FFVI -> Blazing Heroes

I decided today I'm going to embark on a relatively ambitious project based on the Sega Saturn grid-based strategy RPG Blazing Heroes. What better way to learn than to do, right?

Blazing Heroes, also known as Mystaria: The Realms of Lore and Riglord Saga, is a relatively unknown RPG for Sega Saturn, but I happen to think it's one of the greatest games of all time. The gameplay is similar to that of Fire Emblem games, where your units are arranged on a grid and you can move and attack and such. I think the Final Fantasy Tactics games are like this, but I have never played them. Obviously this gameplay element would be substituted with FFVI's battle system.

There are emulators and ROMs available for Saturn and Blazing Heroes if you're interested and so inclined. If you don't want any spoilers, I wouldn't read on.

Plot
The continent of Mystaria (renamed Oldeland in later versions) is made up of four countries at peace. The main protagonist, Aragon, is the prince of Queensland, the country on the north of the island. When Mystaria is invaded by an evil mage lord called Lord Bane and Queensland's Queen removed from the throne, Aragon must rally together allies from all over Mystaria in order to defeat Lord Bane. According to legend, the only way to defeat him is with the twelve mighty warriors foreseen by prophecy.

With the help of Queensland's prime minister Rastigan, Aragon manages to gather twelve brave fighters and defeat Lord Bane. But wait- he's not really dead? While Aragon and the others were distracted, Lord Bane has been creating a bridge between this world and the chaotic world known as Quixotica. Aragon and his party must travel to Quixotica to defeat Lord Bane before the chaos bleeds over into Mystaria and destroys it completely. But once they are there and defeat Lord Bane once more, it is revealed that Bane was merely a pawn for a much darker force: Rastigan's true form, a grotesque figure halfway between human and monster, corrupted by the chaotic forces of Quixotica. Rastigan took advantage of the weak-willed queen of Queensland, opening the continent up for invasion by Lord Bane. Now with Bane out of the way, Rastigan needs only to complete the link between Mystaria and Quixotica and both worlds will be his. The final battle between Aragon's army and Rastigan decides the fate of both worlds.

Characters

• Aragon - The prince of Queensland. He is a strong sword fighter with some proficiency with magic.
  
• Raiko - A ninja formerly under the command of Lord Bane. He defects to Aragon's side when Bane carelessly kills some of his own soldiers in order to attack Aragon.
  
• Saura - A priestess from Queensland and advisor to Aragon. She has holy and elemental magic.
  
• Hector - An old soldier of Queensland and advisor to Aragon. He is the best archer on the continent.
  
• Ferral - A powerful half-lion man who fights for Queensland. He uses a spear and hand-to-hand combat.
  
• Aletha - A half-fairy forced into Bane's army by her evil father. She joins Raiko and defects to Aragon's side. She uses archery and special magic.
  
• Katzhai - A bird man, formerly part of Bane's army, he defects with Aletha to Aragon's side. He is trained as a ninja.
  
• Galford - A cunning thief with a personal grudge against Bane. He joins Aragon when he finds out he can't kill Bane on his own. He uses archery and thievery.
  
• Ashe - The young prince of Dragoon, the kingdom to the west of Queensland. His castle is attacked by Bane's army and he joins Aragon to retaliate. His bloodline practices Dragon magic, which allows him to transform into a powerful dragon. When not in dragon form, he uses a spear and special magic.
  
• Fiona - A cunning corsair, she sails the seas on her pirate ship until she is recruited by Aragon. She fights with a sword or hand-to-hand.
  
• Zereth - A legendary mage who joins Aragon hoping to further his research, but secretly, he is one of Lord Bane's five commanders. He leaves the party before they venture to Quixotica and must be defeated later. He uses elemental and special magic.
  
• Kord - A brute who cannot speak at all. He is rescued and joins the party when they journey into a cave for some research for Zereth. He fights with a large hammer.
  
• Vargaas - A mystical wise man who fought ages ago against a dark lord similar to Bane. He joins Aragon after Zereth departs, to bring the numbers back up to Twelve. He uses holy, elemental and special magic.
  

Conversion
A number of things will need to be changed, foremost among them the various types of attacking and magic.
Archery: I'm unaware of anything that resembles a bow and arrow in the game (there might be but I don't know about it). Maybe I can fit together something that functions like a Tool and throws darts at the enemy, who knows.
Dragon: Ashe can transform into a dragon. In Blazing Heroes, this is like a toggle; you can choose to be a dragon as long and as often as you want. But I think this might be akin to Morph, ie on a timer.
Weapon Skills: In Blazing Heroes, if a character knows a weapon skill (say Sword), they can use a set of attacks under that category such as Heavy Strike, Spin Strike, Jump Strike, etc. In this way they are kind of like Lores or Sword Techs. Unfortunately, there are many more weapon types than different ways to accommodate them with the FFVI systems. I'm willing to sacrifice a few of them like Spear and maybe Hammer, but others are pretty key. Need to find a way to limit certain Lores to certain characters or something like that.
Mystaria and Quixotica: The two worlds are akin to WoB and WoR, so that much is already in place. I'll need to familiarize myself with map and event editing in order to come up with a way to smoothly go between them.
White Wing: In Blazing Heroes, Vargaas gives the party possession of a giant, flying sting ray called White Wing that carries the party all around the continent. Obviously, this is like the various airships. White Wing is only available in Mystaria, so it's like Setzer's ship in that way.
Equipment: There is a large amount of custom equipment and items that will need to be implemented. Luckily, Blazing Heroes also uses Helmets and Armor, and has Accessories, so those can be pretty close to a direct copy.

Art
Characters in Blazing Heroes are pretty hi-res sprites created from a 3D modeler, and each character has a hi-res still image that serves as their portrait. Thus, portraits will be easy to create but battle sprites will have to be created from scratch.

All enemies also have 3D-like sprites and portraits, most of which can probably be adapted into enemy sprites rather easily, but there are many, many of them, so that's a lot of work.

Wrap Up
This is going to be a challenge, and already I know there's stuff I don't even know how to do yet. However, Blazing Heroes has a fully fleshed-out, engaging story with multiple parts, and plot elements that I think can be worked into the FFVI system pretty easily and faithfully. I hope I have the patience and ability to stick this one through, because it promises to be very exciting upon completion.

I'll take some sample screenshots and post them below so you guys can get an idea of the art involved.