Anybody have an educated assessment of how much of FF7's plot / script is covered on the first disc? I know Midgar alone is like 30% or something just by script percent.
I'm gonna say around 2/3 if not closer to 3/4.
There's lots of content on Disc 2 and 3, but a lot of that is challenges like Battle Square, longer dungeons, etc. A significant chunk of the actual lines of dialogue on Discs 2 and 3 are overhauls of global NPCs, who say something new at various story thresholds (once Meteor is summoned, after Diamond Weapon attacks Meteor, etc.). The story beats are also primarily focused on Cloud and Tifa, with very little in the way of the other PCs (nothing at all for Aeris!).
My novelization was 5 books, and Book 5 begins with Tifa waking up in Junon, which is just a teeny bit into Disc 2. The books were all of comparable length. edit: I found my working script, which is based on a few scripts ripped from gamefaqs, yinza, and fandom. There are stage directions but it is mostly dialogue. Optional events like Wutai are included at their earliest possible point.
Total Word Count: 147,765
Disc 1: 97,023 (65%)
Disc 2: 46,599 (31%)
Disc 3: 4,143 (2%)
Midgar section of Disc 1: 32,529 (22%)
So both myself and whoever said that Midgar was 30% were off --------
kind of. Word count doesn't mean everything, for instance, the Gold Saucer Play with the Evil Dragon King is included three times (for each respective date) and every time you have a choice the word count includes both answers, and every time your party members say anything the script includes what any possible party members could say. Midgar's dialogue, conversely, is almost guaranteed to appear in your playthrough because of its linearity. Whereas the Disc 2 word count has three sections where it overhauls what NPCs in every town have to say about current events.
(I'm so miffed fr lol).
