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[Spoiler:]

1

Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2024-10-05 03:22:39 »

From Lemmie63, originally posted on the Succession page of the Nexus:

Spoiler: show

I'm terrible with giving positive reviews, and just words in general, but I thought this mod deserves my attempt at some praise because wow, it was amazing. Also I'm not sure if there's like a way to tag spoilers so anyone reading this, I do spoil a far bit of the mod. Just a warning.

I've just finished the game with this mod installed literally seconds ago and I wanted to say what an incredible experience it was. FF8 is a game I love in spite kind of hating nearly aspect of it. My biggest problem is unfortunately the story that way too often doesn't make sense or throws things on screen that have no real build up or pay off, it has next to no interest in any character that isn't Squall and Rinoa yet will still introduce dozens of other characters only to give them pretty much no resolution. And of course the amnesia plot being a prime example of maybe the worst bit of writing in the entire franchise. It's just a very strange script that desperately needed several more drafts and maybe trim some of the fat, it's way too ambitious for what they could manage at the time. It's the game I wished got a remake just so the developers could try and fix it's messy plot.

The only real criticisms I have aren't actually related to the mod but just the overall structure of FF8 and some of the stupidity of its individual scenes that no amount of dialogue changes could fix. This mod really highlights how barebones and rushed everything in disc 3 really is, because the writing was so captivating up the Battle of the Gardens and rather well paced, especially the burgeoning romance between our two leads. Then Disc 3's pacing comes along and everything is racing to rush this game to the finish line. Every time I play this game I forget just how quickly we go from FH, to Esthar then immediately space. It's like maybe an hour of game time? I still much prefer your version of events in Disc 3, even if I did a stronger sense of disappointment just because I wanted more compared to the original game.

That's why I'm happy to have finished the mod and are able say it is a vastly stronger, and more importantly, more coherent story you've written here, especially considering the limitations the game had placed on you.

It's a story I actually want to revisit because it's a legitimately good tale.  There are a lot of changes I really like, notably; Cid being a much more authoritarian character, the worldbuilding hidden away in the bloody menu actually being used in the plot, Seifer having motivations that you can understand. Oh and I can't describe how happy I was when I was in the first few hours of the game and the characters were openly discussing their time at the orphanage. The basketball court scene now being about how they all felt differently about their time in the orphanage completely salvages that scene. I also think the ending cinematic makes a little more sense coming from the perspective that this all inside Rinoa's mind and Squall's consciousness falling apart, instead of the weird "Squall lost in time" thing. I also want to point out all the foreshadowing and set-up you do that the original game completely failed at, the Lunatic Pandora being a prime example. It's actually spoken about throughout the game instead of just sort of appearing super late in the game and that one Laguna flashback.

There's one change I really want to highlight that really made the play-through worthwhile and that is your portrayal of Rinoa. I can say with certainy that she now has earned her spot as the deuteragonist. Her being a sorcerer right from the start is a brilliant idea that gives her some desperately needed depth and story in the first two discs and a much more solid character arc that can actually begin right from the time we meet her. That being a sorcerer is a corrupting power that will ultimately turn her into a monster gives her actual motivation to haphazardly join up in a Timber resistance cell. Her quickly forgetting all about Timber is something that always bothered me, and her actions there now being a part of her desperation to prove that she can be a good person really mends that for me.  It makes her joining and sticking with the party actually make some manner of sense, it's now all related to her internal fears about her future and her person. Oh and the ending now ties into her character and completes Rinoa. She succeeds at freeing herself from becoming a monster, she gets her wish. Absolutely stunning. Overall a much stronger character whose personal arc now stretches the entire game. She is the reason I love this mod so much, this Rinoa is a character who'd make my top 10 Final Fantasy characters.

Now this might just be me reading into things or seeing plot threads that were never intended, but I get the feeling there was an intention for more that the game just wouldn't allow you to write. One specific example of this has to be Squall and Cid, how Squall starts off feeling deeply indebted to Cid until Rinoa falls into the coma then tension begins to form. Cid starts talking about how maybe she just shouldn't wake up, Squall yells and rebukes him and some of that hero worship he had seems to fade, and this little story just stops. I just get the impression there may have been an intention for a bit of a story between them that never came to fruition because there just isn't any more Cid scenes to re-write. I dunno, maybe I'm completely wrong here.

