Character settings

This page discusses the various C flags not pertaining specifically to placement randomization – see Character randomization for that info.

By default, characters in Free Enterprise have the stats, commands, and spell sets that they had in the US version of FF4.

Setting Cj:abilities will restore each character's Japanese-version exclusive battle commands. These are: Dark, Heal, Recall, Pray, Power, Bear, Bluff, Cry and Regen.

Setting Cj:spells will allow white mages to learn Armor, Shell, and Dispel as they did in the Japanese version of FF4. Note that this setting will also cause characters to learn spells at the levels they would in the Japanese version, which are generally later levels than in the US version.

By default, characters will join you with the same gear as their first appearance in vanilla FF4, with some minor exceptions:

• Paladin Cecil will join with a Silver Staff instead of the Legend Sword.
• If you recruit Rydia as an adult, she will have adult Rydia's starting gear rather than child Rydia's.

Enabling the Cnekkie flag will replace each character's starting equipment with a random tier 1-3 weapon and no armor. (If the weapon is a bow, they will also start with 20 of a tier 1-3 arrow.)

As in vanilla FF4, the maximum number of characters in your party is 5. For an added challenge, the Cparty: flags may be used to reduce that limit.

If you encounter the same character more than once, each instance has its own unique stats, spells, equipment, etc. They can co-exist in your party as entirely separate members.

If playing with Cnodupes, there is only one unique instance of each character. If a character tries to join your party that you already have, nothing happens. If you dismiss a character and then encounter them in the world again later, they will be the same instance of that character, with the same stats and equipment as when you last saw them.

Characters you dismiss can be retrieved later by speaking to them in the Mysidia crystal room and the Tower of Wishes. However, if you set the Cbye flag, dismissed characters instead just go away forever. (Note that if playing without duplicate characters, you may be able to find them again in the wild later.)

Characters can normally only be dismissed from your party when a sixth character attempts to join you, at which point you can either send them away, or dismiss another character to make room for them.

The Cpermajoin challenge flag removes the ability to dismiss party members. When enabled, you are given the option of whether to accept a new party member when they attempt to join, but once you recruit them, they cannot be dismissed later. Once your party is full, new characters will be unable to join.

Permadeath is a special challenge mode for players who like that kind of thing. It comes in two varieties:

• Under Cpermadeath, characters that are swooned at the end of battle are permanently removed from your party.
  • This does not apply to the first Dark Elf battle, the Titan battle in Mist, or any other battle where the story still continues even if you lose.
  • You will not be able to reclaim any equipment they were carrying, with one exception:
    • If the permadead character was holding the Legend Sword, the game will attempt to put it into your inventory.
    • If your inventory is full, it will instead attempt to place it in the post-battle Treasure menu.
    • If the post-battle treasure list is already full, or if fighting a trapped chest battle that delivers a key item, or if otherwise unable to deliver the Legend Sword in this way, you will lose the Legend Sword item itself, BUT you will still be able to perform the Smithy sidequest.
• Cpermadeader is a harsher version of permadeath, where:
  • Permadeath DOES apply to story battles you are normally able to continue past (and if you wipe in these battles, it will be game over)
  • Permadeath applies if a character is either Swoon or Stone at the end of battle.
• If playing with the Hero challenge enabled, the hero is exempt from permadeath.

The Chero flag enables the Hero challenge, which applies the following rules:

• Your starting character is designated as the Hero.
• You cannot dismiss the hero.
• The hero is the only instance of that particular character (unless other flags force otherwise, such as a character objective, or if the character pool is limited only to that character¹⁾).
• The hero must fight the boss battle in the Mt. Ordeals mirror room alone.
• Instead of Excalibur, Kokkol the smith will craft an FF4GBA-exclusive weapon usable by the hero. This overrides the -smith:alt flag.
• The hero always gains EXP, even if incapacitated.
• The hero is your agility anchor.
  • If -vanilla:agility is also enabled, then vanilla agility (ie. Cecil) takes precedence.
• When playing with a permadeath challenge, the hero is exempt from permadeath.
• Any multi-battle fight in the Crystal Chamber on top of Mt Ordeals (Fabul Gauntlet and Dr Lugae) will have a full heal as each battle concludes.