Pony Fantasy 1 Hack WIP

[Toastypk 920]

I started a thread on this before, but that was just to say I was stuck. But now that I've gotten the gumption to start this hack again, I figured I would start this anew.

I am making a pony hack of Final Fantasy 1! It works out, because there are six main characters in the show, and six classes in game!

I have a bunch of ideas that I would love to start working on, but the biggest issue I'm going to have is sprites, and I would love your help with that.

I'm going to devote an entire section to ideas I have about who goes where, and I'm going to have a section about sprites,.

 

If you don't know what the story of Final Fantasy 1 is:

The four orbs/crystals of Earth, Water, Fire, Air, have lost their light, and the four light warriors have come to fix that. They discover that the four fiends have taken control of the elements. Their first mission is to rescue the princess from Garland, a knight who went bad. Once they get the orbs back,They head back to the temple where they found Garland, use the orbs to travel to 2000 years back, where they find that Garland is the one who set the fiends, the fiends send him back, creating a loop. Garland uses the four powers to become Chaos, the final boss, who gets defeated.

For the pony version, it's going to be the powers of four of the Elements of Harmony, but it won't be specific which ones, since the player picks the characters, and the four fiends are Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis, Discord, and Sombra. However, the Element of Magic has been stolen too... 

I will post role ideas and town ideas and such soon, but first I just want to make the thread and get interest.

The main thing though, is that  for Garland, I wanted to pick Sunset Shimmer, particularly pre reform. They both became bad guys who turned on the kingdom. in the final fight, Shimmer would use the Element of Magic to become her powerful form like in Equestria Girls, just a pony version.

Is anyone a good spriter and would like to help? I feel like seeing a good sprite is just the inspiration and motivation I could use to keep working at this.

The sprite rules for the NES aren't too complicated. In general, the rule is, Four colors per sprite. three colors are used, and one transparency.

For example, I wanted the Garland sprite to be Shimmer, and this is the one I seemed to like the most. The sprite would be 32x32. I could try to do it, but  I don't know how well I would do.

this sprite is only used once with no recolors, but most of the other sprites do that.

Does anyone here have skill with sprite making? Some of them would be easier to do since I could find vectors to base from, but some would be more unique and more difficult.

There are a lot of ideas I have, and I would love to discuss them with you in another post soon. Thanks!

Here is a sample screenshot of what I started to work on years ago. Notice the TWO thrones?

(Would this go in Trixie's Tricks since it's asking for help,  or since this is a game thread, it's fine in this board?)

Edited June 15, 2021 by Toastypk

[Toastypk 920]

Ok,  I worked on this sprite by using the vector as a base.

Does this look ok? DOes it look doofy?

It follows the three color rule.

[Toastypk 920]

With the show ending now, I felt compelled to resume working on this.

I have a bunch more small things done, things that  aren't focused on graphics. I will need help with that later. But in the meantime, I'll show you some screens!

First of all, I replaced the font! I tried picking a fantasy looking font that wasn't too hard to read. I found one, this is edited from the arcade game Kirameki Star Road. This isn't too complex, right?

Here's some text samples.

With the right edits I found, you can reshape the battle screensand make longer names for characters, enemies, or spells! You could only have four characters before.

Included is one of the only graphic edits I've made, and basing that off of the Pony Fantasy 6 sprite.

Niightmare Moon is going to be one of the four fiends.

I'm going to be reworking the stats as well. The fighter in FF1 is way stronger than the others, even though they have their own good stats.

I want to bring the stats of the classes closer to the fighter without all being the same so you can pick anypony you want to. (But the boss HP will be higher too...!)

This is really all I have so far. To get farther I would love sprite help.

I have a bunch of ideas, but suggestions won't hurt.

What do you think about this so far?

[Toastypk 920]

On 10/19/2019 at 1:12 PM, Bas said:

 

I guess psx or gba would have more pretty graphics. I don't know how hackable these are.

I personally feel the font isn't verybcisually appealing.

I think I once read about a ff1mlp hack - was that yours or another one?

