Mog’s Fantastic Journey: All of the Towns and Cities of FFVII And What I Think of Them

Nibelheim

!

For Cloud Strife and Sephiroth, this is where it all began. This town has a lot of (recent) historical significance as far as events and people in the world of FFVII. This is where life began for the two greatest warriors on the Planet. Okay, the people who insist on Sephiroth’s place of birth as UNKNOWN/UNKNOWN/UNKNOWN would probably debate he was born in Nibelhiem, but that’s neither here nor there nor the point. My point is that Nibelhiem is pretty fucking important!

It’s just amazing how much happened here. The Jenova Project. Sephiroth’s insanity. Vincent’s ‘death’ and ‘rebirth’. Tifa’s involvement in the whole fiasco. Cloud’s experimentation, and the beginning of the end for Zack. We all know that, so let’s save the time from rehashing it. As for what I think?

Wow. Nibelhiem has a lot to answer for. Honestly, sometimes I think it would be better off it was burned down (and stayed burned down) to serve as a final tombstone for everything that happened there and everyone who died. But alas, that’s not what happened, and it just serves as an unnerving pit stop on Cloud’s journey, and another testament to the bizarre shit that Shinra is willing to do to maintain their global hegemony. I’m not really upset about that, either way is fine.

(Thoughts c/o Forcestealer: I really like Cloud’s reaction to the NPCs and theirs to him. You also have a lot of dialogue choices between being polite or calling them out on their bullshit. My first instinct was to call them out as, as the player, you’re inclined to believe Cloud. But the fact remains that the town is there so you kinda want to hear what they have to say and not antagonize them. Unless you find that letter on Tifa’s desk which spills everything)

I remember being really freaked out about how all the Sephiroth ‘Clones’ congregated here on your first visit, and them moaning about ‘Sephi…roth’ and ‘Went over mountain…gone’ and all that shit. I remember being REALLY freaked out when I saw those two kids turn out to be Sephiroth Clones. It just made me think how REALLY fucked up Hojo is and how REALLY fucked up Sephiroth is by extension.

I guess one thing I wish they did was elaborate a bit further on the Shinra Mansion. Is it just property that the family owned? Is that where the Shinra family originated? The history of the building itself? I dunno, I just wish we found out more about the past. Well, what do YOU guys think?

Next up is home to my favorite FFVII protagonist, Rocket Town