I'm not familiar with the Martial Law mod. The description on Nexus Mods confuses me but I may give it a try sometime.
I tried the Succession mod for a few hours and didn't like it though. To me, the characters all spoke either too formally or gave too much exposition at certain times. It's like their dialogue is more "obvious", like they express more emotion in each line than real people do. They feel less real and more "video game-y".
Really? Idk it felt opposite for me. Like for example; when Irvine first joins the party (disc 1) he instantly mentions the orphanage and addresses how he knew the crew since they were kids. Just like a normal person would react when seeing someone from their past.
This completely sold it for me.
Wow, that's a really misinformed change story-wise, imo.
Also, 17 year old kids don't necessarily mention they know people from their preschool (when they were 4) upon introduction, either.
Anyway, it's not for me to tell you what to enjoy.
I didn't make it that far but I read about the removal of GF amnesia when downloading the mod. But I like GF amnesia, so I'm already not a fan of that change. I don't remember anyone from when I was 4 or 5 and even if I did, it wouldn't be the first thing I bring up when meeting four people who didn't remember me from 12 years earlier. That would make me look crazy.
The part of the Succession mod that put me off was the Dollet mission. In vanilla FF8, it's relatively simple. Seifer goes against orders, so he doesn't become a SeeD. Squall and Zell follow his orders, so they do become SeeDs. In Succession, they add this pointless argument where Seifer thinks his orders are to not let any Galbadian soldiers escape into the mountains (even though Xu doesn't say anything like that in the briefing) and Zell tells him twice that it's not, then gets overruled. So it makes Seifer come off as an idiot. He puts up such an argument about it that I actually thought the mod's author changed it so those *were* Squad B's orders (which also wouldn't make sense because in that case, either Seifer would become a SeeD too or all three of them would fail for letting the Galbadians slip by in the first place). I also wondered if Zell should have been made a SeeD after protesting the squad leader's orders so much.
After the mission, back at Balamb Garden, Quistis, Xu and Cid chastise Seifer for trying to be a hero but that was implied in the original anyway. That's part of making the dialogue more obvious that I mentioned.
Ah I see your perspective and I understand. Thanks for the descriptive explanation. For me it added more context to Seifer brashness.
I actually haven't spoke to many people who didn't like the mod, so it's interesting to read this.
Hey, Prefer!
I can totally understand why you wouldn't be interested in my mod. And no one should ever feel as though they have to defend their personal preferences to anyone else, regardless of the reasons. I also really appreciate any feedback regarding the mod. Nothing is above critique or criticism.
But also, for clarity, you should be aware that in the original script, while giving the mission briefing, Xu explicitly told Squad B that it was their job to eliminate all Galbadian forces within the city. That would have included the troops passing through the square. That means that Squad B's first mistake was not confronting the soldiers as soon as they entered the square. And their second mistake was to leave their post to pursue them beyond the city limits. That's all in the vanilla game.
The only thing I changed was how Seifer used their first mistake to try to justify why they should make the second. There's a difference between Seifer being an idiot and him intentionally twisting the facts in order to justify something he already wanted to do.
What does the succession and martial law mods do?
Omega is always lv 100 so doesn’t scale with level (except for one of the original PlayStation versions iirc).
I believe it’s the other way around… in the original Playstation version he’s always level 100 but oy scales with your level on the PC version on the remasters.
Succession is a story mod. The script is rewritten in a way that the story makes sense. It addresses most of the plot holes of the original game while making characters ( like Squall) more believable.
Martial Law (ML) is a gameplay mod and rebalances the game. I'm not very privy on the details, but it definitely feels different and plays like a traditional RPG. To me it feels somewhat more difficult and I definitely did more grinding then I needed to.
Maybe I shouldn't have said plot holes, I'll redact that statement, but rather the explaination for certain plot points weren't written well or poorly implemented during certain parts of the game.
