I really do appreaciate your criticisms RJ. When I first read your post I felt a little pissed, but now I have no idea what had upset me, haha.
I'm going to take each paragraph at a time. Since that's the way I do things :tongue:.
You must be one of those people who think that most people who played FFVII find Cloud an awful character. I admit he has his flaws, but FFVII = Cloud. You think people will accept a game that calls itself FFVII-2 with Marlene as the main character?
I disagree with these statements. Only the original game and the film had Cloud serve as the principal character, so I hardly think that you could say FFVII = Cloud, I'd consider him only slightly more significant than the rest of the cast. I don't hate Cloud, but I don't like him any more than I like the other characters (although I might be a little biased in that regard, since I seem to be in a minority of people who actually
like Cait Sith).
Also people accepted BC, CC, and DoC with main characters other than Cloud.
I'm not trying to put you down or anything, I'm just wondering who you're making this game for. It isn't the bigger part of the fanbase, otherwise you'd listen to their suggestions rather then writing them off as cliche. So perhaps you are making this game for the small selection of people who hate Cloud, or maybe even for yourself (which isn't all that strange). In any case, you need to think about this clearly before you go on.
I'm creating this game for my portfolio, the people who wrote and read the original story, and basically anybody who wants to play it.
On the cliché note, there really isn't much you could do with Cloud that wouldn't be considered cliché, purely because he's such a big character. Any feasible role would be clichéd, mentor, traitor, avengor, or even happily-married.
I understand when people say FFVII is clichéd. But for a fan game, each cliché you take away strengthens the integrity of the game. It would be easy to upset players by having a character behave uncharacteristically, but taking a character who had no opportunity to display his/her personallity gives a much more flexible storyline.
Also, I'm not saying you should have something stupid like "Cloud iz bak an fights Sepirot", but because of Cloud's significance you'd at least need to give him an appearance, or at least mention him, but whatever you do don't kill them off because all that will accomplish is piss off the fans.
Just because he's dead doesn't mean there will be no flashback appearances or mentions. Whilst it's true he isn't mentioned in the first hour, he will be mentioned, every member of AVALANCHE will make an appearance whether in the past or in the present. They just don't have a starring role.
I don't know if you've played Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, but if you have you should know that Chrono Cross (the sequel) had an entire different setting and cast of characters. The main characters from Chrono Trigger were supposedly dead, which resulted in the entire mass of the fanbase raging at Square Enix for their folly.
I'm not really sure wherethe fans got off doing that. If the game had different characters and different settings then wouldn't it be the equivalent of the entire FF series? People don't complain about the differences between FFI and FFII in terms of storyline.
You should try to avoid things like that, and also you're free to ignore everything I've said, it's your project after all. I will leave you alone now.
You don't need to leave me alone. As long as criticism isn't flaming/trolling or other acts of unkindness then I'm happy to have it. Unless somebody comes in, reads the first post and instantly hits reply in a feat of anger.
