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Core Gameplay Changes

Free Enterprise is based on the US version of Final Fantasy IV (originally released as Final Fantasy II), version 1.1. Many Japanese version features are restored or can be restored using flags, but otherwise the gameplay matches this version, aside from the changes detailed in these docs.

Open world

You begin the game with the airship Enterprise, offering you immediate open access to the entire overworld. The game has been extensively modified to allow dungeons and events to be experienced in any available order.

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:

The Pass

  • 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.

Tower of Zot

  • 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 Tower of Zot may be revisited after it is completed.

Tower of Bab-il (upper)

  • You may jump back up to the overworld after falling through the crystal room trap door.
  • You may revisit this area after completing it (the guard who blocks the way in vanilla FF4 has been removed).

Giant of Bab-il

  • The Giant of Bab-il is accessed by speaking to the guard on the bridge of the Big Whale.
  • The Giant may be revisited after it is completed.
  • You can leave the Giant by speaking to the sparkle at the entrance.

Big Whale

  • The Big Whale is earned by bringing the Darkness Crystal to Mysidia.
  • The Big Whale can land on moon craters.

Yang's wife

  • 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.

Legend Sword

  • The Legend Sword is found as a key item, and does not come with Paladin Cecil (who begins with a Silver Staff instead).

Hook

  • The Hook is found as a key item, and not installed by the engineers in Baron.

Character progression

  • Upon completing Mt. Ordeals, all Cecils become level 1 Paladins, regardless of whether or not they're in your party.
  • Upon completing Mt. Ordeals, all Tellahs gain their full spell sets, regardless of whether they're in your party.
  • During the Dwarf Castle battle cutscene, all Rydias will become adults and gain their adult default spells, regardless of whether they're in your party.
  • Upon completing the Tower of Zot, all Rosas will learn Exit, regardless of whether they're in your party.
  • Upon defeating the first Upper Bab-il boss, all Edges will learn Flood and Blitz, regardless of whether they're in your party.

Minor progression changes

  • The Toroia Castle treasury may be accessed once you have found the Earth Crystal.
  • There is no fire at the base of Mt. Ordeals.
  • 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.
  • 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.)

Story events

Most event cutscenes have been reduced to shortened versions. Some cutscenes have been removed entirely.

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.

Most item prices have been altered to suit the balance of Free Enterprise. For full details, refer to the item stats table.

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).

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

Since the Pink Tail is a key item in FE, PinkPuffs now directly drop Adamant Armors instead of Pink Tails.

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.

core_gameplay_changes.1577838327.txt.gz · Last modified: 2020/01/01 01:25 (external edit)