If you were chosen to write the sequel to the original FFVII...

[fancy]

...What would it look like?

I tried to find a thread similar to this but I can't seem to. Say whaaa?? A mod more competent than I am, pls merge

Anyway, I made this thread because Makoeyes made the super good and fair point that rewriting AC(C) to include Denzel's immediate demise from the start defeats the whole purpose of rewriting AC(C) (curses!). So here's a question for you: say we live in a alternate universe where AC(C) and OTWtoS don't exist and for whatever reason, you were chose to write and direct a sequel (or two) to the OG FFVII. What would it look like? Who would be involved? What would be the conflict? What would be the resolution?

I imagine that the gang are all separated and back in their respective homes, excepting Cloud and Tifa, who can't bring themselves to live in the ghost of their former home, Nibelheim, and settle in Kalm, mebbe, instead, and presumably together together. Idk, I guess it depends on how high your affection meter for Tifa was by the end of the game *wink, wink*.

Some new threat that isn't Sephiroth, maybe some other experiment that broke out of Shinra's Science Department, is wrecking havoc n shit and Cloud and Co have to come together to kick it's ass. Maybe they have to ask for the Turks' help (would they even still be together?).

This is not as like 'deep' as the sequel we got, I guess. TBH, I just want an excuse to see our favourite misfit band of eco-terrorists fighting and interacting for a lot longer than we did in AC(C). They're pretty much all I care about.

Okay your turn.

 

[Castiel Strife]

Well number one I am buzzed. It was a long week and I needed alcohol...

Number 2, I don’t have anything to contribute at the moment but I like the idea. I do look forward to reading other people’s ideas and possibly garnering an idea for my own from them. As it stands, though, I’m of course obsessed with the game and I think it’s pretty much perfect and doesn’t need to be messed with or have anything added to it. (You don’t know how hard it is to make this grammatically correct/etc when I’m not exactly sober ?)

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I will answer this when I return from my much-looked-forward-to trip to Honfleur Saturday market!
Yes I'm in France!

 

[Ghost X]

I'd make it a game like the first one, not a movie .

What would it look like?

Whenever I'm asked this question about something FF-related, my usual response is: I'd like more hints of Amano in the aesthetics . There could be a justification for the new aesthetics, given the socio-political upheaval resulting from the events of the first game would probably lead to some figurative explosions in creativity in the world's art culture as well .

Who would be involved?

I'd like new characters, and to expand the "universe" in an MCU kind of way. Naturally anyone new who features would have to have some kind of explanation why they didn't participate in the OG, and not in a "They were actually there, but hiding behind the bushes!" kind of way. They might have been too young, or just did not have the capacity to participate in saving the world, etc . As for what I see the OG characters doing (based on what I can remember of the OG):

Cloud: The last we hear from him in the OG, I think he says to TIfa that he understands and can meet Aerith in the promised land, so I think that's what he is doing: Being a broken man (though not necessarily sad about it), travelling around aimlessly . Would keep him largely out of the picture of the scenario in the sequel anyway, though an opportunity for side quests.

Yuffie: I think she'd eventually take the place of her father, and Wutai might galvanise behind her and become a world power again. Both a source of antagonism and humour.

Barret and Marlene: Probably helping to rebuild Corel, and finding alternative sources of power. Marlene would probably be a good choice for a playable character in the new game if set years ahead.

Cid: I like what the compilation has done for him (apparently, haven't actually read the stuff ), in that he apparently helps Barret out, while building airships? .

Red XIII: Has an epiphany, and gives Soft to his father, curing him of petrification... j/k. Probably back at Cosmo Canyon, until rumours of others of his kind reach him.

Tifa: Might run a pub and run a martial arts dojo in whatever Midgar becomes? . A dojo (and pub, for that matter) where new playable characters might emerge from?

Vincent: I like what the developers apparently had planned for him in the OG in the early drafts: Tasked with researching supernatural events. I think it'd go well with the conflict scenario I have in mind that I later describe.

Cait Sith / Reeve: Probably spying with puppets as usual (), and might eventually become involved with the playable characters again.

Turks: They become agents for hire, serving functionally a very similar role as they did in the OG, finding themselves on the wrong side of the party .

