What is so special bout FF7???
- Thread starter Lunawolf
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- 11 Jan 2004
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Maybe like a "FINAL FANTASY VII-2" or something like that 
www.gamespot.com
that's some important news for final fantasy 7/ac
ok from what I read there FFAC will be on the DVD and the PSP .....
there will be a new game of FF7 .........but it's on a mobile phone and a phone called the CLOUD BLACK which is really cool
here is what I read:
"Launched earlier this month, the Final Fantasy VII Compilation aims to capitalize on the success of Final Fantasy VII by releasing new games and products based on the hit role-playing game. Three products have been announced as part of the project so far: the CG movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Childen, which will be released on DVD and the PSP UMD format; Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, an online game for mobile phones; and a mobile phone from Panasonic, called the "Cloud Black" P900iV model (pictured). The phone, which is already available for retail purchase in Japan, will be used by the main character, Cloud, during the Advent Children film. It comes with pre-installed animated avatars of Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith. These avatars can be used when talking to other mobile phone users."
Japan always gets the good stuff -_-
Square Enix planning FFVII spin-off?
A new game featuring Vincent from Final Fantasy VII will join a new mobile title and <i>Advent Children</i> game as part of the Final Fantasy VII Compilation project.
that's some important news for final fantasy 7/ac
ok from what I read there FFAC will be on the DVD and the PSP .....
there will be a new game of FF7 .........but it's on a mobile phone and a phone called the CLOUD BLACK which is really cool
here is what I read:
"Launched earlier this month, the Final Fantasy VII Compilation aims to capitalize on the success of Final Fantasy VII by releasing new games and products based on the hit role-playing game. Three products have been announced as part of the project so far: the CG movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Childen, which will be released on DVD and the PSP UMD format; Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, an online game for mobile phones; and a mobile phone from Panasonic, called the "Cloud Black" P900iV model (pictured). The phone, which is already available for retail purchase in Japan, will be used by the main character, Cloud, during the Advent Children film. It comes with pre-installed animated avatars of Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith. These avatars can be used when talking to other mobile phone users."
Japan always gets the good stuff -_-
- 21 Jun 2004
- 490
- 17
Cid. It was all Cid, from the moment you first meet him and he yells at you to sit down and drink your goddamned tea... it was a classic!
Seriously, it was an interesting story told in a way no other FF game had been before it.
I enjoyed 8, 9 was boring.
But 10. I love that one.
That is my favourite.
FFX-2 wasn't tripe, that was wicked fun. Sure, it wasn't a conventional FF game in the truest sense of the word, but Christ, it was a pisser.
Kinda nice bit a break inbetween doom and gloom, you know?
Ant
Seriously, it was an interesting story told in a way no other FF game had been before it.
I enjoyed 8, 9 was boring.
But 10. I love that one.
That is my favourite.
Areku said:
FFX-2 wasn't tripe, that was wicked fun. Sure, it wasn't a conventional FF game in the truest sense of the word, but Christ, it was a pisser.
Kinda nice bit a break inbetween doom and gloom, you know?
Ant
FFVII broke boundaries that it's predoccessor's had NEVER ever achieved, I believe we'll never see anything like it again for along time to come. It's storyline was incredible, but most importantly, the characters where great, with a real personality to them. Not only that, but we are experienced with a villain who doesn't lie in all pure evil, but more in the grey away, unlike 1-6 where the majority of the villains want take over the world, are all evil, and Kefka whom is in FFVI is nothing but a killing machine, although he was far more developed then the other villains before him, and one of the better villains imo in the FF games.
Sephiroth however to me, is the most incredible villain to date any video game, it is not because he's a cool looking silver haired guy, nor is it his black trench coat and his 7ft Masamune Sword. It's because Sephiroth showed many sides of his personality that befitted him as a regular human being...with super ehanced powers. Sephiroth is portrayed as a man who suffer's heavy traumas from his own past, and who was once a hero to all, but finally breaks down, to become the villain that we all must confront and defeat at the end.
His personalities are so great, that you can bring up the question..."Wow, he could've been a real hero had this not of happened to him..." A real character to me. FFVII had what other's did not, and it will reign on top probably as the best FF game ever to grace this world, wether the many fan's who just love it because the characters look cool, or wether there are fans whom have found a deeper meaning in the game, during 1997 however, it hit the world like a tidal wave, it will be a year to remember in video game history.
Sephiroth however to me, is the most incredible villain to date any video game, it is not because he's a cool looking silver haired guy, nor is it his black trench coat and his 7ft Masamune Sword. It's because Sephiroth showed many sides of his personality that befitted him as a regular human being...with super ehanced powers. Sephiroth is portrayed as a man who suffer's heavy traumas from his own past, and who was once a hero to all, but finally breaks down, to become the villain that we all must confront and defeat at the end.
His personalities are so great, that you can bring up the question..."Wow, he could've been a real hero had this not of happened to him..." A real character to me. FFVII had what other's did not, and it will reign on top probably as the best FF game ever to grace this world, wether the many fan's who just love it because the characters look cool, or wether there are fans whom have found a deeper meaning in the game, during 1997 however, it hit the world like a tidal wave, it will be a year to remember in video game history.
Well.. First off, it's nice seing so many people who has interests in the FF series.
Like all of you I'm a big fan of the series and the genre.
The reason in my own opinion that FFVII is the best is as is :
#1 - The music
#2 - Characters I think cloud was an " ok " character.. Barret was kinda cool, getting pisses all the times.. yeah he used a gun, but the time theme permitted it.. Vincent was dark and interesting, Yuffie was a brat, Aeris an innocent flower girl (Don't we all want one like her?) Tiffa was boobifull... Caith sith sucked. And so on.. yeah Sephi was kewl
#3 - The story was entertaining.. with some of the baddies being funny, like the turks and stuff like that..
#4 - Materia system was simple, yet fun to use.
bla bla bla ... bla bla, still there?
Anyway.. From there on in the series it's been downward.. except maybe FF9 wich caught my attention with the medieval theme.. but did'nt in the end.. FFX was an easy game.. fun to play.. but so LINEAR!! DAMNIT!
And.. no comment about the girlish FFX-2.. Square, if you're reading this, no more sequel plz!!
FFXI was fun.. for a while until you realise the main objective of the game is to level up.. no story at all..
Well.. so long folks
Like all of you I'm a big fan of the series and the genre.
The reason in my own opinion that FFVII is the best is as is :
#1 - The music
#2 - Characters I think cloud was an " ok " character.. Barret was kinda cool, getting pisses all the times.. yeah he used a gun, but the time theme permitted it.. Vincent was dark and interesting, Yuffie was a brat, Aeris an innocent flower girl (Don't we all want one like her?) Tiffa was boobifull... Caith sith sucked. And so on.. yeah Sephi was kewl
#3 - The story was entertaining.. with some of the baddies being funny, like the turks and stuff like that..
#4 - Materia system was simple, yet fun to use.
bla bla bla ... bla bla, still there?
Anyway.. From there on in the series it's been downward.. except maybe FF9 wich caught my attention with the medieval theme.. but did'nt in the end.. FFX was an easy game.. fun to play.. but so LINEAR!! DAMNIT!
And.. no comment about the girlish FFX-2.. Square, if you're reading this, no more sequel plz!!
FFXI was fun.. for a while until you realise the main objective of the game is to level up.. no story at all..
Well.. so long folks
Final Fantasy VII appeal to the masses.
First of all, I would like to apologize for the long post. Final Fantasy VII has many interesting elements to talk about, and me being a chatterbox like Final Fantasy VII's Aerith isn't quite helpful in cutting down the post.
I think that some people like or don't like Final Fantasy VII because it's so appealing to the masses. Also, as far as I know, Final Fantasy VII has a world that quite resembles our world; VIII's is still quite fantasy-ish (imagine Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace), the same goes for Xs.
