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Final Fantasy for GBA— Downloads

Download the Final Fantasy 1 GBA— Mod of Balance

• Final Fantasy 1— Mod of Balance, version 3.0 (37.6 KB) — Released August 29, 2012. This Mod of Balance removes the class change element in Final Fantasy 1, and allows you to select from 12 different classes from the start. See version 3.0 changes. Note: This represents a major departure from the original game's intent, and if this is not desired, download the v2.2 update below instead.
• Final Fantasy 1— Mod of Balance, version 2.2 (30.7 KB) — Released August 29, 2012. The newest release of the mod, up-to-date with everything except the 12 classes feature. See version 2.2 changes.
• Final Fantasy 1— Mod of Balance, version 2.1 (29.4 KB) — Released March 16, 2012. See version 2.1 changes.
  • Leviathan Mist has a patch for version 2.1 (though I expect that it shouldn't break v2.2 or v3.0) that addresses a few of the issues that he had with this version. It removes stat boost from all equipment, lowers the selling cost for items that can be won in the ship mini-game, and removes all stat-increasing items from monster drops in the first half of the game (or so), while also capping their benefit at +1 per stat. Get it at his site.
• Final Fantasy 1— Mod of Balance, version 2.0 (28.8 KB) — Released December 22, 2011. See version 2.0 changes.
• Final Fantasy 1— Mod of Balance, version 1.200 (22.5 KB) — Released April 5, 2010. See version 1.2 changes.
• Final Fantasy 1— Mod of Balance, version 1.000 (17.8 KB) — See version 1.0 changes.
• Final Fantasy 1— Mod of Balance, version 0.998 (16.7 KB) — The initial release. I don't know why you'd want this one over version 1.000... unless maybe you like the restrictions that were present in this old release...

Mod of Balance information

» See installation instructions. These instructions work for all versions.

» Credits and appreciation. I want to personally (virtually of course) thank all of these individuals for their interest and feedback concerning the Mod of Balance. This mod is what it is in part due to their creative input.

» Praise and admiration. There's been a fair amount of interest in the Mod of Balance. Here's what some people have been saying.

Important note: All of the above patches are for a stock Dawn of Souls ROM, and do not include upgrades.

Further important note: So here I am violating my own rule. Since the version 3.0 patch represents a major difference from the gameplay of Final Fantasy 1, having removed the class change which was one of the most innovative things about the game, I elected to make a version 2.2 to 3.0 patch. You may elect to apply the v2.2 patch to a stock ROM, and then apply the v2.2 to v3.0 patch at a later time if you so choose.

What does it do?

As of version 3.0, this mod creates 12 different classes, which are playable from the start of the game, and the class change event is no longer a class change.

As of version 2.0, this mod aims to improve the gameplay of both Final Fantasy 1 and Final Fantasy 2.

The Final Fantasy 1 mod was originally intended to restore the difficulty of this GBA version of the game to the difficulty of the original NES version, so it can be enjoyed with all of the modern trappings of the GBA version. Version 2.0 was a step beyond the previous one, and was intended to provide enhancements to the gameplay and address user critcisms of version 1.2. The current version (v2.2) is mostly a bugfix version.

The ambition behind the Final Fantasy 2 edits are simple: "unbreak" the character development mechanics. The GBA version already fixed the select-action-cancel-action-and-gain-skill-ad-nauseam bug, but still required players to grind in all the wrong ways. Unlimited actions should increase slower than actions that are limited by mana or resources. I hope I have succeeded in making Final Fantasy 2 play much more smoothly. Secondarily, weapons were much too underpowered in the endgame as enemy defense rendered them mostly useless versus spells. Warrior-heavy and magic-heavy party builds should have the potential to be equally successful.

