SaGa-Gate
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| June 30th, 2011 |
06/30- 12:00PM EST
I finally finished the crazy Avadon
review I've been working on forever, so now I
have even more energy to answer some great letters (and work on
finishing Dungeon Siege III for
review)! That thing was a long time coming, and I hope it does the job
of showing people whether or not the game is for them.
Enough about that, someone proposed a sequel to SaGa and that must be responded to
post haste!
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Hi again Wheels!
So I thought long and hard about what game needs a crazy sequel. Sure,
there are the popular games to theorize on, the endless continuations
of Chrono Trigger, individual
Final Fantasy,
heck even Suikoden - I had a
decent idea for Wild Arms 6
at one point, but I went back to a series that has long been relegated
to (mostly unlocalized) remakes... yes, I'm discussing the original SaGa series (or Final Fantasy Legend if people
still prefer).
Wheels
People still prefer to call them that, which is OK given how bad a name
SaGa has
gotten in recent years, but we shall do no such thing here at Q&A! SaGa shall go back to its proper
name!
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Thematically, the first two SaGa
were set on the backdrop of individual mini-worlds ruled by entities
from several mythologies with a final twist at the end. I think this
should continue on (though I know SaGa
III changed this up a bit with the time travel system and less
reliance on "real world mythology", most of the elements were there,
just evolved). But here's an idea born from that base idea: Why
not make a SaGa IV where the
main characters journey to ACTUAL alien worlds, with a central temple
with something akin to stargates that keeps them interconnected?
The story: they are trying fend off their world being taken over by an
entire alien Federation!
Wheels
Did you seriously just somehow tie together one of my favorite video
game series with one of my favorite tv/movie series? That is a
fantastic idea that fits in perfectly with the older SaGa games and I love it already.
You could hide all kinds of secret worlds in the game, add extras as
DLC, the possibilities are endless!
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I've always thought the Esper/Robot/Monster side of the equation would
fit well with a true sci-fi oriented story, especially with just how
bizarre some of the miniworlds in the games could get. Having
alien worlds would give all sorts of incentive to cross-pollenate
fantasy and sci-fi in continuously mindbending ways. Robots and
Monsters would get a lot of benefit from this scenario as the
technology would be there to support upgrading Robots and the
Monsters... well... they get to eat alien meat! How could you
resist?
Wheels
The potential for an insane number of monster combinations would make
for quite the interesting game, giving you sort of that "gotta catch
them all" mentality, trying to find all the different kinds of monsters
in the game. Robots could easily be as interesting, maybe with the
ability to fix various alien machinery onto them, such as new weapons,
armor etc.? Lots of potential here.
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The idea of fighting off and subverting a Federation came to me
because, well, usually it's always one single alien race that is the
cause of the crux of the story, or the main characters ARE the
Federation, so why not completely flip that around where your
characters are the race "causing problems" and alone in the galaxy.
What if this group of dozens of pretentious aliens came along and said
"ok Earth, you better join us" but Earth just wanted to be left
alone? There would definitely be some who would strongly resist
integration ESPECIALLY if there was a hostile intent behind the purpose
of an alien Federation, and that's where our main characters could come
in. They could stumble across a star chart or something from a
visiting alien ambassador, or maybe their world has a stargate or
other-dimensional corridor that they can use to take the fight to the
hostile aliens' capital cities. Also, the main characters
wouldn't have access to a starship, so this would keep space travel
limited to where the gates can actually take them.
Wheels
Well, to be fair Halo did
the whole opposing federation of aliens thing, though of course humans
were never given the option to join in that storyline. This would work
swimmingly, trying to use the gate to travel around the opposing
federation, always going into hostile territory, perhaps with towns in
the form of camps of those few aliens who do oppose the federation? The
potential here is just through the roof.
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And of course, there is a leader planet (basically the role that Earth
plays in most sci-fi scenarios) that would gradually get more and more
involved in the going ons, threatening to outright destroy the main
characters' planet if they didn't stop their attacks - or perhaps they
make their own party of "heroes" that goes out to put a stop to the
main characters after they had brought down the leaders of the smaller
member planets.
Wheels
That could be interesting, perhaps even have an alternate scenario via
DLC or something where you play as that alien party of "heroes"!
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So yeah, it seems like a large scope with all the individual worlds,
but it would still be in the vein of other small scope SaGa games in that the accessible
parts of these worlds is limited to only the important sections, I'm
sure we could explain with the story why specific areas are the
targets. And of course, I don't think there should be a required
party makeup, it should still be up to the player to choose
Humans/Espers/Robots/Monsters and whatnot. The connecting
stargate palace/corridor/whatever could be made into a centralized
dungeon just like the towers from before, and getting access abilities
from the alien leaders (the world's gods maybe, to fit with the
over-the-top theme) would be how to keep things linear.
Wheels
Well, I'm sold, seems like a brilliant way to bring the SaGa series back to its roots while
at the same time doing something new. So long as they don't make the
various worlds the player visits too large, it's quite feasible to do
as well. I'm not sure what lies in store for the SaGa series in the future, but I
can only hope its something like this.
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Anyways, hope you like it! Although, if I was a monster, I'm not
sure if I could eat alien meat-on-a-stick...
Thanks for reading it!
- Nightfox
Wheels
I enjoyed it very much! Someone, assuming this never becomes a SaGa game, needs to make this!
