Christmas Present Test Build

Test build time! This test build runs up to when you finish the Rift Shrine on the third overworld map (Merged World). Expected level range to be at by the end of this test build is 32-34. If you go beyond these levels, you will learn placeholders for future abilities that aren't implemented yet.

Remember that, as of the last test build, the game's not pulling its punches any longer. Use your best equipment that you have across all characters and strategize! If a boss is hammering you and giving you a hard time, use your equipment to get some elemental resistances, haste, protect, shell, or higher HP!

November 2025 Test Build

Test build time! This build covers the rest of the first overworld map, from just after the Life Shrine up until the merging of Gaia and the Esper World. Expected level range to be at upon completion is 24-25 if playing casually, 27-28 if fighting everything, doing all side content, etc. If you stick with a dedicated party that you never change, you may possibly get as high as 30.

Do not worry if you exceed level 28 with any characters and start learning abilities that aren't showing up in your ability menu. Abilities that are not made yet have invisible placeholders in the database, and anything you learn that isn't showing up will show up fine in the next test build.

This test build contains less main story areas/dungeons/etc. than previous test builds because you have access to the airship now and can explore the entire overworld, so many optional areas had to be mapped out. You'll notice that over half of the locations in this test build are optional, so feel free to visit them in any order you want in between bouts of progressing the plot/story. Just know that the Water Shrine is the final area/dungeon in this test build!

Locations Not Enterable (since airship is now acquired):

New Characters:
Adder (optional)

Coral (sort of?)
Lyric (optional)

Locations (Ordered):

Gygas Arena (optional)

Berona Laboratory (optional)

Branch Castle
Archareon Stockade (optional)

Rotunda of Revelry (optional)
Northdale (optional)
Ancient Armory (optional)
Forlorn Cavern (optional)
The Citadel
Citadel Sewers
Albrook (optional)
Bavira (optional)
Costa del Vita (optional)
Marshtown
Marsh Cave
Leyton (optional)
Village of Zen (optional)
Tower of Trials (optional)
Faluhd Castle (optional)
Horseman's Rest (optional)
Sodden Depths (optional)
Rift Shrine
Esto Yensa
Rodenia
Osteinchyl
Water Shrine
Remote House

Boss Index + Recommended Levels:

Sodden Depths: Leviathan (23)
Archareon Prison: Ljosalfar (23)
Forlorn Cavern: Ymir (24)
Branch Castle: Hans (24)
Branch Castle: Gylfi (24)
Tower of Trials: Amaterasu (25)
Citadel Dungeon: Lord Zeul (25)
Citadel Sewers: Ultros (25)
Marsh Cave: Archeoaevis (25)

Esto Yensa: Hecatoncheir (26), Katana Soul (25), Wing Raptor (25)
Osteinchyl: Carbuncle (26)
Water Shrine: Dio (26), Bismarck (27)
Faluhd Castle: Kuza Beast (27)
Horseman's Rest: Odin (27)

Berona Laboratory: Tantalum Battler (27)
Esto Yensa: Cobalt Weapon (too difficult to defeat right now)

New Camp NPCs:
Elise
Raine

New Marks:
Angel Eye (Bavira)

Elvoret (Nideen)
Granaldo (Leyton)
Magus Sisters (Leyton)

NRG Terminator (Branch Castle)
Ogopogo (Northdale)
Phrekyos (Northdale)
Poltergeist (Rivera)
Shell Dragon (Rivera)
Storm Dragon (Bavira)

New Nethicite:
Achelous
Belhemel
Bismarck

Seraphim
Ymir
Yojimbo
Zolom

New Abilities for Ami:
Bad Breath
Doom
Flamethrower

New Abilities for Bosche:
Lamia's Mirror (3+ Artifacts)
Yggdrasil Branch (5+ Artifacts)

New Abilities for Darius:
Darkwave (Level 25)
Debilitate (Level 28)

New Abilities for Elina:
Curaga (Level 28)
Reflect (Level 26)

New Abilities for Jasmine:
Revive (Level 24)
Water Rondo (Level 28)

New Abilities for Laka:
Stop (Level 25)

New Abilities for Nobumasa:
Zanzoken (Level 22)
Raijin (Level 24)

New Abilities for Oalston:

Blizzaga (Level 28)

Death (Level 25)
Firaga (Level 28)
Thundaga (Level 28)

New Abilities for Siegfried:
Retort (Level 24)
Minus Strike (Level 28)

New Abilities for Vahn:
Lancer (Level 26)
Reis's Wind (Level 28)

New Abilities for Vera:
Leviathan - Tsunami
Odin - Zantetsuken
Unicorn - Divine Trample

New Activities:
1. Gygas Arena: Fully functional now! You can fight up and including the 66th battle, at which point the NPC will tell you that you can't progress any further in the current test build.
2. Revisiting Old Towns: East Branch, Meksicburg, Oaktown, and Trei are under Ivalician occupation and have received some minor changes as a result. All of the towns other than Trei offer some form of reward for visiting. A few other locations outside of Branch are worth revisiting as well. Use your noggin to figure out which places they are, or ask me and I'll tell you.
3. Faluhd Castle: You can now travel further into Faluhd Castle.

