FINAL FANTASY TACTICS NOVELIZATION: The Zodiac Brave Story
Izzy Girl
INTRODUCTION
Why am I doing this?
Well, I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE Final Fantasy Tactics, for one thing. The story and characters are amazing, and the way it's constructed struck me as excellent for a novel. But then again, I've felt this way about many, many games (I STILL want to write a Novelization of 'Tales of Destiny'!), what makes this different?
While, the first problem has always been that to accomplish the task of Novelization, I would require the entire plot of the game to be on tape. Me, being lazy, have always been far to 'busy' to re-play a game for the sake of such an exhausting tape project... buuuuuut, since I do not own FFT, and loved it from the moment I began playing, I back tracked a bit and conviniently have every single spoken line (including the ones in battle) on tape in Movie form.
The second problem is that almost every game I've played has featured one, two or more characters that I either absolutely HATED or felt no passion for whatsoever (ie: Tifa and Palmer, FFVII: Bruiser and Karyl, Tales of Destiny), but I was reasonably intruiged by everyone in Tactics enough that I am confident I can write from their POVs.
So, based on my extreme obsession with the game and bordem of an extended Christmas vacation (21 days as opposed to the normal 18), I am going to do this if I have to kill myself. I think of it as good practice for when I'm thirty and holed up in some apartment in Sweden, desperately trying to finish a manuscript before my editor announces a deadline and murders me. Ah, my life is going to be so wonderful. I can't wait. ^ ^
I am including some of my interpertations on the characters and relationships just to make the story a bit more interesting. I've designed this so that if you've never played the game, you can still read this internet-novel and get the jist of the story without even having to pick up the controller. In fact, I hope this inspires some to go play the game (because it kicks much arse). If you are a Tactics veteran, here follows a few of the changes that you might notice and yell at me for:
* I wrote my 'extras' in. It just wouldn't be FFT without those random, faceless people who follow you around the entire game without a complaint... or even a single line! They aren't exceptionally large roles, but I give a few goods reasons that they're... well... there. So, for those of you who may know nothing about the game, Elitannia, Remington, Aston and Stefanaie have absolutely NOTHING to do with the plot. They just kind of follow Ramza around. I got the names from my actual party in the game. Despite the fact that they never did anything, they often saved my ass in battle (especially Stefanaie, who was an unusally resiliant little Black Mage) and I grew surprisingly attatched to them.
* The Knight 'Alicia' from the beginning has suffered a name change. I will call her 'Alycya' for the sake of it sounding more... fantasy-ish. Besides, everyone I know pronouces it A-lee-ci-ah anyways (moreover because we all have a mutual friend named Alycya... though she goes by Lici). Anyways, I think it looks cooler. Not like she's a character of importance or anything...
* Instead of losing their parents to the Black Plauge, Delita and Teta's farm was burnt down during the Fifty Year War. It's more dramatic that way. ^ ^
* I kinda, sorta change Teta and Alma's ages as well... instead of being one year younger than their brothers, they are three years apart. So at the beginning of the story, they would be thirteen years old.
* Rafa and Malak are twins. In the game, they look and act like twins, yet they're three or four years apart in age. This annoyed me and I thought that it would be neat if they were twins. Kind of like Pallom and Porom, except not... funny... and they have weird accents. Kind of a cross between English, African and Russian. It sounds cool in my head. ^ ^
* Kletian is in his twenties. I played through the end of the game assuming that he was 21 or 22, then suddenly his character profile was all like: 'Kletian, the 30 year old Sorcerer'. I just don't buy it. He LOOKS about twenty and talks like he's twenty. Plus, his quasi-father worship of Rofel wouldn't make sense if he were 30 years old.
* Having noticed that there aren't very many dark-haired people in the game, I decided to make up a reason for this! People with dark hair and light complexions basically would have been Murondic if the country had not been destroyed. In my mind, this makes sense, because the country has been dead for something like a thousand years, so it's natives would have been all but breeded out. Plus, ALL of the dark haired people are either orphans (Delita, Teta, Olan) or Shrine Knights (really, it's true!). I have a reason for doing this that will not become apparent until chapter three. Mwahahaha.
* I can't remember how old Izlude is... or rather I don't KNOW, since I didn't look at his character profile until AFTER he was dead (oops, you didn't read that!), so I'm aging him at 19 since he had some pretty adult responsibilities, but Meliadoul talked about him as if he were a younger sibling.
