This is the first in a series of posts about my game projects that never made it past the “proposal” stage. First up, the prequel and sequel to Septerra Core!
(If you’re looking for more information on the making of Septerra Core, please check out the 20th Anniversary retrospectives, starting here).
The Prequel Menace
Over the years a great many Septerra Core fans have asked me, “Was there ever going be a sequel to Septerra Core?”
But first, we need to talk about the prequel.
Yep, prequel.
When Septerra Core was in its final stage of development the publishers requested ideas for expansion packs. The DLC of the pre-DLC era, expansion packs were additional chapters of game play released a few months after the main game, usually adding new story, systems, or locations to explore after the story of the main game.
But, how was that going to work for Septerra Core? After all (spoiler alert for a 22-year-old game!), the story of the main game ends with the “death” of its main character, and the obliteration of at least one of its main game hubs, Oasis.
In fact, the American publisher had been quite shocked to learn how Septerra Core ended, something they clearly didn’t realize when they signed the deal with our European publisher. We were working on the release when one of them asked me, “Have you thought about where Maya’s next adventure takes her?”
“Well,” I replied. “Not far. She dies.”
You haven’t seen shock until you inform your marketing department that you’re killing your main character.
So rather than create expansion packs that took place after the main game, we proposed one that would function as a prequel.
Launched from the title screen, the expansion prequel would have been playable at any time. Each of the six chapters would have featured a party of three characters, chronicling their stories before the events of the main game.
Septerra Core: Origins
Chapter One: The Underlost
Ten years before the story of Septerra Core, Badu fights to save his people, caught in the cross fire of the Resource War between Jinam and Ankara. The player would witness the unleashing of the Core Creature by the Resource Wars, and the destruction it brought to Badu’s village. One of Badu’s tribeswomen would join the party, as well as a new Jinam character, a soldier shot down and forced to work with Badu’s tribe.
Chapter Two: The Resource War
Araym, Lobo, and that same new Jinam character’s adventures during and after the Resource War. The player would see how Araym lost his arms in the war and how Lobo was shot down and re-programmed by the man who found him and became his “father.” Now mercenaries after the war, Araym and Lobo would fight against the rise of the ruthless pirate Connor, who kills Lobo’s father. The chapter would culminate with Connor working for Jinam to release a plague on an unsuspecting Ankaran populace, the very one that killed Led’s mother.
Chapter Three: Army Brats
Fast forward a decade and Led lives under the overbearing thumb of her father, who tries to keep her safe from the threat of the Jinam forces that killed her mother. The player would see how Led lost her legs and rebelled against her father as she and two new Youth Corps army brats uncover a plot by Jinam to start a new war.
Chapter Four: The Holy Guard
A young Corgan and Layla uncover secret treachery in Wind City as they work with Layla’s father Bowman, the head of the Holy Guard. The player would witness the beginning of the rat-like Dugan’s rise to power and feature the thriving town of Armstrong, Corgan’s hometown, only seen post-destruction in the main game.
Chapter Five: The Chosen Civil War
Play as the baddies! Selina, Kaleb, and Balcaam serve Lord Doskias in his war against Gunnar’s father a decade before the events of Septerra Core. The player would experience Selina’s love story with Doskias, as she helps her master secure his power amongst the Chosen. The story would culminate with the very battle that destroyed Maya’s home of Oasis and sow the seeds of Selina’s growing disillusionment with Doskias.
Chapter Six: Oasis from the Storm
Maya, Grubb, and Runner fight the influence of the Mayor over Oasis a year before the start of Septerra Core. The player would first play as Maya when she was a little girl, losing her parents in the chaos of the Chosen wars raging in the skies above. Ten years later, the player would witness the creation of Runner and the Workbots and explore the Core Spine at Shell 02’s north pole. The story would culminate in Grubb leaving Oasis to set up his own workshop.
While much of the assets already created for the main game would be reused, many of these stories would have shown younger versions of the characters: Araym with arms and suited up in the Jinam army, Led in a school girl outfit, a junkier, half-complete Runner, etc.
Finally, this expansion pack was also pitched as serving as a stand-alone game. If the story was handled well, and didn’t fall into the “prequel trap” of assuming the player was already familiar with the main game, (admittedly a very tall order) it could also be sold as a stand-alone game. This lower-priced “mini-RPG” would then serve as a “Introduction Chapter” to the main game, with a story that leads up to the very beginning of Septerra Core.
Septerra Core 2: Gogaia Core (“Five World Core”)
I’ve already mentioned how the idea of killing off the main character was anathema to the marketing department. After all, how would we build a franchise with a dead main character? I tried to explain that the story had a place to go, but it would be a new generation of characters, something lots of JRPGs did.
Not that it ultimately mattered. With an American publisher getting out of the publishing game and a European publisher spiraling towards bankruptcy, the chances of Septerra Core getting a sequel funded back in the early 2000s was about nil.
And, to be honest, Septerra Core was not built with a sequel in mind. Still, I had ideas for where the story could go, if sales of the game warranted it. These concepts were never fully fleshed out or distilled into a proposal, (or apparently written down!) but here they are, as well as I can remember them, 22 years later.
