#lufia maiden of fate

[teefa85]

Finally getting to work on that outline of Lufia Maiden of Fate.  What is Maiden of Fate, I hear you ask?  Why, only my stupid attempts at seeing what the first game would have been if it was remade in the style of Curse.  I gave it the subtitle I did since there wasn’t much I could think of to play off the simplistic “and the Fortress of Doom.”  Especially since they’ve been calling it Shrine of Daos or Daos’ Temple nowadays...mattering translation!  So I went with the AND part of the title, indicating it’s about Lufia herself.  Thus, “Maiden of Fate,” as that’s basically what she is.

I’ve already done some redesigning in the ACG (need to post them at some point).  And figured out who my two extras are.  Plus, I decided against having a versatile fighter, as nobody fit the bill for it, in favor of six people who had different puzzle solving techs.

[teefa85]

Whelp...guess which nerd started tearing up as Iris lays alone in Doom Island after sending Maxim and Selan to safety?  And again when the two FINALLY came home to their son?  I knew it was coming and I still started to cry!  Even though this version of the original ending doesn’t do it for me due to being desensitized as the version on the SNES just works so much better due to the music change and taking away control from the player at just the right point!

But I’ve an interesting thought.  Arek talks about the Dual Blade wanting endless adventure.  So...if Lufia I ever had gotten a remake, perhaps it came off this ending and it was that want of adventure that made it bring Erim back, and why she’s human (because of her love for humanity it gives her the wish of being able to truly live among them...even if Daos and co. spoil that for her in the end).

Also, now I have fuzzy cute feels of Maxim teaching an older Jeros the sword, which he teaches to his child, and so on until they get to the hero of the first game (who would obviously get a canon name in said hypothetical remake due to voice acting, unless they wanted to be Dragon Quest levels of obtuse).  Knowing Maxim’s sword style AND energy waves would be inherited by his descendant is just sweet!

[teefa85]

So...when am I going to actually get off my ass and reboot my rewrite of Trials of Mana with the cast of Slayers?  I started it over ten years ago using a Screen LP to help me through (as...remember...getting my ass kicked due to not finding ??? Seeds early enough as guides were not as good).  But I seriously want to make that my next writing project since I am still blanking on taking my Maiden of Fate outline and making the next Lufia game in the Curse Timeline out of it!

It did take a lot of liberties (as the Mazoku were behind EVERY nation and since Xellos had to be one of the six we needed one nation to just be where they all came from).  Also, I find it HILARIOUS that the ship I spent the most time harping on nowadays was the one I replaced with the least likely to get together of any Slayers characters...but blame Rolante/Laurent being just perfect for a Gold Dragon settlement and Filia’s raising of Valgaav working well with Riesz’s raising of Elliot...oh and battle styles basically meant that Lina/Gourry/Amelia had perfect follow ups...

[teefa85]

Okay, I’ve finished the “NG+ Flashbacks and Thoughts” section for Lufia Maiden of Fate.  Some of the things I’m very proud of...

1.  The beginning has Danil be the one who runs in to tell of the monsters and Lufia takes care of him while Max runs to get help.  He goes right to Chatam (the new site of the attack) after nobody wants to come/Estea agrees with his frustration.  Gades attacks him after he slays some monsters on his first and only trip and Lufia runs to save him since she had a bad feeling.  Notice just how much I was able to trim down the beginning?

2.  Instead of a convoluted way of getting to Elfrea, they have to go through the Lost Forest, with its reason for being impassible being they need Jerin’s Field Ability.  Also, she saves Aguro from the boss and thus explains why he’s infatuated with her.

3.  Finding the prof!  He’s out after Artea tells you to go to him ONLY to make room for you witnessing Amon’s resurrection.  Then you save him from pirates who kidnapped him to force him to invent for them (more sensible than them kidnapping a kid for no explained reason).

4.  All you need to go underwater is a special Core Lexis had hidden in Arus.  So, one temple.  You’re still delayed by Gades and Amon a bit, but it’s less fillery and still shorter than the freaking Alumina Quest!  And it serves to foreshadow more on Lufia.

5.  You get Dual Blade at its normal time, but it is only just a bit more powerful than a Zircon Blade as Max’s feelings allowed him to use its power to protect Lufia from the forced awakening Daos brings on.

6.  Trippy dream featuring Erim’s memories when doing sleepover in Arus (this and the previous visit also establish Lufia and Flake bonding, showing why he wanted to help her in ending).  This is followed by scenes between Lufia & Flake, Max & Aguro (based on the original w/more character dev for Aguro), and Jerin and Ainea (one of the two new party members I chose...she fights in Guy’s memory).

7.  Lufia has VERY relevant memories when Daos tries to screw with her at Glasdar Tower (which has a different purpose in this game related to helping them fly).  So while she’s still taken, it’s less of her own free will since I couldn’t see her going along willingly if she remembered that Erim was kinda backstabbed by him!

8.  I strongly increased the romance quota between Max and Lufia.  This also shows some of Jerin’s distress too and Aguro’s failed attempts to comfort her by wooing her badly!

There are some other things, though I think I might discuss NG+ another day, other than “Erim again goes back in time with Dual Blade’s power since she wants to save Max and Lufia the grief.”

[teefa85]

I finally finished the entire outline for Lufia:  Maiden of Fate.  Except the ways NG+ would change things.  I have it where Erim’s transferred power and memories from the future sends Lufia vague one still shot flashbacks every so often, and the result is Erim getting powerful enough to split herself off from Lufia and give the girl her own existence so she doesn’t have to “die” and come back with memory loss.  Which results in Max (again, my name for the hero and if they had made a sequel they’d have to give him a canon name due to voice acting) having a final fight to put Erim’s runaway energies to rest.

All I really need to do is go back through the entire outline and note if there could be a possible flashback there, either to something in Curse or just something in general Erim could have experienced, either as Goddess of Death or in that time long ago when she was still considered Goddess of Life.  I already wrote up how the altered ending on Doom Island/post ending would have gone, but don’t have time to think on individual scenes now.

Also, Daos is slightly weaker than in Curse since he doesn’t fully power up with Gades and Amon (none of their powers, no Time Stop).  Only because he uses their power to create Guard Daos which is Daos from Curse but a bit harder (uses all Sinistral attacks, Time Stop, some stuff unique to it to differentiate it from fighting Humanoid!Daos in Curse).  I decided to include a barrier in the fight that Lufia (who gets a power boost as well) needs to use her new special Charge Attack (I called it something like Divine Judgement...hey, she is a goddess in human form after all and even on NG+ this would be before Erim separated herself) to break.  Because while Maxim being the only real choice for Curse’s Daos due to his energies and the conflict of which one of them should wield Dual Blade, Max and Lufia’s bond is not only important to things in the original game, but I do some more things with it in my theoretical Remake.  Having her break the barriers then switching to Max so he can do the Time Stop stuff fits that very well.