As much as I would love to remake VII and X, neither of them has made me cough up as much bile as XIII. WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO CARE!!!
Characters:
Lightning - Who is she? I mean we get very little background and info on how she thinks, I mean was she always a hard ass or is this a result of her childhood, what's the full relationship with Serah, she's largely seen only in the negative with her in flashbacks, how about a more balanced view to make Lightning more endearing? Lightning is largely like Squall with a gender swap, but what made Squall work was that the player got more insight into how he felt and thinked, Lightning didn't which made her moments of suddenly realize she knows human emotion besides anger feel really awkward and out of place. Some more introspection and better flashbacks could fix this and actually make her into the endearing and well-developed character SE thinks she is.
Snow - Cut down on his repetitive dialogue and have him drop the whole "I'm the hero" angle. Its fine that he's an optimist with really virtuous values and intentions but it doesn't mean we have to listen to him like he's some damn parrot. Play with the contrast between his intentions and his results, Snow lost so much character development because he was put on a bus for half the game so instead let's give him more screen time and really watch him rectify his ideals with the reality around him. The idea his optimism and bravado are a front for his insecurity should be played with more.
Sahz - Is pretty good overall, he just needs to be an active emotional part of the party in the second half of the game. He's fine as the comic relief, but he needs some more thoughtful and serious moments in the later chapters instead of being relegated to background character.
Hope - Needs to be younger cause I'm not buying a 14 year old acting like an 8 year old.I don't care if he's "sensitive" that just makes it even more strange when you see how ass kicking his mother Nora was. Hope needs more context about his relationship with his parents, he needs more "show and not tell" I get it that life screwed you royally but I'd rather see you get emotional and angry about it than listen to you try to explain it to me. I just want you to act more scarred, not like a child pouting cause their parents put them in time out. Also, none of this 180 degree personality spins, I don't care if you realize it wasn't completely Snow's fault, this doesn't mean you suddenly start treating him like the older brother you never had. Thjs relationship is strained and has to start anew. The game screwed you both over for not making use of watching the two of them coming to terms with each other through the course second half of the story. Some awkward moments where they get along and laugh together only to catch themselves laughing with each other and then sheepishly stopping cause neither really knows how to act around each other. Also Hope lost his mom and is going to die a virgin, you shouldn't be so damn cheerful, instead make him start acting more melancholic and serious but eventually becoming an optimist.
Fang and Vanille - Ultimately, I would drop Fang from the story, she really serves no purpose whatsoever, instead I would merge the two together making a Fang character that is a bit more cheerful and care free but secretive about her past. I would also give her flashbacks about what life was like on Pulse and maybe even give her a flashback sequence where you get to see the great war. The dynamic of her being older would mesh well with Sahz's sequences better and make the revelation of Fang's involvement in his troubles more disturbing because I feel Sahz could connect better to someone closer to his mentality than cooky Vanille could ever had.
Cid - Should be a temporary party member for some times and be more prominent in the early chapters, have him and Rosch bounce off each other as they chase after the l'Cie but have Cid and his men constantly try to recruit the characters for his rebellion instead. Build up his dislike for the Fal'Cie rule and make him more prominent in the story. Also, I want to see his Summon and let it be Quetzalcoatl from FFVIII/
Jihl - Make her more prominent in the story, have her be aware of Barthandelus' nature and intentions, and have her be a antagonist that chases the party into Pulse, eventually revealing she's a l'Cie like the others with Ifrit as her summon. You can have her finally get killed off for real when they reach Fang's hometown.
Rosch - Needs more screentime, especially in the early chapters chasing after everyone and he should have more dialogue with the other villains and side characters. I also feel he needs another boss battle, maybe early in the story where he fights a one on one duel with Lightning and he fights on foot using a bunch of anti-l'Cie weapons.
Barthandelus - Needs more screen time, needs to be less mustache-twirling evil, make him feel more like an unnatural being.
Orphan - Foreshadow him better
Anima - Give her some lines and have her explain more about the Pulse vs. Cocoon scenario.
