Abandoned Concepts In Final Fantasy 7

[jazzflower92]

There is a thread that is dedicated to talking about things that were at one time considered for the story. It can range from how there were almost character classes to the fact that Aerith and Sephiroth were almost siblings or former lovers. Or the fact that originally this game would have taken place in New York. So, lets talk about some interesting concepts that didn't make it to the final game.

 

[null]

Detective Joe was on the case.

Also Aerith would have been a more useful party member late in the game IIRC.

 

[jazzflower92]

I was wondering about the Aerith and Sephiroth being siblings because who would have been their parents then. It could be the reason why at first Hojo was killed off early in the game. I wonder if it was later in development someone got the idea of him being Sephiroth's father.

 

[Lex]

Detective Joe was on the case.

Also Aerith would have been a more useful party member late in the game IIRC.

I find this interview hilarious every time I read it because Kitase is like "oh yeah I totally remember that! It was like this!" and Nomura is like "Nope".

 

[jazzflower92]

I find this interview hilarious every time I read it because Kitase is like "oh yeah I totally remember that! It was like this!" and Nomura is like "Nope".

I wonder if Nomura jogged it out of his memory and promised himself never to remember it.

I still wonder if Sephiroth was conceived as a villain back when it was a detective story.

 

[Drax]

Pretty sure Cid was going to follow the FFII method of storytelling--

Spoiler

being a helper character until his usefulness was over, then whups, it's time to die. I don't think he was supposed to survive the trip up to space to plant the bomb on Meteor.

 

[jazzflower92]

Pretty sure Cid was going to follow the FFII method of storytelling--

Spoiler

being a helper character until his usefulness was over, then whups, it's time to die. I don't think he was supposed to survive the trip up to space to plant the bomb on Meteor.

Where did you hear this?

 

[Drax]

It was from the wiki, I probably interpreted it wrong:

However, he would not have been aware the mission was a suicide mission but being tricked by Shinra into thinking it was a mission to the Moon. The party would have hopped on board with him to save his life, but they would be incapable of convincing Cid of the truth until it was too late. They would escape using an escape pod just like in the final version.

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Cid_Highwind

 

[jazzflower92]

It was from the wiki, I probably interpreted it wrong:



http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Cid_Highwind

Oh, that could be why its easy to interpret it that way.

Other thrown away concepts to talk about is the fact that originally there would only be three party members Barret, Aerith, and Cloud. I wonder how the story would have worked with such a small amount of player characters.

 

[Alex Strife]

I think the "only three player characters" is just a conceptual idea. In the end, they'd always add others. Even if they say initially that was the idea, it's the type of idea that I can't see them accepting. Now, with current Square perhaps....

 

[jazzflower92]

I think the "only three player characters" is just a conceptual idea. In the end, they'd always add others. Even if they say initially that was the idea, it's the type of idea that I can't see them accepting. Now, with current Square perhaps....

So, it was only a conceptual idea got that. I heard they created Tifa to form a sort of romantic conflict in the story. Well, lets just say they have succeeded with a love triangle war that still goes on to this day.

Now Sephiroth as a villain I heard the way he became evil is way different than the original. Mainly through the fact it was his addiction to mako that made him go crazy and unleash what was in some earlier scripts his jenova gene. Basically he would have been no so different from Kelfka from FF6.

 

[Wolfhart]

I heard they created Tifa to form a sort of romantic conflict in the story. Well, lets just say they have succeeded with a love triangle war that still goes on to this day.

I think it was more like they created Tifa so she would be the one to always support Cloud, while Aerith... you know. But I may be mistaken.

 

[null]

So, it was only a conceptual idea got that. I heard they created Tifa to form a sort of romantic conflict in the story. Well, lets just say they have succeeded with a love triangle war that still goes on to this day.

That all goes back to a Nomura quote from FFVII Dismantled. It goes something like this:

"Actually, we only had Aerith at the beginning, and Tifa did not exist. But on a Sunday evening, I phoned the director Mr. Kitase and suggested 'Let's kill Aerith and put in Tifa' (laughs). So now we have two heroines, and we have an event where one of them dies."

Personally I think they were just looking for creative story ideas to try out, rather than romantic conflict. But you'd have to ask someone who owns Dismantled for more context.

 

[jazzflower92]

Another set of banned concepts is that Vincent changed from horror researcher to chemist to detective, and finally to a former member of the Turks. He was also going to have a scythe instead of a handgun. His personality was also going to be different as well because he was going to be more talkative and suave plus even flirt with the female members of the group.

In an early draft he was conceived as a detective working on cases involving the supernatural. He was going to expose Shinra's secrets to a rival company's benefit. He still had a rivalry with Hojo but it went back to the Midgar University medical department, and then the Shinra Research Lab. Also in this version Lucrecia would have been forced into participating in the Jenova Project as well.

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Vincent_Valentine