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Code Jockey
Jan 24, 2006

69420 basic bytes free

Dexie posted:

The original Bubblegum Crisis still holds up pretty well and is still my favorite anime of all time.

I like you. You have good opinions. :respek:

That body horror megapost was fascinating Elentor, thank you! Interesting to see the inspirations.

Get well soon. :)

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Elentor
Dec 14, 2004

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Just saying that I'm back to working at the epilogue. I'm not gonna make any promises, might come this weekend, might come in 6 months, but I'm back at it right now. Hope the little bonus chapter helped somewhat, and I'm sorry for all the hiatus.

FinalGamer
Aug 30, 2012

So the mystic script says.

Elentor posted:

Just saying that I'm back to working at the epilogue. I'm not gonna make any promises, might come this weekend, might come in 6 months, but I'm back at it right now. Hope the little bonus chapter helped somewhat, and I'm sorry for all the hiatus.
What matters most is that you're okay. We can wait man. This LP is more or less finished and that's a great achievement on this forum, the first truly complete Final Fantasy VII LP, this'll be in the history books!
But what matters most is that you make it through, I mean...we're all on this train right?

Bregor
May 31, 2013

People are idiots, Leslie.

Elentor posted:

Just saying that I'm back to working at the epilogue. I'm not gonna make any promises, might come this weekend, might come in 6 months, but I'm back at it right now. Hope the little bonus chapter helped somewhat, and I'm sorry for all the hiatus.

Glad you're feeling well enough to work on it. But first and foremost take care of yourself. This is already one of the best LPs ever and if it goes into the archive as-is then so be it.

KataraniSword
Apr 22, 2008

but at least I don't have
a MLP or MSPA avatar.
I am my own man.

Elentor posted:

Just saying that I'm back to working at the epilogue. I'm not gonna make any promises, might come this weekend, might come in 6 months, but I'm back at it right now. Hope the little bonus chapter helped somewhat, and I'm sorry for all the hiatus.

Don't be sorry for what's a legitimate, scary medical condition. You've given this thread more love than anyone could ever ask for, Elentor, and so we'll wait as long as we need, even if it's until that apocalyptic day when Square makes an version of Dirge of Cerberus that is actually fun to play.

So basically, we'll wait forever.

Wipfmetz
Oct 12, 2007

Sitzen ein oder mehrere Wipfe in einer Lore, so kann man sie ueber den Rand der Lore hinausschauen sehen.
Look at it from this side: By taking your time, this thread may well see it's 5th anniversary!
Please, take your time! For your thread's sake!

Weavered
Jun 23, 2013

Good to see you're back Elentor , but don't worry we're not going anywhere so take your time mate.

Kheldarn
Feb 17, 2011



It's all good. It's been almost 5 years. 6 more months won't bother us at all.

Basically:

FinalGamer posted:

we're all on this train right?

KataraniSword posted:

we'll wait forever.

Elentor posted:

"But you gotta understand that there ain't no gettin' offa this train we're on, till we get to the end of the line."

Benson Cunningham
Dec 9, 2006

Chief of J.U.N.K.E.R. H.Q.

ffvii_blazed posted:

TIFA: is that the alarm
BARRET: no that’s just like, a normal train sound

Cavelcade
Dec 9, 2015

I'm actually a boy!



6 months would be okay. This whole let's play has been a blast. It introduced to ff7 blazed!

500 YEARS LATER

RED ELENTOR: woof

Pierzak
Oct 30, 2010
Take care of your health Elentor. Thanks for one of the best LPs on here and a ton of info, both about the game and incidental. If you can wrap it up, all the better, but don't push yourself. We'll wait.

BeanpolePeckerwood
May 4, 2004

I MAY LOOK LIKE SHIT BUT IM ALSO DUMB AS FUCK



Hey, Elentor, you don't owe us anything, mate.

It's cool that you still post in this thread and keep it legit, but don't feel pressured to finish anything off, especially if you've got bigger problems. This is the FFVII safe-space; it's got a life of its own at this point and I think I can speak for others when I say we're more than pleased with all the great content we got thus far. :)

George
Nov 27, 2004

No love for your made-up things.
May your barbarian shove hearts into your mouth until you're well.

