Final Fantasy VII NES Hack Released, confirmed working on NesDS

[Another World]

ShenZhen Nanjing Technology is a company perhaps you may not have heard of. For years they have been releasing homebrew for the Famicom/NES. Their games receive physical releases, yet they are not officially licensed. Among their releases are such titles as Pokemon, Harvest Moon, and Golden Sun. In 2005 they released Final Fantasy VII, a game which was quickly dumped and dissected, and found wanting. Many aspects were missing, the story had problems, graphics weren't quite what gamers expected, etc, but the core elements were present. Sometimes, that is just enough to entice a journey of epic ROM-hacking proportions.

For more than 4 years the game has been hacked apart by Lugia2009. He set out to learn about the game and ended up reinventing it. The ROM-hacking community has been involved since the project was officially announced more than a year ago, by offering sprites, music, suggestions, beta testing, and more. The project posts read like a blog, containing all types of incredible information that help to paint the picture of exactly what this journey has entailed, and it is recommended reading!

For those who ever wished to play FF VII on the NES, this is as good as it is ever going to get, and it's rather amazing! The hack includes a full and updated English translation, a new title screen, new graphics, new music, new events, new areas, and much more. It requires mapper 163, so request support for your favorite NES Flash Kit or emulator. Our community will be happy to hear that the game has been reported working on NesDS. You will need to find the original, and unpatched, Chinese ROM. The ROM is usually called Final Fantasy VII (C) or [NJ063] Final Fantasy VII, and has a CRC value of E5BF8F0C. Remember, never ask for ROMs on GBAtemp.

The download contains two IPS patches, both of which are explained in the included ReadME. The translation patch is the original patch that added the run button (B) and translated the game into English. This patch was included as a nod to its original developer, as he greatly influenced this project. This patch should not be applied, and applying both patches will cause issues. Only apply the Final Fantasy VII Advent Children (Finished Version).ips patch.

A special thanks must go out to everyone who was involved with this project. Now, stop reading and go get your retro game on!

FF VII NES Patch Download
Filetrip Mirror
Project Post

 

[2ndApex]

brb playing FFVII on my GBA

 

[DSoryu]

Wow I did'nt heard of this before, and looks amazing, thanks for the info

 

[Bobbyloujo]

Wasn't there already an English translation of this? I seem to remember there being one. This one sounds a lot more rounded, though.

 

[Another World]

yes, but this is FAR more than just a retranslation. this is pretty much a demake of the PS1 game (minus a few things) to the NES.

-another world

 

[Anorhc]

This is very impressive. I just finished the first reactor, beat the boss and on got on the train. Very faithful to the original so far.

 

[GHANMI]

The sad irony is that all of this hard work is going inevitably to be put by this same bootleg Chinese company back in cartridges to be sold again... as Final Fantasy XVI NES probably. They would edit the title screen and that's it.

 

[Prans]

brb playing FFVII on my GBA

Wait... How do you do that? Do you use an NES emulator for GBA like PocketNes?

 

[Prans]

Hackers never stop impressing us! Congrats to the team!

 

[Pedeadstrian]

It's sad, really. These guys put more effort into Final Fantasy VII than Square Enix did with their re-release.

 

[BORTZ]

Dude...

Hey, AW, whats missing? Why did you say "minus a few things"?

 

[Gahars]

A shame they chose VII. One more up and they could've called it Final Fantasy VIII-Bit.

Damn, hackers, get your shit together.

 

[BORTZ]

A shame they chose VII. One more up and they could've called it Final Fantasy VIII-Bit.

Damn, hackers, get your shit together.

Thats... actually really clever...

[flame container]
Too bad 8 is pretty bad
[/flame container]

 

[PROTOBOY]

About nesDS its dead ???

No updates since long time ago???

 

[JackSakamoto]

Pokémon on NES.. Brr,I remember.
Well,it seems awesome. Gotta try.

 

[pasc]

Muhahaha, finally they released it on a platform of the Manufacturer they intented to all along.

And I figured it all out.

Square Enix = ShenZhen Nanjing Technology !

 

[loco365]

So I used potions on Barrett and Cloud. Now I can't back out. Not sure if that's a bug or if I'm missing a button. I've hit B to no avail, unless FCEUX isn't compatible.

 

[The Catboy]

it works on my Dingoo running the latest OpenDingux on the latest fceux, but does not work on nester. I am also running the dingoonity custom firmware with the Dingoo NES emulator 1.6 and it works on that as well.

 

[Another World]

it seems a lot of users didn't read the readme and are just applying the patches. the english patch was included by the hacker as a nod to the guy who did the first english translation (and added the run button). if you apply both patches your rom could do some funny things, may not work on some emus, etc. i'll update the first post with this warning now.

Hey, AW, whats missing? Why did you say "minus a few things"?

he used space in the rom to add things that were not in the original game. but there was not enough room to fit everything. i can't recall most of what is misisng, but i know there were a few posts in the lengthy project discussion [at romhacking.net] that will outline what could not be included. right off the start i do recall things like the first fights at the reactor are with random enemies that should not be there, yet there is no way to fix this yet. 2 characters were not included, yet. i think 1 event related to the chocobos was not included, but i'm not sure about that. like i said, give the project discussion a read. it is safe to skim by jumping to posts from Lugia2009.

Wait... How do you do that? Do you use an NES emulator for GBA like PocketNes?

there does exist a build of pocketnes by maxzhou88 (k1 gba sp/k101 revo fame) that supports mapper 163. this port was used for the embedded version of pocketnes included with the k1 handhelds. it was originally listed on pocketheaven but removed because maxzhou88 only uploaded a compiled build that included the chinese rom. there is a build on maxzhou88 homepage in the GBA folder, perhaps this is the emu only? the page contains roms so i can't link to it, but a quick google search of his name should lead you to the directory structure.

one interesting thing is that if you google maxzhou88, you'll find references to him having worked for a FC chinese company. his bio says he lives in Shenzhen. could he have been working on the games that ShenZhen Nanjing Technology published? perhaps FF VII and that is why he made a pocketnes build with just that 1 game?

-another world

 

[Walker D]

Awesome! I was watching this and his other pokemon project for some time ...Lugia2009 deserves some taps on his back
(he once said that the Pokemon Yellow project was on hold until he was done with the FF VII ...hope to see it done soon too)