What the Compilation Should have been

[Lord Noctis]

Since we seem to focusing on Crisis Core right now, here's my thoughts on what it should have been.

Crisis Core should have been great. It is supposed to reveal to us the history of a character who we know virtually nothing about, Zack. It also is supposed to reveal more about pre-evil Sephiroth. Did it succeed? Not really. It did show us a bit of Sephiroth's character, and that was nice, and Zack received some development. But not nearly as much as they could have. As others have mentioned, Crisis Core tries to hard to pull its punches and is to hamfisted to really have a deep impact on the player.


So how could it have been better? Well I'll share my opinion. First, lets say Angeal and Genesis are both First Class, but aside form that they are normal SOLDIERs at first. So the game starts with the Wutai war, lets say the first four chapters cover that. We should focus on the brutal nature of the fighting, show SOLDIERs fighting against waves of enemies as they try to overrun fortified positions. Lets make it gritty and brutal. Really try to show the horror of war. Maybe have a SOLDIER like Kunzel lose a limb, and lament to Zack that he will never fight again and be forced to retire.


Also, as Mog said lets have a Wutai General act as our Antagonist, but not as a villian. He's just a guy trying to protect his home from foreign invaders, and maybe he does some immoral things to do it, but in the end he's not evil, just desperate. Zack comes into the war with Angeal and gets involved in a number of battles and is maybe shocked at the brutal nature of war. Angeal as his mentor would help guide him through this tough time. Genesis and Sephiroth would also be there. Lets say in Chapter two Genesis is injured and is taken back to Midgar to recover.


Zack in the meantime meets Cloud and foils an attack against Shinra forces by WG (Wutai General) and is promoted to First. At this time Sephiroth begins leading an offensive towards the capitol, and during all this time we would be steadily learning more about Wutai culture and history, and also seeing other SOLDIERs fight against Wutai. We would leave behind the stylized acrobatics the Compilation oh so loves, and focus on making it gritty and brutal, though we can still show SOLDIER to be superhuman.


Genesis returns in Chapter four and joins an assualt led by Sephiroth on the Wutai capitol. We should also build up Genesis and Angeal as being childhood friends. Genesis seems different at this point, more aggressive and brutal. The war ends as Sephiroth forces Godo to sign a treaty while Zack fights WG, who would summon Leviathan to aid him. Maybe some other SOLDIERs like Essai and Sebastion help Zack.


Chapters five and six go into the aftermath. Shinra is having a hard time stabilizing due to losses in the war, while Zack begins dating Aerith after meeting her. Zack Angeal and Sephiroth notice that Genesis is beginning to get worse. They would eventually learn that Hollander tried to see what would happen if monster DNA was fused to that of a SOLDIER, and he used Genesis for this. Genesis begins to mutate while becoming more hostile and feral. He leaves Shinra while Sephiroth kills Hollander, knowing he's to important to the company to suffer any serious consequences. Zack and Angeal follow Genesis to Banora, where Genesis has lost control of himself and slaughters most of the villiage before isolating himself in the warehouse.


Angeal confronts him, and Genesis attacks. Angeal refuses to kill Genesis and is impaled. Genesis then attacks Zack, but Sephiroth arrives on scene and Genesis is forced to fly away (We'll say he egts wings as part of the mutations. Angeals makes Zack swear to help Genesis and passes him the Buster Sword. Sephiroth also says his goodbyes to Angeal as he dies. In the aftermath of this, Zack and Sephiroth work together to locate where Genesis has gone. When they find out, Sephiroth decides not to go because he can't stand the though of having to kill one of his only friends.


Zack along with Cloud and a couple other troops find Genesis near Modeoheim in the Mako Excavation site. Genesis has little sanity left, and quickly attacks. Some of the troops are killed, and Cloud is badly hurt. Zack takes over the fight and goes one on one with Genesis, back is unable to kill Genesis. Genesis manages to regain control before killing Zack, and dissapears
Afterwards Zack is badly demoralized, but Aerith helps him to keep from breaking down. Then Nibelheim rolls around. It goes pretty much the same as the OG, with the addition of the Sephiroth boss fight. Afterwards we could maybe see some of the experimentation that Hojo does, before Zack escapes with Cloud. We would see more of Zack's life on the run, evading Shinra troops and trying to reach Midgar.


Along the way he sees signs of Genesis's presence, such as farms that have been attacked and people claiming a deranged man in a red coat came through the area. and follows him back to Banora where he finds Genesis has lost all semblance of humanity, being totally consumed by the monster in him. Genesis allows himself to fully mtuate and battles Zack long and hard before Zack wins. Genesis regains his sanity as he is dying and thanks Zack, then he dies.


