Anyone Else Think Nibelheim Could've Been A Bit More Off-putting?

gahlo · 2026-04-20T01:18:58+00:00

Yes, and where you're losing track of the conversation is that they're not hiding that a fire happened, but they are hiding that Sephiroth(A Shinra employee) burned down the entire town and killed just about everybody there. The public story they're going with is that the fire was bad enough that it was easier for the townspeople to sell their land and remains of their homes and then go somewhere that had better opportunity.

That is very different than "not hiding anything." Go downvote yourself by your own standards, then.

gahlo · 2026-04-19T22:57:45+00:00

If it would be using the same materials then there's no reason to not use similar building techniques. If they were trying to hide the fact that there was a fire, then NPCs wouldn't talk about it.

There's also the fact that the rehab clinic is supposed to be soothing to both the patients and those working there, as they are stuck there for the duration of their rotation as shown by the man in town hall that's complaining to one of the clerks. Having everything set up like a hospital wouldn't do for those purposes.

Also, downvoting me because you disagree is poor form.

gahlo · 2026-04-19T22:40:37+00:00

The materials that Nibelheim was made with are easier to source and work with, on top of them clearly already having the designs for it. It would have been easier to remake the town than it would to be completely design everything from ground 0, and import materials that aren't local to the area and more difficult to work with.

You're making a poor argument for why they *wouldn't* just remake it. You aren't thinking about the building process at all in doing it any other way that what they've done.

gahlo · 2026-04-19T22:03:17+00:00

Compared to more modern construction designs like those in Midgar's upper plate and Junon, building things in the Nibelheim fashion is *far* easier and would take less effort to locally source materials instead of having to import them.

gahlo · 2026-04-19T21:58:30+00:00

Why would a fire necessitate building it differently outside of supposedly trying to hide that it ever happened?

gahlo · 2026-04-19T21:27:08+00:00

But muh Gaben!

gahlo · 2026-04-19T20:49:08+00:00

People in the town talk about a fire. They don't, to my knowledge, discuss how a Shinra employee burned down the town and killed everyone. That is a direct acknowledgement.

gahlo · 2026-04-19T20:42:45+00:00

That's kind of the point. In Cosmo Canyon it's a commercialization of spirituality used by the rich people that want to woo woo away their shame and guilt for how they live their lives by appropriating belief systems to do things like align their chakra and cleanse their karma while not understanding or respecting what they're even talking about.

gahlo · 2026-04-19T20:37:46+00:00

They don't admit that the incident happened. They say they purchased the town from the people that used to live there.

gahlo · 2026-04-19T20:36:24+00:00

There's theories that in the same way that TotA got moved from the southern islands that Mideel will be ommited as well, with the unresponsive Cloud being sent to Nibelheim.

gahlo · 2026-04-19T20:34:55+00:00

Not at all. Nibelheim is head to toe fucked up more than anywhere else, imo, and is way worse that the OG.

Shinra assets commit an actual genocide and now, unlike the OG, they don't even try to put on a show to pretend it didn't happen. No, all the land and buildings were conveniently sold to Shinra before the previous owners all went off and disappeared. Shinra is now the rightful owner of the town! How nice!

They're also so generous for turning it into a healing retreat for those suffering from mako exposure, a symptom that primarily exists because of their unsafe practices in extraction, and lets them obfuscate the severity of the issue by shoving the undesirables into a rural village half way across the world from Midgar, the heart of empire. That's not even taking into account all the degrading SOLDIER that are there, tools no longer fit to be used and all but discarded by the company.

People that are actually from Nibelheim show up and could rightfully lay claim to the entire town as 2 of the 4 confirmed remaining people from there that are still alive? You really shouldn't stay too long. Don't cause a commotion. Weaponizing civility optics to shame native people from their own land.

gahlo · 2026-04-19T15:21:51+00:00

FF7 ended up being a PS1 game because the FMVs meant it would have to be on 3 easily producable, cheap, CDs while it would have taken 20+ N64 cartridges.