Fal'Cie - Let more of them have some dialogue, and establish a better and more clear relationship between the Fal'Cie, Humans and the gods. If the party could actually speak with more of the Fal'Cie and see how they don't really like humanity and pine for the old days, the big plot reveal wouldn't have come off so shallow.
Story structure:
Some FFXIII SpoilersCondense the first three chapters into one prologue, I mean action packed openings can't carry adrenaline without context for over five hours. There is just so much pointless dialogue, set pieces, and battles that the first few hours eventually drag and having the characters try to keep it interesting without revealing anything about who they are is just stupid. Condense it down, quickly introduce everyone and the relevant characters blurb on why they are there. This should also be where the equipment system should be introduced so the player has something else to do before the main customization system unlocks. When they finally reach Serah and see her turn into a crystal, the first chapter should end.
Take the 13 days flashback sequences and make them Chapter 2. If you are going to start a story in median res, then you need to quickly catch the player up to what they misses, not drag it out by giving it out piece meal style for the next 30 hours. Transform this chapter into an actual interactive game section with puzzles to solve for the non-combat characters and maybe some fighting for Snow and Lightning, hell make Serah playable even. This would also be a great time to introduce the games supporting characters of Jihl, Cid, Barthandulus, and Rosch This chapter will act as a nice breather allow you to explain who everyone is, and to finally allow the player to see Cocoon how the party sees it instead of just assuming the player is going to be bothered by having the cast destroy their home like the cast is. The second chapter should be about filling in the holes of the first chapter, further establishing the characters, establishing the world, and break up the monotony of just running forward and battling.
Chapter 3 will be the party becoming l'Cie, establishing the combat system and the party split. When the party splits, don't get rid of Snow, instead have Snow and Lighting go off together and have Sahz be with Hope and Fang. The reason being that Snow and Lightning have a history together and their scenes would bounce off each other better, their constant quarreling about Serah and whose fault it is could be great fuel to have them both come to their personal revelations in a more natural and less overtly melodramatic way. Hope and Sahz would work great together because they both have something in common in reverse. Lightning isn't a nurturing figure but Sahz sure is and it would be nice and endearing to watch him and Hope kind of go back and forth as one who lost a child and the other who lost a parent, you could do some real great bonding, fighting and quarreling between the two and as they grow closer, it would make the scene with Sahz more dramatic. Make Hope come to his own conclusion about getting revenge against Snow and make his attachment to Sahz act as his personal conscious about this decision. Watching Hope struggle to avenge his mother or to take Sahz's guidance about accepting it moving forward for her sake would actually cause some meaningful character development.
Hope would choose to go for revenge with Sahz's nagging on his mind, and leave the party to pursue Snow while struggling to reconcile his two conflicting feelings. Sahz and Fang would chase after him and reach Nautilus, where the game could have a really cool mini-game where Sahz thinks he's chasing after Hope but its really his son Dahj. On the way, this chapter would largely play out like the game, but Fang would escape and Sahz's fate would be left uncertain. Hell we could add some conversation elements in the early chapter that factor into whether he lives or dies.
Lightning and Snow get ambushed at Palomporom and get separated, Snow runs into Hope and their story largely pans out the same, lightning runs into Fang who heard about the attack. The party has their first battle with Rosch but are ultimately saved by Cid. Cid convinces them to join his scheme to overthrow Barthandelus, and joins the party as a temporary party member. Make the Palamecia a puzzle dungeon where you're party is tying to sabotage it while making their way to Barthandelus, fight Jihl as a boss and then have Barthandelus reveal his true form and nature, Cid is then forced to betray the party and the boss battle with him goes on before turning around and having to fight Barthandelus' true form. Skip the Ark Chapter go to Pulse where the party tries to regroup and figure out how to overcome their Focus. Explain more background about Pulse and what life was like during the war, introduce the Goddess Etro into the story and do some damn world building. Make it turn out Fang is a devout worshiper of Etro and have Lightning be cynical about it because she's had enough "false gods" from the Fal'Cie spiel.
