Darth Wiki / Final Fantasy Homage

What happens when a bored amateur author decides It's Easy, So It Sucks! for every Final Fantasy game after Seven (VIII and IX had some touchy moments at least, but I digress) and decides to see how well he can do on his own.

Mostly due to Procrastination, these remain theoretical in anything more than a mostly-gathered soundtrack (consisting of mostly music from other games, as I don't have a composer, though a few original tracks from various writers across the Internet have slipped in) and either complete or partial scripts of dialogue, action, and a vague idea of where certain combat scenarios should go. In other words, the projects vary between barely started and around 25% complete, leaving really only the hard stuff like creating sprites and maps and the actual coding of the game. Apparently, I've got a tendency to complete writing a project then start writing a new one before starting the actual building... wonder what that says about me.

So far I have four such stories at least partially tinkered with. Here they are, in order of completion, most to least:

Final Fantasy Odyssey

The Empire is on a rampage. La Résistance is desperately seeking allies. Between the two is Cestal Morwind, a vagabond on the run from Emperor Malvedar and his army. He finds shelter with the rebel faction, the Freedom Riders, led by Richter Kline, who takes to Cestal immediately, and Midgard Barion, who has been burned by mysterious allies in the past and is significantly less trusting. While the Emperor seems more concerned with grabbing up as much territory as he can and bulldozing all resistance in the way, his Dragons Shaed and Magnas seem to have other plans, involving the legacy of the Legendary Hero Gilgamesh...

Characters:

• Cestal Morwind: A Blue Mage and wandering swordsman on the run from The Empire.
• Midgard Barion: Lady of War and leader of the Freedom Riders.
• Richter Kline: Midgard's childhood friend, right hand, and resident Gentleman Thief.
• Edge Dronovan: A weaponsmith who doesn't want to get involved in the politics between The Empire and the other countries... at first.
• Dalia Caldezhar: A young Baroness (and amateur alchemist) from the south.
• Dagan Amakiir: Wizened Sage and servant of Asura, Goddess of Benevolence.
• Shaed: Mysterious dark-clad spellcaster who speaks in an odd dialect. One of the Emperor's Dragons.
• Magnas Revenan: The other Dragon, Magnas is a Dual Wielding maniac who exemplifies Katanas Are Just Better. Oh and he killed Midgard's father.
• Emperor Malvedar: Resident Evil Overlord, leader of The Empire, kicker of kittens, pillager of villages, bearer of terrible fashion sense. (I couldn't resist.)
• Kaylah Darshin: A Paladin of Alexander, God of Justice.
• Jareth Kalastar: A brawler participating in a tournament.

Will theoretically eventually provide examples of:

• Ascended Meme: You'll know it when you see it.
• Artificial Human: Cestal!
• The Atoner: Kaylah after her fall.
• Axe-Crazy: Magnas.
• Blood Knight: Magnas again.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Jareth.
• Catchphrase: Cid's "MIIIIIIIIIIDGAAAAAAAAAAARRRD!!"
• Corrupt Church
• Cosmic Horror Story
• Dark Is Not Evil: Except when it is. Alexander explains it in some detail.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?
• Disc-One Final Dungeon: The Gate Shrine in Chapter One, Pandemonium in Chapter Two.
• Eldritch Abomination: ZALGO COMES!!
• The Empire
  • Evil Overlord: Emperor Malvedar.
    • The Dragon: Shaed and Magnas.
• Enfant Terrible: Cestal was intended to be.
• Evil Costume Switch: Kaylah's armor changes from white to red and black when she becomes a Blackguard. It remains that color when she's redeemed though.
• Evil Sorcerer: Shaed the Dark Summoner, and the Emperor himself.
• Face–Heel Turn: Very shortly followed by Heel–Face Turn - TWICE. With two different characters.
• Failure Knight: Midgard.
• Four Is Death: The Four Fiends, obviously, among other things.
• Genius Loci: Sylph.
• Gentleman Thief: Richter.
• God Is Evil: One of the four gods, Leviathan, turned against the other three many years ago and has been plotting The End of the World as We Know It ever since.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Summoners are descended from Human-Eidolon crossbreeds.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Kaylah. She ends up as a Knight in Sour Armor for a while, then gets better.
• Lady of War: Midgard and Kaylah both qualify.
• La Résistance: The Freedom Riders.
• Like Brother and Sister: Midgard and Richter. At first.
• Magic Knight: Cestal, Midgard, Kaylah, Jareth after becoming a Dragoon.
• Meaningful Name: Magnas Revenan(t).
• Mega Manning: Cestal, as a Blue Mage it's expected.
• More than Mind Control: [[spoiler:Happens to Kaylah, causing her Fall, and also happened to Leviathan eons ago.
• The Nothing After Death
• Older Than They Look: Kary appears to be a ten year old girl, but...
• The Paragon: Gilgamesh. According to himself, his greatest feat was not taking on the Eidolon tyrants who ruled Terra when he was mortal, but inspiring humans and other Half-Eidolons to fight back as well.
• Portmanteau: Terresguard = Human World Terra + Eidolon World Esguard.
• Power Fist: Most of Jareth's weapons. Until his Class Change, when he switches to spears after becoming a Dragoon.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Richter and Midgard respectively. Hair colors to match.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Queen Genevieve of Juliana is possibly the most active monarch in the whole world (save perhaps Emperor Malvedar) - personally planning tactics and directing her forces against The Empire, refusing to stand aside while the Big Damn Heroes fight the forces of evil, and when even that doesn't suffice offering herself as a vessel for Gaia so the Entity can interact with mortals against Zalgo's arrival.
• Sheathe Your Sword: Dalia vs. the Hatefiend.
• Shout-Out: Much of Dalia's backstory and introduction story were inspired by The Count of Monte Cristo.
• Sinister Minister: High Priest Vulgaar.
• The End of the World as We Know It: TWICE! Class 1 then later Class X-2.
• This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Dalia at the Shrine of Asura in Terresguard says this when she goes to face the Hatefiend alone. It's then subverted when Dagan shows up as a Spirit Advisor to help in the battle.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: The Crystalline Tower / The Shadow's Maw.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Many Eidolons can take humanoid forms.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Dagan to Dalia, though in this case it would be Well Done Daughter Guy.
• You Are Not Alone
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness
• You Killed My Father: Midgard is the victim, Magnas is the killer.

Final Fantasy Enigma

Tyranny is on the rise - thanks to a constant struggle between the various countries ignited years ago at a peace meeting gone horribly horribly wrong, coupled with a rutheless pirate scourge along the southern coastlines and a planar breach spilling The Legions of Hell into the harsh lands of the North. But this story is just as much about that as it is about Karish, an amnesiac young woman found in a cave. Karish is a Soulbinder, a person who can call Vestiges - trapped souls of powerful ancient entities - out of The Void between life and death. She also looks like she halfway swapped bodies with a demon. And doesn't remember why.

Characters:

• Karish: A young woman with no memories, a fiendish appearance, and strange powers.
• Denton Conway: A Magic Knight and a soldier of The Baronic Brigade.
• Andrew Iratio: An older scholar studying magic, especially the unexplored areas of "Grey Magic".
• Cid Lartesson: An instructor at a school of magic.
• Renard of the Whisperfang: A Lupin sage and geomancer.
• Zara Silverscale: A rogue Yuanti ranger who is part of a clan rebelling against the rest of their kind.

Will theoretically eventually provide examples of:

• A Child Shall Lead Them: "Queen" Alenn was born after her father Alexander's death. Ghirard has been running the country in the twelve years since.
• Affably Evil: Tarot.
• A Million Is a Statistic: The reason Esmerelda becomes a more powerful Demon King than all the mighty warlords, relentless tyrants, and vicious pirate kings? Each and every one of her sins was personal and direct, rather than large-scale and therefore vulnerable to this trope.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: Or more accurately, that's the plan.
• The Atoner: Karish.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: The Hive.
• Chaotic Stupid: Ensiro has moments like this... on purpose.
• Deal with the Devil: Tarot's purpose on Atlas is to offer one of these to Karish.
• Disc-One Final Dungeon: Emperor Anhur's Palace.
• Eldritch Abomination: Any demon that becomes powerful enough takes on a lot of these qualities unless they actively restrain themselves. Thus, by extension, all of the Demon Kings qualify.
• Evil Old Folks: Esmerelda Taubokk, the Wandering Witch.
• Evil Overlord: The various tyrants and rulers of Part One, with Emperor Anhur being the Evilest Over-est Lord of them all... or so it appears at first; the Demon Kings in Part Two.
• Family Relationship Switcheroo: Harmony is Zara's mother.
• First-Episode Resurrection
• Flash Back: Karish keeps having them as dreams.
• For the Evulz: Jackal and Hyena really don't have much of a reason why they like destroying things and killing people, the fact that Balor rewards them seems like a side benefit. Coyote, on the other hand, is annoyed by the waste of time and effort but considers it even more wasteful to go to the effort of restraining them.
• Gambit Roulette: If you don't hate the various tyrants and lords in Part One enough, you will hate Esmerelda by the time you reach Part Two.
• Gender Bender: Ensiro does so at random.
• Gender Flip: Slightly different from standard: Cid in this game is short for Cidney, whereas all Cids in normal Final Fantasy stories have been male.
• Genius Loci: Dionaea Saranac. (For the curious: Dionaea muscipula is the scientific name for Venus Flytrap.)
• Goldfish Poop Gang: Jackal, Hyena, and Coyote.
• Grim Up North: The Northlands on Atlas and Nivelheim in Hell.
• Healing Hands: Harmony.
• Heroic BSoD: See Roaring Rampage of Revenge below.
• Improbable Weapon User: Ensiro turns this into an art form. Partially because it's less the particular item s/he's using and more the power of Chaos running through them.
• Instrument of Murder: Some of Cid's weapons.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Karish, though not completely... memories resurface occasionally in the form of dreams. It's standard procedure for Hellbreds: it's the universe's way of making sure they start over with a clean slate.
• The Legions of Hell
• Magic Knight: Denton.
• Meaningful Name: AsTaroth. Yes, both ways.
• Metamorphosis: Yuanti use it as an alernative to Mars Needs Women. The body is changed first, then the mental state, leaving a small gap where they can be rescued from becoming Always Chaotic Evil but remain Yuanti physically. The Silverscale clan is entirely made up of those who have been rescued at this point. (Rescue before that point causes them to shed their skins, reverting - painfully - back to humans, but beyond it is not reverseable save by powerful magic.)
• The Mentor: Andrew, to both Denton and Karish.
• More than Mind Control: Cid's "Draw" ability.
• The Multiverse: See World Tree below.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: All of the Demon Kings: Balor, Erinyes, Miyguo, Sertrous, Cathezar, Dagon, and Oroboros. Former Kings such as Asmoday and Astaroth are little better.
• Noble Demon: Tarot spends a lot of time complaining about how debased and monstrous demons have become since Asmoday was overthrown.
• Our Angels Are Different
• Our Demons Are Different
• Our Souls Are Different
• Proud Warrior Race: The Lupin.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Subverted. Most Yuanti are evil, but later the Silverscale clan prove rebellious.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: When Zara learns that Karish is the Reincarnation of Vanessa Scalion, the tyrannical Countess who killed her mother, she immediately launches into a vicious punching fest. Karish is equally stunned and goes into Heroic BSoD mode, sitting there and letting Zara slug her until Denton and Renard pull them apart.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Though after a bit you may wish they hadn't.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: The creed by which Ensiro lives. S/he then goes on to screw their own rules. The only constant seems to be "I will break every rule I encounter".
• Shout-Out: Mi(y)g(u)o, Demon King of the Hive; the Glabrezu trio Jackal, Hyena, and Coyote.
• Someone to Remember Him By: Implied. "Queen" Alenn was born after her father, King Alexander, was killed.
• The Stoic: Renard.
• Tarot Motifs: Obviously.
• To Hell and Back
• Too Dumb to Live: Ensiro makes a habit of performing acts like these and getting out of them just to prove s/he can. One example shortly after her/his introduction is the claim that s/he worships the Lady of Pain, the ruler of Sigil, who explicitly refuses to be worshiped as a goddess and kills anyone who does so. Ensiro manages to get away with it... mostly by doing a lot of fleeing and being very hard to trace.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Nessus, the Throne of Bones.
• World Tree: Or more accurately, a Forest of Worlds Trees, of which the game's world only encompasses one - Heaven being (in) the branches, Hell being (in) the roots, Atlas and the other "Earths" being (in) the trunks. There is one place where every World Tree has a branch extending, though, and at that crossing point is the city of Sigil.
• You Killed My Father: Zara's mother was killed in front of her by Countess Vanessa Scalion, who died shortly thereafter... and reincarnated as Karish. The Reveal is none too pleasant.

