Final Fantasy VII

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Final Fantasy VII
Ff7-logo.jpg
Studio Square
Publisher JapanJapanSquare SCE America (PlayStation) Eidos Interactive (Windows) SCE Europe (PlayStation) Eidos Interactive (Windows)
United StatesUnited States
United StatesUnited States
EuropeEurope
EuropeEurope
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 January 31, 1997
platform Android , iOS , Microsoft Windows , Nintendo Switch , PlayStation , Xbox One
genre role playing game
Game mode Single player
control Gamepad
medium compact disc
language German, English, Japanese
Age rating
USK released from 12
PEGI recommended for ages 12 and up
PEGI content
rating
Game contains violence Game contains swear words

Final Fantasy VII ( Japanese フ ァ イ ナ ル フ ァ ン タ ジ ー VII Fainaru Fantaji Sebun ) is a console role-playing game that was developed by Square (now Square Enix ) and published in 1997. It is the seventh installment in the Final Fantasy series and the first game in the series to be released for the Sony PlayStation and Windows . Final Fantasy VII uses the first game of the series 3D - computer graphics and rendered characters before pre-rendered backgrounds.

Located on the fantasy planet Gaia , the player follows a group of resistance fighters, called Avalanche , in their fight against the mega-corporation Shinra , which draws life energy from the planet in order to generate energy. As the story progresses, conflicts escalate and the entire world is threatened with extinction.

In addition to having great commercial success, the game remains one of the most popular games in the franchise to date and is widely viewed as the foundation for the mainstream breakthrough of Eastern RPG outside of Japan . Because of the game's continued popularity, Square Enix decided to produce a number of sequels and prequels . This series has the parent title Compilation of Final Fantasy VII . As of May 2006, Final Fantasy VII had sold more than 9.8 million units worldwide.

Final Fantasy VII has been available in Japan via the PlayStation Network download portal since April 10, 2009, and in Europe since June 4, 2009. The version of Final Fantasy VII offered there for a fee is the commercially available international version, the content of which is identical to the western sales versions.

On July 4, 2013, the PC version was re-released for download on Steam . This version can optionally be displayed in HD, but the original videos, textures and backgrounds are 'only' extrapolated. In March 2019, versions of the game for Xbox One and Nintendo Switch were released .

At E3 2015, Sony announced a remake of Final Fantasy VII for the PlayStation 4 . The remake was playable as a demo at E3 2019 and Gamescom 2019 and is to be published in several parts. The first part was released on April 10, 2020.

action

scenario

The developers have based the game world on that of the predecessor Final Fantasy VI in that the technology and society resemble that of a near-future science fiction . The world of Final Fantasy VII consists of three land masses: On the eastern continent is the city of Midgar , an industrial metropolis and the headquarters of Shinra, Inc. , an unscrupulous mega-corporation that de facto holds world government. Shinra's main military base, Junon , and various small towns are also on this continent.

Most of the areas that can be visited are located on the western continent, including an amusement park, a seaside resort and the Cosmo Canyon settlement on a plateau . The local tribe attaches great importance to living in harmony with nature and taking care of the well-being of the planet. Your settlement has an observatory and serves as a research facility for those who come to study planetary life. The study of planetary life is a fictional philosophical current in the game that claims that the planet itself is alive (see Gaia hypothesis ).

Even further west lies another continent with only one city, Wutai . A place that is very much oriented towards Eastern culture.

The northernmost continent is largely an ice desert. The few settlements are engaged in excavations and research, but there is also a ski area.

The Shinra Group grew from a small arms company to a dominant world power within a generation due to the extraction and utilization of so-called Mako energy through special Mako reactors . Mako energy resides inside the planet and is characterized by a pale green color. If a living being, whether human, animal or plant, dies, it releases spiritual energy that returns to the planet. The Mako energy is thus composed of the energy of innumerable individual beings. Death and life form a natural cycle , everything returns to the planet.

The company quickly discovered that the derived and converted substance can not only be used to generate energy, but also that small balls, called substances (materia), can be produced by compressing the Mako energy, which give people magical powers or with them equip special skills. In addition, Shinra soon found that this energy, when injected into a strong and healthy person , gave them permanently superhuman strength. They used their knowledge to create a unit of superhuman fighters called "SOLDIER" ("SOLDIER"). With their army they put an end to a multi-year worldwide conflict and use the dependence of post-war society on Mako energy and substances to usurp world domination.

After Shinra took control, the eight cities around the group were merged to form the city of Midgar. Shinra was primarily concerned with the upper classes and built a huge metal plate over the city on which the upper class could live and on which the seventy-story headquarters of Shinra is located. The lower part of the city was falling into slum , completely cut off from sunlight and suffering from constant air pollution . Since they do not receive any outside help, the inhabitants of these areas are mostly malnourished and sickly.

