Breath Of Fire II: Breath of Fire II Maeson

This is a Hack for Breath of Fire II, an RPG on the Super Nintendo. It is now updated to version 1.06!

Unlike other hacks of this author, the idea here is to fine-tune certain aspects of the game to make a smoother experience, instead of making big changes to the gameplay in general (even if there are some).

Some of the changes done are:

* Increase the overall usefulness and balance of the cast of characters, improving the least useful ones and trying to put them all on a similar level.

* Changes to Magic, with changes to the AP costs, and in case of offensive spells, damage too. Characters learn different spells, and overall they can be used a bit more freely.

* Changes in equipment that go along with the changes to the characters. For example, whips are much better weapons than before, and a few pieces of armor are usable by more characters.

* Changes in the Experience and Zenny the monsters give upon defeat; the experience tables for characters to reduce grinding, and prices for equipment and items also was adjusted depending on their usefulness.

* Because of all the changes pointed above, monsters had their stats also adjusted for how the characters are now. Difficulty shouldn't change too much compared to the original game.

* Changes on the Shaman system, for example Seny/Saynie actually does something now, and Transformations are not simple stat upgrades anymore, instead they reduce and increase stats, trying to change a character's role or become a stronger version of himself/herself, but with higher weaknesses too.

There are a few other things, and as always is the case with this author, there's a "way too long readme" with a lot of information.

This hack is actually compatible with D4S and Ryusui's https://www.romhacking.net/translations/1384/. In fact, there's a version of the readme exclusively made with Retranslation names.

Version 1.01 changes: Some of the enemies on the very early parts of the game were slightly toned down in attack power.

Version 1.02 changes: some slight Character adjustments made for better balance, Shaman Transformations made less extreme (both in strengths and weaknesses), and fixed a small oversight in the B patch on 1.01.

Version 1.02a changes: Just a few typos related to when certain characters learn certain spells. Very minor stuff.

Version 1.03 and 1.05 changes: After several years, the hack got some updates.

* A version with lowered encounter rates has been added, after Ok Impala! found how to change it. This new version tweaks the Experience and Zenny rewards to make up for the lower encounter rate, and the chances for obtaining certain Item drops were increased too. Credits and thanks to Ok Impala! for finding out!

* The original game uses the music track "There's Something Here", a very short and repetitive loop, in many, many areas of the game, something a lot of people found annoying, and the author does too. This new version of the hack swaps out this track in most places that it played before and substitutes it with a variety of other themes, not only making the game feel fresher when you're not hearing the same music track constantly, but also to let other, better themes that are used far less shine a bit more.

* The Menu Background for the Retranslation version of the patch has been simplified to make reading far less of a hassle. It was optional in the prior version, but in this new version is part of the main patch.

Version 1.06 changes:

* On the Lower Encounter Rates versions of the previous release, I raised the Experience received to cover the slightly lower number of battles. Based on feedback, this seemed to be unnecessary, so the the previous amounts of Experience gained was restored.

* A few enemy drop rates were tweaked.

* The in-game menu background was made darker. The older, lighter colors can still be accessed through an optional patch.

* Made a small correction to one of Rand's transformations, that had the incorrect bonuses and penalties.

* Removed unnecessary code from the Restore Normal Encounter rate optional patch.

* Thanks to Praetarius5018, the Retranslation Checksum can now be entirely bypassed. Because of this, all the patches were redone to make the process of patching significantly easier and less cumbersome, as now you don't need to keep applying Checksum fixing patches depending on which patches, from Maeson or others you wanted to use. This Checksum bypass can be used with any of the three variations of the Retranslation (that affect the game's titlescreen).

Credits and heartfelt thanks to Preatarius5018 for this finding!

* Fixed a mistake made on the Experience Tables for two characters, and minor tweaks to the spell progression of a couple characters, plus the starting Level of one member too.

* The Shaman system has been expanded, and several Transformations had their stat alterations tweaked. Characters that had few compatible combinations now have more, such as Lin/Kat now having normal fusions. Characters with only one Transformation combination now have two, with different bonuses and penalties.

