SPOILERS Characterisation of Midgar in the Remake

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Since our beloved home town of Midgar is the setting for this entire game and features in every chapter, I thought I would start a new thread where we can discuss how it's characterised in the Remake, and what it might be like to live there.

The Threat of Gentrification

I'll start off with a topic that has struck me more with each playthrough: gentrification. The NPC dialogue contains more than one reference to this.

The slums of Midgar are not without their appeal. They're dirty, dangerous, vermin-infested shanty-towns, yes, but they also have a vibrant food culture (people who move to the plate miss the food from the slums, and people come down from the plate just to eat at the food trucks), a strong sense of community, and a powerful self-help ethos, as demonstrated by the Neighbourhood Watches. Even though the soil beneath their feet is dying, the slums are still less sterile than the plate. They are "grounders", they are grounded.

There’s one NPC, I think in the Sector 7 slum, who says that moving to the slums is becoming the hip new thing for topsiders.

After the bombings, several NPCs in various places worry that topsiders may move en masse down to the slums because the slums are perceived as safer.

In the Sector 5 slum, on the road from the train station to the village, you encounter an NPC who tells you that though he was born and bred on the Plate, nothing beats the slums.

On top of everything else, then, the slum-dwellers have to worry about being pushed out of their homes by the forces of gentrification. The slums are the soul of Midgar. Gentrification threatens their very existence.

 

[ForceStealer]

After the bombings, several NPCs in various places worry that topsiders may move en masse down to the slums because the slums are perceived as safer.

I have to think the plate-drop would have disavowed anyone of that notion Although I suppose in that case the top of the plate wasn't any safer



But you're definitely right about those NPC lines, pretty neat.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

There's one thing about the Remake I cannot reconcile myself to, and that's how bright Midgar is. We discussed it a while ago and people pointed out, rightly, that Midgar only seemed dark in the OG because all the sequences took place at night. I was persuaded by this. However...

I'd forgotten that in the OG, the overworld map darkens as you approach Midgar, and brightens as you move away from it. There's a black shadow all around Midgar. Both figuratively and literally, it is a dark place. Funnily enough, the Remake's loading screen on the slums even says that the slums are dark, when in the Remake, they're so bright that they are sometimes glaring. (Maybe we're supposed to think this is artificial sunlight?)

Anyway, I always liked my brooding Midgar shrouded in the eternal twilight of its mako fog, like a late 19th century industrial city, and I'm a bit sorry they chose not to go in that direction with their lighting.

 

[Rydeen]

There's one thing about the Remake I cannot reconcile myself to, and that's how bright Midgar is. We discussed it a while ago and people pointed out, rightly, that Midgar only seemed dark in the OG because all the sequences took place at night. I was persuaded by this. However...

I'd forgotten that in the OG, the overworld map darkens as you approach Midgar, and brightens as you move away from it. There's a black shadow all around Midgar. Both figuratively and literally, it is a dark place. Funnily enough, the Remake's loading screen on the slums even says that the slums are dark, when in the Remake, they're so bright that they are sometimes glaring. (Maybe we're supposed to think this is artificial sunlight?)

Anyway, I always liked my brooding Midgar shrouded in the eternal twilight of its mako fog, like a late 19th century industrial city, and I'm a bit sorry they chose not to go in that direction with their lighting.

I'm so torn on this. On one hand, I find the bright colors a much needed change of pace from CC, AC, and DoC - this is a place we needed to spend the whole game in (I think they wanted us to spend virtually our whole time down there to provide the starkest possible contrast with the opulence of the Shinra building, but they didn't want to make it too miserable for the sake of the player). On the other hand, it detracts from what Midgar is. I'm also torn on the suns. It improves the quality of life, making the slums less dreary than they "should" be, but on the other hand, it contributes to world building, and I imagine them originating from a suggestion that Reeve made that President Shinra haphazardly went along with. But again, these conflicted thoughts are all in the shadow of the OG. I wonder if first time players agree or disagree.

 

[Makoeyes987]

I need to be able to see the games I play.

Looking back at the 2015 Cyberconnect Remake trailer of Midgar and how they did it with that low-lighting and terrible shading, is like looking at a bizarro nega universe of terribleness.

The reality is, Midgar wouldn't be completely dark, shadowy, and unable to be seen. Going to Skid Row in Los Angeles doesn't magically make the sky go dark with overcast and shadows. The same grit, grime, and flavor of the slums was perfectly conveyed with the proper lighting that let you see stuff. I cannot for the life of me see how anyone could complain about the slums being too bright and not gritty or dark enough after going through Sector 7 and 5 and seeing all the trash, squalor and rats running around freely.

 

[Rydeen]

I need to be able to see the games I play.

