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I created my account to talk about this game and my personal experiences. This is my first ever review of pretty much anything, so bear with me.

FFI is a game that I play many times. While I wouldn't say that it is my favourite, I can say that it's my most replayed Final Fantasy game. And over the course of many years, I've played through many different versions and ROM hacks of the original and GBA versions.

I had a hard time getting myself into this hack because of the recommendations for it. Red Rex and Drew Dragoon's reviews made me stray away from this, but after conquering the bullshit RNG fest of Solo Monk in Mod of Balance, I thought this was the next best step. Thankfully, I can already say that this is a lot better than that.

The class line-up that I chose was Thief, Red Mage, Monk, and White Mage. By the end of the game, I was lvl 83. My luck when it came to item drops and certain rare enemies spawning was the main reason why I was able to beat this game at a much earlier level.

At first, I was caught off-guard by another ROM hack that makes the beginning of the game even harder. That was a problem that I had in Mod of Balance as well, but the beginning was usually somewhat quick, only taking an hour for me. In this mod, it was double that amount, and I had to make liberal use of the Peninsula of Power to level up until lvl 20 to take care of Lich. Everything else perished either because of the buffed sleep, or by using Dia at the right time.

Lich having 5000+ HP was not something I was willing to mess around with, so I made extra sure by getting my characters to lvl 22. That was overkill, as my White Mage was able to evade the crucial Break spell and at that point, the rest of the fight swept through somewhat easily. I class changed at lvl 28, which is usually when I do so in the original Mod of Balance version. That was, at the very least, somewhat consistent.

With the knowledge that I could do whatever the hell I wanted now, I challenged the Earthgift Shrine. I had an easy time until the bosses. The only boss that gave me trouble was the Two-Headed Dragon. He erased my Ninja from existence by dealing like 2500 damage when I had only 300 HP. That attack was so powerful that it got me reeling back in real life.

Marilith, and thusly the Hellfire Chasm, was also not much to speak of. I was around lvl 34 at the time, and I was getting some really good level ups from my characters, so damage and health was never an issue for me, unlike with some of the other reviews are. I can say that I save scummed and farmed for four Angel Rings, because every character in my party can equip them. I'm pretty certain it was never intended to do this, but I did it anyway, and the result was basically me steamrolling through everything until I reached Tiamat.

In the bridge to the boss herself, I encountered a weird glitch. After defeating the dragon, I was farming to fight the Death Machine, or War Mech, because it's a stable in my playthroughs. For some reason, while farming for it, I got into a battle that said I was ambushed by nothing, and I was soft-locked forever. I lost only a few minutes of my time, so it wasn't a big deal, but it was pretty funny to imagine my characters hallucinating an encounter that doesn't exist.

Omega and Shinryu surprisingly got their asses kicked. By this point, I was level 60, and my HP was well over 1000, so most of their attacks were tanked fairly easily. Not only that, but two Inspires and a Haste boosting my Master turned him into One Punch man, dealing 5000 damage every turn. After that, I went to the Chaos Shrine up until before Chaos himself, used the exit spell, and went to the Whisperwind Cove, where I fought the rest of the bosses.

With my brief trips to the caravan to get some health and stat boosting items, my characters were absolutely broken, my White Wizard especially having over 2000 HP. Thanks to a clutch item drop from the especially rare Unicorn in the final area in the game (I am aware of how absurdly rare that is, but I don't care. I got the drop), Chaos was actually doable at my level. It took like 10 Megalixers and my Ninja dropping to the ground like dead weight several times, but Chaos was conquered, and I was able to beat the game.

A bit of a last minute addendum, but the main reason why I didn't talk about certain things is because I mostly breezed past them. Even when Kraken hit me for like 1500 damage, I had prior knowledge of that, and planned accordingly. Most of the playthrough was planning in that magnitude.

My final thoughts? Don't play this game if you are bad at the game. If you have what many call a blatant skill issue, this is not the hack for you. I've spent around 20 hours overall playing this game, and while the majority was in the middle game, the beginning took a lot of planning a strange routing for me to figure out. I also wanted to do my class level up early, the level 11 class change from the original game sticking to me the entire time playing this version.