More specifically:

Version 3.0 Improvements over version 2.2

Version 3.0 represents a major change in the gameplay of Final Fantasy 1, in that you can choose any of 12 classes at the start of your campaign. No class change happens. This allows for a much wider variety of gameplay experiences, and removes the impetus to sprint through Earth Cave, get the Canoe, punish yourself in Ice Cave, get the Airship, then canoe/fly to Castle Ordeals at a severely low level to class change as soon as possible. After class change, the rest of the game seems somewhat anti-climactic from a difficulty standpoint. This version attempts to address this pet peeve of mine and smooth the rather forced difficulty curve.

Final Fantasy 1

• Your four party members may choose from among 12 classes now. They will not change classes throughout your adventure. A short description of those 12 classes are as follows:
  • Primary Warriors— These classes focus almost entirely on physically dominating opponents.
    • Knight— Excellent equipment. Strong attack and defense, moderate speed. No magic.
    • Rogue— Supremely fast. Decent defense, excellent luck-based magic resistance. No magic.
    • Master— Tremendously powerful while unarmed. Constant defense bonus. Very low magic resistance. A few Monk-based abilities.
  • Secondary Warriors— Above-average fighters with supplemental magical capabilities.
    • Paladin— A holy Knight. Highest defense. Slower than Knight, but casts healing magic.
    • Ninja— Very fast. Decent with attack magic. Low defense, but evasion is high. Low magic defense.
    • Ranger— Good at all tasks, but excels at nothing. Slightly better at fighting than casting.
  • Secondary Warriors— Above-average casters with at least one glaring physical weakness.
    • Enchanter— Offensive physically (speedy and lightly armored), but specializes in healing and buffing allies.
    • Battlemage— Defensive physically (heavily armored and slow), but casts offensive attack magic and warding magics.
    • Monk— Best unarmored (but a cloak always helps). Decent with weapons or unarmed, and is quite effective with many types of magic (excluding most direct attacks).
  • Primary Spellcasters— Their magic is extremely powerful, but have serious physical limitations.
    • Priest— These casters keep their allies alive. They are defensive specialists.
    • Archmage— They can cause serious pain to their enemies. They specialize in area-effect attacks.
    • Sage— They can cast almost all known spells, but are exceptionally frail due to their single-minded magical focus.
• Obviously, the game has been seriously rebalanced, yet again, due to the all-encompassing nature of modifying almost all existing classes. Each class, obviously, has its own equipment preferences, spell lists (or lack thereof), beginning stats and level-up stat progressions, and the like. The Weapons, Armor, and Spell listings have been updated, and may be configured to show v3.0 data.
• Some items found in treasure chests have been moved, to rebalance the game.
• A few items have been tweaked. In particular, all Armlets have been replaced.
• Bahamut's reward, replacing the Class change, is instead a +50 HP bonus for all party members.
• The 6th level Black magic spell, Quake, now does earth damage instead of dealing instant death. The enemy's Earthquake ability is still instant death, however.

Known Issues in Version 3.0

• The Character Class select screen does not display well, but is clear of all show-stopping bugs. The last 6 classes (Paladin, Ninja, Master, Ranger, Priest, and Battlemage) do not display correctly, either as avatars or in the list. I'm afraid these display errata will require some serious ARM7 assembly chops to fix, and I'm not sure I have the time or inclination to fix them... of course, that may come later, or maybe someone intrepid enough will pull it off themselves. At any rate, when selecting your class, pay attention to the description at the bottom of the screen.

Version 3.0 Screenshots

Version 2.2 Improvements over version 2.1

Final Fantasy 2

• The times that spells become available should be more balanced. In particular, Berserk, Toad, and Blink are available later, and Slow, Sleep, and Haste are available more soon.
• The extremely rare spells Break, Stop, and Confuse are not as rare anymore.
• A few spell shops have been tweaked. Most notably, Blink and Fog are no longer for sale. Sleep and Slow are now purchasable, Haste is available in shops, and very late in the game you may purchase Osmose. Sleep and Slow sell for much less than they used to be, to compensate for this.
• Sap is now more powerful than Osmose. As it should be...

