Final Fantasy III: Final Fantasy III US Bugfix Patch

Ever been annoyed by the large amount of bugs in the spelling, grammar, story continuity, or even programming of your favorite Super Nintendo game, Final Fantasy III (US version)? Then you'll be delighted to hear that there's a remedy! Just use this Bugfix Patch, and you're done. It also transforms the game into version 1.1 and even allows you to play the game completely bug-free in PAL video mode, if preferred!

Please be aware that the sole intention of this patch is to fix issues that are clearly identifiable as *errors* in the game. Thus, it does NOT reverse changes in the text made by the US translator, restore censored graphics or the original FF6 titlescreen, etc.



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| FINAL FANTASY III (US) BUGFIX PATCH August 26, 2007 |
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NB: If you're reading this file using the Windows Editor, please maximize
the window and then activate the Word Wrap function found in the menu
(either under "Edit" or "Format")!


HI FOLKS!
=========

Ever been annoyed by the large amount of bugs in the spelling, grammar, story continuity, or even programming of your favourite Super Nintendo game, Final Fantasy III (US version)? Then you'll be delighted to hear that there's a remedy! Just use this Bugfix Patch, and you're done. It also transforms the game into version 1.1 (see below for more details) and even enables you to play the game completely bug-free in PAL video mode, if preferred!

If you can find even more bugs than are listed in this document, please don't hesitate to tell me (my e-mail address can be found in the "Contact Me" section).

Please be aware that the sole intention of this patch is to fix issues that are clearly identifiable as *errors* in the game. Thus, it does NOT reverse changes in the text made by the US translator, restore censored graphics or the original FF6 titlescreen, etc.

Disclaimer (please refer to the Legal Notes below, too): I have created this bugfix patch entirely out of my own free will and not on commission of Square (or now, Square Enix). It is therefore not official. Furthermore, I cannot be held responsible for any damage resulting from the use of this patch, including computer crashes, square eyes or virus infections. You accept this disclaimer by using the patch.


BUGS FIXED BY THIS PATCH:
=========================

[newest additions]

- The ZIP archive was repackaged on January 05, 2008: The new means of contacting me have been put into the readme files. The patch itself was *not* changed in any way!

- Terii Senshi's "Psycho Cyan Bug Fix" (see http://www.rpglegion.com/ff6/hack/psycho.htm) has been upgraded to version 1.1 (by thoroughly removing all traces of the buggy 1.0 release, of course).

- "That Damn Yellow Streak" in Gogo's Status menu has been fixed! Big thanks fly out to Assassin (http://www14.brinkster.com/assassin17/patches.htm#anchor21) for that! (Version of this specific hack: Beta 0.25)

- Thanks to Assassin again, "Step Mine's missing digit" has been fixed! If you don't know what this is, you've probably never encountered it, but feel free to refer to his homepage (http://www14.brinkster.com/assassin17/patches.htm#anchor16) for more information. (Version of this specific hack: Beta 0.22)

- Tweaked one of Banon's lines that had been cut from the translation and which I'd put back in earlier. Thanks to Joshua Ball for pointing the issue out!

- A (rarely used, but nevertheless crucial) battle command, to make it correspond to the dialogue (again, thanks to Joshua Ball):
BEFORE: "MagiTek"
AFTER : "Magitek"


[additions made in the patch released on March 24, 2006]

- Corrected a few wrong dialogue pointers, most of which affected the ending sequence. I have no idea what had happened there.

- The missing quotation mark in one of Terra's text at the very beginning of the game:
BEFORE: "But how will I know which way is right ..."
AFTER : "But how will I know which way is right ...?"

- The mistakable, and partly wrong, explanation of the guy in Albrook's weapon shop:
BEFORE: "I'm a scholar of weapons. 1000 years ago, during the War of the Magi, 2 so-called Atma Weapons existed. | One changed a person's power into a sword, the other was an monster, bred for mass destruction."
AFTER : "I'm a scholar of weapons. 1000 years ago, during the War of the Magi, two so-called Atma Weapons existed. | One changed into a sword depending on its wielder's power. | The other was a monster, bred for mass destruction."