Jihl will follow them to Pulse and chase after them while the heroes communicate with the Pulse Fal'Cie to see if there is a way to get out of a Focus. Finally battling her at Fang's hometown and the revelation that Orphan and Barthandelus plan on exterminating everyone on Cocoon so they would have no reason not to fulfill their Focus, with the extra world building in the early chapters this would finally have an emotional impact on the player. The last few chapters would play out as the game originally did but instead of some silly torture scene and fake out C'ieth nonsense, have the party beat down Orphan to an inch of its life and then choose to spare him. Orphan is dumbfounded and let Lightning give a neat speech about how humans are not machines and restricted to the clockwork machinations of Fate and Order and have the parties resolve to save Cocoon and defy fate allow them to change them back to normal humans. Lightning could then give Orphan a lecture how no matter how many humans he turns into Fal'Cie all of them will defy him and never allow his twisted schemes to be fulfilled. Orphan tries to kill the party with one final weak attack but ultimately fails. Its then revealed he did it because he was so weak that using the last attack drained the last bit of his energy and now Cocoon will fall no matter what and he'll have his wish.
Battle System:
Needs some improving... first lets merge the system with some of FFXII's better ideas such as Gambits so your A.I. party are not total smurfing morons and you can now pre-plan some actual strategy into it, and lets add the ability to move around a bit in battle so Sentinels and Medics won't be stupid anymore. No more Leader = Death cause XIII's system just doesn't allow this to work like it does in MegaTen. Party leaders that are killed just switch to an active character a la FFXII.
Now that that is over we need to address how stale the roles are, I mean 20 years later you've got me using an FFI set-up almost and that just isn't going to cut it. We need to make the paradigm sets more meaningful, so add some skills and retool some of the roles.
Commando: Remember this
trailer? Yeah, Commando needs a bit more variety and fun to it, I think we need to incorporate the gravity bombs and time shift tools with this job to add a bit more variety and allow the Commando to give the mage roles a bit of breathing room if the fight turns sour.
Sentinel needs to be retooled because most of its skills are not very good except taunt and provoke. The class needs better counter abilities and I think it needs to have Blade Grasp. Some upgrades for some its skills would be nice to continue distinguishing one characters sentinel from another.
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Next, I would add a special Limit Break skill for paradigm sets that are all one class. These skills will consume the TP bar so they can't be used over and over and they should probably have a bit of cooldown as well so the player can't spam them. Character will have to achive Rank 5 (master) of their Roles to utilize these skills. Once activated these skills will last for 60 seconds in combat except Medic and Sabatour.
Cerberus (3x Commandos):
Barrage - Whole party gets the Bravery effect and all physcial attacks cause a secondary hit worth 10% of the main hits maximum damage.
Tri-Disaster (3x Ravagers):
Focus - Whole party gets Faith status and magic damage that exploits and enemy elemental weakness adds an additional 10% bonus to staggering the enemy.
Tortoise (3x Sentinels):
Adamant Armor - Shell and Protect on whole party, Characters take same damage as a sentinel using Guard.
Infiltration (3x Sabatours):
Death Spell, this Limit Break works just like Vanille's version and can be spammed in the battle this Limit break is used on as long as the whole party stays in the paradigm set. After the battle, the TP gauge is reduced to 0.
Rapid Growth (3x Synergist):
Mystic Knight: All of the parties weapons are infused with elemental power, weapons only take on the form of the elemental property when hitting an enemy weak to said property.
Salvation (3x Medics):
Phoenix: Party gains the Auto-reraise status for the active battle its used in. Can only be used once for battle, drains all TP, and has a very long cool down time.
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Next I would introduce the idea of Advanced Roles, special roles that can be activated for a character under certain conditions:
- They can only be activated in certain Paradigm sets.
- All characters need to be Rank 3 or 5(depending on which Role you're trying to activate) in their respective role
- Only the Party leader can activate their Advanced Role in battle.
- Only one Advanced Role can be activated per battle. So if you activate Lightning's Advanced Role, you can't switch to Snow and make him leader and activate his.
