Midgar Appreciation Post

[CameoAmalthea]

Credit and thanks to Shademp for the visual breakdown of the trailer - images stolen from here http://thelifestream.net/news/final.../visual-breakdown-of-ffvii-remake-e3-trailer/

The new trailer gives us the most detailed look at Midgar ever, fully realized as an actual city, and much of it is beautiful.

I love the look of the sky scrapers:

Things look surprisingly bright.

I also really like the signs on the freeway with things like speed limit

(Although honestly, I think 65 would have been acceptable for in city driving - 55 seems a bit slow - but that's just me)

I'm one of those people who spent the OG obsessing over tiny details like the potted plants and interior decorating in the Shinra Building - so I think I'm going to be completely blown away by the details in the remake - if it's anywhere near as detailed as the trailer.

Also, the distances on the signs - does that mean we'll get to figure out exactly how small the world is - I say small because I always assumed Junon was further away from Midgar, but it looks like it would be a two hour drive (assuming you're at least allowed to go 65 on the highways outside the city - and that the high ways actually connect the two cities).

Anyone else love Midgar (There should be I <3 Midgar T-shirts - there should be fan art of characters wearing those shirts - like Reno)

And I just love the way the highways look! It's so easy to imagine the motorcycle gangs that ruled the upper plate crime scene - the street races that happened after dark.

 

[Octo]

I just love how blade runner everything is looking, I loved old Midgar, but it was a bit weird that it seemed like the plate had factories and a few big buildings besides Shinra HQ but other than that it seemed to be standard houses. But I guess that was the limitations of the time.

So I'm really looking forward to seeing Midgar in it's full gigantiod glory.

 

[Tetsujin]

I still wonder what's the point of those giant floodlights on the upper plate.

Must suck living in one of the houses right next to them

and have your face melted off every night.

 

[Ⓐaron]

Midgar was my favourite part of the game to begin with, and this new trailer has just increased my appreciation for it. At no other point in the game did I feel so much like I was in a genuinely alien world.

 

[Flintlock]

Anyone else love Midgar

On this site, I think you'd have an easier time counting the people who don't love Midgar. Most of us are huge fans.

 

[Tetsujin]

It's the coolest location in any FF game in my opinion.

Although I keep wondering how Shinra justified the construction of a two-level city when there was plenty of usable space around it.

 

[Flintlock]

I just realised that my apartment complex is a bit like Midgar. The "basement" is actually at ground/sea level, and the "ground floor" is built above it; you have to go up stairs or a ramp to reach my front door. Maybe I'll take some photos to explain what I mean.

 

[CameoAmalthea]

I still wonder what's the point of those giant floodlights on the upper plate.

Must suck living in one of the houses right next to them

and have your face melted off every night.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing - light blocking curtains I guess? On the bright side, you don't have to pay for lighting your house, just open the window and you plenty of free light.

Also - light pollution lowers crime rates. Who's going to burglarize a house when there's a giant flood light pointed right at you? Right? And you go out at all hours of the night and it's perfectly bright - no worries about being mugged in a dark parking lot.

...I have no idea why I'm defending this - maybe it'l make more sense if it sounds like something you actually sell people on....I mean, I'm sure there's a point for them being there - and then they built company housing right beside it and billed it as a added bonus (Free light! Read outdoors!)

Flinklock, my head canon is that Midgar all ready existed as a cluster of cities before Shinra came and decided to make this their unified city capital. And - rather than paying people for land to build their headquarters or relocating people they built a plate on top of them.

No one has to move - we'll build the city above you - so none of the old cities have to be destroyed. And lots of new jobs building the plate and easy vertical commuting to even more new jobs that will open in the exciting new above plate shopping and entertainment districts!

Basically, if there was no law governing airspace, there was probably less red tape for Shinra to build above existing cities than bull doze over them.

 

[Ite]

There are more glass skyscrapers in new Midgar. The OG had a very Chicago-in-the-30s feel, lots of concrete. Automobiles rather than cars. This kind of looks like Vancouver with castles.

edit: not a criticism, just an observation. The scenery porn in this game is going to be so so hot.

