So I was just reminiscing about Final Fantasy 7 and Midgar. I remember playing it for the first time. The game really amazed me. I had really only played Golden China so I never really played any immersive games and on PlayStation I only had got Porsche Challenge (racing) and Crash Bandicoot 2 (platformer), so I was quite limited in choice. Then I played 7 and it felt like I was part of this immersive, massive city. Even though you never got to explore very much of it, it felt like a real city.
Of course, the real wow moment for me was after the Shinra building, which took about 10 hours to get to, so I thought the game must nearly be over. Then I entered the world map and truly realised how big the game actually was. That was a very special moment for me.
Anyway, I think the point for me was that Midgar was the only city that truly felt like a city in Final Fantasy. The pre-Playstation ones can be dismissed mostly because hardware limitations prevented them from being large enough to get that feel (I'm sure I'm going to be slated for saying it, but it's true for me), but none of the others really had anything that matched it, except for maybe Rabanastre in XII.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you think that other cities felt like cities in the Final Fantasy series? I also don't think it's just a Final Fantasy thing getting it right. The Imperial City in Elder Scrolls doesn't really feel like a city either. The only game that has really got the city feel that I have played would be Grand Theft Auto.