Final Fantasy II: FF4 Sing Improvement Hack

Sing is a useful and yet mediocre command. Normally, Sing casts two useful
spells (Sleep and Charm) which can be reproduced with Edward's Harp attacks.
It also casts one pathetic spell that's mildly useful (Mute) that hurts the
useful spells. In the worst case, it casts no spell… which is a wasteful
option. Of course, it's also worth noting that the “hidden” Frog Song spell
is sung while Edward's a Toad.

This patch is meant to document and change the spells that Sing can cast to
make it a more useful command. Mute has been replaced with Stop and the empty
spell is replaced with Hold.

Note: Sing's effectiveness is dependent on the original spell's properties
and the target's resistances. Increasing Wisdom (for Stop and Sleep) and
Will Power (for Hold and Charm) will ensure they will become more effective.
This behavior is applicable to FF4A's Chant command as well.

FF2US/4/4ET - Sing Improvement Hack
Version 1.0 - 2/16/09
Created by Deathlike2
[email protected]
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Why does this patch exist?
--------------------------

Sing is a useful and yet mediocre command. Normally, Sing casts two useful
spells (Sleep and Charm) which can be reproduced with Edward's Harp attacks.
It also casts one pathetic spell that's mildly useful (Mute) that hurts the
useful spells. In the worst case, it casts no spell... which is a wasteful
option. Of course, it's also worth noting that the "hidden" Frog Song spell
is sung while Edward's a Toad.

This patch is meant to document and change the spells that Sing can cast to
make it a more useful command. Mute has been replaced with Stop and the empty
spell is replaced with Hold.

Note: Sing's effectiveness is dependant on the original spell's properties
and the target's resistances. Increasing Wisdom (for Stop and Sleep) and
Will Power (for Hold and Charm) will ensure they will become more effective.
This behavior is applicable to FF4A's Chant command as well.


What This Patch Will Not Do
---------------------------

This patch will not restore Edward's other dummied out (and useless command)
and it will not change the messages that accompany the Song command. The
messages are purely cosmetic in nature.


Patching
--------

There are patches provided for the following...

FF2US v1.0 (unheadered and headered)
FF2US v1.1 (unheadered and headered)
FF4 (unheadered and headered)
FF4ET (unheadered and headered)

Note: The locations for each version differ, thus requiring separate patches.

I suggest you use NSRT to verify if your SNES ROM is a valid dump and
to determine if the ROM has a header.

Windows: http://www.romhacking.net/utils/400/
Linux: http://www.romhacking.net/utils/401/
Mac: http://www.romhacking.net/utils/484/

You should be able to use an emulator's software patching or LunarIPS
if hardpatching is needed.

This can be patched against J2e's translation or any translation that
does not move the code for Sing around.


Romhacking Info
---------------

Subtract 0x200 from all values if you are using a headerless ROM.

Sing's selected spell locations...

"Nothing" spell:
0x1EB08 - FF2US 1.0
0x1EB1D - FF2US 1.1
0x1EB20 - FF4
0x1EB17 - FF4ET

Mute spell:
0x1EB15 - FF2US 1.0
0x1EB2A - FF2US 1.1
0x1EB2D - FF4
0x1EB24 - FF4ET

Charm spell:
0x1EB22 - FF2US 1.0
0x1EB37 - FF2US 1.1
0x1EB3A - FF4
0x1EB31 - FF4ET

Sleep spell:
0x1EB2B - FF2US 1.0
0x1EB40 - FF2US 1.1
0x1EB43 - FF4
0x1EB3A - FF4ET

Note: The data there is the spell index number for the command to reference.
It should be noted that if you want to modify the message index that the
command displays, you should subtract 5 from the all of the listed indexes
to determine the location.


Credits
-------

JCE3000GT made an awesome complete hack (based on what was known at the
time) that got me interested in finding out more.

Dragonsbrethren helped out when I didn't know any better way back when.

Thanks to Lenophis for putting up with me on the forums.

Entroper wrote a pretty good FF4A doc sheet with addresses that I could find
what I needed to modify on my own.

Thanks to Phoenix who originally found the data in the FF2US v1.0 ROM.


Final Fantasy II (USA).smc - NOINTRO
CRC32: 65D0A825
MD5: 4FA9E542B954DCB954D5CE38188D9D41
SHA-1: 2FA447E3E010CE8BA5B4E746F6609AA0E324D947
SHA-256: 680535DC1C4196C53B40DC9C2C9BC159A77802AB8D4B474BEF5DC0281C15AD06