Farland Story 6 (untested version)
---------------
Translation by BTAxis (contact at BTAxis@gmx.net)
VERY Special thanks to _Bnu, whithout whose crappy unt.exe and unt2.exe I would never have been able to get this done so easily.
---------------

ABOUT THIS TRANSLATION
----------------------

Hey, I actually finished work on this. Wow. I actually had a lot less fun with this game than with the others. The beginning of the story was a bit boring, so I put off work for a couple of months. I kicked myself into working on it again, however, and the story did improve near the end. Unfortunately, the game is bugged (at least, my version is bugged. It was already on a HDI when I got it, so it might be a bad install or something. If you are sure you have a stable version, contact me). The bugs caused me to get very pissed off indeed, and ruined my fun. I have endeavoured to work around them as much as I can, but some persist. More on the bugs in the next section.

The game itself is still basically the same thing, but there are a couple of differences worth mentioning. First of all, every character now has a unique special ability that he or she can use instead of attacking. I have listed all the abilities and their effects in the next section. I feel this addition to the game formula is pretty neat. Also, the monsters are now configurable to drop specific items. Mosters drop either gold or the item they carry, if any. The experience system has been slightly changed. The drop-off in experience gain is a bit less steep, otherwise the idea is the same as in FS5.

As for the store ability, it's again pretty useless. It only changes the attack animation. The attacks don't become any stronger (why?), but at least none of them actually become weaker, and some of the alternative animations are pretty funny. Oh well. There are, however, ultimate weapons that are stronger than the storable ones in the game that you may or may not get. Some of those are very powerful.

I really hope FS7 is better than this.

- BTAxis, 22/11/2003

NOTES WHILE PLAYING
-------------------

- This version of the translation has not been playtested. You will probably notice some glitches (like text written through other text) and typos. Please give me your feedback so I can correct these issues. And DON'T complain about random crashes. Those aren't my fault.

- You will still need to use a Japanese font to play the game. Some characters are still in doublebyte, and can't be represented in singlebyte (or just look better in doublebyte). This goes for the star symbol, for example.

- Some monster and weapon names, but in particular most terrain names are severely truncated. It's pretty bad in this game. This has - yet again - to do with the names being in the executable, and I can't change the length of the original string (until someone teaches me some advanced NEC V20 assembly hacking).

- Like FS3, FS4 and FS5, I have increased the difficulty level for FS6. Note that you can revert the game back to its original difficulty by not replacing the stage.unt file.

- I have also tinkered with the weapons in this one. Some weapons were too strong, especially the ones that hit multiple times. Others were too weak (like magic weapons for strength-oriented characters).

- I have experienced a bug in the game with the area effect weapons. When you use them, the game will crash at random at a later time. It does this even with the original game files, so it's not something I did. It seems to be a little better after stage 20, but I wouldn't bet on it.

- The game also crashes if Ghiario attacks a Guardian on stage 34. It seems to manage if a Guardian attacks Ghiario, though, and since you are supposed to die in one hit from those guys (yes, really, this was in the original game) you should be fine if you just don't try to fight them. You can safely attack the Guardians on stage 37 and 39.

- More crashes. On stage 39, after you beat Archon, the game can't deal with some of the character portraits anymore. As a result, I had to leave out some lines. It should still make sense, but there was more originally.

- All of the characters in this game have a special ability. Using this ability results in various effects, and often you can only use the ability once every so many turns. Here's a list of abilities and their effects:

Sneak: Grey can initiate Sneaking mode, during which he can't attack and moves more slowly, but he cannot be attacked himself. This is useful to prevent enemies from attacking him during their turn (remember, if Grey dies the game is over). Sneaking takes up a turn, but you can un-Sneak and attack in the same turn.

Heal: This ability causes all units in a radius to be healed for 20% of their H.P. Be careful with this ability, because it heals enemies too! The big advantage, however, is that dead units healed this way immediately recover instead of having to wait a turn. So, if you have several casualties, consider Healing them all in one go and restoring their H.P. with items. This ability is also the only way for healers to heal themselves.

Snipe: Sniping causes a target to be unable to counter-attack this turn. This ability is very useful against strong enemies like bosses.

Brawl: This is one of the more useless abilities. It causes all units in a large radius to be damaged for about 10 H.P. (some of this damage is added to the Brawler). It also damages your own units, except when they have a Plug in their inventory. Brawling will never reduce a unit's H.P. below 1.

Carry: Carry can actually be pretty useful in some situations. Some units are very slow on some terrain like bridges or stairs, and you can also ferry your units across holes or water with this ability. You can only Carry people who haven't moved yet, and carrying expends the passenger's turn, but on the other hand you can also transport dead units, which is a plus.

Talk: Talking to enemies causes your unit to engage in conversation with a monster. When you do, the monster may do one of three things: it may stay and damage your unit a little, it may stay and do nothing or it may leave (in which case you don't gain any experience, but you do get any items the monster may drop). The Talk ability does not take your unit's turn, so if you fail you can still attack (or run).

Dive: Diving is similar to Sneak, except it can only done on water. Your unit will also gain movement in water and can't go on land while submerged (again, resurfacing does not expend a turn). The unit can't be attacked, but can attack itself (in which case the enemy WILL counterattack).

Scan: This is a major asset. Scanning results in the discovery of any hidden chests or passages in quite a wide radius. This is extremely useful to sweep the map for hidden treasures. It does expend a turn, but can be used every turn.

Sex Appeal: This is kind of a super version of Snipe. It wil cause all units in a radius to stop counterattacking and lose their next turn. This affects your own units as well, so be careful. According to the description, it only works on males, but apparently it works for dragons and wyrms as well. I guess Japanese monsters like human-shaped girls. Unfortunately, many other enemies are immune to Sex Appeal.

Arrest: You can dispatch an enemy immediately with this ability. You gain no experience, and you don't gain any items. It also doesn't work on some enemies.