FFVII Character Details, Easter Eggs, and General What-the-fuckery

I just received my copy of "FFVII Dismantled".

In there I got a very neat surprise. Turns out that in Speed Square in the first Japanese release, you can hit the zeppelin propeller. For years there was a rumor out there that you could hit the red wheel for infinite points in JORG, but it turns out it was the same propeller that you can zap in the PC version.

http://imgur.com/uCTNhl&e8ug1&YZyJI

I finally see what happens in the PSX version when the counter goes above 9999! The counter can't display values at 10000 and above so instead a digit is replaced with part of the "Score" text.


This changes something for me. I used to think that the PC version had this target so to make the minigame easier for the PC gamers, but no. If you read the PC port history on the qhimm wiki, you will find that the PC version is based on a beta version of FFVII (maybe based on JORG, or some version shortly before or after it). They had to put in all the changed and added stuff AFTER realising they were porting the wrong version.

I like this news. I am pleased.

That's interesting...the differenced between PS1 and PC are kinda odd sometimes.

Is it possible to kill that black ball thing that flits around like crazy at the end of the ride? Drove me crazy as a kid.

Vash the Stampede said:

That's interesting...the differenced between PS1 and PC are kinda odd sometimes.

Is it possible to kill that black ball thing that flits around like crazy at the end of the ride? Drove me crazy as a kid.

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As far as I can tell it is not a target. That's all based on trial and error in all the versions though, not an actual look into the game data. I don't know if there is an easy way to take a peak into the data of the Speed Square minigame, or even less if anyone could interpret it.

I've been looking through the "WM" files of the game. There are 64 WM files, each responsible for taking the character to a set location on the overworld. I was hoping one of them might transport me to random coordinates hinting at earlier locations for towns but alas, nothing unused like that was found.
Though there were four WM files that brought me back to the same location, right outside of Nibelheim. While trying to figure out whether these are unused duplicates, I accidentally caused this.


I got control over the Ancient Forest!

The game was expecting to take control over the Cargo Ship, as I was just leaving from Junon to Costa del Sol, but when this could not happen because I changed the set WM file the game chose the Ancient Forest.
I can move around freely over mountains, on land, over the sea. Though I can't access any towns, enter the menu or "dismount" from the Ancient Forest (because the model is apparently not programmed like a chocobo or the buggy).



Oh look there. I'm on disc1 and despite this the barrier around the Northern Crater is up. I never knew this before.

Some of you may be familiar with GarlandTheGreat's videos where he takes control over a ton of overworld models, such as the Junon Cannon and Ruby Weapon. Though I can't recall him ever controlling the Ancient Forest. *watches videos to check* Edit: Oh, he controls it at 02:07.



Edit: At 02:48 you will see what looks like an unused coral reef. I have not managed to find it anywere. Interesting to see an unused model for the overworld.

That Garland video could be one of Cloud's nightmares.
I like the way the zolom ran away from Diamond Weapon.

Guys... I found this awesome video.



I enjoy looking at this fan-made environment much more than any of the familiar areas in Crisis Core.

The music is... a little off with these guitars.

But overall, it's really good!

See, who needs Square Enix?
That was wonderful, Shadey. Thanks.
But did you notice the Candle had gone out? I'm sure that's a bad omen.

On an unrelated note - and I'm sure this has already been discussed to death, but - I was playing through Nibelheim yesterday, and for the first time I realised that Vincent says "So Sephiroth knows he was created five years ago?" and then goes on to refer to Lucretia as Sephiroth's mother, and to the amount of time he, Vincent, has been sleeping in the coffin, which we all know was much more than five years. So how could Sephiroth have been born c. 30 years ago but also "created" five years ago? I'm assuming some lax translation around the word 'created'. Also, how does Vincent know what happened five years ago? Did Veld tell him during the plot of Before Crisis? I can't remember.

LicoriceAllsorts said:

See, who needs Square Enix?
That was wonderful, Shadey. Thanks.
But did you notice the Candle had gone out? I'm sure that's a bad omen.

On an unrelated note - and I'm sure this has already been discussed to death, but - I was playing through Nibelheim yesterday, and for the first time I realised that Vincent says "So Sephiroth knows he was created five years ago?" and then goes on to refer to Lucretia as Sephiroth's mother, and to the amount of time he, Vincent, has been sleeping in the coffin, which we all know was much more than five years. So how could Sephiroth have been born c. 30 years ago but also "created" five years ago? I'm assuming some lax translation around the word 'created'. Also, how does Vincent know what happened five years ago? Did Veld tell him during the plot of Before Crisis? I can't remember.

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He knows about the incident because Cloud just told him.

I don't think we even need a retranslation to figure out that he is actually supposed to say "So 5 years ago Sephiroth learned how he was created".

Since not everyone will notice an update message to the actual article, just wanted to say here that I made an edit to Part 2 in the Unused Text series.

Turns out that the scene at the train station is fairly straightforward to mod back in. I'll make a recording of it some day, but here is an English and a Japanese snapshot.





