#like the fixed camera angles work in the games favor.

[licantropa]

“I should've been the one to fill your dark soul with light!”

[jovial-thunder]

Pre-alpha Lancer Tactics changelog

(cross-posting the full gif changelog here because folks seemed to like it last time I did)

We're aiming for getting the first public alpha for backers by the end of this month! Carpenter and I scoped out mechanics that can wait until after the alpha (e.g. grappling, hiding) in favor of tying up the hundred loose threads that are needed for something that approaches a playable game. So this is mostly a big ol changelog of an update from doing that.

But I also gave a talent talk at a local Portland Indie Game Squad event about engine architecture! It'll sound familiar if you've been reading these updates; I laid out the basic idea for this talk almost a year ago, back in the June 2023 update.

We've also signed contracts & had a kickoff meeting with our writers to start on the campaigns. While I've enjoyed like a year of engine-work, it'll be so so nice to start getting to tell stories. Data structures don't mean anything beyond how they affect humans & other life.

New Content

Implemented flying as a status; unit counts as +3 spaces above the current ground level and ignores terrain and elevation extra movement costs. Added hover + takeoff/land animations.

Gave deployables the ability to have 3D meshes instead of 2D sprites; we'll probably use this mostly when the deployable in question is climbable.

Related, I fixed a bug where after terrain destruction, all units recheck the ground height under them so they'll move down if the ground is shot out from under them. When the Jerichos do that, they say "oh heck, the ground is taller! I better move up to stand on it!" — not realizing that the taller ground they're seeing came from themselves.

Fixed by locking some units' rendering to the ground level; this means no stacking climbable things, which is a call I'm comfortable making. We ain't making minecraft here (I whisper to myself, gazing at the bottom of my tea mug). 

Block sizes are currently 1x1x0.5 — half as tall as they are wide. Since that was a size I pulled out of nowhere for convenience, we did some art tests for different block heights and camera angles. TLDR that size works great and we're leaving it.

Added Cone AOE pattern, courtesy of an algorithm NMcCoy sent me that guarantees the correct number of tiles are picked at the correct distance from the origin.

pick your aim angle

for each distance step N of your cone, make a list ("ring") of all the cells at that distance from your origin

sort those cells by angular distance from your aim angle, and include the N closest cells in that ring in the cone's area

Here's a gif they made of it in Bitsy:

Units face where you're planning on moving/targeting them.

Got Walking Armory's Shock option working. Added subtle (too subtle, now that I look at it) electricity effect.

Other things we've added but I don't have gifs for or failed to upload. You'll have to trust me. :)

disengage action

overcharge action

Improved Armament core bonus

basic mine explosion fx

explosion fx on character dying

Increase map elevation cap to 10. It's nice but definitely is risky with increasing the voxel space, gonna have to keep an eye on performance.

Added Structured + Stress event and the associated popups. Also added meltdown status (and hidden countdown), but there's not animation for this yet so your guy just abruptly disappears and leaves huge crater.

UI Improvements

Rearranged the portrait maker. Auto-expand the color picker so you don't have to keep clicking into a submenu.

Added topdown camera mode by pressing R for handling getting mechs out of tight spaces.

The action tooltips have been bothering me for a while; they extend up and cover prime play-area real estate in the center of the screen. So I redesigned them to be shorter and have a max height by putting long descriptions in a scrollable box. This sounds simple, but the redesign, pulling in all the correct data for the tags, and wiring up the tooltips took like seven hours. Game dev is hard, yo.

Put the unit inspect popups in lockable tooltips + added a bunch of tooltips to them.

Implemented the rest of Carpenter's cool hex-y action and end turn readout. I'm a big fan of whenever we can make the game look more like a game and less like a website (though he balances out my impulse for that for the sake of legibility).

Added a JANKY talent/frame picker. I swear we have designs for a better one, but sometimes you gotta just get it working. Also seen briefly here are basic level up/down and HASE buttons.

Other no-picture things:

Negated the map-scaling effect that happens when the window resizes to prevent bad pixel scaling of mechs at different resolutions; making the window bigger now just lets you see more play area instead of making things bigger.

WIP Objectives Bullets panel to give the current sitrep info

Wired up a buncha tooltips throughout the character sheet.

Under the Hood

Serialization: can save/load games! This is the payoff for sticking with that engine architecture I've been going on about. I had to add a serialization function to everything in the center layer which took a while, but it was fairly straightforward work with few curveballs.

Finished replacement of the kit/unit/reinforcement group/sitrep pickers with a new standardized system that can pull from stock data and user-saved data.

Updated to Godot 4.2.2; the game (and editor) has been crashing on exit for a LONG time and for the life of me I couldn't track down why, but this minor update in Godot completely fixed the bug. I still have no idea what was happening, but it's so cool to be working in an engine that's this active bugfixing-wise! 

Other Bugfixes

Pulled straight from the internal changelog, no edits for public parseability:

calculate cover for fliers correctly

no overwatch when outside of vertical threat

fixed skirmisher triggering for each attack in an AOE

fixed jumpjets boost-available detection

fixed mines not triggering when you step right on top of them // at a different elevation but still adjacent

weapon mods not a valid target for destruction

made camera pan less jumpy and adjust to the terrain height

better Buff name/desc localization

Fixed compcon planner letting you both boost and attack with one quick action.

Fix displayed movement points not updating

Prevent wrecks from going prone

fix berserkers not moving if they were exactly one tile away

hex mine uses deployer's save target instead of 0

restrict weapon mod selection if you don't have the SP to pay

fix deployable previews not going away

fix impaired not showing up in the unit inspector (its status code is 0 so there was a check that was like "looks like there's no status here")

fix skirmisher letting you move to a tile that should cost two movement if it's only one space away

fix hit percent calculation

fix rangefinder grid shader corner issues (this was like a full day to rewrite the shader to be better)

Teleporting costs the max(spaces traveled, elevation change) instead of always 1

So um, yeah, that's my talk, any questions? (I had a professor once tell us to never end a talk like this, so now of course it's the phrase that first comes to mind whenever I end a talk)

[aokozaki]

One suspiciously Kirby shaped penny for your thoughts?

[kirby wrapped around a penny for my thoughts, in a new delightful Mouthful Mode!]

So, based on the developer interviews Nintendo did leading up to Forgotten Land's release, you'll know that the game features a type of aim assist designed to work with the game's fixed camera - if it looks like an attack hits from the player's point of view, then the attack hits even if it shouldn't in reality.

But this Game Developer Conference talk is bringing up another issue, Kirby's classic Star Spit. Swallow an enemy or block, and then spit them out as a star projectile!

As the developer points out, missing with this attack is annoying, because it requires you to find a new enemy to suck up before you can try again.

In 3D, it can be hard to tell which way the sphere shaped Kirby is facing, and even a small difference in angle can cause a long ranged attack like the Star Spit to miss.

A common solution is making the attack homing. HAL decided to use this method, but added their own twists on top of it.

Such as assigning all possible targets a point value based on three factors. Essentially, this means the game is biased in favor of hitting things you probably wanted to hit anyway.

This is a useful assist feature for both experienced gamers (who are doing their best to aim carefully), and for younger fans playing their first action platformer (the game is biased towards targets that are immediately dangerous to you).

This small touch is reflective of Kirby as a brand being easy to learn, difficult to master. They're incredible entry level games that are still fun for older fans!

[folksy]

I put on a youtube video that was in my recommended while I was at work and it was a criticism of the resident evil 4 remake and how it was overhyped and is a bad, unnecessary remake that’s practically a cash grab and doesn’t understand what makes the original good and that people need to quit accepting remakes that worsen game mechanics, characterization, and design because the result is the loss of the essence of what makes the original so liked in favor of liking something just because it’s new and has better graphics. that’s the gist. but the thing that really bothers me about these criticisms is the fact these people are only looking at it from the view of it being a remake of 4, and not the fact that is is also the third remake (in this era) which really changes the context because it’s not just remaking a game, it is also adapting the game to the current storyline and mechanics. obviously you can have your opinions but I don’t find it fair to judge a remake just from its original source when it’s a sequel that is shaping itself off the previous remakes. the remakes have established themselves as “retellings of the same events” as opposed to just trying to do a one to one remake of the original game with modern graphics and mechanics. which is another thing the person in the first video brought up, which is that some of these modern remakes feel more like “fanfiction” of the original games. which in the case of re4 remake it’s making itself out to be a retelling and not a replacement for the original. unlike 2 and 3 (where until GOG released them this year, you couldn’t play the originals unless you emulated or used older consoles) you can go on steam or console stores and play the original 4 right now.

read more because I’m feeling really passionate about this issue rn lmao

I don’t recall this aspect (being the third modern remake) being addressed at all in the videos. only the original remake of the first game which I don’t think is a fair comparison as 1. there’s only a 6 year difference between the original resident evil and its remake, while 2 is 21 years, 3 is 21 years, and 4 is 18 years. 2. the one remake added content (granted the original is the only mainline re I haven’t played, so I can’t compare the content as well), enhanced the graphics, while also maintaining the tank controls and fixed camera angles of the original. 2 and 3 and remake completely changed the mechanics from their sources, while 4 remake has switched tank controls for the modern controls of the other remakes. 3. already addressed above but the modern remakes are retellings made in the current era, whereas one remake is a bit of a “this is what we wanted to do originally but didn’t have the technological means at the time.” having not played the original yet, the biggest changes I know about besides the graphic overhaul would be the addition of lisa trevor and more areas, along with different dialogue.

stemming from what all I’ve said about how 4 remake is a a continuation of the previous remakes, there is way more cohesion between the 2 and 4 remakes than the originals. it’s pretty obvious that the original 4 is a soft reboot that moved the series into a new direction. there is not very much connecting characterization with leon in the original 2 and 4. it’s obvious that the events of 2 led him to where he is in 4, but he has a completely different look and personality. it is something I have not seen in these criticisms of re4 remake. 4 remake is clearly a continuation of leon from 2 remake, and you can tell how the events of the previous game have affected him physically (through his more rugged appearance and deeper voice, which is also attributed to him being older and retaining the same voice actor unlike the originals) in addition to his outlook on the world and his mission. people say leon lost a lot of his charisma from the original 4 and is more serious in the remake which. makes sense as it’s a natural arc from what happened in the last game we saw him in. he still does say stupid shit though lmao but not to the degree of the action hero archetype he’s supposed to be in the original. the original is very of its time, and the remake is supposed to be of its own era too. it’s not just “let’s remake re4 to today’s graphics and fix some things” it’s more “let’s remake this game for a modern audience while also being able to appeal to fans of the original” but obviously not everyone can be appeased especially when it’s trying to make a broader appeal

[purpleyellow]

Road To Kingdom

The boyz 12th member

Mae’s masterlist

“A summary of Mae during RTK” 

a/n: not @/ me using the performance names as historical events. Feel free to share your thoughts with me. Requests are open! 🧡

... After the concept meeting for Sword of Victory...

Mae cracked open the door to a practice room, making sure no one was inside before dropping her stuff, as well as her body, on the floor. The lightbulb making it almost impossible to keep her eyes open reminded her that she used to do that during her trainee days.

Here she was again, feeling hopeless like she was going to face the biggest challenge ever. And the girl was sure she wasn’t ready for it. 

Minkyung had a problem of self-doubting even though she couldn’t pinpoint it, all the members seemed willing to take on the challenge, yet she felt like she’d be the downfall of the group. And yes, she had a thing for being dramatic as well, that’s why she rested the back of her hand on her forehead and sprawled out her other arm.

The door flung open with mild force, startling her from her thoughts and sending her body into a more normal position. Q entered the room without a word and just laid on the floor next to her. Both members looked at the ceiling deep in thought.

Mae went back to the idea she had during the meeting. Not a particularly bright one, though it did attack the fact she felt like an upcoming burden to the group. Taking a deep breath she mumbled, “I think I should take a hiatus”.

After her words, the room went back to silence. Her heartbeat had increased due to the heaviness of what she had spoken, and looking to the side, she saw Changmin frown.

“Are you sick?” He asked after a few minutes and the girl shook her head. “Physically or mentally unwell? Is there an issue we can fix?”

His questions made her taken back, for Mae it was very clear why her taking a break would be beneficial for the group. 

“I’m saying because of the program”

“We’re joining a competition, so you want to drop out?” Changmin sat up confused. 

“I’m thinking of the bigger picture. The group will do better if you don’t have to worry about me keeping up with you guys”.

“No, you’re not. I’m sorry, but you’re being selfish now” He chuckled. “We don’t mind if you need to repeat the same move a couple of times extra to understand how it goes. Do you honestly think it’s going to help being one person down?”.

“I figured I wouldn’t be setting you back. It can be stressing sometimes and -” She sat up trying to explain her thoughts, and he shook his head.

“Minkyung, you bring a lot to the team, just because you struggle with something doesn’t mean it’s worth losing everything else. When we were rookies I used to get annoyed because you were so quick to give up. But then you began understanding how you learn and your limits. And even though it takes you a little longer you push yourself. Why did you suddenly come back to assuming you can’t do it?”

“The meeting today. Everyone is preparing a lot, there’s so much thought involved and maybe not pulling it off would mean I failed you guys”

“I’m terrified too,” Changmin nodded, placing a hand on his chest “I mean, did you listen to the stunts they were talking about. My first thought was to run away. But then I remembered we’re here to prove ourselves” 

Sighing, Mae looked at him annoyed “You’re a great dancer, and singer and whatever else, you’ll do fine because that’s how your body works”

“And you’re an insane performer” He cut her off with wide eyes. A random giggle left his mouth before he continued “I’m talking about acting and becoming another person on stage, you literally do that in the blink of an eye. This is your chance of growth. Who cares if you pull an all-nighter to get the right angle? When you’re on stage it’s like someone else entirely, and we haven’t even done some crazy concepts like we’re planning on doing”

“If the angles are wrong then we won’t look synchronized” The girl mumbled looking at the big mirror and Q chuckled.

“And that’s why you’re not going to rest until it’s perfect. None of us is going too actually. We’re going in as a team, with all our flaws and strengths”

“It’s nerve-wracking, isn’t it?” She mumbled after a moment of silence. Changmin laughed and added. “I’m scared to death”

… Five hours before Catching Fire…

The last rehearsal before the performance had ended and the group went back to their dressing room. Sitting sideways on the couch, Mae rested her head on her arm and watched some members go get their makeup retouched.

Jacob sat on her side and stared at the girl’s blank face before laughing. “Can you blink, so I know you’re still alive?”

Blinking once, she slowly adverted her gaze to him and bit her lip “This is crazy”

“It’s not as fast-paced as they show it on TV though. At least we have some time to process what’s going on” Jacob shrugged making her narrow her eyes at him “But yeah. It is crazy”

“Sunwoo keeps going on high places. And there’s some acrobatic stuff I’m not sure how it works and-” She kept mumbling like she hadn’t been there for the tiring practices and rehearsals. Laughing Jacob interrupted her by adding.

“And you fake kicked someone”

“And I fake kicked someone” Mae repeated with wide eyes making him laugh and Hyunjae approach them.

“Hey, I’ve been jumping on high places too,” He said defensively making her stare at him and shrugged. Jaehyun laughing before patting her on the back “How about once we get home today you have a really long night to sleep”

“I’m good” Mae shook her head “I’ll sleep but tomorrow don’t let me miss the meetings please”

Agreeing with her, Hyunjae stepped back to the styling session and the girl stood up to use the restroom.

Just as Mae turned around the corner, a faint sound of a violin came from Golden Child’s door. Before she could fully process the song it was playing, the door opened wide showcasing Jangjun.

“Well, do we have a spy among us?” He laughed bowing at her and Mae repeated the gesture a little embarrassed.

“I was just passing by and heard the violin. I didn’t mean to interrupt” She said making an x with her hands.

“Nah, I don’t believe you” He teasingly said and dropped an arm over her shoulder, ultimately bringing her inside the room “So, what did you hear? Are you going to sell this information to your members? And what is it going to be your concept today, I can see the hunger games thing on your shirt, is it like a revolution”

“Uh, I don’t know… Hello” Bowing to the rest of Golden Child, the girl tried to remember what he had first asked her. “I only heard a melody, and don’t worry I won’t spread it around”

“Hyung, I told you not to play it right now” Bomin scoffed to Joochan, who seemed to realize he was still holding out his violin before hiding it on his back.

“But Mae-ssi is a friend, isn’t she? She will hold out the shock factor for us” He laughed making the girl nod and give them a thumbs up. “Do you know how to play it too?”

“I do actually” She laughed and Joochan gestured her to take the instrument “Oh, no it’s fine”

“You heard our song already. At least play for us or tell us something about your stage” Jibeom teased leading her to sigh and take the violin to herself.

Fixing up her posture, Mae quickly played a random song she had learned as a child making the boys cheer. 

“Okay, I should be going now,” She said bowing embarrassed by their compliments and Denyeol nodded along. Fist bumping her before raising a finger.

“But, Mae if you could do us a favor” He started grabbing her attention “Please make sure you show you’re surprised”

Laughing she nodded making her way to the door, before leaving she held up her hands with her fists closed “Golden Child fighting!”

“Mae fighting!”

(requested by 🍓🥛 anon) 

… Behind the scenes for Heroin…

“Why are we so embarrassing?” Sunwoo giggled and clicked his pen repeatedly. He and Mae were sitting on the same side of the table waiting for Leedo from Oneus to show up for the writing session. 

Bouncing her leg, Mae hugged the boy’s arm and looked at the door expectantly, only to get startled by it opening up. 

“Hello” The tall boy put his head inside the room and entered it slowly. The three idols greeted each other and sat down still a little awkward from being the first time they truly interacted.

“I got the demo, so we can write the raps to go with it” Leedo said unlocking his phone. A piano melody that would blend in with Sunmi’s Heroin started playing, and Mae quickly unlocked her own device.

Opening a piano app, she waited for the recording to be over before quickly replicating it on her phone in different tempos.

“You picked it up quite fast” Leedo laughed scribbling down on his paper, and she smiled. “Sorry, just a habit before writing. This way we can adjust it as we go”

“No yeah, sure” He cleared his throat and Sunwoo bit his lip to prevent himself from laughing.

“Anyway, for the lyrics, I was thinking we could talk about becoming an idol”

After finishing up with their rap parts. The three idols made their way up to the practice room where the rest had began working with the choreographer.

“Mae, come here” Juyeon called out as soon as she stepped in the room, so he could run over some parts with her and Ravn. “There’s only actual choreography for you after the last chorus, but we do some kind of puppet thing during your verse”

“My love for this song couldn’t be any bigger” Mae giggled and looked around the room for the camera “Sunmi Sunbaenim, if you’re watching this, let’s be friends”

Laughing, Juyeon pulled out a chair for them to start while saying “Watch out. Taemin Sunbaenim commented on danger, maybe she’ll actually see this”

“Wait, he did” Mae stopped with wide eyes and Juyeon nodded. “Holy sh-”

“Yeah” Laughing he pulled her arm “Just remember this is still a broadcast” 

“Honestly, if she ever reaches out let me know. I want to be her friend too” Ravn added making them giggled, and she gave him a positive sign.

“As long as you don’t tell Juyeon, because he’s been censoring me a lot lately”

“Well, we have an agreement”

Sulking, Juyeon added “I don’t see how this is fair but okay”

… 1 minute after Quasi una fantasia …

The members bowed to the staff and extras before slowly stepping away from the stage. Mae could see some of the boys crowding around Juyeon who seemed pretty upset, though she had no idea what was going on. 

Holding her side, the girl went behind the boy and gave him a back hug making them waddle together back to the dressing room. Once they were all settled back, she stepped away from the crowd and raised her shirt a bit showcasing a forming bruise right above her waist.

“Crap, how did that happen?” Kevin who looked her way at the right time said under his breath. “You need to ice it, probably"

“I bumped on the corner of the piano," She said recalling the incident. “Hopefully it wasn’t noticeable. The camera wasn’t turned to me anyway”

The one part that had gotten her most nervous during this performance was her piano solo for the climax of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. Not only it dictated the rhythm for the first dance break, but it was also challenging for her as she hadn’t played something like this in a while, and it ended a few seconds before her part. 

So strategically speaking, she had to run off the instrument as soon as it was done and went back to the center of the performance. Not without hitting her hip against the wood.

“Is it hurting?” He asked while waving for a staff member and asking them for ice.

“It’s starting to. Do you think it’ll leave a big bruise?” Mae shrugged and hissed as the cold hit her warm skin. Shaking her head, she tried to focus on something else “Well, not mentioning everything. How was the performance?”

“Weren’t you there to see it yourself”

“I don’t know. I kind of blackout every time we go on stage” She made him laugh, but her face was dead serious.

“Wait really?”

“Kind of. I can remember it roughly I guess. Today there was so much to focus on that I’m not sure if I was entirely present. I banged my hip and didn't feel it at first for all things”

“Dude, same I guess. I need to lay down and get smushed by ten weighted blankets tonight” Kevin added hugging her on the other side and leading them to the couch.

… 3 days before Checkmate …

“The synchronization feels off” Eric spoke from the huddle of members watching the recording of their practice.

“Mae…” Q started, but before he could finish the girl spoke “Right arm higher. I got it”

“If you got it then why didn’t you do it right away” He turned playfully to her and poked her nose. 

Massaging her back, the girl laughed and walked back to her spot next to Haknyeon. The boy dropped his bottle on the floor to help her out “Did you fall on your side?”

“No. I did trip while running from one side to the center, so maybe that was it” She shrugged looking around the room “Nobody is intact”

“Tell me about it” He pouted and called Sangyeon closer. “Hyung, maybe we should work on another part. We’ve been doing this section of the chorus for too long”

“Go talk to the captain, I’m not in charge of that” The leader laughed sending him towards Changmin, Juyeon, and Hyunjae talking to one of the choreographers.

“They would listen if you’re the one asking,” Mae said leaning on his side and Sangyeon nodded. 

“Yeah, but I already came all the way over here. I don’t feel like walking back” Sangyeon chuckled, looking to the side where one of the staff members started calling his attention.

“We’ve got the costumes ready if you want to do a rehearsal with them” Looking up at the leader, Mae separated herself from him to run for the stylists while he went to call the other boys.

After the stylists helped her put on her clothes, one of them brought a box and quickly pulled her to the side “I know we’re not doing hair and makeup for today. But I’d figure it’s best for you to have it on for the rehearsal so we can make sure it won’t fall”

“Wow, is she getting a present?” Eric laughed approaching them and the stylist opened the box to reveal a thin black tiara to go along with her outfit.

“The crown itself is one of the props, so we had to make it subtle, but we couldn’t pass away the chance to represent the nickname you were given during the program,” She said helping her adjust the thing on her head and Mae walked to one of the mirrors.

“Wow, thank you so much Unnie,” The girl said checking herself out in the mirror “My face looks dead but damn this is pretty” She added making Eric and New, who also had joined them, laugh.

“You know, during a chess game, the Queen is one of the main pieces” She turned around to them holding a hand to her chest and a teasing expression “Thank goodness we didn’t go with a narrative that would give me that role because I’d crumble under the pressure”

“Only for the first week, then it would quickly get to your head” Chanhee scoffed patting her on the back and making her giggle. Eric chuckled as well and urged them outside “Let’s go work, so we can get Kingdom’s lost princess back to her place”

“Mock me as you want, I never asked for the nickname”

[pearl-blue-musings]

Hi!! Can I order spaghetti (msby) with mashed potatoes and green beans split between me and atsumu?

YES AHHHHH thank you for giving me my first haikyuu ask!!!! This was so much fun to write and think about!

ALSO I’M SO SORRY THIS IS SO LATE MANY MANY APOLOGIES 

A/n: I wrote this with some ideas I got from @cestcirque and her smau (which you absolutely must check out!) for this soulmate au, when you look into the eyes of your soulmate your world changes from black and whites to bursting with color. This is also post time skip so Atsumu is a wonderful black jackal

Pairing: Miya Atsumu x photographer!fem!reader

once again I got carried away what else did you expect from me

Warnings: 18+, smut, daddy calling, biting, slight edging, oral (fem receiving), fingering, vaginal penetration, relatively tame!