(And since the original was “Seven World” Core, the working title for this idea was GoGaia Core—”Go” being five in Japanese).
GoGaia Core: The New Worlds Order
Previously on Septerra Core
At the end of Septerra Core, Watcher Maya is shown teaching the children of the next generation, expounding the wisdom of the Watchers, for one day, she says, these children will meet the people living on the four new moons that materialized around Septerra after the Gift of the Creator was revealed.
Ten Years Later
A central power has arisen to govern the planet from Shell 01. There, a great holy metropolis has grown from the ruins of Oasis, a vast temple city, sky ships darting among its towering monoliths to heaven. At its heart beats Watcher Maya, the last of the Watchers. Pilgrimages journey to this hallowed site from the lower World Shells, and Watcher Maya administers to this flock, leading the planet towards a united peace and the promise of expeditions to the new worlds.
But things are not quite so idyllic and hopeful. Something has changed in Watcher Maya. In recent years she has become a recluse. An increasingly secretive veil of acolytes has grown up around her, obsequious devotees who believe her an infallible God. And rather than lead the people into peace, Maya now employs brutal strike teams, shadowy agents, and military fleets to force unity across the planet.
Tori the Rebel
The player takes control of Tori, the younger brother of Maya. He’s grown into an adult under her troubling rule. He’s seen how Watcher Maya commands her followers, dictating ultimatums and issuing war orders before the throngs. How can this “god” that speaks with Maya’s voice be the same woman Tori grew up with, the kind, altruistic sister who sacrificed herself to save the world?
Tori never was one to do what he was told, so he finds Lobo—now a major NPC—who has been recruiting rebels into a growing resistance movement.
Familiar Faces
Once a general in Watcher Maya’s service, the war cyborg became disillusioned with her growing regime. Now he’s organizing the pirates and mercenary fighters who still operate from the lower Shells, warding off Maya’s fleets whenever they threaten the common folk. Grubb and his wife Led—also NPCs—have joined him, building weapons for the cause. Grubb suspects that Maya has been replaced, that someone—or something—is speaking through her Watcher form. At least that’s his desperate hope, because otherwise he’s poised to start an insurrection against the woman he once considered his best friend.
As NPCs, Araym and Selina lead a separate resistance, more violent and at odds with Lobo’s group, willing to stop Watcher Maya by any means necessary, including killing her. And then there’s Corgan, Watcher Maya’s most loyal general. Pitted against his former allies and charged with putting down the resistance, this NPC’s growing discontent with Maya’s orders is ever at odds with the solemn oath he made to Watcher Layla, to serve and protect Watcher Maya to the death.
And What of the Original Watchers?
Surely they could shed light on Maya’s state of mind? But they left Septerra long ago, setting out to make contact with the people living on the new worlds, and they have not been heard from since. Only Watcher Maya, part of the singularity of Watcher consciousness, can communicate with them across the harsh distances of space—and she has not spoken news of their whereabouts for many years…
New Worlds, New Cores
Tori’s adventures take him across Septerra, but eventually he acquires a ship capable of traversing the aether of space and reaching the four moons. Each world—“regular” planets, not multilayered like Septerra—have a unique civilization where he finds new characters to add to his party, becoming embroiled in their stories and struggles.
And deep within each of the four moons resides another core, another relic of the creation of the universe. Could they have been designed to be linked together, bringing the five worlds into one network of power? To what end? Only the Watchers may know. It’s up to Tori to find each core and link them to the original. And there, Septerra’s Core, the center of creation, he finds NPC Badu, who has rejected the wars of the upper Shells, retreating to the jungles of his native Shell where he lives a simple hunting life with his faithful companion, Runner. Badu seeks an inner peace as a caretaker of sorts, protecting the entrance to the Core, and the secrets he has discovered within…
New Adventures
Can Tori unravel the mysteries of the five world Cores and rescue his sister from whatever force is speaking through her Watcher form?
Or is Watcher Maya truly in control of her own actions, doing what she has to in order to lead the worlds into salvation, even if the cost is the lives of the innocent?
I hope you’ve enjoyed a sneak peak into “what could have been.” Note that none of these ideas were ever fleshed out or taken beyond a bare bones, early concept stage. If any had moved forward I’m sure they would have changed and developed, quite possibly morphing into something altogether different.
Unfortunately, we’ll never know.
I’d like to do similar posts for other abandoned game projects in the future, such as Soul Chaser Betty, Salvage Hounds, Aeon Flux ,The Maxx and many others. So look for those in the future!
Bonus Content: The Lost Scenes
Here’s a gallery of a couple movie scenes that had to be cut from the original game for time. There were a handful of these, including a more elaborate opening sequence depicting fully modelled Marduk and Kyra fighting against Gemma. That sequence was never fully story boarded, but below you’ll find a couple that were: Maya finding the twin swords of Marduk and the epic final stand of the Chosen Emperor against the assault of Doskias. As always, click each one for more descriptions.
