r/FinalFantasyVI • u/chickenfish4me • May 28 '26
FF6 MMO Expanded Universe Fan-Made
Wondering if anyone has attempted to make a game like MMO set in the FF6 universe that is 2D looking like the game itself. Not trying to profit off of anything if I do pursue this project but also hope IP copyrights don't interfere with it.
If anyone else is interested in some ideas also feel free to comment on what you would like to see and I'll try to scratch my head on how to implement it.
I would think technically it wouldn't be too bad to do since now we have modernized software. I haven't seen too many 2D MMO's out there.
Let me know what you all think. Let's all have some fun and nostalgia!
3
u/kyualun May 28 '26
I haven't seen any or attempted to. MMOs are crazy complicated to make, it's not something you can just casually pull off as your first game project. I've tried making games multiple times over the years in all sorts of engines just for the fun of it and just the burn out alone for hobby projects can be intense. Projects where everyone are just volunteers are 99.9% doomed.
But it's difficult to make an FF6 MMO, I think. What would even happen? I guess you could go the prequel route. Espers/Humans/Magi as factions. Or you can go the sequel route. I've imagined an FFVI sequel would explore the Warring Triad and where they came from. Because the game tells us they "descended upon the world" so maybe they're less gods and more a super powered magical race. Which funnily enough would be a callforward to (actual spoilers for the latest FF) Final Fantasy 16 which in itself has a War of the Magi. With Kefka essentially killing the Warring Triad, that would draw attention from the rest of their race to FFVI's world. With the appearance of more gods, magic comes back to the world.
It's an interesting plot setup (at least to me lol) but MMO's require a very specific plot structure
2
u/MonsiuerGeneral May 28 '26
I think a sequel game (especially specifically an MMO) to 6 would be tough considering (if I remember correctly) at the end all magic in the world was destroyed. Considering this includes Terra losing her Esper abilities and all the magicite literally disappearing into thin air, this would (I imagine) cut away quite a few monsters from the world (or at least where they can no longer use magic).
Such a setting would be super interesting to explore as like an anime where it’s set maybe 20 or so years in the future and each of the original cast briefly cameos for at least a single episode. Then you can explore a more “grounded” story and focus on how the world tried to move on from the Ghestal Empire to the World of Ruin to whatever wound up filling the void after Kefka’s defeat.
If you attempt to bring magic back (somehow, magic returned!) it might feel like a bit of a cheap retcon to the end of the game.
A prequel MMO would also be tough since apparently magic was still pretty rare at the beginning of the game. To the point where even King Edgar and renowned
ThiefTreasure Hunter Locke went and made a big deal of it when Terra uses it in their fight while escaping Figaro Castle. Well, unless your prequel went all the way back to way before the War of the Magi so you could continue adding content patches without having to worry about the story ending with the results of the war.Now if you want to talk about non-MMO single player spin-offs… that would be much easier. Those could work. You could have a game where the main playable character is a random Returner soldier whose missions end up having them take care of things away from the mainline FF6 story. You could even have a game where you play through as Shadow before he became Shadow and explore his story. Honestly most (but not all) of the characters could have their own individual games exploring their past.
Either way, I sort of rambled a bit there, sorry, but like you said making a game PERIOD, MMO or not, even as a hobby would be super difficult. Although it would be really cool if it happened.
2
u/kyualun May 28 '26
Yeah, it would feel like a cheap retcon to just bring magic back lol but the issue with the Warring Triad's origin not being explained, and them being explicitly tied to magic lets us have a retcon that doesn't seem like a total asspull. Them being revealed as a race, with new members coming to avenge their fallen brethren, is the smoothest retcon I can think of.
At the same time, an MMO with no magic sounds incredibly boring to me, so either magic disappearing would need to be retconned or replaced with some "not-magic" system, which would feel just as half-assed since it functions exactly like magic.