Enjoy your meal

~~~~~~~~

With sweat dripping down his face, Miya Atsumu was bursting with energy. It was down to the final point of the match and he was itching to win. It’s already been over a month since Hinata joined MSBY and their chemistry on the court has been proven a formidable force. First against the Adlers, and now with his former high school teammates team, EJP. His eyes are alight with a fire and desire to win. He can feel the rush of winning cloud over him as he keeps his eye on his teammates, setting the ball perfectly to the man everyone describes as an orange haired ball of sunshine in order to score the final set point. The yell of victory leaves his throat before he can process everything. His eyes scans the crowd of fans that have come to watch him, being excited but also a pang of emptiness hits him.

If only he could see the colors everyone talks about around him. 

Everything is greyscale for the man, who he’s been told has a strange yellow hue to his hair. Atsumu didn’t know what the color would look like but liked how it would be marked as different and easy to see when you get to see color. He resents the fact that his twin Osamu laughs freely at his hair color. The normal haired twin, to him, had met his soulmate in one of his business classes and demanded a facetime with his twin. Atsumu was angry at first, but on the inside was happy his brother had met his soulmate and his life bursting with color. 

Surely, he’d meet his soon right?

Atsumu is pulled from his thoughts when Bokuto wraps his arm around his shoulder to pull him into a hug and briefly chat.

“Hey hey hey! Why didn’t you set it to me at the end, huh? You can’t keep giving Hinata all the glory!”

“They were expectin’ ya. I couldn’t Bo. ‘Sides, we won that’s all that matters.”

The flash of cameras after games were very common. With different sports magazines and editors showing up to cover the game, it was something the team was used to. As per usual, a camera-person came up to him and Bokuto, completely ignoring who was taking the picture focusing on the lens. Once his eyes meet the lens, he puts on his signature smile and puts a thumbs up with his teammate for the photo op.

It had all happened so fast. 

You had been called to fill in at the last minute to take photos for the MSBY Black Jackals volleyball game. You didn’t think anything of it other than doing a favor for a friend. And this was an incredible opportunity for you, an amazing way to expand your sprouting portfolio. In this world of soulmates you live in, it was unheard of. Your pictures and photos always came out with the utmost care and perfection, despite not being able to see any of the colors to truly work the right lighting and angles. Even though touching and editing required the use of being able to see colors, somehow your eyes went beyond that and captured everything in a natural way that everyone could understand the message and point of all your photos.  

It was absolutely exquisite and breathtaking.

You had never been to a volleyball game before and you were hit with how exciting it was. The energy from the players and the fast fed into your blood as you began and continued to capture pictures of the game. It wasn’t just a regular game, it was an experience and you figured it was different for everyone. And as you felt that, you knew you wanted to capture it.

It was in moments like these you envied those around you who were able to see color. You yearned for the day you would be able to see all the colors that your peers and employers have paraded you for. Hopefully when you finally meet the one, you’ll be able to do your job even better. 

Before you knew it, the game had ended and you were doing what all the other photographers were doing by taking pictures of the tired and sweaty players as they interact with each other and their fans. You slowly walk toward the court, fixing and switching your lenses for up close pictures. You happen to place your camera right at your eye, seeing two players not looking your way yet as they were engaged in their own private conversation. Once you get their attention, you make eye contact with both before snapping the picture.

You had almost dropped your camera, lucky for the strap around your neck holding it together. You don’t even check your camera, knowing the picture came out horrible. But as you hold the black camera in your hands with your jaw slack-

Wait, black? That’s right it’s black.

And one of the two players in front of you had a matched expression on his face.

Atsumu should have asked his brother what it would be like when he meets his soulmate in order to prepare himself. He’s seriously kicking himself now as the bright white lights bounce of the beige and tan floor of the wooden court. He looks down to see his black and white jersey, the streaks of red and green on certain parts of the floor, the blues, yellows, and whites of the volleyball...

And the all encasing beauty that was you. 

Everything about you was stunning, he wasn’t sure where to look next. However his thoughts were interrupted by a boisterous yell next to him.

“Hey ‘Tsumu! Why’d you stop?”

The blond haired man turns to his friend and gives him a new look over. “Did ya know yer hair is two diff’rent colors?”

Bokuto freezes and attempts to look up at his hair and smiles widely. “Yeah! Yukie keeps it nice for me and- No way! Where are they?”

The owl like man quickly shakes his head back and forth throughout the crowd looking for his teammates soulmate is! He’s interrupted with a tap on the shoulder from the man in question.

Atsumu points to where you’re still starstruck, taking in everything around you.

“Her.”

You felt as if time had lost all meaning as the colors all around you began to come to life, being as lively and vibrant as everyone above you had described. You had zero expectations of ever meeting your soulmate, let alone at a randomly assigned job. You’re unaware of what your body is doing, but your feet are moving across the plane as you walk closer to the man who’s staring at you in a way you’d always hoped to be gazed at.

He’s taller than you thought he’d be up close, but you can smell his musk and sweat and you’re not turned off like you’d always been. The way his bright yellow hair matches his personality, from what you’ve seen, on the court makes your heart melt. It’s almost like everything about him is perfect. The way his eyes are tired but full of vitality isn’t lost on you, and he seems to see the same thing in yours. 

Atsumu for once is at a loss for words. There’s so many ways he had pictured this going but surely not like this. He opens his mouth to speak, but his eyes catch a gathering crowd. 

“Aw, shoot. There’s for sure gonna be a crowd comin’. Meet me after by the exit? I promise I’ll make it quick...”

“(Y-y/n).”

He chuckles and places one hand on his hip and the other in his hair. “Heh, cute name for a cutie like ya self. Name’s Atsumu. Wait for me will ya?”

You merely nod and watch him smirk at you before he meets up with his teammates to celebrate their win. You’re left standing there trying to process what just happened as he turns around one more time to wink at you. If you could melt, you would. You gather your yourself, pick up your camera and try to stealthily avoid any reporters and the like. Since this was your first volleyball match, you had no idea the power just being in the presence of Miya Atsumu held.

Fan girls and other photographers began to swarm you as you attempted to blend in the crowd. All these women had beautiful hair, beautiful complexions; you couldn’t wait to start taking photos in color. Not the right thought to have as you’re getting bombarded but what can you do?

Luckily you’re swept away by another photographer who saw your pain and helped you out. You thanked her and followed her to where the media had access. She wished you luck as she led you to where Atsumu wanted you to meet him.

About 30 minutes later, he comes out with a few of his teammates, laughing gleefully and somehow that made your heart flutter. How did you get paired up with a man like this? The soulmate gods must have really been looking out for you.

Once his beautiful deep eyes meet yours, his gaze softens as he walks toward you. His teammates tell him goodbye and that they’ll message him later. As he approaches you, he has to pinch himself to realize that this is real and it’s happening to him.

He speaks up first again, eager to hear your voice again. “Hiya.”

You giggle at his intro. To him, it sounded like heaven opened up and the angels were singing all around him. He gets to have this laugh to himself? Call himself blessed. 

“I never thought I’d actually meet ma soulmate. And yet, here ya are.”

He extends his hand out to you and you take it, noticing how warm and calloused it is against yours. There’s no way life could be this perfect. You rub your thumb on the back of his palm and stare into his eyes.

“Here we are.”

************

You’d think you’d be used to hosting events for his teammates at your shared place after almost a couple years of being together. but something always surprises you. This time, it turned out fate was working in mysterious ways today. On the way to your place, Hinata had met his soulmate and brought them to the gathering! Needless to say they were overwhelmed but in a good way. Sakusa was slightly concerned over the presence of someone new whom he didn’t know very well, but tolerated it for his friend’s happiness.

You’ve just finished washing the dishes as Atsumu dries whatever is left. You wipe your brow and sigh heavily. Your boyfriend looks over to you and smirks. 

“Whatcha thinkin’ bout baby?”

You smirk at him before leaning your head on his shoulder, “just, life I guess.”

The young man sighs contentedly, places the dried dishes in the rack, and kisses your forehead. “Care to elaborate? Or am I gonna have to tickle the info outta ya?”

You hear the smirk in his tone as he wraps his arms around your waist, pinching and tickling your sides. Your laugh bubbles in the air as you squeal and squirm against Atsumu’s grip. His tout body keeps you against him, holding you tight so you can’t escape his embrace. “’Tsumu! I give, I give!”

“Nuh uh babycakes,” he growls in your ear, “I’m not done with ya.”

You laugh harder as you feel him lift you off the ground, turn you around, and sit you on the counter. With his hands firmly on your waist, he surprises you with a small yet passionate kiss on the lips. Your hands fall onto his neck and face to pull him closer to you. 

You pull away and notice him bite his lip. “What was that for?” You don’t miss the way his eyes glaze over as you question him. 

“I just love ya so much. I never thought life would be s’ fulfilling once I got some color into it. Thought it was all mumbo jumbo, whatever.” He places his body in between your legs, letting your breaths intermingle. “Ya love my team, my friends, my family, and most importantly,” he trails off brushing your noses together. 

“Ya love me.” 

“You’re such a sap.”

“Hah?! But that’s why ya love me, right?”

You keep teasing him as you continue to touch along his broad shoulders. “Nah, I’m mostly in it for the money.” You peck his nose and grin at his pouting features.

“Aw c’mon (Y/n)! Yer making almost as much as me with all yer photos,” he argues back, missing your teasing tone. You can’t help but laugh at the pout your soulmate is giving you. It’s almost too easy to fake argue with him to get him riled up. 

You lay your head on his shoulder and can’t hold back your laughs. “Baby,” you coo, “you know I’m teasing you right?”

Since you can’t see his face, you don’t see the ever growing smirk as he nods into you. The blond tightens his grip on your hips, pulling you into his crotch so your neck is free for him to attack with his lips. He starts to kiss and suck lightly on your open neck, catching you off guard.

“Oh I know baby,” he lightly grinds his clothed erection against you, “I was just messin’ with ya.”

You lift your head in fake anger, but it dissolves when the lust in his eyes matches yours. He steals your lips before you could protest or bite back a response. The burning desire within you begins to rise as you feel his cock against your core, causing you to moan lowly into his mouth. 

“Mmm, feel my cock baby? Feels good, yeah? Been wantin to touch ya all evenin’.” He then brings your legs to wrap around his waist and continues to kiss you seductively. You feel his tongue swipe at your bottom lip before entering your mouth. His deep groan into went straight to your core and you move your hips into him. Atsumu lifts an eyebrow before pulling away, loving the connection of saliva between your lips. 

“I can already feel how wet ya are fer me, baby. Ya really want daddy that bad, huh?”

You can’t help but shiver at his voice when he says daddy to you and wiggle your hips, knowing what you’re in for. A whine leaves your lips as you pull him into your chest to feel him against you and so you can whisper in his ear how much you want him, your daddy.

Atsumu bites his lip and rolls his hips into yours at hearing and feeling your breath on his ear. He then promptly lifts you up, rest thing his lips to yours as his hands grope and fondle your ass. You can’t help but shift around as he carries you to your shared bedroom, seeking friction in any capacity. Atsumu chuckles darkly feeling you struggle against him, breaking the kiss to suck on your neck. If there was something he loved more than volleyball or you, it was leaving marks and traces of him all over you. Satisfied with the mark he left he growls out,

“I can’t wait to fuckin’ destroy you, princess.”

With that, you’re dropped onto the bed, awaiting orders from your love. His whole aura switched from teasing and playful in the kitchen to a sexual dom and you were living for it. 

“Take off yer shirt off, I wanna see all of ya.”

You lick your lips and nod, slowly removing your shirt and making a show of it. You don’t miss the way he bites his lip and whispers out a low “fuck” as you undress. You leave your bra on knowing that’s one of Atsumu’s favorite things to take off of you. You place your hands on the hem of your leggings and look to him, as if to ask him if it’s okay. He nods and you slowly remove them from your body, leaving you in your bra and thong ready for him on the bed.

The tall blond stalks toward the bed and situates himself in-between your legs. He brings his lips to your inner thigh, his brown eyes on you to watch for your reactions. His lips trail up the sensitive skin, kissing and biting as he gets closer to your awaiting heat. But he doesn’t give you what you want, not yet. He hears you whine as he moves to your other thigh and repeats the same actions. He can feel the heat your pussy is emanating, already seeing your juices leak out.

You whimper out, “fuck, please just do it!”

He sniffs, enjoying your smell as he slowly pushes your thong to the side. “Please what baby? Ya gotta use yer words.”

You hips roll as his fingertips graze over where you want him the most. You hate his teasing nature, but you love the reward you get after. “P-please just put your tongue in me!”

Atsumu snickers before enticingly putting his tongue into your slit, making you gasp out and grab at his hair. He hums happily as he laps at you greedily. His tongue swirls inside of you in the best way. Your hips move off the mattress as your voice lets curses and whines escape. 

“Nuh uh baby girl. Ya gotta stay still fer daddy.” At that you feel a weight on your pelvis, realizing its his arm to hold you steady. With you unable to move, the need for release bubbles faster. Your breathing gets deeper and your voice rises an octave. Atsumu was always a king with his tongue, and for some reason tonight he was pulling out all the stops. Once you think you can catch your breath, he sucks hard on your clit and inserts a finger into you.

“Haah, fuck daddy!”

He laughs into your cunt and you moan at the vibrations. His tongue directly on your clit is making you see stars. He slyly inserts a second finger, already feeling you clench and tighten around him. That won’t do. He can’t have you cumming on just his fingers, but he does need to prep you. Before putting a third finger in, he sucks on your swollen nub to have you screaming in pleasure. His fingers scissor and stretch you out and it takes everything in him to not add a fourth. He knows you two haven’t discussed it so he knew to table it for another time.

“Shit, I’m gonna, I’m gonna cum. Please daddy can I cum?”

That makes him take his eyes off his fingers and to look at you directly and ceases his actions. He slowly pulls his fingers out of you and crawls on top of you. “Suck,” he commands and you do as you’re told. You’re a little miffed at not being able to cum as your pussy clenches at nothing while you suck his fingers. You know you’re doing a good job when you hear him groan and lose eye contact with you. You get into the valleys of his fingers and he moans, “yeah ya like daddy’s fingers? I know ya do. Now kiss me.”

He tilts your head up and you meet his lips in a sloppy kiss, tasting yourself again but on his lips. You feel him align his warm dick with your slick entrance and whine into the kiss. You break away from the kiss to tap his shoulder. 

“Wait ‘Tsumu,” you pant, “condom?”

He stops everything before frantically reaching for the nightstand. Atsumu knows he can get carried away when he’s in the moment, so he knows that when he gets tapped on the shoulder he’s forgotten something or needs to slow down. 

“Ah sorry, baby.” His voice sinks as he sucks his teeth feeling the rubber cover his dick. “Are we okay ta keep goin’?” 

You smile and nod at him, placing your hands on his chest in reassurance. He meets your smile and kisses your lips softly. “You ready ta take daddy’s hard cock?”

“Fuck,” you moan, “just fuck me already-Ah!”

He didn’t need anymore goading as he slides himself inside you. Your walls tighten around him and he has to control himself from wanting to pound into you. He waits for you to adjust to him before he pulls out almost all the way before your hips meet again.

“Ya feel so good, princess. Ya like the way daddy fucks ya?”

You nod aimlessly. “Yes! Please, I want more!”

His smile is evil as he grabs one of your legs and hoists it on his shoulder. “Be careful what ya wish fer,” he growls before snapping his hips forward. The two of you whine and moan together, unable to hear the sound of your juices and his hips squelching. “Aw fuck, baby ya feel too good.” He’s got one hand on your leg to hold it against his chest and the other rests lazily on your hip. He continues to fuck you into the mattress, your hands holding onto the head board behind you. Atsumu catches this and is displeased. He abruptly stops and places your leg down and around his waist, doing the same to your other leg, You look at him confused, “why, what are you doing?”

“I didn’t like the way you were grabbin’ the headboard, so you’re gonna grab onta me.”

With that he keeps pounding into you, now with your arms around his back. He’s never admitted it, but he loves the way you scratch and grip at his back when you two have sex. It drives him wild. “That’s it, baby. Hold on ta daddy as he fucks ya.”

Your garble out something as you hold him harder, realizing a free hand had escaped your upper body and has snaked its way to your clit. He begins to rub small and fast circles on the swollen nub, grinning at your reactions. He’s never sure which part he loves best: the way your voice gets incredibly lewd or how tight you get around him. This time he thinks it’s both. He continues to rub at your clit vigorously while pounding you all the same.

Sweat clings to each of your bodies as the rush of release is evident. Your eyebrows are scrunched tightly as you feel your orgasm coming. With a shaky breath you whimper, “I’m gonna cum, I’m gonna cum. Please lemme cum daddy. I’ve been so good!” 

His hips rut into you as he chases his own release. “Yeah ya have. Been such a good girl fer me. Fuck baby ya feel amazin’! I’m gonna cum so hard. Cum with me baby girl.” His body moves faster the closer he gets to climax. Your legs are shaking and your toes curled as you feel the coil within you come undone.

You scream out, “I’m cumming baby, I’m cum-ah fuck!”

You tighten around him, causing him to curse and whine as he loses his rhythm. “Shit baby girl, I hnng,” he feels the condom fill with his seed as he humps the both of you through your orgasms. His grip on you loosens as he comes down from his high, rubbing them with comfort. He stays on top of you but not pressing down into you. The afterglow the two of you bask in is always something he looks forward to. His breathing returns to normal after a couple minutes of the two of you just laying with each other. 

“Fuck ‘Tsumu,” you croak out, “that was s-so good. Could you pull out?”

Atsumu lazily nods and slowly pulls out of you, not wanting to cause you any pain. Once he’s out, he gets off the bed and takes off the condom, tying it up and placing it in the trash can. He returns to the bed to place a kiss on your forehead before whispering, “You were so good ta me. Lemme grab us some water and towels, yeah? Do ya want a shower or a bath?”

You groan and roll to your side. “Some water.”

“Baby, I know, but a bath or shower?”

“I can barely move, Atsumu, what do you think?”

He chuckles before leaving the room and announcing, “I’ll get tha bath started.” He’s gone for a few minutes, but returns with two water bottles and a towel as you hear the bathtub being filled with water. He sits down next to you and places the bottles down. He opens one and hands it to you. You thank him and drink down about half of the bottle. He drinks from his own and uses his empty hand to trace the curve of your face. 

“Hey (Y/n)”

You lift your eyebrow at him, giving him your attention.

“Ya know I love ya, right?”

You hum and nod, sitting up to wrap your arms around his shoulders and give his cheek a kiss. “I love you so much, Atsumu. No one is gonna break our bond okay? We’re soulmates.”

He takes one of your hands into his gently, leaning into your touch. “I know I’m not here a lot cause of volleyball. But I do love ya. Yer my baby girl.”

You chuckle lightly and kiss his cheek again. “Sap.”

“Ya know ya love it. Now let’s go take a bath, yeah?”

~~~~~~~~

The diner is closed

[xmxisxforxmaybe]

What You’ve Been Wanting

Summary: Sexting Finn at work gets you . . . exactly what you want.

Warnings: SMUT (18+ please)

A/N: I dare say I’ve outdone myself. Those of you who I consider to be my “Constant Readers” know I never say that about my own writing. So, here goes!

It wasn’t a secret that Finn hated his corporate job.

 He would have given anything to have grease under his nails again as he tuned an engine, but Finn was smart enough to know his old life dissipated with Tobey’s arrest.

 Part of you was relieved because you always thought Finn was better than the grunt work he did at the garage. When he took the job in Detroit, you told him that if he played the corporate game well enough, in ten years he could have enough money to open his own garage and get back to pursuing his passion. In some ways, Tobey’s arrest had seemed like a blessing.

 However, with corporate success came more demanding hours, and you quickly learned that one of Finn’s weaknesses was trying to balance work with life.

 Two nights ago, he didn’t get home until 9:15 pm. The previous night, it was 9:25, so you could argue that his time management was improving . . . except that last night, he didn’t walk through the front door until 10:05.

 It was clear he wasn’t going to find balance on his own, so you needed to intervene. When you had a moment to yourself throughout your own workday, you thought about what you could do to help. It wasn’t until you got home around 4:30 that your body actually told you what you should do.

 As you walked into the bedroom to change, you picked up some clothes on the floor and tossed them into the hamper. Finn’s black dress shirt caught your eye and you pulled it out, suddenly struck with the realization of how much you missed him. You brought the starchy fabric to your nose and pressed the collar against your lips, inhaling Finn.

 His scent fanned the dull flame of neediness that you hadn’t even identified was smoldering within you until that moment.

 As you looked down at his shirt, you were suddenly filled with inspiration, and you grinned as you tossed it onto the bed. Stripping down, you tossed all your work clothes in the hamper, then dug through your underwear drawer to find something sexy. A “race red” bra and panty set you had bought last Valentine’s Day stuck out, and you rushed into the bathroom to fix your face and hair, donning a lipstick that closely matched the underwear set.

 After slipping into Finn’s shirt, you left it unbuttoned as you started taking pictures: cute ones, mostly of your smile with just a glimpse of what you were wearing. You picked one that bordered on sexy and hit send.  

 As you thought about your next photo set, Finn texted back a few minutes later.

 Sexy!!! Miss you : (

 “Oh, you’re gonna do more than miss me here in a sec,” you said to yourself as you shucked off Finn’s shirt, took off your bra, then put his shirt back on. You spent some time positioning his dress-shirt so it just covered your nipples on either side. You angled the camera down your body, making sure to reveal as much breast as the position allowed.

 This time, Finn’s reply took exactly ten seconds.

 Please stop.

 Giggling, you prepped for what you expected to be the holy grail of sexy pics. You opened his shirt and laid across the bed, angling the phone so it captured your breasts, now fully on display, then you slid your hand into your red panties. You snapped some pics then got distracted as you fingered your clit, wondering if all you’d have tonight is another round with yourself. Leaning into his collar, your eyes slipped shut as you breathed him in and rubbed your swelling bud. With a groan, you stopped, secretly praying that this next picture would be the one to send him running home to you.

 Scrolling through your most recent shots, you picked the sexiest and sent it.

 You sucked on your finger, waiting for Finn’s reply. When his face flashed on the screen, you grinned and answered, “Hey, babe. I miss you.” 

“Stop sending me . . . those,” he hissed into the phone.

 “Sure. If you come home and take care of me.”

 “You know I can’t—”

 “You can.”

 “I can’t! Dammit, Y/N. Don’t you think I wish I could?”

 “You’re working yourself too hard, Finn. And that’s not a euphemism.”

 “I’ll see you when I get home,” he bit out, then hung up on you.

You didn’t know whether his reaction angered, hurt, or humored you, so you decided to keep playing your game. If that last picture hadn’t worked, maybe this one would. Wiggling out of your panties, you used Finn’s shirt to very precariously cover most of your pussy . . . most being the operative word.  

 Barely containing your laughter, you hit send and really thought about what you were doing to Finn. You slid your fingers between your folds and worked yourself to a quick orgasm as you imagined him opening his phone, probably with a frustrated huff. You imagined how wide his pretty eyes would get as he looked over his shoulder to make sure no one was peeking. You imagined how he’d shift in his chair, his pants suddenly too tight. And as you thought about the bulge in his trousers, you thought about the feeling of his dick inside you. Your fingers were slick which quickened your ministrations as you longed for him, and soon enough you were shaking with your swift, intense orgasm.

 Exhaling, you checked your phone and saw that Finn had opened your last picture, but he hadn’t replied.

 You figured you had a 60-40 chance, the odds in your favor that he left work, maybe even taking the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator, so you rolled over on the bed and lounged. As you played on your phone, you realized you were much more relaxed than when you had first gotten home and vowed that even if Finn did work late—again—you’d be sure to make sure he got off before bedtime.

 You smiled to yourself as you cleared out your cache of sexy photos and imagined undressing him, his sleepy eyes half-shut as he insisted he grabbed dinner on the way home and all he wanted was some sleep. Except instead of sleep, he would get your mouth on his cock.

 God how you missed him.

 As if on cue, the front door opened, then slammed shut. At first you grinned, but the sound of Finn’s pounding steps on the stairs sounded ominous, especially considering his typically aloof demeanor.

 “I am going to kil—” Finn growled as he stomped into the bedroom, but as he took in your nudity, he stopped mid-threat.

 You rolled over and bit your lip, your eyes lit with the promise of a very good time.

 “Hi.”

 Finn pulled his bottom lip between his teeth and his eyes grew to be twice their usual size.

 “You are in so much fucking trouble,” he growled as he launched himself onto the bed, covering your body with his as he bent to suck harshly on your neck.

 “Sorry, honey. Guess I shouldn’t tell you I got started without ya?”

 Finn released your skin with a wet pop and pulled back to look down at you, his eyes narrowing. He scanned your face to see if you were teasing or telling the truth and whatever he saw made him sit back on his haunches and grip your knees in order to push them wide apart.

 Hunger settled over his features as he took in your wet center, and you swore on the spot that the last image you wanted to see before you died was the way he licked his lips, looked up at you, then lowered his face over your pussy.

 Still fully clad in his suit, your calves rubbed against the fabric of his grey jacket as he held your thighs open.

 He immediately pulled your clit into his mouth with a sharp suck, bringing you straight to that threshold of pain and pleasure, an area as grey as the suit he was wearing. You pushed at his head with one hand and pulled at his gelled hair with the other, the noises leaving your throat more animal than human.

 Stopping to plunge his tongue into your center, your body relaxed, only to be lit on fire again as Finn’s nose nudged at your clit.

 “Oh my fuck—Finn!” you cried, your mind barely stringing together anything coherent.

 “Come on, baby. Say my name louder than that,” he ground out between the thrusts of his tongue.

 When he moved back to your clit with his mouth, he slid his thick middle finger inside of you and sought that bundle of nerves along your inner wall. Fucking you with his finger and his mouth, you squeezed your eyes shut in ecstasy, unable to have even imagined getting it this good from him when you began your little game.

 “FINN!” you shouted as you came, your lips still mumbling his name over and over as you trembled under his face.

 “Happy now?” he said, swiping at his nose and chin with his hand as he crawled back up your body.

 Instead of allowing yourself to bask in the tingles of an incredible orgasm, you were instantly possessed with the need to fuck him stupid.

 With a growl, you pushed him off your body and onto his back, a little too vigorously because he nearly tumbled off the bed. You grabbed onto his suit to steady him, then began tearing the clothes off his body.

 First the jacket went as you yanked him up by his lapels and gave him a searing kiss as you worked off the sleeves.

 Then his striped tie, ripped off with such force that the “ssst” sound of the fabric seemed to echo in your ears even as you tossed it to the side of the room.

 Once he was free from his tie, you worked the buttons on his sky-blue dress shirt, popping at least two in your haste as Finn tried to help only to have his hands smacked away. They floated beside you before settling onto the sides of your face as you kissed him until you needed to work off his undershirt.

 The thin material caught in his watch and you quickly unclasped it, not caring when it sharply thudded onto the floor.

 You kissed down his body, sucking marks onto his color bone and chest and nipping at his nipples with your teeth, pushing him to that line of grey he had you in earlier as he was sucking on your clit.

 “Want you,” you whined between kisses and bites. “Want you so bad.”

 “I’m not goin’ anywhere, baby—ah, fuuuck,” Finn hissed as you palmed his cock before whipping off his belt and opening his trousers.

 You finally hit a hitch in your destruction of his clothing when you realized he still had his shoes on. You stood up and pulled them off, each of them hitting the floor with a satisfying thud. His socks were next, then you were able to grab his suit pants by the edges and yank them off, change and whatever the hell else he had in his pockets scattering across your bedroom floor.

 Finn was already wriggling out of his boxers so all you had to do was reach up once again and yank.

 Only when he was gloriously naked before you did you stop to take a breath, steadying yourself on your feet and letting your eyes rake over him—and Finn ate it up, his ego clearly swelling to three times its usual size under your adoration.  

 Pressing a chaste kiss to his knee, you worked slowly up his thigh, licking and kissing in a way that had his cock jump as you got closer. Instead of taking him in your mouth, you kissed down his other thigh and worked your mouth to his knee on the other side of his body.

 “Oh no,” Finn said scrambling up. “No, no.”

 He grabbed your upper arms and pushed you back until you were both standing.

 “You don’t get to sext me at work, undress me like that, then tease me.”

 He stepped behind you, pushed you forward, then kicked your legs apart as you fell against the bed onto your stomach. He ran his hands down your thighs, groping them before he brought his hands to the cheeks of your ass and gave them a swat.

 “You’re gonna get it like you wanted it.”

 And with that, Finn pushed into your opening, coating his dick with the first thrust so he didn’t hurt you, but when he pulled back out, it was on.

 He slammed into you twice before he reached to gather your wrists and hold them against your lower back. Your cheek was pressing into the mattress and you felt like you were on orgasmic-fire as he held you down and fucked you.

 Finn’s ass clenched with the force of his thrusts and soon he was grunting every time he entered you, skin slapping against skin and filling the room with the sounds of really good, dirty sex.

 You weren’t contributing to the sexy cacophony since you were being fucked speechless, uttering only little puffs of breath that disturbed your ruined hair, your body unable to do more than take that fucking as a familiar coil inside of your abdomen burned again, aching for release.

 When Finn began to pick up his pace, you knew he was getting close to coming.

 “PleaseFinnplease,” you slurred. “I’m soclose.”

 “Again, baby? All right—but you better make it a good one,” he panted as he slowed down and released one of your wrists so he could fumble over your clit. As it turned out, you didn’t need precision in this position—just a little pressure.

 Not even Finn could hold your other wrist as you came, your arms slamming above your head and into the mattress as you gripped the comforter and gritted your teeth. An explosion of stars burst behind your eyelids as you came, and of course, Finn followed you, grunting out his climax, his hot cum coating your walls and mixing with your own, making you shudder at the intimacy of it—and that was just what you had really been wanting.

 A reminder of just who you belonged to.

[ilguna]

Belamour - Louring (f.o)

summary: they say the odds tend to favor those who need them. well, they were wrong.

warnings; swearing, DEATH MENTION

wc; 3.4k

NOTES: i give reader a last name to fit the world.

! Listen, this takes place DURING chapter ten on the SECOND day. After Allio has been killed and before (Y/n) is stabbed. In Catching Fire, it is said that when there are 8 tributes left, the families of the remaining tributes will be interviewed !

–

With a stern and hateful look into the living room, Reed can’t believe he’s watching his furniture be rearranged by a bunch of Capitol people to make his house look more appealing. Not only is it insulting, it goes to show how insensitive the Capitol is to the people in the district. 