4. Rotunda of Revelry: Now fully accessible! Find it in southern Lindblum.

5. Hide & Kupo Seek: New reward tiers added.

Ami Changes:

1. Slight buff to Ami's base and maximum vigor stat values.

2. Lowered MP cost of Roulette from 14 to 4.
3. Blue magic icons are now blue instead of black and white.

Darius Changes:

1. All dark swords now do shadow damage by default.

2. Darius' Darkside receives a sizable damage buff to make up for the fact that his regular attacks are now shadow elemental.

3. Saboteur command renamed to DarkArt.

Laka Changes:

1. Slight buff to Laka's base and maximum vigor stat values.
2. Green magic icons are now green instead of grey.

Nobumasa Changes:
1. Reduced base damage of Nobumasa's abilities slightly.

2. Decreased Nobumasa's base MP slightly.

3. Ninja command renamed to Ninjutsu.
4. Shurikens can no longer miss when thrown. They have a 100% hit rate now.

Siegfried Changes:
1. Increased damage of Dispatch.

Vahn Changes:

1. Vahn's attack abilities are getting a significant damage boost so that he is not overshadowed by Siegfried in the level 10-25 range.

2. Jump damage increased by about 25%.

3. Slight buff to Vahn's base and maximum speed stat values.
4. Edited Vahn's attack animation slightly.

Vera Changes:
1. Reduced Vera's maximum MP so that she can't just go ham for so long with summons before needing to rest or use an ether.
2. Increased base damage of Vera's summons slightly.

Fixes and Odds & Ends:
1. Added a book at camp that gives a brief description of all command abilities.
2. Added a missing save point to East Branch.
3. Added a new tier of rewards that can be obtained from Hide & Go Kupo.
4. Added two more window skins that are variants of window skin 10.
5. Altered dialogue in the Beginner's School in Trei to teach the player about elements and status conditions that were not in the game early on and were added over time.
6. Berserker Regalia now also gives the equipped character Auto-Slow like in the original.
7. Buffed Emerald Shield's defense so that it fits in more in the post-Underworld armor shops.
8. Buffed Quetzalcoatl nethicite. It now grants +1 defense (in addition to the existing +8 HP) per level up. 
9. Changed the game over screen and music.
10. Changed the save/load confirmation sound effect.

11. Counterattacks have been overhauled. By default previously, a character who is able to counterattack would be attacked, take no damage (evade the attack basically) and then counterattack. Additionally, they could only execute ONE counterattack per turn. This is not how it works in Final Fantasy. After some changes I've made, characters WILL take damage and then execute their counterattack. You are also no longer limited to a single counterattack per turn so, if a character gets hit four times per turn, they will now counterattack four times.
12. Darius' mother now has a unique sprite and has had her name changed from Grace to Raine.
13. Decreased effectiveness of Protect and Safe somewhat.
14. Don't be alarmed if people suddenly look different in towns! Changed some sprites of generic male and female townsfolk to NPC sprites from Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster. 
15. Edited Jasmine's sprite slightly to include more colours from her sprite in the original Blackmoon Prophecy.
16. Edited Vahn's field sprite slightly to fix some weird pixels.
17. Godot no longer mentions needing a magicite cluster to fill the Rift Shrine with NPCs.
18. Instant death was working on enemies that were supposed to be immune to it, as discovered by me when I added Odin as a summon. I've incorporated some workarounds to try to stop this from happening. Please do not hesitate to try and inflict instant death as often as possible to help me test this fix and make sure that it is working properly.
19. Made the berserk condition less powerful. It's typically viewed as a neutral status ailment, so it should not feel like a big positive boon for the player when a character has been afflicted with it.
20. Readjusted the stat increases on a few Nethicite pieces to keep them viable.
21. Reduced counter rate that was set for Black Belt, as I felt that it seemed to be letting the player counter nearly 100% of all attacks even though it was not set to. It feels more 50/50 now as originally intended.
22. Retroactively added more decorations to all armor shops.
23. Scenes that make the player move automatically, or forbid moving in certain directions (swimming underwater under Gygas Arena and the chase scene after Surgate Waystation) now run better and smoother thanks to some plugins generated via Grok.
24. The following weapons now have a low chance of casting an elemental spell after attacking with them: Air Razor, Blizzard Staff, Blizzard Sword, Coral Blade, Earth Staff, Fire Staff, Flame Sabre, Magma Reaver, Nimbus Spear, Gale Estoc, Poison Staff, Shadow Staff, Thunder Blade, Thunder Staff, Water Staff.
25. The following white magic spells now bypass/ignore the Reflect status: Haste, Protect, Reflect, Regen, and Shell.