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Instructions
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Well, just like most patches, they're easy to install.
First you need a clean Breath of Fire II backup, that
matches this version:

Breath of Fire II (USA).sfc

CRC-32: 67CDACC5
MD-5 : E1FF1ED4AD5DBDBE86774920DFB5E9D4
SHA-1 : 1F7707E606B7E9FA8FB3908BBDDFCB5DEA93D776

This is for an unheadered ROM.
This is the same hash data that the Retranslation ROM uses,
of course chosen not only for being a known good dump, but
also for compatibility with the Retranslation patch.

-----------------------------------
Steps for the Original Translation:
-----------------------------------

With your Clean ROM, apply the Main Patch. Simple as that.


Afterwards, if you want to customize your ROM more, choose any of the other
Extra patches, or apply patches from other people. Specifically, these:

These are Ieszy's "Keep the Great Bird" and "Agi Up Fix":

Here's the link for Keep the Great Bird:
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/7692/


Here's the link for Agi Up Fix:
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/7691/

And also PHA_PHX_PHY_PHP's "Unfussing Less" patch:

Here's the link for Unfussing Less:
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3627/

That's, of course, if you want to. I recommend them, but you do you.

Lastly, if want you can fix the Checksum with the tools linked below,
as depending on what way you're going to play, it might be needed.

---------------------------------
Steps for Ryusui's Retranslation:
---------------------------------

I am very happy to say that from 1.05a forward, patching with the Retranslation
is going to be much easier!

Thanks to Preatarious5018, now we have a way to bypass the Checksum entirely!

Before, we had to deal with it for every change made to the ROM, but now it
won't matter. It's a pretty simple process:

1: Grab your clean, BoF II ROM, and apply the Retranslation.

2: If you decide to use the Original Title Screen for the Retranslation,
or the "Through Fire and Flames" one, apply either one after the main
Retranslation patch. You can choose to leave the one the Retranslation
comes with, the song created for the japanese commercial, it's neat.

3: Apply my Main Patch.

4: Apply the "No Checksum" patch that goes with the version of the Retranslation
you chose. If you chose to keep the usual vocal track, or "Through Fire and
Flames", you apply that, and if you're using the original Title Screen one,
well... You apply that instead. Simple, I hope.

And that's it! From that point, you can apply any extra patches you want without
worrying about the Checksum at all.

After doing that, you can choose among several optional patches to restore the
original Encounter Rate (the main patch lowers them), a simpler Ryu that learns
far less Spells, revert the music changes, or change the ingame menu background.

You can also apply three other good patches that work with both the Retranslation
and my hack, and I recommend them too.

These are Ieszy's "Keep the Great Bird" and "Agi Up Fix":

Here's the link for Keep the Great Bird:
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/7692/


Here's the link for Agi Up Fix:
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/7691/

And also PHA_PHX_PHY_PHP's "Unfussing Less" patch:

Here's the link for Unfussing Less:
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3627/

All three are great to have, even if I don't tend to transform my characters all that
much! Losing the Great Bird also makes you unable to grab a very important weapon, not
to mention much more convenient travelling (Hometown is cool, but for quick travels it
is kinda a slow process). And at the very least you should consider the Agi Up Fix.

With that said, depending on what are you going to play this on, you may still want
to fix the header after all the patching; it never hurts, specially if you're trying
to play it on original hardware.

Fortunately, it is very simple to fix it thanks to these two tools, you can choose any:

You can fix it with this tool, Lightweight Checksum Calculator by Cthulhu88:
https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/1479/

It's as simple as drag and drop your fully modded ROM into it.

You can, alternatively, use Advanced SNES ROM Utility by Dom aka Doke:

https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/1638/

This one has a GUI, so it's pretty selfexplanatory. Don't forget to save after
fixing the Checksum!



Breath of Fire II (USA).sfc

CRC-32: 67CDACC5
MD-5 : E1FF1ED4AD5DBDBE86774920DFB5E9D4
SHA-1 : 1F7707E606B7E9FA8FB3908BBDDFCB5DEA93D776