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Shining Force Alternate

Shining Force Alternate V3.2C

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Found another bug... that man isn't Pelle! :D

So far, so good. Will check back in after I finish Chapter 3.

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Alright, so Chapter 3 done!

Like the portrait redesigns I've seen. Also, holy moly didn't expect the Quarry Scene; you aren't holding back on the details this time, huh?

The team is pretty evenly leveled, and I deliberately died to the Laser Eye to get some extra EXP. Can't wait to kick Hans' ass in Chapter 4.

Although more playing is gonna have to wait; I'd like to get some writing done while today's call volume is super low at work HA!
 
Arright, back on the grind!

Started Chapter 4, here's the next issue;
If you die/egress during Elliot, you spawn INSIDE of the priest. Doesn't softlock ya, but it is a funny sight heh
 
After Ramladu, there's another small thing; 'No go' should be 'Now Go!'

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Erikin84 updated Shining Force Alternate with a new update entry:

V.30B

This version has some fixes to bugs that have been reported since 3.0A's release.
While it should be "mostly safe" to swap from V3.0a to b mid-playthrough, the following should be considered:

Hanzou/Meowth were swapped in join places. It was done so Bleu/Meowth can swap inventories as it made more sense that way in how their gear is comparable.
If you are currently at the beginning of Ch 7 till the tower, you should probably hold off on swapping till you finish the tower.

I'd highly...
Click to expand...

Read the rest of this update entry...
 
Erikin84 updated Shining Force Alternate with a new update entry:

V3.0B

Some bug fixes and other changes based on feedback.
Please read the readme that comes with the ips file for full details.

While it's safe to swap files during your playthrough, the only thing to look out for is swapping between Mishaela's battle and the tower battle. If you are in this pocket of the game, I recommend you hold off on replacing your bin until you go through this section.
Click to expand...

Read the rest of this update entry...
 
In the town where you battle Kane there is this dude hanging out in the basement of Bleu's house. If I walk to the top of the basement I can just see the botom 5th of the sprite. The sprite is in an area that is inaccessible AFAIK. It kinda looks like Kane's sprite. Is it possible to interact with this sprite?
 
Hello all, i just downloaded the newest version, its great so far

Just to check i have not missed anything, is there only 3 fights in chapter 1 now?

Cheers
 
Here is my proper review of Shining Force Alternate 3.1, as I dropped the hack due to personal reasons earlier this year.

As someone who has played 1.0, 2.0 and the minor and major updates, I can say that, hands down, 3.1 feels like an entirely different beast. Just like 2.0 did for 1.0, 3.0/3.1 essentially improves on the past versions in almost every way possible; as I stated in the past on one of the SF Discords, 'It's like they're entirely separate hacks telling an alteration of Maxine's Timeline.


Let me go ahead and get the negatives of 3.0 out of the way, as criticism is important.


The new magic/ability/stats system is overwhelming. That's not to say it's bad or to undermine the wild amount of effort that went into it; it's bloody brilliant. The problem is that, unless I missed it, nowhere in game is this system explained to you at all. You have little to no indicator on what stats affect what and what'll work and what won't until you've either died in battle or gotten a lucky guess. This can be fun, but when you're getting a bunch of spells introduced early and late game, it can be tedious to handle and frustrating at worst when you're trying to remember it all.

Again, I don't think it's a bad system; it's amazing, but that's because I've now fully played through and experienced all of Alternate 3.0; I had time to learn it. Going in though, it overwhelmed me.

The Difficulty Spikes can sometimes be more agitating than they are engaging/fun/proper challenges. With everything at your disposal, you'd think it'd be quite the opposite. I had to actually put Alternate 3.1 down 3 times because it was getting frustrating to the point of tedium; At the Elliot Fight, the Megalodon and at Earnest. Bear in mind, I was at the max training level and had a plethora of items. Despite this, these fights still took multiple tries and I ended up having to SAVE SCUM the Megalodon just to make it move to somewhere SLIGHTLY better so I could actually kill it.

Difficulty isn't a bad thing, but there's always been good and bad difficulty spikes in Alternate. Shockingly enough, despite her previous versions being far harder, Mishaela's fight is one that comes to mind as a fun spike; you've got a bunch of super strong items scattered around the battle field and you're fighting literal clones! Another good spike was the Odd Eye Fight, but that one also bordered on 'almost too hard'.

Then... there's Dark Dragon. When you make a difficulty spike, it's meant to be challenging, but never make challenge for the sake of challenge. That is what the Dark Dragon Fight feels like. Yes, it was a pathetic boss in the original S.F 1, but S.F.A's Dark Dragon is almost ludacris. I think, in terms of balance, it was at its' best in S.F.A 1.0. In terms of scale and design, 3.1 is the best.

