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core_gameplay_changes

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Core Gameplay Changes

Progression

In order to make all dungeons and key items accessible outside the normal story flow of FF4, the following progression changes have been made:

  • Behind the Pass door in Toroia is a shortcut that leads directly to Zeromus. This is a one-way path; you cannot return from it.
  • The Tower of Zot is accessed by speaking to the green guard in the Clerics' chamber in Toroia Castle.
    • The Earth Crystal is not required to enter the Tower of Zot, but it is required to complete it.
  • The Giant of Bab-il is accessed by speaking to the guard on the bridge of the Big Whale.
  • The Big Whale is earned by bringing the Darkness Crystal to Mysidia.
  • Yang's wife will not give you the Pan (or other randomized reward) until you have found (and spoken to Yang) in the Sylph Cave. She will also not give you the Spoon (or other randomized reward) until you have used the Pan.
  • The Hook is found as a key item, and not installed by the engineers in Baron.
  • The Legend Sword is found as a key item, and does not come with Paladin Cecil (who begins with a Silver Staff instead).
  • There is no fire at the base of Mt. Ordeals.
  • The Toroia Castle treasury may be accessed once you have found the Earth Crystal.
  • The Enterprise begins with the enhanced hull allowing it to fly over magma.
  • The Falcon comes with the enhanced hull and Drill already applied.
  • Any character may use the Crystal to transform Zeromus; it does not have to be Paladin Cecil.

Story events

Most event cutscenes have been reduced to shortened versions.

Characters will not leave your party due to story events (eg. you will not lose Kain if you burn down Mist).

There are no solo story battles; your entire party is present when defending Fabul and in the mirror room fight atop Mt. Ordeals.

Recruiting/dismissing characters

Characters join your party in the form that they first appear in the original game. For example, acquiring Kain in the Giant of Bab-il would give you the same low-level version of Kain you get at the start of the game.

If you attempt to gain a sixth party member, you will be asked to dismiss someone. You will be given a chance to remove the departing character's equipment before they leave. (If you dismiss a character holding the Legend Sword without taking their gear, you will still keep the Legend Sword.)

Dismissed characters can be retrieved later from the Tower of Wishes in Mysidia (unless the -vanilla:bye flag is enabled).

Items

Many items from the original Japanese version of FF4 were removed from the US release. Most of these items have been restored; these items use the names given to them from the PS1 English release of FF4.

Item prices have been altered to suit the balance of Free Enterprise.

Dashing

By default, map movement is 2x the speed of vanilla FF4. Hold Y to walk at original speed. You can change the “Dash” setting in the Custom menu to invert this behavior.

While riding airships, holding Y will reduce movement speed, to help make precise landings.

While riding the hovercraft or yellow chocobos, holding Y will increase your speed.

Extended item info

Pushing Select in either the item menu, equip menu, shop menu, or post-battle treasure menu will display a panel showing detailed info about the highlighted item, including stats/properties for weapons and armor. Push Select again to hide the window.

Treasure Discard

When checking a treasure chest, you can press R to immediately discard the item if you don't want it. If you do this by mistake, you can retrieve the item by checking the chest again; this “undo” grace period lasts until you leave the area.

Key items and GP cannot be discarded in this manner.

Quick Trash

In the Item menu, double-selecting the trash can puts you into “quick trash” mode. In this mode, selecting an item once will discard it (be careful with this!).

Dialogue

Most NPC dialogue has been replaced by basic gameplay tips and assorted general silliness. (Thanks to riversmccown for writing the lion's share of the text.)

The training room dialogue covers the raw basics of the changes in Free Enterprise.

Hints

Speaking repeatedly to Rosa's mom in Baron will tell you what potential key item locations you have not yet checked. This is to assist players who've gotten stuck and aren't sure where to look next.

Agility anchor

FF4 scales combat speed according to the party member designated as the “agility anchor”.

Vanilla FF4 selects the agility anchor as follows:

  1. If there is at least one Cecil in the party, select the first Cecil in party slot order (ie. middle first, then top, bottom, top-middle, bottom-middle) to be the agility anchor.
  2. If there is no Cecil in the party, choose the first character in party slot order to be the anchor.

By default, Free Enterprise removes the first check, so the anchor is always determined by party slot order regardless if Cecil is present. The original logic can be restored by applying the -vanilla:agility flag.

Glitches

Refer to the Glitches page.

FuSoYa

By default, the “FuSoYa Challenge” is enabled; for more details see FuSoYa changes.

Miscellaneous changes

The Tower of Zot and Giant of Bab-il may be revisited after they are completed.

You may leave the Giant of Bab-il from its entrance.

After falling down the trap door in Upper Bab-il, you have the option to jump back up.

You may re-enter Upper Bab-il after completing it; the guard that blocks the way in vanilla FF4 has been removed.

The Big Whale can land on moon craters.

A bridge has been added to the river south of Toroia to help people get airships unstuck from Toroia after finishing Zot. (There is a chocobo forest south of Toroia that can also be used to cross the river, but people often don't know about it.)

The Imp, Bomb, Cockatrice and Mage summon orbs have been removed to make room for the items that grant the five quest summons (Asura, Levia, Baham, Odin, and Sylph).

You cannot sail the ship from Fabul to Mysidia.

The Medusa Sword has been removed from the game due to softlock risks.

PinkPuffs drop Adamant Armors instead of Pink Tails.

core_gameplay_changes.1577817753.txt.gz · Last modified: 2019/12/31 19:42 (external edit)