For the last month I have divulged my entire being and existence into the essence of the 1997 mega-hit video game, Final Fantasy VII (developed by Square, now Square Enix). I sat on the couch on an average of eighty percent of the day progressing through this RPG with the utmost specificity, determined to forge the strongest of characters in order to leave no doubt that I will eventually succeed in beating a video game I have had a long and nostalgic history with- it dates all the way back to when it was released, sixteen years ago (good golly Miss Molly...I feel old). Let me tell you this personal history before I get into this game. I was seven years old and the year before I was given my first video game console, the thrust into a now lifelong passion, with the Nintendo 64. I was living in Delaware at the time, living as an introverted but slightly bossy kid who loved video games just as much as the next boy, so any television that was emitting a game from its screen initiated a magnetic attraction upon me where I floated towards the screen, hovering over the other kids who played it; nevermind the fact that I may or may not have known them. It was one night, a night that has now obfuscated into a foggy haze, like that of the protagonist of FF7 (we will get to that later, don't worry), where my family and I went to a party of a friend of ours whose children went to my school, although I wasn't too close to them because they were all older than me...I think their last name was Penny.
All I vaguely remember about the party had nothing to do with the party but just the chubby face of one of the younger sons, that's it. What I had not vaguely remembered, but remembered with intense nostalgic feelings, is the basement of their house, which housed a television, and, lo and behold, a Playstation. I think one of the older brothers was playing Final Fantasy VII when I arrived, so I floated towards the event, wondering what this game was, a strange game played on a strange system since I was never exposed much to Nintendo's competitor. Something happened next, where they just left, and I had control over the game. My hands easily adjusted to the unfamiliar texture and shape of a Playstation controller. Then, I started the game...the first three notes the game's score were immediately branded in my memory, the face of Aeris, who at the time, looked stunning to my seven year old mind. I remember the swooping establishing shot of Midgar, its post-industrial vigor and metallic mystery. I remember how the camera glided over the city and into one of its sections, a train approaches, the camera stops, the train arrive at the station and the music shifts from epic grandeur to momentous anticipation. The attack on Mako reactor number one, Cloud Strife, Barrett Wallace, and the first boss fight. I was hooked. But it was a strange relationship, because that is all I got to play, so my attraction did not appear in spite of my attraction to the story but more to my mighty wonderment and curiosity that sprouted.
It was around six years later that I entered a game store in Puerto Rico (of all places), this time as an owner of the Playstation 2, where I saw the game for twenty bucks. The casing, with Cloud appearing before the gargantuan Shinra headquarters, resembled the madeline in Proust's book Swann's Way. I remembered those feeling of wonderment, a desire to explore a story that enraptured my very passion of video games, albeit briefly. Of course I purchased it. I mean, for twenty dollars it was a steal (you should see how much the Playstation version is going for now). I started playing it, but I never got far. I don't know why, but it may have something to do with the commitment involved with an RPG, where repetition to strengthen characters is the only way to progress. I guess I was still unfamiliar with those sorts of mechanics. Several more years past when the original sensations rose within me once again and this time I wanted to dedicate myself to it. Well, for the most part it worked. I managed to get to the end of the game...but I never actually completed it. My hasty demeanor throughout the game caused me to enter the final battles ill-prepared. There was no way I could go back (at the time). I kept telling myself I would keep playing, somehow train my characters to become stronger. But, I was amid a treacherous land that I could never acclimate to and thus never train due to my characters' weaknesses. I abandoned the game once again, this time with bitter, very bitter, disappointment. This bitterness would linger until my commencement of the game this past month, with the always existing feeling of wonderment that underlined my relationship with the game.
After sixteen years and almost a month of suffocating dedication, I can finally say that I have beaten the game. Labeling this event as a catharsis is an understatement. It is me coming to terms with my seven year-old self, finally appeasing the wonderment I felt so long ago. Every step of the way I imagined my younger selves traversing the world of Final Fantasy VII, going through the story and reacting to the unfolding events within the titanic narrative. At this point, I told myself I need to write about this game. Obviously, my opinions about this game can clearly be deemed bias to the point of parody, yet there are some technical and stylistic elements that I will remark about, as formally as I can, to highlight why this video game has created the sensation it has. Through the mosh of heated and blindly passionate debates, I wish to look upon this game with reverent analysis, to breakdown the game's gameplay and narrative functions. It is suffice to say that I feel pretty good about it...I've had sixteen years to think about it.
