/vr/ - Retro Games

Quality of Life?
More like "I'm too much of a fucking pussy to admit this game is too hard so I'll cheat by using hacks and call them improvements!"

Is quality of life the opposite of artificial difficulty?

>>8659438
true
>>8659342
breath of fire patch to add dash button

>>8659342
Any time I start an NES game, I look for one, because usually they're good and serve only to make gameplay better. Zelda 1's overworld mini-map, for example, is a huge improvement.

Recently, a full revamp for Zelda 1 came out that I think can truly be called the definitive edition (but no FDS audio sadly).
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5752/

Only quality of life I want is for games with an isometric view to have controls that require diagonals if you can move in 8 directions. Fuck pressing up to go northeast.

>>8659558
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1211/
Forgot to link an example of what I'm talking about. This shit is necessary for me. Call me a pussy or whatever. I don't want to have to press a diagonal to go south, fuck you.

>>8659563
according to the only review this delete the turning animations which is stupid

>>8659569
I'd rather have a playable game than some animations

>>8659342
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1111/
Better controls for earthbound. Works amazingly well. Such a seamless hack.

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/405/

I really like this one for Super Metroid. It changes the controller inputs to make them like the GBA games, but keeps the physics and mechanics the same otherwise. It just makes the game more comfortable to play without removing any of its depth.

>>8659623
This is something I could get behind. Most QoL hacks dumb down the games, but in this case EBs menus and controls were already dumb as fuck and antiquated even for a SNES game.

any of those pokemon hacks that just get rid of version exclusives

>>8659342
Hard coding GG cheats to games is ghey.

>>8659484
here you are chief:
www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=31559.0

>>8659438
It’s funny how common this mentality is.

>>8659438
Let me guess using more than 1 quarter is a cardinal sin, there is no such thing as artificial difficulty, you don't finish half the video games you collect, and nothing was good after the early 2000s?

Too often, "quality of life" is just a synonym for "casualization"

>>8659623
meh, you could already do most of that with the L button and play with a single hand

>>8659885
Thank you, but I am not fond of this at all.

>>8659638
Being "like Dragon Quest" is a part of Earthbound. The menus are fine and the shoulder buttons allow you to interact with a single button press. I wouldn't use this patch.

>>8660150
But being like dragon quest isn't a good thing, despite what you and everybody else in your prefecture thought in 1995.

>>8660159
Imagine being this American.

>>8660141
it looks like what would be released nowadays, you gotta admit ugly or not it's professional

>>8659342
I really hate when control layouts get changed between games, especially when there's no option for custom controls. I played Sonic Rush all the way through twice, but dropped Rush Adventure after an hour and change because they changed the controls. So my favorite QoL hacks are the ones that restore previous layouts, like the KSS control hack for KSS Ultra.

>>8660197
No you're right. It is very ugly, though.

>>8660159
>But being like dragon quest isn't a good thing
Doesn't matter. Earthbound is in part a parody-ish take on Dragon Quest, it's part and parcel.

>>8659342
Is there one for 3 that adds a marathon mode so you just transition from one act to the next like in a sonic game instead of having to navigate the hub word puzzles

>>8659342
I like them only for things that make sense without altering the core gameplay. Things like adding a run button to the FF games, fixing unfun glitches and bugs, or fleshing out things in the game that had a certain intention but were implemented in a subpar manner (thinking of the cannon warps in Secret of Mana here - the VWF hack changes the list from just numbers to the actual locations).

It gets a bit more iffy when they start doing things like overhauling inventory systems and such, as sometimes the game and its difficulty is designed around them. Sure, you can say doing so is justified for decreasing the frustration level, but it can also be seen as casualization.

Mostly bugfixes and small graphical fixes are my favorite kind of QoL hacks. The patch that fixes the animation error in SMB2(USA), typo fixes, stuff like that. The PAL hack for Metal Gear that makes it so you open any door you have a card for instead of having to play menus for all your cards is nice too.

>>8660459
>The PAL hack for Metal Gear that makes it so you open any door you have a card for instead of having to play menus for all your cards is nice too.
That sounds great. It sucks that a lot of great hacks like this break retro cheevos.

>Hey guys, I made a simple patch to draw 9 spells every time and make the game less tedious for completionists and-
>REEEEEEEEEEEEEE CHEAT, CHEAT, NOT WHAT DEVELOPERS INTENDED, NOT THE REAL GAME, REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

>>8659484
I don't like how the 0 for the keys is a different font than the 0 for other items
Why would you do that

>>8661475
you decide to be a completionist, you agree to a certain amount of tedium. It’s just part of the deal

>>8660159
mods deleted my previous post but you’re still wrong

>>8659342
just play the game

>>8661540
>REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE CHEAT, CHEAT, NOT REAL COMPLETION, REEEEEEEE

>>8661579
>but mommy, I want it now. right now!