Final Fantasy VII would have made a good T.V. series due to its mass-market appeal. It would be no surprise at all if Final Fantasy VII took some T.V. series as its inspiration. However, I don't think that Shin Seiki Evangelion greatly influences it like some said because Evangelion was still quite young during Final Fantasy VII's production and release (OCtober 1996 versus February 1997?).
As a matter of fact, after Final Fantasy VII was released, I think that some fans talked about it might be a good time to have a Final Fantasy T.V. series. In the addition of the Final Fantasy VII-ish CG movie (one once described it as Akira meets Toy Story) in work, before it was cancelled and replaced by The Spirit Within.
Of course, it never happened (at least not right after VII anyway), so the role was passed on to several other TV series instead, like one particular 1999 T.V. series done by Toei Animation and aired by Fuji T.V. Still, even that incorporate some Final Fantasy VIII's elements (see the Squall-Cloud thing below).
Also, in a kind of way, 2001 (was it 2001? or was it 2002?) The T.V. series Final Fantasy Unlimited also uses some of Final Fantasy VII's elements.
Risa is kind of like a derivation of what you get if you combine Tifa with Aerith, or at least Risa is kind of at least a derivation of Kingdom Hearts' Aerith. Personally, Ai Hayakawa is more in line with the personality of Final Fantasy VII's Aerith, while her brother Yuu Hayawaka is kinda like Final Fantasy VII's Cloud, Risa (and Kingdom Hearts' Aerith) is quite Tifa-ish.
But Kaze is definitely derived from Vincent Valentine.
Though personally, I never do dig Final Fantasy Unlimited. It's just... plain too weird. Even Ai and Yuu (love and courage or I and you depend on how you view it), who provide the viewers with a connection to the real world, isn't strong enough to provide a strong connection with the real world. I wonder if this causes its early ending (it was planned for a whole year of episodes. Instead, they only aired it half a year). There's a funny episode, though, when a frog-ified Cid was flushed down the toilet by Ai since she doesn't want her brother to have a pet that could turn a monster.
As for Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.
Personally, with the way they did Advent Children, they should have chosen Final Fantasy VIII instead. Cloud look so... Ishida Yamato-ish or at least Yamaki-ish (must have been that dark glasses). Heck, that's what you get if you crossed Squall Leonhart with Cloud Strife, a Squall-ish Cloud. Maybe they should have called it "Final Fantasy VII: Chosen Children" instead?
Anyway. Expect Final Fantasy VIII or The Spirit Within with Advent Children. Just don't expect Final Fantasy VII. It is hard to say if they are really after Final Fantasy VII's fans, considering the whole thing isn't like Final Fantasy VII. The name "Final Fantasy VII" probably is just used as a brand name (definitely lucky number 7), just like the "Final Fantasy" name itself. Either that or someone is too lazy to create new character designs and new stories.
As for the "Cloud Black" P900iV handphone.
Can someone say "product placement"?
Oh well... In Final Fantasy VII, they never showed you how the P.H.S. (Personal Handyphone System) looks like.
Though with its global service (even in the middle of the desert and mountain range), Final Fantasy VII's P.H.S. probably is a satellite phone service like this (only with several more satellites):
http://www.byru.net/
http://www.byru.net/product4.html
Byru ironically means blue, the color of Cloud's shirt in Final Fantasy VII, which changed into darker and even black in Advent Children.
Why so dark, Cloud? Why so Squall-ish? Suffering from the Anakin Skywalker syndrome?
Of course, the original Final Fantasy VII's P.H.S. probably was inspired by the Japanese own cellphone network.
whatis.techtarget.com
It should be noted that the Japanese P.H.S. isn't designed to be so long-range as the ones in Final Fantasy VII, Japanese P.H.S. is essentially like your cordless home phone, so you need LOTS of cell phone towers. It should be noted that broadband and long-range don't mix very well.
As for the animated avatars in the Cloud Black handphone.
Well... If you're good at programming on a program that used the Symbian Operating System, you can devise something like that on your own and your own handphone with the Symbian Operating system. Though many such handphones already have such thing built-in.
Besides, if you're using your phone, how the heck you can see the animated avatars? Without using the handsfree mode, of course. Or maybe the avatars will speak your text messages and act as a personal assistant (in one of the screenshots, Cloud mentioned how long you talk)?
Of course, maybe these animated avatars are experimental things, perhaps for a future Final Fantasy VII game? It would be fun if they do like Magic Knight Rayearth, where the avatars changed according to the state of the characters (confused, upset, laughing, and so on). The Final Fantasy VII scene, like when Aerith proposed to Cloud on dressing like a girl, would be more hilarious if you got avatars like that; an animated avatar of Aerith laughing would be hilarious, not to mention followed an animated Cloud's puzzled look, which then turned into a surprising look. This kind of thing is much nicer rather than directly seeing their faces on the 3D models. But frankly, I don't like the character design for the animated avatars on the handphone. I prefer Final Fantasy VII's Aerith character design rather than the handphone's Aerith character design.
Though I wonder, why was there's an animated avatar of Aerith in the handphone?
I mean that she didn't appear in Advent Children, or did she? Hey, I thought that she was dead? Or did the planet revived her? Or was her death a fake?
And also, why is it that there's no Barrett, Vincent, and so on in the Cloud Black handphone?
It would be interesting, though, to have a special type of phone for each character, like "Aerith Pink", "Tifa White", "Red XIII Red", "Yuffie Green", and so on. But... I think that it would be easier to have replaceable theme covers instead of a whole customized phone.
On a related note, it would be a pain though paying Aerith's phone bills. I suggest a monthly flat fee-based service, like the Danger Terminal by T-mobile.
As for Cloud Strife and Squall Leonhart.
Well... Cloud is more of a good boy that lost touch with the world while at the same time pretending that he's a bad boy or at least a tough guy, while Squall was more of a bad boy that becomes kinder. Hard to say much about Squall though, never played Final Fantasy VIII.
But it's kind of hard, though, to compare Cloud with Squall, considering that there are several Clouds, and that's just in Final Fantasy VII. There are Nibelheim's Cloud, Soldier's Cloud, Mideel's Cloud, and Earth's Cloud. I would just leave Jenova's Cloud out to make things more clear.
In the gam,e you first started with Soldier's Cloud, meet Nibelheim's Cloud on several occasions, then the two merged and became Mideel's Cloud, and then the final Cloud in the game is Earth's Cloud.
Nibelheim's Cloud is the original Cloud that grew up in Nibelheim and had Tifa as his first love. He was the one who aspired to be a Soldier to protect Tifa.
Soldier's Cloud is the fantasy that Nibelheim's Cloud made up out of his disappointment of not entering Soldier. Nibelheim's Cloud used his friend Zack as a template for Soldier's Cloud. Soldier's Cloud is the first Cloud you met in the game and the one you control most of the time. He has Aerith as his first love or what ever (Cloud's relationship with Aerith is quite abstract that you really don't know what they really are, though Caith Sith predicts the two of them had a good fortune). Aerith was first attracted to Soldier's Cloud because he reminded her a lot of Zack, but even then, Aerith, later on, know that it wasn't really Cloud, that's why on the gondola scene, Aerith asked Soldier's Cloud for her to meet Cloud (either that or she was asking... er, X-Rated stuff).
Mideel's Cloud was when Soldier's Cloud gained the memory of Nibelheim's Cloud at Mideel, or when Nibelheim's Cloud took the control back, or when the two merged, depends on how you view it. This Cloud was the result due to Tifa Lockhart's unlocking Cloud's heart.
Earth's Cloud is, of course, the final version of Cloud in Final Fantasy VII, right after Cloud receives parts of him from the defeated Jenova controlled Sephiroth persona and healed by the Earth.
