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Ultimately, yes I'd recommend fans of FF6 to give this hack a playthrough for a fresh approach to a fun game. As of this writing, I have just finished the Magitek Factory in Vector. I am still working my way through the game.

I like the change with Spell Points and being able to purchase the spells you want rather than squatting on an Esper forever to learn a spell.

Making all the stats have use is another great move. Being able to customize character stats through Esper levels is another thing I enjoy.

I don't understand why characters are locked out from Espers. In the readme, it pointed out how much of a grind it is to learn spells in the original game, but that problem is mostly solved through Spell Points. So on one hand, the player is given more options in their build via Esper Levels and buying stat points, but on the other the player is heavily restricted in they can only equip a handful of Espers, thereby limiting what stats they can level up. Why can't I build each character the way I want? The readme stresses there is no 'wrong way' to level a character, but there clearly is. We are prevented from leveling characters the 'wrong way' by not allowing the equipping of certain Espers or basic equipment, based solely on the designers' opinions. Fair point, it's their hack. However, I find the reasoning rings hollow.

So many trash fights are way more frustrating now. Trash fights are...well, trash. Yet I find myself constantly having to heal after every fight. Enemies are faster, so they go first (this may change as I level up more, but this is not a good thing). Nearly all enemies have a death counter, so they get to go last. Many enemies - especially bosses - counter each player turn, giving them way more turns. Many enemies use stronger attacks, and your characters are much weaker. Before you get Espers, you're stuck with the (now) weak levelling. I'm spending so much time trying to recover from fights rather than trying to strategize through them. Maybe it's because I don't know the fights. Well...I'm not supposed to know the fights, otherwise what's the point? I feel like I'm getting punished for things I simply cannot know.

So, so many status debuffs now. I'd love to try out more of these Relics and their stat boosts, but I find myself constantly equipping status immunity relics just to get through trash fights. The new toys may be shiny, but they aren't worth much when I feel I can never use them.

I feel like the game is getting easier as I get further, and I don't think that's a good thing. The game is artificially harder at the start because I'm restricted by lack of tools and options. As I get those tools, I'm becoming much more dominant. Perhaps later bosses will still be challenging, although from what I've seen, it will be because of constant counter attacks and massive amount of status debuffs.

I actually liked most of the writing changes, probably because many of the references were more in my wheelhouse (which might be showing my age lol). If you don't want it, you don't have to use it, so I don't get anyone complaining about it.

This mod is a masterpiece.

The authors had some ambitious goals - make each character unique and useful, fix obvious bugs, make each stat useful, overhaul the leveling system to require less micromanaging while adding depth and nuance, and updating the game's enemies to require a bit more thought than "hold X to win".

They've succeeded wildly on all fronts.

The two biggest criticisms I see of this mod are its changes to the game script and the difficulty.

The first is easily dispensed with. I personally like the changes. I laughed out loud when Cyan and Shadow freaked out at Sabin suplexing a train. But if you're one of the people who doesn't like the changes, which fair enough, there's optional patches you can apply on top of the mod that removes all of the author's changes and inserted references. Anyone complaining about the script changes clearly didn't take 5 seconds to look through the files they got in the zip.

Difficulty. This criticism is more valid but it's nowhere near as bad as some people make out. Though to be fair the mod's earlier iterations definitely were more difficult than they are now. They've eased the difficulty up quite a bit (even though none of the earlier versions were really all that bad in the first place). Feel free to ignore any complaints about difficulty prior to version 2.0.

That all said, the reason the authors don't call this a "difficulty mod" is because difficulty is not the main point of the mod. The idea was basically "if you can just hold X to win, it's too easy". As a result monsters will often use debuffing magic on you, they'll counterattack certain attacks, and they'll buff themselves. In response you'll need to do things like not use attacks they'll counter, apply debuffs to cancel out their buffs, and make sure you're managing your own party's debuffs. It's harder than the base game by a wide margin, but that's really not saying that much. Treat difficulty encounters, especially bosses, as a puzzle to be solved and you'll be fine.

I get the sense that most people complaining about the difficulty just didn't read the ReadMe. For example there's one joker complaining about getting wiped after having Locke attempt to steal from a random enemy in the wild after Narshe, which is hilarious because Locke's section in the ReadMe very clearly tells you that stealing from non-humanoids will give you a bad time. Installing a mod, not reading its documentation, and then complaining about something you were warned about will never not be funny to me.

All in all, this mod is more than worth your time and I can't imagine playing FF6 without it.

FF6 Brave New World is 3 things:

• 1. A hack to rebalance your party so that every member of it is good, viable, mechanically varied, and fun to use. It succeeds at this with flying colors, especially in the cases of Cyan, Gau, and Mog. And the new Esper system is great.
• 2. A hack to rebalance the monsters, to be generally tougher, better balanced, and fit your new altered party. It... has very mixed success here, especially in the World of Balance.
• 3. A new translation. By which I mean localization. A really really dumb and bad one that is worse than the old 90s-censorship and technical-limitation induced Ted Woolsey script.

To go into more detail...

Vanilla Final Fantasy 6 has plenty of well known flaws in the gameplay and balance... and yet, it manages to be one of the most beloved Final Fantasies of them all because of the strength of its story, storytelling, and characters. This hack seems to barely care at all about that though, filling the whole script with hundreds of random references and periodic fourth wall breaks. Yes, we know, Pokemon, Chrono Trigger, I Wanna Be The Guy, Castlevania, My Little Pony, and whatever else are all cool things, but filling Final Fantasy 6 with random references to them just detracts from the experience. Stop having Sabin constantly say "Well dont that just beat all" in every line! On top of this, several major story fights seemed like the designer was just trying to rush the player through as fast as possible, such as Whelk and a few of the WoB Kefka fights. Various other areas have had their unique gimmicks gutted, such as the Magitek Armor segment of Cyan's Soul having the Magitek Armor removed, reducing it to just another dungeon segment.

As for the increased difficulty... well, most of the major late game bosses are pretty great. Ultima Weapon, Magi Master, the 8 Legendary Dragons, Kaiser Dragon, and all the other bosses in the Tower of Kefka, especially Kefka himself, those are all great. As are the random encounters around them. Up until that point, though... it's a mixed bag of good, pointlessly annoying, basically unchanged, and sudden Kaizo game over. Of particular note are the formerly weak enemies between Narshe and Figaro in the WoB (which are now inexplicably some of the most obnoxious and dangerous things for a long while), and... Dadaluma. In vanilla, Dadaluma was a minor boss who had a weirdly elaborate attack pattern that you were unlikely to see more than a tiny fraction of because he had low health. Now... he has about 5X as much health, and periodically gives himself Regen, making the fight just goes on, and on, and on, as he periodically uses moves strong enough to instant kill a character, until you are almost out of Phoenix Downs. Most of the following bosses are nowhere near as long, deadly, or annoying. When he is sort of refought as one of the Guardian's programs in the final dungeon, he is STILL the worst segment of that mini-boss-rush. The World of Balance in general is a chore to play through as often as not, with the better sections tending to be those that are the least changed from vanilla.

I really wish that the changes to the party's balance could be separated out from everything else in this hack. Because, those really are fantastic! They could be used as a component to entire other hacks, with their own takes on rebalancing the enemies, or their own scripts, or their own much more ambitious changes. But as it is... Brave New World's numerous merits struggle under the weight of its many bad decisions.

A lot of positive additions and a very few negative ones make this the best version of the game currently. Improvements to character's class abilities make them each feel useful in some way. Limiting their spells make them not feel overpowered.

The worst part of this version is the random encounters. There were a few battles where the random mobs have a spell that can wipe the team. Which doesn't seem balanced early in the game. Since there is no item or skill to stop random encounters from occurring, so you'd think running away would be super simple, but nope, it's not. I'd like it if there was an option to turn off random encounters in the settings.

The description of the game says that grinding is not necessary. However, I found it essential to grind at two specific times: during the mid-game and end-game stages. It was so much fun figuring out the boss patterns. It made the boss battles way more engaging because I had to switch up items and Espers in preparation. Although I liked most of the changes done to the colosseum, the prizes you could win by fighting weren't anything special. I only fought in there like, two or three times.

There are a couple of things I'd maybe change, but overall, this game is way better than the original. If you're a fan of the 2d Final Fantasy games, I would recommend it.