Final Fantasy 1

• The Mute spell was confirmed to not silence characters, but paralyzed them instead when enemies succeeded in affecting them. Thus, the Mute spell has been removed from all enemies' AI.
• The Load game screen only showed 3 HP/MP digits. It now shows 4 HP/MP digits as it should.
• A group of monsters consisting of 2 Death Machines and at least 2 Prototypes would overflow the 16-bit Experience reward, and would therefore yield a paltry amount of experience. The Experience rewards for these two enemies has been adjusted to sidestep this bug.
• Speaking of the Death Machine, it has been renamed for all you nostalgic types... to WarMECH.
• WarMECH is now encounterable on the fifth floor of Tiamat's Floating Castle. Again.
• Soul of Chaos enemies now award slightly more experience. Big Eyes give more EXP and gold.
• The Sahagin Queen is less likely to use Acid Rain (that's deadly to a 35th level party). The Devil Wizard has less Intellect. Their Flare was just too wicked before... Also, the Skuldier is less cowardly than before (it's undead after all).
• Stat items now only increase their respective stats by 1. No more reloading to get +2 or +3 bonuses... sorry power gamers
• A bug with Intellect was determined in which equipment was able to increase Int over 255, overflowing its byte. This has been fixed; Intellect is properly capped at 255.
• Evasion is now gained at a rate of +1 per level for all characters. Before, Evasion would increase at level up ONLY if they had also gained Agility that level; the net result is characters would not gain Evasion if they didn't gain Agility, but would get +2 to Evasion if Agility increased. Of course, the Speed Plus only increased Agility (and not Evasion). This change will result in characters achieving a slighly higher Evasion score.
• The Inn now properly heals party members by +9999 HP/MP. The Cottage has the same effect as sleeping at an Inn. Tents now heal +400 HP and restore +150 MP (Was +200/+50), and Sleeping Bags recover +200 HP (Was +100).

Known Issues in Version 2.2

• No known issues!

Version 2.1 Improvements over version 2.0

Final Fantasy 1

• Sidestepped the Protera bug as found by Vertigo 1. When a monster casts Protera and there are more than 6 monsters present, it caused the game to freeze. Dark Fighters now may only appear in groups of six or less.
• Many weapons and armors are re-valued. In almost every case, this resulted in lowered purchase prices (and selling prices). Purchasing equipment should be less tedious, while still requiring players to manage their resources.
• Fixed a couple of textual display issues. When a character is paralyzed during battle, their name renders as "Stunned" rather than "Paralyzed" so you can see the character's HP. Also fixed is the battle Equipment listing displays the item quantities clearly.
• After casting the Comet spell, the caster now returns to the party lineup properly. Finally cracked this bug

Known Issues in Version 2.1

• When loading a game from the Final Fantasy 1 title screen, the fourth digit of each character's HP and MP is shaved off.
• When an enemy casts a Mute spell, it does not actually silence characters but paralyzes them. This is due to lack of coding on the part of the developers.
• A group of two Death Machines and more than one Prototype overflows the 16-bit Experience reward, which means the experience reward for such a battle is much lower than expected.
• Death Machines are not encounterable in Tiamat's Floating Castle, Floor 5, as they should be.
• Inns only recover 999 HP/MP per stay.