- The description of the "Life 2" spell. It was wrong and what's more, the verb "restore" didn't really correspond to "recover", which is used in most other descriptions:
BEFORE: "Restores life and HP/MP"
AFTER : "Recovers life + full HP"

- The description of the "Jewel Ring" relic, which was wrong:
BEFORE: "Protects against 'Dark', 'Petrify'"
AFTER : "Protects against 'Petrify'"

- The two different spellings of Setzer's girlfriend's name (I had to change the name of a place in order to make it correspond to the dialogue):
BEFORE: "DARILL'S TOMB/B1"
AFTER : "DARYL'S TOMB/B1"

- The "W Wind" spell. As it's an abbreviation of "whirlwind", it looks better with a "." in between:
BEFORE: "W Wind"
AFTER : "W.Wind"

- Tons of wrongly used tildes "~" instead of slashes "/" between HP and MP as well as in a few descriptions. The error resulted from my having to exchange the graphic tiles a while ago (see further below), after which I forgot to check and correct all possible occurrences in the text blocks.

- Last but not least, here's the biggest news: I implemented d4s's PAL-Fix (see http://www.dforce3000.de/)! This means that the game is now fully playable in 50 Hz (PAL) mode. No crashing in the ending sequence anymore, no more black menu screens. Big thanks fly out to d4s for his great work as well as for kindly approving integration of it into my own patches! :)


[old bugfixes, implemented in patch revisions released before March, 2006]

- The missing space in one of the Rare item's names:
BEFORE: "Magn.Glass"
AFTER : "Magn. Glass"

- The misspelling "memebers" in the description of the True Knight relic:
BEFORE: "Protects party memebers who are low on HP"
AFTER : "Protects party members who are low on HP"

- The misspelling "bouns" in one of the Esper bonus descriptions:
BEFORE: "50% bouns in MP increase"
AFTER : "50% bonus in MP increase"

- The grammar bug "sorcerer" in the dialogue sequence right at the beginning of the game:
BEFORE: "And this woman, this...sorcerer. Why's she here?"
AFTER : "And this woman, this...sorceress. Why's she here?"

- The logical error in Narshe, at the beginning of the game, where it says:
BEFORE: "SOLDIER: Open up! ..."
AFTER : "GUARD: Open up! ..."
The point is that you're threatened by the very same Narshe guards you beat up at the beginning of the game (with Wedge and Vicks) and NOT by imperial soldiers. Hope this clears things up.

- The misspelling "Dad" in one of the dialogues in South Figaro:
BEFORE: "My Dad's very important!"
AFTER : "My dad's very important!"
"Dad" only needs to be capitalized when used as a name, which is not the case here.

- The wrong word "Knight" in one of the dialogues at Figaro Castle (to correspond to Strago's story when the party has saved Relm from the burning house in Thamasa):
BEFORE: "People who used magic were called 'Mage Knights'."
AFTER : "People who used magic were called 'Mage Warriors'."

- The misspelling "strengh" in one of the battle dialogues:
BEFORE: "Such strengh! Cyan..."
AFTER : "Such strength! Cyan..."

- Some text was cut out of the discussion at the Returners' Hideout. I put it back in, tweaking Banon's lines a little to correspond to the rest of the game (he talks about "the Magi Wars" whilst there is only one "War of the Magi", as Joshua Ball kindly pointed out):
BEFORE: "TERRA: That could explain Magitek power...
EDGAR: We can only fight Magitek enemies with Magitek weapons...
BANON: It's risky, but if we have Terra...speak with that Esper, it might just wake up..."
AFTER : "TERRA: That could explain Magitek power...
EDGAR: We can only fight Magitek enemies with Magitek weapons...
BANON: Fool! That's how the War of the Magi is said to have started!
EDGAR: Then what do we do?
BANON: We have to communicate with an Esper...
LOCKE: With an Esper!?
BANON: It's risky, but if we have Terra...speak with that Esper, it might just wake up..."

- Some guy in South Figaro should rather say "another" instead of "the next:"
BEFORE: "The Empire's been invading one town after the next. | We're not safe here!"
AFTER : "The Empire's been invading one town after another. | We're not safe here!"

