Shining Force II Hacking: My Hack of SF2

Some helpful criticisms to make my hack feel even more epic than the original

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ZethaPonderer
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My Hack of SF2

Post by ZethaPonderer »

I've been working on this hack for some time along with SF1. Using SF2 Editor and it's sweet.

I decided I make some interesting changes for the characters in the Creed Mansion where they will be unique since all of them are magically and physically inclined so that no option is terrible whenever you're picking one at Creed Mansion (although Karna still is the best choice).

Ex. Take Eric and Randolf e.g.

Eric has access to all 3 elemental spells and just like Arthur from SF3, he can't learn the lvl 4 versions of them.
Randolf on the other hand is interesting since I'm making him specialize on using status effect spells e.g. Slow, Dispel, and Desoul. He can learn all lvls of it making him stand out.

Other changes include buffing up the status effect spells and give some of them a huge AOE e.g. Sleep and Dispel have Bolt lvl 2 radius and AOE since I can't figure out how to code the status effect spells properly to buff up the percentage chance of them to work. Blast has range 1-2 from lvl 2-3 and has a Huge AOE. Blast 4 will be interesting as it will be the only Lvl 4 elemental spell in the game that'll have AOE up to 5 targets. I do have Desoul 2 as a huge AOE currently although that might break the game so maybe I should think twice lol.

As for other changes I'm trying to make my main character Bowie have access to both Boost and Attack just so he can be far more useful. Sadly he'll only learn lvl 1 Boost since I can't make him too good lol. Peter will have access to Blast 1-3. For Slade, I'm giving him an MP restore spell as he'll be the only one having access to it (Heal 25 MP at the cost of 50 MP and having an AOE effect up to 5 Targets)

Any suggestions and criticisms will be appreciated. Thanks.
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greyskies
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Re: My Hack of SF2

Post by greyskies »

Hi there!
I think playing around with the spells is a good idea, in particular buffing Sleep, Dispel and Slow, as well as Blast. I do have to question giving (additional) spells to characters such as Bowie, Slade, Eric and Randolf, however. Both Bowie and Slade are already really powerful as they are, if anything they should be made weaker and not stronger. A Centaur with already high HP, Def and Movement doesn't seem to be a good candidate for receiving powerful wizard spells. Giving Randolf the status effects spells is more or less fine as they're shitty anyway.

I do have to say that the idea of an MP-recovering AoE spell is quite cool, in particular as it hasn't been done before - but I'd suggest giving it to a Domingo-style character, for example by nerfing Peter's ATT & DEF to the ground and make him some sort of caster/MP recharging station hybrid.

To me, it kinda sounds like you want to hand out cool stuff without really thinking about the implications. If you create an Eric with access to level 3 of Freeze/Blaze/Bolt while he retains his original ATT/HP/DEF/MOV stats, he is bound to put the wizards out of business. You're not really improving the gaming experience there, as instead of having the choice between two characters (a KNTE or a MAGE) there is only one option left, as Eric is clearly superior.

As such, my primary suggestion is: if you're giving something to a character, always take something away as well. If you for example want to have a centaur wizard, make his attack and/or defense weak.
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Check out Return to Grans - A Shining Force II hack which features a completely
reworked story, numerous visual improvements, and tons of balance changes.

Also available as storymode hack only.
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ZethaPonderer
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Re: My Hack of SF2

Post by ZethaPonderer »

Hi greyskies!

Thanks for the criticisms. Allow me to re-address my position on why I decided to give certain spells to characters e.g. Bowie, Peter, Slade, Randolf, and Eric. You see I played Shining the Holy Ark and I was thinking about incorporating the spell selection the main character Arthur had in that game and see how it works out for Bowie. Instead, I may want to exchange his Boost lvl 1 for Slow Lvl 1-2 since that's what Arthur had. As for Peter, his attack animation during battle is him shooting a gust of wind that looks very similar to the Blast spell so I was thinking of giving him an attack that would allow him to spread his damage output. Besides it makes sense when you see my reasoning for why I'm giving him this spell although you have a fair point, I have to nerf his Attack Power down considerably (maybe around 25-37% decrease on his attack growth when promoted). Peter gets access to Blast when he's promoted and even then he won't usually have enough MP to cast it since his MP growth is terrible (somewhere around 16 MP growth). As for the max lvl of unpromoted characters it's going to be 30 since 30+ stats really break the game. I'll take your consideration on nerfing Eric and Randolf to some extent (15% reduction on their stat growths except AGI possibly) while the other centaurs and warriors despite having no magical capabilities will have better HP, ATTK, and DEF growths (e.g. Chester specializing on having the Highest ATTK among the centaurs and above average HP). I decided that while your choice of making Peter an MP restorer is interesting, I personally do think that it would make sense for Slade to have since he's not going to make that much use of his spells for the most part now that his unpromoted weapons have 1-2 range like Shining Force Final Conflict. As a Ninja he can still make use of the unpromoted weapons along with equipping swords throughout the game as I gave him an ATTK growth that rivals that of Peter when unpromoted (although promotion is where his ATTK will be nerfed down to some extent).

This is just my bad here that I forgot to mention but enemies in my hack have buffed up stats. All enemies including bosses will have 30% increase ATT & DEF stats which will hopefully make Boost and Attack viable spells to cast instead of being game-breaking like in the original game. Some of them have impenetrable defense e.g. Oozes (255) but have low HP to compensate for their super defence (2-3 HP for the weakest Ooze monster in the game yet I'm still deciding on the HP value) while others have Supersonic Agility which might depend on how I set it up. Early flying enemies will start out having their agility stats on certain ranges 32-48, then mid game flying enemies will have 64-96, then 128-192 mid late game, and finally 255 on end game.

Bosses will have super high HP just like SF3.
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greyskies
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Re: My Hack of SF2

Post by greyskies »

ZethaPonderer wrote:[...] enemies in my hack have buffed up stats. All enemies including bosses will have 30% increase ATT & DEF stats which will hopefully make Boost and Attack viable spells to cast instead of being game-breaking like in the original game. Some of them have impenetrable defense e.g. Oozes (255) but have low HP to compensate for their super defence (2-3 HP for the weakest Ooze monster in the game yet I'm still deciding on the HP value) while others have Supersonic Agility which might depend on how I set it up.
Ah, I see. I like the idea of the super-tough Ooze, although unless you somehow manage to make them also incredibly resistent against magic any caster will just roll over them - which is particularly going to be an issue when you're making more characters become magic users.

Not trying to sound negative here - I'm curious to see how you're going to balance everything out.
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Check out Return to Grans - A Shining Force II hack which features a completely
reworked story, numerous visual improvements, and tons of balance changes.

Also available as storymode hack only.
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ZethaPonderer
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Re: My Hack of SF2

Post by ZethaPonderer »

First off, don't worry about sounding negative with your criticisms as balancing out the mechanics in any game is going to be a tough and complicated process since there are so many factors to consider for each and every choice I put in my hack.

Also, don't worry about the Ooze monsters as later versions of them have high resistance to spells that wouldn't make sense for you to attack them e.g. Blast and Freeze. However they'll have no resistance towards Bolt and super weak towards Fire and by the time you get Kazin, the weakest Ooze in the game will never appear so I might give it only 3 HP for him although later versions of them will have high HP above the 30-50s so using magic like Blaze or Apollo Summon will be your best bet.
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