Looking back at old ROM hacks -- KL Final Fantasy, part 2

Last time I'd freed the pot-smoking city of Dopsmoka (or possibly some other city with a name that's never mentioned, if the guy in the first town was just some pothead who was saying random nonsense) from the infestation of Stitch clones and gotten a free ship from Bikke the Ship Salesman.  Now, on to...

 ...Muffind, located north of the desert, which has apparently been attacked by the Taliban.

 Also, this guy's a farter.  Apparently his only defining feature is that he farts.

 Also, dwarves are replaced by Blurbys... except they aren't quite, because I never changed the graphics.  D'oh.

 Mmmmmm, Kirbys.

 Cameo appearance from Washu from Tenchi Muyo... sort of.  The sprite is just an edited version of the scholar dude from the original game, with longer hair.

 There's much better armor here -- finally some good stuff for poor ol' Kurb, including the Kirbyish Bracelet and Kirbyish Hat.  Also, Steel Armor which is a significant upgrade for Muyeo, and Iron Shields for both Muyeo and Kurb.

And, uh, a Hat for Claws I guess, since she can't equip any of the other stuff. XD

 This segment of the game uses a lot of references to the war in Afghanistan back in the early 2000s.  Tora Bora was the name of the mountain range where Osama bin Laden was supposedly hiding back then, if I'm remembering right.

 Apparently rather than making the earth rot, the Taliban (and Osama bin Laden) are unleashing a deadly disease called TURBAN PLAGUE.  Does this make a turban grow out of your skull, or make you cough up turbans, or what?  Why's it called that??

 And here's the weaker version of the Cockroach enemies that showed up rarely early on, regular ol' Roaches which have less HP and can't poison you.

 Also, this desert has really deep sand apparently.  Wonder if something's hidden in there... hmmmm.

 Another new enemy -- Turdos, which replace the original game's Iguanas.  They're... yeah, they're just a turd with a big ol' eye in the middle.

 Also, these.  I can't remember what they replaced, but they're basically mini-tornadoes and are kinda dangerous when you first get to this area.  They also drop an absurd amount of money, for some reason.

My first visit to the church, where this old Pope-looking guy can revive you for some money.  Kurb got killed in that Turdo fight earlier (due to a critical hit, if I'm remembering right.)

 Here's some ocean enemies -- Waternums! Which are... pretty obviously just the same sprite as the regular Numnums seen on land, but with fins.

 Now that I have a boat, I can reach this cave...

 ...which doesn't really look like a cave on the inside.  And has talking brooms which originally gave you the "PUSH B SELECT" code for looking at the map, but now just tell you to... "SUCK A WEINER."  Except backwards.  Uh, I don't think that's a magic spell...

 And apparently there's a Blunt Key out there somewhere.

 And here's Ondu! Well... weird armless Ondu.  Yep.

That crystal thing next to him powers a time machine, as it turns out, though you won't find this out until the end of the game.

 He clearly has his glasses in his sprite, but I guess maybe somebody must've stolen the lenses or something...

 And up above that cave is...

 Well, a horde of middle school/high school bullies.  But after those, there's...

 Another cave!

 ...which I can't actually go through yet.

 Also, these tigers are way too strong for this point in the game.

 As you can see here.  Ouch.

 I did manage to kill one of them before everyone got their butts kicked, but...

...yeah, it didn't take all that long.  Thankfully, save-states exist.

 Here's an enemy with a changed name, but still with the old picture (or at least, the one from the hack I based mine on, which changed some of the enemy sprites to ones from later Final Fantasy games.)

 And here's some more that I stumbled across -- Yuckow Foods! Which are really annoying to run into this early, what with their super-high defense and habit of poisoning everyone.

 Here's some more oceanic critters, and Froog using a Shield spell.

 And here's a stronger Waternum, the Big Waternum, which barely looks any different.

 And here's a mapping error.  Whoops.

 Another new enemy, a "Fnrf."  Should be spelled Fnrrf, but... I guess I only had four letters to work with.  Also, Kurb is now equipped with the Kirbyish Sword.

 Grylloblattids, which in real life are a neat species of bugs that live up in icy mountain areas and can't tolerate temperatures very far above freezing, but in my games are blue cockroach monsters that can paralyze you.

 And here's some generic-ass snakes, which are borderline harmless except for their poison... which is pretty accurate considering they're snakes and all.

Kurb in the front slot for once, up near the furthest north region of the Tora Bora Mountains.

 And now on to Tora Bora Cave, and this chest which I think is the first treasure chest I've found in this game so far.  Also shown here: the correct money type for this game, Konju rather than Gil.  I guess I never changed it in the shop menus.

 An abundance of bugs here, both poisonous and paralyzing ones.  Of course, I ran away.

 A Camel! Except... it doesn't look like a camel at all.  Looks like the Earth enemy in the original game, completely unchanged.

 Apparently I did something weird with the name of the Antidote item, because it shows up as "AnZd" when used in battle.  With a weird dot over the Z..

 Another new enemy, the Tank... which looks like just a gray hyena.  Whoops.

 More "never got a new sprite" enemies, Num Statues.  They're pretty annoying thanks to their high defense, but Light spells hurt them -- apparently I changed the Harm series of spells so they work on not just the undead (which are rarer in this game than the original) but also on "inanimate object" enemies like statues and robots... and also Yuckow Food type enemies, since they're considered to be made of cafeteria food in this game.

 And here's a recolor -- not just a "Fnrrf" but a "Fnrrf Ygm."

 New weapon for Muyeo, which I don't think anyone else can use.

 And here's a buttload of money.

 TOMATO SAUCE.  Yep.

 And here's that Taliban guy the people in town mentioned, with a slightly modified version of the vampire's text... rather than saying everything living was born to die, he says only Americans were.

 Also, still looks like a vampire, but with gray hair or something.

 The Taliban apparently have the power to summon sandstorms.  While... inside a cave... several floors below the surface.

 A Kirby.  Like... the same species as Kurb, one of the player characters?

 Oh, nope -- it's not the white, Kihlah-using kind after all.  It's the tiny pink kind.

 And after escaping from that cave safely, I save and heal with a tent.  Unfortunately I'm out of antidotes, so I need to go back to Dopsmoka (or whatever the town's name actually is) to get more.

 But first, some NPC commentary.  Defeating the Taliban didn't stop the Turban Plague, it turns out.  And... my left hand's getting a little worn out from typing all this, so that'll be all for this one.  Next time, wandering aimlessly for a bit, figuring out how to get further in Tora Bora, and maybe the first major boss... maybe.