- In Shadow's first dream, Clyde asks something, but they put "BARAM" in front of it by mistake:
BEFORE: "BARAM: Such as...?"
AFTER : "CLYDE: Such as...?"

- The logical error in the scene of Cyan's first appearance. The "Commander" is, of course, not a "general," and besides, there already IS a general in the imperial base: Leo!
Thanks to Floor Schoone for pointing that error out to me! :-)
BEFORE: "TROOPER: The general's been defeated! Run!!!"
AFTER : "TROOPER: The commander's been defeated! Run!!!"

- The spelling bug "Katrin" in Mobliz (remember Duane and Katarin?):
BEFORE: "Duane and Katrin are both 16 and in love!"
AFTER : "Duane and Katarin are both 16 and in love!"

- The spelling and logical bugs concerning SIEGFRIED:
BEFORE: "SIGFRIED" (real SIEGFRIED, appears twice late in the game), "ZIEGFRIED"/"SIGFRIED" (fake SIEGFRIED, appears only on the train in Sabin's scenario and is mentioned by Ultros once)
AFTER : "SIEGFRIED" (real SIEGFRIED), "ZIEGFRIED" (fake SIEGFRIED)

- The grammar bug "tap in to" uttered by Edgar in the airship:
BEFORE: "EDGAR: Somehow we need to tap in to the power of those Espers..."
AFTER : "EDGAR: Somehow we need to tap into the power of those Espers..."

- The missing period (full stop) when Leo enters the banquet:
BEFORE: "LEO: I'm General Leo | Nice to meet you."
AFTER : "LEO: I'm General Leo. | Nice to meet you."

- The missing three dots in Celes' Aria (Opera):
BEFORE: "(I'm the darkness)"
AFTER : "(I'm the darkness...)"

- The missing hyphens in some of the dialogues:
BEFORE: "RELM: What a fuddy duddy..."
AFTER : "RELM: What a fuddy-duddy..."
BEFORE: "LOCKE: Say, old timer..."
AFTER : "LOCKE: Say, old-timer..."
BEFORE: "Kefka's 'one shy of a six pack!'"
AFTER : "Kefka's 'one shy of a six-pack!'"

- Two dialogues in Albrook (World of Ruin) which obviously don't make sense. They refer to Edgar and Sabin, but you are most likely to only have Celes when you enter the town for the first time. So I changed them slightly:
BEFORE: You...the sparkle in your eye... You're the spittin' image of a man who came through here recently.
AFTER : You...the sparkle in your eye... You'd better hurry and look for the man who came through here recently!
BEFORE: Oh, sorry. | You look just like a man who was here searching for his friends...
AFTER : Oh, sorry. | Some time ago, there was a man here searching for his friends...

- The missing apostrophe in one of the South Figaro dialogues (World of Ruin):
BEFORE: "Just when we thought the Empire was gone...heeeeeres Kefka!"
AFTER : "Just when we thought the Empire was gone...heeeeere's Kefka!"

- The level up bonuses of the Espers Ifrit and Bismark:
BEFORE: "Strengh+1"/"Strengh+2"
AFTER : "Vigor + 1"/"Vigor + 2"
Now they correspond to the Status screen. I also corrected the descriptions of those Esper bonuses, of course!

- The following monster name is corrected:
BEFORE: "GhostTrain"
AFTER : "PhntmTrain" ('cos it's "Phantom Train" in the dialogue)

- The following monsters' attacks are corrected/optimized:
BEFORE: "Hay Maker", "Zombi Claw", "Wing Saber", "Confuclaw", "Garrote", "Morn Star"
AFTER : "Haymaker", "ZombieClaw", "Wing Sabre", "ConfuClaw", "Garrotte", "Morn.Star"

- The incorrect description of Strago's Lore "LV4 Flare" (to correspond to reality):
BEFORE: "Casts 'Flare' on LV2, 4, 6, ... enemy"
AFTER : "Casts 'Flare' on LV4, 8, 12, ... enm." (Unfortunately, the abbreviation IS necessary...)

- "L", "L.", and "LV", short for "level", are now used consistently: For the monsters, I left "L."; everything else (descriptions, attacks, lores etc.) is now "LV".