Looking back at the 2015 Cyberconnect Remake trailer of Midgar and how they did it with that low-lighting and terrible shading, is like looking at a bizarro nega universe of terribleness.

The reality is, Midgar wouldn't be completely dark, shadowy, and unable to be seen. Going to Skid Row in Los Angeles doesn't magically make the sky go dark with overcast and shadows. The same grit, grime, and flavor of the slums was perfectly conveyed with the proper lighting that let you see stuff. I cannot for the life of me see how anyone could complain about the slums being too bright and not gritty or dark enough after going through Sector 7 and 5 and seeing all the trash, squalor and rats running around freely.

I think it's less about the grittiness and more about the fact that the pizza should be blocking more of the sun (and the very long-standing impression of the OG - Midgar always had dreary lighting). But yeah. That would be less fun for me to play.

 

[Odysseus]

Midgar looks its best in the dark, that's for sure. I wish we had gotten more time in Sector 7 at night, the place is a lot easier on the eyes that way. I guess square couldn't logic their way into having it always be dark though, even in the original the whole Midgar section isn't at night. I don't think Mako actually makes smog, and even if it did, if it was thick enough to blot out the sun I think everyone in Midgar would be sick or dead. I'm glad they went full bright rather than the ugly gray middle ground the slums in Crisis Core went for though, If you're gonna do it in the day, commit! Square knows how iconic dark Midgar is though, its telling that every trip to the plate is at night.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I know what you mean, Ryvius. 40+ hours of perpetual mako gloom would not have been fun, and now that Midgar is so much higher, and the gaps between the plates are really obvious, one can see how sunlight gets in. I never really had the feeling that the plate was hanging ominously over my head, though, the way I did in the OG, which is funny because in the OG I couldn't look up and see it.

Another long-standing impression I had from the OG was that the slums were absolutely heaving with people. They are meant to be like that, of course. Yet going back to play the OG after the Remake, I'm struck by how few NPCs there are - I mean, by how the game managed to give the impression of a multitude with only a few characters.

Edited to add: You're so right, Odysseus. The lighting decisions they made enabled them to show us Wall Market by night and Wall Market the next morning, and that on its own justifies the choice.

Mako, I'm not talking about the slums looking insufficiently squalid and grim (although tbh there is surely no nicer place to live in the whole of Midgar than Aerith's house). I'm talking about atmosphere, mood. This is totally a matter of subjective taste, so nobody can be right or wrong about it. I guess I feel we gained something and lost something, that's all.

 

[Odysseus]

Another long-standing impression I had from the OG was that the slums were absolutely heaving with people. They are meant to be like that, of course. Yet going back to play the OG after the Remake, I'm struck by how few NPCs there are - I mean, by how the game managed to give the impression of a multitude with only a few characters.

Every single NPC in Midgar is memorable in some way, from the know it all lady, Johnny and his friends, your beloved train man, the hobo in the train, the guy making soup in Wall Market, that dude in the unused version of the honey bee inn that only I know about who waxes philosophical while staring out the window, all of them stand out. I didn't even have to go into the game and check, I just remember these people. Even without actually having hundreds of NPCs, Midgar still felt extremely full of character and life.

 

[looneymoon]

I didn't mind a well-lit Midgar. I spent a lot of time working and volunteering in the slum area of my city, which has been facing violent gentrification for over a decade now. At night the area looks kinda like Wall Market - party city central. In the daylight the misery is laid more bare.

If anything I could have done with more miserable NPCs? Almost everyone looks really clean and happy. I don't recall seeing anyone panhandling, for example. I mean, unless Aerith counts, but she gave up her flower for free (ha ha ). I don't think that's a big request if you're trying to characterize a modern-looking ghetto.

I jokingly commented in another thread about Barret standing out like a sore thumb in areas populated with young, gentrifying hipsters. Its cool there's some dialogue from the NPCs that touched on it. Seems a bit of a wasted opportunity to not have one of the main cast have a line about it, so as to modernize that aspect. Then again, I am not entirely certain how the subject of gentrification relates to classism in Japan.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Yes! They were all characters in their own right who gave you the impression of lives being fully lived. I think there's actually a word for it - that realisation you sometimes experience, when you pass a stranger in the street, that they are as fully alive and human as you, with their own history and full life that you know nothing about.

Dear Train Man.

 

[Odysseus]

Here's a thought I had recently. A lot of the devs mentioned watching gameplay for reference when working on the remake, not actually playing the game. What if the reason most of the unique NPCs are gone is because the let's plays they watched never talked to them? That's kinda worrying to think about. The only thing that makes me second guess that is that a moment as obscure as being able to rescue Kotch from the basement of Corneo's mansion on the return visit was retained. I didn't even know you could do that until semi recently.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Well, they saved the two Shinra Guards and expanded their roles.
When the rookie guard asks someone to come to see the show with him, I think it's the older guard he's asking, not Cloud.

