Remake Project Story Ideas

[vvalentine]

Alright, here I go then.  I hope no one tells me I did wrong, but I don't think there is anything wrong with this.
Well, I don't know what the official story for the remake project is, but in my opinion the story should take place hundreds of years before the FFVII original story.

  It should concentrate on Jenova's arrival and the Cetra's past rather than making a direct prequel to the FFVII original story.  What makes FFVII's story really interesting is that it has a lot of history unexplained.  While making the story close to the FFVII story sounds tempting (like explaining Vincent Valentine's past, having Sephiroth as the main character, and so on), it should not be done.  Here is why:

       -It should not affect the FFVII story.  By this I mean, who is
        going to be the bad guy.  If there is someone new introduced it
        should be remembered in the FFVII story.  Anything that happens
        a few years before the FFVII story (lets say 20 years) cannot be
        forgotten.  Therefore the story should be in a time period where
        mostly everything that happens would be forgotten by the time it
        gets to the FFVII story time period.

       -The story should bring new ideas, and making the story close to
        the FFVII story would be too predictable.

Here are some ideas and questions that should be considered for the story

    - Instead of looking at the FFVII character's background, it would be
      better to investigate the world map and other events.

    -  If you look underwater, in the middle of the ocean (where the
      Emerald weapon sometimes rests), there is a crater.  What made that
      crater?

    -  How was the Northern Cave created?

    -  How were the Weapons created?  Were they used before, when Jenova
       arrived probably?

    -  Who and what is Jenova?  Why did it come?  If it had a reason to
       come, did it come alone?

    -  Were the Cetras  a different race tahn the humans?  who was here
       first, Cetras or humans?

    -  Did the Cetras had a more advanced technology?  Were they
       annihilated?  By who or what?
 
    -  Why was Cloud the only one who responded well to Jenova's
       cells (other than Sephiroth)?

    -  Why was the Knight of the Round Materia secluded in a small remote
       island?  Who put it there?  Was it meant to be protected from
       anyone?
   
    -  Who made the black materia and White materia?

These are only a few ideas I have in mind.  The questions are only to help out develop more ideas.  While I could make a whole story about this, I would like for everyone to mix in their own ideas in here.  In my opinion, the main character should be a Cetra and the bad guys should be Jenova (of course) and another being like Jenova.  This Jenova-like being should be destroyed and forgotten, and Jenova should be left for dead and frozen until discovered again.

-vvalentine

[Sephiroth 3D]

Interesting ideas. There's just one problem with placing the game so far in the past: Everyplace in the world would be different, requiring us to basically build the game from complete scratch. We're trying to keep as much of the original scenery as we can, to help keep download times to a minimum. This means reusing places we've been before, such as Nimbelheim, Midgar, and Wutai. We're hoping to add very little scenery to the remake, while still having new and interesting places to go.

Our main focus from the beginning has alway been focused around Sephiroth, simply because he's possible the best character in the game. This does not mean we'll be staying with him 24/7. We have many ideas that will keep the story interesting, that don't directly involve Sephiroth.

There's not a lot I can say about the story since we are still in the development stages. But we are working hard to come up with brilliant ideas that will make it's way into the remake.

If you have an idea for a general plot-line or a sub-plot, please tell us. No ideas will be turned away without consideration! You WILL be heard! Speak up now, for you might see your idea come to life!

Sephiroth 3D

"One who seeks knowledge from another person, doesn't learn half as much as the one who seeks knowledge for himself." - Vincent Valentine, The Sephiroth Chronicals, Book 1: Resurrection

[email protected]  
Sephiroth 3D's Final Fantasy (Currently Offline)
Sephiroth 3D's Promised Land

[Sir Canealot]

It should go completely off the focus of FFVII.
You should think about focusing it in a lowly Shin-Ra soldier or something.
Perhaps the same Shin-Ra soldier that was present for Nibelheim(No I dont mean Cloud)?

What ever guys. Just try not to repeat to much of FFVII all over again.

