Was Midgar your favorite segment of the original Final Fantasy VII?

[SolVanderlyn]

Final Fantasy VII has the honor of having what might be one of the longest "prologues" in gaming, with a very linear segment entirely based in the mako-fueled metropolis of Midgar.

The opening hours (and by that I mean quite a few hours!) are spent fighting with resistance group AVALANCHE against the mega-conglomerate Shinra Corporation. You spend your time in grimy slums and oppressive reactors, encounter lowlifes and the most destitute members of society, trudge through abandoned trainyards, ride motorcycles down the highway and even crossdress your way into a pimp's mansion. Your group is small and focused, with AVALANCHE later being joined by the flower girl Aerith, who proves to be an instrumental part of slowly unlocking Cloud's tough guy facade.

The rest of the game is different. You're let loose into a much bigger world, a more traditional fantasy world in many aspects. But those opening hours in Midgar were not for no reason; you see their influence everywhere, their mako reactors dotting the land and their conglomerate schemes slowly but surely taking over and changing the lives of people and places across the world. Midgar's grunginess is bleeding into a fantasy landscape, and it's up to you to stop it.

But I ask you, what did you like better? The enclosed, linear, grungy Midgar, with the group fighting against President Shinra and The Turks? Or the more open, but still story-driven, journey across the globe to chase Sephiroth and learn more about the planet? Each part of the game had a distinctly different vibe to it.

 

[PocketchangeTTV]

No. Midgar was fine but nothing beats coral to temple of ancients.

 

[DarkChronic]

As cool as Midgar is, the rest of the world was far more interesting to me. Can't wait to see some of those later locations in the Remake Part 2+

 

[Inuhanyou]

i was more of a fan of the rest of the game, but i liked the 'rebel squad against a dystopian cityscape" aspect of things well enough. in FF7R they have the path to elevating that material really well

 

[Rat King]

Actually, after you leave Midgar and see the world that is available to you made me go crazy as a kid. I much prefer the chase of Sephiroth than the prologue.

 

[TechnoSyndrome]

Visually it's easily my favorite part of the game, I'm big on cyberpunk visuals and not big on fantasy, but the rest of the game is where the combat starts to get interesting and the bulk of the story and character development happens. None of my favorite FF7 moments are in Midgar.

 

[Mindman]

Midgar is my favorite setting in a game ever. Bring on part 1 of the remake!!

 

[tapedeck]

Hell naw. In fact it's one of my least favorite parts of the game..though what they did with it in the Remake looks very appealing.

 

[greenbird]

Midgar is great, maybe the best individual section of the game, but it can't compare with the entire rest of the journey. There's so many highs and lows, emotional shifts and setting changes post Midgar, and also most of the best music.

 

[Acquiescence]

It's my favourite game, but FFVII does pretty much peak with Midgar. It's a fascinating place to explore and a whole lot of atmosphere to breathe in.

Mind you, I am a Blade Runner fanatic, and Midgar always spoke to my inner cyberpunk fanboy, so I'm sure that influences my opinion.

 

[snausages]

Not at all. Fairly lukewarm on the remake cause of it

Part 2 will be dope tho

 

[chanman]

I liked Midgar ALOT but everything after it is what made me really enjoy FF VII. I really liked visiting Kalm, Nibelheim and Junon looking to forward to seeing them remade......someday.

 

[Jessie]

It was a slog. I didn't fall in love with the game until it turned into more of a traditional fantasy game

 

[momerath]

Midgar is overrated IMO.

Some of the best parts of the game for me were the quieter bits. Small fringe towns in a world that has moved on from them, like Rocket Town or Corel. That's my jam.

 

[Anustart]

You got me wanting to play it!

Wait do I have it on steam *checks*

I do! Crisis averted.

 

[GenTask]

Both. Midgar was pretty cool, and when I first played it, I thought the game only took place in that city until it didn't, at that point I was just amazed that a game could do that. I had never played other jRPGs before that one.

 

[Benzychenz]

No, I don't like industrial/urban environments all that much.

 

[Zephy]

I always liked futuristic cities, but, regardless of that, Midgar was my first experience with an RPG, and has memorable locales, sequences and music that really make it special for me. It's by far the part of the game I'm post nostalgic about. So in that regard, I guess I'm pretty happy that the remake focuses entirely on this chapter (though I'm not completely sold on it yet).

 

[Jmdajr]

I would say Yes.

 

[qin]

The best part about Midgar is when you leave and realize there is a lot more to see.

 

[Post Reply]

I loved Midgar and I was so disappointed when I left, haha. There were some other nice areas in the game though, but Midgar was my favorite.

I also played Septerra Core around the same time as my first playthrough of FF7 though, so I got my fill of futuristic slum type environments through that game.

 

[The Unsent]

Not really, I prefer the outside world, climbing up the gold saucer, the mystery of the ancient and the calamity of the sky, the hijinks of Junon or Rocket Town and collecting the Weapons. Midgar was too brief to be as enjoyable as the rest. It's not like there's a big gulf in quality in the first act like the tanker of MGS2.