A Big City and an Even Bigger World
One thing I have always admired in the Final Fantasy series are the seemingly impossible epic storylines. These sorts of stories are stories you might not find in film (probably in television, though) as they require hours of development of setting and character. To dictate pacing within their framework of gameplay strikes me as begrudgingly tedious, but they pull it off in most cases. For a game like Final Fantasy VII, its pacing provides a wonderful shift in scale and narrative intensity. The player is lead to believe a certain way with a certain goal and antagonist within the story but is then shown a wider world of larger narrative proportions. This is done by the detailed investment we are given in the game's initial setting, Midgar. Here is a city that is not just one of the more memorable locales in video game history but, arguably, in science fiction history. I am reminded of films like Blade Runner and Dark City, where the cityscape takes on a personality of its own. Its postindustrial weariness, geometrical symmetry, polarizing layers, and, of course, the Shinra headquarters jutting out at its center. Like the ziggurat edifices in Blade Runner, the height of the Shinra building, reaching to the sky, represents a detachment from the humanity below. The whole city of Midgar was constructed by Shinra, who pose as this corporate totalitarian regime that not only supplies the power for all the people on the planet, but also provides the military and economic structure. This detachment and control provide the tension that is visualized when traversing the city.
The player can spend several hours in Midgar and in those several hours we are shown its intricacies and its harrowing design. After the first Mako reactor raid, we are given an explicit lowdown of Midgar's railway system by the character Jessie. The realization here is that this isn't a simply gloss over an interesting city but that the narrative in the early part of the game is solely focused on Midgar. The protagonists are the morally ambiguous eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE fronted by the wild man Barret Wallace and the antagonist is Shinra as they suck up the precious energy of the planet. The player traverses through many portions of the city including many areas of the slums, the train, the sewers, the upper city, the headquarters of Shinra, and even in between the slums and the upper city. The gameplay functions within the confines of the city, we train our characters only among the environment of the city against the city's enemies and lowlife creatures. It is crucial that the narrative momentum is fueled not by the main character, Cloud Strife, but by Barrett, who voices his opinions without any interruption for this portion of the game. In fact, we don't get much information on Cloud except one childhood memory he shares with martial artist and bartender, Tifa Lockhart. Moreover, when Cloud meets Aeris, who, herself, is still figuring out her role, their relationship is a simple and sentimental formation of, 'the bodyguard,' a formation that carries more weight later in the game. The game lets Barrett roar and keeps the lid on many of the narrative branches that are soon to come. Cloud's relationship with Tifa and Aeris only go so far that they are fighting against the Shinra (of course, he grows fond for both Tifa and Aeris but this fondness, save for Tifa and Cloud's childhood, originates from nowhere we can grasp at the time). Essentially, and this will be discussed further later, Cloud's presence within Midgar is a facade of a facade as he rationalizes his austerity and cockiness because of his SOLDIER (a renowned paramilitary group for Shinra) background.
Upon infiltrating Shinra headquarters and getting captured, things change. A plot twist, sure, but things are now taken out of our control. The death of the Shinra president, the trail of blood, and the large Masaume blade sticking out of the president invoke a transition into something bigger. When the player finds out Sephiroth is around, Cloud begins to slowly unravel as a character. And it is also at this point where the player leaves Midgar for a very long time. The immensity of the city becomes diminished as you set foot in an expansive and three-dimensional world. And with that, Cloud takes control and his personality and history is slowly revealed; character dynamics change.
What is important to know is the way in which the narrative holds back the sense of scale of the game for a long, albeit compelling manner. Yet, it is not like the game was keeping its epic nature from us for several hours; it created an epic feeling within Midgar. Final Fantasy VII creates a world within a world. It is a city that has its own conflicts and tapestries of human struggle. Forcing the player to traverse through the slums also forces the player to look upon the detailed renderings of the weathered environment and, if they so wish, the consternation among different individuals in the slums and how they get by. It is worth noting that the two-dimensional rendering of the Midgar environment, despite being in two dimensions, holds an intriguing blend of ruggedness and utility. Shops, homes, and bars are made from any sort of material available, expressing a resilience among these commoners to keep on living. The game lets us soak it all in, and it is a wonderful piece of narrative gameplay, that is, the way in which gameplay is morphed by specific narrative choices. Thus, when it is time to leave Midgar, there is a sense of uncertainty because of the sudden option of open-world exploring and, more importantly, uncertainty among the story because there is now a curiosity of finding out what is really going on apart from Shinra's wrongdoings. Essentially, the game creates a a new beginning just as fresh as the first beginning...five or six hours after the great introductory scene.
