Crisis Core Research Thread

[Shademp]

Reading the storyboard now. There are many minor differences between the storyboards and the final scenes, but here are what I perceive to be the most noteworthy discrepancies.


- Intro FMV: The Crisis Core logo was to appear when Zack sheaths his sword after disconnecting the train cars. Shot of Zack form the back, coupled with Crisis Core logo. Before this, Zack briefly looks bored while the train cars move away from one another.

- Angeal saves Zack: A pandown was to show the Sector 8 Fountain and LOVELESS area, with citizens walking about and then seeing them dissolve into data cubes, before the scene turns back to the Sephiroth simulation dissolving.

- Angeal appears in Banora and takes Zack's sword: When Angeal steps in front of Zack, there is no particular change in facial expression from Zack's side in the final game. He just looks very stern/serious. In the storyboard, Zack's expression changes from gawking surprise to joy when he sees Angeal.

- Gillian dead: There are feathers next to Gillian's body in the storyboard, but no feathers in the final game. Feathers are marked in a red color, so presumably they belong to Genesis, but I'm not sure. Keep in mind this is before we have seen the wings of Genesis and Angeal.

- Genesis reveals his wing: In the final FMV Genesis always stands with his back turned to Zack, but in the storyboard he turns to Zack after spreading out his wing. An extra page is devoted to commenting on the transition from storyboard to FMV here.


- Angeal, Genesis & Sephiroth in the training room: The dialogue is different from the final game, but I can't read the differences in detail. Sephiroth says "LOVELESS, Act 2 and Act 3" instead of "LOVELESS, Act 1". Fewer lines in general are exchanged between the three "friends". No LOVELESS excerpts are shown in the storyboard script drafts. Maybe the LOVELESS stories had not been written yet? It is clear throughout the whole scene, even for somebody who can't read Japanese, that the script is very different from the final game.

Battle choreography has some differences. In the draft Genesis is knocked back by Sephiroth who then dives in for a stab with the Masamune; Angeal dives in, strikes the Masamune into the ground with his normal sword, but the force of keeping Sephiroth's sword down shatters Angeal's sword which makes the shard fly off to Genesis. Ripped apart pages from the LOVELESS book fly around as the Junon hologram ends, instead of showing Genesis when he gets the injury. Very different atmosphere compared to the final game, as in the final FMV Genesis got injured because of getting careless, rather than because Angeal stepping in when Sephiroth was about to strike a Genesis who was defeated and on the ground.

Angeal holds the wounded Genesis in his arms. Genesis seems to faint and the final storyboard picture is of the sword shard pierced into the damaged LOVELESS book.


More observations later.

 

[Strangelove]

where'd you get the complete guide from? i looked for it a few years back (probably around the time we did the translations here) but it seemed to have been sold out/out of print by then

 

[Shademp]

I simply went to eBay and searched for "Crisis Core Guide". You get a few results with the Complete Guide. Naturally, the books in best condition are sold in Japan and are often not shipped outside of the country. So if you don't mind the books not being in mint condition, eBay and non-Japanese sellers will do just fine. =)

 

[Shademp]

Back to the storyboards from TCG. They actually end shortly after where we left off.

- In the final game Genesis summons Bahamut Fury from on top of the Shinra HQ, but in the storyboard this was when he summoned Bahamut. The storyboard does not show what Genesis summoned (if anything) in Banora. If you watch the TGS trailer (ignore the bad translations) you will see the Bahamut scene which was scrapped for the Bahamut Fury iteration.

Something you will notice in both the TGS and Jump Festa trailer is in the intro FMV shot that Zack is not wearing his data-collecting goggles. The storyboard for the intro FMV does not make it clear if the goggles were part of the original draft or not, because the storyboard only shows the lower half of his face.


- Before the Angeal battle: When Hollander mentions Genesis being a failure, the flashback in the storyboard is to Genesis sitting in the Banora Factory. In the final game the flashback is to when Genesis appears in their Sector 4 Plate hideout.

There were a few more storyboards but I could not spot any big differences here between the storyboard and the final scenes.

-------------------------------

Spoiler: Gameplay and script reactions

- How Genesis functions in the DMW reel is so excellently done. All the other characters in the DMW is somebody who Zack trusts or have trusted. Genesis is the odd one out. Even after Genesis is added to the DMW, he is not added to the default DMW reel. It is only when the DMW is "corrupted" that Genesis gets added to the default DMW reel. When a chapter ends, he is removed from the DMW reel, so to become part of the default, the memory of him has to corrupt the DMW for every chapter.

I bring this up as yet another example of how the Digital Mind Wave uses gameplay to match and blend with the story, rather than being a game mechanic entirely independent of the plot (which is what we often get in Final Fantasy games). The memory of Genesis is a very bad one, which is why he is not in the reel by default, why it looks like the DMW is being corrupted when he does enter into it. The fact that there are only two DMW "memory scenes" of Genesis, both which are fragmented, have no subtitles and are merely flashbacks to the obligatory plot, further enhance Genesis as the odd one out in the DMW, just as he should be.

