Vision: Final Fantasy 7 ONLINE

[picklejar]

I have a vision for a "Final Fantasy 7 Online" game, and I'd like to share that vision with everyone and to get your feedback.

GET READY TO BE PUMPED UP!

IMAGINE... an online game where people can re-live Final Fantasy 7 and play with each other... ONLINE.

What does that MEAN, exactly?  Well, for instance, one person can play Cloud, and another person can play Tifa, etc., and they can do various things online... TOGETHER.

"Do what things, exactly?"  THE SKY IS THE LIMIT.  We can play the main story together, PvP against each other, explore the world, roleplay, minigames, and whatever else YOU think would be fun.

The game might have different modes.  Let's start off with STORY MODE, and PLAY MODE, and BATTLE ARENA MODE.

With STORY MODE, people can re-live the FF7 story, starting with the Bombing Mission.  But this time around, it's different.  One person plays Cloud while another person plays Barrett!  Once they finish the bombing mission, they have unlocked the next part of the story, and they have also UNLOCKED TIFA ON THEIR ACCOUNTS and can start to play her.

The BATTLE ARENA MODE is for PvP.  You can pit your ferocious Red XIII against my Yuffie.  Or maybe we can stage some virtual battles against Sephiroth!

The PLAY MODE is for everything else.  Socialize and ROLE PLAY.  Buy materia/gear for your characters.  Play minigames.  Go out into the world to gain experience.  Have fun while you are "queued up" for a Story Mode instance.  (See, that's where the game pairs you up with other people online to help you advance in the Story.)

GUYS... THIS IS NOT LIKE ANY OTHER ONLINE GAME.  This isn't FF11 or FF14 or World of Warcraft.  You're not creating some random character that nobody knows.  You are playing a character that you and all your fellow FF7 fans LOVE AND ADORE.  And we're all playing TOGETHER.

Each player has their own account and their own copy of all the FF7 characters.  A newbie's account might have a Level 7 Cloud, a Level 5 Barrett, and a Level 6 Tifa, and that's it.  An experienced player's account might have unlocked all the FF7 characters with higher levels.  It might even be feasible to let people play other FF7 characters like Sephiroth, Reno, the Don, etc., but only in certain situations.

Yes, there are logistical challenges.  You don't want two people playing Cloud in the same world instance.  That's solvable.  What happens when your Aeris character... gets to a certain part of the story?  We can work that out.  Another challenge is copyright issues.  That's solvable, too.  We can get past any hurdle.

The most important question is... WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK?

Let's hear your creative ideas, let's hear your criticism, let's discuss it.

And maybe, just maybe... we can create something awesome.

[Setosith]

Honestly when I clicked on this thread I thought that sounded like a horrible idea. I was thinking "why would you wanna run around as cloud, tifa, vincent, etc and fight other clouds, tifas, vincents, etc? lol. Playing a single character though...that sounds like a pretty cool way to play. I'm actually quite intrigued by this. You're pretty creative. The only downside is you'll either have a ton of 9 player servers, or you'll have a lot of clouds, tifas, etc running around....which would kinda take the fun out of it.

It be cool though if you do it right. Say for example I choose Nanaki as my character. Then I go to choose a server...you should have it made to where I can only join a server that doesnt have a Nanaki on it. But then again I just thought of another problem....how would people like Cid who come into the game towards the end of the first disc be able to play in the beginning? Or do they just have to sit out til someone comes to rockettown? lol

Sounds really cool though...

[xLostWingx]

PvP is always something that I thought might be fun, the only problem is that KOR would have to be eliminated and player characters would have to have 100k HP minimum.  1mil HP per character would be more reasonable - At least at max level.  Another problem is that some people would probably develop optimum setups which everyone would use, and everyone would also create 255 stats maxxed out parties which would also get boring fast.

