Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier

[Makoeyes987]

Corneo is a "Don," reminiscent of the mafia.

Mafia gangs are highly familial. Their gangs are derived from influential families, going back several generations from before they immigrated to the United States. That's how they accumulate power, standing, etc.

We know Corneo has extended family in the slums so, it actually makes perfect sense that there would be other Corneos who lived in Midgar in the past and were influential. How else would he have that much power, influence and property? It's not the same Don Corneo of FFVII but the family? No, that's... Actually perfect. He's a fixture in the underworld for a reason.

 

[Sephiroth Crescent]

My headcanon had always been that it was Aerith who ripped up the floor boards in the church

That's weird and I can't unsee it now. Thanks for ruining my Aerith!

it actually makes perfect sense that there would be other Corneos who lived in Midgar in the past and were influential

Each of them with different hairstyles! Afro Corneo is best Corneo.

 

[Shademp]

Oh right, this is the 1970s after all. This is the perfect opportunity to go crazy with importing the real-life seventies into FF7 lore!

Afro-disco-man in the 3D battler minigame was not enough, I dare say.





Assuming that the Compilation timeline is still relevant (I don't know the Remake Ultimania content).

[ μ ] – εуλ 1976
6/24
· Construction begins on the city of Midgar. The Shin-Ra Company headquarters is relocated to the new city.

...

[ ν ] – εуλ 0007
(December)
· FFVII Begins

So The First SOLDIER begins in [ μ ] – εуλ 1977.


EDIT: Give me this but with President Shinra joining the dance floor and showing why his dance skills are to be feared

 

[Obsidian Fire]

That is still accurate as of the World Preview book. Which has an excellent timeline of everything that happened before Remake. It has everything on our timeline on it at all the same dates!

 

[waw]

I get that we want to see a different Midgar 30 years ago. But the "fun" of making it a FF7 game would be visiting and battling in familiar locales with our own sort of FF7 characters.... It's a tough balance and why Last Soldier probably doesn't need to be real lore heavy.

I really hope, however, that Ever Crisis touches on that era with a deeper lore dive. Personally, I'd like to see a few things come out of this:

1. A new version of the "three saints" from the earlier drafts of FF7, probably being the first three soldiers.
2. Seeing whoever mentors Sephiroth and that interaction.
3. Seeing a process of decaying nation states in favor of Shinra, maybe even rival corporations that don't survive to BC times. I've always imagined (maybe read?) that Heidegger was the lead general of the Big Nation and through a coup and delievered *that* standing army to Shinra. I'm probably wrong, and happy to be, but I'd like to see this whole process. Taking us 30 years earlier is the perfect opportunity to show the world before Shinra dominates.
4. Please give us other sectors of Midgar.
5. Female SOLDIERs.

 

[Odysseus]

I wouldn't have any real expectations for the story content of the game, and the locations will surely be mostly ripped from the remake.

 

[Torrie]

Female SOLDIERs

YASSSS

This topic has been extremely underdeveloped in the fandom and non-existent in the official lore, so it's about time the devs filled in the gaps. But we'll still be dissatisfied with the way they handle it, I'm telling ya

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

non-existent in the official lore

Well, Deepground had female SOLDIERs, including three named females in the Tsviets -- but yeah, still woefully under displayed otherwise.

Also, it occurs to me that Cloud and Aerith discussed the notion of her being a SOLDIER candidate without mentioning a possibility that it was unlikely because she was female.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Deepground is the most inclusive Shinra organization and let's *claps* women *claps* be *claps* leaders.

That's why more people should join and become part history! Break the glass ceiling with your face as you scream!

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

That's why more people should join and become part history! Break the glass ceiling with your face as you scream!

No, no -- bathe in the blood of your fellow applicants by breaking the glass ceiling with their faces. Then dismember the CEO and burn down the building.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Well, Deepground had female SOLDIERs, including three named females in the Tsviets -- but yeah, still woefully under displayed otherwise.

Also, it occurs to me that Cloud and Aerith discussed the notion of her being a SOLDIER candidate without mentioning a possibility that it was unlikely because she was female.

It is painfully obvious that all the trooper/soldier models in both the OG, CC and even Remake are designed with... maximum identity concealment in mind. They all have helmets that cover their entire face for exactly this reason.

In Remake, here doesn't seem to be some type of "NPC creation suite" with different body forms and face parts that can be swapped in/out as needed; instead all the NPCs are customized. Which means... making female models for the troopers would eat up asset creation resources for very little narrative pay-off. And possibly make programing enemy spawns more complicated to boot. This isn't like FFXIV where there's an entire character creation suite and tons of armor fitted to different body shapes already available to be used. So we instead get very generic enemies when it comes to anything that isn't a boss fight.

 

[Odysseus]

If FF7 Fortnite has a character creator, it stands to reason that you could make a Female SOLDIER.