I'm on the fence. I do recommend the mechanical game-play of this mod. The challenge is increased so that even some of the common monsters feel a little dangerous at first, but you quickly learn to overcome their pattern and it feels rewarding when you find yourself feeling in control of the fights.

I do praise the Mechanical Balance. Its great.

Sadly, its the 'choice translations' that prevent me recommending it. Specifically there are a LOT of 4th wall breaking, meta-shattering, pop-reference quotes that just kill the sense of story and immersion that FF6 is praised for (its the story that people come back to this game for - the mechanics are just good icing).

Examples:

Sabin quoting the finale of "Kill Bill", the tutorial room being self-aware this is a video-game, Red-Bull being an item in game, a boss TELLING YOU OFF for not the right tutorial (i.e.: how to use Blitz) to kill it... you are pulled away from the story with each of these. And all of that happens before the first Ultros fight!

If this Mod team would change this, remove the "waaaaay too obvious references" and swap them for decent (or even adequite) story-telling, I think this would be a great experience.

As is, I'm torn between improved gameplay with immersion breaking jokes VS average game-play with excellent story writing (I'd even take the original vanilla bad translation if I could - heck if the mod could be EXCLUSIVELY a mechanical change without changing the text, I'd even take that).

As is, while I did enjoy the mechanical experience, I think anyone wanting to enjoy the Story of FF6 would be best to stick to a vannilla ROM (or maybe try one of the story improvement Roms). And for those who want to enjoy better mechanics, I'd almost say find another game (e.g.: Paper Mario, Chrono Trigger) as those give the best of both worlds.

I love romhacks that attempt to create 'definitive editions' of older games. These hacks tend to correct bugs, modernize core mechanics, improve translation quality, and make tasteful additions that amplify the spirit of the original rather than changing it. As such FF6:BNW has been on my list for quite awhile.

I picked up BNW after 15 years since my previous FF6 playthrough. After the first few hours of play, my early impression was that it was slightly more "opinionated" and diverged more from the original game than I expected. 60 hours later, my parting impression is that the final result is just tremendous. I wasn't previously a superfan of FF6 but, with the addition of BNW, it has been added to my shortlist of "favorite games of all time."

However, I don't think it's for everyone. Instead of a comprehensive review, I'm just going to list the things in BNW that appealed to me, and the things that rubbed me the wrong way. From there, hopefully you'll be able to better assess whether it's for you or not.

THINGS I LIKED

THE MOST-ADVERTISED CHANGES — The implementation of the most-advertised changes in BNW - the effort to make each character unique, and the new esper mechanics - were a big win for me. A surprising side-effect of the character specialization was that their distinctiveness carried over into how I viewed their role in the story. I didn't feel much impact when Blonde Ultima Cannon Girl struggled alongside Green Haired Ultima Cannon Girl in Vanilla, whereas developing an affinity for each character's unique mechanics helped them stick out plotwise for me in BNW. Pretty amazing!

EQUIPMENT AND RELICS — If you read up on BNW, you'll find many threads about developing different "builds" for each character with the new Esper mechanics. To my delight, I found at least as much specialization with the incredible loadout of equipment that was jammed into game. This lets you situationally compensate for a build's weaknesses through the creative use of equipment and relics or double-down on a build's strengths. The equipment design in BNW is low-key my favorite feature, and I feel like perhaps it is not advertised enough relative to the other changes.

STREAMLINING — A lot of care has been put into effectively streamlining aspects of FF6 that haven't aged well. For example: Instead of searching for Doom Gaze by flying aimlessly for ages, there's automated method of doing so from the airship controls. Some of this streamlining will be controversial to stalwart fans of the original (e.g. removing the Auction House and just letting you buy the goods outright) but I found it refreshing.

SCRIPT CHANGES — I am less qualified to comment in this regard, since it has been so long since I played the original. However, I found that many more things were clear to me in this version; I learned a whole bunch of stuff that flew over my head even during a replay in my mid-twenties. Most of this just comes from the characters stating things with clarity. Some of the cruder humour was a turn-off for me, but I think it will have its share of fans.

RAGE — Many character abilities were tweaked for the better (Lore, Blitz, Swdtech, Tools to name a few) but Gau's new Rage system was by far the highlight for me. Each Rage is very distinct, and I spent at least 10-15 extra hours in BNW than I otherwise would have just trying to find situational uses for how the new Rages work. This benefit is compounded by an inexpensive item that lets you take Gau out of Rage without knocking him out, which means you can feasibly switch Rages in the middle of a battle. And let's not even talk about how cool Gogo+Rage is...

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT — I love how many options were added to creatively top up HP and MP in and between battles. This, combined with the fact that you can't generally find full-restoration points in dungeons, was a surprising touch that I really enjoyed.

UNFORGIVING, BUT NOT DIFFICULT — If you look back through other BNW reviews, you'll find a lot of complaints about it falsely advertising itself as "not a difficulty hack." I personally don't think BNW is particularly difficult; most trash-mob battles have a bunch of surprises, but are easily surmountable using basic abilities and attacks.

BNW is, however, somewhat unforgiving. (This is not the same thing as difficult.) There are many "gimmick" fights that clearly have one or two "intended" ways of beating them baked-in, and you will lose swiftly and violently until you either figure out the gimmick or cleverly work around it. Even more frequently, though, you'll find battles that throw a huge diversity of attacks at you, which can get exhausting. Adjusting your equipment and use of abilities is usually enough to turn the tide on a rematch, though.

BNW actually reminds me a lot of FF13; often times, if you walk into a battle with an unsuitable plan, you will get your ass swiftly handed to you. With a little bit of thought and re-kitting, you can usually smash that same battle on a retry. I personally loved this aspect of FF13, and I similarly appreciated it here. Many more save points have been added so that you don't have to backtrack so far when you take a loss; while I appreciate the gesture, I tend to have bad luck with sram saves, so I just generously used emulator savestates instead.

In the end, I played through 90% of the game putting sprint shoes on everyone, and never using ailment-protection equipment (which I'm certain you're intended to do) and I managed to get through everything without too many retries. That, to me, does not sound like a difficulty hack. If "I will lose sometimes until I learn how a battle works" means "difficulty hack" for you, then yes, it is a difficulty hack.

THINGS THAT I FOUND OCCASIONALLY IRRITATING

Before jumping into these things, I want to emphasize that, on balance, I greatly enjoyed 99% of my experience with BNW. I don't think these things need to be "fixed"; they're just elements of the game that rubbed me the wrong way, and might be worth others knowing before going in.

WAITING TO DO THINGS — BNW essentially changes the battle system to be turn-based. A lot of good stuff has been done to keep things snappy; for example, the battle speed situationally increases during dead-time between "turns." To make the battles more interesting, enemies will tend to have many responses to your actions, including a large variety of counterattacks.

On paper, I love this idea, and most of the time I also loved the execution. However, there were several times where it felt like I was just watching the enemy hit me with 100 things before I could take an action, and this does not feel good. I don't think anyone plays a videogame to watch themselves get hit.

This tended to happen when (a) Enemies had many counterattacks and I hadn't yet figured out how to approach the battle without triggering them (b) enemies had high speed and/or many multi-hit attacks (c) enemies counterattacked with moves that have long animations (I'm looking at all you dudes with Dark counters.)

I feel that the BNW team tried to implement a great battle system that doesn't quite fit perfectly with what FF6 gave them to work with. For example, I imagine a lot of the animations would have been made much shorter if this was the kind of system they were designing from the ground up. However, as-is, there were many times where I had to put the game away because I was weary of the spam. I've seen folks in the Discord discussing how they play 2x enemy speed mods as a "challenge" mode, which implies that maybe this feeling of mine is not a universal thing. But it's how I felt, and I imagine others might feel the same.

A HANDFUL OF BATTLES — There is a teeny handful of battles that I found super irritating. By this, I mean I felt no joy in winning, only grumpiness that I had been subjected to it at all. Some of these were battles that I won on the first try, so it wasn't even necessarily a difficulty thing.

There are two in particular that I'll name here. The Wrexsoul battle has a primary gimmick that I think isn't well-supported by the implementation, and a secondary compensating gimmick that is relatively opaque and not easily achieved even if you know what it is. The biggest irritation I had with this battle, though, was that it was a gimmick-heavy battle at the end of a long dungeon that you cannot warp out of. This, to me, feels uniquely bad, because my only option for retrying with a different party is to lose significant progress.

