Messages

26

General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2015-02-06 10:09:35 »

I can't even play the original game now.

Are you kidding, I stopped being able to after R01. XD Super excited it's so close now though! Woo!

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General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2015-01-06 22:33:57 »

Nope, he hasn't bailed.  We still talk, but free time and motivation are a rare commodity   Sooner or later, it will be done.  It's been 2 hours from completion quite a while now.  The only downside to this release is the models...  Kal has made them stray too far away from the original game imho, so I'll use this time to discuss that later.

I'm willing to wait for the improved models (I doubt I speak for anyone else), although I feel the need to ask: is Vincent's cloak/cape being a bit tattered straying too far in your opinion? I was always never sure with the original models but it seemed like it would be fitting and the Steam release (I know, I know) did make it such.

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General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2014-11-20 20:42:28 »

I don't like the idea of Weapon changing the plot though.  I don't want the storyline/characterizations to take a hit just because I want a tougher game... although I suppose if you could tick an option on or off in that regard while still installing Weapon I'd be fine with it. Just my two cents on the whole thing.

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General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2014-11-07 20:20:53 »

Interesting little thing has just dawned on me.  I'm not sure if anyone else here has spotted this but...

That FMV at Kalm is a fake... it's a fake memory from Cloud.  In it, he remembers Sephiroth saying to Jenova

"But they...  those worthless fools... stole the planet from you and your people.  You need not be sad any longer"

The FMV is over the top on purpose because Cloud is making this scene more involved than it was... more dramatic.  He is also remembering something he did not even see.  When he got to Sephiroth, Sephiroth had already removed the Jenova statue (Zax is the one who really witnesses this), and the room is lit up with the Jenova specimen on show. [You can see this in Makou if you compare the 2 fields].

At Midhir, you learn the truth of the ACTUAL conversation:

Cloud remembers this and twists it with the scene Zax was a part of. In other words, Sephiroth was not talking to Jenova about sadness, it was an exchange with Cloud.  Everything Cloud remembers in the FMV never happened.  We never see it, because it really happened to Zax (a different version of events that is never shown), before Cloud enters the room.

This conversation also never happened:

You can clearly see that Cloud is remembering these events all mixed up.  These scenes are far cleverer than I first gave them credit for.

I always got the impression that Zax told Cloud the story of what happened to him at some point during their trip back to Midgar (they had a whole truck-ride to talk and Cloud sure wasn't capable of being part of the conversation) and Cloud ended up piecing parts of the story together with his actual memories in a subconscious attempt to keep himself together. He wasn't exactly a well man for most of the game, after all.

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General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2014-10-16 21:31:44 »

Played the game through myself as well, no crashes. I rarely use barriers though, so I don't think I met #2. Never had any issues with any magic menus for sure, though.

Also, Mkilbride, I'd wait for R02 but having played through with R01 I can tell you that you'll LOVE the retranslation. It's absolutely amazing! Some things make so much more sense! I think you'll especially appreciate Wutai.

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General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2014-10-12 23:14:13 »

Second bug...

When Seven Fever (Lucky 7s) occurs, the game uses a different part of code to display names with rainbow effect.  Because I have not set this, the names move to their original location.  This has been the case since the the earliest reunion releases.  I take it no one had a Lucky7s with Reunion yet 

I've played this game on and off since it's release and I have never in my life managed to Lucky 7s so. XD

32

General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2014-10-06 04:33:21 »

I realized just now that playing with the original translation I basically had to translate from Awkwardish to English as I read, and while it was not a dealbreaker it was a constant distraction that lessened the experience. It's like removing background noise that has been there for so long that you forgot it was there.

This is the greatest description of the change from original translation to Reunion I've ever seen. Thank you so much for articulating my thoughts/feelings in a way I was incapable!

Like, I first played when I was ~13 and I honestly didn't notice most of the translation, the 'background noise that has been there for so long that you forgot it was there' thing. The Reunion was such a beautiful experience that it basically reasserted FFVII as my favorite game (Tales of the Abyss had usurped it and they still swap positions from time to time.)

