Final Fantasy VI: Divergent Paths

[kaine23]

how do I fix this in the menu screens in snes9x?
https://ibb.co/Q6VcB67

[PowerPanda]

It looks like you have background layers 1 & 2 turned off on the emulator. Check your hotkeys to see what button you have assigned to toggle them on/off. The defaults on v1.6 are the number keys 1 & 2.

[Red Soul]

FF6 is one of my favorites, and this pretty much a bugfixed and expanded version of it, so what's not to love?
Congrats on your release!

[kaine23]

oh this looks great! i'm doing a showcase of this tonight i hope!

[aml435]

Any chance of this one day having the uncensored graphics from the Japanese version?
Or compatibility with either the Total Graphics Uncensorship hack or the Ted Woolsey Uncensored Edition?

Just starting out playing through this one, but it'd be nice to one day have the best of both worlds.

[PowerPanda]

Any chance of this one day having the uncensored graphics from the Japanese version?
Or compatibility with either the Total Graphics Uncensorship hack or the Ted Woolsey Uncensored Edition?

Just starting out playing through this one, but it'd be nice to one day have the best of both worlds.

If you check the manual, I give people permission to use Divergent Paths as a basis for their own project. I actually used the uncensored graphics in an earlier version of this patch (unreleased), but the more I played with them, the more I found I actually preferred the censored versions, particularly with Siren. I find them to be more tasteful from an artistic standpoint. This carries over to the script changes. The Nikeah barmaid especially stands out as a scene where the censored version is better. I recognize it's personal opinion though, so if someone wants to make an uncensored version, go for it.

[andrewclunn]

It seems odd that Leo is able to learn magic (even from magicite), considering the templar mythos you expand upon here.  There are several different ways to address this, but everything else you've done appears to improve upon the world building and character development of the cast.  This inconsistency just sticks out to me a bit.

[PowerPanda]

It seems odd that Leo is able to learn magic (even from magicite), considering the templar mythos you expand upon here.  There are several different ways to address this, but everything else you've done appears to improve upon the world building and character development of the cast.  This inconsistency just sticks out to me a bit.

Magicite is very different than a Magitek Infusion. I think all of the main cast would have refused the infusion, even Celes if she had been awake. The Magicite, however, was gifted to the party, and for a man like Leo, that makes all of the difference. Him being a Templar is not mutually-exclusive to him using magic; it was his way of matching the power of a Magitek Knight without having to get the infusion. There's also the gameplay to think of. Having Leo not learn magic would have been pretty lame.

I mean, at least I didn't kill the worldbuilding by HAVING YOU FIGHT AND KILL LEVIATHAN TO GET HIS MAGICITE like they did in the Advance and Mobile Ports.

[kaine23]

had a very successful stream last night showing off the new 3 scenarios and the changes with kefka in Thamasa. Review on my blog going live tomorrow.

[Sarah Shinespark]

I mean, at least I didn't kill the worldbuilding by HAVING YOU FIGHT AND KILL LEVIATHAN TO GET HIS MAGICITE like they did in the Advance and Mobile Ports.

Although, I imagine it'd be really badass to fight Bahamut for HIS magicite instead of Doom Gaze. First in 4 games that you don't have to fight him. But yeah, Leviathan deserved more than that.

[PowerPanda]

had a very successful stream last night showing off the new 3 scenarios and the changes with kefka in Thamasa. Review on my blog going live tomorrow.

It was fun to watch. Though if you're going to write a review, you should start from the save file that is right outside of the sealed gate. There's a lot of new stuff from there all the way through the end of the World of Balance.

[kaine23]

oh wow you were there! video going to yt tomorrow along with review going live sometime tomorrow also. I'm gonna have to check that out myself now! I was also trying not to spoil all the changes between the stream and review.

[Rodimus Primal]

Congrats on all of your hard work PowerPanda! This looks to be a lot of fun to try out FF6 in a new way. Adding new storylines and features sounds awesome. I wonder if your efforts might entice the community to add things that the GBA version has (Espers, dungeons, Bestiary, etc).

I've seen a lot of people talk about combining our projects and that does sound cool too. If it were done, was there a lot of text changes to Divergent Paths to the base translation or was it just the parts that expanded the story?

[PowerPanda]

Congrats on all of your hard work PowerPanda! This looks to be a lot of fun to try out FF6 in a new way. Adding new storylines and features sounds awesome. I wonder if your efforts might entice the community to add things that the GBA version has (Espers, dungeons, Bestiary, etc).

I've seen a lot of people talk about combining our projects and that does sound cool too. If it were done, was there a lot of text changes to Divergent Paths to the base translation or was it just the parts that expanded the story?

I was able to add Leviathan, Flood, and Graviga from the GBA version. Leviathan is not gained by battling him though. See my lore rant above. I had ideas for implementing Valor, but it's far more complicated than just adding a new spell.

