenora learn Ultima.
The party then teleports back to Fynn, only to learn that Poft, Paloom, Altair and Gatrea were all destroyed by the Empire. Using the Pendent at the magic mirror summons the Wyvern, which will carry the party to the Tempest (the Tower of Zot). That goes as normal through the Magus Sisters battle. Then there’s a battle against the Emperor, who does the “I refuse to die” schtick. The party returns to Fynn for a false ending sequence. Dark Knight Leon has claimed the throne! The party finds Cid at Paul’s house, and is lent the airship. (Cid doesn’t die.) You also need to talk to Paul to learn how to enter Palamecia. The airship is over by Poft.
You can take the airship to Mt. Semitt (Mt. Hobs), where bonus boss Golbez waits for you. Beating him gets the fire crystal and his summon spell.
You can fly to Palamecia; it’s the upper part of Bab-il. On the upper floor there’s a brief story battle with Leon, then the Emperor returns. Ricard sacrifices himself so the party can escape. Leon gives Cid the Dreadnaught plans so he can build a way for them to reach the moon; he needs a Flight Crystal from the underground, which can be reached through a hole at the Jade Sea. (Leon comes with a set of Darkness equipment, the Dark Wave ability and an “Enhance” ability that buffs his attack power.)
The underground is relatively unchanged from FF4. You can buy equipment from Kokkel and get Luca’s Necklace from King Giott. The Sylph Cave is just their house, but Ricard ends up there and his wife will give you the Excalibur if you report back to her. The cave to “Summonia” is available: There are some equipment upgrades in the cave, and the Earth Crystal in place of the rat tail. Asura is a nasty surprise to vanilla players—if you cast Reflect on her, she’ll just cast Mini on herself (and bounce it to you) until it wears off. (Also of note: Reflect seems to wear off a lot faster than in vanilla, or maybe that’s a US/Japan version difference.)
The Sealed Cave is pretty much standard, including the EvilWall. Returning to Cid with the Flight Crystal nets you the Big Whale. Bahamut’s Cave is also standard, including the Genji equipment and the spiked behemoth encounters.
If you return to earth, you can swap Lenora for Gordon or Leila in Fynn Castle. Josef doesn’t seem to have anything new to say.
The Water Crystal is in the moat in Deist (Tororia); you need to take the hidden passage at the entrance to reach it. The cave near Deist separated by shoals is the Shinryu Cave (Mithril Mine), and he’ll give clues to find the Crystals. When you bring him all four, he’ll challenge you to battle. (He’s a giant mound of HP with strong attacks, but no tricks) and he drops the Kashuan Sword when beaten, which doesn’t seem to be anything special if you already have Excalibur…except it apparently can be thrown as a Spoon Knife. You can also fight his assistant, the Black Dragon, and win her as a summon.
When you enter Pandaemonium (the Lunar Palace), you’re confronted by Forza and Magissa (Edge’s parents). Most of the Lunar Subterranean is as usual, just with FF2 skins on the enemies. There’s a bonus “Atomos” trapdoor that doesn’t seem to guard anything or leave a prize. Which characters can use each set of equipment is rearranged from normal, but you can get everyone covered with extra options if you swapped out Lenora. The final battle is fairly condensed—first form, second form, very little dialogue in the core. Then there’s an ending sequence in the throne room and a final crawl over FF4’s opening crawl sequence.
And if you’re interested: Cheat code for Max EXP for character in slot #4 / back row: 7E22377F + 7E223896 + 7E223998. Move characters to level them to 99 in one battle each.
Overall: This is a curiosity for fans of FF2, FF4 or preferably both. The difficulty balance is for hardcore players. Tomato apparently had to add dialogue to hint players unfamiliar with FF2 of where to go next; and while I didn’t push it, you clearly can get various places early and probably break the programming. And because FF4 is longer than FF2 but with different-length dungeons, you get the tail end of FF4 pretty much as normal here. I’m glad I tried it out, but it isn’t a classic for the ages.
