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Welcome, traveller...to the world of GIRL FANTASY VI. This is gonna be a screenshot LP of the Beyond Chaos randomiser, with modifications by yours truly. Beyond Chaos is perhaps the strangest and most varied FF6 randomiser on the market - but that won't be our main focus. Actually, we're going to completely remix the cast of FFVI, and experience the adventure with a daring new band of heroes![1] 1. All women. This will be explained later. Table of Contents 1. The Captain's Mission Goes Astray 2. The Rebel Bard 3. The Captain and the Queen 4. The Runaway Queen 5. The Sign of Alexander 6. The Captain's Troubled Heart 7. The Chained Artillery 8. The Star-Crossed Generals 9. The Exiled Esper 10. The Strongest Woman in the World 11. The Returners Entwined 12. The Spearhead 13. The Vanishing Flute 14. The Magnanimity of Lord Ramuh 15. The Side Bet 16. The Halfpenny Opera 17. The Southern Continent 18. The Bottled Esper 19. The Urchin's Gauntlet 20. The Sting in the Tale What's Beyond Chaos? Beyond Chaos is a fun and ambitious randomiser. While most Final Fantasy randomisers take an open world bent, dropping you in an explorable world map with party members to recruit and bosses to locate before tackling the end boss, Beyond Chaos' default mode takes you directly through the normal story of Final Fantasy VI - except that all the enemy groups are different, their abilities are different (but scaled to your level!), treasure is randomised, characters are randomised from appearance, to name, to abilities, and several of the game's setpieces - including the final dungeon - also include a bit of randomisation to keep you on your toes. Beyond Chaos also has some flaws, though. It's oriented towards goofy weirdness and at times some of the random rolls can be a little unbearable. The random name lists are entirely anime references, and while there's a pretty sophisticated tagging system for avoiding random sprites that are too silly, it's still entirely possible to roll into a sprite that sucks out loud. On my test run, Celes rolled an extremely rough sprite of Gaia from SNES cult classic E.V.O., which I had to read the spoiler text to understand, because in gameplay she just looked like a naked woman in blue panties. I took that as a sign that the test run was not much longer for this world. What drew me to this randomiser in the first place was not the various mechanical changes, although those are cool, but the idea of playing through the plot beats of FFVI with characters who are recontextualised by different appearances and aesthetics. The writing in FFVI is slight enough that it changes a lot about (for instance) Sabin's story if he looks like a knight or a mage instead of a monk; similarly if Locke is a spellcasting scholar or an elderly beastmaster, it implies things about his character that are somewhat different from the rough-and-ready street thief we see in the base game. I'm all ears! But wait - where does GIRL FANTASY VI come in? In the base game, there are only three women - Terra, Celes and Relm (and possibly Gogo, if you aren't convinced they're Adlai Stevenson, as I am). Celes and Terra are important, it's true, but they're also a tiny portion of the cast. Equity now! Beyond Chaos actually has two options for this - the "likegirls" flag, which modestly increases the chance for any given character to randomise into a woman, and the "lovegirls" flag, which mandates that all playable characters randomise into women. I did a couple of test runs with "likegirls", and my friends, the weighting just isn't strong enough. Over three runs I found that an average of two women were added to the cast with "likegirls" checked - and those characters were often pretty minor. In my test run, they were Shadow and Umaro, and while that rules, the storytelling potential of a lategame hidden character like Umaro is distinctly limited. That is why this is GIRL FANTASY VI. Every playable character will be a woman. We will soon find ourselves in a rich, Bechdel-affirmative sea of heroes. For feminist purposes, there is simply no alternative. Modified? How? The randomiser really only provides the groundwork for a "story remix" run, but that was what I was interested in exploring. So! I've culled the name lists of anime references, and replaced them with a huge selection of real world names. I've picked out the really gruesome sprites where possible, so that no-one randomises into Princess Peach or a soft, nude woman. I have left in Alphys from Undertale, and if someone is Alphys from Undertale, you'll just have to live with that, as will I. The rest of the modification's going to be all me, baby. I'm going to be writing some extra dialogue for the characters, and including some CYOA elements where you guys will get to decide what they think and feel about themselves - and about the other members of the party. When the game opens up, you'll get to decide who our party leader will be, and who we should rescue or recruit in the World of Ruin. Ideally, it should feel like wildly different characters moving through the same plot as our pals Terra, Locke, Celes, et al. I also haven't peeked at the spoiler text the randomiser creates when it generates the seed. I don't know if each new character we discover is going to have a goofy sprite, an ill-fitting name, or powerful abilities. I'll be discovering that alongside you. Pretty cool, right? I think so. So, without further ado, let's open it up! Android Blues fucked around with this message at 21:00 on Oct 20, 2023 |