[W-Cid]

*POSSIBLE SPOILERS*

vvalentine, some very interesting ideas you have put forward there. I would like to expand on the topic of the Cetra. Your suggestions concering the Cetra, such as 'Were the Cetra a different race than the humans?' and 'Did the Cetras had a more advanced technology?' were quite interesting to ponder, as the Cetra would play a major part in the time period previous to the FFVII storyline.

My additional questions/suggestions are in relation to the Cetran race. In the Remake, maybe you should be closely, if not directly, in contact with Cetrans, and from this experience you learn a great deal about the history of the Cetra. Think back to the Ancient Capital, and the quest you undertook to find the Key of the Ancients. This key was found in a very dark cave north of Lucrecia's cave. Maybe the storyline of FFR could include an explanation (either visually or in text) of how the key was placed there, and the reasons for that.

Another idea that was brought to my attention earlier this year, when I hadn't heard of FFR. I was a regular at the TFF forums, and myself and another member were working on a Cetran language. This would be a great opportunity to incorporate the idea of a Cetran language.

If you remember in the Ancient Capital before the key was obtained, Bugenhagen translates the Cetran language on the Ancient Machine for Cloud, and comes up with the clues for finding the key ("...(even sunlight can't reach)...(Key)"). This was written in chalk, as Bugenhagen exclaimed before translating it. Around the Ancient Machine are possibly Cetran characters, which hopefully can be copied by the FFR 2D artists and reproduced and possibly incorporated into the Remake.

Feedback on these ideas would be great. Also, if you wish to get in touch with my friend who has translated many English words into Cetran, you can contact me on ICQ, my number is 136316687.

W-Cid out...

[edited] 257 2001-10-29 11:35

[StrayWings]

Well, I have always wanted to play games that gives you the choice to pick your own character to play  

For instance, I picked to play as Aeris ::Aeris would be the main character then, with the story plots evolving around her:: Then the other characters that joins your Team would fight themselves in battles ::AI style, can't control them:: About casting Magic and equipment, the main character would leads the party would just give the items to them ::Materia, Potions, Weapons, Armour, etc:: and the computer would caculate the best combination    ::or Random combinations:: of Magic, attack skills, etc.

I guess that it would be VERY hard work for the code programmers, but it's fun! The players would get more interested in the game    It also makes the length of the game longer as players would certainly try to play the other characters. ::maybe the plot of the game would be the same but maybe for different characters, players would have the option of doing things and visiting places that differs from each characters, special encounters, etc:: Players would also pay more attention in building up their character.

::hehe...I have also been very keen to see more effects on the Love Plot::

This would also be a way to better understand each characters' background.

I have always longed for a game like this, you tend to spend more time in it, trying to understand the story deeply and truely get rooted with the character you play.  

[ficedula]

Well, speaking as the programmer who's written the AI engine for the Remake (AI is about 90% complete, easily) that wouldn't be *too* hard. The AI system already allows for "groups" of people to contain some computer controlled and some human controlled characters; not a problem. In fact, a creatures status (AI or not? Which side is it on?) is totally independent of everything else - you can have friendly AI controlled people in your group, or in another group. You can have a two groups of "enemies" who fight each other as well as both "disliking" you ... basically, that part wouldn't be hard.

Writing the actual AI script for characters though ... not so easy, especially once you've got lots of abilities.

[vvalentine]

Although my ideas for the story are pretty good, Sephiroth 3D had a very good point.  Making the story far from the original story would cause the whole scenery to change.  Many towns would have to be changed or removed, Midgar would probably be different, and other towns would have to be created or removed.

    I totally agree for what Sephiroth 3D says since he is the one who is working with the graphics, but I do disagree on one thing.  The scenery doesn't have to change much.  In FFVII, it seems that technology advances kinda slow (in some things).  Some things would seem to have a more advanced technology than ours, and some other things seem to be less technological.