Version 2.0 Improvements over version 1.2

Final Fantasy 2

• Weapons and magic levelling are hopefully balanced now. Magic is easier to level, weapons take a fair bit longer.
• Practicing a weapon or spell always increases a character's skill, even if the monster attacked is significantly weaker than the character.
• Fixed a display bug concerning the number of hits connected when a character is using a shield.
  • If a character used a weapon in their primary hand, and a shield in their secondary hand, they struck with the shield, and if they hit did no damage. This has been corrected.
  • This bug still is in effect if the character uses a weapon in their secondary hand, and a shield in their primary hand.
• Monsters take double damage if vulnerable to a spell's element. This is reduced from x4 damage. Don't worry, this is still *plenty* of damage.
• If an elemental weapon strikes a vulnerable monster, its Attack rating is increased by 25 (increased from 20).
• If a weapon which has an affinity for damaging a specific family of monster hits that kind of monster, its Attack rating is increased by 25 (increased from 20).
• Strength increases more often. The chance was (number of "fight" selections / 45), and it is now (number of "fight" selections / 32).
• Agility increases are more regulated- more likely early in the game and less likely later on. Before, a random number was rolled between 0 and 255, and if that was lower than a fourth of the character's Evasion, Agility increased. Now, the random number rolled is now between 0 and 250, and the Evasion is a little less important in determining increase. Base chance to increase Agility is 2.0%, and maximum chance is 6.8%.
• Intellect increases more often. The chance was (number of black magic castings / 25), and it is now (number of black magic castings / 16).
• Spirit increases LESS often. The chance was (number of white magic castings / 15), and it is now (number of white magic castings / 20).
• MP increases more often. The chance should be about 25% more likely than it was before.
• When a character gains HP, the increase is halved. The increase is (STA / 2).
• Magic evasion gains take a bit longer. The threshold to gain Magic evasion was 99, and it is now 159.
• Characters start with different stats.
• NPCs also begin with different stats, and should be more balanced with the party when you meet them. Leon and Gordon also join the party already equipped with spells.
• Weapons, armor, and spells have been rebalanced. Enemy direct damage spells will be a bit more dangerous and require more planning to thwart.
• Monster stats have been modified slightly to moderately. Expect that the final bosses will not go down with a couple of well-placed elemental spells.

Final Fantasy 1

• Samurai is recast as a Rogue. Their arsenal has changed slightly, but still cast the same spells (except Slow has been swapped in for Blizzard). Of course Ninjas are still the same old Ninjas
• There have been several slight tweaks to the starting stats and early level ups for each class. In particular, I felt that Red Mages received no love in early level ups, and so I fixed this.
• Accuracy equation has been changed slightly. It is now:
  • Attackers Accuracy - Defender's Evasion + 120 = chance to hit out of 161.
  • The chance to hit is 10% minimum, and 90% maximum.
  • The base chance to hit is 75%, ie when Attacker's Accuracy and Defender's Evasion are equal. This is increased from 67%.
• Spells that grant bonuses to Attack and Defense are now limited in their stackability. The cap on the bonuses was 255 before, now the cap is 50. No more one-shotting Soul of Chaos bosses.
• Damage spells inflict much more randomized damage. Damage is between 1/2 to 3/2 of spell's base power, before applying resistances. Luck and Intellect play an even larger part in the equation. Of course, this goes for enemies and allies.
• The status screen now shows a character's number of strikes per round and their magic defense.
• The chance to be attacked in several dungeons has been tweaked slightly.
• Chaos Temple level 5 now has very interesting, dangerous, and rewarding encounters.
• Astos' Northwest Castle now has numerous Undead-themed random encounters. No walking around this haunted castle with impunity!
• The Sages' Staff has been realigned, and is now a White Wizard only staff named the "Holy Staff". It is pretty awesome, and it *is* rare.
• The more powerful restorative items have had their prices increased dramatically.
• Staves in general are more useful. Defensive type weapons give bonuses to Evasion.
• Elixirs and Megalixirs drop less often.
• The Paladin can now cast Curaga.
• The Hermes' Shoes now cast Haste as advertised. This was an issue in v1.2, as they used to cast Temper.

Known Issues in Version 2.0

• In the Chaos Shrine at the very end of the game, you can run into a patch of enemies that contains Dark Wizards, Dark Fighters, Death Knights and Black Knights. Unless you get the first move and knock out some of them, one of the Dark Fighters will cast Protera on all the enemies. When this happens, the game locks up and crashes. EVERY SINGLE TIME.
• The Equip screen in battle does not display the item quantities clearly.
• After casting the Comet spell, the castor returns the party lineup, and steps back yet again.