- On the menu selection screen, as well as in battles, "Needed" has been decapitalized ("needed").

- On the menu screen, I changed "Gp" into "GP" to correspond to the message when a battle is won.

- The tildes between current and maximum HPs in battles (when the battle gauge is off) are changed to slashes to correspond to the menu screen.

- Additionally, I added missing quotes and stuff and optimized the text formation (the way the text is displayed in the game) at some places.

- Finally, I managed to fix an ugly bug in the menu. In the original, if you enter Strago's "Skills" menu and choose "Espers", then cancel and then choose "Lore", it'll say "Lorers" in the small top right box with the green font. The same goes for Gau (if you choose "Espers" first and then "Rage"), Sabin (if you choose "Espers" first and then "Blitz"), and Mog (if you choose "Espers" first and then "Dance"). Also, if you choose "Magic" instead of "Espers" first, it may happen that the amount of MP shown last remains in the box. To fix this mess, I actually had to move the words themselves to another location in the ROM and change some weird pointers as well. If you encounter any unexpected bugs, such as crashes, glitches or others, please let me know straightway since this bugfix may be the cause.

- Also, the game is changed to version 1.1 of FF3! The patch can be used with either v1.0 or v1.1; that doesn't affect the result. With this change, all graphical glitches on the real SNES should disappear, and any eventual glitches (Relm's Sketch command etc.) are fixed too. Nice, huh?

- Terii Senshi's "Evade Bugfix Patch" has been implemented. Here's what it does (taken from his website at http://www.rpglegion.com/ff6/hack/patches.htm):
"The way the game is supposed to work is that Evade increases your chance of dodging physical attacks, and MBlock increases your chance of dodging magical attacks. Due to a bug, MBlock helps increase the chance to dodge both physical and magical attacks, and Evade has no use. The same bug also disables other features that were meant to be in the game, such as the Blind (=Dark) status and the Beads relic, which due to this bug also have no effect."
Okay, after digesting that, what does this bugfix do? Here we go:
"Evade now helps dodge physical attacks. For physical attacks, if the attacker has Blind status, their hit rate is cut in half. For physical attacks, if the target is equipped with Beads, the attacker's hit rate is cut in half. If the target has Confuse (=Muddle), Blind, Zombie, Life 3, or Slow status, the attacker's hit rate is increased by 25%. If the target has Seizure, Weak (whatever this means, probably low HP), Poison, or Haste status, the attacker's hit rate is reduced by 25%."

- Terii Senshi's "Psycho Cyan Glitch Fix Patch" has been implemented. It does the following (taken from his website at http://www.rpglegion.com/ff6/hack/patches.htm):
"If you don't know what the Psycho Cyan glitch is, here's how it works. Have Cyan use Retort. Kill off Cyan, and then revive him. Turn Cyan into an Imp (you can turn Cyan into an Imp before you kill him, too). Now the next time anyone attacks (including Cyan), Cyan will keep attacking all the enemies until they're dead.
"This bug is actually two bugs in one. The first bug is that after Cyan has died in battle and then been revived, he will use Retort against any attacks, not just attacks that hit him. He'll even counter with Retort if he himself attacks.
"The second bug is that if Cyan uses Retort and then turns into an Imp and someone hits him, he'll counter with a standard attack instead of Retort. Since he didn't use Retort, his Retort "status" will stay, and every time he's hit with an attack he'll counter by attacking.
"Combine these two bugs and you have Cyan constantly countering his own attack.
"This patch only fixes the first bug, and not the second, but that's good enough to stop the Psycho Cyan Glitch."
Phew! Who'd even thought about that! Thanks, Terii.

- The internal ROM name is changed to "FF3 Bugfix Edition" (as a bonus, basically).


HOW DO I USE AN IPS-PATCH?
==========================

IPS files do not contain the game but the changes someone has made to it. That means you first need to acquire the original US "Final Fantasy III" Super Nintendo game ROM (please consider the legal notes at the end of this file).