Final Fantasy Sojourn

The Age of Dragons came to an end not long ago, thanks to the now-legendary Tabaris the Dragonslayer and the Companies - teams of warriors working in units - that came in his wake, ushering in what scholars have begun to call the Age of Humanity. But some dragons are not so willing to go quietly into that dark night, despite lingering on the edge of extinction - and one of those is Shaal'Runar the Black. One Company has been hired to deal with the threat: the Mazona Mercenary Corps.

Characters:

• Rebecca Elvier: One of the newest members of the Mazona Corps, a hand-to-hand combat specialist.
• Winter: A Black Mage with a vendetta against the few remaining dragons in the world.
• Shaal'Runar: A Black Dragon, one of the few remaining dragons in the world. Also known as The Dark Lord and The Destroyer, he eagerly plans to destroy as much of humanity as he can before extinction claims his kind.
• Lorelei Starrwyn: A high-ranking member of the Corps and Rebecca's superior officer.
• Shelbey DeMarter: An expert swordswoman and founder of the Mazona Corps.
• Marisol: The Corps' mechanic and engineer. Also a White Mage.
• Deacon Vice: A suspicious clergyman from another country.
• Tanas Fenton: Rebecca's cowardly informer.
• Kenja: A spy, scout, and assassin.
• Hammer: A wandering warrior known only by the weapon he carries.

Will theoretically eventually provide examples of:

• Always Chaotic Evil: Dragons, due to their demonic nature and origin.
• Amazon Brigade: Mazona Mercenary Corps.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Rebecca.
• BFS: Tabaris was known for his: The DragonSlayer.
• Deadpan Snarker: Hammer, and Lorelei occasionally.
• Death Is Cheap: ... if you're a Dragon who's one of the Masters.
• Evil Plan: Why is Mazona female-only? The Masters and Shelbey started it with the intent of weeding through humanity to find the strongest candidates to mother the next generation of dragonkind now that Tabaris and the Companies killed off all the Dragon females. When that falls through, they still have an ace to play... the Echidna Ritual.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Endaras and the other Half-Dragons.
• Healing Hands: Marisol is a White Mage.
• He's Just Hiding
• Lady of War: Rebecca, Lorelei, Shelbey... heck with it, anyone in Mazona who's not a White Mage.
• Last of His Kind: The Masters. See One-Gender Race below.
• Magic A Is Magic A: Rebecca and Lorelei's Martial Techniques are referred to by scholars as "just as good as Magic" and operating under similar rules. Naturally, this elicits some grumbling from Winter and other Mages.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Tanas.
• One-Gender Race: Dragons - Tabaris and his successors intentionally killed off all the females and young first, to prevent the race from reproducing to restore their lost numbers. The remaining handful of adult males, the Masters, are near-exinct and desperate as a result.
• Our Dragons Are Different / Our Demons Are Different: In this case, they're the same thing.
• The Paragon: Tabaris the Dragonslayer, at least according to legend. Of course, All Myths Are True.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Winter.
• Sinister Minister: Deacon Vice.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Played straight with Tabaris, subverted with Shelbey and the Masters.
• Wrench Wench: Marisol. Being an Engineer also grants her archer, Chainsaw Good, This Is a Drill, and a few others... all in sharp contrast to her gentle demeanor and affinity for White Magic.

Currently Unnamed

Expectedly, perhaps, there is very little information available on this at this time.

Characters:

• Garion: A Druid of the Arbor Grove.

Will theoretically eventually provide examples of:

(To be completed)

)

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