Reed has an unhealthy desire to yell at every single one of them and take out his frustrations, as if that’ll help his sister’s situation inside of the arena. They might not have put her in their direction, but they’re a big reason why the games continue to go on. For their sick entertainment. She’s fifteen for fuck’s sake.

He doesn’t move, and he doesn’t unclench his jaw. He barely acknowledges Alyssum’s presence in his arms, because he wants to keep an eye on the people. As if they’ll end up swiping something in the house. There’s nothing valuable to them, and it’s a crazy though. Especially while he watches them try to touch as little things as possible.

Some lady moves a special bamboo plant that Reed remembers mom taking care of, like it’s also a child of hers. The Capitol lady has a look of disgust on her face when she looks back down at her white gloves, and brushes the dirt back into the plant, “You should clean.” is all she says, and then moves in the lamp.

Once they plug it in, they turn it on. It brightens up the entire room, more than any open curtain has. Like the lady’s gloves, the light is also white and it stings his eyes a little. Alyssum turns her face from where they’d been working, and places her head on his chest.

“Ouch.” she mutters, rubbing her eyes with her hands.

“Sorry.” Reed murmurs, fixing her in his arms but not moving. The living room looks foreign to him.

He wonders if they’ll be moving all of this back after the interview, or if he’ll be left with Mox to do it themselves. He hopes that they have enough decency to not do the latter, but after watching everything they’ve done so far, he wouldn’t put it past them. The first thing that they said when they walked in the house was how they were going to have to readjust.

What a nice greeting to a family of a tribute, right? For once, Reed watched Mox leave the room because of how mad he was. And that’s when Reed decided that he’d hold onto Alyssum until Mox felt better. Mox isn’t able to tolerate as much as he is, hasn’t had the experience of holding in his emotions for the better.

Reed’s been working on that for years now, it’s just what happens when you’re the head of the household. You have to be strong for the people who can’t be strong for themselves. When his sister comes back from the Capitol, he’s sure that burden will be even worse. He’s seen the way that victors react to people when they come back. It’s not pretty.

It’ll take a while for her to get used to her surroundings, and Reed will be there every step of the way. The adjustment will be hard, but they’ve all been through worse, he thinks. He thinks that watching his father come out of the hospital room, with tears in his eyes and a shake of his head, was hard. Even worse when he’d die months later, and leave Reed and Mox to take care of two expensive girls, especially when neither of them had experience.

Reed was only seventeen, Mox was sixteen. And for the first time in Reed’s entire life, he had to sign up for tessera. He’ll never forget the look on Caspian’s face when he broke the news. How he might get chosen the next year, because his name would be in there more times than needed. Instead of six times, it would be fourteen. Soon, Reed would be eighteen, and then he’d begin to bring in cash.

It wasn’t the same without two parents in the house. There might have been a year gap between him and Mox, but Reed felt old. Older than he was, and wise well beyond his years. He was so aware of the fact that three lives were depending on him, and he was terrified because of it.

He managed to stable out, but the fear hasn’t left him since. Even with Mox’s income, they’re always scraping by. One bad move, one accident could send them spiraling again. When (Y/n) wins the games, they’ll be able to float. They’ll be richer than they’ll have ever been, more than their grandparents.

It’ll be a game changer. But he doesn’t care about the money, he cares about her. The house isn’t the same without her, it’s empty and quiet. Dim and damp. Walking into her room is like walking into his parents room. Dusty, dark, and it feels like a graveyard, everything should be untouched to preserve her memory.

“Excuse me.” a male voice cuts, making Reed look over, “Do you have any family photos?”

Talk about his parent’s room. They’re on the dresser, but they’re old and he’s not sure how his sister would feel about old pictures of her. He shakes his head, and the man sighs.

“Well, the room is ready. I’d get your brother and come back. We’ll be on in the next ten minutes.” 

They go back to plugging in lights, pushing the couch back even more to get room between where he’ll be sitting, and the cameras. Reed doesn’t want to leave the living room, but he turns and goes into the hallway anyway. On the way, he shuts the door to (Y/n) and Alyssum’s room, and knocks on his and Mox’s bedroom door.

Mox opens it, looking much calmer than he did earlier, “Is it time?”

“Almost, we have ten minutes or so.”

Mox abandons the doorway and heads inside of the room, running a hand through his hair. He rubs his face and then sits on his bed, looking out the window. Neither of them say anything past this, and they wait as long as possible, before going to join the Capitol people in the living room.

Standing in the living room is a short woman, bright red hair, grey skin, when she looks at the siblings, her pupils are obviously too small. It makes her look like a corpse, fresh from the grave and looking insane, Reed is glad when she looks away. Even Alyssum goes back to snuggling her face into his chest.

“Go ahead and sit down.” she says, and they follow.

Reed sits next to the arm on the left, Mox to his right. Reed sits up, placing Alyssum on his knee, facing the camera that seems to have a mind of its own. The lady stands in front of the couch, now, looking them over.

God, what is it with the Capitol people altering their bodies like that? Don’t they know how unattractive it is? He doesn’t care about the ash-colored skin, he’s worried about her eyes. And when they dart between him and Mox, it makes him feel nauseous.

“Scoot to the right, you two should be in the middle.” she says, and they follow her directions, after that she does a series of things. She angles them inwards, creating a space between their hips. She places a pillow--provided by her assistants--in that space, and Alyssum sits there now.

She moves out of the way after that, “Listen carefully,” she begins, and Reed and Mox watch as they readjust the camera, and the lights, “Sit up straight, talk in order of oldest to youngest. The interview will take anywhere between ten to fifteen minutes. No swearing.”

They stop adjusting the lights, “The camera will follow your face, I suggest not moving too much. The girl shouldn’t talk too much, either. Chins up.”

Reluctantly, the two of them listen to her advice, scooting up higher on the couch and raising their chins a little so they’re not pointed downwards the entire time.

“Your sister is a very important tribute right now, I’d suggest not saying anything that could ruin that. Remember that if she wins, this will be showing up in the recap. Big smiles for the camera, please. Start the countdown!” she shouts, and everyone takes at least three steps backward.

A man counts down from ten, around five, the smiles appear on the brother’s faces. Reed scoots himself back until he’s pressed against the sofa, hoping that’ll keep him upright. A little bit of anxiety sprouts on three, suddenly remembering that this will be broadcasting in front of hundreds of thousands of people.

They’re about to represent (Y/n), whatever he’s feeling has to go away.

The audio comes through before the hologram visual, above the camera. But Caesar does appear on his special stage, a wide smile on his face, behind him is a large screen that says: DISTRICT FOUR - (Y/N) GALLOWS. The words will be replaced with their faces as soon as he introduces them.

“Now it’s time for the family of (Y/n) Gallows from District Four!” he shouts, and motions to the screen behind him. There, he, Mox and Alyssum appear.

Reed’s eyes fall from the hologram and to the camera, still trying to smile naturally. This is going to be harder than he thought. They all listen to the roar of the crowd, excited to see yet another tribute’s family, and their way of life. 

“Wow, what a resembling bunch!” Caesar exclaims, “Please, introduce yourselves.”

Reed’s glad to go first, to get a break from the forced smile, “My name is Reed.” he says.

Caesar nods thoughtfully, “How old are you, Reed?”

“Twenty.”

“And you’re the eldest of the house?” Caesar asks, and Reed nods, “How impressive! It must be a hard job. And what’s your name?”

It’s a clear question for Mox, and Mox ends up raising his eyebrows a bit, lowering his chin when he speaks, “Mox, I’m nineteen.”

“Nineteen?” Caesar makes a face, “You are not!”

Mox gives a small smile, “I am.”

Caesar’s shaking his head, “Folks, I don’t believe they’re as old as they say they are. Haha!” the crowd laughs too, “And the little one?”

Reed looks down to Alyssum, whispering, “Go ahead and tell them your name.”

She bites her lip, and then smiles widely, “Alyssum.”

“She’s three.” Reed says.

“She looks exactly like (Y/n), do you know that? When you three appeared, I had to ask myself, ‘When did (Y/n) win?’ Haha!” and the crowd is cheering right along his laugh, “She’s absolutely adorable, I can imagine she’s a pleasure to be around.”

Reed and Mox are well passed used to people telling them how Alyssum looks like an exact replica of her older sister. Sometimes, they can agree on it, because there’s days where she does. But there’s days where Alyssum is such a resemblance of their mother, and it makes Reed’s heart ache painfully.

People have learned to stop bringing it up. But the Capitol gets a pass, because they have no way of knowing. They’re the outsiders for once.

“We get that a lot.” Reed says, “And thank you.”

Caesar seems to settle now, “Let’s start the beginning, shall we? When (Y/n)’s name was read during the reaping, how did you feel?”

Reed takes a deep breath to give himself room to think before speaking, “At first, nervous, because she’s only fifteen. I never pictured her on that stage before then, and I didn’t want to. Then, I calmed down some, she knows what she's doing.”

Caesar’s nodding, “Yes, she has proven to be very cunning. What about you, Mox? How did you feel?”

“Sad.” Mox says, “She’s my baby sister, I don’t want the world to touch her. We’ve all seen what happens inside of the arena, and it’s brutal.”

“What did you say to her?”

Reed fixes his chin, he’s going to have to answer this for the both of them. Mox hardly spoke when they parted ways, “We reassured her that she can win. She might be young, but she knows a lot about the arena already.”

“And you gave her that ring, right? The one she has as a token?”

The ring! Reed’s forgotten all about it, and he’s sure that she has too. She hardly ever pays attention to it, until it’s the end of the day. She’s expressed a couple of times to her allies how afraid she is to lose it in the sand. Once it slips off, it’ll be impossible to find. The only time (Y/n) really acknowledges it is when she’s taking long walks to places.

Like back and forth between the pond, or the waterfall. Wherever it may be, she’ll spin the ring on her finger. Reed’s a little surprised that it hasn’t come flying off just yet, considering that it no longer fits her finger snugly, she’s lost a lot of weight inside of there. They eat one meal a day, one bottle of water. It’s not healthy, and he hates to watch it.

She’s not skin and bones, and she’s not starving. That’s the only part that matters. 

“Yes, I’ve had it on me since she turned twelve. I didn’t think she'd get chosen for the games, but just in case, I wanted to get her a token to remind her of home.”

“What’s the story behind the ring?” 

Reed’s sure that (Y/n) already explained it during her interview, because he asked her the exact same question. But still, he answers, “Well, it was our mother’s engagement ring. When our dad first met our mom, she told him that if she were to ever get married, she didn’t want an expensive ring, and liked the smaller things.

“So, he got her that silver band with a wave on it. He thought the silver was close enough to blue, and it was cheap. As for the wave, he wanted something that represented District Four. When he proposed with it, she was surprised that he remembered, and obviously said yes.

“She wore the ring everywhere, and when she got married, she got a better band. When she died, we didn’t bury her in her rings, and instead kept them in her jewelry box. I wish I could say we have our dad’s matching set, but we don’t.” Reed’s glad that Alyssum is too young to understand all of this. She might be able to speak and listen to them, but she won’t start remembering things until she’s five or six.

The audience is quiet, Caesar’s looking confused. Reed knows the question is coming before it’s asked, “Why not?”

Mox picks it up, “He died months later in a boating accident. No bodies, much less the boat, were recovered.”

Now, there’s a sad hush that falls over the audience. Caesar nods thoughtfully, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s been years.” Mox says.

“Let’s talk about the Tribute Parade, then. What was your favorite part?”

Reed makes a face, “At the beginning, she seemed happy and carefree.”

“You weren’t bothered that she was holding onto her district partner?” Caesar’s raising his eyebrows.

“(Y/n) and Finnick are friends.” Mox says, “They’ve known each other for years, they go to school together.”

“What a shame then, for two friends to be placed in together.” The crowd seems to agree, “They seemed to be fond of each other at the beginning of the week too, I can see it. What about you?” more cheering, “Okay! Let’s talk about my favorite part, her training score. Tell me everything you were feeling.”

“Excited.” Reed says, perking up a bit more, “Seeing that ten on screen was a reminder of how smart she is. I don’t doubt that she did something impressive to earn it, she knows how to gain the good sort of attention.”

“That she does!” Caesar agrees, “Especially for her age too. We’ve seen girls and boys her age get around that area, but never a ten on the dot. Did you celebrate?”

Mox is nodding, a small laugh coming from him, “Yes, we did. We’re good friends with the family next door, we had a celebration. A few people outside of the houses came by to congratulate us.”

“I bet you had a good time. Did you do the same for her interview?”

“More or less. We weren’t happy that the week was over so soon, but that’s just what happens with the games.” Mox says.

“She was very deceiving on stage at first.” Caesar says, “Nervous, I could tell.”

Reed nods, “She’s never really been in front of crowds before, I believe that the thought of the camera’s weren’t helping very much either.”

The crowd shouts, and Caesar’s still nodding, “Yes, but she wrapped it up very nicely towards the end. Assuring a win like that?”

“She can do anything that she puts her mind to.” Mox tells him.

“Right. Now, you said earlier that her and Finnick are friends, why didn’t she run with him during the bloodbath? Why do you think she stayed?”

“Survival, she knows that the career alliance tends to last the longest, and it’s the most reliable. Finnick is pretty young, too. She probably didn’t think he’d be the best fit, after all.”

“But the other boy? Blaire, from Three?” Caesar asks.

Reed is nodding slowly, “Blaire seems to be older than her. She seems to know him from her week inside of the Capitol, so she must have talked to him at some point or another.”

“She said that Blaire, Finnick and Thyme were supposed to be allies.” Mox says, “And that other girl from Three, too. (Y/n) might have been caught between two alliances and she chose the careers in the end.” Mox says.

Reed motions to Mox, “She probably hasn’t killed him because she considers him as a friend.”

Caesar nods, “You know that so far she has five kills inside of the arena?”

Reed wants to whistle, because it’s a pretty high number, especially for her. She always used to say that she’d try and outlast the others as much as possible. But inside of the arena, she’s doing the exact opposite. Reed guesses that there’s a difference between watching, and actually being in there. Your mindset changes and all of that.

“Yes.” Reed says, and he knows that a lie won’t hurt in this moment, “And before you ask, yes, I did expect that from her. She said that she would win, and we told her that she would, so she’s going to do what she has to.”

“Even killing her two friends?” Caesar tilts his head.

“Even killing her two friends.” Reed repeats.

“What did you think of her act with Allio? Smart or stupid.”

Mox breathes out a laugh, “It’s a dangerous game to play and everyone can see that. Her allies aren’t stupid, so I don’t doubt that won’t catch on. It’s just a question of whether or not she’ll see that.”

The audience is murmuring, Caesar is checking the time. It’s almost over, “We’re almost out of time. Reed, if there was anything you could tell her right now, what would it be?”

Reed takes in a deep breath, “I’d tell her that she’s nearly home, and she needs to be careful with the next moves she ends up making. Towards the ends of the games, things tend to get chaotic, and I’m sure she knows that. All she has to do is continue to make the games predictable, and she’ll be home in no time. Keep your head up, (Y/n). We love you, and we’ll see you soon.”

Mox takes a moment, the angry feeling has faded with him. He too, takes a deep breath and tries to calm himself, “I’d tell her that I love her. She already knows what she’s doing, all she needs is reassurance. (Y/n) has a plan, and she’s sitting pretty. I can’t wait to see her again.”

Caesar’s got a slow smile spreading over his face, “Thank you for your time, Gallow’s family. (Y/n) has been amazing so far, and I can’t wait to see what she does next!” the camera is zooming out, the audience is cheering loudly. It’s over, Caesar motions to the screen behind him, a grin on his face, “Ladies and gentlemen, the family of District Four’s very own (Y/n) Gallows!”

[takuchat]

The development of Final Fantasy VII is a mysterious and hard thing to follow. While there is plenty of info out there, much of it is either rumors or unsubstantiated.   The sad thing is, there is no easy way to find legitimate information on the game.  This is why I am here now, this article will serve as a source of factual information about the development of the original Final Fantasy VII.

Below, you will find interviews from the games development and release. As well as links to the sources of these interviews( interviews copied so they will not be lost one day ). Beyond interviews there will be Press Releases and some other cool information.  Enjoy.

  Logo concepts

Meteor Concept art

  Final Fantasy VII – 1997 Developer Interviews

  Hironobu Sakaguchi – Producer Yoshinori Kitase – Director Tetsuya Nomura – Character Design, Storyboards, System, Mech Design Yuusuke Naora – Art Director Motonori Sakakibara – Movie Director Akira Fujii – Battle Scene Director Ken Narita – Main Programmer Yasui Kentarou – Magic/Summoning Effects Kenzo Kanzaki – Backgrounds Nobuo Uematsu – Music

FF6 vs. FF7

Kitase: Our development concept for the story in FF6 was to have over 10 main characters, any of which could be called “the protagonist.” We challenged ourselves to create a world without someone you could point to and say, “this is the main character.” This time, with FF7, we knew from the beginning that we wanted Cloud to be the main character, and we were going to tell his story.

Aside from the story, FF6 had a lot of details undecided when we began development. A great many things were filled out along the way. In contrast, with FF7 we knew from the outset that we were going to be making a real 3D game, so from the earliest planning stage we had very, very detailed designs drawn up. The script was also locked in, and our image for the graphics was completely fleshed out. So when we began the actual work, we had already created what you could call “storyboards”. Of course there was some experimenting as we worked, but we were very clear about what we were supposed to be doing from the outset.

Actually, the very first thing we decided in FF7 was how the camera angles would change during battle scenes. We also decided on the materia system, where any weapon and armor can be equipped with any materia. Accordingly we knew the battles wouldn’t be about characters with individual, innate skills, but rather that combat would change depending on the way materia was used.

Sakaguchi: After FF6 was completed the staff had some free time. We then started thinking about what new hardware there was and what we wanted to do with our next creations, and we created a movie as an experiment. At that time we were working with the SG1 workstations, which had rendering software designed for next generation hardware. For that reason we thought it would be good if we could continue using this setup for our next game. With the SG1 software, we could develop graphics for any hardware. 1 However, for our purposes, we didn’t want the frame-by-frame, slow rendering that takes many hours; we wanted to develop a way to render the visuals in real-time for our new game.

Kitase: I believe we only had 3 months to figure all that out.

Choosing the Hardware for Final Fantasy VII

Sakaguchi: It was starting to become clear to us what the memory capacity for the different next-gen consoles would be. Our games were going to need a huge amount of memory. The Final Fantasy VI CG demo we made for the Siggraph exhibition took 20 megs all by itself. We thought that demo had a lot of visual impact, so there really wasn’t much question about which hardware we would use; if we were going to realize the promise of the demo we had shown at Siggraph, nothing but the CD-ROM format would suffice.

Another reason for choosing the CD-ROM was related to price. I think one of the big reasons the first Final Fantasy was favorably received by players, and the later games in the series gained so many fans, was that you could buy those games for around 5000 to 6000 yen. We tried to have the same pricing for Bahamut Lagoon, Gun Hazard, and our other later Super Famicom games, but using cartridge ROM meant those games had to be sold for over 10000 yen. New players did not flock to those games like they had before. If we used CD-ROM for Final Fantasy VII, we’d be able to have a 2-disc game at a price of 5800 yen. I was hoping it would be possible to make a game that could sell several hundred thousand copies.

Introductions, Difficulties, Favorite Moments

Sakaguchi: I’ve been working with Kitase for a long time, since FF5. He did most of the event scenes in FF6: the opera house, Celes’ suicide scene, the scene where Setzer climbs the stairs and reminisces, and more. I’m not exactly turning things over to the next generation just yet, but for FF7 almost all the story was done by Kitase. His original ambition was to be a film director, so he’s well-disposed towards this work–I’ve left all the in-game event scripting in his hands.

As for my part, since FF3 I’ve led the battle team, and that was my role this time too. Well, actually, the battle team is composed of solid veterans, so I stepped back a bit and played more of a producer role.

Nomura: For FF7 I worked on character design, storyboarding, and the underlying story.2 I have too many favorite parts to sum up quickly here… well, I like it all.

Narita: I was the main programmer. I did all the programming related to the field, and I also helped get everything together at the end. As for difficulties… hmm. Since it’s been a pretty sudden shift from the Super Famicom to the Playstation, we struggled first with getting used to the Playstation hardware itself, then finding out what appealing features it had, and learning how to bring out those features to make a good, balanced game. But on the programming side, what was really hard for me was going from 2D to 3D. Probably any programmer would say the same I think.

As for things I’m proud of, I thought the movies and the in-game field scenes transition into each other very smoothly. That was also the most difficult thing for us in terms of the programming.

Sakakibara: I worked on the movie cutscenes. The challenge for me was just the amount of volume we had to create, it was crazy. What I liked was the opening scene in the beginning. Although I’m already starting to forget it. (laughs)

Fujii: I did the backgrounds for the battle scenes. What was hard for me was that the field graphics would design their graphics with a very high polygon count, and I think had to find a way to reduce that count so the graphics could be rendered in real-time. Selecting the primary elements to render was very difficult. At first I was just fumbling through it, but I gradually got the hang of it and was able to connect things very well. When I first saw characters move around in those backgrounds I had made, I thought they looked great… if I do say so myself. Unless you’re specifically paying attention to them, battle backgrounds aren’t something you usually notice in a game, but we really had to prepare a huge number of different backgrounds for all the different map terrains.

Kentarou: I did the programming for the battle effects and summons. What was fun for me was recieving the storyboard mockups from Tetsuya and thinking “there’s no way, this is impossible.” But then when I got down to it, they came out surprisingly well. The Titan summon was especially memorable for me. The way we did it was new to me, and I think it compares really well with the work I’ve done in the past.

The CG Team

Sakaguchi: We definitely hired a lot more CG staff than we had before.

Kitase: Yes, but they didn’t feel like a separate, “detached force” from our main development team. They had experience in the game industry. What’s more, our existing staff at Square, who up to now had only worked on games, were able to learn a bit about CG from them.

Sakaguchi: For FF7, about 80-90% of the field and game mechanics were done by our traditional staff. For the CG staff with their specialized hardware knowledge, we tried to let them do their thing (but this time with a video game). Several top-grade special fx guys who had worked at Digital Domain and Lucasarts’ Industrial Light Magic also contributed to FF7.

Maps and Backgrounds

Naora: I worked on the unifying all the graphics, including the movies. The majority of my work was on the background graphics. In our previous games, most of those graphics were done with a fixed top-down perspective. To take a town for an example, the map would be composed of various sprites: houses, streets, foliage, fences, and so on. With FF7 we didn’t have to use sprites and could instead present the maps as one seamless image.

I had experimented with this before in the trial scene of Chrono Trigger. I used a bunch of memory to make one single image for the background. Previously we had to reuse so many sprites for our maps, but it was very exciting to be able to include whatever we wanted for FF7. We could have more varied terrain, and our whole image of the game world really expanded.

The work of mine that I really want people to see is, of course, Midgar. I had the image of a pizza in mind when I designed that city, and I really like how it turned out.

In any event, what we really wanted to convey with the backgrounds was a lived-in feel. Down to the beds and individual toilets, I put a lot of detail into everything.

And even after I stopped working, my boss was still making stuff. On one of the posters hanging on the wall, he added an image of Hironobu Sakaguchi. (laughs) I should be upfront: there’s many graphics that even I don’t know about hidden away in the game. Be sure to look closely at the walls inside the buildings. Who knows what surprising things you might discover. The Rocket Town especially has a variety of interesting things hidden away.

Cinematic Aspirations

Kitase: Visually, I wanted Final Fantasy VII to be a completely unified work, with a single style running from beginning to end. The cut-scene movies, overworld map, and battle scenes would not be disconnected, but would instead smoothly and seamlessly transition into one another. To call this game “cinematic” would be correct, but what I really wanted was something where all the compositions and shots would be suffused with meaning and show the intent of the creators.

For all our previous games, when we’ve been in the phase of brainstorming ideas and sketching pictures, there’s always been the knowledge that we have to work within the hardware memory limitations. This time there were no limits, and no restraints.

That difference in available memory had a really big influence on the development. For the gameplay system, story, and in-game events, it didn’t change very much. What the increased memory allowed in FF7 was more painterly visuals, with a better sense of space and composition. Naturally the graphics quality itself has also gone up, but I think it’s in the cinematic presentation where you see the evolution.

.

Sakaguchi: Speaking of cinematic, we also wanted to have a soundtrack with no repeated music. In movies, you don’t hear music get repeated, you know. Depending on the scene the tempo or the intensity might change though. I think something like that should be possible… although there is the matter of how much available spirit/creativity we can get out of our composer, Uematsu. (laughs) Of course FF7 is a game that takes over 40 hours, so some music is repeated, but our overall goal was to make it as cinematic as possible in that regard.

We also had Yoshitaka Amano do illustrations for the world of FF7. Some of his work appears as a frescoe on a wall in the game.

Kitase: We had really been wanting to use Amano’s artwork in-game before. In FF6, we wanted to have one of Reim’s drawings being Amano’s artwork. In the ending scene Reim would have painted a wall mural showing scenes of all the adventures the heroes had undertaken.

Character Design

Nomura: Since the characters in FF7 were going to be rendered in real-time, the nitoushin,3 chibi-style character design we’ve used in previous games wasn’t going to work here. If they brandished their sword overhead they’d end up stabbing themselves in the head. Not using the super-deformed style meant we had no limits on how to animate these characters.

Naora: I helped out on the character design too. In the previous games with the nitoushin, deformed sprites, it would look really lame if they rode a motorcycle or something. By changing the character’s dimensions, we were able to have them ride different vehicles.

Nomura: My involvement with FF7 goes back to helping create the basic story, and we came up with the characters during that time too. I think that was a good way to do things. Barret and Cait Sith were two characters whom I had wanted to create for a long time, but everyone else was created as we were writing the story.

As for things I personally designed, I think the Yin and Yang boss came out really well. Also, the Iron Giant. It wasn’t enough to just have a good initial design though. I had to create a design, then translate it into a 3D model, then see how it looked all-around, and only then could I say “alright, this is good.” Yin and Yang and the Iron Giant were two designs I felt that way about.

I also helped out on all the storyboad designs for the summons. Since 3D allows you to change the perspective in various ways, we decided to make the summons have really flashy camerawork.

Favorite Characters

Kentarou: I personally really like Red XIII’s scenes. Every time I remember that one scene of his, I start to tear up. (laughs)

Kanzaki: My favorite would be Tifa, because of her ample bust. (laughs)

Fujii: Yuffy. I like the sounds she makes. Also, it’s not a character, but I like all the summons.

Kentarou: Ah, yeah, I have a special love for Titan. Nomura said Titan should flip over the ground that the enemies are on. He would peel off a slab of the land: no matter what terrain he was on. (laughs) At first I had him come in on normal ground, and he’d flip the same slab of ground no matter what terrain… but that looked boring. I had a small insight into the problem and was able to solve it.

Narita: My favorite character is Barret. Because he does the same damage when he’s in the back row. (laughs)

Kanzaki: Yuffy and Vincent can do that too, though.

Narita: You can clear the game without getting Yuffy. I didn’t add her to my party. As for Vincent, I can’t forgive him. (laughs) Yeah, it’s Barret all the way for me.

Sakakibara: I like Jessie. She cleans your face for you. (laughs) If only you could have had Jessie in your party.

Nomura: For me, it’s of course Cloud and Sephiroth. My concept for Sephiroth from the beginning was that everything about him would be kakkoii.4 His battle movements, and all his in-game scenes too. My image of the relationship between Cloud AND Sephiroth was that of Musashi Miyamoto and Sasaki Kojiro, and I had them in mind when I designed their appearance, as well as their swords. Of course Cloud is Musashi, and Sephiroth is Kojiro.

