And here you are; the first official announcement for "Contest of Heroes: The Final Fantasy" including backstory as well as info on the four main characters.
STORYWelcome to the world of Gaia. In this world, the elements that allow life (fire, water, wind and earth) have always been kept in constant balance thanks to the existence of the Four Crystals. Nobody knows where they came from or how they do what they do, but as far back as history's been recorded, they've been there. And it's been proven that even simply moving one of these Crystals can have an extravagantly adverse effect on the entire world. Thus, as a safety precaution, ancient civilizations had built temples around them. Knowing that messing with even one of these Crystals could potentially cause the destruction of the world, Gaia's people were smart enough to leave them alone. Well, most of them…
You see, temples would not be enough to protect them, as there would always be some force actually believing they could control the power of the Crystals for their own gain. In fact, after one such event in history, a group of four anonymous heroes prevented worldwide catastrophe at the hands of a mad man. Though their names were forgotten, they would be forever remembered as the “Light Warriors”. In their honor, an organization of the same name was formed, to protect the Crystals, and by extension, the world, at all cost.
The Crystals themselves could be found shining in the four corners of the world. More precisely:
The Wind Crystal in the north near Tycoon Castle.
The Fire Crystal in the east at Crescent Lake.
The Earth Crystal in the south within the City of Eureka.
The Water Crystal in the west at within the City of Mysidia.
And at the center lies a large and powerful nation known as Cornelia Kingdom.
Princess Sara of the Kingdom of Cornelia had been having disturbing dreams for about a month or so. The dream was always the same. In it, the Crystals weakened and eventually broke apart. She watched as light faded from the now freezing world, the wind became stagnant, the sea became wild and the very planet itself began to rot. And every morning that followed, she told her father, King Grier, to inform the kingdom that it was no mere dream. She believed it to be a premonition; one that absolutely had to be stopped at all costs. But every morning, the king would laugh it off. "Tis but a silly dream, my dear. It's best not to worry our people over something as ridiculous as this."
But one day, an exhausted knight arrived on an equally exhausted chocobo. He fell before the king and said, "Your highness. I am Zeke Lancet, retainer to the King of Tycoon Castle, and the Light Warrior representative of the Wind Crystal. I know that our countries currently have ill relations with each other, but I come before you... desperate. I beg you to hear me out."
King Grier was nothing short of flabbergasted to see a man of Zeke's rank and reputation appear bursting into his castle only to grovel and beg. Grier was a fair and just king to his people, but he had little tolerance for foreigners. And he would have banished Zeke had Princess Sara not heard him utter the word "Crystal".
"Has something happened to the Wind Crystal, Sir Zeke?" she exclaimed quickly before her father could speak.
"It's difficult to explain, since I was away when it happened, highness, but I will try my best." he answered still facing the floor. “Four days ago, the other Light Warriors and I held a meeting in a top secret area. When I returned, the Temple of the Wind Crystal, Tycoon Castle and even the neighboring cities..." he paused for a moment and swallowed hard. Zeke looked up at last to reveal a warrior desperate enough to show his tears. "...they were completely devoid of life. There were no people. There were no animals."
"Monsters?" the King interrupted.
"No. Not even monsters remained. All signs of life had disappeared. Gone, without a trace. I rode everywhere I could in search of someone... anyone. The only lead I have is the Wind Crystal. It was letting off a strange light. Even after all my years guarding that Crystal I can honestly say I haven’t the slightest idea what that could mean.” Both the king and princess suddenly turned pale. "Finally, I rode south whereupon I'd found your kingdom... the first human contact I've seen in days."
Princess Sara shifted her eyes toward the king. "Still think my nightmares are silly, father?"
Grier did not want what happened to Tycoon to happen to Cornelia. And he was willing to do anything to prevent it, even so far as requesting the aid of foreigners. So, later that day, King Grier announced the situation to his people. At Sara's request, the King began a contest – The Contest of Heroes – if anyone could solve the mystery behind the Wind Crystal, he would be willing to offer anything they desired. In the days that followed, the news had spread all over Gaia. And before a full week had passed, several thousand adventurers from all over the world had suddenly arrived in Cornelia Kingdom… surely one of them could solve the mystery of the Wind Crystal and prevent Sara’s dreams from becoming reality.
