This is a blog dedicated to the development process and diary of a free fanmade remake of FF7 Ever Crisis' "First Soldier" Story. Main blog is @fracturedgems
An offline, fan made remake of FF7 Ever Crisis' original story campaign.
Final Fantasy VII: The First SOLDIER (Fan Remake) is now playable up to the first dungeon, including 9 weapons for all playable characters*, Tier 1, 2, and 3 Materia available for all characters, and replayable dungeons after completion of the demo that scale in difficulty and reward.
Several quality of life improvements have been made, such as the ability to return to HQ at any point, in and out of battle, a more effective battle UI for character portraits, and official Final Fantasy soundtracks imported as background music.
*Exceptions: Alissa, unlocked in the party after completion of story so far. As she is not playable in game there are no official weapons for her. As a result, she only has two weapons in the demo, with the possibility of more down the line. There is also a secret non-canon character unlockable after completing the demo, whose unique gameplay mechanics do not require a weapon.
Sadly, this is soon-to-be lost media. I’m going to be uploading the various chapters from The First SOLDIER (part 1 and 2) before Ever Crisis’s EOS in October.
For now, you can enjoy the first (ok, now the first TWO) chapter(s) of The First SOLDIER at the playlist above.
ec’s eos doesn’t surprise me. sucks it’s happening obviously, but honestly i think people only played for miniroth and first solider. and with square ending it, there was basically no reason to play anymore. really sad miniroth’s story will now just be limited to youtube videos
and imo miniroth’s story feels incomplete; i feel like they could have been more to it if we’ve gotten a third or even fourth episode. sucks it was only two episodes long
anyways alto i hope you’re doing well and thank you for what you do 🩶
I feel like the real finale of EC was the half-anniversary in March. That was the last time I genuinely enjoyed the game. And it felt like closure in many ways.
I'll still check out BC when it launches. But yeah. I think the ship has sailed. I think not including Genesis was definitely a missed opportunity (why even include him in the survey? Why include the survey at all???). But it is what it is.
FINAL FANTASY VII EVER CRISIS will shut down on October 6, 2026, at 11:00 PM PDT. Before then, the game will receive its final planned updat
I kinda hoped I was wrong this whole time, especially given the announcement of FF Resonance reviving Brave Exvius. But this has lit a fire in my chest again so I’ll be plugging away at First Solder in earnest again shortly
WHY THE FUCK DID NOBODY TELL ME THAT NOMURA CASUALLY MENTIONED A WHILE BACK THAT THE ORIGINAL FIRST SOLDIER MOBILE GAME WOULD OBVIOUSLY NEED A REMAKE BECAUSE IT WAS JUST A MOBILE GAME AND THAT THIS COULD MEAN HE COULD FEEL THE SAME WAY ABOUT THE FIRST SOLDIER LORE INSIDE EVER CRISIS, INCLUDING SEPHIROTH’S STORY—
I'm still alive and still working on FF7:FSR, I've just stopped writing out dev logs since they've mostly turned into "made this scene. Made that scene." Lol
Enjoy this official artwork of a brief period in time where my boy thought he had a shot at being happy ❤️🩹
Happy New Year! It's been a little while since my last dev diary, but that's because I've been splitting my attention among other projects, true to my word.
That said, I try and chip away at First SOLDIER every weekend, so here we have:
Scene 6 complete, aside from background music
further balancing of some enemies, to scale with expected player level.
Map for scene/battle 7 complete. Event processing still pending.
And that's about it. Not much, I'm afraid, but I'm a little drunk, and don't want to have to redo my work in the morning.
Huh, I don't actually know what was up yesterday when I was showing the game to my brother, but the game files and starting a new game on the web version start the game with just Glenn and Lucia, like it should.
Guess i just need to look like an asshole when I show my work off to family, lol
finish gacha pictures, import and add to draw event
balance more enemies
summons
Balancing enemies wont really help get the new update out, and it's probably better to build them out as i need them.
Summons are also less important, considering we already have the limit breaks available. Worth doing, but less important.
The pictures probably would have the biggest impact on the project in its current state.
Completed all "weapon gained" draw pics for weapons that are present in ever crisis. It occurs to me that I can't really do the same for Alissa's whips. I'll think of something. Maybe she only has the two, maybe she just gets all her weapons in-story. No big deal.
