Finished BNW, where should I go next?

So I enjoyed BNW with Nowea's patch enough that I knocked it out in about a week. 

I'm interested in other difficulty enhancing rebalances of my childhood. I see a lot of them on ngplus (the FF7 New Threat caught my eye) but I thought before I invest into another game I'd try asking the community.

Which of these mods out there are on par with BNW? 

EDIT:

Obligatory self-promotion.

Recently finished bnw myself  and am also interested in this. I heard about the aforementioned ff7 mod - if anyone here as on hand experience with it, I'd be interested to hear.

Feedback is generally positive, Disc 3 gets some rumbling for the leap up for certain optional bosses and the enemy toughness going from Midgar Raid to North Crater; the latest patch a few days ago cut down enemy HP and Defence though with tweaks to equipment, Materia, and enemy AI/attacks to alleviate the issue a bit. If you do give it a go, then I recommend playing on Normal mode.

Info on the mod:

Frequently Asked Questions: What is FF7 NT?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WzpOJvhl0y08VvrhchjToVrJaART1iPYcFSoUlnCOI8/edit

FF7 NT Mod Documentation
http://www.mediafire.com/file/8gsq2hylgfjxkpd/Documentation.zip

3 hours ago, Sega Chief said:

Feedback is generally positive, Disc 3 gets some rumbling for the leap up for certain optional bosses and the enemy toughness going from Midgar Raid to North Crater; the latest patch a few days ago cut down enemy HP and Defence though with tweaks to equipment, Materia, and enemy AI/attacks to alleviate the issue a bit. If you do give it a go, then I recommend playing on Normal mode.

Info on the mod:

Frequently Asked Questions: What is FF7 NT?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WzpOJvhl0y08VvrhchjToVrJaART1iPYcFSoUlnCOI8/edit

FF7 NT Mod Documentation
http://www.mediafire.com/file/8gsq2hylgfjxkpd/Documentation.zip

I guess I didn't emphasize enough that I like a challenge, normal mode is not for me, unless that is their hard mode. 

22 minutes ago, SGFTI said:

 

I guess I didn't emphasize enough that I like a challenge, normal mode is not for me, unless that is their hard mode. 

Oh god the grinding. As much as I remember enjoying that one as a kid, I can't get into playing it now. I've read that a big part of the problem was a bug in stats ained while leveling.

4 hours ago, SGFTI said:

 

I guess I didn't emphasize enough that I like a challenge, normal mode is not for me, unless that is their hard mode. 

New Threat has an Hard Mod called Arrange Mod I couldn't say how it play now as when I play the mod it was just before the last update that tweak Materia's stats bonus/malus, equipment and other stuff and also nerf some character's build (Barret's tanking ability has been nerf for instance), I remember some fight being tough if you didn't have a good strategy tough fights will play differently regarding the builds you choose for your characters, but it should be mentionned that on Arrange the first form of the final boss is glitched meaning you have to beat him with an unintended way which can be annoying if you don't have enough power to beat him before he restores himself.

That all being said New Threat isn't really a hardtype mod more of a new experience compare to the vanilla version, there's only one boss that I really found to be "Hardcore", outside of him bosses range from easy to fairly difficult (with some of them having some special mechanic you must work around in order to defeat).

Do you actually want arbitrary "hard modes", or are you more looking for a re-balance to emphasize strategy?
Many hard-types out there are just... annoying. Way too beefy enemies, making them a drag... oftentimes requiring absurd amounts of grinding~ With little thought put into the actual combat system.

BNW and, from what I gather, new threat both mainly aim at making the gameplay "better", not harder. As a side effect, the games get harder(As easy games don't really allow for strategy).

So do you just want a "hard-type", or first and foremost gameplay overhaul? 

16 hours ago, SGFTI said:

Which of these mods out there are on par with BNW?

