FFVII Remake Play Arts Kai Figures

[Ite]

Whoa so they're just openly talking about Zack even in promo material... interesting.

 

[Tennyo]

^This was what stood out the most for me. Like, people who never played the original who might be interested in the remake just got a huge spoiler.

 

[ChipNoir]

That phrasing...The cynical side of me wants to say this is just one part dramatic license and one part lost in translation.

I know that the teaser showed some oddball hints, like Before Crisis avalanche members on some sort of a stealth mission. But this paints all that in a very, very different light.

Actually on reflection, this also adds up with a strange line.

Biggs
"Think how many of our people risked their lives, just for this code..."

I always found that line odd. "How many of our people" implies there were more people even then, yet are never referred to again. Even BC paint the picture that Barret's Avalanche was a copycat, comprised of just his crew.

 

[Animexcel]

^This was what stood out the most for me. Like, people who never played the original who might be interested in the remake just got a huge spoiler.

True, maybe they thought the person who's buying the figure would already know about Cloud's story and the game in general. I guess it depends on the person who would buy a figure of a character to a game they never played. I'm guilty of that where I actually bought a Tharja figure from Fire Emblem; never played the game, but she's so hot ^^;

 

[Pixel]

That phrasing...The cynical side of me wants to say this is just one part dramatic license and one part lost in translation.

I know that the teaser showed some oddball hints, like Before Crisis avalanche members on some sort of a stealth mission. But this paints all that in a very, very different light.

Actually on reflection, this also adds up with a strange line.

Biggs
"Think how many of our people risked their lives, just for this code..."

I always found that line odd. "How many of our people" implies there were more people even then, yet are never referred to again. Even BC paint the picture that Barret's Avalanche was a copycat, comprised of just his crew.

Pretty sure thats a mistraslation. Should be "Think how many of our allies gave their lives to get this code..."

 

[Shademp]

Pixel is correct. Here is the Japanese line.

ビッグス
「ここの暗号を入手するために
　何人の仲間が犠牲になったことか……」


Who knows, maybe the remake will tell us more about the bothans colleagues who died.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

The planet watches, while the battle rages on…

The Lifestream flows through the world breathing life into the planet and all living things. Unchecked by the government, the Shinra Company taps into the Lifestream, converting its energy into raw electricity. But the extraction of the Lifestream is not without consequences. The planet is dying. Fighting to save their planet, the resistance group Avalanche has waged ceaseless battle against the forces of Shinra, but the struggle has taken its toll. On the verge of collapse, Avalanche pins its hopes on one last explosive attack. As they near a critical phase of their plan, they reach out to the most unlikely of allies: a former Shinra SOLDIER, Cloud.

Fighting an enemy. Fighting to find himself.

A former SOLDIER under Shinra’s direct command, Cloud joins Avalanche’s cause as a mercenary. His memories of the past are fragmented, and his hopes for the future go little beyond the next paycheck. Yet the longer he fights alongside the other members of Avalanche, the more his brutal past returns, bringing questions. Who were the SOLDIERs? How did he lose his memory? What was the Nibelheim Incident, five years past? As Cloud’s own path becomes intertwined with that of the struggle to save the planet, he discovers something new inside himself.

Buster Sword

Cloud wields a massive two-handed sword nearly as big as he is, inherited upon the death of his friend Zack. In Cloud’s hands, the Buster Sword becomes a versatile weapon capable of dealing heavy damage with Brave Slash, cutting an X across an enemy’s chest with Cross Slash, firing a long-distance Blade Beam, slashing upward with a jumping Climhazzard attack, showering destruction upon the enemy with Meteor Rain, summoning a destructive whirlwind with Finishing Touch, and landing critical strike after critical strike with Omnislash.

Also somewhat interesting to note is that "SOLDIER" is still in all caps, and I can't recall instances of it being shown in plural before now, but that's shown as "SOLDIERs" rather than being delicately avoided by saying something like "other members of SOLDIER" to divert the plural onto a descriptor. (By the same token, AVALANCHE isn't an all caps sort of thing now).

