The city of Midgar stood like a titan around, above, and below Cloud Strife and his companions. Suspended upon enormous pillars and literally teeming with dilapidated piping, twisting corridors, and rising smoke, Midgar seems at once alive and alien – one of the first play experiences a gamer encounters, setting the tone for the entirety of the adventure. The importance of technology, here bordering on pervasiveness, is a theme dieselpunk would become well known for. This is accentuated by the often run-down, impoverished nature of Midgar itself, a place where even the sky remains a primarily dark space (a technique used quite effectively in the film Dark City, which was discussed beautifully by Seraphimish here).
The Shinra corporation, de-facto ruler of the world from all evidence, helps to add a distinctive ‘wartime’ feel to the game, including waves of faceless soldiers in ominous armor, an agenda which includes leveraging the planet’s vast resources in order to attain its goals (as seen by the existence of numerous ‘Mako’ reactors – power-plants constructed to draw the energy from the planet) so that Shinra may continue to power its cities and weapons. Here again, the thematic similarities to eventual dieselpunk notions of a great war (i.e. WWII) and the war effort are strong.
Originally Posted by Shorty
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