Thoughts on how to expand the Midgar scenario

[X-SOLDIER]

I really liked that when Max was talking about the full bombing run demo, they're REALLY leaning on Cloud as the grunt who does combat, but also the guy who knows what the inside of Shinra Reactors are like. The sort of reliance on Cloud for being THE Shinra traitor. I want to be able to have moments like you can have in the new Star Wars with Finn having been FN-2187 – he knows the back alleys and these other obscure little details about the ins and outs of how the Shinra military forces do things. I want to have the whole Shinra HQ assault section to be FULL of Cloud knowing little details about things, and then bluffing his way through others. Having him in the SOLDIER sections of Shinra where he's low-key bluffing his way through things since he was never in SOLDIER but he knew all about it second-hand from Zack. A different sense of it all that he's more familiar with the MP and general Grunt MP areas and routines.

I want seeds planted, so that when we have to dress up for the parade in Junon, that you actually start to care about the general MPs, and you get the sense that not everybody there is the pinnacle of evil, but that a LOT of them are. I can't wait to see how they play the scene with President Shinra before Air Buster.




X

 

[Mother]

I haven't combed through every post here so I'm not sure if it's been mentioned, but I would love it if you could go and re-explore areas that you had become acquainted with after the plate has been dropped, with familiar details eerily poking through the masses of death and destruction, a la the World of Ruin in FFVI. Maybe have some rescue/recovery missions to do in this part of the story, and really drive home the scale and emotional impact of Shinra's blatant disregard for humanity.

 

[Velorian]

There is something that always sorta was there but in my eyes could definatly be expanded upon. We already know some of the ideas behind this as we learned that president shinra is watching avalanche do the first bombing run with cameras. They prolly could do more to stop them but they don't. From the original it's noted that the idea to make avalanche the bad guys by propaganda. There is definatly room to expand on this, have avalanche do have another succesful bombing run on say reactor 3 or attack reactor 4, but fail for w/e reason. I mean there is plenty of oppertunies I think in the story to expand on these things. I am pretty confident the beef of the content will be focussed around avalanche and allow for side missions and such.

I am sure travel within the city is gonna be more interesting. Take different routes or paths, they have whole other sectors to have us explore. We already seen there are parts were we on the highway driving from stuff. When and were is still very much a mystery though. So my wager would be that they add in new bits in between larger familiar over arching story. The blowing up of the plate for sure is gonna get milked a bit. Next to that there is what 9-10 bosses in all of midgar? I would wager there is room for a few more. My favourite would be a "secret boss" called hell house

From what I gather is that the bombing run now takes up to atleast 1 hour, say escaping and getting back to 7th heaven I would wager takes another hour or maybe 1,5 in the new game. So we can safely assume atleast the normal time of 6 hours - 8 hours of game play. Gonna be atleast doubled. That puts it at 16 hours. That's still very far from atleast 40-60 hours of a full game.

 

[tsukiakari-hime]

I'd like Sector 6 to have a deep abandoned area (broken down factory dungeon?)with a long forgotten ShinRa weapon down there as a post-game superboss to be awoken by the Sector 7 plate falling.

They've already shown Cloud pulling at websilk obstructions this could be another area like that

 

[Kain424]

I've been beating the "expanded Midgar" drum since the multipart nature of the game was announced. In that time, I've spent an awful lot of my spare moments contemplating just what exactly they will be expanding. I think Velorian is definitely on the right track with regards to bits being thrown in at junctures "in between" the known story beats of the original. But I think cold_spirit talking about other expansions is key.

In the trailer, we witness Cloud and the rest of Avalanche racing through tunnels on motorcycles. I think this is another action beat after the first reactor bombing. I'll bet Jessie's bike wrecks or some such thing and Cloud puts her on the back of his, and that's why she thanks him for saving her life.



