Useless "improvement" romhacks thread

[Xdqwerty Xdqwerty]

Ok so this thread is where we share improvement romhacks that change little to nothing, or change stuff that didnt need to be changed, so they are useless. I can't think of any examples rn but you probably know some examples

 

[RageBurner]

It's a cool idea for a thread, I'll give you that, but by the same token, wouldn't you think usefulness here is very relative and difficult to pinpoint?

There is a Chrono Trigger hack that fixes a single pixel; one might call it useless, but for someone else it would be noticeable enough that they can't do without.

 

[Xdqwerty Xdqwerty]

It's a cool idea for a thread, I'll give you that, but by the same token, wouldn't you think usefulness here is very relative and difficult to pinpoint?

There is a Chrono Trigger hack that fixes a single pixel; one might call it useless, but for someone else it would be noticeable enough that they can't do without.

Ok I got an example of the "changes nothing" kind:

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/7038/

The only thing it does is changing the title screen

 

[RageBurner]

Ok I got an example of the "changes nothing" kind:

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/7038/

The only thing it does is changing the title screen

Broadly I agree with you, but someone might prefer the original title screen or name.

 

[Pearly]

This thread definitely wouldn't be covering the latest romhack released on the repo for Harmony of dissonance, damn I wish it released like that. Rumour has it, it was a ps1 game, and they had to rapidly downscale development, thus gimping Juste's animations and sprites.

There's many hacks though that are something minor that really bothered one specific person and they made the effort to change it.

An example would be I modded the ps3 HD release of budokai one and 3 to use the ps2 soundtrack, easy mod and being honest, those had some bomb ass, if plagiarised, soundtracks. To some people that is way to much effort and it's just music etc.

I appreciate the effort at least when anyone does do a mod :)

 

[Xdqwerty Xdqwerty]

Broadly I agree with you, but someone might prefer the original title screen or name.

Okok but you kinda got the point although I can't think of examples of the "changing stuff that didnt need to be changed" kind

 

[RageBurner]

Well I'll throw my hat in, even though it's relative, too. I don't like character swap hacks that are only visual.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

Without throwing anyone under the bus, the vast majority of Pokemon "improvement" hacks go too far the other way and give you all your candy before you had even started dinner (sometimes literally).

 

[Blamhammer]

I dunno if this is what you may consider meeting the requirements, but I posted this elsewhere on this forum.
FAFO

 

[DinoRexMax DinoRexMax]

@RageBurner is right when he says that the concept of "useless" is subjective, especially since it could clearly change depending on ones knowledge or enthusiasm for the game.

Little Samson Restoration + Pleasant Shot Sound (Hack) NES ROM – The Repo

Little Samson Restoration + Pleasant Shot Sound (Hack) NES ROM Languages: English. For the NES.

retrogametalk.com

For instance, I'm a huge fan of the game "Little Samson", and this is so far the only hack or mod this game. It fixes a number of censored sprites and lowers to pitch of the main characters projectile sound effects. This is net positive change, but unless you've played both language versions of the game, you would never notice it. And ironically, I've become so accustomed to the original sound effect I hardly notice it. But making the ear splitting shrill of Samson's bells not give me tinnitus is an objectively beneficial thing, regardless of my opinion.

However, I understand your intentions regarding a "useless" romhack, and I've seen a number of them that are so minor in comparison to some of the major mods and overhauls we've all come across it's feels just kind of unnecessary. There's a reason places like ROMhacking.net has user reviews at the bottom, some hacks are just not that great. Most of the lamest ones happened to be some low rent sprite replacements that only swap a single character. There's also a number of re-localizations or undubs that seem pretty pointless to me to, especially when that time could be put into translating a new game instead.

I dunno if this is what you may consider meeting the requirements, but I posted this elsewhere on this forum.
FAFO
View attachment 177347

Meme hacks make me belly laugh, that sounds useful to me.

 

[Bakuma1997]

Final Fantasy IV: Job System

Final Fantasy 4: Job System (Hack) SNES – The Repo

Final Fantasy 4: Job System (Hack) SNES Languages: English. For the Super NES.

retrogametalk.com

Aside of the ugliest title screen i've ever seenin a Romhack and the job sprites not being better, it features a system that tries to transplant III and V's jobs into IV but fails to do so in an appealing way. the game is already fine with the offered tools, ¿why fix the unbroken?

 

[Xdqwerty Xdqwerty]

Ok guys when I mean improvement romhacks I dont mean hacks that are supposed to, well, make the game better

 

[starseeker300]

Ok guys when I mean improvement romhacks I dont mean hacks that are supposed to, well, make the game better

so do you mean rebalance hacks that end up being bad?

 

[Xdqwerty Xdqwerty]

so do you mean rebalance hacks that end up being bad?

hmmmm that and other stuff

 

[The Real Thing]

Final Fantasy IV: Job System

Final Fantasy 4: Job System (Hack) SNES – The Repo

Final Fantasy 4: Job System (Hack) SNES Languages: English. For the Super NES.

retrogametalk.com

Aside of the ugliest title screen i've ever seenin a Romhack and the job sprites not being better, it features a system that tries to transplant III and V's jobs into IV but fails to do so in an appealing way. the game is already fine with the offered tools, ¿why fix the unbroken?

