So, just a few days ago, Fauntleroy released another General Improvement romhack, this time for Phantasy Star IV- while other hacks were meant to make the gameplay of earlier games less clunky, he still felt that there was some room for improvement even in the more modern-playing PSIV. Seeing as it's the Phantasy Star game I play the most, I'm pretty much obligated to have a look-see.
Beginning through Zio Fort
-Names are now consistent with the rest of the series: Dr. Lubetz is now properly Dr. Luveno, Palma instead of Parma, etc.
-Fauntleroy has once again taken a hammer and wrench to the script. Whiel the modifications aren't as enormous as for Phantasy Star III, it's mainly about adding some connective tissue and adjusting phrasing to make things less clunky and awkward. For example, the flashback in the principal's office is now eased into. Also, Zio is referred to as "that fanatic" rather than "that false magician."
-Alys also offers to introduce the Principal to the next five most dangerous things in the world if he doesn't spill the beans.
-The books in the Academy now have their own unique titles and descriptions, rather than all being "Some horrid math book."
-Shop prices for weapons and armor have been slightly reduced.
-TP costs have been adjusted for some techs, plus Alys starts with regular NER instead of SANER- apparently NER existed in the game data, it just wasn't implemented.
-The children's books in Saya's schoolhouse no longer reference other Sega games, they're now all references to PSI and PSII with such titles as:
"The Village of Fibbers"
"The Hero Ango and his Angry Sword"
"More Tales of the Man in Blue"
"The Life of Queen Alis"
And a bunch more besides.
-The requirements for combination attacks have been loosened- Flaeli can now be used in Triblaster.
-Alys isn't quite as forgiving about Grandfather Dorin blabbing her vital statistics to any passer-by.
-Rune's warning to Chaz about taking on Zio is now extended to Alys, plus he promises they'll talk more about the Zio problem once he gets back from his trip.
-Hahn can now use heavy shields (Titanium, Ceramic, etc.) so he's not as fragile as he was in the original.
-"Graphite" equipment has now been renamed to the Fiber- equipment from PSII.
-Seed's dialogue is somewhat expanded concerning the state of Motavia's problems as well as Rika's nature. A couple of the details added are things like "...The systems are currently operating at the bare minimum required to sustain the creatures that were introduced from other worlds." And "...If this continues, even creatures native to Motavia will have difficulty surviving." and "...Rika is a hybrid perfectly adapted to Motavia, and this may be the key to the future of the Palmans as well."
-The tech and skill learning order has been significantly restructured. Saner is only learned at Lv. 9 or 10, Chaz learns Tsu a bit later, and Rika learns Sar way earlier, presumably to that the player can actually do something if Juza decides to be 200% mad and uses ForceFlash every turn.
-Chest rewards have been redone. not only is there generally more equipment in chests, but there's also now two Laser Slashers available- One in Seed's lab in addition to the one in Kadary.
-Zio's new dialogue gives a little more insight into why he's so far gone- When Alys tries to explain to him that if this continues, he'll die too, his response is: "I too, am a worm- Who am I to question the will of an almighty god?"