Final Fantasy Discovery

Hey folks!

janussenpre here with my first official blog post. First of all, I'd like to say Happy 2 Year Anniversary to Final Fantasy Discovery! William and I have a lot of cool new developments in the works before the end of the year so please look forward to them!

I realized that while William regularly gives updates on the ongoing changes/improvements to FFD's technical progress, there's been very little noise on my end concerning the new graphical direction that this game is taking. That will change however as I've decided to try my hand at regular/irregular artist updates to keep you all informed of the work on my end. I definitely won't be spoiling any artwork that will used in game though!

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Today, I'll talk about character artwork. Originally, the only characters who were supposed to have bust artwork were the playable character cast, one or two main villains and a few miscellaneous peripheral characters. Even the current downloadable demo only boasts a handful of character portraits, and of those, all but one are for playable party members.

That has changed dramatically however within the last year.

As we have hinted here and there, the character cast of Final Fantasy Discovery has exploded in size. Like, really. It got doubled... and then tripled on top of that... and then quadrupled on top of that. Those of you who have seen the new world map of Final Fantasy Discovery have a sense of just how huge the game world is. Naturally, the redefined scope of the game has prompted us to alter existing technical elements in order to better serve the final envisioned product (such as the elimination of traditional world map travel).

The Final Fantasy franchise is lush with incredible history. In my opinion, the great thing about Final Fantasy Discovery is that its blending of different Final Fantasies allow us to take some of the coolest aspects from any of our favorite games and reintroduce them into something not exactly new per se, but still novel. Naturally, these aspects include monsters, items, mini games, tropes, locations... and characters. While Final Fantasy Discovery's main cast are all original characters (with the exception of two) , the supporting cast of people, monsters and other entities that constitute their periphery aren't... exactly original. They are and they aren't.

So what does this mean? In short, the world of Final Fantasy Discovery has been populated by FFD versions of characters from every corner of the FF franchise. Characters were not thrown in frivolously however and were placed with great care in accordance to their role in the game/story and to the lore of the game world we are trying to craft. Naturally, these characters wouldn't be complete or as identifiable without artwork... which is why they will all have artwork. Every single one of them. Without fail.

That's all I have to say for now... Although the named supporting character cast of Final Fantasy Discovery has been tentatively completed, things are always changing within the design/creation process. If anyone happens to have a suggestion for a character they want to see in FFD, then by all means, drop a note! I can't confirm or deny the existence of characters at the moment, but it will certainly be cool to see what kind of character favorites have stuck with Final Fantasy players over the years. ...Oh, and just to clarify... "Most" core playable party members of other Final Fantasy games were not and will not be included in FFD (for obvious reasons).

Here's a test for all FF fan masters. I wonder if anyone can guess who these characters are?



Until next time!