Zack's death would then go the same way as in the OG. A few dozen troops at the most attack, and we have a nice cutscene where Zack fights them in the rain. This fight should be hard and brutal, with bullets and blood everywhere. Zack goes down and the troops leave, while Zack gives Cloud the Buster sword and a few brief lines of dialogue. Thn he is dead too, no J-pop song to mess up the tragedy of the situation. Cloud moves on to Midgar and the game ends.


That is how Crisis Core should have been.

 

[looneymoon]

On Crisis Core, I don't have much more to add from what Mog said, but here are goes:

Keep the "what makes a monster/what makes a hero" concept, but not make it totally literal and stupid. By this I mean, raise ethical dilemmas Zack must face while fighting the war, or even the former AVALANCHE group. Show Sephiroth as a total bastard on the battlefield, and have Zack come to terms with this/killing people he sympathizes with. Eliminate any characters having any actual wings. Honestly, they were so stupid. Perhaps even combine Genesis/Angeal into one fully developed, interesting character. I think the SOLDIER rebellion could work on a smaller scale, if it was limited to a small milita of Wutai sympathizers. We'd thus still have the plot point of Zack having to choose between two mentor-like figures. The choice being either to stay with Shinra (thus ensuring his status as a hero-celebrity etc.) or defecting with the other side, thus doing what's right.

The height of this conflict would culminate with Zack choosing ShinRa, thereby "selling out" so to speak. As in the actual CC, part 1 would end with Zack having to kill his mentor. The second half of the game would be about Zack regaining his integrity as a soldier. This part of the game would also focus more on the operations of ShinRa, how SOLDIER functions, interactions with the Turks, Aeris-Zack's growing relationship etc. Zack would probably be promoted to first class at this point (rather than at the beginning of the story), acting as a sort of right-hand man to Sephiroth, a position he would have personal difficulties with. Nibelheim would be Zack coming to terms with all of the things he experience through the story. Dying for Cloud would remain as his ultimate heroic act. As said before me, with a much bleaker ending and without the corny afterlife sequence.

 

[Max Payne]

Maybe they could just do some important scenes. I dunno, I think we have some good talent here

and by good talent you mean me

 

[Ite]

I don't see any disadvantage to having Godo as a final boss and main villain. He already *has* a zany JRPG super-saian form! And nobody would be crying character-rape if he was shown as villainous and Shinra the heroes.

Like the Hobbit to LotR. If you read the Hobbit afterwards, you know the ring is bad, but the Hobbit doesn't even go into it. That's great.

I also don't see the point of having Zack's death appear at all in CC. Sure, that's his role in FF7, but if we're approaching entries in the *superior imaginary* Compilation as stand-alone stories, there is at least a whole game in Zack's past that doesn't hamfistedly overlap with the FF7 storyline.

If CC focused on Zack rising through the ranks of Shinra, ending at First Class and winning the Wutai war with Sephiroth, not only is there tons of potential for developing them as characters and as friends, but we also aren't shown the Nibelheim scene again and it doesn't completely spoil every plot twist in FF7 like Crisis Core did.

In CC, have a couple of scenes with Cloud enlisting as an MP or whatever, and beginning to develop a kinship with Zack. Allude to the idea that Cloud could join SOLDIER after the Wutai War, and if as many people got into FF7 through CC, they would assume that was the case - and then they get as much out of the FF7 story as people without CC did.

Also, Loveless was a play, not a poem. Like, heavily alluding to Les Miserables, with both the posters in Midgar and the piece of plot that Cid describes. Even if it was written in verse, it wouldn't be as retarded as the shit in CC.

 

[null]

I'd start with fixing AC. It's real simple. Stop underestimating the target demographic. Get a real movie staff instead of assigning your fucking character designer as the director. Don't expect people to read a half-baked novella beforehand to know what's going on. Instead of rehashing enemies and plot already resolved in FF7, set the stage for the Compilation to grow.

 

[Max Payne]

CC didn't even need to cover Sephiroth's madness and the Nibelheim crap. We'd been through that shit enough already.

What a waste of space, that could have been used on new content.

 

[Lord Noctis]

I actually enjoyed seeing the Neibelheim incident in CC, even if I was severely annoyed by the retcons. It along with the experiements, and the time sepnt on the run, culminating in Zack sacrificing himself to protect Cloud isntead of making a break for it to be with Aerith was a major part of his character, and it wouldn't feel right to have a game about him that doesn't include these things.

 

[Dark and Divine]

About DC, how about deleting most of it and make a game about Vincent while he was a Turk?

