Recently the Final Fantasy 7 Remake launched and I among many people my age grew up alongside
the original game and have good memories of playthoughs . But Ric, why are you covering
it here? Well frequenters of my channel will notice that I often branch out into other
topics every now and then and this is one of those times. I’ve always made an effort
to include science fiction universes from gaming in my coverage, such as Fallout, Mass
Effect and Outer Worlds and it helps keep me certifiably sane to do other stuff too.
I debated on making a video around one of my favourite franchises for some time, that
being Final Fantasy in general as it often blurs the line between Science Fiction and
Fantasy, and with 7, I think that the game epitomises why you find the two genres sharing
shelf-space in books stores. It has elements of both. Nowhere is this mix more prevalent
than in the city of Midgar, the sprawling pseudo-cyberpunk cross wasteland come future
urban metropolis that is the setting for the Remake as well as a good section of the original
games. So I thought I’d put together a video explaining
this city as well as some background lore for it as I did with the Outer Worlds, though
this shouldn’t take as long, as there is only one location. Reasoning out of the way,
let’s jump in, there will be no spoilers here for the storyline, but I will provide
background lore that is unveiled throughout the plot.
Midgar is located on the Eastern Continent of Gaia, the planet of Final Fantasy 7 and
is the creation of the Shinra Electric Power Company and as such is a hotbed of technological
progress and development, a testament to the advancement attainable by harnessing the planet’s
energy. Long ago, Shinra had discovered how to convert
the planet’s energy force, known as the lifestream into a consumable power, called
Mako, we’ll get back to that in a minute. Midgar’s design was to be based on eight
sectors surrounding the headquarters for Shinra, and construction began in year 1976 of their
fictional calendar. Sitting at the centre of the pizza (as it’s colloquially referred
to), this central zone is known as Sector 0 and incorporates the Shinra Building as
well as several other research facilities that the company would like to keep close
to its chest. This towering structure is the most visible building in the city, always
illuminated by guiding searchlights for the coming and going of helicopters while the
Shinra company logo is in prominent display. The glow of Mako energy often creeps up from
the surrounding pipework mixing with the ambient illumination giving it the characteristic
cyan glow. The headquarters is mostly offices responsible
for managing the numerous projects and power grid that spans the world, owned by the megacorporation.
It is here that the Mayor of Midgar, Domino has his office as wells as the President and
CEO of Shinra and his executive officers reside and was the first section to be completed
during the city’s construction. Leading from Sector zero to the outside of
the city is the Midgar Highway. As of the beginning of the game, it yet remains to be
completed but will eventually be the main thoroughfare into the city as it sails above
the ground on its elevated stilts. In fact, this elevation is present in the
rest of the city’s design. Each of the eight sectors, connected to Sector zero is held,
suspended above the ground by support pillars connected to the main support under the Shinra
HQ. Each of these slices is known as a plate, and is a township in its own right, containing
everything a community needs to thrive from spacious accommodations to entertainment districts.
As the city is owned completely by Shinra, they have say in who gets to live where and
employees of the company are often awarded the most comfortable living conditions. The
underside of these plates is a series of maintenance tunnels and walkways of very utilitarian design
where the plate’s sewer system and other pollution are syphoned away from the topside.
However, 300 metres below that, on the natural floor lay the slums. It’s hard to say if
a slum is what Shinra intended these areas to be, or if that is merely what they became
due to negligence, but that is what they now are. The ground floors of Midgar are built
in the shadows of the plate where artificial lamps on the plate’s underside provide illumination
to supplement the natural rays that creep in from the edges of the steel sky. The refuse
and pollution from the topside filters its way down, contaminating the lower levels and
while evidence of urban development can be found here, successful completion of such
projects plays second fiddle to any topside work. Each Sector slum is divided from its
neighbours by a concrete and steel wall. A larger wall also rings the circumference of
the city. Many residents of the undercity have taken
matters into their own hands and constructed shanty towns from the remaining scrap and
supplies that lie discarded and abandoned around the floor. The slums however do remain
connected to the upper levels through a train network that snakes around the central Sector
0 pillar and connects the districts, other ways from the ground floor to the top remain
sparse. Numerous factories also lie about the slums in various states of use, perhaps
originally used for the construction of Midgar’s plates.
So as we can see, each sector has an upper level and a corresponding slum. Whereas life
on the top is fairly comfortable and consistent, the quality of life on the ground varies from
Sector to district. Each upper plate Sector houses a numbered reactor that sits between
the slices and running around them all is an enclosing wall. These Reactors are the
machines that delve deep into the planet’s reservoir of Mako energy and syphon it up
in such quantities it can be seen as a visible liquid. Always shining from the exhaust at
the top of each, at night, they fire up in earnest as the cities lights come on and the
Mako energy permeates the skies. Sector one is the first location that you
visit in the game and is as typical as Sectors go. The surface is a mixture of suburban cobblestone
and brickwork. Within the reactor, things take on a far more metallic look with mesh
frames and futuristic wiring combining with sleeker lighting and piping. Working within
the reactors pays well, but can be hazardous to your health. Mako poisoning is the resulting
contamination of a person’s body and psyche from the condensed lifestream and can have
symptoms from illness to falling comatose. Moving clockwise and we have the Sector Two
reactor, then Sector Two itself and then Three, and so on. They remain unexplored in the game,
but Sector three in particular seems to house a cluster of office towers of similar style
to the Shinra Building as well as complexes that remain dark at night, suggesting a greater
number of workplaces than residential areas. In Sector Four and Sector Five, the plates
are bustling with houses and apartments. The slums of Sector Five are home to numerous
partially completed structures, such as a residential district that features a church.
