WIP from the Story “The Shape of a Soul”
With her hunting gear in tow, Marya paused by their little shrine to pray to the dragon. Their family was the only one around to still worship the big sky lizards, as Ivan, one of her little cousins, liked to call them with a mischievous grin.
There had been a time where such a thing had been different, when dragons had truly existed, but they had disappeared one by one and new religions had popped up, so things had changed.
Dragons, once mighty protectors and fierce warriors, had turned into greedy storybook monsters, jealously and gleefully burning everything to the ground and feasting on the flesh of mortals while sitting on mountains of treasure.
Marya had a blurry memory of her parents, before they had died to the blue fever, asking them why they worshipped something everyone else thought was bad and evil. She remembered her mother and father chuckling softly and a big hand gently brushing over her hair.
'Don’t mind what other people say', Mother had said to her. 'They long since forgot the truth as it got overwritten by different people saying new things. We will stay true to ourselves, never forget that my sweet.'
Marya very quietly and softly clapped her hands together twice as she bowed to the carved wooden dragon, a relic that had been in her family’s possession for over three hundred years.
Below the protective arch of the dragon's body and its calm, steady gaze was a small wooden house with faceless people waving up at it. Trees and farm animals had been carved out of the wood as well, the dragon's tail curving around it all securely. It was one big piece of beautiful craftsmanship.
"I will hunt well today," she whispered determinedly to the dragon as she closed her eyes for a moment. "To take meat to the market to buy things to make the children happy and ensure they have everything they need when I travel. Please protect this house and them in my absence."
Lowering her arms and straightening, she felt herself fill with purpose as she eased the creaking front door open and slipped outside, closing it just as gingerly. The sky was just starting to grow lighter along the horizon and she saw the outline of crows sitting atop the buildings around her.
"Good morning, guardians," she whispered and lifted the heavy lid of a small clay pot beside the house to grab a fistful of seeds. She left a trail of seeds as she walked to the edge of their little village, the crows flapping down to eat, some trailing after her for a moment longer.
She had no idea who had started the tradition of feeding the local crows, but it had certainly proven useful. They saw the village as their own by now and had grown to like the people here. The crows had helped them out a few times since then, be it by bringing the occasional coin or pretty thing a traveler had lost or causing an incredible ruckus when one of the children had fallen down the well without anyone else around. The boy had been pulled out in time thanks to them.
Everyone called them the guardians of their village, a settling too small to be on any map or to have a proper village square for trading, but the locals liked to call this place Green Rock. It was named after the incredibly big and incredibly mossy boulder that was right at the entrance to their village. Sometimes the elders liked to joke that it had been a gift of a rock troll or even that it was a troll itself, sleeping here until the end of the world came.
Part 2 here. Part 3 here.
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FFVII Rebirth and Gameplay at the Cost of Atmosphere
This is probably going to be part 1 of a series of posts/mini-essays so I'll write more on it later, but while doing one of the Chapter 12 Sidequests in Rebirth, I finally figured out how to phrase one of my biggest issues with this game:
There are several places in Rebirth where they include special gameplay at the cost of good atmosphere. This often, but not always, accompanies either a change or new addition to the plot.
I've put some elaboration on what I mean below. For now, it's only looking at that one sidequest in Chapter 12, though it happens all over the game. But the tl;dr is that sometimes game shoots itself in the foot/misses completely when trying to create a certain atmosphere because it prioritizes a certain type of gameplay that is antithetical to that atmosphere.
The Monsters Aren't Real, and How That Hurts the Atmosphere
The sidequest in question is Lament of the Damned, the sidequest in Shinra Manor where you go with Vincent to explore reports of a crying woman. The thing that got me about this one was the combat trials.