Let's Battle
If we are to begin to talk about the greatness of Final Fantasy VII, including its narrative prowess, we must first look at how we as the player interact with the game's world. Within the RPG realm, there a few things FF7 does that marks the first in its genre's gameplay conventions. Firstly, though, the battle system, a variation of the traditional turn-based system the Final Fantasy series is known for, implements a time-sensitive mechanic that ramps up the pacing of the turn-based system. There is an ironic element that the developers used that somewhat cancels out such continuous pace and this might have to do with the fact that Square wanted to show the visual intensity of three dimensions as much as possible- attack animations, particularly with character limit breaks and summon spells. Limit breaks are powerful attacks each character has that can be used after they take enough damage and the summons are spells that call upon the power of mega-monsters, deities, and gods. The animations for many of these take an ample amount of time, particularly the strongest summons, which includes the most powerful attack in the game, Knights of the Round, consisting of fourteen gargantuan knights reigning hell upon an enemy, an animation time of one and a half minutes. This certainly takes away from the active nature of Final Fantasy VII's battle system yet, at the same time, there is an emotional acumen that justifies the seemingly absurd nature to these animations. The three dimensional visuals are there to create a more visceral emotional impact, or, more generally, a more immersive experience for the player. Here, there is a sense that the developers wanted to showcase the impossible power that these characters and their magic can display. One could say that these lengthy, megalomaniac animations are quite cathartic. In the heat of a tough battle, they serve as ventilation for any tension built up during the battle and they do so with supreme effectiveness, an example of this is below.
Possibly the defining aspect of FF7's gameplay is its use of materia. Within the narrative, materia is concentrated energy from the planet and individuals can manipulate materia to cast magic and summon gods. Within the gameplay, you can acquire materia throughout your adventure and insert them in your weapons and armor to both use the materia's magic as well as to augment your weapons and armor in a specific manner. Consequently, the game's tactical element provides the gameplay with a healthy mixture of diversity and simplicity. The player can experiment with combinations of materia, which can be linked together to produce more powerful effects (for example, combining Magic Counter materia and Comet materia will have the player, when damage is inflicted, to counter the enemy with a casting of Comet). The user interface for such experimentation is fluid to endorse the accessibility of the gameplay. Let it be known that I feel, in general, the gameplay presented here does not represent a revolutionary format of RPG design; if we place Final Fantasy VII within a truncated historical framework, namely comparing it to its predecessor and successor, we can see that the game represents a launch pad for the trend of the series to become more open and nontraditional.
Final Fantasy VI adheres far more to classic Japanese RPG elements that dominated the Final Fantasy series in the early 1990s. Customization with a character's weapon and armor is traditional, as well as its turn-based system and acquiring experience. The only notable fact that was new was the introduction to what is commonly known as the Limit Break (though it is called, "a powerful attack of substitution," by Wikipedia). In Final Fantasy VIII, there is a major overhaul in traditional RPG elements, making way for a more visceral system that included using magic as another type of item as well as setting a focal point for the combat system on Guardian Forces, monsters that are summon and ultimately dictate they way in which a character's stats are distributed and what they can perform during battle. Through this rough analysis, we can see that Final Fantasy VII steers away from its traditional roots but does not completely abandon them, where Final Fantasy VIII is illustrated as the game that designers tinkered with far more with experimental RPG elements. Possible reasons to this may have to do with the fact that upon releasing a predominantly three-dimensional game for the first time, Square sought to apply more artistic emphasis to the game's cinematic quality and narrative function through rather than tamper with a possible overhaul of traditional RPG elements.
I Hear You Have True Grit
The one thing that helped put the indelible impression of this video game within my mind was the grit expressed by the main characters, namely Barrett and Cid, who drop expletives incessantly and use them in their regular vernacular, not just in moments of high tension or major relief. Yet, it is not just the harsh dialogue that expresses this attractive grit but also the look of the characters, who embody a down-to-earth fashion sense the strikes me as, surprisingly, normal. Here are pictures of characters from Final Fantasy V,VI, and VII. They are the main female characters of each game, respectively: Lenna, Terra, and Aeris. Here, one could easily observe the dramatic change in character representation between these games. Five captures a dazzling medieval world while Six depicts an intricate steampunk realm yet both offer large doses of the fantastical. Square has decided to tone down that element and bring forth more of a coarse illustration of the characters.
