RotDS v2.9.8 download

Version 2.9 is released, and it is a very large update.
Here is the Change-log:

- fixed a broken subroutine when sleeping at the Ornyx INN, where if the thief NPC steals from the party at night and you don't have at least 1,000 gil the game would softlock.
- fixed a visual bug with the mastered esper star icon.
- fixed a spell learning % overflow issue with monster formations/battles that gave more than 10 Magic Points. (credit to Madsiur)
- fixed/reworked how HatZen's Resilient Morph code works, so that Morph becomes greyed-out if Aurora doesn't have enough MP to use it, which prevented a bug dealing with Reflect being cast while Aurora was attempting to Morph without enough MP. (thanks to Fathlo for discovering this bug and Madsiur for recoding it to fix this)
- fixed an issue with HP or MP absorbing weapons causing Retort/Climhazzard to trigger. (thanks to Madsiur for the fix)
- fixed an issue with the letter in Guru's Mansion becoming another sprite if player leaves and come back without reading the letter.
- fixed a possible issue of Reaper going over certain map layers.
- fixed a possible issue of Tifa's sprite teleporting from one spot to another when talking to 'Snakes' at the INN.
- fixed an issue of the final dungeon's song starting over after each battle.
- fixed ronan's sprite being thrown out of the water by ultros, which I unintentionally broke a few versions ago.
- fixed issue of map song starting over after battles in the Imperial Castle.
- reworked Ultros 1's battle script as it was not functioning as intended.
- swapped AI between two of the Legendary Dragons, and reworked one of them.
- gave the two soldier battles before banquet battle music.
- the second battle with Raditz now has the music from the first battle.
- added battle music to Tyrano Tower battles/formations.
- fixed a mistake of a wrong song coming in for a few seconds after completing the lava demon battles.
- fixed a mistake of a wrong song coming in at the very end of the game.
- fixed a vanilla issue of the top-right and left of the glass tubes in the magitek factory showing the palette of whatever the font palette is set to. (thanks to Everything for information crucial to fixing this)
- corrected a wrong subroutine/jump if the floating continent timer ran out.
- made some formations that didn't give magic points afterwords give them now.
- corrected a track sync issue in EVO Ocean of Origin.
- corrected an octave mistake in FF9 You're Not Alone song. (thanks to Rushlight for noticing this)
- corrected an octave mistake in Romancing Saga 3 Battle Theme.
- corrected an octave mistake in CT Zeal Palace.
- corrected an octave mistake in FF5 Musica Machina.
- corrected a wrong instrument in FF5 Neo Exdeath (thanks to h.carrell for noticing this)
- corrected a song name in the music player for 'soundtrack b'.
- corrected a pixel in Serin's 'side b gfx' portrait.
- corrected an identical palette issue with the Dreadfiend skeleton monster sprite.
- corrected a micro-flash of all objects on screen at the end of the Imperial Camp segment.
- corrected an overworld map tile on the WoR Beast Plains.
- corrected a wrong Souls/Rage skill listing.
- corrected merchant npc in auction house from doing a wink pose if winning an Angel Pendant. (thanks to ScarabEnigma for noticing this)
- corrected Golbez from being one step too far to the right during a certain scene. (thanks to ScarabEnigma for noticing this)
- finally got palette 6 characters to show up correctly on save/shop/party select menus. the 'greyscale' in the save menu had to be sacrificed for it however. (thanks to CDude and B-Run)
- gave the party the necessary amount of gil to hire Oboro at the Fraust battle, in case they didn't have enough.
- increased the timer a bit for the Staryu to respawn for the Starmie boss fight.
- removed a map tile from the Crimson Blades' Hideout which made it look like a possible hidden path existed.
- corrected a couple map tiles for the Albrook Ship nighttime scene that formed an immersed-breaking line.
- healed the party up to full after the second Lava Demon battle in the burning house, and after each of the consequent battles. also altered those battles' formations.