Ex-Shinra Figureheads: I forgot who lives and who dies in the OG (bar Rufus), so if any are found, I imagine they'd probably be killed .

Aerith:

Spoiler

Died in the OG, never to be seen again.

What would be the conflict?

With Shinra taken out, I imagine there'd be a power vacuum in Midgar, and folks (at least on that continent) would probably be factionalising and building multiple new communities, where perhaps the introductory conflicts could play out in the game (kind of mirroring the OG, which had introductory conflicts taking place from with in Midgar, eg: eco-terrorism, etc). I suspect there'd be mass population movements out of Midgar as well, which would provide an excuse for having new towns appear all over the world with different cultures, etc. Maybe set the game 10-20 years down the track from the OG so that those places have more chance to develop a unique character to them, and if OG characters are introduced again as playable, it'd give an excuse for them to be relatively weak again .

I'd like the main conflict to be similar to the issues created by Jenova, but for it to be a different entity that contributes to whatever that is, while also adding another layer to the universe's mythology. Might be that a collection of scientists who once worked under Hojo figuratively or literally dug too deep and discovered some other monstrosity that hadn't been found previously. The protagonist might lose a best friend in a related incident, and that friend might come back later somewhat less friendly, and ultimately the main villain? . History rhyming a little with the OG, etc.

My ideas get pretty shit from here: Perhaps the Jenova-like monster is used to synthesize a material that is used everywhere, like an analogy for plastic, and before everyone know it, the world is fucked as this material has evil properties (beyond just choking wildlife), like being anti-lifestream perhaps, and that can be this game's environmental message .

The name of the destructive power related to the plastic/jenova-like monster/villain would have to be iconic to FF in the same way as the OG's "Meteor". I was thinking Doom, but that's already taken in FFVII . Perhaps the jenova-like monster could be inspired at least on Anima, given Anima's ability is Oblivion . The other idea I had was Withering Wind, which is... Fenrir's ability. Fenrir is only brought up in the compilation, which doesn't exist in the alternative universe this FFVII sequel is made, so it ain't taken . Come to think of it: Fenrir could tie into Red XIII's story line of finding those of his kind. Maybe this Fenrir is where Red XIII's kind come from? I'll stop now

What would be the resolution?

Protagonist beats villain, and this conveniently rids all the evil plastic, but as a result, given the over reliance, the world has a bit of a road to recovery .

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Protagonist beats villain, and this conveniently rids all the evil plastic, but as a result, given the over reliance, the world has a bit of a road to recovery .

Setting up another sequel where people in the vicinity of the plastic as it melted begin coming down with a ~mysterious~ disease that is mistakenly suspected as the planet punishing them for their reliance on synthetic products. Meanwhile, Cloud -- who no longer has the will to fight but commissioned a set of interlocking custom swords anyway -- has taken up work delivering glass goods in his oldschool all-metal-no-plastic pickup truck, being one of the few to have such a vehicle and to have mapped the less bumpy routes.

While making a visit to Tifa's old Pub Dojo (closed since her death during the Polymer War of a couple years past), he comes across a boy stricken with the ~mysterious~ illness who was orphaned when his father's pacemaker melted right out of his chest two years ago. Cloud takes Darnell in to atone for his own part in the tragedies of the past, but soon has to find the resolve to fight again when three ~mysterious~ silver-haired young men arrive and begin kidnapping children afflicted with Plastigma.

Did I do it right?

 

[Roger]

I'd set it way later. Population centres have shifted after the elimination of Mako energy and the abandonment of Midgar. Rocket Town has become Rocket City, Icicle Inn became Icicle Town, there's a New Corel. Shin-Ra continues on under President Reeve and Director Shera Highwind of the Technology Department and Director Vincent Valentine of Public Safety, dedicated to providing clean energy to a world all but thrust back in the Dark Ages.

Tifa and Cloud were living with their son Denzel at their Costa Del Sol property. Cloud has continued his mercenary business, Tifa and Johnny run a bar. Cloud's disappearance sparks Denzel to start an adventure to find him.