If damage output remained the same, Sources, KOR, and Final Attack were eliminated, then maybe this would be fun.  Right now I imagine a party that had one character with materia slots filled with nothing but Final Attack = Phoenix, one character with Quadra Magic = Comet2 x7 + W-Magic, and one character with 8 Counter = Mimes.  Essentially this team would cause 500,000 damage per turn (if not 4mil per turn once the Counter = Mime got going) and could die 8 times with no issues.  In this scenario PvP becomes something that makes people hate FFVII.

[Livesey]

The thing about Final Fantasy PVP that doesn't work is the current formula for a final fantasy game, Creatures have high HP low attack and characters have low hp high attack, if you face people off against each other it just becomes a game of who moves first wins.

If someone were going to do this they would have to majorly re-balance the game and give different characters wildly different stats. I believe this idea would also work better on class defined players.

In my opinion Final Fantasy 7 is the worst possible Final Fantasy game to do this with (as awesome as the game is).

[fmatuszek]

Why should the stats end at 255? If this is to be a brand new game, then stats can go higher.

This is a nice idea, picklejar. I had/have a similar vision for FF8 (my favourite of the series.)

In short, it's similar to yours, but in the FF8 world, however, you wouldn't start with the main, original characters. Instead you choose your institution; Galbadia Garden, Galbadia Army, Dollet Dukedom, Timber Resistance, Balamb Garden, Trabia, Esthar etc. maybe even White SeeD - each with their own strengths and weaknesses:

Gardens: +GF & Magic, -Experience & Population.
Galbadia Army: +Firepower & Population, -Magic.
Esthar: +Technology & Magic, -Diplomacy & Aggression ... for example (off the top of my head).

Then you create your own character whose stats advance in a similar way. You can join such instances with your own characters, where you can play out various scenes of the original game, such as the Garden war, as well as new scenes and what-if scenarios.
*admittedly it'd be more difficult to organise scenarios like the battle with Ultimecia - with an extra 20 odd random players.*

In any case, as part of said institution you can take part in battles, mercenary-esque missions, and wars with others. For example, you don't simply play out the story, where Galbadia Army must invade Dollet, you may do anything you please and attack the Shumis for laughs, for example.

The imbalance shouldn't be an issue, even in FF7, as the game would have to be rebalanced in any case. Classes are indeed a good way to do this, Livesy.

My original vision was starting out as a lowly Cadet in Balamb, training and working your way up to fight alongside (and against) the characters of FF8, but it - just like yours - could be so much bigger.

In all honesty I'd hate to have this made by someone else - but since I am incompetent with everything to do with computers it will remain a dream :')

[picklejar]

Thanks everyone!  I'm glad to see people excited about this and even getting into the mechanics/logistics.

Challenge #1: Multiple Clouds etc. will run into each other, unless you create a ton of 9-player servers.

Thoughts: Let me discuss Story Mode first.  Multiple Clouds etc. should definitely not be allowed in Story Mode. But we can make Story Mode be a lot of individual instances, instead of one big world.  So we don't need a ton of large 9-player world servers, we just need a ton of small instances.  (This is similar to how World of Warcraft does dungeons.)

For Battle Arena Mode, we can be more flexible. Maybe some arenas will allow duplicates (Tifa fighting Tifa!), but other arenas won't allow it, and people can choose which style they want.  Similar story for Play Mode.

Challenge #2: PvP won't be fun since people will be too overpowered.  Whoever gets the first attack will win, etc.

Thoughts: This will definitely require re-balancing game mechanics and not allowing overpowered gear such as Knights Of Round, Final Attack, etc.  There's lots of different ways we can do this.  We can introduce handicaps or limitations. We can do level syncing like FF11.  We can provide prebuilt, prebalanced characters.  Etc.

Thanks, guys!  Keep the comments coming!

[archerxtreme]

It would actually be a great idea. If Guild Wars could turn out to be a fantastic game then who's to say it can't work out for FF7? we could include regions and crisis core incidents as such....Some thing like special quests so that you can play the entire story line together in a clan or particular parts of it or just go adventuring/pk-ing along side your friends.....arena style battles could be done like in dissidia on a new battle interface....you know switch from field to battle but make it real time. A game in a game.