Shinra soon faced opposition from those who believed that the use of mako energy was consuming the spiritual essence - a vast accumulation of ethereal matter, also known as the life stream - of the planet. The philosophy of studying planetary life taught that this energy wave is not only the life line of the planet, but the source of life for all living beings. Those who followed this lifestyle called the mako energy "stream of life," a term that was increasingly reluctant to hear as the population became more dependent on mako. The study of planetary life claimed that when each organism was conceived, it received a part of the planet's breath in order to live. If the form of life grew, the flow of life also grew thanks to the life experience gained, so that when the living being died, the flow of life returned to the core of the planet and the flow of life as a whole grew. Those who followed this belief said that Shinra's actions siphoned life from the planet and that the entire world and all living beings on it would slowly die.

A particularly devout follower of the investigation of the planet life thought destroying the world by Shinra could be prevented only by force, and founded the eco-terrorist association Avalanche . The association launched a protracted guerrilla war against Shinra, with a focus on the destruction of Mako reactors and assassinations against the group's president. Although the original Avalanche organization was wiped out by Shinra's espionage and killers, the Turks , one of the main characters in the game, Barret Wallace, formed a smaller unit with the same name and goals.

Characters

Cosplayers as Cloud, Sephiroth, Vincent (back), Aeris and Tifa (front)

The playable characters in Final Fantasy VII are:

Cloud Strife, the reserved, silent, but arrogant protagonist of the game, who makes his way through life as a mercenary;

Barret Wallace, the impatient leader of the second incarnation of Avalanche; he hates Shinra for obliterating his hometown and killing friends and family;

Tifa Lockheart, a childhood friend of Cloud; she wants revenge on Shinra for the destruction of her hometown and runs a bar, the "7. Heaven ”, which serves as Avalanche's hiding place;

Aeris Gainsborough (in all subsequent Final Fantasy VII titles and the Kingdom Hearts series after the correct translation "Aerith"), a flower seller who has been followed and monitored by Shinra since childhood;

Red XIII (actually "Nanaki"), a talking wolf- or lion-like predator on which Shinra has conducted experiments. At one with itself and the planet it becomes a faithful companion;

Yuffie Kisaragi, the young and embittered princess of the Wutai nation who was defeated by Shinra;

Cid Highwind, a pilot whose greatest dream, a trip into space, was dashed when he aborted the launch of the rocket to rescue his assistant and subsequently withdrew Shinra's funding for the space program;

Cait Sith, a fortune-telling cat who rides a magically brought to life doll, a moogle .

Vincent Valentine, a former member of Shinra's special unit, the Turks, who became immortal as a result of an experiment .

All of the main characters in the game have had close relationships with Shinra in their past and are critical or even hostile towards the company and its activities. In the first part of the game, Shinra's executives are the antagonists, in the second part a mysterious man named Sephiroth - once the best member of SOLDIER - appears after he apparently died in a fight several years earlier. It soon becomes apparent that Sephiroth poses an imminent threat to the planet, which is why both Avalanche and the Shinra Corporation are trying to protect the planet in their own way.

Character designer Tetsuya Nomura said that Final Fantasy VII was hampered by graphical limitations and that its designs seem very simple contrary to its actual style. However, he found other ways to express his ideas. Cloud originally had hair that was gelled backwards without "spikes" in order to contrast with Sephiroth with his long silver hair. Eventually, to illustrate Cloud's preeminent position in the game, Nomura gave Cloud's character spiky blonde hair, which became Cloud's trademark. At Tifas Design, Nomura faced the difficult question of whether to give her a mini skirt or a pair of pants. After consulting with the other people on the development team, Nomura finally decided on a dark mini skirt, which is contrasted by Aeris' long, pink dress.

Vincent Valentine's character was initially set up as a horror researcher, then as a detective and later as a chemist, until he eventually became the former Turk with a tragic past. According to statements by the design team, his dark red cloak symbolizes the burden of death. Nomura has pointed out that Cid Highwind's fighting style is reminiscent of that of the "Dragoons", this character class was chosen because Cid has the same last name as two previous Dragoons of the Final Fantasy series, Richard Highwind from Final Fantasy II and Kain Highwind from Final Fantasy IV .

Because of their great fame, a number of the game's characters have made guest appearances in other Square Enix titles, most notably in Beat 'em up Ambition and the popular Final Fantasy Disney crossover series Kingdom Hearts . Sephiroth is still considered one of the most popular villains in video game history, the employees of the game publication EGM ( Electronic Gaming Monthly ) voted him unanimously at the top of their "Top 10 Video Game Bosses" in October 2005. In the spring of the same year, the figure won that of gamers certain "Best Villain Contest" from GameFAQs .

history

The story of Final Fantasy VII begins with Cloud Strife joining the anti-Shinra organization Avalanche when they attacked one of the eight Mako reactors in Midgar. On the way back to Avalanche headquarters, Cloud meets the flower seller Aeris Gainsborough. During their next mission, the Avalanches are trapped by President Shinra, but they escape before the Mako reactor they sabotaged explodes. However, the reactor explosion hurled Cloud from the upper levels of Midgar into the slums below. He falls through the roof of a church ruin in Sector 5 and lands unharmed in a flower bed, where Aeris introduces himself correctly. Cloud soon agrees to take on the role of her bodyguard, an agreement that comes when a Turks unit from the Shinra Corporation appears at church to arrest Aeris.

