We're going to skip the setup cutscene and the initial dialogue--if you've played this game, you've seen it before.
And here we are in Narshe. You can tell this is Brave New World because of the new default FF4 DS-esque window. Something seems wrong with that colour scheme, though...
And here's the Config screen's first page. Definitely Brave New World. You can see a few changes immediately here.
Exp. Gain does what it says on the tin; this is so you can grind without having to worry about overleveling. B Button lets you control whether you walk by default (Dash) or dash (Walk).
Our heroine's custom Magitek got downgraded to the same model suit Biggs and Wedge wear. No reason to use anything other than Fire Beam here, though.
Next change: the pincer battle is no longer a separation of gameplay and story! Huzzah!
This is not a savepoint recolour, this is a new kind of savepoint. I believe this one restores all HP/MP.
And here's the first boss, Ymir Whelk! I'm going to spare you the briefing: these next two screenshots are what happens if you attack the shell.
So yeah. Don't do that. (This, of course, sparked a giant argument in the original thread about the appropriateness of a TPK on the very first boss, even with a warning. Let's not have a repeat, shall we?)
The Whelk goes down in six Fire Beams (Bolt Beams get absorbed), thankfully, so there's no reason you should accidentally trigger a TPK unless you're impatient or the kind of person who reflexively does what they were told not to do. You get nothing for killing it, just the ability to continue playing.
The eidolon esper!
The waking up in a strange man's house! The clock has an elixir, as most do in this game.
Who is this woman? Tina. If I were going to give you people the ability to pick names, I wouldn't be doing this in the romhack thread (and you would also be forced to deal with the hack's script...again).
The hack makes you wait until after Lock saves Tina to learn this, but there's no more items-upgrading-later gimmick to worry about, so there's no reason not to grab these while we're on our way through. (They call this gimmick 'stupid'; I call it 'Guide Dang It'.)
Tina fell down the hooooooole.
And there's Lock. His and Tina's base stats will be at the end of the update. Skipping ahead a bit...
Some weapons can be dual-wielded, no accessory relic required (and neither the Gauntlet nor the Genji Glove exist in this hack). (Not pictured: I swiped the mythril pike and buckler off of Mog already.)
After two encounters, I guide Lock straight to the boss, so I can proceed to steal...
He's a chump, though, so we're soon done with him.
And we're out! Come back next time, as we head toward...
Part Two: The Castle in the Burning Sands
New Characters
code:
Vigor Speed Stamina Magic HP MP BP Defense/M Block/M Retreat
Tina 30 30 30 42 60 45 36 30 / 36 6 / 12 Average
Lock 36 42 30 30 66 -- 36 36 / 30 24 / 12 Highest
(BP is Battle Power. Retreat speed is the character's ease of escape.)
Tina, as usual, has a natural learning progression, though it's been changed up. She starts with Cure, and gains Fire at 4, Imp at 6, Muddle at 8, Fire 2 at 10, Slow at 15, Fire 3 at 20, Life 2 at 25, and RegenX at 30.
Lock, as always, has the Steal command. However, in Brave New World it only works on Human foes.
We'll talk about Espers once we have them, but they've been changed up and restricted to certain characters.