Yeah I'm real particular with that game myself. Bringing the job system to this masterpiece and screenshots filtered me from even trying it. I do respect the effort and time it must have taken, just not for me at all. You've done much to further not sell it, and I appreciate that heh.

I enjoy Ultima Plus because I have played through IV umpteen times JUST for the fanfare when Cecil becomes a Paladin, and like the added extras.

 

[Not_Red]

So, a lot of pokemon romhacks for the GBA try and add that one feature where you can see pokemon spawn in the grass and you only have to walk to where they are to start the battle. Problem is that in most cases they don't bother in adding a limit to how many they can spawn so in a lot of scenarios the entire patch of grass is full of pokemons effectively making it impossible to focus on the one you actually want.

 

[RageBurner]

Hmm I wouldn't call FF4JS an improvement, it's an overhaul, and those tend to be divisive by nature.

 

[Deleted member 913503]

hacks that remove a single pixel from a title screen that nobody noticed until it was pointed out.

 

[Don Patch]

NGL, that's most of them ... but power to the cats who like to tinker! I can appreciate it.

 

[Fietto!]

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6416/

 

[Ikagura]

The Kirby 'n' hack that just removes the "Tilt" and "Tumble" from the title screen (it's purely visual, not the actual accelerometer removal patch):

 

[Graw]

Well I'll throw my hat in, even though it's relative, too. I don't like character swap hacks that are only visual.

That's like 90% of the Sonic hacks out there. It's worse when the hack descriptions try to make it sound like an extensive hack or something but all it is is a graphic or character swap.

Final Fantasy IV: Job System

Final Fantasy 4: Job System (Hack) SNES – The Repo

Final Fantasy 4: Job System (Hack) SNES Languages: English. For the Super NES.

retrogametalk.com

Aside of the ugliest title screen i've ever seenin a Romhack and the job sprites not being better, it features a system that tries to transplant III and V's jobs into IV but fails to do so in an appealing way. the game is already fine with the offered tools, ¿why fix the unbroken?

I've been tempted to try this hack a few times but the idea seems so stupid. I like job systems, FFV is my favourite Final Fantasy game but FFIV is so fundamentally different in the way its story plays out and the way the characters are used it makes no sense at all to have a job system. FFVI would have probably been a better one to try a shoehorn a job system in. At least the game expects character customization of some kind. Even the Augments in the 3d version of FFIV seem like kind of a dumb addition to the game.

 

[Ikagura]

That's like 90% of the Sonic hacks out there. It's worse when the hack descriptions try to make it sound like an extensive hack or something but all it is is a graphic or character swap.

Yeah, there are some rare exceptions like Kirby in Sonic (with a somewhat functional inhale function but lacks any ability) or genuinely impressive ones like Yoshi in Sonic 2.

Hacks like Metal Sonic Hyperdrive/Rebooted are at least giving some abilities to the character.
This is why those pages are useful

https://info.sonicretro.org/Category:Hacks_with_basic_engine_modifications

https://info.sonicretro.org/Category:Hacks_with_advanced_engine_modifications

But source ports like Sonic 3 AIR are basically making romhacks obsolete (especially when Sonic 3&K is infamous for being much less hacked than Sonic 1 and 2).

I am genuinely impressed when a hack puts a character from another game into this one with every of their abilities ready and functional.

 

[Bakuma1997]

This one, it makes Red Arremer's eyes blue alongside some extra inconsequential changes, the extra changes can be useful, but the "Main draw" is so subdued not even the provided images made me realizes he changed a dang thing

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/8925/

 

[Graw]

Yeah, there are some rare exceptions like Kirby in Sonic (with a somewhat functional inhale function but lacks any ability) or genuinely impressive ones like Yoshi in Sonic 2.

Hacks like Metal Sonic Hyperdrive/Rebooted are at least giving some abilities to the character.

Yeah i don't mind hacks like that. It's cool playing through a game with a new set of abilities. It's also a lot harder to pull off than a character swap which is probably why they're not as common. Sonic's just a particularly good example for those kinds of character swap hacks because it's popular and hacking it is fairly accessible compared to other games at least enough to swap some graphics. The original version of the playable Zero in Megaman X hack was just a sprite swap too but did eventually become a full on hack.

But source ports like Sonic 3 AIR are basically making romhacks obsolete (especially when Sonic 3&K is infamous for being much less hacked than Sonic 1 and 2).

Sonic A.I.R also has a lot of character sprite swap mods but it should be a lot easier for people to make full new characters with abilities. The extra slot mod doesn't really seem to do that though. The Kirby mod just uses Knuckle's movesets. I just went and looked through the mods I'd downloaded for that and didn't see any characters with new abilities.

I am genuinely impressed when a hack puts a character from another game into this one with every of their abilities ready and functional.

There's a few games that have a lot of those. Mario 64 has a ton of them. I think they've shoved just about every character you can imagine into that game.