After Cloud defends Aeris from her immediate captors, Cloud accepts her offer to show him the way to Sector 7. On the way, Aeris reveals that her first boyfriend was a first-class soldier, whereupon Cloud replies that he was also one. Soon after, the two see Tifa infiltrating Wall Market, an area of ​​Sector 6 known for its criminal activities. After sneaking into the villa of crime boss Don Corneo, the three learn that Shinra has discovered the Avalanche's hiding place and now plans to drop the upper level of Sector 7 onto the slums below. Despite Avalanche's efforts, Shinra successfully destroys Sector 7. The entire population and three members of Avalanche are killed. The Turks eventually capture Aeris, revealing that she is the last of an ancient race called the Cetra . According to the declarations, the Cetra lived in harmony with the planet, so President Shinra believes Aeris can lead him to the fabled and fertile Promised Land , which Shinra expects to be rich in easily utilizable mako energy.

The only remaining members of Avalanche, Tifa, Barret and Cloud, break into Shinra headquarters to rescue Aeris. After the liberation of Aeris and the lion-like laboratory animal Red XIII, who joins the group, they escape while most of the staff in the building - including President Shinra - are slaughtered by an unknown intruder. When Cloud finds President Shinra pierced by a long sword, he believes that the acclaimed soldier Sephiroth is still alive. This suspicion is confirmed by an employee who survived the massacre who claims to have seen Sephiroth kill the president and promise never to give the Promised Land to Shinra. The group also learns that in the course of Sephiroth's attack on Shinra, the torso of a creature called Jenova disappeared from the building's research facility.

While President Shinra's son Rufus takes over the leadership of the Shinra Corporation, Avalanche pursues Sephiroth across the planet, as it seems that his plans for the Promised Land may be more dangerous than the Shinras. As the persecution progressed, several new members joined the group. Yuffie Kisaragi, Cait Sith, Vincent Valentine and Cid Highwind. As the journey progresses, each member of the group must come to terms with the problems of their past, and finally Sephiroth's purpose comes fully to light: when the planet is badly injured, the flow of life focuses on that point to heal the wound. Sephiroth explains that he intends to use the powerful meteor spell to severely wound the planet, thereby inducing the healing that is made possible by the current of life to save planets. Sephiroth would dwell in the center of the wound and absorb all life and knowledge of the life stream to gain divine power over the planet. In an ancient temple of Cetra, Avalanche tries to thwart Sephiroth's plan by taking the black substance that can activate Meteor. However, Sephiroth seems to have a strange power over Cloud and forces him to surrender the substance.

Cosplayers as Aeris and Sephiroth

Since Aeris fears that Sephiroth will soon cast the spell Meteor , and since she has learned more about her own legacy from the scholars in Cosmo Canyon and the memories of her ancestors in the Cetra Temple, she sets out to stop him on her own. Out of concern for Aeris, Avalanche follows her to an ancient Cetra city on the northern continent. After the group finds Aeris praying for help for the planet, Sephiroth again influences Cloud and tries to kill Aeris. Since Cloud successfully defends himself against this order from Sephiroth, Sephiroth appears in person and kills Aeris. After Aeris' funeral, the rest of the group decide to avenge her death and defeat Sephiroth.

Shortly thereafter, Sephiroth sows doubts in Cloud by faking him into false memories, according to which he is actually not a real person, but was created by Professor Hojo on behalf of the Shinra Group from Jenova's genes. Jenova is an alien life form that came to Gaia on a meteor about 2000 years ago. The collision formed a huge crater and seriously injured the planet. Soon Jenova left the crater and tried to infect all living things on the planet with a virus that led to madness and monstrous mutations. The victims included most of the Cetra, to whom Jenova appeared in the form of the other Cetra, having penetrated the memories of the ancient people and with the information obtained from them changed her shape, language and voice accordingly, like Sephiroth in the north crater and Aeris' Explain mother Iphalna on a video. The planet created gigantic monsters called weapons to defend themselves. The last surviving Cetra managed to defeat Jenova and seal the rift created by the meteor. All weapons fell into a deep sleep until another danger threatened the planet. Eventually, a Shinra scientist, Professor Gast, found the mummified remains of Jenova. Since the creature was mistaken for a Cetra due to its changed Cetra-like shape, Gast is allowed to start an experiment in which a Cetra should be artificially created. In this experiment, Jenova's cells were implanted by Shinra biogeneticist Doctor Lucrecia Crescent, whereupon Sephiroth moved through those in her body on the basis of three cell donors, Lucrecia, the birth mother who carried him, Jenova and the biological father, Shinra biogenetic Hojo could develop.

