The problem is not just chapter 18, though. There have been bad or at least meaningless changes to the plot throughout the entire game, some of which deeply affect the overall tone of the narrative, or are detrimental to the story as a whole, or sometimes even outright ignore common sense. There have been good changes/additions as well, but the list of the bad changes/additions is arguably way longer even without mentioning chapter 18 at all. Here's some examples that disturbed me the most:
1: Shinra blowing up their own reactors – we've already talked about that one a few pages earlier. Not only is it retconning the original plot, it also makes ZERO sense for Shinra to do that. Imagine if you were the owner/manager of a factory, and there's a rival you want to get rid of. Now, competition has always been rather harsh in the business world, and sometimes certain companies go a little out of their way to damage a rival/enemy, even with illegal methods in some cases (happens in the real world as well). But would you really go as far as blowing up your own factory just so you could get back at your enemy? No, you wouldn't (I hope). After all, who in their right mind would nuke away their own income?
As already stated in earlier posts, Shinra has plenty of other options to deal with Avalanche. They've got the world's largest military at their disposal, they control politics and the media. A handful of amateur rebels is certainly no serious match for them, even though they made Avalanche bigger in the remake (but that's another story altogether). A few search-and-destroy-missions throughout the slums should do the trick. As for their plan to raise the people's patriotic spirit for another war with Wutai: if they wanted to fake some Avalanche bombings for that, they could've used targets of lesser importance. Administrative buildings for example, or maybe a train station... anything OTHER than a reactor! In fact, if they're striving for another war with Wutai, that'd be one more reason NOT to bomb their reactors. Surely no country would seriously consider crippling their own finances and economy on the eve of an important war, would they? Shinra has always been portrayed as evil and reckless in the original, but never as dumb, and nuking their own reactors is just that.
The point is that (imho) even in a fictional world and story, the various characters' behavior still has to be somewhat believable and comprehensible, like how people in the real world might behave if they found themselves in a similar situation. Believability is arguably the most important point when it comes to successful immersion into a fictional world. If the world's believability is lost due to a character's incomprehensible actions, the immersion breaks. Simple as that.
In addition, this plot change also sheds an entirely different light on the story in another aspect: In any conflict, it's usually difficult to claim that one side is purely good and the other is purely evil, as it all depends on different points of view. What some people call terrorists, others call freedom fighters. What some people practice as their religion, others call heresy. Some people say that abortion is murder, others say that it's the woman's right to choose her own fate (not Nomura's kind of fate, lol
). It's the same with Avalanche vs Shinra: The Shinra may be the bad guys (for the most part), but that doesn't automatically make Avalanche the good guys. The point from the original game was that Avalanche was doing the wrong things for the right reasons, but it also made clear that the end doesn't justify the means. Much later in the game, when Cait Sith/Reeve confronts them about it, both Barret and Tifa show remorse for their actions in the early game, admitting that what they did was wrong and “can never be forgiven.” The lesson here was that people can learn from their past mistakes, grow and evolve through them to find a new path in life, and maybe even try to redeem themselves through their actions now. The original game did a really good job at conveying that message. The remake, however, discards that thoughtfulness in favor of a much more simplistic black-and-white labeling, which (imho) robs the story of a certain layer of depth.
2: I actually liked the overall idea of visiting Jesse's parents. More background stories for the Avalanche members is certainly neat. And looting a Shinra warehouse... seems reasonable as well. Shinra probably holds a monopoly on all weapon types, so Avalanche would have to get their equipment by stealing from them. So yeah, this is something that I could actually picture Avalanche doing, that chapter is probably their best example of a meaningful expansion of the original plot, and I even give them probs for that.
But when it comes to the actual implementation of that idea, we get... Roche... not once, but twice... Who is this guy? Why is he always looking to pick a fight with someone? Is he just some random adrenaline junkie? We get no background information about him, his origins, his reasons, or whatever, all we get are some crazy over-the-top motorbike stunts, and after he's gone, he's never even mentioned again for the rest of the game. Not exactly the proper way to introduce a character, is it?
Now one might argue that Roche's character will eventually be explained in future episodes, but I think from what we saw it's kinda obvious that he's only in here as fan-service. They wanted someone to do motorbike duels with Cloud because someone at SE (insert name of your “favorite” writer here) thought it looked cool. To me, it simply was yet another immersion breaker. That dude has the word “obsolete” stamped in bold letters all across his forehead.
3: The Sector 7 plate drop. The battle at the pillar itself was actually fine and all, and it even featured a rare IMPROVEMENT over the original plot by showing Tseng and captured Aerith over a monitor rather than in a helicopter on site. That one always bugged me a little bit in the original, Tseng's chopper was still there when the bomb at the pillar exploded, and some of the debris actually got dangerously close, lol! So the approach from the remake with Tseng contacting them from a safe distance seems more reasonable indeed.
