The Slums in CC fucking sucked.

[Cat Rage Room]

I didn't like the feel of the Slums in Crisis Core at all.

One of the best parts of Midgar in the original FF7 was the atmosphere and visual 'feel' of the slums. Growing up in real life 'slums' myself (not that you have to grow up in the ghetto to appreciate the FF7 slums setting, though), the Slums in FF7 had the closest (in atmosphere) feel to a ghetto in a fantasy setting. The people, the atmosphere, the whole thing had the same feel to it. And the music, especially the music. Underneath The Rotting Pizza has to be one of my favorite tracks in FF7, because it was the ghetto personified.

The whole thing was just captured really well. Kids playing in piles of garbage and broken glass. Suspicious shop owners conducting business behind fenced counters. Pissed off people walking around spitting at the government and shouting at their TVs. People hawking items at you that you don't want. Shady characters and prostitutes, pimps, gangbangers, and the like. The atmosphere was perfect.

Than CC came and sort of pissed on it. Case in point;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxuUpTQ9mQI

This music is not representative of the slums I knew in FF7. Granted, I wasn't expecting the focus on the slums that FF7 had, and I also understood that given the game is though Zack's eyes, it doesn't have to be as depressing, either. But CC turned the interpretation of the slums from a place that you'll probably get shanked and then get solicited by a transsexual prostitute afterwards, to a happy place where you can see the sky and everyone's poor but it AIN'T SO BAD. The slums in CC just weren't depressing or dangerous feeling enough.

 

[Celes Chere]

I agree with you, it doesn't seem very 'slummy' to me, and Aerith doesn't seem like a girl from the slums at all. She has a nice home surrounded by flowers, and nice clothing. I think Tifa looks more a slum girl. <=/ Though, she is from the 'country' so maybe that's why.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Aerith doesn't seem like a girl from the slums at all. She has a nice home surrounded by flowers, and nice clothing.

See, that's something else I wanted to comment on. Actually, the fact that Aerith doesn't look or act like she's from the slums isn't actually a bad thing! The same thing was emphasized in the original FF7. The fact that she dresses nice (I don't know how expensive her clothes would be in the FF7 world, but she keeps herself clean and well kept) and keeps a nice house further personifies the special person she really is. Unlike everyone else in the slums (and in the real life ghetto) who just go 'fuck it' with their lot in life and it shows, Aerith resists it and keeps it fresh to death.

Actually, there are plenty of people that do this in real life. My grandmother came from a poor background and also grew up in the 'slums', but her and my great aunts/uncles took pride in how they kept a clean house and were classy regardless.

 

[Max Payne]

I didn't like CC much at all.

I agree too, I lived a slum during many points in my life, the slums in CC are a step up.

 

[aniron]

Original game, though inferior in graphics, had been more powerful in many ways than AC or CC...

 

[Loxetta]

This is why making a good FF7 remake would be like playing darts blindfolded.

They probably just ain't gonna hit it.

 

[Alex]

Do you know where else the slums suck? Third world countries. And unlike FF7, they don't just suck when you're on your handheld gameboxes. They suck ALL the time.

I'd like to see you enjoy your exploitative 'slum music' with ears full of cholera, AIDS and malnourished children hanging off your breasts.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

I'd like to see you enjoy your exploitative 'slum music' with ears full of cholera, AIDS and malnourished children hanging off your breasts.

Sounds kinda like where I grew up.

 

[NoenGaruth]

I feel the same about the CC slums, tho I can understand why they had a different look than in FF7, mostly being the fact that the environment is now 3d and you can see up into the open, whereas in VII you had the background's where it was all looking down.

Although Square was still lazy by not having boatloads of junk hanging around like in VII and AC/C, also the fact that when you look out past the reactors and plates blocking the sky, you can see blue, and why the heck is there any form of day in Midgar? If they'd kept that all night time aswell as kept in all the support structures for the outerplates which would block some of the view to the outside, it would have felt a little more closed in...but hey, it's the PSP and they probably just did whatever to save on memory and polygons.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

I feel the same about the CC slums, tho I can understand why they had a different look than in FF7, mostly being the fact that the environment is now 3d and you can see up into the open, whereas in VII you had the background's where it was all looking down.

