The Final Fantasy (A Crossover Idea)

[Scar]

In the wish list topic, Drifloon brought to my attention that Final Fantasy seriously need to invest some time into the idea of a crossover rpg. Dissidia was nice, but there was no real story to dive into and it was a fighting game with rpg ideas.

They really need some sort of world which incorporates all the best qualities/aspects from each FF title and throw them all together in one giant massive rpg adventure.

Think about it, each game has a character or an idea, an item, a story sub plot, a vehicle, a famous landmark or town, evil villians that are memorable enough. Why not just take the best from each game and combine them all.

Like I said in the other thread, make it somewhat like Kingdom hearts, but without all the Disney filler. You don't even need a main character. Just make it like FF6 where you start with a certain point of view character and switch out between a different character until everyone all comes together.

They could add to characters who weren't fleshed out enough in their respected games. We could even learn the true identity of Gogo! Edge and Shadow could run around together. Zidane and Locke could be partners in crime. People could go to the colleseum and bet on their favorite Blitzball teams. Cid could team up with Edgar for even more wacky inventions. And just imagine all the summoners getting together!

The possibilities are endless really. There wouldn't even be any trademarking issues since all the rights and characters are owned by Square anyways.

But we all know it will never come to be. It still would be something that might be interesting to write about if anything. Plus, I have been itching to write about SOMETHING of interest recently, and this very well may be it.

What I have below is just a list of some of the more memorable what-have-yous from each game. If you want, please harp in and I can add anything you think I have excluded from the list. Believe me, I won't be able to complete it alone!

Memorable:

Characters (We can always trim the fat so to speak.)

1. The Warriors of Light?
2. Minh, Richard
3. Onions Knight? They could use some more meat.
4. Just about anyone. Cecil, Kain, Rosa, Edge, Rydia, ect.
5. Bartz, Boco.
6. Again, just about anyone in the cast.
7. Cloud, Tifa, Aeries, Zack
8. Squall, Zell, Rinoa, Laguna
9. Zidane, Stiener, Beatrix, Fratley
10. Tidus, Yuna, Wakka
11. Volker (Go Bastok Whoooop!)
12.
13.
T. Ramza, TG Cid, Zalbag, Beowulf
Ta. Rid, Mintz, Marche, Mewt
T2.
MQ. Benjamin, Tristam, Rueben, Phoebe

Places

1. Mirage Tower, The Flying Fortress
2. Pandemonium,
3. Crystal Tower
4. Castle Baron, Mount Ordeals, Land of Summoned Monsters, Tower of Babil, Mysidia
5. Ship Graveyard
6. Phanton Forest, Figaro, The Veldt, Magitec Faculty
7. Midgar, The Lifestream
8. Tomb of the Unknown King, D-District Prison
9. Chocobo's Paradise, Alexandria, Black Mage Village
10. Zanarkand, The Thunder Plains
11. Jueno
12.
13.
T. Orbonne Monastery
Ta.
T2.
MQ. Hill of Destiny (Because it sounds spiffy.)

Groups

1.
2.
3. The Four Fake Warriors of Light (The old guys.)
4. The Red Wings
5.
6. The Returners, Espers
7. The Turks
8. SeeD
9. Knights of Pluto, The Black Waltzs
10. The Al Bhed
11. The Immortals
12.
13.
T. Lucavi
Ta.
T2.
MQ.

Vehicles

1.
2.
3.
4. The Blue Whale, Hovercraft
5.
6. Falcon, Blackjack
7.
8. Ragnarock
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
T.
Ta.
T2.
MQ.

Villians

1. Garland, Chaos
2.
3. Xande
4. Golbez (more or less!), The Fiends, Zemus/Zeromus
5. Gilgamesh
6. Ultros, Zefka, Geshtal
7. Sephiroth, Rufus, Hojo
8. Seifer
9. Kuja, Zorn and Thorn
10. Jecht
11. The Shadow Lord, Promathia
12.
13.
T. Delita, Dycedarg, Algus, Elmdor (Just because him and Sephy-Poo should hang out....just once!)
Ta. 
T2.
MQ. Dark King (Rawr!)

Most of the ones left blank are from the games I haven't played (finished) or just couldn't think of a good idea for that topic. As said before, nothing is set in stone, and really this is purely fictional, and for fun.