Hmm... for the font I was looking for something fantasy-like without being too elaborate or illegible with so few pixels.. I guess I can look again.

I've thought about the other two versions but I don't believe there's much in the way of programs that edit those. FF1 for NES is the one I know the most about, and has an extensive editing program to it.

And I honestly don't know of any other FF1 edits being mentioned.

I looked for some fonts I could useinstead, something with a fantasy look, but one that's stuck out to me is this one it seems to be brand new, too.

I think I might start using this one!

Edited October 26, 2019 by Toastypk

[Toastypk 920]

I'm really liking this new font. The other one had letters that were sort of tough to read, but this one feels better.

It keeps the fantasy feel too.

------

I wanted to sidetrack about something...

There are two enemies in the game, the EYE and the PHANTOM, which both share the same sprite with different palettes, which many enemies do in the game.

If I change one, I change the other too. These two enemies only appear once as bosses. The EYE is in the Ice Cave guarding an item, and the PHANTOM is in the final dungeon.

I was thinking, since the EYE is in the Ice Cave, I could make it into a Windigo. But this would mean there would have to be a second monster that looks like a Windigo. I might have to make things of my own. I'm thinking of calling it  the "Hell Horse", or something, which I know doesn't sound MLP-like, but it would have to be a Windigo variant.

The only weird question is, if I'm making MLP themed enemies, what happens with the MADPONY? o_O

Edited October 29, 2019 by Toastypk

[bulldozerman185 41]

OOH MAN, I LOVE FINAL FANTASY 1. I still have it on my phone, and actively play it on a GBA emulator when I'm not working on Maradice Isle. That game rocks, whether it's on the Nintendo Entertainment System ( even if it is a little dated ), PlayStation 1, GameBoy Advance, or whatever. In fact, it was one of the inspirations for Maradice Isle ( along with Golden Sun and Wizard101, which is especially notable since it borrows elements from those games ).

 

Honestly, I would be super excited to play such a game and see how it goes. It might be a lot of fun... as long as it's not using the character development system from Final Fantasy 2. I still frown upon that system for how much it slowed that game to a crawl.

[Toastypk 920]

@bulldozerman185 

Hey, cool that you're interested.
It's going to be the same as the NES FF1, except with bug fixes people have coded, grahpic changes, and some gameplay changes.

In particular, only Rarity and Twilight can use magic, so I merged all the spells that Red Mage can use into those two. So that means Rarity and Twilight can use both white and black, but Rarity can use the higher level white, and Twilight can use the higher level black.

In the orignal game, the Fighter is the only one who can use most of the best armor. Here, everypony can use most of the armor, but earth ponies can only use the best ones. Though pegasi and unicorns have their own things. And armor worn by the Pillars will be secret armor to be worn by the individual ponies they parallel. 
I'm going to tweak the stat growth for everypony to be a little closer to one another, so players can use who they want, and it will be a little easier. (But I'm going to increase boss HP too...)

Anyway I have another possible sprite done.

I have to find good creatures to use for the monsters in the game. In the normal game, there is a river monster called a Caribe or Piranha..

When I saw the Biteacuda from Non Compete Clause, I knew that would be a good fit. I got around to making its sprite today, I took the Biteacuda image and shrunk it to 32 pixels long, and used three colors to make this.

Is this ok you think?

Later I'm going to have a story question that I'd like some input on.

[Toastypk 920]

Let's talk armor. This is one I've put a lot of thought into.

In Final Fantasy 1, armor comes in four types: Body, Shield, Helmet, and Gauntlet. The problem is that most of the best armor can only be worn by Knights and sometimes Ninjas. For the pony hack, I wanted to have the ponies be able to use more than the classes in FF1, but like the main game only a couple of classes can equip the absolute best armor. In the pony game, it will be the Earth ponies, with Dash possibly as well, cause they are the toughest. Pegasi and Unicorns, though, will have real good armor of their own.