 

[Lex]

One thing I'm a massive massive fan of in this rendition of Midgar is the old buildings surrounded by technology. The "older" buildings in the original game still kind of look like they could have been built by the Shinra, but this makes it very obvious that there was once an ancient city (lol) which Shinra have built around with the sleek modern buildings and all the metal. The dichotomy is real.

It actually kind of looks like they've just built right over the likes of Alexandria from FFIX. It looks amazing.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Wouldn't that mean that the plate was there before Shinra?

 

[Lex]

hole poked in happy theory

happiness decreasing

 

[Sprites]

I love it and it definitely gives a much better feel for how the world above the plate overshadows the slums. In the original game I always felt that because we saw more of the slums rather than the city there was never a proper sense of just how huge and expansive the city above the plate actually was.

 

[Starling]

Flinklock, my head canon is that Midgar all ready existed as a cluster of cities before Shinra came and decided to make this their unified city capital. And - rather than paying people for land to build their headquarters or relocating people they built a plate on top of them.

According to Jessie, that's basically canon.

I get the impression they used elements of early concept art in some parts of the trailer.

Spoiler

 

[Odysseus]

Yeah, that bottom one looks a lot like the pan down shot before you see Cloud and Barret.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

In my fanfic I have Rufus explaining that Shinra had whole squads of Urban Development people going around the world looting it of antiquities with which to build Midgar. Things like five hundred year old oak doors, etc... My head canon is that Shinra appropriated all the best buildings of the original seven towns, dismantled them brick by brick and then rebuilt them on top of the plate. The only reason Aerith's church survived is... I'll think of something.

 

[Starling]

Would the missile have crashed into it by then? I wouldn't really expect Shinra to find moving a church worthwhile.

 

[ForceStealer]

I agree, I thought Midgar looked freaking amazing, and made me wish super hard for bonus sidequests up on the Plate.

 

[trash panda]

The only reason Aerith's church survived is... I'll think of something.

I like all of your ideas, so...I'm waiting. Pls explain.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Would the missile have crashed into it by then? I wouldn't really expect Shinra to find moving a church worthwhile.

I know - but in the very first pic in the first post, there's a building that looks a lot like a church.

 

[CameoAmalthea]

I like that you can see the concept art as an influence. Imagine all the ideas they had for design that they just couldn't put in the game because that much detail was impossible back then - and now getting to go back and create the world exactly like you imagined with no limit on what you can make.

@Lic, maybe Shinra is anti-churches/religious symbols?

 

[Blade]

Here's hoping Midgar is more than just a "pretty corridor" this time.

I literally WANT to get lost in the Train Graveyard and maybe that "bridge of junk" to the upper plate.

Just a large amount of exploration would be great... hidden items, extra goodies, easter eggs... being able to come back and see changes made as time passes in the game...

Yeahhhhh....

 

[Zef]

I hope that we get to explore some of the sectors we don't get to see in the original. As well more of the top plate in general.

 

[Cat on Mars]

In my first watch I wondered why they chose to show us the city at day when OG's introduction depicted Midgar's sky pitch black. Anyway, daylight really accentuates the differences in design and atmosphere between upper plate locations and slums.
So far, everything looks great. Maybe prettier than I expected... I liked the definitely not subtle Omnicorp's Delta City 'aesthetic' in the OG.

Spoiler: (SPOILER)

(Elevator descending from the 95th floor at OCP corporation HC.)

Midgar is the main attraction of the remake for me. In the OG we got to see slums and just a glimpse of the enormous city above the plate... I felt cheated when I found out that the key to Sector 5 didn't grant access to new locations. I'm eager to know how much will be accessible in the remake.

I want to go back to Midgar. The hiraeth has got too much.

 

[Lex]

The "shiny golden wire of hope" is a gameplay section I can see them removing quite easily. They could replace it with a cutscene, make reference to the original quote and just have the team climb the wire lol.