Die Sexmonster!
Nov 30, 2005

BeanpolePeckerwood posted:

This is the FFVII safe-space; it's got a life of its own at this point and I think I can speak for others when I say we're more than pleased with all the great content we got thus far. :)

This is very well-put, I've been thinking of how to convey this idea for a couple days now.

Thanks, Elentor. When you need personal time, we'll see ya at the next stop.

Elentor
Dec 14, 2004

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
As usual, thanks for the support guys. I'm almost done with the Epilogue (again, no promises on a date), so if you guys have any suggestions for content or questions you'd like to ask feel free to PM me.

George posted:

May your barbarian shove hearts into your mouth until you're well.

I missed playing something chill, the past year has been very stressful and I didn't get to play many games at all unfortunately. Diablo 3 is being very therapeutic, I only wish it required a bit less time but then again, it's a game mostly about grinding, so there's that. My friends on vacation are trying to be competitive about it and stay on the top 100 of their classes, but I'm just happy to play doctor and heal them from time to time when I get the chance. We're not doing that great on 3s, but we're having fun and that's what counts.



Speaking of 3s, all of this thread's Mordekaiser HUEHUE BR jokes eventually led me to publish this monstrosity. So if you miss my walls of text and you like LoL, enjoy.

If you don't, the epilogue chapter is a huge wall of text about three times the size of an average chapter so far, so it should do the job.

Elentor fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Feb 3, 2016

Comrade Koba
Jul 2, 2007

I got FFVII six months ago or so on a Steam sale, recently decided to give it a play-through since I haven't touched it at all since beating it in the late 90's.

"Hey, I wonder if there are any good FF7 LP's on SA that I can check out?" :dance:

Now I'm missing a week. :argh:


Also feeling a bit embarrassed since apparently I had forgot everything about the story apart from "Aeris dies, also some dude called Zack did something at one point I guess."

:negative:

AlphaKretin
Dec 25, 2014

A vase to face encounter.

...Vase to meet you?

...

GARVASE DAY!

Comrade Koba posted:

Also feeling a bit embarrassed since apparently I had forgot everything about the story apart from "Aeris dies, also some dude called Zack did something at one point I guess."

:negative:
It's alright, this game really seems to do that to people. :v:

Mezzanon
Sep 16, 2003

Pillbug
I'm replaying the game in PS4 with the quality of life improvements and my wonderful chocobo and my black chocobo REFUSE to make a golden chocobo no matter how many times I reload with my zeio nut.

AlphaKretin
Dec 25, 2014

A vase to face encounter.

...Vase to meet you?

...

GARVASE DAY!

Try racing them more? It raises the odds. Make sure your save is outside the ranch, on the world map, or the RNG won't reset when you do.

Mezzanon
Sep 16, 2003

Pillbug

AlphaKretin posted:

Try racing them more? It raises the odds. Make sure your save is outside the ranch, on the world map, or the RNG won't reset when you do.

They're both S-rank. I sav outside the ranch, enter and exit the ranch, get in a random battle or two, save, enter the ranch, and the. Try to breed again.

Maybe I'll have them both crush for S-rank races for prizes then make me jam clams again.

Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead

Cavelcade posted:

6 months would be okay. This whole let's play has been a blast. It introduced to ff7 blazed!

500 YEARS LATER

RED ELENTOR: woof

I gave up on it halfway when it decided to rush through half the story. So much wasted potential.

SorataYuy
Jul 17, 2014

That... didn't even make sense.

Mezzanon posted:

They're both S-rank. I sav outside the ranch, enter and exit the ranch, get in a random battle or two, save, enter the ranch, and the. Try to breed again.

Maybe I'll have them both crush for S-rank races for prizes then make me jam clams again.

What's the Chocobo you're mating with your Black Chocobo?

KataraniSword
Apr 22, 2008

but at least I don't have
a MLP or MSPA avatar.
I am my own man.