Although Square was still lazy by not having boatloads of junk hanging around like in VII and AC/C, also the fact that when you look out past the reactors and plates blocking the sky, you can see blue, and why the heck is there any form of day in Midgar? If they'd kept that all night time aswell as kept in all the support structures for the outerplates which would block some of the view to the outside, it would have felt a little more closed in...but hey, it's the PSP and they probably just did whatever to save on memory and polygons.

The problem with this reasoning is it assumes that the issue with CC's depiction of the slums was a graphical issue. True, seeing the open sky and such iffed me, but it wasn't a graphical reason why CC didn't do the slums justice.

 

[Loxetta]

I feel the same about the CC slums, tho I can understand why they had a different look than in FF7, mostly being the fact that the environment is now 3d and you can see up into the open, whereas in VII you had the background's where it was all looking down.

Although Square was still lazy by not having boatloads of junk hanging around like in VII and AC/C, also the fact that when you look out past the reactors and plates blocking the sky, you can see blue, and why the heck is there any form of day in Midgar? If they'd kept that all night time aswell as kept in all the support structures for the outerplates which would block some of the view to the outside, it would have felt a little more closed in...but hey, it's the PSP and they probably just did whatever to save on memory and polygons.

They pulled it off just fine in Upper Midgar. They could have just used the same textures from up there. Instead of blue at the edge of the plate, replace it with the sky color from Sector 8. And instead of sunny yellow glow from above, use the dingy green from the Midgar streetlamps. That would have gotten the atmosphere a little more right at least, even if they couldn't pull off the cramped-junkyard feel.

 

[Alex]

Sounds kinda like where I grew up.

EDIT: NO MEANIE

 

[Cat Rage Room]

i don't like to edit posts but seriously whaddya trying to ridicule me for

using people's pictures to make fun of them is pushing it on the notcoolometer

Do you know where else the slums suck? Third world countries. And unlike FF7, they don't just suck when you're on your handheld gameboxes. They suck ALL the time.

I'd like to see you enjoy your exploitative 'slum music' with ears full of cholera, AIDS and malnourished children hanging off your breasts.

I'm not really sure what you're trying to say here. Are being serious here?

 

[Alex]

I wasn't doing it in a mean way! D: It made you the king man! The king!

And no, I wasn't I haven't played CC so I don't know how differently the slums were portrayed. But I agree with you when you said they were one of the best atmospheric parts of FFVII, it would kind of suck if the compilation didn't remain faithful to that.

 

[Super Mario]

Is this the slums theme liek??

 

[Loxetta]

That's for Don Corneo's area.

This is the 'regular' slums theme, "Under The Rotting Pizza"

I fail at embedding so just clicky.

 

[Makoeyes987]

In terms of atmosphere, I'll agree that the slums of CC were not nearly as unique or memorable as in FFVII, since they don't depict it as quite negative or unhappy as they did in FFVII. I mean, you'll get some of that when speaking to some NPCs (such as the woman who talks about how Shinra had a mistress who died in the slums alone) but most of the time, you're talking to a bunch of happy people on skid row who seem surprisingly upbeat and normal for living in a shit hole.

Even going through the market where Zack gets made a fool of with Aerith...it seemed like it was more of a comical, place than the sad slum that it was in FFVII. I think it's more of the atmosphere with the people, rather than the actual depiction. Because graphically, the place looked terrible, and the people were wearing some really sad looking rags. It's just...everyone was acting too...happy.

 

[ForceStealer]

it would kind of suck if the compilation didn't remain faithful to that.

Well, CC is only one that didn't really do it justice. ACC did a great job with the slums as did Dirge of Cerberus. But both of those had a slightly more depressing look all around. CC used FFVII's far more colorful palette and that 'happy' selection of colors seemed to translate to the slums when FFVII didn't.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Since we were seeing the slums from Zack's perspective, where he was mostly just enjoying being around Aerith, and meeting new people, unlike Cloud, who's actually realizing and taking in the total picture of depression and despair the people of the slums endure...I guess it's only natural that the depiction of the slums would be different for each character and their story.