For the pony game, I'm going to keep Body, Shield, and helmet, but I'm going to replace the Gauntlet with something else. For humans, gauntlets are placed on the arm, but that may not be the most ideal for ponies. Plus, shields are held by the hand as well, so I'm thinking of something else for the Gauntlet for pony use, like a necklace or leg guard.

Though, as I was thinking about it, Flash Magnus actually DOES have a sort of a pony gauntlet AND uses a shield..

In the regular game, armor that is worn on the body include Mail, Bracelets, and two Robes. Only a couple of classes can wear most of the mail, but Bracelets can be used by anyone.
In the pony game, I'm going to turn all the Bracelets into Robes and make it a unicorn armor so that unicorns can have armor of their own.
But what about pegasi? I feel like they can use most of the good armor, but I'm going to turn an existing armor into specialized pegasus armor, one that's the best armor for them. See, you can't add armor to the game, at least not easily with the code and my skill level, but I can edit something else. I'm either going to name it the Zephyr or Nimbus armor.

Additionally, I've added secret armor worn by the Pillars, equipable by the pony they parallel. For example, Dash can wear the Netitus sheild! So what I did was edit the Cloth, Gloves, Cap, and Buckler, the most basic and least useful armors, into Rockhoof's Helmet, the Netitus, Somnambula's bracelet, and Meadowbrook's mask, with their own good stats and attribtues. There are two robes in the game, the White and Black robes, which are just going to be renamed into the Mistmane and Starswirl cloaks.

[Toastypk 920]

@Bas
I saw the comment, and I've actually seen snippets of videos of it before years ago. It's quite cool sounding. However, I don't know how much I could borrow from the game itself music or graphics wise, since I'm actually editing Final Fantasy 1's code itself, I have to constrain within the NES's limits and how much space there is. If there's a music I like, which I'm hearing what the music is in that game, I could try to add it in the NES game itself, but I have yet to know how the music system works in the game, since it's all hex and is not as easy as plunking in a mp3.

[Toastypk 920]

I'm working on this hack again, and there's some story things I want to figure out.

I really tried hard to not include any OCs in this game, but there is a scenario which could really use to have one fit in.

First, I want to explain how the original game plays out.

THE ORIGINAL GAME

The heroes reach the Elf Kingdom, where the Elf Prince has fallen under a sleeping spell. They say it was the work of the Dark Elf, Astos. Meanwhile, in a castle to the northwest, a mysterious king wants the Crown from a nearby dungeon. Once you get it and return to him, he is shown to be Astos! And he wants that Crown for power! But the party defeats him. When they do, they get the Crystal, which is traded to the witch Matoya, and you receive an Herb which is used to wake the Elf Prince, who gives the next item to progress further.

THE PONY VERSION

So here's where I'm at. In this game, I've turned the Elves into the Griffons. The Crown that's desired is going to be the Idol of Boreas, the dungeon will be the Abyssmal Abyss, and the disguised mysterious King is going to be King Guto, long since missing. The witch who gives the herb is going to be Zecora.

The Griffon Prince,however, I'm thinking of making someone original, someone new. I'm thinking of a Prince Geoffrey, someone to have the sleeping spell. He could be the son of the missing Guto.

As for who will be Astos?.... I have no idea. Going with the story from the show, it would seem that he could be made the Arumaspi, but I don't think that would fit. Maybe it could be someone new, trying to claim the Idol for himself. If so, who would want that?

I can edit the Astos sprite, but it's used by two other regular enemies using a different palette.

What would be a boss that would fit, but have its sprite usable with other enemies? If I made him a griffin, the other two enemies would have to be griffins too. So maybe a generic sort of beat would do.

This is where I'm at with the game.

Other things I'm doing, I'm editing some tiles and such for the scenery to give them a nice makeover, using tilesets from other NES or GBC games. A big thing I have to do is stat editing for the party members. The Fighter is easily the best and strongest fighter, well ahead of the other classes, but I want to bring the others somewhat closer than they already are. I'm actually making graphs of stat growth to figure out what would be the best ideas.

Anyway, anyone have any input?

[Toastypk 920]

12 hours ago, You said:

What about Sombra-fying him?