In this example, we can see that the first two, Leena and Terra, are clothed with what seems to be many layers of robes (honestly, it is hard for me to tell, they appear to me more as dimensionless shapes...but I don't mean that in a negative manner) and their physique is characterized by delicacy and softness, namely a soft face and round shoulders are the highlights. With Aeris, designed by the renowned character designer Tetsuya Nomura, the fashion can be labeled as humble with a dollop of an industrial feel. With no layers of robes she wears a simple buttoned dress and a small jacket. Once again, this postindustrial tone makes an appearance in character design; notice the metal rings on her wrists and biceps (these metal rings appear on all the other characters just in different parts of their bodies). Though Aeris sports those cute (yea, cute), bulging eyes, her physique is quite squarish as compared to the other two women with broad shoulders acting as accentuation. I almost forgot to mention the boots, what may be the normal footwear of the game, that should underline not only the ruggedness of the character design but also the environment in which she and others live; the Midgar slums seems like a place one could easily rip up their feet or shoes if one is not careful.
Of course, the character design, per say, does not satisfyingly invoke the grit I feel from the game, and in regards to the two prequels the player cannot actually see much detail in the characters while playing the game (actually, FF7 is mostly the same way), but the simplicity in its approach endorses the gritty tone substantially. This simplicity contributes to a realism that is also expressed through the video game's setting. The postindustrial environment, which is fairly close to ours, is characterized by a rusting idealization of an over-reliance on machinery that gives way to a weariness for this machine domination, notable characters who share this mentality are Barrett and Cid and even Bugenhagen. Appearances are toned down in glamour because of this intimacy our world has with theirs- meaning that there is a an attempt to create characters that capture less a figment of imagination but more a slice of real life. That is not to say Final Fantasy VII is without its fantastical moments...it's filled with them (Nanaki is a great example, as well as the planet they live on), it is just that the narrative and setting call for a more domestic origin of look and feel. That, and the script, despite only expressing itself in blue dialogue boxes, is filled with angst and deprivation and, more potently, rawness. It is less melodramatic and more of a harsh absurdity. This may not be a terribly convincing analysis, as I would have to go through a lot of the narrative to highlight areas where this precipitates, but I'll leave it be for now.
A Tale of Ambiguous Good and Mysterious Evil
Easily the most memorable part of the storyline for most of the gamers who have played this game has to do with Aeris and the main antagonist, Sephiroth. It is difficult to extract any refreshing analysis to arguably the most recognizable video game characters aside from Mario, Sonic, and Pac-man. A lot has already been said, names deconstructed, character development highly scrutinized. Yet, judging by the title of this section, there are things I'd like to comment on. This is not necessarily tailored to the characters per say but what I mean by ambiguity stems from the ending of the game as well as several theories to what really happened at pivotal moments of the narrative which happen to regard Aeris and Sephiroth. This is motivated by fan fiction from this website here.
Aeris is a character of deepest sympathy, her gentleness reverberates upon her introduction in the eternally lit church entrenched in the Midgar slums. When Cloud first meets her, he must quickly assume the role of bodyguard to fend off Shinra in an attempt to abduct her in order to experiment on her. Cloud and Aeris make a strong connection swiftly, and essentially a love triangle is formed between them and Tifa. It can be said, although this really depends on the way the player plays the game, Aeris has fallen in love with Cloud. At the very least, she cares about others more than herself, even caring for the leader of the Turks, Tseng, who has been pursuing her for Shinra for most of her life. So it is apparent that her vibrant selflessness, one that is graced with immense strength, could even transcend her relationship with humans but rest upon life, itself. I say this because the greatest scene in video games is not just the most recognizable but also one of the most controversial, especially within the community of Final Fantasy fans (refer back to link if that has slipped your mind). Some see it as greatly unnecessary, Aeris virtually sacrificing herself for the greater good. Why must she have done this?
