[Mideel] In this topic I comment on all of the towns of FF7.

[Makoeyes987]

The whole schizophrenic, and mish-mash nature of FFVII is what leads it to being one of the most memorable and well known RPGs, and FFs to this date. It's part of its X-factor. I don't think one should try to fix it. Just embrace it, and accept it as part of its bizarre, yet fascinating depiction of the story. Trying to make it fit and become sane like every other RPG would be killing what made FFVII, FFVII in the first place.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

The whole nature of FFVII is what leads it to being one of the most memorable and well known RPGs, and FFs to this date.

Wha? Most RPGs are schizophrenic and mish-mash. That's not unique to FFVII. If anything, it's why people tend to like FFX's setting, because its consistent and coherent, a rarity in RPGs.

 

[Makoeyes987]

I dunno, FFVII's world seems to me as one of the strangest mixes of dystopian, cyberpunk and fantasy. Especially in regards to how little is told regarding its history and creation.

 

[Strangelove]

IIRC, they used to develop the games with each area being handled by a different person. So the Gold Saucer and say Nibelheim would have been handled by different people, and they would just tie those together for the final game.

It seems like nowadays they're more of a strong influence from an overall art director keeping things in check.

 

[Loxetta]

I think Gold Saucer being so 'out of place' was what made FF7's world feel so realistic to me. We're talking about a global place here, and not all cities are alike. As depressing as the overall planet and some of the towns feel, they can't all feel like that. GS shows that a town can be vastly different from the rest of the pack, but still fit the narrative theme.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Alright, back to business.

GONGAGA

Gongaga is hella boring, in universe and out. Within it's universe, I suppose it's meant to be. It's a frontier town without all the freakyness of Nibelheim or say, Banora, so in effect, it's boring as hell by Zack's own admission, and the only thing it has going for it is a Mako Reactor. As you may or may not noticed, Gongaga has its own regional flavor to it in the shape of its houses and the style within, which leads me to ask the question I often ask, as to why the creators of FFVII seemed to have dicked their own setting as far as world building. The FFVII world has no real history in terms of its people or any of its places at all. It's just JENOVA/CETRA DIED/SOME SHIT WITH COAL/SHINRA/A WAR OR SOME SHIT/SHINRA Kinda sad to see that throughout the Compilation SE has had no compulsion to actually...address any of this, either. Shit sucks.

Anyway, I guess Shinra put a Reactor here...for what, I'm not sure, really. I suppose their strategy was to put Reactors in populated, yet not advanced places to further development or something. Obviously this didn't work for Gongaga, considering that their reactor blew the fuck up. Except for Junon and Midgar, I have to wonder just how successful Shinra was with advancing culture around the Planet (even if it was for their own gain), because we have no real 'before or after' picture of the world before Shinra. It just seems like...everyone was farming dirt before, and they're not doing much better now. Even in the past when Shinra was a weapons company, they were producing weapons...for who? Rampaging farmers?

BLARGH

Cosmo Canyon is next, guys.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

One does get the impression that Gongaga is about as backwater as it gets.

 

[Loxetta]

The only thing worthwhile about going to Gongaga was the Touch Me enemies. I let my charas get turned on purpose THE FROG VICTORY HOP WAS SO CUTE

 

[Cat Rage Room]

It's also sort of weird that SE didn't characterize Zack showing any emotion or concern over the reactor blowing up. I mean, maybe he DID, but it sure wasn't shown.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

It's also sort of weird that SE didn't characterize Zack showing any emotion or concern over the reactor blowing up. I mean, maybe he DID, but it sure wasn't shown.

I've always found that really odd. There wasn't even a "What the fuck?" moment.

 

[ForceStealer]

It IS a little odd how they never fleshed out the history of FF7's world...at all. They fleshed out the history of its characters, and I guess you could say that's where they put their all their focus. But other games have created huge worlds with involved histories.

I know you'll be the first to yell Mass Effect as loud as you can , but even other JRPGs such as Xenosaga have done this...

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I know you'll be the first to yell Mass Effect as loud as you can , but even other JRPGs such as Xenosaga have done this...

Even other FFs have done this.

 

[ForceStealer]

Well, to an extent. Certainly better than VII did, yes.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

I know you'll be the first to yell Mass Effect as loud as you can , but even other JRPGs such as Xenosaga have done this...

Yeah, as much as I'd like to yell out Mass Effect...it's really something that's almost pretty standard, even among non RPGs. Like Tres said, other FFs have done it, and Xenosaga, Xenogears, Saga Frontier II, Star Ocean, Suikoden, etc etc. Even then, I'm not asking for a detailed history book here, but something.

