Final Fantasy: Blackmoon Prophecy II

One hundred years after the events of Final Fantasy Blackmoon Prophecy, the world of Gaia has recovered from the conflict with Emperor Belmont, Malacore, and Zeul which saw a group of adventurers, today known as the Light Warriors, save the world from certain doom. Inhabitants of the former Esper World, now known as Lupin, have become accepted by the Humans of Gaia, with the two races working side by side.

Much of the world has changed greatly since the Light Warriors defeated the evil entities which threatened the world, though residual effects of the conflict continue to harm the world. The merging of Gaia and the Esper World, officially known as the Great Cataclysm, continues to have an effect on the inhabitants of the planet as various lands give way and sink into the ocean.

The former kingdom of Branch has suffered the greatest, as most of the kingdom has vanished into the ocean, which prompted ambitious rebels to rise up and take what was left of Branch, creating a new kingdom out of the ashes of the fallen one and naming it the Berona Republic after its founder, Carwen Berona.

The Crystals of Element, having since reformed since their destruction at the hands of Malacore, are believed to be all that keeps further side effects of the Great Cataclysm from occurring.

The rebuilt Lindblum Kingdom stands proudly as the world's fastest growing economical and military force. With the fierce backing of Esperkind behind the kingdom, it appeared that nothing would disrupt the immense prosperity that Lindblum was experiencing until Esperkind suddenly turned against Lindblum. The game follows the adventures of a young Augurer (specially trained anti-Esper monster summoner) named Zephyr Highwind who is forced to abandon his simple lifestyle of looking after Winter, a white chocobo which belonged to his deceased sister Ezra. With new friends aiding him, Zephyr seeks to put an end to the rising hostilities between Lindblum and the Espers, led by Ramuh, before the conflict engulfs the entire globe.

Zephyr Highwind: The main character. Zephyr is a young Augurer from the Lindblum town of Neirbrook who looks after Winter, a white chocobo belonging to his sister Ezra. Zephyr's father was an Ivalician dragoon. He is very carefree and loves to have fun and go on adventures. The safety of his friends is paramount to him. He is a fledgling swordsman.

Reiner Ardell: A Lindblum Augurer from the town of Kaipo. Reiner is an experienced soldier as well, with duty and honour coming before all else. Reiner doesn't particularly care about forming connections with others, only socializing to break up awkward silences or to lecture others. He prioritizes hsi mission above all else.

Hautley von Muir: An eccentric old magician who serves a point of communication between Lindblum Castle and the Saradin Mage Tower. Hautley is an experienced user of black magic who was taught the craft many years ago by Oalston Saradin prior to his passing. Hautley is the only character in the game who learns black magic from leveling rather than from reading magic tomes.

Carina Madeen: A young white mage from the remote island town of Branch. Unlike the rest of her town, she does not worship the elusive "Graviton" deity. Carina is a talented healer who believes in the sanctity of life. She is fiercely opposed to death, feeling that even the most despicable criminals can be saved. She wishes to one day travel the world to help the sick and the wounded.

Silas Hedgeley: A young Mohadmalan who happened upon the armor of a fallen warrior at the base of Mount Houzell. Adorning the armor, Silas decided to make use of the armor by training as a swordsman. Silas is a stern young man, but has a heart of gold. He is always looking to do good deeds, and is hopeful that one day he will be able to identify the mysterious old sword he found with the suit of armor.

Jasmine Amiro: An apparent young woman who has come to be known as The Timeless One. One hundred years prior, exposure to energies of the Genesis Obelisk on the moon rendered Jasmine as sub-immortal being, her body aging ten times slower than normal. As a woman who has seen much in her long life, Jasmine is often sought out for advice. She is an inhabitant of Ivalice.

Sapphire Ling: An orphan who grew up in the Village of Zen. She was found in a basket with a note saying that her name was Sapphire, but she also goes by her adopted name of Ling. She is a skilled user of ninjutsu who likes to look out for the poor. Sapphire has an exceptionally soft spot for fellow orphans. She is highly experienced in battle with the ninja sword.

Edric Csardim: A Lenadian knight well versed in the chivalrous code of his profession. Edric stands for justice above all else, which can lead to him coming across as being cold and distant at times. He is an exceptionally talented fighter, having served Lenadia for nearly twenty years. His chosen weapon is the spear.

Bolt Redford: An urchin living in the streets of Berona City. Bolt earns his name for his swift nature and ability to pickpocket anything that moves. He has a very daring and frisky personality, and he feels that he can do anything that he sets his mind to.