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General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2014-09-20 16:54:21 »

Nah, no source, maybe in Ultimania... but it's pretty obvious it's kinda based on it.  It's an alien that crash lands on the planet, can shape shift and form other living organisms, infects hosts with a virus, and was dug out of the ice in a polar region.  Also, forming solid weapons is a tad too far for me, but given she is also meant to be magical, and the game is heavily driven by fantasy, I can accept it.  If this was based on Earth... no chance.

I could wank some explanations pretty easily but as I know you're not a fan of such things... and yeah, magic and fantasy, no real need, haha. XD

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General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2014-09-20 13:37:20 »

Although the 'false body' of Sephiroth was actually Jenova who took Sephiroth's appearance and Sephiroth was transmitting his will through Jenova. The way I see it is that Jenova can split itself (still can't get me to say "she"...) and that's why the (fake) Masamune could have been left behind when the Shin-Ra president was killed and yet he/it always had the sword. Looking at when you fight Jenova, you notice Sephiroth leaves the screen and then the fight begins. I'm under the impression that it splits itself to fight, or even that it's literally the same, just with changed forms.

Oooh, yeah, I forgot about that. Which is crazy because it relates directly to my headcanons regarding Sephiroth and the fact that Jenova is WAY more the big bad guy than Sephiroth (although I feel Hojo wins the position because it was his psychotic BS that caused the entire plo). The thing about the Cetra at the Temple still stands headcanon wise, though.

I should play the game a few dozen more times with the proper translation before I start debating with people, haha. I'm waiting for R02 precisely to do that, I want to do enough runs so I can basically get all possible dialogue from every party member.

Well, the Masamune is really just a deliberate plot hole. They needed the player to believe it was Sephiroth and part of his iconic image is the sword. It isn't really any deep meaning.  Jenova is heavily based on The Thing, and so every cell is separate and with enough cells, it can morph into a particular creature.  The Thing is more credible since it can only form likenesses of equal size to the matter it has available, whereas Jenova seems to perform the impossible feat of becoming a 30 foot monster from something as small as an arm. Obviously again, just a deliberate "mistake".  A bit sloppy imho, but I can ignore it (Fantasy genre has more leeway.  I hate this kind of thing on sci-fi's like Star Trek).

Giving the fact that she's an alien, it could totally be a species trait too. I mean, it's possible she can create matter somehow and then manipulates it. She seems capable of flying through space without aid and surviving creating massive damage upon landing so she's got some pretty advanced abilities going on.

Curious, do you have a source on the whole The Thing thing? Cause I'm always on the lookout for things I can research in regards to Jenova due to the game not really giving us much to work with on her. I'm in a VII/VI roleplay with a friend and I'd like to use her at some point, but again, details.

Always felt if they HAD to do the Compilation, they should have given us a game that expands on her. I mean, it would have broken canon like the rest of it but it'd still make more sense then the nonsense that was Dirge's plot.

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General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2014-09-20 03:59:40 »

It is part of the game. Aerith isn't death for real. When I did strolling around through the script I saw that Ultima is called in a Mideel scene Aerith, I re-interpreted the scenes with the weapon attacks completely different, it is always for the benefit for the party in one way or another. Even Cloud did say that Aerith has never left the party in Cosmo Canyon...
Its 'strange' sight of 'what is death' is why this game is/was so popular. You have to think about the story even after you have finished the game...
I can't say this about many other RPGs I had played ('The World Ends with You' IS a glory exception).

In the Honeybee Inn is a Cloud model which is called Zax, if it's true what I think that they only started to polished up the game but haven't no time for it anymore, then I would replace the model with the one of Zax.

I think Aerith IS dead, she's just a glorified ghost/spirit like the Cetra in the Temple of the Ancients.  In theory I think she could pull a Sephiroth and both revive her body from its watery grave and create a 'false body'. This is firmly in the realm of personal interpretations and headcanons though, so there's not really a right answer. As for the script, video games go through a lot of changes and crumbs get leftover, especially in games with somewhat sloppy construction like VII. They may have planned on killing her later, as I'm pretty sure the decision to kill her came up pretty early in development. The fact that I've heard she also has unused lines in the icicle area supports the indecision on when to kill her theory. Can't get you my sources for that, though. I mean, they may have even considered being able to bring her back as the Midhir weapon thing is pretty late game.

