Nearly fifteen years in the making, Final Fantasy VI: Hope Eternal and Love Everlasting is a personal love letter to one of the most beloved video games of all time, in the form of a fan project which attempts a complete overhaul of the game, yet nevertheless retains its form and spirit. But, what really IS HEaLE? Well…

To start with, here is what it is not…

• A complete remake or radical transformation of the game. This is still Final Fantasy VI! Maps are functionally untouched, magic and the battle system as a whole remains largely familiar despite the many changes (detailed below), there is very little editting of the events in the game (anything cinematic remains the same – there are no new cut scenes), the story progresses as it was before with the same characters, motivations, narrative beats, etc. The goal of the project is to be familiar, but also a breath of fresh air.

• A “kaizo hack:. While this is a romhack that stresses difficulty and challenge to a great deal, and can be fairly mean, it is not meant to one-up any other hack in the challenge department, or to test the limits of human capability. It’s perfectly feasible to beat the game around level 50, for instance. By that point, you should have every tool you need to win – although you can put in the effort and make it a little easier on yourself. And at any point before, the difference between struggling with an enemy and running rings around them might just be a matter of the right gear or skill.

• Loaded with bonus dungeons, post-game content, revival of dead characters, and super bosses. The point of this game is to defeat the final boss!

But what IS it? To summarize…

• A challenge! Though it starts off relatively ‘normal’, as more and more options open up to you through the course of the game, new difficulties arise to be overcome, until the final stages where you’ll find no mercy. You may discover yourself trying spells and skills you had never thought of before, just to find a way to overcome your enemy – and if you’re crafty enough, you can thrive and make sport of foes who ravage you otherwise. Sometimes all it takes is a bit of Sleep or Stop to turn the tide of battle – you know, the way those spells are intended to be used, but perhaps never found it necessary. There are even three new monster-in-a-box enemies, and one re-located.

• A whole mess of surprises! Though the game retains the same basic shape of Final Fantasy VI – there’s little if any change to the maps, for instance – almost everything else is a little different, or even a lot different. The enemy roster is changed up, with new enemies replacing old enemies (and sometimes, just new enemies), new items in treasure chests (never again do you have to worry about not opening chests, in hopes of them being refilled later with new items – they refill no matter what!), new and refurbished weapons and armor, a retooled magic system, and other surprises await. This is the true heart of Hope Eternal and Love Everlasting: everything is familiar but nothing is quite the same.

• A visual feast! Final Fantasy VI has always been a beautiful game, with some of the best pixel art of its era, or any other. In this hack, however, the colors (and sometimes the pixels themselves) are thoroughly tweaked, thus given a far more vivid and saturated color palette, inspired by Final Fantasy IV and (especially) V – sometimes you’ll find a Kefka in red, or a Gau with green hair, or a yellow chocobo, or a truly blazingly red fire. Sometimes things simply look different for the heck of it. At the very least, your eyeballs will constantly find new things to experience, right until the end.

• Completely rewritten! HEaLE contains a brand new script, nearly 50% larger than the original Super Nintendo translation from Ted Woolsey. Notes on the translation from Clyde Mandelin/Tomato and Kwhazit served as a great inspiration for this reimagination of every character, playable or no, and the story itself, which remains nevertheless faithful to the meat, bone and spirit of Final Fantasy VI – it was always, in all its incarnations, a game with both a serious story, and a ton of humor and warmth. Gags, witticisms, shenanigans, accents and more await…without (it is hoped!) ever betraying the high drama and stakes of the game as originally beloved.

• Easy to play! A lot of issues that were bothersome or underwhelming in the original, are addressed here – always with the intent of quality of life improvements and making the game easy to approach and less stressful, so the player can focus on what really matters. Shadow no longer leaves the party after battles. Chests that require you to wait to open them, in order to unlock new goodies, are no longer a thing – they’ll always refill with new goodies, whether or not you open them, so open every box you find! Evasion and M. Block (now called Spirit) are no longer confused, and function as intended, with shields granting progressively more evasion boosts. Odin and Raiden are now separate Espers; getting the latter will no longer force you to part with the former. Learning magic spells, while still requiring a little effort, don’t require too much grinding and Espers, enemies and items are designed to ease (though certainly not eliminate) the need to grind. Damage and healing exceeds 9,999 HP. Almost every item or magic spell in the game has some use. Umaro, Dance, Slot, Gil Toss and Rage are beefed up and tweaked to be more useful, and Cyan’s Bushido skill functions more . The auction has only rare items for sale, and the treasures buried in the Cave to the Sealed Gate are VERY worth seeking out. Vigor is now factored in to various attacks which once were forced to be classified as magic attacks in order to deal high enough damage – but no longer. The game gives you five minutes, not four, to talk to the soldiers in the Imperial capitol (handy if you actually want to read what people are saying!). And many more.

The most important thing, however, is to have fun. It is hoped that this project succeeds in at least that much.

Included in this ZIP file are the following:

HeaLE.ips (this is the patch itself!) readme.txt (regular old readme stuff) HeaLE Guide.txt (consult this in times of need)