Anyway, it was an amazing mod and I adored it. It's certainly my favourite playthrough of FF8 I've ever done.

And my response:

Spoiler: show

Thank you so much for your response! I always appreciate the feedback. You highlighted a few ideas that haven't been mention by anyone else. As long as you don't mind, I'd like to repost your comment along with my reply on my Qhimm Forum page. And please, anyone reading this, please DON'T CONTINUE if you plan on playing this mod and don't want any spoilers.

I couldn't agree with you more regarding the pacing of Disc 3. Disc 2 slows down a lot until it ramps up at the Garden Battle. But from the beginning of Disc 3 things happen too fast. Starting from the orphanage with Edea to the Lunar Station it feels like breakneck speed, and it all happens with very few moments for the necessary exposition to allow things to make much sense.

If I had it my way, I would have loved to add a few extra scenes with the team confronting Seifer as he raised the Lunatic Pandora from the sea (ideally at the Deep Sea Research Facility). This would have helped to transition the story from confronting Edea to pursuing Seifer into Esthar.

I'm so glad to hear that you like the changes to Rinoa and Cid. There is definitely more that I had hoped to write, and I’ve got lot’s of notes that never made it into the mod. Of the three characters I changed the most, being Seifer, Rinoa and Cid, only Rinoa had room for a complete story arc. For Rinoa, I was personally surprised at how well the story was able to accommodate the alterations from my mod.

But for Cid, I recognized early that his story essentially ended with the orphanage scene, and that he wasn’t going to get much resolution beyond reuniting with Edea. Also, keep in mind that the tension between Squall and him began earlier. When Cid revealed what he knew about Ellone, Squall threw a fit right in front of Cid, and afterward Squall considered quitting SeeD. So, from my perspective, at the orphanage scene Squall demonstrated an improvement in self-control from before. And even though Cid’s language was harsh, if you listen to his words, he was trying to give Squall a lesson in leadership. In Squall’s position, he no longer had the luxury of being selfish. He needed to consider the well-being of those under him (and possibly those of the whole world) when deciding what to do about Rinoa. And remember, this is coming from Cid, someone who just spent the last 10+ years of his life building an army for the primary purpose of killing the woman he loved. He’s serious about this issue. Squall isn't just angry at Cid because he thinks Cid's being unfair or controlling, he's angry at the situation because he's afraid Cid might be right. And unlike Cid, he's not yet mature enough to make the hard decision to sacrifice someone he's starting to love. Not even for the good of the entire world.

There’s a lot going on in this scene, and it’s one of my favorites.

If I could have added a scene for Cid, it would have involved providing some closer surrounding Squall's position at Balamb Garden. In the vanilla story, Squall simply abandons his responsibilities without telling anyone. In my version, either Cid should have officially retained leadership of the Garden and allowed Squall to make his own decision about what to do with Rinoa, or Squall should have confronted Cid and decided to resign in order to pursue Ellone and help Rinoa. Whichever, this should have been a defining moment when Squall began to strike out on his own and make decisions for himself, possibly for the first time in his life.

There’s another point to consider about my methodology for this project. When rewriting most scenes, I spent a lot of time analyzing and even taking notes on the character's animations and body language. The animations for this game are very detailed and expressive, and they provide a ton of characterization for the main cast. (This is a dramatic improvement over earlier titles, and for me, it’s one of the highlights of the game.) Whenever possible, I did my best to let the character’s body language dictate the tone of my writing, rather than try to force it the other way around. More than once Cid brought out some of Squall's strongest emotions. This was my main motivation for most of the tension between them. Squall's body language dictated that he cared a lot about everything Cid had to say, whether he agreed with it or not. (Squall punches the wall in front of his superior officer and the rest of his team. Think of what it would take for you to do that in a meeting with your boss?) This was just one of the ways I attempted to produce something that honored and respected the original work.

