DreamingRainne, 2014
This is a ROM hack of Final Fantasy (NES), in which the Light Warriors are all female. At its core, the character graphics are redrawn anew (along with some other graphics such as the map and bridge screens, and the font); in addition, some of the NPC dialogue is changed to reflect different perceptions of this fact in a realistically subtle way. However, the actual gameplay (plotline, class abilities, enemies, etc) remains the same, intentionally.
So, in effect, this is simply a genderswap of FF1, for those who’d like to play it that way. A simple premise, but which can have surprising emotional implications… on both sides of the screen.
Apply the patch (the .ips file you got along with this document)
to Final Fantasy (U) [!].nes (per GoodNES naming conventions), or equivalent.
(Basically, the standard North American release of the game, in iNES format.)
You’ll have to get that yourself.
If you don’t know how to apply IPS patches, do a web search.
This is something of a sequel or remake of my first ROM hack, Girls Night Out, which had the same basic premise (the Light Warriors are female), but had more emphasis on blatant sex appeal – the sort that designers almost never impose on male characters – than on respect. (I was young at the time; I’ve outgrown that, thankfully.) GNO, in turn, drew from a much earlier one-off project of mine in which I painstakingly redrew the original FF1 characters as female versions, using the game manual as reference for the exact pixels of the original graphics, and doing this well before I knew ROM hacking was even a thing. This added to a pattern that became clear only in retrospect, a longstanding itch to scratch.
I don’t remember exactly when I began this, but it was no later than 2005. My interest in it was lost as I hit snags along the path of rewriting the NPC dialogue, and it gathered dust for many years, till after one fateful day in March 2014, when I found new reason to blow the dust off it and take it up again.
This was titled Ladies Night Out for most of its development; a name that reflected a more mature approach to what I’d done in Girls Night Out. However, as the years passed and the connection would be lost, I felt the name would be rather strange-sounding. So, as it dawned on me that I was getting close to actually finishing this thing after so many years, I came up with a better name.
Final Fantasy, meanwhile, is a game I’ve played most of my life. I have fond memories of playing it as a child, of the awe that some of its music inspired. It remains my favorite game to this very day: partly out of nostalgia, but partly on its own merits too. But that’s a different topic.
Current as of April 22, 2014.
#rom-hacking (as DreamingRainne). Even when I’m not immediately active, I
tend to idle there, so feel free to speak up in-channel and I’ll see it sooner or later.