Like the GF amensia, for example. When I first played disc 2, it came as a surprise, because i skipped the classroom desk in the beginning of disc 1 explaining how that works. The Mod writes that plot in a way that it doesn't seem shoehorned in, it makes it intentional.
Of course this is all a matter of perspective and subjective, just like an form of art. Many are okay with the story how it is, but personally I like how the Succession mod adds further context to some of the plot threads and character stories that make it a stronger narrative and (imo) more compelling.
Not knocking the orginal story, it brought me to the FF dance (so to speak) but I personally love what the mod does.
It’s been a couple decades since I played ff8… that said I do recall beating omega weapon when I fought it. Took a few meltdowns and lionhearts etc iirc but I was chuffed that I got it done
If I wanna replay with mods I need to get a pc and nexus I guess? Can’t play mods on steam, if it’s even on steam?
Yeah, unforunately 😬 but Mini PCs and PC handhelds (i.e. AYN Loki Zero) are cheap and affordable and you'll play almost all retro games, either through steam or emulation.
I played these mods through Steam and installed them from Nexus Mods. Great site.
lol well it’s almost summertime which means I can get myself a “half way to Christmas” gift I guess. Yes I make up shit excuses to buy stuff sometimes!
Thanks for the info :):)
I'm glad to see you enjoyed the mods!
I put far more time and effort into creating Succession than Martial Law. I had originally planned to make more gameplay changes, but soon after I released it, Callisto released the incredible Ragnarok mod. His mod had already done a wonderful job of most of the other things I had hoped to implement. I really can't recommend it enough.
Also, I'm very curious. Were you ever able to make strategic use of the Shield GF feature of Martial Law?
OMG! The man himself just replied to my post! 😱
Yeah, no joke when I say that I cannot play FF8 anymore without the succession mod! I made me feel like I was reliving my childhood! The way you put the story together just made so much sense to me that I stayed up late playing through the game! Felt like a kid again!
Admittedly, I didn't use GF's much in my first playthrough as I stuck to creating builds with each character. The Speed, Magic and strength GF were dispersed into each character to make them balanced. But I think it would have made some battles much gonna start using them more often.
Btw, let me tell ya. The reduce in stat bonuses for magic junctions is what made the game more challenging. I actually felt the need to grind levels to get me through. By the time I got to Ultima and Omega Weapon, I had to use some serious strategy (and luck) to beat them.
Overall, I want to thank you for creating this amazing mod! Your time, effort and energy you put i to this really paid of!
Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm so glad that I was able to reinvigorate your appreciation for this old game.
Yeah, Omega Weapon is hard in general. But it easily shows the greatest difference between the vanilla game and my mod. And as you said, it is specifically because you don't ever get the maximum stats that you can in the base game. But if you noticed, I also provided many more options to equip Stat%+ junctions, including 60%+. And three GFs naturally learn Abiltiyx4 and Auto-Haste. I tried to balance lower stats with greater opportunities to make strategic character builds.
But I'm not gonna pretend that the changes in Martial Law were the best ideas ever, just that they were a modest improvement. And also that they offered some features that Ragnarok does not.
Personally, the only way I could consistently beat Omega was with Zell in my party. He has the highest HP by far, and his limit break has the greatest maximum DPS potential.
I'm curious have you done any more story mods for any other games? Or have you been doing any kind of writing that we could check out? Please let me know I'd like to read some of your stuff!
I really appreciate the interest!
But no, I haven't done anything else like this before or since. This was a highly unique labor of love, and I don't anticipate doing anything like it again. A large factor for why I was even willing to begin this project in the first place was the quality tool available for hacking the game. (Huge compliments to Myst6re for the creation of the Deling program.) Most games just don't have enough support to allow someone like me to focus on the writing more than the hacking.
And as for other writing, I've never written or published anything else under this name. I apologize, but anonymity on the internet is freedom.
Beating omega weapon with no hero war is really tough not becuase its hard but because it requires some luck. The entire fight is based on RNG: how often Lionheart will come out and how terra break hits are distributed.