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Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2024-10-05 01:03:06 »

@ASD87

  I have not yet released a version of this mod that is compatible with the Remaster. It will not work if you simply use the Demaster and attempt to replace the files. I have plans to release a new version eventually, but it is only around 2/3 complete at this time. And I am not currently making progress on it. In the meantime, you will need to use the 2013 Steam version or perhaps the old PC version for this mod.

Apologies.

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Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2024-02-01 15:00:47 »

Probably.

It would be a tedious process to find and replace every instance throughout the entire game. The effect would likely not be worth the effort. Also, this game was made in the '90s, and the vanilla Squall very clearly identifies as a male and uses he/him.

If you've read the description of this mod, you should know that my main goal was to retain as many elements of the original as possible, even as I made every change. Squall is one of the most well-defined characters in the FF series, making FF8 much less of a roleplaying experience and much more of a standard story. I didn't go out of my way to change anything about his character or his identity unnecessarily. I also didn't attempt to self-insert any aspects of my own identity onto Squall in order to make him better reflect my own experience. I simply wanted to develop and reinforce what I considered to be the most well-written aspects of Squall's character that were already present.

The game does allow you to rename Squall and Rinoa whatever you want, however. It’s probably the best role-playing option in the game, and I recommend utilizing that function to its full extent.

[Spoiler:]

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Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2023-07-31 01:32:40 »

@Lunarian Hey, Lunarian!

Thank you so much for all of the feedback. I appreciate the time you took to type up the google doc, and I’ve already made any appropriate corrections to the script. I also have a few points of clarification, if you are interested to know my point of view on some of the creative decisions I had made.

•   Writing: Seifer says that “Squall doesn’t protect damsels”. The use of ‘damsel’ threw me off – odd word choice for a ‘cool’ teenager, though maybe we’ll find out why later.

Spoiler: show

Seifer still has a ‘romantic dream’, he just doesn’t speak about it so plainly. His entire motivation to be a war hero and his desire to overthrow Galbadia is tied up with his self-perception, that is, his notion of himself as a White Knight. My goal was to retain this motif as the subtext for his character but never state it explicitly. The use of the antiquated term ‘damsel’ is the closest Seifer gets to overtly admitting what he sees as the difference between Squall and himself.

It is also a direct reference to an event that will be explained much later. The player isn’t supposed to fully understand Seifer’s problem with Squall or the context of that statement at this point.

•   Writing: When Quistis says “You’ll dance with just anybody as long as they ask?!”, the punctuation was shocking. The combination of a question mark and exclamation mark makes her tone sound very tense, as if she’s really angry with him. This seems incongruous with Quistis’s personality and with how she talks to him before and after.

Spoiler: show

Your impression is correct. In that statement, Quistis is absolutely being incongruent with her usual behavior. This is a brief lapse in her typical calm and charisma affectation. She’s clearly in a heightened emotional state, and as a result, she’s pushing boundaries. Squall calls her out on it, and she immediately recovers her composure. It’s the same tone for the vanilla script as it is as mine, even though the original lacks the exclamation point.

And it is in keeping with her character animations. I took great pains throughout the game to match all of the dialogue (or as much as I could) to the sentiment portrayed by the accompanying animations. This was generally a very good thing, because it forced me to follow the original emotional direction of each scene, keeping it more faithful than if I tried to change the animations to match the new dialogue. In the vanilla, Quistis is visibly upset that Squall danced with Rinoa but doesn’t seem to have any interest in speaking with Quistis. So I imagine that she is raising her voice, possibly even to the extent that Squall might wonder if someone else can hear them.

Maybe using an exclamation point was too much, but I wanted to make sure that the player didn’t continue reading that line with the same inflection as everything else she has said up until this point. I would rather the player assume that she sounds too exasperated rather than not exasperated enough.

I admit that it's very hard as a writer to convey exactly what I intend through dialogue without any voice acting, facial animations, or narrative descriptions, especially when the models are just standing there. What I would really like is two different exclamation points: one that is severe and one that is more moderate. In this instance I would have used the more moderate one. As it is, I think it needs something more than just the question mark.

•   Writing: “Things will likely be changing pretty rapidly soon after tonight.” is quite an awkward sentence. So many adverbials in one short sentence.

Spoiler: show

Do you mean that you find the sentence hard to follow or merely hard to diagram? I got to admit, this sentence sounds perfectly fine to me. You could even call it efficient. I speak like this on a regular basis. (Is this why I don’t have any friends…?)