There's other little things that some might see as nitpicky, but these are moreso just observations of things that I get why they are the way they are, but again; gettin' the negatives out of the way first:

-Inconsistencies with the various clashing art styles (None of it is bad art, there's just some seriously stand out-like-a-sore-thumb) bits.
-Gold Management is ROUGH. Not impossible or tedious, just rough/tight.
-Randomly in battles I just can't pass certain items/pieces of equipment (even though it's not cursed.)
-Inventory Space can be an issue if you're holding off on those stat-boosting items, even with the extra members.
-Some Force Members fall off HARD. I won't get into specifics just in case of spoilers, but this was also an issue in S.F.A 1.0/2.0/2.1


And now, the Positives!

Holy ****.

Every part of SFA 3.1 oozes charm and polish. And it's far, FAR from the typical Shining Force 1 Hack. If anything, I'd classify it as a different experience from Shining Force in a way, akin Metal Sonic Hyperdrive; it uses the base of what Sonic the Hedgehog 1/2 was and gives you a new experience.

SFA 3.1 takes the S.F 1 Engine and honestly, I think it's pushed it PAST the limit thanks to the technical genius (and many scarified first borns) of Erikin and Xeno. From the completely revamped combat system, down to the smallest things like making the game's story actually be able to work on the god awful scripting system, or even the extreme stuff like entirely new freaking battle maps! (I've done it one time myself, can confirm it's utter hell.)

That's the technical side. On the story side, Erikin has done a fantastic job. Just like 1.0 and 2.1, there's similar beats shared between S.F 1 and S.F.A's old versions, but there is so, so much new here that again, as 2.0 was when it released, 3.1 is its' own hack entirely worth experiencing from start to finish if you're looking for something more than just 'adjusted difficulty/graphics' or 'altered translation'.

And the art, all of it oozes charm. The overhauled tile sets, the sheer amount of new enemy and force member artwork - even Force Member portraits occasionally changing depending on the scene! Not anywhere does it feel like there's 'low effort' art. Maybe low detail art, but how much detail can you give something like the Orb of Light, which is just a white hecken' ball?

The team of artists, friggin chef's kiss to ya.

When I say try Alternate if you're on the market for a major S.F Hack, I mean that with my chest. As someone who's seen S.F.A from where it started to where it is now, the wait was more than worth it, and despite my issues, I had a good time with this hack.

Overall Erikin, I give you and your team a solid 4.4/5.
 
Hello, I was playing and enjoying Shining Force Alternate, and now I seem to be stuck. After I beat the robot at the fortress in chapter 4 I arrived at the port. And now the door to Balbazak will not open, and there seems to be passages underground I cannot enter in the port. Everything else seems to work fine, but I cannot continue to the next battle. Is there a trick to this? Or is it something I'm missing? I am playing the most recent version. Thank you for the help.

(Here is my save, I had to change it from .srm to zip so it would upload. Just change it back to .srm if you want to check and test, it's not compressed)
 

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Produn said:
Hello, I was playing and enjoying Shining Force Alternate, and now I seem to be stuck. After I beat the robot at the fortress in chapter 4 I arrived at the port. And now the door to Balbazak will not open, and there seems to be passages underground I cannot enter in the port. Everything else seems to work fine, but I cannot continue to the next battle. Is there a trick to this? Or is it something I'm missing? I am playing the most recent version. Thank you for the help.

(Here is my save, I had to change it from .srm to zip so it would upload. Just change it back to .srm if you want to check and test, it's not compressed)
Click to expand...
I haven't personally run into that problem. It might be related to your emulator(usual culprit). Reach out to me in discord, and let me know what emulator you're using
 
Hi Erikin. Wery nice mod but i'm stuck in chapter 2 arfter caverns fight. Some female NPC don't pass me to Otrant. May you help me with it ?1706640914667.png
 
Cypuk said:
Hi Erikin. Wery nice mod but i'm stuck in chapter 2 arfter caverns fight. Some female NPC don't pass me to Otrant. May you help me with it ?View attachment 5790
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A workaround has been developed. Message me at my discord and I'll provide you a copy that has this corrected
 
it keeps downloading as a Lunar IPS file for me, which has been a huge issue for trying to run it on Retroarch
 
That's because it is an IPS file. There should be a program available through the play store on android(assuming that's what you're using) that'll allow you to patch a bin file with it. Otherwise, you can join my discord and the pre-patched files are there
 
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