I’m patching and hacking together bugfixes and improvements to enhance Final Fantasy V on the Super Nintendo, and create a launchpad for romhacks based on this game.

This spilled over into a twin project, with most of the interface changes and bugfixes I’ve worked into FFV getting woven into a Clean version of FF5R.

FF5r Clean

These changes are meant to improve and not distract from the vanilla FFV experience, however I’ve rearranged some things that might be noticed by veteran players.

<aside> 🛠

Important Patch! If you have the version of FFV Clean (v1.952) or FF5R Clean (v1.9) that’s archived on Romhacking.net or available on archive.org, there is a graphics glitch! Please apply this patch over those versions to fix it!

FFV Clean v1.952 + FF5R Clean v1.9 FIXER for Krile Freelancer (Jobless).ips

</aside>

Upcoming Changes in FFV Clean

• Spectacular new 1bpp (battle msg & dialogue) font

  

• New “Edition” declarations, based on gameplay tweaks:

  • FFV Super Clean = 3 slots custom for all Jobs (from hatzen)
  • FFV Deep Clean = better Steal + Learning for all Jobs (from Gens)
  • FFV Deeper Clean = Deep + 2x EXP, ABP, Gil (by C-Cliff & clymax)
  • FFV Sharp & Clean = better weapons
    • new damage formulae (from Modoh)
    • more weapon type equips for all Jobs (2 or more new weapons per Job)
  • FFV Super Sharp Deeper Clean = all the above affordances, ultimate cheese version 🧀

• Re-equip logic improved to become “Best” and “Keep”

  • character keeps armor equipped on Job change if 2nd option
  • patch to revert to traditional “Best” and “RmvAll” will also be included

• Import bugfixes and improvements from FF5rC

  • Remedy Mix recipe cures Petrify
  • !Flee is disabled if running is impossible
  • HP numbers turn gold in battle when HP is critical
  • !Dance has greater chance to result in Sword Dance when “Dancer gear” items are worn

• Import enhanced icons from FF5rC

  • Zombie, Darkness
  • medium helmet, heavy helmet
  • Ninja Sword, Knight Sword,

• Import cameo NPCs from FF5rC into FFVC, adjust 2 or 3

Patcher Plans

A website to allow patching FFVJ roms into FF5r Clean is planned. Offering optional patches to create different Editions is the core feature that warrants this approach, versus packaging all the patches into a download; the current landscape of uncertainty surrounding romhack hosting also suggests this strategy.

The open source Rom Patcher JS architecture appears to support this feature. Implementation is underway; no fixed release date exists at this time.

Major Changes in FFV Clean

• Icons
  • Blue magic spells have the 🔷 icon, helping them stand out
    • all weapons that had this now have more appropriate icons
    • Boomerang icon imported from FF4 for 2 weapons
  • all Espers have black, white or time magic designations
  • black icon is much darker
  • drop shadows on weapons & armor icons placed on the right and bottom
  • new Bow icon created
  • improved icons for Float & Blind added
  • a custom item icon (💰 ← w/o the $) was added to call out the monster items used as ingredients for the !Mix command (v1.83)
    • TurtleShell
    • DarkMatter
    • DragonFang
  • the bottle icon that was used only by Drinks in the original game is now used by the 9 healing potions and items that work w !Mix
    • Potion
    • HiPotion
    • PhnxDown
    • Ether
    • Elixir
    • EyeDrop
    • Antidote
    • HolyWater
    • MaidenKiss
• Graphics
  • font improved in menus by removing grey drop shadow
  • battle sprites
    • Krile looks like the other heroes, no more “huge head” art style
    • Bartz fixed in a few poses, given sleeves as a Red Mage
    • Lenna given sleeves as a Mime and Freelancer
  • map sprites
    • all 104 Jobs that weren’t visible on the map are now visible on the map (Cubear’s work) 🤯
    • Freelancer Bartz and Lenna have sleeves and Bartz has pants