One thing to remember is that while I was writing this, I was almost never thinking about grammar. Unlike most writing, this game is almost entirely dialogue. When writing dialogue, I never hold myself to the same grammatical standards as while writing narration. (This includes the use of commas, and especially for FF8, ellipses and dramatic pauses.) So, my primary concern was always to make each character sound as natural as possible with regard to their own unique voice. In dialogue, things like grammatical accuracy and complexity of sentence structure only exist to reflect how intelligent or sophisticated that person happens to be. And Quistis is easily one of the most intelligent and sophisticated characters in the game.

Though, now that you mention it, I am starting to think that I should add a superfluous comma at the end of 'rapidly'. It is a supporting adverbial phrase, but it might prevent someone from thinking that 'rapidly' is supposed to modify 'soon'. Also, I imagine a brief, natural pause before 'soon after tonight', and the last phrase would be said in a slightly more wistful tone. I'm curious how you would change this sentence without losing any of its meaning.

•   Writing: You could just say “lead”.

Spoiler: show

I had originally spelled ‘backlead’ with a hyphen, but the hyphen look a little odd, so I deleted it. I decided against using two separate words to retain its sense as a single concept, hopefully reducing any confusion for anyone who was unfamiliar with what it was.  I have since added the hyphen again, but I'm not sure how I feel about it. My goal was always to draw attention away from the idea that Squall 'couldn't dance' and toward the idea that they just weren't dancing well together, largely because Squall initially didn't want to.

I was a little concerned about using a term that might not be known to anyone who is not a dancer, but I felt that simply saying something like ‘lead’ was not nearly accurate enough. Leading can be understood in purely military terms, and it is usually considered a good thing. Back-leading is almost universally a bad thing, and it is a far more intimate faux pas. By using this term, Squall is accusing Rinoa of bad etiquette (while at the same time deflecting away any blame for poor performance on his part). Of course, this implies that Squall is well-educated enough to actually have a notion of what proper etiquette on the dance floor is. It also may imply either that Rinoa is not as well-educated, or that she is too presumptuous to care. In this way it helps to establish the dichotomy between their characters. Squall is rigid and duty-bound. Rinoa is wild and free.

More importantly, interpreting the dance within this context helps to frame the entire trajectory of their relationship. Rinoa begins by being impulsive and charismatic, but also clumsy and rude. Once it’s clear that things aren’t working, Squall begins to take initiative, accepts responsibility for the situation, and asserts his own leadership. Rinoa responds favorably to this, begins to follow his lead, and before you know it, sparks fly.

Though I am not convinced that the original writers did this intentionally, the vanilla story throughout disc 1 comes really close to following that same structure precisely, especially during the missions in Timber. By only changing a few key lines it’s possible to interpret the dance scene as a(n admittedly simplistic) foreshadow for their entire relationship.

Unfortunately, some of that nuance is lost if you only presume that Squall was criticizing her for trying to step up and lead him somewhere he didn't want to go. (And even more so if anyone thinks that Squall didn’t know how to dance at all, and he magically learned how in the course of one song due to Rinoa's incredible power of love and friendship.)

Please, excuse me if this was unnecessarily long. I spent years rewriting this story, and I have a lot of thoughts about it. And admittedly, not all of them made it into the final product to the extent that I would have liked.

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Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2023-07-31 00:19:23 »

@rakuanu

  I agree! Unfortunately, I can't think of any way of making that happen unless both of us worked on the same mutual file. Otherwise one of us would be stuck with a specific outdated version of the other's work.

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Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2023-03-31 23:14:17 »

Hey, harkren!

Thank you so much for finding all those corrections. Some of them were already found for the last update, and I’ve fixed the rest for the next version I upload.

Just so you know, I haven’t alter most of the optional dialogue, including the Chocoboy, the Shumi village, and most of the NPCs in places other than Balamb Garden. I did my best to focus on the main story, and I didn't go out of my way to correct typos or grammatical oddities for incidental dialogue in the original script.

