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Planing a return

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(09-02-2019, 08:30 AM)Catone Wrote: With a first read, I get the feeling I'll want to pull back in some aspects (closer to vanilla) and go farther with other aspects. While this plan defiantly fills several story holes, it almost (again this is after a quick read) feels to far away from original for my own goal. Least I think, will defiantly be re-reading everything later, slower.
Could you tell me what's bothering you about the proposal?

My take on Celes isn't as far afield as it seems: she's canonically responsible for ending Maranda's resistance with fire.  It's the action that brought Doma--Maranda's primary shipping and trade partner--into the war.  Thamasa is the perfect opportunity to address this history, as well as wrinkle her relationship with Locke (who hates the empire for applying a similar tactic in Kohlingen, a move which ended Rachel's life).

If you don't like my take on Shadow, it lifts out like hydrogen peroxide pulls out a stain; Shadow and Strago needn't interact at all.  Apparently the developers originally intended to have Strago confront Shadow in a scene which was later cut.  This makes it a good point for vanill-ish expansion.  However, it all depends on how much you want to explore the characters: like you said, you're not going to be able to expand the game's story without putting some chocolate syrup into that vanilla.  Granted, you don't have to go as far as say writing Locke out entirely in favor of Cid as a playable character, or depicting Umaro as a time-traveling robot disguised as a sasquatch because his chronograph told him the wrong year and he thought he'd have to blend with cavemen Huh , but you have the right to take liberties where characters are undefined.

With all that in mind, I understand you want to stay as close to the intended narrative as possible.  For a Thamasa split, the only character I could see as being truly problematic while kept vanilla is Terra.  If she remains a lovesick robot and she gets alone time with Leo in the Crescent Mountains, it takes the sting out of his subsequent murder in Thamasa (barring a significant rewrite, including the loss of the haunting statement "I wanted to learn so much from you"; such a rewrite being the very thing you want to avoid).  Keep in mind vanilla Terra has no characterization beyond her amnesia and her obsession with love: even after her reunion with her father's crystal corpse she doesn't fill in the details between toddling child and Arvis's removal of the slave crown.  To write new content for her at all she requires motivation beyond her amnesia persona, and motivation comes from backstory.  And being worried about being nothing more than a living weapon isn't that far of a stretch, I guess the only deviance my version makes from established canon is the motivation behind burning the troops.  According to the guide that discussed it, Kefka made her do it as a test of the Slave Crown, which... honestly doesn't make sense to me, why would Gesthal allow him to massacre his own soldiers?  That's poor asset management is what that is.  Especially with his forces hitting a wall in Doma.  Dude, you don't start a new front with a currently submissive monarchy AND throw away soldiers on some experiment when you can test the experiment in combat against your currently hostile foes!

...

Alternatively, if the thing that's bothering you is Relm entering the burning building instead of Strago, I'm not sure how that could be remedied.  Without making her playable at the start of the burning house scenario, she gets no growth opportunities before the Floating Continent.  Keeping the entirety of Thamasa's story vanilla, though, makes the branch too long in proportion to the Vector escape, and leaves no room for two of the characters.  If that were the case, you'd probably want to handle the Vector escape as a flashback, starting after Edgar's arrival in Thamasa but before Kefka's attack.



(09-02-2019, 08:30 AM)Catone Wrote: You see, something I wanted to do with those was set up "officers", prior to the main boss, who until taken out would continually send troops toward the team. Forcing the player to either charge quickly or risk being overrun and eventually just wore down from a never ending battle. While the Vector escape could use some filling out with a battle such as that, the burning building just seems perfect for that type of battle.
Ooh, that'd be perfect for the Vector escape!  Move the scene from the barracks to the Vector Bar (a woefully underused map, if I do say so myself), then do the battlefield in the city proper (possibly with new boxes/unbeatable encounters as well, to constrict the player's mobility).  You have to get all three parties to stand at the top of the palace stairs to end the fight.
I'm having a little more trouble picturing it in the burning house (I get that spawning flames would infinitely spew bombs at the player, but the win condition escapes me).

After reading your idea, I also had some thoughts about setting up a similar encounter in the Crescent Mountain statue room (goal being get to and beat Ultros, perhaps even multiple times around the room), but coming up with minions for him to launch at you (except maybe extra tentacles?) proved too difficult for me, especially given the confined space of that room.  It doesn't help that I feel Ultros too is a terribly under-explored character--his origins a mystery and his purpose nothing more than a running gag.  Considering his first appearance on the Lete River as the Returners base was under attack, I like to think of him as a failed Augmentation experiment (too much magic injected, turned him into an Esper, just as anyone who stepped between the Triad's beams would be) trying to get back into the Emperor's favor by attacking the Returners' back door (the birth of a rivalry).  With that interpretation, he could easily send wave after wave of monstrous aberrations or magitek machinery at the players.  Without it... he has Chupon.  Which is a thing I suppose.

Anyway, just think of all of this blathering as food for thought.  You don't need to use all or even any of it.
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Messages In This Thread
Planing a return - by Catone - 08-13-2019, 11:10 AM
RE: Planing a return - by PowerPanda - 08-13-2019, 03:56 PM
RE: Planing a return - by C-Dude - 08-13-2019, 05:51 PM
RE: Planing a return - by Catone - 08-14-2019, 09:57 PM
RE: Planing a return - by Imzogelmo - 08-27-2019, 11:19 AM
RE: Planing a return - by C-Dude - 08-28-2019, 04:10 PM
RE: Planing a return - by PowerPanda - 08-29-2019, 10:20 AM
RE: Planing a return - by C-Dude - 08-29-2019, 08:35 PM
RE: Planing a return - by PowerPanda - 08-30-2019, 11:06 AM
RE: Planing a return - by Catone - 09-01-2019, 08:49 PM
RE: Planing a return - by C-Dude - 09-02-2019, 12:59 AM
RE: Planing a return - by Catone - 09-02-2019, 08:30 AM
RE: Planing a return - by C-Dude - 09-07-2019, 02:58 AM
RE: Planing a return - by Lockirby2 - 09-02-2019, 02:56 PM

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