So I just got through the Sector 7 plate stuff today. (SPOILER)It actually all hit me emotionally a lot harder than I thought it would. It was rough getting to the parts with Jessie and Biggs. I also hated seeing everything come crashing down while Wedge held his cats. My heart hurt for Marlene when Aerith went to her.

This was one of the parts where walking through the aftermath to reflect is effective. You get a sense of the weight and guilt the group feels. It’s kind of funny because it is really similar to what it is like walking past people and such in XIII, but everything is just done so much better in this game in terms of the characters and story,

I’ve also been thinking about the transition of Wall Market to the plate dropping, and the in between really needed to be shorter. I honestly think things would have been better had Don been more vague such as, “They found out where that guy with the gun arm and his band of terrorists are holed up, and Avalanche is about to get their reckoning.” Drop into sewers with the feeling of urgency to get back and warn Barret but not know the seriousness. Shorten the events of the sewers by a good amount and then have the train graveyard just have hints for going back for the ghost side quest and all the stuff I said in my previous post. Briskly get to sector 7 only to find it to be a war zone and maybe have some clue there that they are just going to destroy the entire sector and blame Avalanche.

We all already know what is happening anyways, but i feel like going from the utter silliness of Wall Market quickly into the devastation of sector 7 would have just made it that much more emotionally resonant and devastating.

Also, I’m really digging all of the music.