Big release for my Recomp of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.

https://github.com/james2doyle/ffta-recomp/releases/tag/v2.0

Bunch more screenshots here: https://imgur.com/a/LCpEz7R

In v2.0 we have lots of features unlocked:

• Native raylib engine and launch screen — the V2 backend replaces the SDL/recomp-ui stack. The launch screen has box art, a native ROM picker, and drag-and-drop; the in-game settings menu is now raygui with Display, Graphics, Audio, Save states, and Assist sections.
• Steam Deck / SteamOS AppImage — built in a pinned Debian 12 container (glibc 2.35 floor), with Game Mode defaults (borderless fullscreen and the resize-driven widescreen view). It unpacks to a writable XDG data directory; updating the AppImage keeps the ROM pick, settings, and saves.
• Shader and frame stack — MMPX edge smoothing, sharp scaling, pixel grid, LCD subpixel grille, LCD boost, dither, and deband, plus frame interpolation and LCD ghosting. Each is toggleable in the in-game menu.
• Fast-forward 2–10x — hold Tab, 2, or the right trigger, or tap the on-screen FF pill to latch it. The speed is set in Assist and persists across sessions.
• Widescreen — validated up to "448 px" on desktop; Android uses a density-scaled expanded view.
• Android controllers and touch — built-in, USB, and Bluetooth pads work label-wise; the pad's menu/center button, the Back key, or a touch long-press / three-finger tap opens the settings menu. Android versionCode is now 2.
• Save states — slot selector, save, load, and resume under Save states, alongside cartridge saves.
• Strict fully-static execution — zero interpreter fallback on executed paths, kept there by the self-healing coverage loop.

I'm aware there is another recomp for FFTA. We started around the same time and have delivered slightly different solutions. I think my approach is more in trying to keep with the original feel. I havent changed any graphics or moved any of the UI. I also heavily focused on Android support.

Just like my other release, this project uses emibios, so you do not need to dump your GBA Bios. Just your game.

One of the reasons I jumped to v2.0 is that I did an entire migration away from the SDL2 gbarecomp and into my own fork called GBArecompX: https://github.com/james2doyle/gbarecompx

This fork is backed instead by Raylib. If you are aware of Raylib, is it a great project. One of the big unlocks with Raylib is support for Shaders! So now we have a few shaders included out of the box. Not only that, Raylib has native Android support AND HTML5. But no HTML5 build is working right now.

They also have their own GUI library so yet another dependency was dropped. And the UI is uniform between desktop and Android, with the exception of the launcher on Android which is native.

As a developer, one of the things Raylib unlocks is headless testing. That allowed me to write a lot more tests to make sure things are solid. Any new bugs get a failing test that we can make green. I also took the time to chop up the backend into an interface that Raylib conforms too. So if you really wanted, you can now implement a different backend (say SDL3) without too much effort.

I'd like to try another GBA game (a more obscure one) with gbarecompx. If anyone tries it out I would be happy to hear about it.

This update is badass! Going to cut down lvl up/down time in half

Looks like the phone version got a Fast forward option along with controller support.
Still a bit slower than TIC but it's nice to see them updating the app after all these years.

Hopefully we can get NG+ as well?

Long, Long time player of every version of FFT. I’ve never really done the Zeklaus Desert Trap Trick. I don’t know if it even works in the Ivalice Chronicles version of the game, although I assume it does. I know that generally the idea is to level down as a weak class, or a class whose stats you don’t want, and then level up as a class you like, but the mechanics get confusing. I’ve tried it before briefly and I think I just weakened my characters, and then I kind of gave up, lost the will power to carry through with the super crunchy details.

Other than Zeklaus Desert, are there other Maps that you can do the Trick on, just for variety? What’s the set up, in terms of abilities? How long does the process take? What are the best classes to LVL Down and then Up? I guess it depends on the build you’re going for right?

I’ve played so many rounds of battles and beaten the game so many times, but Ivalice Chronicles is the first time I’ve been really curious about all the nitty gritty content like hidden items, monster breeding, poaching, treasure hunting, and all the endgame / postgame stuff, because the addition of the new features and NG+ Mode really breathes life into one of my favorite games ever.

I’m the user that posted the question about Knight Swords in Araguay Woods and Midlights Deep the other day. It’s working great! I have found this Reddit community to be extremely helpful and friendly, so I hope it’s okay that I ask for support with this endeavor too…I figure I’m not the only one who wants to min max my private army 😂

TYSM in advance for any help or advice!

https://github.com/hitsmaxft/fftadecomp

WIP

Maybe some people don't know what the point of doing this is.
Actually, I'm working on an LLM experiment, and this game was my childhood hobby - I'm using it as a subject for analysis and rewriting.
I know that there are at least four or more decomp ffta projects underway right now, to see whose tool can do it faster. At least so far, my progress is faster than the other projects, so I'm just sharing this here.

Don't be so sensitive, it's just an AI experiment/game

I'm guessing it might take about a week? Who knows if I can't find a way to speed it up