# ? Feb 20, 2022 11:59 |
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# ? May 6, 2024 02:48 |
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Chayma Ludos Assassin Age: 21 Jadate Jhaum Bard Age: 43 Zekiye Lexos Figaro Experimental Mage Age: 19 Nalaal Xandros Figaro Sage Age: 30 Rekha Halfpenny Experimental Mage Mk. II Age: 14 Dora the Wasp Esper Age: 79 Ziqiya of Mysidia Black Mage Age: 58 Minna dar Holm Hunter Age: 32 Android Blues fucked around with this message at 14:16 on Apr 16, 2022 |
# ? Feb 20, 2022 11:59 |
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1. The Captain's Mission Goes Astray Three figures in hulking machines trudge towards the mountains. Snow drifts in around the joints of their armour. Narshe is built into the snowcapped mountains. It’s highly defensible - although that wouldn’t matter, if the Empire wanted to bring the full force of its might to bear. It doesn’t matter now. These soldiers are no more consequential than a snowdrift in the path of the magitek walkers. The two roughnecks lag in the captain’s wake, eager to please. They fit the vast arms of the walkers through the spandrels of the mine by moving single file. Vicks is greener than Wedge, and more impressed with the bulk of the magitek walker. She smashes headlong through the gantries blocking the way... ...and directly into the ambush. This is Whelk, the first boss of Final Fantasy 6. Like all the enemies we’ll encounter, Whelk’s abilities have been randomised; normally, it retreats into its shell periodically, and when you whack it in the shell by accident, it counters with a Mega Volt. A couple of Mega Volts will critically injure your party. Here, Whelk has rerolled its Mega Volt into Blizzard... ...which is not great news for the captain, but Vicks and Wedge are wearing blizzard barriers, standard kit for Imperial infantry in the tundra, so this is just like air conditioning to them. Actually, each cast of Blizzard heals them for 23 HP each! With that in mind, the captain drops prone in the seat of her walker, but the roughnecks are able to take turns freezing Whelk solid. It’s arduous work, but never dangerous. Narshe’s tame snail dealt with, the Imperials advance deeper into the mine. Scouting ahead, Vicks spots it first. She calls back to the others. Look at this! Trained from childhood to be a magical assassin, Chayma is dangerous in every dimension. Her only weakness is a lack of ability to use items; she’s not much of a team player, and her combat suit is lightweight enough that she can’t load herself down with potion vials and still do flips and somersaults. Schille, one of her commands, casts the Schiller spell on all enemies for no mana cost. In the standard game, Schiller is fairly useless due to the Darkness status it inflicts not working properly, but Beyond Chaos fixes that bug. So - Chayma can blind a room full of people by pushing the darkness into their eyes. In normal Beyond Chaos runs, this short walk can be pretty treacherous. Your protagonist may be fragile and likely doesn’t have access to any form of healing - and you can find yourself fighting enemies that hit you with poison or on-death triggers. Not only did we start with 2 Potions thanks to Captain Chayma’s pull with Imperial requisitions, she’s a skilful enough killer that she doesn’t come close to needing them. Shuriken find the neck of every foe. The Barrier Ring casts Shell when its wearer reaches critical HP. Normally this chest would have a healing consumable, but the gear isn’t a very useful replacement: most enemy spells will kill you at critical HP even through Shell, and triggering it intentionally is dicey. Following the old man’s directions, Chayma is on the verge of slipping loose... ...before being cornered. The floor gives way under her. She falls fifty feet. Finally exhausted, Chayma dreams: a blurry mixture of years old memories. You are now Captain Chayma. You remember that day. How did burning those people make you feel? a) Satisfied. It was necessary for the advancement of a just cause. If Kefka took pleasure in it, that’s no reflection on you. b) Thrilled. Violence is unmistakably addictive, and it’s rare that you get an opportunity to indulge. c) Horrified. You didn’t want to do it - it’s just that Kefka was right there, telling you to, and you’d never disobeyed her before.
