Thoughts on how to expand the Midgar scenario

[Claymore]

What makes you say that? If nothing is changed about his role, he's almost a tease for Part 2 (although you do get him for 2, maybe 3 boss fights at least and a good chunk of story during the Midgar finale sequence.) I think it could be perfectly fine - the same surprise for new players of the game, thinking they can predict the story now that they're at big bad HQ.

That feels like a waste - looking at it from SE's point of view. Developing the entire character, all the battle animations, equipment, interactions, etc... all for just that short escape segment? I dunno.

 

[Ite]

H0512, the confrontation with President Shinra, the night in prison, the Trail of Blood, the confrontation with Rufus, the elevator fight, the lobby scene, the motorcycle chase, the fight with motorball, and the denouement after. It's a very long segment that comprises the climax of Act 1, and if the remake's Scorpion Sentinel is any indication, this climax is going to be much expanded and epic. I don't see a problem introducing Red XIII at the point in which he was introduced before.

 

[Claymore]

I don't see a problem introducing Red XIII at the point in which he was introduced before.

I don't have a personal problem with it, but I'm worried SE will.

 

[Ite]

I don't have a personal problem with it, but I'm worried SE will.

Me too. But I'm super precious about FF7, as most fans are. Everything they change I'm gonna be like "Whyyyy doesn't Seventh Heaven have saloon doors?" lol

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

H0512, the confrontation with President Shinra, the night in prison, the Trail of Blood, the confrontation with Rufus, the elevator fight, the lobby scene, the motorcycle chase, the fight with motorball, and the denouement after. It's a very long segment that comprises the climax of Act 1, and if the remake's Scorpion Sentinel is any indication, this climax is going to be much expanded and epic. I don't see a problem introducing Red XIII at the point in which he was introduced before.

Several of those moments, though, are just different beats of the same moment.

 

[pxp]

Red could just be a guest character in your party for the final scenes of the first game, which is something which has been mooted before here and elsewhere.

 

[FFShinra]

If I'm being honest I think SE would be banking on Nanaki having a short time in the game, if only to work out how his mechanics for down the line. The company has always been rather ambivalent around him. No surprise he was the last playable non-human(oid, Kimahri doesn't count) in the series.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

What's the cobalt and indigo plot?

 

[pxp]

What's the cobalt and indigo plot?

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Red_XIII:

Red XIII was planned to be the focus on a cut sub-plot. After being captured by Shinra, Hojo would have produced several clones of Red XIII, which would have had blue and purple fur and been named Cobalt XIV and Indigo XV, respectively. After defeating them, the party would be confronted by two more clones, and a battle would ensue where the party would fight both the clones and the real Red XIII, and be forced to figure out which was the real thing and avoid killing him. Though the clones would be defeated, Red XIII would have the party spare them, as they were the last of his kind beyond him. Cobalt XIV and Indigo XV would later reappear in the final dungeon partially mechanized, determined to prove themselves superior to the original Red XIII.

 

[ForceStealer]

He could be AI-only for the end of part 1 as a tease for part 2 if it's too much work to fully design his mechanics, as Claymore suggests.

I wonder if the Hundred/Heli gunner fight will be the same, he would be restricted to purely magic, Barret and Aerith (as her attacks seem to be ranged now) would be able to fight fine.

 

[FFShinra]

I wonder how that fight is even going to go, given how destroyed the environments seem to get in these boss battles....

 

[OWA-2]

They could also make SOLDIERs more important to the story(not only in Midgar). I remember Cloud hyping them up at the start of the game and telling the party how dangerous they were, so I was very surprised to find they were just normal enemies(not even bosses) with no importance to the plot.

 

[Ite]

Well, Airbuster is a boss

 

[SailorStarDust]

I dunno how much we'd get in the way of Compilation "easter eggs", but say you (Cloud) gets to explore the Upper Plates this time around and it's post-Sector 7, you see a certain someone aimlessly wandering around...

Spoiler: A good boy ;_;

Also, I dunno how likely this would be, but assuming Remake is a modern style gaming experience of random little missions/side quests you can complete (even Crisis Core had this), I could easily see some kind of flashback of Slums Sector 7 post-Train Station Reunion, so the first time players' are left utterly confused why Cloud's so "tired" while Tifa's oddly concerned. You could run around the Sector doing little tasks/small missions for her? Interesting mystery and relationship building, IMO

 

[Ite]

Denzel in the Remake. Oh lord.

 

[Shademp]

I would approve of Denzel in the remake.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Maybe Sector 7 Train Man will get an expanded story!!

 

[SailorStarDust]

Heh, I'm sure he had lots of stories to tell, witnessing things like the Tifa/Cloud reunion, and far back when of Aerith losing her mother.

