What's your favorite in-game background image/art?

[Erotic Materia]

I was thinking about this earlier when someone mentioned the Northern Cave, and my memory was transported back to this area in particular:

Spoiler: Watch your step

Coming into this spot for the first time had quite a profound effect on me. Despite the literal world-spanning adventures the party finds itself in, this expansive underworld scene really gave me pause. I mean, it's MASSIVE. Beyond that, the softly glowing lights emanating from the giant egg things and the sky-ceiling is just... wow. It does a phenomenal job of giving a sense of scale to everything, really makes you feel tiny.

Anyway, let's hear what everyone else has to say! What's your favorite backdrop?

BONUS: CHECK OUT THIS AWESOME ALBUM I FOUND ON IMGUR!
Mad props to ravenscribble

 

[Odysseus]

I don't think I can pick just one, so I'm just gonna generalize a bit. I've always been a fan of the industrial settings of the game, I think those are the places where the old CG still holds up the best

Spoiler

even something as simple as an elevator looked really cool

In this one regard I don't think the remake even comes close to comparing. Those environments were streamlined to suit the style of gameplay it had, so I don't hold it against 7R, but it loses the feeling of scale and the sense that you're descending into the belly of some technological beast. All of the reactors in the original had this hostile way you had to navigate them, walking on pipes and girders, climbing down chains, it really felt like humans didn't belong there. Also the sheer level of detail they have inside thos images is incredible, look at the walls! There's some pipe or gear or grid wherever you look, not a smooth surface to be found.

 

[ForceStealer]

this hostile way you had to navigate them, walking on pipes and girders, climbing down chains, it really felt like humans didn't belong there

Which was a really bizarre way for a company to have built reactors that it will presumably need to perform maintenance on

 

[Odysseus]

Which was a really bizarre way for a company to have built reactors that it will presumably need to perform maintenance on

You kids and your pesky realism. It's art, it sets the mood of the reactors as a place Cloud and co really shouldn't be.

 

[Erotic Materia]

Which was a really bizarre way for a company to have built reactors that it will presumably need to perform maintenance on

They're an EVIL company, remember. With evil maintenance workers, who probably enjoy severely inconvenient routes... y'know, being evil and all.

 

[Ite]

This is probably my favorite of FF7:



I particularly love the way the foreground moves more than the background, in a very quaint, collage-y imitation of depth. (They do the same thing with the Phantom Forest in VI and that’s probably my favorite of its locations too.)

I really love this location, and this long distance shot shows everything I like about it. The shell houses, the slats of green rock and coral-like trees. Were the ancients an aquatic civilization, and we’re looking at a dried up ocean? Or is the world really this fantastic that these marvels can just be tucked away inside a hinterland, hiding around the corner, just out of mortal reach...

 

[Odysseus]

I like how that's probably just a real photo of mountains in the far back.

 

[Erotic Materia]

I like how that's probably just a real photo of mountains in the far back.

Fuck, now I can't unsee it. It absolutely has to be real mountains just pasted in, they're too realistic.

 

[looneymoon]

This one always spoke to me. I've had it as a phone BG/Livejournal icon (lol) for a looooong time.

edit: image seems to be working fine on my end?

 

[Odysseus]

This one always spoke to me. I've had it as a phone BG/Livejournal icon (lol) for a looooong time.

edit: image seems to be working fine on my end?

I dunno, it's not displaying on mine

 

[ForceStealer]

Mine looks like Ody's

 

[Ite]

Same what is it?

 

[Cat on Mars]

This one always spoke to me.

Yes it speaks to me too. Speaks of unavailable images.

ETA:

edit: image seems to be working fine on my end?

Is it a .webp?

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I think it's supposed to be Loveless Avenue.

 

[Odysseus]

Even if it isn't, I'm putting that in here anyway because it's another one of my favorites.

I think one of the reasons the prerenders hold up and in some ways work better than fully 3D enviroments is because they can be much more intentionally staged than a standard behind the back camera game can. In the reactors the camera is pulled way back to create a sense of scale, here in loveless avenue you can see the tattered awning and poster blowing in the wind. It creates atmosphere.

 

[leowhy77]

Well, the OG “backgrounds” definitely are great especially when we consider we saw that for the very 1st time say 23 years ago. Consider the graphic technology back then, they sure left great impact onto us.
And they still stand the test of time and look pretty impressive even today. More towards artistic style if I may say so.
For the Mako reactor scene, however, with all the gears and chains and the yellowish lightings (Nibelheim one?), tech evolution really phases those out as we today are more accustom seeing robotics and lightings more towards whitish...

 

[looneymoon]

It was. I fixed my OP so now you get to look at it twice

 

[Odysseus]

look at that page flap, look at it go

 

[HylianMogget]

The mako reactor interiors are iconic. The grunginess and sense of scale are great.

Not sure I can pick one specific background, but I remember finding Mt. Nibel's atmosphere quite striking:

Spoiler

The sky and the twisted rock structures have an eerie, dream-like
quality to them. (Yes, there's some symmetry in the sky in the second image, but it doesn't ruin it for me. ) It's a more distinctive look than regular mountains, but there's also something to it that keeps it from being generically intimidating, IMO. It's also cool how the mako reactor contrasts the organic forms of the mountain:

Spoiler

Is it a .webp?

God, I hate this fucking file format. I don't know how it is on Windows, but on Mac you have to download a separate viewer for it since Preview can't open the format. Even Photoshop requires a plugin to open .webp files. Trying to save images from a Google search is always such a tossup - many times I'll save something then go to look at it later and find out I can't because it's a goddamn .webp file. Yeah, I could install the viewer, but I hate that I have to do that just to be able to save files from an internet search. For this very post I screenshotted images and uploaded them to imgur because direct linking won't display it and you ALSO can't upload a .webp file to imgur. I'm not a web developer, so maybe it's worth it from that perspective, but as just a regular internet user it's obnoxious.

 

[leowhy77]

The mako reactor interiors are iconic. The grunginess and sense of scale are great.

Not sure I can pick one specific background, but I remember finding Mt. Nibel's atmosphere quite striking:

Spoiler

.

Ah... this famous bridge.... it's 3D rendered.... because it's meant for break down animation later....

 

[Odysseus]

Ah... this famous bridge.... it's 3D rendered.... because it's meant for break down animation later....

What do you mean? The bridge is part of the background too, the scene where it breaks is an FMV.

 

[leowhy77]

Really? I must have got it wrong then... my bad... guess I confused myself...

 

[Cat on Mars]

Everything about the Forgotten city is creative and beautiful. Everything looks so organic.
My pick:

I know it's iconic for certain FMV scene, but it's a house in the shape of a huge conch and the water shimmers under the light! Isn't it cool or what? Iirc, the rays of light are animated too.

I like this so much that I made a pretty big watercolor painting of it some years ago.

 

[Odysseus]

Iirc, the rays of light are animated too.

Yeah they were.

I like this so much that I made a pretty big watercolor painting of it some years ago.

I wanna seeee

 

[Torrie]

Oh, what a tough question. There are so many awesome locations that make your nostalgia run wild, they just hit you differently.

I love the stars over Nibelheim. I love looking at the stars in general. And this particular town is one of the key locations in the game, it's the place where the nightmare begins on so many levels, but watching the stars makes you forget about the doom and gloom for a while.

I love the way this room is shown. Look at all those adorable old dinosaur computers. Look at the majestic view of the horizon. Look at the way the meteor lights up the curtains. Look how it's supposed to be an office, but the metal panels and gates make the atmosphere somewhat intimidating.

I like this so much that I made a pretty big watercolor painting of it some years ago.

I'd love to see it too!