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# ? Feb 20, 2022 12:00 |
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well this looks dooooooooooooooooooooooope Voting for [B] or [C].
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# ? Feb 20, 2022 12:31 |
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Certainly looks interesting! I ought to try a randomizer someday; voting for [B] for Burning
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# ? Feb 20, 2022 12:53 |
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I am on board!! Let's see where this mysterious horse in the iceberg leads us! Kefka-but-girl feels she should be a touhou or something idk i dont know touhou actually I'll vote for C!
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# ? Feb 20, 2022 12:59 |
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B all the way. Violence makes people feel good.
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# ? Feb 20, 2022 13:45 |
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C. Let's be nice.
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# ? Feb 20, 2022 13:51 |
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Terra: either Morrigan or Lilith from Darkstalkers. I'd say Lilith from the portrait, even if the color scheme is Morrigan's. And of course Kefka gets partially randomized too, as they're technically a playable character. I can't really recognize which sprite are Kekfa and Celes* using in the sepia flashback though. *hold on, is that Celes or Leo? I don't remember who is present there in the original. anyways, C) and
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# ? Feb 20, 2022 14:03 |
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A) It doesn't matter who, what, or how many she roasts. It's all about weilding the powerful forces of nature
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# ? Feb 20, 2022 14:03 |
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[A] Is the shuriken her main weapon?
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# ? Feb 20, 2022 14:16 |
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GunnerJ posted:[A] It is! A fantastic windfall for the early game, since she can deal great damage from the back row. Also looks extremely cool. Omobono posted:Terra: either Morrigan or Lilith from Darkstalkers. It's Leo and...someone else. As for the portrait...why, that's Chayma Ludos, of course!
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# ? Feb 20, 2022 14:29 |
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B. Burning people! She's doing what we're all thinking!
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# ? Feb 20, 2022 14:29 |
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A. Job's a job. Take satisfaction in doing it well, but she's seen the addiction spiral Kefka's fallen into and doesn't plan to join her.
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# ? Feb 20, 2022 16:05 |
B. All must burn. I always leave those chests for the World of Ruin because they get updated, even in vanilla. Is Chayma a Natural Mage?
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# ? Feb 20, 2022 16:09 |
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C. Not everyone gets hooked on the blood rush. This is looking SUPER interesting.
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# ? Feb 20, 2022 17:41 |
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B. Burn it all.
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# ? Feb 20, 2022 18:19 |
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C Violence is wrong!
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# ? Feb 20, 2022 20:10 |
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C, because being scared and penitent (or friendly and mostly innocent) person makes for love and friendship goodness!
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# ? Feb 20, 2022 21:16 |
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C. because friendship in a JRPG
Left 4 Bread fucked around with this message at 22:18 on Feb 20, 2022 |
# ? Feb 20, 2022 22:14 |
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PizzaProwler posted:C Violence is wrong!
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# ? Feb 20, 2022 22:34 |
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C
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# ? Feb 20, 2022 22:56 |
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A good soldier follows their orders, right or wrong, especially when they don't have much of a say in the matter
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# ? Feb 21, 2022 02:05 |
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Admiral Joeslop posted:B. All must burn. She is! This is a cool thing about Beyond Chaos: you can set a flag such that anyone with the Magic command has their own learn list, so they'll start with some spells and gain more as they level up. The randomisation for this learn list is scaled, so you'll get early game spells at low levels and endgame spells at high levels, although you can wind up with slightly more powerful spells than you'd normally have access to - which balances itself out, since you won't have the MP to cast them much. Appropriately for her position, Chayma began the game knowing Poison and Berserk. For an assassin, Poison's utility is obvious. Berserk, on the other hand, is good for preventing her targets from fleeing or calling for help.
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# ? Feb 21, 2022 07:37 |
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I had great worries based on the thread title, it this looks excellent. Happily following.