26. The standard boss theme has been changed from the FF6 Pixel Remaster boss theme to an all new version of "The Conductor" (mark battle theme) from Blackmoon Prophecy II. This is a tentative change for now, but will become permanent if testers like the new boss theme.

27. Vahn's mother, Elise, now has a unique sprite.
28. You can no longer equip duplicate relics (ie. two gauntlets, two hyper wrists, etc.) and can now only equip one of any individual relic at a time.

29. You can now see how many of an item you own in menus such as Mix or Throw.

September 2025 Test Build

Test build time! This one covers the rest of Lindblum, the Underworld, and the Life Shrine. The airship is attained at the end of the test build, but you won't be able to fly it yourself quite yet! Estimated level to reach at the end of the test build with casual play is 21-22, and 23-24 if you are doing all content and fighting everything.

New Characters:
Brindle (optional)
Jasmine

New Locations (Ordered):
Temple of Visions
Magic Library
Surgate
Surgate Woodlands
Rebel Headquarters
Lindblum Armory (optional)
Mount Koltz
Cave to the Underworld
Brindle's Hovel (optional)
Balmag

Lucid Depths

Obsidian Hollow (optional)
Vos
Living Cavern (optional)
Valefor Fortress
Jachol Cave (optional)
Tomra Castle

Crystalline Weald
The Fey Spire
Life Shrine


New Camp NPCs:
Brindle (optional)


New Marks:
Beyonder (Tomra Castle)

Dark Elf (Vos)
Ixion (Vos)

Nidhogg (Tomra Castle)
Scarmiglione (Vos)

New Nethicite:
Asura
Ixion
Titan

New Abilities:

Armor Break (Level 20, Darius)
Catoblepas - Demon Eye (Summon, Vera)
Big Guard (Blue Magic, Ami)
Bio (Level 20, Oalston)
Break (Level 22, Oalston)
Death (Level 24, Laka)
Double Slash (Level 22, Siegfried)
Dusk Requiem (Level 20, Jasmine)
Exit (Level 22, Elina)
Golem - Earthen Wall (Summon, Vera)
Katon (Level 15, Nobumasa)
Lamia's Mirror (3 Artifacts, Bosche)
Mirror Strike (Level 20, Siegfried)
Raijin (Level 24, Nobumasa)
Rasp (Level 20, Laka)
Retort (Level 24, Siegfried)
Shockwave (Level 20, Vahn)
Shokuto (Level 20, Nobumasa)
Spirit Break (Level 20, Darius)

New Activities:
1. Recruiting Brindle: He can either be recruited as a party member with the most straight forward abilities in the game, or as a camp blacksmith who will slowly be able to make stronger axes, blunt weapons, and swords over time. There is no significant advantage to taking him as a party member or camp NPC, so just go with your personal preference!

Fixes and Odds & Ends:
1. Recoloured Ramuh's summon animation to match his field sprite.

2. Red Cap and Red Jacket were both buffed and now grant more magic.

3. Oalston's tier 2 spells (Fira, Blizzara, Thundara) have had their damage increased so that, when cast on multiple targets, the total damage per target after dispersal is higher and more impactful than it was previously.

4. Reworked cost of Ami's current blue magic spells again to be better balanced with her maximum MP in the level 10-20 range.

5. Changed a lot of bosses to be immune to gravity (ie. Demi spell) because they previously were not, which was an oversight on my part. Some bosses are still afftected by it, so don't be afraid to experiment.

6. The camp scene changes when you're in the Underworld. Check it out!
7. Hidden passages in castles are now harder to spot (but definitely not impossible).
8. Kupo Nut renamed to Kumoggo's Jewel.
9. Buffed Atomos, Lucavi, Maduin, Valefor, and Vertumnus nethicite slightly.
10. Updated dialogue for all NPCs across Lindblum who previously mentioned the rebellion to mention how it is now over after the party successfully ends the rebellion.
11. Changed animation for Bosche's Mystery Box artifact because original animation's sound effects were causing speakers to pop and had poor audio quality.
12. Changed "R. Hand" to "Weapon" and "L. Hand" to "Shield" on the equip screen so that dual-wielding characters don't have two right hands.

