Antinomia: FF6

Hi. Longtime lurker here. Mostly because hacking ROMs isn't my wheelhouse, but storytelling and art is! Which is what I came out of the woodworks to ask about.

I'm also a longtime fan of Leo, he's my favorite FF guy as well owing to a history of roleplaying him. So when I read through this thread and saw all the screenshots and demo videos I became very excited (doubly excited when I realized this wasn't an old thread but something still being actively worked on). You've expanded the lore and characterization surrounding his character in ways I've always imagined of him so I'm very impatient to play a finished version of this hack.

That being said, I've combed through everything story-related and I had a few questions.

1. One of the screenshots seems to be a flashback, depicting pre-infusion Kefka and Gestahl holding a baby (I assume it's Terra, and that this scene takes place following the raid on the Esper realm). You referenced Kefka as being 17, which is accurate since according to Ultimania he's 35 when the game takes place. Leo's there too as a soldier and I wanted to know if you were deviating from the information on him from Ultimania. He's 30 when the game takes place, which means he would've been 12 when Kefka was 17.

2. Since Leo doesn't die at Thamasa what is the reason or lore behind the grave? It showed up in the screenshots. Unless that's spoilers, which I get.

3. Mostly just curious about this one, but since Leo is receiving story scenes that parallel the main party's journey in the WoB that we jump back to, in a storytelling sense he'll definitely come off as being framed as character rivaling Terra or Celes in importance. So, I was wondering what your reasoning is for keeping his equipment locked until he becomes a permanent party member? Is it just to keep those scenarios simpler?

4. Last question, but I was curious to know if you had any plans for Shock mechanically speaking. I know some people nerf Shock slightly because it's a pretty powerful attack, but I was more curious about it from a gameplay perspective. Most of the main party's special abilities are designed to have an element of gameplay involved (like strategically using Morph and balancing the time it's up, inputting the right commands to use the desired Blitz, or Gau's "collect them all" Rages). Leo's ability I think, or I feel, was designed to just showcase how strong he was for his original big scene from the game, and it's a very simple, very easy "press button, do damage" ability.

Other than that, I want to offer praise for how you connect threads using Leo. Having Leo be the impetus behind why Shadow repeatedly shows up in the main party's path was an amazing idea, and I just. Loved that the razing of Vector was included as a scene, it was very creatively done.

Good luck in your hacking! And if you want to talk storybeats please hit me up, I could spend all night talking story and characters. ;w;

No, I didn't create an account just to make a reply to this thread, what are you talking about, ahahahahah ahem.