 

[Mayo Master]

I will answer this when I return from my much-looked-forward-to trip to Honfleur Saturday market!
Yes I'm in France!

So jealous right now...

On this topic: on a personal level, I actually feel like FFVII itself does not need a sequel. At the end of the game, the heroes solve the crisis and save the world, and that should be a wrap. I always felt like the premise of AC(C) was "ehm, we need to forcefully introduce some kind of conflict, otherwise there's no plot, so... oh yeah, Geostigma!". Don't get me wrong, I was happy to see the FFVII characters return for AC(C), but I always got the impression that the story was contrived.
If a sequel were to be conceived, I would rather have it take place way later, several generations after FVII took place. The setting would have changed, enough for introducing new kinds of conflicts and starting with something "fresh", while still being able to refer to the world's history as defined by the original game. Plus, RedXIII could still be a returning character - kind of a living legend.

 

[Claymore]

It's difficult to come up with my own idea, since I've read hundreds of fanfic sequels far superior to Advent Children, which also easily utilised the group dynamic and remembered the fundamentals of what made FF VII so great.

But Cloud certainly wouldn't be emo under my version, that's for sure.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I agree with Mayo Master, FFVII doesn't need a sequel. For me personally, if we're going to set a game so far in the future that nobody but Red XIII is alive to be in, I wouldn't be interested. If we're going to have a whole new cast of characters, let's have a whole new world to go with it.

Really, what people want from a sequel is world they love + characters they love. So everybody would need to be in it: the entire party, including the optional characters; the loveable bad guys; all the iconic NPCs.

I would offer multiple options for the start of the game. You can choose to play as any of the main party, and the opening part of the game will depend on who you choose. Yuffie will have one story, Cid another, and so on, and each story will eventually bring you to the place where all the party members, for their various reasons, link up.

I would set my game a couple of years post ACC. Two things have happened: 1. A religious cult has sprung up around the worship of Aerith the Healer, and some less scrupulous elements have started misusing the power of the lifestream and doing bad things in her name. 2. Rufus' Shinra Inc has been re-born as Big Pharma. They showed signs of being inclined this way in Case of Shinra and The Kids Are All Right, where Rufus and his team of loveable rogues got involved in making medicine to treat the symptoms of geostigma (and giving the treatment away for free incidenterino). Rufus and the Turks must have ambiguous motives throughout: have they really turned over a new leaf and want to help people, or are they simply looking for a new way to control the world? Anyway, NeoShinra, the Cult of the Healer, and the WRO find themselves at loggerheads over the control of Aerith's magical stream, her legacy, and the Lifestream itself, and the party end up getting sucked into this three way struggle for power and the future of their world.

One possibility is that the kids, Denzel and Marlene, get sucked into the Aerith cult, which means Cloud and Tifa have to set out to find them and deprogram them. While doing this, Cloud and Tifa come to realise they made a mistake in encouraging the kids to idolise Aerith. They need to learn the truth about Aerith, "warts and all".

I would also bring Lucretia into it since she's still technically alive and, I think, harbours the last remaining active Jenova cells (I don't know if Cloud's have been neutralised or not. Perhaps he doesn't know either). She could leave her crystal, aid the party, and then - massive plot twist - be overwhelmed by her Jenova cells and be either the final boss or a critical boss.

There should be mini-games for each character running through the game
1. Cid can create vehicles from all kinds of scrap the party finds along the way. I guess he could also customise weapons although I personally find this kind of boring.
2. Barret has to solve various moral conundrums
3. Tifa cooking games, or mixing cocktails
4. Yuffie finds materia
I can't think of any more right now but you get the idea.

I'd like to see more areas being added to the map.

 

[Lex]

Tbh, some of what I wanted from a sequel when I was younger and the compilation wasn't a thought yet has been mentioned in otwtas and the Turks novel. The chat about NPC's reminded me that Don Corneo is alive in the canon, still in his mansion and still an absolute horror of a character.

But the smaller stuff like the party returning to the forgotten capital, those are all moments I'd have liked to have seen in a sequel to the original game.