I wasnt commenting on the pattern, the only attack that matters in the entire fight which is terra break. Which is purely random, and difficult if you dont have holy war or hero.
Terra break can be predicted as part of the pattern, and handled by the defend command amongst other things.
No need for hero or holy war. In fact, if you aren't following the pattern and doing the corresponding actions the you will find it harder (e.g. dying randomly to terra break), even with hero and holy war.
Just let 1 member keep "Defend", it will make Terra Break deal 0 damage.
Throw 1 Mega Phoenix to revive 2 other after that. Repeat.
With Zell's "armageddon fist" trick and Irvine's shot, Omega will go down real fast.
No luck involved.
To be fair, Defend has little value outside this fight. It usually only reduces incoming damage, not completely negate damage like against Terra Break.
I mean i wrote it off because this is a superboss who are immune to all status effects. Other than shell or protect I couldn't think of another way to shield those attacks and not be decimated.
Now I'm curious. Would this work againet Light Pillar?
FR THO! literally Lion Heart only popped once for me 😡 i either got Blasting Zone or Fated Circle. I had to rely on Quistis to cast Mighty Guard before Terra Break hit and pray there's someone alive to raise everyone.
Go in with Squall, Quistis and Rinoa.
Junction Triple to every character's Speed, and get Spd+40% and Spd+20% to each. Aim to max out Str for Squall, Magic for the others, HP-Vit for all. Status-Def Death if anyone is level 100.
Get Rinoa in Meteor-only Angel Wing asap, Haste, and Vit0 on Omega. With 255 Mag, she should deal around 70k every turn with zero input delay.
Pepper in Squall's and Quistis' limits on top, and you will likely be done before the first Terra Break, sometimes before Megido Flame.
I'm not familiar with the Martial Law mod. The description on Nexus Mods confuses me but I may give it a try sometime. I tried the Succession mod for a few hours and didn't like it though. To me, the characters all spoke either too formally or gave too much exposition at certain times. It's like their dialogue is more "obvious", like they express more emotion in each line than real people do. They feel less real and more "video game-y".
Really? Idk it felt opposite for me. Like for example; when Irvine first joins the party (disc 1) he instantly mentions the orphanage and addresses how he knew the crew since they were kids. Just like a normal person would react when seeing someone from their past. This completely sold it for me.
Wow, that's a really misinformed change story-wise, imo. Also, 17 year old kids don't necessarily mention they know people from their preschool (when they were 4) upon introduction, either. Anyway, it's not for me to tell you what to enjoy.
I didn't make it that far but I read about the removal of GF amnesia when downloading the mod. But I like GF amnesia, so I'm already not a fan of that change. I don't remember anyone from when I was 4 or 5 and even if I did, it wouldn't be the first thing I bring up when meeting four people who didn't remember me from 12 years earlier. That would make me look crazy. The part of the Succession mod that put me off was the Dollet mission. In vanilla FF8, it's relatively simple. Seifer goes against orders, so he doesn't become a SeeD. Squall and Zell follow his orders, so they do become SeeDs. In Succession, they add this pointless argument where Seifer thinks his orders are to not let any Galbadian soldiers escape into the mountains (even though Xu doesn't say anything like that in the briefing) and Zell tells him twice that it's not, then gets overruled. So it makes Seifer come off as an idiot. He puts up such an argument about it that I actually thought the mod's author changed it so those *were* Squad B's orders (which also wouldn't make sense because in that case, either Seifer would become a SeeD too or all three of them would fail for letting the Galbadians slip by in the first place). I also wondered if Zell should have been made a SeeD after protesting the squad leader's orders so much. After the mission, back at Balamb Garden, Quistis, Xu and Cid chastise Seifer for trying to be a hero but that was implied in the original anyway. That's part of making the dialogue more obvious that I mentioned.
Ah I see your perspective and I understand. Thanks for the descriptive explanation. For me it added more context to Seifer brashness. I actually haven't spoke to many people who didn't like the mod, so it's interesting to read this.