On that note, if my idea of some "mini-missions in flashback form" post-train station reunion isn't within the realm of possibility, potential easy content could be:

1. While Cloud falls into Sector 5 Slums: Obscured, rapid-style, jump cuts of 7-8 year old Cloud and Tifa falling off the bridge before text(?) by "mystery voice" while Cloud's utterly confused about "that time" and "scarred knees" would be *Chef kiss*
2. During Midgar exploration: optionally returning to Aerith's house or Slum Church with your Party Members to rest would be a super nice touch. The group's White Mage has gotta look out for her party!
   1. If Barret's in your party, we'd see him and Marlene happily chattingTifa and Aerith would probably check in with her (+ maybe Aerith could sit and have tea with Elmyra).
   2. Aerith could give Tifa a tour of her garden outside, too!
3. Taking the Stairs (canon option according to 25th Ultimania Vol 2) vs busting into Shinra HQ.
4. During that first Shinra raid ^ , Cloud and co actually encountering(?) some of the Shinra staff—Reeve included for dat delicious foreshadowing.
5. I could easily see something like an hour's worth extra content of fleshing out Red as a party member, assuming the motorcycle escape/standing in Midgar's outskirts is where Part 1 ends. (I guess idea # 2 couldn't really fit there, since the party's trying to hightail it outta Midgar proper.)

I've had 22 years for my inner fangirl to dream up various ideas, so it's hard to not go all-out with the various possibilitiesOverall though, I'm more than happy to take the Remake project as it comes, since it's in place of work for FF16 (or whatever).

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Sidequest to try and find bring medicine to this guy who are very sick.

But really though, I want to have you be able to spend more time helping random people out in the slums – especially once you meet up with Aerith, before you're start getting lured off to Wall Market. On top of that, getting to spend time on the plate, so that you get acquainted with the Slums, as well as feeling the differentiation in what life is like above and below. Start to feel WHY Barret is driven and that his collateral damage view is believable, but Tifa's misgivings are still significantly valid. You should feel the struggles of everyone, so that the act of dropping the sector is just so UNFATHOMABLY EVIL beyond the pulls of the "necessary" ends-justify-the-means struggle you'd been facing that it utterly obliterates the scope of what you've been doing – even with the full scale of an explorable Midgar.

This is how and where I want to expand things the most, but I think that even the process of breaking in to the ShinRa HQ could be expanded. When you see Cloud running through in the trailer, you can see that there are regular employees working there in the backgrounds. I want it to feel like ShinRa has all of the machinations of a massive corporation, but that so many people there just have regular jobs and you don't want to interfere with them, but also feel completely fine to go in guns blazing once you get to Hojo. That area has a lot of misc puzzles and things that are likely to be adapted into some sort of experience that's more than just content padding from the OG.

That will also help to inform what it's like when you have to go escape the HQ and also try to get out of Midgar completely, which has plenty of layers that it can expand upon – especially since that's when you'd be likely to be bringing Nanaki in to the mix, and there're a lot of interesting things you might be able to do with him.

Related: Just seeing how they deal with Nanaki & ladders is gonna be interesting in and of itself.



X

 

[FFShinra]

each original member of avalanche heads their own cell or section of the movement, and they each have a story chain of missions you need to do for them a la GTA.

 

[SailorStarDust]

Related: Just seeing how they deal with Nanaki & ladders is gonna be interesting in and of itself.

If it's not like in one of Shademp's Unlocked videos, we riot

 

[Solordinn]

some ideas i have for midgar. we could have a chain of missions where we accompany jessie in procuring the items needed to make another bomb. perhaps one that won't yield as much explosive collateral damage.

 

[Ite]

some ideas i have for midgar. we could have a chain of missions where we accompany jessie in procuring the items needed to make another bomb. perhaps one that won't yield as much explosive collateral damage.

Awesome idea!

 

[Knuxson]

That feels like a waste - looking at it from SE's point of view. Developing the entire character, all the battle animations, equipment, interactions, etc... all for just that short escape segment? I dunno.

I mean, the battle animations, character design, etc., won't completely be wasted, since I'm sure they would reuse assets in the second remake game.

 

[Sasseli]

I want there to be more hints and situations that make it clear that Cloud indeed used to be in Shinra, just not as a Soldier (,, just hints mind me. I don't want a dramatic change in the story,). In one of the first trailers in the scene where Cloud jumps on the train after being surrounded by Shinra troops, there is this one trooper who looks really concerned, as if he recognizes Cloud as a former colleague. He reaches out his arm when Cloud jumps and you can see his face, which is the only moment you ever see the face of a simple trooper, which makes it so significant in my eyes.

They could expand on this and give some hints and remarks along the way, e.g. during fights. I can't imagine that none of the troopers recognize Cloud. How long had he been with Shinra?