#the gameplay was fun and i thik some of the characterization was stellar. barret was fantastic with one single complaint

[mariyekos]

Future FFVII Rebirth Essays

Okay now that I've finally finished FFVII Rebirth, here's a list of some essays about the game I've either partially written, or want to write in the future!

Titles are absolutely subject to change, they're just what come to mind right now. Each bullet point has the title of an essay and a little bit of elaboration into what they'd be about. Most essays will cover far more than what is in the bullet blurb, but for now I wanted to jot down some of my ideas before I forgot them, so details are relatively sparse and lean towards the nonspecific. This also doesn't even cover all of the essay ideas I've had while playing through the game! But it's long as it is, so I figured I'd cut it off at what I have here and include the rest in a reblog or separate post.

Warning, this includes spoilers for both the OG FFVII and events/changes in the FFVII Remake Continuity (Remake/Rebirth)!

A (Not Really) Dying World: The impact of the removal of the Midgar Black Pit and the introduction of other greenery in FFVII Remake and Rebirth (basically, Remake/Rebirth Gaia does not appear to be in such dire straights until sky stuff happens, which changes how the planetary threat appears, being moved from a dying planet which is on the edge of destruction even without Sephiroth's involvement to a planet that's mostly at risk because of Sephiroth, with the slow death of the Planet being a far lesser/evident threat.)

Shinra: A threat to the Planet, or a threat to humanity? (Heavily connected to the essay above and the Dyne essay below. Revolves around how much of the weight of Shinra's threat is shifted to them causing human strife and suffering, rather than the way they are killing the Planet and the impact of Mako Reactors)

Changes to Corel Prison (potentially combined with a larger essay on tone in FFVII, see below. I still can't believe Corel Prison isn't a prison anymore. Also the town of Corel is now separate from what became the prison which is. A choice! Changes the narrative.)

On Dyne and Marlene in the OG vs Rebirth (why the change in Dyne's motivations matters on a larger scale, potential reasons for the removal of the threats to Marlene, and how this impacts Barret's character)

It's Okay for the Protagonists to Sometimes be Bad People: how imperfections and weaknesses can strengthen a character arc, and the Remake continuity's avoidance of painting party members as 'the bad guy'. (Basically the Remake/Rebirth introduce several new scenes solely there to remind you the protagonists are good people, change some scenes to remove a character being acknowledged as having made a mistake/potentially being a bad person, and remove ambiguity present in the OG in order to make Shinra explicitly (and sometimes more) to blame.)

Apathy and Action in FFVII: The tonal shift between the OG and Remake Continuity (the characters in the OG FFVII are WAY more apathetic, complacent, or depressed. Remake and especially Rebirth make far more of them angry and active against Shinra, which dramatically changes the tone for better or for (imo often) worse.)

Bombastic is Not Always Better: The importance of quiet moments in the narrative, and how low points can serve to drive highs even higher. (FFVII Rebirth removes several moments in the OG where the characters stop to discuss what's going on, where to go next, or how they're doing, and while it means the ending is high energy for a very long time which can be exciting, it loses out on some of the intimacy of the OG. Different people like different things, but I've always been someone who relishes the quiet moments and find they make me like the big ones more, because we have a chane to process what's at stake.)

For the Love of God Minerva Someone Please Talk to Cloud: Cloud's mental state in the Remake Continuity vs the OG (Cloud has SO MANY MORE breakdown moments in the Remake Continuity, and most of them are far more obvious/severe than the OG. This both changes the mystery of the breakdowns (which is fair to do bc most players know about Sephiroth), and also makes the fact that Rebirth removed many of the 'Cloud are you okay' scenes WAY WORSE. Cloud is not okay and it makes way more sense for them to ignore it in the OG where it's small and infrequent than it does in Rebirth where he's having major problems very frequently which hurt the main cast (except where it matters in the OG!))

Preserving Mystery in a Remake: Is there any point when the players know what's coming next? (Yes. Yes there is. You don't need to get rid of all the mysteries present in the OG just because some players might already know the story (this is not about stuff they're changing, but things they're keeping the same but exposing early). Also the other option for this title is "A Game for Newcomers and Veterans Alike: No it's not, if it was you would've bothered to keep some things mysterious and clearly you were too giggly to do that to the detriment of several story events and even plot points.")

FFVII Rebirth and Gameplay at the Cost of Atmosphere (part one of this is already written, but this is about how sometimes minigames or new mechanics introduced to spice up gameplay can disrupt or even completely upend the atmosphere of a scene, much to its detriment.)

FFVII Rebirth and Story Padding at the Cost of Atmosphere (this would be part two to this series, covering some new scenes which were added to Rebirth that did not match the tone of the rest of the scene and sometimes completely pulled me out of the emotional impact that existed in the original. At times I think the writers wanted to have a different emotional impact/tone than the original, while other times it seemed like completely tone deaf padding where the writers wanted something to happen so they shoved it into a place where it sort of fit in theory but did not fit in practice.)

Trope-Heavy Characters in the PS1 Era vs PS5 Era: How adding in new character scenes without adding new character traits can make a character seem bland (tl;dr I feel like Rebirth did a disservice to Yuffie's character, and Cait Sith is on thin ice. When a character only has 15 lines and 13 of them are about how they want materia, I think it's fair to assume that while liking materia is their main character trait, they probably care about other things too, but just didn't have the time/space to say it. But when a character has 150 lines and 130 are about materia, they seem bland/like materia is basically their only character trait, because they did have the time to talk about so many things but didn't. If you want to flesh out a character by giving them more lines, you should make sure to give them something substantial. Don't be afraid to go more into their (in this case Yuffie's) life, fears, and desires! The bits we got were good but they were to few in comparison to materia and motion sickness scenes)