Characters start out very weak—a single battle is risky at level 1. There’s a free healing spot in Altair, fortunately. They kept the initial grind from FF2, just using FF4’s standard leveling system. Just to contrast: Your characters start at level 1, and it’s very likely that you’ll die in two hits from pretty much any enemy around the starting area. (And without anywhere near enough money to upgrade your characters.) Minwu starts at level 20 when he joins you; many other characters join woefully underpowered. And just fighting things as you progress isn’t enough—either you play really strategically, or you grind like crazy.
In the end, equipment does matter more than levels: Exploiting elemental and type weaknesses really makes a difference (to the point where strategic play means changing your weapons in any given battle), and high-level equipment makes more difference than a few levels do. I think they added stat modifiers to many pieces of equipment that didn’t have them before, so which weapon or armor piece you use (and many weaker pieces stay relevant for longer because of their stat effects) changes the effectiveness of your characters in a given role. Despite Maria and Lenora both having most black and white magic available, you really want to spec one for high Will and one for high Wisdom.
Full list of notes and observations:
Altair is a mash-up of Mysidia and Fabul. FF4 sprites are repurposed into FF2 characters. Maria starts with a selection of white, black and summon magic and learns more as she levels up. Firion learns “Incant” magic as he levels, the first spell being Smoke Bomb (it’s mostly Ninja magic). He also gets Edge’s Throw command. Guy doesn’t get magic, but has Yang’s Charge command. In general, Firion can equip most armor, swords, knives and ninja swords. Guy has a weaker armor selection but can use axes, hammers, greatswords and the like. Maria uses bows, staffs and rods; and wears mage armor.
Gatrea is Mist, Fynn is Baron. (The soldiers are skill unkillable at your level.) Minwu joins with the hovercraft instead of a canoe. Salamando is Kaipo, with Josef in the house Rosa would be sick in. Josef is Yang, and he doesn’t trust the party. Semite Falls is a modified version of the Watery Cave. You fight Octomammoth about halfway through, then rescue Paul and Nelly, then fight soldiers for Mithril. Nelly returns to Salamando and Josef promises to help in the future. You give the Mithril to Tobul and new shopkeepers appear.
Then you need to head for Bafsk to sabotage the Dreadnaught. Paloon is Tororia, Poft is Silveria, and Cid’s airship will take you several places, including Bafsk. Bafsk is Fabul, and the Mist Cave is connected to the left tower. The Mist Dragon attacks early, and you get the Dragon summon for beating it. There’s a chest with a Pass near the end, and then you confront Borghen and the Dark Knight. They escape in the Dreadnaught (played by the Big Whale).
NPCs are rearranged in Poft, Paloom and Altair to represent the attacks. Minwu leaves to take care of the king, and Lenora (a black/white mage with Pray) takes his place. The party goes to meet Cid (played by Baigan), then does some back-and-forth to eventually be told to get Josef and go to Mt. Ordeals to retrieve the Goddess Bell, then go to Kashuan Keep and retrieve Sunfire. Josef joins you (with Charge, Fortify and Kick), and tells you to get a Magma stone from under the waterfall in Semitt Falls. (Josef and Lenora both join at an unconscionably-low Level 10, and the run to Semitt Falls isn’t enough to gain a level. Grinding much?)
Mt. Ordeals and a desert completely replace the snowfield. On the mountain, Guy interprets a monster’s advice about the bell, which is the closest we get to referencing the beavers. Mythril weapons are very useful on soul-type enemies. At the summit, the Package animation plays and Mother Bomb attacks. Maria learns Bomb after the battle and you snag the Goddess Bell. Borghen is waiting back at the bottom. He’s an easy boss, but sets of a landslide with explosives. Josef tries to sacrifice himself saving you, but Lenora unlocks new white magic and saves his life. You leave him bedridden in Salamando.
Then you take the airship to Kashuan (Eblan Castle). Gordon (Edward) is there waiting for you. (His useless ass joins at Level 5 with Edward’s full skills.) Most of the chests contain monsters. Egil’s Ghost (Scarmiglion) guards the torch in the underground area. When you retrieve the Sunfire, Scott’s ghost appears from his ring and grants his power to Gordon, turning Gordon into a level 1 Paladin (and like Cecil’s transformation, he starts strong and levels quickly; he has Cover and White magic).