Of course, I don't know what becomes of Cloud or the rest of the characters for that matter (except for Red XIII) after Holy defeated Meteor.
Instead of Squall, a better comparison for Cloud probably would be Fei in Xenogears, but even then, it's not like a fair comparison.
With Xenogears storyline more complex (even more if you add the stories from the Perfect Works book) considering that it's a patch of many different stories and Fei has more multiple personalities and reincarnation than Cloud (Abel, Kim, Lacan, Grahf, Fei Fong Wong, Id, Fei from Lahan, and more). Then there's the Gundam complex (plus the Gundam Wing complex) that Xenogears incorporated into its storyline, though Ellie should have died if it followed the Gundam complex completely.
On a related note, Final Fantasy VII's storyline actually quite more spiritual than Xenogears quite secular storyline. Though in a kind of way, Final Fantasy VII early on kind of imply that the Settlers (Se-To-Ra, the ancients, the common root of all humans on Earth) is a group of people from a colony ship (like Xenogears), the scene with Sephiroth in the ShinRa mansion's basement at least kind of give that impression. Of course, it was later on revealed that the Earth itself created the Settlers.
Back to Cloud. I think that the best definition of Cloud is that he's a geek, the average boy (especially Nibelheim's Cloud), kind of like Keiichi from Aa! Megami-sama. Remember that the best way to gain empathy from your players or viewers is to set a character that resembles your players or viewers. Cloud is probably closer to the average person than Squall, but Squall isn't portrayed as an average person again.
Kikuchi Masami (who also voiced for Keiichi) would be a good voice actor for Final Fantasy VII's Cloud. Not to mention that Kido Jou (who is also voiced by Kikuchi Masami) seems to be the one who inherits Cloud's personality because the other one is Squall disguising as Cloud.
As for evolving Cloud.
Hmmm... Evolution / shinka. Well... I guess that Sakurai Takahiro (who voiced Kingdom Hearts' Cloud) it's quite versed in the arts of shrinkage.
Somehow I can Imagine him saying, "Kuraudo shinka!!! Sorujaa kuraudo!"
I know that Cloud speaks quite funny in Kingdom Hearts, but did he also speak like an Osakan (like Cait Sith did in Final Fantasy VII and Selphie did in Final Fantasy VIII)?
Sakurai Takahiro, of course, it's quite good at voicing funny but brave characters, like Ukiya Shun from GateKeepers and Bit Cloud from Shin Seiki Zoids Slash Zero. Interestingly, both lead female characters from both series (Ruriko and Rinon) were voiced by the same voice actress (I forgot her name, though).
On a related note, the Cloud-ish Square video game character that Sakurai Takahiro voiced before Kingdom Hearts is probably Shion from Bouncer.
As for Sephiroth.
Remember that he's not the true villain of Final Fantasy VII. The true villain in Final Fantasy VII is Jenova, an extra terrestrial who came to Earth around two thousand years and caused the incident known as Crisis.
When Jenova crashed to Earth, it leaves a nasty gaping wound hole on Earth at the north pole. And really, Jenova was all evil, no black-white checkered or anything like that, just plain evil. That's why the Earth created the Weapons (kaiju/giant monsters who look like giant robots) until the Settlers decided to fight Jenova on their own using the materials they created Earth's Weapons unused, at least not until Final Fantasy VII Disc Two.
Sephiroth, like many people, is only a puppet to Jenova.
Jenova's control on Sephiroth is stronger than others since that Sephiroth was infused with the Jenova cell ever since his conception. The bond with the two is quite strong since the influence of Jenova has started since his conception. Of course, Sephiroth's personality finally lost total control to Jenova during the Nibelheim incident. From there on, Sephiroth, the son of Lucretia, died, and Sephiroth, the son of Jenova, was born or at least brought to his full potential.
Sephiroth has two mothers, one is Jenova due the fact that he had the Jenova cell, the other is Lucretia, who is his birth mother.
His father is, of course, Hojo, through artificial insemination, as Hojo claimed. But then again, artificial insemination is tended to be known to be unsuccessful most of the time.
Though it kind of implies that Sephiroth's father was Vincent in some scenes, or maybe it's just me who didn't remember the storyline?
I wonder, maybe Vincent thought Sephiroth was his son? When he heard the Sephiroth, the son of Lucretia, caused so much pain, he took it as if it was his responsibility and was quite upset. Or maybe because he thought that he was unable to protect Lucretia, and somehow, Sephiroth was one of the disastrous things that were caused due to his inability to protect Lucretia?
Though Vincent was indeed quite surprised when Hojo proclaimed that Sephiroth was Hojo's son through artificial insemination, I know that Vincent protested to Hojo over using Lucretia as an experiment. Hojo shot him and rebuild him as a monster. Maybe Hojo didn't tell Vincent how far he would experiment on Lucretia.
Lucretia and Vincent are quite close, though. And Lucretia always kept calling the names of Sephiroth and Vincent, as if these two are the two men she was really close to. Rather strange, though, considering that Vincent distanced him away from Lucretia since he thought that Lucretia was attracted to Hojo, despite his strong attraction to Lucretia. Maybe it's just an issue of misunderstanding.
Back to Sephiroth.
As I once said, Jenova is the real villain, but Jenova just tends to use Sephiroth's persona to represent it, using the Sephiroth as its spokesperson. So I guess that this is why some people tend to assume that Sephiroth is the villain.
Any person with the Jenova cell is part of Jenova and can assume the identity of Sephiroth, or maybe even Cloud, too, since he too has the Jenova cell. Basically, if you got a Jenova cell, you're Jenova, not but or if. And you're capable of imitating any person Jenova had control of.
Even in the end, Cloud was almost at the total control of Jenova. When the team thought they had finished the battle, Cloud feels that the battle still isn't over. That's because there are still Jenova cells inside Cloud. That was the final battle of Final Fantasy VII all about, the control of Cloud. The Jenova controlled Sephiroth persona do battle with Cloud.
Thought that battle is rigged, since that you can't lose. But if you choose Cloud to attack first, the camera angles near the end of the attack are probably the coolest in the game.
Of course, at the end of the battle, Jenova released control on both Cloud and Sephiroth. The red things that come out of the Sephiroth persona probably belong to Jenova. The rest (the non-red stuff) probably belong to Cloud since it later came inside Cloud. It should be noted that Jenova is quite tricky. Jenova could be the hand that tries to reach for Cloud. The music makes it like it's Aerith integrated with the Earth, but is it really them (Aerith with the Earth) or Jenova? Aerith wore a bangle by how the hand didn't have, or maybe it was portraying a 'naked' Aerith?
Oh... On a related note, in Kabbalah, one of the Sephiroth is Tiphareth, which signify beauty. It kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it?
And oh, I once talked to a friend of mine on how similar Sephiroth and Aerith do kind of looks like brother and sister, aren't they? Maybe they will live in the next life. I do once saw nice fan art of a teenage/young adult Sephiroth with a little girl Aerith.
As for Aerith's death.
Well... I think that originally they planned for some kind of quest to revive her in the game. Only this and some other stuff didn't manage to be included in the final version.
I don't think that this is a mere rumor, considering that Final Fantasy VII is a rush job, and many things didn't manage to get into the final version of it, even in the North American version. Some of the unfinished stuff probably were reworked into Final Fantasy VIII.
And also, if you looked at some of the places (like the Highwind bridge, the place before you enter the center of the Earth, the center of the Earth, and so on), there seems to be a vacant spot in these places. Either this is unused space planned for the revived Aerith, or these indicate that Aerith is always part of the team even if she was turned into an N.P.C..
Reviving Aerith isn't such a big deal, though, considering how powerful the Earth is since it's capable of eliminating every human on Earth.