How Advanced Roles work is that as long as all the above conditions are met, if you switch to certain Paradigm sets, the Leader characters Role is transformed into their Advanced Role and this role will replace that specific role for all Paradigm sets. So be careful when you use them.
Example: Lightning is leader with Hope and Fang and they all fulfill the above quota. If they switch to a Diversity Paradigm set (Commando, Ravager, Medic) with Lightning as the Ravager Role, the game will ask you if you want to activate an Advanced Role, if you comply, her Ravager Role will be changed into the Red Mage role for the rest of battle. It doesn't matter who the other members are, as long as they fulfill the above requirements and that the intended character is the right role, so Lightning has to be the Ravager in this Paradigm set but it doesn't matter who is the Commando and Medic as long as they are Rank 3 with those roles.
Lightning
Red Mage
Requirement: Lightning as Ravager Rank 3, Commando Rank 3, Medic Rank 3
Description: Lightning's Red Mage role gives her access to the passive skill Chainspell which allows her to use both Commando and Ravager skills in succession, so you can alternate between Thunder and attack or use Blitz and then fire off a Thundaga without switching roles. Abilities cost only 2/3rds of their normal ATB cost so its possible with experimentaion to make longer combos than is normally possible. She also has access to low level healing spells. This role only has access to low level versions of the spells but gets all of the elemental strikes and Cure and Cura.
Full ATB Attack: Twin Cast: Mini Flare - Lightning begins twin casting both a white and black magic spell and throws both into the air where the spin together and merge s they gently fall into the enemy group and release a huge non-elemental blast. It does not raise stagger but prevents the Stagger gauge from decreasing.
Dark Knight
Requirement: Lightning as Command Rank 5, Ravager Rank 5, Sabatour Rank 5
Description: The Dark Knight role gives Lightning a wealth of new skills such as Darkside, Bloodsword, Slowstrike, Dark Wave and Poisonstrike to name a few. She has pasive abilities that raise her damage and ATB recovery and this role is dediated to all out offense. Some of her sword strikes can actually raise the Stagger Gauge and skills like Darkside get launch and smite properties.
Full ATB Attack: Souleater: Lightning channels dark energy into her gunblade before striking it into the ground, a black mist oozes out of the ground and surrounds the battle field, Lightning presses the Trigger of her gunblade launching the dark sphere she channeled into the ground and the field bursts with black spikes, swords and spears erupt from the ground causing high non-elemental damage and Launch the enemies.
Snow
White Monk
Requirement: Snow as Commando Rank 3, Sentinel Rank 3, Medic Rank 3
Description: Snow gains several new skills like Earthrender (elemental group attack) Air Blast (long range physcial) Purification, Chakra and other Monk skills. This role is a high offense job with some support healing abilities.
Full ATB Attack: Meteor Strike: Snow punches the ground and pulls out a huge boulder, he then leaps high into the air and comes crashing down suplexing the boulder into the enemy group.
Paladin
Requirement: Snow as Rank 5 Sentinel, Commando Rank 5, Medic Rank 5
Description: A powerful defensive class that has several offensive abilities. Paladin Snow gives him access to most of the Sentinel passive skills like Elude and Provoke, he has a high counter ability and can still fight like a commando though he loses the ability to use Ruin spells. He has access to low level healing magic as well and works like a an advanced Sentinel with more offensive options.
Full ATB Attack: Excalbur - Similar to his Soverign Fist. Snow channels Holy energy into his body and leaps into the air, dives down, and punches the earth. A giant blade made of Holy energy erupts from the ground striking all opponents in range and launching them.
Hope
Blue Mage
Requirement: Hope as Rank 3 Synergist, Rank 3 Commando, Rank 3 Ravager
Description: Hope gains a slew of enemy exclusive skills which he can use in battle including a few new ones like Mighty Guard and White Wind. Some skills can be improved by having Hope see enemeies use the skills allowing him to power up abilities 3 times. Example 1000 Needles can be powered up to 10,000 Needles and 100,000 needles though ATB cost goes up.