Every boss battle felt like a war going on, unlike in the original version. Yeah, Garland and Astos got blown back by a simple Sleep spell, but the game doesn't allow me to spam that until it dies. Either that, or my Monk finishes the job before they can wake up. Either way, the Earth cave and Lich himself was by far the hardest part in the game, just like how it always is.

Each armour and weapon being shown their exact stats was a great QoL upgrade, as I usually use the Improved Equipment Stat Viewer mod in my casual playthroughs. Seeing a simpler version is a very nice thing to see in this hack.

I wouldn't say that ultimate equipment is required to beat the game. To the average player? Hell yeah, but the average player would stop playing before Lich most likely. Plus, I wasn't even lvl 99. I definitely could've farmed some plus items with the correct monsters to get even stronger, but I thought that would've been overkill.

If you can beat the FFI challenges like the low level Red Mage or level 16 Chaos fairly consistently, then this hack is the one for you. Otherwise, it's better to stick with the original or Mod of Balance version until you get a better grasp over the game.

The other reviews have already hit on all the points I would like to make. I'm a FF veteran dating back to the late 80s, so I thought I would enjoy this. It is simply too difficult.

I think there is a fine line between making it challenging and forcing alternate strategy, and just bumping up enemy stats so you have to grind. And when I say grind, I mean it puts The 7th Saga to shame. If you want to beat this game, you will grind for hours, and hours, and hours, and hours. There is no strategy to winning, you simply need better stats. I have to say it quickly becomes not fun anymore. It's exhausting.

Some of the new equipment is fun, and it was a good effort, but it misses the point. Time is precious, and spending it grinding is not fun.

This will be my first review on Romhacking.net so it feels great to leave some feedback. I've been playing mods/hacks off here for years and years but never felt the urge to make an account till recently. Anyways, onto my thoughts about FF1 Hard Mode!

I love Final Fantasy 1. I think it's because of how simple the game is combined with the replay-ability in the party selection. I wanted to replay this gem again and was going to choose the PSP version, until I checked here and saw the GBA version had some cool mods.

The party I chose was: Knight, Thief, Red Mage, White Mage

I'm going to briefly go over my adventure, with a list of pros and cons at the bottom for people wanting a short rundown. Skip below if this happens to be you.

This was to make use of most equips in the game including the Excalibur and Masamune. Knight for tanking, Thief for buffing (post job adv), Red Mage for buffing and healing or using items whatever he needed to do and White Mage for healing of course.

The beginning starts out a bit rough, if you decide to spend your money on weapons/spells instead of armor. Getting to level 2 takes a bit of luck, but you should be ok after that point. In the vanilla game I'd usually grind to about level 3 or 4 before taking on Garland. In this mode though I didn't even feel safe around town at those levels. It wasn't until about level 6 or 7 that I went to defeat Garland. This was probably an early warning sign that this mod was a bit too overtuned for difficulty, but I decided to press on and see how Astos felt before making any judgments.

I'm the type of player who tends to over level and grind a lot, to be fully and adequately prepared. In the vanilla game I'd farm up around Elfheim until about level 10 or 11 to be able to afford all the goodies. I think in hard mode I was about level 15 or 16ish until I went in to grab the chests from the Marsh Cave. Overall, this part of the game felt great for my playstyle. Astos wasn't too bad, if you have Healara and Temper going. I should mention that I always felt throughout the majority of the game I never had enough money. This stayed this way until I grinded Red Dragons for Elixirs, which happened to give a good amount of Gil.

My first major gripe with the game came with the Earth Cavern. So many enemies turn you to stone, sometimes before you can even act depending on your agility. I often times either saved before an obvious encounter or spammed the run away command because the enemies simply weren't worth fighting. I farmed in the giant's hallway for a few levels, knowing I'd need the Goliath Tonics later in the game. I think I got around 30 of them. I know you could equip Iron shields to ward off Stone, but in the vanilla game I believe you could buy softs in Elfheim. For some reason they were moved to Crescent Lake along with the Stona spell, so I'd highly recommend dropping by there beforehand. I think I was around level 28-30 for the Lich. Quite a bit of grinding in that hallway. This will become a common theme in this mode.