We see a cutscene of Hilda and Cid getting captured, as a ploy to ground the Dreadnaught and allow the party time to sabotage it. And thankfully, there’s a chocobo forest near Kashuan to get us back to the hovercraft.
A chocobo is also the best way to get to the Dreadnaught (played by the Giant of Bab-il). You use the Pass to enter, free Cid and Hilda, and fight the CPU. You throw the Sunfire into the engine, Maria recognizes the Dark Knight as Leon, and you escape in Cid’s airship. The king askes Gordon to lead the army, Minwu to find Ultima, and Firion to go to Deist and find the last Dragoons; then he dies. Gordon leaves and the party needs to find a way to Deist.
In Paloom, Leila offers a ride in her ship, tries to shanghai the party and fails, so she joins them. (Leila has the Steal command and some Black magic.) Apparently this hurts the ship’s chocobos, and the ship can’t sail to Deist anyway, so they need to go find a black chocobo to get there. Deist, east of the desert, is played by Tororia Castle (and the treasures are free for taking). The party needs a pendent from the cave to talk to the last Wyvern. The dead dragoon with the pendent is just inside the cave (it’s the Antlion Cave); and the Wyvern teaches Maria a bunch of summon magic before giving them its egg to put in the Life Spring. The party fights the Antlion and drops the egg in the spring, checks in with Deist and then returns to Altair.
In Altair, Hilda is acting strangely and invites Firion to speak to her alone. She’s the QueenLamia; so you kill her. Gordon joins the party and Leila leaves, and you head for the Coliseum to save the real Hilda. It uses the Damcyan map, and the Emperor sics Calbrena on you when you arrive. You try to kill the Emperor, butu it’s a trap, and the party is briefly thrown into prison until Paul saves them. Then, they need to rescue Hilda from the (empty) castle, and send her home with Gordon.
In Altair, the army has mobilized to retake Fynn. Leila rejoins you in the castle. (It’s still Baron Castle.) You fight three identical battles, then make it to the throne room and fight Baigan. Once the castle is liberated, Hilda charges you to find Minwu in Mysidia; though you’ll need the White and Black Masks first. The White Mask is in the Underground Waterway. Oddly, Lugae is wandering around down there and he has the mask. Also, Fynn Castle has a “Mirror Chamber” you can use an item on, and the King’s ghost is in the basement and if you can beat Odin, grants you that summon.
From Paloom, you can sail to the Southern Isle (the Eblan Cave). In addition to providing nicely higher-level equipment, the cave lets out in the underground near Tomra; and the treasure hoard there has the Black Mask.
Mysidia (played by Agart) is south of Altair. You can put the White Mask on the Goddess Statue there, and the sealed cave (Cave Magnes, complete with gimmick) has the double to put the Black Mask on. You need to fight the Dark Elf/Dark Dragon battle with the magnetic field active, but winning gets you the Crystal Rod.
There’s a spot in the desert south of Mysidia where you can pick up the Wind Crystal.
From Paloom, you can sail to the Mysidian Tower, but Leviathan sinks the ship and Leila goes missing. (There’s also a scene of Lenora talking about her backstory with Minwu and her psychological problems with casting White magic.) The Sylph Cave stands in for Leviathan’s interior. When you get to the Sylph house, they teach Maria their summon, and Ricard (played by Kain) joins the party. The exit features a battle with a LndMalboro, then a fall, then landing outside the Tower of Bab-il in the underground. There’s a cave nearby that’s a “Dwarf Base” (the cave under the Dwarf Castle), and you’re warned not to return to the top of the tower after getting the magic there because of a bug.
The tower features battles with each of the four fiends (in the usual order), then Minwu attempts to kill himself unsealing Ultima, but Lenora saves him (and learns more White magic in the process). Then you need to fight a fake Minwu (the Dark Knight Cecil battle) and Maria and Lenora learn Ultima.
