Final Fantasy: The Phoenix Prophecies

Release of the completed Part I of Final Fantasy: the Phoenix Prophecies is scheduled for the 1st of September. I fully expect to have the raw product done in the next 30 days, and then go through at least a week of BETA testing. Thanks for reading! Stay tuned!

I promised a demo to be available for this weekend. Between Thursday and Friday, I was going to gather initial reactions to the game and then finally release it to the public on either Saturday or Sunday. Unfortunately, this was not to be.

My battle system coordinator, RPG Messiah, encountered an aesthetic error with the first boss battle that causes a small priority problem with the hero sprite. This is not a detrimental problem, but one that has forced us to change the entire dynamics of that fight. We have been hard at work trying to make the new mechanics a reality, but this effort is also costing us time. We have been forced to push back the release date of the first demo for Final Fantasy: The Phoenix Prophecies.

So when can a release be expected? This is hard to say at this point. As of this week, I will be under the intense stress of final examinations, and so I will not be able to work on the game. After these exams, I will go home to a house with no internet connection, so uploading/downloading the project will be next to impossible. This leaves three distinct possibilities for the release date:

1. May 16th. If RPG Messiah has finished his bit by this Friday, I may be able to squeeze in some time between my last exam and moving back home.

2. Random date in the Summer. No promises, there's a chance I could steal internet at an undetermined time during the next three months.

3. August 20th. The date I return from Summer Break would be the latest possible date for the release. Should it take this long to finally get online, you guys can expect a decisively longer demo as compensation.

Thanks for reading, sorry for these setbacks.

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Your Cast of Characters

Nickel Arand, Employee of the Black Hand, Career Assassin
Age: 20
Special Training: Stealth and Time Magic
Bio: Nickel Arand sets the new standard in hired killing. Perfect in every dimension of the art, Arand graduated at the top of his class at the Black Hand's elite school. None previously have set the amazingly high marks that he has, and so he has single handedly created new standards for excellence at the academy. An individualistic lone wolf, Arand contends with perplexing catatonic episodes. Luckily for him, his performance in the classroom allowed him to set his own schedule with instructors. For all of his training and performance, though, Nickel Arand is still extremely inexperienced. After a few minor jobs, he is finally introduced to the target of a life time, an emperor. He comes to this new planet with the intent of collecting both respect and a lucrative bounty.

Tyria Monisa, Heiress to the Nafein Empire
Age: 18
Special Training: Disruption and White Magic
Bio: A calm demeanor hides the wild nature of Tyria Monisa, the young heiress to the largest empire in the realm. She seems to be in perpetual self doubt, as the Emperor of Nafein has made it publically known that he is desperate for a son to ascend to the throne. Tyria immediately become more reclusive since hearing these words and thus has turned to studying the magical arts. Without an instructor, she has made fantastic progress in her development. Tyria, even in finding some solace in the power of magic, still sometimes contemplates how easy it would be just to poison her father's drink or to smother him with a pillow. She should know, she's practiced on a few guards.

Corean Popol, Lost Wanderer
Age: 289
Special Training: Black Magic
Bio: Veteran of more wars than he cares to count, Corean Popol has been groomed to be a black mage since his birth, a function of his Lysoz culture. He is always pursuing a life that has meaning outside of his ability to cause pain to others, even abandoning the arts at one point. Corean currently wanders the realm, trying to meet people and learn their crafts. Not particularly good at any of them, he still tries to find a niche in a peaceful society. Perhaps it is fate, or perhaps just terrible luck, but he has never been able to find a healer to apprentice under, which he claims would be his dream job. His latest exploits have lead him to the Kingdom of Votier.

Jyxon Gemmel, Woodsman and Guide
Age: 25
Special Training: Axes and Cooking
Bio: Jyxon Gemmel is the result of orphaning a stubborn six year old child in a forest. The first five years or so of his abandoned existence were admittedly rough, dealing with monsters ten times his size while coping with the elements, not to mention catching his own food, boiling his own water, and making his own shelter. At age fifteen, Gemmel finally tried to leave the woods, but found life in the cities too complex. That said, he did find one redeeming characteristic: the food was fantastic. Caught in this dilemma, Jyxon decided to provide guided tours of the woods, as well as providing shortcuts and maps for travelers wanting to make it out of forest quickly and unharmed. Though it did not start particularly well, Jyxon eventually started to do good enough business to buy choice ingredients from the market. Through his experiences as a guide, Jyxon Gemmel also developed a gift of gab that would defy his lack of education.

Romerhis Graaves, Scholar and Opportunist
Age: 23
Special Training: Magic of All Kinds and Academia
Bio: After inheriting a fortune from his father's death, Romerhis has spent the vast majority of his adult life studying in the library. A wealthy individual, he never needs to, nor does he, leave the castle in which he was born. Such seclusion has developed in Romerhis a terrible antisocial personality. It is not that he wishes to do harm to people though, he just cannot stand them. That said, he did away with all of his servants at the age of eighteen and has since been all alone to his studies, taking care of himself. Romerhis, in the meantime, has developed unsurpassed magical abilities despite a frail frame. He recognizes that he must leave the castle eventually, but is only willing to come out after he has found his true purpose, his true calling.

Eilana Enkili, Sorceress and Seeker of Power
Age: 38
Special Training: Swordplay, Illusion, and Enchanting Magic
Bio: Ruler of vast southern territory, Eilana Enkili is a cruel matriarch with a penchant for being cold and meticulous. Not particularly well read for her social status, she mainly relies on hired scholars for her information, which, due to a lack of real resources, is sometimes outdated and inaccurate. That aside, Eilana is rarely kept away from her goals, whether they be power, wealth, or slaves for her Queendom. Furthermore, she is a master manipulator with magical abilities to bolster that characteristic, making her as dangerous at the negotiating table as she is on the battle field. Rumor has it that she now seeks the original copies of the Phoenix Prophecies, documents pertaining to a coming power, how to stop that power, and more relevant, how to harness that power. Nothing has yet been found.