Animating the Characters

Narita: The movement of the characters during the in-game events was actually all done by character designers in the planning group. Normally those designers convey what they want to a motion specialist, who then animates them. But in our case, the character designers learned how to do the motion work, and if they wanted to add some movement or gesture to a character they did it themselves. That’s why each character’s movements differ depending on who created them. There were designers who liked very exaggerated movements, and those who preferred more quiet, subtle movement.

For the character battle animations, however, we had motion specialists for each character. But for all the other in-game events, the designers created the character’s movements themselves.

Narita: Nomura was the Demon King of retakes. He was always making the designers re-do things. “Nope, that’s wrong there.”

Kanzaki: But it’s really thanks to him that we achieved very realistic motion.

Nomura: We spent more time on the typical, everday motion of the characters than we did on other types of motion. That’s where the character’s personality comes out, after all. So yeah, I stuck my nose into everyone’s work there. (laughs) I drew the designs for these characters from the moment we had our basic idea of them; no one told me “draw him this way” or anything like that. Every character in FF7 is one that I designed just how I wanted to.

The first characters we had were Cloud and Barret. From there we kept talking, and as we worked our ideas out, new characters would come up. All the characters were created in the course of our discussing our ideas for the game. None of them were created after the fact, as in “oh, let’s make this kind of character.” As we brainstormed about the game, we’d realize a character was already there in our minds.

Limit Breaks

Nomura: With each Final Fantasy, the entire team contributes to the initial design/planning documents, and we then pick out the best ideas from there. During that highly individual period of brainstorming, I came up with the idea of adding limit breaks to the battle system. In FF6 we had desperation attacks that would happen when you were near death, and I wanted to build on that idea. Since you were free to build your character by adding and removing materia, I also wanted to add limit breaks as a way to bring out the individual, innate personalities of each character. For that reason I’m really glad we were able to include them. It also allowed us to add more unique animation for each character, too, further emphasizing their individuality.

The Music of FF7

Uematsu: I know many players were hoping that with the move to the Playstation, we’d have studio quality music instead of the internal sound chip like that used in the Super Famicom games. And I know other companies are recording CD quality music for their games, but with FF7 we decided to do all the music with the Playstation’s internal chip.

  That’s because as far as sound quality goes, we felt the Playstation’s hardware was more than capable. It has a higher dynamic range than the Super Famicom, and 24 voices (the Super Famicom had 8). The sound effects were all recorded in the studio, but the music, from start to finish, is all the Playstation’s internal chip. This way the music puts less demands on the read access time of the CD-ROM. It’s stressful to be playing a game and have to wait all the time for the CD-ROM to load data. So we prioritized a less stressful experience over better sound quality.

From the first Final Fantasy up to Final Fantasy V, the music has had a European atmosphere: the north, castles, blue skies… But FF6 started to break away from that, and FF7 begins with a new image, a dirty city of the future. So I was thinking the music should change too. I personally like a lot of different styles of music, so I saw this game as a chance to show parts of myself which I hadn’t been able to express before.

I used keyboard and guitar for the basic compositions, and I read the story and script as I composed. But there were so many songs this time that I was really worried I would run out of time. There were something like 100 songs needed. I’d compose, then program it in, and if it was wrong I’d revise it. Rinse and repeat. I write the music out first and then proram it into the sequencer, but there was no guarantee that the Playstation hardware would have the kind of sound I was looking for. And the sound quality might be very different. For that reason there ended up being a lot of unused songs.

Wrapping things up

Narita: At the end of the development we had a closing party. We gathered all the development staff together, and we all watched the credits roll after the last boss was defeated. As the staff was listed, each respective developer stood up and took a bow. It was the first time I realized “oh, he did that.” And it was the first time I really felt how many people had been involved in making this game.

Fujii: Once the field, battle, and world maps were all joined, that was when I first felt the power of FF7 as a finished work.

Narita: Until then, everything was being developed separately, and only at the end was it all joined together. When the world map was added and you could walk around, that was definitely the moment when I felt, “wow, we’ve really made it.”

You see, the way we made FF7 was totally different from the way we made the previous Final Fantasy games. Before, there was no real “director”–everyone was, individually, their own director, and everyone created the actual data that would be used in-game by themselves. There was a head person who generally controlled the flow of work and made sure everything got into its final form, though. I guess you’ve got to have someone like that.

But to imitate that with FF7 would have required a huge number of staff and hardware for them all to work on. You could say that the way we made FF7 was closer to the way they make movies.

Sakakibara: Speaking of that, we were also asked to make sound effects that would be of the same quality and character as those you hear in movies. It felt entirely different from the way we made sound effects before.

Kanzaki: The quality of the backgrounds took a huge step up, too. We didn’t have to reuse any sprites or tiles.

Kentarou: When I was making the battle effects, it felt like business as usual for me, so I didn’t have a feeling like “these are awesome!” then. But at the very end when we were debugging and I saw them, I thought for the first time how nice they looked. I also thought, “damn, it’s a good thing I didn’t slack off.” (laughs) It would have been really bad if we had just made a bunch of shoddy effects. (laughs)

Kanzaki: There were a lot of worries at the start of the development though.

Narita: Yeah, in a certain sense, FF7 is something of a minor miracle. I mean, we only had a year to do everything.

Fujii: It’s the shortest development we’ve had so far.

Narita: Yeah, that it was. And normally you’d start developing your game after you’d learned the new hardware. But we had to learn the hardware and create the game all in the same year. I really couldn’t believe it when I saw the finished product of FF7. It’s amazing that so many people were involved, and that we completed it in so short a time.

Fujii: Time is always the one thing you’re in short supply of. We had to do the battle system after all the field stuff was done, so practically speaking we only had half a year for that. The last dungeon was a real slap-bang, rushed affair.

Midgar near finished

Concept

midgar

Interview with Official UK PSX Magazine

  Published in October 1997

Official UK PSX Magazine: Describe the game in 100 words.

Square: The latest in the Final Fantasy series is the closest Square have come to their ultimate goal of blending real-time action with FMV-quality animation, in an all-encompassing, totally absorbing and immersive interactive gaming experience. This seventh heaven is a mix of stunning backdrops, adorable and believable characters, intriguing plots, pulsating battles and tricky puzzles, which all add up to the best RPG yet to appear.

What’s the plot?

The world of Final Fantasy VII expands on FFIII’s concept of Magitek, where magical forces are a reality and have thus been incorporated into the technological progress of civilisation. This isn’t your typical fantasy setting: vast chimneys belch smoke, steam trains criss-cross the urban sprawl, neon signs crackle in the rainswept ratruns between towering factories. It transpires that Mako is a ‘dark’ form of magic, and its insidious corruption of the Shinra Corporation has created a police state by empowering a security force. You begin the game as an ex-soldier-turned-revolutionary, and immediately find yourself assisting a terrorist group called Avalanche in their attempt to overthrow Shinra and restore balance to the exploited world.

Is there anything in this game that we’ve never seen in any other?

If you’ve played SNES versions of the Final Fantasy series, then possibly not. There are slight deviations from the first six, and the music and graphics are obviously enhanced. But as a PlayStation starting point, continuity was very wise. For novice owners, however, this will be like nothing you’ve seen.

What other games have influenced Final Fantasy VII?

Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy II… need we go on? There is a whole history of RPGs and all the paths that lead Square here were winding. In Final Fantasy VII, however, there have been more Western influences both externally and from those on the team.

What’s going to be the best bit of the game?

Taking an already believable story and gameplay and placing it in an environment that now looks real it is a real shock to the senses.

Why will it be better than any other game of its ilk?

The characters for a start. Square’s scriptwriting talents are once again employed to make you fall in love with the characters, then mercilessly pull your emotional strings as they experience suffering, joy, love, betrayal and even (whisper) d.e.a.t.h. Also the quest is huge, straddling no less than 3 CDs, and with so many locations that the average completion time is reportedly 120 hours.

Any specific technical conventions to speak of?

At first the system might seem to bear similarities to Resident Evil, in that your polygon hero can move around a detailed pre-rendered environment, but the backgrounds are packed with interactive ‘hot spots’. The integration of old and new techniques also gives FFVII a unique cinematic quality. Its many cut scenes are CGI movie sequences that use the same pre-rendering as the rest of the game, so that when the dizzying camerawork finally comes to a halt, the scene on which it settles is also the environment in which your character can explore. The direction is seamless. The combat system boasts AD&D complexity. Weapons and items have slots in which to fit Materia, orbs that endow the wearer with extra powers such as the ability to steal, or summon Esper-like creature attacks, with some weapons boasting more slots for combining enhancements.

So why should anyone care about the game?

Because it’s the best RPG to appear on the PlayStation. It’s sold five million copies already in Japan!

   Hironobu Sakaguchi Interview

  Interview with Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the Final Fantasy series and producer of Final Fantasy VII. From PlayStation Underground #2 demo CD set, released in the US in 1997.

Transcription and screenshots by Tuulisti.

PlayStation Underground: Why is Squaresoft publishing Final Fantasy FVII only on PlayStation?

Hironobu Sakaguchi: In the August of 95, one of the US’s largest CG conventions, Siggraph, was held in LA. At that time we were not sure what the next generation RPG game should look like, so as an experiment we created a CG based, game like, interactive demo to be presented at the show. It focused on battle scenes that were 100% real time and polygon based. This became the seed of Final Fantasy VII and it was then that we decided to make this a CG based game.

When we discussed designing the field scenes as illustrations or CG based, we came up with the idea to eliminate the connection between movies and the fields. Without using blackout at all, and maintaining quality at the same time, we would make the movie stop at one cut and make the characters move around on it. We tried to make it controllable even during the movies. As a result of using a lot of motion data + CG effects and in still images, it turned out to be a mega capacity game, and therefore we had to choose CD-ROM as our media. It other words, we became too aggressive, and got ourselves into trouble.

Why did you need such a large staff?

A larger developer team will not always create a better game, but when a project moves onto a scale such as this, you get to spend a lot of money, and work with highly qualified staff.

We were able to use many high-end machines and work with a staff of approximately 100 people, and I believe this was one of the largest game development teams in history. As a result, the final game generates a tremendous amount of energy. My theory is this: if one person creates a game – it can be a racing game or anything – or 10 people create the same game, the one created by 10 people will be much richer in scope. There is a larger pool of resources to draw from, and each person is able to put passion into his role, creating a greater sense of depth.

How has film influenced your game-making?

It is easy to get emotionally involved with both films and games, although in different ways. Adding certain interactive aspects to films however, I believe players can get further into them, even become one with the visual images. I have always emphasized visual and sound effects because rather than making my games equivalent to films, I want my games to surpass films. That is my goal.

Why is Final Fantasy VII getting so much praise?

Without changing the basic game play, the visual and sound effects have been significantly enhanced further drawing the players’ emotions in to the game. One way RPGs enforce too many images and too much sound on the players, robbing them of the feel of control. In order to avoid those responses, we did extensive research during Final Fantasy V and VI on how to make the players interactively involved in the game, while upgrading the visual and sound effects. The results of this research are reflected in Final Fantasy VII.

Are there any new themes in Final Fantasy VII?

When we were creating Final Fantasy III, my mother passed away, and ever since I have been thinking about the theme “life”. Life exists in many things, and I was curious about what would happen if I attempted to analyze life in a mathematical and logical way. Maybe this was my approach in overcoming the grief I was experiencing. This is the first time in the series that this particular theme actually appears in the game itself. See if you can spot it!

What was it like to work with director Yoshinori Kitase?

I have been working with him since Final Fantasy V. When he joined Square, he told me he initially wanted to become a film director, but that he thought this would be impossible in Japan. The previous version of Final Fantasy could be called puppet shows compared to this one. It’s a real film requiring innovative effects and various camera angles. His experience studying cinematography and in making his own films has contributed a lot to the making of the game. He is the director of this game.

  The Making of Final Fantasy VII

  May 2003 edition of Edge magazine’s regular feature “The Making Of…”, spotlighting Final Fantasy VII. Interviewed for this article were Yoshinori Kitase and Tetsuya Nomura.

Transcription by Tuulisti.

3.28m sales in Japan, 2.92m in the US and 1.77m in Europe. Three CD. Over two years’ development. Over 100 team members. Nine out of ten. Adults in tears. But Final Fantasy VII represents much more than cold record-breaking statistics. Here was the catalyst for the worldwide RPG revolution…

“This was undoubtedly the game that changed everything.” Yoshinori Kitase, the director the most important RPG ever, has cause for hyperbole. “We felt a wind of change inside the company during the development process. There was this incredible feeling I’ll never forget: we were making a new thing… making history. Imagine.” He pauses. Imagine. At the time there were many doubters, but Kitase-san’s instinct proved right; Final Fantasy VII eventually propelled the high-production RPG into one of the most popular videogame genres worldwide. The first demo of the title, creatively bundled on an extra disc with Square’s first 32bit offering, Tobal No.1, stunned the world with its steam punk setting, achingly melancholic score and arresting visuals. And it bore evidence of a huge team working on a title with aspirations not yet though possible in the medium of videogames. “There was a huge number of people we had never worked with before. Up until that point Squaresoft’s teams had only ever dealt with the traditional 2D medium. All of a sudden we had new people coming in working with software like Power Animator and SoftImage that we had never heard of before. From and industry point of view, it was unbelievable what we were trying to achieve. That is why we all had this strong feeling; this great enthusiasm.” As the software houses were jumping from the 16bit systems to 32bit hardware, Squaresoft made the headlines for choosing Sony over previous soul mate Nintendo. The story behind the split is yet to be explained and as the two companies only recently kissed and made up (with the departure of warring Hirosohi Yamauchi from Nintendo and Hironobu Sakaguchi from Squaresoft) we’re are unlikely to anytime soon. Kitase-san is predictably diplomatic, “We had a big decision to make in terms of which hardware to use. Nintendo was not one step behind in terms of hardware. In fact, the N64 was quite attractive actually. But as our goal was to develop the next-generation RPG we came to the conclusion that only a high capacity mass storage media would facilitate what we wanted to achieve. This meant CD was the only option and so from that perspective, Playstation was the only choice.”

Access All Areas

There was a great pressure on the team to maximise the benefits of the new medium. “At that time Sakaguchi-san (Square’s founder) was the series’ producer. Right from the time the decision to go with CD was made he set down a ground rule for the team saying, ‘If the player becomes aware of the access times we have failed.’ So we tried many tricks to circumvent the issue such as offering animation while the game was loading data, etc. The constant fear for us having worked with cartridges for so many years was that the player would feel bored while waiting for loads. However, only CD media was able to facilitate more than 40 minutes of FMV movies so we virtually had the decision made for us.”

Another Dimension

Graphically Square was trying things only hinted at in the first generation of 32bit titles. Using polygonal characters on CG backgrounds and interspersing the action with streaming FMV was a bold aesthetic decision. “We were keen that the distinction between the in-game graphics and the CG movie sequences was not overly pronounced: something we could not have done on the N64. The change of dimension into 3D was a massive one for the Square team. You could see the game with maps and angles that only 3D could offer and in terms of game characters, we were able to offer far greater, detailed animations, so they would look more real and more alive on screen. But it was a daunting task.” The change from Final Fantasy VI to Final Fantasy VII is as graphic a demonstration of the transition between 2D to 3D as one will see. Just how apprehensive was Kitase-san about this sea change? “It was during development that I realised the impact that 3D realistic CG visuals had on overseas players. In Japan, you have the manga culture with the traditional deformed style world design and characters that live through a story with very serious themes. Overseas, you don’t have this. To be honest we were pretty confident that FFVII’s characters and graphics would be accepted overseas and ironically I was much more anxious to see how Japanese users would respond.” Undoubtedly at the heart of any RPG’s success is the plot. No matter how good your battle system or locations, without quality scripting there will be no incentive for the player to play. It is testament to FFVII’s story that the game is widely regarded as the acme of the series and still frequently referenced today. While Final Fantasy games have traditionally always drawn upon a huge selection of myths and legends, the seventh game used them as a framework for loftier ethical aspirations and ecologically conscious evangelism. “Sakaguchi had a great vision of the force behind the universe. He wanted to explore the idea that planets and people share the same basic energy and so are, in some way, intrinsically linked. He developed this philosophy from drawing upon other cultures that stated when a planet disappears an invisible energy is released in to space. This energy goes to some place to give life again when certain conditions are met. The same energy drives people. So matter who or what this energy comes from, it will concentrate all together to give life to something or someone again.” These were ideas that the SquareSoft founder had long been toying with and it is unclear as to how much of the philosophy was pure fantastical fabrication and how much was his own dogma. One thing is certain, they posed difficulties for Kitase-san, “Sakaguchi’s ideas were incredibly difficult to represent in the game since they concerned an invisible abstract concept. It was something I’d never seen done in a game before. So, I came up with the Life Stream. “This was an idea that planets have the same kinds of life systems as people’s blood or nerve network. It allowed us to more clearly examine the issues we wanted to. Sakaguchi-san’s main ideas for FFVII and the world he imagined for the game (the creatures, etc.) were very closely integrated into the “Final Fantasy” movie. FFVII and “Final Fantasy” started at the same time in their development process and they share nearly identical roots. I may have to play/watch both again and compare all their common elements.” Although lengthy FMV, random battles and an arcane combat system alienated some gamers—especially in the west where anecdotal evidence suggests it became the most returned game history—the combination proved the winning formula for thousands who had never sampled such fare before. Boosting weapons and skills with Materia, summoning devastating guardians, scouring the planet’s highest peaks and deepest oceans for secret items and raising and training Chocobo gave both fresh and old RPGers an inconceivably large universe to explore and revel in. It also provided us with a legendary videogame moment.

Death of a Friend

Easily the most infamous and memorable character in FFVII was neither the main lead nor the central antagonist, although both Cloud and Sephiroth are premier examples of excellent design and characterisation, but rather a flower seller who appears a little more than a third of the game. Tetsuya Nomura, character designer, conceived both the characters of Sephiroth and Aerith. “The main issues of contention for fans worldwide are still Aerith’s death and the ending sequence with Sephiroth. With the plot I wanted people to feel something intense, to understand something. Back at the time we were designing the game I was frustrated with the perennial dramatic cliché where the protagonist loves someone very much and so has to sacrifice himself and die in a dramatic fashion in order to express that love. We found this was the case in both games and movies, both eastern and western. But I wanted to say something different, something realistic. I mean is it right to set such an example to people?” Kitase-san is adamant that cultural art puts too high a value on the dramatically meaningful death, “In the real world things are very different. You just need to look around you. Nobody wants to die that way. People die of disease and accident. Death comes suddenly and there is no notion of good or bad. It leaves, not a dramatic feeling but great emptiness. When you lose someone you loved very much you feel this big empty space and think, ‘If I had known this was coming I would have done things differently.’ These are the feelings I wanted to arouse in the players with Aerith’s death relatively early in the game. Feelings of reality and not Hollywood.”

Classic Convention

At the time of release the internet was awash with rumours that it was possible to resurrect Aerith. Edge wonders if this was ever the developers’ intention? “The world was expecting us to bring her back to life, as this is the classic convention. But we did not. We had decided this from the beginning. There was a lot of reaction from Japanese users. Some of them were very sad about it while others were angry. We even received a lengthy petition addressed to our scenario writer asking for Aerith’s revival. But there are many meanings in Aerith’s death and that could never happen. Final Fantasy VII is arguably one of the most significant games of all time. Not simply because it was so well conceived and executed, but mainly because of its wider significance to Sony. In Japan, history dictates that hardware can not succeed without a best-selling RPG franchise. With Final Fantasy VII Squaresoft secured its position as king of the adventure tale and won Sony an army of fans both in Japan and the west. The continued pressure Square receives to do a remake of the title is evidence of the game’s continued popularity. Edge gently pursues the rumours. “If I were to redo the game onto today’s hardware I would like to make the characters more realistic, I mean like FFX for instance. I think I would try include full voice support but I would definitely keep very same plot and scenario. I know that other members of the team are eager to do the update, but, currently I have no plans. Cloud and Aerith have appeared in other titles (Final Fantasy Tactics, Kingdom Hearts) so it is possible FFVII character will appear in a future title but there is much discussion to be had first.” Whether a new generation of videogamers get to experience this RPG in next-gen clothing is almost irrelevant. While few would go back to experience this epic again, it is one of those rare games that cast an emotional spell over legions of players. For that reason it will always remain the stuff of legend.

    Afterthoughts: Final Fantasy VII

  Interivew with Yoshinori Kitase and Tetsuya Nomura from Electronic Gaming Monthly, issue #196, October 2005.

In light of all these new FFVII offshoots, we thought it would be interesting to look back at the groundbreaking original PS1 game that popularized the role-playing genre in the United States. We waxed nostalgic with two of FFVII’s most integral team members: Director Yoshinori Kitase and character designer/battle director/coauthor Tetsuya Nomura.

EGM: What does Final Fantasy VII mean to you? Yoshinori Kitase: FFVII was the first Final Fantasy for the PS1, and it was also the first 3D game in the series, so it determined the new direction that the franchise would take after the 16-bit Super Nintendo era. It’s by far the most memorable and important title for me, and when I had the chance to expand any of the past games, I immediately chose Final Fantasy VII for the project. The ending of FFVII seemed to me to open up so many possibilities with its characters, more so than other games.

EGM: When you were working on FFVII eight years ago, could you conceive of how much the game would affect the RPG marketplace? Tetsuya Nomura: When I look back, I remember having no concept of just how massive that project would go on to become. Of course, I’d been associated with the Final Fantasy franchise before FFVII, as I did monster designs on Final Fantasy V (Super NES). I remember that before we started FFVII, the characters from Final Fantasy IV were still very popular, despite the fact that FFV and FFVI had been released. I found this really frustrating. Why would people still be talking about those characters? So I made it my goal to create my own batch of characters that would be remembered and loved by the Final Fantasy fans. Also, starting with FFVII, I was far more deeply involved with the story and characters, so I was really extremely excited to work on that project.

EGM: FFVII was a departure from the Super NES titles… were you worried about fan reaction? YK: I wasn’t really worried about response to the graphical shift, as there were already several 3D games in America that were accepted by fans. My fear had been that the Final Fantasy franchise might be left behind if it didn’t catch up to that trend, actually.

EGM: What did you think of Cloud as a hero when you were making FFVII? YK: There wasn’t really much controversy or criticism about having him as the hero from within Square, but he is definitely a mysterious character. That’s one of the game’s main themes, the fact that the protagonist has all these secrets to unravel. He isn’t a straightforward hero like Superman; rather, he has lots of mysteries, self-doubts, and a real dark side. Mr. Nomura was also very good at designing a character like that.

EGM: We heard that the death of Aerith and the creation of Tifa both originated in a phone call between you two…. TN: It’s funny, some magazine ran that story, but only the beginning and ending of it. People think that I wanted to kill off Aerith and replace her with Tifa as the main character! [Laughs] The actual conversation between Mr. Kitase and myself was very, very long. Originally, there were only going to be three characters in the entire game: Cloud, Barrett, and Aerith. Can you imagine that? And we knew even in the early concept stage that one character would have to die. But we only had three to choose from. I mean, Cloud’s the main character, so you can’t really kill him. And Barrett… well, that’s maybe too obvious. But we had to pick between Aerith and Barrett. We debated this for a long time, but in the end decided to sacrifice Aerith.

EGM: Did you pick her to increase the drama? TN: In the previous FF games, it became almost a signature theme for one character to sacrifice him or herself, and often it was a similar character type from game to game, kind of a brave, last-man-standing, Barrett-type character. So everyone expected that. And I think that death should be something sudden and unexpected, and Aerith’s death seemed more natural and realistic. Now, when I reflect on Final Fantasy VII, the fact that fans were so offended by her sudden death probably means that we were successful with her character. If fans had simply accepted her death, that would have meant she wasn’t an effective character.

EGM: Which female character in FFVII is your personal favorite? TN: [Laughs] I’m not really interested in any superdeformed females.

EGM: Since Dirge of Cerberus is, chronologically speaking, the furthest game in the FFVII timeline, does it have a happy ending? YK: AC and DC both have their own resolutions, so don’t expect cliff-hangers there. Also, DC isn’t the direct sequel to FFVII, Advent Children is. So we can’t view DC as the ending to the whole big FFVII saga. Plus, FFVII definitely has so many diverse elements, and different fans have interest in different characters, so if, for example, one person is interested in Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith’s relationship, then AC may provide some sort of answers for them. Somebody else might be interested in Vincent, so they might want to explore DC. It’s not like this is going to complete the whole story, but it will satisfy fans who have strong attachments to individual characters.

EGM: At the very end of FFVII, we see the epilogue to the whole story that takes place 500 years later, so really, you still have another 497 years’ worth of games and movies to fill in…. YK: Ha, maybe I’ll try to do that. In a way, I consider that epilogue to be the true happy ending of FFVII. Well, it’s a happy ending even though all the human beings are destroyed. [Laughs]

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Dengeki PlayStation Vol.17– Dengeki PlayStation Vol.40-Non Translated

    Magazine Previews

  Forum member Brooke dug up some old FF7 previews from August of 1997 and was kind enough to share them with us. If you were already a Final Fantasy fan then, you might enjoy the nostalgia of the excitement that had been absolutely ravaging the West after the game’s January Japanese release. If you were not, it’s a pretty fascinating look at just how beside themselves people were to play this game. Also included is the preview of Final Fantasy Tactics, another imminent release at the time, as well as a truly prophetic piece about gaming and the third dimension.-lifestream

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  final fantasy vii development final

final fantasy vii development early

FFVII 10th Anniversary Discussion: p. 8 to 13 of the FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania

  FFVII 10th Anniversary Discussion

In 2007 FFVII hit its 10th anniversary. To find out the secret of its appeal, we went to the 3 central members of the development staff behind FFVII and the Compilation. How does FFVII look through their eyes? Cloud’s Animations determined the image of the scenario

– It’s been 10 years since FFVII was released. I think the reason fans have continued to support it for so long is because it left that much of an impression on them, but what scenes stand out most in your memories as the creators?

Nojima: For me, it’s the scene where Cloud first appears at the start of the story. That scene used the cool standing animation Toriyama (Motomu Toriyama: FFVII’s event planner) made. If I remember correctly, it was named “Cloud showing off” (laughs). But when I say that animation I thought to myself objectively, “wow, this is great.” It was when I’d just started writing the scenario, and Cloud’s false persona was kind of determined based on that pose, and after that the image of the scenario started to solidify. Back in those days, a lot of different tasks would be going on simultaneously during production, so there were a lot of cases like that where the other staff would influence each other. All the important stuff was usually decided by talking it over in the smoking room (laughs). Nowadays since you’ve got the voice acting to record the scenario needs to be done first, so it’s turned into quite a lonesome task.

  Kitase: That Cloud ‘showing off’ standing animation appears in the Nibelheim flashback as well. When the Shinra soldier asked about doing “the usual”, he does that pose. The same scene is in CC too, so I instructed the staff to recreate that animation (laughs). You were in charge of the Nibelheim events in FFVII, weren’t you, Nojima?