 

[Professor Beef]

Leaving it. It's easily the most boring part of the game.

 

[EloKa]

Playing all those mini games in the arcade amusement park in Gold Saucer was the peak.

 

[B.K.]

No. I hated Midgar. It was by far the most boring part of the game. Every time I think about replaying Final Fantasy VII, I think of the slog through Midgar and change my mind. Being stuck in Midgar for an entire game is the main reason I'm not that interested in Final Fantasy VII Remake Episode I.

 

[nobleredone]

I started losing interest in the game after leaving Midgar, and quit playing altogether before getting to disc 3. I think I preferred the city over the open world

 

[Professor Beef]

Being stuck in Midgar for an entire game is the main reason I'm not that interested in Final Fantasy VII Remake Episode I.

Click to shrink...

Same. There's some decent stuff that's been shown, but if it's all in a locale that I've never really cared for then it's hard to muster up excitement.

 

[Dogui]

It was either Midgar, Cosmo Canyon or the Corel/Gold Saucer arc for me.

 

[Strangelove_77]

It's the only part where the game feels urgent and alive. Like what you do actually matters.

 

[Lobster Roll]

Final Fantasy VII doesn't start until you leave Midgar. Midgar is the prologue and the mind-blowing, "holy shit" moment is when you step out and realize that you were just in a small part of a massive world.

 

[Cyrus_Saren]

My favorite segment was getting out of Midgar and realizing that the game was not going be tied strictly to that area. My absolute favorite segment, however, was the extended sequence that happens in Kalm.

 

[Bakercat]

It was the only good part of the game for me. After leaving Midgar it just becomes a bunch of nonsense. Shinra corp as the antagonist with the nature vs machine motif was really awesome imo.

 

[Buff Beefbroth]

Midgar is great, but so is everything else.

It's all gold.

 

[Lunchbox]

Dragon Quest 8 has the longest prologue!

 

[JahIthBer]

Hell no, Midgar was the boring part, it didn't get good until the Sephiroth flashback where it gave you a proper villain to focus on instead of generic corporation from some Disney movie.
Rufus didn't even become interesting until Advent Children where he became more morally grey & seemed to want to right his wrongs.

 

[Virtua King]

Midgar, which is why I'm ok at the cutting off point in Remake. The game goes downhill after that.

 

[Sean]

Nah, Midgar definitely wasn't. My favorite part of FF7 was the vehicles.

 

[Keldroc]

Definitely Midgar. The whole narrative unravels as soon as you leave the city.

 

[Deleted member 9486]

I loved that part of the game. Got bored and didn't make it far post Midgar when I tried to do a replay in the PS4 a couple years ago. Though to be fair a lot of it is that this style of JRPGs have aged horribly for me. The new combat system is the main draw to the remake for me.

 

[Enduin]

Kind of yeah. I always felt it was odd and kind of jarring that Midgar was like this one bastion of civilization and major technological development in the world and everywhere else, beyond Golden Saucer, was just kind of some dump, decades or centuries behind. It made the world feel sparse and inconsistent. It was one aspect I really appreciated in VIII which did a much better job of making the whole world feel a bit more developed and consistent from one region to another. While still rather sparse overall with not that many locations it felt a bit more cohesive and consistent through most of the ones that existed.

 

[Tuorom]

Nope. There are so many great places after Midgar. Cosmo Canyon, fighting jenova for that sweet theme, Aerith's death, weapons appearing, that world theme mmmmmm, etc.
The best part of Midgar for me are:
1) Bombing run
2) shinra building

edit: my fave world theme

 

[AuthenticM]

It was.

I'm so fucking hyped that we are getting one full game in that place. It's gonna be lit.

 

[Richietto]

I love the entirety of the game really but Midgar was amazing. It helped that the very start of the game was so exciting.

 

[Hexer]

No way lol. Nothing beats The Golden Saucer. I bet you all just immediately heard the theme song for it pop in your head and now it won't get out. You're welcome! :p

 

[Aarglefarg]

Dragon Quest 8 has the longest prologue!

Click to shrink...

I think you mean Dragon Quest 7.

 

[Anoxida]

For me it was. Not that the rest of the game was noticeably worse but to me midgar section is videogame pacing 101 and few games to this day can even dream of having as good pacing as FFVII first part.

 

[Spirit of Jazz]

There are great parts like the Shinra HQ which is flipping fantastic but holy fuck the Wall Market section's fucking atrocious in retrospect. The sense of exploration in the overworld's one of the best parts of the game and the Cosmos Canyon theme's one of the most memorable tracks in gaming for me.

 

[Lunchbox]

I think you mean Dragon Quest 7.

Click to shrink...

Well both really, off topic :P I like really long prologues filled with world building.

 

[GrrImAFridge]

Probably the globetrotting. Icicle Inn might still be my favourite location in a game:

 

[Joltik]

Nah. I was happy to leave the city because I wanted to explore more of the world of FFVII, and I wasn't that fan of such heavy, futuristic scifi elements(even more so than FFIV and FFVI) creeping up on the series at the time.

I haven't played the game in over twenty years, so I wonder how would I feel about Midgar now.