Monster Tactics is not as well balanced as BNW, but there doesn't exist another game nearly as balanced as BNW. It is, however, a really interesting, and REALLY hard, improvement for Final Fantasy Tactics. (I personally couldn't get past Golgorand Execution Site but it was super cool up to there.) I think it's what you're looking for.

10 hours ago, Vaylen said:

Do you actually want arbitrary "hard modes", or are you more looking for a re-balance to emphasize strategy?
Many hard-types out there are just... annoying. Way too beefy enemies, making them a drag... oftentimes requiring absurd amounts of grinding~ With little thought put into the actual combat system.

BNW and, from what I gather, new threat both mainly aim at making the gameplay "better", not harder. As a side effect, the games get harder(As easy games don't really allow for strategy).

 

So do you just want a "hard-type", or first and foremost gameplay overhaul? 

Arbitrary difficulty (sponges) doesn't really interest me. Fights that make you think rather than endure are more what I'm seeking. BNW did a good job of that, Nowea's patch helped make it a lil more extreme. 

Something masochist but also well done is what I seek.

I like FF7 New Threat. It has enough new story events that are fun, in addition to redoing the balance of the game to be interesting. Plus I always like seeing all the party members stand apart and be more unique than they were in the original FF7.

Additionally, I think Sin of Mana mod is well balanced and has a fun new experience. Sin of Mana reworks all the classes of the characters in the base game, and adds in a brand new equipment system on top of it. There's working aggro, you can run around, new gameplay systems like hate/revenge systems where bosses answer actions with stronger counters. New ways of fighting bosses instead of just facerolling them. Plus it's an action RPG you can get a breath of fresh air before diving into another traditional rpg. 

Sin of Mana is great, and has a hard mode to satisfy your inner masochist (not that I've tried it, as I find the balance in normal mode to be adequate for my tastes). Two cautionary notes though:

1. Don't play with save states, and try to reset/reload regularly. Otherwise you'll experience unresponsiveness when trying to access the ring menu when there's a lot going on. This is a carry over issue from vanilla, really, but does seem rather exacerbated by the mod.

2. Equipment has all kinds of rider effects with no way to communicate them in-game, so be prepared to refer to the readme constantly for a legend of what does what.

I find if you can deal with these two things, it makes for a great time.

12 hours ago, SGFTI said:

Arbitrary difficulty (sponges) doesn't really interest me. Fights that make you think rather than endure are more what I'm seeking. BNW did a good job of that, Nowea's patch helped make it a lil more extreme.

Something masochist but also well done is what I seek.

I see. Well, you should always remember that you can increase the challenge yourself by imposing some rules on the run
In, for example, FF8, I made it a decently difficult(Yet more fun) challenge to limit the spells, junctions and abilities of each character to make them more unique and tried my best to not exploit the game in any way.

So, if you find something that looks really good, but is not hard enough for your tastes(Like BNW without Nowea's patch), you can always try to alter the difficulty via self-imposed challenges and restrictions.

And yeah, arbitrary difficulty... sucks. Sometimes, though... It is all a game needs. There are many games that have strong combat systems, but ultimately are too easy for you to use "advanced tactics" and/or have some exploits that ruin the difficulty curve.

Some random suggestions:

Parallel Worlds (Zelda 3 mod)  Infamous for its difficulty though the exploration is some of the most fun I've had in nearly any game.  Wouldn't blame you if you ragequit before getting the sword though; I nearly gave up/resorted to savestates in that extended swordless sequence.

Rockman no Constancy (Megaman 2)

If you're really skilled at Super Metroid, Cliffhanger Redux will push your skills.  While not the hardest challenge hack out there, it does have something to offer beyond the brutal difficulty.  If lots of required mockball, speedball, tricky Shinespark tech, heat runs, etc..  turns you off, Z-factor is a better fit for challenge without veering into "for pros only" territory.

There's Megaman X Hardtype right on this site too.

If I think of anything else, I'll add it here.