* I attempt to explain why Balmafula is acting like a mute at the end. Don't be cross with me.
* I'm making Ramza a Pieces. I thought about this for a very long time, and I became quite annoyed that the game did not give him a birthday. In my game, he's a Libra (because, of course, I am... but he did not get MY birthday... I gave him Fox Mulder's birthday, actually. October 13th ^ ^), but since I want to make Zodiac a big deal in this novelization, I couldn't leave him as such for the following reasons: Mustadio is a Libra, and Mustadio and Ramza act NOTHING alike; and Ramza doesn't act like a Libra besides. The guy's personality changes dramatically between Chapters 1 and 4 anyways, but I FIGURE he's somewhat like a Pieces. It's not a sign I judge well, since I know half a million Pieces (I have several close Pieces friends, in fact) and they're all a-typical, in otherwards, they act NOTHING like their sign. So, Ramza is a Pieces. I think.
Um, and that's about it!
Oh, yes. Aside from 'Alycya the Knight', there is a reference hidden in every single extra's name. The first person to e-mail me with all of them will win something... either a drawing or a fic, you choose. ^ ^ Extras from the game such as Lavian and Rad don't count, and neither do Stefanaie, Remington, Aston and Elitannia.
I would like to thank my creative consultants, fellow Tactics obsessees, Rebecca, Gregory and Cat who doesn't know anything about the game. Rebecca, for talking so passionately about the game for the past two years that the urge to play it suddenly came over me, and Gregory for showing me the absolutely BRILLIANT ending (hehehe, stabbity), then lending me the game. And illustrating to me the colorful use of the word 'pish posh'. Cat for convincing me that all Delita really needed was a hug. Oh yes, and Rebecca, Balmafula does NOT have a Sniper Wolf accent.
I don't own any of these characetrs or situations. In fact, now that I really think about, writing this novelization, heck, writing fanfiction in general seems pretty pointless to me... oh well. ^ ^
All hail the mighty Square!
*sincerely
Jennifer Lynne Sparky Young
aka Izzy Girl
aka Cephied Variable
cephied_variable@yoishness.zzn.com
http://www10.brinkster.com/cephiedvariable/carthesis
ff.n ID #12217 (Izzy Girl)
Izzy Girl
INTRODUCTION
Why am I doing this?
Well, I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE Final Fantasy Tactics, for one thing. The story and characters are amazing, and the way it's constructed struck me as excellent for a novel. But then again, I've felt this way about many, many games (I STILL want to write a Novelization of 'Tales of Destiny'!), what makes this different?
While, the first problem has always been that to accomplish the task of Novelization, I would require the entire plot of the game to be on tape. Me, being lazy, have always been far to 'busy' to re-play a game for the sake of such an exhausting tape project... buuuuuut, since I do not own FFT, and loved it from the moment I began playing, I back tracked a bit and conviniently have every single spoken line (including the ones in battle) on tape in Movie form.
The second problem is that almost every game I've played has featured one, two or more characters that I either absolutely HATED or felt no passion for whatsoever (ie: Tifa and Palmer, FFVII: Bruiser and Karyl, Tales of Destiny), but I was reasonably intruiged by everyone in Tactics enough that I am confident I can write from their POVs.
So, based on my extreme obsession with the game and bordem of an extended Christmas vacation (21 days as opposed to the normal 18), I am going to do this if I have to kill myself. I think of it as good practice for when I'm thirty and holed up in some apartment in Sweden, desperately trying to finish a manuscript before my editor announces a deadline and murders me. Ah, my life is going to be so wonderful. I can't wait. ^ ^
I am including some of my interpertations on the characters and relationships just to make the story a bit more interesting. I've designed this so that if you've never played the game, you can still read this internet-novel and get the jist of the story without even having to pick up the controller. In fact, I hope this inspires some to go play the game (because it kicks much arse). If you are a Tactics veteran, here follows a few of the changes that you might notice and yell at me for:
* I wrote my 'extras' in. It just wouldn't be FFT without those random, faceless people who follow you around the entire game without a complaint... or even a single line! They aren't exceptionally large roles, but I give a few goods reasons that they're... well... there. So, for those of you who may know nothing about the game, Elitannia, Remington, Aston and Stefanaie have absolutely NOTHING to do with the plot. They just kind of follow Ramza around. I got the names from my actual party in the game. Despite the fact that they never did anything, they often saved my ass in battle (especially Stefanaie, who was an unusally resiliant little Black Mage) and I grew surprisingly attatched to them.
