FFVI: Divergent Paths

Progress Update:

* 16th character is fully playable. Her special ability needs a bit more playtesting though.
* New window graphics applied. About half are from FF6, and the other half from Chrono Trigger, thanks to Madsiur's work. All 8 are windows that I'd actually see myself using at some point.
* The wounded soldier has been renamed from Dak to Piette, after Fast Moon pointed out that Piette was the 3rd soldier in Chrono Trigger.
* The event scene leading up to the final battle has been overhauled to include all 16 characters, no matter who you brought through Kefka's tower. This optimization freed up $500+ bytes of subroutines that were no longer needed, and you have a chance to switch your party around before choosing the order of the 12 characters you bring into the battle. I have been dreading this scene for YEARS, and it's DONE. I never have to touch it again!

Next step is to write a brand new ending for Leo, and to add the 16th character to Umaro's ending. Once I have allocated all of the event space needed for these important things, I'll go through the relatively quick process of spreading the Falcon's NPCs across the land, so they have to be collected in order to populate your airship. That will spell the v0.9 release.

Because of all of the space freed up by the ending cutscene re-write, I am going to try to add a new event sequence to the WoB for the final 1.0 release. It will be The Razing of Vector, with the idea taken from Fast Moon's Antinomia hack. As soon as the Sealed Gate is opened and the Espers come out, the scene will shift to Celes and Leo, who must defend Vector against the rampaging espers. In this sequence, Leo will act automomously (like Cyan in the military camp). For each boss you fight and beat, you will gain a rare item. Should your party fall, you will not get a game over; you'll simply switch back to the grounded airship. I LOVE the storyline potential for this sequence, as it will:
1. Establish a relationship between Leo and Celes; something I didn't have room for previously.
2. Give Celes a reason to be ashamed, since she must once again fight alongside the Empire against the Espers.
3. Allow me to wordlessley show Leo discovering the truth of what the Empire did to the Espers.
4. Allow me to build anticipation for Leo, since Divergent Paths adds him to the party before he's proved how cool he is.

wow man, this really is promising a lot,can't wait for the release of the 1.0 version. you're doing a magnificent job!

Because of all of the space freed up by the ending cutscene re-write, I am going to try to add a new event sequence to the WoB for the final 1.0 release. It will be The Razing of Vector, with the idea taken from Fast Moon's Antinomia hack. As soon as the Sealed Gate is opened and the Espers come out, the scene will shift to Celes and Leo, who must defend Vector against the rampaging espers. In this sequence, Leo will act automomously (like Cyan in the military camp). For each boss you fight and beat, you will gain a rare item. Should your party fall, you will not get a game over; you'll simply switch back to the grounded airship. I LOVE the storyline potential for this sequence, as it will:
1. Establish a relationship between Leo and Celes; something I didn't have room for previously.
2. Give Celes a reason to be ashamed, since she must once again fight alongside the Empire against the Espers.
3. Allow me to wordlessley show Leo discovering the truth of what the Empire did to the Espers.
4. Allow me to build anticipation for Leo, since Divergent Paths adds him to the party before he's proved how cool he is.

I love this idea so much! Even if they aren't much more than esper re-hashes (like Ifrit v. Kefka in Thamasa) it's still a cool concept. I'm guessing that it'll be a pretty severe difficulty ramp to make it worthwhile. My only concern is that a fight entirely against espers with Leo acting autonomously could go very badly if he just refuses to Runic.

I love this idea so much! Even if they aren't much more than esper re-hashes (like Ifrit v. Kefka in Thamasa) it's still a cool concept. I'm guessing that it'll be a pretty severe difficulty ramp to make it worthwhile. My only concern is that a fight entirely against espers with Leo acting autonomously could go very badly if he just refuses to Runic.

When a character fights autonomously, they actually follow a script. I'm thinking of giving Leo a basic script that says 2/3 chance of Runic, 1/3 chance of Fight, and then giving him a Rune Blade for MP Critical hits and a Black Belt for counterattacks. Remember that Celes can Jump in Divergent Paths, and if you did your job right when you stormed the Magitek factory, she has a few healing spells. The Espers, in turn, will choose between 2 spells and attack, then repeat. It seems simplistic, but a combination like that can still lead to a surprisingly satisfying gameplay loop.

The Espers will definitely be recolors, and I'm tossing around going a "4 Fiends" route, as a callback to earlier Final Fantasy games. If I go the FF1 route,then I can use:
Kraken - Recolored Ultros Sprite
Marilith - Recolored Ogor Sprite
Lich - Recolored Hidon Sprite
Timamat - Czar Dragon Sprite

I may choose to do original names though, with a Fire/Ice/Bolt/Bio schema. I've been looking for places to add in another Moogle Charm and Moogle Lure, so this is perfect. I'll just need to figure out 2 other relics to drop. If you have suggestions, please give them.

This hack have a trailer Or a mini video showing a little about.

Bahamut could be a good sprite to consider for Tiamat. I've seen that done in FFIV hacks. For Lich, Oversoul, Skeletal Horror or even Doomgaze could also be worth considering.

I love this idea so much! Even if they aren't much more than esper re-hashes (like Ifrit v. Kefka in Thamasa) it's still a cool concept. I'm guessing that it'll be a pretty severe difficulty ramp to make it worthwhile. My only concern is that a fight entirely against espers with Leo acting autonomously could go very badly if he just refuses to Runic.

When a character fights autonomously, they actually follow a script. I'm thinking of giving Leo a basic script that says 2/3 chance of Runic, 1/3 chance of Fight, and then giving him a Rune Blade for MP Critical hits and a Black Belt for counterattacks. Remember that Celes can Jump in Divergent Paths, and if you did your job right when you stormed the Magitek factory, she has a few healing spells. The Espers, in turn, will choose between 2 spells and attack, then repeat. It seems simplistic, but a combination like that can still lead to a surprisingly satisfying gameplay loop.

The Espers will definitely be recolors, and I'm tossing around going a "4 Fiends" route, as a callback to earlier Final Fantasy games. If I go the FF1 route,then I can use:
Kraken - Recolored Ultros Sprite
Marilith - Recolored Ogor Sprite
Lich - Recolored Hidon Sprite
Timamat - Czar Dragon Sprite

I may choose to do original names though, with a Fire/Ice/Bolt/Bio schema. I've been looking for places to add in another Moogle Charm and Moogle Lure, so this is perfect. I'll just need to figure out 2 other relics to drop. If you have suggestions, please give them.

My first instinct for "items that are good but not too good" would be Pod Bracelet and Gold Hairpin. Perhaps Marvel Shoes, since IIRC there's normally nowhere to get them other than the coliseum/Ragnarok summon.

The Espers will definitely be recolors, and I'm tossing around going a "4 Fiends" route, as a callback to earlier Final Fantasy games. If I go the FF1 route,then I can use:
Kraken - Recolored Ultros Sprite
Marilith - Recolored Ogor Sprite
Lich - Recolored Hidon Sprite
Timamat - Czar Dragon Sprite

So would there be enough space to try these?

This hack have a trailer Or a mini video showing a little about.

CasualTom has been doing a playthrough. You can see the playlist with some of the highlights here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...TrU0i4ad97

Many of the WoB changes were skipped over in his stream because he had already covered them in his ReCast stream. CDude built ReCast off of an earlier version of Divergent Paths.

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So would there be enough space to try these?

Alas, no. I'm limited to recolors of existing sprites.

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So would there be enough space to try these?

Alas, no. I'm limited to recolors of existing sprites.

Okay cool, fair enough.