It is interesting that they're openly mentioning the part about Zack, though given the backstory that ACC & Crisis Core detailed on those events it's not too surprising. Putting it in the paragraph outside of his history means that – while a little confusing to read it all at once – makes it clear that it's almost certainly still not something that he remembers amidst his fragmented memory.

Really interesting stuff though!




X

 

[Shademp]

A screenshot of the description inside Cloud's Play Arts Kai box would be nice to have, just to confirm the spelling and use of capitals.

 

[Pixel]

The whole Sierra/Shera thing comes to mind when thinking of stuff like this on play arts packaging.

 

[cold_spirit]

A screenshot of the description inside Cloud's Play Arts Kai box would be nice to have, just to confirm the spelling and use of capitals.

Here ya go:

Spoiler

Does anyone know someone 'round here who got the Barret figure? I'm very curious about that description. Nevermind it's not even out yet.

 

[ForceStealer]

Has SOLDIER ever not been capitalized? Interesting about Avalanche, though

 

[Shademp]

The question "Who were the SOLDIERs?" makes me wonder who wrote these paragraphs and what their sources were. What does that question even mean? Everybody knows what SOLDIER is: Shinra's super-soldiers.

If the question refers to specific members of SOLDIER, then the only one that fits the context is Zack. Cloud might have vague memories of a black-haired SOLDIER, but that's about it.

 

[Ite]

They could be hinting at Jenova's involvement in the creation of Sephiroth, the first SOLDIER.

 

[OWA-2]

Unchecked by the government, the Shinra Company taps into the Lifestream, converting its energy into raw electricity.

But ShinRa is the government.

 

[ChipNoir]

Unchecked by the government, the Shinra Company taps into the Lifestream, converting its energy into raw electricity.

But ShinRa is the government.

Not...really in my mind. Half head canon, half put together based on random observations, but I feel like original Midgar was just a ground based town/city with it's own government, well protected and provided for by the military equipment ShinRa was producing prior to developing Mako energy. Eventually the government just shrank as ShinRa gained more and more control over every day elements.

I mean, all their technology is proprietary. No one else can produce mako, AI tech, materia, military grade tech, or anything else. Cellphones are probably a ShinRa thing. TV. Likely any attempt at creating a modern medicine system has been reduced to apothicary shops, while Cure/Revive materia becomes the medical standard. All from one monopolized source.

Its interesting that ShinRa never calls itself the Government. It's still The ShinRa Electric Power company, and there's still a mayor of Midgar, as opposed to parceling that authority with the President's role.

 

[Roger]

Unchecked by the government, the Shinra Company taps into the Lifestream, converting its energy into raw electricity.

But ShinRa is the government.

Not...really in my mind. Half head canon, half put together based on random observations, but I feel like original Midgar was just a ground based town/city with it's own government, well protected and provided for by the military equipment ShinRa was producing prior to developing Mako energy. Eventually the government just shrank as ShinRa gained more and more control over every day elements.

I mean, all their technology is proprietary. No one else can produce mako, AI tech, materia, military grade tech, or anything else. Cellphones are probably a ShinRa thing. TV. Likely any attempt at creating a modern medicine system has been reduced to apothicary shops, while Cure/Revive materia becomes the medical standard. All from one monopolized source.

Its interesting that ShinRa never calls itself the Government. It's still The ShinRa Electric Power company, and there's still a mayor of Midgar, as opposed to parceling that authority with the President's role.

But the Mayor works at Shin-Ra HQ as the librarian, he's an employee in both name and deed.

 

[ChipNoir]

But ShinRa is the government.

Not...really in my mind. Half head canon, half put together based on random observations, but I feel like original Midgar was just a ground based town/city with it's own government, well protected and provided for by the military equipment ShinRa was producing prior to developing Mako energy. Eventually the government just shrank as ShinRa gained more and more control over every day elements.

