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If you are a hardcore FF1 fan, this is the game for you.

Zz Hard Type is very challenging - enemy formations are bigger, badder, nastier, and many are unrunnable - but the rewards for defeating them are also greater.

Classes are much better balanced than they were in vanilla. The thief/ninja is actually a terrific unit whose damage output scales the way it should. Your thief will have more hits and crits than a fighter, and has access to some very effective mid-game and end-game armor and weapons.

Overall the game is much harder, but you are also given better tools to meet the challenge. The game is well paced and I never felt like I needed to stop and grind. However, I did have to dive into several of the dungeons a few times due to depleted resources.

Very big thanks to Zzonkmiles and anyone else who contributed to this incredible hack.

I was searching for a challenge hack of FF1 and here i found it. I binge play several hacks lately and i think i found a contender for a top rank. Man there are many great FF1 hacks out there, what a great time we live in. ;) At the moment this hack and Grond's FF++ / World of Chaos are my favourites, for different reasons. FF++/WoC was a great new world to experience with great graphics and layouts, this hack focuses more on the gameplay aspect.

I'm still within a playthrough with a party consisting of Knight, Red White and Black Mage. i did this so i could test out and use (almost) every spell. And i'm glad i did, cause every spell now serve its purpose.

Status effects are much more viable, but this also applies to the enemies, which - if you didn't guess - are much stronger now and have a much more potent AI. You will get status fx'ed a lot, and it would be a good idea if you start to use them to your advantage as well. Just as an example i never before really bothered using Mute, Sleep or Dark, why should i if i can just pummel enemies to death or use AOE spells and win easily that way. This doesn't work here so well anymore and that's great cause your strategy and tactics really mean something here. Never before did i take so long to meticulously plan out who's getting which spell. Every decision you make has consequences! Then there's a lot more Spell casting items which embiggen your toolkit a lot and i love that. I didn't yet have to drop such an item, but this moment will come (I'm still in Earth Cave after getting the Rod). A lot of possibilites and decisions here too.

The only thing i am missing yet are some entirely custom areas/dungeons, maybe some late/post-game stuff that offer even more challenges. This would be the icing. But the balancing aspect clearly is the focus of this hack and i wouldn't even miss it too much if there weren't any.

It's quite obvious that a lot of (re-)balancing went into this hack and it shows. For a veteran player it's a blast!

Dungeons and Overworld Map got some treatment and up to this point there wasn't a bad change, for my taste. Sometimes areas got easier to traverse through sometimes the opposite was true but it always felt reasonable.

You could argue that raising almost every price for everything (minus Inns and curative items, softs even got cheaper but you'll soon find out why) could be bad but honestly i don't mind grinding in old RPGs, and even then i felt you didn't need to so much, you level enough just playing through normally. Also there'a a lot more unrunnable fights which give you plenty XP and Gold anyway. Some people may not like that but i think it adds to the challenge. The raised prices let you evaluate each purchase i also found.

Kudos to this effort, maybe i'll edit/update/add to this review once i've finished playing it. P.S.: Play Vanilla first if you didn't, knowledge is power, and you'll need it.

I have been playing the original Final Fantasy since I was in elementary school and I know it like the back of my hand. This hack was a perfect way to make the game a fresh playthrough!

It is indeed challenging and makes you conserve your magic and healing items, manage your inventory, choose spells wisely, and plan many fights out. Many encounters can be fatal due to monsters being FAR stronger and armed with more status attacks. But don't worry, your characters don't feel weak at all. However, if you don't pay attention, you WILL die. Veterans, you can't autopilot this RPG anymore hehe! When I did wipe, it didn't feel unfair or random which is a problem with other hacks.

The rebalancing is ingenious and natural. You'll really appreciate it if you're a fan of this game. Every character job is useful and you'll have to master the particular party combination you start with. Items/treasures are rebalanced, some removed, and new ones are added that feel natural. Most of the equipment feels important and late-game it's a major decision if you must drop something. This type of equipment management is challenging but fun for a long-time veteran like me.

Because of all the fair but brutal difficulties, it brings back the old feeling of "raiding" a dungeon which I haven't had in this game since I was a kid and first played this game. There is uncertainty and satisfaction as you battle against the odds and the unknown. I LOVE THAT FEELING and want to thank the creator for letting me experience it again with this game I love so much.

