OK, I'm starting this thread as a spot to put my comments and feedback for my playthough of the 2.0 beta of FFVI.

I'll keep notes as I play and post em here, so hopefully there is something useful.

I got about 2 hours in yesterday, with the following comments and notes. Kinda like a text-based letsplay.

Nice new title screen, and loading screen music. I didn't even know you could do that.

<Opening Scenes>
Ahh Snips and Snails. Mooks extraordinaire! I remember Biggs and Wedge, I always liked to think they went to Chrono Trigger after the Esper made them disappear, and you run into them again at the fair.

Crystal Magitec armour sprite. Very nice. I've been playing final fantasy 14 lately as well. there's a magitec armour mount and i was using it in a snowy area during a blizzard. basically the same scene. it made me super nostalgic, and then here is pony final fantasy 6. great timing!

not much to change in the main menu i guess, i like the new backgrounds for the text boxes, nice touch! (no demon chocobo though. sorry speedrunners)

<Narshe>
were you always able to hold B to sprint? thought that was an accessory to equip?

Oh, there's lots of sprite replacements. way more then I remember from the other pony final fantasy. Very nice. Time to melt face with bioblast! heh was it always that colour?
NOOOOO the rats absorbed bioblast!

Training boss go! Don't attack the shell? too bad! I can heal through it!
oh, the poor shell ran out of MP! its so helpless and sad!
Bye Biggs and Wedge Snips and Snails, off to Chrono Trigger with you!

Twilight wakes up, and off we go. don't forget your clock elixirCupcake. Pinkie left time-flavoured ones for us!

<Narshe cave>
Is it just me or is magic really expensive to use? I've got like 50MP to work with and a cure costs 10? harsh bro, harsh.
Jump in the hole Twi!

Oh no! its Flash Sentry, Worst pony award winner 5 years running =P (mostly sarcastic, but a little not)
Tools command tho, so slightly less worst pony =)

Ha! Pinkies! Awesome!
and here's spike to tell me how to tutorial! ha ha! you're such a butt, spike!
Dance pinkie dance! oh that bunny heals really good. Pinkie for best pony!

<Off we go to FigaroCanterlot>
its Celestia! <3
and Luna <3<3
hah. Darth-Tia. it is your dessstiny!
So Discord is still Kefka. I'm not sure how much i like that role. I get that Kefka is nutty and so is discord, but really.. Kefka wants to see the world BURN, and has no morals whatsoever. Discord is just out for a laugh. I'd ponder if Tirek is a better fit, but hes not crazy enough. this is really well put together tho, a change like that would be so much work.

Heh Mane Force. its a better name then returners =P

<escape and the cave and Ponyville>

aww the magic cut-scene is gone, i loved that bit! makes sense tho, unicorn magic and all.
Flash is doing all the work with the auto-crossbow. incoming damage is high enough that everypony is in the back row. attacks are pretty unimpressive even from the front, and magic costs too much MP to use for attacking, so it gets saved for healing.

And here's more changed music, this time taking shadows theme out. i don't think I've heard whatever it was replaced with before, but i don't like it. there is probably lots of nostalgia tainting my opinion, so keep that in mind, but it kinda made me want to REEEEEEEE!

<to the mountains and rebel base>

I ended up grinding some extra bits for cider here using the free recovery at Luna's house. i figure i can compensate for the increased MP costs with items. Levels got bumped up a few, so that helps with the incoming damage. everypony is still in the back row tho.

Gilda! you get to be the throwaway bad guy at the end of the mountain! how could you betray Luna!

The Bracer ring says it increases fight damage, but it effects the autocrossbow as well. once again Flash tries to prove his worth =P

Oh, so Gilda went to the dark side and got cool powers. not cool enough to beat Luna... or not. OK i got stuck here for way too long thinking that my gamepad was broken or somthing. turns out you changed the blitz inputs. I don't think the game told me that, the forum here did. Maybe look into fixing this? didnt the game tell you to enter < > < A way back when?

oooh, pulled off the Zecora rhymes. nice. gotta say no 3 times for that genji glove Light Hoof!

down the river we go! I see you removed the looping battles, sneaky!
The Mane-iac? really? but then again, who else could be Ultros? Hard role to fill... yea, i got nothin'

So the party splits and thats where i left off for this session.