13. Characters have a new status animation over their head when confused. 

14. Edited Nobumasa's battle sprites. He used to display a weapon attack animation (swinging his arm) when using a ninja ability. He will now correctly raise his hands as if casting a spell.
15. Edited Vera's left/right-facing field sprites slightly in the "chin" area to better match the style of other female sprites.

16. Decreased power of Bio from both Oalston and enemies as it was dealing a lot more damage than I was wanting it to at times.
17. Changed sound effect of using item and magic in menu to be consistent/identical.
18. Added fourteen new window skins (31 to 44 in the settings menu).

Next test build will probably be in October, probably the second half of the month. It should cover the rest of Gaia up to and including the Water Shrine revisit.

August 2025 Test Build

 It's time for a new test build! Here's everything that is new in this one! This test build ends after the encounter with Bahamut. Estimated level range for your party to be at upon completion is 17-18 if playing casually, 19-20 if fighting everything that moves and if all side content is completed.

The test build ends after Vahn leaves the party. There is no indication that you've reached the end of test build content in-game.

New Characters:
Bosche (optional)

New Locations (Ordered):
Cornelia/Eternal Blue
North Dock
Nightmare Cave
Lantz
Trabia Base
Surgate Waystation
Surgate
Arcane Library
Lindblum Castle
Neirbrook (optional)
Dawnmarch
Kaipo
Lindblum Chocobo Forest (optional)
Crescent Rivulet (optional)
Crescent Village (optional)
Hide & Kupo Seek (optional)
Altair (optional)
Tzen (optional)
Dragon King Roost


Future Locations (can enter, but nothing to do yet):
Altney Archives
Berona Laboratory (requires restarting/old save to see)
Lindblum Armory
Temple of Visions


New Camp NPCs:
Laudo


New Marks:
Gigantos (Neirbrook)
Goblin King (Altair)
Ragoh (Altair)
Wyvroth (Neirbrook)

New Nethicite:
Lucavi
Maduin
Remora
Siren

New Abilities:

1000 Needles (Ami, Blue Magic)
Cave In (Ami, Blue Magic)
Cleansweep (Ami, Blue Magic)

Climhazzard (Darius, Level 18)
Dispel (Laka Level 18, Oalston, Level 18)
Purify (Vahn, Level 15)
Regen (Elina, Level 20)
Reppuu (Nobumasa, Level 18)
Slow (Laka, Level 18)
White Wind (Ami, Blue Magic)
Wind Cutter (Siegfried, Level 18)


New Summons:
Kirin

New Activities:
Hide & Kupo Seek: Hide and seek, but with moogles! Find it directly east of Crescent Village.

Odds & Ends:
1. Rebalanced damage of Vera's summons to keep them feeling stronger than Oalston's tier 2 spells. They should regularly hit for a few hundred more damage.
2. Modified damage formula for Oalston's learnable versions of Aero, Blizzard, Blizzara, Fire, Fira, Thunder, Thundara, Poison, and Water to deal less damage. First tier spells only have a slight reduction while second tier spells have had a large reduction.
3. Oalston's magic damage is dispersed across all targets eventually if he targets multiple enemies at once. This is to bring his magic damage more in line with how spell damage is distributed in the SNES Final Fantasy games.
4. Elina's learnable version of Cura has been weakened, as it was unintentionally way too powerful.
5. Readjusted MP costs of Ami's Blue Magic abilities.
6. Rebalanced the equippable nethicite that are already in the game so that they don't feel obsolete when newer nethicite pieces become available in Lindblum.
7. Rebalanced some heavy armor equipment to have give more physical defense.
8. Increased throw damage of shurikens for Nobumasa since they are his bread and butter when it comes to throwable items. I want them to be more viable than they were in the last test build. Damage of all throwable blades has also been increased.
9. You can now sell top tier healing items for more than 1 gil. I decided that being unable to sell them for much gil was something that I didn't want to copy verbatim from the main line Final Fantasy games. Unwanted elixirs and such can now be sold for a few thousand gil each.
10. The regen status is now in the game! Hurrah!
11. Location names now appear on screen upon entry.

12. Readjusted MP cost of Cure, Drain, Jump, and Steal for Ami that she can use via the Mimic Stick.
13. There is now a setting in the options menu to control the speed of battle animations that is called "Battle Speed". If you want to make battles faster, you can change this and make battle animations execute and play much faster.
14. Items like Sniper Sight that are heavily reliant on hit rate will now function properly. Even though Sniper Sight was set to make a character have maximum accuracy (1000%), there's something with the evasion where if an enemy even has +5% to its evasion, that cancel out items like Sniper Sight and cause misses to happen. A plugin has rectified this issue. Characters with Sniper Sight equipped should hit 100% of the time now.
15. The JavaScript version that the game runs with has been upgraded. This may provide performance improvements.