The "nekkid female goddess" battle in Kefka's Tower was one of those that irritated me despite winning on the first attempt. I appreciate that it's somewhat justified to have a novel challenge in an epic final-dungeon boss, but this particular boss has a trick of turning your party against itself which I think just doesn't execute well. For one thing, the friendly-fire mechanical changes make it much more difficult to actually neutralize your party members when they go rogue; and, secondly, having your own dudes work against you without a clear recovery path is, IMO, just too annoying.

TOO MUCH COOL STUFF — OK, this is one of those compliments veiled as a criticism :) There's so much cool stuff added to BNW that, despite a lengthy final boss gauntlet, I still felt there were so many options and characters that I never got to exercise to their fullest. I really wish the final battle let me deploy all 12 characters more deterministically, for example. But I guess that's what future playthroughs are for!

IN SUMMARY

I think that BNW is an incredible piece of work. If you have any inclination to replay FF6 in this day and age, I think BNW is the best way to go.

If you're just looking to mash 'A' through battles and use big-bang spells in boss fights while enjoying the story, then maybe this is not your cup of tea. For anyone else, I feel like BNW is vastly superior to Vanilla for a "definitive" FF6 experience.

Thank you, dev team, for your effort and artistry on this hack. It was a bright spot in a difficult time for me.

I had Locke (the thief... sorry, "treasure hunter") try to steal from the very first creature I met after leaving Narshe. It then proceeded to hit me with a multi-target wind spell that did over 300 points of damage, killing everyone. That's ludicrous. The creatures you meet in the first zone of the should not have the capacity to beat you into gelatin.

Completely unfair.

If you played FF6 as a kid, chances are you think back fondly on your memories of experiencing the game for the first time. For years after, I wished I could do it all over again – and then I discovered Brave New World.

On the surface, this is the same old game you've loved for years – same faces, same story – but its core has been taken and re-forged anew in the fires of Mt. Doom. Once you have experienced the game this way, it will be hard to look back on vanilla FF6 and say, "you know what, that was a great game," because you won't be able to look back on vanilla FF6 at all.

This hack changes a lot of things, but its core philosophy is to be a total rebalance of the original. Admit it: FF6 is not a difficult game. Even without resorting to any of the myriad ways in which you can abuse its mechanics, you can stumble through it without really needing to think critically at all. The same cannot be said about BNW. In fact, BNW on the surface almost can't be abused, and if you play the game from start to finish without grinding or over-optimizing, its difficulty falls in this magnificent sweet spot that is just right to keep a first-time player engaged and thinking without making them feel like they are without hope.

That said, the player *must* be thinking. You may see reviews for this game criticizing it for its challenge, or rather, for its claim to not be a "difficulty mod". What these reviewers do not seem to appreciate is that BNW isn't a game where you just hit stuff until it dies and top up your HP when it gets low. Challenges in BNW are like one of those little puzzle toys where you have to wiggle all the pieces in the right order to get them to come apart or put them back together. At first glance, they can give you trouble; but once you get the knack for it you can do it with your eyes closed. Enemies in BNW aren't pushovers – they have extensively re-written AI scripts that include counterattacks and responses to stimuli that can be sussed out and worked around. So if you find yourself overwhelmed or eating a lot of unwanted counterattacks, ask yourself: "is there something I could try doing differently to make this easier?" Usually the answer is yes, and once you find that solution, you can move on. You, the player, must gain experience and level up alongside your team.

(If you bristle at the thought of having to think critically during random encounters, I ask you: what is the point of random encounters if they present no challenge to overcome?)

The lengths to which BNW goes to bring you a balanced experience go far beyond AI re-scripting. Equipment, spells and abilities all get some tweaking too, and you'll be pleased to discover that some of the old abilities that never saw much use are now actually useful: Suplex, Sketch, Slots, and Bushido are all universally viable, to name a few. And the worthless abilities are either replaced with something useful or gone entirely (So long, Lv.4 Flare! And Spiraler, say hello to Chakra!)

But BNW's crowning achievement is the way in which it recharacterizes the cast. Everything from the way a character talks (more on the script later...) to the abilities they can use has been tweaked, solidifying a personality and niche for each. Central to this is the new Esper system, wherein each character can only access a subset of the game's Espers, resulting in each character having spell and stat growth options that are specific to their character. Gone are the days of everyone having Cure 3 and Ultima with 90+ Magic, and I say good riddance. Everyone has their own unique toolset, and the act of composing synergistic parties becomes a sort of cathartic art in a similar vein to building an optimal team of Pokémon or a Magic deck.

Compound all of the above with a list of quality-of-life improvements and bugfixes so long I would pass out from lack of sleep before enumerating them all (seriously, look at that Readme – it is a beast, but worth a scan), and you have a finished product that will redefine the way you think about FF6.

Now, let's talk about the script. This has been a bit of a contentious topic in discussions about BNW, and I hope that this portion of the review can help temper your expectations before you dive in.

First up: this isn't Ted Woolsey's FF6. If you come into this expecting to see the script unchanged, I suggest you try to loosen that expectation now. Woolsey's script was a rush job loaded with characterization inconsistencies and questionable localization choices. If you can set nostalgia aside and accept that as an argument worth considering, try to judge BNW's script on its own merits.

Second up: yes, the script has references that break the 4th wall. One doesn't put this much effort into rebuilding something without trying to turn it into something they find fun. I assure you that these moments are in the vast minority, but I can sympathize that if you like a certain level of immersion in your RPGs that this can be a bit jarring. My recommendation is to give it your best go as-is, and see if you can appreciate it the way the mod author intended – but if you find these bits too much to handle, don't just throw the mod out the door, because there is an alternate script patch available in the download that reflavors these references.

Third up: yes, there are instances of foul language. This is part of the recharacterization I discussed earlier; and again, these moments are in the (even vaster) minority. My initial reaction to this was negative when I first played the game, but I've grown to appreciate what this adds to the flavor profile of the experience. Again, if this isn't your cup of tea, or if you intend for your children to experience this game too, there is another alternate script patch available to clean up the language; and, unless I'm mistaken, the two are compatible with one another.

In summary, FF6 - Brave New World is a game that redefines the original in a way that makes it a brand new experience while still remaining familiar. It is challenging without being deliberately cruel, innovative without being contrived, and has its own personality that you can either grow to love or disguise with a paper bag.

[Disclaimer: since writing this review, I went on to teach myself how to write assembly and have since made a few contributions to BNW myself. So if you see my name credited in the list, it\'s not just me shilling for my own work, but rather because I felt compelled to give something back after getting so much out of the mod.]

I played this around February 2022. I've played 3-4 randomizers and hacks of FFVI and have beaten the original many times. This is my favorite one. I feel like it accomplished its goal of being the best version of FFVI that the designers would have intended. Characters have real differences now, so you have very different party setups and strategies to consider. And random encounters in dungeons can now wear you down - no tents to restore yourself at save points! It adds some challenge to the game, but whenever I got stuck the discussion forums got me through the tougher bosses. Great work!

I have loved FF6 since release. I've played through several times over the years, but the game has never felt so fresh as it has with this mod. BNW gives it a level of depth and complexity that was missing in vanilla. It makes all characters viable again, the stats all mean something now, evasion is a real thing, relics provide stats, and for the love of god you can sprint by default!

I could go on, but instead let's talk about the biggest gripe people have with this mod: They say that it is a "difficulty mod" that makes every random encounter a grindy nightmare and boss battles impossible. I nearly didn't install this mod because I heard those complaints and I *hate* grindy games.

Those reviews are correct that the game is more "difficult"; they are wrong that this is a "difficulty mod". That may seem like a contradiction in terms, but hang with me.

Real talk: The vanilla combat is mindless. Nearly every encounter is simply "press A to win". Some particularly hard fights are "Press A to win, but for a long time with some healing too". You spam your best attack forever until the enemy stops moving. Rinse and repeat until the game is done. Because of this, random encounters are boring and tedious and boss fights aren't much better.

In BNW, "press A to win" no longer works. Enemies now have discernable behavior patterns. Some enemies will counter physical attacks, but are completely disabled by magic attacks. Some don't attack at all until they're alone. The patterns vary, but they aren't hard to pick up. After a few encounters in an area, if you're paying attention at all, you'll have it down. Is that more "difficult"? Technically, sure, but we're not talking Dark Souls here. BNW is asking that you pay just the slightest bit of attention to the game you're playing. And here's the thing: It's way more fun this way, because you get to actually make choices that matter.