Well, you have already done a much better job with the writing then the original SNES translation, and the enemy sprite replacements are great!
It seems that so far the "increased difficulty" comes from random encounters having more HP and hitting harder. That isn't harder, that's just making battles take longer and taking more time between battles to heal. Feels like time wasted. Kinda the same thing with increased MP costs, all that made me do is stock up on cider, which just costs time.

Overall I'm quite liking this, and I'm looking forward to the next play session.

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i don't think I've heard whatever it was replaced with before

You poor soul.

B-Run was added in for this hack - it's not in the vanilla game

Magic's a bit espensive in the early game, but it gets better as you level and gain more MP, but you'll still have to worry about running out occassionally.

The song played for Fluttershy is a midi version of Fluttershy's Lament
It would be kind of nice to replace music for every character, but the same makes such extensive use of character specific leitmotifs that you'd end up having to write a ton of new songs, since a lot of the original music wouldn't be referencing the new character themes
Though, if anyone's up for that, feel free.

Early game, there's not much you can do to increase difficulty, since the player's toolbox is so small.
Later enemies have stronger attacks and better AI once the player has the ability to deal with that.

Got a bit more time in to play, so here we go.

<Luna's path first>

Right into this Fluttershy song again. Even with knowing the source, i still don't like it. I've never been a fan of that clip style of music, and I guess its just too far removed from the feel of the rest of the soundtrack for me.

<off to the imperial base>

Shining armour? what are you doing working for the baddies?

the imperials siege the castle. the most effective siege the world as seen, milling about outside the walls =)

Mustache man! i mean, Applejack!

Woah, swordtech moves really fast, its no longer useless! AJ for new best pony!

meanwhile, back at the ranch, do i hit or kick this chest. hit.
just a cat here, meow! love it.

ah, so the party doesn't know why shining is working for the badguys either.

Discord the waiter. check please!

got a fury ring, but it kinda sucks, i don't like losing control of characters.

The castle and poison, its to die for. nice one discord =P

Now that we know about appleparents, I think it would be interesting to have them in the castle and granny smith in charge instead of "the sherff". Applebloom can still be off wherever and big mac can be the soldier that sends letters. plus when they get on the phantom train, AJ can yell Papa and Mama, and it would be heartbreaking.

AJ SMASH!
ha, did luna just slip into AJ's accent for a second there? nice.

steal the armour and bolt beam all thing things!

<phantom forest/train>

I'm loving all the spritework, its really cool

why does the same switch detach the cars and also open the door? and what happens to all those souls that were on the rear cars? sucks to be them, time to wander the mortal world for all eternity =P

behold trixie! lol 2 damage. gg trix.

Must suplex train... yay, that still works! he's big on status effects. I just outDPSed the fight though.

<The Veldt>

hey Scootaloo, come join the party for a muffin! Gau's joining scene was always fun. Ha, come on moonbutt!

Claws counterattacking is pretty cool, and adds to Luna's usefulness. both AJ and Luna are doing plenty of damage now. I havent found a good skill to use with Scoots yet tho, she seems really inconsistent and the things like stray cat are doing nothing special now. What are some good rage/emulates to use now?

Thats all the time i had to play. More tomorrow probably!

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What are some good rage/emulates to use now?

During the first visit, I the main ones I find useful are Pterodon (Fireball), Stray Cat (Catscratch), and Bomb (Blaze). After completing all the scenarios, I highly recommend going back there for Aspik (Gigavolt), and Anguiform (Garrot and group water attack). Anguiform I find useful practically throughout the whole game. (Has a certain cost though.)

Woah, swordtech moves really fast, its no longer useless!

Do people just really not know how that was meant to be used...?

Well, that was an interesting week. Things got busy, and i managed to forget to save the game for a while and lost several hours of play time. I must be getting spoiled by games with autosaves. That always turns me off playing a game for a few days as well.

anywho.... I managed to get back to where i was, and got started on worst pony's Flash's part. So far its not really different then Locke back in the old days, but i'm only a few mins in to it.

as for scootaloo, i think i somehow missed the encounter with pterodons, as a result i could not seem to find them on the veldt. or stray cats. oh well, the windigo one is pretty good, seems to have no physical attacks and uses either blizzard or blaze, which i kinda like.

Do people just really not know how that was meant to be used...?

gonna go with no on that one! I was much younger when i first played ff6, and was probably incapable of thinking tactically. =P

more when I can! and/or not get so distracted by FF14.