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Blackmoon Prophecy is a fangame (or tribute game as I like to call this) that I began in 2004 which is based on the Final Fantasy franchise. I had abandoned it several times between 2004 and 2008 (the last time I think I worked on it before now) for various reasons. Sometimes I would mess something up that affected the entire game, or I'd simply lose motivation for one reason or another and give up.

I decided a while ago that I would stop working on this game, but since it is the only thing I've ever attempted that was almost well received by everybody who played it, I decided... Hey, why not just try to finish it?

So, that brings me to the actual content of this post!





Brief Story

Blackmoon Prophecy is the story of Vahn, a dragoon from the Branch Kingdom. A year has passed since the Crystal War which saw the King of Branch wage war on the worlds via crystal power. The King was defeated and the crystals returned to their rightful shrines across the world.
Now, something mysterious is clearly going on. Strange happenings have been occurring at the Water Shrine, and a local dragoon named Darius has been acting peculiar and defiant in many cases. Can Vahn get to the bottom of it all?




Information

What is it being made with?
RPG Maker 2003.

Why is it taking so long?
A few things over the years have caused delays. Sometimes it has been problems with the game itself, while other times motivation has been the issue.

How long is the game at the present moment?
For the average person, I would estimate between seven and nine hours. A recent play through by me clocked in at about seven hours, and that is with a lot of random battle skipping. Since I made the game and know it in and out and always know exactly where to go, I would expect my play time to be lower than average.

How big will the download size be?
Probably between 100 and 200 megabytes, due to the use of mp3s for music. I may make a midi version, but in this day and age I’m not sure if it would be a necessity. I’ll decide at a later date.

What makes this game a tribute more than just a fangame?
I make constant references to the fourth, fifth, and sixth Final Fantasy games throughout Blackmoon Prophecy. For example, there is one location called Branford Hollow, which is home to a mysterious girl who wants magicite shards. The girl was sprited to look like Terra in the form of a miniature Final Fantasy 4 sprite. I also bring Ultros in. Many item names reference particular games in the series. As well, Mystic Mysidia is ripped straight out of Final Fantasy 4. There are other little details, but I think it’s best for the player to find them rather than having me blab about every single thing.

How does it play?
Blackmoon Prophecy is meant to emulate the older Final Fantasy games in many ways. Walk speed, locations, battle system, items, character roles, and so forth are all emulated to an extent. Basically if you don’t like how Final Fantasy 4 plays, since it is the game I emulate the most, then this may not be a game for you. However, if you enjoyed that particular game in the series, then you may like Blackmoon Prophecy.



Characters

Vahn

The main character. Vahn is a dragoon from the Branch kingdom and utilizes unique dragoon/spear attacks in battle.

Oalston

A novice black mage, and the only one in the Branch Kingdom. Oalston uses black magic spells such as Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder.

Elina

A novice white mage from the neutral town of Mystic Mysidia. Elina uses white magic spells such as Cure, Holy, and Regen.

Vera

Vera belongs to the Four Swords of Ivalice, the four strongest generals of Ivalice. She is a caller, thus being able to summon espers.

Nobumasa

Nobumasa is a ninja from a remote island who seeks to train and grow stronger. He utilizes ninjitsu techniques such as katon and suiton.

Ami

An experienced traveler who knows the wilds of Northern Lenadia well. Ami is able to use blue magic, which is essentially the abilities and spells of monsters.

There are two other characters, but one is not in the game (does not even have a sprite yet) and the other is very important and significant, so they are left off of here for now.



Screenshots





Here is the overworld, which is largely WIP. Generally only the areas that look detailed or not blank are completed. There's still a long way to go with this map, even after four years.



Music/Videos

Here is the rocking title music that was composed by Brandon Abley (maladroithim) specifically for Blackmoon Prophecy. It is a remix of the Final Fantasy 4 battle theme. It was originally composed to be the game's main battle music, but I decided that it the cymbals and such made it feel too out of place in the retro 16 bit environment, so it became the title screen music instead.
http://file.walagata.com/w/uprc/Title.mp3

And a few videos for the curious.






Maintaining an authentic "old school Final Fantasy" feel is paramount to me and is what I have focused on more than anything else during the times I have worked on this since 2004. I mean, without that old retro feel, what would even be the point of doing this?

Since this game is six years old now, I started it when I was 19. At the time, I was perhaps a little more immature and it showed in the game's dialogue and, in some ways, the mapping. I revisit old areas of the game often to clean up the dialogue and make some areas less ridiculous in terms of difficulty or length.

Also, here's something pretty neat that I found once, fanfiction for Blackmoon Prophecy! It was pretty cool that somebody wrote a little piece about my game.
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2577628/3/Game_log

Anyway, so that's that! I'll post updates and such here if there's an interest for it.
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Mind if I get in on this?
No problem! I'll add you to the list.

Remember guys, thecatamites' part is due on the 5th. We'll let him pass it off to the next person then, so remember to express interest then.
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Haha, that sounds hilarious. You better finish it and realse it someday!
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You don't need to give any further details about this game. The giant ant itself is reason enough for me to want to play it.
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So!! Who likes sheep?





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Yeah, the first part isn't even done yet. Hang onto that title screen. I suppose we could use it if nobody else volunteers to make one by the end of it all.
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Haha, DO IT!!
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@UPRC: Wtf man, I remember you writing an article on why you stopped and cancelled it....
Nah, I just don't work on it for great lengths of time. I think it would be nice to have completed at least ONE THING with this stupid maker, so.. I'm going to give this a shot again.
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Just started working on this again for the first time in many months. Maybe I'll actually finish it someday?