And the boss fights...They are SO GOOD now (except the Triad fights at the end...they blow. But hey, such is life). For example, let's look at the one I've heard complained about the most: Dadaluma. This guy has the ability to haste himself, regen himself, and then jump in the air to damage you, so he can regen while untargetable! How can you beat that!?

You use an ability that applies sap, which counters regen (Sabin's first blitz can do it, but many other things can too). You slow him to counter the haste. You won't be able to fire both those before he jumps, but he won't regen that much in the air. He's human type, so you use attacks & weapons that are strong against human types. Voila, boss defeated. I did it on the first try and only one character was KO'd (Locke, in a party w/ Celes, Sabin, & Cyan).

The battle was challenging, but not punishing. It took a little forethought, but that's a *good* thing. I've made it this far with zero grinding and have gotten beaten exactly one time. If you find yourself getting thrashed in a fight, then you probably just need to change tactics.

tl;dr: In BNW, "press A to win" no longer works, and so the game is more "difficult" in the sense that it has any challenge whatsoever, but trust me when I say that this is not a "hard mode" mod. If you want to mash the A button brainlessly until the credits roll, then I guess this mod isn't for you. But if you're on the fence, just give it a go. I don't think you'll regret it.

This mod revamps and fixes so many of FF6's core flaws and oversights that it's become the best way to play FF6 by far. Characters all feel unique and their unique commands stay relevant from beginning to end, unlike in vanilla where you forget they exist after you first get Espers.

I've played through this mod twice (once in 1.9 and again in 2.0) and reached just before Kefka's Tower in both, and I can confidently say 2.0 is a significant improvement over 1.9, though it still has a few issues here and there.

First, the positives! The reduced HP Pools of most enemies in the game was a much needed change as battles used to last far too long in 1.9, with normal battles in the Cultist's Tower being unbearably dangerous and long. Now, they're far more manageable and over far more quickly while still posing a threat if you're not careful.

The new addition to how the Weakness/Resist/Null system handles multi-element spells made them far more worthwhile to use than before, as now they're no longer fully negated unless one or both elements in the spell are absorbed. Likewise, Element Blocking equipment are no longer drastically better than armors with higher defense value or passive buff (like Auto-Shell), which was a very much needed tweak to keep Element Blocking Equipment in check while still keeping them useful.

Phys and Magic Evade working correctly is a huge improvement, but not quite as massive of a change as Stamina actually being a functional stat is. Stamina being a very Defensive Stat is great as it gives a better way to resist status effects (the newly added Fail pop-up message for Stamina-based save checks is a huge help in showing Stamina doing its job), and it being used for some abilities is also a huge improvement as even characters like Edgar can heal for a solid amount of HP through stamina-based healing spells, such as the Remedy Spell.

The massive overhaul to Gau's Rages is GREATLY appreciated (especially since he's my favorite character in FF6), as now more than one or two of them are incredibly useful. He does still end up being very Magically-inclined, even with the few tweaks done to give his Physical Rages a boost. A small couple of tweaks I suggest would be perhaps giving him at least one purely Physical Rage, and combining the Magic Club with the Bone Club since it's hard to really justify constantly swapping between his weapons (especially since the only way to get him to change Rages is by KO'ing him, outside of a vaguely alluded to means of (I think?) keeping control of Gau during his Rages mentioned in the readme file). Overall, Gau has been greatly improved from how he was in vanilla FF6, and improved even more in 2.0 as now several of his Rages are much more useful. Not to mention the incredibly important tweaks of letting him Leap outside of the Veldt, and getting him back immediately after battle making filling out his Rage List far less tedious.

Likewise, the improvements to Mog and the new feature to the Moogle Charm make Mog an incredibly potent and versatile Mage-ish character. Beyond that, Mog is by far the easiest character to build, and I feel they do the best job of showcasing the benefits of the new EL system. They can go all-in on the Dance's Magic "spells" and make good use of their access to X-Magic by spending their ELs in to Shoat/Maduin, or go all-in on being a small fluffy little Dragoon with Dragoon Seal + Dragon Helm and dumping all of their ELs into Palidor. Overall, Mog is now fantastic, and I strongly encourage people checking out BNW to give Mog a try at least once (and to get all of their Dances).

Speaking of the EL (Esper Levels), the changes to the Espers are by far the greatest thing in this mod. While some overlap still exists among some characters, no character can truly fully replace another character, which is a huge deal. Even more importantly, the Esper Levels are truly a god-send as you no longer need to stay at lower levels to get the most out of Esper Growths. The mod and included readme also do a fantastic job of explaining how the new Esper-related systems work, and even give you an "Undo" option for your Esper Levels in case you messed up your build or wish to try something new. The changes to the Espers alone is such a fantastic feat that these alone make Brave New World an absolute must-try for FF6 fans.

Setzer's Slots also work correctly! No longer are they determined by vanilla FF6's "RNG"! The changes to his slots were absolutely needed to help him find his place in the party.

There's so many good thing to say about this mod, but most of them are best experienced yourself instead of being told about them.

However, with as many good things in the mod as there are, there are a few things I want to point out, ranging from things that are just nitpicks, small observations, and sorta suggestions.

The included Printme is by far an incredible live-saver for players like me who like to know exactly What The Thing Does to effectively plan out battles and builds and such. However, for as informative as it is, there are also some things left out of it, whether intentionally or simply forgotten to be added (such as the Slim Jim item). One such item, the Multiguard, I found entirely by accident while using the FF6 Editor to see how much HP Atma weapon has (I had gotten stuck fighting that thing for a bit), and it's nowhere to be seen in the Printme. I strongly encourage the dev of this mod (or whoever was in charge of the Printme) to be more thorough with listing items/equipment and what they do. An additional segment of "Where To Get" for Lores and Rages would also be a huge boon for future updates, especially for players who don't have the time to comb through several encounters to find new Rages and Lores. Overall, the included Printme is absolutely fantastic, I hope that, in addition to being more complete in future versions, more gameplay mod devs include similarly detailed files to ensure players know what does what and such.

This one isn't so much of a complaint, but more of a funny detail I noticed: Strago has both Osmose and Raid (Lore spell that drains HP and MP). I'm not sure if this was an oversight, but it's kinda silly to give Strago Osmose when he already has a way to drain MP. I feel that maybe Terra, Celes, or Locke could use Strago's Osmose more.

I feel that most characters not named Sabin don't have enough HP to handle the amount of damage enemies can quickly throw at the party, especially later in the World of Ruin. However that could also just be a result of most of my characters being a tad underlevelled. Perhaps moving some of the HP Growths from later levels to the earlier levels would help alleviate this problem?

One small downside to the new Espers system is that the Life 1 and Remedy Spells are now far more scarce. Remedy being scarce is much less of a problem as Gau and Mog have access to Harvester to perform the same effect, and Remedy Items are really cheap, but Life 1 being as limited as it is pushes you to have one of four (five if you include Edgar with his Defibrillator) characters (Terra, Celes, Locke, and Cyan) in your party at all times just to be able to revive characters with more than 1HP (Not counting Phoenix Tears with how rare they are). Perhaps Life 1 could be tossed onto Golem and/or Zoneseeker to make reviving more accessible?

Edgar seems really underpowered from my experiences with him at later levels, as his tools are hilariously outperformed by Sabin and his Blitzes. Most notably, his Mana Battery Tool feels incredibly weak compared to Sabin's Chakra Blitz. For me, Edgar's Mana Battery restores less than 30MP to one character, while Sabin can restore roughly 50MP to the rest of the party. Edgar being underpowered may be yet another result of him being underlevelled, but I do think his Mana Battery should restore more MP as it's single target. Maybe having his Mana Battery scale with his stamina (at a stronger rate than Sabin's Chakra, since the Battery is single target) would help it greatly in making Edgar stand on par with his brother.

I think spell-teaching equipment is heavily underutilized in this mod (only the Memento Ring teaches a spell), which is kinda sad since this could easily be used to help flesh out characters' spell lists without giving them too many Espers or giving them Espers that would screw a lot with the balancing carefully put into this mod. One example that comes to mind is sticking Fire 3 on Relm's Light Brush so there's reason to have her keep it instead of immediately replacing it with the Monet Brush, and giving her access to a solid attack spell for World of Ruin before you get Bahamut.

