FF7 Rebirth Nibelheim Change
I know the original game is nearly 30 years old (ouch) at this point, but Rebirth just came out a year or so ago, so Spoilers below vv
But I was thinking about the main change that was made to the Nibelheim return that Cloud & Co. have in FF7, and at first I wasn't necessarily a fan as it felt like a change made for the sake of making a change. But the more time passes, and as I'm replaying 1997 FF7 again currently, I think it was a really smart move to make.
In the original FF7, Cloud and Tifa return to Nibelheim and find the town almost exactly the way they remember as opposed to the burned-out husk that should by all rights be there waiting for them. Barret and some others ask about this, bc they were pretty clear about the state of the town in their retelling of the Sephiroth tantrum. They investigate, and the story reveals (as does talking to the NPCs meandering around the village) that Shinra rebuilt the town from scratch to hide what happened, and have replaced all the dead villagers with Crisis Actors (pun intended).
In FF7 Rebirth, however, they take it a step further. All of that is still true; village burned down, mass murder, Shinra rebuilt, people moved in, denying that the burning ever happened. What's changed is that there is a cover story added; now Nibelheim exists as a retreat primarily focused on hospice care (and treatment research, i think?) for victims of extreme Mako Poisoning (ironic, considering Cloud's history with Nibelheim and Mako Poisoning. I digress). The subtext is still there, that Shinra is doing this as a cover-up, but it's less obvious, as the whole town is full of people talking about Mako Poisoning, healthcare, and the swath of black robed Sephiroth Clones roaming the Nibel area. It also seems that the people actually working in this town do earnestly believe in their cover story, too. At the very least, there is a genuine attempt being made to comfort the Sephiroth Clones in their end-of-life. One could argue that could still be true in the original FF7 as well, I think there is a slightly higher number of Black Robes there than other towns, after all.
Again, I wasn't a fan at first. I accepted it, it didn't ruin anything by any rate, I just thought it was a bit superfluous. But again, replaying FF7, I had a change of heart. In FF7 (1997), this takes place in what I like to call the "Backstory Section". Back to back, we go to Barret's, Nanaki's, Cloud/Tifa's, and Cid's hometown, where we get to learn about their history and what set them on this path. Optionally, you can also go to Zack's hometown and learn about Aerith's history with him, and to Wutai to learn about Yuffie. The main thing I want to talk about is Corel, though.
The similarities between Nibelheim and Corel Incidents are striking. Poor village, remote and in the mountains, the only source of income is Shinra subsidies due to a nearby Mako Reactor. In both cases, the towns were effectively destroyed by Shinra. Corel was actually assaulted by Shinra military forces arbitrarily after the Mako dried up and is still devastated years later, and Nibelheim (as mentioned already) was utterly decimated by one lone SOLDIER. And yet, in FF7 (1997) there is no attempt to cover up Corel's destruction. In fact, they still allow Corel to be the primary method tourists use to go to the Gold Saucer, a massive attraction with tons of foot traffic. It's almost like they're encouraging people to see what Shinra is capable of if the town ends up on their bad side. A step further, Gongaga also has had no attempt made at PR after their reactor exploded, and in Crisis Core, they just fucking bomb Banora and wipe it off the map. So my change of heart comes from one question:
Why bother rebuilding and covering up Nibelheim, if they have literally never bothered to do the same for any of the other similarly destroyed towns?
The answer is probably "to prevent people from investigating and discovering Shinra Manor/Jenova's tank in the reactor". I would argue that it's not really worth the trouble, when you could easily just destroy the manor and the reactor, with far less trouble and expense. Just grab those books (as if you didn't already fucking have digital copies, Hojo) and get the fuck out of Dodge, you know? Also, I would argue that literally any effort should be put into the original game to offer evidence toward that hypothesis, if it is canon. With the text available, all we know is: Nibelheim burned, Nibelheim was rebuilt to hide it.
Which brings me to my original point. The Rebirth addition of Mako Poisoning treatment/palliative care is a smart way to justify why Shinra would go to so much expense to hide what happened. Sure, their true motive is likely to prevent investigation and hide Sephiroth's breakdown, but if they're putting all this time and money into it, they might as well do something tangible with the damn town. Turning it into a care/research center just makes sense, especially as Sephiroth Clones (which are actively dying of Mako Poisoning) are making their way to/through the town anyway. Catch them on their way to the Reunion and study/care for them.
Anyway, good change. Sorry for the long post.