As for the Zax thing, originally Zax was going to be the main character if I recall correctly (which obviously would have some pretty massive overall plot repercussions/changes.) So it's probably leftover crumbs from that. Also, remember that in the one room Cloud encounters 'himself', ie his true memories, and when you consider how much Cloud's recreated memories are actually things that happened to Zax...

But basically, I think a lot of the stuff is probably crumbs leftover from the production phase and abandoned plot directions/ideas, as video game creation is far from linear. If it's not in the game proper, I don't think it can't really be used as canon (although it's a glorious source for building fanon, theories, and insight into the creation process). Hell, originally Yuffie was going to be an Ex-Soldier bounty hunter (which I CAN give a source for: http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Yuffie_Kisaragi ) and Vincent's original past as a scientist instead of a the decided former Turk is pretty well known (and actually always made a bit more sense to me, haha).

BUT personal interpretations and theories regarding plot aside, we definitely agree on the intentional thing with her apparition. ^_^

36

General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2014-09-18 21:18:07 »

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Bugs_and_Glitches

The Aerith's "ghost" is intended after all (after gamemoment 672, which is when Aerith dies).  It's likely not meant to really be her, and more how your brain can sometimes see things it is missing.  I think the idea here is for a split second, Cloud thinks he sees her (on the other hand, it could be intended that way, but that's my interpretation.  There is a disabled NPC that goes on about seeing some sort of ghost).  She basically just flashes on and off.  I am not sure why they scripted it the way they did, but that's the end result.

So I've corrected the bug in the Nibl inn which prevented this scene happening.

edit3.  if I had to go with an explanation I'd say the Aerith apparition is deliberately targeting the player, the idea being "Did I imagine that just now".  I find that kinda quirky.  I'm happier to find out that this was intended in script and not a bug which I thought it was for years...  but perhaps that's the fault of how the scene is scripted.  I may edit this scene so that there is a fade-out and not a flash on and off.

I've always felt this was intentional based on headcanons extrapolated from events.  Since a point is made in game of people CAN avoid being absorbed into the lifestream (ie Sephiroth until you defeat him and then the FMV actually SHOWS him being absorbed) I actually kind of figured that Aerith made that choice in order to continue to help the party (especially since certain parts of the game imply/say that the Cetra have done this in the past for responsibilities). We actually see Cetra at the Temple, after all. The presence of her in the ending FMV really sold this idea for me.

I wouldn't edit the scene, though.  I think part of it IS to mess with the player (plot explanations aside) and I found the flash rather startling (complete with the 'holy sh*t did that just happen SOBAERITHFEELS' reaction) and a fadeout would feel less startling.

I actually totally bought into it being part of an Aerith revival thing exclusive to the Japanese game when I was younger woops

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General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2014-09-11 16:27:32 »

I'm waiting on this. I will buy the Steam version once you guys are done. What's the status on the Iscar mod? Is that ready to go or will that need to be added later?

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=14914.msg209230#msg209230

The red text. When we talk about the retranslation here we're talking about the Beacause side of the Reunion.

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General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2014-09-11 16:26:10 »

Luksy has agreed to make me a small program to add in the 99 Soldier quest. Since all this is duplication it can be done without affecting any other mod, and can be patched to any flevel without conflict (assuming a modder hasn't used the same vars I have.  Nightmare 7 doesn't).

Luksy is doing the annoying (and hardest) part of creating the program to edit flevel, and I'm supplying him the script  to use , the fields to add the script to, and the coords of the soldiers (the longest and most fun part).

It should be a fun little mod when done

I just hope someone does a guide. I've never been able to perfect complete anything but certain platformers (Mario, 1st Gen Spyro, Banjo Kazooie, etc) without a guide so... XDD

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General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2014-08-24 22:37:52 »

Man, I love hearing about the nitty gritty of fan translations. Not so much on fansubs these days, but on video games cause there's so much more that goes into it in my experience. The professionalism you guys have shown reminds me of the Mother 3 project, which took a rather long time due to similar issues (the dreaded coding side of video game fan translations that separate it so strongly from fansubs) and is of roughly equal overall quality in my opinion.