Also, I think I agree with you about that scene with Squall and Rinoa. It was a VERY difficult scene to write, given its original structure and all of the various things I was trying to accomplish at once. While I do find it to be minimally functional for what I needed, it definitely doesn’t pack the emotional punch that I had originally envisioned. There are a number of scenes that I still feel that way about.

If I’m able to revise that scene into something I like better, I’ll be sure to highlight it as its own update in the future.

Thanks again, and I'm glad you enjoyed it!

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Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2023-03-31 21:28:40 »

@Percival - please do consider posting a paypal, buymeacoffee, patreon or similar service, to accept donations for this fantastic effort 

Thank you so much for the praise! It was a labor of love, but I'm truly considerate of the desire to support my work.

It's on my list of things to do, right along with the Remastered version...

[Spoiler:]

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Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2023-01-08 02:09:36 »

Hey, Castilho!

  Thank you so much for your feedback. I'm sincerely humbled by the positive response.

  I worked really hard to produce a story that both ardent fans and ardent critics would appreciate, since I often find myself in both camps. While I acknowledge it isn't perfect, on the whole I'm very satisfied with the general standard of quality I was able to maintain. And I'm very excited to see that you don't disagree. This mod may not be for everyone, but it does manage to fill a niche for some fans (including myself and now you) who always saw the potential for a richer story that was never quite realized within the bounds of the original.

However, what I liked most was how better some characters were, such as the obvious Cid, Seifer, Quistis and even NORG (Like, NORG's claim is making sense? If there was choice there I might have sided with him lol).

Spoiler: show

  For NORG in particular, I followed my general policy for all villains. We don't need to believe what they think, but we do need to accept that THEY believe it. The bad guys need to have a logical reasoning we can follow. This was actually pretty fun, because it allowed me to indulge in some of the most scathing criticisms out there for the plot in the first disc, and then frame them as NORG’s reason why Cid was incompetent and needed to be removed. It’s the only way I could think of within the given time to make NORG compelling in any meaningful way.

  I did something similar, to a lesser degree, with the pacifist mayor and his wife in FH. Their perspective gave me an opportunity to voice the concerns of many fans who see Cid’s treatment of the Garden students as bordering on highly abusive. (After all, he did raise an army of child soldiers, knowingly exposing them to magical entities that, while raising their combat potential, also produced severe adverse mental effects. And he did this entirely to serve his own goals, all while making exceptional personal profits.) And, while I like indulging in these alternative perspectives, I did my best to challenge both of these possible interpretations of Cid with my own revisions of the actual plot, as well as Cid's own words accounting for his actions.

Only negative thing I can really think of is that the whole game screams "I need more content" now, since everything is more interesting. Most characters, such as Quistis, could really use more screen time, though I am sure it goes beyond the scope to add new events and scenes. I really wonder what you could do with all needed resources.

Spoiler: show

  With regard to more content, I understand the sentiment. While it is technically possible to add extra scenes (and possibly even far more) I decided early on that it was not realistic in terms of time investment. It would require a solid understanding of the syntax of the coding language, and a lot of testing to determine the practical limits of what the game could handle. And from my experience the results quickly became a little unstable. I did make about half a dozen small edits to the code, mainly music changes, but much more than that may have been to open Pandora’s box. And besides, as you said, I thought it was far more within the spirit of my mod to focus on revising what already existed, rather than begin creating something new from scratch.

  Also, I admit to having a bias toward Quistis as a character, to an extent that rivals Rinoa, and that has helped lead to the extra attention I devoted to her whenever possible. This can result in a certain amount of dissatisfaction when left with a lack of any meaningful resolution to her arc. I would like to apologize for this, but my bias won't allow me to confess that I did anything wrong, only that I lacked the means to complete something that I had at first done right.

  Thanks again, Castilho, for your post. It’s always deeply encouraging to hear that my labor of love has been enjoyed by others as much as it was a joy to create!

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Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2022-08-30 03:58:39 »

  Hey, DiscoCokkroach!  The files should not be the same. The Succession files are the 3 Field files, and the Martial Law files are the 3 Main files. And the 3 different files for each should be: FS, FL, and FI.

  While I would highly recommend trying out Martial Law, or even Ragnarok, I also totally understand wanting the vanilla experience. I tend to be the same with the graphics. I love all the visual mods, but I still end up going back to the vanilla look.