Ice cavern was pretty easy, I had grown accustomed to the mod at this point. Evil Eye was nerfed, so I didn't bother farming him. Forgot to mention I made a habit early on of checking the bestiary for what enemies drop, so I could save Gil since I was always low on it for most of the game. I farmed an Ashura katana from one of the mobs here as well as a couple Mage Hats. Finally I had the airship! Time to job advance!

The Citadel of Trials wasn't too bad really. There was a nasty encounter in there though with a full screen of (I forget the mob's name) but a bird that could instant death you. Often it felt like RNG if I could run away or just die. Was never worth fighting. There was probably equips that could ward death, but I don't recall having any at that point in the game. IIRC I was around level 35 at job advance.

Fire Cavern is where I did most of my grinding and is also home to my preferred spot, even late game. Fire elementals here drop phoenix downs and unlike earth ones cannot stone you. I found them to be nice exp and easy to kill, especially with icebrand swords. At the end of the dungeon is a spot right before the (ice shield? or ice armor I forget) where you fight one or two fire dragons. Very important since they give 1k Gil each and can drop Elixirs (you will need lots of these) I farmed there until about level 50ish I think. Maralith was easy, imo the easiest of the four fiends.

Next up was the Water Shrine. I forgot how confusing this place was to navigate. I actually forgot one of the ribbons here the first time around and only found it on my second time down. (I died to Kraken the first time, so I decided to go through the Earth bonus Shrine area) One of my biggest gripes with this hard mode is how hard Kraken's Physicals hit. He was hitting my level 55ish Knight, who had optimum equipment for this point in the game for upwards of 1600! Yikes! I had to go grind both levels and Goliath Tonics. I also decided to grab the final white magics and also go through the Mirage Tower and Sky Fortress for better equips. By the time I returned I was about level 70 with the Excalibur and Iga Blade and I powered through him, with a combination of Goliath Tonics, the Pray spell and the Shell spell. IMO he was the hardest fiend by a good margin.

I killed Tiamat pretty much immediately afterwards, around level 75 by the time I got back up to him. Wasn't too bad, he didn't hit as hard as Kraken which I found odd. Did I mention this mod removed the Full-Life spell? Atleast I'm fairly sure it did, because it wasn't in the town Lufenia. That alone makes all these endgame fights really a battle to stay alive, especially when you're getting one shot before you can use your defensive buffs.

I didn't bother trying to fight Warmech. It was around the Water Shrine, when the game really had worn me down and I was trying to just power through to complete it so I could say to myself I did. I wasn't having fun anymore, because fights felt both RNG dependent and super reliant on a very specific equip loadout as well as farming items such as Goliath Tonic and Elixirs. I shudder for anyone trying this with a less than optimal party selection. I honestly doubt it is able to be completed except with only a few party rosters. I'd love to be proven wrong on that one.

Finally, I was ready for the Chaos Shrine. Here I was level 80s, three ribbons, 99 Hi-Potions and Elven Mists, 40ish Phoenix Downs, 60ish Goliath Tonics and around 30 Elixirs. I figured I was over prepared, right? Wrong. Getting to Chaos wasn't too bad. I grabbed the Masamune and made quick work of the Fiends. Well, not quick but I beat them easily. Which, by the way they now drop new gear. I forget them all but it was stuff better than I had on. I didn't want to bother with lengthy boss fights just for a small chance of getting one single equip. I figured you know what I'll buff up, use all I have and mop up Chaos and call it a day. Well... about that...

