At the time, Final Fantasy 7 was an innovative and technological marvel that raised the bar for the capabilities of RPGs and to some extent video games as a whole. It was the first game in the franchise to utilize fully 3D graphics technology, without sacrificing the world-spanning nature of SquareSoft's RPGs. The world of Final Fantasy 7 Remake intends to use modern game design to recreate a specific portion of that world, Midgar, in intricate detail in an attempt to create a definitive version of this world and this game.
This presents an interesting opportunity for Square Enix and the development team. The Midgar section at the beginning of the original Final Fantasy 7 was only around seven or eight hours long, a fraction of the 40-60 hour total playtime. Final Fantasy 7 Remake, at least in its first episode, aims to be as long as a standard RPG of similar length. Players are going to be spending more than twice the amount of their time in Midgar, meaning Cloud and the gang will (hopefully) have more opportunities to slow down and explore the atmosphere of Midgar.
The Original Midgar
Granted the initial portion of Midgar in Final Fantasy 7 only lasts for a short while, there's plenty of atmosphere to be had in the original game. The opening shot of the game alone sets up a giant futuristic, steampunk world built with industrialist flair. Midgar is not exactly presented with extravagance, but more so dread and a pervasive darkness. Any time the player visits Midgar, it's nighttime or in some way shrouded in darkness. Midgar does evoke a sense of mystery in its busy expanse, and players do get to experience microcosms within the city itself, but never for too long.
The game's plot rightfully moves at a full-speed-ahead, pace however, and never really devotes time outside of the beginning exposition to the city of Midgar at large. The beginning of the game is all about introducing players to the enigmatic protagonist Cloud, and the characters he meets along the way as he begins his true adventure. The narrative is constrained to Cloud's perspective almost entirely, and gives no breathing room for Midgar's environmental storytelling to shine. Now that Remake will be taking place entirely in Midgar, it won't follow the same breakneck pace the original did, and that's a good thing.
A New Metropolis
Midgar is going to be a huge part of Final Fantasy 7 Remake as a whole, as well as being the setting for the entirety of the Remake's first episode. Square Enix and the development team understand how special Midgar is and really want the city to shine in Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Despite Final Fantasy 7 Remake seeming more dark or sinister than the original, Midgar is doing well to craft a compelling duality in the city's depiction.
This time around, Midgar's sheer size has been expanded greatly, extending to around double the scale of the original city. Tall buildings now reflect more modern aesthetics, better spaced out between brick residential areas that resemble real-world cities like New York. Even more surprising is that, as seen in the Remake's opening movie, the city has been depicted in a day time setting for the first time. Workers and citizens are out and about in the streets, there's even kids riding bikes to the playground. All that being said, once night falls, Midgar's aesthetic slowly begins to blend into its roots of darkness amongst faded neon signs. So far it seems Remake's Midgar reflects a bustling city full of life, while still highlighting all the dreadful industrialization themes from Final Fantasy 7.
More Than Just a Model
While Final Fantasy 7 Remake has been nailing Midgar's aesthetics, what'll be more interesting to see up close is Midgar's society and culture in such high fidelity. Other than talking with a select few NPCs in the Slums and Wall Market, players didn't get much about what kind of society Midgar has. Sure, there were different iconic side characters Cloud met in the slums of Midgar, but they weren't representative of Midgar's society at large. Remake focusing on all of Midgar could potentially show players the less sleazier avenues of the city that were prominent in the original. Streets are far more packed in what we've seen from Remake so far, so hopefully characters and places can expand Midgar's image beyond just being a big city full of stingy caricatures that're contributing to the destruction of the planet.
There's also tons of iconography from Final Fantasy 7 concept art that gives the smallest glimpses into Midgar's pop culture, with fans pointing out some of these aspects in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake demo's areas such as pseudo-marketing for fashion trends, TV shows, fads, etc. Along with the people of Midgar being direct representations of culture, some supplemental environmental storytelling in Final Fantasy 7 Remake could help reinforce Midgar's living world.
An expanded Midgar means players will be spending all their time in the city for Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and by no means is this a bad thing. It gives the iconic city a proper amount of time to flesh out its own identity, which is something the original game brushed up against but never truly focused on.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake releases for PS4 on April 10, 2020.