  For example, Midgar is a very futuristic city, while Wutai looks like ancient Japan.  Cosmo Canyon seems to be like an Indian town, and Indians had the same structures of their houses the same for hundreds of years.  Ancient City would probably not change at all, since the Cetras made it a long time ago.  The Ancient temple would not change also.  Since the story would be different from the original FFVII story, Midgar doesn't have to be the main city of the game, the Ancient city would be.  Midgar would probably be a bunch of little towns, remember that Midgar was a bunch of towns with their own name before actually becoming Midgar.  The caves would not change, especially the northern cave.  The only things that would change is the transportation, there would be no cars, planes, motorcycles or things that have technology (Except for the Cetras).  The towns could remain mostly the same, but changing the color of the buildings and adding/deleting some other things in the towns.  

   This is just my suggestion as a FF fan, and as a fan I would probably not find the game interesting if it was mostly the same as the original game.  Even if this project would take a long time to finish, at the end everyone would enjoy the game for its originallity.

-vvalentine

[Sephiroth 3D]

A lot of the ideas here are far too large to really take into consideration, because a lot of it would require a lot of work to be done, which would in turn, require a much bigger download.

Just with the ideas we currently have, I'm estimating that the download will be around 100megs or more.

Vvalentine: You have some great ideas, but still, they would require scenery changes that would require a bigger download.

In fact, a lot of everyone's ideas are possibly so grand, that it would be better to simply develop our own game, so we could avoid making a "stand-alone" FF7 game (Which would get our butts sued by Squaresoft!), and at the same time, actually be able sell it, and see a profit from it.

If we start development of our own RPG that is completely independant from the FF world, I see no problems with incorperating some of your guys' ideas. I especially like Straywing's idea of playing multiple character as the main character. However, they've already done a game like this. It's call "Deep Space Nine: The Fallen". It's not a bad game. Same story as seen from the perspectives of Sisko, Kira, and Worf. It gets rather tedious though. A better idea is to have choices as to who to play through out certian parts of the game. (Cloud for the first part, then Tifa, then Barret, then Aeris, then Red13, ect, ect...)

I'm not saying "Stop it with these ideas"... I'm saying that our project is going to be taking place around the same time as FF7. We're trying to keep the story around that time so we can keep the download small, so we won't have to replace every field file in the game, and possibly get sued by Squaresoft.

Sephiroth 3D

"One who seeks knowledge from another person, doesn't learn half as much as the one who seeks knowledge for himself." - Vincent Valentine, The Sephiroth Chronicals, Book 1: Resurrection

[email protected]  
Sephiroth 3D's Final Fantasy (Currently Offline)
Sephiroth 3D's Promised Land

[vvalentine]

I see your point now.  In that case then I could make more research on the characters and try to develope substories.  I would like to develope Vincent Valentine more, since he has a lot to do with Sephiroth, Lucrecia, Shin-ra, and the Turks.  Although I would have loved the story to have taken in the past, you are right on the download thing and changing the scenery.  Maybe that could be a future project, Mmmhh...

-vvalentine

[W-Cid]

**MORE SPOILERS**

After reading the previous posts here, it seems like FFR will be set around the time of FFVII, and Sephiroth's birth and upbringing by Professor Hojo. I can see how the Remake would closely follow Sephiroth's life, showing how he joined SOLDIER and up until he learnt that he was a test subject in the Nibelheim reactor. It would also include the indoctrination that occured when Hojo convinced Sephiroth he was born of Jenova, rather than his real mother Lucrecia. But I saw an old post that asked people who wanted to work on the FFR storyboard to submit a 100 word piece describing how Jenova landed on the Planet 2000 years ago. Would the game have a flashback, or possibly even a start sequence, showing how the alien Jenova came and befriended the Cetra, trying to suck the energy out of the Planet. It should also show how after she killed off many Ancients with a spread disease, the remainding Cetra banished her to the Northern Crater.

I think these parts are pretty important because they set the scene for FFVII and FFR, and they document the history of Jenova and the Planet before non-Cetran existance.