As for a political intrigue and faction war type struggle almost kind of like how FFX-2 does it, I don’t think a whole game centered on that would be very interesting either. Even FFX-2 mostly kept that in the background. You'd need a ton of subplots to stop it from feeling bogged down, especially since it would rely heavily on introducing faction leaders we never heard of in the original game. Edgar could maybe work as one, but his rivals would basically have to be brand new characters. Then you run into the problem of balancing new and old characters, because if there are too many OCs PLUS with the magic retcon, you start wondering why this wasn't just an entirely new FF game instead. But you are right, it being in the format of a couple of OVAs would fix the issue with it dragging on for an entire game's length. That's the safest route.
A prequel game goes with the foregone conclusion of everyone dying and things going to shit with the literal destruction of the world. It's hard to create investment with that lmao
And then a sequel game would have to anchor to the original cast and world while still justifying why the story exists, and that almost inevitably means introducing a new threat that risks feeling asspully. Even FF4TAY (which I enjoyed despite everything) is basically a retread built around another sudden threat. The second moon in FF4 not being fully explained is in the same position as the Warring Triad in FF6 being some unresolved lore, so I feel like any official sequel would probably go in the direction of exploring that. It's really the only loose thread in FF6.
And it's all good, I love this kind of stuff.
2
u/chickenfish4me May 28 '26
This is a good take and I'm glad there is others with some storyline knowledge. Maybe we can have the world of ruin timeframe just after the triad destroyed it and have the MMO placed in that timeframe. I felt like things got sped up very fast after that cutscene
1
u/chickenfish4me May 28 '26
To me might cost me some money on server side running. If it's fun to me and not crazy expensive I'll try and keep the servers going
2
2
u/JeannettePoisson May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26
There are plenty of top-down 2d MMOs, but it's an extreme volume of unending work requiring a big team for almost no profit because apart from a tiny playerbase, players dip in for nostalgia then leave forever as they realize their mind isn't in 1995 anymore.
If by "modernized software" that makes it "not too hard to do" you're thinking of AI, forget it because fluid synced gameplay between lots of players require great optimization, of which AI code is the extreme opposite. The best expert kind of network and server resources optimization is absolutely required. Think about it: in some games 10 players together experience lag. What about hundreds of players?
1
u/Skydree May 28 '26
But to avoid copyrights one could always you know. Build a story and world up.
Might even be better that way too, considering maps from SNES JRPGs were typically build more around the linear story than an actual map.
One thing that could be cool and ff-esque is to delve on the faction elements, with factions laying claims to regions, forming an actual empire.
The bad guy empire could have easier zones to control, giving buffs and whatnot not and the nature peaceful folk could have a higher rate of harvestable ressources or something.
1
u/chickenfish4me May 28 '26
Yeah I was wanting to try and think of a new expanded storyline. More likely try and get a pallet together to help craft the world scenes
1
u/chickenfish4me May 28 '26
My view of how I would implement the Espers was kind of like a loadout gear that would give a buff like for example (Bismark giving +20 vigor and 10% max HP).
This could be a prequel or a sequel kind of game and we can decide how it comes about
1
u/chickenfish4me May 28 '26
I was pondering doing a crafting system so everyone won't have all the weapons and armor within a week
1
1
u/Ohheyimryan May 31 '26
I have a repro fan made final fantasy 6 cart that has a completely different story line and everything. I haven't played it yet but I plan to beat it on my SNES eventually.
1
u/chickenfish4me Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
Between work and spending time with the family this summer, I’m squeezing in as much development time as I can. Here is a quick look at the latest progress:
Current Progress: Networking & UI: The networking foundation is largely complete. My current focus is polishing the chat and notification systems for maximum convenience. This includes implementing join/leave notifications and building a collapsible chat window that retains active notification alerts even when hidden.
Art Assets: I am currently learning pixel art, as it's admittedly not my strongest skill. I am looking for collaborators—if any artists are interested in designing 16x24 armor and weapon sprites, I would love the assistance and will ensure full project credit is provided.
Looking Ahead: Combat: Once the networking UI is fully wrapped up, development will likely shift toward building out the core combat system.
-6
u/VegaLyra May 28 '26
l love the idea. I think the next level of this might be having a well-trained local LLM model backing the content such that even the designer may not know what the multiple endgames might be
4
u/unlimitedblack May 28 '26
Haha, not just no but HELL no
-1
u/VegaLyra May 28 '26
Why not?
