We open with the first image from Chapter 17 - Cloud in a bed. The POV shot of him looking from the ceiling to the door was done by me, featuring my Remove Cell Mural mod.
Shinra Building Original Colors by FantasyRaiderr once again adds a subtle whitening to the walls that make Shinra HQ feel more sterile. The prison doors three-in-a-row reflect the original layout of Shinra HQ, although the rooms are allayed differently in Remake.
Since this sequence isn't in Remake, I felt like I had to take more care to establish the eerie tone for this sequence. Shots are slow as I introduce the theme Trail of Blood by Nobuo Uematsu (EC version).
The dead MP in the hallway is from Chapter 16, during one of the fights I cut. Staggering that enemy caused him to bend over such that I could freeze him and manipulate him to be slouched against the wall there.
When we return to Tifa in the bed, I play with model swaps again. Cloud and Tifa are switched in this scene, requiring three mods: Model Swaps by juijub to turn Tifa into Cloud, and Tifa Invisible Weapons by Narknon to remove her weapons from "Cloud." Lastly, Tifa Replace Cloud by Natsukashii1111 allowed us to swap Cloud's model for Tifa without crashing the game.
For this shot, I needed Tifa to run out first, pursued by Cloud. The game can't do that with the default models, so I kept Tifa and Cloud swapped. I also used Model Swaps to turn Aerith into Tifa, and then had "Tifa" and "Cloud" run from the room. If Cloud has a slightly girlish gait here, it's because he's using Tifa's running animation, while Tifa is using Aerith's. I considered trying to cut this shot altogether by doing one of my patented "camera pans around the environment" coverups, but without a shot like this the story isn't quite clear, so it has to stay.
The shot of Tifa rescuing Aerith is pretty funny to me, just because of the cocky way Tifa is standing. It's because she's using Cloud's animations, of course, but even with Cloud's animations she doesn't usually look so posed. At least it's literally a pose that Tifa's concept art is doing lol.
For the shot where Cloud opens the door on Red XIII, it's actually a composite shot! To get Red XIII curled up like that, I had to go back to Chapter 16 and grab him from the holding cell, placing him safely on the right half of the frame. Then I had to keep that camera angle on memory (aka I couldn't exit the program) navigate back to Chapter 17 and open the door as Cloud on the left side of the frame. Then I composited the shots together - quite proud of myself :)
The other Barret and Red XIII shots are from that long scene that starts Chapter 17, although at different angles to fit the scene we are creating. Invisible Whispers removes the pesky ghosts.
The take where Barret and Red XIII are running up behind Aerith and Tifa is another one where I shrunk Cloud down and put him just out of frame, causing characters to run to be nearby him (Tifa and Aerith were already close enough as to not need moving). I swapped Tifa and Aerith in order to keep Tifa's arms bare for continuity.
To get this shot of the materia, I had to load Chapter 16 again and head into the vents - that's when this purple materia is loaded into the gamespace. Luckily, that cell room is also loaded at the same time, so it was simply a matter of moving the materia from the vents to the cell.
This line of "Let's check our materia" does a lot of heavy lifting, summarizing about an hour of someone's average playthrough so far fiddling through menus. On to the blood and gore!
Trail of Blood
To get the dead bodies here, I froze the game and descended from this floor down to the lower levels - particularly the staff lounge and the conference room floors. The first shot is a still shot because the blood is actually a static image superimposed onto the frame - the blood splatter is clipart, I colored it to look like it's interacting with the room's light source, but I still wanted it to be starkly red. A shocking image!
More bodies are strewn in this dutch angle shot. Yes, that is Chadley. But don't worry! It's fine if you smash him, he's all right.
Jenova Chamber
Another "go through the floor" sequence makes pretend like the Jenova chamber and Hojo's lab are connected like in the OG.
Jenova is gone, and a trail of blood leads from her tank towards the elevator. The blood is censored in remake to be bubbling purple goo. To restore the red color, I used Blood Trail Classic by FantasyRaiderr. Then I had to turn off particle effects to cease the luminescent bubbling. Unfortunately, the glowing purple lights lining the blood trail cannot be removed. My attempts to recolor the lights in post proved beyond my skill.
Here's a shot I couldn't fit into the episode, but I really appreciate the dead bodies added by FantasyRaiderr throughout the environment. Very creepy.
Hojo's Lab
That's the end of the episode… unless you are watching the Extended version, in which case we have an entire second pass through the soundtrack (EC's Trail of Blood)
Hojo's Lab (called the Drum in Remake) is so big it beggars belief. Where in Shinra HQ is all of this supposed to fit? Well it's both the 67th and 68th Floor, and if you've been watching the other extended sequences, you've also seen a big staff lounge, movie theatre, and a massive library. Shinra HQ is just that big.
Fight Against MOTH Unit
There's a lot of Red XIII, Barret, and Cloud, and not so much of the girls. That's because Tifa and Aerith aren't here in Remake, they've been temporarily separated from the main group. I grabbed them and placed them in the background of the shot where Cloud brings his sword to bear, but they don't do anything in combat except stand around, and they can't be added to the party even with a cheat engine.
The reason this extended edition exists is because in the OG FF7, this creepy music played uninterrupted during battles and exploration - something that hadn't been seen in the game yet. The emotional impact was great. For this sequence I tried to recreate that feeling by adding in sound effects here and there where often I do not, just to emphasize how hushed the musical score is.
The sequence where Tifa and Aeris are sneaking around and encountering all sorts of escaped monsters called for more grabbing and moving - this time Cloud, Barret, and Red XIII. At this time, I can cheat and add the boys to the party, allowing us to face these Zenene monsters together.
Without much time left in the music to portray this battle, I opted for a breakneak pace. I included some of the old sound effects from the OG FF7 as a nostalgic easter egg.
Final Thoughts
I am torn as to which version I like better. The short version maintains this eerie tone and leaves on an uncertain, dread-filled cliffhanger. The extended version has some great visuals, it showcases the team working together, and provides what is considered iconic FF7 goodness… but it risks diffusing the tension and dragging out the pacing. I suppose that's why I made two versions. On to the next challenge - a whopper of an episode!