In early drafts of FF7 Yuffie was an ex-SOLDIER herself, so I don't think they ever meant to imply women couldn't be in SOLDIER.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

It was one of the more disappointing aspects of the Remake that every single trooper looked exactly the same - by which I mean they had the same skin tone, mouth, chin, jaw, upper lip, height and build.

 

[Odysseus]

At the end of the day, video games take time and money to make. Without a pre-existing character builder to easily produce variations on the generic grunt model, they probably just didn't think it was worth the time, or more likely, never thought about doing it in the first place. Most of these guys will get cut down in mere moments by the player anyway. They could have made a couple variants, or a female version like Dirge did, but these things probably aren't a priority during development.

 

[Torrie]

Well, Deepground had female SOLDIERs, including three named females in the Tsviets -- but yeah, still woefully under displayed otherwise.

Oh. You're right. I tend to be most focused on the regular SOLDIER division and get oblivious of Deepground, namely the fact that they are considered SOLDIERs too.

Also, it occurs to me that Cloud and Aerith discussed the notion of her being a SOLDIER candidate without mentioning a possibility that it was unlikely because she was female.

Makes sense. Also, there was a character in a funny yellow hoodie in the First Soldier trailer; I reckon it's a female figure? That would be interesting to speculate about women joining SOLDIER but what if they proved unfit eventually due to various reasons from biology to unpredictable reactions to mako showers?

In early drafts of FF7 Yuffie was an ex-SOLDIER herself, so I don't think they ever meant to imply women couldn't be in SOLDIER.

Yeah, true. It's a pity though that this idea remained an idea and no further female SOLDIERs were added down the line.

 

[Odysseus]

Yeah, true. It's a pity though that this idea remained an idea and no further female SOLDIERs were added down the line.

In the original game SOLDIER was basically a non-entity beyond Zack and Sephiroth, just some fairly uncommon enemies that only appear three times in the game. Crisis Core really could have done it, though.

 

[Shademp]

Noticed now that the Chocobo [チョコボ] has not just a Stamina [スタミナ] bar but also an HP bar.




Guys. The Chocobo can DIE. We are going to witness the slaughter of Chocobos.

 

[Makoeyes987]

This definitely looks far more detailed and complex than some thought.

You'll need a tablet to play this optimally. A phone is possible but you better not have fat fingers.

 

[Shademp]

Hopefully BlueStacks can be used to emulate your purchased game on the computer.

 

[Keveh Kins]

I'm hoping for an object to appear in the sky at some point.

The entire player base gets hyped. They think it's Meteor, coming to hit Midgar and change the map.

It gets bigger and bigger over a number of weeks.

Then, one day, someone notices it looks sort of....feathered? It almost looks like it has a...beak?

And boom! Fat Chocobo crashes right into mid-construction Sector Six plate!

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I'm hoping for an object to appear in the sky at some point.

The entire player base gets hyped. They think it's Meteor, coming to hit Midgar and change the map.

It gets bigger and bigger over a number of weeks.

Then, one day, someone notices it looks sort of....feathered? It almost looks like it has a...beak?

And boom! Fat Chocobo crashes right into mid-construction Sector Six plate!

FFVII Online: A Sector Reborn

 

[Wol]

I'm hoping for an object to appear in the sky at some point.

The entire player base gets hyped. They think it's Meteor, coming to hit Midgar and change the map.

It gets bigger and bigger over a number of weeks.

Then, one day, someone notices it looks sort of....feathered? It almost looks like it has a...beak?

And boom! Fat Chocobo crashes right into mid-construction Sector Six plate!

Fatal Fantasy VII

 

[waw]

It is painfully obvious that all the trooper/soldier models in both the OG, CC and even Remake are designed with... maximum identity concealment in mind. They all have helmets that cover their entire face for exactly this reason.

In Remake, here doesn't seem to be some type of "NPC creation suite" with different body forms and face parts that can be swapped in/out as needed; instead all the NPCs are customized. Which means... making female models for the troopers would eat up asset creation resources for very little narrative pay-off. And possibly make programing enemy spawns more complicated to boot. This isn't like FFXIV where there's an entire character creation suite and tons of armor fitted to different body shapes already available to be used. So we instead get very generic enemies when it comes to anything that isn't a boss fight.

That's a good point. But even one Roche-like female SOLDIER, maybe even the current 1st Class hero of Shinra could be a woman just to balance out a few things for fans calling for. I'd be very happy with that.

That said, The First SOLDIER? I know it's a really long shot that'll NEVER pay off, but I kind of hope Gillian is the 1st SOLDIER. It would add a bit to the nature of Angeal and Genesis and maybe why Lucrecia and Hojo get so desperate to do what they did in rivalry....

 

[Makoeyes987]

Grandma Gillian a SOLDIER?

She's a scientist. She worked on the Jenova Project, it'd be like expecting Lucrecia to pick up a sword and be a badass. I mean she has Jenova cells but that doesn't make her a warrior.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

You're fooling no one, Mako. We all know your fragile ego is threatened by the idea of a powerful Aunt May in spandex even more than it is by mako poisoning.