Hopes for Remake & Rebirth (story/content)

[Arianna]

Really, there is nothing that I want them to do to the story...

I know differences from the OG are coming, they've told us outright, so it's more like I'm going to wait and see what they do - and that's where my excitement is, sort of.

Wait and see.

 

[Smaddy]

I agree that it's a little weird. But the Tiny Bronco's VTOL abilities of a helicopter and the range/speed of an airplane WOULD be fairly useful. The Highwind wasn't ready, and the only other aircraft Shinra was shown to have were helicopters and the Gelnika cargo planes.
So if they really wanted to get to the Temple in a hurry, it makes some sense. But it is still a bit contrived, yeah.

That still leaves me with a question: how did Shinra get to Rocket Town to get the Tiny Bronco in the first place??? The town way off by itself, cut off by ocean on one side and mountains on the other.

Contrived as it is, I have to say that part has some of the best moments/ lines. I hope they don't change that too much. Think about it... Palmer battle... in HD.

 

[Starling]

We are to assume there are far more travel routes than the ones we're given access to, presumably monitored by Shinra or otherwise undesirable to the party. Chasing Sephiroth at that point probably felt like a wild goose chase to everyone involved so there was no telling how much travel would be needed to actually get anywhere with it.

 

[leadmyskeptic]

I played FF7 before I watched Twin Peaks, but going and replaying the OG afterwards I did feel like there was something really Black Lodge-y about the "Tifa and Cloud in the Lifestream" and "Imposters in Nibelheim" scenes.

Totally agree! And I played the game before seeing anything Lynch-ian as well. Actually, it was my first real exposure to alot of that style of atmosphere and plot elements, in video games of course, but really including film and television also. FF7- My Gateway Drug

 

[Clement Rage]

I agree that it's a little weird. But the Tiny Bronco's VTOL abilities of a helicopter and the range/speed of an airplane WOULD be fairly useful. The Highwind wasn't ready, and the only other aircraft Shinra was shown to have were helicopters and the Gelnika cargo planes.
So if they really wanted to get to the Temple in a hurry, it makes some sense. But it is still a bit contrived, yeah.

It can land on water.

 

[55-]

Here's a thing no one's mentioned yet.

My favorite joke that no one could even see properly because fixed camera angles.

Cait Sith disguised as a reporter! They won't suspect a thing.

 

[ForceStealer]

Never been able to figure out exactly what that disguise was, lol. I mean, I knew it was a reporter, but I couldn't make any of it out.

 

[Octo]

I thought it was just meant to be a really fat guy......with a cats face....apparently now.

 

[55-]

Never been able to figure out exactly what that disguise was, lol. I mean, I knew it was a reporter, but I couldn't make any of it out.

It does look like he's wearing a swimming cap or something.

Yuffie REALLY looked like she was going swimming. Like she was wearing water wings and goggles.

 

[Sprites]

Oooooh do you think they'll do something to update the battle arena maybe make some cameo bosses from other FF games, just picture Ultros in the battle arena or something, summon Typhon and Ultros having a shit attack cause his best bud is attacking him.

Nah in all serious cameos aside it'd be kinda cool if they did some more special challenges for the battle arena.

Also I cannot wait to do the snowboarding, submarine and motorcycle chase challenges in all their PS4 glory!

 

[leadmyskeptic]

Here's a thing no one's mentioned yet.

My favorite joke that no one could even see properly because fixed camera angles.

Cait Sith disguised as a reporter! They won't suspect a thing.

See, it's funny, this scene probably demonstrated this discrepancy better than any other, but I had ALWAYS "pictured" Cait Sith as the Moogle, rather than the little cat on top. This was partially due to the fact that I never used him in battle, and that in the regular walking around '97 graphics, the whole thing wasn't so easy to make out. It was very jarring for me years later with things like AC to have the little Asian cat "be" Cait Sith, especially since they didn't have the Moogle body at all (at least at first). Actually, to be honest, I still think of him as the big white silly guy, and picturing that talking when I'm playing the game.

But cat-in-a-trenchcoat is classic.

 

[Channy]

I always thought Cait Sith to be the moogle too, but since everybody always seemed to be on top of it, I never said anything because I didn't want to look like a knob.

 

[Flare]

Oooooh do you think they'll do something to update the battle arena maybe make some cameo bosses from other FF games, just picture Ultros in the battle arena or something, summon Typhon and Ultros having a shit attack cause his best bud is attacking him.

