Final Fantasy 7 Remake shows the city of Midgar in stunning detail like it's never been seen before. The game painstakingly recreates every sector and area from the original and adds a lot of new little details in the process.
Midgar feels far more vibrant this time, and a big part of that is the countless NPCs wandering around the residential sections. The Final Fantasy 7 Remake does a great job of making its towns feel alive, and NPCs are a vital part of that.
In particular, there's a lot of little extra dialogue players can hear while wandering through the various areas of Midgar. It can easily be missed or ignored but for players paying attention, the NPC dialogue does a tremendous job at world-building.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake's NPCs Make the World Feel Alive
As Cloud strolls around town countless NPCs will have little bits of dialogue pop up. You can, of course, hear them talk but it also pops up as text in the upper left of the screen. This dialogue helps ground the world of Final Fantasy 7 as characters talk about their plans for the day, how they could really use a drink, or rumors about a handsome merc around town. There are any number of things the NPCs talk about, and when things take a turn for the worse the dialogue is filled with anguish over lost loved ones, panic at the destruction of the slums, and children looking for their lost parents.
The citizens of Midgar feel like real people with problems, even if the characters are mostly static. There's even a line about how someone needs to buy emergency food and believe it or not toilet paper; a little too on the nose for this moment in time. One of the best examples comes with the two Shinra soldiers guarding a gate in the Sector 7 Slums. One of the soldiers is a total newbie who greets every citizen with enthusiasm, then getting chastised by the experienced soldier for being too nice. As Cloud walks by multiple times players can continuously hear the new soldier struggle with acting "meaner." This all comes to a head when Wedge is trying to evacuate Sector 7 later on and appeals to the soldiers for help. The game has been building up the new soldier as a kind soul with optional dialogue, and ultimately it's him that makes the right choice and helps people get to safety.
On its face, it's just a Shinra soldier with a conscience, but if players have been paying attention to dialogue he's a fascinating side character; a kindhearted person stuck in a job that goes against his nature. The towns in Final Fantasy 7 Remake are mostly linear, much like Final Fantasy 13. The key difference, however, is that Final Fantasy 7 makes great use of NPCs to make these linear towns feel alive, while Final Fantasy 13's towns felt dead and heartless.
NPC Dialogue Is Totally Unobtrusive
At first glance, the stream of dialogue can seem overwhelming, as almost every person Cloud es has something to say. However, the game uses it smartly by making it unobtrusive to the core experience. Players that want to soak in the world of Final Fantasy 7 can do so at their leisure, but it won't stop players that just want to get to the next story beat or battle. This also makes the dialogue feel more natural as it's just citizens going about their daily lives, regardless of the actions of Cloud and the others. Between the optional dialogue and the main story, Final Fantasy 7 Remake is easily some of the best world-building the series has ever seen.