It's kind of saddening not to see Aerith boarding the Highwind, though, considering that she really wanted to ride the Highwind, and Cloud did promise to her that someday she would ride it (unless, of course, you choose to think that you might have to destroy the Highwind since it's an enemy ship). Besides, her poster image with Highwind (also used as the cover of the N.A. manual) is quite nice.
It should be noted that her death seems somehow was staged by the Earth. So... It was more likely that it was Jenova who fall into the sense of false security by killing Aerith.
As for Final Fantasy VII graphics.
Well... It was outdated when released in 1997, considering the whole project started around 1994~1995.
One friend of my friend said with Final Fantasy VII, the F.M.V.s is much more rewarding, As if you achieved something and then rewarded with a nice cutscene. The games these days, with the cut scenes resembling the gameplay scenes, kind of made you wonder if you're rewarded with anything.
He never played Final Fantasy VII until I offered him to play my copy of Final Fantasy VII (N.A. version, bought it from Cyberian Outpost). He has already played Final Fantasy VIII Kingdom Hearts though, that's why he commented like that.
As for Final Fantasy VII's material system.
A friend of mine (that introduce me to Final Fantasy VII) mentioned that the material system is an improvement over the Esper balls in Final Fantasy VI. She mentioned something that with the Esper balls, once a person has learned that particular magic, the Esper ball has no more use than summoning. You can't have other characters use that particular magic. But with the material system, any characters can gain any magic, and also, you can customize the characters (along with their weapons) quite heavily with the material system.
Besides, the materials evolved separately and not linked with any of the characters (other than the White Materia and the Black Materia, but they are story plot-driven), so you can have weak characters (like Aerith) fight more aggressively using strong materials.
Using the material system can be quite challenging if you aren't accustomed to it, though, and it can have some more refining to do. And also wish that some characters have more built-in attacks than their Limit Break attacks since if you stripped them clean of materials, they could only have the basic attack.
Personally, what bugged in Final Fantasy VII I is what bugged me in many R.P.G.s, is the work you need to do to level up, plus once you level up, the previous area seems somehow is so easy (it's a nice thing though if you somehow feel tyrannical and wanted to squash every people you met).
Not to mention that taking on the Weapons is murder, not because of the confrontation, but because of the experience points, you need to gather to defeat the Weapons, even if you got the "Knights of Round" and "Quad" materials.
Maybe it would be interesting if there's a level down in an R.P.G. if you don't practice your skill efficiently. And the battles rely more on skills than plain levels. Plus, maybe more interaction between the physical and the magical. The balance of the stamina (no one can fight for hours and hours, especially if they're repeatedly wounded). No more constant upgrading on armours and weapons. I don't mind tinkering with them, though.
As for Final Fantasy VIII's magic system.
I don't know much, but I do know that you 'draw' your magic from the enemies and then can either use it directly or 'stock' it.
And I'm afraid that I'm still clueless on the Guardian Force system.
As for Final Fantasy I through III.
Never played them. Though, as far as I know, the gameplay was pretty much basic.
As for Final Fantasy IV.
Never played it. It seems that it's the first BIG main Final Fantasy game. I do think that much of the stuff in it seems to inspire Final Fantasy VII.
As for Final Fantasy V.
Never played it. However, the Meteor theme seems to inspire Final Fantasy VII. And some of its features (like the job feature) goes into Final Fantasy Tactics.
As for Final Fantasy VI.
I never played it, though I heard that Final Fantasy VII, in a kind of way, is a simplified version of Final Fantasy VI that would explain the relatively quite short game time of Final Fantasy VII, not to mention its quiet easiness. Final Fantasy VII is like a Super Family Computer game port into the 3D world, or the PlayStation to be much more precise.
All I heard from Final Fantasy veteran players is that this is the grandest main Final Fantasy game, which would explain why they seem so upset about the constant attention on Final Fantasy VII.
As for Final Fantasy VIII.
I never played it, though some stuff that didn't manage to be in Final Fantasy VII was put into Final Fantasy VIII. Rinoa is perhaps closer to the original planned lead female character of Final Fantasy VII (imagine a black haired Aerith)?
Though I do somehow get the impression that this a quite Tekken-ish Final Fantasy, the character design was one thing that made didn't get Final Fantasy VIII, I don't know why. Still, viewing the characters kind of made me feel uneasy. I know that I feel like putting my head below the pillow when I saw a picture of the Rinoa in the dance scene. Kind of too bad since Rinoa is actually quite attractive in some of the fan arts.
Maybe it's the uncanny valley effect thing. The Spirit Within's modellers and animators commented that they do once they finally end up in the valley. Final Fantasy IX surely has a drastic change of character design, and surprisingly, the character design of Final Fantasy X doesn't bug me as much as Final Fantasy VIII's.
As for Final Fantasy IX.
Well... Final Fantasy IX look interesting, and I like the character design better than Final Fantasy VIII.
But after seeing Final Fantasy VIII's character design, I actually don't pay much attention to the Final Fantasy series and video games in general, so I guess I kind of missed the boat on Final Fantasy IX. Suddenly, when I delve into the gaming news again, it was Final Fantasy X and XI.
Maybe someday I will be allowed by God to play Final Fantasy IX.
Speaking of character design. Who is currently the lead character designer of the Final Fantasy series?
By the time of Final Fantasy VII, the lead character designer, I think it was Nomura Tetsuya. Amano Yoshitaka, who previously done Final Fantasy VI's, only done the concept arts. And then, in Final Fantasy IX, Amano Yoshitaka briefly become the lead character designer again. However, they normalized enough so that it wouldn't so abstract like one of Amano's classic abstract Final Fantasy art (which had the feeling of Eurasian, Chinese, and Japanese look into it).
And also, is there a plan for a guest character designer to took part in a main Final Fantasy game?
I know that Chrono Trigger and Tobal No.1 has Akira Toriyama as the character designer, but it wasn't really Final Fantasy, to begin with. It would be interesting, though, if a main Final Fantasy game has a guest character designer, such as, let say, Mikimoto Haruhiko. And no, I'm not also suggesting for Itano Ichiro to be a guest designer to choreograph the battle scenes. Though both people (Mikimoto and Itano) collaborated on making the Computer Generated Original Animation Video "Rica"/"Reika" with its water colour style animation.
As for Final Fantasy X.
Never played it. Though I heard that in the end, Tidus went missing, and X-2 was basically a continuation of it. Though X-2 had the girls as the main characters, they also had a cool scene for changing into their battle outfits. Maybe it should have been called Final Fantasy X-G? X-2 now just sounded so X-men-ish.
As for Final Fantasy XI.
I have the suspicion that its true identity is 'Final Ultima Online'. It's kinda surprising that they just couldn't have called it something simple like "Final Fantasy Online". I mean that there's "Phantasy Star Online", "Ultima Online", "Ragnarok Online", and so on. Why the use of XI instead of Online?
As for Final Fantasy XII.
I don't know much, but I heard it's more like X than XI.
As for a girlish Final Fantasy post-Final Fantasy VII.
Well... That happened when you modeled a lead character after Gackt. However, it should be noted that girls are quite into R.P.G.s due to their magical nature. Hey, girls like stuff like horoscope, astrology, numerology, and so on.
And also, it should be noted that in recent times, the total amount of women population seems to bigger than the men population.
So... A girlish Final Fantasy probably is designed to target the larger potential players.
As for the 'love' theme in Final Fantasy, especially post Final Fantasy VII.
Well... Love, I don't mind. Romance, on the other hand, is the opposite.
There are plenty of love stories in Final Fantasy VII, but... they're love stories, NOT romantic love stories. Granted, though, the affections Cloud get from his love interest made it feel like it's a junior high school shoujo (girl) manga; just watch the scene when the team was travelling on the railway track to Corel village, when Cloud pass by to use the bridge switch and his fangirls cheer him from below.
I do know a fan fiction series on where the Final Fantasy characters are portrayed as school students. Squall, of course, get to play the part of the cool bad boy.