So what am I criticizing here? Well, the whole scenario before, during, and after the drop, actually. It's no secret that SE was desperately trying to stretch the game at every possible (or impossible) opportunity, otherwise they wouldn't have managed to make Midgar 40 hours long. But the whole plate drop chapter was definitely the wrong place for that. Ever since Don Corneo revealed Shinra's plan, the party knew that they didn't have any time to lose, yet somehow they manage to waste valuable time at several occasions:
They chat around with various ghosts in the train graveyard as if they were just taking a relaxing walk in the park... After defeating Eligor, they just dilly-dally there staring at the beautiful sight of the souls that were freed, seemingly forgetting that they have something important to do... Really, SHOULDN'T THEY BE IN A HURRY??? And after reaching the slums, Aerith is supposed to go fetch Marlene, and FAST, right? Well, except she's anything but fast. When she warns Tifa's landlady and her friends about the impending plate drop, she again just stands there and has a nice little chat with them... upon hearing the news of the imminent danger, they should run for their lives immediately, right? Except, they don't... they just stand there and dilly-dally some more before finally agreeing on an evacuation... Honestly, is this realistic, believable behavior here? No. A believable, realistic scenario would've been Aerith simply running past them while shouting out loud “The plate's about to drop! Get out of this sector! Run for your lives, RUN!!!” She shouldn't have stopped even for a moment! Later on, she rescues another little girl, which is fine and all, except that it's one of those instances where the developers force the player to WALK SLOWLY! And Aerith even comforts the girl by telling her that there's “no need to rush”. Like, seriously? THE GODDAMN PLATE IS COMING DOWN ANY MOMENT, FOR GOD'S SAKE!! If this is no time to rush, then when is it? Really, the game's padding feels much more detrimental here than in any other chapter. The developers must've been truly desperate when they stall for time even in a scenario where TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!
Finally, the whole plate drop itself is undermined by the fact that Biggs, Wedge and most slum residents survive due to a successful evacuation. Here I cannot help but wonder: what was their reasoning behind this? Are they really that afraid to depict death in a video game that they think they have to go out of their way and completely rewrite parts of the story? In the original, Biggs, Wedge, and Jesse died here, along with pretty much everyone else in the slums. Wham! Now THAT is how you deliver a shock to the audience. See, the main reason why I liked the idea of fleshing out the Avalanche members and giving them more background was that their eventual death would feel that much more devastating then. Only that doesn't happen, except for maybe Jesse (and even in that case we can't be too sure, maybe SE miraculously brings her back in the next episode, who knows?). Biggs is still alive, so his long dramatic dying speech at the pillar was all for naught, and feels obsolete in retrospect. Same with Wedge. As a result, it's not surprising that the plate drop in the remake didn't have nearly the same impact as in the original. They may show you the destroyed sector later on, sure... but at the same time they tell you that most people made it out alive anyway, so it never feels like the catastrophe which the original game presented.
All my remaining points cover events in the Shinra headquarters. Boy, what a mind-bendingly stupid mess this whole chapter was, but one thing after another:
4: So Mayor Domino is now a secret Avalanche member operating directly from the Shinra headquarters, right under their noses without them realizing it? Yeah right... Another instance of SE depicting Shinra as downright dumb. I'm gonna quote the remake's Reno on this one: “If you're gonna bullshit me, at least try to make it believable!”
5: Hojo blurting out that Cloud wasn't a Soldier... just like that... Now let that sink in for a moment and think about how this affects one of the most important plotlines of the original:
A LARGE portion of the game's story revolves around unraveling Cloud's past and who he is, why his memory seems to be fuzzy and inconsistent from time to time, and what really happened five years ago. The original game did a wonderful job at successfully deceiving the player for most of the game about Cloud's identity, and it only worked so well because the players simply accepted Cloud's version of the Nibelheim incident which he tells at Kalm. And why wouldn't they, as there's no reason to distrust the main character at this point, so it is taken as fact until well into disc 2. Cloud having been a Soldier was NEVER pulled into question until both Sephiroth and Hojo claim at the Northern Crater that Cloud's just another Sephiroth clone, and that's the point where the player starts to doubt. The big reveal which clears up everything isn't made until you're about two-thirds into the game, and it was one of the most brilliantly executed plot twists ever precisely BECAUSE the player was left in the dark and led down a wrong path for so long. In the remake, this whole deception obviously won't work anymore now. Rather, new players will now question Cloud's version of the Nibelheim events from the get-go, since they've already been told that Cloud wasn't a Soldier right at the story's beginning.