I mean, all their technology is proprietary. No one else can produce mako, AI tech, materia, military grade tech, or anything else. Cellphones are probably a ShinRa thing. TV. Likely any attempt at creating a modern medicine system has been reduced to apothicary shops, while Cure/Revive materia becomes the medical standard. All from one monopolized source.

Its interesting that ShinRa never calls itself the Government. It's still The ShinRa Electric Power company, and there's still a mayor of Midgar, as opposed to parceling that authority with the President's role.

But the Mayor works at Shin-Ra HQ as the librarian, he's an employee in both name and deed.

I get the feeling the mayor had a deal-with-the-devil type situation. "Hey, if you sign over all this power, we'll keep you as mayor indefinitely! You'll never have to run for office again."

25 years later, he's still the mayor, but the duties have been completely changed.

 

[Ite]

I always thought the librarian comment was sardonic. His office is in the library.

 

[ChipNoir]

I always thought the librarian comment was sardonic. His office is in the library.

Heidegar makes a comment about how the Mayor is just a puppet figure, to some extent, and doesn't do anything important.

 

[OWA-2]

Wait, doesn't ShinRa practically rule the world in FFVII?

 

[ChipNoir]

Wait, doesn't ShinRa practically rule the world in FFVII?

Oddly enough...not really?

I mean, they've installed reactors, and they've destroyed towns if anything happens to those reactors, but otherwise they kind of just leave the world alone. There are no military outposts anywhere outside of Midgar and Junon. ShinRa has no military or police presence on any other continent.

You'd think Wutai being basically Japan, they'd make a point of there being a military occupancy outpost, but nope. Wutai is just barren...period.

 

[lithiumkatana17]

Well isn't the Wutai War basically over with by the time of the original game anyway? It's been quite a few years since I've played, so correct me if I'm wrong...

I don't think it's wrong to assume that there would have been outposts there at point. They would just abandoned by the time of the OG since Wutai got the shit kicked out of their asses. Although I admit, from a real world perspective, it would make sense for Shinra to at least keep a small contingency there to squash any attempts at forming a resistance.

 

[ChipNoir]

Well isn't the Wutai War basically over with by the time of the original game anyway? It's been quite a few years since I've played, so correct me if I'm wrong...

I don't think it's wrong to assume that there would have been outposts there at point. They would just abandoned by the time of the OG since Wutai got the shit kicked out of their asses. Although I admit, from a real world perspective, it would make sense for Shinra to at least keep a small contingency there to squash any attempts at forming a resistance.

Mhhhhm. Lets face it, most FF worlds are a little half baked. But VII feels a bit more so because it tries to be so much more modern. I think only VIII is the one where immersion starts to break down when you consider these kind of things. The whole Garden idea is incredibly stupid.

 

[Flare]

Well isn't the Wutai War basically over with by the time of the original game anyway? It's been quite a few years since I've played, so correct me if I'm wrong...

I don't think it's wrong to assume that there would have been outposts there at point. They would just abandoned by the time of the OG since Wutai got the shit kicked out of their asses. Although I admit, from a real world perspective, it would make sense for Shinra to at least keep a small contingency there to squash any attempts at forming a resistance.

Zack narrates how the Wutai war is over in CC, so I'm guessing 4 years before the original game. And pretty sure Wutai had the shit beat out of them. Look at them, they're reduced to a tourist country by the time the original game rolls around.

I also wouldn't expect an older game like that to show an abundance of military outposts, so I'm not surprised that the game doesn't have that stuff evident. I just chalk it up to an older game. Wouldn't be surprised if they added more military Shinra outposts to the Remake or something similar.

 

[lithiumkatana17]

Oh yeah, I'm not nitpicking by any means.

It would be a nice addition to the remake. Just to as another example of how Wutai is still very much under the thumb of Shinra.