Nah in all serious cameos aside it'd be kinda cool if they did some more special challenges for the battle arena.

Also I cannot wait to do the snowboarding, submarine and motorcycle chase challenges in all their PS4 glory!

I'm hoping they'll do this too! I'd love to see cameo bosses in the battle square, either from various other FF games or from VII's compilation.

 

[Tetsujin]

I thought Cait Sith was the moogle too...

 

[Channy]

Oh, look at Tet, just trying to fit in with the cool kids.

 

[leadmyskeptic]

Yesss! Not the only one!

 

[55-]

I thought he was both parts. I remember reading somewhere that both the mog and the cat move and talk at the same time as if they were the same creature. I thought it was in the booklet, but looking back at it now, the booklet refers to Cait Sith as the cat, riding a stuffed mog he "magically brought to life." So idk what I read.

 

[Random Nobody]

I've just finished retrieving the keystone, and if there's one thing I'd like, it's clarification when it comes to the game's lore and in-game mythology.

As in, as soon as you get past a certain point in Midgar, characters start tossing out words like "Ancients" and "Promised Land," and although the narrative eventually explains what those are in explicit detail, none of the protagonists actually ask (barring one or two occasions concerning the Promised Land) and instead behave like they're concepts with which they're already familiar. So it's really never been clear to me how much if any of it is common knowledge in the FFVIIverse (nobody seems to bat an eye at the knowledge there were proto-human precursors, for example), or how much people actually know about the Planet they're living on.

Materia appears to be abundant enough that it's sold by and to civilians and common citizens, but it's obvious most people don't know how to use it. The exact nature of summons is never brought into question (what exactly ARE they here?), nor is the origin of monsters--at least not the ones who aren't engineered by Shin-Ra. Are they endemic to the world like folkloric creatures, are they like the fiends of FFX, or are they simply mutated animals?

Bugenhagen also outright says that few are aware that human spirits and living things return to the Lifestream...meaning that even fewer are aware that mako energy is processed souls. But dead baby electricity isn't actually even brought up directly.

And then Aerith's church--which, out of universe was probably included simply because the devs liked the idea--the only indication of any organised religion or belief in deities outside the Five Gods explicitly mentioned in Wutai. I mean, there is clearly no Jesus, but there doesn't seem to be any God (or unified belief in one) either. unless you go to CC and count Minerva's ass, and since she could just be the consciousness of the Planet it's still not clear wtf she's supposed to be.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

FWIW, I think they forgot their religion in the same way that they forgot the names of the original towns above which Midgar was built - and they forgot the Cetra, and they forgot what the Lifestream is. Religion and the Lifestream are merely quaint myths to these modern people.

I actually think that this is deliberate and a major theme of the game: when you lose touch with your past, you lose your identity, and you can end up destroying the very things you depend on for your physical or psychological survival.

But we'll see if the remake changes this.

 

[Random Nobody]

I really like that interpretation.

I just hope that they make that clear (or even thematically relevant), because as it is, it's just completely ambiguous. But the bad sort.

 

[ForceStealer]

I knew it was the cat simply because I obsessively read the manual. Which said that the cat uses megaphones to shout orders at the moogle...

 

[Kionae]

I knew it was the cat simply because I obsessively read the manual. Which said that the cat uses megaphones to shout orders at the moogle...

I never quite understood that. The cat is sitting on top of the moogle. Unless that moogle's half-deaf, why the need for a megaphone?

 

[Flare]

I've just finished retrieving the keystone, and if there's one thing I'd like, it's clarification when it comes to the game's lore and in-game mythology.

As in, as soon as you get past a certain point in Midgar, characters start tossing out words like "Ancients" and "Promised Land," and although the narrative eventually explains what those are in explicit detail, none of the protagonists actually ask (barring one or two occasions concerning the Promised Land) and instead behave like they're concepts with which they're already familiar. So it's really never been clear to me how much if any of it is common knowledge in the FFVIIverse (nobody seems to bat an eye at the knowledge there were proto-human precursors, for example), or how much people actually know about the Planet they're living on.

Materia appears to be abundant enough that it's sold by and to civilians and common citizens, but it's obvious most people don't know how to use it. The exact nature of summons is never brought into question (what exactly ARE they here?), nor is the origin of monsters--at least not the ones who aren't engineered by Shin-Ra. Are they endemic to the world like folkloric creatures, are they like the fiends of FFX, or are they simply mutated animals?