In my previous playthroughs I did not pay attention to how Genesis functioned in the DMW reel. I really enjoy having looked into this more deeply now.


-

This NPC line confuses me. At no point in the story, obligatory or optional, where somebody claims to be the son of President Shinra. There are rumors and speculations by NPCs, but this one guy makes it sound like Lazard (though perhaps anonymously) shouted to the world that he is the illegitimate son of President Shinra.


-

Error in reflection! The mountains in the distance are not reflected in the water. Instead we see only sky reflected.


- When you go out to gather tools to make a flower wagon for Aerith, you start out by getting to look at stuff you find on the ground. Zack sees a camera and has the following reaction to it:
"This camera's taken quite a beating.
Doesn't look like it's going to work anymore.
Hm, could this be the owner's name?
T... S...
E... N... G...?
How do you pronounce that?
Probably the tool of choice for some Peeping Tom."

ZACK YOU BLOODY RETARD

Maybe this joke makes more sense in the Japanese game. The name is spelled out in English alphabet letters there too and a Japanese reader may have trouble figuring out how to pronounce the full name in a way that sound close enough to the way that 'Tseng' is pronounced in Japanese. This could make sense. But in the English game, Zack comes off as an absolute idiot.


- Zack spots a Shinra infantryman mask on the ground and has the following reaction:
"Now, why would a Shinra army mask be here?
Wait a minute... Could there be...under the ground...
...
Why, of course. I'm in the slums, after all..."

Took me a while to understand that he means this to be a grave. If there are any other implications here, I do not know.


- Finding the Banora Apple drink and having Zack drink from it, only to find that it is very old, is fun.


- I dislike that Zack gets to be the one who comes up with the bar name "Seventh Heaven". The size of the FFVII-verse is diminished when Zack becomes responsible for every other thing. I now took the time to select the "incorrect" bar name ideas and found an interesting reaction.

Select "Starlet". (Psst! Guys! The comma is misplaced!)

In reaction to this selection the guy says:
"Hm.
You just might have a knack for naming things.
But I've built a bar by the same name in
Cosmo Canyon before. Can't have another one."

On one hand it makes sense that this guy has a history with Cosmo Canyon. He wants to plan anti-Shinra activities and this is no big surprise if you've been to Cosmo Canyon and read the study of planet life. But why would Zack just so happen to suggest this bar name with the exact same theme as the one built in Cosmo Canyon? Zack doesn't feel to me like the guy who would randomly know about a Cosmo Canyon bar.

My initial reaction to the Starlet revelation was filled with great dislike, because I prefer it if the Starlet bar is part of very old Cosmo Canyon culture, instead of this young guy being the one who built it. My first assumption was that the guy also is not from the canyon and that he is just some random bar businessman who went there and created Starlet, but in all honesty we don't know anything for sure about this guy's backstory.

I wonder what happened to this guy after he created Seventh Heaven. Was he kicked out by Barret? Did he lose is life in an anti-Shinra act? Then again, Biggs says at the beginning of OG “Think how many of our people risked their lives, just for this code…” so there could be extra AVALANCHE members around, we just don't see them.

I misremembered the line by Biggs at first. I thought he said that many pepole died to get the information, just like the Bothans in Star Wars (which is the popular idea of what this is a reference to), but the English game doesn't actually say that anybody died. I wonder what the Japanese script says.

Spoiler

ビッグス
「ここの暗号を入手するために
　何人の仲間が犠牲になったことか……」

When you select the wrong bar name option (or no name at all) the man says "Hmph. Too bad. I'm afraid I can't let you have my wood."

HAHAHAHA! Zack won't be getting any "wood". You know. Penis joke. *cough*

 

[Strangelove]

in the japanese version the camera has the name written in english as well, and his english name spelling doesn't exactly match his japanese name ('tseng' verses 'ツォンtson'). i looked at the japanese ff wiki, which says his is the same as the english one (「T、S、…E…N…G…?なんて読むんだ?」/t, s... e... n... g...? how do you read/pronounce that?) the original joke was about him not connecting the english spelling and the japanese pronunciation.

ビッグス
「ここの暗号を入手するために
　何人の仲間が犠牲になったことか……」

"[think] how many of our allies/people were sacrificed to get this code..." sounds like they died to me.

 

[Shademp]

Hito, as always your help is the bringer of life THE GIFT OF THE GODDESS. Ripples form on the lifestream's surface. *slaps self*

- Here is the Japanese equivalent of the English line I found to be odd.

