[Spooniest]

I'd like to have a discussion about Stand Guard, my rewrite of FF6. I'm not entirely certain where I'd like the discussion to go...

After I abandoned my marriage like a sinking ship, I felt like my damnation was assured. I dove into drinking and playing music, and basically played FF6 by Sky Render and ChrisRPG almost nonstop.

I was told by Mr. Lenophis that I was opening up a very old can of worms, and by BRPXQZME that I couldn't just rewrite it however I wanted, and by Kiyoshi Aman that I was putting in excessive line breaks.

I was ridiculed for choosing Comic Sans as the font (it looked the most like Sky Render's font), but then vivify93 came along and did a new font for me. Side note: it was originally in Times New Roman, before I did a few versions in Courier (which didn't align well). Finally, as you who've played the final version know, I reverted to Chicago for tradition's sake.

I was trying to bring the formatting of text into line with FF7, but the logic behind the actual rewrite is probably going to sound a bit more pretentious.

Honestly, I just didn't think any of the previous translators had nailed the "tone." In a lot of ways, I was really just putting icing on a cake that had already been baked for me by Woolsey, Slattery and RPGONE. I briefly went over Lina Darkstar's notes, but I just couldn't stand reading all the arguments people had with her over them, so didn't go far in that direction.

I think the basic essence of the game boils down to mankind's struggle to guard its innocence in a depraved, corrupted world. We all bear witness to abhorrent things in our lives, and suffer trauma as a result. In the end, when the chips are down, we find something to hold on to, to keep us coming back to work another day. Be it family, friends, principles, or just the joy of living, we all find something to hold us up on that promontory when we feel all alone in the world. We learn to talk ourselves down, build a raft, and sail for parts unknown.

Someday I hope to meet the people on here with no illusions between us, and we'll play repro carts of our hacks and laugh and have a good time. Call me a dreamer...you wouldn't be the first.

Thanks for reading.

Stand guard...

[Next Gen Cowboy]

While I do wish you luck with your work you may find some people disagree with whatever changes you decide to make. Once again, good luck.

[Spooniest]

I've had to learn to be diplomatic, but I'm getting better at it.

[Rodimus Primal]

To be honest, you were one of the many that inspired me to work on my hack. I think we both put a lot into Final Fantasy VI and it still stands as my favorite RPG, second only to Chrono Trigger. It's story about how the world can be saved even after being completely ruined certainly resonates.

I'm sorry to hear about how things turned out in life for you. Without turning this topic into a religious debate, know that I'm a Christian and I will pray for you. Thank you for contributing to one of my favorite games.

[vivify93]

You were actually one of my main inspirations for writing up Project II; I probably wouldn't have kept going if I hadn't kept Stand Guard in my mind, and in the opening--one of the screenshots I took for it--I referenced your awesome mod with Cecil's line.

Cecil: Stand guard!

[BRPXQZME]

In my defense, I did tell you there were script editors for the game, so in a way I said the opposite

[Spooniest]

Special thanks to all who've put up with my sometimes heated temper.

This feels like an episode of "My Name Is Earl."