Well, Ive been working on this, for just under a couple hours.. Not all the details are finished, please keep that in mind as you rip it and me apart.. But I would love some feedback from all you veterans.. Let the firing squad begin: The character awakens, basically from an amnesiac state, knowing nothing of who he is or where hes from.. An elderly character basically takes him under his wing and teaches him the necessities of life, etc. (maybe the turorial stage in the game) After spending the reamainder of his childhood, (hes fairly young in the beggining) under the guidance of this elderly character, he is somehow offered the opportunity to travel in time in an attempt to find out about his unknown past. He chooses yes, and bids his mentor farewell. Having now traveled in time, and expecting to be on the same planet as when he departed, our herione finds himself in a familiar, yet totally unknown land- and immediatly recognizes it as home, yet does not know any names of places, the planet, anything.. just has this, "I''m home" feeling...Travels the planet in search of clues about who and where he is.. Now his past would slowly be revealed to the character through flashbacks, as his memory is constantly coming to and from him.. One of the first facts hes finds out, is the date: which he later finds out is sometime between his ages of 7-9. The character makes a name for himself while winning battles in a "Battle Arena" type setup, hosted by the governing body of the country, maybe the government, maybe the "Head Gang" members.. i dont know, some group who governs the land. He eventually becomes an equal member amongst the group, and is constantly given jobs that they need fullfilled, and the character agrees to them, as its basically paying his way around to find out who he is...Only he finds out that the group (for whatever reason, havent figured it out yet) is destroying the planet and moving on to the next planet- they have rendered the current planet useless.. The instinct of the character is to stop this from happening, but realizes that he cannot, as it means history would change and that cannot hapen...Having come to this conclusion, the character desperatly searches for his younger self to get him off the current planet..His search is a success (because of clues from flashback throughout the game) and he finds his youngerself.. At this point, he does not tell the younger version about whats going on.. only asks him questions about himself.. his mother, where hes from, does he have friends.. etc. Its at this point that he finds out the elderly man, and himself, are one in the same..The elderly man, and this young boy have something in common that sparks that train of thought in the main character, and flashbacks happen explaining this to the player.. After this meeting, he quickly sends the younger version to the same planet/time where he would meet the elderly man, and follow through with the events in the game up until now. Now having saved his youngerself, the character is convinced there are still good deeds to be done, and attempts to stop the many evil doings the governing body is partaking in, for instance, end the time travel program they have set up (which is where he himself learned how it works earlier in the game, and i believe its going to be mostly based on reaching a certain mental level where you can manipulate time and space)... Unfortunatly, he is unable to do so, and the villians are able to destroy the planet and move on to the next.. The next planet happens to have been the same where the game originated, and in the same time period.. see, when he sent his youngerself back in time, it was in order to stop the body the second time around.. Next the character goes forward in time, about a year or so before the beggining of the game, buys the house the elderly man (himself) took him too, and prepares for the time period the villians will be back to destroy this new planet, as well as wait for his younger version of himself to arrive.. The young version arrives, he sends the young version back in time just like the beggining of the game, and moves on to stop the villians from doing it again..

Please understand I know how thrown together it seems in the above form, I have a few more details that I left out, just wanted to get the main idea out there and see if anyone has other ideas, or ways to accomplish the same thing differently.. Any criticism is welcome with open arms..

Im wondering now if all my gramatical errors, and inability to clearly write my thoughts are the reason nobody wants to offer some criticism.. Come now people, like I said it was the product of only a couple hours of thinking, while bored at work.. Cant anyone offer any kind of feedback?! :-)

Well thats something I definetly kept in the back of my mind.. but there is no circular loop at all..

Maybe if i explain it in chronological order, it will make more sense. The following ages are not the final ages, just used to explain the idea. -***- will be used to indicate where the game actually starts.

Main character is born; Around age 7, is visited by (though he doesnt know it) and older version of himself, who convines him to escape and send him to another time and planet. Upon arriving to the new time/planet, he looses consciousness, along with all his memory; -***- He is quickly met by an older man who is able to take him in, show him the ropes, and teach the main character what he needs to know. After spending some time under his wing, we may be talking 10 or 11 years or so, the main character and old man decide that the main character should attempt to travel back in time to find out his roots. So the main charcter shoot off into time while to older man stays. (This is what ensures there is no circle)

Now the main charcters is in a different time, and he would later find out a different planet.. where a group intends to kill the planet and move on..after recovering his past and his short lived childhood on this planet, he finds his youngerself and sends his youngerself to the planet/time he was from. (This is done in the exact same mannor that happened in the beggining of his life, though unbeknownst to the player, as the game started only after landing without his memory.)

Then the main character himself goes forward in time, where he came from but esuring earlier than when he sent his youngerself. Thus waiting for his youngerself to arrive so that he can take him under his wing the same the old man did for him. Soon, hell send his youngerself back in time, the way he did.. only to move forward then and finish the game...

Hope this helps.

Thought about this, and the for the same reason that you mentioned, decided against it.. I dont want to take the matrix type approach.. But Im glad at least you were able to catch my drift..

Instead of the main plot driver be the idea of him seeing himself again and again throughout the story, I will need the main driving theme to be created in his world that eventually gets destroyed.. There will need to be elements within that world that drives the story and acts as the main plot theme..

Take the sixth sense for instance.. The first time you watch the movie, you assume that the main plot and idea is that THIS KID SEES DEAD PEOPLE, then at the end we find out Bruce Willis is dead the whole time.. I will need something on that other world that drives the plot and occupys the story, something that drives home the point, "Everything happens for a reason", that way at the end of the game when the player now is the elderly man, sends himself to his home time/world, then can finish the final battles and end the story, with a complete feeling that he gets it, it makes sense and can appreciate the idea.. This is where Im at now, so if anyone has some suggestion.. Sorry for turning this thread into my personal scratch pad..

Del, thanks a lot, I can appreciate your returning to see the replies. I think thats the beauty of this story, is that we have a main character who is already independent of sorts.. Throughout litterally his whole life he has watched for himself, raised himself in his own eyes, and sent himself on a journey about really.. himself! I really like the doors this can open for the character, especially this one: The fact that he has an infinite possibility to travel in time and perfect the world that surrounds him, yet cannot, and realizes this, maybe not at first, but definetly in the end.. I just like the premise that this story builds from, and the possibilities that can come about;

And Betrayer, although flashback will be important in creating the themes in the game, im not predicting a lot of flashbacks that drive the plot in whatever present time the game is taking place in.. I agree there was more play in FFX in all the extras than there was in the game, which I dont necessarily hate, but wouldnt put time in creating something like that.. I loved Xenosaga whether it was a game or movie though..

One thing that I have already decided on, is that since the player never sees his own past, there is room for an open style play with out contradicting whats already known about history.. Although that may not make sense, basically the plot will definetly be able to permit the player to make decisions about how he sees himself searching for the questions he has about who he is, and where hes from. So that in itself should be enough to differentiate from the linear type stories of FFX and Xenosaga. Now the details? Not worked out yet, but small things like where a player decides to go after learning a description of different places, how/who he speaks to concerning NPCs. Decisions like that are kind of what I have in mind at this point, maybe you or someone else has some input?