Are Corel Prison and North Corel villages or towns?

[DLPB_]

The Japanese doesn't seem to be able to help.  So, are they villages or towns?

[Thisguyaresick2]

Judging by their sizes, they're both villages.

[DLPB_]

Judging by their sizes, they're both villages.

The problem with that logic is that the game size does not equal what the writer intended.  That is simply a limit of time and of graphic artists (have a look at the size of d7 slums...  that place should be teeming with hundreds of people and yet you meet around 15).  I think they are villages too, but I can't be sure.  Perhaps Ultimania explains something.

[Covarr]

I'm not sure how adequate a factor size is, considering everything is pretty small-scale compared to real life for obvious gameplay reasons. Sector 7 only has like four buildings, Rocket Town has six, and the entire nation of Wutai has approximately seven. Honestly, the only place in the entire game that seems reasonably large is Junon.

Nothing is even to scale with the rest of the game. Cosmo Canyon, Kalm, and Nibelheim are all similar in size and bustlingness to each other, and all far more active than the "popular" getaway at Costa Del Sol. Honestly, the whole scale of the game makes no sense once you start to think about it.

[DLPB_]

It's obviously time constraints and what not.  The most obvious place this happens is in that little junk yard from District 5 to District 6. The scale is completely wrong, and when they arrive at the park, Aerith comments on how tough it was.  Before that she also makes it clear that D6 is a long way off.  In the gameplay itself... it's like 20 seconds away.

Advent Children, despite being piss poor in the writing dept, has the scale much better and you really get a feel for how big Midgar really is.

[Luceid]

IRC: In the german game guide (and even in the game itself IRC) every small settlement is labeled as a "town", even Iccicle Inn and (lower) Junon, except for Fort Condor.

It's always been that "It's the ENGINE, stupid!"-thingy, in EVERY game there is.
F.e. take the laughable "town" of Utai/Wutai. Stuff like "On The Way To A Smile - Case of Yuffie" shows, that it's MUCH larger than you might think. It's clearly a somewhat large town.

Or take a look at Balamb from FVIII. It's not even a "village" engine-wise. It's whatever you english/american people call something smaller than a village.
Lore wise Balamb City is meant to be the goddamn capital of an entire continent!
So don't judge by your eyes alone

PS: I love this screen from FF VIII - truly showing how big the cities really are.

[DLPB_]

Yeah Wutai is definitely a town.. so is Junon.  But it gets sketchy when we consider Corel.  I guess a coal mining settlement would ordinarily be a town.

[DLPB_]

Looks like the Japanese can help:

Luksy has just explained that the game uses 村 for both Corel and North Corel, and the "mayor's house" in Corel is Village Headman (chief).  The kanji suggests that village was definitely intended.  Which means the FF7wiki and other places have this wrong due to the original translation.