[Ido_Alpha_Omega]

In the game Final Fantasy VII if you use a gameshark to give you all of the Key Items two objects immediately jump out at you: Letter to Wife and Letter to Daughter. Clearly they are never used in the game and one would suspect that they were part of a sidequest that was cut out of the final version. Well, after perusing the files on the PSX cds with some tools I came across this dialog in the Gongaga Village.

Unkown said:

I am a traveling salesman,
    going around the world.

I came because I heard that near
    this village was materia strong
    enough to shake the earth.'……

Even I get homesick and want
    to see my family.

I have a favor to ask of you.
    Can you get this letter to my lovely wife?

Will you do it for me?
        - Take the letter
      - Not interested

My wife lives in the town of Kalm.
    I really appreciate this.

What's going on…
    In a world about to end,
    is people's kindness the first to vanish…?

I believe that the materia he is referring to is Titan, which you find in the destroyed reactor but that's hardly the point.

[phantosanucca]

....So uh.... What do you think that last part means? What do you think the point is to it?

[Ido_Alpha_Omega]

The last block of text is what he replies with if you choose not to accept his request. He only appears after Meteor does.

[phantosanucca]

Huh.... Why do you suppose it wasn't implemented into the gameplay?

[Ido_Alpha_Omega]

I believe it to have been an issue with the release date.

[Brooklyn]

You know I read something about this, many believe it was just a side quest that was never completely finished.

[phantosanucca]

That's too bad... Sounded like a meaningful little quest on the side... Though I think FFVII already had it's share of meaningful quests. But still...

[NeoCetra]

Doesn't the guy in Kalm (the one that gives you underwater and master materia, etc) say he's going on a journey?

Maybe it had something to do with him. Once you got him to leave Kalm, you'd find him in Gongaga and he'd ask you to take the Letter to Wife?

After that, maybe you'd see him somewhere else and he'd ask you to take the Letter to Daughter. And then (or after a few more quests), in return, you'd get something for it?

Was that guy even in the original Japanese version? Without Emerald and Ruby weapon, you wouldn't be able to get underwater (which you wouldn't need) and the gold chocobo/master materia (which you could get other ways anyway) from him, so maybe he was originally planned to have a different role. This could be a remnant of that that got taken out, but not deleted from the discs. Maybe they were planning to put it back in for the "international" versions or something, which is why it was translated. But in the end, it just ended up the way it was due to lack of time.

Or maybe not. It's just an idea, based on pure speculation, due to the fact that he coincidentally mentions Kalm, so I'm probably way off. It'd be good to see if any more text like that comes up though. I might look through my PC version, see if I can find anything similar hidden away in there. Might be a clue or something.

This post has been edited by NeoCetra: 26 August 2004 - 07:50 PM

[phantosanucca]

Well Ido, looks like you gave us a little something to occupy our time with. Investigation is underway! Boredom, begone!

[Daedalus]

Hmmm Ido, what makes u think its titan? Was it just the ground shaking part?

Why not a materia that was cut out? Or maybe another materia like comet or something was meant to be harder to get, maybe via a side quest? And if he appears after meteor then why only then could u get the Titan materia?

I assume he will give u the materia as a token after delievering the letter(s)?

[NeoCetra]

I've found the first bit, anyway. In the gongaga part of the flevel.lgp, so I guess the PSX and the PC version aren't too different when it comes to where the script is.

Near that bit, there is a piece of text that says:

Quote

Received "Titan" Materia!

So it makes sense that you'd get Titan in that area.

Hey, how come Vincent has lines about them having a spy? You come across that part of Gonaga long before you first reach Nibelheim. Can you skip Gongaga and go back later? I've never tried. This is what he says.

Quote

How did they know that
we were here?

Quote

It means there's a Shinra spy...

This post has been edited by NeoCetra: 26 August 2004 - 08:15 PM

[Kezu-Chan]

NeoCetra, on Aug 26 2004, 03:14 PM, said:

Hey, how come Vincent has lines about them having a spy? You come across that part of Gonaga long before you first reach Nibelheim. Can you skip Gongaga and go back later? I've never tried. This is what he says.

Quote

How did they know that we were here?

Quote

It means there's a Shinra spy...

Are you sure that it was Vincent? When I went to Gongaga for the first time (Right after Dio gave me that buggy), somebody else said something about a spy.....

[Ido_Alpha_Omega]

Yes, you can skip Gongaga until you get Vincent and then go back there, heck, I believe you can skip it until you have Cid and go back there and have the line still in.

That's the thing about FFVII, because you don't get certain characters and can procede with parts of the story in a nonlinear fashion there are certain sections that will contain text for characters that you don't consider normally being there.

[NeoCetra]

Quote

Are you sure that it was Vincent? When I went to Gongaga for the first time (Right after Dio gave me that buggy), somebody else said something about a spy.....

Yeah, they all do. It's one of those events where if you have different people in your party then they say different things. It's just after you fight the turks there. But the program I'm using to view the text shows you who the speaker is. They're both listed under Vincent.

This post has been edited by NeoCetra: 26 August 2004 - 08:30 PM

[Daedalus]

Ido_Alpha_Omega, on Aug 26 2004, 09:27 PM, said:

Yes, you can skip Gongaga until you get Vincent and then go back there, heck, I believe you can skip it until you have Cid and go back there and have the line still in.

Can you complete the game without even going into gonga?