So what do you think? What else should be incorporated for shits and giggles

[Taishyr]

Not sure what I'd write here, but just for some ideas:

FFTA2:
Heroes: Luso, Adelle, Cid, Hurdy, pretty much. Eh.
Places: Nowhere really notable.
Groups: Khadja, Duelhorn (Khadja is a crime ring Cid used to be in, Duelhorn is a foreign crime ring that's arguably set to reform itself after TA2 plot)
Vehicles: Airships are commonplace, but no specific ones are named.
Villains: Ewen, Illua, Neukhia the Space Flea.

Really, this cast isn't all too notable and wouldn't mesh too greatly with anything but the FFXII people (same universe). Luso at least has some crossover plot, and Khadja/Duelhorn might be good names for whatever crime ring might be needed (can provide specific details on request). Otherwise, eh.

[Dhyerwolf]

I'd prefer they focus on 4-10 & 12, and just pretend to the other games didn't exist much (Certainly, I wouldn't care to see like...the FF 3 PCs again at all).

[Yoshiken]

For FF2, everything can go burn, as far as characters go, except for LEON. It doesn't matter whether he's ally or villain (works better as villain, though. MUCH better.) He just needs to be there. He's an awesome character.
Possibly Firion and/or Maria, but not as fun.
2 also has the Rebel Army, if you want to count that. Probably has some fancy name in remakes, but eh.

Also totally needs more Quina. Can't go wrong with Quina hype (and, hey, he'd freaking own at Blitzball, right?)

[Excal]

I honestly can't see them forgetting any mainstream FFs.  But really, why just hold it there?  I mean, Square and Enix are not only one company, but they also have how many RPG franchises between them?

So, as long as you're aiming for crossover trainwreck, why not do Super RPG Wars?

I mean, you could do stuff like Guv calling a Team of Bahamut, Leviathan, Odin.  Or maybe a Fayt/Edgar double jump tech.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Oh geez... if Square and Enix ever really -did- make a giant crossover RPG, that would be really amazing. And the scope would be huge. NamcoXCapcom-like, only less fighting game/platformer characters.

The interesting thing is... considering the push for crossover games, it's not entirely impossible. It'd be especially fruitful if it was something like SquareEnixVSKonami or something... then we'd have Suikoden characters to add to SE's already giant list of franchises.

[Scar]

They have all the resources available, they would just have to put a creative group of collected minds together.

A giant Squeenix crossover would be massive, I thought the Final Fantasy idea was a good baby step idea that they could then go forward with in sequels.

It's an idea that Square should look into more. I mean, hell, they love milking the old games for all their worth. This would accomplish that goal and get attention for being a new game entirely. Everyone would be happy!

I think some sort of SRPG format would work best with the insane amount of characters they would have/try to incorporate.

[Grefter]

Making it an SRPG would also make it more and more niche  while you just keep talking about a more and more inflated budget.

The last time Square made something kind of niche and expensive just because they could gave us Spirits Within.  I doubt they are looking to make that kind of loss again.

[Meeplelard]

For FF2, everything can go burn, as far as characters go, except for LEON. It doesn't matter whether he's ally or villain (works better as villain, though. MUCH better.) He just needs to be there. He's an awesome character.
Possibly Firion and/or Maria, but not as fun.
2 also has the Rebel Army, if you want to count that. Probably has some fancy name in remakes, but eh.

Thanks to Dissidia, Firion has become an actually noteworthy character.  In fact, his and EMperor's performance in Dissidia made FF2's popularity skyrocket in Japan...yeah, FF2 got the good end of the deal as far as Dissidia goes (cause its oh so hard to improve either!)

Gordon is a character who also shows a modicom of development, relative to when FF2 was made.  He's a total wimp who gets bitch slapped by Hilda if you speak to her before getting the torch even, and by the end, he's no longer wimpy!  Yeah, its not well WRITTEN, but the development is THERE.

Really, FF2 should have at very least the primary 3, Leon, and maybe someone like Minwu or Leila (Minwu cause he's popular, Leila cause she's probably the most prominent temp.)  Oh yeah, and Emperor would pop up.

I was actually toying with this idea once and how it'd work.  I even tossed in Byuu from BL as the main character, complete with being a NON-Silent Protagonist.  Why him?