What's in the Game
When you go explore under the manor, both Vincent and Hojo mention deadly combat trials, which is a great setup for some horror and an overall creepy atmosphere. Because wow! If Hojo has no qualms about putting his own experiments to death if they don't prove worthy, that means he's really messed up! (And that Vincent in particular has had an even more disturbing past than we thought). The manor was definitely creepy in the original with all of the monsters roaming the halls and the pop up Ying Yang in particular. There are no more battles in the Shinra Manor (besides Cait Sith's section), so maybe this is their way of making up for that.
Except... in the Remake, the combat trials are just simulations. You don't have to face any real monsters. It's all fake. There are no monsters roaming the halls unchecked anymore, nor are there caged monsters, created for the sole purpose of testing your strength. And this lack of real monsters totally kills the deranged/creepy haunted house atmosphere the original Shinra Manor had.
(Which, to be fair, is already changed by the under-manor laboratory being a huge complex rather than a couple of rooms, which is part of the larger shift in atmosphere done for the entirety of Nibelheim. I won't go into to detail in this post, but while I thought the Cait Sith gameplay segment was actually a lot of fun, I was disappointed by how it killed the vibe too).
Room for Improvement
I personally believe the combat trial aspect would be much creepier and much more effective if you were trapped in a room and real monsters were suddenly let loose on you. Then it would feel like a real fight for your life, and make Vincent's comments about how subjects were disposed of via combat trial all the more impactful. Because simulations can't kill you (or at least, don't seem like they should be able to), so in the simulation verse, there should be no direct consequences to losing. It seems a lot dumber to be killed by a simulation than ripped apart by real monsters. Less scary, though I suppose there's a certain appeal to being killed by the unreal. Still, I don't think they leaned into that hard enough. Maybe they meant to imply that creatures which lost to the simulation would be disposed of either by real monsters or just euthanasia afterwards, but meh. I still think that's less disturbing than throwing test subjects into a room where they either defeat the monsters that have been loosed on them, or die a grisly death. And even if they do somehow die to the simulations, something about it just doesn't hit the same.
Having the monsters only be simulations also loses the disturbing aspect of the basement being inhabited by monsters of Hojo's creation that exist for the sole purpose of testing other experiments of his. Because isn't that messed up? For Hojo to create beings whose sole purpose is to, ideally, be killed by his more successful test subjects? To have to face creatures which may have once been normal animals or innocent civilians who have been twisted to fight but can never be saved, so you must either kill them or die yourself? When the monsters you fight are just simulations, you lose that thought/fear of "oh no, look what he's done to these real living creatures, not only mutating them but sending them to their deaths for his amusement."
When the monsters are fake/just simulations, it means Hojo isn't hurting as many real people, and you don't have to face the disturbing idea of having to put down real beings who probably once had real thoughts and feelings. (Which would've been SO GOOD with the line Vincent has after the combat trials, where he DOES talk about Monsters having feelings. But the monsters you fight aren't real. Not until the very last one. So it doesn't hit the same).
So tl;dr of this section: the fact that the simulations are just that- only simulations, i.e. not real- both reduces the threat level in terms of danger to the character, and eliminates the disturbing realization that Hojo has created creatures who are (if his experiments are successful) are meant to die. Both the atmosphere of the manor and Hojo's character lose out there, imo.
Why the Monsters Aren't Real, or the Gameplay Reason
After beating the combat trials, I came to realize (the likely reason) why they made the combat trials simulations rather than real battles: so they could include combat objectives and so you can take the trials at your own pace (i.e. leave and come back).
Repeating the Trials/Combat Objectives
First, the combat objectives.
There are two types: timers and stagger. If you were fighting against real enemies, having a stagger requirement wouldn't make as much sense, since a real battle should really just be about surviving. Why would you need to stagger them? What would happen if you didn't? Would a monster be more likely to kill you if you didn't stagger it? That's not how it works in gameplay. As for the timer, I could see there still being a timer requirement in the form of these enemies doing some sort of enrage move after a set amount of time, but the stagger one doesn't make as much sense. (For people who don't know what enrage is, it's the idea that an enemy will use an unlivable attack against you. An unavoidable OHKO.)
