Final Fantasy Characters in a Fighting Game? Hmmm...

[Bane84]

Hello.  I currently working with the 2D fighting game engine known as Mugen, where people can create their own fighting game characters.  Currently, I am working on converting Sora from the Kingdom Hearts game into this engine.

Let me get straight to the point.  You know that Kingdom Hearts has Disney and Final Fantasy characters.  I'm planning to integrate a type of party member system where different characters can fight along side Sora (4 party members at once), and aid him in combat.  They will be able to level up and such.  Each member has a basic attack and some special attacks.

While 2D Disney games with 16-bit sprites are plentiful, the Final Fantasy characters we all know and love are not.  I plan on adding Cloud (Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories Version), Mog (From Final Fantasy 6), and a Chocobo (also from Final Fantasy 6), into the roster of party members along with many Disney faces (such as Donald, Goofy, Beast, Pumbaa, etc).

This brings me to the main subject of this topic.  I would like to implement some more Final Fantasy 7 characters (such as Aeris) into this game engine, and seeing as how so much work has been done on the Battle Models and Field Models, this raises my question.  Should I attempt to use the 3D Battle Model data to create the animations necessary for this game engine and turn that character into a party member, or should I use the easier (but less detailed) field models?  The question is in the air...  What do you all think?  Unfortunatly, as this game engine is 2D, all graphics are limited to a 256 color palette.  I could work around this with the Battle Models, but it might not look as clean.

If you want to see some screenshots of my work, go to my site at: http://www.geocities.com/bane84mugen/index.html and look at the screenshots in the Sora section.

(My bad if this post is in the wrong section.)

[EmperorSteele]

Well, you could use... uhm (whats that proggy that lets you look at and animate the field models?) and make screen caps of teh characters when they're at the exact right pose and angle you need.  So for ease-of-use, i'd recomend them.

Though bear in mind you're talking about infringing on Square's copyrighted material.  If you so much as try to make a dime off this, you'll find yourself in very, very hot water.

[mirex]

Because there are not many animations for the models, you should use some 3d software like Lightwave or 3DS max or something to render the pictures. Field (low res) models have only few animations like walking and running ... battle models dont have any that you can use outside the game ... so you should make your own in the rendering software.

[Bane84]

Nope.  Don't intend to make profit at all.  Just doing this for fun.

As far as the field models, I'd have to edit in a weapon once I went through all the various poses.

As for the battle models, I wouldn't really have to customize the poses too much, I only need very basic ones (standing, running, getting hit, ducking or low HP pose, jumping, basic attack, Limit Break, KO, etc).

[mirex]

As for the battle models, I wouldn't really have to customize the poses too much, I only need very basic ones (standing, running, getting hit, ducking or low HP pose, jumping, basic attack, Limit Break, KO, etc).

Well thats the catch, you cannot use those, because no-one knows how to get them from the game. No one on the forums. And we tried really hard. You can use only ones from field (low poly quality) models.

[Neo Bahamut]

Is this a 2D fighting game? If it is, you could always try using something that would record in game (eg Fraps) and you could just record the animations from one side and edit the aminations out of that.... that would take a laughably large amount of time, but luckily I'm not doing it

[Sephiroth 3D]

MUGEN is a 2-D side-scrolling fighter game that can be VERY customized by the user. You can add new backgrounds, new characters, new sound effects, new music, just about everything.

Unforuntaly, the company that made the game switched to Linux, shortly before the company dissapeared. (Their website no longer works.) Since then, the only way to get it is to find fans who have copies of the software. Although, recently, a windows version of the game (It was orignally a DOS game) has appeared, with the same functions and everything.

I personally would love to make an open-ended engine like MUGEN, and add a lot of stuff that I felt MUGEN was missing, or would make it cooler... (Such as being able to add 3D characters into the game. 2D characters VS 3D characters! *Sigh...*)

[Bane84]

MUGEN is a 2-D side-scrolling fighter game that can be VERY customized by the user. You can add new backgrounds, new characters, new sound effects, new music, just about everything.

Unforuntaly, the company that made the game switched to Linux, shortly before the company dissapeared. (Their website no longer works.) Since then, the only way to get it is to find fans who have copies of the software. Although, recently, a windows version of the game (It was orignally a DOS game) has appeared, with the same functions and everything.

I personally would love to make an open-ended engine like MUGEN, and add a lot of stuff that I felt MUGEN was missing, or would make it cooler... (Such as being able to add 3D characters into the game. 2D characters VS 3D characters! *Sigh...*)

Which is exactly what I plan to do here.  I'm going to use the low res Field Models, search out the animations I need, then import a Battle Model Weapon into the figure.  A party member is made!

[Sephiroth 3D]

My idea is literally 3D characters VS 2D Characters. Not Sprites of 3D Characters VS 2D Characters.

[Nori]

Final Fantasy Characters in a Fighting Game? Hmmm...

Final Fantasy Characters In A Fighting Game!
Ehrgeiz: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/squareonline/html/ehrgeiz/index_ehrgeiz.htm

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/squaremedia/cd/ehrgeiz/ehrgeiz_jf.jpg
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/squaremedia/cd/ehrgeiz/ehrgeiz_jb.jpg
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/squaremedia/cd/ehrgeiz/ehrgeiz_uf.jpg
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/squaremedia/cd/ehrgeiz/ehrgeiz_ub.jpg

Anyway... Good Luck!

[Alhexx]

Nope.  Don't intend to make profit at all.  Just doing this for fun.

That makes no difference if you're going to make profit or not. It doesn't even matter if you're ripping the original models or just render them and use the rendered screens - it's copyrighted material anyway.

 - Alhexx

 - edit -
However, since your project will never be a "bestseller" (or "bestdownloader"), you've got a very good chance of beeing ignored by any lawyers...

[Bane84]

That makes no difference if you're going to make profit or not. It doesn't even matter if you're ripping the original models or just render them and use the rendered screens - it's copyrighted material anyway.

 - Alhexx

 - edit -
However, since your project will never be a "bestseller" (or "bestdownloader"), you've got a very good chance of beeing ignored by any lawyers...

Well MUGEN is basically copyrighted stuff anyways.  You've got people making characters from Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and even some arcade games that recently came out on the market.