These snapshots are now in the article. As you can see the English text window is needlessly huge and the pointer is imposed over the dialogue options.

Also added this one...


and this one to Part 1...

Was there then a period during which Cloud's mom was like "look, you really need to get over this Sephiroth fanboy crush, no good will come of it, I just have this feelin is all."

... And this is why we must always listen to our moms.

Here is the video.

This video is complementary to the second page of Part 3 in my article series.

It's not very exciting but please watch the second half.
I spent so much time on those friggin' annotations.

Shademp, thank you SO MUCH for those!

On an unrelated note, I wanted to ask about the change in the Junon area landscape after the Weapons erupt from the Northern Crater. The only WTF here would be in regard to my own lack of noticing skills, because it's only been on my 4th playthrough that I've picked up on the fact that the landscape has changed - that there's a big inland crater lake dividing Fort Condor from Junon; it's below sea level, and both the sea and the river are pouring into it. Presumably there's a hole in the bottom, otherwise it would fill up and level out. Is there any explanation for what caused this topographical upheaval? Sapphire Weapon's attack? Weapons generally?

Ultima Weapon caused it. It's where it landed after launching from the crater and you will find him hovering there if you go near to it later (around when you fight Diamond, iirc).
At least that's what I always thought.

To me this is something bordering on frontpage worthy, I don't know what you guys think, but...







KartSeven now holds the world record in the "Low Level No Materia No Item" challenge. GarlandTheGreat had the old record with a max level of 29, but KartSeven brought it down to Level 27. So yes, no character was higher than level 27 by the time he defeated Safer Sephiroth.

Not to mention, he did it on a REAL console. No emulator to make things easier.

Edit: Playlist link.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=DBA251D135CCBDA8

Bloody bots. Now they use smilies as well. =/
Why is TLS so flooded with these?

Come on, man. It only wanted to thank you

Vash the Stampede said:

Come on, man. It only wanted to thank you

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You are right. I did not consider the GHOST IN THE MACHINE.

Gah, I'm working on making another "unused text" video, but I'm stuck in the Nibelheim flashback scene. =(

Everything else I've been able to mod back easily, but causing adult Cloud & Tifa to reappear is turning out to be a real pain. Or rather, causing them to appear in the way I want. Either their appearance is instantenous, which looks bad, or they sloooowly go from dark to lighted, which isn't aesthetical for the scene either.

The other option is to have the screen fade in and out, but I don't want to do that as there is clearly the implication in the code that the developers wanted Tifa and Cloud to reappear during the flashback.

Shademp said:

KartSeven now holds the world record in the "Low Level No Materia No Item" challenge. GarlandTheGreat had the old record with a max level of 29, but KartSeven brought it down to Level 27. So yes, no character was higher than level 27 by the time he defeated Safer Sephiroth.

Not to mention, he did it on a REAL console. No emulator to make things easier.

Click to expand...

Oh man, I want to try this so badly ! Though, don't know how would get any clips up on youtube.

Kyrie said:

Oh man, I want to try this so badly ! Though, don't know how would get any clips up on youtube. [/COLOR][/FONT]

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You really want to try this? To pick an example, defeating Dyne is very likely to require HUNDREDS of attempts before you finally beat him. This challenge is not just for anyone.

Shademp said:

You really want to try this? To pick an example, defeating Dyne is very likely to require HUNDREDS of attempts before you finally beat him. This challenge is not just for anyone.

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Hmm I never would of picked Dyne as being a struggle ! But I know that the robot machine that grabs a character by the one and doesn't let them go till they're dead is going to be hard though. Carrier Armour ? But I used to be lazy and not level up much and I'm kind of used to facing bosses at really low levels, a example would be Cloud being level 12 at the Gi tribe cave. ^^';

Ok, I have finally uploaded my interpretation of the alternate Sector 7 events.




I divided it into two parts so that I could upload the entire sequence in HD. Otherwise the file would have gone above 1 gigabyte. Also it just feels better to me, having it divided like this.
I'll be embedding this into the beginning of the corresponding article now.

The differences between this, and Myst6re's version, is primarily the beginning of the first video. Myst6re did not know that Barret was supposed to shout from the basement, and that Tifa was to be standing in the room when Barret paid Cloud in this earlier draft. Also, he did not include the bit with Cloud & Tifa of the present interrupting the flashback.

Unlike Myst6re, I do not go inside the game and edit the text itself. I want to show the text as it exists. The sheer amount of annotations clearly demonstrates how much was never translated, and how much needs retranslating.

The second video is only different in the respect that I show the actual Materia tutorial (at 2x normal speed, because it is a fairly boring segment), and I also show a glitch with the pointer above Cloud's head, at the end of the video.

Edit: GIANT SEPHIROTH at 1:54 in the second video, for those who want to constantly rewatch that awesome segment

>But I hate Barret
>But I still hate Barret
>But I still hate Barret

lmao

Cloud, then you'll help us?
> A promise is a promise
I hate Barret.

LMAO

so fucking random