Scalding Coffee posted:

I gave up on it halfway when it decided to rush through half the story. So much wasted potential.

Just like real stoners! :v:

(Alternate punchline: Just like the original game! :v:)

Fur20
Nov 14, 2007

すご▞い!
君は働か░い
フ▙▓ズなんだね!

KataraniSword posted:

Just like real stoners! :v:

i take offense to this insinuation :colbert:

and i bet you nobuo uematsu and nasir do too

AlphaKretin
Dec 25, 2014

A vase to face encounter.

...Vase to meet you?

...

GARVASE DAY!

Well I wouldn't exactly call Nasir's coding work careful and complete. :v:

Yeah I know, language barrier and deadlines, but the joke had to be made.Something something FF1 LP

Mezzanon
Sep 16, 2003

Pillbug

SorataYuy posted:

What's the Chocobo you're mating with your Black Chocobo?

Just a regular S-rank wonderful chocobo.

Fur20
Nov 14, 2007

すご▞い!
君は働か░い
フ▙▓ズなんだね!
Are you using the Zeio Nut? You're morphing the goblins from that one island, right?

Nashun
Apr 18, 2015
Shameless plug, but just started up a Crisis Core let's play. I figured if this isn't the crowd to inform, than no one is.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3764367

BeanpolePeckerwood
May 4, 2004

I MAY LOOK LIKE SHIT BUT IM ALSO DUMB AS FUCK



Nashun posted:

Shameless plug, but just started up a Crisis Core let's play. I figured if this isn't the crowd to inform, than no one is.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3764367

I'll bite.

Broken Loose
Dec 25, 2002

PROGRAM
A > - - -
LR > > - -
LL > - - -

Comrade Koba posted:

Also feeling a bit embarrassed since apparently I had forgot everything about the story apart from "Aeris dies, also some dude called Zack did something at one point I guess."

:negative:

I mean, forgetting what really happened in favor of your own version of events is kind of a running theme of FF7 (and the most common response to the game).

Mezzanon
Sep 16, 2003

Pillbug

The White Dragon posted:

Are you using the Zeio Nut? You're morphing the goblins from that one island, right?

Mezzanon posted:

I'm replaying the game in PS4 with the quality of life improvements and my wonderful chocobo and my black chocobo REFUSE to make a golden chocobo no matter how many times I reload with my zeio nut.


Honestly at this point I might just go and catch a few more wonderful Bo's til iget the right sex and race it up again. At 3x speed it's not that tedious, just confusing.

whitehelm
Apr 20, 2008

Mezzanon posted:

Honestly at this point I might just go and catch a few more wonderful Bo's til iget the right sex and race it up again. At 3x speed it's not that tedious, just confusing.

Apparently there's some bug with the RNG where you can't get a gold chocobo unless you select the black one first while breeding...are you doing that?
Otherwise maybe try this No Racing guide

Elentor
Dec 14, 2004

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Tarepanda's Notes

These are some notes on the game's original script and translation, written by Tarepanda.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
On Wall Market

Not to steal the OP's thunder, but long post ahead.


"Food Place" on the sign in the center, the red one in the upper-right says "Materi[a]."


The big one in the center says "Medicine."


The sign above the doorway says something like "Cave" -- it's not an actual word, but a made-up name. Earth-mouth. Cave.
The mat the guy is standing on (not visible here) says "ENTRANCE" and in small print below that, something like "all kinds of stuff in here."


The yellow writing on the tank to the left says "Water Reservoir."
The green sign with 男男男 says "MEN MEN MEN."


The red-and-blue sign at the top says "Shaved Ice." Cloud is standing next to one that says "bar."


The pink sign is hilarious -- it doesn't really mean anything, but it says "Koruneo," or if you transliterate it, "Corneo."
The red-and-white one to the right says "ramen," I love those ramen carts.


And now, what you've been waiting for...






In here... the blocky yellow-and-pink sign to the left is so blocky I can't make it out.

The sign to the right says "Number 2", so they're implying that there's another one somewhere and this is a successful franchise.

