Loire

It seems the nowadays, we are all foaming at the mouth for another Final Fantasy VII game.  Whether it be a sequel or a re-make.  Aside from FF VII, there have also been sequels and Spin off titles for nearly every FF game from X to XIII.  The question I ask is, “Where is the Final Fantasy VIII love”?

***WARNING: The following contains possible spoilers for anyone who hasn’t played Final Fantasy VIII.  If you haven’t and you plan to enjoy the game one day, you might not want to read on.***

This morning while waiting for my bus, I turned on my iPod and the first song to shuffle its way through my headphones was the theme “Desperados” from Final Fantasy VIII.  The song is most commonly know in North America as “The Man With the Machine Gun”.  As I listened, I started daydreaming of a sweet idea for a future game for Square-Enix:

Title:  Loire: Final Fantasy VII
Console:  Playstation 3 (DUH)# of Players: Single Player Campaign

Online Multiplayer of up to 64 players

Loire would be a prequel title to Final Fantasy VIII and as you may have guessed, will chronicle the experiences of Laguna Loire.  The story will chronicle his life dating as far back as his recruitment into the Galbadian Army (maybe even farther back) and will eventually lead up to him being elected into the role of President of the city of Esthar.
The game could possibly even elaborate on the hint in FFVIII about the possibility of Laguna fathering a son whom he gave up to an orphanage.  The orphanage would give him the name, “Squall Leonhart”.   Eventually, the story would end with the scene from the ending of FFVIII where Laguna is seen paying his respects to his wife who passed away.

Considering Laguna’s weapon of choice, I think the obvious choice would be to make this game a 3rd person shooter.  Possibly with an open world “sandbox” kid of environment similar to what you would see in games like infamous and Grand Theft Auto.  You could travel on foot or with the aid of several vehicles including cars, motorcycles and possibly even the Ragnarok.  There will be a wide variety of side missions and quests to undertake that will earn you money, experience  and rare items and equipment.  These side missions will eventually include the campaign for Laguna’s presidential election (shaking hands, kissing babies, earning followers, etc…)

The game will incorporate many aspects of the original Final Fantasy VII, including: Guardian Forces, Drawing Magic from draw points and enemies and junctioning magic to your Guardian Forces in order to boost your stats and augment your abilities.

Please comment and let me know what you think.  Would you like to see the start of a potential Final Fantasy VIII compilation?  What would you add to the game? What would you change?

Hope to hear from you!