Full ATB Attack: Shockwave Pulsar - Hope channels the spirit of one of the Undying and releases a rain of non-elemental bursts over his oppenents.
Sage
Requirement: Hope as Rank 5 Ravager, Rank 5 Medic, Rank 5 Sabatuor
Description: Hope has access to all his white and black magic, ATB cost is cut in half due to Dual Cast Passive skill, and he can interchange these hitting enemies with a volley of Ravager spells and then switch over to healer role.
Full ATB Attack: Mysidian Wisdom - Hope casts Holy which erupts above the battle field and pulls the enemy in doing multi hit damage, while this is happening, Hope cast Flare and fires it into Holy creating a massive explosion. Raises Stagger gauge immensly.
Sahz
Gun Mage
Requirement: Sahz as Rank 3 Commando, Rank 3 Sabatour, Rank 3 Ravager
Description: Sahz gets access to new species bullets which greatly raises the Stagger Gauge if the right type is used on the proper enemy.
Full ATB Attack: Trigger Happy - Sahz dual pistols his enemies and you get a bit of a fuax spaghetti western sound bite before he smiles and begins firing, the player can raise the amount of hits by hitting R1. Raises stagger by a lot.
Time Mage
Requirement: Sahz as Rank 5 Synergist, Rank 5 Sabatour, Rank 5 Ravager
Description: Sahz gains a mix of Synergist and Sabatour skills which have been upgraded into their -aga varients allowing him to quickly buff and debuff parties. He also gets accessto new spells like Comet which does medium damage to an area of effect, and Quick, which fills the whole parties ATB gauge immediatly.
Full ATB Attack: Choco Meteor - Sahz begins casting a complicated Time/Space spell and is about to say Meteor when his little Chicobo springs out of his hair and Kweh's throwing him off. The camera switches to a huge meteor plummeting to the battle field which lands and causes huge damage.
Fang
Thief
Requirement: Fang as Rank 3 Sabatour, Rank 3 Commando, Rank 3 Synergist
Description: Fang gets passive skills that raise her ATB recovery rate, the Mug skill, and Steal ATB. She works as both a traditional thief but as also as a role that delays enemy actions with its Steal command.
Full ATB Attack: Mirage Dive - Fang moves quickly through the enemy line leaving behind a faint after image, as she Mugs each enemy. Does high damage and steals items, and ATB from enemies.
Ninja
Requirement: Fang as Rank 5 Commando, Rank 5 Sentinel, Rank 5 Sabatour
Description: Gains the Dual Wield passive skill that makes her attacks strike twice when the enemy is staggered. Gains some of the evade Sentinel skills and Shuriken replaces Ruin spells.
Full ATB Attack: Masemune's Edge - Fang moves so fast through the battle field she looks like she's teleporting and all time seems to stop, Fang finally drops down away from the enemies with her Spear in its mutli form and quietly resets it as her spear while the enemies explode with a wind of Cherry Bloosoms in the background.
Okay, so granted, the Advanced Classes may need some balancing but this is all for fun.
I would redesign the dungeons so they are not just pretty hallways, adding stuff like puzzles, and optional Cieth stones. I'll second making Nautilus into the Gold Saucer expy it was trying for and let Sahz pick up a Virtual Pass while he's there so it cnan be accessed at any save point.
I would add more story to the Cieth stones, maybe let the player here the request from the actual person now turned to stone. Same with the Undying, let killing them actually release the human soul and have them tell the player more about Pulse, the Fal'Cie and Etro.
I'd bring back Gil into the game as being dropped from enemy encounters so the economy won't blow.
I would expand weapon and item customization, largely adding more equipment set combos and give them more meaningful bonuses.
I would return stats like Defense, Speed, and Spirit.
I would probably keep the Crysterium the same but seriosuly overhaul what you gain stat wise in each role, make raising them more of a balancing act, so if you dip too far into mage roles your HP and strength will greatly suffer and vice versa. Add rogue strands that represent the Advanced Roles.
As much as I would love to remake VII and X, neither of them has made me cough up as much bile as XIII. WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO CARE!!!