Undeveloped extensions
Look what we found just lying around!
A couple of weeks ago, I talked about minigames that we never need to see again in another game, full stop. It was meant to be silly, and I think it accomplished that goal nicely. But, you know, it also does speak to the fact that we have some ideas that have just been mined out straight through to the mantle. There is no more blood coming out of these stones.
No, I’m not about to go on a rant about how companies are only producing the same games these days, since that’s both demonstrably wrong and kind of the nature of the beast. The majority of titles at a given time are always going to be the most popular current thing with a new skin; that’s always been true. But there are a lot of ideas out there that saw exploration in one or two titles, then got shelved forever. In short, there are clever new ideas there just waiting for a dust-off and a revival with newer tech and a modern environment, ideas that are just longing to be developed. So let’s talk about titles that can’t be hard projects because they’re barely even franchises, but they still deserve some more attention.
The Final Fantasy Project: Final Fantasy III, part 10
Artwork from a sketch by Yoshitaka Amano
It’s kind of a shame that this game hasn’t made as big of a deal about Xande as the root of all evil. Sure, he’s the guy behind a whole lot of crap that we’ve dealt with up to this point, but we haven’t seen him or even heard from him directly. Yes, I know, up until we reached the surface world he was kind of frozen in a flooded landscape, but still. It would have been nice to put a face to the name before now, you know? There’s no sense of an emotional grudge match.
Of course, Final Fantasy II tried doing that, and that had its own problems.
At any rate, the last “dungeon” in Final Fantasy III is pretty ornate, composed of four separate dungeons, albeit with one of them as an optional sidequest. Once you’ve broken through the guardian statues with the four Fangs, you’ve got the chance to see the start, but you need those keys from Unei and Doga to really get into the meat of the dungeon. So off we go, back to the spot where we unlocked the final set of jobs, ready to crush the face of whoever stands between us and our goal.
Hard Project: The Dark Tower
It’s a good game, but you need to play through it 19 times to really get the full experience.
At the heart of everything lies the Tower. The Beams lead to the great Tower, the heart of all worlds, the spoke upon which the wheels of existence turn. The tower is the heart of the battle between the White, the Red, and the Black, a conflict between forces that would preserve life and those that would see it serve more sinister powers or even cast off into nothingness. It would make, I think, a pretty great video game.
I don’t need to point out that we’ve never actually gotten a proper game based on The Dark Tower, do I?
Stephen King’s sprawling story about Roland Deschain has seeped its way into a lot of his other books. Several comics have been made chronicling the time between Roland first becoming a Gunslinger (essentially a paladin with revolvers) and the quest outlined in the books, tromping across the world to seek out the source. It’s been in development hell for an adaptation for years. And it’d make a pretty satisfying game… but I don’t think we’re ever going to get to play one. For some very good reasons.
The Final Fantasy Project: Final Fantasy III, part 9
Artwork from a sketch by Yoshitaka Amano
If you take nothing away from this series of columns, aside from the fact that I really enjoy this game, let it be this: the remake does a whole lot of things that aren’t to its credit. The last set of jobs is this in a microcosm.
See, in the original version of Final Fantasy III, the jobs were not anything remotely approaching balanced. Vikings were completely forgettable, for example, having nothing to recommend them aside from HP and some weapons that weren’t needed. Scholars were a joke. And everything in the game was outclassed by the last two jobs you got, which didn’t become available until the last dungeon of the game was well underway.
When Matrix Software remade the game, they really wanted to ensure that all of the jobs had some purpose. Certainly, the remake succeeds in making some of them far more viable – I just listed a couple of them, but even Geomancers, Bards, and Rangers became more viable with the remake. But the last set of jobs now includes Ninja and Sage, and it kind of makes a mess out of things. The efforts to “balance” these jobs ultimately just make the last set less interesting.
The Final Fantasy Project: Final Fantasy III, part 8
Artwork from a sketch by Yoshitaka Amano
You’d think that this series would involve more submarines. Exploring the underwater world seems like a natural extension, yet only here and in Final Fantasy VII do you get to slip beneath the waves reliably. Otherwise, the water is an effective barrier to everything you want to do. Ah, well.
You’d also think that having access to a submarine wouldn’t really open up more exploration options, since you can sort of fly right now. Au contraire, dear readers. Unlike most games in the series, airships in Final Fantasy III can’t pass through the majority of mountain ranges, which means that you can’t simply soar everywhere. There are places that are completely inaccessible unless you have a ship that can fly past some low-lying foothills… or a ship that can go under those same mountain ranges. Hmm. I wonder what sort of ship might be able to do that? Oh, right, a submersible airship able to explore strange new lands. Away we go!
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Chocobo Dash
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Eliot Lefebvre 