Right, so now that THaNoY is out the way I can focus completely on this project without worrying quite so much about my current backlog of games.
:Looks at current backlog:
>.<;
Well, maybe not stop worrying altogether...

Anyway, lately I've been focussing on spriting, namely ripping NPCs, animations and trying to do a few mockups of the newer characters. I... only just started so I haven't gotten too far into it, but I am proud of what I've accomplished so far. Sadly there are a few issues, though.

Namely animation frames. See, Breath of Fire II does something strange when it comes to chip and characterset animations. Main characters have three-step animations - which is perfect for RM games. However, NPCs only have two frames of animation when walking, which looks a bit odd for some reason. I've tried to remedy this by editing in a third 'still-standing' frame but doing so for every character that doesn't have one will take a while and does get annoying. That, however, isn't the only issue.

Chipset animation is also odd. With candles/lights alone there is a mix of two-frame, three-frame and four-frame animations. Which is really odd. You'd have thought the graphics team would have tried to be more uniform in that regard, but no.

Then you have the water tiles - especially the ocean, which has more than just the four-frame animations that the cliff-water edges and beaches have. It's a mish-mash of frame animations all over. That, I will work on. I'm thinking an ever-looping parallax for the ocean, with an ever-looping picture for the cliff-water edges.

On top of that is the fact that while most of the graphics fit in a 16x16 frame, some parts like to go beyond that by a few pixels which is another oddity. I'm working out the kinks with that as well.

Another issue is the rips I've found online are strangely coloured when compared to the rips I've made myself. This is most likely due to colour-reduction and I'm probably going to have to re-rip everything that isn't chipsets just to get the characters (especially battle animations) looking coherent. Oh well. I knew it wasn't going to be easy. ;p

Now, here's something I'd like your input on.

Since I'll be dealing with the characters from the old game and since Hearts Aflame is set about 20 years after the events of the original, some of the characters have changed during that time, not only in personality, but looks, as well. I've knocked together a few mockups using battle sprites to get a closer idea of the changes.





What I'd really like an opinion on is Nina - which version do you prefer? Keep in mind she's a mother now, so I changed her clothes a bit to match that. I rather like the long hair, myself, but am open to suggestions. Katt... well, again, I like the longer hair but there's really not much I changed with her because, well, she's the same old Katt.


And now, a look at one of the new heroes: Mina.

As you can see, she uses Ryu's base, with some of Nina's clothing. She's a nice mix of both parents. Any thoughts? Suggestions?