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The hub world is a cool idea, I'm behind it as well. But let's see what thecatamites pumps out, since his opening chapter will influence everything after it.
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Well, it's mostly all decided by the person doing each part, but yeah, some kind of consistency is important.
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Perhaps people could access each individual part from the hub area, and completing them would be necessary to progress or something?

Also I think that battles shouldn't be a very prominent part of the game, because RPG Maker battles tend to become very boring after a while. A few touch encounters or something would probably be cool though.
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okay, i'm gonna start this sucker tomorrow!

also i was thinking of including a sort of communal HUBWORLD thing which would be the ~nexus of dimensionnsss~ or some shit and basically just a big area where people can throw in npcs and locations etc if they want to and also set the entrance point to their entries. and all the entries themselves are kind of selfcontained small worlds with some restrictions, like you would have to collect the magic shell in each world to clear the game or whatever but other than that people can decide for themselves what the characters are or world is or which graphics to use. there is probably a better analogy but uh maybe TIMESPLITTERS 2 in that you're playing a different person/place in each but with a kind of overarching goal in the background which everyone can flesh out (or not!) as they please. Or if anyone wants to they can carry on ideas or characters etc they liked from other people's entries. I don't know maybe this defeats the purpose of a chaingame but it could give people more room to mess around and stuff and gives an out for like graphical clashes and differences in gameplay etc. This is all new to me, gimme ya thoughts....
That is actually a very good idea, as it gives people a lot of freedom with their own parts. I say run with it.
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I hope they throw in the training/challenge things from SSFIV but there's a shitload of characters so probably not.
Actually I read that they are probably going to include trials in MvC3.

There was recently a tweet on the official MvC3 Twitter asking "which unannounced female characters are on your holiday wish lists?"

So.. Looks like a few more female characters will be show sometime soon, I guess. I'm guessing Crimson Viper and Storm.
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Yeah, it's not premium only. That would just be silly.
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I'm kind of surprised that there is no topic about this yet since GW has a few devoted fighter fans. Anyway, obviously this is the third installment in the Marvel Vs Capcom series.

For those who do not know how Marvel vs Capcom games play:
Quote
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is a fighting game where up to two players compete in battle using characters with their own unique fighting styles and special attacks. The game features the same tag-based team feature as previous installments of the series, where each player chooses three characters that can be swapped at any point during a match, and utilizes an order selection called "Evolved Vs. Fighting System", a modified version of earlier systems seen in other Marvel vs. Capcom and Capcom vs. SNK crossover games. It is the first game in the franchise to feature three-dimensional character models as opposed to two-dimensional sprites, though gameplay remains restricted to two-dimensions, allowing characters to move only backward, forward, or straight up into the air.

There are supposedly going to be around 42 characters or so. Here are the revealed characters so far.

Capcom Characters
Amaterasu
Arthur
Chris
Chun-Li
Dante
Felicia
Jill
Morrigan
Ryu
Spencer
Trish
Tron Bonne
Viewtiful Joe
Wesker
Zero

Marvel Characters
Captain America
Deadpool
Dormammu
Dr. Doom
Hulk
Iron Man
M.O.D.O.K.
Magneto
She-Hulk
Shuma-Gorath
Spider-Man
Super Skrull
Thor
Wolverine
X-23

Here's the character page on the official MvC3 website, so if you don't know who the heck some characters are, this page should help: http://marvelvscapcom3.com/us/characters

Nobody is really sure who the rest of the characters are, but a lot of rumours point to a few such as Crimson Viper, Frank West, Haggar, M. Bison, Mega Man, Storm (X-Men), and Strider Hiryu.


Here are a few videos as well!




Marvel Vs Capcom 3 is due out early next year, most likely during March.
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This topic was brought up over in the chain game topic, so if anyone who never visits the Game Design forum, here is a link: http://gamingw.net/forums/index.php?topic=11599.0
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Short responses because I am on a work computer that's being a prick.

also could i be the one to start it off because i think i have an idea that gives a lot of freedom to who comes next and could be funny (or maybe that should be "funnie"      heh    heh    heh). also maybe instead of a unified theme people just pick what they like from the previous games and build on that (or go somewhere new entirely), it doesn't have to cohere particularly! i dont know though this is new to me
Deal! Start whenever you want. Post your start date whenever you begin and we can follow it from there.

ed, i'm sure UPRC is more than capable of dealing with that side. Yeah, UPRC include possible interested sides from there, eg me!!

Also dude drop the maximum participants number, 1. almost none of the premiums could contribute 2.this wouldn't be a hassle or a problem. i don't think it's enough of a bother to NOT to drop the limit. you can always use common sense later on to supervise/see if the project is delaying too much.I agree with this. In case you are worried about QUALITY and that it wouldn't make sense or be WORTHILE, i don't think we need to worry about that. i trust all the premiums here to the extent of delivering something worthwhile when bothered/when delivering their part in time, at least. this is not to belittle other people's contributions either! welcome em all. all in.

i'll get to you with a pm UPRC, right now this is still kinda unclarified on our part
Yeah, just did that. Also got your PM.


I suggest that anybody who finishes their part can choose who they feel is a reliable person to do the next part. I think that we could be more efficient with this overall without hand holding and such.
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Nah I was serious, I will actually do this if we can come to an agreement on one day when you can *check out* the game to myself, I will work on it for a day then *check it back in* to you. I can't afford to do more than 1 day work but I reckon I could probably churn out something pretty awesome and it would be pretty pass the parcel-ish.
I think it might be more efficient if we pass it off to each other, actually. After all, we're (mostly) all responsible adults now who don't need our hands held.
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I already said I wanted to do this, so dunno why my name isn't already on the list. So yes, I am interested. Please add me.
Yeah, you mentioned RMXP or something, so I was going to wait to see if you'd express interest in 2003. You're added.