- Only noticed just now that in the TGS trailer, Zack does not have the Buster Sword on his back when he walks past the infantrymen and touches Cloud's shoulder. This is accurate to how the scene is in the AC and ACC flashback, but in the final version of the Crisis Core scene Zack has the Buster Sword on his back. INCONSISTENCYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!


- That I'm overlevelled right now is an understatement. Zack is on Lv77 (Lv 78 in JP), 71% mission completion and I'm still going to do a few more very hard missions before I go to Nibelheim. By the time I get to Banora Underground, I'll be Lv99 or very close I reckon.


- Feeling some serious Crisis Core fatigue now. The type you feel when you play a video game for a really long time and you start thinking "WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE". The brain can only sustain the positive high from game research for so long. Comparing the TGS and Jump Festa trailer with the final game is like the most powerful of drugs to me. I'd like to make videos comparing the trailer stuff with the final game, placing the clips side by side using Sony Vegas Pro, but I fear how much trouble that might be. I wish there was a Shademp #2 on this site who could write comparison articles like that.


- The fact that I am playing the Japanese and English versions side by side, jumping back and forth, is what has allowed me to spot differences in the text on signs and boards. I could not pay this type of attention (nor did it come to my mind to observe) when I played Dirge of Cerberus. The next time I have a Dirge of Cerberus phase, I'm taking snapshots of boards and signs with readable text in both the JORG and post-JORG versions, to see if anything was changed.

 

[Strangelove]

Hito, as always your help is the bringer of life THE GIFT OF THE GODDESS. Ripples form on the lifestream's surface. *slaps self*

- Here is the Japanese equivalent of the English line I found to be odd.

- This NPC line confuses me. At no point in the story, obligatory or optional, where somebody claims to be the son of President Shinra. There are rumors and speculations by NPCs, but this one guy makes it sound like Lazard (though perhaps anonymously) shouted to the world that he is the illegitimate son of President Shinra.

it has been ages since i played cc so i don't remember the stuff around this line, and it kind of feels like there should be something more, but in the japanese script he specifics a 'friend' who claimed to be president shinra's son who might be the one who caused these incidents rather than just a general 'guy'.

 

[Shademp]

I'm wondering now if the man's line is meant to be a response to the rumors spoken by the woman on the same street. Could the man be referring to the friend who claims that the President has an illegitimate son?

Spoiler: Woman: English script

Spoiler: Woman: Japanese script

I doubt there is anything in the context of what the man says that can help us. After his Japanese line about the President's son, all he says in the English game is "Ha ha ha! Wouldn't that be something?"

Spoiler: Japanese line

 

[Strangelove]

the man's japanese line sounds like he wasn't being serious ('hahaha, as if! just kidding' or something i have no idea what a good english term for なんてな would be now).

his first line still sounds more to me that it's a friend claiming to be shinra's son than someone claiming he has a son (instead of saying 「プレジデントの息子がいるって言い張ってた友達」 [claiming shinra had a son] he just said 「プレジデントの息子って言い張ってた」 [claiming (he is) shinra's son]).

 

[Shademp]

My head claims that the woman outside the church mentioned the son of the dumped woman growing up in the slums, but I can't find that instance. Now I'm wondering if it exists at all or if I just made it up in my head. But if Lazard grew up in the slums, it would seem more plausible that a frustrated kid-Lazard would tell this man in the slums that "I am the son of Shinra".

Something else truly is needed to make perfect sense of what the man outside the church is saying. No mail I've received during my playthrough sheds any light either.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Lazard's CC Ultimania profile confirms he grew up in the slums:
http://thelifestream.net/lifestream...acter-profile-from-the-crisis-core-ultimania/

The Q&A also:
http://thelifestream.net/lifestream-projects/translations/340/crisis-core-ultimania-scenario-qa/

 

[Shademp]

Thank you Tres.

Reading the CCU profile lead me to spot something curious.

The Children of the Slums
________________________________________
Members of SOLDIER, we thank you for your continuing duties.

In this city floating in the sky, we must remember that in the shade of Midgar’s plate there exists the underground village of the Slums. This stands a symbol of Shin-Ra’s “injustice”.

As you may have heard, many children form gangs to deal with being forced to lead especially cruel lives in the Slums. You may also have heard of a rumor regarding a birth connected with the President.

Neglecting this “injustice” will cast a large shadow over the future development of Shin-Ra.

At least, though we are only SOLDIER, we still want you to consider how we may cope with this “injustice”.
________________________________________

Notes – Real Experiences from Childhood

Just like “The Policy from Now On,” Lazard continues to weave his personal grudge into the contents of a letter written under the pretense of having a deep concern for others. Written as though only hearsay, Lazard in truth grew up as a child of the Slums, and this letter acts as a references to his true feelings about that wretched life. And then, “The rumor of a birth related to the president” is yet another hint to him being President Shinra’s illegitimate son.
Shin-Ra’s Darkness

So what we have here is a translation of a Japanese version of one of the mails you get from Lazard, complete with Ultimania commentary. A big discrepancy here is that the official English mail mentions nothing of a "rumor regarding a birth connected with the President".

