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

[looneymoon]

Nibelheim. This place, I swear, is made of nightmares. Agreeing all the sentiments that this place freaked me the fuck out when I first got there. Especially those goddamn clones. I hated how they were all just writhing around waiting to die. I felt bad for them, but was simultaneously really creeped out by them.

I'm not sure if it was alluded to that Nibelheim was nearby, but when I first entered the town I didn't know what town it was going to be... so I was doubly shocked/freaked out when I found it was exactly like the flashback, not a burnt pile of ruins. The Vincent sidequest was not all that comforting either. There were some really fucked up monsters in that mansion. I'm thinking of one in particular, I'm sure you all know which one (it had two heads and would writhe around). Plus all the little notes that ultimately led to a HUMAN BEING locked in the basement wasn't very pleseant either.

The whole setting in just eerie and disturbing. As a 9-10 year old playing this game, it really got under my skin.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I promised I would update this, and I like to be a man of my word.

So what happened to "I'll call you"?

Wow. Nibelhiem has a lot to answer for. Honestly, sometimes I think it would be better off it was burned down (and stayed burned down) to serve as a final tombstone for everything that happened there and everyone who died. But alas, that's not what happened, and it just serves as an unnerving pit stop on Cloud's journey, and another testament to the bizarre shit that Shinra is willing to do to maintain their global hegemony. I'm not really upset about that, either way is fine.

I kind of like that it's still there. You could burn it to the ground, but the land itself would always feel like something from a nightmare for those who know what happened.

With the town able to grow into something else, there's a potential for "new life" so to speak -- both for the atmosphere of the town and for the aura it carries for those who are so intimately familiar with what's gone down there.

Maybe burn down the mansion, though. That thing should be gone. That's also the easiest way to make sure nothing else crawls out of there to incite a new shitty entry in the Compilation.

I guess one thing I wish they did was elaborate a bit further on the Shinra Mansion. Is it just property that the family owned? Is that where the Shinra family originated? The history of the building itself? I dunno, I just wish we found out more about the past. Well, what do YOU guys think?

A great question. I'd guess that it was owned by the family at some point -- possibly the reason the first mako reactor was placed by the town.

I still say this should have been exploited to make my pet fanfic guilty pleasure come to life: Rufus and Cloud as half-brothers!

The Jenova Project was BEFORE the Mako Reactors, though.

Actually, the reactor probably came first (they discovered the process of converting mako energy in 1959) and JENOVA was discovered more than a decade later (approximately 30 years before the events of the game, so that places it in the 1976-1978 range).

Shin-Ra itself relocated its headquarters to the newly constructed Midgar in 1976.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Ah, my mistake. However, I thought that even though they discovered the mako process before, they didn't develop the Reactor technology until later? Didn't CC state that they used to mine it before?

Shin-Ra itself relocated its headquarters to the newly constructed Midgar in 1976.

I have to wonder though, where was it headquartered before?

 

[ForceStealer]

Junon?

There were some really fucked up monsters in that mansion. I'm thinking of one in particular, I'm sure you all know which one (it had two heads and would writhe around).

Yang's getting excited.

I %&$in hate that enemy. First of all it has WAY MORE HP than you're probably capable of handling at that stage of the game. But for the most part it doesn't do a damn thing so you keep pounding on it when you should be running because he'll just finally start killing people.

I also really hate the Dorkfaces too as Confuse can be pretty brutal at this point.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Ah, my mistake. However, I thought that even though they discovered the mako process before, they didn't develop the Reactor technology until later? Didn't CC state that they used to mine it before?

I can't remember what they were mining back in the day, but I just checked the 10th Anniversary Ultimania's timeline (pg. 30 in the original; pg. 32 in the revised edition), and it says this:

"[μ]-Εγλ 1968 1/9
The first 'mako reactor' power plant is established in Nibelheim to utilize mako; after beginning construction on the Nibelheim mako reactor, Shin-Ra begins building many more in various other places"

[μ]-Εγλ 1968 1/9
ニブルヘイムに、魔晄を用いた発電施設「魔晄炉」の第一号基が建設される; 神羅はこのニブルヘイム魔晄炉の建設を皮切りに、以後、各地で魔晄炉の建設はじめる

I have to wonder though, where was it headquartered before?