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# ? Feb 21, 2022 21:09 |
Android Blues posted:She is! This is a cool thing about Beyond Chaos: you can set a flag such that anyone with the Magic command has their own learn list, so they'll start with some spells and gain more as they level up. The randomisation for this learn list is scaled, so you'll get early game spells at low levels and endgame spells at high levels, although you can wind up with slightly more powerful spells than you'd normally have access to - which balances itself out, since you won't have the MP to cast them much. Most of my BC runs all the natural mages start with like, Regen and W. Wind. It's a real good day when someone comes with Float since Quake/Magnitude 8 are incredibly dangerous.
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# ? Feb 21, 2022 21:49 |
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the text looks a bit blurry to me, are you using https://deathgenerator.com/#ff6 by any chance? maybe it needs better scaling? As for the choice, how about C
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# ? Feb 22, 2022 04:09 |
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C for Chayma.
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# ? Feb 22, 2022 06:20 |
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FeyerbrandX posted:the text looks a bit blurry to me, are you using https://deathgenerator.com/#ff6 by any chance? maybe it needs better scaling? Hey, this is great! I've been using Krita, and you'll see a mix of that and this in the next couple of updates, because this'll be far easier. Thanks for the tip!
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# ? Feb 22, 2022 07:27 |
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This looks like an interesting twist on a rando playthrough, for sure. C
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# ? Feb 23, 2022 05:10 |
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2. The Rebel Bard a) Satisfied. [4] b) Thrilled. [6] c) Horrified. [12] That's right. A ward of the state from a young age, Kefka has been your central authority figure for most of your life, in part because she's one of the only people who's taken an interest. Disobeying her felt impossible. Her volatile rages are something you’ve been afraid of since you were a child. And besides, your role in life has always been to remove the enemies of the Empire. It's just normally with a dagger in the night, or poison magicked into a chalice at a function, not by roasting them alive. The difference in degree was deeply disturbing. You haven't been able to stop thinking about it. It's one of the reasons you used your rank to pry into Imperial dossiers about Esper research, and set out on an unauthorised mission to see for yourself when you found out there was an Esper buried in Narshe. After all, you're part Esper. This is meant to be a state secret, but you've known since you were a teenager. You thought that maybe if you saw what an Esper was actually like, up close - touched one, let the raw magic you'd heard about course through you - something would change. And it did. The circlet broke. The circlet that broadcasts your sensation, movements and emotions back to Kefka, mostly for her amusement, but also so that she can keep an eye on you. Suddenly, you're in freefall. If you did want to go off-grid...you couldn't be tracked. Zero accountability. You could do whatever you wanted. As soon as you can stand up again. Not so far away, in Narshe, there's a knock at a balcony door... Thirty minutes later, Jadate rappels down a treacherous descent. The Imperial's trail was hard to follow, soft and trackless - but the cave-in was hard to miss. She's contemplating rigging a sling when she hears shouts echoing through the warren of tunnels. Emerging from the tunnels in scraggly formation, a gaggle of teenagers in badge-laden uniforms begin to roll out rope and carabiners, barking cheerful callsigns to each other. Buoyed up by their infectious good cheer, Jadate joins the scrum of cave scouts. One extremely cool thing Beyond Chaos does is randomise the music. Its library of custom music tracks is weighted with parameters for drama, pace, grandeur, sadness, etc, and on a new seed it allocates tracks to game scenes based on those parameters. This can work well or poorly, but so far in this seed the music allocations are excellent. Jadate's theme deserves a mention: it's High Tension Wire from Seiken Densetsu 3, and it perfectly escalates the energy of this scene. Vomammoths are only superficially pachyderms; actually, they have more in common genealogically with mustelids, cries one of the cave scouts to her troupemate, as they bind the creature's legs in rope. These vomammoths are fitted with wayfinding lights on hi-beam focus; they don't have good night vision, despite how comfortable they are in tunnels. Jadate's most precious possession is a magic flute, made of copper and studded with a single umber topaz. Unfortunately, she's not sure how to use it. All she knows is that when she plays it, someone vanishes, and occasionally they don't look too copacetic when they reappear. This is an example of one of Beyond Chaos' procedurally generated skills, and it's a lot of fun. ?