CHARACTERSNOAH RIVERA
Noah bears an important destiny in life. He is to marry Melanie Gallumont and take over her father's shop. Unfortunately for him, this is not the life he expected to lead. Noah always wanted so much more; he wanted to see the world. And when he proposed to his high school sweetheart three months ago, he hoped she'd join him. Melanie would much rather lead a simple, uneventful life though... a safe life.
When the Contest of Heroes was announced, Noah decided to apply for it. He believed winning or losing the contest would be irrelevant. He just wanted to see the world outside his birthplace before he tied the knot. And so he left, not saying goodbye to Melanie for fear that she would prevent him from going.
If only he’d listened to her. Truly, Noah had no idea what he was getting himself into… that this quest would much more complicated than simply “seeing the world”.
HALLIE RENDER
Hallie comes from a long line of wizards and heroes. Her ancestors were responsible for the ending of wars and preventing some of Gaia's greatest catastrophes; at least one of which having been a former Light Warrior. Somewhere along the line though, the Render family stopped being heroic. The past few generations have instead opted to live in the lap of luxury thanks to fame their ancestors won for them.
However, Hallie is not so vain in this regard. Upon hearing of the Contest of Heroes, she decided this would be her chance to return honor to her bloodline. She hired a mercenary and claimed that she would enter him in the contest as a representative of the Render family (which her parents totally bought). But upon arriving in Cornelia, she ditched him at first chance she got. She applied for the contest in his stead believing that only a Render could ever attain victory in this contest.
Unfortunately for Hallie, her family didn’t like what they heard when their mercenary got back to them. And she’d like even less the revelations she’d soon discover about her family’s history.
CASSIDY
Cassidy grew up in an orphanage in Cornelia Kingdom. Though she'd never met her parents before, she's heard a lot about them. They were adventurers, traveling in search of relics of the past. It bothered her greatly that she was left behind, but she still wanted to leave one day to find them and join them. But last she heard (just days before the contest began), they were in Tycoon. She had to go there. She had to make sure they were okay.
Unfortunately for Cassidy, it didn’t matter that she seemed to be almost unnaturally capable for someone her age; she was still perceived as simply a child and was not allowed to enter the Contest (that being the only way to get into Tycoon at the moment).
And even if she were to reach Tycoon and find them, what exactly would she do? And what would they do? Would they be happy to see her? After all this time, would they even recognize her… or want her?
MARRON GRAVES
Graves used to be one of the richest people in Gaia. And he earned it too. But four years ago, his wife Annette simply left him for another man. The strange part was that when Graves confronted her about it, she claimed to have never met him before. Graves was crushed. His stopped working and watched his business fall apart. In the end, he lost everything.
But when he had nothing left, he finally saw clearly, or maybe it was madness: His wife couldn’t have really forgotten about him. He convinced himself that the other man was some kind of hypnotist, and was using Annette for some cause. Graves proceeded to spend the next year trying to undo whatever that man had done to her. But he failed, and the man simply made Graves look like a criminal.
Then he heard of the Contest of Heroes. If he could win, he could ask for a hefty sum of money, with which to afford all of the resources he would require to exact an unforgiveable vengeance to the man that ruined his life for seemingly no reason at all. It was Graves’ last chance; it had to work...
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As I've said before, my plan is that this will be for RPG Maker VX, so as a result, I have no screenshots. But this isn't to say I haven't started yet; in fact, I have about twenty or so pages of the script already written (as well as much planned for later) and I've been working on lots of character designs.
And from now on, I'm going to take a page out of the "Smash Bros. Dojo" handbook by adding some information about the massive cast, the locations, the graphics (when I can do something about that) and the gameplay once a da-... er, once a week. So I guess, you should expect the first new info next Tuesday.
Look forward to it