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Six Degrees of Separation Take Two
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(Continued from last week)
Hm, another connection game... link The
Cosmic Monster (also known as The
Strange World of Planet X) to Tengai
Makyou 2: Manjimaru.
-JuMeSyn
Wheels
OK, this one sure is a tough one. Strange
World of Planet X was released in 1990 for home video in the US
by Rhino Home Video-> Warner Bros. owns Rhino-> Warner Bros
published Scribblenauts in
the US->Konami handled the Japanese publishing of Scribblenauts->Konami owns
Hudson Soft->Tengai Makyou 2:
Manjimaru was published by Hudson Soft. |
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Make Us Forget Those Awful FFVII Sequels
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Hey Wheels. How's life goin'?
Wheels
Quite good! Hope all is well with you
as well.
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So I read Mimeblade's letter about being stuck in a funk and I'm here
to offer a solution (and praise a recent addiction in the process). Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga
(Or DKS). I picked this up
recently for $40 and I haven't fallen in love with an RPG this fast
since the first time I played a Fable
game (II, to be precise). It's
not turn-based combat, you have a difficulty slider so if you want to
breeze through enemies you can, though I've found that even on normal
difficulty I tend to die when ambushed by a few levels higher than I
am. Still, the world they give you to explore is amazing. The dialogue
is humorous, the characters are very interesting, the storyline is very
detailed and the backstory is deep (somewhat stock but has some nice
original spins tossed in to keep it interesting)... You don't have
to've played the first games in the series to know what's going on. The
combat is fun. The graphics are nothing to write home about but they
work amazingly well for what they are. I could go on but I'll stop
here. Basically it's a great action RPG in the lines of Fable or Fallout 3/New Vegas set in medieval times.
Also it comes with a soundtrack and an artbook. Gameplay claims to be
over 100 hours as there are two campaigns to the storyline (I've yet to
finish the first one and have been playing for 30+ hours I believe).
It's a great RPG that seems to be getting overlooked despite the fact
that it is definitely as good as Fallout
3 was. In my opinion at least.
Wheels
Divinity
II is very much a good buy (this new version anyway). I did not
even think of recommending this! Just need to make sure anyone looking
to buy it gets the new The Dragon
Knight Saga version and not the original buggy release. Again, a
great game to recommend to the reader who wrote in previously. With a
better take on combat than your average open world RPG, it could be
just the thing to get them back into RPGs. The artbook and soundtrack
are nice touches as well. Certainly not a brilliant game of course, but
it's a good time nonetheless.
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Also for my contest entry I'd like to propose a sequel to FFVII. Not the most original choice
I'm sure, but it is something I've always wanted to see and have
thought a lot about. Set it 10-15 years after Dirge Of Cerberus. Denzel could be
the protagonist (following in Cloud's footsteps). Red XIII, Vincent,
and Shelke don't really age so they could all be main characters. Reeve
with Cait Sith would also be an option but we won't really talk about
that much... Yuffie would be just old enough to be a serious fighter
(and it would be nice to see her acting a little more mature for once).
You have Genesis (does he age?) and Weiss (again with the aging?) that
could be potential main enemies. You could also bring back Sephiroth
(whom also doesn't age as far as I know) to please the fanboys/girls.
It would be kinda awesome to see a 33-38 year-old Cloud having another
round with a still-young and overpowered Sephiroth. Also I'm sure
Marlene would be about ready to start doing some fighting of her own in
one way or another. I imagine it would be hard to have Barrett as a
father figure and not have that whole "I must prove myself to him"
kinda feeling. Also, on a personal note it'd be nice to have the Gold
Saucer back. I miss mini-GAMES. Mini-card-based-distractions got old
quick and after the total disappointment that FFXIII was (to me at least) it'd be
nice to see Squeenix make a game that is meant to be fun. They haven't
done that in a while.
Wheels
Hey, the idea of a FFVII isn't original, but your
actual ideas for that sequel can be(and appear to be) just that. Going
farther into the future focusing on the characters in their later years
would be quite interesting, and certainly gets away from the
stereotypical stories of teen heroes. It would be quite interesting to
see how the various character relationships evolved and changed over
time. Would Cloud still be a mopey jerk? Would Yuffie still be overly
cheerful? Would anyone figure out how Cloud can even carry that
giant sword? Such questions this sequel would need to answer, and it
could produce quite the interesting story.
As for mini-games, though I did love FFXIII
I'd have to agree that more card or Gold Saucer type distractions need
to get back in the series.
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Also, just a quick thing. What advice would you give to someone that
has recently begun to start making indie games (platformers and RPGs
specifically)?
Lataz,
Rob S. / Kain V.
www.EmbracingFate.com
Wheels
The best piece of advice I think I can
give, based on my experience in the software developing world, is to
plan very well ahead of time. Very clearly sketch out your game, how
you're going to split up different parts of programming, etc. Even if
you're the only one developing these games, trust me in saying this
kind of documentation is quite useful! Hope that helps.
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@AskWheels Dear Mister AskWheels/ How is your contest going/
Do better next time. ^_^
@RivanShadeX
Wheels
Hello there good sir / The contest is going well / Did I do poorly?
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That's it for this week! Keep the crazy sequel ideas for the contest
coming in. Next week we've got more from the king of content, a reader
points out some hex-based tactical games, and more
See you all next week!
-Wheels
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