Looking back at old ROM hacks -- KL Final Fantasy, part 1

Stumbling across it still being available for download somewhere last night reminded me of my Final Fantasy ROM hack, which never got a "real" title but ended up being referred to as KL Final Fantasy ("KL" standing for Kirby Lands, as in my old awful OHRRPGCE game... yeah, this hack was made in 2002 so I hadn't abandoned it yet at this point.)

This one's pretty heavily edited compared to the various Mario hacks and Robertman, with almost everything in the game changed in one way or another.  Even the map and the order you do things is changed!  But first...

 ...here's some stuff that's not edited.  Well, there is a slight change from the original NES Final Fantasy here, but that's only because I based my own hack on a "base" hack that updated a few things (removing the bar between heroes and enemies during battle, extended item/spell names, etc.) and also made some random unnecessary changes here and there... like changing the orbs back to crystals, randomly.  I always liked the orbs better, regardless of the later Final Fantasy games all having crystals in both English and Japanese.

 Only thing different here is the copyright info, which indicates that I made this in 2002 and that I was still using the name "Dark Blubber" back then.  Not too surprising, considering that used to be my username on the now-almost-completely-inactive OHRRPGCE site Castle Paradox and that site didn't come around until '03 if I remember right.

 And here's the default party.  Things are looking a little weird here... mainly because of those absurd "characters from Final Fantasy 4" names that really don't match the playable species/classes they ended up attached to.  Default names are another thing the "base" hack that I started with added, but apparently I never figured out how to change them.

Anyway, there's four of the playable classes/species -- Half-Bridgetoids (which would be known as Half-Burijeoo these days), froggy dudes called Ranoids, kitty-like dudes called Myuuoo (which have been rolled into the Kekybian species now), and very short humanoids called Kaatuoo (which no longer exist at all in my current stuff.)

 There's also "Dudes," also known as regular ol' humans.  They start out pitifully weak but eventually can upgrade to Jedi, who aren't quite so pathetic (and are the only characters who can use the Lightsaber and Blaster items you find later on.)

 And finally there are "Kirbys," the white-with-red-feet Kirby recolors that are the direct ancestors of the K'hyurbhis design-wise.

 So here's my team, with much more appropriate names than before.

And... that's a bit different from the original game.  Okay, more like a lot different.

So different in fact that the built-in map doesn't really handle things well and cuts a bunch of stuff off rather than showing it properly, as shown here:

 Anyway... far less glitchy than the map is the battle screen.  It actually looks a bit nicer than the original game's version, thanks  to the bar between heroes and enemies being removed and the background extending all the way.  Here's a familiar enemy -- especially if you've read my Sumo Fatio Bros. posts from a while back: Ians.  Yep, the very first wimpy enemy in the game is not an Imp, but endless clones of the obnoxious pothead school-vandalizing bully that I knew back in my Boy Scout years.

They're pathetically weak (though they do get multiple hits) and tend to run away very often, much like the real Ian.

 Well, that's a pretty generic message box there.

 Fountain with four explanation marks, to emphasize its dumbness.

 ...and apparently there's no law against prostitution around these parts, considering how she's blurting that out right there in public with a guard standing well within earshot.

 Weapon shop is a little crowded with items -- the Wooden Hammer's price actually cuts off the bottom a bit, and I'm not sure what's up with the Small Knife's row having a chunk missing from the end.  Anyway... I stock up a bit here, getting Small Swords for Muyeo and Kurb and Metal Claws for the others.  Also, some armor... except Kurb can't wear any of it, due to not being humanoid in shape.

 The magic shop... which also teaches Kihlah, which only Kurb can learn.  Dondu is the only healing ability available at this point in the game, so it wouldn't be smart to pass that one up.  Hihu, on the other hand, is completely inferior to Hoi which the other magic/Kihlah shop sells, so I'll ignore that one.

 Claws can't learn Fireball ("FBall" for short), because this was made in 2002 and I didn't start having Burijeoo characters use fire magic until 2007 or 2008.  Nobody can learn Ice, as that's apparently Kaatuoo-exclusive.  So I grab Hoi for Kurb and Zzzter for Claws (and come back later to add Fireball to Kurb's arsenal, too.)

 ...GOHAN? Okay.  Apparently Gohan from Dragonball Z is one of the sages in this game.  I wonder if that's supposed to be "Goku's-half-Saiyan-son" Gohan or Grandpa Gohan...

 Yep... Dopsmoka.  A pot smoking city.  That's an odd thing for a city to be known for.

 ...but I haven't even saved her yet! What the heck??