Well, despite the lengthy chain of logic my link has provided (with great insight, I might add), I will only provide a brief counter-interpretation of the famous scene mostly to illustrate the exciting ambiguity this game holds, a risky thing to do considering its popular stature. It is revealed that Aeris went to pray to summon Holy, the ultimate white magic, which ends up failing (to an extent) to stop Meteor and it is only when the Lifestream acts that the dark magic is finally stopped. People question the reason for sacrificing herself because if Aeris knew it was going to fail (this knowledge coming from the fact that Meteor was already summoned before a long time ago) then why would she have taken the risk to do such a thing anyways? My interpretation of it is that maybe Aeris knew Holy was not going to succeed. Indeed, she can communicate with the planet and maybe by dying and having her soul be sent to the planet's core (blocked by Sephiroth until he was defeated) she can convince the planet to help destroy Meteor. It is worth noting the visual motif, or rather a visual bookend, of Aeris with the green aura surrounding her. It is the first shot we see in the video game and virtually the last one we see. The green aura emanates from the Lifestream. The game makes it clear there is a connection between Aeris and the Lifestream...or the planet, for that matter. Though it is never specifically discussed, it is hard to deny such a claim with such stylistic emphasis. In general (although I understand the brevity of this explanation), I can't help but put faith in the developers for making these narrative events, albeit ambiguous, in a meaningful and comprehensible way. This is mainly because of what they have done with the rest of the game. They wouldn't have pigeon-holed themselves with their most pivotal moment in the game.
Nevertheless, it is hard to definitively describe these situations and this is the great part of the game. Here is a game, a blockbuster game with a huge promotional campaign before its release, that intentionally invites ambiguity. But, this feature shouldn't come to us as much of surprise when we conceptualize many of the plot characteristics that hold within them ambiguity. Let us shift our thoughts from the most saintly figure to arguably the most demonic figure in the game, Sephiroth. First, lets look at this villain from a linguistic point of view (actually, the etymology). The name Sephiroth comes from Jewish mysticism as Sephirot, which is the culmination of the 10 emanations of God's will among the, "physical realm and the metaphysical realm," according to the Wikipedia article. The Sephirot can be symbolized as a human form which then can be equated with the functions of, "...the soul-body relationship, soul-powers, the configuration of man's bodily form, and male-female influences from the Divine." In layman's terms, basically our relationship with the divine and how we may deal with such a relationship.
Think a little harder and you'll notice that this ties in with Sephiroth as a character within the game's narrative. His 'emanations' are the layers of physical states the player encounters during the whole game; there are (at least) five that I have noticed: the Sephiroth before the Nibelheim incident, the Sephiroth projetion from Sephiroth's will (the one that kills President Shinra and Aeris), Bizzaro Sephiroth, Safer Sephiroth, and the Sephiroth within Cloud's mind. All of them are different from each other in some way, shape, or form. Moreover, Sephiroth seeks to become a god by fusing with the extra-terrestrial JENOVA (seen as a female/motherly figure in the game) as well with the Mako energy of the planet. Sephiroth attempts to transcend his mortal state as a human being and inhabit the realm of the divine. In more philosophical terms, this has to do with a shifting of consciousness and in the game, Sephiroth functions because of his subconscious (since the actual body of Sephiroth is crystallized in the Northern Crater) while his later stages that are fought against at the end of the game are other states of consciousness, where Safer Sephiroth is his highest state or the one closest to a divine existence. His subconscious is the reason for his reality-bending powers, how he is able to fly through air and weave through floors and walls (maybe due to his unabridged unconscious desire to be a god and to behold godlike powers).
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| Here are the stages/emanations of Sephiroth with the exception of the one in Cloud's mind. These stark transformations show both different stages of consciousness and succeeding levels of ascension into a divine figure. Safer Sephiroth, the one to the farthest right, is close to achieve the deity status as expressed by the now-famous one wing as well as he halo. |
Yes, yes, what in the hell does this all mean...what is the significance of these levels of consciousness and theologico-philosophical mumbo jumbo. Like Aeris, Sephiroth is set up as a highly conventional character with familiar traits (wanting to be a god/rule the world). Yet, and as we will see more of in the next section, his character is fragmented by ambiguity and deception. What the characters and the player perceives through senses may not always be the true form of Sephiroth. This is especially true for Cloud, who sees his own personal version of Sephiroth's soul in his mind, one that can take control of him. Sephiroth doesn't necessarily develop much through story since the player doesn't see much of his transformations and such, but what transformations the player does see is seen through gameplay, through battles fought. The rest is given as passing information and apparitions. He is a far more complex villain than he is made out to be and, admittingly, he is a character that can easily be generalized. Sephiroth is an austere character, a lifeless and careless shell, if you will. It is almost as if the player's interactions with him embody an increasing detachment from humanity. Though it is worth noting with ample emphasis that he is not the only entity to undertake such detachment. Shinra's task of planet domination can easily be equated with Sephiroth's divine mission as both entities desire to break away from human feebleness. Nevertheless, Sephiroth represents a classical figure of a mortal being pursuing the infinite existence of a god, a representation both subtle yet vigorously sensational which is why he is one of the most renowned villains in video game history and why the death of Aeris has become emotionally and artistically timeless.
