FFVI: Divergent Paths

[ranatalus]

Because of all of the space freed up by the ending cutscene re-write, I am going to try to add a new event sequence to the WoB for the final 1.0 release. It will be The Razing of Vector, with the idea taken from Fast Moon's Antinomia hack. As soon as the Sealed Gate is opened and the Espers come out, the scene will shift to Celes and Leo, who must defend Vector against the rampaging espers. In this sequence, Leo will act automomously (like Cyan in the military camp). For each boss you fight and beat, you will gain a rare item. Should your party fall, you will not get a game over; you'll simply switch back to the grounded airship. I LOVE the storyline potential for this sequence, as it will:
1. Establish a relationship between Leo and Celes; something I didn't have room for previously.
2. Give Celes a reason to be ashamed, since she must once again fight alongside the Empire against the Espers.
3. Allow me to wordlessley show Leo discovering the truth of what the Empire did to the Espers.
4. Allow me to build anticipation for Leo, since Divergent Paths adds him to the party before he's proved how cool he is.

I love this idea so much! Even if they aren't much more than esper re-hashes (like Ifrit v. Kefka in Thamasa) it's still a cool concept. I'm guessing that it'll be a pretty severe difficulty ramp to make it worthwhile. My only concern is that a fight entirely against espers with Leo acting autonomously could go very badly if he just refuses to Runic.