 Until? What happened that made him dumb? (Also, yes, another Dragonball Z reference there -- Dr. Gero is indeed in this game.  Well, sort of.  His graphics never got changed so he still looks like Garland.)

 Swamps are apparently really deep now.

 Kurb healing the party with Dondu during a fight with several Ians in the swamp.

 Also, Ladybugs.  Though... I never actually edited their graphics so they still look like weird spider things. XD

 And here's my next destination, the abandoned ghost town up in the swamp.  Nope, no Temple of Fiends here, though that area's enemy formations were used in the ghost town.

 Another random encounter enemy, this one replacing the wolves from the original game.

 And I leveled up!  Claws and Froog can now use magic, and Kurb/Muyeo's capacity has gone up a good bit too.

...and here's the (slightly) stronger recolor of an Ian, a "J.Blowman."  That stands for Jason Blowman, and was a spoof of someone else from my Boy Scout troop that I didn't like at the time -- one of those kids who tagged along with Ian and took part in the stupidity he caused.  Apparently once Ian was out of the troop he cleaned up his act a bit, though, so Ian was probably the source of the dumb all along.

 The "talked to nothing" message is changed up a lot, too.

 The ghost town is, of course, populated by... ghosts! Apparently you need to learn how to talk to ghosts before you can tell what the heck they're saying.

 And the bats, for some bizarre reason, say "pee" over and over again.

 Yikes, that's a lot of Numnums! Including the stronger Blue Num.

 Their "Chomp" attack isn't anything special, but it does let them get around your heavier-armored characters' defense, doing about equal damage to everyone.

 Thankfully, the inn in the ghost town is still operational... and really cheap!

 Oh, here's Dr. Gero, just hanging out in a destroyed house in the middle of town.  And he's apparently the "world's greatest idiot scientist"... weird title to have, huh?

 Yep... no new graphics, so he's basically just Gray Garland here.

 ZZZTER! He's weak to lightning-based attacks, so this ended up doing 50-some damage.

 Apparently "Light Warriors" changed to "Butt Warriors" in this hack.  Yep.

 And the Lute... is a "Toot."

 ...which is a fart, apparently.  Or a musical instrument that makes farts, or something.

 On a revisit to the ghost town (mostly due  to its cheap inn), I found some new critters -- replacing the skeletons, it's Bad Kirbys! They're... pretty weak.

 Also, Cockroaches, which are less weak and can poison you.

 ...which makes it necessary to make an annoying long trip back to the first town for an antidote.

Muyeo in the first slot for a while now, mostly just to show off his map sprites.  The tail having no outline is a little weird.

 After crossing the bridge and seeing the completely-unchanged intro sequence thing, it's off to this desert-y continent in the north.

 And far to the northwest, just like the one guy said... it's the pot smoking town of Dopsmoka! Where nobody ever actually says anything about marijuana in, oddly enough.  Hmm...

 And here's Bikke the pirate--oh wait, no, ship salesman.  He's not a bad guy in this hack... just an innocent pirate-themed ship salesman who randomly gets attacked by some weird critters that bite his hat.

 And it turns out those weird critters are "Prototypes," which look like Stitch.  Apparently somebody let loose a bunch of early Stitch experiment critters in this town and now you have to fight them off so they don't eat poor ol' Bikke the Ship Salesman's hat.

 They're actually a decent bit tougher than the original pirates were -- using Chomp and double-hitting regular attacks, and also protecting themselves from Zzzter attacks with this spell.

 And the double-hitting attacks actually do some pretty decent damage, too -- Kurb barely survived this fight and nobody came out unscathed by the end.

 And that's a pretty good reward considering that all they were doing was biting your hat.  This guy must really like his hat.

 Ondu's shroom.  Huh?? How does doing shrooms make  you wake up? I guess elves work differently than humans.  Also, this is the first indication that Ondu -- or any Blurby, for that matter -- is in this game.

 Improved armor! Finally! Well, I can't afford the actual "improved" armor, but I can at least give Kurb some gloves and a shield (also a shield for Muyeo and gloves for everyone but Froog, who has better defense without them due to Ranoids using the Black Belt's stat formula.)

 Also, some huge improvements in the weapon department.  I immediately grab Spears for both Claws and Kurb, which should mean at least one of them starts getting double-hits pretty soon.

And... my hands are getting tired from all that typing, so I'll have to end Part 1 of this right here.  Before that, though, he's a view of where Dopsmoka (if that really is the town's name, and that guy in the first town wasn't just a pothead making stuff up...) is located, and my new free ship.