The Unreliable Avatar
One of the wonderful things about literally growing up with this game and having sixteen years to think about it is that you discover mechanisms within the gameplay that not only strike you as intriguing but also mind-numbingly exciting. This excitement sparks a flurry of giddiness that the only remedy to calm oneself down is to talk about it. Final Fantasy VII places before the player a protagonist with many issues, yet the player must place his or her faith in what is being said about the context that surrounds this narrative, namely, the proceeding events that took place before the game's story that is recited by Cloud in the small village of Kalm. This faith is eventually shattered as it is revealed that the story that has motivated the player's actions has been extensively defunct, to say the least. This revelation can only prove that Cloud Strife is what I like to call an unreliable avatar.
To describe this narrative function (of course, those of you who are familiar with literature may already have a good idea) I will use a more recent video game as an example. An unreliable avatar is basically an avatar that a player takes control of assuming what they choose is entirely up to them when it is later revealed that these choices were, in fact, controlled by something or someone's power and will over the controlled avatar. It is more of an illusion in its practice, but it serves as a significant narrative function that is rooted in the foundation of the video game medium- interactivity. In the 2007 game, Bioshock, we see a clear example of this...quite possibly the best example. Here is a game where the gameplay is strung together by choices made by the player yet it is found out that these choices were orchestrated by another character. What seemed like an open-ended adventure becomes a front for another agenda, the role of the player becomes inverted and the notion of interactivity is questioned. It goes along with the Ayn Rand quote, from which Bioshock is heavily influenced from, "We are free to make to choose what we want but we are not free from that choice." With Final Fantasy VII, a similar thing occurs. Cloud Strife, his name evoking the notion of an obscure struggle that he might have, is the character the player controls for (most of) the game. There is faith held in his cocky attitude at the beginning of the game, his history with SOLDIER and, in a lengthy story told in Kalm, his connection with Tifa and Sephiroth. From that, the player acts upon those threads of story, again, with faith, and acting upon the close relationship Cloud had with Sephiroth in a past that isolated Sephiroth as an experiment of Hojo, the mad scientist with sadistic practices. Throughout the game, though, an instability is hinted, a conflict of point-of-view or obstructing voices within Cloud's mind. Yet, this conflict doesn't come into fruition until the Temple of the Ancients, where Cloud was controlled by Sephiroth to give him the Black materia (which may have costed Aeris's life) and it is revealed that Cloud was also an experiment that was suppose to be a replica of Sephiroth, one that Sephiroth can control, such that Cloud assumes the role of a puppet.
Let me look at this in more detail. I mentioned at the beginning of this piece that at the start of the game, Cloud puts on a facade on top of a facade. We must look at the different levels of Cloud's personality in order to understand this and then connect this understanding to the function of the unreliable avatar. When the player and AVALANCHE first meet Cloud, he presents himself as cold and irreverent, only caring about getting the job and getting paid while using his SOLDIER background as an excuse for his austerity. It takes the events that unfolded in Midgar between Cloud, Aeris, and Tifa for him to open up just enough to tell the rest of the characters his account in Nibelheim which had Cloud, who was part of SOLDIER at the time, kill Sephiroth when it was revealed that Sephiroth was an experiment from Hojo and that he has the extra-terrestrial JENOVA infused inside of him (as part of a Shinra program to create super soldiers). This was the dominating narrative thread from which the player progressed through the game and connected later events until the aforementioned Temple of the Ancients where Cloud's past was in question. Later on, when Cloud and Tifa fall into the Lifestream and in an impressive interactive narrative episode the player uncovers what really happened at Nibelheim. As it turns out, Cloud was not part of SOLDIER but was a low-level grunt who, nevertheless, killed Sephiroth. Then, he and his SOLDIER friend, Zack, are kept in the Shinra mansion to be experimented on. Both of them escape and travel towards Midgar to seek jobs as mercenaries where Zack is shot dead by Shinra soldiers right as they approached the metropolis. Cloud takes Zack's famous Buster Sword and heads to Midgar and that is where the game starts. Let it be known that the experiments that were performed on him were trying to replicate the results Hojo had with Sephiroth and his immeasurable power, thus Sephiroth took advantage of that by convincing Cloud that he was his puppet.