 

[Aki]

when exactly did the reactor blow

 

[looneymoon]

This was sort of brought up in another thread, but it made me wonder about the economic standing of these cities... Gongaga, Corel and the Midgar Slums are probably the crappiest places to live on the Planet. As shitty as Gongaga looks, it seems like they probably had it better than people in Corel and the Slum dwellers. Comparitively, I'd say Nibelheim, Rocket Town, Wutai, Kalm etc. collectively make up the world's "middle class" of Gaia.

If there was a remake, it'd be nice to see the diversification of each town, considering the FF7 world seems really small in my mind. But with recent revelations, it seems unlikely

 

[Ghost X]

I don't have much issue with Gongaga. FFVII was well written enough for me not to register a complaint, as say compared to various other FFs. I think its cool how Square varied the tragedies that occurred to places after Midgar had their way with the world. They torched Corel, their reactor blew up near Gongaga, Sephiroth went psycho in Nibelheim, they turned Wutai in to a tourist attraction etc. All very different tragedies. I recall being pretty moved by the imagery of Gongaga in an "awww, that's sad" kind of way.

 

[Tennyo]

Gongaga did make me feel rather sad when I visited it. Wasn't there a guy near the graveyard who was all crazy or something? So sad.

But yeah, not that you mention it it did seem odd that Zack never noticed that the reactor blew up. lol

 

[TheHammerOf...JUSTICE]

This topic.... KICKS ASS. I think your opinions of each town are pretty spot on. Junon, Midgar, and Wutai are my favs.

Yea the gold saucer has got to be the weirdest spot in the whole game. Not to mention the size of the thing and the fact that it's made or painted to look like solid gold. I'm glad it's there despite the strangeness cause several of the mini games and the arena are actually fun.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

COSMO CANYON

The birthplace of the Study of Planet Life, Red XIII, and of course, AVALANCHE.

Cosmo Canyon is one of my favorite towns in FFVII. In fact, it's literally one of my favorite video game locations, period. The music, visuals, atmosphere, it's one of the places that reminds me part of the reason why FFVII is one of the most acclaimed RPGs of all time. Cosmo Canyon is perfect, and the music just makes it. It's theme is one of my favorite tracks in the game, and it's really, really introspective, as in, it makes you just want to close your eyes and nod your head to it and melt.

While the Cave of the Gi isn't my favorite dungeon, and Red XIII isn't even my favorite party member, his sequence with his father and finding out the truth of what happened is incredibly poignant, and Red XIII howling while Seto cries...whatever he's crying, with Great Warrior playing in the background...is one of the most powerful scenes in the entire game, if not the entire series. I really wish we spent more time here as opposed to just a pit stop. Hell, I wish we spent more time in ALL of the towns. They really have a lot of offer in this game.

Like I said before, the atmosphere is why I love it as well. The constant dusk, the cozy, safe corridors, and the warm natural environment as a contrast to the cold steel of Junon and Midgar really hits the spot, for me. When there's eventually If there's ever a remake, if they give the same care and attention to the atmosphere of all of the locations, I'm sold.

However, there's also the possibility of the sheer horror of SE fucking it up and making it just one room, with a rock remix of the BGM, and like 2 NPCs.


Oh God.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Also, post, guys.

 

[TheHammerOf...JUSTICE]

The scene with Nanaki howling up as his father cried really is one of the most powerful scenes in the game. 'Great Warrior' really adds to the moment. I always did like the atmosphere of Cosmo Canyon myself.

I always wondered about how exactly avalanche was formed in Cosmo Canyon. They seemed to be a fairly peaceful people and you'd think Shinra would have annihilated them if they had known avalanche had been started there.

My personal theory is that while maybe there was a few people from Cosmo Canyon in Avalanche generally it was the study of the planet and the harmful Mako energy that truly created Avalanche and that's how Cosmo Canyon is Avalanche's birth place.

 

[Loxetta]

Far as I know, a lot of people travel to Cosmo Canyon because it's a sort of knowledge center. AVALANCHE may have formed there but that doesn't mean the people were native to there.

I love Cosmo Canyon as well. I don't really have any reasons beside what you already said, though So I'm just going to thank the post and say Mog is awesome.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I always wanted to know how Nanaki got up the ladder to Bugenhagen's observatory.

I think that in Cosmo Canyon all the food is organic, they have composting pit latrines, they use recycled toilet paper and environmentally-friendly light bulbs, and the electricity is wind-generated. if I didn't live in Junon I would like to live there, or maybe have a time share holiday apartment.

I actually hated the music at first: the heavy Native American beat was laying it on with a trowel, I felt. Recently I've come to like it better.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

There's actually something I wanted to address before I moved on to Nibelheim.

About the Gi Tribe. In the Cave of the Gi, Bugenhagen mentions that "It's unfortunate that the Gi Tribe were larger than us. If they attacked through here, we wouldn't have stood a chance."

Now uh, for years, I thought he meant 'larger than us' in terms of numbers, but looking at some of the skeletons around the cave...could the Gi Tribe have been literal giants?