-VaRam uses a quickly rotating cursor, which stops on a target a few beats after you press A. Whoever the cursor lands on is targeted by the Vanish spell. If they're an enemy, something happens to them when they vanish, and if they reappear at all, they're singed and reeking of ozone. She tries not to play it too much. But honestly? It has a real nice sound. Physical attacks automatically miss a Vanished character, and the status persists between battles. The wrinkle of not really being able to control who it lands on just makes this a lot more fun. Vanish/Doom is patched out of Beyond Chaos by default, so don't worry - we'll purely be using the vanishing flute for its intended (?) purpose. With the rope and tackle her saviours left behind, Jadate squares her shoulders, limbers up, and sets about the business of lugging her recruitment prospect out of the tunnels beneath the mountain. You wake up at the feet of an unfamiliar woman. She's tall and gangly, and is looking at you with the vague discomfort you associate with people who haven't been briefed on your sleek skin and strange features. You know about the Returners. Intel reports about their activities are relevant to your work; more bluntly, you've sometimes removed their agents and sympathisers on Imperial orders. You're probably one of the major factors that has prevented their movement from seriously threatening the Imperial core. Chayma searches her heart... You don't feel particularly proud of that. It was your duty, and at the time, you didn't know how you could even think of doing anything else. You cross the mountain tundra on foot, but despite the exertion it saved, you don't miss the magitek walker. It was strong but cumbersome; and as your conscripted soldiers found out, its astonishing strength can lull the pilot into a false sense of invulnerability. Better to know what you can and can't do. In a tussle with monstrous scorpions, you cloud their eyes with Schiller, and then finish the job with a leaping stroke of your straight sword. Out of the confines of the cave systems around Narshe, you can stretch your legs. Everything is breathing again. Chayma's SwordTech is reliable damage, and looks extremely cool. Her highest stat is Magic, and an interesting wrinkle is that a couple of the later SwordTech abilities actually scale based on the user's Magic stat. For other characters this can be a limitation, but for Chayma it might mean it's worth charging up the normally laborious SwordTech bar! Jadate's other ability is Lore. As a bard, touched by magic, her expansive knowledge of people and places manifests as powerful songs with strange effects. Right now she knows two songs, Condemned... ...and Clean Sweep. The illusory tidal wave gives everyone struck by it the sensation of being dragged into a battering undertow. A few seconds later, if they're still conscious, they'll realise that their clothes (or their fur) are perfectly dry. This is a powerful ability for this early in the game: it also costs 30 of Jadate's 35 MP to cast, so it's her grand finale in case she can't talk or vanish her way out of trouble. And, blessedly, she's resourceful enough to use items! Every travelling mummer needs an instrument case, a bag for trail rations, and a few Tonics for pep. A couple of days' travel leads you through the desert, Jadate wayfinding ahead. Having spent a while with her, you can see that she's older than you; perhaps in her forties, though she carries herself with the exuberance and carelessness of youth. The silhouette of Figaro Castle hazes through the sand long before you find yourself beneath its walls.
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# ? Feb 23, 2022 10:15 |
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No vote this time, since I wanted to give Jadate's introduction a bit of time to breathe before we roll onto new characters!
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# ? Feb 23, 2022 10:16 |
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Amazing sprite, really cool moveset, and the crustiest portrait ever. Beautiful.
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# ? Feb 23, 2022 11:58 |
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Keep it up, this is fun.
