Back in 2001/2002, I came up with an idea for a Final Fantasy that would've been quite well recieved by GAFfers I think.
I'm going to type it up; but the simple point I'm making is that, I could've made a better game then the shit they've come up with this generation.
It was to be the FF game in place of FFXV, the last FF game of this generation I thought back then (because every generation had 3 mainline FF games before this one).
It was going to involve more adult protagonists - some what manlier versions of the Prince from FFXIII V (with a similar hairstyle - I've got the artwork to prove it). Dude was going to reprise the role of a special forces operative - not really too far removed from Cloud, Squall and Lightning in that respect. Dude was going to be named: Rain. Very appropriate to an FF protagonist. Was actually flipping up between Storm and Rain - looks like FF wasn't far off the mark. There's also his bro-sef and his captain... whom I can't remember the name of anymore. These guys form a 2 party team. Like Kain to Cecil.
Game system was going to be a cross between FFXII and FFXIII versus - in that it's a real time action RPG, but pausable to allow access to additional options as well as allow the player to issue commands to party members.
Real time tactical battlefield - in battle team member swap outs like in FFX - except team members would cross over the battle field borders to change.
A lot of cool ideas - some deprecated, but some still very much applicable.
It would also involve robots and mecha combat as well, ala Xenogears.
And there would of course be an overworld. Fuck this no-overworld bullshit that they've been using for the last few games. So much shit.
The game would involve 3 acts - 1 stationed on the starter world - futuristic, no magic, sci-fi world, with robots and shit. At the end of the act, the space-jump ship the game world was preparing would be ready - our heroes would be assigned as security detail to the space jump ship fleet. This is kinda like a tutorial world; not much time is spent here, other than to establish the character backgrounds, and the game systems (including the robot systems).
Second act - the ship does its inaugural jump - but it fucks them up of course. Their test jump brings them to a planet that they've never seen... and the moon is fucking nuts - it's a moon of blue water/fire - and blue phantasm dragon snake things are leaping across its surface. The ships have jumped close enough for one of these dragons to attack - smashes the ships to bits - the main ship which our heroes are on crashes into the planet.
From the wreckage, our heroes start out with a bike, a sword and a gun, while in a desert. They quickly run out of ammo and fuel and are forced to trudge through the world. They discover it's a low-tech world; a bit FFIX steampunk, but with a lot of magic and magic creatures.
The world they're on is divided into 2 continents; story takes place primarily on one continent. This act comprises something like 50% of the game (assuming that act 1 is 10%). They travel, meet companions and discover the dastardly bad guy is the well liked immortal ruler of the most powerful kingdom on the continent. The bad guy is very pragmatic in character, but also quite ruthless. He concerns himself with the 'greater good' as he defines it, without much heed for the manner in which its achieved.
This means that his kingdom is a relative paradise - efficient, good economy, well functioning. But he's also been waging brutal war on smaller kingdoms - very much inspired by Genghis Khan - if they surrender, he folds them into his empire, but if they resist (and of course some do), he crushes them.
The heroes start by discovering smaller more distant kingdoms that haven't been reached by the large kingdom yet. This gives the player opportunity to empathize with their plights, even as the heroes travel across the landscape to find answers on where the survivors of the ship are and how if it's even possible to return from whence they came.
They're conscripted into the valiant, but ultimately futile defense of smaller nation kingdoms - these kingdoms have an asian theme to them. Once taken over, they're a guerilla band of adventurers that seeks to topple the 'immortal emperor' - the guy seems like the nexus of the kingdoms competency but also its terror - they think that cutting the head off will change everything.
Also, simultaneously, rumours and stories of 'another world' lead them in the same direction.
The heroes fight, and they get to the boss - he's amused and admires their effort. Then of course engages them in a fight, showing overwhelming superiority. He toys with them at first, but the fight moves to the second stage, and the numbers are heavily stacked in his favour - 99% of players will be crushed no matter what they do. The 1% that have been power levelling and all kinds of crazy shit will push him to stage 3 for a nice easter egg, where he retreats and they find themselves in a scripted beat down by his royal guards (who are inspired by The Five Star Stories royal guards, as well as Star War's imperial royal guards - they're elite, dressed in red cloaks, have different fighting styles and personalities and all serve as sub bosses throughout the game).