The issue is, I'm not sure what the premise would be. Advent Children is really just supposed to be a flashy tribute to the characters and setting. You COULD make a game out of it, but like the movie a lot of things would feel like weird if not properly fleshed out. Of all the things in the movie, I don't mind the concept of "Geostigma", but I'd probably want to call it something else. That could make for an interesting premise for a sequel. A short timeskip after the intro or a cold open elsewhere, suddenly people start getting sick and the new mission takes you around the world to reassemble the team and find out what it is. At a certain point you'd discover or work out that it's Jenova and fight it as you did in the original, the endgame goal in the story would be finding a way to completely eradicate it. The journey around the world over the course of the game would work similar to the original, except this time you're meeting up with old characters and in each location helping them do whatever it is they're doing there before they'll join you.

For fun I'll outline an opening concept that takes some elements from the compilation:

Prelude

Following the events of the original game, the characters return to the forgotten capital to pay tribute to Aerith and say their goodbyes. They go their separate ways.

Intro

Timeskip (unknown length), the people of Midgar have all moved to the slums - very little is left of the upper plate, and so the sky can now be seen from below. Cloud, Tifa and Barret have been doing their bit to help people build new homes and towns in the former slums and clean the place up as best they can. They may or may not have a new seventh heaven. A small percentage of the population starts to get sick from an unknown illness.

"Leaving Midgar"

One day, our three mains are on their way to Kalm to visit Marlene/ Elmyra (who permanently live together and are frequently visited by Barret/ the three) and are discussing the new mystery illness when they come across a body. When they go to help, they see that he had been infected and Cloud recognises the familiar pull of Jenova. Alarmed, the three have a conversation about what this means but come up short. They continue on to Kalm.

Kalm

Elmyra tells alarming stories of people with the illness in town (now much larger due to an influx of refugees from Midgar). There are stories of people with the illness completely losing their minds and attacking people. During the night, everyone wakes up to the sound of Marlene screaming. When they enter her room to investigate, she is alone, but clearly unwell. She tells them that "something" came in through the window and grabbed her arm - she doesn't know if it was a dream or real. They hear a knock on the front door - it's Vincent. He'd been tracking what he thought was a monster but is in fact a person with the illness, who seems to be able to change form and looks monstrous. They aren't able to trace the person.

Vincent explains that Yuffie sent word from Wutai that people were arriving in the city from all over the world only to disappear somewhere deep in the Da Chao mountains, and that search parties never returned. She and her father have gone after them to investigate.

End?

That would be a sufficient catalyst for them to take a journey at least from the continent across the west to Wutai. You can imagine up all sorts of scenarios in each town on the way - assuming they need to travel by land if we follow the compilation premise that they can't travel by air at this point.

 

[Jairus]

I've thought about this sort of thing myself from time to time, and I think that actually shifting away from the world crisis-type story to a more personal quest might be an effective approach. Cloud and the others have already saved the world, so a different sort of journey and antagonist would be fresh and allow more character exploration, I think. Here's a scenario to illustrate what I mean:

It is several years after the defeat of Sephiroth. Deep beneath the ruins of Midgar, where no one should still be alive, someone waits out of sight, biding her time as she watches her quarry through monitors in her lab far underground. Cloud is the one she is observing, though he has no idea yet. But she intends for him to find out about her soon enough, and in so doing, remember what he did to her and so many others. Or rather, what she feels he did. She cares nothing for conquest or power. All that matters to her is vengeance.

And to get it, she'll first take his children, knowing he'll do anything to get them back. And then, with her skill and knowledge in explosives, she'll force him to obtain certain items for her, things held by each of his friends and which she needs to rebuild her shattered body and eventually destroy him. Having him provide her with the means of ensuring his own destruction is part of her plan.

Cloud's journey now is one to save not a world, but his own family. He must also find a way to elude his enemy's seemingly omnipresent sight long enough for him and his friends to form a plan to stop her and uncover her true identity as well as the real reason for her vendetta against him. His only contact with her until almost near the end is through his phone and the faintly familiar voice on the other end of it.

I thought it might be an interesting change of pace to have a villain you hear but almost never see for once. It's an idea I had for a fanfic, though it fit into the Compilation when I first thought of it, but I've never gotten around to writing it. I might sooner or later, though.