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Author Topic: Is there a "Zelda Classic" for FF?  (Read 20393 times)

Entroper

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Is there a "Zelda Classic" for FF?
« on: December 22, 2007, 12:13:54 AM »
If you're unfamiliar with ZC, it's basically a PC game that plays a faithful replica of the original Legend of Zelda, but the twist is that it has a robust quest editor and a lot more features beyond the original game.  I'm wondering if anyone knows of a similar project for Final Fantasy games.

assassin

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Re: Is there a "Zelda Classic" for FF?
« Reply #1 on: December 22, 2007, 01:39:06 AM »
some guy named Kryten was making an "FF3PC" (i.e. a replica of FF3us) several years back, but it never got anywhere.  instead, amuse yourself with these lame pictures found on the guy's server:

http://ff3pc.no-ip.com:81/conv/

I.S.T.

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Re: Is there a "Zelda Classic" for FF?
« Reply #2 on: December 22, 2007, 02:06:28 AM »
Site loads awful slow...

Entroper

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Re: Is there a "Zelda Classic" for FF?
« Reply #3 on: December 22, 2007, 02:24:08 AM »
The reason I ask is because I want to know if I'm reinventing the wheel.

Leviathan Mist

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Re: Is there a "Zelda Classic" for FF?
« Reply #4 on: December 22, 2007, 02:32:55 AM »
Wow, incredible.  :omghax:

Entroper

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Re: Is there a "Zelda Classic" for FF?
« Reply #5 on: December 22, 2007, 02:48:31 PM »
Monster editor (I know MDef and Init are probably wrong):


Entroper

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Re: Is there a "Zelda Classic" for FF?
« Reply #6 on: December 23, 2007, 01:45:36 AM »
So, like I said above, the idea behind this project is to have sort of an "FF engine" that plays Final Fantasy games.  Rather than hacking the ROM to make new quests, you just edit some text files to create entirely new monsters, weapons, armor, or even new magic spells and character classes.  Replace the monster, character, and map graphics with any 24-bit color .bmps you like.  Use a map editor to create new overworlds and dungeons.

The tools that are out there for hacking the ROMs are great, and I like all the creativity I see here for creating mods and such.  I want to remove the barriers of 8-bitness so that people can create whatever they want without worrying about whether it will fit within the confines of the original game.

Dragonsbrethren

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Re: Is there a "Zelda Classic" for FF?
« Reply #7 on: January 02, 2008, 05:25:52 PM »
All of the non-commercial RPG engines I've tried are garbage, either too simple (Not much room for creativity) or not user friendly enough. When a hex editor and a list of offsets is easier to use than your engine it might be time for a rewrite...

There's always RPG Maker XP or VX, they're commercial and use Ruby for scripting, which lets you create whatever features you need that it lacks by default. I had a fairly decent FF4-style game in the works for XP but I'm going to wait until VX is out in English and port it to that instead, I love the SD character sprites and graphics for some reason. The only problem I have with them is that while your games can have things added via scripts, the editor itself can't--if you add a few new character stats you can't use any of the built-in tools for modifying those stats, everything needs to be done in a script.

Entroper

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Re: Is there a "Zelda Classic" for FF?
« Reply #8 on: January 02, 2008, 10:34:52 PM »
Not to sound defensive, but I think that even using Excel to edit a table rather than a fully-featured editor is more user friendly than a hex editor and a table of offsets (and I'm no stranger to hex editing), and also offers much more room for creativity with the limitations of thr ROM format and original NES engine removed.

Don't think I missed your point, though.  :)  But I think the amount of creativity displayed by the Zelda Classic community proves that there's a place for something less robust than RPG Maker (but free) and less limiting than the original ROM.

Dragonsbrethren

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Re: Is there a "Zelda Classic" for FF?
« Reply #9 on: January 03, 2008, 12:56:40 PM »
I think you misunderstood me, I wasn't implying that your engine would be hard to use, just that some I've used in the past were ridiculously complex and under documented.

I think using speadsheets is fine for data, but how are you going to handle more complex things like maps and events? Editing those in a spreadsheet would be a nightmare.

assassin

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Re: Is there a "Zelda Classic" for FF?
« Reply #10 on: January 03, 2008, 01:15:46 PM »
personally, i'd incorporate it into a PowerPoint presentation.

Entroper

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Re: Is there a "Zelda Classic" for FF?
« Reply #11 on: January 04, 2008, 02:28:41 AM »
I think you misunderstood me, I wasn't implying that your engine would be hard to use, just that some I've used in the past were ridiculously complex and under documented.

I think using speadsheets is fine for data, but how are you going to handle more complex things like maps and events? Editing those in a spreadsheet would be a nightmare.

No worries.  :)

For maps, I plan on having a WYSIWYG map editor -- there's not really much way around that.  Nobody wants to edit maps using Excel, and I think writing a map editor will actually be easier than coming up with a text format that even remotely makes sense.

Events are the one thing I'm still thinking about in terms of the design framework.  I have pretty much everything else hammered out, and I'm to the point of beginning to write the map and battle engines, but it won't make for a very interesting game if you can't even rescue Sara to get the bridge built.  :lame:  I do have some experience in parsing scripting languages, though, so I may roll my own event script.  I don't think I want to try to implement something as complex as Ruby or Python support.  I would really like to be able to edit scripts visually, but that requires writing some pretty sophisticated tools.

Pinkpuff

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Re: Is there a "Zelda Classic" for FF?
« Reply #12 on: January 07, 2008, 04:50:56 AM »
How will the battle engine behave?

And will the user have any control over it?
Let's dance!

Entroper

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Re: Is there a "Zelda Classic" for FF?
« Reply #13 on: January 07, 2008, 07:20:04 AM »
It can be round-based like FF1 or ATB (quest creator's choice).  ATB will require careful balancing of your party's and the enemies' agility ratings to avoid unbalancing the game.  Same thing with magic, you can keep the magic-level system or you can use an MP system, again, quest editor's choice.

If you have a NES ROM of FF1, the game can read it and create an FF1 quest file for you to play.  I'll also include a "patch" which creates a more modern version of FF1 with ATB, MP, and other enhancements (hopefully some updated art will be included here).  You'll need the ROM to play any version of FF1, because I don't want to be distributing copyrighted material.

What I'd also like to do is include a complete quest from scratch to demonstrate the capabilities of the engine, and allow players to play something without getting the ROM.

Pinkpuff

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Re: Is there a "Zelda Classic" for FF?
« Reply #14 on: January 07, 2008, 10:10:25 AM »
That's awesome.

Suggestion for ATB mode:

Would it be possible to have an option that displays the list of turns (FF10 / FFT style) rather than the CT bars?
Let's dance!