And they really built Shinra Middle Manager into a substantial NPC.

 

[Theozilla]

Honestly, I found the NPCs in the Remake far memorable than the NPCs in the OG. Very few stood out to me (and the way I play video games, I talk to every character possible at least once).
The NPCs in the OG felt much more like programs/puppets than the NPCs in the Remake which actually felt like a bustling lived in place.

Regardless, I find it fascinating how different people react differently to the abstraction vs. detail/specificity spectrum in regards to player experience. Definitely reveals a lot about storytelling in the medium of video games can work.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Chacun à son gout. That said, I'm not comparing the two, and I don't think Ody was either. We were just bemoaning the loss of some of our personal favourites. Which NPCs in the Remake (who weren't in the OG) really stuck out for you, Theo?

 

[Rydeen]

I loved the Remake NPCs and their dialog. However, I would have expected more of those folks to act depressed, like that guy in the OG who couldn't get out of bed. Something about boiling toads or whatever, I guess.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I honestly didn't think Sector 5 looked like such an awful place to live. I don't care much about my creature comforts, sharing my home with critters doesn't really bother me (unless they're poisonous), and I liked their vibrant food culture and their sense of community. I could see myself working at the Leaf House and being pretty happy. The kids were having a blast and were obviously being raised with good values. They also seem to have a decent doctor.

 

[Maidenofwar]

There's a stark contrast between Sector 5 and other areas I would say. I will have to recheck to see if I can find any rats there but I definitely remember butterflies and fish at Aerith's house ?

 

[Odysseus]

Sector 5 is probably the most different in the remake to its original depiction, what with how much nature and sunlight there is. It's a far cry from this:

The only similar elements are the big TV screen and the little black pipe thing in front of the central shops. I don't think the change is a bad thing, it makes it so each sector has its own look, where they're all pretty similar in the original. Sector 7 is more in line with how this here looks. My head canon is that Aerith brings nature just by virtue of being there, since it was the practice of the Cetra to cultivate nature to help the planet heal.

 

[ForceStealer]

Well, as it seems to keep coming back to, part of why Sector 5 seems so different is because it gets a LOT more light because it has the wrong plate overhead

That tweet someone showed of the Rude encounter that compared the lighting when it had the proper plate overhead made a big difference.

 

[Theozilla]

Chacun à son gout. That said, I'm not comparing the two, and I don't think Ody was either. We were just bemoaning the loss of some of our personal favourites. Which NPCs in the Remake (who weren't in the OG) really stuck out for you, Theo?

Well, I was more getting at the collective characterization of NPCs in regards to to them "feeling alive", which voice acting and greater dialogue volume contribute greatly too. But if I had to pick individual highlights (who weren't based on OG characters), I suppose the Leaf House NPCs stood out to me as well as the Senior Center, ands the various food stands in the slums always had colorful individuals discussing interesting topics. Then any NPCs like Marle and Mirielle who were part of MSQ and sidequests definitely were memorable.

 

[ForceStealer]

Discovering Ms Folia's "secret" pretty memorable, and the guys in the alley arguing over their favorite new honeybees. The aspiring singer doing karaoke in Wall Market was funny (of course Shinra also has a record label. How Richard Branson of them ) Wall Market obviously got the lion's share of them. It's funny how all the people that hand out music discs are stereotypical stoners going on about their jam band

 

[Odysseus]

The remake has fun NPCs too, like shotgun grandma, and there's a lot of neat world building just by listening to people which was nice. I'm just a little sad some of the old favorites didn't make it. I'm so familiar with the Midgar NPCs in the original that it isn't quite the same without them.

Anyway, I was looking through some of the FF7 art I have on my computer, when I found this little piece of old concept art:

Spoiler

I don't think we ever quite got the Midgar depicted here, with thugs and monsters lurking just away from the city down one wrong turn. I mean, I guess it is like that, but I just don't quite get the "Fantasy meets reality" vibe I get here. I dunno. I like this picture.

 

[ForceStealer]

Oh shit how did I forget shotgun grandma! The poor trooper trying to calm her down is good too.

That art, ironically, reminds me of the beginning of Crisis Core, when there's just a Behemoth chilling in the middle of the (virtual) street. Cool, though.

 

[Odysseus]

This is like the perpetual wish of FF7 fans, but I wish we got more of the upper plate. Chapter 2, CHAPTER 4, and the beginning of 16 were pretty much it. Seeing monsters just lurking in the city is cool.