Trigger Ramsay: A master engineer hailing from the Berona Republic. Trigger's seen and done it all, often working with famous names such as Ivalice's experienced physicist Markim Alunira, or the Eidolon known as Godot. Trigger has a short fuse and doesn't tend to like people very much, but he's an exceptionally hard worker who always gets things done thanks to his headstrong and stubborn nature. He is an experienced sharpshooter, always carrying his pistols everywhere he goes.

There are also two hidden characters who will remain undocumented, but I'm sure that the good people of RMN will have no trouble finding out how to obtain the two characters after the game is completed.

Achievements
Blackmoon Prophecy II will have a whole slew of achievements. They will range from simple "find X treasures" to more complicated ones such as obtaining all characters, defeating all optional bosses, and finding secret things in the world. Several achievements will even come with rewards. These will not affect gameplay and will simply be fun gimmick/visual/vanity stuff like alternate costumes and minute changes to the world.

Arena
I'm still debating on how to have the arena set up this time around, but I'm still going to have a reward system similar to the first game where you'll be able to receive rewards based on how many fights you've won. I may make it work similarly to how the battle square functioned in FF7, meaning continuous battles until you lose. In between fights, an NPC who oversees the fights will put random buffs on the entire party which may be positive or negative. If they're positive, awesome, but if they're negative? Then it's up to the player to overcome the odds that are stacked against them ever so slightly. While I'm excited to work on the Arena, it won't appear in any demos/builds/whatever until the game is almost finished. I am putting it off so that I can get the balancing just right.

Auction House
Located in Lindblum City, the auction house functions much like it did in the first Blackmoon Prophecy (which functioned exactly as the FF6 incarnation). With the auction house being in a major city that the player will spend a lot of time in, I've decided to make it so that loot tables will change more frequently based on where the player is in the game. In the first Blackmoon Prophecy, rewards from the auction house only changed once during the game (after the worlds merge) but, in the sequel, I'll aim to make rewards change several times throughout the story so that players will often see different items popping up.

Crafting
In the first Blackmoon Prophecy, crafting was present in the form of upgrading equipment at blacksmith shops. In Blackmoon Prophecy II, crafting plays a much larger role. Every weapon you can obtain must be created at a crafting shop using various materials the player has collected. There will be many ways to obtain ore such as purchasing it from shops, looting it in dungeons, or acquiring it from monsters.

Gambler's Den of Chance
Sitting beside the auction house in Lindblum City's Lenadian Market, the Den of Chance is something we've all seen before. You're presented with several mystery boxes that each contain an item and you must choose which one to open. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it's a fun little diversion if you like games of chance. Also, who knows, you may get an expensive item that costs much more than the price to play!

Headquarters Upgrading
About an hour into the game, a spastic moogle named Montblanc will enlist the player to help him furnish their headquarters. Players can purchase visual upgrades for several rooms, some of which have actual functions like a music box that changes the BGM of the headquarters or a stove that can make ore. Players can also recruit NPCs to come work for them in their headquarters. Some of these NPCs will show up as vendors that can upgrade their wares if players invest in their operations, and others will simply offer interesting dialogue such as a librarian NPC who has information on lore from the first game for those who never played it. Also, every NPC that is recruited contributes to a bonus reward that players will receive for completing side quest with the Augurers. Recruit one NPC and you'll receive an additional 250 gold. Recruit eight NPCs and you'll receive an additional 2000 gold!

Hidden Dangers
Everyone likes optional bosses/dungeons! The first Blackmoon Prophecy had plenty of these and the sequel is not any different. There will be several optional dungeons late in the game such as the monster infested Kusku Salar located in Lindblum's salt flats, or Lukahn's Workshop in all of its weird mechanized goodness. Optional bosses will be familiar and unfamiliar as some are returning bosses from the first game, a few are established optional bosses in the Final Fantasy series, and a select few are original ideas.

Minion/Pet Battles
This idea spawned from another suggestion my composer had for me on Skype. He originally proposed having upgradeable chocobos, but I didn't want to take any thunder away from Winter, the main character's chocobo. This idea made me think of something else, as I replaced chocobos with standard Final Fantasy monsters such as bombs, cactuars, tonberries, etc. Essentially, monsters will show up on the map on rare occasions when the player reaches a specific point in the story. As an Augurer, the main character is able to command and summon monsters, and initiating a battle with one of these monsters that actually shows up on the map will allow Zephyr to use an ability on the monster to tame it. After doing so, the player will be able to place it in a stable at the Augurer Colosseum. From here, players will be able to feed and train their monsters, which will improve their HP and attack values. The monsters can be entered into battles with other Augurer pets in the colosseum, and winning these battles will reward the player with helpful items. If your monster loses? It will return to its stable and will require a phoenix down to remove its KO status. Monsters I'm currently planning on using for this are... buel, bomb, cactuar, coeurl, flan, lizard, mu, tonberry and veteran.