  I'm confident that you'll enjoy Succession, and feel free to let us all know what you think when you're done!

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Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2022-08-13 03:56:46 »

*NEW VERSION 1.07 UPDATE*

  Hello, everyone!

  At long last I finally have a meaningful update. It’s nothing large, so don’t get too excited. I had recently received some quality feedback from someone who just finished the mod. It was about the scene in the Ragnarok conference room immediately after the team returns from space.

  I never quite felt like that scene captured what I had originally wanted, and I never thought the original had captured what the writers were hoping for, either. I am specifically talking about the dynamic between Squall and Quistis. Without going into too much detail, I changed my whole approach to the scene, and I rewrote almost the entire thing. I think it flows much more smoothly, now. It also makes more sense in light of how Squall and Quistis should be feeling at the time, as well as taking into account the changes I made with regard to Rinoa.

  Whenever any of you get around to playing through it, let me know what you think!

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Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2022-07-11 02:13:52 »

Real life is probably busy for them atm.
But i still have hope that this will continue to be updated eventually in the future! lol

  I love this mod, and I always appreciate the support from all of you, but yes, lots of real life, unfortunately. Also I have largely moved on to my next writing project, and I am trying to devote my free time to that.
  Also, my CPU finally died, and I lost most of the next update I was planning on posting. It wasn't large, mainly small typo fixes. And I lost my small progress on the Remaster. Not the end of the world, but still sad.

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Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2022-07-11 01:43:36 »

I haven't read all the comments earlier so I apologize if this has been asked before, I didn't want to spoil myself on anything, but I was curious if this was a straight up retranslation that's accurate to the original Japanese script or the original translation rewritten with your own flavor to it?

  It is DEFINITELY rewritten with my own flavor. But I went out of my way to maintain the original sound and characterization of each of the main characters. All of the characters have a greater degree of depth and maturity than the original, but they still maintain their original identity. As I mentioned in the description, the greatest deviations were with Headmaster Cid and Seifer. Rinoa has also received a lot of attention, but that is primarily in terms of adding to her backstory and motivation, not her personality.

  I do not speak Japanese, but I had originally attempted to use a number of 'more accurate' versions of the script for reference and inspiration. But everything I found was so strikingly similar to the original that I gave up on that very quickly.
  The version we received was remarkably faithful as a translation. I would only argue that it was fairly poor as a localization.

  And also, despite what you may have heard, the great Ted Woolsey did not actually appear to me in a vision, providing me with his own immaculate localization. That was a joke.

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Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2022-07-11 01:02:02 »

Just a quick question in regards to compatibility with ragnarok:

You mention several times to install ragnarok and then overwrite with your "field.fs files"

would this be ONLY field.fs, or all three of field.fs, field.fi, and field.fl that would be needed for the overwrite?

Yes, sorry. That can be confusing when using these files for the first time. Whenever someone refers to the field, the main, the menu, the battle, or any other files, they always mean all three. I should be more specific.

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Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2021-05-02 00:04:30 »

@Rikku There is absolutely no reason why your game should freeze as long as you installed everything correctly.
  If you use my mod with any other, the only thing that will happen is that you will miss out on any features from that mod that are a result of editing the field.fs files, which are the only files that I have changed to create my mod.
  Thankfully, so far, no gameplay or graphical mods drastically edit the field.fs files, so Succession is MOSTLY compatible with them all.

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Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2021-04-29 18:31:51 »

Is this compatible or partially compatible with the Crystal gameplay mod? Would love to try the combination out.

  Yes, partially. It won't be compatible with any features that alter the field.fs files. This would include new side quests, new item and card locations, altered drawpoints, and extra bosses. Just about everything else will be fine.
  Just follow the install instructions for the Crystal mod, then drop in the Succession files at the end.

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Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2021-04-25 05:52:56 »

*NEW VERSION 1.05 UPDATE!*

  Odine's end game exposition has finally been updated!  For all of you who recognized how cramped and convoluted that dialogue felt, I have improved it for you. I've simplified my explanation of the Succession, as well as the nature of Ultimecia. And I reduced the number of words for Odine by about 2/3, making it much more digestible.