Anyway. From what I heard, Final Fantasy basic theme is always a 'save the world' theme, though each game has its own theme. In Final Fantasy VII, I personally think it's about people forgetting where they came from and almost got wiped out.
As for a possible Final Fantasy VII sequel.
Well... I don't think that they should take place directly after the Holy Meteor event. It would be kinda like telling exactly what happened by details after the end of "Kido Senshi Gandamu Gyakushuu no Shaa". Kind of like telling what happened after Axis was moved away from colliding with Earth, kind of like telling what happened to Amuro and Char, and so on. Besides, the next big Gundam story in the U.C. timeline took place around three decades after Char's Counterattack (Gyakushuu no Shaa).
And doing a Final Fantasy VII sequel in style like Advent Children is a no-no, at least to me. There are reasons why Advent Children is direct to D.V.D. and premiered in Cannes.
Maybe a sequel of Final Fantasy VII should be done more in the style of a T.V. series. T.V. series don't have much budget, but then use tricks that are quite good and efficient.
And then it should be noted that a T.V. series couldn't be any T.V. series.
For example, I like the T.V series .hack//Legend of the Twilight Bangle (I forgot the exact Japanese name) more than its predecessor .hack//Sign (which I couldn't stand to watch). It's more fun and entertaining; besides, the character design is kind of like Ragnarok Online. I have more fun with Shuugo and company than Tsukasa and company. I wonder why the change of style. I mean that Sign was so gloomy and dark, while Twilight was more upbeat and bright.
Back to Final Fantasy VII. A sequel of Final Fantasy VII probably should start at the 500 years epilogue of Final Fantasy VII that was featured at the end of Final Fantasy VII.
This way, new settings, new features, and new characters could be added in, different enough that you don't see it as a repeat of the old thing, but similar enough that you get a sense of continuity (which no main Final Fantasy game ever had until Final Fantasy X-2). It could have been easy being Final Fantasy XIII (would they dare have the number 13/XIII?) renamed as Final Fantasy VII: (insert subtitle here). 500 A.M. (After Meteor) sounded good, but it sounded more like an hour than a year.
Besides, you could say that the Earth remodelled itself and the living creatures around it to be totally new places and new places. Remember that the team (Cloud and company) were quite worried if the Earth would decide to eliminate humans if it thinks that humans are hurting the Earth until they decided just to let the Earth decided by itself if humans should stay at Earth or not.
And besides, 500 years a long time to have things changed quite drastically. For example, 500 years into the future, the coastline is quite near Midgar.
Heck, I don't mind even if they added in the Mobile Infantry with their powered suits/armours (like in the novel "Starship Troopers", hopefully not in the perverted mechanized form like in some of its incarnations), mascot characters (like Bahamut Lagoon), giant robots (like in Xenogears or Gigantic Drive, besides the Weapons are already in the kaiju / giant robot category), space travel (like in Final Fantasy VIII, or Final Fantasy IV, or Star Ocean), and so on. It would be interesting to have done it like Xenogears, which basically patches so many different stories into one story.
Plus, some of the new characters could resemble the old characters, to make you guessing if these characters are the reincarnation of the old ones or even the descendants of the old ones or even both. The end of Final Fantasy VII had children laughing in the background, and Aerith once mentioned that someday they would look back on these events and laughed. One got to wonder if the characters of Final Fantasy VII are reborn again in the future as children. Remember, though, that they don't necessarily have to retain the same gender they had in the previous life, and they might get even get remixed (Kingdom Hearts' Cloud, for example, look like a cross between Cloud and Vincent).
And also, not to mention the possibility of adding characters from other Final Fantasy games, kind of like Kingdom Hearts. Or even characters from other Square and Enix games. Hey, I mentioned Gigantic Drive and Star Ocean for a reason. Really, they should do a Final Fantasy game with plenty of space travel. You probably will get a solar system map like in Bugenhagen's planetarium (where he said that each planet/star has its own lifestream) and probably also a galaxy map.
Besides, with the 500 years epilogue, you get to see the cubs of Nanaki (Red XIII),
Not to mention the extra benefit of NOT ruining the story of Final Fantasy VII, which I had the nasty suspicion that Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children will be done exactly just that.
Either that or a prequel, kind of like Xenosaga.
As for remaking Final Fantasy VII.
While there's no plan for it so far, I know.
If they do remake it, I hope that this isn't the remake where Tifa gets quite savy with Settler's language, decoding a Settler artefact. Cloud dumped Aerith in an instant, even go so far as domestic violence on her so he can go on mushy on Tifa. Then it was revealed that all humans are actually descendants of aliens/Settlers who came from outer space, instead of being created by the Earth, and how we should worship... er, I mean respect aliens and their cultures. And then some people claimed that it (the remake) has the same spirit and theme as the original.
Don't say that they wouldn't do that sort of thing because that sort of thing was already done around two decades ago.
Though I see one particular four frames fan comic making fun of the possibility of a Final Fantasy VII remake, it starts with Cloud announcing to everyone that they gonna redo Final Fantasy VII. Everyone was quite surprised. They talked about it. But Aerith is just standing there, holding her anger.
It's in Japanese, so I don't know why Aerith was so upset (the translator program can't translate Japanese in pictures). But suffice to say that the remake probably won't put her in a good mood.
As for Midgar.
Well... It had the classic movie Metropolis much to thank for its inspiration, along with the Norse Midgard (which means roughly Middle Garden or at least Middle Area). Though Aerith isn't like Maria in Metropolis, she usually attends her own business and actually quite girlish for a girl (woman?) of her age.
If Aerith was named "Maria" instead of an anagram of "I Earth".
http://www.cool-baby-names.com/Search/search-categories-timeless-results.asp?Gender=Girls&Name=Maria
I think that the Danish / Swedish and Italian nicknames would be much better suit her.
Back to Midgar. In real life, some of the actual villages actually ARE now referred to as sectors, much like what happened in Midgar. In the real estate where I lived, for example, I have applied for sector numbers. So... I probably would at home in Midgar in regarding sector numbers, there's a mall on sector 3, and they sell plenty of flowers at sector 9.
As for "Aeris an innocent flower girl (Don't we all want one like her?)."
Pure hearted, yes.
Innocent. Hmmm... Hmmm... I would say it's a 'Sweet Innocent' girlish 'we can meet anytime' kind of way, a 'Super Girl' with a 'Happy Smile'. As for being innocent as in 'innocent', to quote one particular song, "I'm not THAT innocent!" Remember that this is the same girl that con Cloud into disguising himself as a girl.
If you got a girlfriend like Aerith, you wouldn't know whether to consider it as a blessing or a curse.
A charming girl can be quite hyper, and if you're not careful, she can control you (either by instinct or consciously, but mostly by instinct).
But I think that the same thing can be roughly said to Rinoa Heartily?
As for what got me hooked with Final Fantasy VII.
Well...The answer to the original question by the original post in this thread is...
What started with E and ended with Ru?
---Fin---
First of all, I would like to apologize for the long post. Final Fantasy VII has many interesting elements to talk about, and me being a chatterbox like Final Fantasy VII's Aerith isn't quite helpful in cutting down the post.
I think that some people like or don't like Final Fantasy VII because it's so appealing to the masses. Also, as far as I know, Final Fantasy VII has a world that quite resembles our world; VIII's is still quite fantasy-ish (imagine Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace), the same goes for Xs.
Final Fantasy VII would have made a good T.V. series due to its mass-market appeal. It would be no surprise at all if Final Fantasy VII took some T.V. series as its inspiration. However, I don't think that Shin Seiki Evangelion greatly influences it like some said because Evangelion was still quite young during Final Fantasy VII's production and release (OCtober 1996 versus February 1997?).