Nojima: That’s right. Right up till the very end we couldn’t get the bugs out of it, so it was pretty rough. Like when Cloud was waiting outside of the screen for his part in the scene, his hair would be poking out from the edge of the screen (laughs). Story-wise, the scene at the Northern Cave where Cloud talks while upside-down left an impression on me. I worked on the direction for that scene, but getting the characters to run to match with the movie scene was tricky, and I remember having trouble with it. The part where Cloud addresses Tifa as “Mrs.” Tifa, I made that hoping that the people playing it would be taken aback by the change in Cloud and it would really hit the player.

Nomura: The scene that sticks out for me is the scene when Tifa going into Cloud’s mental realm and he remembers the truth about what happened in the past.

Nojima: It was Katou (Masato Katou: FFVII event planner) who made the events for that part, and the movies were made by Ikumori (Kazuyuki Ikumori: FFVII movie designer). Ikumori was originally graphic designer for the maps, and this was the first time he’d tried his hand at movies. He said, “I’ve never worked on the movies before,” but looking at him now…

Nomura: Now he’s the movie director on DC and CC.

Kitase: Katou also did the event on the airship, the night before the final battle.

Nojima: Oh, the scene with the risqué line of dialogue? It was Katou who wrote that as well, not me.

– The line “Words aren’t the only way to talk someone how you feel,” right? That was quite a mature conversation for a FF game.

Kitase: But I remember having to get another version that was too intense toned down.

Nojima: The original idea was more extreme. The plan was to have Cloud walk out of the Chocobo stable on board the Highwind, followed by Tifa leaving while checking around, but Kitase turned it down. But even with the line in question, maybe at that time none of us thought it would be something so important (laughs).

  In the original scenario, Zack didn’t exist

– Mr. Kitase, which scene do you find most striking even now?

Kitase: Like Nomura, I’d have to say the climax in the mental realm. The scene where the mysteries regarding Sephiroth and Cloud all become clear. I didn’t know until we were in the latter stages of development that Cloud’s memories were Zack’s. First of all, when I originally checked the scenario, the character of Zack didn’t exist. Zack was a character who came up as Nojima was building up the mysteries. So until that part was complete I was left wondering just how he was planning to solve this, and all the while making the event scenes, still in the dark about the truth.

Nojima: But with Zack, I didn’t simply bring him in just because it was needed for solving the mysteries. When I joined the development team, the concept of Aerith seeing her first love again in Cloud was already there, so I brought him in to link that with solving the mysteries.

Nomura: About the concept of her seeing her first love again in Cloud, at first we were thinking of making that man Sephiroth. When I got the request for the illustration of Zack we were already near the end of development, so when you look at it now it’s not even coloured, and I can’t really deny that it feels like quite a sudden request.

– Had you thought about the truth of the mysteries regarding Cloud and Zack from the very beginning?

Nojima: No, I thought of it as I went on with my work. So at the beginning there wasn’t much foreshadowing. The foreshadowing scenes, I asked the staff in charge of the event scenes to add after development reached a point where an outcome for the mysteries came into sight.

Kitase: In those days it was easy to go back and change things around later on. Lately, with the workload involved in making the graphics, it’s hard to ask people to change something once it’s been finished.

Nojima: Well, even back then, there were some people you could easily ask to change an event later on, and people who were difficult to ask, so the locations of the foreshadowing might be biased. I only went to the people who were easy to ask, and the foreshadowing is focused at the scenes they were in charge of (laughs).

Red XIII: Four-Legged Bane of the Event Planners – I think one of the things that have helped maintain FFVII’s popularity is the uniqueness of its characters. How did you go about creating the characters?

Nomura: At the very start of development the scenario wasn’t complete yet, but I went along like, “I guess first off you need a hero and a heroine,” and from there drew the designs while thinking up details about the characters. After I’d done the hero and heroine, I carried on drawing by thinking what kind of characters would be interesting to have. When I handed over the designs I’d tell people the character details I’d thought up, or write them down on a separate sheet of paper. At that time, I still wrote everything by hand as well.

– So in exactly what order did you draw the characters?

Nomura: The first ones I drew was Cloud and Aerith. Next was Barret.

Kitase: And then Nomura said he wanted to have a four-legged character, and drew Red XIII…

Nomura: After that I think things kind of stalled for a while (laughs).

Nojima: Because you said you wanted to have a four-legged character, it was a real struggle to make the cut-scenes. Like, ‘how is he supposed to climb a ladder?’ and ‘when he turns around his tail and his body end up going into the wall’ (laughs).

Nomura: The scene with Red XIII standing on two legs on the transport ship was funny.

Nojima: The scene where he says, “It’s hard standing on two legs” (laughs).

Kitase: You named Red XIII, didn’t you, Tetsu (Nomura)?

Nomura: I thought a name that didn’t sound like a name would be interesting, so I combined a color and a number. The reason I chose 13 was pretty much because it’s an unlucky number. The official details for the character and his real name ‘Nanaki’ was something one of the other staff did.

Kitase: It was probably Akiyama (Jun Akiyama: FFVII event planner) who thought of those.

– This is something I noticed before, but to type in ‘Seto’, Nanaki’s father, in Japanese with the keyboard set to kana input, you press the keys ‘PS’. I was wondering if this perhaps was where the name came from…?

Kitase: Did he think that deeply about it?

Nojima: If it was Akiyama who was in charge of that, I wouldn’t put some deep-rooted reason like that past him (laughs).

Yuffie and Vincent, who were almost cut at one point.

– Yuffie and Vincent are secret characters who you don’t have to get in your party, but I was surprised that they had so many cut-scenes prepared for them.

Nomura: There was even a time when some people thought we should cut them because we didn’t have enough time. But we somehow managed to veto cutting them, and as a result they became the secret characters they are today.

Kitase: The main reason for there being so many cut-scenes for Yuffie is down it the strong attachment that Akiyama, who was in charge of them, had. Her appearing in a battle and talking with her afterwards, all those were his ideas, and as development moved along the scope steadily got bigger and bigger.

Nojima: It’s really annoying when you try to save after the Yuffie battle and get tricked (laughs). For the story in Wutai, I made the parts related to the main story, but the events in the Pagoda of the Five Mighty Gods were the work of Tokita (Takashi Tokita: FFVII’s event planner).

Kitase: Those bits do have a Tokita-feel to them.

Nojima: Tokita is involved in the theatre, and the characters who appear there have the names of people involved with the theatre like playwrights.

– Who was in charge of Vincent’s cut-scenes?

Kitase: I remember making the event where he joins you in the Shinra Mansion, but his episodes themselves was Nojima, wasn’t it?

Nojima: I did write his episodes. The back story for Vincent and Lucrecia was around from the start, and I remember linking that with Shinra. In the end, Chiba (Hiroki Chiba: FFVII’s event planner) crammed the Vincent-related events in right at the last minute.

Kitase: Chiba is in charge of DC’s scenario, but thinking about it now maybe it turned out that way because he worked on the events with Vincent in FFVII.

Nojima: However, despite Vincent not having many scenes due to him appearing in the latter half of the story, he has a fair amount of dialogue, and when he does show up he talks a lot. Even though really he’s meant to be a quiet person (laughs). Even now I have a problem when creating scenarios, where even though the character is a cool and silent type, I end up making scenes where they just keep on talking and talking. Roles like Barret, who appear from the start and have a lot of lines, most of the time, basically don’t know anything. But characters like Vincent, or Auron in FFX, it tends to be the case that the quieter they are the more they know about things, and they just end up with more expositional dialogue. I still haven’t found a solution to this problem.

The reason FFVII’s characters have continued to be loved

– When thinking of the character’s stories or working on their designs, do you have any kind of tried and tested methods, Mr. Nomura?

Nomura: Maybe not a method in particular. For FFVII’s characters, they’re the result of wanting to make varied, and in a sense going for an orthodox balance. In the recent FF games, I now receive the profiles of the characters before handling the designs, so I don’t worry about the character building much now. I think FFVII was it as far as me thinking of the character’s stories first goes.

– The characters of FFVII seem to be especially popular even out of the entire series, but where do you think the reason for that lies?

  Nomura: Hmmm, I wonder? Nothing really hits me. Well, I guess that each character has their own individual episodes which are well told. You might say their personalities are too strong (laughs).

Nojima: Yeah, they were made nearly excessively individual. For example, once you’ve decided Aerith speaks like this, it starts to escalate in that direction. And like Cloud’s cool standing animation we mentioned before, all the staff in charge of the events took in anything that seemed interesting. Even Cloud’s “not interested” catch phrase comes up so much you start to think, you won’t normally say it that much (laughs).

Kitase: Everyone used it, didn’t they?

Nojima: In that sense, their characters were definitely strong. In FFVIII onwards, the height of the characters increased, and we starting to be conscious of realism. And when that happens, there are times when you start comparing them to real life people. But with FFVII’s height, even in 3D, you still don’t really get that sense of reality. Maybe in that aspect they were like cartoon characters, which was a plus. I think, maybe they had a kind of easy to remember quality as symbols.

Kitase: When I first read Nojima’s scenario, I felt strongly that his image of a heroine was fresh. The hero didn’t have a typical personality, single-minded or righteous, and Aerith lived in the slums. Those things were really fresh. And having 2 heroines, Aerith and Tifa, and having the hero waver between them, at the time that was something new. And Sephiroth too, who appears from the start and is the final enemy, and is sort of a rival. For me personally, I think those things which weren’t in past FFs might be the secret to its popularity.

Nomura: In regards to Sephiroth, I wanted to avoid having the kind of plot development where you get to the end of the story and suddenly this boss you’ve never heard of yet just appears. With FFVII, I wanted to do a story where you’re chasing someone you’ve known was the enemy from the get-go. As for the heroines, during development some people were of the opinion that compared to Tifa, Aerith has fewer scenes and didn’t really stand out, so we also increased her appearances.

Nojima: As a motif for them, Tifa is “the childhood friend who’s been with you since nursery school”, and Aerith is “the girl who transfers school mid-term and quickly leaves for another school.” Since she doesn’t have many scenes, you’ve got to make it so that the transfer student has a big impact. That was what I thought.

Feelings about Aerith, the tragic heroine

– You can’t talk about FFVII’s heroines without talking about the tragedy that befalls Aerith at the Forgotten City. That event was a very memorable scene not only for the FF series, but all RPGs.

Kitase: In the past FFs as well, important characters died and went away. Like Galuf in FFV for example, they followed a pattern where the character would go down after giving it his all in a fight. In this case, often it went that the characters think something like, they’ve tired so hard, and just accept the death and overcome it. When creating stories I think that is an option, but in FFVII we were thinking, could we take this a step further? Bring out a sense of loss somehow? What I didn’t want to have was the kind of story development where even when a character dies there’s no sense of loss, on the contrary it just raises motivation and pushes you forward.

Nojima: Kitase’s loss talk has been consistent since back then.

Kitase: And with a lot of stories, before they die there’s a lot of dramatic preparations, aren’t there? Like a “pre-prepared excitement”, or “using this as a step to fight evil further”, those are the kinds of developments I wanted to avoid. In reality, death comes without warning, and you’re left feeling dazed at the gravity of the loss… Rather than wanting to fight evil, you’re just overcome by a great sense of loss, like you just want to give up everything. I was in charge of the direction of that scene, and I tried to bring out that sort of sense of realism.

Nomura: It’s related to ‘life’, one of the themes of FFVII, so it’s not portrayed as a “death for excitement’s sake” but expresses a realistic pain. Death comes suddenly, so I think the emotion there wasn’t excitement or anything, but sadness.

Nojima: Speaking from a scenario standpoint, FFVII is ‘a story of life cycling through the planet’, so someone needed to be part of that cycle. In other words, although what happened to Aerith isn’t really based on logic, as far as the story goes, maybe one of the team was destined to lose their life from the very start. But how that one became Aerith wasn’t decided through a notice as is popularly mentioned. It was decided after everyone, including myself, racked our brains about what to do.

Truth hidden in the abbreviations of the Compilation titles

– 7 years after the release of FFVII, the Compilation began, but it was a surprise that Advent Children, the sequel, was a film.

Kitase: Originally the AC project came about when the staff said they wanted to make a film.

Nomura: But having that film work being based on FFVII was decided from the beginning.

Kitase: They’ve made several of the movie scenes for games before, so they have the know-how. But an independent film was a big challenge for us, so we had to be ready for it being considerably difficult. When thinking of what subject material we work with while having that readiness, we came up with FFVII. At first it was only planned to be 20 minutes, but before I knew it there were fight scenes, and finally it grew to 100 minutes… (laughs).

Nomura: After we started the project, there was a period where it was put to one side for a while. At that rate, the project itself seemed like it would just go up in smoke, so I put my hand up and said I’d do it, and started again from there, adding in fight scenes and so on.

– Was the formula for the Compilation’s titles, AC, BC, CC and DC, planned from the start?

Kitase: In order of release BC comes first, Advent Children was the first title we decided on.

Nomura: For BC’s title, Taba (Hajime Tabata: BC’s director) and Itou (Yukimasa Itou: BC’s producer) came to me saying they had a good idea. “How about linking with AC, and Before Christ (B.C.), and going with Before Crisis?” I just gave an nonchalant “sure, why not,” but I never thought it would end up being a formula (laughs). So, next we skipped C and went for DC. Then planning for CC suddenly began. Kitase came to my office one day and told me, “think of something” (laughs).

Kitase: That was how it all began. At then, we were thinking of a PSP port of BC. At the time, you could only play BC on NTT DoCoMo mobile phones, so we wanted to let a wider spectrum of players to have a chance to play it. So personally, I was planning releasing it on the PSP with basically the same graphics as the mobile phone version, even if we did fill in the story a bit. However, when I told Tetsu about this, I hadn’t realized at that time that that wouldn’t be enough (laughs).

Nomura: Since at first I was told it’s BC on the PSP, I thought of calling it “Before Crisis Core”. But at that time we’d already decided on having Zack as the main character, so we said, “since it’s going to be different from BC, we don’t need ‘Before’ in the title, do we?” So we took off the “Before”, and by chance it fitted the CC which we had skipped.

Kitase: When I saw the cut-scenes of the completed CC, the quality was good enough to release on the PS2, and I never expected it would be this good. With CC, I had only read part of the scenario when I worked on it, so when played up to the ending myself, as a consumer, I was moved, like “aah, so this is what Zack’s story was like…” (laughs). When I saw the ending, I though to myself, “all the titles have come together nicely. I’m glad we did the Compilation.”

  WEEKLY FAMITSU ISSUE NO. 1224: YOSHINORI KITASE INTERVIEW

IT BEGAN ON THE SNES

—First off, can you tell us how the development of “FFVII” came about?

Kitase: After development on “FFVI” ended, we started the “FFVII” project on the SNES. All of the team put forth ideas for the characters and game systems, but during that time we needed to help out “Chrono Trigger” team who at the time had run into trouble, so for a time development of “FFVII” was put on hold.

—Was the “FFVII” being developed then different from the finished one?

Kitase: Yeah. It was completely different, and Nomura (*1) had proposed things like a design for a witch. In the end, when development started up again it changed to the current setting centred on mako and the like, but the design for the witch Nomura made was incorporated into “FFVIII” in Edea.

—I see. So then, when the development began again, it become the world we have now which has a strong sci-fi feel.

Kitase: At the time there were a lot of Western-fantasy RPGs around, so we wanted to set it apart, and we wanted to achieve more realist ways of showing the story. Also, Mr. Sakaguchi (*2) had suggested a modern drama-esque story with a strong sci-fi feel.

—Had you decided on making it an RPG using 3D polygons at that point?

Kitase: When development had restarted, talk of a next generation console was already in full swing. Since the next generation hardware was said to have chips that excelled at 3D graphics, we also made a 3D battle demo movie based on “FFVI” and studied using 3D. Soon the idea came up that movies would be indispensible to the evolution of “FF” and we decided to development for the PlayStation, which utilised CD-ROM that had a large storage capacity.

“ALONE IN THE DARK”

—Was the decision to make “FFVII” in 3D a unanimous one?

Kitase: There were two directions the development of “FFVII” could have taken. One was to put pixel characters on 3D maps, like “Dragon Quest VII” and “Xenogears” would later use. And the other was the method used in “FFVII” where the characters are rendered using polygons. The pixel characters used in the story scenes in previous “FF” games were extremely popular, so at first we were considering the former which is an extension of that method. But as we couldn’t made a realistic drama in that way, and with polygon characters we could use the movement of their entire bodies to express things, we went for the later to look for new possibilities.

—Was there no resistance from the team?

Kitase: There was at first. Particularly, with the loss of the pixel graphics, the designer team such as Naora (*3) seemed to have felt that their job was put at risk. But in their own ways, everyone went to the CG training sessions and such and learnt to handle it. The people who had been there since the old days are those who had overcome that sort of times of change. In a sense, that was really the turning point for the development.

—Were there any titles that served as a reference when making a 3D RPG?

Kitase: A foreign game called “Alone In The Dark” was an inspiration. The backgrounds were single images done in CG, and when the polygon character moved along them, the camera would switch and the viewpoint would change. That method was new. “Alone In The Dark” was an adventure game, and its story was set in a mansion, but I thought that by taking this and using in it in RPG with vast field maps, it could be something different and new, so I went around showing this game to all the staff.

MOVIE SCENES YOU CAN CONTROL

—In “FFVII” one of its unique features was being able to control characters during the movies.

Kitase: What I wanted to do most of all in “FFVII” was to seamlessly join the movies and the game parts. We wanted to avoid there feeling like there was a massive gap in the graphics when moving from the movies to the playable parts, and Mr. Sakaguchi also said to not make it feel like the movies stick out. So we did some tests and made the part in the opening where the camera zooms in from a shot of all of Midgar to Cloud jumping off the train. I was in charge of the composition of that part, we used a method where as it moved from the movie to a CG image, the characters were positioned so they didn’t move out of place, and we refined it numerous times to get it to sync up nicely. When it went well without moving out of place, it felt brilliant. By the way, the kind of showy events like the scene where Tifa jumps off the Junon cannon, I was mostly responsible for those (laughs).

—Do you think scenes you can control during movies not being in other games was down to Square’s high level of technical skills at that time?

Kitase: No, rather than technical skill, I think it was more the inventiveness to want to do those kind of things. We wanted to take what “Alone In The Dark” did, having polygon characters on top of a CG background, and take it one step further. And because this was our first 3D game, we didn’t know the limits so we could have reckless ideas. We commissioned an outside CG company for the movie scenes, but when the trial version was completed, we would say “the story’s changed so we’d like to extend the movie scene by about 30 seconds” which really surprised them. Since at that time even just extending a movie by a few seconds costed 10 million yen. We made these unreasonable orders without knowing that. In the end we made do with a few revisions, but we gradually learnt that you can’t get retakes as easy as you could with games (wry smile).

—(Laughs) Did Mr. Sakaguchi give any orders for other parts?

Kitase: I think Mr. Sakaguchi wanted to follow the tradition of the pixel graphics, and to show the characters’ expressions on the field screens, so he paid attention to the size of the heads. In battles you can zoom in the camera, but since the field screens are a single background image, you can’t do that. As a result, the proportion of the characters are different in battle and on the field. But when we looked at it after “FFVII” was released, we thought “people are probably going to feel something is off with the difference in proportion” and so in “FFVIII” we the proportions on the field and battle scenes the same.

A SCENARIO WITH A HINT OF MYSTERY

—How was the story, which was distinct from the RPGs that had come before it, created?

Kitase: Before “FFVI” we had Mr. Sakaguchi’s plots, and based on that each of the staff would throw in their ideas and flesh it out, but with “FFVII” we could express things more realistically, so we couldn’t take a mishmash of all the separate episodes the staff had made up and make a single coherent game. That’s where Mr. Nojima (*4), who was one of the new staff members, came in. He had written an RPG scenario with mystery elements for “Glory of Heracles III: Silence of the Gods” on the SNES, so to make it a surprising story like that we left the scenario to Mr. Nojima and he incorporated the elements everyone wanted to do.

—Things such as Cloud’s true identity were certainly surprising.

Kitase: For Cloud’s identity, we only vaguely had an image of Cloud’s own existence being up in the air and it ending there, but the actual unfolding of events was left in Nojima’s hands. And he made not only the scenario but the actual event scenes as well, and the parts where all the mysteries get made clear like Nibelheim in the past were all in Nojima’s head so he hadn’t written it down in detail in the scenario. So we were doing the test play with no idea how it was going to end, and that’s how we first found out what happens. In particular Zack was made like that as well, he was a character Nojima brought in while he was building up the mystery, so we had no clue that he was that important a character (laughs).

—That’s surprising (laughs). Did Mr. Sakaguchi have any directions for the story, having written the plot?

Kitase: Mr. Sakaguchi had been deeply involved with the story up to “FFVI” but with “FFVII” he focused his efforts on the battles. It was Mr. Sakaguchi who suggested the materia system. At first materia had the name “spheres” which Nomura proposed, but Sakaguchi thought we should make it something that would resonate easily even with elementary school kids, so we went for ‘materia’. Back then, the staff were trying to come up with some cool name, but Sakaguchi said that in order to get it embraced across the board you can’t just think about what’s cool.

DEVELOPMENT BRIMMING WITH ENTHUSIASM

—Was the wide variety of mini-games something you planned to include from the start?

Kitase: We had thought of the bike mini-game where you escape from Midgar, but apart from that we had no plans at all (laughs). Now we don’t have staff who aren’t working on anything, but back then we could have staff who had a bit of free time between projects. There were some new staff as well so, kind of doubling as training, we had them make things that needed specialised programs, like the roller coaster shooting game or the submarines.

—So that’s the story behind it! By the way, were there any specific episodes from back then that left a mark on you?

Kitase: Actually, 6 days after “FFVII” mastered up, my eldest son was born. I luckily got there in time for the birth, but afterwards my wife said “you can’t just simply show up for the moment he’s born and everything’s fine” (wry smile). So while I caused some worry, it was a memorable time also for the birth of my son.

—So finally, can you give a message to the fans of “FFVII”?

Kitase: Looking back on the development of “FFVII” now, the difference in proportion between the field and battle sections encapsulates how the desire to “include the stuff we wanted to do” won over consistency. Those bits that are rough but you can feel the energy behind them, those are my favourite points in “FFVII”, and I think maybe what has been supported for so long. As you get used to game development you try to make something more clean and refined, but even if some things were a bit irregular, like there being so many mini-games, later on you come to realise that those can create some unpredictable sort of fun. I hope we can treasure that energy in the future as well, and not forget the enthusiasm we had at first as we make new games.

*1: Tetsuya Nomura. Character designer for “FFVII”. *2: Hironobu Sakaguchi. Produced heavily involved with the “FF” series. *3: Yusuke Naora. Art director for “FFVII”. *4: Kazushige Nojima. In charge of the scenario of “FFVII”.

– On the 15th anniversary To Tetsu

You’ve mainly received attention for your character designs, but you also suggested various systems like the limit breaks in “FFVII” which would be used in later games in the series. Limit breaks are similar to the special attacks in fighting games, but what an interesting idea it was to think it would be fun to place those into an RPG format. If I said it to you directly you’d get ahead of yourself so I won’t, but I would just like to say ‘thank you’ (laughs). (Kitase)

– On the 15th anniversary To Nojima

While we were asking you to come up with a mysterious story like “Glory of Hercules III”, me and Nomura kept throwing these elements we wanted without considering foreshadowing, so I think incorporating them must have been tough. But I am grateful that you pieced them together without turning us down. Thank you. But around the time of “FFX” our unreasonable behavior was too much *even for you* and you had a displeased air about you, didn’t you (wry smile). (Kitase)

  WEEKLY FAMITSU ISSUE NO. 1224: TETSUYA NOMURA INTERVIEW

CHANGES IN THE VISUAL ASPECTS

—What was the most significant thing for you in the transition from “FFVI” to “FFVII”?

Nomura: I guess it was utilising polygons. The difference in high between the characters on the battle screen and the characters on the field screen also kind of seems like the gap between “FFVI” and “FFVII”, and seeing that process of trail-and-error is memorable for me.

—At that time, I hear you could have gone in the direction of using pixel graphics, or 3D, but what were your thoughts on it?

Nomura: I originally handled the pixel graphics, so I thought that if there were no pixels then my work would be gone (laughs). Later I took some training to learn CD, but I went into design and direction rather than working as a modeller.

—The “FF” series had been particularly known for Mr. Amano’s (*1) illustrations previously, so did you feel any pressure when your illustrations were to become the main focus in “FFVII”?

Nomura: I thought of my drawings as the standing images for the pixel graphics of the previous games, so there wasn’t any pressure.

—Standing images for the pixel graphics?

Nomura: In the “FF” series, Mr. Amano’s image illustrations and the pixel characters’ designs didn’t necessarily match. Personally, I considered image illustrations and the pixel graphics as being different categories in a sense. I was in charge of the pixel graphic parts, so I never considered myself as standing alongside Amano or taking over from him. The company decided from a rights perspective to put my name out in front, but originally there weren’t any plans like that at all.

THE TRADEGY OF AERITH AND THE BIRTH OF TIFA

—It was apparently Mr. Sakaguchi who selected you for “FFVII”, but how did that come about?

Nomura: From before when making a “FF” title, everyone would put plans regardless of their section. While everyone handed in text documents they made on a PC, mine were hand-written and had illustrations attached. Because I had originally studied advertising, I would keep in mind how to make people want to read it. Mr. Sakaguchi thought those illustrated proposals were amusing. Then one day he said, “let Tetsu draw the characters.” The start of this was the brush images for “FFVI”.

—Because your proposals were amusing!?

Nomura: Until that point, I hadn’t had many proposals taken up at all, so I don’t think that’s the reason (laughts). I suppose he liked the illustrations on the proposals.

—When it was decided that you would draw the illustrations, was the world and characters’s details already pinned down to a degree?

Nomura: There was a plot for the story, and I drew them based on that. But during the course of it Mr. Sakaguchi put Mr. Kitase (*3) in charge of production, and at that point in time the plot went back to square one. From there, I was also included in coming up with the original idea for the story, and began drawing while thinking up character and story details. At first Mr. Nojima (*4) was still on the “Bahamut Lagoon” team, so Kitase and myself refined the plot.

—Was the Aerith’s shocking death scene also confirmed at that time?

Nomura: I suggested to Kitase about having either Aerith or Tifa die, and it was decided that we’d go in that direction.

—Were there two heroines from the outset?

Nomura: No, originally there was only Aerith, and Tifa was added as another heroine later. To make up for Aerith dying, we needed a heroine who would be by the hero’s side until the end. Plus with Aerith’s death, while there were characters in previous “FF” games who lost their lives, we wanted to try a different approach. By bringing out a ‘sense of loss’ with Aerith’s death, we also wanted to portray the theme of “FFVII” which is ‘life’.

—It did certain have a different impact than that of the loss of characters in past “FF” games. Were there any other points you focused on with the story?

Nomura: I wanted to have a story where you chase Sephiroth. One where there is a SOLDIER who was once a hero, and the heroes follow him. Following a moving enemy hadn’t been done before, and I thought that by chasing something it would help pull the story along.

RELATION BETWEEN THE ORIGINAL CONCEPTS AND THE DESIGNS

—Were there any aspects of the character designs that you struggled with?

Nomura: For Cloud, at first I thought that it’d be better not to use too many polygons, so I gave him sweptback hair, but I didn’t think that looked much like a main character so I changed his hairstyle.

—Were you already thinking about polygon counts at the design stages?

