Final Fantasy Discovery

janussenpre, who all of you know as the official artist of Final Fantasy Discovery, has been updated to a Lead Developer on the project. That does actually mean something for the future of this game, and when we're ready to talk about that, I'm sure a lengthy blog post will be forthcoming.

Just a heads up that now there are two people working on all of the game's content. Woo!

Hello! So, one of the game's early areas is the Macalania Woods, a little ways east of Figaro Castle. Some call it the Phantom Forest, though, because a witch lives there. I need to map this area as soon as possible, but there's a problem.

Final Fantasy games (especially FF4CC where FFD gets most of it's map tiles) don't really have a ton of forest tiles to work with. Luckily, a lot of the RTP stuff blends in very well with the PSP tiles. I've seen some amazing forest maps in my time here, but most of the time they're done through Parallax Mapping, which I don't have any experience with.

So I'm asking for anyone who has experience with forest mapping or Parallax Mapping to lend me a hand and take on the mapping of this one area. Interested? Send me a PM! I'll tell you all about the area, the monsters in it, what happens there, anything you need to do it properly.

Some of you may have already seen that Triple Triad has been implemented into the game. It uses the exact same rules as Final Fantasy VIII does, and that probably won't change, unless the script author (Raizen) adds more types of rules at a later time. Even then, I may not use any of the new settings if any are added.

The only thing I will be doing is setting different types of card battles against opponents! Let me explain...

Final Fantasy VIII features different conditions for the outcome of a Tripe Triad game, and different sets of rules. Most of your card games will consist of the "Open" rule set and the "One" win condition, meaning you can see your opponents cards and if you win, you get to select one of theirs to keep, and vice versa.

There are a few aspects of FF8's TT game that aren't present in FFD's like the Elemental rule set and the Difference win condition.

Here are some of the other rules and win conditions:

RULE SETS
OPEN: Enables the player to see which cards the opponent is using.
SAME: When a card is placed touching two or more other cards (one or both of them have to be the opposite color), and the touching sides of each card is the same (8 touching 8 for example), then the other two cards are flipped. Combo rule applies.
PLUS: Similar to the Same rule. When one card is placed touching two others and the ranks touching the cards plus the opposing rank equal the same sum, then both cards are captured. Combo rule applies.
COMBO: Of the cards captured by the Same, Same Wall or Plus rule, if they are adjacent to another card whose rank is lower, then it is captured as well. This is not a separate rule; any time Same or Plus is in effect, Combo is in effect as well.
SAMEWALL: An extension of the Same rule. The edges of the board are counted as A ranks for the purposes of the Same rule. Combo rule applies. If the Same rule is not present in a region that has Same Wall, Same Wall will not appear in the list of rules when starting a game because it can have no effect without Same. However, it will still be carried with the player to other regions, and can therefore still be spread.
PLUSWALL: Similar to Samewall, in which the edges of the board are counted as A ranks for the purpose of the Plus rule.

WIN CONDITIONS
ONE: The winner of the game gets to select one card from the opponent to keep permanently. Be careful not to lose your rare cards!
ALL: The winner takes all of the opponents cards in their hand. Yikes.
DIRECT: The winner of the game will keep any cards of their color when the game is over. When playing with Direct win conditions, it's best to leave your opponent with as little cards as possible.

NORMAL CARD BATTLE
This is your standard card battle and will make up 90% of the card battles you participate in. The first move will be randomly selected at the start of the card game. Normal card battles will heavily feature the Open, Combo, and Plus rule sets and the One and Direct win conditions.

BOSS CARD BATTLE
These are reserved for opponents that hold a rare card, and they will ALWAYS go first at the start of the game. Once you win their rare card, they will not offer it again. You can try to get it from them more than once if you lose, though. Be warned that most boss card battles feature the "All" win condition, meaning they will win all of your cards in your hand if you lose!

Hello! Just gonna go over what I've been working on lately with FFD.

All of the game events in Burmecia (Mysidia, Figaro, etc.) are done now. After all of the events there, the party splits into three groups and takes on their own missions (I went over this in a previous blog). Once the branching mission sequences are completed, the party is reunited back in Figaro and sent to the next country in the game: the lawless desert, Sanubia. There are a few noteworthy locations here, like the Gold Saucer. Your time here will be short at first, progressing to the west into the third nation you'll see: Ivalice.

Not surprisingly, Ivalice is country with strict law enforcement in the form of the Ivalice Judges, which should be familiar to players of the actual FF games set within Ivalice.

What makes Ivalice special in FFD is that random encounters here may sometimes feature a Judge that enforces special rules, just like they did in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. In some battles, magic may be forbidden, or you may not be able to use special abilities like Tools. Judges cannot attack you (unless of course, they deem it acceptable, haha), and they will flee the battle when all other enemies are defeated.

To introduce these special battles to the player (which are active whenever you're in Ivalice terrirtory), I threw in an introductory boss battle against two of the notable Ivalice Judges: Judge Kiros and Judge Ward. Normally, laws are set at the start of a battle and persist until the end, but high-ranking Judges can change the law at will during battle! Kiros and Ward will continually attempt to block the party's ability to fight effectively, making them incredibly dangerous opponents.

Just to give you an idea, the laws that Kiros and Ward can change during the battle are:

- Abilities Outlawed (Cannot use character special abilities like Blessing)
- Magic Outlawed (Cannot use White, Black, Red, or Blue Magic)
- Aeons Outlawed (Cannot summon Aeons)
- Limit Breaks Outlawed (Cannot use or charge Limit Breaks)
- Healing Outlawed (Healing items and abilities have no effect)

They will change the laws every turn, forcing you to change your strategy on the fly! Of course, these are laws, and APPLY TO THE ENEMY AS WELL. There's a whole bunch of other laws that can be changed via Judges during battles within Ivalice, but I'll leave the rest to the players to find.

Hey, just a quick update today. I went ahead and threw in another side-quest (it'll be available near the end of the demo release I recently posted about) and a new milestone (also unlockable in the demo release).

Players of Final Fantasy IX will be very familiar with it. In Final Fantasy IX, the player could randomly encounter a monster called the Ragtime Mouse, who would ask the player true or false questions, and award them with Gil for correct answers. When all of the mouse's questions were answered, the Ragtime Mouse would defeat itself, awarding EXP and Gil to the player.

I've added the Ragtime Mouse to Final Fantasy Discovery. Just like in FFIX, you'll have to answer 16 true or false questions to complete the side-quest. You'll receive Gil for each correct answer, and EXP and Gil when the Ragtime Mouse is defeated. You'll also obtain an exclusive Armor Augment that cannot be obtained anywhere else in the game!

The Ragtime Mouse can be encountered in various locations, but it will only appear in one location in the demo release, which I'm not telling you! Nyah nyah!

For completing the side-quest, the player will unlock the Milestone, "Trivial."

Before anyone asks, I'm not showing the questions or answers (:D). You'll just have to figure those out on your own!