Author Topic: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut  (Read 13564 times)

Thestrifeisrife

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FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« on: 2023-12-07 18:40:41 »




About the Mod

This mod for Final Fantasy VII has been created to accomplish two things:

First, it offers a full retranslation of the game's text that fixes mistakes in the original English translation; improves tonal accuracy using idiomatic language; and conforms to the localization choices of the Compilation and Remake trilogy where applicable to ensure continuity through the Final Fantasy VII series. The goal of this retranslation is to give English players a narrative experience and foundation of lore that is as close as possible to that of Japanese-speaking players.

Second, and optionally, this mod restores numerous events, maps, animations, puzzles, and lines of dialogue that were cut from the final release. In 99 cases out of 100, this content has been mined from the original game files themselves. Only when absolutely necessary have the authors of this mod supplied the minimum amount of additional assets to ensure the functionality of the official scrapped elements. A full spreadsheet of this mod's script is available on Google drive, with unofficial dialogue clearly demarcated.

This mod requires the 7th Heaven mod loader to be used.

Custom facial expression system requires latest FFNx canary to work.



Example Images of Contents [CONTAINS SPOILERS]

Main Contents

Fully Retranslated Script
Spoiler: show

         

         

         

         

         




Parity With Compilation of FFVII, Remake and Rebirth Localizations
Spoiler: show

As mentioned, in spots where the Japanese is the same or partially the same between the original FFVII and Remake / Rebirth, we have opted to use the official localization of those lines to create a sense of cohesion akin to what the Japanese side of things has. This also extends to the other Compilation entries, but Remake—as the most recent FFVII entry—gets priority.

          

          

          

          

          

          

          

          

          

          

          

          

          

          

          

          

          




Restored Unused Scenes
Spoiler: show

         

         

         

         

         

         

         



Restored Unused Puzzles
Spoiler: show

         



Restored Facial Expression System
Spoiler: show

This system existed in the PSX version but was almost never used. It was unfinished in the PC version but has been restored by TrueOdin in recent FFNx canary builds, and I took the liberty of porting over the textures and incorporating new expressions into scenes on top of what few were already in the game. A full list of scenes affected can be found in the iro. Eyes work perfectly but custom mouths are a bit of a work in progress.

         

         

         

         




Bonus Features

FMV Options
Spoiler: show

Several FMVs got changes during development, and these options allow those earlier renditions to be used.

         

         


Beta-style Menu Icons
Spoiler: show

Early in FFVII's development, the characters had pixel art portraits reminiscent of prior entries in the series. The textures for Cloud, Aerith, and Barret's portraits remained in the Tobal No.1 FFVII sampler demo, and with this option you can use them in the final game. Additionally, the incredibly talented pixel artist Prism has provided stylistically-consistent custom sprite portraits for the remaining members so this mode can affect the whole party. (currently Red XIII and Cid are not yet made).

         

         


Red Yuffie Costume
Spoiler: show

In the planning stage of FFVII, Yuffie's outfit was red and white rather than green and orange. This option allows you to use a costume for Yuffie based on that original design, with a battle model provided by the incredible UpRisen.

         

         


Option to Restore JORG Backgrounds
Spoiler: show

The original Japanese release (JORG) of FFVII had a handful of prerendered backgrounds that got revised for the international release, generally to make it clearer where the player needs to go. This option restores the original versions.

JORG                                                                                                Post-JORG
         

         

         

         



Mod Credits

This mod is a production of the Shinra Archaeology Department, an FFVII fan group dedicated to translating Japanese interviews and guidebooks and making them available to English-speaking audiences.

Restoration, Implementation, and Logo Graphics: Odysseus (TheStrifeIsRife)

Translation and Localization Continuity: TurquoiseHammer

Data Mining, Organization, and Annotation: Shademp

Original Script Mining: Herman1134 (Jason Maltz)

Cait Sith Regional Dialect: M. J. Gallagher (FFVIINovels)

Custom Sprite Portraits: Prism

Red Yuffie Battle Model: UpRisen


Acknowledgements

NPC blink animation fixes provided by Orichalcon.

Unused custom eye and mouth texture system restored by TrueOdin.

The tile set for the TRAP field was decoded by BrutalAl.


