Kalm

I love rpg's and I love rpg towns. I want to talk about my obsession with role playing npc communities, from Midgar to Adelhyde, all of my favorite rpg's have exactly one thing in common, great towns/villages/hubs/cities/. Vastly under appreciated, a good town can make all the difference, and the mid-numbered Final Fantasies certainly proved it. 

So the first installment in my video game towns idea will be Kalm, my favorite town from FF7. I know everyone remembers how industrial and steampunky 7 was, but do you remember just how German-industrial the main continent was? Kalm is directly design-inspired by old German villages, with insane roof angles and the staple of every post dark ages German village, a central town hub.

I love Kalm for so much more than it's architecture, it's the safe feeling the place has. For the first time since the game begins, you feel rested. You and your team crowd into the inn and talk about Cloud and the overall plan for the first time, learning about everyone and having a good laugh. It's all depression and death from here afterwards, but at least you got that good day and a half in a cozy little village that doesn't give one fuck about your metropolitan white people problems.