Post Game
After defeating the boss and watching the ending, the player will be returned to the world map where they can complete unfinished content, challenge optional bosses, or just take part in side content. NPCs will respond appropriately to the fact that the final boss has been defeated, and the general tone of the post game will be much lighter.

Side Quest Galore
Do you like side quests? Well then, you're in luck! Blackmoon Prophecy II has tons of them, and almost every location you visit will include them. The Eldritch Cave, which the player visits roughly 10-15 minutes into the game, contains the first one which involves collecting aquamarine gemstones and turning them in to gem hunters who reward the player with gold (the amount received depends on how many aquamarines are being turned in). Several more side quests appear about 20-30 minutes later when the player reaches Lindblum City, like helping Montblanc build up Bacchus Garrison or taking part in the goofy rivalry between Biggs and Wedge as they bicker back and forth and hatch up schemes to get revenge on one another.

Tetra Master (Triple Triad)
Triple Triad, identical to the FF8 incarnation, is in. I've skinned it to look like Tetra Master from FF9, so I've combined the great gameplay of Triple Triad and the nice art style of Tetra Master to make... well, I'm just calling it Tetra Master. Players can visit Tetra Master hubs in major cities/towns across the game world to challenge card house employees or hummingways to games. The card house employees play with basic leveled decks and sell the weak cards so that players who find themselves losing a lot will have a way to prevent themselves from flat out not being able to play anymore. Hummingways, however, are the true masters of Tetra Master and can challenge players of all skill levels. Hummingways use all sorts of different rules when they play and beating one may take time, but the reward is always worth it due to the fact that hummingways carry rare, one of a kind cards. There are 110 cards that can be collected and used in Blackmoon Prophecy II.

Winter's Saddle
This isn't really a BIG feature and it's not even very impressive on a technical level, but it's still a handy little addition that I like. At any moment on the world map, players can use the saddle of Winter, the main character's white chocobo. This will spawn Winter on the map who the player can then ride. This allows players to completely bypass random encounters on the world map if they wish, and it also lets them get around faster. This allows overleveled players who are tired of fighting a chance to avoid a significant number of fights, or players who feel they might be pressed for time can use Winter's saddle to speed up their progress in their play session a little bit. One dangerous side effect to this is that excessive reliance on Winter's saddle may result in players being underleveled. While the saddle is certainly very handy, I wouldn't recommend using it at every single opportunity.

Why did you go from saying you wouldn't make a sequel to actually working on one?
I think it's because the first game took up several years of my life. I spent upwards of ten years with that world, the characters, everything. When I finally finished the first game, it was a real load off my back and I felt immense relief, but I also felt almost saddened by the fact that I was saying goodbye to the fictional world and the people living in it that i had worked on for so long. I guess it's like when an author spends several years working on a story, they get genuinely attached to the characters and places in it. Maybe they feel like they have unfinished business in the world they created, so they write a follow-up book. I feel as if it's the same with me. I spent so many years with Blackmoon Prophecy's setting that it really grew on me and I didn't quite feel really to bid farewell to it. There's also the fact that never before have I ever had people clammering for a sequel or more content. I tried to do something original with Shattered Wings, but the reception just wasn't there. My projects get the most attention and exposure when they are fangames, so I decided to make a sequel to a fangame that I knew people would pay attention to rather than an original game that would disappear in the vast sea of games on RMN.

If it's set in the same world, are we going to visit the same places? Will the world map be the same?
The world is the same, only 100 years later. Large chunks of land were cut away when I was brainstorming the world. The loss of so much land then developed into part of the story. I did not make a carbon copy of the original world map because, if I did, players would be exploring the same map again and there wouldn't be a sense of discovery or exploration. The new world map is based on the third and final world map from the first game. I've taken a lot of creative liberties to change it (aside from the sinking lands, which is explained in-game) such as altering paths on the world map and putting mountain chains and such in places where there weren't any before. As a result, returning players will have a greater sense of adventure and discovery than if I simply recreated a previous world map.

