Posted November 15, 2025 by Fractured Gems
The below were all done on 11/13, actually, but I was too tired after work to make a devlog and share.
---------------------
Found a resource for enemy sprites, ripped from Final Fantasy Brave Exvius (RIP King) - https://exvius.fandom.com/wiki/User:Raehan/Bestiary_Sprite_Gallery
Sprites download as transparent .webp files however, incompatible with RPG Maker RTP. Converting to .png makes them no longer transparent, so will need to create transparent .png files for each enemy.
Also will need to resize, as they're...pretty small.
Tool I've been using so far: https://www.remove.bg/
Tested dialogues with character portraits imported, works pretty well. Used common events so the portrait placement remains consistent throughout game.
created more sprites:
> Shinra Infantryman (created multiple sprites for them, unsure of which I prefer. May open a poll to test. Or use all, even. Variety is spice of life, after all.)
> Rhadoran fighter (These honestly came out very well. I was worried about the end result because I don't have many color options in the Hero Printer program.)
----------------------
Below are thoughts for what to work on today:
----------------------
> Limit Breaks and summons. How to make the limit break work? How will they look?
> Gacha mechanics. Game will be free obviously, but with the amount of weapons being made, would it be beneficial to the game experience to create a resource players can expend to pull new weapons? Same for materia? If I decide not to do gacha system, I can just have weapons/materia purchaseable/findable in the map.
> Cinematic cutscenes and art cutscenes. There will be some scenes that require a high level of detail to get across. I can screen record the cinematics, and I believe import them as a "movie" easy enough. However there are non-cinematic scenes that I would really like to emphasize (glenn's hug, for one). Will need to consider how to handle those impactful moments; screenshots? commissioned art? I'm leaning towards the latter, but am working with a $0 budget. Will continue to think on this.
-----------------------------------
Below is any work completed 11/14:
-----------------------------------
Limit breaks can be set as "TP" abilities, with TP being renamed to Limit. Added Limit as a new command type, armor type, and equipment type. Can be set up the same way as weapons: restricted by class, and when equipped, grants a bonus to stats and custom ability.
Slight hiccup, seem to only be able to set 5 initial equipments, which are taken up by weapon x2 and materia x3... There's more space on the section though. investigating further.
Turns out RPG Maker does have a hard cap of 5 equipment slots. Expanding will require scripts/plugins. Researching alternatives first.
Found a decent workaround where a key item teaches the limit break technique. but there is an issue with this as well.
> item can be used on any party member, teaching them the limit break. as such, matt can learn Glenn's LB for example. Seeing if i can prevent this from working.
> As of now "Seal Skill" which would be used to restrict learning of a specific skill, does not prevent this.
> using weapon type restrictions on the actual limit break skills, i can prevent a character from actually being able to USE another character's limit break. So this functions at least mostly the way I want now.
May still investigate scripts/plugins to expand equipment slots. It can't possibly be that complicated, can it? (<----Famous last words)
I can have characters forget specific abilities with common events! So each time someone uses a LB item to equip the limit break, they forget all other ones!
> Ex: player uses GLENN LB 1 item on the whole party.
> This lets the whole party learn GLENN LB 1 skill.
> At the same time, GLENN LB 1 item calls up EQUIP GLENN LB 1 common event.
> In addition to restoring the consumed item so they can re-equip it later, that event can have every party member forget the skill they just learned, if i don't want them to learn it.
> This prevents the slightly messy battle UI mentioned above, AND doesn't force the player to manually select which party member to use item on.
> Hell yeah.
> Thought about it, and I can just use the common event to assign skill to a specific person, rather than assigning skill to everyone, and then having like...50 individual "forget this ability" commands.
> Second, more reasonable "Hell yeah".
All "equip LB" items and common events are created. Just need to add LB names and effects in.
Testing all Limit Breaks for G/M/L:
> hell on wheels applies buffs to target instead of caster. Provoke as well.
> same for cheering shots.
> all other limits work very well.
Hell on Wheels is perfect now.
> Use two separate skills; the "Visible" one that calls a common event to play an animation, and then triggers a second "hidden" skill that targets the party with buffs!
> Using this same sequence on Cheering Shots.
> Cheering Shots is perfect.
All limit breaks are added for Glenn, Matt, Lucia, and Sephiroth.
Created starting equipment for the above.
Assigned prices to materia and other items, created a vending machine in the only map so far so items can be collected.
Created 4 enemies for battle testing/challenge. You can challenge them for the time being in various groups. NPC added to the room to initiate combat.