The big sign, unsurprisingly, says "Honeybee Inn." Beneath that is a typical Japanese restaurant curtain used to advertise that says "WOMEN WOMEN."

The red-and-yellow sign is all crapped up and hard to read, but it seems to say "monthly tab."

The sign below that says, again, "Honeybee Inn."

It's worth noting that these types of places do kind of look like this, with big billboard signs and little street signs. Obviously the ones on normal streets don't go overboard, but the ones in the red light district or yakuza district go nuts.

They usually operate on service levels depending on how much you pay. Hand-holding -> kissing -> touching -> fellatio. The massage places do only massage until you pay for the "king" level or whatever, and most places are staffed by Chinese/Korean girls. The Korean girls usually come over to learn Japanese and make money before they go back to go to college, or so they say.

Actual sex for money is illegal in Japan, so it's often disguised as a special additional service, like "King Service" or something. Fellatio is not a problem and there are even shops that specialize in that, where you get three girls for ten minutes each, or something along those lines. It's all pretty boldly stated on their signs on the street.

Another way they advertise sex for money is by saying, cleverly enough, that they'll allow anal sex. That isn't illegal, for whatever reason. So the assumption is that if you can do anal, they'll also probably let you do regular sex.

(Not that anyone will believe me, but I used to be really, really, really bored and I would walk around talking to the suited yakuza guys and middle-aged Chinese women running these places.)

Now you know more than you wanted to, and knowing is half the battle.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
On the Wall Market Restaurant

I've never seen that kanji used that way. "dirt" and "dirty" aren't interchangeable the same way as they are in English as far as I know.



This is a dumb translation and I hate it. It means a "yakiniku plate," which is a plate of thin-sliced grilled meat. I had Korean BBQ when I went back to America and man, it was a frustrating experience and nothing like yakiniku in size or flavor.

They should have just said "Grilled meat plate."

I also really don't like it when Japan translates "ramen" as "boiled Chinese egg noodles" or something similar. Food translations are a bit pet peeve for me.



The mat under all of the spotlights says "perform."

I don't remember any of this part of the game at all...


-----------------------------------------------------------------
On Don Corneo's Mansion



The thing in the background says "puu," or "poo." I guess it's a catchphrase or something, since the girl said it. FF7 is way too early to be mocking Hard Gay, so I'm not sure what it's a reference to, if anything.



The door to the left is labeled "punishment," the big door is labeled "large serving." The wall scroll on the left of the door has kanji put together in a bunch of nonsense saying "shuumai," the one on the right says "gyoza." Food fetish much?



The scroll at the top has his name written upside-down, making it... Oneruco. I don't know. What a putz.



What a putz.

The big red lantern in the background, again, has his name on it.

The bedspread says "Heaven" and a smaller character on the footboard says "bowl of food." No wonder this guy is fat.

The mat has more nonsense kanji that can be read as "pit trap." Gee.

What a putz.

HIJK
Nov 25, 2012
in the room where you sleep
That Don, what a wanna be.

the escape goat
Apr 16, 2008

Elentor, you're the best :allears:
I adore how this LP has brough a bunch f posters together with an assortment of background information on all kind of bits and pieces from FFVII and the culture that inspired the parts of the game.

the escape goat fucked around with this message at 22:39 on Mar 12, 2016

Elentor
Dec 14, 2004

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Epilogue, Part I




This is the Epilogue chapter, a bit of a post-mortem. I'll give you my thoughts about this crazy ride in which we've been.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
Some of the content in the epilogue

This Epilogue comes in two parts - this wall of text, and the next chapter which includes a huge infograph. I finished including all of Orange Fluffy Sheep's Low Level run into the index, and last but not least I included Tarepanda's annotations about the game's translation in a separate post, also included in the index, just as you guys requested years ago.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Beginning

"Wait, there's no FFVII in the archives. What the hell?"

Back when I started it was somewhat popular to do comedy LPs with a more sarcastic tone. At the time I found some of those really good, and this comedy aspect kinda got me here. There were a lot of FF Let's Plays. Around the time TWD finished FFIX I realized no one had done a FFVII LP before and finished. FFVII was a game I knew fairly well, so I thought, why not? I posted a demo Chapter 1 to see the reactions.