[Recko]

Could be a good idea but wouldnt you need permission from square enix for that using there characters in a new game even if its non profit.
Also with there later franchise ff games that are online it would piss them off to no end

[archerxtreme]

Could be a good idea but wouldnt you need permission from square enix for that using there characters in a new game even if its non profit.
Also with there later franchise ff games that are online it would piss them off to no end

Bang on the money there. But the possibility of it being released as a doujin game atleast appeals to me. like how there is Crucis Fatal Fake. A doujin game of fate/stay night and fate/hollow ataraxia, when there already exists fat/unlimited codes which is the official ps2 game by type moon. Both of them are same tekken style with some differences.

[cloud9]

With STORY MODE, people can re-live the FF7 story, starting with the Bombing Mission.  But this time around, it's different.  One person plays Cloud while another person plays Barrett!  Once they finish the bombing mission, they have unlocked the next part of the story, and they have also UNLOCKED TIFA ON THEIR ACCOUNTS and can start to play her.

The game would be mission base by chapter since everything needs to be locked. Since Cloud and Barret is the first character in the bombing mission. The person playing Cloud would be a fresh account/newly created game while the person playing Barret with a new game would have to search servers in order to connect to the one playing the game. A seamless connection like the Journey(ps3) would be nice. Its more like a co-op. Since its per mission chapter, everything would be capped. So as an example, the Bombing mission would be capped at let say level 10 and also its stats. So characters that are already progressed through the game with let say 70 would be level 10 and also materias that are gotten are locked since you have to obey the rules of the game through story mode. Also for weapons, accessories, item, etc. You still gain experience and AP but will not level up until you connect to your own game. And your inventory is still the same. Items, materias, exp, etc.. that you got form other missions will be added. For the random battle I think it should be like Persona 3. You'll see a smoke. You can enter battle by touching it and leave by escaping. Since its active time battle, there is no difference in battle turns.

The BATTLE ARENA MODE is for PvP.  You can pit your ferocious Red XIII against my Yuffie.  Or maybe we can stage some virtual battles against Sephiroth!

This battle should be capped and it depends on your progress of your character in story mode. So stats are down to the base level and strengths are based on your equipment. Since its active time battle you have to choose your command fast. Cursor to memory should do the trick. some commands are stripped down or tweaked like KOTR, quadra magic, mimic etc, in order to fit the pvp system. Damage indicator, level, hp, mp, etc are not shown. Its either hit, miss, or resist. Its a lot of task for developers to revamp all skills for pvp.

The PLAY MODE is for everything else.  Socialize and ROLE PLAY.  Buy materia/gear for your characters.  Play minigames.  Go out into the world to gain experience.  Have fun while you are "queued up" for a Story Mode instance.  (See, that's where the game pairs you up with other people online to help you advance in the Story.)

This is like a town or city where you search for servers or players so you could progress to your next mission on story mode. Customized character on play mode like colors or models is a must. Random battle on world map with pvp would be debatable at the moment. My guess is just like the story mode. Each area are capped.

I like the idea but it would take everything to be revamped for online. I think there is more to improve it but the task is too huge for 1 person to solve all problems. I was thinking the same thing myself way way back.

[ProtoX]

There's a game in the past i used to play on Byond.com (before Square Enix told the site to take it down due to them thinking there were making money off a fan based game when they were doing it for free to begin with). It was known as Final Fantasy Legecy a game based off the original Final Fantasy 2 (aka 4) on the SNES that took place 100 years after the Zeromus War. it was fun game i you start off of of the char in the origanl game (example: such as a dark knight cecil or paldin cecil) once you beat the game by yourself or with others online you could unlock 2 new game + char and reapet til you unlock all + chars. As mentioned above its no longer around on the hub. it was shame that square enix had to be pricks and say no to it

[Helladen]

They wouldn't use the traditional Final Fantasy battle system if it was online - it just doesn't work, and obviously reworks from the single-player game to fit the MMO scene would be dealt with and not kept the same.

[syntax error]

FF VII would not even make a good MUD or novel or sports game.