EDIT : Just answering vvalentine's question ==> Jenova was an alien that came to a Planet and sucked the energy out of it, and then moved on to the next closest Planet. I do not know why it came, but it probably had its reasons
[edited] 257 2001-10-30 01:14

[eerrrr]

On 2001-10-29 01:00, vvalentine wrote:
    -  Were the Cetras a different race than the humans?  Who was here
       first, Cetras or humans?

If I remember correctly, all humans were originally Cetra, but by the time the Cetra came to Earth most of them were tired of searching for the Promised Land and gave up. Those Cetra went on to live on Earth and be 'humans'. I think that's what happened, I'm sure Sephiroth or someone says it somewhere in the game.

[W-Cid]

On 2001-10-30 11:08, eerrrr wrote:
If I remember correctly, all humans were originally Cetra, but by the time the Cetra came to Earth most of them were tired of searching for the Promised Land and gave up. Those Cetra went on to live on Earth and be 'humans'. I think that's what happened, I'm sure Sephiroth or someone says it somewhere in the game.

Here's a little bit of logic : All Cetra are humans, but not all humans are Cetra. The world they lived on (the same world FFVII is set on) is called the Planet, not Earth. If you remember, many of the Cetra are killed off by Jenova, and after another 1700 or so years, Aeris was the last remaining Ancient. Sephiroth has no direct Ancient connection (in terms of inheritance of Ancient genes) except for when he was hurled into the Mako pit in the Mt Nibel reactor by Cloud. Humans were produced by the Planet, and had no connection with the Ancients either. I think this was probably because the Planet saw how many Cetra were killed, and needed to produce another similar lifeform to replace them.

[Darkness]

i like this guy

[Anonymous]

Eh? Was that to me? hehehe cool  

[W-Cid]

Oops, sorry I forgot to type in my Username & password, I'm on the school computers now. So I = Mr Anonymous above lol

EDIT : I just realised my mistake. The Cetra were in fact humans with an amazing ability to be in touch with the Planet, and aqcuire large amounts of knowledge and wisdom. However, in my previous post, I said that humans were produced by the Planet because the Cetra were being killed off. This is partially true. Humans were created by the Planet, but they were not created because of the massive slaughtering of the Cetra. Humans were basically Cetra who had given up on the hardships involved in searching for the Promised Land and spiritual enlightenment. These were the first humans, the ones who gave up, and lost all their power, wisdom and knowledge.
[edited] 257 2001-10-31 09:01

[Goku7]

On 2001-10-29 09:58, ficedula wrote:

Writing the actual AI script for characters though ... not so easy, especially once you've got lots of abilities.

*Spoilers*

Well, what about the part in FF7 after Midgar where Cloud is telling everyone about the Sephiroth incident?  Sephiroth is both on your team, and computer controlled.

Therefore, 90% of the AI script for the characters could possibly be ripped and subsequently used as a template for the computer AI of your allies.

[edited] 239 2001-11-03 03:28

[ficedula]

That's if we can actually decode the AI script from the original game. Not at *all* easy. We don't even know where they're stored....

[Darkness]

i think theyre stored in the .dat files that the game makes in the battle directory, but what file do they come from? i dont know.

[vvalentine]

Ok, I have something in mind to include Vincent Valentine in the game, but I need some questions answered.  At what time period is the game going to happen?
Since Sephiroth is going to be the main character, I would suppose that it would be around 5-10 years before the actual game time period.  

-vvalentine

[Sephiroth 3D]

Actually Vincent is already in the story, if I can get my way. There are those within the Remake Storyboard commitee who disagree with my idea to "jump around", using several different characters throughout the game. I think that doing this would get a lot more of the information everyone wants to get into the remake, while still having a familiar, yet original story to it.

My idea was to actually start the game with Vincent, and we follow him around until he's shot by Hojo. But again, I'm not sure if he's going to make it into the final version of the remake, as a playable character. But I'm working on it.