Spoiler: English Mail

Does the Japanese mail in-game mention this rumored birth?

Spoiler: Japanese Mail

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

That's precisely what the omitted line says.

 

[Strangelove]

strange that they would cut that out, considering they have the space to add another two lines

 

[Shademp]

strange that they would cut that out, considering they have the space to add another two lines

Indeed. I'm not sure what to think about the localization process of Crisis Core... The deal with the lost surnames (Deusericus, Rhapsodos and partially Hewley) made me speculate that the translated CC mail text is from an early point in the Japanese development of Crisis Core (which was then sent to the translation team) and that the surnames were something they later regretted. I can't imagine the name "Deusericus" being made by the translation department, given Tres's analysis on the matter. The name has to have been conceived by the Japanese writers.

But with the omitted line in Lazard's mail, it could be anything. Maybe it was an earlier version of the Japanese letter that got translated and which did not include that passage. Or maybe while making the English game, script editors of the Japanese game figured that Lazard's mention of a "rumored birth" wasn't subtle enough and so it was edited out to remove part of Lazard's "carelessness". Or maybe the translator simply forgot to translate that one row. Those are the three scenarios I can think of.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I'm still not convinced "Deusericus" was ever in the Japanese production material. It is still throughly awesome, though.

 

[Shademp]

Gameplay reactions (after letting the game rest for a while).

- Costly Punch is not the game-breaker as much as I remember it being. The more difficult missions are still very difficult, even with Costly Punch. If it were not for the save state function, I would not have bothered with a lot of the super-difficult missions at this point.

Gaea Malboro required many attempts when loading save states. Its attacks are deadly and difficult to dodge. Your reward here is that you can finally steal a Ribbon, so one strategy (if you are not playing the Japanese version) is to steal a Ribbon, lose, then return to the battle but with Ribbon equipped, which will make the battle a whole lot easier. Gaea Malboro, in normal mode, has a total of 1285650 HP, meaning that you'll need to land a total of 13 hits with Costly Punch. Easier said than done.

In order to pass the difficult mission, you need to use a lot of precious items in Materia Fusion or else you'll simply be too vulnerable.


- Aerith's ungratefulness when Zack makes the first wagon is probably meant to be cute, but comes off as annoying and needlessly demanding. The awkward dialogue continues in this scene, with Aerith suddenly gaining RAIN MAN abilities and saying that she has 23 wishes (seemingly to make the flower wagon better). Zack tells her to write down the wishes, then she hands him a note fifteen seconds later. FIFTEEN. SECONDS. LATER. Not only is Zack unsurprised that Aerith is able to keep 23 wishes in her head, but he doesn't question that she wrote a note with twenty-three wishes in fifteen seconds.

We learn later that the note wasn't a list with twenty-three items, but even the length of the note as revealed later in Shinra Manor is longer than I can buy that she wrote in those few seconds. The note must have been written before the scene happened. Either way, the first flower wagon scene is awkward (like so many scenes in Crisis Core).

At least we later get some good comedy when the third, machine-like flower wagon is built! Oh the hilarity. I love it.

 

[Shademp]

- Mission 9-4-5: This place has you fight the gigantic Tonberry Kings and the small Tonberry Guards. I like this mission because enemies pop up in areas of the map where you don't expect it. In almost every map type, the same hot spots are used, with some exceptions as to whether an encounter can be avoided or not. But here, finally, you get surprised when enemies appear inbetween the usual hot spots.

On one hand the surprising encounters can be considered annoying, but on the other hand it gives a break from how this map type (Mythril/Coal Mine) is usually roamed. Plus points to mission 9-4-5.


Leaving behind Chapter 7. Time for Chapter 8: Nibelheim.


- Version differences: Nibelheim Signs

Spoiler

JAPANESE

ENGLISH

Camera is notably closer in the Japanese game. Could not recreate that zoom in the English version.

Like we've seen in previous examples, the text clarity is greater in the English game. "Mt. Nibel" is easy to make out in both versions, though easier in the English game. In the JP game, the lower row seems to read "Shinra". The text was changed to Shin-Ra and now is way easier to read. The word that's intended to be "Mansion" looks mostly like jibberish and may be identical in both versions.

Arrows were corrected for the English game. In the above case, Mt. Nibel is NOT to the left.


JAPANESE

ENGLISH

Mt. Nibel arrow corrected.


JAPANESE

ENGLISH

Shinra Mansion arrow corrected. You could get to Shinra Mansion/Manor from the direction pointed in the Japanese game, but that means taking the long way round.