Essentially, Cloud assumes the role of Zack while also projecting an ascetic shell around himself. Thus, one could say that for the first half of the game (actually, it was maybe 4/7 of the game) the player controls Zack and then the rest is Cloud but the fact is is that there is know reason to beilieve it was Zack beforehand and the rest of the characters (save maybe Sephiroth and Hojo...and maybe Tifa) believe it to be Cloud therein lies the unreliability of the words and sentences expressed from Cloud before his fall into the Lifestream. Final Fantasy VII's mechanism of the unreliable narrator may seem loose and quaint to some (and to an extent it is), but I find it marvelous. The fact is is that, despite its epic scale and planetary exploration, the game is not afraid to delve straight into the soul of its main character and constantly explore it throughout the game. In addition, the risk the game takes by letting us in, just barely, into an unstable mind and thus formulate a slightly unstable reality in which the player plays the game in, slowly but surely breaking down the facades of Cloud's personality.
Conducting His Own Masterpiece
F#-A-D and then C-A-E...these are the six notes that have brought me so close to tears; the least it has done is leave a lump in my throat. It is a portion of quite possible my favorite piece of soundtrack music, including film, that I have ever heard: Aeris's Theme. The frailty, the underlining hope highlighted by a bittersweet tone, it is a perfect arrangement for the delicate character that is Aeris. Yet, the sum of the parts of the whole Final Fantasy VII soundtrack is extraordinary, as well. From the opening sequence which transitions musically from wonder to melodramatic to anticipating tension all with ease to ultimately one of the most famous pieces of video game music there is in, "One-winged Angel," I do not hesitate to say that this soundtrack rivals some of the the best in film in regards to setting the perfect mood and to enunciate so eloquently pivotal emotions and feelings.
Of course, the man behind this greatness, Nobuo Uematsu, is one of the premiere figures in video game music and it should come to no one's surprise that he has the capability of of such a feat. Again, as my mind blurred the specifics of my memory of play the game so long ago, it could never obfuscate the intricacies of the music, which seemed to have been frozen within me such that the first few notes I heard when I began playing it recently immediately reminded me of the rest of the song. An untampered connection is made between me and my seven year-old self (and I guess my thirteen and seventeen year-old self simultaneously) and those emotions I felt long ago just from that music carry with them an everlasting strength. I recall the visit to the Shinra mansion in Nibelheim with the hovering, empty, and menacing score filling the withering building with an anticipation for a startling discovery. The heartbeat riff exudes creepy ambiance. I also recall the theme music for Cosmo Canyon, the land where Red XIII/Nanaki resides. It invokes a primitive yet determined tone with its strong percussion section coupled with (what seems to be, at least) a flute that exhibits focused reverence. These pieces stay with you even if the specifics of the narrative might slip away. With the length of time a player spends in this world the music becomes ingrained in one's experience with the game...I know it has for me and it will continue to do so for the rest of my life (that is not a hyperbole, mind you).
I'm no musicologist and my music theory is almost nonexistent, but I said as much I said without going into so much detail, realizing just how much I have already analyzed beforehand. It is worth listening to the soundtrack even if you have not played the game.