That way, we would still have VincentXLucrecia for its fans, but instead of Shinra's secret army, Chaos and Omega, we could have Shinra while it was still an arms dealer, Gast's involvement in the Jenova Project, etc...

And that way, the Compilation would chronologically end how it should, with AC/ACC.

 

[Max Payne]

But then we couldn't have had those delightful debates about how Vincent is more powerful than everyone!

 

[Lord Noctis]

About DC, how about deleting most of it and make a game about Vincent while he was a Turk?

That way, we would still have VincentXLucrecia for its fans, but instead of Shinra's secret army, Chaos and Omega, we could have Shinra while it was still an arms dealer, Gast's involvement in the Jenova Project, etc...

And that way, the Compilation would chronologically end how it should, with AC/ACC.

Actually thats a really good idea. But what sort of conflict and enemies would Vincent be dealing with? Would we want to take a less action-packed approach and focus on the mystery and romance?

 

[Max Payne]

Because we went down that road already and they fucked the shit out of it?

 

[Dark and Divine]

Actually thats a really good idea. But what sort of conflict and enemies would Vincent be dealing with?

Lucrecia's ex-boyfriends?

But, really, Shinra must have stepped over a lot of people to rise that high.

Maybe the antagonists could be a rival company or something.

 

[Lord Noctis]

Lucrecia's ex-boyfriends?

But, really, Shinra must have stepped over a lot of people to rise that high.

Maybe the antagonists could be a rival company or something.

That could work. It could have a focus on Espionage, since the turks aren't exactly geared for head on warfare.

 

[Tennyo]

Absolutely focus more on the Wutai war and Yuffie.

Also I think they shouldn't have animated Case of Denzel. If they had to animated one I think Case of Shinra or CoT would have been a better choice.

I think they should animate ALL of the the novellas, actually. Perhaps do an Animatrix thing and let different houses do each one? Then release it all over the world (not just Japan!), along with maybe a copy of the book. To make it more accessible to fans.

They don't even need to dub them. I'm fine with subtitles.

 

[Max Payne]

I think they should animate ALL of the the novellas, actually. Perhaps do an Animatrix thing and let different houses do each one? Then release it all over the world (not just Japan!), along with maybe a copy of the book. To make it more accessible to fans.

They don't even need to dub them. I'm fine with subtitles.

I already said that.

KEEP UP BITCH.

 

[looneymoon]

DoC should have been cut down to the barest of bare minimums and should have been released as "Case of Vincent." The end.

Then again, the novellas should not have been in novella format as they are written in a terrible prose style. Well, to be fair it maybe because of the language issue... but still, I don't really think the novella approach really fit. I like the idea of animated shorts myself, then there would be no need for Lost Order to exist

 

[Max Payne]

I actually enjoyed seeing the Neibelheim incident in CC, even if I was severely annoyed by the retcons. It along with the experiements, and the time sepnt on the run, culminating in Zack sacrificing himself to protect Cloud isntead of making a break for it to be with Aerith was a major part of his character, and it wouldn't feel right to have a game about him that doesn't include these things.

Meh. There was no real point to covering all of that shit again. They should have had the story self contained in Zack's past. We already knew how he would die and what happened to Sephiroth. Like the event really needed to be covered AGAIN.

 

[Tennyo]

I already said that.

KEEP UP BITCH.

Excuse me for not bothering to read the second page of the thread.

 

[Max Payne]

NO.

 

[Lord Noctis]

Now that I think about it, you could probably cut out Last Order altogether and The Compilation would benefit as a result.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

DoC should have been cut down to the barest of bare minimums and should have been released as "Case of Vincent." The end.

Then again, the novellas should not have been in novella format as they are written in a terrible prose style. Well, to be fair it maybe because of the language issue... but still, I don't really think the novella approach really fit. I like the idea of animated shorts myself, then there would be no need for Lost Order to exist

It wasn't a language issue, actually. They really are written like that.

Nojima is good at characterization, but not at setting a scene or illustrating its developments.

Now that I think about it, you could probably cut out Last Order altogether and The Compilation would benefit as a result.

Considering that even SE has taken this approach, you aren't wrong.

 

[Dashell]

And Before Crisis really, regardless of how many people played it.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Before Crisis should have stayed in Morpheus's library -- particularly the section on unwritten stories.

 

[Lord Noctis]

What even happens in BC anyway that needed a story about it? Seriously, as far as I can tell nothing in BC has effected anything in any other entry of the Compilation.

 

[Dashell]

Nanaki found a mate and Sephiroth jumped into the pit rather than being thrown?