Posted By GlitterBerri on April 20, 2008

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The following article by Robert Seddon was reprinted with permission from Face of the Moon.

MDS7

Robert Seddon says: We begin just after the alternative version of the pre-promise scene, and as you can see this version starts off familiar but exhibits much more foreshadowing than the final script; this seems to be an emerging trend in the unused text.

(Go to the flashback here. Nibelheim Village – Setting Off) ???

Robert Seddon says: Placeholder text; refers to the promise flashback.

Tifa: Looks like you remembered our promise.

Cloud: I’m not a hero and I’m not famous. I… can’t keep the promise.

Tifa: But your childhood dream came true, right? You joined SOLDIER.

Tifa: So, what are you going to do now?

Cloud: …I’ll look for Sephiroth.

Tifa: Sephiroth… is alive?

Cloud: I don’t know. If he’s dead, I’ll leave it at that. But if he’s alive… …I’ll have to settle matters once and for all.

Tifa: “Settle matters”?

Cloud: 5 years ago… Nibelheim. Our hometown, he…

Cloud: Don’t you feel the same, Tifa? You went through something horrible.

Tifa: ……

Tifa: Cloud… you know about what happened?

Cloud: I know everything… I remember it well.

Tifa: ……

Cloud: Huh? What’s wrong?

Tifa: …Cloud, you remember…

Barret: Hey!! How long are you going to make trouble?

Tifa: I understand. You’re going to look for Sephiroth.

Tifa: But… if you change your mind, come back to us.

Robert Seddon says: So that’s another point at which Cloud seems to be leaving; compare Barret yelling at him to ‘get the hell out’ in other unused text>.

MDS7 Part 2

Barret: We’re headin’ out!! Move it!!

Tifa: Let’s go!

O, oi!! It moved!! It moved!!

I’m hit!! I’m hit!!

Gorilla!! Gorilla!!

Yuck! Don’t touch me!! Pervert!!

Aw, no way! Barret’s home. Something fishy’s going on!

Hah, I knew it. Told ya so!

Tifa: Hey, Cloud! This flower’s roots are attached. If I make sure it doesn’t wilt maybe it will grow!

Robert Seddon says: From a technical point of view, the noteworthy thing about the above is that it doesn’t correspond to even a blank dialogue box in the (English language) PC version’s files as viewed in Loveless.exe. Maybe it isn’t referenced in the game’s own tables… I don’t know; but the presence of such things – there seem to be quite a few in the Honey Bee Inn – doesn’t make our job any easier. The use of ‘Limit’-style colour-scrolling text on a single kanji is striking: why would so much emphasis be wanted? Maybe the early plans were to have less subdued formatting. We can see by comparing this in-development promotional screenshot NexusJannis found with how the same text looks in the final game that at some point Square clearly changed their minds about the division of text between boxes; maybe they also made other stylistic changes at the same time. (Incidentally, note that Marlene’s pose is different too.) Even so, why emphasise that word? Maybe Square once planned to do more with the flower.

Hey! You’re an old friend of mine! Poor me… ??? I’m distracting myself by watching TV and thinking about the times.

(“Bang bang bang!!” sound effect planned.)

Robert Seddon says: The English files have: Thudthudthud!! That ???? is supposed to come in. It now seems this refers to Barret’s footfall as he charges in (reading SE as ’sound effect’).

(Plans for the pinball machine to…… move.)

Robert Seddon says: This could well be another placeholder; 『』 brackets seem to be used for those elsewhere. The next couple of pieces of unused Seventh Heaven dialogue can be found in the English files, but there are a couple of points to note.

Tifa: Cloud! Won’t you please come back? Oh, just a minute! President Shinra’s making a statement on the news.

Tifa: We… we’re up against SOLDIER next.

Tifa: Cloud, you’ll help us, won’t you?
1. I promised, didn’t I?
2. But I hate Barret.

1. Thank you, Cloud.

2a. Tifa: You came to tell me that?

2b. Tifa: …He’s not a bad person.

2c. Tifa: It’s okay. I’ll talk to him.

Well, let’s go downstairs!

Biggs: Um, Cloud! Barret says things like that, but… We’re really worried. If we have to face SOLDIER we’re done for.

Wedge: Cloud, please help us out. I’m scared!

Jessie: Cloud… You seem upset. What’s wrong?

Cloud: What’s happening… I’m really shaking…

Cloud: Tifa…? Where am I?

Cloud: …Where am I going…

Robert Seddon says: The last line seems to correspond to …I’m going out… in the English files, which made me think Cloud was walking out of the door, or maybe blacking out (since I was thinking about how the Materia outtake starts with him slumped by the pinball machine). Reading this, however, I now suspect this is Cloud’s first time on the pinball machine lift: his reaction makes it sound as though he hasn’t already seen it used as a lift, which suggests a different order of events on first entering Seventh Heaven. This is all speculative, of course.