As a matter of fact, after Final Fantasy VII was released, I think that some fans talked about it might be a good time to have a Final Fantasy T.V. series. In the addition of the Final Fantasy VII-ish CG movie (one once described it as Akira meets Toy Story) in work, before it was cancelled and replaced by The Spirit Within.
Of course, it never happened (at least not right after VII anyway), so the role was passed on to several other TV series instead, like one particular 1999 T.V. series done by Toei Animation and aired by Fuji T.V. Still, even that incorporate some Final Fantasy VIII's elements (see the Squall-Cloud thing below).
Also, in a kind of way, 2001 (was it 2001? or was it 2002?) The T.V. series Final Fantasy Unlimited also uses some of Final Fantasy VII's elements.
Risa is kind of like a derivation of what you get if you combine Tifa with Aerith, or at least Risa is kind of at least a derivation of Kingdom Hearts' Aerith. Personally, Ai Hayakawa is more in line with the personality of Final Fantasy VII's Aerith, while her brother Yuu Hayawaka is kinda like Final Fantasy VII's Cloud, Risa (and Kingdom Hearts' Aerith) is quite Tifa-ish.
But Kaze is definitely derived from Vincent Valentine.
Though personally, I never do dig Final Fantasy Unlimited. It's just... plain too weird. Even Ai and Yuu (love and courage or I and you depend on how you view it), who provide the viewers with a connection to the real world, isn't strong enough to provide a strong connection with the real world. I wonder if this causes its early ending (it was planned for a whole year of episodes. Instead, they only aired it half a year). There's a funny episode, though, when a frog-ified Cid was flushed down the toilet by Ai since she doesn't want her brother to have a pet that could turn a monster.
As for Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.
Personally, with the way they did Advent Children, they should have chosen Final Fantasy VIII instead. Cloud look so... Ishida Yamato-ish or at least Yamaki-ish (must have been that dark glasses). Heck, that's what you get if you crossed Squall Leonhart with Cloud Strife, a Squall-ish Cloud. Maybe they should have called it "Final Fantasy VII: Chosen Children" instead?
Anyway. Expect Final Fantasy VIII or The Spirit Within with Advent Children. Just don't expect Final Fantasy VII. It is hard to say if they are really after Final Fantasy VII's fans, considering the whole thing isn't like Final Fantasy VII. The name "Final Fantasy VII" probably is just used as a brand name (definitely lucky number 7), just like the "Final Fantasy" name itself. Either that or someone is too lazy to create new character designs and new stories.
As for the "Cloud Black" P900iV handphone.
Can someone say "product placement"?
Oh well... In Final Fantasy VII, they never showed you how the P.H.S. (Personal Handyphone System) looks like.
Though with its global service (even in the middle of the desert and mountain range), Final Fantasy VII's P.H.S. probably is a satellite phone service like this (only with several more satellites):
http://www.byru.net/
http://www.byru.net/product4.html
Byru ironically means blue, the color of Cloud's shirt in Final Fantasy VII, which changed into darker and even black in Advent Children.
Why so dark, Cloud? Why so Squall-ish? Suffering from the Anakin Skywalker syndrome?
Of course, the original Final Fantasy VII's P.H.S. probably was inspired by the Japanese own cellphone network.
Browse the Glossary - P - WhatIs
It should be noted that the Japanese P.H.S. isn't designed to be so long-range as the ones in Final Fantasy VII, Japanese P.H.S. is essentially like your cordless home phone, so you need LOTS of cell phone towers. It should be noted that broadband and long-range don't mix very well.
As for the animated avatars in the Cloud Black handphone.
Well... If you're good at programming on a program that used the Symbian Operating System, you can devise something like that on your own and your own handphone with the Symbian Operating system. Though many such handphones already have such thing built-in.
Besides, if you're using your phone, how the heck you can see the animated avatars? Without using the handsfree mode, of course. Or maybe the avatars will speak your text messages and act as a personal assistant (in one of the screenshots, Cloud mentioned how long you talk)?
Of course, maybe these animated avatars are experimental things, perhaps for a future Final Fantasy VII game? It would be fun if they do like Magic Knight Rayearth, where the avatars changed according to the state of the characters (confused, upset, laughing, and so on). The Final Fantasy VII scene, like when Aerith proposed to Cloud on dressing like a girl, would be more hilarious if you got avatars like that; an animated avatar of Aerith laughing would be hilarious, not to mention followed an animated Cloud's puzzled look, which then turned into a surprising look. This kind of thing is much nicer rather than directly seeing their faces on the 3D models. But frankly, I don't like the character design for the animated avatars on the handphone. I prefer Final Fantasy VII's Aerith character design rather than the handphone's Aerith character design.
Though I wonder, why was there's an animated avatar of Aerith in the handphone?
I mean that she didn't appear in Advent Children, or did she? Hey, I thought that she was dead? Or did the planet revived her? Or was her death a fake?
And also, why is it that there's no Barrett, Vincent, and so on in the Cloud Black handphone?
It would be interesting, though, to have a special type of phone for each character, like "Aerith Pink", "Tifa White", "Red XIII Red", "Yuffie Green", and so on. But... I think that it would be easier to have replaceable theme covers instead of a whole customized phone.
On a related note, it would be a pain though paying Aerith's phone bills. I suggest a monthly flat fee-based service, like the Danger Terminal by T-mobile.
As for Cloud Strife and Squall Leonhart.
Well... Cloud is more of a good boy that lost touch with the world while at the same time pretending that he's a bad boy or at least a tough guy, while Squall was more of a bad boy that becomes kinder. Hard to say much about Squall though, never played Final Fantasy VIII.
But it's kind of hard, though, to compare Cloud with Squall, considering that there are several Clouds, and that's just in Final Fantasy VII. There are Nibelheim's Cloud, Soldier's Cloud, Mideel's Cloud, and Earth's Cloud. I would just leave Jenova's Cloud out to make things more clear.
In the gam,e you first started with Soldier's Cloud, meet Nibelheim's Cloud on several occasions, then the two merged and became Mideel's Cloud, and then the final Cloud in the game is Earth's Cloud.
Nibelheim's Cloud is the original Cloud that grew up in Nibelheim and had Tifa as his first love. He was the one who aspired to be a Soldier to protect Tifa.
Soldier's Cloud is the fantasy that Nibelheim's Cloud made up out of his disappointment of not entering Soldier. Nibelheim's Cloud used his friend Zack as a template for Soldier's Cloud. Soldier's Cloud is the first Cloud you met in the game and the one you control most of the time. He has Aerith as his first love or what ever (Cloud's relationship with Aerith is quite abstract that you really don't know what they really are, though Caith Sith predicts the two of them had a good fortune). Aerith was first attracted to Soldier's Cloud because he reminded her a lot of Zack, but even then, Aerith, later on, know that it wasn't really Cloud, that's why on the gondola scene, Aerith asked Soldier's Cloud for her to meet Cloud (either that or she was asking... er, X-Rated stuff).
Mideel's Cloud was when Soldier's Cloud gained the memory of Nibelheim's Cloud at Mideel, or when Nibelheim's Cloud took the control back, or when the two merged, depends on how you view it. This Cloud was the result due to Tifa Lockhart's unlocking Cloud's heart.
Earth's Cloud is, of course, the final version of Cloud in Final Fantasy VII, right after Cloud receives parts of him from the defeated Jenova controlled Sephiroth persona and healed by the Earth.
Of course, I don't know what becomes of Cloud or the rest of the characters for that matter (except for Red XIII) after Holy defeated Meteor.
Instead of Squall, a better comparison for Cloud probably would be Fei in Xenogears, but even then, it's not like a fair comparison.
With Xenogears storyline more complex (even more if you add the stories from the Perfect Works book) considering that it's a patch of many different stories and Fei has more multiple personalities and reincarnation than Cloud (Abel, Kim, Lacan, Grahf, Fei Fong Wong, Id, Fei from Lahan, and more). Then there's the Gundam complex (plus the Gundam Wing complex) that Xenogears incorporated into its storyline, though Ellie should have died if it followed the Gundam complex completely.
