FFVI: Alternate History

Right now this is a working title, and will likely see change before the project is finished.
Updated May 21, 2013

So what is this project?

This project is a hack of FFVI where the individual history of many characters has changed. Essentially what would happen if certain character's personal histories occurred differently, specifically events such as the pasts of Edgar and Sabin, Setzer, and Locke. There will be small story changes here and there accounting for these changes, and (hopefully, if I can afford the time) event editing making for some unique story events.

What kind of changes are to be expected?

I want this to be a somewhat new experience for players who have already played through the game, and as such there will be new items, spells, abilities, espers, as well as new and stronger bosses. There will be new weapon animations and character sprites as well.

There will be some new characters, and redone sprites for most other characters. At this point almost all characters will see some sort of changes. There will also be restrictions on access to espers and spells, making characters more specialized and reliant on their special abilities and specialized stats (e.g. fighter classed characters vs. mages or support characters.) A large part of this hack will centre around consequences of certain characters not being in certain places or different characters making different choices -- some of these will be good, some of them quite bad.

A more complete list of changes (with spoilers):

• Some elements of Terra's past and character may be changed, but nothing significant. She will have a sprite update to look more like her original artwork/Dissidia sprite
  
• Rachel replaces Locke after he is the one killed in the imperial attack on Kohlingen.
  
• The coin toss between Sabin and Edgar turned out differently, leaving Sabin to learn the responsibilities of being a king. Edgar on the other hand departs Figaro to become a dragoon to protect individuals from the Empire.
  
• Cyan was wounded in an imperial attack on Doma, instead his role is replaced by his wife Elayne, dancer and sword maiden of Doma.
  
• Clyde having never taken on the alias of "Shadow," finds himself perpetually on the run from the empire and his past.
  
• Kefka does not go insane as a result of his magitek infusion and joins the returners after having a change of heart about the Empire. Essentially he will be switching places with Celes, who will now become the villain -- I may garner some hate for making one of the most popular (and one of my favourite) characters the villain.
  
• Strago will be made into more of a "mageknight," sporting a respectable set of equipment and middle of the road physical stats to balance his past as a great warrior and his older age.
  
• Relm will become the resident beastmaster and time mage (or green mage), I plan to balance effect magic enough that a dedicated effect magic user can help turn the tides of boss battles.
  
• Setzer will be replaced by Daryl, who in this timeline has dawned his old coat and become a swashbuckling sky pirate. This will also involve getting the Falcon in the WoB and the Blackjack in the WoR.
  
• Mog will be changed from a dancer/geomancer to a gambler/white mage. Mostly because it was convenient to swap around.
  
• Gau, I haven't quite decided whether I want to make him a Ranger, a Berzerker, or an Engineer.
  
• Gogo will be replaced with Gilgamesh in an optional dungeon the "Interdimensional Rift" which will replace the Zone Eater's stomach. He will be a respectable warrior capable of using all weapons and copying his ally's magic lists (like Gogo), but he will not be easy to recruit.
  
• Umaro, I haven't quite decided what to do with him yet. I may just make him capable of learning magic and stick him with an optional berzerk command. May just scrap him altogether for a different character.
  

A few introductory images:

Questions, comments, and helpful criticism are all welcome.

sounds interesting

This is really interesting. I actually had a similar idea, though it's still in the "drawing board" phase. It'll require a major script rewrite and some sprite alterations.

I'd really like to see more of yours when you've completed more of it. I love alternate history stories in general (I'm a history buff IRL, so I love writing/reading about "what ifs," whether it's in the real world or fictional ones), so this is really interesting stuff to me.

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Also, I have to ask: will there be a custom Elayne sprite? You'd think there'd have to be; she was generic in the original release.

I think this is a really awesome idea and I can't wait to see it come to life. How far are you on the project?

Very interesting screenshots with the new characters!!

I don't know why but with Sabin in Edgars outfit.... he looks like he has a mullet lol and Leo looks like their long lost brother. In the pic with him using magic he looks like he is wearing the same outfit as well.

Interesting

Didn't know people were still paying attention to this project, hah. How far along is the project? Probably around 30-40%, I have a few more sprite sheets to complete for the characters (e.g. adventurer sprite for Rachel, new sprite for Gau, and finish my redux sprite for Terra.) Other than sprite sheets it's a few minor map changes, revising dialogue and events, some hex editing, and revamping some monsters. This project has taken a slight backburner to my other one, a redux version of FF1.

my advice to you is to do all those things respectively on separate roms

this way you can make patches for each change, that way, in case you make a mistake you can go back and put the pieces together again much faster and easier

This project is really interesting! show more screenshots please :-) !