Final Fantasy Hacktics

I prefer the before picture...

And holy shit, Kuraudo's is a fantastic jumping-off point--in fact, I doubt it would be hard to bring it down to 16 colors.

This looks promising--I wish I could offer some better criticism/suggestions, but I'm not even a novice spriter...

However, I see some green on the left hand that probably shouldn't be there. And I can't help but think you need one more shade of blue for shading purposes, perhaps between the main shade of blue and the shade you're using to shadow?

I can't wait to see where this one goes.

I grew up on FFI, so I love the colored-mages and colored magic...and I despise the word magick. But as far as calling them "magus" goes, the word Magus sounds a little more archaic than Mage, so it really depends on context, if you ask me. Naming a skillset after a job is good, but we didn't see that in Vanilla, right? Didn't we have "Wizards" do "Black Magic" and "Priests" do "White Magic"?

It's uncreative to have "Black Mages" do"Black Magic", but it works...although, I really do prefer them putting in some more creativity.

Gorgeous sprites man. I love these FFI-inspired palettes; can't wait to see more.

Quote from: "GeneralStrife"Very Good, the bandanna or something similiar could show he's hiding some nasty things from the zeakden incident

Yeah, I added the bandanna last night, and it automatically made him look a lot more war-torn--kinda reminiscent of a veteran. I'll see if I can make the knot look legit.

EDIT: I attached the work-in-progress. I think I might have changed his remaining facial expression to echo Ch. 2 Ramza's, but I can't really remember...

Wow, that sounds cool, but tough...I mean, the bandanna shouldn't be a problem, but I doubt I could make a good knot/eye patch. I'll see what I can do--if I end up drawing a blank, I'll just post him with a bandanna or with a bandanna and a normal eye patch.

A scar, eh? I put it on the right cheek, although the size and location of the scar make his face look a little busy, the way I did it. I'll fix it as necessary.

And LD (or anyone else), how would you suggest I make his face look more solemn? Is there another existing character that has the expression you're thinking of?

Thanks man, I tried my hand at it with that portrait. I'm not sure how I feel about it, but anyone else can use this as a jumping off point, if interested.

Do you have a readied version of his portrait, without the eye patch of course?

Well, I made the eye patch, but I used Wiegraf's face as the template. I doubt it's what you're looking for, but whatever--I can fix it up if you so desire.

Well, after seeing the email that may have started all the controversy, I'm beginning to see SE as less of a bully and more of a mislead buffoon. I mean, if they really thought that the team making Crimson Echoes was doing it for profit, they had every right to shut it down. Now, if they realize that they were intentionally mislead (again, assuming the email was actually sent) perhaps they'll loosen the stranglehold they have on the Chrono (and I guess ROM-hacking) community.

Well, assuming the email is legit, he's a complete dick and is literally the source of heartache for people. And assuming it's fake, he's still a dick. It was a pointless and tasteless move...not to mention he lied quite a bit in the email: he claimed the CE guys were planning to make a profit off the game, which is undoubtedly what made Square stomp all over the project.

Fuck, I'm too annoyed to really think about this nonsense.

Apparently a kid at another forum (scroll down to Alienat0r's post and open the hidden tag) may have emailed Square to let 'em know about the ROM hack. While no one's 100% certain that the email he posted is legit, the ign and gamespot posts are real and were posted some two minutes before his alleged email, and roughly a month before SE sent the C&D.


...

The Compendium is still up, but the hub of their fan-projects and ROM hacks (Kajar Labs) is currently gone. Though I wouldn't be too surprised if some of the developers of CE are a little weary about working on more fan projects right now. But who knows? Maybe they're ready to get their hands dirty again--a lot of 'em had a phenomenal range of skills...

Although I'm inclined to agree that success in trial is determined by wealth, it might not be the case. I mean, tens of members over at the Compendium have provided pseudo-legal precedents and cases that may apply to this case, but since we have no real legal representation it doesn't really matter. I think if we had a qualified lawyer or a dedicated group (a lot of people are mentioning the Electronic Frontier Foundation) could win this case, but it's just too strenuous on the people involved. Cause unlike us, this is what Square's legal department does for a living, so they're probably giddy at the prospect of flexing their muscle.

Wow, there are some seriously talented artists here. Well done people, well done. I look forward to seeing the Agrias picture, Wexn, but for now I'll browse your DA account.

I've been wondering the same thing...I mean, it's not like the legal department can just do willy-nilly, but at the same time it's seems absurd for the Square elite to have to deal with something so petty. Perhaps the legal dept found the hack, reported it, and were given the okay to close it, while the higher-ups really didn't give it much thought.

Quote from: "Kuraudo Sutoraifu"My statement allowed for other reasons beside money; if they are shutting it down for qualities sake, they should evaluate it for quality.

I agree Kuraudo, Square should evaluate the game if they're concerned about quality, but I guess that's not the kinda dance they'll do. Part of it stems from the fact that the C&D was sent from the legal department, the creatives probably haven't ever heard about this. If Square contacted members of the original Chrono Trigger team, that would have been fantastic--since they're the kind of people that might give this a second thought...

Right, and it's a damn shame, but you're right Kaijyuu it's their copyrighted work, so they can do what they want with it. I think a lot of the problems come from a general misunderstanding regarding the legality of ROM hacks. I'm not necessarily saying I agree or disagree with SE's claims, but I personally thought hacks fell under the realm of derivative works or fan fiction, but whatever. And as far as the readme goes, the entire portion wasn't mentioned:

QuoteROM altering and modification is illegal, and the demo has been made without the consent of Square Enix. However, Kajar Laboratories wishes that Square Enix view it as a piece of fanfiction or other fan-related work, falling in the general body of fan community proceedings that are too numerous to prosecute and summarily have a positive effect on the popularity of its games. Should Square Enix perceive the project as a threat to its sales or intellectual property, Kajar Laboratories will immediately cease operation on the project and comply with Square Enix's orders.

Well, it's not necessarily a profit issue: there's a concept regarding copyright called "positive harm". Although it sounds nonsensical, it's the concept that using copyrighted material will cause an increased interest in the original material; basically the original work also gets benefit this way. That's what would likely happen with Chrono Trigger in this case. But I think what SE is really afraid of is people adulterating their series. If they had anything planned for the series (which, I doubt they do, but who knows) Crimson Echoes would disrupt the continuity and the attention of whatever SE is releasing. And perhaps that's why they're so up in arms.

Likewise Square Enix is probably still pissed that people downloaded illegal copies of Chrono Trigger DS even after they went through some supposed trouble copyrighting it.