Version 2.0 Screenshots

Version 1.2 Improvements over version 1.0

• Made some adjustments (mostly minor) to where monsters appear during the game.
• Made minor adjustments to the AI of various monsters. For instance, Goblin Guards now cast some magic and Yellow Ogres don't run as often.
• Shops completely realigned. Many shops sell more than five items!
• Revamped the game's basic To Hit algorithm. It is generally more difficult for characters to hit monsters and for monsters to hit characters now. There is a minimum hit rate of 5% and a maximum hit rate of 95%. The ACC statistic is very important now for fighters, making Samurai very effective combatants!
  • The old algorithm: Attacker's ACC - Defender's EVA + 205 = chance out of 201 to hit
  • The new algorithm: Attacker's ACC - Defender's EVA + 108 = chance out of 161 to hit
• Comprehensively reworked all monsters ACC and EVA ratings, and realigned the EVA statistic for all Character Classes. Obviously, Samurai and Monks are the best at evasion!
• Revamped the game's Monk's defense algorithm. Monks now receive a defense bonus if no armor is equipped, based on several statistics. Masters receive a constant defense bonus, based on those same statistics. Specifically:
  • Monk/Master old algorithm: Armor (STA/2) + Helm (STA/8) + Gloves (STA/8)
  • Monk new armor rating: (STA/2) + (STA/8), or Armor equipped
  • Monk new helm rating: INT/4, or Helm equipped
  • Monk new gloves rating: AGI/4, or Gloves equipped
  • Master new armor rating: (STA/2) + Armor equipped
  • Master new helm rating: (INT/8) + Helm equipped
  • Master new gloves rating: (AGI/4) + Gloves equipped
• Minor changes to the Character Classes starting stats and developmental curves.
• Removed the 255 damage per hit cap in the code.
• Soul of Chaos bosses now correctly award experience; they didn't in version 1.0 due to a hard-coded conditional check.
• Golden and Silver Apples, and Soma Drops now correctly increase max HP or max MP as expected when the user's maximum is over 999.
• Characters kneel in battle when they have less than 1/5 HP. Previous condition was less than 1/10 HP.
• White Mages and Monks gain a 5 ATK bonus when using weapons.
• The White Magic "Rally" spell heals the Mute condition.
• Direct damage magic has been realigned slightly: Firaga, Thundaga, Blizzaga, Diaga, Holy, and Flare grow in power faster. Fire, Thunder, Blizzard, Pain, and Dia have a lower base damage, making them initially less powerful.
• Ninjas can now cast the Level 6 spell Death.
• Temper increases ATK by 25. Zeal increases all character's ATK by 16. Saber increases ATK by 25 and ACC by 30.
• Dia-family spells now affect the FF4 elemental fiends.
• Minor tweaks to monsters and a number of weapons and armor. You can now configure the weapons/armor pages to show v1.2 or v1.0 items.
• Spells cast by monsters now have the correct graphic display.
• A couple of other miscellaneous display issues have been corrected.

Known Issues in Version 1.200

• The Hermes' Shoes cast Temper when used, and not Haste. This is fixed in version 2.0.
• The Equip screen in battle does not display the item quantities clearly.
• After casting the Comet spell, the castor returns the party lineup, and steps back yet again.

Version 1.0 Improvements over version 0.998

• Weapons tweaked a bit; rare weapons are generally better, rewarding your forays into the bonus dungeons.
• Removed the 2000000 experience point cap, allowing for the full development of your characters.
• Removed the 999 cap for HP and MP! The cap is now 9999, if you can ever get that many Silver and Golden Apples...
• Reset the cap for Strength, Agility, Intellect, Stamina, and Luck to 255. Previous maximum was 99.
• Removed the 255 cap for a character's base Hit Rate. Extraordinarily high level Ninjas will appreciate this.
• Direct Damage spells increase in power much more smoothly now. The nitty gritty: The damage used to increase in a stair-step approach, adding 1 to a multiplier to damage every 10 Intellect points. Now, every 2 Intellect points increases the Intellect multiplier by 1, but damage-wise, each "stair" is less steep to make up for the added "interim stairs".
• Many White Magic spells have been reordered, which may lead to a couple new surprises.
• Many high level Black Magic spells are more powerful, especially when the castor's Intellect rises.
• Elven Balm now behaves as expected in battle.
• The targeting screens for the Poisona and Warp spells, as well as the items Antidote, Mind Balm and Elven Balm now report their description properly.
• Blood Tigers reward party with more experience.