So I was thinking about what you meant by this, cause I was going to have Sombra himself as one of the Four Fiends, the four primary bosses of the game.

All day I was wondering, I was having all these ideas about how I could maybe tie it into Sombra, think of what I could do with the game, how it would all go, thinking of ideas...

then it hit me. It's so obvious. An idea smacked me right in the face.

Who impersonates others? Who disguises as others?

Changelings!

It works too well!

I can turn Astos into a regular changeling! HE would want the Idol of Boreas because maybe Chrysalis is looking for it too. (And she is one of the four fiends.) Plus, this solves the sprite problem.

Three enemies in the game use the same sprite, but with a different pallete, so editing one would affect the other two, and that was the other big problem that I had. There's Astos, the Mage, and the Fighter. I can just make them different styles of changelings! Like the "Mageling" and the "Warriorling." or something

[Toastypk 920]

Update time:

I'm putting a lot of thought into what enemies should be what creatures from FiM. The problem is that nearly all enemies in this game have palette swaps that make other enemies, so if I were to add something like the Roc or the Siren, there would have to be a second Roc or Siren with a different palette, called something else.

I want to resist doing original creatures, but in the cases of the palette swaps I've done it as needed. For instance, the stronger version of the Biteacuda is now the Bitearanha.

Another thing I've done is changed the worm creatures to the Quarry Eel, and even stuck an random encounter with them in an early game cave. but I'll have to think of two recolored variations.

I've poured into reading about all the creatures in Equestria that I can find, and it gives ideas, for sure. Any enemy could stick into one I want to replace, but I would prefer it be something that could fit the original enemy's stats or battle style, but these can always be edited too. For instance, does anyone have any ideas of what to make these?

We have three different very human-like Ogres.

I would think it would have to become something big and burly.

Another thing I thought would be cool to add is the Nightmare, one of those Nightmare Force creatures. I just have to obey the palette swap rule with this too. However, I did get one idea, I'm curious what you think about this.

There is an enemy called the Madpony, which has a palette swap called the Nitemare. I'm thinking of turning the Nitemare into the Nightmare, which would make use of the one enemy in FF1 that's an actual pony. But what about the Madpony itself? I would have to use the same sprite but with different colors, and I dunno what that would be. I was almost thinking of removing the Madpony altogether, unless I can come up with something that wouldn't be a big stretch.

[Toastypk 920]

I finally have an idea for what to do with one element of the story, but I wanted to run it by you cause it might sound a little messed up.

In the original story: You need to enter the underwater shrine, but you need a certain item to breathe underwater. A pirate captured a fairy in a bottle and sold her to a caravan in the desert. You have to buy it, open it, and free her, then at a certain lake she will give you the Oxyale to breathe underwater.

This is one of the story elements that really took me a long time to translate. The thing I kept thinking about was Seabreeze the Breezie, cause who else would fit that sort of physical stature? But then the Oxyale itself... I called it Bubble Magic. But it turns out it works pretty well. Remember the world of Seaquestria?

I'm turning the underwater shrine and its mermaids into Seaquestria and the seaponies/hippogriffs. And Skystar DID do a thing that was basically bubble magic to let the cast breathe in the water! But that seems to be a hippogriff thing, and certainly not a breezie thing.

So what I did was, instead of a fairy being caught in a bottle, I'm going to have a hippogriff caught in a cage. ...a little more concerning, isn't it? Then that hippogriff will make Bubble Magic for you when you talk to her again. But that to me would seem to be the best sort of fit for this scenario.

As for who this hippogriff is: in the original game, one mermaid NPC talks about how her friend Darryl made it to the surface world. In the edit, I'm having this seapony mention her friend Silverstream.

...what if Silverstream was then the one who was caught and put in a cage?

...again, I know that seems somewhat dark, but it follows the story elements.

You think this sounds ok? Maybe have it be Skystar instead? Especially since she's the one doing the bubble magic?