JAPANESE

ENGLISH

Same as previous example.


Last sign, this one in the outskirts.

JAPANESE

ENGLISH

Mt. Nibel arrow corrected.

- In Crisis Core, the inn keepers are a couple: a husband and wife. In the original game, in the flashback, the inn keepers are an old man and another NPC (not sure what the gender is supposed to be). I find it interesting that none of the extensive inn keeper dialogue from the original game is used here in Crisis Core.

- The complete lack of a mention of Professor Gast in the reactor scene feels a bit wrong. He should have been in there even if only as non-voiced dialogue.



EDIT:
At first I thought this was a version difference but now I realize it wasn't.

When you collect all the DMW panels, you get a Fury Ring as a reward...unless you already have a Fury Ring. This accessory is a rare steal from Tonberry Guard (mission 9-4-5). I only discovered this because I accidentally stole the Fury Ring in the Japanese version. You will get no notification at all in the DMW menu if you already have the accessory.

Spoiler

EDIT #2:

Performed a random experiment of madness. I wondered if there might be an alternative reward for collecting all the DMW panels. To check this, I sold my entire inventory (this takes some time) then collected the final DMW panel with and without Fury Ring in my inventory. In no test was a reward other than Fury Ring given. Whether a Fury Ring was equipped or not, a Fury Ring would not be given from the DMW menu if you got one previously.

I did discover though in this test that it is impossible to sell the Fury Ring accessory! Doesn't matter whether you stole the Fury Ring or gained it through the DMW: The game won't let you sell it. Clearly this is the easy way around to make sure that the Fury Ring is not rewarded over and over in the DMW menu through New Game+ playthroughs.

 

[Shademp]

- Version difference or just a bug?

After Sephiroth says "Am I the same as these monsters?" inside the Nibel Reactor, the player has the option to go outside. This can be a good time to save your game and/or to pick up the treasure chest (if you haven't already).

In the English game, Cloud and Tifa will be waiting below the reactor steps. To my huge surprise...they are not present there in the Japanese version!

There is no active data below the steps to react to when I press the Circle button, so the case is not that Cloud and Tifa are invisible but still present. I have no idea if the Japanese game has data for Cloud and Tifa here that has bugged out for one reason or another or if the developers simply forgot to add those two characters for the scenario when you leave the reactor early. Not sure if I have the capacity to confirm this by looking in The Complete Guide.

For completion, here is the script you trigger in the English game by talking to Tifa and Cloud respectively.

Spoiler

Tifa:
So, you saw the inside of the reactor, right?
What was it like?

Zack:
I...can't tell you.

Tifa:
Zack? Is something wrong?

------​

Cloud:
Have you finished investigating?

Zack:
No...not yet.

Cloud:
Then you should go back.
Don't worry, I'll keep watch here.

- The Seven Wonders of Nibelheim - Part 1

Note: I don't remember how this sidequest ends, so my commentary may change when I reach the end.

#1 - The Phoenix Materia

The materia is found in the water tower, being found as the culprit for painting the water red. I dislike this scenario. Materia is supposed to be mako that has condensed over a long period of time and on occassion absorbs the knowledge of the Ancients, embuing these magical rocks with great power. You mean to tell me that a red summon materia leaks the color red? To me, that's like saying that gemstones in our world would start leaking their respective colors if put into water. If the summon materia was really so damaged that it would start "leaking" its color, then I imagine the materia would turn into dust when Zack tries to pick it up. Your opinion about the "leaking color" bit will depend on your headcanons about materia.

Things like treasure chests and randomly laying-about materia are usually treated as in-game objects that don't exist within the story. For this reason we don't question why the treasure chests and materia are there. But because this Phoenix materia is integrated into a sidequest with a decent amount of script, I am curious as to how the Phoenix materia ended up in the water tower in the first place. Must be a kid playing a prank when he/she thought it looked cool when the water turned red.

I'd much rather have had the Phoenix materia be found in one of the mako fountains.


#2 - The Disappearing Girl

On the second floor of the inn is a painting with a black-dressed girl sitting on a chair. On occasion the painting only shows a chair. Turns out that painting has two sides, one with the girl on it and one without, and that the male attendant of the inn stores the spoils from his gambling behind the painting. When you see the girl, there is money behind the painting.

Spoiler

The element with a two-sided painting is a little too silly. The attendant stores his gambling spoils behind the painting so that his wife (most definitely the female attendant of the inn) doesn't know about it. Except...it's a friggin' two-sided painting that changes dramatically from time to time. I think his wife would find out.

The idea of a man in a quiet village being addicted to gambling is very appropriate though. This concept would fit perfectly in Rocket Town, where the former engineers are bored to death because nothing happens. Plus points for the NPC gambling plot. Minus points for the silly painting.