A good question. I think Force is probably correct about it being Junon.

 

[Alex Strife]

Cloud's father is unknown, and Square enix is capable of that, and a lot more, so don't discard that possibility, Tres.

 

[eqmddlh]

Nibelheim. This place, I swear, is made of nightmares.

Midgar and Nibelheim are my favorites places, the suburbs and Shin-Ra copr in the first case and, in the second, the Reactor, the mountains and specially the Mansion.

Cosmo Canyon is also amongs the locations I like the most, specially for all it means to one of my favorite characters and the epic music that's always present.

Best regards.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

What I love about all these towns - and Nibelheim's a great example of it - is the detail that went into the background renderings. The kitchens! The pot-bellied stoves! The toilets, with toilet paper! The table cloths and pot plants! You constantly get the impression that this planet is teeming with real people going about their ordinary daily lives (and too often suffering from frustration, boredom, and selfishness): the whole world comes alive, and this, I think, adds incredibly to the sense of threat and the poignancy of loss.

Who hasn't wandered through these towns and wondered what it would be like to live there?

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

The table cloths and pot plants!

Cause of the Nibelheim Incident solved.


Great post, though, Licorice. Couldn't agree more.

 

[Ghost X]

I thought Nibelheim was done well in FFVII, concerning its importance to the story. I disagree that it should've stayed burnt down, as that would've taken important parts of the story out like how the modern residents had no apparent recollection of Cloud and Tifa, which mind-fucked them both. This was something that was only resolved near the end of the game, and a lot of players were still confused as to what happened (I recall there being a persisting belief that Cloud was a clone back in the day).

I wish the mountain path afterward (that goes to the reactor etc) was done differently. Seemed a bit tedious to go through, but besides that, was interesting.

 

[ForceStealer]

Cause of the Nibelheim Incident solved.

Or at the very least why Sephiroth was smiling.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Cause of the Nibelheim Incident solved:

What else did you think was growing in the greenhouse room? Those poor science department minions had to do something to alleviate the boredom. You can only torture people for so many hours a day. And quite honestly, it would have been in keeping with the spirit of the game as a whole.

 

[ForceStealer]

I also forgot to mention, by the way, how much I like Anxious Heart (the Nibelheim theme). I never actually paid any attention to it before. But i really liked hearing it in Crisis Core and then they stuck it in ACC and it was awesome.
Definitely a prime example of one of those mood-capturing themes.

 

[minimosey]

Oh yes, amazing.

Or more like, "We are reusing the same model and here's why..."

Yeah, I doubt Nibelheim is really supposed to be a replica down to every last detail. A freakishly uncanny one, but still. How would you manage that after all the damage from the fire?

 

[ForceStealer]

I was being facetious guys...

 

[Cat Rage Room]

ROCKET TOWN

nah just kiddin

Rocket Town is pretty nice. I like the concept. A bunch of bored engineers peter out a living in a boring suburb after a failed rocket crash. I think this town is the most realistic city in the game so far, mostly because it's the first town to consistently display bathrooms in every house. Of course this place is most memorable because it's the current city of FFVII's straight balla shot calla, Cid Highwind. Why Cid is such a fucking badass would be another topic entirely, but one thing that always stuck out to me is how Cid kicks that comedian in Rocket Town in the balls in his own house.

I kinda wish you spend more time here. It's very IN AND OUT, like most places in FFVII. It's sometimes hard to really appreciate the places because you're there and gone. That's why Midgar is so memorable, it makes an impression and it really settles in, with the player spending hours there before they leave for the next town. In a possible remake, I hope they find a good way to slow it down just a little bit, while keeping the spirit of each location. I dunno. Here's hoping.

Next; Wutai!

 

[ForceStealer]

I also liked that (the first time you're there), it played Oppressed People, one of my favorite songs on the soundtrack

Cid definitely dominates the memory of Rocket Town, but important shit went down there. The theft of the Tiny Bronco, and the final launching of the Shinra 26 at Meteor. And how could we forget that guy that won't get out of the bathroom.
"I dunno what's going to happen first, Meteor falling or that guy coming out of the bathroom."

Still really STUPID that they that as Cid's hometown though when the flashback clearly shows it developing AFTER the failed launch. Its just lazy.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Yeah I feel Square really dropped the ball on Cid's background in general.

