November Test Build

Test build time! This build covers the rest of the first overworld map, from just after the Life Shrine up until the merging of Gaia and the Esper World. Expected level range to be at upon completion is 24-25 if playing casually, 27-28 if fighting everything, doing all side content, etc. If you stick with a dedicated party that you never change, you may possibly get as high as 30.

Do not worry if you exceed level 28 with any characters and start learning abilities that aren't showing up in your ability menu. Abilities that are not made yet have invisible placeholders in the database, and anything you learn that isn't showing up will show up fine in the next test build.

This test build contains less main story areas/dungeons/etc. than previous test builds because you have access to the airship now and can explore the entire overworld, so many optional areas had to be mapped out. You'll notice that over half of the locations in this test build are optional, so feel free to visit them in any order you want in between bouts of progressing the plot/story. Just know that the Water Shrine is the final area/dungeon in this test build!

Locations Not Enterable (since airship is now acquired):

New Characters:
Adder (optional)
Lyric (optional)

Locations (Ordered):

Berona Laboratory (optional)

Branch Castle (return visit)
Archareon Stockade (optional)

Rotunda of Revelry (optional)
Northdale (optional)
Ancient Armory (optional)
Forlorn Cavern (optional)
The Citadel
Citadel Sewers
Albrook (optional)
Bavira (optional)
Costa del Vita (optional)
Marshtown
Marsh Cave
Leyton (optional)
Village of Zen (optional)
Tower of Trials (optional)
Faluhd Castle (optional)
Horseman's Rest (optional)
Sodden Depths (optional)
Esto Yensa
Rodenia
Osteinchyl
Water Shrine (return visit)

Boss Index + Recommended Levels:

Sodden Depths: Leviathan (23)
Archareon Prison: Ljosalfar (23)
Forlorn Cavern: Ymir (24)
Branch Castle: Hans (24)
Branch Castle: Gylfi (24)
Tower of Trials: Amaterasu (25)
Citadel Dungeon: Lord Zeul (25)
Citadel Sewers: Ultros (25)
Marsh Cave: Archeoaevis (25)

Esto Yensa: Hecatoncheir (26), Katana Soul (25), Wing Raptor (25)
Osteinchyl: Carbuncle (26), Hexadragon (26)
Water Shrine: Dio (26), Bismarck (27)
Faluhd Castle: Kuza Beast (27)
Horseman's Rest: Odin (27)

Berona Laboratory: Adamantium Giant (27)
Esto Yensa: Cobalt Weapon (too difficult to defeat right now)

New Camp NPCs:
Elise
Raine

New Marks:
Angel Eye (Bavira)

Elvoret (Nideen)
Granaldo (Leyton)
Magus Sisters (Leyton)

NRG Terminator (Branch Castle)
Ogopogo (Northdale)
Phrekyos (Northdale)
Poltergeist (Rivera)
Shell Dragon (Rivera)
Storm Dragon (Bavira)

New Nethicite:
Achelous
Belhemel
Bismarck
Ymir
Yojimbo
Zolom

New Abilities for Ami:
Bad Breath
Doom
Flamethrower

New Abilities for Bosche:
Lamia's Mirror

New Abilities for Darius:
Darkwave (Level 25)
Debilitate (Level 28)

New Abilities for Elina:
Reflect (Level 26)

New Abilities for Jasmine:
Revive (Level 24)
Water Rondo (Level 28)

New Abilities for Laka:
Stop (Level 25)

New Abilities for Nobumasa:
Zanzoken (Level 22)
Raijin (Level 24)

New Abilities for Oalston:

Death (Level 25)

New Abilities for Siegfried:
Retort (Level 24)
Minus Strike (Level 28)

New Abilities for Vahn:
Lancer (Level 26)
Reis's Wind (Level 28)

New Abilities for Vera:
Leviathan - Tsunami
Odin - Zantetsuken
Unicorn - Divine Trample

New Activities:
1. Gygas Arena: Partially functional now! You can fight up to around the 60th battle, at which point the NPC will tell you that you can't progress any further in the current test build.
2. Revisiting Old Towns: East Branch, Meksicburg, Oaktown, and Trei are under Ivalician occupation and have received some minor changes as a result. All of the towns other than Trei offer some form of reward for visiting. A few other locations outside of Branch are worth revisiting as well. Use your noggin to figure out which places they are, or ask me and I'll tell you.
3. Faluhd Castle: You can now travel further into Faluhd Castle.