Five years before the events in the game began, Sephiroth learned that he was the result of this experiment. However, due to incomplete and erroneous records, he did not know all the details and therefore believed he was a Cetra made entirely from Jenova cells. Hateful he burned Nibelheim, the hometown of Cloud and Tifa, with the intention of killing the descendants of all those who had then abandoned his ancestors in the defense of the planet. According to Cloud, he opposed Sephiroth during the massacre, whereupon Sephiroth disappeared under unexplained circumstances and was believed to be dead. Sephiroth now tells Cloud that he had never been to Nibelheim: A picture showing Sephiroth Cloud shows a dark-haired first-class soldier who, according to Cloud's memories, is himself. Tifa cannot refute these claims and Cloud collapses. With the arrival of Shinra in the north crater Hojo explained that it was all Sephiroth merit the use of both the headless body of Jenova in his resembling shape, and the reunification (also known as Reunion was known) initiated the cloud as carriers of Jenovazellen under other things also followed. Eventually, Cloud's mental vulnerability and doubts about himself enable Sephiroth to summon Meteor and awaken the weapons. In the following earthquake, Cloud is separated from his companions and falls into the stream of life.

While the conjured meteor slowly approaches the planet, the Shinra concern tries to protect mankind from the weapons. At the same time, Avalanche searches for Cloud and eventually finds him in a tropical spa town, where he was washed up by Meteor after speaking. However, Cloud is in a state of catatonia . Soon after, the island breaks open by the destructive power of a weapon, causing Cloud and Tifa to fall into the stream of life. There she can reconstruct Cloud's memories and reveals what was lying and not lying about Sephiroth: Cloud is a real person and was actually in Nibelheim during Sephiroth's attack, but he never managed to join the soldier, but only belonged to the common infantry of the Shinra Army. The dark-haired soldier in the picture is Zack, Aeris' first great love. During the destruction of Nibelheim by Sephiroth, Zack, Tifa and Cloud fought against Sephiroth in the Mako reactor in Nibelheim. Tifa and Zack were defeated, Cloud and Sephiroth seriously wounded each other. After Sephiroth had beheaded Jenova's body stored in the reactor, he fell into the stream of life and took the creature's head with him. However, his will was strong enough to defy the flow of life and was made by absorbing a large accumulation of life energy and knowledge, including the truth about Jenova, as well as that he is not of the ancient people (as he said in the temple of the ancient people itself Aeris' explanation gives to recognize) and also through the knowledge of the old people to which the whereabouts of the black substance belong, among other things, even more powerful. He then made further use of the abilities of his extraterrestrial origin and regenerated himself in a crystal in the north crater.

While Tifa was brought to safety in Midgar, where she later joined Avalanche, Cloud and Zack were captured by Shinra along with the other survivors during the cover-up of Sephiroth's massacre. Professor Hojo experimented on them and subjected them to the same procedure as the members of Soldat. Since Hojo did not take into account the intellectual abilities of his subjects during the experiments, all but Zack fell into a coma. Five years after these events, Zack escapes with Cloud. Soldat's members were subjected to mako showers and injections of Jenova cells. The extraterrestrial cells in Cloud's body allowed his mind to build a false identity modeled on Zack, while at the same time allowing Sephiroth to influence Cloud. The cells' doubling abilities led Cloud to believe he was a first class soldier as Zack was shot dead by her Shinra pursuers near Midgar just before the game began. Tifa then discovered Cloud, who was wearing one of Zack's replacement uniforms, and offered him a job at Avalanche.

Now that the truth is known, Cloud wakes up and joins Avalanche again. Soon after, the player learns that Aeris before she died, the spell Heilig said, the only way to Meteor unstoppable. Although successful, Sephiroth's focused will blocks the spell so that it cannot take action. Avalanche and Shinra decide that humanity must be protected from the weapons before proceeding against Sephiroth, and destroy one weapon, killing almost the entire command staff. Survivors include the remorseful Reeve Tuesti, who controls Cait Sith, and Professor Hojo, who officially introduces himself to the group as the father of Sephiroth. He explains to them that he and his wife were Professor Gast's assistants who involved their unborn child in the experiment. When Hojo tries to aid Sephiroth in his attempt to control the stream of life, Avalanche has no choice but to kill him in battle.

Now that all the members of Avalanche have made peace with their past and all their opponents have been defeated, the group travels through the mantle to the core of the planet. There they manage to defeat Sephiroth and set Holy free . Meteor is now too close to the planet and Heilig cannot destroy it alone. The target of Meteor , Midgar, has been almost completely destroyed by the resulting cyclones. Eventually the stream of life called by Aeris rises and pushes Meteor further away from the planet, whereby Holy Meteor can put an end to it. During the following epilogue, one sees the plant-overgrown ruins of the once desolate Midgar.