The man blames the typical bad memory of somebody "his age". Clearly then the game means for this guy to be very old, so much so that we could take him for being the same innkeeper we see in the original game. But the NPC in Crisis Core simply doesn't look old enough to be talking about memory problems this severe.

Spoiler

The NPC models of Crisis Core simply aren't varied enough. Think back to the slum NPCs using the exact same models as the people on the plate. NPC models are re-used way too often, especially for a game this short where each section and chapter of the game is justified to strike contrasts. When contrasts are not present, your game becomes more forgettable.

I'd like to know if the excuse here is UMD space. If the developers were struggling with making the game fit on just one UMD, I can understand why some areas were prioritized for disc space more so than others.

Even if disc space is where the explanation lies...I still won't forgive the lack of Zangan! Oh yeah, he is mentioned in a mail BUT THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH. I wanted to see Zangan, damn it!

 

[Roger]

Jap version Cloud and Tifa went off to shag somewhere. helmet stayed on tho.

 

[Odysseus]

You're right about the NPCs. I'm pretty sure the Original game actually has more NPC designs than Crisis Core does.

 

[Shademp]

- In a mail from Red Leather: "Genesis can never do wrong, and he deserves our support!"

Jap version Cloud and Tifa went off to shag somewhere. helmet stayed on tho.

Of course! By including Cloud and Tifa when you leave the reactor, they censored that oh so obvious implication that they went off to have sex. Damn these censorships!


- Ambiguous continuity error. A bridge in Mt. Nibel is destroyed, even before Zack and the team leave for the reactor. Due to the redesigns made to Mt. Nibel in comparison to the looks from the original game, it is impossible to know for certain if this is meant to be the same bridge that is destroyed in the flashback of the original game.

OG: Narrow bridge with ridiculously high angle and leads into a cave.
CC: Almost straight, wide bridge. Does not lead into a cave.


- The Seven Wonders of Nibelheim - Part 2

Forgot to mention the gil spoils you can get from behind the painting. After this "Second Wonder" is found, whenever the painting has the girl on it and you check it, you will get anything from 3 to 108 gil (according to Absolute Steve's guide). For a long while I thought a number above 37 wasn't possible in the English game, but turns out that the probability to get 40 and higher is just ridiculously. These tests were done with the help of save states, of course. My record amount was 107 gil in the English game versus 96 gil in the Japanese game.


#3 - The Special Bombs

In the dead-end part of the Mt. Nibel trail you will find three special bombs. Defeat them all before they explode and gain a Gold Shard. The Gold Shard is the proof that the boy in Nibelheim wants to confirm that these bombs with special faces exist. You can sell the Gold Shard for 5 gil. A Gold Shard can always be gained from the battle with the three special bombs if you don't already have one in your inventory.

My main issue with this sidequest are the kids at the mako fountain in Mt Nibel.

Remember the flashback in the original game? The one where young Tifa walks to Mt. Nibel and the other kids say this:

“Mt. Nibel is scary.
Many people have died there.”

“No one crosses that mountain alive…”

The end result was Tifa getting into a coma for seven days (which funny enough is also how long her coma was after Weapon emerged from the Northern Crater).

This coupled with its fairly ferocious enemies and high enemy encounter paints the picture of Mt. Nibel as being really dangerous.

Despite this, three kids are casually standing next to a mako fountain up in the mountains in Crisis Core. To me this rids the mountain of its ominous quality.

I am also not fond of the things these kids have to say.

Girl:
I made it all the way here without running into
any monsters, but I have to go home now...
Maybe I'll tell you the rumor I heard about the
"Wonder" bomb...

Boy #1:
I came all the way here in search of the
"Wonder" bomb, but I can't go any further.
I did learn some valuable information, though.

Boy #2:
My dad told me I couldn't come here
without a grownup, but...
Searching for the Seven Wonders is
every man's dream!

The enemy encounter is really high for the player, which stands in contrast to the girl who managed to get here without facing any monsters. Again, the threat level of the mountain is diminished.

Where do these kids learn all these rumors and facts about the Wonder bomb?! This falls into the trope of NPCs, especially kids, acting as all-knowing hint providers who only exist to help you on with the sidequest. If the Wonder bomb is just a rumor that the kid back in the village wants confirmed, how do these kids (and even an adult in the village) know so much about it?

Also the whole deal with the "Seven Wonders" of Nibelheim is bullocks. Later it turns out that the boy in the village doesn't know what sixth wonder is, then somehow the wonder later turns out to be that his mother is saved from a fire.

I can understand the intention of kids playing a game and trying to find some fun in a relatively boring, remote village. But there are too many holes in how this sidequest is set up.

This is not at all helped by the dialogue of the kids at the mako fountain staying exactly the same, even though days pass by in your visit to Nibelheim. So...these kids just roam the mountain every day? MAN that kills all the ominous atmosphere.