On a related note, Final Fantasy VII's storyline actually quite more spiritual than Xenogears quite secular storyline. Though in a kind of way, Final Fantasy VII early on kind of imply that the Settlers (Se-To-Ra, the ancients, the common root of all humans on Earth) is a group of people from a colony ship (like Xenogears), the scene with Sephiroth in the ShinRa mansion's basement at least kind of give that impression. Of course, it was later on revealed that the Earth itself created the Settlers.
Back to Cloud. I think that the best definition of Cloud is that he's a geek, the average boy (especially Nibelheim's Cloud), kind of like Keiichi from Aa! Megami-sama. Remember that the best way to gain empathy from your players or viewers is to set a character that resembles your players or viewers. Cloud is probably closer to the average person than Squall, but Squall isn't portrayed as an average person again.
Kikuchi Masami (who also voiced for Keiichi) would be a good voice actor for Final Fantasy VII's Cloud. Not to mention that Kido Jou (who is also voiced by Kikuchi Masami) seems to be the one who inherits Cloud's personality because the other one is Squall disguising as Cloud.
As for evolving Cloud.
Hmmm... Evolution / shinka. Well... I guess that Sakurai Takahiro (who voiced Kingdom Hearts' Cloud) it's quite versed in the arts of shrinkage.
Somehow I can Imagine him saying, "Kuraudo shinka!!! Sorujaa kuraudo!"
I know that Cloud speaks quite funny in Kingdom Hearts, but did he also speak like an Osakan (like Cait Sith did in Final Fantasy VII and Selphie did in Final Fantasy VIII)?
Sakurai Takahiro, of course, it's quite good at voicing funny but brave characters, like Ukiya Shun from GateKeepers and Bit Cloud from Shin Seiki Zoids Slash Zero. Interestingly, both lead female characters from both series (Ruriko and Rinon) were voiced by the same voice actress (I forgot her name, though).
On a related note, the Cloud-ish Square video game character that Sakurai Takahiro voiced before Kingdom Hearts is probably Shion from Bouncer.
As for Sephiroth.
Remember that he's not the true villain of Final Fantasy VII. The true villain in Final Fantasy VII is Jenova, an extra terrestrial who came to Earth around two thousand years and caused the incident known as Crisis.
When Jenova crashed to Earth, it leaves a nasty gaping wound hole on Earth at the north pole. And really, Jenova was all evil, no black-white checkered or anything like that, just plain evil. That's why the Earth created the Weapons (kaiju/giant monsters who look like giant robots) until the Settlers decided to fight Jenova on their own using the materials they created Earth's Weapons unused, at least not until Final Fantasy VII Disc Two.
Sephiroth, like many people, is only a puppet to Jenova.
Jenova's control on Sephiroth is stronger than others since that Sephiroth was infused with the Jenova cell ever since his conception. The bond with the two is quite strong since the influence of Jenova has started since his conception. Of course, Sephiroth's personality finally lost total control to Jenova during the Nibelheim incident. From there on, Sephiroth, the son of Lucretia, died, and Sephiroth, the son of Jenova, was born or at least brought to his full potential.
Sephiroth has two mothers, one is Jenova due the fact that he had the Jenova cell, the other is Lucretia, who is his birth mother.
His father is, of course, Hojo, through artificial insemination, as Hojo claimed. But then again, artificial insemination is tended to be known to be unsuccessful most of the time.
Though it kind of implies that Sephiroth's father was Vincent in some scenes, or maybe it's just me who didn't remember the storyline?
I wonder, maybe Vincent thought Sephiroth was his son? When he heard the Sephiroth, the son of Lucretia, caused so much pain, he took it as if it was his responsibility and was quite upset. Or maybe because he thought that he was unable to protect Lucretia, and somehow, Sephiroth was one of the disastrous things that were caused due to his inability to protect Lucretia?
Though Vincent was indeed quite surprised when Hojo proclaimed that Sephiroth was Hojo's son through artificial insemination, I know that Vincent protested to Hojo over using Lucretia as an experiment. Hojo shot him and rebuild him as a monster. Maybe Hojo didn't tell Vincent how far he would experiment on Lucretia.
Lucretia and Vincent are quite close, though. And Lucretia always kept calling the names of Sephiroth and Vincent, as if these two are the two men she was really close to. Rather strange, though, considering that Vincent distanced him away from Lucretia since he thought that Lucretia was attracted to Hojo, despite his strong attraction to Lucretia. Maybe it's just an issue of misunderstanding.
Back to Sephiroth.
As I once said, Jenova is the real villain, but Jenova just tends to use Sephiroth's persona to represent it, using the Sephiroth as its spokesperson. So I guess that this is why some people tend to assume that Sephiroth is the villain.
Any person with the Jenova cell is part of Jenova and can assume the identity of Sephiroth, or maybe even Cloud, too, since he too has the Jenova cell. Basically, if you got a Jenova cell, you're Jenova, not but or if. And you're capable of imitating any person Jenova had control of.
Even in the end, Cloud was almost at the total control of Jenova. When the team thought they had finished the battle, Cloud feels that the battle still isn't over. That's because there are still Jenova cells inside Cloud. That was the final battle of Final Fantasy VII all about, the control of Cloud. The Jenova controlled Sephiroth persona do battle with Cloud.
Thought that battle is rigged, since that you can't lose. But if you choose Cloud to attack first, the camera angles near the end of the attack are probably the coolest in the game.
Of course, at the end of the battle, Jenova released control on both Cloud and Sephiroth. The red things that come out of the Sephiroth persona probably belong to Jenova. The rest (the non-red stuff) probably belong to Cloud since it later came inside Cloud. It should be noted that Jenova is quite tricky. Jenova could be the hand that tries to reach for Cloud. The music makes it like it's Aerith integrated with the Earth, but is it really them (Aerith with the Earth) or Jenova? Aerith wore a bangle by how the hand didn't have, or maybe it was portraying a 'naked' Aerith?
Oh... On a related note, in Kabbalah, one of the Sephiroth is Tiphareth, which signify beauty. It kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it?
And oh, I once talked to a friend of mine on how similar Sephiroth and Aerith do kind of looks like brother and sister, aren't they? Maybe they will live in the next life. I do once saw nice fan art of a teenage/young adult Sephiroth with a little girl Aerith.
As for Aerith's death.
Well... I think that originally they planned for some kind of quest to revive her in the game. Only this and some other stuff didn't manage to be included in the final version.
I don't think that this is a mere rumor, considering that Final Fantasy VII is a rush job, and many things didn't manage to get into the final version of it, even in the North American version. Some of the unfinished stuff probably were reworked into Final Fantasy VIII.
And also, if you looked at some of the places (like the Highwind bridge, the place before you enter the center of the Earth, the center of the Earth, and so on), there seems to be a vacant spot in these places. Either this is unused space planned for the revived Aerith, or these indicate that Aerith is always part of the team even if she was turned into an N.P.C..
Reviving Aerith isn't such a big deal, though, considering how powerful the Earth is since it's capable of eliminating every human on Earth.
It's kind of saddening not to see Aerith boarding the Highwind, though, considering that she really wanted to ride the Highwind, and Cloud did promise to her that someday she would ride it (unless, of course, you choose to think that you might have to destroy the Highwind since it's an enemy ship). Besides, her poster image with Highwind (also used as the cover of the N.A. manual) is quite nice.
It should be noted that her death seems somehow was staged by the Earth. So... It was more likely that it was Jenova who fall into the sense of false security by killing Aerith.
As for Final Fantasy VII graphics.
Well... It was outdated when released in 1997, considering the whole project started around 1994~1995.