This is a small request for future versions, but seeing as there are far more adult jokes in this mod (such as the comment made about the Innkeeper in Vector), I strongly encourage aging up Gau and Relm to at least 18 so these jokes don't become incredibly uncomfortable when they can be directed at these two, who are 13 and 10 years old respectively. (Thankfully the game explicitly has their ages in the script, so you could simply bump up those numbers to 18 and 17 respectively and call it a day).

I also have a couple of suggestions for accessibility purposes in future versions: The more important of the two would be to remove rapidly flashing lights from animations that have them (Bum Rush is the most notable offender) for the sake of people who are epileptic or otherwise have photosensitive related problems. The other suggestion I have is to perhaps slow down Setzer's Slots and/or recolor the Chocobo Icons to Red or Purple. This would really help people who have visual problems with using Setzer's Slots so the Chocobo Icons and the Airship Icons don't blend together.

With so much going for it, it's hard to give this mod anything less than a 9/10. There are still some balancing issues with enemies (most notably Atma Weapon and Ultima Weapon), but it's overall been greatly improved from 1.9. This mod absolutely is a difficulty mod though, as things can get really hard really fast around the Floating Continent and onward (though it can be greatly mitigated through things like Golem). Even still, I absolutely recommend giving Brave New World a try. Now back I go to grinding so I can finish the game and open the Unlockme folder!

Can't say enough positive things about this hack. It's clear a lot of work went into it. If you haven't played FF6 in a really long time like me, and you prefer SNES graphics like me, then this is a very good option.

I'm about to get to the halfway point in the game, so have had espers for quite a while. A few frustrations on my end:

1. I can appreciate that the magic list is very limited for most characters, but what annoys me is how some characters are excluded from accessing very basic spells like Cure 1 completely. I'm in favor of balancing the characters such that only certain characters can access certain spells and some more than others, but I really do think there should be a basic list of magic aka core magic spells that the main cast of 12 characters can learn. That may mean reworking the mid to later tier spells to make them more interesting, but at least give everyone a few key low tier spells. If it means messing with the existing character:magic:esper lists too much, perhaps also being able to learn a core list of spells from equipment could help supplement the experience such that certain characters are not left out completely. This wouldn't help with #2 below re: wasted SP since I assume spells learned from gear wouldn't expend points but at least it's something.

If this game was meant to be a survival RPG, then I can maybe appreciate not doing that, but that's just not how this game is built.

2. I love the EL system but really cannot stand how much SP (formerly Magic Points) is wasted, and I just arrived at Crescent Island in WoB and it's happened already. Part of the game for me was the continuous development of the characters via learning all the spells. At this point, some characters can only access 1 or 2 espers, and they have basically no fun way to develop them further as far as learning abilities are concerned. Perhaps excess SP could be treated like currency such as via an npc that can convert X SP for Y EL... or gold, or w/e ... or a way to make existing spells learned more powerful. Anything would be great. Without continuous development in the vein of the original esper magic learning system, it just doesn't feel as fun to me.

3. I can definitely appreciate the Locke changes BUT while he does have a better spell list than most other characters, even with enhanced steal CD (which is awesome and super inventive) it's very lackluster in areas where there are virtually no humanoids. I like the idea of thieves being able to steal more than just items (health, mana, speed, buffs, "heart" from FFT), so maybe this could be incorporated and then rebalanced somehow.

4. The weapon and relic changes across the board are very smart. However, I have felt let down a few times when certain powerful items (mainly relics) would normally be earned are replaced with something junky. At this point, we've all played this game and know how to get everything. That's part of the fun for some people, myself included. It's just such a boner killer when you get a low tier consumable item instead of a powerful relic. Replacing those with gold is not a good substitute imo either. Maybe take the idea of learning core spells from #2 above and replacing those otherwise powerful relics with items that can teach basic spells would be a decent consolation prize.

I had this downloaded and meant to play it for the last year but... yeah, just never got to it. I had played on a prior version (1.9 I believe) and got about half-way through with little hiccup (Ultima Weapon on the Floating Continent was a small eye-opener).

I've beat FFIII so many times growing up, and over the years, that it is honestly boring to play. Encounters do not require much more than "Oh, that is it's weakness? Okay, spam that spell", because if it isn't magic, it is not worth doing.

So... to start:

• I don't get the issue other reviews have about enemies having "too much power". They have counters, yes. But you have ways to NOT trigger them. Mandrakes around Jidoor keep countering with Raid? Don't use physical attacks! AuraBolt (Sabin), Ice (Celes), Bio Blaster (Edgar), multiple Rages (Gau), Scrolls (Shadow). All those methods will NOT trigger Raid. Or just hit it hard enough to one-shot it (Shadow's Shuriken, single-target, will do the job). Just mashing Attack will NOT solve random encounters. Use your kit, learn what works and doesn't.

• The only time I grinded "slightly" was for money, never experience. The money is specifically cause I want the best of everything.

• Read what equipment and items do! This cannot be stressed enough. Got something that does 2x Damage vs Humans? Good idea to bring to Zozo where ALL enemies are Human. Dark/Poison damage is in the same boat, for the same targets.

• Status effects MATTER! This cannot be overstated, especially in boss encounters. Every boss can be Sapped and Slowed, and you have multiple ways to set both. Use them! Sap ticks for over 200 damage as early as Ultros on the Lete River. It is free damage, use it!

• DEFEND! The command exists, it only uses up half your ATB bar, and if you know an attack is coming (say: Dadaluma's Jump), just defend so it doesn't one-shot someone!

So much of what people have left reviews as negatives, are things they could literally compensate for, and things that are covered in the Beginner's School in Narshe (if not the Advanced School in Jidoor).

• Learn to counter-buff. Boss uses Regen? Re-apply Sap to remove it and get downwards ticking health again. Once you have Dispel, you are going to never want to go into a boss fight without it, if you can avoid it. It is that useful.
• Learn enemy behaviours. Some don't like physical attacks (and will counter all the time), others don't like "magical" (be it Magic, non-Physical specials, etc). Some only counter if they don't instantly die. Others always have an on-death effect (Giants in Zozo?). Just be observant, and learn to play around them!
• Boss fights are NOT SHORT! They are health-sponges, not going to lie at all. You will be slogging away for more than 8-10 turns, easy. And their AI scripts evolve as the fight progresses, showing a sense of "urgency" as the enemy gets weaker, and starts trying to make the fight harder.
• You never need to grind experience. Some people are in the high teens to low 20s by Zozo? That is insane! I just beat Dadaluma this run with Sabin (15), Edgar (13), Celes (13), and Shadow (14). It was never "threatening". I had 2 KOs (Shadow is built like wet-paper, and Edgar just had a bad one-two combo hit him), that was it.
• The game plays in Wait mode, entirely. Keep the ATB gauges visible, and you will see, the moment you go to pick a command to target, it PAUSES all ATB progress.
• Play with ATB gauges visible. Green = Haste, Red = Stop, White = Normal (unsure on Slow, not been hit by it yet). This was done to remove clutter from the rotating auras for Safe/Shell/Reflect.

Between this run so far, and my prior early WoR run in v1.9, I have yet to see much that isn't acceptably fine.

Is it harder? Yes. Without a doubt. But the base game was dead boring. At least this way, I feel engaged in battle.

Bosses having unique mechanics, with unique solutions? Sign me up! Does it suck that you can't use your expressly chosen party? Maybe, but they will have their time to shine. Everyone does. Edgar and Sabin are far the best two to take to Zozo. Magitek Research Facility though, not as much. You can basically take any two you want, as long as you don't wind up with a Magicite complication (which I think is specifically not possible).

Just save often, pay attention, and it is a fun experience, that actually rewards you for paying attention. It is harder that the original game, but in the RIGHT ways, ways you can counter-play to.