The dungeons are no problem on an expanded rom, but the extra Espers and Enemies will require expanding the data tables to include them. I got around this in DivergentPaths by creating space elsewhere. For example, Leviathan is actually written in Raiden's spot, and Raiden is not in the game (I merged him with Odin). The 4 new enemies were created by combining other enemies together (Soldier/Grunt and Cadet/Templar were combined, as they are almost identical, and the invincible Guardian was removed from the game. This created space for 3, and the 4th was put in over the top of Czar Dragon).

For the items, I don't even know how you would accomplish it, as the item ID is currently a 1-byte identifier, allowing for a max of 255 items. More items means changing to a 2-byte identifier, which is a nightmare I don't want to consider.

For combining our scripts, it's not too hard. Notepad++ will allow you to compare 2 text files to find differences. So you use that function to just skip straight to the lines that need to change, and you keep running it until it finds no differences. You are more than welcome to do that and release it as an addendum to DivergentPaths. I had originally done it myself, just for the script, but I decided I didn't want to get into the endless battle that is which translation to use. I would leave that to someone else if they wanted to, and just stick with the original. Note that I am aware of at least 2 people right now who are planning to merge DivergentPaths with a retranslation. One is doing an original rewrite, and one is trying to put in the GBA script.

[kaine23]

using the new esper/magic system from BNW would be dreamy. I'd happily help playtest that.

and my review on my blog is out:
https://kainetertainment.home.blog/2021/06/25/rpg-hack-showcase-final-fantasy-6-divergent-paths-snes/

[PowerPanda]

using the new esper/magic system from BNW would be dreamy. I'd happily help playtest that.

To be clear on this. Barring any game-breaking bugs, I am finished with Divergent Paths. I've been working on it for 4 years, 5 months of which were an open beta where I accepted suggestions and improvements. I made a big push in the past 6-7 months to complete it, and it meant loosing a lot of sleep that I couldn't really afford to lose while I juggled 2 jobs and 4 kids. I am very proud of how it turned out, but I won't be taking on any projects of this scale for quite a while.

I am open with people using it as a basis for further hacks. If others want to merge it with Brave New World's battle system, or with TWUE or another script, I consider it a badge of honor. It means my work inspired you to want to put your mark on it, and that is awesome. I will answer questions where I can, but I will not be a member of the project.

[kaine23]

To be clear on this. Barring any game-breaking bugs, I am finished with Divergent Paths. I've been working on it for 4 years, 5 months of which were an open beta where I accepted suggestions and improvements. I made a big push in the past 6-7 months to complete it, and it meant loosing a lot of sleep that I couldn't really afford to lose while I juggled 2 jobs and 4 kids. I am very proud of how it turned out, but I won't be taking on any projects of this scale for quite a while.

I am open with people using it as a basis for further hacks. If others want to merge it with Brave New World's battle system, or with TWUE or another script, I consider it a badge of honor. It means my work inspired you to want to put your mark on it, and that is awesome. I will answer questions where I can, but I will not be a member of the project.

You've done an amazing job PowerPanda and I salute you.

[atlanta40]

Hi Powerpanda.  First off, thank you for all your hard work as this is absolutely wonderful.  So far I've found one issue that I'm not sure you're aware of.  In the WoR at Owzer's house in Jidoor, if you attempt to read the letter on the floor near the front door, it freezes the game forcing a reset.  I tried it several times and get the same result.  I just skipped over it and soldiered on.

I'm playing this rom hack on a 1.0 SFC rom file on a SD2SNES if that helps any.

If I come across anything else then I'll post it here.

Other than that, it plays great.  Such a great job! 

[PowerPanda]

Hi Powerpanda.  First off, thank you for all your hard work as this is absolutely wonderful.  So far I've found one issue that I'm not sure you're aware of.  In the WoR at Owzer's house in Jidoor, if you attempt to read the letter on the floor near the front door, it freezes the game forcing a reset.  I tried it several times and get the same result.  I just skipped over it and soldiered on.

Did you start playing the game on one of the non-final versions, like RC1? I can't figure out how that letter is showing up for you, since the event where you read it in the WoB:
1. Is required for progression, and
2. Deletes the letter.

You would have had the same problem in the original version, since that event requires Locke and Celes in your party.

EDIT: SOOO sorry. You are right. The letter reappears if you exit and re-enter Owzer's house. I have fixed it, and that is a big enough bug that it will warrant a 1.1 version. Sigh. I was hoping to avoid that. I'm not going to release it quite yet because I will take the opportunity to fix a couple of small things first.

[atlanta40]

Well you've worked hard enough I'm sure you could definitely use a break.  I would just make a notation letting players know to just skip it and all is well until you get around to fixing it.  That's what I did and I'm far past it now with zero issues.  Actually doing the Cursed Shield grind at the moment with the new playable character now that I got all his armor pieces.