Final Fantasy IX: Alternate Fantasy

Original game : Final Fantasy IX

Platform : PSX

Author : Tirlititi

Release date : 21 January 2014

Category : Improvement

Patch version : 3.2

Modifications : P, O

Downloads : 3280

ROM Information

US version :
SLUS_01251
SLUS_01295
SLUS_01296
SLUS_01297

Hack description

Final Fantasy IX: Alternate Fantasy is a mod aiming to increase the difficulty and, above all, to give a new experience of FF9 for those who already know the game well.

Most of modifications are gameplay related but a few of them are also scenaristical. Those are mostly dialog scenes that were deleted by the developers from the final release of the game. You'll find the scenes from the "Hidden Dialogs" patch, but also a few others for which the only remains are the texts.

The main things now:

Abilities, be it the player characters' or the enemies' ones, have been modified.
One of the point of the mod is too enhance the statuses. Some basic spells deal statuses additionally to their damage.
Ragtime Mouses Quizz has been refreshed
The enemies are stronger and more resistant
The most frustrating bug of the game has been corrected: the last Tetra Master rank displays properly
Few weapons can be used by several characters (for instance, Dagger can use the... dagger)
The ultimate weapons give a big boost to main characteristics (Strength, Magic, Speed and Spirit)
Phoenix Pinions now cure Doom; they also cost and sell cheaper
A mini-game has been re-added at the beginning of disc 3.
Excalibur II can now be acquired by two different methods:

1) Reach and beat Hades in less than 14 hours,

2) Get all the treasures of the game (there are 3 little mistakes allowed) to obtain the higher treasure rank. Some particular cases don't count (Stilzkin's sells and Ragtime Mouses's/Ozma/Hades rewards mainly). Kupo Nuts don't count by themselves but all the one-time rewards count (roughly 1 per disc from disc 2). Similarly, Chocographs don't count when you unearth them but the treasure themselves count. Also, Mimics count. In the end, that makes 404 unique treasures to find.
And much more!

Contributions

Contributor	Type of contribution	Description

Reviews

Definitely Hard (in a mostly good way)	magictrufflez	2016-03-26	Version 3.2
I always found FF9 to be really easy, especially the way I tend to play it (i.e. old-school overpowering through most of the game), so I decided to give this a shot since I wanted to replay FF9. Overall, I think the changes are pretty good. The enemy/boss boosts are not brutally overwhelming, but there are very few parts of the game I found to be cake walks (unlike the original). The changes that emphasize the use of status effects were great and generally right on target being difficult without being brutal. And getting Excalibur 2 is realistic now (I got it for my first time ever), which is pretty great! That said, 2 things did stick in my craw big time as kind of cheap additions. The addition of the heat effect to fire spells (of all levels) and the extensive use of doom for enemy attacks (which cannot be immunized) seemed way too rough, especially early on. When (very) early enemies have a chance to instant kill my characters with a fire spell, I call a bit of BS. It goes double for doom-there are way too many bosses (and a few enemies) that can apply the status easily, and phoenix pinions are not readily available until disc 2 (and even then, a bit complicated to come by). One or both of these things will dog you the entire game, so be aware. Still, the hack is high quality, and 99% of the changes made were well done, my rant notwithstanding. Definitely give it a shot if you're playing FF9. NOTE: Don't play this in conjunction with the speedup patch-if you'd like to know why, I left a review explaining the unintended consequences for that patch as well.

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