Major complaints:

• Certain enemies can't be beaten without specific characters. The racoons outside South Figaro are weak to fire and counter I think all everything with a ~300 HP heal-all for their side. You need to kill them all in one hit, which is only possible when you first visit with Terra casting Fire.
• Sub-optimal parties are punished in certain areas. When fighting Dadaluma in Zozo, he eventually will give himself haste and regen, then jump (healing HP from regen while in the air) and deal a pretty good amount of damage to the party. I couldn't beat him with Locke, Shadow, Celes, and Edgar all in the high teens and early 20s, he simply healed faster than I could damage him even with Locke and Shadow dual wielding 2x damage vs human weapons, Edgar hitting his poison/dark weakness with Bio Blaster (also needed to kill the minions he summons quickly), and Celes hitting him with slow. I ran out of MP and healing items and had to quit. I'm not grinding up Gau, Sabin, Cyan, and Edgar to level 20 to try again.
• FF6's vanilla early game bores me to death. I wish we could get to the meat and potatoes (magicite, full party) in like 15 minutes, but that's how games like Saga Frontier work so I'm spoiled I guess.
• Given how many counters enemies have, battles consist of everyone defending from the back row while Edgar or Sabin use their zero-MP hit-alls to kill all the enemies before they counter my party to death. I could learn each enemy's weakness, but it's just not worth the effort.
• It's designed to make it as annoying as possible to reach the fun part (magicite rebalaning and full party). I already mentioned Dadaluma, but there are these plant enemies that counter all physical attacks with raid, which absorb between 180 and 360 HP. Grinding and putting up with a maximal-tedium hack to reach the fun stuff that he spent a ton of time rebalancing isn't worth it. I have no idea why they put all that effort into rebalancing Espers, then made it hard for anyone who doesn't replay FF6 multiple times a year to get into his hack. It's like they doesn't want anyone except people who pass their filters to experience their masterpiece.

Good parts:

• It's no longer "hold A to win".
• You can actually lose.
• Difficulty is significantly increased. I think I remember reading that the creators claimed someone beat it with a low level challenge, but if that's their intended demographic they shouldn't lie to people about it. I'm not going to reset every battle until the RNG gods bless me when there are dozens of other hacks I want to play and I have my own hacks to work on.
• Lots of quality of life changes and bugfixes that make things nice.
• Relics are much more balanced.
• Weapons and armor are reasonably balanced. Don't sell weapons, armor, or relics - you'll need them later.
• Consumable items are all very reasonable and all of them are useful.
• Gau is much, much easier to use, and a solid party member.

Caveats:

• While it seems like it's intended for you to do stuff like max out Shadows evasion, this is ultimately pointless as he'll just be killed when a plant uses raid, he barely does any damage anyways, and since his damage is spread out across more attacks he gets countered much more often. Getting countered more often to deal the same amount of damage negates his evasion. Someone who hits harder but less often is less vulnerable to counters.
• Locke is useless except for farming humanoid enemies for low level consumable items to save GP buying them.
• Sabin, Cyan, and Edgar are must-haves for all parties. There's no point in not having them in your party.
• This is a hardtype hack. That's not my thing so BNW won't be a priority for me to finish anytime soon, but if it's yours then go for it.

"not a difficulty hack" my backside. I can't believe the audacity of whoever wrote the description and readme for this to regularly state that while it may be "a bit" harder it is not a "difficulty hack". This is through and through a difficulty hack - whether that was what the intention was or not, that's what you've made. Or, I mean, I guess Dadaluma suddenly giving himself Haste and Regen before he jumps (which, you know, allows him to continue healing in the air) and then falling for 500~600 damage when my highest HP character (Sabin) only has 450? I guess that's not much harder than the original, right? It was fun to rely on Sabin choosing to Pummel Dadaluma so he didn't just get to heal 1000s of HP while I deal with his constantly regenerating adds, seems FINE.

The point at which I truly threw my controller in was at the Opera. I thought "oh okay, this should be simple" but no - for NO REASON that I can POSSIBLY fathom, the script is reversed in the opera (you need to kill the dark rats first, not the gold). These fights already served their exact purpose in the original (forcing you to kill things in a certain order not to waste time), and coupling a change in script with the new ATB system means that by the time I even realized the script was changed I had already wasted too much time to complete the event. What a joke.

Next time you decide you want to make "not a difficulty hack", maybe before you start meddling with enemy scripts you should figure out just how much you've increased the difficulty of the game by fixing some of the persistent bugs. Even just removing Wait and changing how the battle animations work significantly effects how difficult the game is and you made many, many changes on that same level and then added additional attempts to forcing "strategy" or "difficulty" on top of it.

It becomes INCREDIBLY obvious how unfocused and haphazard the balancing in this romhack truly is when you look at the fact that the physical damage calculation is basically absurd in BNW (double dipping from your Attack stat) but a huge % of the enemies (even in the early parts of the game when you have few offensive options!) have very powerful physical counters. I don't know how on Earth you ever released this without realizing it is significantly more difficult than the base game, but I would highly advise you remove any sentence stating this "is not a difficulty hack" unless you'd like reviews of this sort to keep coming in.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/866726957

I have to make something clear and kind of a tl;dr:The hack is actually pretty good but not without its flaws. And if you are a first-timer, wait more than just a "better challenge". Hack is brutal first few hours.

Let me explain why I've decided I am not recommending it. The hack has its own merits as:

• They really made characters customizable. I am just at the beginning of the game and hell, are there options!
• And bugfixes. For me it is the main point of the hack. I want to experience this game without low-quality sprites and soundtrack (GBA version) but also I like fully functioning games. Hence , this reason alone could make this hack really enjoyable for me.

However , one of their main selling point "better challenge for veteran players and newcomers alike" is something I just can't really see, as a first time player. When I first met the enemy that attacks "Magnitude" (Crawler) it was a couple of tries before I got what's the point. And between the save point and enemies there is a quite distance. So I figured it out some enemies have strong abilities if you make them mad and they have weaknesses. Then same thing happened on my way to Vargas. But experience was just a bit annoying yet enjoyable because it was like a game in the game.

Then i got to Vargas and guy is just brutal, for a first-timer at least. There was no way around. I would think for a purist to say:"Yeah when i got to Vargas it was not that hard, especially when you grinded just a bit up to 50 level or so." But if i could beat Crawler after a couple of tries. Of course I would think of Vargas to be only a bit more hard, right? So their "newcomers alike" part is falling apart. It wasn't until I grinded some to "pass"(?) Vargas. And after that I got going with the game.

And that is the misleading part. They could just write "we ramped up the difficulty as hell. Beware if you are a scrub." And I would be fine about it. I admit in their beginner FAQ they say "Considerably harder than vanilla" which is kind of a understatement and they just say "Nope. Level progression follows the exp curve just fine if all the player fights is the randoms they encounter normally." to if game needs grinding which definitely needs in early game, again, for a newcomer; according to my experience.

And there is another flaw: Translation. I know it is a matter of taste but memes and references are implemented poorly. They don't add flavour or anything. They are just bland and ugly. There is vanilla text if you want, I get it but I don't want a poorly translated script, either. So you can interpret that I liked the translation if we don't take references in account.

So to conclude it: Bugfixes are great and as I said it was the main reason I preferred this hack for first playthrough. Even then, bugfixes barely compensate the dubious parts of translation and inconsistent difficulty. But I WOULD still recommend it if it wasn't for their misleading descriptions about game's difficulty.

So I'd played 1.8/1.9 and thought they were the best versions of ff3 I'd ever seen. Then version 2.0 completely removed all of the difficulty and strategy that made me love BNW. I really dislike 2.0, but I cant seem go find v1.9 anywhere at all. If you could make version 1.9 available somewhere I would leave a much more positive review. Sorry but I thoroughly disliked 2.0 and want to play 1.9 so badly again.

The new esper system is great. Limiting each character's spell list and tweaking their stats towards a particular role makes for a little more potential for different strategies. And since esper level-up bonuses are not tied to your character's level, you don't "miss out" on level-up bonuses.

While the script is more or less the same, there are a few small tweaks here and there. The rewrites are somewhat meme-y, and the attempts to merge the SNES and GBA translations leave the tone a bit inconsistent, but there are also plenty of nice embellishments and corrections to be found in the revised script. Some equipment and attacks also been renamed, which I found very useful since a lot of items had similar names.

It's definitely harder than FF6 (for what it's worth, I beat the game with my party in the mid 30s), and not just because there's isn't much room to cheese it. What I initially thought of as a difficulty spike would soon be broken through with a new plan of attack, rather than a whole load of grinding (the main exception in my case being the dream world, so maybe don't go there until near the end). Fortunately, the difficulty is somewhat offset by the new abilities and equipment, which would have been massively overpowered in the original FF6. Learning how and when to use them was actually kind of fun sometimes.