Edited May 12, 2021 by Toastypk

[Toastypk 920]

Quick update here. I would start talking about altered gameplay mechanics and pony-fied things, but I dunno if that's what you would be looking for cause it would get in depth and maybe not be the best read.  On one post I might compile all the things I'm doing.

But I have almost all of the non-sprite related things taken care of.

In fact, if I can get sprites of all the main ponies, certain overworld NPCs, and a few enemies, I can actually put out a demo! This would just limit you to the prologue area, but would be enough to get a glimpse of the game. If I put a demo out, this would be the first time I've done something like this and put it out there! Maybe I'll put a list of features with the possible demo, whenever that is.

Honestly, the sprites are going to be the biggest committment. But what's problematic isn't so much making the sprites, which is a bit commitment, but a number of sprites I don't even have ideas for yet. Specifically the more human-like sprites. There's an Orge, Giant, and Troll sprite that's used for multiple enemies, and so far I haven't gotten a big idea of what to turn them into yet. I want to try to stick to creatures from Equestria, but I think I've exhausted the range of possibilities. Anyone have any ideas?

Edited June 15, 2021 by Toastypk

[Toastypk 920]

I did another sprite, and now slowly but surely things are getting closer together. This is what is replacing the most basic enemy in the game. I honestly didn't know if I wanted to use them since they aren't so much a threat as they are a pest, but I really couldn't figure out any other ideas.
...Is it ok that I'm basically the only one who's posting in this thread? I don't know how often I should keep posting in this thread since it seems I'm the only one who ever posts in it, and I'm not sure of how much interest I'm gathering.

But I do want to at least get everything ready enough to make a demo release. That will be interesting, and maybe that will drum some interest!
 

[The Mint Pone 2,292]

Sorry I have been following the thread i should've tried to think of some suggestions to help. The work so far looks incredible though. Love that screenshot. I'll gladly try and spread the word about this because these kinda projects are by far the most interesting part of this fandom (mainly because old school FF is the hypest thing to crossover)! So, i cannot wait to try a demo!

[Toastypk 920]

On 2021-06-17 at 9:19 PM, The Mint Pone said:

Sorry I have been following the thread i should've tried to think of some suggestions to help. The work so far looks incredible though. Love that screenshot. I'll gladly try and spread the word about this because these kinda projects are by far the most interesting part of this fandom (mainly because old school FF is the hypest thing to crossover)! So, i cannot wait to try a demo!

Hey cool, thanks! Btw I wanted to share some sprites of enemies I did, which I have traced from other sources. They won't be in the demo, but I thought I'd showcase some anyway. Behind spoilers just in case.

Spoiler

 

And this is who replaces WarMECH, the rare but ultra-powerful enemy that is supposed to be more powerful than the final boss...

Spoiler

Tempest!

In the original game, WarMECH is an ordinary but very rare encounter; I'm going to try to make her into a secret optional boss battle that you start by talking to a sprite.

 

[The Mint Pone 2,292]

Oh good choice with the Warmech replacement! Looking good yo!

[Toastypk 920]

I figured out what I want to do with another enemy!
One of the challenges with picking an enemy to replace is whether or not it fits with the original well enough. I don't want to have a lava monster you have to fight in the ocean, or have a creature that's magical that doesn't use magic.
One of the big question marks I have are the humanoid looking enemies, like the Ogre. Well for one of them, I've figured out what to do!

There is a Giant enemy, and two variations, the Red Giant and Frost Giant. Well there's a MLP creature who's big and powerful...

The Maulwurf!

He's big, he's powerful!

The only difference really is that in the show, the Maulwurf has incredibly strong defense; nopony could hurt it, it had to accidentally punch itself to be beaten. The giant doesn't have a huge amount of defense, so I'm just going to double what they have.

I think in the future I'm going to have to commission or request some more custom art to base sprites off of. Maybe even some original artwork for the four bosses! I'd love for them to fill out as much of the 64x64 space they can take. I search around for good vectors or screenshots to base sprites off of, like a trace or a template. It would be cool to have custom ones.

Oh and a bonus, here's the Manticore sprite I did.

