Final Fantasy VII Remake, Part Two

Something I love about the Final Fantasy VII Remake is that it features a giant sprawling sewer level. It also has one of my favorite video game mechanics, which is raising and lowering sluice gates to adjust the water level. And then, a bit later in the game, you get to go back to the sewers and explore an entirely different section. It's a dream come true.

The atmosphere is great too. More than anything, FFVII Remake is about exploring urban infrastructure, with a strong emphasis on utility access tunnels. I'm the sort of sicko who downloads floorplans of academic buildings, prints them out, and then goes through the entire space with a highlighter to mark where I've been on the map; and I've seen some interesting access tunnels over the years. FFVII Remake captures the gritty liminality of those spaces perfectly, and I'd like to think that its sewer level is more or less what real urban sewers look like. Essentially, they're utilitarian workspaces filled with pipes, but they also serve as dumping grounds for everything the municipality doesn't need, from old postboxes to old fax machines to crates of document binders to... more pipes.

I also appreciate Barret's running commentary about safety hazards and how nothing in the sewers would make it past an OSHA inspection. Something I've always loved about Barret is that he's essentially an OSHA officer who finally snapped, and I'm extremely amused by how the FFVII Remake leans into this.

Anyway, FFVII Remake definitely has one of my personal top five sewer levels. It's wonderful.

Re: Final Fantasy VII Remake, Part Two

To give an example, in the building where I'm currently teaching, this is what the main utility access corridor looks like...

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...and I love that Final Fantasy VII Remake provides a true and accurate reflection of spaces like this.