Of all the violations to the original plot that they pulled in this remake, this one has probably got to be the most serious. The game's biggest plot twist – one of the most famous in JRPG history – ruined in one single sentence... Wow... just... wow...
6: Hojo again. This time, he locks the party in his lab and tells them that he'll only let them out if they help him to collect “valuable combat data” by fighting some of his stuff... Come on, do I really have to elaborate on why this is garbage? On to the next one.
7: President Shinra's death scene. That one definitely stood out as the pinnacle of bad writing. Why is President Shinra hanging there? Was it Sephiroth? If so, why didn't he finish him off right away? When Barret and President Shinra go inside, why are the others not following them? Like what are they doing, gazing at the stars for several minutes without realizing what's going on inside, just a couple meters away from them? Why would President Shinra even bother threatening Barret when he knows that other Avalanche members were waiting behind him? Several units of his troops already failed at taking them down, so what are the chances that this middle-aged man without combat experience could accomplish that on his own? And why isn't Barret simply aiming back? Machine-gun beats colt any day.
Honestly, not a single character in this entire scene acts in a comprehensive way. Remember what I said about the importance of believable behavior even for fictional worlds? Well in this scene here, any and all believability goes completely down the drain.
In this case that's especially sad because this particular scene - and much of the Shinra headquarter before it - was a vital part of Sephiroth's introduction in the original. Most of the Midgar portion was dedicated to depicting Shinra as this seemingly insurmountable Titan that Avalanche cannot seem to overcome, no matter how hard they tried. After having half of their members killed in the plate drop, it ends with them being thrown in jail in the Shinra headquarters, unable to do anything but wait for their likely execution. Had they not received outside help from a so-far unknown third player, their little adventure would've ended right then and there. Enter Sephiroth... and all of a sudden Shinra doesn't look so unbeatable anymore.
The fact that they changed the entire Shinra building scenario completely in the remake (and omitted both the prison part and the bloodbath part) leads me to believe that Nomura and his fellow writers failed to understand the importance of this scene for
Sephiroth's character building, even though he's never actually shown there in the original. So they think President Shinra's death scene is better in the remake because now you actually see the stabbing? Think again, because the point of this scene in the original was not to show to the player that President Shinra was dead. It was to make the player aware of the appearance of a new villain, one that even Shinra is helpless against, thus ushering in a new chapter in the narrative. While Shinra still sticks around as an enemy for most of the game, the role of the true threat has now clearly passed on to someone else.
In the remake, though, this entire message fails due to several bad decisions made previously: The plate drop didn't hit Avalanche as hard as in the original because Biggs and Wedge survived, the party never gets jailed, they make it through the entire building on their own without anyone else's help (no, Wedge's short appearance doesn't really help anyone), and in the end, they have the company leader in their hands. President Shinra is at their mercy now (quite the opposite tone of what the original game was trying to convey here). As a consequence, the president's death doesn't feel nearly as shocking anymore because he pretty much was already beaten before that.
8: This next one is actually part of the scene above. Barret getting killed and then revived immediately afterwards because “this death was not the one destined for him”. Don't even get me started on this... Nomura may call it a clever, unexpected plot twist. I call it a brain fart. 'Nuff said.
9: Boss battle against Jenova: way too early, with absolutely no context given. Who is this creature? What does it want? Why is Sephiroth carrying it around? Why do we have to fight it? The game never even bothers to explain anything about her, it simply assumes that the player already knows that from the original game. Didn't the developers claim that this remake was for both old fans and newcomers alike? Please explain to me how a newcomer who hasn't played FF7 before is supposed to make any sense of this boss battle.
The original once again handled this a whole lot better by describing Jenova's origins and background in detail first: we learn that she's a 2000 year-old Cetra discovered by Shinra's scientists, and that her genes were prenatally infused into Sephiroth, making her his “mother” in a metaphorical sense. Granted, some of that information turns out to be wrong later (her being an alien rather than an ancient), but that's beside the point. What matters is that by the time the first Jenova battle occurs, the player immediately knows that this battle is an important one because of all the information he received about her before. But in the remake they just throw you into battle with her without further ado. A newcomer can only think: “Big scary mutant thingy, it's probably evil, so we gotta kill it.” Good writers don't introduce important figures in such a way.
10: Chadley. Yes, it's Hojo's assistant that wants you to keep fighting in a simulator for some odd reason. And he reveals that reason after finishing the toughest optional boss in the simulator. And boy, what a reason this is: so Chadley is actually not a human, but an android, but his AI somehow developed a conscience (yes, like Skynet from Terminator, lol!) and now he wants to break free from Hojo's control. And watching humans battle in the simulator apparently allows him to rewrite his AI to accomplish just that...
The first time I watched this, I simply fell out of my chair laughing as I couldn't believe that level of nonsense, lol!