They probably rendezvous with Barret, or he shows up and saves AVALANCHE in some kind of vehicle, and end up splitting and getting on the train. I don't know. But I'll bet the things we see are extensions of scenes we already know. Just look at the Metal Saucers attacking the group on the train. They've kept the scenes we know, but added action beats to them.

I really liked that when Max was talking about the full bombing run demo, they're REALLY leaning on Cloud as the grunt who does combat, but also the guy who knows what the inside of Shinra Reactors are like.

What's fun about all of this is the meta narrative going on. We, the veteran players will indeed know and recognize things, while not know and not recognize others because things will be different. This is an extra special layer for fans of the original. The original Final Fantasy VII had its own meta narrative going on, and this seems to be conducting itself in a similar manner, but as a Remake. I love it.

 

[Shademp]

I wonder if the addition of Cloud seemingly saving Jessie before/during the new biking segment will mean they remove the part from Mako Reactor No.1 where Jessie's leg gets stuck. I think indeed I'd prefer in that scenario that you save Biggs inside the reactor, which was something you had to do in the original FFVII demo.

 

[Kain424]

Yeah, they switched it on us to mess with us. They may very well do something similar here.

 

[Tetsujin]

I think the bike segment is after they board the train, seeing as how they race through the train tunnels. They probably get caught on the train or something and have to flee to the freight car in the back and steal some stowed motorcycles, driving them straight out of the train
Alternatively, this is on the way to Sector 5 although that raises the question where Barret and Tifa are for that section.

 

[Kain424]

Alternatively, this is on the way to Sector 5 although that raises the question where Barret and Tifa are for that section.

That was what made me think it was an earlier segment. Though I wouldn't be surprised if, in the scene's most desperate moment, Tifa drives in, with Barret in the back of a truck, and they take out the remaining guys chasing AVALANCHE. But I'm still betting on earlier.

 

[Roger]

I imagine Barret is not not driving a bike one-handed so I assume that sequence is after Tifa joins.

 

[pxp]

Yeah I think the bike sequence is later than just after Mako No. 1 explodes. Just think about it, travelling at such speeds you'd be far far away from the wreckage and debris by the time you came to halt. I did think similarly to @Tetsujin that it possibly was in train tunnels, though I thought it may have been after the train in Sector 4 gets boarded (from the latest trailer) seeing as the wires and scenery looked similar to the battle segments we've seen from there. Of course that begs the question, where did they get their wheels?

 

[Kain424]

They stole them. Probably from Shinra troopers.

 

[pxp]

They stole them. Probably from Shinra troopers.

Kewl, in which case I'm sticking with my guesstimate that it's the Sector 4 tunnels, similar to @Vyzzuvazzadth's latest chronological cut but I think after the train is boarded rather than before; it's basically analogous to when the three jumped off the train in the OG (IMO).

 

[Kain424]

I posted this on @Vyzzuvazzadth's video, so I might as well post it here.



I see the steam now, in the new trailer. With evidence:

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Look at the old-fashioned British telephone boxes! and what appears to me to be a US Mail style postbox - or maybe one of those little newspaper dispensing things? But it has an envelope logo on its side. I wish the streets were more crowded. Aerith isn't going to do a lot of business if the streetlife is dead.

The presence of telephone boxes (not one but two) suggests to me that in this world most people don't yet have mobile phones.

 

[Kain424]

They got PHS!

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I know; what I mean is that while some people have PHS, there must also be plenty of people, even in Midgar who don't have a cellphone yet - you know, like back in the 90s. Nowadays in the real world it would be very unusual to see a telephone box.

 

[Cannon_Fodder]

Look at the old-fashioned British telephone boxes! and what appears to me to be a US Mail style postbox - or maybe one of those little newspaper dispensing things? But it has an envelope logo on its side. I wish the streets were more crowded. Aerith isn't going to do a lot of business if the streetlife is dead.

The presence of telephone boxes (not one but two) suggests to me that in this world most people don't yet have mobile phones.