Game principle and technology

Like previous parts of the Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy VII consists of three basic levels: the world map, cities and dungeons, and the battle screen. The world map is a reduced three-dimensional view of the game world, which the player uses to move between the individual locations and locations of the game. As in previous parts of the series, the world map can be traveled with the character on foot, on chocobos (emu-like riding birds), in an airship and with a few other methods. In cities and dungeons, the player moves the characters through realistically scaled environments that consist of pre-rendered 2D backgrounds. The battle screen is a 3D view of the respective area in which the player gives the characters commands via a menu selection , such as physical attacks or the use of magic, which they then carry out in the fight against computer-controlled opponents.

At the beginning the player is limited to movements in a city, but in the course of the game further areas become accessible and the scripted adventure sequences allow a larger radius of action. The story of the game is mainly driven by non-skippable script sequences , which are often continued by actions of the player. In other places the story is pre-rendered film-like cinematics developed.

Combat system

Like the three previous Final Fantasy games, Final Fantasy VII uses a combat system called Active Time Battle (ATB). The group members have a bar that fills up continuously. As soon as this bar is full, an action can be selected and carried out. Unlike earlier games in the series, which allowed four to five controllable characters in combat, the group in Final Fantasy VII can consist of a maximum of three characters.

The skill system is based on the use of so-called substances (in the computer version materia ), these are magic balls that can be inserted into special slots (so-called slots ) of the weapons and armor and allow the characters access to spells and special skills. In addition to their individual properties, substances can be combined with one another in order to expand their effects or to acquire new skills.

A modified type of special attack from the predecessor Final Fantasy VI is used in the form of the so-called change limits . Each playable character has a bar that slowly fills up as the character takes damage in combat. As soon as the bar is full, the character can use his switching limit and use it to carry out a special attack that causes significantly more damage to the enemy than normal attacks, or support the group in other ways in combat. Character designer and battle director Tetsuya Nomura implemented this advanced type of special attacks in response to the low frequency of their occurrence in Final Fantasy VI , where they were available to replace the attack command by chance when a character only through a few life points possessed.

Nomura decided to incorporate artfully animated, summonable creatures into the game, some of which can be animated for over a minute. This idea was positively received by the Final Fantasy players, so this was adopted in the following parts. However, these animations are also called "annoying" by game critics and buyers.

development

Development of Final Fantasy VII began in 1995. The development team, which included over one hundred artists and programmers, had a budget of approximately $ 45 million. Software like PowerAnimator and Softimage XSI were used in the development of the game . Final Fantasy VI director Yoshinori Kitase also directed this portion of the series, expressing concerns that the franchise could lag if it did not use 3D computer graphics like other games of the time. Production began after developing a short, experimental tech demo for Silicon Graphics Onyx workstations. The demo, called Final Fantasy SGI , showed polygon-based 3D renderings of Final Fantasy VI characters in real-time combat and the use of interactive elements. As a result of this experiment, the team decided to use these elements in Final Fantasy VII . Due to the large amount of memory required for the movement data, the 3D models and the computer effects, the developers decided that only the CD-ROM format would meet the requirements of the project. Square had developed the previous games in the series for Nintendo's consoles, but Nintendo relied on plug-in modules (also for their future console, the Nintendo 64 ) , which offered much less storage space. Thereupon, after their long and often difficult relationship with Nintendo, Square broke up with this publisher and announced on January 12, 1996 that they would develop Final Fantasy VII for Sony's PlayStation .

The transition from 2D computer graphics to 3D environments in front of pre-rendered backgrounds resulted in a more realistic presentation being the focus, which was a challenge for the development team. According to Kitase, along with the decision to use CDs , producer Hironobu Sakaguchi established the basic rule that if the player could see the loading times, it would have missed its target, and required that the player remain immersed in the atmosphere of the game the entire time . Therefore, different animations were programmed that were activated when the game loaded data. Although the additional storage capacity allowed the team to integrate over 40 minutes of full-motion video films (FMV) - a novelty in this genre at the time - the developers were also faced with the problem of comparing the graphics in the game to the FMV films. Not to let sequences appear too inferior. Kitase described the process of making the game's environments as detailed as possible as "a daunting task". Among other things, it was not possible to create 3D polygon models based on the drawings by Yoshitaka Amano , long-time designer of the series. His style was thought to be too exquisite for the visual capabilities of the project, so Tetsuya Nomura was hired as the project's lead designer, while Amano helped develop the game's world map. Nomura was already working as a designer for the monsters in Final Fantasy V , since his style is more reminiscent of the design of mangas , it was assumed that his designs would be easier to implement. Another problem was the time pressure the developers were under. The series' regular composer Nobuo Uematsu commented in the notes on the game's soundtrack that "the games in the series have one thing in common, none of them are finished". Although the release of the game in Japan had been postponed from December 1996 to January 1997, the story and the gameplay had to be expanded for the North American release, so the game was re-released in Japan as Final Fantasy VII International .