>>8659342
A bunch hacks that ad save support to password games such as wonder boy 3 and spellcaster, super mario 3.

On n64 duke 3d and turok have reversed analog controls for looking, pretty unbelievable that I would put up with that back in the day. Hacks make it normal. I literally can't play it in its stock form.

Elite for nes mod to work on ntsc.

Atari 2600 hack for pal 60, allow 60 hz on pal consoles.

Mortal Kombat and Street fighter 2 enhancement hacks.

Adding cd music to games.
https://youtu.be/ZDog_CfJCEE?t=86

>>8661475
half the people on this board don't even play games, just bitch about others.

>>8661526
That's an infinite sign.

>>8659342
I definitely think Majora's Mask Redux is worth getting, just for putting the essential masks and ocarina on the dpad so you can reduce menuing

I like actual QoL hacks, especially ones that fix actual bugs, it's the easy modo style of cheat patches I frankly don't really care for

>>8659438
You clearly haven't played Sonic Advance 2 because getting all the required SP Rings is the biggest pain in the ass I've ever seen in a video game

>>8659632
Didn't Super Metroid have button mapping, or am I misremembering?

>>8661780
it does, but nothing equivalent to hold/tap a shoulder button to arm your missiles/power bombs, which everyone agrees is a marked improvement over pressing select multiple times.

>>8661780
It did

>>8661775
I barely did it while looking at online maps. How the actual fuck was anybody supposed to do that without help?

>>8659342
> Sonic Advance 2 QoL
So does the patch just replace the whole game?

>>8659623
>Attempting to interact with the uninteractable no longer produces a “No problem here.” message.
Soulless

>>8659438
FPBP

Depends on what the hack considers Quality of Life.

If all it does is streamline menus and reduce downtime to make the game more enjoyable while not affecting the challenge presented by the actual gameplay, that's great and I'm all for it.
Making gameplay requirements less challenging or demanding is decidedly not "Quality of Life". At that point it's become a difficulty hack and should be disregarded.

Ocarina of Time Redux is a great example.
Faster block pushing, cutting down arbitrary wait times, and mapping frequently used items like boots and ocarina to the otherwise unused D-pad so you don't need to use the menu.
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5138/

And something like Shin Pokemon Red, while not egregious, skirts the line between QoL and difficulty hack.
Reducing menu tedium with contextual HM, Rod, and Bike usage, a visual indicator for whether a monster is owned, instant text speeds, and advanced stat readouts (if you're autistic) are all great QoL additions. But it also includes gameplay-altering changes like trainer rematches to cut down on grinding, more TMs in stores, AI tweaks, etc that aren't necessarily "QoL" but also don't invalidate the game's challenges.
https://github.com/jojobear13/shinpokered/

>>8659973
>no
>no
>only faggots collect
>yes

>>8661775
And then the Special Stages are the worst in the series on top of that.

>>8662309
Yeah, the worst in a series full of already bad special stages. People who complain about not being able to see what's coming in Sonic 2 wouldn't complain as much if they'd played the Advance 1 and 3 special stages

That line between what's fair and what's not for a QoL hack is pretty blurred. However I am of the opinion that cutting down grinding on a game that does not require grinding is stupid, and if you're playing a game that does require a lot of grinding, why the fuck are you playing that in the first place?

>>8662339
I guess people disagree on how much grinding is acceptable

>>8659342
Anyone who likes OoT should try this patcher:
https://github.com/Admentus64/Patcher64Plus-Tool/releases

It lets you customize OoT to your liking. You can change the difficulty, get faster block pushing, skip cutscenes, assign boots and ocarina to the D-Pad and much more

>>8662381
Oh and I should mention it has tons of options for MM as well.

>>8659342
>he didn't get all SP rings as should
Filtered

>>8659438
Based

>>8659438

>>8661584
Yes. My tolerance for tedium is lower than yours.

While I will say there is a place for bugfixes/graphical fixes, changes to the gameplay are off limits if you want to say you actually beat the game imo

>>8661946
kek

>>8659438
fpbp

I don't care what you can do with mods, your first time playing a game should always be vanilla and if you can only offer a modded perspective on a game your opinion is worthless.

>>8662339
I think it depends on how grindy it is compared to the rest of the game. For example, I don't really fault people who use Sonic Adventure 2 hacks to increase the amount of Chao stats items give you or reduce the hours and hours it takes for the damn things to rebirth. The Chao garden expects you to put in a huge time commitment to get much out of it, and sometimes you just want to do a shorter playthrough of the game.

>>8662219
>only faggots collect
So when did you find out you were gay?