Tools used

Makou Reactor and Vincent Tim: myst6re

WallMarket and ProudClod: nfitc1

Black Chocobo: sithlord48

KimeraCS: LaZar00

Scarlet: petfriendamy



« Last Edit: 2024-10-20 17:46:30 by Thestrifeisrife »

markul

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #1 on: 2023-12-08 08:27:39 »
Cool project, hope you been able to finish it. People need more gameplay mods :D . Restore some cut content of the game it will require big changes, so keep motivation high  :) .

Thestrifeisrife

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #2 on: 2023-12-08 14:32:30 »
Thanks!

Thankfully most of the hard stuff is out of the way. Midgar is by far the highest density area for elaborate unused content.

Salk

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #3 on: 2023-12-08 19:30:11 »
An interesting modification, to be sure.

I have a question: it's released as a Demo but it seems some part, if not all, are complete? If that's the case, it's called Demo because it's not been properly tested?

Thanks!

Thestrifeisrife

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #4 on: 2023-12-09 01:07:17 »
It's called a demo because the retranslation stops at the end of Midgar and that's the main feature. The restored cut content also hasn't been thoroughly tested past Midgar yet either.

Salk

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #5 on: 2023-12-09 03:46:39 »
Oh okay, thanks.

Good luck with the rest of the work and thanks again for sharing.

Kuraudo.

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #6 on: 2023-12-11 12:37:04 »
Congratulations on the first release and many to come!

Thestrifeisrife

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #7 on: 2024-01-13 01:16:58 »
Version 0.14 now available!

Mostly some small fixes and minor new cut-content additions. The retranslation still stops at Midgar for now.

Big new thing in this mod are custom facial expressions in certain scenes. The characters all actually had unique textures for a full range of emotions in the PSX version, but it was almost never used, probably owing to the low resolution and far back camera making them near impossible to see. The system was not implemented in the PC version, but thanks to the efforts of TrueOdin, the latest canary builds of FFNx are capable of implementing it. I've ported over all the textures for use, and have added new expressions to several scenes that I feel benefit from them. Yuffie in the logo is an example of it in use lol.

Salk

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #8 on: 2024-01-15 13:12:05 »
Congratulations on the small update!

Looking forward to more translation.  ;)

Thestrifeisrife

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #9 on: 2024-01-17 18:31:05 »
Up to now I was using a heavily modified version of the True Honeybee Inn mod by Cloudiar as a base for my own restoration, specifically for the modifications done by L@Zar0 to the fields to get around the faulty tile layering that resulted from the PSX to PC conversion of the background images. The issue was that certain parts of the prerendered backgrounds were rendering all the way in the foreground—such as the tables in the center of ONNA_3 and 6—so that even if Cloud was in front of them, their tiles would still layer over him. To fix that, certain parts of the walk-meshes were disabled and NPCs were moved in a way that hid the issue. Yesterday, though, Myst6re helped me figure out how to use Makou Reactor to go in and fix the depth of those tiles and get it to where it is supposed to be, so the maps ONNA_1, 3, and 6 are now more or less 1-to-1 with their original PSX counterparts.

Spoiler: show






(these fields are all compatible with the Cosmos Limit Break widescreen mod btw)

ALSO I should probably mention, you are now able to download the mod straight from 7th Heaven's mod catalog!



I will still maintain the google drive link in the OP as a backup option, but it's probably better to get it from the catalog.

Manny70

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #10 on: 2024-01-18 03:21:37 »
Great work.  Just curious on the facial expressions, do they work with only the default models or can you use the Ninostyle Chibi's?  I don't know how the models and faces are connected.

Thanks
« Last Edit: 2024-01-18 05:58:30 by Manny70 »

Thestrifeisrife

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #11 on: 2024-01-18 17:44:46 »
Great work.  Just curious on the facial expressions, do they work with only the default models or can you use the Ninostyle Chibi's?  I don't know how the models and faces are connected.

Thanks

The textures have to be added by the mod manually since they don't exist in the PC version (I ported them from the PSX version myself) so if they do work with Ninostyles, it'll still be the OG art style. Ninostyle would need to update with new textures to match.

Thestrifeisrife

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #12 on: 2024-02-10 03:02:18 »
Mod has been updated to version 0.2, which includes a full retranslation of the Nibelheim flashback (with parity with the FFVII Rebirth demo where possible) and Kalm as well as a number of new restored unused scenes.