Like the old days, be sure to stock up on 99 heal potions before every dungeon! And don't use save states for full enjoyment :)

It's obvious that a lot of time and effort was put into this hack. Thus, while I feel bad giving a "No" recommendation, I feel it's necessary. This is a hack that I frustratingly played to the end one time and gave up halfway through during a second attempt. And here's why.

Perhaps it's simply a design preference but I believe that when a hack is performed on a game, if the intent is to maintain the foundational characteristics that made it enjoyable in the first place, then those characteristics shouldn't be tossed aside. Otherwise, you don't have the same game at all. Essentially, the hack becomes a new game rather than a solid update or polishing of an original. I feel that Final Fantasy Zz Hard Type is a new game, and sadly, a worse one.

In Final Fantasy, a huge part of what made it so loved and so popular was its versatility in party arrangements. Players could have 4 Fighters. Or 4 White Mages. Or just 1 White Mage. And yet, every party the player could imagine still resulted in the possibility of winning the game. In this hack, due to the difficulty, there are only certain parties that are even possible to play. That limits the variation that made the game so compelling in the first place. Where's the replay value in forcing the player to adopt the same party every time?

This is a problem that I see in many "hard" adaptations of games. And I really don't like it. It eliminates the replay value and ironically kills off the thing that made the game enjoyable in the first place. I'm all for a game being more difficult. The entire Final Fantasy series is notorious for being too easy; all FF lovers are aware of that. And while I would love a more difficult Final Fantasy, I'm unwilling to sacrifice the versatility in choosing interesting and unconventional parties. It stops being fun when the designer is telling me what I can and can't play yet gives me the tools for so much more.

Having gotten the major design issue out of the way, there are minor issues I have as well. Some items are completely useless (WHITE staff) and some have been removed despite being extremely useful in this setting (HEAL staff). Readme is incorrect in certain places (WALL says it affects whole party, it does not). Oh, and get ready to be petrified all the time. Just about every battle.

If you're looking for a solid Final Fantasy hack, I can easily recommend GFF (Grond's Final Fantasy). It IS a little easy but the design shows a clear attention to balancing and polishing. I would have loved this hack had it paid more attention that balance. Unfortunately, it doesn't, and so I can't recommend this hack.

Just finished this hack and it was very enjoyable.

I liked how it stayed true to the original game and the additional spells/items/enemies/dungeon layouts added a lot of flavour.

It is much more difficult than the original game and since I was used to playing a solo quest, being humbled with a full team was great.

Definitely recommend this hack if you are looking for a fresh playthrough of a classic game.

Thanks to everyone involved.

• Update: Recently finished the newest patch and had a lot of fun. I played an earlier version and couldn't resist testing this out when I got around to it.

I'll make this brief, since there isn't much else to say other than: great job, a very fun hack.

Temple of Fiends Revisited was entertaining. Ultimately, if you haven't played Zz before and love FF1 as much as I do.. what are you waiting for? You won't be disappointed.

Thanks for the fun quest.

An exemplar of game balance. From an RPG mechanics standpoint, this hack is meticulously thoughtful, varied, engaging, and rewarding.

Classes, spells, items - everything is distinct and useful, and the game throws a variety of challenges at you such that you'll need to be resourceful, and use all that's at your disposal. The classes play differently enough that there's great replay value, too.

Here, finally, is a game where nearly every element is both meaningful and interesting. You can't spam through the game with speedup held down, but neither do you drown in a sea of irrelevant details. It takes full advantage of the FF1 framework to hand the player a challenging, exciting, and fun experience, with just the right balance of edge-of-your-seat risks and opportunities for strategy.

Playing the FF series and other RPGs when I was 10 or 11 was incredibly rewarding. Being unfamiliar with the best tactics and clueless about the secret ways of each game's mechanics kept each battle relevant. FF Zz is one of the few games that's brought me back to that wonderful place despite my inability to unlearn strategy; its balance is so robust that I can have the bliss without the ignorance.

And it's FUN, so much fun! Surprises around every corner, thoughtful dungeon redesigns, pleasing treasures, frightening fixed battles, clever turns of phrase.

Download it, play it, love it. It is simply the best.