You have totally replaced the Mother 3 project as my favorite fan translation and I wish I could better express my appreciation. Never really dreamed something like this would actually happen.

(Not that I shouldn't still learn Japanese there are quite a few games that will never get this level of dedication that I'd like to play... anything Woolsey ever touched and some of the Tales of games that never made the import list top the list.)

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General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2014-08-24 01:00:04 »

Retranslation is now done.  Next step is to get a few issues cleared with Luksy and Covarr, and myself.

The second and final play-through created around 80 questions.

Sweeeet.

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Troubleshooting / Re: Final Fantasy VII PC-98 FMV Question

« on: 2014-08-22 22:42:23 »

Thanks everyone! Especially you Covarr, I don't like mucking around in my registry manually if I can avoid it (I've had to do so ONCE because of a particularly stubborn/nasty virus.)

This can be closed now imo.

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Troubleshooting / Final Fantasy VII PC-98 FMV Question

« on: 2014-08-22 19:01:45 »

I was wondering how I could go about setting it up so the movies would load off of my hard drive rather than the discs? In a way that would be compatible with the Reunion mod ( http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=14914.0 ), to be precise. The specific mods I'm using of that are Beacause, Menu Overhaul, and Model Overhaul. I've also got Anxious Heart installed. I want to have the retranslated FMVs that are part of Beacause run in-game so I need to make that adjustment.

I've got Aali's most recent driver, so no worries there, and I'm running Windows 7 on a PC.

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General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2014-08-22 18:24:38 »

Go into main ff7 folder, and you can't miss them.  Folder is movies.  Of course, you need to sort it all out so that your movies are on the HD and not being read from disc.
------


I am now up to the rocket mission.

I didn't even think of that issue I'll ask around about how to do that on the forums. Thanks!

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General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2014-08-22 00:04:51 »

I was wondering where in the installed files the movie files are so I can replace them with the retranslated FMVs?

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General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2014-08-20 19:16:03 »

Never been a fan of Woolsey. I kind of have a sore spot in regards to inaccurate translations and localizations.

That being said, these are some fascinating pieces of useless trivia I'm happy to add to my collection!

And now I'll go back to staying on topic here, haha. XD

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General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2014-08-20 16:21:26 »

believe-you-me is not something I would expect Cid to say in that situation. And yeah, it's just been added.

Also, I'd say adding material to something to the extent Ted did is not what a localizer is supposed to do.  I remember hearing Sakaguchi was not best pleased with him.

So wait, the Kefka everyone freaks out about (at least on the personality front) and uses as proof VI rocked while VII sucked in debates/flame wars about the two games is entirely an English invention??

On the Advent Children front, I was totally thinking the other day about how they seem so much more like this project's depictions of the characters than the original PSX game... XD Cid and Vincent especially. XD

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General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2014-08-18 08:31:37 »

progress report:

I am now up to the gas chamber in Junon.

Oh, nice advancement from last update!

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General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2014-08-17 06:17:16 »

Dan,


thanks for all the passion you are infusing into this project and all the great contributions made so far. May I ask you what your next modding priorities are going to be after The Reunion's next version is out?

Also... Why do you hate Cait Sith so much?   

Oh gosh you opened the floodgates about Cait Sith, haha. XD

Definitely agree with the praise though! Always wanted something like this, but I never figured it would be possible... and I certainly thought it would just be a patch on the Japanese game rather than something as cool as it turned into. XD

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General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2014-08-12 04:25:40 »

Much Excite!

Bet it'll be a relief to have it more or less done. XD

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General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2014-08-08 08:56:59 »

Cait Sith has been removed from ending movie for when I eventually get round to that mod   Looks kinda sucky when having to zoom in to block the fat oaf out, but some half decent editing to make it work.

That's only for that mod, right? He'll be intact for those of us that are just using Beacause?