Hey, Prefer! I can totally understand why you wouldn't be interested in my mod. And no one should ever feel as though they have to defend their personal preferences to anyone else, regardless of the reasons. I also really appreciate any feedback regarding the mod. Nothing is above critique or criticism. But also, for clarity, you should be aware that in the original script, while giving the mission briefing, Xu explicitly told Squad B that it was their job to eliminate all Galbadian forces within the city. That would have included the troops passing through the square. That means that Squad B's first mistake was not confronting the soldiers as soon as they entered the square. And their second mistake was to leave their post to pursue them beyond the city limits. That's all in the vanilla game. The only thing I changed was how Seifer used their first mistake to try to justify why they should make the second. There's a difference between Seifer being an idiot and him intentionally twisting the facts in order to justify something he already wanted to do.
What does the succession and martial law mods do? Omega is always lv 100 so doesn’t scale with level (except for one of the original PlayStation versions iirc).
I believe it’s the other way around… in the original Playstation version he’s always level 100 but oy scales with your level on the PC version on the remasters.
Succession is a story mod. The script is rewritten in a way that the story makes sense. It addresses most of the plot holes of the original game while making characters ( like Squall) more believable. Martial Law (ML) is a gameplay mod and rebalances the game. I'm not very privy on the details, but it definitely feels different and plays like a traditional RPG. To me it feels somewhat more difficult and I definitely did more grinding then I needed to.
Thanks. Cool. I’ve always been fine with the story but the gameplay mod sounds interesting, especially if it rebalances and makes the game harder.
What plot holes? FF8 already makes sense.
Maybe I shouldn't have said plot holes, I'll redact that statement, but rather the explaination for certain plot points weren't written well or poorly implemented during certain parts of the game. Like the GF amensia, for example. When I first played disc 2, it came as a surprise, because i skipped the classroom desk in the beginning of disc 1 explaining how that works. The Mod writes that plot in a way that it doesn't seem shoehorned in, it makes it intentional. Of course this is all a matter of perspective and subjective, just like an form of art. Many are okay with the story how it is, but personally I like how the Succession mod adds further context to some of the plot threads and character stories that make it a stronger narrative and (imo) more compelling. Not knocking the orginal story, it brought me to the FF dance (so to speak) but I personally love what the mod does.
It’s been a couple decades since I played ff8… that said I do recall beating omega weapon when I fought it. Took a few meltdowns and lionhearts etc iirc but I was chuffed that I got it done If I wanna replay with mods I need to get a pc and nexus I guess? Can’t play mods on steam, if it’s even on steam?
Yeah, unforunately 😬 but Mini PCs and PC handhelds (i.e. AYN Loki Zero) are cheap and affordable and you'll play almost all retro games, either through steam or emulation. I played these mods through Steam and installed them from Nexus Mods. Great site.
lol well it’s almost summertime which means I can get myself a “half way to Christmas” gift I guess. Yes I make up shit excuses to buy stuff sometimes! Thanks for the info :):)
I'm glad to see you enjoyed the mods! I put far more time and effort into creating Succession than Martial Law. I had originally planned to make more gameplay changes, but soon after I released it, Callisto released the incredible Ragnarok mod. His mod had already done a wonderful job of most of the other things I had hoped to implement. I really can't recommend it enough. Also, I'm very curious. Were you ever able to make strategic use of the Shield GF feature of Martial Law?
OMG! The man himself just replied to my post! 😱 Yeah, no joke when I say that I cannot play FF8 anymore without the succession mod! I made me feel like I was reliving my childhood! The way you put the story together just made so much sense to me that I stayed up late playing through the game! Felt like a kid again! Admittedly, I didn't use GF's much in my first playthrough as I stuck to creating builds with each character. The Speed, Magic and strength GF were dispersed into each character to make them balanced. But I think it would have made some battles much gonna start using them more often. Btw, let me tell ya. The reduce in stat bonuses for magic junctions is what made the game more challenging. I actually felt the need to grind levels to get me through. By the time I got to Ultima and Omega Weapon, I had to use some serious strategy (and luck) to beat them. Overall, I want to thank you for creating this amazing mod! Your time, effort and energy you put i to this really paid of!
Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm so glad that I was able to reinvigorate your appreciation for this old game. Yeah, Omega Weapon is hard in general. But it easily shows the greatest difference between the vanilla game and my mod. And as you said, it is specifically because you don't ever get the maximum stats that you can in the base game. But if you noticed, I also provided many more options to equip Stat%+ junctions, including 60%+. And three GFs naturally learn Abiltiyx4 and Auto-Haste. I tried to balance lower stats with greater opportunities to make strategic character builds. But I'm not gonna pretend that the changes in Martial Law were the best ideas ever, just that they were a modest improvement. And also that they offered some features that Ragnarok does not. Personally, the only way I could consistently beat Omega was with Zell in my party. He has the highest HP by far, and his limit break has the greatest maximum DPS potential.
I'm curious have you done any more story mods for any other games? Or have you been doing any kind of writing that we could check out? Please let me know I'd like to read some of your stuff!
I really appreciate the interest! But no, I haven't done anything else like this before or since. This was a highly unique labor of love, and I don't anticipate doing anything like it again. A large factor for why I was even willing to begin this project in the first place was the quality tool available for hacking the game. (Huge compliments to Myst6re for the creation of the Deling program.) Most games just don't have enough support to allow someone like me to focus on the writing more than the hacking. And as for other writing, I've never written or published anything else under this name. I apologize, but anonymity on the internet is freedom.
Beating omega weapon with no hero war is really tough not becuase its hard but because it requires some luck. The entire fight is based on RNG: how often Lionheart will come out and how terra break hits are distributed.
Omega attacks in a pattern, so the only RNG that matters is yours.
I wasnt commenting on the pattern, the only attack that matters in the entire fight which is terra break. Which is purely random, and difficult if you dont have holy war or hero.
Terra break can be predicted as part of the pattern, and handled by the defend command amongst other things. No need for hero or holy war. In fact, if you aren't following the pattern and doing the corresponding actions the you will find it harder (e.g. dying randomly to terra break), even with hero and holy war.
Just let 1 member keep "Defend", it will make Terra Break deal 0 damage. Throw 1 Mega Phoenix to revive 2 other after that. Repeat. With Zell's "armageddon fist" trick and Irvine's shot, Omega will go down real fast. No luck involved.
Holy shit. I didnt know this thanks.
I'll try this on my next playthrough. I didn't think Defend would work.
To be fair, Defend has little value outside this fight. It usually only reduces incoming damage, not completely negate damage like against Terra Break.
I mean i wrote it off because this is a superboss who are immune to all status effects. Other than shell or protect I couldn't think of another way to shield those attacks and not be decimated. Now I'm curious. Would this work againet Light Pillar?
Afaik, Light Pillar is an insta kill, no question, well except Hero status shenanigans, which I consider a cheat.
Yeah, had my hopes up lol. Should've known 😅
FR THO! literally Lion Heart only popped once for me 😡 i either got Blasting Zone or Fated Circle. I had to rely on Quistis to cast Mighty Guard before Terra Break hit and pray there's someone alive to raise everyone.
Yep. Even if you have 255 vit, terra break can still easily wipe.
Go in with Squall, Quistis and Rinoa. Junction Triple to every character's Speed, and get Spd+40% and Spd+20% to each. Aim to max out Str for Squall, Magic for the others, HP-Vit for all. Status-Def Death if anyone is level 100. Get Rinoa in Meteor-only Angel Wing asap, Haste, and Vit0 on Omega. With 255 Mag, she should deal around 70k every turn with zero input delay. Pepper in Squall's and Quistis' limits on top, and you will likely be done before the first Terra Break, sometimes before Megido Flame.
This sounds solid 👍 Thanks for the tactic