Overall: definitely recommended if you have played through the original game a few times, and are willing to unlearn some habits.

UPDATE: I attempted to play v2.0 to give this hack another chance. Interestingly, despite being insulted by several others for complaining about the difficulty, this update reduces the difficulty. If it wasn't a problem to begin with, then why make several adjustments to the difficulty?

In Narshe, there is a famous building near the front of the town that gives you tips and pointers as to how to play. When I first played through this hack, there was a major red flag said by one of the townspeople: wait and observe the monsters before attacking, otherwise they might really hurt you. This is a red flag because it's essentially demanding out of the player that they might be killed by random mobs due to inaction or due to making a misstep. Damned if you and damned if you don't.

And then it happened: I made it as far as following Banon and crew after beating Ultros and escaping the raft. I went into the following cave and had my party wiped by random mobs when I was at full health and fully equipped. Thought it was my mistake and tried again. This time another set of random mobs killed my party before I could even act (whoever helped design this hack thought that mobs inflicting mass muddle was a great plan). This happened a third time before I simply put down the controller and found something better to play.

Having read through the long readme (longer readmes are a good thing, I think), I was interested to play around with the significant changes to the characters and espers. Unfortunately, I never made it far enough.

Maybe the reason there is a following for this hack is because of those changes. But I shouldn't be forced to resort to save states to find out. And unless it's suggested as part of the hack, no one should.

There's also a bit of an arrogance to this hack that I find off-putting. In that same Narshe house where the players are given instruction, one of the people states that the designers of the hack removed changing treasure chests based on when they are picked up in the game because they thought it was "stupid". Okay. Ever think there might be people who don't think that's stupid? Are they stupid because they think it's a good idea?

Sadly, I wish I could play through this but I'm not willing to put up with rolling the dice to find out. For me, games of chance aren't nearly as fun as games of strategy. Maybe the designers could make an "easy" version for whiners like me.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: I downloaded this hack with the assumption that the included description was honest. "Not a difficulty mod" ... okay. Sounds good.

Except that it was completely untrue.

It's fine if you wanna hack a game. Do whatever you want to it. Make it as hard or as easy as you want. Just don't mislead people who download your hack.

And that's why I can't recommend this. Even if someone created the best hack of all time, if it were misrepresented to people, I wouldn't recommend it. If the author of the hack had just been forthright and said "Hey everyone, this hack's a bit more difficult than the vanilla version.", I probably would've given a "Yes" recommendation instead. After all, I can tell a lot of work went into this. But I can't get over feeling duped and lied to.

As far as the hack itself, let's be clear: not everyone uses save states. Some of us prefer to play a game on real hardware. A lot of people that play and enjoy this hack do so with the use of save states (as is evident from the other reviews and forums that discuss this hack). With save states, this hack might be great. I don't know - I played long enough to realize this WAS a difficulty mod and quit after a couple more hours into it.

So as a warning to everyone who might play this hack thinking it's not difficult - it's not true. It is difficult. Just be prepared.

I had a blast playing this mod. It changes a lot of things to the vanilla game in such a way that you are constantly surprised!

You really need to rethink your strategies for dungeons as this mod is not as easy as the original game. The removal of tents makes the game bit more roguelike. Also, enemies are a lot smarter in the actions they choose. This is especially apparent in the boss battles. Boss battles take a lot longer in this mod because you can't get away with cheap tricks like throwing X-zone, using an Offering and Genjiglove or spamming Ultima. These are real fights for your life and you better prepare and observate. I found myself paying a lot of attention to buffs and defense. Things I could normally ignore in the vanilla game because I could get overpowered in no time.

Another notable change is the complete overhaul of the Esper system. Now every character can only learn a certain set of magic. That way, you'll need to think a lot harder which character you want to use for each situation. They also nerfed the stronger characters from the original game. So, you'll have to figure out again who's the most powerful character. (Hint: it's definitely not Sabin anymore).

Defeating Kefka took me about 1 hour. It was one of the most satisfying game experiences in my life. Fighting on the brink of death, constantly observing and adjusting my tactics. While experiencing a fair challenge and no cheap tactics by Kefka. In the end being victorious gave a great feeling. This mod has more challenge than the original game, but it never felt like it was unfair. Rethinking my tactics always worked to pass a difficult moment in the game. This is why JRPGs are so much fun. It's a shame not much games can reach this level of balance. But Brave New World definitely does, and that's a great compliment to all the people involved creating this mod!

Do you like Final Fantasy VI and want to re-experience this gem again? This mod comes highly recommended!

While not without its flaws, Brave New World is a remarkable enhancement to Final Fantasy III (VI). The years of work put into it clearly show - in many ways it has been transformed into its own game. While the storyline is more or less intact, and the additions are not unlike those of a Square remake, you'll need to forget much of what you know about the gameplay. The Esper system is revamped to the point of being unrecognizable, monster abilities have been streamlined, equipment is more about conscious choices than incremental upgrades, consumables have been made more useful, and abilities have been revamped heavily. Only basic magic is more or less untouched, and even spells have become character-specific.

While overall this is a very positive review, I need to first address the elephant in the room: Difficulty. This is going to be a thorn in many players' sides...at some point most players find that the difficulty spikes and never really comes down from there. It seems to vary by version, but for 1.9.0 it's the Dullahan fight and everything after. Yes, Atmaweapon is a ridiculously overpowered gatekeeper blocking the second act, but starting with Dullahan, everything gets ridiculously difficult and stays that way. Most random encounters can two shot your party even if you aren't careless - many bosses can one shot your party. Going after the legendary dragons as you cross them? Think again - the wind dragon is likely to one-shot everyone with Aero since you probably can't afford that Crystal gear yet, and it's by far the easiest of the 8.

While each one is designed to be more difficult than the area boss, fully capable of one-shotting most of your party should you stumble into them and even having 1-3 invisible "full heals" in their script (giving most 100k-200k effective HP), they're optional...but that doesn't mean the area bosses are much less ridiculous. While most normal bosses don't go beyond 65535 HP, their tactics have changed...and so must yours. Problem is, it's very likely that the party that got you to said boss just can't surpass it, with party members' HP being the common barrier. Defense piercing abilities are abused to the point of being internally cliche, placing a hard limit on who can even survive what boss at what level. There is a ton of trial and error required - and it can include massive backtracking to get the characters or buy the gear you didn't know you needed until several failures into your attempt. It can get downright tedious.

Despite the assurances that builds don't matter and that you can succeed with a wide range of configurations, this just is not true in practice. Min maxing has the same effect as it did in the original game, given that stat boosts are exponential in terms of effect. HP has become a required investment stat in this mod since fragility is a huge liability, and yet not everyone has access to HP boosts. Spellcasters are overly specialized with only Terra having access to the three main elements, and this can cause a number of characters to be utter garbage in specific boss fights - a problem not faced in the original. In short, the mod can't keep its promises when it comes to balance...though in its defense, it IS very well balanced as far as "difficult" mods go, but you'll be far more pigeonholed than the printme would lead you to believe. You'll also waste likely hours on most bosses on failed attempts and backtracks, so be warned.

With that out of the way, now I can gush about what I love about this mod most: The script changes. The effort put into said overhaul just oozes out of every line of dialogue. Never have the feelings, motivations, and desires of this enormous cast ever been presented to the player with clarity even coming close to rivaling this mod. I first played this game 24 years ago, and even now I'm just picking up on plot points I missed due to the original compressed script. What's best is that in spite of all this, the rewrite didn't shun the game's roots - you'll still see "son of a submariner" and "run, run, or you'll be well done", as well as a number of Woolsey's other lines that you can't get out of your head. What's added is simply excellent, while not being too serious either...much of the new dialogue made me genuinely laugh, and while there are a number of pop culture references ranging from 1980-2015, these are generally left away from anyone you have to speak to for the story to progress. Overall, A+ job with the script - I have no complaints.

On to the Esper system: In short, it's more streamlined...you still gain stat boosts, but they're per esper level. You can spend them on any esper your character is capable of using, not just the one you have equipped. Same goes for Spell Points - you can hoard up to 30 at a time and spend them as you wish. The only gripes are that you can't unequip an esper, and it's easy to forget equip one in the first place and waste time...but these are so minor.