"Yeah he likes rockets and shit the end"

Like, no childhood, upbringing, what motivated him to become a pilot, introspection on his past or character, or anything." I mean, the character himself is badass in the main game that it's fine, but they really wasted the opportunity given within the Ultimania's to expand on him.

 

[ForceStealer]

I guess they consider the fact that he's "Cid" is background enough that he's an engineer of some kind.

Definitely agree though. I enjoyed the looks at him in Case of Barret and Dirge of Cerberus. Seeing him in SOME different atmosphere.

 

[Ghost X]

I wonder if it was intelligent to build the houses so close to the rocket. The sound alone when a rocket takes off is deafening from miles away. Imagine what it'd do the foundations of those houses at the very least. I think I recall the town getting somewhat damaged when they finally launch the thing later in the game, but not much (you can go back later, and I think it looks the same sans rocket).

Anyways, town was interesting, but in-and-out pretty much as mentioned. You are forced to go there twice though, unlike a lot of other places in the game. I think it has a fairly important part in the storyline and they could have done more with it. That's pretty much all I can think of to comment on it.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Loved the first picture.

What I like about Rocket Town is that everyone who lives there is SO BORED. Wutai's lost a war and tourism is slowly crushing their culture; in Midgar and Corel and Gongaga there's hunger and poverty and despair; Nibelheim's just a nightmare - but Rocket Town has all the horror of suburbia.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Back on the train again. Only a few more towns to go.

Wutai

If you've been around here for a while you've probably already picked up on how I feel about Wutai. Wutai, at first glance, is just another small town entry in the age old 'Japanland' RPG convention, just another notch on the map, that a very casual player may never even see.

However, an astute player notices something a bit more. In the original game, very few comments here and there allude to 'the war', or 'a war', that Shinra waged long ago. The earliest direct comment to this is Elmyra stating that her husband had 'been sent to some far away place called Wutai'. Comments about the war with Wutai are very few and far between until you get to Wutai itself, and then you realize that Wutai's culture and world standing was completely castrated by Shinra during/after the war (sound familiar?). It was interesting hearing that this little podunk nowhereland was at one more strong enough to challenge Shinra in open warfare.

However, like most parts of FFVII's past that are actually interesting and worth expanding, the original game's narrative sort of completely glosses over it. Then came along the Ultimania which outright stated that not only was Wutai strong enough to wage war against Shinra, it was doing a damn good job of it and could have actually broke even or won outright if it wasn't for those pesky SOLDIER/Sephiroth/Materia of Shinra. Interesting.

Then Crisis Core came and everyone was rubbing their hands together for different reasons. I for one was excited at hearing that the War was going to be expanded on, I was particularly excited at the screenshots featuring Wutai soldiers.

Alas, the game itself comes out and the War with Wutai is once again an afterthought, with it being more or less forgotten about after the first segment of the game in favor of the Genesis War (jesus christ, square). Even before that, the depiction of the war seemed pretty comical with Zack taking Fort Tamblin all by himself. Yeah, I know they were trying to portray Zack as a badass, but come on. That pretty much dashed my hopes of Crisis Core being a semi-serious attempt at displaying the brotherhood, horrors, and general pointlessness of wars, within the events of a particularly pointless war in FFVII's world.

I guess I sort of went into a tirade. Yeah, well, in the original game, Wutai is a pretty bangin' place. While there's no reason to go there after the sidequest, it's a good place to get X-Potions, and the music is what's up.

Next, Icicle Inn!

 

[Tennyo]

You forgot to mention fighting our way up the pagoda and that it's the only way to learn all of the enemy skills.

Otherwise, very nice. I also wished for more info on Wutai.

 

[Ghost X]

I thought Wutai was a pretty cool place. I recall in my first play through I got stuck, being unable to defeat that Don Corneo creature that kept casting Aero (I think it killed me generally when it cast it once to begin with =P). So I spent quite some time in and around the area levelling up. I sincerely enjoyed the place, since there was a lot to explore, and each screen had some sort of nook or cranny that I wondered if I could reach etc. Storyline, with Yuffie n' such, I liked it too. People bitch about the materia-stealing, but I saw it as an interesting challenge.

 

[Tetsujin]

Also, Turks on vacation.