4. Rotunda of Revelry: Now fully accessible! Find it in southern Lindblum.

5. Hide & Kupo Seek: New reward tiers added.

Ami Changes:

1. Slight buff to Ami's base and maximum vigor stat values.
2. Blue magic icons are now blue instead of black and white.

Darius Changes:

1. All dark swords now do shadow damage by default.

2. Darius' Darkside receives a sizable damage buff to make up for the fact that his regular attacks are now shadow elemental.

3. Saboteur command renamed to DarkArt.

Laka Changes:

1. Slight buff to Laka's base and maximum vigor stat values.
2. Green magic icons are now green instead of grey.

Nobumasa Changes:
1. Reduced base damage of Nobumasa's abilities slightly.

2. Decreased Nobumasa's base MP slightly.

3. Ninja command renamed to Ninjutsu.
4. Shurikens can no longer miss when thrown. They have a 100% hit rate now.

Siegfried Changes:
1. Increased damage of Dispatch.

Vahn Changes:

1. Vahn's attack abilities are getting a significant damage boost so that he is not overshadowed by Siegfried in the level 10-25 range.

2. Jump damage increased by about 25%.

3. Slight buff to Vahn's base and maximum speed stat values.
4. Edited Vahn's attack animation slightly.

Vera Changes:
1. Reduced Vera's maximum MP so that she can't just go ham for so long with summons before needing to rest or use an ether.
2. Increased base damage of Vera's summons slightly.

Fixes and Odds & Ends:
1. Added a book at camp that gives a brief description of all command abilities.
2. Added a missing save point to East Branch.
3. Added a new tier of rewards that can be obtained from Hide & Go Kupo.
4. Added two more window skins that are variants of window skin 10.
5. Altered dialogue in the Beginner's School in Trei to teach the player about elements and status conditions that were not in the game early on and were added over time.
6. Berserker Regalia now also gives the equipped character Auto-Slow like in the original.
7. Buffed Emerald Shield's defense so that it fits in more in the post-Underworld armor shops.
8. Buffed Quetzalcoatl nethicite. It now grants +1 defense (in addition to the existing +8 HP) per level up. 
9. Changed the game over screen and music.
10. Changed the save/load confirmation sound effect.

11. Counterattacks have been overhauled. By default previously, a character who is able to counterattack would be attacked, take no damage (evade the attack basically) and then counterattack. Additionally, they could only execute ONE counterattack per turn. This is not how it works in Final Fantasy. After some changes I've made, characters WILL take damage and then execute their counterattack. You are also no longer limited to a single counterattack per turn so, if a character gets hit four times per turn, they will now counterattack four times.
12. Darius' mother now has a unique sprite and has had her name changed from Grace to Raine.
13. Decreased effectiveness of Protect and Safe somewhat.
14. Don't be alarmed if people suddenly look different in towns! Changed some sprites of generic male and female townsfolk to NPC sprites from Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster. 
15. Edited Jasmine's sprite slightly to include more colours from her sprite in the original Blackmoon Prophecy.
16. Edited Vahn's field sprite slightly to fix some weird pixels.
17. Godot no longer mentions needing a magicite cluster to fill the Rift Shrine with NPCs.
18. Made the berserk condition less powerful. It's typically viewed as a neutral status ailment, so it should not feel like a big positive boon for the player when a character has been afflicted with it.
19. Reduced counter rate that was set for Black Belt, as I felt that it seemed to be letting the player counter nearly 100% of all attacks even though it was not set to. It feels more 50/50 now as originally intended.
20. Retroactively added more decorations to all armor shops.
21. Scenes that make the player move automatically, or forbid moving in certain directions (swimming underwater under Gygas Arena and the chase scene after Surgate Waystation) now run better and smoother thanks to some plugins generated via Grok.
22. The following weapons now have a low chance of casting an elemental spell after attacking with them: Air Razor, Blizzard Staff, Blizzard Sword, Coral Blade, Earth Staff, Fire Staff, Flame Sabre, Magma Reaver, Nimbus Spear, Gale Estoc, Poison Staff, Shadow Staff, Thunder Blade, Thunder Staff, Water Staff.
23. The following white magic spells now bypass/ignore the Reflect status: Haste, Protect, Reflect, Regen, and Shell.

24. The standard boss theme has been changed from the FF6 Pixel Remaster boss theme to an all new version of "The Conductor" (mark battle theme) from Blackmoon Prophecy II. This is a tentative change for now, but will become permanent if testers like the new boss theme.

25. Vahn's mother, Elise, now has a unique sprite.
26. You can no longer equip duplicate relics (ie. two gauntlets, two hyper wrists, etc.) and can now only equip one of any individual relic at a time.

27. You can now see how many of an item you own in menus such as Mix or Throw.