Graphic designer Yusuke Naora described the atmosphere of the game as "expressive and dark". This is achieved through the lighting effects, which he considered the "darkest of the darkest", and the story as one that gave realism great importance, while still relying on various myths, legends and religious and philosophical concepts as "framework for higher ethical Aspirations and Ecological Evangelism ”. These concepts were evident in the choice of names, for example "Sephiroth", Cloud's personal problems, Aeris' ultimate death and the flow of life as an element of action. Tetsuya Nomura explained that only Cloud, Barret and Aeris should appear in the early stages of development, of these three one character should die. Due to Cloud's position as the main character, he didn't think it possible to let him die. The death of the dark-skinned Barret would have followed a prevailing stereotype in the series itself as well as in the realm of fiction in general. He expressed his frustration with the frequent portrayal of death in the realm of fiction as an awe-inspiring, often romantic, idea of ​​sacrifice and resurrection. So he proposed that Aeris be left to die irrevocably - a twist that, in his opinion, the audience would not expect, and which, therefore, would illustrate the sudden, cruel, and unchanging nature of death. On the other hand, Sakaguchi used ideas from cultures that believe in an invisible, ineradicable and all-pervasive energy as the basis for his philosophy of the stream of life, a concept that Kitase adopted in the game.

Members of the development team revealed that some aspects of the story were left with the intent of individual interpretation by the player. Scenario writer Kazushige Nojima explained that in some places he wanted to reserve it for the player to think about what Cloud was thinking in certain situations. Although the characters' fates were resolved with the release of the film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children in 2005, the ultimate fate of humanity was in the dark. When Advent Children was released, Kitase implied that the game's epilogue could represent the extinction of humanity. However, Nomura said in the meantime that the last scenes of the game are a symbol for the now harmonious coexistence of man and nature.

The game's launch in North America was preceded by a three-month, $ 100 million marketing campaign by Sony. The campaign included three 30-second commercials on major TV networks , which were later also used in Europe . Other parts of the marketing strategy included a holiday campaign with Pepsi , ads in magazines such as Rolling Stone and Playboy , and comics from Marvel and DC Comics . In 1998 a ported version of Final Fantasy VII was released for Windows PC. This re-release had better graphics, but suffered from various technical problems.

volume

The soundtrack title "One Winged Angel" will be presented at the Video Games Live concert in 2009

The soundtrack for Final Fantasy VII was composed by Nobuo Uematsu . Instead of recorded music and sound effects for the game, Uematsu decided to use MIDIs that were played from the PlayStation's own sound chip . He justified his decision with the fact that the main processor could process the audio data more quickly, which meant that he could apply more computing power to the game's 3D engine and also kept loading times lower. Originally, a song with singing was supposed to appear in the game, but due to the limitations of musical recordings, this was only realized in the successor Final Fantasy VIII . However, both Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy IX took advantage of the possibilities presented by the PlayStation's sound chip.

The game's soundtrack was released as a four-CD set, including an album called Final Fantasy VII: Reunion Tracks with selected and edited tracks on one CD. Some of the game's music tracks were not only used in arranged versions in other Square productions, including Kingdom Hearts and Advent Children , but also in a piano collection and the Black Mages' first album . The two tracks Aeris' Theme and One-Winged Angel were performed several times at different concerts, for example in the Final Fantasy- specific concerts in May 2002 by the Tokyo Philharmonic in Japan, in 2004 as part of the Tour de Japon and during the “Dear Friends : Music From Final Fantasy ”concert tour from 2004 to 2005 in the USA, but also in general concerts with music from computer games, for example for the first symphonic game music concert in 2003 and the fourth symphonic game music concert in Leipzig in 2006 , as well as the worldwide“ Play! A Video Game Symphony ”concerts. However, other songs from the game were also performed at these or similar concerts. In September 2009 the Symphonic Fantasies concert took place in Cologne , where the WDR orchestra and the WDR choir played several titles from Final Fantasy VII .

reception

Not only was Final Fantasy VII highly acclaimed by critics, it was also a commercial success. Within the first three days of its January 1997 release, 2.3 million units of the game were sold in Japan. In North America 330,000 units were sold on the first weekend and a total of 500,000 units within the first three weeks. Interest in the game remained unbroken in the months that followed and Sony reported that a million copies of the game had been sold by early December. A business analyst said that "Sony has redefined the role-playing game category and expanded the conventional audience with the sale of Final Fantasy VII ." As of May 2006, 9.8 million copies were sold worldwide, making Final Fantasy VII outperforming any other title in the series.

Although the gaming community expressed their displeasure when Square announced that it would not produce Final Fantasy VII for Nintendo but for Sony and not use the Final Fantasy SGI demo, the game still has a large following today. The readers of the Japanese Famitsu magazine voted it second in the “Ten Most Popular Games of All Time” in March 2006, while visitors to the GameFAQs website named it “Best Game Ever” in 2004 and 2005.