Nomura: While considering it, I tried to be as unreasonable as I could. I thought that was necessary in order to do things no one else had done. For instance, making Aerith’s dress with polygons was very hard at the time. But I believed that thinking about how to make that so it moves naturally would lead to improvement of skills and rendering.

—Sephiroth’s long hair must have also been tough work.

Nomura: That’s right. That was also because I wanted to make the contrast easy to see between Cloud and Sephiroth in their designs. Blond and silver, short and long.

—At the time you said in an interview with our magazine that the image of Cloud and Sephiroth was based on “Musashi [Miyamoto] and Kojiro [Sasaki].”

Nomura: Yes. In particular the weapons, and the “showdown” image, was Musashi and Kojiro.

—Were there any other parts where the story concepts or mental images came through strong in the designs?

Nomura: At first, Sephiroth and Aerith were to be brother and sister, so I gave them similarities in their fringes. That aspect was dropped during the early stages, but the fringes stayed (laughs). I believe the original idea for them to be siblings later became that Sephiroth was Aerith’s first love. Ultimately Nojima thought up Zack, and it was all tied up.

WHITE IS THE “FF” IMAGE COLOUR

—Back at the time, did you realise the extent of the influence “FFVII” had on people?

Nomura: The Internet wasn’t wide-spread yet, and there weren’t really any avenues to see the opinions of a vast number of people, so I didn’t really know how it was being received by the public. But as the release was drawing nearer, the commercials on TV were played a lot, which gave a sense of the scale of things.

—There were several variations of commercials, right.

Nomura: Among those was a commercial that Kyle Cooper (*5) had edited. That was really cool, and it impacted me the way that different editing can give such a different impression. It was because of that that I took an interest in video editing.

—So the current high quality trailers came about because of a commercial for “FFVII”!?

Nomura: No (laughs). There is an outside editing director who has worked with us for a long time, but the present trailers are created with him.

—I see. The novel design for the game packaging, with just the logo on a white background which would be carried over to the future titles in the series, was also talked about.

Nomura: A lot of that was down to (Tadashi) Nomura who lead publicity for “FFVII”. Actually, we were talking about removing the lettering of the logo and just having the image of Meteor Amano had drawn. To have people recognise that it was “FFVII” from that. I thought that was pretty cool, but it didn’t materialise. The background being white was because Sakaguchi said that the image of “FF” was white.

—So there were lots of ideas even for the packaging. By the way, I heard that you are also involved with overseeing merchandise and publicity?

Nomura: That’s true, at the time I wasn’t sure how much I should do, so ended up drawing everything like roughs for plush toys and such (wry smile). I think it’s precisely because I didn’t know, that I was able to try my hand at everything. It was “FFVII” that was the start of my involvement in publicity as well. Though I ended up revealing info about “FFVII” I shouldn’t have and causing trouble, after that I started getting confirmation first. After I started working together like that, I was also able to cooperate with their publicity strategies, and I think I managed to get them to understand the intent of the development. Most of all, it was fun to be able to do that together.

ENERGY FROM IGNORANCE

—What sort of impression do you have now looking back on time spent making “FFVII”?

Nomura: We were basically rushing headlong, without knowing what we could or couldn’t do. And that’s why I think we could generate that much power, and pack everyone’s ideas in there. Our being able to be reckless making games that way ended with “FFVII”. Personally, it was the first “FF” where a wide range of my ideas were picked up, so it was a lot of fun.

—But before then as well, you not only created the pixel graphics but also submitted proposals as well, right?

Nomura: I put forth ideas for “FFV” and “VI”, but they were only really a part of the whole. Unlike in “VI” where with the inclusion of my ninja and my gambler I was given charge of the stories for Shadow and Setzer, “VII” was the first “FF” where I was involved from the ground up. Before then, I had been giving my opinions to a few people like Kitase, so it was interesting to be able to openly introduce proposals.

—”FFVII” is a game that has been supported by fans for over 15 years, but what kind of feelings do you have for the “FF” series?

Nomura: I still remember well what Mr. Sakaguchi said about “FF” at that time. There’s no one to tell that to the new staff, so I’d like to ask Kitase if he’d do so (laughs). I watched up close how Sakaguchi had left Kitase in charge of the development floor, and personally I think that Kitase is the true heir of “FF”. Also, “FF” carries weight because it’s a title that passed through many people’s hands and not just a single person’s. For example, “Kingdom Hearts” has the same main characters and the story carries on, but with “FF” the fact that ‘each time it’s different’ can feel like a tall hurdle. But that’s exactly why the new “FF” must always exceed the ones of the past. Even “FFVII”, which has been supported by the players for a long time and many people hope for a remake, but right now we want to prioritise new titles, and to try our best to make those become like “FFVII” or something greater.

*1: Yoshitaka Amano. Works on the image illustrations and logo designs for the “FF” series. *2: Hironobu Sakaguchi. Producer heavily involved with the “FF” series. *3: Yoshinori Kitase. Director of “FFVII”. *4: Kazushige Nojima. In charge of the scenario of “FFVII”. *5: Kyle Cooper. A video creator who produces the opening credits for films, with many credits such as “Se7en” and “Mission: Impossible”.

– On the 15th anniversary To Kitase

We see each other a lot normally, so I don’t really have anything to say (wry smile). Lately, there are getting to be fewer people who worked on “FF” with Mr. Sakaguchi. Among them, I’ve worked with you for a long time, and it feels like you’ve done a lot for me. Let’s keep on going into the future. (Nomura)

– On the 15th anniversary To Nojima

I think it’s great how you write this dialogue that gives characters clever things to say, and surprising stories. In “FFVII” Cloud’s true identity was a real shock. You later founded your own company and went independent, but I hope we can keep on working together still in the future. (Nomura)

  Sources and Other Links!

  If you like to read about Final Fantasy VII, I would also recommend buying the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania.

Interviews

Interview with Official UK PSX Magazine – October 1997

Hironobu Sakaguchi Interview – from PlayStation Underground #2, 1997

The Making of Final Fantasy VII – from Edge #123, May 2003

Afterthoughts: Final Fantasy VII –

 Dengeki PlayStation Vol.17– Dengeki PlayStation Vol.40

“EGM2 August 1997 issue” scans

FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania p. 8-13 “Creators’ Discussion”

 Final Fantasy VII Developer Speaks Out About “The Travelling Salesman”, interview by GlitterBerri.

Yoshinori Kitase Interview

 Tetsuya Nomura Interview

  Press Releases

FFVII North American Release Announcement – SCEA, February 1997

FFVII’s Marketing Campaign – SCEA, August 1997

FFVII Official Release Date Broken – SCEA, September 1997

FFVII Breaks Sales Records in First Weekend – SCEA, September 1997

FFVII Sells Over 500,000 Copies in the U.S. – SCEA, September 1997

FFVII Sells Over One Million Copies in the U.S. – SCEA, December 1997

FFVII for the PC Official Announcement – Eidos, June 1998

Other

Marketing material https://www.resetera.com/threads/final-fantasy-7-marketing-stuff-etc-reunion.37961/page-2

Xenon- http://xenon.stanford.edu/~geksiong/papers/sts145/Squaresoft%20and%20FF7.htm

Final Fantasy Beta- https://www.unseen64.net/2008/04/11/final-fantasy-7-beta/

See Also Beta versions of Final Fantasy VII’s world and assets- Here and here

Deleted Scenes and unseen text- Here

Concept arts here and here. Oh look more.

  From the FFVII Ultimania Omega (2005). Early concepts for the world, characters and themes. – Character Files: Page 518, Cloud, Barret & Tifa. – Character Files: Page 519-520, Aerith, Red XIII & Cait Sith. – Character Files: Page 520-523, Yuffie, Cid & Vincent. – Worldview & Terminology: Page 523-525 – Scenarios & Scripts: Page 525-526 – Scenarios & Scripts: Page 527-528 – Scenarios & Scripts: Page 528-529 – Scenarios & Scripts: Page 528-529 (Part 2)

The Unused Text Series

Text and scenes found within the game code of the retail editions. Complete with in-depth commentary written by Shademp. • Article Index and Term Register • Part 1: Bombing Mission & The Train Ride • Part 2: Sector 7 Slums • Part 3: Train Escape & The Sector 5 Slums • Part 4: Honey Bee Inn – (1) Entrance, Lobby & Dressing Room • Part 4: Honey Bee Inn – (2) Waiting Room & Second Floor • Part 5: Rescuing Aeris, Story Time at the Inn – (1) Wall Market to Shinra HQ Library • Part 5: Rescuing Aeris, Story Time at the Inn – (2) Shinra HQ Library to Kalm • Part 6: Chocobo Farm to Corel Prison – (1) Chocobo Farm to Cargo Ship • Part 6: Chocobo Farm to Corel Prison – (2) Costa del Sol to Corel Prison • Part 7: Gongaga to Wutai • Part 8: Keystone Quest to End of Disc 1 • Part 9: Over the Glacier – Attack on Junon • Part 10: On the Highwind – Cloud’s Return • Part 11: Underwater Reactor – Infiltrating Midgar • Part 12: End of Disc 2 – Final Dungeon

Additional Sources- http://shmuplations.com – http://www.ff7citadel.com/ –

As time goes on, I will try and further enhance this article with more sources and interviews as I find them. I truly believe it is important to keep the history of classic games development alive.

The Development of Final Fantasy VII The development of Final Fantasy VII is a mysterious and hard thing to follow. While there is plenty of info out there, much of it is either rumors or unsubstantiated.   

[dearlazerbunny]

First Snapshots

Parings: Poe x Reader

Genre/Rating: Photographer!Poe; T for some kissing

Words: 2700

Summary: Requested by a very special follower who wanted photographer Poe with a history of some unfortunate romance escapades...

You do one final hair check in the mirror before pulling on your shoes. Your agent said they wanted a freestyle bohemian look, so you layer on the necklaces before curling your hair into loose waves and adding a dewy touch to your makeup. This was one of your only jobs in weeks, and you needed the money, so you were hoping for a tip from the magazine that had requested the shoot if you fit what they wanted. Modeling is fickle, but it’s quick cash and you’ve got rent to pay.

The photographer is supposed to meet you downtown near a fountain. From the looks of the empty plaza there’s no sign of him yet, so you sit on the edge of the basin and scroll through your phone, hair falling out from behind your ear. A few more emails from your agent, promising work soon, a few texts from your friends reminding you of a birthday party tonight.  Nothing major. You pull out your cheeks and blow it out, frustrated. You’d hoped there’d be something more concrete than just promises, but it didn’t look like things were going to go in your favor.

“Y/N Y/L/N?” You look up into the flaring sun to see the most gorgeous man you’ve ever seen in your life, a camera hanging around his neck. Tanned skin, dark curly hair, and warm brown eyes smile down at you while he holds out his hand for you to shake. Well goddamn. Maybe this would be a fun afternoon after all.

“Yes, that’s me.” You take his hand and shake it, and you can’t help but admire his strong grip. “You’re Poe Dameron, I take it?”

“At your service. I’m assuming the magazine gave you the details, but just to be sure, let’s go over the memo…” He pulls out a printed sheet from his pocket and leans in close so you can both see the instructions. Nothing fancy, just some ‘candid’ shots for a brief essay on the season’s trends. “You look perfect,” he continues, looking over your outfit and nodding in approval. “So if you want to just start on the fountain, we’ll get started.”

You nod and sit back down, crossing your legs. Sadly, he seems to be all business. But maybe you could break him out of his shell before the shoot was over.

You pose for about an hour before he stops snapping photos, checking the shots he’s already taken. “These look pretty good.” He sighs, then looks up at you. “Want to see?”

You nod and once again lean in close, only to find something that absolutely shocks you. You thought you were used to seeing yourself on camera, but this guy has captured you in a way no one else has. The sunlight gleams off your hair and skin, making you look practically golden, while also sparkling off the water in a dazzling array of light. The colors are perfectly balanced, making you pop off the background, and he’s seemed to reflect something in your eyes you’ve never seen before- something pensive, yet wonderstruck. You look downright stunning, and you’re practically speechless.

“Holy shit, these are amazing!” You step back and study him- Poe- more closely. “You have a real talent for this.”

He smiles and shrugs, obviously pleased with the compliment. “Nah, I just have an eye for what’s beautiful. Ain’t no thing.”

You blush slightly at the remark. “Do you think the magazine will be happy with them?”

“I mean, it’s definitely what they wanted.” He holds the camera out from his chest and cocks his head, like he’s trying to get a new angle. “They just seem a little…”

Uh oh. “What?”

“Uh… boring, maybe?” You’re a little stricken, and when he sees your face he quickly backtracks. “No, no, not like it’s you or anything. They just don’t seem to have much of an imagination when it comes to what you can do with someone.”

Interesting. “Well, what were you thinking?”

He looks up, surprised, like no one’s asked him his opinion before. “Well…” he takes a step back and surveys the area with fresh eyes. “What if you got in the fountain?”

“In the fountain? Like, in the water?”

He has a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, but shakes his head. “Yeah, this is why no one ever asks for my opinion. We’ll stick with what we got.”

“No, no, that’s not what I meant. I kind of love it.” No one had ever asked you anything remotely similar, and the change of pace was refreshing.

“Really?” He seems to appraise you in a new light. “Well, if you want to try it, I’m game.”

“Hell yeah! Let’s get this party started.” He chuckles as you shuck off your shoes and step into the cool water, feeling it bubble around your toes. “Where do you want me?”

“Um, maybe step behind the stream of water? Yeah, there. Let’s try that.” He kneels and puts the viewfinder up to his eye and begins snapping away.

You level your gaze at the camera through the shoots of water and lose yourself in the dance of clicks and poses and redirection. He’s an awesome director, telling you exactly what you need to do to get the perfect angle. By the time you’re done, you’re both smiling from ear to ear.

“These look fantastic!” He shoves the camera in your face excitedly and you laugh, taking it from his hands and thumbing through the images. Your image refracted through the water makes for a visually stunning piece, more a work of art than anything else.

“These are incredible. I told you you were good.” You wink as you hand his equipment back to him, and now it’s his turn to blush. “No denying it now.”  

“Well, you take direction well. It’s a team effort.” He grabs his camera bag and detaches his lens, putting it into the padded case. “I don’t think I can submit these to the magazine, but they’d be great in a portfolio. Do you want copies?”

“Absolutely. Let me just-” you pull out your phone and hold it out to him. “Here. Trade.”

He takes it an inputs his number, and you do the same in his phone, putting a picture emoji next to your name. You smile when you see he put a camera emoji next to his as you save it into your contacts.

“Well, it was nice meeting you.” He smiles at you and shakes your hand once again.

“Likewise. Looking forward to working with you in the future.”

For some reason you can’t stop smiling as you head in the direction of home.

…

It turns out the birthday party is at a bar just around the corner, so you quickly change out of the jeans that are wet at the cuffs into a little black dress and make your way downtown. Rey isn’t the closest of friends, but she was kind enough to invite you, so what the hell? Go, buy her a drink, maybe meet some new people. Could be fun.

The bar is crowded and lively, with a guitarist tucked into one corner and a kitschy collection of tables and chairs scattering the floor. Eclectic, just like Rey. You could see why she liked the place.

“Y/N!” Rey comes bounding over from her place at the head of a table and throws her arms around you. You laugh and return the hug. Maybe you were better friends than you thought. “I’m so glad you could make it!”

“What, and miss your 25th? Not a chance.”

She grins and fixes the tacky happy birthday tiara affixed to her head. “We’re going to have so much fun tonight! There’s music, the drinks are good, and-” she leans in conspiratorially- “there’s someone I want you to meet!”

Uh oh. You’re suddenly remembering your issue with Rey- she has a nasty habit of playing matchmaker. Your last breakup was years ago, but let’s just say it didn’t end well. Rey is always trying to get you back on the market, but you highly doubt your heart is ready for that.

“No, really, that’s okay Rey, I want tonight to be about you-”

“Oh, hush. It’s been what, two years? You need to get back out there!” She glances behind your shoulder and grins. “Here he comes! Look surprised when I introduce you, okay?”

“I-” she spins you around and you find yourself face to face with a very surprised- and very well dressed- Poe Dameron. “Poe?’

“Y/N.” He smiles, and you find yourself automatically smiling back. “Now here’s a surprise.”

“Wait.” Rey is looking back and forth between the two of you so fast you’re afraid she might get whiplash. “You two already know each other?”

“Briefly.”

“Well that’s no fun. Ugh, I need another drink.” She flounces away, an obvious pout on her lips.

“What was that all about?”

You turn back to the photographer. “I… think she was planning on playing matchmaker.”

“With us?” He raises a clearly amused eyebrow in the direction of the birthday queen. “Well, there have definitely been worse choices.”

You laugh. “I take it she’s played this game with you before?”

“Oh so many times.” He grins. “You’re the only one I’ve liked, though.”

“Oh, hush, we barely know each other.”

“Better than a blind date. Buy you a drink?”

Okay, he was definitely flirting. But the thing is, you don’t think you mind. “I could be convinced.”

After grabbing a couple of beers you occupy a small two-seater near enough to the party, but out of earshot of the general crowd. “So why’s Rey playing matchmaker with you? Can’t imagine a girl like you being single.”

God, these compliments were going to be the death of you. “I’m not dating anyone, actually. It’s- well. It’s a long story.”

“I’ve got nothing but time.”

For some reason, you really feel like you can trust him. So you take a deep breath and say, “long story short? I was in way over my head. Got cheated on. Got dumped when I thought he was proposing. The whole rom-com shebang.”

“Damn.” He takes a long pull from his bottle. “I’d laugh if it weren’t so familiar.”

You raise an eyebrow. “No shit?”

“I proposed, she said no and promptly broke up with me a day later.”

“Jesus. What’s wrong with us? You’re hot as fuck, who in their right mind would turn you down?” Oh god, what is in this drink? Did that seriously just come out of your mouth?

Luckily he seems to find it funny. “I could say the same for you. You’re a literal model, after all.”

“And you’re the one who makes me look good.”

“Touché.” He holds his bottle up and you clink with it. “To us, the great dating fuck ups.”

Maybe tonight would be more fun than you thought.

You spent the entire part effectively ignoring the rest of the party and just getting to know each other. You talk, you laugh, you trade sappy sob stories, and by the end of the night you’re practically swooning. All thoughts of your prior relationship fly out of your head as you stare at this gorgeous man who was practically dropped into your lap.

So, when you’re walking out of the bar after the party, you are the biggest mistake of your life.

You kiss him.

He calls you a cab, and while you’re standing there waiting, the banter continues, filling you with lighthearted goodness that’s making your heart overflow. So when the car pulls up, you make a split second decision and press a kiss to his lips, right there on the street.

At first, he seems to enjoy himself. An arm slips around your waist and pulls you flush, and you can feel a smile against you own lips as he deepens the kiss just a hint. You can taste the sweetness of alcohol on his breath, making him all the more enticing.

But all of a sudden, he abruptly cuts you off. Steps back from you, leaving you shivering in the night air. He’s got a weird look on his face that you can’t quite identify, but it definitely wasn’t anything good.

“Poe? Was that… was that not okay…?”

He doesn’t respond. Just shoves his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket, and starts walking. It doesn’t seem to matter in which direction, as long as it’s away from you.

So with a sinking feeling in your chest, you simply get in the cab, and drive away.

…

You can’t stop thinking about him.

In the days following the party, he doesn’t contact you, and you don’t dare reach out to him. So you’re left in a perpetual state of anxiety, wondering where you went wrong. Maybe that kiss had been too rash, too sudden. Maybe you had read the signals all wrong. In any case, you’ve blown it completely, and you can kiss that wonderful footnote of your life goodbye.

Fate, as it would seem, has a different idea.

“Y/N! I’ve got a great project lined up for you. It’s at 5:00 today, so get your ass in gear, got it?” The commanding tones of your agent rings through the apartment as you reluctantly follow her advice. “You’ve even worked with the photographer before, so it’ll be fun, right? Right. Here are the details…”

You half listen to her instructions and pull an outfit out of your closet, but your mind is focused on one thing- the fact that you knew the photographer. Please don’t let it be…

Him.

There he is, in all his glory, with his camera once again around his neck. You’re in the same park, back where it all began, and you can’t help but think of how ironic that is now that you’ve never felt more distant from the man behind the camera.

He barely speaks to you throughout the entire shoot, only giving you a few terse words of direction. You comply, unhappily, trying to keep a neutral face even though your insides are turmoil. Do you say something? Say nothing? Just let him walk away, never to be heard from again?

No. You couldn’t do that. Not when you’d gotten together so well.

“Hey. Can we talk?”

“What’s up?” He’s thumbing through the photos on his camera, not even looking at you, which makes you cringe internally.

“I just… wanted to apologize. I realize I must have read the situation wrong, and put you in an awkward position, and… yeah. I’m sorry.”

He’s staring at you with the same odd expression, but that’s all you have to say. So you nod goodbye and begin walking up the bath back to the entrance of the park, happy you at least could try to put things to right.

“Wait. Y/N?”

You stop, half hopeful, half dreading what he has to say. “I… you don’t have anything to be sorry for. You didn’t read anything wrong. I just…” he sighs, and runs a hand through his curly hair. “I was caught off guard.”

“Makes sense. I didn’t really give you any warning.” You chuckle nervously, kicking a rock on the ground back in the direction of the grass.

“It’s just… when I kissed you- I haven’t felt like that since. Well. You know.”

Oh. Oh, wow. “Really?” He hadn’t told you the name of his not-quite fiancée, but knowing how he felt about her, that was… big.

“Really. And it scared me. Because the last time I felt like that. Didn’t go so well.”

That makes you crack a smile. “Yeah. I know how that feels.”

“I know you do.” His smile feels like the sun coming out. “I don’t want to let you go so soon. I think we have something here. But I just don’t know if I’m ready to jump in to….well.”

Your heart sinks. “Is there anything I can do to change your mind?”

His little half grin is going to be the death of you. “Agree to take things slow. And… maybe kiss me again. That was pretty convincing.”

“That, I think I can do.” You step in close and press a simple peck to his mouth, smiling the whole time. “And slow is more than fine with me.”

“Good.” He swoops you into another kiss, holding out his camera selfie-style and snapping a photon, making you laugh. Grinning, he shows you the result. “First of many.”

[criquette-was-here]

A Bit of Sunday Replies

Some mixed replies today. These goes for Anons asking about ‘Rural Charm T&RDR’ mostly and few comment replies for @loch-pearl, @pensblr, @immerso-sims, @mysimmylicioussims, @alexbgd, @doowydoog, @driftsatellite and @badchriss. Let’s go!

@loch-pearl said:

Can I move to any of your neighborhoods, please?..

Oh, you’re more than welcome! ^__^ I actually would love to move somewhere over there myself, though. I always imagine my hoods very silent and peaceful. Soaked in nature. Very few people or no people at all. Like a small town or village in low tourist season far from mainstream routes. 

@pensblr said:

Looks fantastic! Glad you're getting to enjoy the game a bit before getting back to real life things.

Thanks! Yes, it’s always good for me to get some hood decorating once in a while.

@immerso-sims said:

You know, your attention to detail always amazes me. Everything looks very real. :)

Oh, thanks ^__^’ neighborhood mode is my favourite in TS2. I can’t stop adding details because one bigger detail gets me to a dozen of smaller ones, etc. I always think about how this place would look if it was real. Something like that.

@mysimmylicioussims said:

This looks absolutely amazing

Oh, thank you! Long time since the last talk! I hope you’re doing fine :D I hope you guys don’t mind if I reply these two together ^__^’

@doowydoog said:

I wish you would upload this hood. I could never create something this beautiful. You need to do us a favor and upload it with all the fixings! :DD

And @badchriss said:

Dude,you really need to make a bunch of hoods in your unique and breathtaking style and upload them some time.Your work is pure perfection,keep up the amazing work.

Oh, the main issue on this subject, guys, is that while I’m working on the hood that might be released, I always come up with something that is definitely a must, and start working on it, and than it turns out that the hood I’ve worked on needs a total remake >.< But yeah, since I’ve done mostly everything I’ve had in mind that affects global things like night lighting textures, road defaults and some fixes, I would definitely create and release some random, not too customized (i.e. using just hood decos I’ve already released and will be releasing in the closest feature) hood. I’d really like to do that!

@alexbgd said:

omg! :D

Cheers! Have a biscuit! 🍪 :D

Now to some Anon Replies! Anonymous said:

hey criquette! this may be out of your purview but i have an issue with the modifyneighborhoodterrain cheat where often the level function doesn't work; pressing \ does nothing. it works SOMETIMES, but usually not, and seems to be completely random as to whether it does or doesn't. i know you use the cheat a fair amount so i'm wondering if 1. this has ever happened to you and 2. you have any idea what might be causing it? im at a loss.

ps from modifyneighborhoodterrain anon: THANK YOU for all your hard work and the beautiful cc you create! you make my neighborhoods so beautiful <3

Hey Anon! Thanks for the kind words ^__^ Seriously, this is quite weird issue you have with that tool. I’ve never experienced something like that. And yes, I use this cheat when I need to add a narrow canal to the hood or improve the landscape a bit. I got used to the way it works, but I wouldn’t say that it fails on me once in a while. Maybe you level the terrain starting from the wrong corner? Because it levels the ground to the height of the point you’ve started selecting the area from.

Anonymous said:

This is random but do you think it's possible to make the in game snapshot cam better, like even with it ticked to high quality and size it compresses and gets grainy and weird. Do you think somehow modders would be able to upgrade it?             

Hey there! I definitely would recommend to use third party snapshot software available out there as I do myself and most simmers do. I think nobody would spend their time and effort on modding stuff like this. I can’t even remember the hot keys for in-game camera ^__^

Anonymous said:

Hello! Just want to say that your roads are absolutely wonderful however i'm having a slight problem with the sidewalk. It might be because I have a shaky hand but I cant seem to get them to line up properly (even with true grid on) and it looks like a mess in lot view, which is a shame as the sidewalk compliments the road so well! I could be doing something wrong but if not, are you planning to release a version with the sidewalk integrated? Keep up the amazing work!!!

Hello there Anon! Yes, I think releasing a version with integrated sidewalks is possible at some point in the future, but it would take quite some time I’m afraid. As for the sidewalk pieces placing, yes, I’m totally in agreement with you because it’s very hard to get this look okay especially when combined with real Maxis neigborhood road. I have one small hint though, not sure if it would help and may be you’re doing it that way already, but if you use True Grid, try to stick outer side of the sidewalk along with tile border as precise as possible, because it’s impossible to rely on the roadside border of neighborhood road since its levitation and what looks okay in the current view angle, would look like a disaster in another view angle or lot mode.

Anonymous said:

Hi Criquette! I just wanted to ask something real quick about your Rural Charm T&RDR. So I download the road overlays but they aren't showing up in Decorative>Miscellaneous? Any clue on to why that is? I really love your road textures, but this is really throwing me from them... Thank you in advance! Keep up the amazing work! You are a blessing to the cc community!!

Oh, thank you Anon! And I’m really confused by this issue. I’ve just checked in my game to make sure I’ve mentioned the menu section correctly and it’s totally there. What platform are you on (Mac/Win)?

[angelrinisadork]

What’s your favorite Resident Evil game? Also what are some of the things you don’t like about RE7?

This will be a boring answer because it’s the most common one, but it’s Resident Evil 4. But I can’t help it! 4 was action horror done right (something 5 and especially 6 failed to understand) and RE4 Leon is peak Leon.

