Coding a 2D JRPG?

How does the game store field maps and event scripts? Separately, or mixed together?

In SaGa Frontier every field is it's own entity with access to event flags and links in event scripts to other fields being the only interaction with other fields. There is no central shop data, no central event data, no central field backgrounds, but there may be central npc storage.

Because of this and the game already having > 256 fields, SF is massively expandable as-is. Same is probably true with monsters, though that would require some hacking, and definitely true with npc sprites.

So should a clone follow FF6 exactly, or go with an easier to expand route that uses more space (which is cheap these days)?

I want my engine to allow much larger world maps (or none at all), so IMO the world map should simply be a very large field. Having no world map is also fun, if you want to expand the towns and wilderness areas outside them.

The SF method is easier to manage on a per field/script basis since you only need to consider one at a time, but the FF method is easier to keep track of shops/fields/scripts overall since they are all in one place.

One additional benefit to the SF method is it is easier to make a event previewer that allows uou yo step through events as you build them, and edit them on the fly.