Edited June 23, 2021 by Toastypk

[Misty Shadow 7,057]

This is looking to be a pretty good hack so far! Final Fantasy is one of my all-time favorite franchises, but for some reason, I was never particularly grabbed by Pony Fantasy VI. Probably because FFVI isn't really something that needs to be enhanced in my eyes, while this could make what is an admittedly dated entry in the series more fun. Keep up the good work! 

[Toastypk 920]

47 minutes ago, CloudMistDragon said:

This is looking to be a pretty good hack so far! Final Fantasy is one of my all-time favorite franchises, but for some reason, I was never particularly grabbed by Pony Fantasy VI. Probably because FFVI isn't really something that needs to be enhanced in my eyes, while this could make what is an admittedly dated entry in the series more fun. Keep up the good work! 

Hey cool, nice that you're interested!

I picked this one cause it's the one I'm most familiar with and have played many years ago, plus it works out because there's six classes and six mane ponies.

But there's so many bugs in the original NES game!

But people have fixed many of these bugs or made workarounds with patches, which I'm using. There is even an expansion patch which lets you use characters with longer names, as well as for items, spells, and enemies! That last one is really crucial when you have enemies with names such as Nightmare Moon.

I'll probably make a dedicated post about features this game is going to use. But one of the big ones is that only the two unicorns (or rather, unicorn and alicorn) are going to be able to use magic. But they can use both white and black types. However, befitting to Twilight, only she will get to use the absolute best of the best powerful damaging spells and instant KO spells and such. (But Rarity will have exclusive use of the Holy/Fade spell.) Rarity, however, will have slightly better physical stats.

[Steve Piranha 28,720]

On 2021-05-12 at 4:12 AM, Toastypk said:

I finally have an idea for what to do with one element of the story, but I wanted to run it by you cause it might sound a little messed up.

In the original story: You need to enter the underwater shrine, but you need a certain item to breathe underwater. A pirate captured a fairy in a bottle and sold her to a caravan in the desert. You have to buy it, open it, and free her, then at a certain lake she will give you the Oxyale to breathe underwater.

This is one of the story elements that really took me a long time to translate. The thing I kept thinking about was Seabreeze the Breezie, cause who else would fit that sort of physical stature? But then the Oxyale itself... I called it Bubble Magic. But it turns out it works pretty well. Remember the world of Seaquestria?

I'm turning the underwater shrine and its mermaids into Seaquestria and the seaponies/hippogriffs. And Skystar DID do a thing that was basically bubble magic to let the cast breathe in the water! But that seems to be a hippogriff thing, and certainly not a breezie thing.

So what I did was, instead of a fairy being caught in a bottle, I'm going to have a hippogriff caught in a cage. ...a little more concerning, isn't it? Then that hippogriff will make Bubble Magic for you when you talk to her again. But that to me would seem to be the best sort of fit for this scenario.

As for who this hippogriff is: in the original game, one mermaid NPC talks about how her friend Darryl made it to the surface world. In the edit, I'm having this seapony mention her friend Silverstream.

...what if Silverstream was then the one who was caught and put in a cage?

...again, I know that seems somewhat dark, but it follows the story elements.

You think this sounds ok? Maybe have it be Skystar instead? Especially since she's the one doing the bubble magic?

Funny, because a while ago, I was imagining Seaquestria having the Water Shrine’s or whatever it was called BGM. At least the PS remix 

 

[Toastypk 920]

Ooh boy, this is the sprite I was sort of dreading the most, because of how intricate the enemy is.

It's the Timberwolf! This ok?

Aside from this I think I only have two more enemies to edit in the prologue area! Then it's on to the 16x16 overworld pony sprites.

[Splashee 28,537]

46 minutes ago, Toastypk said:

It's the Timberwolf! This ok?

Yes it is! Very nice 

[Toastypk 920]

 

 

Oh, I'm on a roll tonight! I just finished these two sprites: the Flyder and the Skeleton.

And that marks all the enemies in the prolouge area!

I feel like the 16x16 pony sprites are going to be harder to do, since there's a lot more constraints.