The Sectors

I was always wondering what were the never-seen sectors like?
Anybody have any ideas or facts to share about this?
As far as I remember, sectors 2 - 4 were hardly mentioned in the whole OG. It always left me wondering how was the life there, man how i wish they had expanded the Midgar experience!

I've wondered this too. I think the other sectors should be bonus locations in a FFVII remake should they make one.

So I was researching this a little bit via google. It seems the very early events of the game indeed include parts from Sector 4, eventhough the player is never shown the common life in sector 4.

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Sector_4

Well, that still leaves sectors 2 & 3. Are these even much as mentioned in the other compilation games?

I haven't got anything to add except express my own regret that we see so little of Midgar. I have always thought SE could make a nice little earner out of a puzzle or maze game which basically involved running all over Midgar on different quests. Everyone would like to see more of that city.

I think the player could have seen more of Midgar, but we also have to be mindful of not showing too much of Midgar. Players have the expectation of wanting to see everything, but a good worldbuilder knows that the key to making something, especially a massive city really seem massive, is making at least a good part of it unexplored to the eyes of the player.

Now what they could have done, was had the narrative or NPCs mention the other sectors more to make it seem more alive. "I'm in Wall Market all the way from Sector 2 to buy the dresses made here" or "I heard Sector 3 is really fucked up and dangerous, even moreso than Sector 1" or something like that.

It's worth noting that while there are eight sectors officially, there are actually sixteen... There's sector 1 slums and sector 1 plate etc.

If I remember wasn't it in the early drafts that the game was originally going to take entirely in Midgar.

Clement Rage said:

It's worth noting that while there are eight sectors officially, there are actually sixteen... There's sector 1 slums and sector 1 plate etc.

Click to expand...

That's a good remark. I remember reading that the people living in the plate are the "middle-class", while the poor are living in the slums. I need to find source for this, but I wonder if there is some truth to that.

*5 mins later.* Oh here it is.
"The only Sector that can be explored above the Plate, Sector 8 gives the only glimpse of life in Midgar that those who escape the poverty of the Slums can enjoy"

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Sector_8

Also keep in mind that a game engine can only handle so much in one field/cell. As it was, I felt like the Sectors we do see should IRL be much bigger and have way more people.

And yeah, Midgar is just the start of the game; the world outside should have more attention given to it.

I love the sectors and the whole atmosphere of Midgar.

There are some clues about life on the plate in OTWTAS: Episode Denzel, in which Denzel's father has been promoted and is moving the family to a new house, going from Sector Seven to Sector Five. In Advent Children Complete there's a sign in the rubble of Sector Seven that says "Shin-Ra Electric Power Company Company House", so I tend to assume that at least Sectors Five, Six, and Seven were residential areas, with a lot of ShinRa housing. Perhaps the sectors get more exclusive the lower the number, so Sector One is an aspirational address for company employees? Or maybe each sector has a mix of housing, schools, hospitals etc. and Denzel's dad just happened to like Sector Five?

Sector Eight seems to contain a lot of shops, bars and theatres. and in Before Crisis Rude arranges to meet Chelsea at a park - The Western Park - which seems to be in Sector Eight to watch a tree-lighting ceremony, so there must be some open spaces on the plate, although how green they are given the low light levels is debatable. There does seem to be a lot of housing in Eight in BC.

DAT BOY FROG said:

I think the player could have seen more of Midgar, but we also have to be mindful of not showing too much of Midgar. Players have the expectation of wanting to see everything, but a good worldbuilder knows that the key to making something, especially a massive city really seem massive, is making at least a good part of it unexplored to the eyes of the player.

Now what they could have done, was had the narrative or NPCs mention the other sectors more to make it seem more alive. "I'm in Wall Market all the way from Sector 2 to buy the dresses made here" or "I heard Sector 3 is really fucked up and dangerous, even moreso than Sector 1" or something like that.

Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more. I love having so much room to invent and imagine, so I wouldn't want too much detail, but some of those comments you suggest would have been great. In my headcanon the Sector Two slums are very rough, and each slum sector, with the possible exception of Five, has at least one or two gang bosses who control things with ShinRa tolerance, if not overt support.

One thing I'd love to know is what the names of those original villages were. Do they survive, whispered subversively in some areas of the slums? I also like to think that there would be sporting and other kinds of rivalry between different sectors. Maybe each sector has its own football team?

In a fic once I called Reno's favourite band 'Sector 9'.