In one game, you've got Zack playing happy little mini-games with the children and running around, picking up materia off the ground in a timed race...

While in another, you've got Cloud thoughtfully explaining why the people of the slums choose not to abandon their homes despite their unhappines, and how they're akin to a train that can only go where the tracks lead them.

I mean, these aren't really the same frames of reference at all.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

I don't know, like I said, I agree that perspective changes things, but the depiction of a given setting should be somewhat consistent.

Take Shinra. They're pieces of shit. FF7 illustrated this beautifully, as Cloud and co fought against them. But even in CC/BC, where you play as someone who works for them and sometimes paints them as 'okay', they're still pieces of scum and it's apparent, even though the light is shining on them from a different angle.

 

[Makoeyes987]

I don't know, like I said, I agree that perspective changes things, but the depiction of a given setting should be somewhat consistent.

I agree. And in CC's defense, the slums did look, at least aesthetically, like slums. You see lots of shanties, dirty buildings, people in messed up clothes, trash and scrap lying around, and the plate above, blocking out the sky. Visually, it's there. However, I think the reason the actual ambiance, and grim, slum-like quality of the place is missing in CC is the fact that the characters, and hell, the music...isn't very depressing or "slum-like" as it were in FFVII. Hell, the theme of the slums is an upbeat, rock arrangment on an electric guitar. It doesn't seem like that much of a depressing place.

Take Shinra. They're pieces of shit. FF7 illustrated this beautifully, as Cloud and co fought against them. But even in CC/BC, where you play as someone who works for them and sometimes paints them as 'okay', they're still pieces of scum and it's apparent, even though the light is shining on them from a different angle.

I agree. And I think they're more consistent with this depiction of Shinra because no matter what, Shinra will be the antagonists and "evil" force of the world of FFVII.

 

[Celes Chere]

See, that's something else I wanted to comment on. Actually, the fact that Aerith doesn't look or act like she's from the slums isn't actually a bad thing! The same thing was emphasized in the original FF7. The fact that she dresses nice (I don't know how expensive her clothes would be in the FF7 world, but she keeps herself clean and well kept) and keeps a nice house further personifies the special person she really is. Unlike everyone else in the slums (and in the real life ghetto) who just go 'fuck it' with their lot in life and it shows, Aerith resists it and keeps it fresh to death.

Actually, there are plenty of people that do this in real life. My grandmother came from a poor background and also grew up in the 'slums', but her and my great aunts/uncles took pride in how they kept a clean house and were classy regardless.

Yeah, sometimes it seems like the creators want to emphasize the fact that Aerith lived in the slums, but besides having to sell flowers to earn some money, I don't see how her life there was so hard. She had a nice home, a nice Mom, and nice clothes. Maybe Elmyra wastes a lot of the money on Aerith, though. I mean she obviously cares for her a lot, and Elmyra looks just like everyone else. The only thing that's threatening Aerith is ShinRa, but why point out that she's a girl from the slums if she actually just lives nicely?

While in another, you've got Cloud thoughtfully explaining why the people of the slums choose not to abandon their homes despite their unhappines, and how they're akin to a train that can only go where the tracks lead them.

Plus, a lot can change in four years. Maybe the slums weren't always as bad as we see them by the time FFVII rolls around. Because once you go to Nibelheim, you spend the whole time trying to get back to Midgar- of course, you never make it back so maybe it looks different after the time has passed.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Plus, a lot can change in four years. Maybe the slums weren't always as bad as we see them by the time FFVII rolls around. Because once you go to Nibelheim, you spend the whole time trying to get back to Midgar- of course, you never make it back so maybe it looks different after the time has passed.

Naw..they always sucked

There's nothing at all in the plot to indicate that the slums took a sudden nosedive or that they were anything close to good back in the past. It's where all the poor people lived, where they were neglected by shinra, and made to live with the trash. It's just storyline perspective at work. Lazard's emails emphasize just how shitty the slums have always been.

 

[Celes Chere]

Well, there goes that idea.

 

[Neutron Ronnie]

Aren't the slums supposed to be so polluted that even the rats get sick? In a case like that, it's pretty surprising that people are still living there... I know what Cloud and Barret said, but it still doesn't make much sense...