Sephiroth 3D

"I don't understand..." "You don't have to understand." - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Sephiroth 3D.com
[email protected]

[vvalentine]

Perfect, it fits right into what I had in mind.  

This is what I was thinking:

The game could start before Sephiroth is born, and we could see Vincent as a Turk.  By the time that Sephiroth is born, Vincent is already shot by Hojo.  
There is something also that I would suggest, even though it would be kinda difficult to pull off.  When Sephiroth is grown, Vincent would wake up from his sleep.  He can't rest in peace because there is something bothering him about Sephiroth.  Vincent knew about the experiment that Hojo was doing, and he has a bad feeling about Sephiroth's powers.  Vincent then just follows Sephiroth to keep an eye on him.  After Sephiroth is presumed dead, then Vincent goes back to his sleep until he is woken up by Cloud's team.  
I need to play the game again to make sure that my idea doesn't mess up with the Original FFVII story.

-vvalentine

Sephiroth3D:   I totally agree on you with the idea of using different characters.  In FF VI it was done a lot, and it worked perfectly fine.
[edited] 213 2001-11-08 20:26

[Sephiroth 3D]

That's a great idea, but... it won't work. Remember that Vincent is punishing himself for letting Hojo ruin Lucreica's life. Also remember that Hojo locked that door, then placed the key in a safe.

True, Vincent could probably get out, but why would he go back? More over, how would he re-lock the door?

I'm sorry, but your idea just won't work.

Sephiroth 3D

"I don't understand..." "You don't have to understand." - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Sephiroth 3D.com
[email protected]

[vvalentine]

True, I forgot about that.  That is why I was saying that it would be difficult to pull off.  I can't remember much of FFVII, and that is why I need to play the game again.  But even if Vincent is no longer available when he is shot, he could be available before that.  And for Vincent's heartbreaking story I have some pretty neat ideas.  By the way, is there any program to convert analog sound into midi?  I was thinking of probably doing a modified version of the "Nightmare" midi (the one that is played on the Shin-ra mansion's basement) with my guitar.  I downloaded the tabs for that tune, and it sounds cool in guitar.  I'll do a sample, and try to post it somewhere.

-vvalentine

[edited] 213 2001-11-08 20:56

[Sephiroth 3D]

Sorry, but that's impossible. MIDI is a representation of music, not an actual music file. It contains info that is decoded by software & your sound card in order to generate music. It makes the music different for each system.

The way around that is the use of SoundFont files. I'm going to assume you know what those are, and not bore you with a long explination of what they do.

Recording the file as a waveform then converting it to a more internet-friendly format, such as a MP3, ensures that it will sound identical each time someone hears it. (That's not including differences in speaker systems.)

PS: Post # 250!!

Sephiroth 3D

"I don't understand..." "You don't have to understand." - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Sephiroth 3D.com
[email protected]

*Edit*  Fixed and error & reported post count.

[edited] 135 2001-11-09 08:28

[vvalentine]

Haven't been here in a while, I was sick like a puppy.  I hope that this message doesn't get deleted because of the server change.  Anyways.

Sephiroth3D:  I know that you can't make up a midi from a sound file like .wav.  The thing I was saying is that if there could be a program that could take samples from the .wav files and use those samples to make a midi.  I know I would have to get the appropriate SoundFont files to make it sound like a real guitar.  But the thing I was saying is that I don't have any device to create a midi, not even a keyboard.  Just my good old guitar.  Midis could sound very different on different computers or with different SoundFont files, but they would all have the same tune, won't they.  The midi for Stairway to Heaven will always have the same tune, even though it sounds like it is played by a piano or guitar.  I don't deal much with multimedia, and I wouldn't know if there is such program that could do what I said it would do.  I mean, some people don't even know that there are programs that help you recover files from a formatted disk.  

Well then, enough said, the song is not so hard to learn, but I want to play it without difficulty.  When I record it, I will post the MP3 somewhere in the Internet.

-vvalentine

[edited] 213 2001-11-11 06:38