The Shrine

Here's just a quick list of some of the towns of Final Fantasy that I found to be fantastic and interesting places to visit. Luckily due to the videogame medium, they can literally be visited, explored, and you can talk to the locals (well, to a highly limited extent).

Shumi Village: An environmental paradise, where technology and nature co-exist, and both thrive.




Midgar: A corporate paradise, probably the anti-Shumi village. Here corporate profits exceed all other values, nature is at odds with technology, and in fact, technology sucks the very life out of the soil, and only very small patches of plant life can be seen in and around Midgar.




Balamb: Almost a two in one here: Balamb is a beautiful seaside town with an Archology/University called Balamb Garden - a school that is essentially a self sustaining eco-system. Made from Shumi technology, it too has somewhat of a technological peace with nature. Also the most high tech university you'll ever come across! There are two other Gardens, Galbadia Garden and Trabia Garden in the North.





Treno: A city that rests in the shadow of a mountain, daylight never reaches it.



Costa Del Sol: A beachside paradise, only a ferry-ride away from the Port City of Junon Harbour.




Esthar City: A sprawling technologically advanced metropolis, Capital of the Hidden Esthar Empire which opposes Galbadia. Esthar City is complete with a railway, freeways, scientific research centers, ancient ruins, huge shopping centers, and even The Luna Gate Center where you can catch a space shuttle to Esthar's own orbital space station.




Ah, I miss the days when Square developed games in the FF6-9 style. I only covered a few of the cities, there are a lot of other very interesting places like the Gold Saucer, Figaro Castle, Delling City (a city much like Paris in the late Industrial/early Atomic Age), Dollet (a classic NYC 1920's paradise type city), and many more.



Oh, and one last thing, Balamb Garden can fly =P

Midgar ftw.

There are always those towns that you consider 'your town' in games. Its the town where you know where the vendors are located, the goods are updated, and it isnt a pain in the ass to run around in. Maybe you also saved it from certain doom, thus adding a little sentiment.

However, in FF games, the towns i liked the best were the ones with good music like the Black Mage Village in FF9. I also liked the town that Relm and Strago were from in FF6, it seemed to have a better chance of having a Shadow dream when i slept at the inn there.

Damn, just remembering the names of the FF6 characters is getting me nostalgic and teary eyed.

Flip wrote:Damn, just remembering the names of the FF6 characters is getting me nostalgic and teary eyed.

I can't see your tears over those long bangs covering your eyes. ;p

Eric - Ha! There is a difference between the fake emo emotions and genuine emotions =P

Flip - Thamasa in FF6 (Relm and Strago's town) was actually going to be on my list =). I love that town too... but I couldn't quickly find a good shot of the town (almost had to leave off Treno as well). FF6 was an awesome game in that every town was important to one or more of the characters. It was a really cool location as well, isolated from the larger society of the world, and holding an ancient secret. Final Fantasy music is part of the magic as well, and the way the music connects with the location and it's people was always done extremely well in the single digit series.

And Eric, I agree, Midgard was an awesome city - I do hope if FF7 is ever remade or reimagined, that they open up Midgard a little more, it was just such an excellent idea - everything from the vast floating city above, to the yuppies on the trains, to the crime filled underworld that also somehow maintained more of a human quality to its culture.

FF10 and later, Square really began to skimp on towns - although I do appreciate what was at least attempted in FF12 (although the towns ended up too big and sparse with large areas of literally nothing).

Eric wrote:

Flip wrote:Damn, just remembering the names of the FF6 characters is getting me nostalgic and teary eyed.

I can't see your tears over those long bangs covering your eyes. ;p

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