Once obtained, you should verify the integrity of your ROM using the latest version of NSRT (v3.4 as of August 2007, to be downloaded from http://nsrt.edgeemu.com/). You should get either this result:


---------------------Internal ROM Info----------------------
File: FF3.swc
Name: FINAL FANTASY 3 Company: Square
Header: SWC Bank: HiROM
Interleaved: None SRAM: 64 Kb
Type: Normal + Batt ROM: 24 Mb
Country: USA Video: NTSC
ROM Speed: 120ns (FastROM) Revision: 1.0
Checksum: Good 0x5F32 Game Code: F6
---------------------------Hashes---------------------------
CRC32: A27F1C7A
--------------------------Database--------------------------
Name: Final Fantasy III
Country: USA Revision: 1.0
Port 1: Gamepad Port 2: Gamepad
Genre 1: RPG Genre 2: Turn Based


or this:


---------------------Internal ROM Info----------------------
File: FF3v11.swc
Name: FINAL FANTASY 3 Company: Square
Header: SWC Bank: HiROM
Interleaved: None SRAM: 64 Kb
Type: Normal + Batt ROM: 24 Mb
Country: USA Video: NTSC
ROM Speed: 120ns (FastROM) Revision: 1.1
Checksum: Good 0x8A60 Game Code: F6
---------------------------Hashes---------------------------
CRC32: C0FA0464
--------------------------Database--------------------------
Name: Final Fantasy III
Country: USA Revision: 1.1
Port 1: Gamepad Port 2: Gamepad
Genre 1: RPG Genre 2: Turn Based


... depending on the revision of your game (v1.0 or v1.1). After patching, it will be v1.1 in any case. If you don't get one of the above results (and especially if NSRT doesn't find the game in its database), your ROM is likely to be a bad dump. In that case, try and find another one.

It is *crucially* important that your ROM has a 512-byte-long header (Super WildCard in the above cases) and that it is not in interleaved format. Should your ROM not have a header, you can add an empty one with NSRT or convert it to Super WildCard format using Snestool or inSNESt (any other utility capable of adding a copier header). Should your ROM be interleaved (which is rarely the case nowadays), you must either deinterleave it or grab an uninterleaved one from somewhere else.

Right! Now let's say you've got a good and verified ROM to start with. Next thing you need is a tool capable of applying IPS patches. There are heaps of such tools floating around. I personally prefer using Lunar IPS, made by FuSoYa. It is easy to use and works great. If you haven't got it already, go download it from http://www.romhacking.net/utils/240/ or from FuSoYa's Niche (which, for now, can be reached at http://fusoya.eludevisibility.org/).

Patch your ROM whilst keeping a clean copy of it (just in case anything goes wrong). Or, should you happen to use a mainstream SNES emulator, you might not even need to patch your ROM. Simply renaming the IPS patch to match the ROM filename (e.g. to FF3.IPS if your ROM filename is FF3.SWC) ought to do the trick instead. (Note, however, that some emulators require activation of automatic IPS patching in their option menus.) The advantage of this method is that you don't have to patch a clean ROM whenever I release an update of my patch -- just replace the old IPS file with the new one and you're done.

If you've done everything correctly, the checksum of your Bugfix-patched Final Fantasy III ROM will not be reported as "bad" by NSRT or your emulator, and its CRC32 should be 6344BC5B (checksum: 0xB50C).

Please remember to always use a *fresh* and unpatched ROM whenever there's an update to this patch. Sorry to inform you that I'll ignore all "bug" reports from people using a repatched, prepatched, non-NSRT-verified or in any other way unidentified and thus presumably corrupt ROM file.


CONTACT ME
==========

If you like this patch, please e-mail me! I'm always happy to receive comments, suggestions and other notes. Only with YOUR help can I make the patch still better, and I'm open to any comment!

I really like e-mail. I do NOT, however, like insults, viruses, or queries on where to find ROMs. You'd not be the first person to send me stuff like that! I usually dump these things in the trash, but if I'm in a particularly bad mood, I might forward them to the respective authorities. If you'd like to contact me via ICQ, please send me a message *before* asking for my authorization to put me on your contact list.