Reviews

The game received excellent reviews from well-known game publications. GameFan called it "possibly the best game ever made," while GameSpot commented that "never before have technology, playability and narrative been as harmonized as in Final Fantasy VII, " and particularly praised the game's graphics, audio and story . The British newspaper Edge gave the game a 9/10 and Electronic Gaming Monthly gave it a 9.5 / 10 on the grounds that "no other RPG" gives "such a cinematic experience as Final Fantasy VII ". At the time of publication, multimedia website IGN insisted that "FF7's graphics are light years above anything seen on PlayStation," considered the story to be "deep and epic," and considered the battle system to be the game's strongest point. An RPGamer reviewer praised the game's soundtrack for "its versatility and sheer scope," suggested that "Uematsu did an exceptionally good job" and "it may be his best work."

However, Final Fantasy VII also received negative reviews. GameSpy ranked it 7th in their "25 Most Overrated Games" in September 2005 on the grounds that "Most FF fans think VII is a good game, but not the best of the game Series". Although the official US PlayStation magazine gave the game 5/5, like GameSpot , they questioned the very linear gameplay. The magazine found the translation of the game a bit vague, causing "unnecessary confusion that tarnishes the good story". This assessment was shared by members of the RPGamer community, who, looking at the misspellings and other issues that further confused the obscure story, indicated that the game was far from perfect. Also GamePro considered the Japanese-English translation as a major weakness of the game. The translation weaknesses paired with technical problems were also criticized in the two German versions. For IGN , the three-character limit was the “only shortcoming of the game”. The Metacritic review database aggregates 20 reviews of the PlayStation version to a total of 92%.

Parents' associations also criticized the game for its depictions of violence, particularly after the 1999 Littleton school massacre . As a result of the events, some parents of the children killed filed a five million dollar lawsuit against companies that developed and published computer games. Among the co-defendants was the publisher of the PC version of the game, Eidos Interactive . Final Fantasy VII was viewed by plaintiffs as contributing to the school massacre.

legacy

Final Fantasy VII is considered one of the most influential titles in video game history. The game is credited for having enabled console role-playing to find a market niche outside of Japan. It is also the most popular title in the Final Fantasy series. In January 2005, Electronic Gaming Monthly voted Final Fantasy VII sixth on its list of the top ten games that have redefined the video game industry since 1989. With the “wonderful cutscenes and the profound, introspective narrative”, “Square's game is the first RPG that surpasses cinematic storytelling instead of just copying it”. The magazine also states that without this game “Aeris would not have died and the gaming community would never have learned to cry”. The popularity of the game and its open end meant that the author is a connection between Final Fantasy VII and is also very popular part of Final Fantasy X created.

The game's legacy includes the adoption and standard use of FMV sequences in role-playing games, as well as a significant advance in computer graphics. These developments allowed Hironobu Sakaguchi, inventor of the series, to produce the first final fantasy film Final Fantasy: The Powers Within You (2001). In addition, Final Fantasy VII: International was the first re-release in Japan with additional content. Other titles in the series that received this treatment included Final Fantasy X , Final Fantasy X-2 , Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XII .

Compilation of Final Fantasy VII

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Compilation of Final Fantasy VII is the official title of a series of games and animated films based on the world and continuity of Final Fantasy VII . Under the leadership of Tetsuya Nomura and Yoshinori Kitase, various titles were created for various platforms, all of which are either sequels, remakes or prequels to Final Fantasy VII .

Square described this project as "the company's first steps towards 'polymorphic content'", a marketing strategy designed to "offer well-known assets on a number of platforms to make the products available to the widest possible audience." Compilation producer Yoshinori Kitase said he immediately picked Final Fantasy VII when he was given the opportunity to choose one of the Final Fantasy titles for the company's polymorphic experimentation. He gave as the reason the open ending and the resulting possibilities for the characters in contrast to the other games. Nomura has revealed that he originally only assumed the development of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII , while Kitase envisaged a larger-scale production, which led to the development of the other titles. Yōichi Wada , President of Square Enix, announced that the compilation will remain an active franchise until the twentieth anniversary of Final Fantasy VII's release .

The first track of the compilation, Advent Children , was first presented to the public in September 2003 at the Tokyo Game Show and was shown for the first time on September 2, 2005 at the 62nd Venice Film Festival . The CGI film is a sequel to Final Fantasy VII ; it is set two years after the end of the game and was released exclusively on DVD and Universal Media Disc (UMD) for Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) in Japan on September 14, 2005. The film came out on the European and American markets on April 25, 2006, followed by a German release on December 5, 2006. The sequels also include the games Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and the accompanying additional episode Dirge of Cerberus: Lost Episode - Final Fantasy VII ; both are first-person / third-person shooter hybrids. Dirge of Cerberus was developed for the PlayStation 2 and is set three years after Final Fantasy VII . The game was released in Japan on January 26, 2006, in North America on August 15, 2006, and in Europe on November 17, 2006. Lost Episode was released on August 18, 2006 in North America for Amp'd Mobile Phones .