Bugenhagen also outright says that few are aware that human spirits and living things return to the Lifestream...meaning that even fewer are aware that mako energy is processed souls. But dead baby electricity isn't actually even brought up directly.

And then Aerith's church--which, out of universe was probably included simply because the devs liked the idea--the only indication of any organised religion or belief in deities outside the Five Gods explicitly mentioned in Wutai. I mean, there is clearly no Jesus, but there doesn't seem to be any God (or unified belief in one) either. unless you go to CC and count Minerva's ass, and since she could just be the consciousness of the Planet it's still not clear wtf she's supposed to be.

I thought about several of these myself, and I'd love to see them explained more in the remake. Any extra explanations o0f 'lore' is something I always look forward too.

Though the thought of religion in that world, I do remember reading this little passage in Barret's novella:
Barret greeted Cid with a laugh. "Talk like that and God's gonna get on your case!
"God? You haul his ass down here," snapped Cid, not missing a beat. "I gotta have words with him.

So apparently there is some sort of religion/belief of God in their world, it's just... never mentioned besides here.

 

[Starling]

I've just finished retrieving the keystone, and if there's one thing I'd like, it's clarification when it comes to the game's lore and in-game mythology.

As in, as soon as you get past a certain point in Midgar, characters start tossing out words like "Ancients" and "Promised Land," and although the narrative eventually explains what those are in explicit detail, none of the protagonists actually ask (barring one or two occasions concerning the Promised Land) and instead behave like they're concepts with which they're already familiar. So it's really never been clear to me how much if any of it is common knowledge in the FFVIIverse (nobody seems to bat an eye at the knowledge there were proto-human precursors, for example), or how much people actually know about the Planet they're living on.

Materia appears to be abundant enough that it's sold by and to civilians and common citizens, but it's obvious most people don't know how to use it. The exact nature of summons is never brought into question (what exactly ARE they here?), nor is the origin of monsters--at least not the ones who aren't engineered by Shin-Ra. Are they endemic to the world like folkloric creatures, are they like the fiends of FFX, or are they simply mutated animals?

Bugenhagen also outright says that few are aware that human spirits and living things return to the Lifestream...meaning that even fewer are aware that mako energy is processed souls. But dead baby electricity isn't actually even brought up directly.

And then Aerith's church--which, out of universe was probably included simply because the devs liked the idea--the only indication of any organised religion or belief in deities outside the Five Gods explicitly mentioned in Wutai. I mean, there is clearly no Jesus, but there doesn't seem to be any God (or unified belief in one) either. unless you go to CC and count Minerva's ass, and since she could just be the consciousness of the Planet it's still not clear wtf she's supposed to be.

They mention fairly early on that the whole Promised Land thing is considered a legend, meaning most things regarding the Cetra, generally known as Ancients, is regarded as myth. Elmyra seems to first wonder about people going to a star in the sky before Aerith clarifies they return to the planet they're on when they die.

There's a whole thread discussing the nature of summons if you want to have a look. Minerva could be worshiped as part of a monotheistic religion that may have lost the relation to the lifestream over time in people's general knowledge, giving an explanation for the existence of a church in a world where the only apparent subjects of worship seem to be Leviathan and the planet. The statue in Banora seems to be a representation of her and Genesis keeps going on about a goddess, which can be interpreted as the personification of the planet.

 

[leadmyskeptic]

Very good points made by all...I think the concept that religion and spirituality were lost to the sands of time as development took over is probably dead on. But the fact that the characters never really react to the news (especially if we're assuming it is news to them in the first place) is also a great observation, and I think both of these things should be developed on and further stressed in the remake. Actually, thinking about it now, with the whole concept that the lifestream "talks", with the system's power now, they could actually have some creepy Lifestream "voices" kinda whisper in your ear to really drive home that it's like a sea of souls...although maybe it's better off that we see Aeris responding to it and never actually know how she's hearing it.

As for the monsters, unlike in, say, FFX, this was definitely one of the Final Fantasies where they went, "Well, we've gotta have monsters and such running around for random battles, how are we gonna explain it this time? ....Ah, who cares" so it wasn't a major focus. If I remember correctly, there are a handful of times (One in Kalm, when you first get there, perhaps?) where a townsperson says something about monsters forming due to the pollution.