The party then teleports back to Fynn, only to learn that Poft, Paloom, Altair and Gatrea were all destroyed by the Empire. Using the Pendent at the magic mirror summons the Wyvern, which will carry the party to the Tempest (the Tower of Zot). That goes as normal through the Magus Sisters battle. Then there’s a battle against the Emperor, who does the “I refuse to die” schtick. The party returns to Fynn for a false ending sequence. Dark Knight Leon has claimed the throne! The party finds Cid at Paul’s house, and is lent the airship. (Cid doesn’t die.) You also need to talk to Paul to learn how to enter Palamecia. The airship is over by Poft.
You can take the airship to Mt. Semitt (Mt. Hobs), where bonus boss Golbez waits for you. Beating him gets the fire crystal and his summon spell.
You can fly to Palamecia; it’s the upper part of Bab-il. On the upper floor there’s a brief story battle with Leon, then the Emperor returns. Ricard sacrifices himself so the party can escape. Leon gives Cid the Dreadnaught plans so he can build a way for them to reach the moon; he needs a Flight Crystal from the underground, which can be reached through a hole at the Jade Sea. (Leon comes with a set of Darkness equipment, the Dark Wave ability and an “Enhance” ability that buffs his attack power.)
The underground is relatively unchanged from FF4. You can buy equipment from Kokkel and get Luca’s Necklace from King Giott. The Sylph Cave is just their house, but Ricard ends up there and his wife will give you the Excalibur if you report back to her. The cave to “Summonia” is available: There are some equipment upgrades in the cave, and the Earth Crystal in place of the rat tail. Asura is a nasty surprise to vanilla players—if you cast Reflect on her, she’ll just cast Mini on herself (and bounce it to you) until it wears off. (Also of note: Reflect seems to wear off a lot faster than in vanilla, or maybe that’s a US/Japan version difference.)
The Sealed Cave is pretty much standard, including the EvilWall. Returning to Cid with the Flight Crystal nets you the Big Whale. Bahamut’s Cave is also standard, including the Genji equipment and the spiked behemoth encounters.
If you return to earth, you can swap Lenora for Gordon or Leila in Fynn Castle. Josef doesn’t seem to have anything new to say.
The Water Crystal is in the moat in Deist (Tororia); you need to take the hidden passage at the entrance to reach it. The cave near Deist separated by shoals is the Shinryu Cave (Mithril Mine), and he’ll give clues to find the Crystals. When you bring him all four, he’ll challenge you to battle. (He’s a giant mound of HP with strong attacks, but no tricks) and he drops the Kashuan Sword when beaten, which doesn’t seem to be anything special if you already have Excalibur…except it apparently can be thrown as a Spoon Knife. You can also fight his assistant, the Black Dragon, and win her as a summon.
When you enter Pandaemonium (the Lunar Palace), you’re confronted by Forza and Magissa (Edge’s parents). Most of the Lunar Subterranean is as usual, just with FF2 skins on the enemies. There’s a bonus “Atomos” trapdoor that doesn’t seem to guard anything or leave a prize. Which characters can use each set of equipment is rearranged from normal, but you can get everyone covered with extra options if you swapped out Lenora. The final battle is fairly condensed—first form, second form, very little dialogue in the core. Then there’s an ending sequence in the throne room and a final crawl over FF4’s opening crawl sequence.
And if you’re interested: Cheat code for Max EXP for character in slot #4 / back row: 7E22377F + 7E223896 + 7E223998. Move characters to level them to 99 in one battle each.
Overall: This is a curiosity for fans of FF2, FF4 or preferably both. The difficulty balance is for hardcore players. Tomato apparently had to add dialogue to hint players unfamiliar with FF2 of where to go next; and while I didn’t push it, you clearly can get various places early and probably break the programming. And because FF4 is longer than FF2 but with different-length dungeons, you get the tail end of FF4 pretty much as normal here. I’m glad I tried it out, but it isn’t a classic for the ages.