First of all he regens 3,000 HP per turn. Yeah... He also hits super hard and can dispel you. Did I mention he casts haste and temper on himself? I tried slow on him 3 times but all missed, so I assume he's immune to it. I couldn't afford anymore turns to try. I started off slowly spamming Goliath tonics to get myself to around 2800-3000 HP for everybody. I casted protera when it wore off and shell when I could spare the turn. I finally got everyone buffed up defensively, so I started buffing offensively. I used Inspire, then Haste, then Temper on both my Knight and Ninja. Time to cut him to shreads, oh yeah. Wait, what? 700 damage? 800 damage? what?! Yeah... With my guys level 84, with Excalibur, Masamune and several buffs they couldn't even outdamage his self regen, let alone do enough to kill him. To make things worse he eventually used Dispel followed by Flare and killed two of my party members. (from Max HP around 2800)

At this point I decided to quit and write this review. It is painfully obvious to me this mod is just quite frankly "too hard". I don't consider myself a casual player. I've beaten this game dozens of times, every entry in this franchise and hundreds of other RPGs. I'm 28 years old and I've been playing RPGs since I was around 5.

I think Chaos is balanced around you being level 99 and having ALL of the ultimate gear from the bonus dungeons. There's really no other explanation for my experience, really. I had already grinded for hours upon hours (with turbo mode by the way) and I simply didn't think grinding through all of that was worth my time.

What a shame, sigh...

So, to summarize my thoughts:

Pros

• I loved that equipment had detailed descriptions showing it's att, acc, crit rate, element, bonus stats as well as what additional effect it had. That was great!

• Buffs, debuffs, item effects and gear effects were either mandatory or extremely rewarded.

• I could throw everything I had at bosses and they often went down just when I was about to lose, very satisfying.

Cons

• Way way too grindy. I played with turbo mode and I had to do hours and hours of grinding even on Turbo. The description made it sound like you could grind away the challenge, but you really can't. After the Fire Crystal, the game is masochistic.

• I doubt this game is fully complete-able (as in defeat Chaos and all extra dungeon bosses) with every party. Limits the party selection extremely!!!

• The Caravan sells stat up items, which would be very cool and alleviate the extreme difficulty the endgame super-bosses pose, except... they cost 100k each. Hope you like even more grinding...

• Shouldn't have removed Full-Life spell (unless I missed it?) and Ethers should be purchasable in Gaia or some late game town.

• Gil is a bit too tight overall.

My suggestions to the mod creator:

• Tone down boss/mob stats to the point where excessive grinding isn't required. FF1 isn't a very complex RPG. You can only do so much strategy in equip loadout, proper buff/debuffs and item usage. After that though you just need raw numbers and requiring the player to be max level to beat the storyline boss is absurd. This mindset should have been with the optional final boss in the extra dungeons, not Chaos.

• I'd lower the EXP curve after the opening parts of the game. I felt the level curve was fine up until after Astos. (until around level 15-20) but after this point you should let players level slightly faster.

• Perhaps buff the Gil rewards from mobs that have unusually small amounts, so farming set encounter spots isn't the optimal method. Farming Piscodemons for Magical Robes or Wraiths for Kotetsu swords or whatever.

• Increase item rewards from mobs (since their usage is required to complete your game unlike the vanilla version) but of course I'd change around the mobs that drop extremely good gear or make their odds lower.

My idea of a great hard mode for this game would be something like:

• Buff mob stats around 25-30% from the vanilla game
• Same with bosses, though I'd triple or quadruple their HP

You could also do a ton of mob rebalancing since a lot of them aren't worth fighting and others drop overpowered items or give a lot of EXP/Gil for how hard they are but that would be a ton more effort.

Final thoughts I guess are the mod was overtuned. If you are a hardcore fan who loves grinding to max level and grinding 99 of items from monsters and using absolutely everything the game allows you to barely win then you will enjoy this mod. If you want FF1 but slightly more challenging, this will frustrate you sometime around the Earth Cavern or beyond. As of now, I would suggest playing the Mod of Balance patch by itself, until the author decides to make changes which who knows if that will ever happen.

I never would have even got as far as I did if I hadn't used turbo mode and a mod should never be balanced around the idea the player will be using such a thing.