Sigh…as for 7 there are a loooooot of things I don’t like about it. I don’t want to get into them all. But for one thing I hate the setting, I hate how it feels like RE in name only, I hate the enemies (seriously we went from zombies to FUNGUS MONSTERS ARE YOU KIDDING?!), I hate how it feels like a rip off of Silent Hill instead of being you know-RESIDENT EVIL, the characters are mostly bland-especially Ethan. They don’t feel that interesting to me, they don’t grab at me, and the first person thing is really annoying also because it takes me out ironically more than pull me in. In the old games we had fixed camera angles, from 4-6 and Revelations we had over the shoulder…so not only cutscenes, but in gameplay I felt like I really got to know the characters. Some games work in first person perspective, and yes I’m aware the creators originally wanted the first game to be first person but I don’t care what was originally considered, this is the 7th game. It’s supposed to be a continuing story. Yet we have nothing but new characters and a complete plot that feels so disconnected to the whole universe and they lazily connect things through “oh look at this easter egg here” or just slapping “Redfield” at the end.  ALSO THAT GUY LOOKS NOTHING LIKE CHRIS! Oh and seriously, Chris is with Umbrella? Are you kidding me?! I don’t care if the DLC explains it finally among other things in the story, IT’S BAD STORY TELLING WHEN YOU ARE PURPOSEFULLY LEAVING CONTENT OUT OF THE STORY JUST TO HAVE IT IN SOME AFTERTHOUGHT EXTRA! ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT PLOT POINTS!

Basically to make a long story short, it felt like another run of the mill horror game that at times felt like a Silent Hill rip off when it wasn’t being so generic that was lazily tied in to Resident Evil to desperately claim it’s not a Resident Evil game in name only (when it is), the main characters are boring, the setting is boring, the monsters aren’t even zombies or more highly evolved versions of the zombie virus stuff like in 4 and 5 (I may not like 5 but at least it was trying to be consistent and instead of ripping off silent hill they were instead being a resident evil 4 rip off…BUT HEY AT LEAST IT’S STILL RESIDENT EVIL THEN IRONICALLY).

Is 7 better than 6? Oh without question it is, in every shape and form. Better boss fights, better mechanics, not a mind-numblingly dumb plot, the heroes are for the most part consistent in characterization, and it’s actually horror and not just an action movie with zombies…(however it’s not really hard to be better than Resident Evil 6 so that’s not exactly setting the bar high)

But here’s the thing…as bad as 6 is, as far as 6 strayed from the feel of Resident Evil…6 at least was 1) TRIED to tie things into the overarching continuity (again it tried, it still sucked but it didn’t lazily slap in easter eggs and references and go SEE PROOF THIS IS IN THE RE UNIVERSE GAAAAIZ), 2) at least had returning characters a long with new ones, 3) Chris looked like Chris even if he was OOC for half his campaign, 4) HAD ZOMBIES NOT FREAKING MOLD AND FUNGUS, 5) as dumb as the characters acted half the time AT LEAST THE MAIN HEROES HAVE PERSONALITY AND AREN’T BLAND AND FORGETTABLE, 6) As bad and terrible as 6 is and make no mistake it’s bad and terrible…7 to me is mostly forgettable. 6 while awful and irks me to no end, IT’S MEMORABLE! Even the things I hate about 6 I can at least remember every DUMB STUPID THING! I was so bored with 7 that I actually FORGOT some of it’s plot holes that normally would piss me off to high heaven normally with other games. I saw a video that was explaining some of it’s plot holes then I suddenly remembered the dumb and was like “OH YEAH THAT IS STUPID WTF?!” But it’s just so dang forgettable! 

And it wasn’t even that scary to me either, it felt so generic scary like every other horror game I’ve ever seen in modern years. It’s so jarring to me because I recently have been playing Resident Evil Revelations, and like….everyone praised that game when it came out but NO ONE TALKS ABOUT IT ANYMORE! Everyone goes all “Oh! 7 brought it back to it’s roots finally! We finally have a game for the first time bringing us back to the survival horror roots!” UM?!?!?! DID WE COLLECTIVELY GET AMNESIA AND IGNORE REVELATIONS 1 & 2?!?!?!?! Okay I hated Revelations 2 but that’s not the point, the point is we have 2 games! 2 freaking games that brought us back to the survival horror roots of the older games that did it BEFORE 7! Stop pretending 7 did it first because it didn’t!

Also Resident Evil Revelations is quite honestly a perfect game imho! I mean we have returning characters and new characters, we have a new setting (like seriously being trapped on a cruiseline with new types of zombies in the middle of the ocean is TERRIFYING) that is unique to the series but tries to tie into the overarching continuity. We have the over the shoulder camera angle from the newer games but the haunting and unnerving tone of what could pop at you around the corner and the overall scary feelings from the older games! It honestly felt like a perfect marrying of what I love from Resident Evil 4 (and the few good things about 5) along with the things I love from the older games.

It’s perfectly fine if people disagree with everything I’m saying but I freaking love Revelations and ignoring it in favor of acting like 7 is what brought us back to our roots first is a crime AND I WILL NOT HAVE THIS

[katieskarlette]

Warcraft Q&A - Blizzcon 2017

I’m going to attempt to liveblog this if my computer/internet behave.

[This post will be edited as it goes but if there’s dragon news I’ll probably make a new post to scream about it in addition to this one.]

Q:  Warfronts:  will they be available on timer like invasions, and what are the rewards like?

A:  They won’t be up 24/7 but they’ll be up for a good amount of time.  Sounds similar to the buildings on Broken Shore.  Rewards will be similar to Timewalking where you get a good reward for the first time through, you won’t be penalized for not doing them all the time, but you will get some reward for doing them if you like them.

Q:  Will basic reputations ever be account-wide?  Not like Bloodsail, but more mainstream ones?

A:  Ion talked about the balance between character-based vs account-based.  Things that unlock content like flying or flight master’s whistle on Argus, they want to do account wide.  If you want rep because that particular character wants a crafting pattern, that’s a goal to work toward on the character with that skill.

Q.  Stat squish coming?  

A:  Yeah, and item level squish, too.  As before, we won’t notice as far as our playing experience.

Q:  Is Anduin a paladin now?

A:  “100% not a paladin.  He’s a priest”.  He’s a hero characters, and hero characters can do things that players cannot.

Q:  Cross-guild or cross-faction social groups possible?

A:  No cross-faction chat.  Do it at Battle.net level, individual to individual.

Q:  Are there improvements coming to guild recruitment?

A:  Something they’re always aware of, but no major plans.

Q:  With the new leveling scaling... is mob health changing?  Heirlooms?

A:  Gear levels and mob health are being dealt with, some for the next Legion patch, some for 8.0.  Heirlooms will continue to be ideal because they are properly itemized for current talents and such, not stuck with outdated stats from past iterations of the game.

Q:  Heart of Azeroth

A:  They liked the way to slowly get incremental increases to power, but they realize dealing with literally trillions of AP isn’t fun.  You’ll have one amulet no matter what spec you’re in, so you don’t have to collect azurite for multiple specs like we’ve had to level different artifacts.

Q:  What was the thought process behind bringing back raid buffs like Arcane Intellect?

A:  They liked them, and they liked the moment before a boss pull where all the buffs went out and it felt like “yeah, we’re ready” as opposed to “has everyone eaten their fish?”  They don’t want to make it so any one class is absolutely required for an encounter, but each one is welcome for a slightly different reason.

Q:  PVP templates, and PVP players not being able to pick their own gems, enchantments, etc.  (I don’t PVP so I have no clue what he’s talking about.)

A:  Something about how there was a problem before but they overcorrected (as they tend to do) and are tweaking it.  It’s important to have consistent rule sets, but they understand we want to make choices to make our characters feel like our own.

Q:  Titanforging

A:  Tweaks coming, but not a fundamental change to the system.  They like variability of rewards and the motivation to continue killing bosses you’ve got on farm.  Azurite-attuned armor slots will not be able to be Titanforged, however.

[Aside:  We don’t care about your guilds, people. Get to the questions.]

Q:   Player wants more options to counter roots and knockbacks.

A:  Classes are all different and something like a death knight is supposed to have a better toolkit to respond to such situations.

Q:  Why does WoW have such a lackluster character customization system?

A:  They were waiting to see what they were doing with the ally races, and now that those are being added they are going to move forward with those customization options.  Including orcs’ posture, which can be toggled in the barber shop (which now doubles as a chiropractor...LOL)

Q:  Is Jaina good now?  What about the purge of Dalaran?

A:  “Jaina is complicated.  She’s as evil as I am,” says Afrasiabi.  “She’s wracked with regret.”  She feels potentially responsible for what the Horde is today, with the way she let her father be killed.  Also the Stratholme thing.  And Theramore.  This is a character “with damage.”  We are going to help her understand the way she is and how to move forward.  She’s conflicted, not evil.  [YES THANK YOU ALEX!!!!]

Q:  There should be ducks in WoW, and why do so many bosses have holes in their ceilings?  [SERIOUSLY?  THIS IS A QUESTION THAT IS TAKING UP OUR TIME?  WTF?]

A:  Practical reason = avoiding camera angle issues; artistic reason = environmental, gives a peek of the outside world etc.

Q:  What’s happening to the night elf and undead starting zones in BFA?

A:  They won’t change.  For new players to feel the impact of things like Teldrassil burning, they have to see and know it before.  It will phase to the destroyed version when you get to a high enough level.  Same for leveling in Arathi.

Q:  Alleria can shift back and forth from high elf to void elf form.  Can the playable ones?

A:  They have a void form that’s active in combat, similar to worgen form.  They won’t be “fully voided” all the time.

Q:  Somebody complaining about farming older content for Titanforging.  [Which has already been asked.  Shut up and move on to dragons, damn it.]

A:  They know the Titanforged Unstable Arcanocrystal is OP and they’ll try to avoid outliers like that.  Item level should be the main factor in picking which armor to equip.

Q:  Mythic keystones to old dungeons?

A:  Timewalking is kind of that concept.  They may do Timewalking keystones in the future and think the idea is cool.

Q:  How soon will we be flying after BFA launches?

A:  About the same as Legion.  [Which, for the record, I am totally in favor of.]

Q:  Future of WoW companion apps?

A:  Yeah, they like those and will keep building on that in the future.  They’d like to combine the armory app with it, too, so you don’t have to switch back and forth.

Q:  Timewalking:  as more get added it takes longer to get back around to the era you like best.

A:  Some consolidation may happen but they want it to feel like a special change of pace when it comes around.  They may have non-instanced, outdoor Timewalking events someday, too.

Q:  Faction balance...how do you keep players from switching too often?

A:  “Play the game the way you want to play it,” says Ion H.  “Play what you wanna play.”  They do monitor server balance, though.  The new PVP toggle may help smooth imbalances, too.

Q:  Legendaries in  BFA?

A:  The Azurite system is replacing the random legendaries from Legion.

Q:  Quest log size limit increase, please?  [I’d be in favor!!!]

A:  This gets talked about a lot.  They may have some of them moved to some other kind of interface, especially the breadcrumb types that sit in your log for a long time.

Q:  Oh god another question about  expanding that freaking default backpack.

A:  OMG, they’re actually close to letting us “slightly increase” backpack size, and it will be a reward for using an authenticator on your account.  Odd, but I’ll take it!

Q:  New reasons and ways for us to fight the other faction?

A:  Different factions will have different in-story motivations to go into dungeons and raids.  Some bosses may be faction-specific to add to the feel of being at war with the other wise.

Q:  Will they fix the bugs, issues and exploits from vanilla, or will it be rolled out, warts and all?

A:  That’s one reason why it’s taken them so long to get it rolling.  They want to recreate vanilla as we experienced it, but minus the game-breaking bugs, crashes, etc.  Also, what’s the right version of classic?  5-man UBRS or 10-man?  Both were in vanilla, but which do they put in now?

Q:  If you unlock ally races’ heritage armor on a nightborne, for example, can you use it to transmog on your blood elf?

A:  Nope, those are locked to that ally race.

Q:  Increase to friends limit?

A:  With the focus on social features it’s something they want to do, but it’s complicated because of all the different games and systems they have to coordinate.

[SOMEBODY IN THE CROWD HAS A “WHERE’S WRATHION” SIGN!!!  I LOVE YOU, WHOMEVER YOU ARE!!!!]

Q:  Will the new zone scaling make it harder to farm low-level transmog?

A:  If a mob dropped something before, it’ll drop it after.

Q:  Warfronts...how long will they be?  Like a raid?

A:  Longer than dungeons, but just how long is still up in the air.  Feedback from alpha and beta will help them decide.

Q:  What classes will ally races have, and if they differ from the others, why?

A:  These are considered independent races, not subraces of existing ones.  They try to err on the side of letting us play what we want, as long as it makes sense.  (No void elf paladins, e.g.)

Q:  Void elves = alliance, nightborne = horde...why?

A:  The intro quests for each race will explain that.

Q:  Will the Legion threat end before BFA, and where does that leave Demon Hunters?

A:  “They just turn into regular hunters,” joked Ion.  Alex then clarified that DHs are sworn to protect the world they love, no matter the threat.  And someday we’ll see demons again!

Q:  Are the EK and Kalimdor totally Alliance and Horde now?

A:  Alex:  “Those zone boundaries are tricky for NPCs to cross.”  But no, Exodar and Quel’thalas are still holdouts.  The continents aren’t 100% red or blue.

Q:  New goblin and worgen models when?

A:  They’re working on them currently!  Goblin aren’t bad now, just need some polish and updating.  Female worgen will be reworked to be “more wolf-life and less chihuahua-like.”  THANK YOU.

Q:  something about PVP

A:  PVP flagging complicates and slows down your leveling, so they want PVP flagging to be rewarding but not so rewarding that carebears like myself feel like they have to.  (They didn’t phrase it that way; I did.  LOL)

Q:  More character slots per realm?

A:  Yep.  Six addition ones per server!  Whoa, nice!

Q:  When can we trade flasks and consumables with friends cross-realm?

A:  They know it’s needed but they have to protect individual server’s economies.  They’re working on it.

Q:  Beta when?

A:  You can opt in now.  No date announced.

AND NOOOOOOOOOOO DRAGON QUESTIONS.  FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

[undeadimpulsereviews]

Dead by Daylight

Kill or be killed, it’s a dog eat dog world, fight or flight, etc. Forget all of these sayings, for in this world none of them matter. You either escape the clutches of death for one more fleeting moment, or you die by the hands of a psycho killer. There is no refugee, no safe haven, no home to go back to. This is your life now.

Dead by Daylight, a four versus one multiplayer survival horror game from developer -, pits you and your friends against a blood thirty killer looking for sacrifices. Though it’s not a fight to the death, but rather a dark game of hide and seek. Dead by Daylight was released -, but the game has been around for some time now. It was in early access for quite some time, but now it’s out in full. I first heard of the game thanks to streamers during it’s early stages; however, I never played the game myself until it was fully released much later. After playing the game I can say that it’s definitely a fun game, but not without it’s problems.

Now I put some thought into this, and my current way of reviewing games doesn’t really work for games like this. Dead by Daylight is a purely multiplayer only game; so there is a big lack in story and character development. That’s not to say it’s not there, but other than character lore and back stories, there isn’t much. So I’ll be switching things up from here on out for certain titles. We’ll start with the visuals and soundtrack of the game, and look into the gameplay and performance of the game. How does it play online? How’s the community? I will briefly speak on characters and how they play in the gameplay segment, but nothing overly in depth. This new format will be the overarching format for future multiplayer oriented games from here on out, with some minor differences depending on what the game has to offer. Also I won’t be going back to re-review games following this format; my opinion still stands on those, give or take, and I still meant everything I said. With that said; how does the game perform? It was interesting back when it was in early access, but not perfect, and the problems start at it’s visuals.

Dead by Daylight looks great, for what it’s trying to sell; dark, depressing, and above all frightening. The atmosphere presented in the game is one that really gets your blood pumping in a thriller sense. Each killer has a map that is made for them, and each map feels like their own special hell. One of my favorites, in how it looks, is Lery’s memorial institute; this map belongs to a killer known as the doctor. The design of the stage is built to look like a distorted hospital; the ceiling is missing, operating tables are through about the stage, and the best part being the center. In the center of the stage there are operating tables and chairs aligned around the center ring; the center looks like a furnace, where you can hear the screams of the doctors victims. 

The other maps of the game are a little more open than Lery’s, making the level a lot harder than others. 

Aside from level design, we also have the characters. The survivors are pretty standard; each one is an original character to the game, save for a couple new additions from DLC. Though what really shines is the killers; Dead by Daylight has a plethora of original killers, each with their own skills and back stories. The trapper, the wraith, the hillbilly; these are the base three among a steadily growing roster. One of my favorites to play is the hag, but in terms of design we’ll go back to the doctor.

The doctor was released in the Spark of Madness free update for the game, and at that point was the games sixth killer. Just like all the killers before him, he looks like an experiment gone wrong. The big eyes and grin being forced open by metal, or the decaying flesh that also serves to conduct electricity. Not to mention the way the doctor acts in game as well. When he shocks you all you hear is a distorted laugh escape his mouth. It’s such a scary killer, that leaves a lasting impression.

As for the games soundtrack, it’s very limited. Dead by Daylight relies more on the lack of sounds to convey it’s atmosphere, then utilizing music. When a killer gets close, your survivor will start to feel their overbearing presence and a loud heartbeat will drain out almost every sound around you.The only times in the game you might actually hear music is in the menu before a match, and when you’re being chased by the killer. Though when I looked a little deeper into this I found that the soundtrack has just above thirty different tracks on it.

A lot of these tracks are small; so they’ll most likely loop, or meld together with other tracks. I believe this is what gives the illusion of fewer tracks in the game. Though with what the game uses, it builds upon the atmosphere really well and gives this sense of dread as you’re being hunted. Now how does the game play? The game may look beautiful, but does it feels smooth to hunt or be hunted?

Dead By Daylight didn’t have a smooth upbringing; it was popular, but due to it being in early access, it had it’s problems. Now with the game fully released a lot of these bugs have been fixed, but not fully. For example, when a survivor is grabbed by the killer, sometimes the animation of being picked up won’t match with the models. This is a small graphical bug; it doesn’t really hurt gameplay, but I thought I should still bring these up. Since leaving early access, the game is definitely cleaner in terms of the glitches and bugs previously present. Though now the problems aren’t in the performance side of things, but the gameplay and the games community.

Dead by Daylight is a four versus one survival horror game; one team of four survivors must attempt to escape from the one psycho killer. Survivors must repair generators to power doors along the border of the map. Once five generators are fully repaired, the two door can then be opened. If the killer has killed all but one, or everyone but the one has escaped, a hatch will appear somewhere on the map. Escape by any means, but do it quietly.

As for the killer, they must hunt down the four survivors before they have a chance to power the generators. One by one, the killer must hurt the other four; then place them on hooks around the map to sacrifice to the entity. The killers score depends on how many survivors are killed; it’s considered a win if at least two are sacrificed.

Now the game is pretty simple for both sides; each has their ups and downs. For example, survivors are presented in a third person camera; while the killer sees in first person. This is a little disorienting, and makes killer games a little more challenging. Also, starting out both sides may feel under powered, survivors especially; though give the game some time and you’ll put up a fight.

Now basically speaking the game plays really well for what it’s selling; however, due to things like the ranking system or the lack of penalties towards poor players, the game takes a hit. When you start the game you are rank twenty. The system works where, depending on your performance, you’ll “fall” in rank. What I mean is that rank one is actually the highest rank in the game, and shows you’ve been putting the work in. This is fine on paper, but it’s easier to decrease in rank than rise. So there isn’t really anything keeping beginner players from playing with seasoned vets. The developers have said they’ll re-work the ranking system, but that will take some time.

One other problem, in my mind, comes from the newest killers. Recently Dead by Daylight has added some familiar face. Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, Leatherface; three big name killers from popular franchises have joined the ranks. They play in an interesting manner, and I don’t doubt it’s fun to play them (Don’t currently own them myself); however, I find them extremely overpowered when looking at the original killers. Now Freddy isn’t out on console as of writing this, but the other two have been big among the audience. My biggest problem with them comes from how they can completely removes things that give survivors a fighting chance. Michael can remove his fear radius, meaning he could be right on your back and yet you’ll never hear that heartbeat. Plus, when he does this for long enough, he will go into a state that allows him to instantly down any survivor. Then you have Leatherface; he’s overly fast and can easily catch the survivor. Plus he has his chainsaw, which can down someone instantly. I wouldn’t have a problem with this if it was easy to avoid like the hillbilly; however, Leatherface can just charge the chainsaw and then get a speed boost throughout. Not to mention their perks are among some of the most broken perks in the game; many people play these two so they can get these perks on every killer. I hardly ever have fun when playing against one of these two; it’s not impossible to win, but still feels weighted heavily in their favor. Though this is more of a nitpick from my opinion, the real problems are universal to all killers.

The biggest problem comes from the lack of in game penalties towards players; you may wonder what I mean by this exactly. A good majority of this thought process comes from the idea of camping. A lot of killers will camp survivors that have been hooked; they’ll sit watching them from only a couple feet away, stand directly in front of them, or sit there hitting the survivor repeatedly. Killers gain nothing from hitting hooked survivors, and by sitting in front of them it makes it harder for them to be saved. In an old build of the game when the killer sat in front of the hook, the game wouldn’t allow the survivor to be unhooked. The developer changed this, making it possible to unhooked from different angles instead of straight on; however, this doesn’t stop camping. Even if you unhook someone, they’ll most likely just be hit down and re-hooked, or the killer will just grab the second survivor and hook them. The only saving grace is a perk named borrowed time; yet if the killer follows you, which they will, you’ll just be back on the hook. This makes the game extremely aggravating; there is no fun in this, when I play the game I’d like an equal chance of escaping just like everyone. Yet this becomes really hard when you have players like this. I can understand, with how the game is, that finding someway to remedy this is hard; however, this is one of the big things that kills how I view the game. This also brings me to my next point; like many online oriented games, the community is highly toxic.

Dead by Daylight is home to many, and among them are some fairly terrible people. The campers make up a good amount of these players, but there are a variety of people. Many of the toxic players you’ll meet will more than likely play killer, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t toxic survivors as well. Dead by Daylight is a team game in the end; unlike other survival game, you need to help each other if you wish to escape, and escape fast no less. Though you’ll get survivors that just wander the perimeter, or will purposefully lead the killer in your direction to save their skin for a few seconds. You may also run into those that will blame you for their death; you may not be able to save them for many reasons, but they just have to get their two cents in. Though as I said before, the most toxic players tend to be the killers. A decent amount of killers play in a very unsportsmanlike fashion. They try to find every chance to gloat, hence the reason they’ll hit hooked survivors. One example I can give in my experience comes from leatherface players; they’ll knock you down, in whatever fashion, and instead of pick you up and hook you, they’ll have you sit there and rev their chainsaw over your body as a means to gloat. This happened a lot for me; it was never warranted, and usually I was the first to get downed. So my team was still roaming and working, meaning the killer was just wasting time and effort to be an asshole. Though why stop their; no matter what you play, you’ll always find the players that have to get the last word. You could be an amazing killer, never camp and play to the best of your ability. Yet there will be times when player just can’t take the fact that they died. They use that Call of Duty logic and call you a hacker, or say you’re trash because they couldn’t take the fact of dying. Many people will rage quit; I have quit out of games, though mainly due to campers. When you quit the killer still gets points, but not as much as they could have. The community makes this game one of the most terrible experiences; it’s a fun game, but not without it’s share of terrible people.

Overall I give Dead by Daylight a 7.5 out of 10. My reasoning behind this doesn’t stem from the idea of the community. It may be a big problem, but the developer didn’t create the community, they created the game. Now I wish they would find a way to stop camping, and take these things more seriously, but that’s not up to me. My biggest reason for only a 7.5 and not an 8 is because of two things. The poor ranking system is a small part of it; sure they’re going to re-work it, but this has been a problem for a while now. The biggest reason is because the game feels extremely limited. The game adds flair through new killers, but in a basic sense it’s the same game as it was in early access. There is no diversity among objectives; just repair generators, and escape; this starts to get a little repetitive for me. I don’t like to overly compare games, but think in the sense of Friday the 13th. In that game you can repair one of two cars, repair a boat, kill Jason, call the police, or just wait out the time. There are many ways for the survivors to win, while Dead by Daylight only has the one. It’s essentially the same idea as a game like Overwatch having only one game mode; you may like team deathmatch, but playing only team deathmatch will start to get boring. This idea mixed with the community has caused me to take long breaks from the game; I have fun at first, but leave either angry or somewhat bored.

Next review is on the manga Ajin; once that’s done I’ll try to get things back in order for November. Thanks again for sticking with me and reading my reviews. Until next time.

[modeoheim]

A Helping Hand pt 1

part of Cloud’s Birthday Week 2k17.  Summary:  A bizarre cat wearing a cape and a crown comes to Infantryman Cloud Strife for help. Through the occasional favor Cloud starts to learn more about ShinRa, get closer to his crushes, Zack and Sephiroth, and figure out what (or who?) is really behind Cait Sith's actions. Pairings: Reeve/Cloud, Cait Sith/Cloud (???), Zack/Cloud and brief Seph/Cloud rating: Explicit (though not this chapter)

guys I’m SO. EXCITED. to post part one of this. I’ve had so much fun writing this.  If you’re balking at the pairing, my suggestion is to go for it -- this fic kind of isn’t what it appears to be, and, well, I worked hard on it. Go forth ya’ll. 

"See ya," he said, holding up an arm. Zack bumped their forearms together and saw him off with another wink and a two-fingered salute.

"Later, Spike."

Cloud pushed his way out of the bar, gulping down fresh air once he was out. He hadn't realized how hot it was in there. Most of the sun lamps were off now, simulating 'night time' – but there were still enough to make your way around. It took Cloud a moment to realize which way the businesses were that Cait Sith wanted to visit, and then he headed that way.

"There's no one around," Cloud said, "You can speak up. I can tell you want to."

The backpack wiggled. He heard Cait Sith sigh. "…I suppose I can't complain when I'm hitching a free ride on your back, can I?"

"No," Cloud answered, "You can't."

read below, or on [ffnet] or [AO3]

ShinRa Tower was so large a building that walking around the outside of it in its entirety took quite some time. With a few smaller satellite buildings dotted around the main Tower there were all sorts of tucked-away places to hide in.

Most were under video surveillance for that reason; ShinRa took security seriously. Some Infantryperson somewhere was probably watching a couple-dozen computer screens showing footage of these areas, mostly walls, and occasionally the small nook with a bench for reading a book or resting after a jog around the Tower.

Cloud was pretty sure he'd found a small spot not under the watch of a video camera. And if there was one—it didn't matter anyway, it wasn't like he got up to no good out here, he just liked his space. While Nibelheim was mostly empty fields and tundra, with snow-capped mountains in the distance, Midgar had another metal wall every couple dozen feet and cramped hallways packed with Infantry.

He hadn't even realized he was a little claustrophobic before moving here.

And it wasn't even like his special spot was all that great—he was right by an exhaust vent for the building's HVAC. It was super loud and bellowed hot air, but he sat away from it and with enough time the constant drone of it faded into the background like restaurant chatter. As something of an introvert, Cloud needed some time alone every couple days; he retreated here and played games on his PHS or wrote letters to his mother. It was chill and Cloud stayed undisturbed.