They're still alive at the end of the fight - they're left alone - the emperor and his guards have fled. But his bro... the 'kain' of the story has been kidnapped. Disappears. They find clues, which lead them to the other continent on the other side of the planet. The continent is fairly desolate - no civilizations - but crazy dinosaur beasts and the like - it's a prehistoric continent with dangerous life. The heroes aren't here for long - they track the emperor and his cohorts to some magic mountain in the center of the continent. The nexus of the world. Chasing them, they seem to be getting closer - until they get to the center of the mountain - the font of all magic in this world. They're too late - these guys have already opened the portal... and 'kain' is hooded, but appears to be brainwashed.
Some shit happens (no idea - detail to be written), and the world fucking explodes. That wasn't a portal to another world. It was a crazy ass spell to bring together the world that Kain and Rain came from to fuse it with the world they're with now. The reason is that there's something in the first world that the emperor needs - something that he needs to tap into, and this is what they needed to do to get there. The emperor's plan all along was to acquire artifacts from the various nations that would allow them to cast this spell. It was never about beating down the other nations.
Anyway - this moves us into the third act of the game. This is kinda like FF6's ruined world. The world merger has caused temporal instability as well - not everything has arrived at once - things merge together over time, and even after a couple years, things are still arriving from the magic world onto the newly formed tech-magic world.
The hero is of course one of these things - washed up on the shore 2 years after the event - he's one of the last things to have made it; so he comes into a world that's on the way to recovering and adapting to the dramatic changes wrought onto it.
Anyway, the story centers upon reacquring his team mates for a few hours. Once that's done, they figure out what's happening, where the emperor is, what can be done - that involves acquring the newly built space-time traveling ship. Massive motherfucker. It's more like a gliding skyscraper building then it is a space ship (although it doesn't look like a skyscraper). Big enough to house mechs and a base of operations - because that's exactly what it's going to be.
The plan is to kill the emperor and unsplit the world - the heroes learn that they'll need to travel back to the magic world before its merged - once they get the ship sufficiently improved, this is exactly what they do - so the game goes into a stage where it allows the player to travel freely back and forth between the two 'planets' - acquiring artifacts (the same artifacts used to merge the worlds) and overthrowing the emperor's bases in the merged world.
They also have access to both sides of the planet - it turns out the 'old world' is also full of awesome monsters and shit. Like the ultimate monsters/weapons are floating around this world, waiting for the players and their mechs (that's right motherfucker - EPIC) to come blow the shit outta them. The toughest fights are of course optional and available on this world, as well as whatever challenge towers is traditional to an FF game.
This old world is before the rise of the emperor, so feature smaller villages - cutting down on development effort.
Anyway, once the artifacts are assembled, the bases are down, the players advance on the emperor.
They have to fight their way through the remaining royal guards, a few in their mechs. They get to the emperor - his right hand man is Kain. Looks different - more awesome. Like Angel Kain. Anyway, the hero is forced to fight Kain singly (as the emperor has trapped the rest of his crew), mortally wounding him. Emperor then fights the crew - stage 1 normal, stage 2, larger, spectral guards come to his aid, stage 3 - fucking massive - player gets into their mechs to fight him. Stage 4 - enhanced glowy version, 1 v 1 between the hero and the emperor - Kain, in the background, sacrifices himself, releasing his power to Rain - this turns rain into a half/demon/man beast (like Dante's devil mode from DMC).
Show down ends - the boss is lying, near death - at this point, the story is supposed to reveal to the player how the whole point of what the emperor was doing was to cause instrumentality - that's right... merging the spiritual/soul essence of the entire human race into himself, and becoming a unified being of energy. Only now he's dying, and he can't - but the player still can - he can choose to initiate singularity... or deny it.
Accepting it is of course not canon, but available to the player as an alternative ending sequence. Canon - he rejects it, the world doesn't split,unmerge... the recollected artifacts were in fact the method by which instrumentality would initiate - not the method by which the world could be unmerged - it can't.
Game ends with sequences showing what the various characters and places touched by the character ends up doing with their lives in this new world.
Also, the game would include mini-games to allow the main character to romance various female characters. Each female would be romanced differently - one would require the right set of options to be chosen at specific moments throughout the game - the serendipity character. Another could be asked out, and brought out to places. Another still can be gifted items found throughout the game.
It would've been the FF game that we all would've wanted really.
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