  I have also removed all description of Ultimecia from Odine and given it back to Edea, where it belongs. I was able to find the perfect place to add extra dialogue for her. I have re-written the optional scene where Edea discusses the idea of a Sorceress' Knight with Rinoa. Now instead she uses that time to tell Rinoa about Ultimecia and the Succession. This lays the groundwork for the discussion with Odine, so that he can focus on telling the team what they need to do next.

  It now feels far more straightforward, if perhaps also more simplistic. I think you will all find this to be an improvement in pacing, as well as a clever use of a scene that is otherwise often overlooked.

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Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2021-04-25 05:44:06 »

I'm currently returning to Balamb, and I'm delighted that NORG has been alluded to in the past and I won't just get chucked in with Squall's epic dialogue "What a surprise" on learning of NORG.
As a long playing fan I'm really happy to see Sorceresses mentioned in texts previously, to see a recognition that everybody WENT TO THE SAME ORPHANAGE, along with reasonable explanations that many seeds were originally orphans.

  Thanks!  As you can tell, I went to great lengths to construct a logical progression of events throughout the story. Often times, the original would provide what should have been a very strong payoff, but it didn't deliver, because it lacked the necessary set-up (like the amnesia).
  I did my best to provide effective set-ups for every significant payoff throughout the story. I also tried to put a little extra thought into the world, and how the setting might color the perspectives of the main cast.

18

Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2021-04-24 04:24:17 »

@gunner_1207  Ha!  You're too kind.

[Spoiler:]

19

Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2021-04-22 18:15:18 »

Gunner!
  It's great to hear from you. I'm so glad to see how much you liked it!  It was indeed a massive undertaking. I have spent so much more time on this than I would have wanted when I first started. But the result is also so much better than I would have ever imagined. And all of the feedback I have received has been invaluable.
  I'm about to release another update, so I will make sure to include your typos/corrections.
  And about your questions...

In Dollet the seed mission why change the squad ranks? ,selphie now a mechanic

Spoiler: show

  For Selphie, the primary reason why I wanted her to be a mechanic was to give her a justifiable excuse for suddenly being able to fly the Ragnarok. I would have made her a pilot, but we already had Nida. So I wanted some other way to give her some technological skill. I thought about calling her an engineer, but that sounded a bit too lofty. There is also the scene after they escape the D-District Prison where she is gets into one of the cars and is suddenly able to start it up without any problems. I originally wanted to imply that she had the ability to hot-wire it.
  In my original notes I had generated a lot of depth for each of the main characters that never made it into the game. For Selphie in particular, I had wanted to make her into a bit of a manic, autistic savant. The idea was that, even though she was socially awkward, a little crazy, and often sounded and acted like a silly girl, she was actually a technological and mathematical wizard.
  I had hoped to make this clear during the missile base mission. When we got a chance to hear her inner thoughts, I wanted to dramatically contrast her thoughts with how she spoke. Even though all her spoken conclusions would make her sound wildly eccentric, the way she would arrive at those conclusions would be through the inner monologue of a genius.
  I thought it was a hilarious idea, but as you can see, the construction of the dialogue in the missile base didn't ultimately allow me to execute it effectively.
  Beyond that, Selphie loves trains. And I've never met anyone who loves trains that wasn't also an autistic savant.

After the seed inauguration party in the training centre after helping ellone, you called the white seeds 'exotic soldier' why?

Spoiler: show

  The reason why I eliminated the White SeeDs is connected to some of the changes I made to Edea's backstory, and the removal of Time Compression.
  In my mod, Time Compression is no longer a thing, and Edea never meets Squall in the past. Without meeting Squall, there is no good reason why Edea would ever strive to create an army to defeat her, especially given the changes I made to her backstory with Cid and the orphanage. I didn't intend this. It was just one of several unintended consequences of removing Time Compression. But it meant that I also had to change where Ellone's protectors came from. The name 'Exotic Soldier' was just a way to provide a sense of mystery about them.

20

Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2021-04-06 18:18:24 »

Oh man, just saw this, right the field.fs files. Would it be a big undertaking for the creator of Ragnarok to insert your dialogue in their mod and compile the field files?