However, these buildings remain incomplete and instead residents choose to live some
distance away from the abandoned construction, in their own makeshift shanty town. Here a
small but active economy has sprung up and while not comparable to the quality of living
on the upper plate, the community has made the best of it and created a small oasis among
the mounds of scrap. Shinra now uses this sector as a dumpsite for much of its mechanical
and industrial waste. But where else does the abundance of scrap metal come from? Well,
that would be Sector Six. Sector Six suffered a plate collapse during
Midgar’s construction. Fortunately the area was sparsely inhabited at the time, but the
catastrophic event may in part, be responsible for the delay in building up the rest of Midgar.
As a result, a new plate above has begun construction but by the beginning of the game, is still
incomplete. There currently are no residents on the top and the ruins below are a hectic
mix of broken surface level highways and structures mixed with debris the further out you go.
This area has become a haven for bandits and monsters that have crept in from the outside,
but closer to the central Midgar pillar is the Wall Market.
It was created by the labour forces as a place to unwind during the cities construction before
Shinra erected an enclosing wall to keep it from expanding further. Wall Market is run
by Don Corneo, a crimelord of the slums who has a partnership with Shinra and thereby
complete control of his little corner of Midgar. However, aside from his seedy influence, Wall
Market remains the entertainment hub of the slums, with even topsiders choosing to venture
down to enjoy its hedonistic delights or simply have a fun night on the town.
Its home to several eating joints, shops, and even a gym. At night it really comes alive
with neon lights and it’s also from here that the Chocobo porters operate their inter-slum
network. Sector Seven is next up and home to several
prominent characters. The plate above has a Shinra-employee district and several warehouses
closer to Sector Zero. The train graveyard can be found in the slums where retired Shinra
locomotives are awaiting dismantling. Rumours claim it to be haunted. The Train Station
then gives way to the Sector Seven Slum, another shanty town, this one has several prominent
features such as a Bar named Seventh Heaven, which is a community pillar of sorts as well
as the Beginner’s Hall, the meeting point for the neighbourhood watch, a civilian militia
that act to prevent the encroachment of monsters into the town.
Sector Eight is more or less the cultured entertainment district of Midgar, above ground
at any rate. On the plate, there is Loveless Avenue, so named for the numerous posters
and billboards for the in-universe novel turned play. As you’d expect, it houses theatres
and a fountain square with very Art Deco inspired construction and numerous residential apartments.
I doubt the undercity sectors were ever intended to become such slums, as they do have a functional
sewer system and there is consistent evidence of attempted clean-up and construction. Midgar
was to be a beacon of civilization, where every citizen would be provided for by the
benevolence and generosity of the Shinra corporation and built upon the boundless supply of Mako
energy. While life on a plate is easier and far more relaxing, it’s still not the utopia
envisioned. So why does Midgar not look like Shinra’s
projected goal? Well several reasons, numerous setbacks during its construction have slowed
down the project substantially and Shinra has developed other goals in the meantime
which demand its resources. But most of all, Mako is literally the life blood of the planet.
Consuming it such as the reactors do, drain the planet’s ability to produce life and
the most visible sign of this is the decay that surrounds the city and permeates its
steel beams. For miles around the circumference of Midgar and within its walls, no foliage
grows, the barren lands are a waste, devoid of the energy the planet needs to thrive and
the slums in particular lack much natural light.
Within the city too, it’s extremely difficult to grow anything in the soil, unless you’re
a gifted florist. I love the design of Midgar in all its horrific
and baleful beauty. Everything in the city answers to Shinra. Not only do they sit at
the centre, they run their own military which seems to be the continent’s largest force
and they own the broadcasting stations and entertainment. Travel around the city is reliant
on the Shinra run train network, especially from the slums to the plate and Identification
scanners ping any unauthorised travel. The only reason for the plates to be segregated
as they are, is to further reliance on Shinra for transport between them. The slums are
partitioned from one another by imposing walls and even the plates are spaced so that there
is a cavernous gorge between them, with only a few manageable connections. It’s all so
that Shinra retains control on anyone who lives there, whether it be topside or below
and to seek your own inter-sector travel often involves trespass.
Their presence in the slums is somewhat laxer, but if anything, this is where regimented
protection and enforcement is needed most as monsters and faulty machines from the wastes,
twisted by Mako energy pollution often find their way into these less protected settlements.
Not to mention the criminal organisations that have sprung up, giving the slums an even
worse reputation. Because of this, there is a vast class divide among the upper and lower
sectors with those on the plate living comfortably and forgetting about the struggles of those
on the ground floor. Equally, while indeed the underdogs, those in the slums often assume
all above them are ungrateful elitists living the good life at the expense of the grounders.
Neither opinion is wholly true and the only ones who ever profit is the Shinra megacorporation.
So there we have it, a rundown of the city of Midgar, a dream city doomed from the start
because of the corporate greed on which it was founded. It may be the most advanced city
in the world of Final Fantasy 7, but it is Shinra’s plaything and an unsustainable
monument to their vanity. Thank you for watching this video on the iconic
location and do be sure to let me know what you think. Would you be interested in more
on in this genre? I know it’s a little more of an outlier on my channel in terms of content,
but hey, I keep the regular stuff flowing too and need to stretch once in a while. Plus
its genuinely one of my favourite universes and I wanted to share that with you.
So, Thanks again for watching, I’ve been Ric and goodbye!