Mog’s Fantastic Journey: All of the Towns and Cities of FFVII And What I Think of Them

Wutai

If you’ve been around here for a while you’ve probably already picked up on how I feel about Wutai. Wutai, at first glance, is just another small town entry in the age old ‘Japanland’ RPG convention, just another notch on the map, that a very casual player may never even see.

However, an astute player notices something a bit more. In the original game, very few comments here and there allude to ‘the war’, or ‘a war’, that Shinra waged long ago. The earliest direct comment to this is Elmyra stating that her husband had ‘been sent to some far away place called Wutai’. Comments about the war with Wutai are very few and far between until you get to Wutai itself, and then you realize that Wutai’s culture and world standing was completely castrated by Shinra during/after the war (sound familiar?). It was interesting hearing that this little podunk nowhereland was at one point strong enough to challenge Shinra in open warfare.

However, like most parts of FFVII’s past that are actually interesting and worth expanding, the original game’s narrative sort of completely glosses over it. Then came along the Ultimania which outright stated that not only was Wutai strong enough to wage war against Shinra, it was doing a damn good job of it and could have actually broke even or won outright if it wasn’t for those pesky SOLDIER/Sephiroth/Materia of Shinra. Interesting.

Then Crisis Core came and everyone was rubbing their hands together for different reasons. I for one was excited at hearing that the War was going to be expanded on, I was particularly excited at the screenshots featuring Wutai soldiers.

Alas, the game itself comes out and the War with Wutai is once again an afterthought, with it being more or less forgotten about after the first segment of the game in favor of the Genesis War (jesus christ, square). Even before that, the depiction of the war seemed pretty comical with Zack taking Fort Tamblin all by himself. Yeah, I know they were trying to portray Zack as a badass, but come on. That pretty much dashed my hopes of Crisis Core being a semi-serious attempt at displaying the brotherhood, horrors, and general pointlessness of wars, within the events of a particularly pointless war in FFVII’s world.

Could've fooled me.

I guess I sort of went into a tirade. Yeah, well, in the original game, Wutai is a pretty bangin’ place. While there’s no reason to go there after the sidequest, it’s a good place to get X-Potions, and the music is what’s up.

Next, Icicle Inn!