* The Knight 'Alicia' from the beginning has suffered a name change. I will call her 'Alycya' for the sake of it sounding more... fantasy-ish. Besides, everyone I know pronouces it A-lee-ci-ah anyways (moreover because we all have a mutual friend named Alycya... though she goes by Lici). Anyways, I think it looks cooler. Not like she's a character of importance or anything...
* Instead of losing their parents to the Black Plauge, Delita and Teta's farm was burnt down during the Fifty Year War. It's more dramatic that way. ^ ^
* I kinda, sorta change Teta and Alma's ages as well... instead of being one year younger than their brothers, they are three years apart. So at the beginning of the story, they would be thirteen years old.
* Rafa and Malak are twins. In the game, they look and act like twins, yet they're three or four years apart in age. This annoyed me and I thought that it would be neat if they were twins. Kind of like Pallom and Porom, except not... funny... and they have weird accents. Kind of a cross between English, African and Russian. It sounds cool in my head. ^ ^
* Kletian is in his twenties. I played through the end of the game assuming that he was 21 or 22, then suddenly his character profile was all like: 'Kletian, the 30 year old Sorcerer'. I just don't buy it. He LOOKS about twenty and talks like he's twenty. Plus, his quasi-father worship of Rofel wouldn't make sense if he were 30 years old.
* Having noticed that there aren't very many dark-haired people in the game, I decided to make up a reason for this! People with dark hair and light complexions basically would have been Murondic if the country had not been destroyed. In my mind, this makes sense, because the country has been dead for something like a thousand years, so it's natives would have been all but breeded out. Plus, ALL of the dark haired people are either orphans (Delita, Teta, Olan) or Shrine Knights (really, it's true!). I have a reason for doing this that will not become apparent until chapter three. Mwahahaha.
* I can't remember how old Izlude is... or rather I don't KNOW, since I didn't look at his character profile until AFTER he was dead (oops, you didn't read that!), so I'm aging him at 19 since he had some pretty adult responsibilities, but Meliadoul talked about him as if he were a younger sibling.
* I attempt to explain why Balmafula is acting like a mute at the end. Don't be cross with me.
* I'm making Ramza a Pieces. I thought about this for a very long time, and I became quite annoyed that the game did not give him a birthday. In my game, he's a Libra (because, of course, I am... but he did not get MY birthday... I gave him Fox Mulder's birthday, actually. October 13th ^ ^), but since I want to make Zodiac a big deal in this novelization, I couldn't leave him as such for the following reasons: Mustadio is a Libra, and Mustadio and Ramza act NOTHING alike; and Ramza doesn't act like a Libra besides. The guy's personality changes dramatically between Chapters 1 and 4 anyways, but I FIGURE he's somewhat like a Pieces. It's not a sign I judge well, since I know half a million Pieces (I have several close Pieces friends, in fact) and they're all a-typical, in otherwards, they act NOTHING like their sign. So, Ramza is a Pieces. I think.
Um, and that's about it!
Oh, yes. Aside from 'Alycya the Knight', there is a reference hidden in every single extra's name. The first person to e-mail me with all of them will win something... either a drawing or a fic, you choose. ^ ^ Extras from the game such as Lavian and Rad don't count, and neither do Stefanaie, Remington, Aston and Elitannia.
I would like to thank my creative consultants, fellow Tactics obsessees, Rebecca, Gregory and Cat who doesn't know anything about the game. Rebecca, for talking so passionately about the game for the past two years that the urge to play it suddenly came over me, and Gregory for showing me the absolutely BRILLIANT ending (hehehe, stabbity), then lending me the game. And illustrating to me the colorful use of the word 'pish posh'. Cat for convincing me that all Delita really needed was a hug. Oh yes, and Rebecca, Balmafula does NOT have a Sniper Wolf accent.
I don't own any of these characetrs or situations. In fact, now that I really think about, writing this novelization, heck, writing fanfiction in general seems pretty pointless to me... oh well. ^ ^
All hail the mighty Square!
*sincerely
Jennifer Lynne Sparky Young
aka Izzy Girl
aka Cephied Variable
cephied_variable@yoishness.zzn.com
http://www10.brinkster.com/cephiedvariable/carthesis
ff.n ID #12217 (Izzy Girl)