  Yes.
  As far as I am aware, I would have to copy and paste all of my dialogue into the Ragnarok file, or copy and paste all of Ragnarok's altered code into my file. Either way, I can't currently justify the time. At least, not until I do the same thing for the Remaster.

21

Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2021-04-06 18:15:04 »

I gotta tell ya, I actually shelled out another ten bucks for the 2013 Steam release just so I play the game with your script!
Back in '99, I always felt there was a decent story somewhere in this game and that it just wasn't being told quite right. 

  Thank you so much!  I had the same feeling when I first played it, as well. It surprised me, especially after playing games like FF7 and FFT. I had come to expect more, and I didn't quite know what to think.
  This mod was an attempt to act on those feelings, and to see if I could bring out the best in this game's potential, without breaking the original entirely.

22

Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2021-04-03 19:19:03 »

@sweetken

   Yes, I have a lot of respect for Mike and Casen, and I greatly enjoyed their analysis. Every point they discussed was one that I am already intimately familiar with (as well as many they didn't mention), and I have attempted to address them in some way with my mod.
   For example, I have given special attention to the messaging (or lack of messaging) in the intro cinematic, and have developed a more coherent theme throughout the story, one that focuses on the conflict between Squall and Seifer, and between Edea and Rinoa. I have also provided numerous call-backs to the dialogue in the intro, in order to provide greater context and significance of those words as they related to Squall and Rinoa's relationship.

  Regarding the characterization, I agree, in the original the characters are very well realized (with the possible exception of Irvine, who was poorly introduced). The unique personalities of the main cast was possibly the most enjoyable thing about creating this mod, and I have done my best to retain and elevate that aspect.
  The main problem with this story was never its characters in general, but how disconnected they were from the plot and setting (a point that Resonant Arc drove home). And that is perhaps the greatest thing I have improved. The motivation of the characters from scene to scene is now far more natural, and the decisions they make have far more justification, set-up, and payoff.

  Beyond that, I have also raise the apparent maturity level of every single character in the game. While the original felt a bit like a story about teenagers, aimed at adolescents, my version feels more like a story about exceptional and surprisingly mature late teenagers, aimed at 20+ year-olds. The best way to harmonize the setting with the characters was to assume that the main cast were gifted children, and nowhere near 'typical teenagers', with the possible exception of Rinoa. This results in the tone of the entire story feeling closer to college level rather than adolescent level.

  But, be warned that I have made several strident changes to a select few characters. Seifer, Rinoa, and Cid have been altered the most from their vanilla characters. I have very good reasons for this, however. And so far, it seems that everyone who has played this mod highly approves of those changes.

23

Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2021-02-16 05:19:10 »

She also needs Squall to share her issues with him and demands his attention then getting shocked by his complete refusal to relate.

  I know, right!? 
  I worked really hard to broaden the tension between the two of them during that scene. I wanted to give them something more tangible to disagree about, rather than just their feelings for each other, while doing my best to maintaining that same emotional dynamic between them.
  Let me know what you think!

24

Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2021-02-16 05:06:48 »

I'm guessing this mod will conflict with Ragnarok Rebalancing Mod, correct?
Looking to play FF8 again, but with some new challenges. Perhaps a new story would be great too.

  In regards to Ragnarok, as I have said before, Succession is compatible with anything that doesn't change the field.fs files. That makes it compatible with almost all graphical mods, and around 85% of Ragnarok.

  I use Ragnarok regularly, and love it, and Succession is compatible with all of the battle related changes, and character/ability/junction changes. But any event related changes (extra battles, quests, item rewards, drawpoints, card locations) are, very sadly, not compatible at this point.

25

Releases / Re: [FF8PC - Steam] Succession Mod (v.1.0)

« on: 2021-02-16 05:00:08 »

Hey there.
Looking at my original comments on this mod, I sounded like a dick. Sorry.
Did you finish the mod as you intended?

  No worries!  I knew this mod was going to be a little out of the box, and not necessarily what most people were looking for.
  I would definitely say that, for the most part, I have wildly exceeded my own ambitions for this mod. But there are a few small challenges I haven't been able to overcome, and other posters here have done a good job of calling attention to them (and I greatly appreciate it).