I like to imagine that Aerith has a routine where she waits outside of the theater during LOVELESS performances, and then makes a killing selling flowers to the people who come out all emotionally affected. "Do you want a gift for the goddess in your life? Why not get her a flower or two?"

 

[Kain424]

Bring twenty flowers, make twenty gil.

 

[Vyzzuvazzadth]

While I initially placed the Bike Chase sequence between the train ride and the trek through the tunnels, I think this leaves a few holes. Where did they get the bikes from? I doubt there will conveniently be a few of them on board of a passenger train. And there certainly are no motorcycles lying around in the tunnels. Also, there are no Tifa or Barret seen in that sequence. Even if they catch up on a car or truck, this still begs the question where the heck did they get that truck from? Not the train and certainly not the tunnels. Also, why trekking through the tunnel (without the other Avalanche members) when they have the bikes? It just doesn't add up for me.

That's why I'm thinking we'll be doing side missions between the 2 bombing runs, with one of them containing the Bike Chase sequence from the trailer. Cloud goes on a mission with Biggs, Wedge and Jessie to do whatever. That solves the vehicle problem and explains why neither Tifa nor Barret are around.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I like to imagine that Aerith has a routine where she waits outside of the theater during LOVELESS performances, and then makes a killing selling flowers to the people who come out all emotionally affected. "Do you want a gift for the goddess in your life? Why not get her a flower or two?"

Man, had she just ran that on Genesis once, she could have retired.

 

[Wolf_]

I hope the bike scene is part of a side quest that involves that never ending stream of guards at that alarm point.

 

[tsukiakari-hime]

Man, had she just ran that on Genesis once, she could have retired.

Son of a wealthy family too, a wallet full of money indeed!

 

[Solordinn]

another idea popped up in my head, you remember the one shinra soldier that seems to recognize cloud in the 2015 trailer (keep that in mind for the meantime)
After Aerith is kidnapped and the upper plate collapses. Instead of having the group head straight to the shinra headquarters, they head to a holding facility in another sector to find Aerith after getting a tip that is where she'll be (the change being that Aerith and Tseng doesn't show up to pick up Reno at the pillar, just another group).
At the facility, we are introduced to Tseng who had come to pick up Aerith and take her to the headquarters. We fail to rescue her but we do end up saving another prisoner, Red XIII. After a brief introduction with the new party member, the shinra soldier that reconizes cloud offers to help them get into the heavily guarded building (whether to use the stairs or go in guns blazing is still up to us).
Red agrees to join us on our quest as he is aware that there are others like him that he wishes to free from one professor Hojo and the rest goes from there.

 

[clowd]

Introduce President Shinra, Reeve, Heidegger, Scarlet, Hojo, and Palmer much earlier in the game, perhaps soon after the first reactor bombing. Shinra was the primary antagonist of Midgar in the OG but this time with an entire game wrapped around just the Midgar section its important to introduce the villains much earlier and give them more screen time. Sephiroth's screen time should be very limited as not to destract from the primary villains of the first game.

Make Wedge an incel/hikikomori. GIve him a crush on Jessie and have him regret not ever letting her know how he feels at the tower collapse. Make Jessie's crush on Cloud more obvious and fleshed out. Give BIggs family or a girlfriend. This should help make their demise a more heart wrenching event.

Give Cloud the Hardy Daytona halfway through the game with a cool backstory. HIs bike and trains will be the primary method of transportation through the city.

Wall market needs a casino of some sort for minigame relaxation.

Shinra Tower will be the last dungeon, but its essential they handle the pacing right. If they drag it out too long it will end up like the last Dungeon in FFXV, and nobody will be happy. Pacing was one of VII's greatest strengths and its essential they nail it here. It's possible for the Shinra Building dungeon to be 3-4 hours by itself, but it needs to be broken up and paced properly with ups and downs in the story and definitely nothing reptitive.

NPCs all need to be fully voiced and just as wacky as the original's.