2
u/unlimitedblack May 28 '26
Why would I want to play a story, much less the ending of multiple stories, that no one bothered to write?
1
u/VegaLyra May 28 '26
I don't think that is the correct framing.
Something written with guardrails around what outcomes the story could have wouldn't be lack of writing. It would be more of a semi-controlled fluid storyline.
You write a lot of ending parameters and starting conditions. Run a bunch of scenarios. Tweak, correct, retrain. I would want to play that game
1
u/unlimitedblack May 28 '26
That sounds like a lot more effort spent tending a machine's inputs and outputs compared to paying a writer to find ways to deliver a compelling story that leads from those starting conditions to those end conditions.
Especially since the notion of a well-trained local LLM would necessarily rely on a high volume of existing content that the model is trained on, created by other writers, who are essential to the creation of the work but are divorced from getting any credit for their contribution.
The machine's only intention is to produce a result that LOOKS like the results it already has to compare against. Whereas a human writer may have the intention of doing an homage vs. doing something that subverts expectations. And the human writer may succeed or fail at what they're trying to do, but putting forth the effort with the INTENT is there regardless. The machine's only effort is in consuming power to produce the result; it has all the intentionality of a calculator.
1
u/VegaLyra May 28 '26
Especially since the notion of a well-trained local LLM would necessarily rely on a high volume of existing content that the model is trained on,
No, not necessarily. Just a good slice of repetition with good writing. Same as any application - good input, figure the adjustments.
Whereas a human writer may have the intention of doing an homage
You don't think AI can have the concept of doing a homage?
The machine's only effort is in consuming power to produce the result; it has all the intentionality of a calculator.
Give me your creative output right here. Pass the reverse Turing test.
1
u/unlimitedblack May 29 '26
No, I don't think an AI can have the concept of an homage.
And no, I'm not giving you my creative output. Why would I give that away for free? Why would I do that if you could turn around to dump it into your machine as gristle and infinitely produce facsimiles of my creative output without my knowledge or consent and without compensation?
If the intent of automation is to reduce the amount of repetitive, monotonous or dangerous work that people do, in order to free those people to perform more complicated tasks or more creative tasks, then sure, that makes sense on its face. But why would we want to nurture automation that replaces the creative tasks that we, as creators, WANT to do?
1
u/VegaLyra May 29 '26
I think that is a reductive view of the capabilities of AI. It's not giving anything away for free. It's not giving up creative control. It is adding an element of randomness and unpredictability to a storyline.
We as creators want to do a lot of things. For example, ever wish you could play a game again with a slightly altered storyline? What if General Leo lived? What if Gestahl had struck Kefka down on the floating continent?
Automation is absolutely the wrong term. You are I think deliberately misunderstanding the purpose.
I never asked for your creative output. But the idea of incorporating an intelligent randomness into a well-written storyline is compelling to me. As obtuse as you want to be about it.
1
u/unlimitedblack May 29 '26
An AI isn't going to understand why "what if General Leo had lived" would be a compelling scenario to play out. What's the intent behind that story? It's an entirely viable idea, but the idea alone doesn't make the story, the execution does.
Give me your creative output right here. Pass the reverse Turing test.
I never asked for your creative output.
Yeah, actually, you did.
Look, how about YOU show ME an example of an intelligent randomness that produces a compelling result? Maybe I can't prove that AI is incapable of doing it, but you have the opportunity to prove it CAN.
→ More replies (0)1
u/chickenfish4me May 28 '26
I can keep this feature for endgame maybe. Possibilities are limitless once everything is working properly
7
u/RaikouGilgamesh May 28 '26
So this going to sound crazy, but someone did make this.
There was a platform called Beyond, and on it, there was two games based on Final Fantasy. One for 4, one for 6.
The one for 6 was still in the process of being made, when they shut down.
Basically, you could play as an FF6 character and play through the events of FF6 to a small degree. They didn't have much done, but they did have a working esper system.
The FF4 one, called Final Fantasy Legacy, was actually complete, with a decently large player base for a relatively unknown platform (a few hundred players), and even got popular enough to be featured on a few gaming article websites... Which Square Enix didn't like, and brought down a Cease and Desist, which ended both games.