It's Lasting Influence
It is said that the sales of Final Fantasy VII hit 10 million copies sold in 2010, thirteen years after its initial release. Of course, sales do not necessarily correlate with how good an actual game is but the consistent interest with the game among gamers for an ample amount of time shows an appeal that does not seem to have been degraded over the test of time. It has and still does receive many accolades of recognition by many gaming websites and magazines. Truth be told, it is the most popular iteration in the Final Fantasy series. Evidence, if there needs to be such, can not only be seen with the consistent and lingering popularity but also the attention it receives in debates within the gaming community. I mean, when a game is the focus of an article asking if the game is overrated then you know it already has an established amount of reverence and prestige within the community (granted, sometimes asking that sort of question is irrelevant...as dictated by the conclusion to the article linked) to the point where the only thing you could discuss is if it is really, truly, that good. Nevertheless, the game's position within the popular mindset of video game lore is fastened and secure...those who discuss RPGs, the Final Fantasy series, and the greatest games of all time never really ignore this title. Final Fantasy VII also laid out the almost endless horizon of artistic expression within video games in that is illuminated the notion of the cinematic within video games. No, it was not the first to use these sorts of cutscenes but it was the first to use them with incredible results. There is a notion of cinematic storytelling within the frame work of this gameplay and the designers meshed these two mediums of expression almost to perfection which is the reason why moments like Aeris's death and Sephiroth walking through the flames are staples within the gaming industry's communal memory.
With that being said, many fans of the series and of RPGs in general have a good amount to say about why this game is not as great as most make it out to be. A lot of them have very reasonable arguments while a lot of them have superficial arguments...which is the the case for mostly all games and all great games. Many so-called Final Fantasy 'purists' insist it is not the best in the franchise as that honor goes to (most commonly) Final Fantasy VI, a game I have yet to play. Honestly, I have really nothing to say about that only that I'd really like to try the game out, but I hope that this analysis has open the eyes of skeptics. This game is not perfect in an ideal sense, but I see this game's perfection through the passion that is expressed. At least this blog would elevate discussion of the game, whether you like it or not, into a realm much higher than this video.
But there is so much more to this game that I haven't covered. The mythological symbolism, particularly Norse mythology, that is used heavily in the game (do some research on the etymology of Midgar and Nibelheim). There is also a subtle yet significant philosophical allusion in the character of Heidegger (okay, not that subtle, but the significance is quite profound), named after the German philosopher Martin Heidegger. Check out this intellectual's political history and also check out his essay on technology, 'The Question Concerning Technology.' There is so much more to discover and discuss. Alas, I would have to find a publisher if I wanted to pursue such topics.
I still need to ask myself, "Why?" Why is this game so great and why does it continue to be as important as it was sixteen years ago? Surprisingly, there are elements in the game that should render its popularity nonexistent. Think about it, it was a mainstream game with a huge promotional campaign before its release...and then it has a story that is at some points eccentric and at other points ambiguous, with an ending that was and is sure to make people groan and shout. This game is filled with risks and these risks are overtly enunciated with the transition into three dimensions. And for what it is worth, I greatly admire these risks Square made. The narrative, and the ability to interact with such a narrative, is a tapestry that sends us to the farthest reaches of space and to the deepest abyss of the soul. It takes care of the emotional turmoil of our main character while still maintaining a conflict of paramount grandeur. Maybe that's why its story has become infectious and synonymous with video game evolution. For me, personally, it can be said that it has been a part of my evolution. Sixteen years ago that evolution started. It started with a story so obscure yet encompassed with magnetizing wonderment. It is great to get lost in some form of art and come out of it with more excitement and passion. Finishing the game for the first time recently I stood up from my computer and paced around my house for tens of minutes, throwing myself onto a couch when my legs felt tired, but I maintained a bittersweet passion for what has now finished while also going through explicit moments in the game and asking myself what it all means, still wondering...
I'm done...for now...
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- All pictures were taken from the Final Fantasy Wiki yet all of these pictures come straight from Square and Tetsuya Nomura. I'd look at his character designs from other games as the subtle differences and trends are all interesting to explore.
- Thanks to friend Kenton Roush who gave me counter points as to why VII was inferior to VI. Hopefully my discussion can alleviate such inferiority in his eyes.
- As recommendations go that are similar to Final Fantasy VII I will certainly recommend Final Fantasy VI even though I have not played it. I will also recommend games I have played like...well, I think I might need to play more Japanese RPGs. Anyways, I highly recommend the DS game (a remake) Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride, an RPG with an extraordinarily elegant and inter-generational story with classic Japanese RPG gameplay. One game that is, personally, Final Fantasy VII's equal is the hit Chrono Trigger. With this game, the narrative takes on a complex formulation involving time travel.
- I used this walkthrough while playing the game to do as much as I can. It also has some insightful trivia on characters, including Heidegger, take a look here and search for the section Did You Know That..?
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