Like Unleashed, it changes the abilities of the party and the strength of enemies, but :
1) Its main purpose is not the difficulty (d'oh wrong website?!) but the overall renewing of the game experience.
2) The extend to what has been modified is quiet larger that for Unleashed (AI has been modified, some enemies use new abilities, some "mini-game" parts have been modified, etc...).
One of the point of the mod is too enhance the statuses. Some basic spells deal statuses additionnally to their damage.
Here is a list of the principal changes in the player's abilities :
Zidane
Trance skills deal much less damage
What's that?! inflicts Blind to everyone now
Annoy has been replaced by Free Energy : a regular attack with 100% accuracy and no backrow reduce
Sacrifice has been replaced by Regenerate : use an ether on the team
Lucky Seven has been replaced by Warm Up : increase Zidane's strength by 25%
Thievery has been replaced by Transcend : bring Zidane to Trance
Vivi
Fire spells have a chance to inflict Heat (base : 5%, 10% and then 20%)
Ice spells have a chance to inflict Freeze (base : 5%, 10% and then 20%)
Thunder spells have a chance to inflict Slow (base : 10%, 20% and then 40%)
Slow has been replaced by Annoy (80% of inflicting trouble)
Demi has been balanced from 30% of max HP with 40% accuracy to 25% of max HP for 80% accuracy
Death has been replaced by Gradual Petrify (75% accuracy)
Break is now an Earth elemental attack in addition to inflicting Petrify (30% accuracy)
Water sometimes inflict Shell to its targets
Meteor has been replaced by Waterga : Water damage plus Silence (50% accuracy)
White Magic
Panacea only cures Poison but is multi-targeting
Stona only cures Gradual Petrify but is multi-targeting
Confuse and Berserk are now magical attacks in addition to inflicting statuses
Most of status-inflicting spells have their accuracy upscaled
Holy sometimes inflict Regen to its target
Dagger
The full powered Ark now deal damage twice, allowing to deal more than 9999
Eiko
Fenril is a wind eidolon by default
Quina
LV5 Death has been replaced by LV5 Flare : inflict non-elemental damage to enemies with lvl multiple of 5
LV4 Holy has been replaced by LV4 Def-less : randomly decrease defence of enemies with lvl multiple of 4
LV3 Def-less has been replaced by LV3 Aerial Slash : inflict Wind damage to enemies with lvl multiple of 3
Doom has been replaced by Lightning : Thunder damage plus Silence to one target (50% accuracy)
Roulette has been replaced by Self-Destruct : convert Quina's current HP into damage on all the enemies
Aqua Breath has 75% accuracy instead of 50%
Matra Magic has been replaced by Zombie Breath : non-elemental damage plus Zombie on one target (20% accuracy)
Limit Glove has been replaced by HP Switching : switch Quina's current HP with an ally's ones
Twister has 50% to inflict Float in addition to its Wind damage
Earth Shake has 100% to inflict Slow in addition to its Earth damage
Frog Drop has been replaced by Devil's Snack : use a Dead Pepper on all enemies
Freeze has been replaced by Cocytos : Ice damage and inflict Slow on one target (100%)
Mustard Bomb has been replaced by Phlegethon : Fire damage and inflict Haste on one target (100%)
Freya
Lancer's damage are increased, as well as its MP cost
Dragon Breath has been replaced by Dragon Life : apply Auto-Life on Freya
Six Dragons has became single-targeting for 15 MP
Cherry Blossom is more powerful
Dragon's Crest has been replaced by Ikari : deal physical damage and Trouble to all the enemies (50%)
Amarant
Aura has been replaced by Starburst : deal 60 times an enemy's level as damage
Demi Shock's accuracy has been upscaled from 50% to 80%
Countdown has been replaced by Concentrate : increase an ally's Magic by 33% for 28 MP
Steiner
Iai Strike has been replaced by Quadraslash : a physical attack using the elemental power of Fire, Ice, Thunder and Water
The accuracy of the 4 break abilities have been upscaled
Thunder Slash now inflict 21% of target's max HP as thunder damage
Climhazzard has been replaced by a weaker Shock : deal 2 times the physical damage on one target
Shock has been replaced by Sword Dance : deal 2 times the physical damage on all enemies ; it's a magical attack
Marcus
Added 2 abilities for the time he is with you on the disc 2 : Strong Hit (more damage but harm Marcus) and Contaminate (100% to inflict Poison)
Also,
Ragtime Mouses Quizz has been refreshed
The most frustrating bug of the game has been corrected : the last Tetra Master rank displays properly
Few weapons can be used by several characters (for instance, Dagger can use the... dagger)
The ultimate weapons give a big boost to main characteristics (Strength, Magic, Speed and Spirit)
Enemies' spells have been modified using similar principles as the player's spells
Phoenix Pinions now cure Doom ; they also cost and sell cheaper
A mini-game has been re-added at the beginning of disc 3. It was half present in the game's code and had the following comment in the japanese version :
Quote
また制作途中なのでバグレポート不要で〜す
Which means in short that it was too much buggy and boring to be in the final game. While the bugs have been corrected, it will likely not keep you on tenterhooks for hours ^^"
Excalibur II can now be acquired by two different methods :
1) Reach and beat Hades in less than 14 hours,
2) Get all the treasures of the game (there are 3 little mistakes allowed) to obtain the higher treasure rank. Some particular cases don't count (Stilzkin's sells and Ragtime Mouses's/Ozma/Hades rewards mainly). Kupo Nuts don't count by theirself but all the one-time rewards count (roughly 1 per disc from disc 2). Similarly, Chocographs don't count when you unearth them but the treasure themselves count. Also, Mimics count. In the end, that makes 404 unique treasures to find.
There are more, but I'll let you find it by yourself. Have fun !