Another title for mobile phones is Before Crisis , a prequel that tells the story of the Turks in the six years before Final Fantasy VII . The game was released in Japan in 24 chapters by subscription from September 24, 2004 for cell phones of the NTT-DoCoMo-FOMA-900i series, the start-up in North America is to take place in 2006, nothing is known about a release in Europe. Other prequels include Last Order - Final Fantasy VII , an OVA developed by Madhouse about the destruction of Nibelheim, and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII , an action role-playing game for the PSP whose main character is Zack. It was released on September 13, 2007 in Japan and on March 25, 2008 in the US and June 20, 2008 in Europe. The German version has a completely German interface (menus, HUD , etc.), only the spoken sequences are in English with German subtitles.

There is speculation that a technically improved remake of Final Fantasy VII will be part of this compilation. This speculation was fueled by a Final Fantasy VII tech demo at Electronic Entertainment Expo 2005, where the opening sequence of Final Fantasy VII was shown in Playstation 3 graphics. Although Yoichi Wada has stated that the presentation was merely a technical demonstration - claims supported by Yoshinori Kitase in an interview in Final Fantasy VII Ultimania O - Electronic Gaming Monthly 2006 reported in its June issue that this video was “a small outlook on a next-gen revival "of Final Fantasy VII . Square Enix has officially denied these claims and reiterated their statement that the company did not announce such a project.

Although they did not appear under the seal of compilation, there are two novels for Final Fantasy VII and a third Final Fantasy VII game for mobile phones. The first of the two novels is called "On the Way to a Smile", a story based on the events immediately after the end of the game and in the first part from Tifa's perspective and in the second part from the boy Denzel, who became an orphan, as Shinra Sector 7 had been destroyed. The second novella, "The Maiden Who Travels the Planet," tells of Aeris' journey through the stream of life after her death. Finally, there is Final Fantasy VII Snowboarding , a mobile phone port of the snowboard mini-game from Final Fantasy VII .

literature

  • Suneo Gouda et al .: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children - Reunion Files - (Japanese, English). SoftBank, Tokyo 2006, ISBN 4-7973-3498-3 .
  • Studio BentStuff: Final Fantasy VII Ultimania O (Japanese). Square Enix, Tokyo 2005, ISBN 4-7575-1520-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Electronic Gaming Monthly: Electronic Gaming Monthly October 2005; Issue 196 (English), Ziff Davis Media Inc., p. 104.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i IGN: Final Fantasy VII Review by IGN. 1997. (Last checked on August 2, 2006.)
  3. ↑ a b c d Greg Kasavin : Final Fantasy VII for PlayStation Review GameSpot. 1997. (Last checked on August 2, 2006.)
  4. ↑ a b c Electronic Gaming Monthly: Final Fantasy VII PS Review ( Memento from January 16, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) from 1UP.com. 2004. (Last checked on August 2, 2006.)
  5. ↑ a b Rahul Choudhury: E3: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children handout scan from SquareHaven.com. 2004. (Last checked on August 2, 2006.)
  6. ↑ a b Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children ( Memento from August 15, 2006 in the web archive archive.today ) from Find Articles; originally published in 1UP . October 2003. (Last checked on August 2, 2006.)
  7. ↑ a b Suneo Gouda et al .: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children - Reunion Files - (Japanese, English). SoftBank, 2006, p. 66, ISBN 4-7973-3498-3 .
  8. ↑ GamersGlobal.de: Final Fantasy VII for Japan's PlayStation Network. Retrieved January 27, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Final Fantasy VII on the Steam Store
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  21. ↑ a b Final Fantasy Insider: Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Interview - Conducted by GanGan from Final Fantasy Insider. 2005. (Last checked on August 2, 2006.)
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  97. ↑ a b Levi Buchanan: Interview with Square Enix Mobile: Kosei Ito ( Memento of the original from February 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from IGN. 2006. (Last checked on August 2, 2006.)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / wireless.ign.com
  98. ↑ Anoop Gantayat: Final Fantasy Destroys Square Enix ( Memento of the original from February 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from IGN. 2004. (Last checked on August 2, 2006.)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / wireless.ign.com
  99. ↑ Levi Buchanan: Pre-E3 2006: Final Fantasy Mobile ( Memento of the original from September 9, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from IGN. 2006. (Last checked on August 2, 2006.)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / wireless.ign.com
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  105. ↑ Jeremy Dunham: Square Enix Responds to PS3 FF7 Rumors by IGN. 2006. (Last checked on August 2, 2006.)
  106. ↑ Matt Sloderbeck: Square Enix Denies Remake Rumors ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rpgamer.com archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. by RPGamer. 2006. (Last checked on August 2, 2006.)
  107. ↑ V-Jump: Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Prologue (Japanese). Shueisha, 2005. ISBN 4-08-779339-7 , p. 3
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  109. ↑ Levi Buchanan: Final Fantasy VII Snowboarding ( Memento of the original from February 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from IGN. 2005. (Last checked on August 2, 2006.)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / wireless.ign.com