By making the fights simulations rather than real battles, it then makes sense for Hojo (cough cough the devs) to implement certain specific requirements to progress. It also gives them a better excuse for why you might need to repeat the trials- you didn't meet the combat objectives, so now you have to do it again. Because the trials don't auto-fail if you don't meet the combat objectives, you just don't get to go forward.
But I think it loses sight of the creepy scientist and horror basement thing if what you're fighting isn't real. There is no penalty for not doing the trial "right." If there was an actual enrage at the end of the timer (i.e. if you just straight up lost/died), then that would be terrifying! Because wow, Hojo is willing to kill his subject if they're not fast enough! But no, he just doesn't pass them and has them try again. Which makes him less creepy/insane seeming, because now he's kinder because he's willing to give things a second chance. It's less impactful.
In my opinion, being able to implement combat objectives isn't worth that loss of impact. Because combat objectives don't have to be in this part of the game. Chadley has combat objectives in his simulator. If they want us to do combat simulator stuff, have us do it with Chadley. Don't hurt the atmosphere in the manor to include this dumb requirement, which not only means there's less threat in the form of the monsters not being real, but also kills any sense of urgency because you can repeat the trials as many times as you want, or even come back later if you don't have the time. It's a loss of atmosphere for the sake of gameplay in a bad way. They didn't have to write it like this, but they did. And it happens several times through this game.
Backing Out/Limited Creature Game Logic
Speaking of which...I think it's okay to have the occasional unskippable battle, or occasional battle arena where you have to beat them all to progress/do them all over if you run, but the devs sure don't. If the battles weren't simulations, it would make a lot of sense for them to be one after the other. Battles where you've got to do them all to make it through.
Since they're not real battles and are simulations you have to execute, it makes sense that you can come and go. But I don't think that's the order that concept was conceived in; instead I think the devs went "in order to allow the player to come and go at any time, we should make it so you only have to do the battles one by one, and a simulation would be great for that!" And the game really hand holds you with that. Most of Chadley's simulations have multiple battles in a row where you have to beat them all to proceed, but the ones in this sidequests are all individual battles with individual goals.
Now, I am all for accessibility and quality of life in gaming, and I really like that, for example, you can save basically everywhere now instead of needing a save point. But it's fine to remove a little bit of Quality of Life/Accessibility for a single sidequest where you face a battle gauntlet! I mean, the game already has points where it limits your access to Fast Travel so you have to progress the plot. And like I mentioned before, most of the Chadley battle simulations have multiple rounds too! Why not do that here, where you have to do the battles (at least the 4 simulation ones, I would be fine with stopping before the boss) before moving on? You can save right then and there! You're healed between battles too! It's okay to make things slightly less convenient sometimes for the sake of atmosphere! How cool/exciting would it be if Hojo set 4 rounds of monsters on you in a row, where you had to beat them all or game over? I'd love it. That would raise the stakes. And, it would make for a more unique atmosphere. But this isn't something that seems to be a high priority for Rebirth, which I find unfortunate.
(Sidenote, this happens with both gameplay and visuals. At least in the Cave of the Gi they had runestones instead of Jukeboxes... but they didn't bother to change the Jukebox in Vincent's room for some reason. Or to put it somewhere else if they didn't want to change the model. The jukebox and potion bench are so weird man. They kill the vibe made by the rest of the creepy basement full of coffins and candles. It's supposed to feel old and out of time, but the jukebox and bench ruin it.)
I could also see the argument that the devs made this a simulation rather than a real battle based on the logic that having an infinite number of monsters (for infinite tries to complete the objectives) makes less sense when they're real monsters rather than simulations, but I don't think that matters. This is a video game. There are already infinite monsters in the overworld. There can be infinite monsters here.