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# ? Feb 23, 2022 12:01 |
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Lore is Strago's innate in the unmodded game, right? The local version of blue magic. Does the randomizer shuffle and/or change lores? Is the Blitz and SwordTech list the same as in the unmodded game or does the randomizer change those? What about the various magic spells? Gotta say, roulette vanish is a cool skill. E: oh right, where does Omobono fucked around with this message at 12:06 on Feb 23, 2022 |
# ? Feb 23, 2022 12:04 |
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Omobono posted:Lore is Strago's innate in the unmodded game, right? The local version of blue magic. Yep! This is a perfect example of how randomising a character's abilities can utterly change their vibes. quote:Does the randomizer shuffle and/or change lores? So this is interesting, and varies on a per skill basis. Lores and spells are mechanically the same as ever, although the Lores a character starts with are randomised. Blitz and SwordTech are similarly the same list of abilities - however, by default, Beyond Chaos does randomise Blitz inputs, so you might find yourself needing to do some finger puzzles to perform Blitzes. There are iconic FF6 abilities that are heavily altered by randomisation, and we'll be seeing a couple of those in the upcoming updates. It's pretty wild stuff and I'm excited to experiment with it. quote:Gotta say, roulette vanish is a cool skill. It really is - super fun in action, and a perfect opportunity for characterisation. quote:E: oh right, where does I don't wanna get too into the weeds on sprite reveals, because I'd like to build the characters up in their own right. I'd rather Chayma be Chayma than [x] in a [y] hat. I will say this: a frankly unlikely number of sprites so far are from the Samurai Shodown series, which is really funny to me.
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# ? Feb 23, 2022 12:22 |
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Hey, this looks interesting. I'll follow this thread for sure.
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# ? Feb 23, 2022 12:55 |
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This is such an ambitious mod that I'm compelled to follow. Looking good so far!
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# ? Feb 24, 2022 03:34 |
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3. The Captain and the Queen Jadate approaches with a slight swagger. She executes something between a bow and a curtsey to the guard, who reacts with stoic tolerance. The woman on the throne is dressed all in royal Figaro green. She can't be older than twenty. She and Jadate confer quickly. You hear snippets: it sounds like the bard is briefing her on a wide range of concerns beyond the question of Chayma Ludos. The bard has a hop in her step as she strides away. She clearly feels she's done multiple good deeds here. Zekiye's body language as she talks is erratic; she's perhaps a couple of years younger than you, and much shorter, but clearly trying to project presence. You've seen Imperial officers act the same way. She jolts her arms around as if she's orating to a crowd. You spend a week as Queen Zekiye's guest, sleeping in a soft bed, striking up conversations with guards and scholars. The Queen herself is not much in evidence. Your observation skills don't fail you, though: she seems to spend most of her time in the castle's lower levels. Those are off-limits to you, but by setting your sharp hearing to a wall in the dungeons, you can sometimes hear the familiar fizz and simmer of magicite under a charge. Seeing her erratic behaviour in the throne room, that was pretty much what you expected. Those wild hand movements and sudden mood swings reminded you of someone all too familiar. Jadate is sometimes there, sometimes not; she ranges out into the desert on several days and returns after nightfall, humming a jaunty tune and conspicuously not talking about where she's been. You were aware that the King of Figaro had two daughters, and you did think Zekiye looked a little young to be the heir you were briefed on. It's been a while since you read those dossiers. Watching from the shade of a nearby palisade, you can almost feel the tension in the air. You can see Zekiye's fists clenching under the sleeves of her robes of state. Zekiye stands there, shivering with anger, for as long as you care to watch. Chayma remembers her fear... Kefka was out there, close enough that you could hear her gabbling voice - although she doesn't seem to know you're here. Your heart beats faster. Outside you are maintaining a pallid calm. The castle no longer feels like a pocket away from reality, but like a wicker trap. You don't know where to go - just that at any moment, she could come back. That night, Jadate is waiting in your room, sand on her cloak. She starts talking almost immediately. Chayma has a choice. What do you do? A) You want your life to change. You have regrets - and plenty of intelligence you can share with the Returners. With your help, maybe they would stand a real chance of pushing back the Empire. Most importantly, you'd never have to be afraid of Kefka again. B) You can't pass up a chance to gather inside information on Returner cells, their plans, and the distribution of their agents. Go along with it for now - meet their leaders, and earn their trust. You'll flip on them once a good opportunity presents itself, and return to Vector a hero. Surely Kefka couldn't control you then. C) This is idiocy. Setting yourself up against the Empire, the state that raised you, named you, gave you everything you are? Tell Jadate no, and ask Queen Zekiye to have an Imperial patrol pick you up. Maybe once you're back in Vector, you can forget this whole indiscretion.
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# ? Feb 24, 2022 21:37 |
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# ? May 6, 2024 02:48 |
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Let's go A.
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# ? Feb 24, 2022 23:52 |