That's one of the creatures I'm very curious about as well. I think it's just a brain inside a pod able to spit poisonous gas at opponents. It does rather look like a flesh-colored balloon with a clown nose, however. But if the Hammer Blaster artwork from FF Möbius is any indication, Brain Pod could very well turn out to be very frightening.
Cid's relationship with Shera is another part of the story I want to see. He was pretty brutal towards her with his #$%*&$& stuff. Wondering if his interactions with her and Palmer will be toned down.
My guess is that they retain the scenes, just don't present them in the same over-the-top way. If changed too much, the initial meaning will get lost which in turn will change the whole dynamic between the characters. I'm rather optimistic in that regard.
Every time I see posts or news articles saying, "No One's Noticed This FFVII Thing In 20 Years!" I always shake my head. But the unused Honeybee Inn stuff and this have now slapped me upisde my pretentious little head. Excellent job! I have never noticed that.
I think I was in the same position as you Lic, I was like "when was that mentioned" and then I think Shad or someone pointed out the station name, so I went and got a screenshot to check. Lo and behold, the name "edge" has been with FFVII since its very first screen.
I believe it was GlitterBerri, or one of her friends, who first pointed out the "NORTH EDGE STATION" thing in the map analysis that was posted on GlitterBerri's site. I then shared this observation here on TLS. EDIT: Wow this all happened 10 years ago.
GB speculated that "NORTH EDGE STATION" might have directly inspired the name for the post-Meteor city of Edge but I honestly doubt that. FFVII locations and cities tend to have very simple and descriptive names and so I believe that Edge would have become the name of the new city even if there wasn't a station with the name "Edge" in it.
Fun fact: The game files for Mako Reactor #1 in the original game read things like "nrthmk" and "nmkin", representing North Mako Reactor and North Mako Reactor Interior/Inside respectively. This is of course congruent with the name of the train station being "NORTH EDGE STATION".
Meanwhile the game files for Mako Reactor #5 read things like "southmk" and "smkin", South Mako Reactor and South Mako Reactor Interior/Inside respectively. This makes sense of course since the #1- and #5 reactors are on opposite ends of Midgar.
@Kain424
Now I'm curious. Which parts about the Honey Bee Inn are you only just now hearing about?
I believe it was Ite who first highlighted what had been staring me in the face for a long time: That the FMV of the Sector 7 plate falling includes a shot of one of the unused HBI fields.
Unused Honey Bee Inn "Employee Quarters/Room", filename ONNA_6.
Sorry for the confusion. I'm just now learning that area was called the "North Edge Station". Perhaps an oversight of mine, as I have been in and out of FFVII communities over the years, but I simply don't remember anyone ever pointing this out to me. As someone who has continually obsessed over the game in the intervening years, I am surprised. It reminds me of back when we learned of the extra Palmer stuff for the Honeybee Inn. Which, if my memory serves me right, I may have actually learned from YOU. But it's been almost a decade. Maybe my memory is hazy.
Palmer needs to be expanded on, at least in background lore. For a division that was essentially gutted and defunct, why was he still on the board or even the company at all? I've seen fanfiction justify it that its essentially a family owned and operated company and therefore Palmer is Shinra's brother in law or some such. I've accepted the fanon, but it'd be nice to get some explanation in canon......
Yes, in my headcanon it was his cousin who married the Prez and brought a big injection of capital in return for a directorship for Cousin Roland. I also imagine he has a sister called Pansy who trains racing chocobos and is in every way exactly like Clare Balding.
I don't know that I really want too much backstory for these people. Sometimes, as someone else, less is more - more fun to play with!
Well, Paul Eiding, who voiced Hojo in Dirge of Cerberus, said he's not voicing Hojo in the remake. I know that voice was grating, but I like Paul and am sorry his talents won't be utilized.
Wow. Maybe they really are pulling an X-men first class where they really do just want an entirely fresh cast to sound younger (and in some cases better)?
Roger speculated that perhaps the change in English voice actors is a union thing? I don't know anything to support this but it's an interesting theory.
The Japanese voice actors sound the same since the Compilation era (though of course JP Hojo will have to be recast since his voice actor passed away). So in this sense the English version will probably have even more of a reboot feel compared to the Japanese version.
Hurry Faster? I don’t hear it. It sounds more like Hurry from FFX crossed with Mission: Impossible. Very bland and generic. If it’s Uematsu, it’s not his best work :/
Roger speculated that perhaps the change in English voice actors is a union thing? I don't know anything to support this but it's an interesting theory.
The Japanese voice actors sound the same since the Compilation era (though of course JP Hojo will have to be recast since his voice actor passed away). So in this sense the English version will probably have even more of a reboot feel compared to the Japanese version.
Just speculation I've heard being thrown around. I quite like the new Cloud and the new Barret, but the new Sephiroth I feel isn't bringing much news to the table. I assume they got a reason not to bring back the old cast.
I don't think the recasting thing has anything to do with unions. They managed to get union actors in World of Final Fantasy and Dissidia NT which would have been worked on during the strike. If anything I think it's more likely Square Enix being cheap. With XIV they moved their voice acting over to England, which could be a design choice except they already started with the LA video game voice acting lot and therefore everyone's voices got changed--and that was before the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Though I'm not totally sure of that. Square Enix don't tend to be cheap with their main titles. FFXV didn't seem to be. Maybe the likes of Burton and Newbern would be more expensive with the amounts of voice acting in the remake, so they decided to go with a completely clean slate on the casting. It's just weird when other recently released FF titles have used their voices.
I've been thinking they could be planning on making an entirely new compilation. If this is true, they may move to a new, younger cast in order to future-proof the sound. If they spread it all out over another 10-20 years, they'll want younger voices.