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This was a late upload - got very distracted lately because we've had a new 4-legged addition to the house and she requires MUCH attention. All is well though. I think when I add all the images to the draw event in-game, I'll be ready for one more test run and then update :)
reconfigured battle character portraits. Now will show 4 portraits, always in the same place, regardless of party composition.
imported transparent portrait for Alissa Goldie, added to battle images and created a dialogue portrait for her.
Added animation for Alissa Limit Break 3.
Imported portrait and face for SECRET CHARACTER and built their single ability.
SECRET CHARACTER is a gambler, whose ability works on chance. There are 9 different abilities that can be activated, based on a variable that is set between 1 & 100. Details under the cut for those interested.
81-100: Attack two random enemies
70-80: Casts Cure on two random allies
60-69(nice.): Casts Quakera Blow on one random enemy
50-59: Casts Protect on one random ally, and Shell on another random ally
40-59: Casts Waterga
30-39 Casts Thundaga
10-29: Party receives Gil = (this variable result)*5; so 50-145 Gil
2-9: All characters receive EXP = (this variable result) * 15; so between 30-135 EXP
1: Jackpot.
They also have one equipment, a pair of fuzzy dice, which boosts various stats by 777 and 77%
Created 3 original limits for her, and associated items
Alissa Weapons
Created 2 original weapons for her, and associated commands.
No more weapons for Alissa right now, just her default (Whipblade) and her ultimate (Brynhildr), both lifted from FF Type-0 (Seven, my under-rated GOAT <3)
Notes on Alissa's weapon and limit abilities/class details are under the cut for those who don't care about Spoilers.
Return to HQ item has been renamed "Retire" and can be used in or out of combat. If used in combat, it will apply "Dead" to all party members, triggering the scripted loss common event and returning you to the HQ.
Dead has been changed to no longer follow you after a fight, so the common event can run properly without hitting a game over screen. Further, this saves Phoenix Down as a resource to be used in combat only.
Found an issue where random encounter losses still resulted in a game over instead of sending back to HQ. Created a custom event to run for random encounters.
Found more issues with scene 5's processing, fixed. Testing random encounters here.
created a "settings" item for tutorial review
adjusted character portraits in battle to accommodate all 6 portraits. Would like to just set portrait images based on party formation. Investigate this possibility.
testing replay dungeons.
Crushing swing attacks all enemies. should only target one. check on that
fixed. Second part of the attack was broken, so it was repeating the first over and over.
replace the secret treasure in la'paina with random weapon.
Already done, just had bad luck lol. Added second weapon for reward, and more items if selected gil.
might just remove the limit ready status. it works about half the time, doesn't show up until start of next turn, generally just clutters UI.
removed.
sephiroth's max hp doesn't appear to be growing as he levels?
was just a slow curve. adjusted.
One of the replay minibosses automatically gave me the win? Check troop select variable set in event.
Forgot to set the Troop picker variable to 0 when interacting with the boss.
treasure crystal got stuck in a "69" loop.
using labels to have the event repeat itself for better rewards caused it to just get the same result infinitely. Fixed by assigning the "random materia" part of the process to a common event, so i can just say "do this X times".
The memory crystals only allow you to pick from g, m, l, s. Obviously this is fine for episode 1, but will present a problem down the line.
will create a memory crystal for each actor.
The replay dungeons now work perfectly, only they're fairly easy lol. I think I'm going to buff attack and defense for replay troops as well as hp.
Adding a secret 7th Party member to unlock after beating the demo, if you can solve a puzzle of sorts >:)
I am now extremely close to a massive update being released, I feel.
Alissa Skills *SPOILERS AHEAD* vvvv
Traits (basically modifications specific to her)
Weapon Type: Whip
MP Regeneration: 15% (instead of the standard 10%)
+4% Critical Hit rate
+50% chance to debuff Max HP, Max MP, Attack, Defense, Magic Attack, Magic Defense when using an item or ability with that debuff effect.
Basic attacks always have a 5% chance to apply Charm to an enemy.
Reflects 10% of magic damage back at its source.
All of these are hidden behind the scenes, with nothing to really indicate that they are happening, intended to reflect an enhanced magical/corruptive nature thanks to Jenova's influence. It's not all good to use her though, as her Skills as a Support Character will boost her and Sephiroth's performance while hampering everyone else.
