FFVII: Shinra Archaeology Cut

[Thestrifeisrife]

Demo version 0.2 IRO Download

About the mod

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

First, it offers a full (up to the party's departure from Midgar in this demo) 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 dump of this mod's script is available on Google drive, with unofficial dialogue clearly demarcated. Unused content restoration goes up to the end of the game in this demo, but post-Midgar content has not been thoroughly tested.

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

Custom facial expression system requires FFNx v1.16.0.144 or higher to function.


Example images of contents

Retranslated script

Spoiler: show

         

         

Parity with Remake localization

Spoiler: show

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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.

Additional features (separately toggleable in the options from everything else)

Spoiler: show

Restored opening crawl text seen in early builds of the game.

Restored beta menu portraits datamined from the Tobal No.1 FFVII Demo.

Custom sprite portraits made to match the above (WIP, only applies to Tifa, Yuffie, and Sephiroth right now).
Drawn by Prism

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)

Custom sprite portraits: Prism


Acknowledgements

NPC blink animation fixes provided by Orichalcon.

Unused custom eye and mouth texture system restored by TrueOdin.

ONNA_1, 3, and 6 use L@Zar0's fixes for the fields' background layers.

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

[markul]

Cool project, hope you been able to finish it. People need more gameplay mods . Restore some cut content of the game it will require big changes, so keep motivation high  .

[Thestrifeisrife]

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]

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]

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]

Oh okay, thanks.

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

[Kuraudo.]

Congratulations on the first release and many to come!

[Thestrifeisrife]

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]

Congratulations on the small update!

Looking forward to more translation. 

[Thestrifeisrife]

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]

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

[Thestrifeisrife]

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]

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]

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.

[Thestrifeisrife]

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]

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]

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.