Cause a Non-FF Character from a pseudo-FF Spin Off who can be totally flexible in personality is perfect this, and the guy did run a huge bunch of misfits in his home game.  The way I saw the game starting off would be that he's dealing with crap, then suddenly 2 dead PCs (one of whom would have to be Auron cause, well, its Auron) would come and assist him, and shit happens from there.  no, I didn't envision much beyond that.

Well, I did come up with a scenario where Terra, Eiko and Barret all join on the same time frame.  Something like Eiko and Marlene end up under Terra's protection due to the random shit that happens, Barret, looking for Marlene, happens to stumble across, and of course, Byuu and Co. just HAPPEN to arrive at the right time and everything goes off without a hitch.  Think I also had a scenario involving Ignus from FF3 (FF3 characters are better than boring generics, no matter how bland they are) helping out Rosa, with Bartz sort of stumbling along to help out along the way...

...when you're doing cardboard for several hours at Linen's N Things for 2 years, your mind tends to wander, and you end up thinking about shit like this.  Its been a while since I thought of this stuff, so uh, yeah.

[Drifloon]

Well, Firion's fighting style is incredibly cool, but I wouldn't say he was a good character...he's basically just 'Wild Rose!!!' for the whole thing lulz. Emperor was brilliant.

Since any generic silent protagonist can do that job, it seems weird to include someone from a non-FF game just for that. Unless you were going to turn it into a full-on SE crossover, in which case by all means...

Anyway, my original idea was a strategy RPG, not a regular turn-based one as this topic seems to suggest - not that a turn-based crossover wouldn't still be great, mind, but the logic behind the SPRG choice is that there's room for a lot more characters and more large-scale battles that way.

[Scar]

Actually, my thoughts all along were for a SRPG anyways!

As far as a Mc I think they should just be a generic created character. Like some soldier who is witnessing all these bad asses come together and is sort of like the narrator in a sense except he can participate in battles if you want. Kinda like the guy from Chaos Wars, but not from a different world or what have you.

Actually...Grefter, how were the sales of Squares crossover games anyways? Dissidia and KH must have sold well. I can't see (if they put time and effort into a project such as this) it losing them much in profits. SW was just a poor excuses to see how much the world was under their control and failed miserably.

[074]

Drifloon: Only half a point there on that issue.  Bahamut Lagoon was originally going to be called, at one point or another, Final Fantasy Tactics.  That was before they changed it and made the FFT we know today for the Playstation.  You could see the connection as well (I..don't think the Presenters were exactly a coincidence in that case, for example)  So in a strange way, it works to a decent degree of effect if an Original main was to be avoided (BL main was silent, yes, so they could take whatever liberties they wanted with him, personality-wise).


As regarding the SRPG issue...on the plus side, it would be a lot easier to further diversify characters with a SRPG base, given the additional parameters that are stock and staple (Movement, Area-effects)...

[Meeplelard]

Yeah, that's why I said Byuu actually.  Bahamut Lagoon was originally going to be an FF spin off, and ended up being something different.  Its pretty obvious if you just look at the game's general style and what not.

Using him would be a cute jab at this fact, and doesn't require making a whole new original one.

[Scar]

That could work. In fact a lot of good ideas are always mentioned, yet I don't see how/why these types of things are never brought to the attention of the company.

You would get the attention of the old school fans as well as the new school fans alike with a game like this.

What's best is that they could have a relationship meter or something for each playable character. Some characters just don't get along with others, while other characters just mesh very well together and make for better teammates.

[Grefter]

Actually...Grefter, how were the sales of Squares crossover games anyways? Dissidia and KH must have sold well. I can't see (if they put time and effort into a project such as this) it losing them much in profits. SW was just a poor excuses to see how much the world was under their control and failed miserably.

These sold on more than just being a cross over.  Fighters and Action games are far more broad reaching genres than strategy games.

Edit - And the scope you are talking is huge, this is massively expensive.  You need to be hitting the kinds of targets you sell main series installments with a spin off here.  For a strategy game.  Unless this is some full on StarCraft shit right here it just would not happen.  Can I see Square releasing a game as balanced as a Craft game?  Heellllllllllllllllllll nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo in short.

[DjinnAndTonic]

*shrugs* The game doesn't have to be another Dissidia. Namco X Capcom (but with Squeenix) is basically what we're describing here and NXC was received well enough. Squeenix could make a NXC clone and do it cheaper as it's all being done in-house instead of between two companies.