 

[Shademp]

- The Seven Wonders of Nibelheim - Part 3

#4 - The cactuar in the safe

Enter Shinra Manor. Look through keyholes in four rooms and count the right stuff in each room. Use these numbers as the digits to open up the safe on the second floor. A cactuar will jump out from the safe. The forth "wonder" here was the laughing that was heard from the safe, but turns out to probably have been the cactuar crying for help.

Really, five out of these seven wonders are actually just "mysteries" that are then explained. =/

I commend the idea of using the "keyhole" view that is familiar from the original game. Even though I always disliked the keyhole perspective, I appreciate the effort to raise FFVII feelings this way.

****

Spoiler: DIGRESSION:

You will notice that the bottom two pixel rows are not covered by the blackness. This problem is not present when you boot the game up on a physical PSP. I am not sure why this is.

When snapshots are taken with ppsspp, they get the dimensions of 480x272. On the Crisis Core box, it is advertised as having stunning 16:9 graphics. The resolution ratio ergo is not exact when comparing the console and the emulator.

16/9 = 1,777777777777778
480/272 = 1,764705882352941

If we remove the two bottom pixel rows from the aforementioned snapshots, then that extra visible area is completely removed and we get a ratio that matches the console one.

480/270 = 1,777777777777778

So it looks like the Crisis Core snapshots I've taken are wrong and that each one should have the bottom two pixel rows removed. I can't say with confidence that my theory is correct but a case can certainly be made for it.

****

That's where the positives end though. In the original game, the sidequest was clearly a mad game set up by Hojo. The sidequest connected to the story in a consistent matter. Nevermind the mystery of just how the huge boss "Lost Number" fit into a safe.

In Crisis Core, the sidequest is gameplay-retconned by making a cactuar inexplicably get locked into the safe (meaning that the safe was opened at some point) and for the cactuar to not have been caught for so long so to die from dehydration and/or lack of food (if Cactuars even eat).

Not only that, but the digits to the safe have no logical sense to them. How is it that they are connected to the number of chairs in a room? The number of Banora Apples + Banora Cans? The number of Dorky Faces in a room? The number of books that are laying down? WHO SET THIS UP?! Monsters come and go, so it's not like the Dorky Faces can always be ready for decade after decade so to provide you with the correct digit.

The fourth wonder of Nibelheim completely ignores the Safe Sidequest of the original game, so that it can do its own thing without any logical connection to the game's world and its characters. The amount of laziness put into this minigame/sidequest is so apparent when you spend even a second thinking about it.

Why am I so passionate about the game design of quests? You can thank Extra Credits for that!

- Quest Design I
- Quest Design II

 

[Shademp]

- When you first leave for Nibelheim, there are two infantrymen aside from Cloud. At the Nibelheim gates, there is only one other infantrymen left. We know from the original game that this guy is lost after the bridge falls apart in Mt. Nibel, but in Crisis Core we never even see so much as a reference to this event. This part should have been included in the photo-montage for your journey up to the Nibel Reactor.

Look also at the "missing infantryman" section in my article Unused Text Part 5, Page 2.


- The Seven Wonders of Nibelheim - Part 4

#5 - Vincent Valentine

The sidequest that unintentionally reveal the Nibelheim boy as being Hojo in disguise. Ok not really, but it might as well!

The boy speaks of mysterious moans coming from the Shinra Manor underground. The source of these moans are the fifth wonder. Already one thing stands out: THE KID KNOWS ABOUT THE SHINRA MANOR UNDERGROUND! He speaks of it like it's common knowledge. Admittedly, the games have never stated the underground as being a secret to those outside of Shinra, but I prefer to think of the underground caves, labs and library as being something the Nibelheim villagers don't know about.

That headcanon preference aside, look at what the kid has to say even if you take on to find the fifth wonder before you leave for the Nibel Reactor.

First of all...why do you speak of "a SOLDIER guy called Sephiroth" as though not everybody in the world knew about Sephiroth? My friend Dipsiel phrased it excellently by saying that a real-world equivalent would be to say
"So, I was listening to a song by this Michael Jackson guy, you should look him up. It was great!"

Secondly, how do you know Sephiroth has the key even before Sephiroth has set his foot in the mansion? This is lazy scenario writing. If you start this sidequest before Sephiroth has retreated into the underground library, the kid should say "I don't know how to open the door though" or something to that effect because the area is only accessible after the reactor visit.

Once in the underground we find that the design differs when comparing Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core. Dirge of Cerberus did a better job with generating that "World War II Concentration Camp Lab" feel but Crisis Core better recreates the library as it looked in the original game. Although one part of me wishes that the area looked the same in both versions just so we had a definitive "Compilation Rendition" of the Shinra Manor Basement/Underground, on the other hand I can respect artistic license and see the ups and downs of both designs.

