And so January comes to a close and we move into February! February is gonna be one heck of a month. But for now, here's an update.

Project Name

A minor note, on a suggestion from a friend, the project is now named "Filly Fantasy VI." This will both distinguish it from the original Pony Fantasy VI better, and is just a better name more fitting for a Final Fantasy title that's been ponified.

Items

All items and equipment have been reworked. Not everything was changed - some items were just renamed, but a lot of relics and equipment are still in the game. The Mythril Shield is now a Strapped Splint and the Guardian/Main Gauche is called a Curved Dagger, but they're still there. There's also a lot of changed stuff too, of course. So, here's an abridged summary of what's happened.

- Some specific equipment pieces that were removed are the Offering, the Economizer, and the Aegis Shield. There's still plenty of good stuff in the game, though. The Force Shield and Force Armor are in, as is the Gem Box, the Paladin Shield, and the Ragnarok and Lightbringer/Illumina. They were adjusted a bit, but they're still very effective.
- Everyone has an ultimate weapon. These weapons have superior stat boosts, high power, teach spells at high learn rates, and each one is one-of-a-kind (I double checked the Colosseum and enemy drops to make sure).
- A lot of equipment pieces teach spells. With Espers having lower learn rates, this is intended to give players more ways to learn more spells slower, while the original FF6 had you learn fewer spells faster.
- A lot of relics now bestow elemental affinities, so carry several of them with you and swap them around not only to learn their spells, but to defend yourself against dungeons and bosses with elemental themes. To accommodate these additions, a lot of old Relics are gone. Just the useless ones, though - be honest, who ever really equipped the "Safe when at low HP" thing for any reason but they had nothing else worth equipping?
- Equipment draw has been adjusted, generally sorted by pony type, Earth, Unicorn, Pegasi, or Alicorn. Contrary to logic, the three alicorns do not have access to all equipment, that would simply be too much. Earth ponies get claws, Pegasi gets spears, Unicorns get rods, and Alicorns get boomerangs. Swords and Daggers are separated more by character, Pinkie has Gamblers, Applejack has Katanas, and Sweetie Belle has Brushes. Numerous Relics and Armor pieces are likewise exclusive to certain pony types, while others are universal or character exclusive.

Overall, my intent with the equipment system was to make it more tactical and strategic, and I think I've succeeded in that.

Additionally, the Sleeping Bag and Magicite are gone, because again, who ever really used them? In their place are new healing items, the Refresher (cures Blind, Poison, and Mute) and Smellingsalt (cures Berserk and Confuse). The Remedy has been made rarer and more expensive to buy, on the other hand. Most healing items have also been renamed, but their actual effects are unaltered.

Sprites

There's been some more sprite working going on. The core 12 are in, as is Discord. Flash Sentry is a modified Scootaloo and Cadance is a palette swap of Celestia, but they look fine and it doesn't bug me doing this if they look good (and besides, Luna was pretty much a palette swap of Celestia in the original hack, so meh). Mare-do-well and Maud still need sprites, I tried to modify Trixie to look like MDW but it was crap. Many more characters - Sombra, Hope, Shining Armor, Spike, etc - still need sprites, but there's no rush on them. I'm importing over NPC sprites from Pony Fantasy VI now, every sheet I can find a use for is a sheet I don't need to beg an artist to make for me.

Technical

Behind the scenes I've joined the FF6 hacking website, the folks there have been unspeakably helpful and supportive.

Moving Ahead

There's three big mountains left, and first up is Abilities. The plans are:

- Some characters will have different abilities, and existing abilities will work differently.
- Espers will teach different spells, including several new spells. To accomodate this, several old spells are gone.
- Esper summons will have higher MP but more power. They are the frickin' Summons of the game that you only get to use once per battle, when you call one they should unleash Hell, not cast the equivalent of Bolt 2 with a flashier graphic.
- Character stat growth, including Esper level up bonuses, will be lower.
- MP costs for spells in general will be higher, and spell learn rates will be lower
- Two of the biggest gamebreakers, Ultima and Osmose, are being adjusted - Ultima will be much harder to acquire, and Osmose will have much lower power.
- To make up for these various nerfs, Hi Ethers (the 150 MP restoring item) have already been added to numerous shops in the World of Ruin, so MP-hungry playstyles have a mercy.

The intended effect of these changes is to make the game more difficult - characters have lower stats, and magic will be harder to rely on due to lower MP per character against higher MP costs. On the flip side, characters will be more distinct as their individual abilities will be more appealing, and you won't have as much time to teach everyone everything due to the mentioned lower learn rates.

However, I'm not making things too difficult. I want to challenge players, not drive them mad. Players who are willing to invest the time to level grind will still have a relatively easy go of it - they're just going to have to invest that extra time to reach the same levels of power they're used to from the original game.

This is a bigger scope part of the project than items, and involves Hex editing to modify some things the editor can't. So don't expect me to post next Friday announcing abilities and magic are done, they probably won't be. There'll be an update post still, just be aware abilities will probably take two weeks, possibly more depending on how much trouble I have with things.

A final reminder that I am in desperate need of artists for boss sprites and NPC sprites. You don't have to be a sprite artist, I can use vector art too. If you or anyone you know may be interested in contributing, please reach out on my behalf and direct them here.

Thank you everyone for your continuing support and interest.