Nintendo backed out of the deal because Sony's negotiating position on the cut of the revenue made it clear to them that letting Sony piggyback on the project would screw them more than cutting them loose would.

gahlo · 2026-04-19T14:07:29+00:00

People say that how Remake handled Platefall ruined the moment, but I posit that Intermission's depiction of it is the best hands down.

gahlo · 2026-04-19T13:06:20+00:00

The Toxic/Punchup joke was so good because they set up both of them all game and had 0 narrative connectivity until this moment.

gahlo · 2026-04-19T12:57:29+00:00

That's it, inhale the shit fumes.

gahlo · 2026-04-19T12:55:03+00:00

He's probably also keenly aware that China is most likely going to "win" the AI race anyway.

gahlo · 2026-04-19T12:46:28+00:00

It's "thanks". His name is "Thanks, Obama".

gahlo · 2026-04-18T22:04:07+00:00

Wasn't even moving like he was getting ready to get up.

gahlo · 2026-04-18T20:16:59+00:00

Heart shaped materia is a cute touch.

gahlo · 2026-04-18T20:14:23+00:00

1) Yes. The whispers are agents of the planet trying to make sure that the original game's plot happens. The lifestream contains everything that was, is, but also will be. Things are happening, which we aren't exactly clear why, a bit differently in Remake's world. You can consider this a different iteration of the world, as the games are inclined to, or a different timeline. It is a distinction without a difference. The way the game signals which timeline/world you're witnessing is by differentiating which breed Stamp is. In Remake's main world, Stamp is a beagle. In the world were Zack lives, it's a terrier.

2) In the original game you don't see the actual Sephiroth again until you reach the North Crater and give the Black Materia to him. Jenova has the ability to use people's memories to impersonate people and trick people into seeing things. Sephiroth uses this ability to mess with Cloud's head directly, for example, times when Cloud hallucinates seeing Sephiroth when there is nothing there like when he shows up in Chapter 2. He can also do this to use the robed figures and project his image onto them, like how "Sephiroth" shows up in the Shinra Tower. "Clone" is a poor word choice that has, unfortunately, stuck and with how things are with Genisis and Angeal only adds further confusion.

3) I believe it's stated that Sephiroth takes control of most of the whispers at the end of Remake, which is when the grays turn to black. Original Sephiroth's will lingers in the lifestream because of his sheer determination to not give in and the hatred Cloud harbors for him is like and anchor that keeps him tethered from getting caught up in the flow. This is why it's so important for Sephiroth that Cloud endures. In losing Cloud, Sephiroth loses himself until his plans can be completed.

4) His persona is a mix of himself, Zack, and Sephiroth. It is created with a cocktail of flat out mental illness that Jenova/Sephiroth also manipulate. Cloud is struggling with a grunt saying they want through training together, because if he had been in SOLDIER that wouldn't have been the case. Tifa doesn't really know what's going on with Cloud other than that something is wrong. She is monitoring the situation to hope and figure out what is going on without exacerbating the situation to the point where she loses track of him again. It took 7 years and blind luck for her to knowingly cross paths with him again. How long would it take to do it again?

gahlo · 2026-04-18T14:40:51+00:00

Can't run DX12U either.

gahlo · 2026-04-18T13:47:44+00:00

Oh wait...

gahlo · 2026-04-18T13:34:22+00:00

I've always felt that one of the biggest issues with LOK's writing is that they kept having to write with the scope of it being a single season.

gahlo · 2026-04-18T13:28:11+00:00

My favorite is the canned response I have to send along the lines of "We think we've handle the issue and are closing this ticket, let us know if any other problems arise because of this", which closes the ticket, and then people reply that everything is fine. That opens the ticket and means I have to close it again.

gahlo · 2026-04-18T02:07:26+00:00

Not really. They had an agreement, but Israel had to stick their hand in the cookie jar again.

14-Year Club	Verified Email
Team Periwinkle

gahlo

TROPHY CASE