Most people warned me that nobody wanted to do a FFVII LP because it was a bad idea, because it would probably be very hard to control spoilers, and FF threads tend to be problematic. This is easy to see why - Final Fantasy is a long series, people tend to strongly prefer whichever FF they played first and people like to be very vocal about which FF is better, and FFVII is particularly controversial by being adored by a fanbase that can be pretty bad. So it's a pretty easy to hate game, and I was just told that it'd be hard to make a non-comedy LP about a game that was widely considered to be overrated by the current generation/demographics.

Still, I felt like FFVII was a genuinely good game and people both hated and liked it mostly for the wrong reasons. I think these wrong reasons in this case were also the ones that more easily lended themselves to nostalgia and also the ones that made the EU mess possible. And that was the experience I had a few years before the LP, when I played FFVII again:

To me, FFVII, the game that I remembered was a cheesy game. The game that I was playing then seemed pretty good.

And most of the things that interested me now were things that I didn't remember at all. I disliked Aeris when I was 12 - now I found her character very interesting. I didn't care for the cool designs but I understood how they were part of this mythos and this fantasy to which I belonged to the demographics at the time. It was the way to grab my attention.

But the story connected with me and suddenly all of these things seem like the unnecessary fat. I was interested in the characters, and how they reacted to these things. And events that seemed dull to me when I was a kid made a lot more sense now. When I read about Nomura talking about how he wanted Aeris' death to be different from all the other deaths (and FF is infested with them) it made more sense to me, as an adult, why you'd want to express that in a way that is, at least in your mind, more genuine. Because we've lived enough to lose people.

So I wanted to make an LP of FFVII not as how we remembered, but as how I interpreted, as an adult. And while I can't say for the developers themselves, I at least wanted to offer my interpretation of what seemed intended. And to remember that these people, working behind the game, were not Cloud or Aeris, but real people who genuinely wanted to tell us something, whether that was a good or bad one.

Since I was mostly disappointed at all the generic and procedural stories that games and movies were throwing at us at the time, that in itself seemed more precious than ever. For what is worth, I do not think a good story is necessary or even a requisite in a game. I've always said that "if a game is good or engaging, the player will forgive everything, even a bad story". I also don't think game developers tend to explore the medium properly and while I have enjoyed some of the more cinematic games I think mimicing movies is not really the best way to do it. People like to joke about immersion, but I believe immersion is fairly important, and the game narrative can convey it without text. You understand what Mario and Sonic are from the background images, Tetris is presented as a straightforward puzzle, and Portal uses the game medium very well to convey a simple but effective story.

Final Fantasy VII is anything but simple and the translation wasn't exactly helping, but still, I liked what it conveyed, and felt it was worth giving a shot at LPing it.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
On The Format

After the first 4 or so chapters, I outlined how I wanted to do the LP and wrote ideas. Most of the LP was planned well in advance. There were elements I knew I wanted to keep in the format:

1) The Boss Cards. Some were very boring to do, because there are so many bosses.
2) The End Images. At some point I realized I'd be doing them for every chapter. I planned some in advance, but they were also hard to do overall.
3) Every Boss would have a video.

Other than that some things were a bit more loose. I wanted chapters to have around 50 screenshots but that went up a bit over time. The idea was to stay between 50 and 100 but some chapters went overboard.

As to how I cut the chapters, I tried to cut them near the closest thing I could find to a cliffhanger or before a major chance in arc/scenery. That wasn't always possible, but sometimes I did an extra-long chapter just not to make the next one awkward.

Since this wasn't a video LP itself and the gameplay isn't exactly exciting I tried to be creative with the videos and find original and unusual ways to kill the bosses with the resources available at the time. This wasn't very consistent overall and I think I could have done a better job with the video production (which has always been messy for me, some of the volumes are uneven too) so I apologize for that. But yes, one of the things that was hard for me to figure out is - to whom I was showing the bosses? I realized they wouldn't be that interesting to new players so I instead tried to do creative things with them.