Will having experience or knowledge from the first game be necessary to play Blackmoon Prophecy II?
No. The two games are set in the same world but tell vastly different stories and you do not need to play one to understand the other. Think of Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, you do not need to understand the events of Chrono Trigger to be able to fully enjoy Chrono Cross. Same deal here. All important events from the first game will also be summarized so that new players can understand what went down one hundred years ago.

How many references will there be to other Final Fantasy titles, or even the first Blackmoon Prophecy?
Things got a little silly at the end of Blackmoon Prophecy, with EVERYTHING being named after a piece of Final Fantasy history. This is not the case here, as I'm sticking more originality into the sequel. I am still retaining names that I used in the first game of towns that have survived since ten (Albrook, Crescent Village, Kaipo, Mystic Mysidia, etc.), but I won't introducing any new towns based on old ones so don't expect to see Fabul or Narshe surface. There will be a lot of things returning from the first game to keep returning players feeling a sense of familiarity such as the GPS pads on the world map, so expect more kupoing as you adventure across the world!

Any neat things being added that weren't in the first game?
Crafting will play a much larger role, as weapons will be able to be upgraded like in Final Fantasy VIII. Crafting will be the primary way to obtain weapons, but they will still be able to be found using other means. There will also be a military base in which the player can purchase cosmetic upgrades for and bring in NPCs to fill the place up. The NPCs themselves will mostly all fill vital roles such as selling goods, providing crafting/upgrading services, giving out side-quests, and being tied to minigames. Achievements, a bestiary, Tetra Master (a disguised version of Triple Triad) and more are also present.

What characters are not returning from the first game?
Godot and Jasmine are the only returning main characters from the first game, though Siegfried's armor returns and is worn by a new person (Silas). Many magic-based NPCs return such as various Espers, and a few deceased characters will return in one form or another.

What locations are not returning from the first game?
There are several of these. Notable locations that aren't returning include Branch Castle, Cave of Surt, Jack's Shack, Meksicburg Port, Mohadmal Pyramid, Mount Mysidia, Mount Ozma, Silvera, Surgate, Tower of Babil, Tower of Trial. Most of those locations were lost to the ocean with various lands sinking. The only exceptions are Mount Mysidia (rock slides have blocked it) and Tower of Trial (Nobumasa had it torn down after becoming grandmaster).

How easy or hard will the game be?
I want this game to be challenging. It will be very easy to wander into areas you shouldn't be in, and optional dungeons meant for end-game play will be visitable early in. The four kingdoms in the game each have a degree of open world exploration to them, so it is not impossible to find yourself somewhere you'll quickly regret entering. I also aim to have bosses be tough as nails. Random encounters won't be terribly challenging since they'll be all over the place, but bosses? I want you guys to fight for your lives. Literally.

Is there going to be more than one world map again?
There will only be a world map of Gaia's surface, but the Underworld will still be in the game as a series of individual location maps. Regarding the Underworld, it's probably not going to look anything like it did in Blackmoon Prophecy after quite a lot of weird underground activity over the last hundred years.

Will there be a lot of super bosses again? Or hidden characters like Bosche and Jasmine in the first game?
There are seven planned super bosses and two hidden characters.

What graphical style is being used?
Blackmoon Prophecy II abandons the FF4/FF5 chibi style in favour of a presentation that is closer to Final Fantasy VI. Everything's bigger now, and it will be fun to remake unchanged locations from the old game in this new style. The first Blackmoon Prophecy felt like an homage to Final Fantasy IV more than any other game but, with this sequel, I want to have nostalgic feelings of Final Fantasy VI resonate in my players. If the first game had this new style, the following sprites (left to right) would accurately represent Gilgamesh, Darius, Vahn and... well, the female sprite doesn't resemble anyone from the first game.

You say that you want to evoke FF6 nostalgia, but <insert thing here> wasn't in Final Fantasy VI...
I use Final Fantasy VI as inspiration, not a source of material that I want to copy 100%. The battle system, learning black magic via tomes, upgrading weapons, and other concepts that were not in Final Fantasy VI. I simply want my resources and chosen music to evoke fond memories of Final Fantasy VI. I'm not aiming to recreate the experience that Square provided in that game.

Do you want help?
Yes. If you think that you can contribute in any way at all (graphics, music, scripting, anything) then send me a message. I'll likely post when I'm looking for someone to help me with something but, if I don't have a recently posted request, don't let that deter you! I'd love to hear from you!