------------------------------------------------------------
| My e-mail address : see my website (bottom of page) |
| My ICQ # : 66976723 |
| My website : http://www.manuloewe.de/kayeneng.htm |
------------------------------------------------------------

Feel free to visit my site every now and again. Updates of my patches might appear irregularly. Apart from that, my patches have now been made available from RHDN (http://www.romhacking.net/community/849/) and AEP (http://www.aep-emu.de/), too.


THANK YOUS
==========

- Assassin (http://www14.brinkster.com/assassin17/index.html) for two nice little hacks of his that remove cosmetic flaws in the menu and in battles!
- d4s (http://www.dforce3000.de/) for his brilliant PAL fix! It rocks, dude! ;-D
- Sapiens, Sean, Big Yokeler, Joshua Ball, and many others for useful suggestions!
- Terii Senshi (http://www.rpglegion.com/) for two important bugfixes! :-)
- FuSoYa (http://fusoya.eludevisibility.org/) for Lunar IPS and Lunar Compress as well as a brilliant Enhancement Patch for Secret of Mana!
- Mainzelmann (stefan_k), Cyrus, Shadow (you guys know for what!)
- SinaP for SnesEdit (http://www.snesedit.de/), probably the best utility for ROM editing!
- FF Fanatic for a funny patch
- Kent Hansen (SnowBro) for Hexposure and TileLayer Pro
- ZSKnight, _Demo_, etc. for ZSNES
- Squaresoft for magnificent Role Playing Games
- Nintendo for the SNES and for the Zelda series
- all those I forgot to mention (sorry!)


LEGAL NOTES
===========

This bugfix patch for Final Fantasy III (us) is copyrighted ? 2000-2007 by "ManuLoewe" Manuel Charisius, except for the change from v1.0 to v1.1 which was made and is ? by SquareSoft (and other modifications made by their appropriate authors correctly mentioned in this readme). The patch is not endorsed or licensed by Squaresoft/Square Enix or Nintendo of America. The patch is provided "as is", without any warranty. By using it, you agree to use it completely at your own risk. The author cannot be held responsible for any damage, virus infections or square eyes resulting from the use of this patch.
It is freeware, meaning it may be copied, given away etc. as long as the files listed below remain together. You are not allowed to give away the isolated patch or text file(s). It is illegal to distribute this patch along with or applied onto an FF3 ROM. Moreover, it is not allowed to alter the ZIP archive, the patch itself, or the text files in any way.
Furthermore, it is strictly prohibited to give away this freeware patch for money, goods, or services. Do NOT apply this patch onto an FF3 ROM with the intention to burn it onto an EPROM, build a cartridge and sell it (e.g. on eBay)!

The ZIP archive must contain the following files:

FF3FIX070826.IPS (the patch, updated August 26, 2007)
FF3 BUGFIX DT.TXT (German readme file)
FF3 BUGFIX ENG.TXT (this file)

"Final Fantasy III"(R), "Final Fantasy VI"(R) and all related stuff are registered trademarks of Square Co., Ltd. (nowadays Square Enix Co.). "Nintendo"(R), "Super Nintendo"(TM) etc. are registered trademarks of Nintendo of Japan/America/Europe.
Furthermore, neither the presence or absence of the designation of any registered trademark in any of my texts should be regarded as affecting the legal status of this trademark.

ATTENTION!!! If you do not own the original "Final Fantasy III" game cartridge, then you are (in many countries) not allowed to keep a backup copy or a ROM image of this game. The so-called 24-hour-rule is an invented nonsense without any legal background to support it.

************************* Please note ***************************
QUESTIONS CONCERNING ROMS WILL BE IGNORED !!!
************************* Please note ***************************

--------------------------------------------------------------------
| ? 2000-2007 by ManuLoewe | http://www.manuloewe.de/kayen.htm |
--------------------------------------------------------------------


Final Fantasy III (USA).sfc - NOINTRO
CRC32: A27F1C7A
MD5: E986575B98300F721CE27C180264D890
SHA-1: 4F37E4274AC3B2EA1BEDB08AA149D8FC5BB676E7
SHA-256: 0F51B4FCA41B7FD509E4B8F9D543151F68EFA5E97B08493E4B2A0C06F5D8D5E2