Some of the earlier bosses were very fun to do and some involved way more trouble than their videos might suggest. In particular:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1UU3GXTkBg

I had this in mind that Carry Armor was very annoying to kill and a boss a lot of players (me included) hated, so I wanted to kill it in one turn for the sake of catharsis, without resorting to KOTR and stuff like that. Let's say it involved a lot of Excel and at some time I thought it wasn't possible, so I was super happy when it happened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doTfZoKy0LU

I think this was my favorite boss fight because everything just worked so well, and you don't get to use Confuse (or Loco Weeds, for that matter) on bosses every day.

Most of the bosses involved a lot of trial and error and being screwed by RNG. Even though the end result might not have been that great, I had fun in the process, and I hope some of you had fun watching them getting blasted too.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
On the Content

As for the overall LP, I had some things in mind beforehand:

1) I would try to match the theme of my writing to the theme of the game. That means there would be a thematic shift because this game gets very depressive.

2) I'd try to be a bit completionist and show as much as I could. I failed at some parts (like the Corel Train) and I apologize for that. I'll be entirely honest: Most of the things I didn't show was because I hosed up the Save States. We're only human.

3) I wanted to do some bizarre chapters eventually. I didn't know exactly what at first. At around Chapter 40 I realized I had no idea how I was going to do the Temple of the Ancients which is both a maze and it bores me to death, so that was my first idea. I could make it shorter and more interesting by doing a homage to 90's magazines.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but that chapter took so long. I have a newfound appreciation for magazine editors. That poo poo was much more painful than I imagined it would be.

The other one was the Gelnika chapter. This one I had planned way beforehand. It was also very painful to do (felt like doing school homework again, working with all the paper, cutting stuff, etc) but I liked it. And it's filled with Easter Eggs, which I suppose fit the chapter thematically too.

There are plenty of Easter Eggs all over the LP. There are some Highwind pictures hidden in the Rio de Janeiro pics I posted. There's that hidden video early on where I talk over killing Aps. I don't remember all of them, but I had fun hiding stuff all over.

Like I said, most of the chapters were outlined very early on, so I knew the LP would last around 100 Chapters. I planned the route and what I would talk about. Sometimes when I had an idea I wrote it down to talk about it around Chapter __. I also had fun with the chapter titles so sometimes I'd go like "Oh yeah that's definitely gonna be the title for when they get to _____". They ended up mostly being music references anyway.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
Things I would have changed

I tried to emphasize the soundtrack in the first chapters, but I would have definitely made links to the soundtrack something part of the format. Not that I don't love the soundtrack (I do) but I didn't expect such a reaction to the lack of it being something more regular. My bad.

In retrospective I think some guest writers could have been cool. I didn't think about that during the LP.

I do not regret the decision to write a SS LP as I think that was the best medium both for the game and for what I wanted to convey, so I would not have changed that if I had the chance to go back. But part of me wish I had instead made a VLP.

I wish I had made some more special chapters. They were a pain to make but very satisfactory at the end.

Also uh, I'm sorry for my Engrish. I know my English is far from perfect, but it's easy to forget a language if you're not practicing it constantly, which I'm not. I've never studied English formally so I know my wording can get messy from time to time. I apologize.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
Cut-out content

Off the top of my head, the special battles at Gold Saucer and the aftermath of Corel if you let the train destroy the city. And beating Emerald Weapon as soon as you saw him. It was just long, boring and I'd be mostly copying other people's strategies, it just wasn't fun.

There were also things that I did not show because seriously - The Gold Saucer Fortune-Telling machine changes every now and then, and we skipped most of Fort Condor battles, I believe. They're not very interesting backtrackings most of the time.

I probably skipped some of the items you get at the excavation site, and maybe a few Summons and Limits. Otherwise, I think we got everything in, minus the Debug Room.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
My Experience

I'll be honest, I was afraid I'd mess it up at first, and it wasn't a perfect LP, but I'm happy with the result. I had a lot of fun writing the Let's Play, though it did become a bit harder over time as we approached the end, once the meat of the story was done. I'm glad you all stayed with me, over the years.