- changed Mt. Etlich (Mt. Zozo) battle background to be the mountain one and gave it a matching palette for the map.
- changed Ancient Cave battle background to no longer be underwater, but match the palette for the map - can still learn Water Rondo from it.
- added a pool of water in the Ancient Cave, map 2, which has the underwater battle background. (credit to Sir Newton Fig)
- put back in the Narshe Mines battle background for the mines.
- removed the 4x attack property from the Onimusha sword, to prevent an exploit.
- added two dream/flashback events for Aurora.
- made an event-change to the start of Ronan's scenario.
- made the hide and seek event optional.
- added another room to the Imperial Castle.
- added 3 more soldiers to possibly talk to before the banquet.
- made Tifa's Reels skill Surge Cutter wind elemental, instead of water, and renamed to Wave Cutter.
- gave the weird little Ether merchant NPC in Seascape Town Sonic Shot and Cosmic Fang Aethers to sell also, in case the player sold them by accident early on.
- replaced the Dark Crystal boss fight with something much better.
- added a 'fast travel' option to get the machine oil if it wasn't bought during Ronan's scenario.
- added a palette to make the Water Dragon and Leviathan NPCs blue instead of purple.
- added a duplicate of vanilla palette 4 for the fish and (some) bird NPCs to look better again.
- touched up many songs yet again.
- imported the Chrono Trigger cat "meow" sfx for the cat npcs.
- betting any of the Aether items (Serin's skills) in the Coloseum now just results in an Elixir.
- Shadow Knights are now called Mage Knights.
- Juggernaut Mecha is back to being called Magitek Armor.
- Magi Wars is back to being called The War of the Magi.
- New unused FF6pr overworld tiles for Fraust/Narshe. (credit to Gens for re-creating it, and Everything for the patch that implements it)
- shadows returned to a bunch of the monster sprites.
- ADDED AROUND 100 MORE CUSTOM MONSTER SPRITES! (credit to MonsterInABoxINC a.k.a phunbaba a.k.a James White)
- Aurora sprite massively edited. (credit to ScarabEnigma)
- Young Aurora sprite made. (credit to ScarabEnigma)
- Esper Aurora sprite and palette totally redone, as well as the compressed flying and endgame instances. The previous 'darker' palette of her is now an optional patch in the 'extras'>alt. character sprites folder. (credit to ScarabEnigma)
- added 'Miko Eiko' alternate Eiko sprite patch to the 'extras' folder. (credit to ScarabEnigma)
- replaced the Zemus (NPC) sprite with a higher-quality one on the Floating Continent. (credit to ScarabEnigma)
- generic male NPC has a new hair style. (credit to SSJ Rick)
- Rare Item menu is now able to be scrolled. (credit to Madsiur)
- put the MP cost of an Esper in its description.
- removed the shadow from under the hand cursor.
- changed three town names: Holtz to Ravaryn, Anney Village to Ruta Village, and Corwyn Village to Quartz Village.
- applied 'Slim Boxes' patch which makes cleaner looking Coliseum and consumable screens. (credit to Gens [idea] & Ryo_Hazuki [hacking])
- applied 'Status Icon Overflow' patch with fixes an original potential game-crashing bug (credit to SilentEnigma)
- added Sonic & Knuckles - Flying Battery Zone Act 1 to 'soundtrack b'.
- added the following optional song-patch replacements: Lufia 2 - Village Theme, RPG Maker VX Ace - Battle 1, Dragon Ball Z - Solid State Scouter, MMX - Boomer Kuwanger, Top Gear - Track 1, The Earth_Lufia 1, Spark Mandrill Mega Man X, Wily Stage 1_Mega Man 2, Abandoned Memory_Mega Man 10, FF1 Battle Scene, FF4 Fight 1, FF5 Battle 1, doranarasi - Battle 1 & Battle 2.
- added 'Jade Skull From the Start' optional patch into the 'extras.zip' folder, which starts Aurora out with a Jade Skull Relic, for those who want to have control over random encounters or do a 'no encounter' run.
- added a Souls list to the 'infos.zip' folder.

So I need to step away from any more development on this hack for an undetermined amount of time, some family emergency stuff unfortunately is taking place and I doubt I'll be able to get to work on a v3.0 for the foreseeable future, if at all... Thanks to those who helped make this update as substantial as it is, and those who play it again or for the first time.

After months of waiting... thank you!