Monster scripts...in spite of my gripes about difficulty, the monster scripts are sublime. There are a number of custom overhauls making formerly dull bosses interesting, and there's a lot of attention to detail and even humor found if you play through normal and boss battles without cheating. These are easy to miss to the casual player, but hard not to love once you notice how much they've improved over the original.

Finally, there are a number of quality of life improvements that deserve a mention...things like the Reraise/Rerise color change, music in most areas not being disrupted by the battle theme every 5 seconds, the battle system overhaul, and more. There are too many quality of life improvements to count...you'll surely find any number of your little gripes resolved by this mod. Only fans of the original "Active" mode might be put off, though, as the nATB system is essentially an enhanced Wait mode...Active is gone.

Despite my lengthy complaints early on, I would still recommend this mod to anyone...especially those who played the original game when it first came out. You will not be disappointed...though you may be tempted to cheat.

This hack does a very good job at preventing the characters becoming spambots or over-powered jack-of-all-trades. With everyone being able to learn any spell and getting the Magic stat boosted to the maxin the original game, Brave New World prevents this by limiting the equip-able espers every character can equip. Therefore, every character excels at something which not every other character can do well. This is done without giving you just one option for every character - you can build some of them differently. This will also make you think twice how to build the 2 / 3 groups when entering Phoenix Cave / Kefka's Tower.

The first part of the game can be a little difficult if not well prepared, but fortunately, Brave New World does not punish the player for gaining levels before getting the espers. The new mechanic of "Esper Level Ups" gives you enough time to consider when to boost which stat. Talking about levels - the level cap is now 50, rather than 99, which is very welcome for players who don't want to easily stroll through the last dungeon and bosses.

The equipment and balance of the commands have also been improved. In the original game, the Attck/Fight command was almost never a good option for some characters - Edgar, Sabin, Cyan (although only 1 tech for him) were able to spam evade-ignoring, defense-piercing, strong attacks from the back row - without MP cost. This has been tweaked by nerfing and/or replacing many of the techniques. Also, some relics which were virtually never used (Gauntlet, Sniper Eye...) were either dealt with by boosting them, or by implementing the effects into other equipment (like certain weapon categories). A good approach, as I don't know anyone liking throwaway equipment.

Two of the most hated characters in gameplay (Cyan and Umaro) gained needed boosts. Cyan's Bushido bar now charges at a reasonable pace while Umaro became strong enough to justify him being uncontrollable. Strago's Lore, however, was still not stellar, mainly due to high MP cost. However, there has been something done about that in newer versions.

I recommend this hack to anyone who wants to play FF6 while having a new, fresh experience on the battles. It also contains many bugfixes and a nice reward (if you want to play the hack again sometime) after beating the game. But FF6 newbies should better play the original game before trying this hack.

This hack sounds like almost exactly what I'm looking for. Mainly, something that adds more individuality to the characters and depth to the gameplay.

I understand that the hack also includes some light translation changes. I am okay with this if there is some truth to the claim that it is more faithful to the Japanese original in places. I am not a fan of lore-breaking pop culture references or childish dialogue in general, hopefully the hack doesn't add more of it.

One change that I really don't like is the messing around with save points. According to the readme, everybody uses save states now (I don't...) and hates repeating areas (not true either). Anyway, new save points have been added, auto-healing added ala FFX, tents have been removed entirely etc. I am against these kinds of things because with every change made for convenience's sake you are just one step closer to a corridor simulator or towns with only one shop. I prefer more items in shops, more decisions to make, and more tasks for the player to perform.

Anyway I will have to see how it all goes, but would be great if this last change was optional.

While this mod isn't easy in some respects (needing actual STRATEGY rather than holding down A, something I believe oubliette wants), in every other way it is better than the US release I played 100 times in the 90s and early 2000s.

Spells are much more balanced, Vigor builds are much more useful, Stamina makes an enormous appearance (not just for the originally intended status-effect benefits, but also for Regen *which is actually useful now*, seizure/poison damage reduction, and is a primary stat in MANY damage and healing formulas.

Evade and magical block actually work now, gear stats and gear defenses are balanced out (no more Godly characters by the time you hit Kefka, like in the old days at lvl 99 with 9999 hp, 990 sp, everyone equipped with economizers and ultima).

You actually have to play the game.

There are secrets to find out, secret equipment to puzzle on, much better translations, jokes, references..Even tricks you can use to make your game even more interesting (I'm sure people remember letting Shadow die on the Floating Continent...Now, there is an actual benefit to doing it, and not just having 1 side quest less to do).

The monsters are tougher, true, but every single one has a weakness that can be exploited. Every boss has weaknesses, and counters for weakness exploits; all items have a use (no more stocking up on remedies and ignoring antidotes and other "use" items...rods have a huge benefit as well).

Every character has 2-4 different builds based on the new Esper Levels for a more customized gameplay (for physical, stamina, speed, or magic...not including tanky builds).

Honestly, I have played more Brave New World than anything else in the last 6 months. ;) And I'm an avid gamer.

I want to say up front that this is probably my favorite hack of any game ever. Let me explain why.

While this is not meant to be a difficulty hack, this is only because the stats of many of the monsters have not been radically altered from the original. What HAS been altered substantially is their behavior in battle, as well as most of the items, equipment, and game systems within the game. As someone who has bought/played/beaten FF6 many many times over the last 20 years, I can confirm the changes made have all been for the better (with one slight exception).

This is because of the meticulous detail that the creators of this hack went into to balance almost everything about the gameplay. Every character is limited in almost a class-like manner to what espers/spells/equipment they can use, which gives each character a pretty unique role in battle, unlike the original and many other difficulty hacks where everyone becomes ultima-chain casters by endgame.

Literally everything has been changed in some way, even the script. As a massive fan of the old FF6 script, I was skeptical at first, but many of the changes made (at least in the "clean" version) were well done and did nothing to negatively affect the overall plot. I personally found the references and jokes extremely well done, and there's a lot of homage in it to other RPG's, tastefully done.

All in all, this is the most complete hack of a game I've ever played, and the most enjoyable. The difficulty has been balanced at almost every possible point, and the very best parts of the original game are still very intact. Yes, some parts may be more difficult than the original, but that's only because of this hack's emphasis on using all your options rather than just bulldozing through.

I cannot recommend this hack enough, to new and older players of FF6 alike-an amazing take on an old classic.

Final Fantasy VI resonates with me in a way that no game ever has. When I first played it, I logged over 90 hours without beating the game because I didn't want it to end.

With hindsight, we can examine the game and lament every flaw, but the fact is that when it came out it was undeniably groundbreaking. The characters, the story and especially the gameplay all set a new standard for what gamers could expect from RPGs in the future.

However, like I stated above, there were flaws. Some were fairly serious and game-breaking. But those have been patched numerous times and can be found in several hacks. What would make a hack for Final Fantasy VI special is if it remedied its two biggest flaws: balancing stronger diversity in the characters and making the game more challenging for veterans without alienating new players. Unfortunately, that latter half is where I feel this hack completely drops the ball.

Like most veteran Final Fantasy players, I want more difficulty. But that doesn't mean that I want to engage in random battles as often as the original version yet hope to survive each time. It struck me as disingenuous when I read the description for the submission of this hack stating "One thing BNW is not is a difficulty mod." Really? I would not consider putting this hack in front of someone new to FFVI. They would very likely quit before meeting Sabin. The battles happen as often as before but now each one is a struggle if the player doesn't grind. It makes for a slow and tedious play.

As for the character balancing, that has always been an issue with the Final Fantasy series. I mostly liked the changes with this hack in that regard, however, I don't agree with removing the level-up Esper attachments. I actually found it a very intriguing element to the game to promote low-level playing so as to achieve greater statistic results in the end. Many games that attempt to force low-level play do so with punishment; FFVI did so with incentive. I believe tossing that out was a big mistake. However, given the excessive grinding I felt like I was forced to do with this hack, I can see why they might have abandoned it.

Overall, the hack is a worthy attempt, but it stumbles into the same pitfalls as most "difficult" hacks - letting the pendulum swing too far from "easy". There's a balancing act here folks. If this hack of FFVI was released on the SNES in 1994 instead of the original, it wouldn't have done nearly as well. Too many customers would've felt frustrated and bored. If you're going to claim keeping it "accessible to newcomers" then you need to do so. Otherwise just tell everyone it's a tough hack for all the FFVI lovers who wanted something harder.