Despite all the criticism I'm glad this exists. Maybe one day I'll feel like grinding it out or maybe somebody out there enjoys this kind of experience. Just want to say thank you for the work on this project and I hope to see more mods of this great game. (perhaps the PSP version?!)

Cheers and thanks for reading.

• Andrew

Early levels are extremely brutal, where if you don't pack it in at a certain point and head to town to rest you can risk an unavoidable loop of death you can't escape, but I will give credit where credit is due and mention the addition of the Mod of Balance and the A.I this mods adds, especially to goblins at early levels, is useful, exemplifying the importance of spells like sleep at early levels, much reminiscent of classic Dungeons and Dragons Gameplay for the wizard class as the Dark Mage. However, I will admit, the luxury of ether being lost completely fucked me at the point where I was to defeat the Earth Fiend, as there seemed to be an everlasting need for my cleric due to the enemy roster that appeared there, and worst of all, the fucking petrification which I had no preparation for beforehand as I only had one soft, and items became so extremely expensive I could no longer afford to buy in bulk, or at least 5 of the things, (and i've already forgotten whether or not they were even being sold) But what really fucked me was this glitch where YOU'D RANDOM ENCOUNTER FOR EVERY STEP in that dungeon, and it completely drained me, with 3 party members left useless and immobile to the point where I couldn't escape or move forward after having to go through it all again post Vampire to get to the Earth fiend.

So it was a promising Hack, but Bugs and the lack of spellcaster support I could provide, and I think some other times that completely grinded all my progress and preparation to a halt. I will say it DID emphasis the importance of fleeing over fighting much moreso that what occurs in average FF gameplay, and it was good to pick your fights carefully.

You can take on a massive stack of enemies if fully rested and healed, but consider yourself fucked if the spellcasters are low on mana if you ever encounter a certain number of enemies above the current party available, and fuck ressing members at any church except the first, not with those prices, you can kiss my asses priests, that shit goes towards gearing up for the next dungeon, else i'd spend that much more time grinding on the sea because frankly the cash comes and goes opposed to having a some sense of stability, it does add to difficulty but for me it became practically tedious and wasteful and more of an informed choice based on you running roulette with whatever monsters and their formation that show up in encounters in the area to get a good idea of what to pile on before meeting an objective.

Above all, you're going to be gearing a black mage up somewhat more to D&D standards, with utility in mind, because if you don't you'll fuck yourself like I did due to not having a teleport to escape the utter difficulty spike/casual filter in the Earth Shrine to escape the shitty glitched encounters and the fucking petrification happy mobs if you ended up running low.

Just to mention I did have the No escape! notification hack applied in addition to this, but I'm doubtful of it breaking anything given it's nature. As for why I stopped, long story short, I screwed myself back to the Dark Elf King via accidentally loading a save state when I was using the regular save system, I hate that it does that to your game. Also, this issue of extraordinarily high dungeon encounters featured in that place, and the dungeon for the kings crown there also, as if you dare fucking enter a treasure room-

Fuck, now I remember the worst part about this mod- FUCKING WRAITHS. Any more than three mean a TPK, and you can't even run, Sleep then they ice your ass, rinse and repeat until desired player butthurt is achieved, I'd actually prefer the unforgiving early levelling grind to what they put on the plate the moment they began to show up, if you didn't pop a DIA, you're dead.

It's a good mod, but as I said, if shit hits the fan that hard, then God knows what i'd be in for post Lich. Also, the MOB mod is on 3.56 now and the current site's version isn't up to date, so yeah, I'm giving that a go.

But seriously as a Black mage, get goddamned utility spells to help in conventional situations, the best things in mind is crowd control, utility, then damage with spells, if you don't you will not get anything done as a Black mage, and your White Mage is almost D&D cleric tier, so check monsters for reasons to pop Dia on them. Also, the fighters and other classes can learn spells, so give them what they can get, cure goes a long way and saves you wasting spells from the white mage better used offensively or when it's actually needed.

And don't use heals if you can predict the strong possibility of an enemies death before the spell is cast, it's a waste of precious mana.