Known Issues in Version 1.000

I have found a bug with the Blind spell... it seems to act as a Confuse spell, and when Lich cast it on my group of four White Wizards, the game locked up. I should have an update to fix this in a couple of days. Please be patient. — fixed

The rest of the issues known are simple display issues that have no real bearing on gameplay.

• When loading a save game from the game menu, that screen only shows three of the digits in their HP/MP (thousands digit is not shown).
• The quantity of items shown in battle equip screen is not displayed cleanly.
• After casting the Comet spell, the castor returns the party lineup, and steps back yet again.
• The graphic for the Haste spell displays when a Clay Golem is casting Temper (as well as a few other slight related anomalies regarding monster's spell graphics).

Screenshots

Version 0.998 Changelog

Changes to the Character Classes

• Fighter/Knight has been renamed to Knight/Paladin, and Thief/Ninja has been renamed to Samurai/Ninja.
• Knight/Paladin is more defensive than offensive. Samurai/Ninja is a lightning fast assault trooper. Monk/Master is ever the unconventional, survivalist type. The White Mage/Wizard is the healer and defensive spellcaster. The Black Mage/Wizard is master of the magical nuke, and the Red Mage/Wizard shows flashes of the defensive spellcasting of the White Mage, the offensive spellcasting of the Black Mage, all while retaining moderate physical prowess.
• Item proficiencies have subtly changed:
  • Knights and Paladins cannot use most dark weapons, or weapons of cruelty.
  • Samurais use heavier swords than did the Thief. Ninjas cannot use axes. Samurais and Ninjas can use only light armor and cannot use conventional shields.
  • Masters can use some katanas, if that is to your liking. Nunchukas are useful for a bit longer in the game.
  • Black Mages cannot use the best daggers.
  • White Mages and Wizards are proficient with almost all armor, and their hammers have been upgraded a bit.
  • Red Mages now are more limited in their weapon choices, but can use a few more of the armors.
• All of the classes have at least some magical ability:
  • Knights gain certain level 1-4 White Magic spells, and Paladins can learn up to level 5 White Magic spells.
  • Samurais can learn certain level 1-4 Black Magic spells, and Ninjas extend that up to level 5.
  • Monks learn special level 1-3 spells (might be classified either Black and White), and Masters can learn up to level 4.
  • The Red, White and Black magicians' spell ability is not significantly changed.
• The experience curve has been modified, making levels harder to attain.
• Characters gain less HP/MP per level, and have a slightly better chance of increasing stats at level up.
• Hit rate increases at a different rate, and the rate can increase after class change:
  • Knight: +2/lvl, Paladin: +3/lvl
  • Samurai: +3/lvl, Ninja: +4/lvl
  • Monk: +2/lvl, Master: +2/lvl
  • Red Mage: +2/lvl, Red Wizard: +3/lvl
  • White Mage: +1/lvl, White Wizard: +2/lvl
  • Black Mage: +1/lvl, Black Wizard: +1/lvl
• Likewise, Magic Defense increases at these rates:
  • Knight: +2/lvl, Paladin: +4/lvl
  • Samurai: +1/lvl, Ninja: +2/lvl
  • Monk: +2/lvl, Master: +3/lvl
  • Red Mage: +3/lvl, Red Wizard: +4/lvl
  • White Mage: +4/lvl, White Wizard: +5/lvl
  • Black Mage: +4/lvl, Black Wizard: +5/lvl

Other modifications to game balance:

• Many weapons and armor are changed. The game's graphics are exactly the same but the strength and properties of each item has been meticulously re-tooled, and the in-game descriptions have also been changed to match.
• Some of the spells have changed. For now, you'll just need to play the mod to find out what exactly has changed! The attack spells gain in power significantly as the caster's intellect increases.
• The hit rate of characters used to have an absolute cap of 255. That cap has been lifted, so characters can normally attack more than eight times.
• When striking a monster prone to the elemental or racial properties of a weapon, the bonus to attack power has increased from 4 to 25. Use weapons that exploit the weaknesses of your enemy!
• When striking a monster prone to the elemental or racial properties of a weapon, the bonus to attack power has increased from 4 to 25. Use weapons that exploit the weaknesses of your enemy, especially in the early to mid game!
• All critical hits gain an additional 50% bonus to attack power (previous bonus was 25%).
• The Dia spell family is effective against evil and demonic creatures, not just against the undead. Yes, it will even work against Garland and Astos!
• Monsters are significantly tougher. The farther you go in the game, the more you will realize that they will not go down with a couple of well-placed sword blows.
• The gold earned from defeating most foes is significantly lowered. You will earn a much greater percentage of your gold by finding treasure chests in the main storyline, so gold management, especially in the early game, is a must.
• Some of the Soul of Chaos bosses are actually demoted in power a bit to make them possible to defeat, given that you will reach them at a lower level than you would have in vanilla Dawn of Souls.
• Every monster that you beat may drop an item. As you beat new monsters, make sure you visit the beastiary to see what you might earn with repeated victories!
• Almost every shop in the game has been tweaked, if even just slightly.

Known Issues in Version 0.998

• When targeting certain items and spells in the status screen, the description fails to appear in the upper-right box, as is expected.
• There is an experience cap of 2000000, which is only good for level 82 in my mod. Look for this to be fixed in a later version.
• The Elven Balm does not act as expected in battle (it acts as the Invis spell). This may prove to be a difficult isuue to fix, please bear with me.

Screenshots

How do I install it?

The following applies to all releases of the Mod of Balance.

• First of all, you will need to obtain a clean GBA ROM of Final Fantasy 1: Dawn of Souls. You are on your own for this step, as it is illegal to provide ROMs of copyrighted material. There are sites that do provide this ROM though, and you should be able to obtain it.
• When you get it, make a backup of it if you would want to play the vanilla version (or, in case I post an updated version of the mod here... I am not going to make version 0.998 to 1.xx patches for my mods, for instance).
• Download Final Fantasy 1— Mod of Balance.
• Use the IPS patching program of your choice to apply the .ips patch to the correct ROM. As I use IPS XP to create my patches, I recommend using this program to patch your ROM.
• Play and enjoy!

Credits

• Huge kudos to Rabite. He's had a ton of great ideas and given me great feedback.
• Credits and thanks are due to LeviathanMist and Robert August de Meijer for their critical insight and constructive criticism. You helped to raise the bar for this mod.
• John Dane, MegaFlux, and DesmondRai in particular from GameFAQs have also weighed in, and offered inspiration and good ideas for the version 2.0 update. Thanks to Vertigo 1 for finding the Protera bug.
• Thanks to all the fans of the previous version of the Mod of Balance who let me know you enjoyed it.
• If you'd like to weigh in as well, here's a forum for discussing the FF1 portion of the mod: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/920240-final-fantasy-i-and-ii-dawn-of-souls/60914390
• And this is the companion thread for FF2: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/920240-final-fantasy-i-and-ii-dawn-of-souls/62688920

Praise and Feedback for the Mod of Balance

Copyright notice

The content in this portion of the website pertains to "software" known as "Final Fantasy" and "Final Fantasy Dawn of Souls", which is the property of Square Enix. The mod is completely unofficial, and was an amateur fan-made undertaking. I respect the intellectual property of Square Enix, and under no circumstances will I distribute the ROMs for either the NES or the GBA versions of Final Fantasy. The patch available for download is a derivative work and is completely my own. It is offered totally free of charge.