Final Fantasy IV Advance: Bit Improvement for FF4A

There are a number of bits that were set, but went unused in FF4. I decided to make the unusable bits do something useful. Based on the bits set, the equipment were given the appropriate tweaks. The weapons that were changed are the following: Power Staff, Flame Whip, and Wooden Hammer. I have also provided a patch for the GBA port, even though those hidden bits were removed from that version.

FF4/FF4A - Bit Improvement Hack
Version 1.0a - 12/21/08
Created by Deathlike2
[email protected]
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Why does this patch exist?
--------------------------

There are a number of bits that were set, but went unused in FF4. I decided
to make the unusable bits do something useful. Based on the bits set, the
equipment were given the appropriate tweaks. The weapons that were changed
are the following: Power Staff, Flame Whip, Wooden Hammer
I have also provided a patch for the GBA port, even though those hidden bits
were removed from that version.


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

It won't change anything of significance or magicially unbalance the game.


Changes Made
------------

Power Staff - casts Berserk
You can check that with Reflect/Wall in the original unmodified game.

Flame Whip - casts Fire3/Firaga
A spell multiplier of 4 was set to this weapon, but it had no magic to
accompany it. I suspect it would've resembled FF5's version of the same weapon.

Wooden Hammer - casts Lit-2/Thundara
You can check this with Reflect/Wall in the original unmodified game.
It has a spell multiplier of 4 (matching that of the Flame and Blizzard
Spears.


Patching
--------

There are patches provided for the following...

SNES (unheadered)
SNES (headered)

Note: Both SNES versions should work on all versions of the game.
This includes FF4, FF2US (SNES) 1.0, FF2US (SNES) 1.1, and FF4 Easytype.

GBA (US)
GBA (Euro)

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

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

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

This can be patched against J2e's translation or any translation that
does not move the equipment data around.



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

Subtract 0x200 if using the unheadered SNES ROM.

Relevant data starting areas in the ROM:
0x79398 - Power Staff
0x794B0 - Flame Whip
0x79558 - Wooden Hammer


Credits
-------

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

Dragonsbreathren for helping out when I didn't know any better way back when.

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

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

Paladin wrote a nice handy FF4 doc sheet that made it really easy to reference
against.


Final Fantasy IV Advance (USA, Australia).gba - NOINTRO
CRC32: FEEEBDE4
MD5: C74DD5CC3AB6E5D4AC53B1677E1ABD69
SHA-1: C49BE22EAF999774D5F2983E12ED4AACE2950F36
SHA-256: FDC7A48C4CF22746BF13C9A953D92D92F73E76218D0173495D4692C3D6C91ABD