Plus points for the battle music not being triggered when you fight Sahagins in the basement. When the battle music isn't triggered for battles you REALLY feel unsettled.

For no reason at all, compare the theme used for Shinra Manor in CC versus the one DC.

- The Gloomy Mansion
- Uneasy Feelings

Both are great but I really have a soft spot for Uneasy Feelings.

Moving on. In the southeast coffin chamber is where you find Vincent. One design choice that bothers me here is that Vincent's coffin is not in the centre of the room but instead placed to the side. RAGE! The coffin room in DC better captured the essence of that room (as seen in OG) than CC does, by a longshot.

So we return to the kid and tell him about what we find. His response is this.

Oh, it was some guy sleeping down there?
So, you're saying it was just him snoring?
Who would be sleeping down there? Maybe he's
some kind of test sample for an experiment.​

...Hojo, is that you? Are you disguised as a boy? Unless it's common knowledge among the villagers that terrible experiments were performed in Shinra Manor, this boy has no reason to say "test sample for an experiment" other than to hint to the player what is already obvious. Yet again this kid exists to talk to the player and not to Zack. Except he is TOTALLY Hojo in disguise. That would explain the whole cactuar-inside-the-safe scenario. Hojo redesigned the sidequest!


#6 - A mother saved from the fire

Boy
It's a legend that talks about
a "treasure within the flames."
But that's all I know.
It's not enough to go on, right?
I'm going to try to find out more myself,
so could you hold on for a while?​

Where did the kid hear this from? Is this something another kid said to him? Isn't this boy meant to be the expert about the Seven Wonders?

Doesn't matter. Like I said earlier, the sixth wonder is found by saving the boy's mother when Nibelheim is on fire. The script makes it clear that the mother IS the sixth wonder. The only way to make sense of the 'Seven Wonders' sidequest is that it's a game where kids come up with wonders on the spot and that there are no pre-decided wonders to behold.

At first I thought that the "Fire Ring" you can find a treasure chest when the village is on fire would be the sixth wonder. That would have made sense. Not that it matters, because as badly executed as the "burning of Nibelheim" scenario is in Crisis Core, it is made even WORSE by the pun of including a treasure chest that gives you a Fire Ring. HA. HA. HA.

Spoiler: When the mother is saved

Boy:
Thank you, mister!
You saved my precious mother
from the fire!

Zack:
"Fire"...?
"Precious"...?

Boy:
What's the matter, mister?

Zack:
Oh, I was just thinking...
Maybe this is the Sixth Wonder...

Boy:
Oh, yeah.
We're down to the last one.
The hint is...

Zack:
No, that's all right.
Take care of your mom first.
I still have things to do, too.
The Seventh Wonder can wait.​

Really? In the middle of this disaster, both Zack and the boy think about this "wonder" quest? Way to kill the mood yet again, Crisis Core. Not only did you remove the ominousness of Mt. Nibel but you also poorly executed the burning of Nibelheim, one of the most iconic moments in video gaming.

When you get to see the FMV of Sephiroth walking through the fire you can really tell how the downsizing of it for the PSP format has decreased the quality, even when playing on the PSP-size window.

 

[Strangelove]

Really, five out of these seven wonders are actually just "mysteries" that are then explained. =/

i think there might be a language reason for this

the japanese word for 'seven wonders' is 七不思議 [nana fushigi]. 七 is 'seven', and 不思議 means something that is not or cannot be explained, something unusual or mysterious.

according to wikipedia (because i have too many tabs open to research further than this), the original 'seven wonders of the world' in greek just meant 'seven sights, things that must be seen'. but for someone reason in japanese, the translation 'nana fushigi' stuck mistakenly taking the english 'wonder' in the sense of 'miraculous thing/event' rather than 'marvellous, impressive'. due to this and an 'occult boom' in modern times the term gets taken to mean things that are 'beyond the level of engineering technology at the time' or 'seems physically impossible'. as a result, some people misinterpret the true nature of these 'wonders' (such as the hanging gardens of babylon, which in japanese is known as the 'aerial' gardens and sounds like it's a gravity-defying floating garden).

so in japan, this has taken on the usage of compiling seven inexplicable phenomena or strange folklores and the places you can see them. since science can explain previous wonders now (like the 'god's crossing' at lake suwa), 'seven wonders' have turned more into scary stories and urban legends nowadays like the 'seven wonders of the school' (legends/scary stories relating to or taking place in a school).

this is the way it is used in crisis core. (also in kingdom hearts 2) there's strange, unexplained events that you have to solve. but since it's the equivalent of 'seven wonders' in english it tends to get translated as such.

tl;dr
it's due to a mistranslation of '[seven] wonder' into japanese, which lead to people misinterpreting it as 'mystery', which ends up getting translated back into 'wonders' in english because that's what the original phrase refers to.