Next test build will probably be in October (SPOOKY!). It should cover the rest of Lindblum, the Underworld, and the Life Shrine.

July 2025 Test Build

 Welcome testers to the July test build of Blackmoon Prophecy Remake! This is the BIGGEST update yet for testing, covering from Thunder Mountain until the end of Lenadia. Here's everything new that you can check out in this build.

Note for Lancer: You will get the Quetzalcoatl nethicite in your inventory as soon as you are on the overworld map. Because of an issue on my end, you didn't get it when you beat Quetzalcoatl in the last test build. If your Elina is already level 12, she'll also learn Haste which I don't believe was ready in the last test build. None of this applies to Thomas because his characters are at slightly lower levels, and he acquired the Quetzalcoatl nethicite.

New Characters:
Darius
Nobumasa
Oalston (returns)
Siegfried
Vera (returns)

New Locations (Ordered):
Hillsdale (optional)

Hillsdale Chocobo Forest
Wayfarer's Rest
Aether Mine
Organa
Faluhd Castle (optional)
Mount Matoya (optional)
Silvera (optional)
Silvera Chocobo Forest
Kohlingen
Kohlingen Chocobo Forest
Kohlingen Mines
Central Lenadia Chocobo Forest
Rift Shrine

Miasma Stream Dungeons (optional)
Conall Curach

Daguero

Great Plains Cave (optional)

Great Plains Lightning Rod

Cid's Laboratory
Nideen
Bragg's Folly
Cornelia
Lenadia City
Lenadia Castle
Wind Shrine

New Marks:
Albatross (Daguero)
Elvoret (Nideen)

Iguion (Silvera)

Mist Dragon (Silvera)

Plains Worm (Daguero)

Ralvurahva (Hillsdale)

Rhizopas (Silvera)
Rider (Mohadmal Port)
Slaven (Hillsdale)
Whydah (Nideen)

New Nethicite:
Atomos
Cihuacoatl
Garuda
Quetzalcoatl (only for Lancer since he missed it, is added to inventory on world map)

New Activities:
1. Auction House (Kohlingen)

2. Miasma Stream dungeons (access via Rift Shrine)

New Side Quests:
1. Elder's Request: The elder of Hillsdale wants you to hunt a monster in the desert.
2. Lifting Silvera Curse: Defeat the evil entity at the top of Mount Matoya that has cursed the town of Silvera.
3. Magicite Cluster: Bring Godot in the Rift Shrine a Magicite Cluster to summon Esper assistants. This is not completable yet, but you can interact with Godot about the side quest.

New Window Skins:
Chocobo's Dungeon 2
Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates
Final Fantasy Dimensions
Final Fantasy III DS
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest 2P
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance variant
Final Fantasy X-inspired
Final Fantasy XIII
Game Boy
Greyscale Final Fantasy VI
Greyscale Final Fantasy VII
Translucent Final Fantasy VI

Everything Else:
1. Can now switch between 816x624 and 1024x576 resolutions. This feature is experimental.

2. Status screen now shows hit rate, evasion, critical hit rate, MP cost, and XP rate.
3. Characters now flash in battle when affected by Haste, Protect, Shell, and Slow.
4. A sound effect now plays when Laka jumps at the enemy to steal from them.
4. Changed the appearance of the HP and MP gauges.
5. Changed colours of stat increases/decreases on equip screen when changing equipment.
6. Enemies can now be healed by elements that would regularly heal them in mainline Final Fantasy games (ie. Fire on a Bomb will heal it since they are both fire).
7. Healing magic and restorative items now damage undead enemies.
8. Rebalanced some magic slightly. Cure is a little weaker at higher levels, and Drain is more effective now.
9. Changed the formula for how much MP Ami's Cheer restores. It will increase as she levels up.
10. The original version Blackmoon Prophecy is on the launcher, but the button does NOT work in the test build because I don't want to bundle it with the remake when we're just doing test builds. Both versions will be playable from the launcher when the game's done!

Estimated level to be at upon completion after the Wind Shrine is level 15. Don't worry if you are above or below this level! You will receive a prompt on the overworld when you have finished the test build. You can then save and quit, mess around, or whatever!

I am anticipating that the next test build will be in late August, but it may move forward if I get a lot done by then!

Happy testing!