Weapons
Whipblade // +490 Attack, +689 Magic Attack, +32 Max HP, +15 Max MP // Attack stat * 121%, Magic Attack * 130%, Pharm. * 124%, Attack times +1 (attacks twice on a basic hit), 5% chance to apply Poison // Grants "Subdue" ability:
Deals 450% Physical Damage to all enemies (vs Magic Defense), with a 10% chance to paralyze.
Secret effect: Boosts Sephiroth's Attack and Defense by 20%, Lowers all others by 20%, duration: 4 turns)
Brynhildr // +357 Attack, +999 Magic Attack // Attack stat * 125%, Magic Attack * 145%, Pharm. * 75%. Attack times +2 (3 basic attacks), HP Regen +10%, 5% to apply Confusion on attack // Grants "Calamitous Strike":
Deal 800% Fire Damage to one target, and boost Agility and Critical Rate for allies.
Secret Effect: Sephiroth receives 20% Agility boost, Crit Rate +10%, and Attack times +1. All others receive a 20% DEBUFF to Agility and Defense, 10% Debuff to Evasion Rate (ability to dodge attacks), and their Target rate is boosted by 30%, so enemies are more likely to target them than Sephiroth.
These weapons are designed to make her stats and combat ability overpowered, compared to similar levels of the other characters, especially Lucia, the resident Support Character. Brynhildr is also her ultimate weapon, as stated above, so it's even more so.
Limit Breaks
Immaculate Birth // Restore HP and remove Status Effects for allies.
I.B. does restore HP = to ( Alissa's attack + Magic Attack ) / 2 to all allies, however it actually only removes effects (poison, blind, silence, rage, confusion, charm, sleep, paralysis, stun) from Sephiroth.
Fulfilling Life // Boost HP Recovery for allies and lower Defense for all enemies.
F.L. Adds a Defense debuff of 50% to all enemies for 5 turns. However, it actually will only apply Regen to Sephiroth.
Inevitable Death // Deal 5000% Magic Damage to all enemies.
I.D. targets all enemies, and deals damage = (Alissa's Magic Attack * 50) vs target's magic defense. It will also deal 9999 damage, guaranteed, to all characters in the party; except for Alissa, and Sephiroth. In Sephiroth's case he is healed for 9999 HP, guaranteed.
The three limit breaks also serve a meta-narrative, where Alissa is still supporting the party, even if she's supporting Sephiroth more than the others. This reflects her hiding her true nature from everyone. The second Limit Break is the first one that only benefits Sephiroth, but still doesn't actively hurt the party. This reflects Sephiroth leaning more on Alissa emotionally during the Igara mission, while Angeal starts to harbor doubts about the entire place. Finally, her last limit break not only fully heals Sephiroth, it actively harms everyone except for the two of them, symbolizing Alissa/Jenova's "mask off" moment and attempting to kill Angeal and Bachman to seize onto Sephiroth.
They also are each named after the Jenova boss battles in original Final Fantasy 7; Jenova BIRTH, Jenova LIFE, Jenova DEATH. The original game also features Jenova SYNERGY as the final time you fight Jenova directly, and that is left absent here to symbolize that the struggle against Jenova is far from over.
The idea is to make using Alissa very tempting to use in battle, even though she will be hurting your total party composition, similar to Jenova worming her way into the character's heads with temptation and corruption. And that is LUDO NARRATIVE STORYTELLING!
Sephiroths backstory should’ve never been a mobile gacha game
Why a gacha game??? Like what???? His backstory is so integral to ff7 and to his character, why make it a gacha game? Huh? It should’ve been its own separate game or something oh my god bruh
I agree. It should have been a full game on its own. Since it's the earliest story on the timeline, it would have been a great jumping on point for new players who are just learning about the lore and the world. It could have been a modest handheld release in the similar vein as the recent Tactics remake, just with the occasional full CG cutscenes and full voice acting. I think it would have sold pretty well. And it would have been a fresh new start for the series.
But Square is gonna Square. Considering how EC treated First Soldier, despite it being the ONLY reason to actually play the game, I don't think they'll ever learn their lesson. It's a pity.