Until, one day, the wall whispered, "Laddie."

Cloud looked up from his PHS, pausing his action game with a tap of his finger, and looked around. The acoustics in these little alcoves could get weird. He went back to it.

"Laddie!"

Cloud squinted, peering up and down the side of the wall. "In the vent," came the voice, muffled under the roar of the AC. "I need ya to do me a favor."

"Are you okay?" Cloud scrambled up, moving closer, feeling the sweaty gush of the AC's exhaust.

"Aie aie aie," came the voice, "Act natural! Pretend you're not talking to anybody, eh?"

"Um." Cloud moved to the side, away from the vent, and stared straight ahead. He tucked his chin into his scarf to obscure his mouth. He swallowed. "You're speaking to a member of the ShinRa Infantry," he said, his grip tightening around his baton lying along his right thigh. "Reveal yourself—if you're an eco-terrorist trying to infiltrate the Tower I will report you."

Whoever was in the vent let out a long whistle. "Impressive. The company's been hiring a good batch, it looks like. It's good to see."

Cloud cut off the distracting small talk with an aggressive, "Who are you? I will call my CO in the next thirty seconds."

"Oy!" They sounded outraged. "I work for ShinRa too, I promise."

"Prove it."

"What's your last name? I'll look you up in the database; I have the authorization to do that."

"…Strife," Cloud said, hesitantly.

"Hmm… only one of those currently employed. Seventeen years old. From Nibelheim—interesting place, there's a Mako reactor there, made it special—joined up seven months ago. Looks like you're struggling in your rifle class, nya ha ha."

"What!" Cloud had been thinking about how the person in the vent was either really employed by ShinRa or was a talented hacker, but the rifle comment distracted him. "That's in my file?"

"Yessiree, along with the fact that you're better than average with swords. Did fairly well in the SOLDIER exam with the practice swords."

"Oh." Cloud's heart skipped a beat at the mention of the SOLDIER exam. He fought the urge to stomp off, now hurting at the memories of failure. "Answer my question. What's the best elevator to use?"

"…The one behind the showroom on the lobby floor," they answered. "It doesn't have that couple-second lag when the doors close."

"And who never uses that elevator?"

"The execs. Stuck-up, the lot of them, if you ask me." They sounded a little nervous.

An exec, then, perhaps? Regardless, nobody would know the thing about the elevators if they weren't regularly in the building, actually walking around and not crawling through vents.

"What do you want?"

They sounded relieved. "I need you to block the security camera for me. Move a bit to the left, would you?"

"A camera?" Cloud had been so sure there was no such thing here.

"Obviously, laddie, they're everywhere. Except in here, nyahaha. There you go—a little more left. I can see you on the camera feed. Yes, yes, I know the air is hot—I'm practically melting apart in here. Angle yerself towards the wall. Now lean against it, all casual-like. Yep, you're facing the camera now. Stay just like that."

Cloud held the position he'd been maneuvered into. He squinted at the opposite wall. Eventually he found it; a little out-of-place dot in the concrete wall. Damn. His back was to the vent now, and he stiffened as the metal grate was pushed out from the inside.

"Reach a hand back," came the voice, a little clearer now without the grate, though still quiet under the roar of the AC. Cloud did, and the weight of the metal grate settled into his hand. He held on, hiding it behind his back. He pulled out his PHS and pretended to be playing a game with his other hand. The back of his neck prickled; it was so uncomfortable knowing there was someone behind him that he couldn't see.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to help," came the voice. Cloud snorted, and they continued after a huff, "Getting some readings on the quality of the air we're cycling through the building. I installed a couple new air filters, to get rid of the smog and such, and if they're successful they will be used in some homes under the Plate. Unfortunately, no one is letting me close enough to measure the air quality."

"…Why not?"

"Well, laddie, I suspect it's because they're not working. Why else? It means I have to design some new filters and install them, and that costs money, and my department's budget is woefully low, and…"

They muttered to themselves, and Cloud heard a couple small movements. Metallic scufflings, the sounds of light feet. Casually, Cloud turned his head as much as he could to get an eye of the person who had been inside the vent.

Cloud expected them to be small, because those vents were too tiny for Cloud to fit in, but he hadn't expected a three foot-tall humanoid cat wearing a crown.

Cloud breathed, "What."

The cat turned around. It had a small cape, red, and it was blowing around in the hot air. "Don't be gapin', laddie," it said, "We're on a mission!"

Cloud's head snapped around again and he stared at the wall.

The cat had been hanging something around the wide, curved metal pipe beside the vent that carried presumably air up to the many stories above. It wore white gloves and had a white-tipped tail, most of it a darker black with white patches on its belly and face. It even had boots.

"Are you a monster?"

The cat laughed. "Nay, not a monster—I'm just a Cait Sith!"

"A Cait Sith."

"Yep. And just so you don't go worryin', this little device here ain't a bomb or anything like that—it measures pollution. I poked a small hole in the pipe so it'll measure it."

"Why all the secrecy?"

"Like I said, for whatever reason they don't want me pokin' around the filtration system, which makes me think it's not workin'. They'd rather let something not work than spend the money to fix it to ensure a good quality of life—now isn't that repulsive?"

"Ah…yeah."

After another moment Cloud heard the grate go back onto the wall. "Move back a couple steps," the voice said. Cloud moved more fully into the gush of air. "Lean back onto it as hard as you can."

Cloud pushed against the grate, and he felt small, gloved hands (…paws?) scrabble against the back of his uniform as it pulled. The blond felt the grate snap back into place.

"Thanks," Cait Sith said, "You were a big help!" Then Cloud heard it crawl away, the small thumping noises growing quieter.

Cloud casually inspected the small device hanging around the air pipe. He'd had a few classes on how to identify bombs and this certainly didn't look like one. If it was… well, he was now an accomplice to it.

Weird.

It was a few days before Cloud managed to get enough free time to go out to his usual spot. He wasn't sure what to expect. He was hardly in The Know around ShinRa but he did have a few Infantry friends who were fairly involved with building security and none of them had mentioned the discovery of a mysterious bomb or an intruder in the vents.

The little pollution reader was gone, a tiny bit of sealant covered the tiny hole that had been poked through it, and taped to the back side of the pipe, the side away from the security camera, was a note.

C.S., it said, Thank you again for your help last time. You are a trustworthy young man. If you're willing, I need your help again. According to your schedule you have the afternoon and evening of this coming Friday off. Please come to the stall all the way on the left in the men's bathroom on the lobby floor at five p.m. You're doing ShinRa a great service, even if they don't know it yet. —another C.S.

That was rather…demanding, Cloud thought. And rather rude. He helped someone once, and then there they were checking his training schedule like a creep and asking his help for…whatever they were asking his help for. The handwriting looked elegant and the diction fairly different from how Cait Sith spoke. Was it even the same person—cat? No one else would have known about this… It was ridiculous.

No matter how ridiculous it was, for some Gaia-forsaken reason Cloud found himself hesitantly opening the door to the bathroom that Friday. Some of his friends were going into Sector 8 to party and Cloud had even turned down their invitation, he was that curious about what was going to happen.

He peeked under the stalls; it was empty in here, and he couldn't see any furry legs in the stall all the way to the side. Still, he crept over to it and pushed the door inwards.

Cait Sith stood on the closed toilet seat, body bopping along to some rhythm Cloud couldn't hear. Crown, gloves, furry little face, red cape.

"Cloud!" Cait Sith greeted. "Ya made it. Good."

Cloud looked up—an air vent went into this stall. "You really did leave me that note," he said, a bit amazed.

Cait Sith tilted its head, peering at him with small, feline eyes. "Well, of course. Good help is hard to find 'round here."

"You mean people dumb enough to go along with what you want and not ask too many questions."

Cait Sith rubbed the back of its neck. "Maybe, but you seem like a genuine good sort. I promise, I'm not up to anythin' bad."

"A promise won't do me much good if I get jailed or court marshalled for this."

"You'll just have ta believe me, laddie—ya won't. I'll make it worth yer while for the help, though."

That sounded even sleazier than before, Cloud thought privately. "What was the verdict on the vent?"

"Aye, they're broken, all right. Barely stopping any of the mako smog from entering the buildings at all. Sure, the air inside the Tower looks prettier, and there ain't no green tint to it, but it's not healthy. Ya think people would care more since we're breathing the same air up there in the boardroom!"

We, Cloud thought. Cait Sith is in on board meetings?

Cait Sith sighed. They gestured to a sports bag hanging on the hook on the back of the toilet stall. "Put that on, wouldja? I'm gonna climb in."

As they left the bathroom, Cait Sith a sturdy weight against his back, Cloud asked, "Where are we going?"

"I need a ride down below the plate," came Cait Sith's voice from inside the bag. "I'm a little too conspicuous getting down on the trains myself. I need to visit a couple businesses in Sector 8."

"Why?"

"We installed a version of those air filters on ShinRa partner businesses—prototypes for the commercial ones we plan to install in people's homes. They won't be much help to the public if they'll still be chokin' on smog, will they, laddie?"

"Guess not," Cloud muttered, moving his lips as little as possible as they moved out through the lobby. It bustled at all hours; the rotating group of receptionists never left the front desk unstaffed. When he cleared the building and was outside he said to his backpack, "To the train station?"

"Aye, laddie."

Cloud wore civvies, having learned shortly after joining that if you were off-duty you did not want to wear your uniform beneath the plate. He had his badge, though, and with a swipe of it at the turnstile at the station he got in without his bag being inspected. He shuffled on the train behind what looked like some off-duty SOLDIERs, probably Third Class, and a couple civilians who just lived above the plate. Expensive stuff.

He sat in the back of the train car and carefully propped the bag up in the empty cushion next to him.

"Okay, we're on the train," Cloud whispered. He didn't get a response.

During the ID check halfway down, with the blaring red alarm and the scan of everyone's IDs aboard the train just in case someone snuck on that wasn't supposed to, Cloud asked Cait Sith, "Hey. What's your gender? How should I refer to you?"

"Cait Sith is a boy," was the answer, sounding amused.

"And what's your accent?" It was quite thick; sometimes Cloud had trouble understanding him.

"It's just how a Cait Sith talks."

"A Cait Sith. So… there are more of you?"

"Cait Sith the Third, at your service, laddie."

Cloud muttered, "Seems like I'm the one at your service, honestly."

Muffled laughter was the response.

Sector 8 was one of Cloud's favorite places. Nibelheim's version of nightlife was the single pub full of upset adults avoiding their families. This part of town had clubs and bars, theaters and LOVELESS Avenue. He shouldered his heavy backpack (was Cait Sith made of fucking metal?) and walked in the direction Cait Sith told him to go, towards an offshoot street.

He didn't get far before an arm was slung over his shoulder.

Cloud turned, hands coming up, preparing to knock the stranger away, but they came still to rest for a moment too long on the chest of the person when he realized it was Zack Fair.

"Hey, Spike! Long time no see!"

Zack Fair, the dude he'd gotten along surprisingly well with on a mission last month and who he'd been nursing a wicked crush on ever since. "Zack," Cloud said, "Oh—hey."

The arm around his shoulders squeezed and then disappeared. Zack was so tall, and so grin-y, and so handsome, and Cloud hated that he was 'on a mission' with a crown-wearing cat monster.

"How've you been, man?"

"Good. I've been good." Cloud's tongue felt clumsy in his mouth. "Not busy—ah, I mean, doing the usual thing."

Zack winked at him. "That's good to hear. You busy at all right now?"

"…Well, kind of."

"Aw, c'mon! I wanna buy you a drink. My treat. I've been meaning to come see you ever since the Mideel mission but I've been busy."

Cloud hesitated. He felt a small jab between his shoulder blades, probably Cait Sith's elbow. "Sorry," he began, but then Zack clapped his hands together and tilted his head with his dark bangs falling into his bright SOLDIER eyes just right—

A moment later he was being whisked along beside Zack to a really chill bar, you'll like it while Cait Sith stubbornly jabbed him again, trying to keep Cloud on track.

Tough shit, cat—Cloud was doing the weird little thing a huge favor anyway; they could afford a brief detour.

Zack and Cloud chatted about their week as they made their way there. The bar was just off LOVELESS Ave, and despite it only being about six-thirty the music inside was loud and vibrating. The neon lights took a moment to get used to after being outside in the artificial sun lamps.

There weren't any seats at the bar open, so while they waited for two people to leave they grabbed two drinks and stood off to the side, leaning against a wall. Cloud could feel the thud of the bass through it, moving through his shoulder and even stirring the tequila in his glass.

(Tequila, known to make certain drinkers rather horny, was perhaps not the best choice, Cloud realized as Zack stood so tall next to him. It kind of felt like he was being caged back against the wall… and, Cloud realized a moment later, he kind of fucking loved it.)

"So how's your training going?" Cloud asked. "I think before you mentioned Angeal Hewley pushes you pretty hard."

Cloud remembered almost every word, actually, but he was playing it cool. Zack groaned, closing his eyes and tipping his head back. Hot. "Ugh. Angeal's as tough on me as ever. It's cool though—it's only a matter of time before I hit First Class at this rate."

"Oh yeah? You think you'll be evaluated for it soon?"

"Yeah. Genesis let it slide the other day that Angeal and Lazard have been talking about arranging some sort of mission for me."

"You were really impressive in Mideel…I'm sure you'll do well."

Cloud wasn't sure how to flirt for shit, but he'd realized Zack liked compliments. Zack puffed out his chest and tried to give a casual shrug (he failed). "Ya think so?" He rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yeah," Cloud confirmed. "Sure do."

With the occasional jab from Cait Sith, Cloud and Zack kept talking. They eventually got bar stools and sat there, Zack buying Cloud three more drinks that were really strong, too—Cloud was tipsy at the end of it and even smacked his elbow back into the bag when Cait Sith hit his shoulder blade, trying to get him to abandon Zack.

"What's in there?" Zack asked, his elbow up on the counter and his hand propping up his chin.

"…Library books," Cloud said, feeling very transparent. "I had more free time than usual this month so, ah, I read a lot."

"Oh yeah, the one a couple blocks East? I like that place."

"Erm, yeah."

"There's a library in the Tower though, just so ya know. Near the SOLDIER floor."

"Oh. I'll be sure to check it out."

"Yeah." Zack smiled at him, his mako eyes lasered in on Cloud's face. "You should."

One last drink—and then Zack invited Cloud to dance. Cloud heard Cait Sith groan under his breath in the backpack.

Shyly, Cloud shrank back, wishing he had his green scarf with him. "I'm not very good," he said—but Zack waved him off with a grin. Then they were on the edge of the dance floor, Cloud still wearing his backpack. Zack gestured at the far wall but Cloud shook his head, yelling over the music, "I'll get tons of fees if I lose the books."

Zack was rolling his hips and working his shoulders now, dancing very casually to the beat—he managed to work in a shrug that looked so effortless. Cloud's robotic joints moved awkwardly at first but he managed to find something resembling what a few other people on the dance floor were doing. It made his backpack bounce against his back and Cloud knew he'd have a couple bruises from where Cait Sith's joints poked into his back but fuck it—it wasn't every day he got to hang out with Zack Fair.

"You look nice in civilian clothes," Zack said. Cloud understood this in a mixture of actually hearing the words and lip-reading. "Aren't you hot though?"

Zack reached out and his fingers played with the zipper at Cloud's collar. His sleeveless shirt had a zipper that went down to his sternum. "...A little," Cloud said, and with the most seductive grin anyone had ever flashed Cloud Strife Zack inched down his zipper bit by bit, revealing a few inches of sweaty collarbones and the upper part of Cloud's chest.

Cloud's hands came up and Zack captured them, pressing them over his beating heart. He spread Cloud's palms and fingers flat and moved them, his own hands covering Cloud's, to his shoulders and then encouraged Cloud to coast them down his arms: over the biceps, stopping briefly to squeeze, past the jut of the elbow, down the forearms and over the wrist…to his hands. Zack entwined their hands and moved Cloud's arms around, making the awkward teen dance more.

Cloud laughed, feeling…delighted, really—he was free in a way he'd never been in Nibelheim.

This was really fucking fun.

Cloud's jam came on next and he danced like a moron, all swinging arms and moving hips as he sang along—Zack laughed out loud, but kindly, and egged him on.

As much as Cloud wanted to stay all evening with Zack (and stay with him into the next morning too, if that's how this sort of thing worked—city people moved so fast)—he could not. The sulking cat in his bag had somewhere to be.

Cloud, wobbling a bit, reached out and pressed his hands to either side of Zack's face. Zack looked surprised, his eyes flicking from Cloud's mouth to his eyes. Cloud fought a smile; no, he wasn't about to kiss him, but Zack clearly thought he was. He drew Zack down, and Zack closed his eyes, but Cloud turned his head and spoke directly into Zack's ear instead.

"I've really gotta go. Thanks for everything, man—I had a lot of fun."

Zack pouted a bit as he stood back up, but he didn't press anything. "Yeah—me too. Wanna trade numbers so we can hang out again?"

They moved to the edge of the bar and they did so, Cloud squashing a gleeful feeling in his stomach. "See ya," he said, holding up an arm. Zack bumped their forearms together and saw him off with another wink and a two-fingered salute.

"Later, Spike."

Cloud pushed his way out of the bar, gulping down fresh air once he was out. He hadn't realized how hot it was in there. Most of the sun lamps were off now, simulating 'night time' – but there were still enough to make your way around. It took Cloud a moment to realize which way the businesses were that Cait Sith wanted to visit, and then he headed that way.

"There's no one around," Cloud said, "You can speak up. I can tell you want to."

The bag wiggled. He heard Cait Sith sigh. "…I suppose I can't complain when I'm hitching a free ride on your back, can I?"

"No," Cloud answered, "You can't."

Cloud felt like a major creep going into the tiny alley behind the weapons store ShinRa apparently had investments in. He wondered if they sold ShinRa weapons to the public or just to select people—he didn't actually care that much. He opened the bag with clumsy, drunk fingers and Cait popped out, his fur matted from being cooped up in there for so long and his crown askew.

"Har!" he barked a laugh when he saw Cloud. "You're still blushing, Spike. Does that happen every time you drink or are you just that fond of Fair?"

Cloud scowled. "You know him?"

"Sure." Cait hopped up on top of the reeking dumpster. "I know all the Firsts and most of the Seconds."

Cloud lost his filter two drinks back, so he blurted, "Even Sephiroth?"

Cait looked over his shoulder, now hanging from the gutter on the roof of the building. "You fancy that bloke too?"

"Oh." Cloud stuck his hands in his pockets. "Pssh."

Cait laughed again, then pulled himself up and disappeared over the lip of the roof. Cloud could hear him though, light footsteps moving across the roof towards what he presumed was the AC unit.

After a minute or two where Cloud tried to look like he belonged in some dank alley Cait came back, a small device in his hand. He climbed into the bag and Cloud shouldered it again. This time Cait directed him to a materia shop. It was noticeably cleaner and better-lit than the other shops on the street, a few of which had sagging boards in place of windows or heaps of trash just beyond the doorstep.

The benefits of being connected to ShinRa, it seemed.

"Around to the side," Cait whispered from the bag. "No, the other side."

"How can you tell where we are so well? Aren't you all mixed up being in there?"

"I'm watchin' from one of the security cameras on the roof of the plate."

Cloud frowned. How was this little monster so well-connected? "…On a PHS or something?"

"In my head," was the answer.

Weird. Cloud went to the other side of the shop. It was at the end of the block and had no smelly, saggy shops on that side. Cloud opened up the bag and Cait scrambled up to the roof as he did before. When he was done they headed back towards the train, Cloud still pleasantly buzzed and enjoying the walk around.

It was so different beneath the plate from up above, and especially different from Nibelheim. It was so bizarre to look up and never see the sky.

"Cait Sith," Cloud said breezily, chattier than normal from the drinks, "It's kind of cool that you seem to care so much about the air quality. I get the feeling that most people at ShinRa couldn't care less about regular people, you know?"

"Aye," Cait replied. "Don't I know it. My department does what it can, but we get push-back every step o' the way."

"Your department?"

Cait didn't answer. Cloud was another small step closer to putting this strange puzzle together.

[numberplates4u-blog]

Does Cadillac Super Cruise Self-Driving Technology Actually Work?

Perhaps I’m too trusting, but it only took me about three minutes to go from hands hovering over the steering wheel to leaning back in the driver’s seat with my arms crossed. Cadillac’s Super Cruise system is so good that it builds driver confidence almost immediately. Autonomous cars are the modern automotive industry’s holy grail, with practically every manufacturer and supply house feverishly developing the technology needed to build them. But while rivals are still in the laboratory, Cadillac has leapt ahead. In broad terms, Super Cruise is a self-driving technology that allows a vehicle to essentially control itself without requiring the driver’s hands to be on the wheel or feet on the pedals. It enables a car to accelerate, steer and stop all on its own in certain situations, emphasis on certain situations. No, you can’t put a destination into the navigation system and then take a nap or hop in the back seat to play a game of bridge, at least not yet. “That hands-off feature is what really separates us,” said Daryl Wilson, lead development engineer of Cadillac Super Cruise. “And I think it’s a real benefit to the customer.” Testing it in the real world, Cadillac invited us to experience Super Cruise firsthand on a coast-to-coast road trip. Twelve CT6 sedans were driven from the company’s headquarters in New York all the way to Los Angeles, California, a cross-country trek through 16 states. I participated in two legs of this journey, traveling roughly 1,200 miles (1,931 km) from Memphis, Tennessee, to Santa Fe, New Mexico. I had plenty of time in the driver’s seat during this trip across America’s heartland, which proved to be the perfect place to test it. Four Key Differences Separating Super Cruise from rival systems on the market are four key technologies. Perhaps most importantly, it’s geo-fenced, only operating on limited-access, divided highways, basically roads with medians as well as on- and off-ramps. At first, this sounds like a major shortcoming and even Wilson admitted to being skeptical when he joined the program. “I thought that was going to be a big constraint for us,” he said. But Cadillac was wise to limit it like they did. “I think for this type of feature, that is, by far, the place that it provides the most benefit to the customer,” noted Wilson, since long-haul interstate trips or slogging through rush-hour congestion are almost never enjoyable. Yes, Cadillac Super Cruise even works in heavy stop-and-go traffic. Beyond being geo-fenced, Cadillac has plotted every inch of limited-access, divided roadway in the U.S. and Canada, some 210,000 miles (338,000 km) in total. Let that sink in for a moment; they have basically digitized every mile of highway north of the Mexican border. With a wealth of knowledge about all the stretches of pavement Super Cruise can be used on, the system is aware of curves, barriers, elevation changes and interchanges that lie ahead. Obviously, this was no easy feat. “It took us three years to map all those roads,” said Wilson. Ensuring a car that’s equipped with this system knows exactly where it is, improved GPS is also utilized. It’s eight times more precise than what’s commonly available today, accurate to less than two meters, meaning the vehicle can even identify which lane it’s traveling in. ALSO SEE: 2017 Cadillac XT5 Premium Luxury Review The final building block of this technological puzzle is an attention monitor. Fixed on the steering column is an infrared camera that tracks the driver’s face; it can even identify where they’re looking, so don’t think you can glance down at your smartphone to compose a lengthy e-mail. Distract yourself for too long and the car will politely remind you to be pay attention. Since this infra-red camera operates in the non-visible spectrum, it works perfectly well at night or while wearing most sunglasses. This is to ensure drivers are ready to take control quickly if needed. Green Means (Let) Go! A significant step on the road to full autonomy, Super Cruise is not a set-it-and-forget-it solution. As Wilson said, “The driver needs to be engaged with the vehicle, ready to take over at all times.” You may not need to use your hands or feet for hours on end, but you’ve still got to be looking ahead and ready to react. As I learned shortly after we crossed into Arkansas, construction zones can be tricky for the system to handle, with their irregular lanes and often haphazardly arranged orange barrels. Likewise, you have to manually steer around debris on the road, which I did when we encountered a mangled tire scrap somewhere in Oklahoma. Also, inclement weather like rain and snow can throw it for a loop. When you’re on an approved stretch of highway and the vehicle’s onboard sensors can see the road lines, an icon pops up in the instrument cluster. When this is visible, you simply hit the Super Cruise button on the steering wheel and it takes over. Beyond this, there’s an LED bar mounted on the wheel’s rim. When Super Cruise is active, it lights up green, but this array also serves as an alert system. If you’re not paying attention, typically after glancing away for about 10 seconds, it starts to flash. Simply look back at the road ahead and it goes solid green again, no harm, no foul. But should you ignore this initial warning for too long, the lights flash red and the car alerts you further, either through an audible chime or a vibration in the driver’s seat. Continue being distracted and the vehicle assumes you’ve been incapacitated, activating the hazard lights, calling OnStar and gradually bring itself to a stop. No, you don’t want to do this. Naturally, if the vehicle can’t continue driving on its own because it doesn’t have absolute confidence it in its current situation, it alerts you to take over, which is why you always have to be paying attention. This happened a couple times while I was driving, once while navigating a poorly marked curve that had an exit ramp at the outer corner. One thing Super Cruise cannot do is change lanes; this requires manual intervention. Once you start steering, the system pauses itself and the light bar turns blue, indicating you’re in control. After you’ve completed said maneuver and you’re no longer applying any torque to the tiller, the car takes two or three seconds to find its bearings and then Super Cruise seamlessly resumes. Astonishingly Good According to Wilson, in one form or another, Cadillac has been developing Super Cruise for about five years. Clearly, Cadillac took its time and did things right because this system is good, astonishingly good. Except for certain challenging situations, you can drive for hours at a stretch and never touch the steering wheel. If conditions are favorable and you’re paying attention, it’s an absolutely seamless and nearly effortless experience. In fact, there were only a handful of instances where I had to intervene, and this was typically in areas that were either under construction or where road improvements had recently been completed. Additionally, when the sun is at a low angle in the morning and evening hours, glare can make it hard for the driver monitor to see your face, but this was a minor issue and only while traversing New Mexico at dusk. Super Cruise isn’t perfect, though it’s probably the best self-driving technology available today. But what about once it’s in the hands of general consumers? Someone is going to figure out how to trick the system. “Nobody is kidding themselves that there’s not going to be incidents,” said Wilson. “But, you know, limiting it for highway-use only, [the] driver-attention system, there’s a number of things that we’ve done to minimize the potential that those incidents are severe.” Furthermore, Wilson noted, “We believe we’ve done the due diligence from a validation and verification standpoint. We’ve driven every mile that we’ve mapped and the vehicle can operate on, we’ve gone back through and done verification testing with instrumented vehicles to understand the car’s capability in those situations under various conditions.” This exhaustive back-end work is evidenced by this technology’s impressive real-world performance. Available Right Now Currently, Super Cruise is only available in the 2018 Cadillac CT6 sedan. It’s standard on Platinum models or included in a $5,000 ($5,750 Canadian) options package on Premium Luxury versions of the car where it’s bundled with night vision, automatic emergency braking, and 20-inch wheels. Still, it’s not hard to imagine this system quickly migrating to other Cadillac nameplates and GM divisions in short order, though the company is not commenting on future plans. I say put it in everything right away, a statement I have ample confidence in, just like Super Cruise. Watch Craig Cole demonstrate Cadillac Super Cruise in this Facebook video below, which was broadcast live during his drive: Discuss this story on our Cadillac Forum The post Does Cadillac Super Cruise Self-Driving Technology Actually Work? appeared first on AutoGuide.com News.

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