An Aside - Final Fantasy Chronicles · May 31, 2026
In the Introduction to this series, I dropped a tangent about a fan game called Final Fantasy Chronicles. I didn't have much to say at the time — no links,
Here's why it took so long.
First: Spring 1999 was when I got my first AOL account. I was right at the beginning of building my internet legs when I encountered this project, which means my record of it is less "documented research" and more "vivid memory of someone who was just figuring out how any of this worked."
Second: Square took the name. Final Fantasy Chronicles became the title of Square Electronic Arts' official PS1 compilation of Final Fantasy IV and Chrono Trigger, released July 2001. Once that happened, you could not find the fan game version of anything. Every search, every archive reference, every thread — buried under official Square product. The name was poisoned the moment it went retail. (I'll have you know they also made that movie The Spirits Within... I swear they took a page from The Power Within. Anyway, I digress.)
Third: I remembered the company name Fierce Legends Software — and to be clear, no relation to the alias FieRcE YeD, which came from well outside the Final Fantasy community — but even that was a dead end for years. All searches returned what appears to be a different project under the same name, a later relaunch around 2004, this one covering the War of the Magi. That's not what I remembered. What I distinctly remember about the version I encountered was Terra as a toddler. This was set much earlier in the FFVI timeline than anything the 2004 version was doing.
Fourth: it went offline before any realistic Wayback capture existed that could have helped. I remember it being discussed in communities I frequented at the time. None of those threads were archived. The forums weren't captured. It was like chasing smoke.
It was a splinter in my mind...
So the interview. February 16, 2000. The whole Ragnarok team showed up, three of them, which tells you how seriously the FFVI fan community was taking this project. Here are some of the highlights:
How it started. Aegis Night had joined another team's RPGMaker95 project in September 1999. He didn't like it and quietly started his own thing on the side. Their project died.
The scope. This wasn't supposed to be one game. He had his eyes on a whole sub-series, a prequel for every Final Fantasy. Start with VI, then maybe VII. He was already pestering Squaresoft Japan about their FFVII SDK. Japan apparently had no objection. Square America was another animal.
Gabriel had been on the project for exactly one week when this interview happened. Already promoted to Head Writer. Said he reads two books a week. His list: Lord of the Rings, The Screwtape Letters, The Vampire Chronicles, The Dark Tower.
A Blue Guitar's laws. He came in with a whole framework for the soundtrack. Rule one, and Aegis Night gave it a name on the spot, the "No Twinkie Music Law." No overbearingly happy music. Ever. The rest of the rules were just as specific: moody but catchy, organ plus distortion guitar for boss themes, battle themes need fast climbing strings. The man had standards.
The timeline. Asked in February 2000 when it would ship. Answer: "Summerish. Late spring." Summer 2000. The Wayback captures of the site run through February 2001. The progress bar still says 72%.
The logo. Aegis Night said it has a deliberate meaning, like all Final Fantasy logos, but he wouldn't say what. "You'll have to play it to find out."
Shadow/Relm. They poked at him on whether FFC would address the Clyde mystery. He dodged it completely. "Some things are best left to the imagination."
The final boss. Okay this part I love. He wanted the final boss to be God. Not a representation of God. Just God. And all you'd see is his foot. Little sprites hacking away at his ankle. Thorf said "Monty Python style?" Aegis Night said "Oh yes." I don't know if this was serious or not. It would fit the vibe though for the era.
Source: @memeslich
The staff list reads like a small startup that somehow recruited well. Aegis Night ran the show. Gabriel was Head Writer. A Blue Guitar handled music and co-webmaster duties. Ushio designed the logo and all the artwork. Big Mac was Lead Concept Artist. FlashNova did the web layout. A programmer named Yousei built the engine from scratch. Composers Freddie and Rabid Child rounded out the music team. And P0sitr0nic handled
P0sitr0nic... A Blue Guitar... and Freddie... If you read Part II of this series, those names are familiar. All three were simultaneously on the Dream Horizon Software roster. P0sitr0nic ran the DHS Art Department. Freddie ran the DHS Music Department. A Blue Guitar was right there in that same music department. These weren't parallel scenes. It was the same scene, the same people, spread across multiple ambitious projects at once, all running on good intentions and free time.
The Departure. By April 15, 2000, Aegis Night was gone. Gabriel posted a news update titled "Goodbye and Hello": "There have been some huge changes behind the scenes here at FFC, specifically the departure of AegisNight. Pursuing career opportunities he has decided to leave the project, leaving me in charge." Work continued. Story pushed forward, the soundtrack kept coming, Ushio kept producing. But the original vision walked out with its founder.
The Rename. Square Electronic Arts announced their official Final Fantasy Chronicles PS1 compilation in April 2001. It hit retail July 2, 2001. Somewhere in that window the team quietly renamed the game to FFVI: Forgotten Story.
Corda. Here's where it gets interesting. Corda wasn't an outsider who bought the rights. He had been on the project from early on as a musician. By the time it landed with him it had passed through two leaders already and had barely three original members left. And Corda, to his credit, was honest about what he did next: he scrapped everything. Out of respect for the people who were gone, he abandoned all previous work and started over with a new team, a new engine, and a new story. His version was set during the War of the Magi, much further back in the FFVI timeline than Aegis Night's version. Effectively a different game wearing the same name. He gave an interview to Caves of Narshe in 2004 that's worth reading if you want to see someone genuinely trying to make something real out of the wreckage of someone else's dream.
A Familiar Origin Story. And here's the part that stopped me cold when I read the Corda interview. FLS didn't start as someone's creative vision. It started as an April Fool's joke at FFOnline, a fake post claiming
The Wayback Machine captures of fls.ffgurus.net span July 12, 2000 through February 4, 2001. The Ragnarok interview was conducted February 16, 2000 and is archived at thorf.co.uk. The FLS FAQ, company history, and staff pages were recovered from archive.org during research for this article.
