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I'll admit, a few of the changes aren't that bad, however it's fair to say the balance patch does more harm than good, especially when it comes to alchemy.

Pros: Faster Sniffing - Not a lot of general use, however still a welcomed QoL upgrade in my opinion. Axes Pierce Defence - Adds more reason to use each weapon type, rather than just spears (Even though alchemy to stun + axe was always better in my opinion) Improved Drop rates / Other Misc changes - Balances some of the more annoying elements of SoE, improved drops grant somewhat better drop rates of ingredients and allow for a more renewable supply of healing items rather than being capped to a max of 6 (6 cap is still there but you generally gain them as you consume them)

Faster Alchemy levels - Much quicker to get out of the first few levels where spells are almost worthless. Note: After reading the readme again, the concept is a pro but the execution is a con. Turns out level 9 in the balance patch is equal to level 5 in vanilla, both in terms of spell usage to reach the level, and damage once at it. So it would be a pro if it actually meant spells grow stronger quicker, given:

Cons: Increased Alchemy Costs - Really big negative in my opinion, the amount of ingredient for spells have been increased, some spells will only increase one of the ingredients by 1, which is somewhat balancing, meanwhile others will double the costs for both ingredients. This can result in what was 1:2 cost spells, going to 2:4 cost. Given spells still need to level up to be worthwhile, having a 4 cost item in the list almost kills any worthwhile use of the spell.

Note: This combined with faster spells levels wouldn't be bad, if not for how faster spell levels isn't accurate. If spells cost more, had the same damage output as before per level, but levelled up quicker, then that'd balance the concept of allowing the player to cast fewer spells at the same damage output decreasing overall spell damage you can do. Combined with a lower damage cap however, it's overkill on nerfing alchemy.

Charged Weapon attacks still over shadow alchemy - One of the problems with the original game is that, outside of abusing a certain glitch, charged attacks were always far more damaging and worthwhile to use compared to alchemy. Not only are they not a consumable resource, but they do insane amounts of damage too. I feel that this romhack does nothing to combat the balance between charged attacks and alchemy as, unless you abuse quick casting, alchemy damage is still pretty under shadowed by charged attacks, at-least as far as I've played so far.

In terms of raw time playing the game, it's far quicker to get a tier 3 weapon than a tier 9 alchemy spell. Meanwhile a tier 3 weapon does 2-3x the damage of a tier 9 alchemy spell from the same point in the game. Kind of makes it feel like there's no real reason to invest into alchemy, especially given the increased costs associated with it, meaning it's hard to grind alchemy without also grinding your weapons.

Put simply, the game takes too many measures to try and balance alchemy, making it inefficient in terms of costs to use and frankly too expensive to get it to the point where it's worth using over charged attacks. (Especially when to get enough money to buy the ingredient to rank up the spell, you've already maxed your weapons)

I am 100% on board with basically every change made. Axes have been buffed and Spears, being a ranged weapon, have been nerfed to make doing anything BUT charging and spamming spear attacks from afar up until you get the bazooka less than ideal. The hack in general seems to have a philosophy of wanting to keep you using more of the vanilla systems instead of overhauling it completely: like sniffing being faster and equipment costs going up and drop rates being increased. I love that, and that's exactly what I did.

The changes to alchemy though, is the one change that goes against that idea. Increasing the emphasis on resource management for alchemy spells? Perfect. Nerfing alchemy spells too? Not a good change. It should be one or the other. Keep alchemy powerful, but make it insanely expensive to use. Brave New World (a FFVI balancing hack) does a great job of keeping its OP magic powerful but making it costly to use. Here alchemy doesn't feel like something that you can rely on in a pinch that you might regret using up if you run into an even bigger pinch later on, it just feels like something that's annoying to grind for and is ultimately not worth the hassle.

The hack has some balances and some nice QoL improvement, but spell's costs are WAY TOO HIGH for the damage they're outputting. I was pretty much finishing the game (If wasn't for an error on Omnitopias's Greenhouse - i'll explain later) with only my dog hitting charged attacks and the good and old support spells. I did not need ANY offensive ones, since it needs a lot of griding to level them up, and, even after that, their damage would still very low. So, for me, it became a quest for letting my dog alive while it unleashes his chargeds. Obviously, Verminator fight became a shit nightmare since spells are too expensive and deal no damage at all.

About Omnitopia's Greenhouse crash:

The moment I entedered it with lights off, any interactions that I had (chests or getting the teleport up) brought me to a hardlock. The screen just froze and well, nothing else I could do.

There is a lot here I really enjoy. The change to axes is wonderful for example (adds a bonus against defense), and the reduced weapon grinding. Some bosses have been much better balanced. Dry Ice and Atlas Amulets are sold now. Dog is faster when sniffing. Improved drop chances. But there's just too many unnecessary nerfs.

The spells cap at a level five multiplier, and cost more ingredients, making them less powerful and encouraging more grinding to use them, plus many spells nerfed on top of that. This effectively makes spells less rewarding to use, and gives less of an incentive to raise spell levels. Enemies give less money per kill, and items heal for less, but cost more. Lots of spells have forced single targeting where they didn't have before. Level three weapon ranged attacks massively nerfed. These changes just makes things feel more tedious rather than balanced IMO. Instead of nerfing, I'd suggest keeping things powerful but rewarding, then having a separate hard mode patch for people who like the nerfs.

I think this has potential, but needs more work. Right now it feels a bit like a rush job.