Finally, going back to the idea of stagger and time objectives from above...you could technically do those with real enemies too. Have it so Hojo will just send more monsters at you if you fail. Make it real Hojo instead of hologram AI Hojo. Or have the AI be able to detect that the enemies weren't staggered/killed in time! Now that I think about it, there are combat objectives against real enemies in the overworld, so they technically didn't need to make these battles part of a simulation for combat objectives. But I still feel strongly that these battles were made to be simulations instead of real battles for the sake of combat objectives.
Last Thoughts (for now!)
FFVII Rebirth has leaned very strongly into AI, simulation, and advanced technology that had not been conceived/wasn't in the public consciousness when the original was released. At times, the game wants to lean very hard into this new technology at the cost of the atmosphere that made the original so great. It's a different type of horror. A different type of creepy.
Being trapped in a virtual world can be terrifying, but it's a different type of terror to being trapped in the real world. Being killed by simulations sounds disturbing, but it's a different type of disturbing than being killed by real creatures. The writers may have done this because they felt it was an equivalent exchange (hehe), but for me at least, I find what the original did so much more striking.
Full disclaimer, I am not, and have never been, big into sci-fi. Remake and Rebirth lean into high tech sci-fi more than the OG did (which 100% had its own sci-fi aspects! I mean, the villain is an alien for starters, and the evil scientists' actions are central to the plot!), at the cost of some of the more down-to earth horror/other aspects of the original. I find this disappointing. It's a different choice that is sometimes really cool (ex. with so much technology it becomes much more obvious that Shinra has constant global surveillance, which is very distopian), but sometimes worse (ex. President Shinra only being a hologram rather than the real guy in Reactor No. 5 makes him seem a lot less cocky since he doesn't show up in person).
I think Shinra Manor as a whole has absolutely lost the atmosphere that made me love it so much in the original. It went from a grimy mansion to a sterile lab. Both are good settings for horror, but they just don't hit the same. This sidequest suffered from wanting to be part of that sterile high tech lab, instead of the low-tech horror of the original where people/Hojo seem(ed) to be playing god in much more material ways. Which is...a different point better left for another essay.
We'll see if I ever get to writing it, lol. For now I uh. Haven't actually finished the game. I have 91 hours and am only about an hour slash two sidequests into Chapter 12, but I haven't had much free time to continue. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to push through some more!
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WIP from “The Shape of a Soul”
Part 1 Here.
In the evening, she sat by the fire, knitting new socks while Aunt Anya told a story, her children listening attentively. She had a lovely voice for it and big, expressive gestures.
"I'll just finish this," Marya said, gesturing at her knitting, when the kids began to nod off and Aunt Anya ushered them off to bed.
"Don't stay up too late," her aunt said, leaning down briefly to press a kiss to the top of her head. "They look great."
"Thanks, I've been trying that new technique Grandma Tanya taught me. Good night." Marya used the last of the fire light to finish the socks and when she stood up to stretch, her back cracking a little, she found herself shivering suddenly.
Frowning, she looked from the slowly dying fire to the window as another shiver ran down her spine. It was too warm in here for her to be cold. Instinctively, she found herself rubbing at her arms as she cautiously stepped towards the window. It was tightly closed, as was the front door, so there was no way any kind of icy draft could have gotten inside.
Another icy shiver ran down her spine, this one strong enough that her teeth almost chattered and she felt as though her breath had gotten caught in her lungs, struggling to be released.
It was suddenly too cold, the fire snuffing out entirely between one second and the next, leaving only barely glowing embers behind. The crows took flight with a start and they started cawing. Noises she usually considered to be warning sounds.
Peering outside, she saw something pale between the trees, something that revealed itself to be unnaturally thick fog, which rolled past the tree line like one massive wave. It stretched large, wavering fingers between the buildings of Green Rock, as though it was an intangible giant trying to find something on the ground, the edges drifting up against the wooden walls.
With a start, Marya remembered the warnings of the villager in Stumpton, how monsters had come with the fog. The crows suddenly went mad in the sky, near screeching as they cawed louder than ever before, swooping lower over houses as they flew fast, tight rounds around the village.
Part 3 here.
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