I apologize for all the hiatuses. Some of it were me taking my time thinking of something to write next, some were me being a bit burned and needing a pause, and some were health issues, unfortunately. I'm happy we got through and finished it. And I guess with this one final post, it is 100% done at last. Hard to believe, right?

But overall, my experience was a blast. I had plenty of fun, and it fills me with joy that the thread was able to provide the same to some of you.

Over the course of the Let's Play a lot of things happened. We got a FFVII remake announced. Can you believe it? The thread went on long enough that a remake was announced. I mean, holy poo poo, how crazy is that? Seriously guys.

I'll tell you how crazy that is. Good or bad, we'll have to play it. And who knows of the future? I might end up LPing it :v:.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Thread

The start was a bit rough, but that wasn't exactly unexpected. We all knew there'd be a lot of spoilers and things wouldn't exactly start smooth in a FFVII LP thread. But after that things got progressively smoother - a little bumps here and there - but smoother.

At the end of the day, I think this was a most marvelous thread, and I'm really, really happy, to have been part of it. At times I was just happy to be able to read it, and a lot of interesting discussion happened in these hundreds of pages. I learned a lot about this game and other games overall, J-RPG or not, about Japanese culture, and about things in general.

People were impressed that we did manage to get to Aeris' death without spoiling to two people. I'm honestly more impressed that you guys managed to turn this into a Final Fantasy thread that was good to read. I actually had a lot of fun with the discussions you guys had over the past few years, and I thank you for it.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
Final Words

I'd like to thank AbsoluteSteve for his incredibly complete guide. While I knew a lot of FFVII from memory, his guide was a great reference and it would be dishonest not to credit and thank him for his extensive work documenting the game. His site also contained all the item artwork that I used from time to time.

On a similar vein, I'd like to thank Terence Fergusson for the incredibly thorough data he gathered over this game. He pretty much exposed every game mechanic to such a high degree that his guides should be a reference to anyone learning this game. I cannot even imagine the work involved in doing so.

I'd like to credit a lot of my Let's Play to the LPers who inspired and influenced me. Protonjon was the original LPer that got me into it. Cybershell with his Sonic LPs was a huge influence with his very well produced boss intros and his production value overall. I think all screenshot FF LPers ended up influencing the next ones somewhat (and even The Tipping Forties' FFX Video LP seemed to be influencial in that aspect), so The White Dragon was definitely one of the more direct and recent influences now that I think in retrospective. My favorite Let's Player is definitely DocFuture with his very bizarre and deadpan humor and if there has ever been a single one LP that made me go "holy poo poo I hope I write a LP someday" it was Sonic 2 Special Edition.

And a lot of the Let's Play also belongs to you. A lot of the things that will be read later on in the archives by people finding it years from now that would be attributed to me, I'm dedicating this space to make sure that you all get your due credit. The hilarity of Screaming Idiot's drawings, small but great details like that part when Yuffie is upside down and then George suggested to invert the portrait, and the big overarching stuff like all the small critiques and suggestions you guys offered me over the years that helped me improve the Let's Play for all y'all.

I'd like to thank all the readers and mods from this forum who helped making this LP possible, and everyone who stuck with me over the course of this long Let's Play.

Thank you.

Elentor
Dec 14, 2004

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Epilogue, Part II






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Elentor fucked around with this message at 09:58 on Sep 3, 2016

eating only apples
Dec 12, 2009

Shall we dance?
Elentor, just want to say thank you very much for doing this, I've been with it since the start and have enjoyed every moment. You did a fantastic job. I've played this game countless times and still I looked forward to every single update.

Get this thing on the LParchive! It deserves to be remembered.

Beautiful final image. :3:

Some Numbers
Sep 28, 2006

"LET'S GET DOWN TO WORK!!"
Elentor, you are a credit to the forum.

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Vandar
Sep 14, 2007

Isn't That Right, Chairman?



Elentor, thank you again for this LP. This is honestly one of the best LPs I've ever read, and you have done massive credit to this wonderful, overrated and underrated, misunderstood little game.

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