Final Fantasy 7 > WIP

[WIP]FF7 Refined

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Kutsufatmo:
I've been working on a simple dialogue overhaul and combat rebalance project, similar to New Threat except more minimalist in approach. It doesn't fundamentally alter the gameplay with any new mechanics, enemies, or bosses, but rather seeks to rebalance what is already there while also cleaning up the original messy English translation. In essence, I want this mod to capture FF7 as you remembered it with rose-tinted glasses, before you might have taken notice of all the little errors and blemishes playing it as a kid.

I also wanted to offer an alternative to Beacause that is actually designed to work with 7th Heaven from the ground up. My script takes a significantly different approach though. For much of the original dialogue, I viewed it from an "if it aint broke don't fix it" lens. That means keeping iconic stuff like Barret's famous "pizza" line and censored profanity untouched. I wanted to keep the charm of the original script while smoothing out the rough edges. I also didn't make changes to things like "Sectors" being called "Districts" even though this might be more technically accurate to the original Japanese. My primary concern here is not really accuracy so much as simply making the dialogue have an elegant flow to it, and in some instances even improving upon it regardless if it might deviate slightly from the original script. Though as a consequence of correcting a lot of errors and inconsistencies from the original translation, it will end up more accurate regardless. I tend to take the view that all art is flawed and original artists are not infallible; there is always room for improvement, so I will make changes where I see fit, but generally speaking, I don't plan to make any drastic deviations from what's already there. Major plot points will not be changed. This is after all intended to be a refinement of FF7, not a fundamentally new experience. My goal here is to offer something that first-time players can use for a more polished vanilla FF7, as well as give returning players some nice quality of life updates while still remaining largely true to the original FF7 experience.

As for my approach to the combat, I like the general pacing of the original game, so I will largely be leaving HP values of enemies untouched. However I did want to buff the damage of a lot of encounters, especially in the early game, as they're just so weak to the point of being too easy even for a novice. Bosses so far are the only enemy type I've modified HP for, as I noticed for example that Cloud can limit break on Air Buster for 600 damage, which is half of the boss's total HP value in one strike, so the length was just a little too short for my liking. But overall don't expect a brutally difficult trial. This aspect of the mod is intended to make the game a more well-rounded challenge, not a gauntlet of punishment.

As this mod is still in very early development, I have only completed the script and combat tweaks up to when Cloud and the gang arrive at the Shinra building to rescue Aeris. I will continue to update it as I find time, but I only work on this in my spare time / when I'm bored really, so don't expect any consistency from me, lol.

The mod is customizable so you can disable the combat tweaks while just using the dialogue or vice versa.

Alpha Version 0.4 Download: https://mega.nz/file/2IomBI7K#SUSpaTZKFf_JooEdjeHPTMu_RO4iEaD7607mc4Ffavo

Samples:






Some things I'd like to do:

- I can't get the Wall Market app to work on my PC, so I've been unable to make changes to things like potion healing values as I'd like to. If anyone has any tips on why it might not be opening, let me know.
- Currently the IRO was compiled by just slapping the whole flevel.lgp file into it, but I'd like to know how other mods break it up into smaller chunks, as I presume this would not only make the file size smaller but probably increase its compatibility with other mods by only modifying parts of the flevel file that are actually changed.
- Reading up on things, I noticed that some enemies will eventually get reused for the Gold Saucer battle arena with buffed stats, but I don't see separate enemies in ProudClod to represent this, which makes me a little concerned that it might modify their stats on-the-fly to be even more buffed despite that this mod already does that, which could result in some gameplay imbalances during this segment in the game. I'm curious if anyone knows how the mechanics of this actually work, as it could pose a problem down the road once I get to that point in the game.

Salk:
Hello, Kutsufatmo!

How is FF7 Refined shaping up? I'm not unfortunately able to offer any kind of technical assistance but there are many FF modders here and on Discord that could do that.

Have you talked to any of them?

Kutsufatmo:
It's coming along nicely, albeit very slowly at the moment. Some health issues and other projects had me sidetracked for a little while, but I have been at work on it again. Wall Market is one of the most dialogue-heavy segments in the game so it's kept me stuck there for a while. But at this point I have pretty much everything done there except a few bits of Honeybee Manor and then Don Corneo's mansion. I've also gone back and cleaned up a few more bits of dialogue in the earlier sections and fixed a bug that I missed in my last WIP release where some enemy spawns at the second reactor were broken. Hoping to release another alpha version within the next month or so.

I have not tried speaking to anyone on Discord yet but that's not a bad idea. I will still eventually need to make some item edits.

Salk:
Nice with an update about your project.

Thanks!

Kutsufatmo:
OK, I finally updated this with Alpha version 0.2! Wall Market is finished. All dialogue and combat have been overhauled up to just when Cloud and the gang escape the sewers and arrive at the train graveyard. The download link has been updated on the main post.

I would have liked to have gotten even further than this by now frankly but Wall Market gave me some unexpected hiccups. Nonetheless I'm very happy with the results. As the script is now, I think it is a substantial improvement over the original English dialogue. It seems much like the Beacause project, I'm finding that A LOT of the original dialogue was just messy in some form or another, so as much as I have tried to adhere to the "if it aint broke don't fix it" approach, nearly every piece of dialogue has ended up being modified or cleaned up in some way. But I think for people who have a soft spot for the style and "feel" of the original English translation like me, they'll still find it more appealing than Beacause. I went back and forth a lot on whether to call it Honeybee Inn or Honeybee Manor for instance, but ultimately decided on keeping it Honeybee Inn since that's how it was referred to in the old translation and as far as I understand it, it is still referred to that in the Remake, so for consistency's sake I'm maintaining it. I also went back again and touched up a few more pieces of dialogue in the earlier sections that I worked on already, and finally fixed some broken enemy spawns in the second reactor, so this version should be in much better shape than the previous WIP I uploaded. Pretty well bug-free now too.

Also this time around, as I was working through Wall Market I got more comfortable working with Makou Reactor's scripting interface, so I was able to get more fancy with adding a few extra lines of character dialogue that didn't exist previously in either Beacause or the original translation, complete with accompanying character animations for expression. I think it adds just a little more flair to certain conversations while staying true to the characters' personalities.



Hopefully now that one of the more dialogue-heavy segments of the game is behind me, I'll be able to make a more substantial update next time that progresses the game more than just a couple sections.

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