Phiido

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #13 on: 2024-03-04 16:00:34 »
Just wanted to come on here to report some issues that I've stumbled on. But firstmost I must say that I've been enjoying this mod immensely as nuances in the language are much better than the original!

The Wall market sequence I found out in the readme after been struggling a bit, though I'm not sure whether the options for the dress sequence is in opposite order, when choosing the soft and shiny, it yields the cotton dress. When disabling the mod, I saw the option texts were the opposite of the mod.
« Last Edit: 2024-03-04 17:38:43 by Phiido »

Thestrifeisrife

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #14 on: 2024-03-10 22:57:02 »
Just wanted to come on here to report some issues that I've stumbled on. But firstmost I must say that I've been enjoying this mod immensely as nuances in the language are much better than the original!

The Wall market sequence I found out in the readme after been struggling a bit, though I'm not sure whether the options for the dress sequence is in opposite order, when choosing the soft and shiny, it yields the cotton dress. When disabling the mod, I saw the option texts were the opposite of the mod.

It's not that they were reversed as much as it is we just translated them differently. But yeah just going by the idea that soft and shiny give the desired result, it does seem reversed lol.

Volcannon

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #15 on: 2024-04-09 16:06:26 »
Can someone help me with the Wall Market section please, cause I can't seem to figure out which people to talk to so I proceed with the Tifa section. I am at my wits end here.

Joxsund

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #16 on: 2024-04-23 20:53:42 »
Can someone help me with the Wall Market section please, cause I can't seem to figure out which people to talk to so I proceed with the Tifa section. I am at my wits end here.

Talk to the guy on the left of the lobby until he tells you Tifa isn't there.
Leave and tell Aerith that Tifa wasn't there
Make your way to Don's mansion and talk to the guard and the cutscene with Aerith sugessting Cloud dresses up as a girl will play out.
Talk to the large bearded man at the bottom of the main wall market screen (next to the transition to outside the honeybee) and he will give you a membership card.

I did the last step after aqcuiring the dress and wig but I don't know if that matters.

Thestrifeisrife

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #17 on: 2024-05-17 19:44:35 »
Version 0.3 is now available!

With this update, the translation now goes through Junon and the Cargo Ship, and I added Sephiroth to the facial expression system and drew custom expressions for him.

ShizunaRem

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #18 on: 2024-07-08 03:43:38 »
I'm just here to say thank you for your work on the mod! I absolutely loved what I played through in Midgar, and I'm waiting (with patience) for the mod to be completed before I continue my playthrough!
I'm sure you know this, but you're doing really important work. The absolute quality of this translation was sorely needed, and it is really, deeply appreciated!
So, thank you, and good luck with your work on the rest of it!

Thestrifeisrife

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #19 on: 2024-07-12 00:26:38 »
I'm just here to say thank you for your work on the mod! I absolutely loved what I played through in Midgar, and I'm waiting (with patience) for the mod to be completed before I continue my playthrough!
I'm sure you know this, but you're doing really important work. The absolute quality of this translation was sorely needed, and it is really, deeply appreciated!
So, thank you, and good luck with your work on the rest of it!
Appreciate it! It'll be a while till it's fully complete but we're working hard.

Thestrifeisrife

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #20 on: 2024-07-21 06:52:22 »
Version 0.35 of the mod is now available! This is probably the biggest single-update since the initial public release. We've retranslated the Gold Saucer (outside of the date scene events) and all of Corel Prison, restored a number of unused bits of text and scenes, and several new bonus features have been added as well (details have been added to the OP).

I know many people are waiting for this to be totally done before trying it out, but all the same, I hope you enjoy.

Thestrifeisrife

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #21 on: 2024-08-06 06:59:43 »
Version 0.4 is up now. With this update, the retranslation goes through Cosmo Canyon, and fixes a bunch of little errors throughout the preceding areas.

Thestrifeisrife

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #22 on: 2024-08-10 17:56:29 »
And now 0.41 is out, which adds present-day Nibelheim to the retranslation as well.

Thestrifeisrife

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #23 on: 2024-08-22 03:48:18 »
Aaaand now 0.42 with Rocket Town. Boy we're really cruising lately.

Salk

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Re: FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut
« Reply #24 on: 2024-09-01 05:36:15 »
Great to see this project not losing any steam!

Thanks for all your work!