One friend of my friend said with Final Fantasy VII, the F.M.V.s is much more rewarding, As if you achieved something and then rewarded with a nice cutscene. The games these days, with the cut scenes resembling the gameplay scenes, kind of made you wonder if you're rewarded with anything.
He never played Final Fantasy VII until I offered him to play my copy of Final Fantasy VII (N.A. version, bought it from Cyberian Outpost). He has already played Final Fantasy VIII Kingdom Hearts though, that's why he commented like that.
As for Final Fantasy VII's material system.
A friend of mine (that introduce me to Final Fantasy VII) mentioned that the material system is an improvement over the Esper balls in Final Fantasy VI. She mentioned something that with the Esper balls, once a person has learned that particular magic, the Esper ball has no more use than summoning. You can't have other characters use that particular magic. But with the material system, any characters can gain any magic, and also, you can customize the characters (along with their weapons) quite heavily with the material system.
Besides, the materials evolved separately and not linked with any of the characters (other than the White Materia and the Black Materia, but they are story plot-driven), so you can have weak characters (like Aerith) fight more aggressively using strong materials.
Using the material system can be quite challenging if you aren't accustomed to it, though, and it can have some more refining to do. And also wish that some characters have more built-in attacks than their Limit Break attacks since if you stripped them clean of materials, they could only have the basic attack.
Personally, what bugged in Final Fantasy VII I is what bugged me in many R.P.G.s, is the work you need to do to level up, plus once you level up, the previous area seems somehow is so easy (it's a nice thing though if you somehow feel tyrannical and wanted to squash every people you met).
Not to mention that taking on the Weapons is murder, not because of the confrontation, but because of the experience points, you need to gather to defeat the Weapons, even if you got the "Knights of Round" and "Quad" materials.
Maybe it would be interesting if there's a level down in an R.P.G. if you don't practice your skill efficiently. And the battles rely more on skills than plain levels. Plus, maybe more interaction between the physical and the magical. The balance of the stamina (no one can fight for hours and hours, especially if they're repeatedly wounded). No more constant upgrading on armours and weapons. I don't mind tinkering with them, though.
As for Final Fantasy VIII's magic system.
I don't know much, but I do know that you 'draw' your magic from the enemies and then can either use it directly or 'stock' it.
And I'm afraid that I'm still clueless on the Guardian Force system.
As for Final Fantasy I through III.
Never played them. Though, as far as I know, the gameplay was pretty much basic.
As for Final Fantasy IV.
Never played it. It seems that it's the first BIG main Final Fantasy game. I do think that much of the stuff in it seems to inspire Final Fantasy VII.
As for Final Fantasy V.
Never played it. However, the Meteor theme seems to inspire Final Fantasy VII. And some of its features (like the job feature) goes into Final Fantasy Tactics.
As for Final Fantasy VI.
I never played it, though I heard that Final Fantasy VII, in a kind of way, is a simplified version of Final Fantasy VI that would explain the relatively quite short game time of Final Fantasy VII, not to mention its quiet easiness. Final Fantasy VII is like a Super Family Computer game port into the 3D world, or the PlayStation to be much more precise.
All I heard from Final Fantasy veteran players is that this is the grandest main Final Fantasy game, which would explain why they seem so upset about the constant attention on Final Fantasy VII.
As for Final Fantasy VIII.
I never played it, though some stuff that didn't manage to be in Final Fantasy VII was put into Final Fantasy VIII. Rinoa is perhaps closer to the original planned lead female character of Final Fantasy VII (imagine a black haired Aerith)?
Though I do somehow get the impression that this a quite Tekken-ish Final Fantasy, the character design was one thing that made didn't get Final Fantasy VIII, I don't know why. Still, viewing the characters kind of made me feel uneasy. I know that I feel like putting my head below the pillow when I saw a picture of the Rinoa in the dance scene. Kind of too bad since Rinoa is actually quite attractive in some of the fan arts.
Maybe it's the uncanny valley effect thing. The Spirit Within's modellers and animators commented that they do once they finally end up in the valley. Final Fantasy IX surely has a drastic change of character design, and surprisingly, the character design of Final Fantasy X doesn't bug me as much as Final Fantasy VIII's.
As for Final Fantasy IX.
Well... Final Fantasy IX look interesting, and I like the character design better than Final Fantasy VIII.
But after seeing Final Fantasy VIII's character design, I actually don't pay much attention to the Final Fantasy series and video games in general, so I guess I kind of missed the boat on Final Fantasy IX. Suddenly, when I delve into the gaming news again, it was Final Fantasy X and XI.
Maybe someday I will be allowed by God to play Final Fantasy IX.
Speaking of character design. Who is currently the lead character designer of the Final Fantasy series?
By the time of Final Fantasy VII, the lead character designer, I think it was Nomura Tetsuya. Amano Yoshitaka, who previously done Final Fantasy VI's, only done the concept arts. And then, in Final Fantasy IX, Amano Yoshitaka briefly become the lead character designer again. However, they normalized enough so that it wouldn't so abstract like one of Amano's classic abstract Final Fantasy art (which had the feeling of Eurasian, Chinese, and Japanese look into it).
And also, is there a plan for a guest character designer to took part in a main Final Fantasy game?
I know that Chrono Trigger and Tobal No.1 has Akira Toriyama as the character designer, but it wasn't really Final Fantasy, to begin with. It would be interesting, though, if a main Final Fantasy game has a guest character designer, such as, let say, Mikimoto Haruhiko. And no, I'm not also suggesting for Itano Ichiro to be a guest designer to choreograph the battle scenes. Though both people (Mikimoto and Itano) collaborated on making the Computer Generated Original Animation Video "Rica"/"Reika" with its water colour style animation.
As for Final Fantasy X.
Never played it. Though I heard that in the end, Tidus went missing, and X-2 was basically a continuation of it. Though X-2 had the girls as the main characters, they also had a cool scene for changing into their battle outfits. Maybe it should have been called Final Fantasy X-G? X-2 now just sounded so X-men-ish.
As for Final Fantasy XI.
I have the suspicion that its true identity is 'Final Ultima Online'. It's kinda surprising that they just couldn't have called it something simple like "Final Fantasy Online". I mean that there's "Phantasy Star Online", "Ultima Online", "Ragnarok Online", and so on. Why the use of XI instead of Online?
As for Final Fantasy XII.
I don't know much, but I heard it's more like X than XI.
As for a girlish Final Fantasy post-Final Fantasy VII.
Well... That happened when you modeled a lead character after Gackt. However, it should be noted that girls are quite into R.P.G.s due to their magical nature. Hey, girls like stuff like horoscope, astrology, numerology, and so on.
And also, it should be noted that in recent times, the total amount of women population seems to bigger than the men population.
So... A girlish Final Fantasy probably is designed to target the larger potential players.
As for the 'love' theme in Final Fantasy, especially post Final Fantasy VII.
Well... Love, I don't mind. Romance, on the other hand, is the opposite.
There are plenty of love stories in Final Fantasy VII, but... they're love stories, NOT romantic love stories. Granted, though, the affections Cloud get from his love interest made it feel like it's a junior high school shoujo (girl) manga; just watch the scene when the team was travelling on the railway track to Corel village, when Cloud pass by to use the bridge switch and his fangirls cheer him from below.
I do know a fan fiction series on where the Final Fantasy characters are portrayed as school students. Squall, of course, get to play the part of the cool bad boy.
Anyway. From what I heard, Final Fantasy basic theme is always a 'save the world' theme, though each game has its own theme. In Final Fantasy VII, I personally think it's about people forgetting where they came from and almost got wiped out.
As for a possible Final Fantasy VII sequel.
Well... I don't think that they should take place directly after the Holy Meteor event. It would be kinda like telling exactly what happened by details after the end of "Kido Senshi Gandamu Gyakushuu no Shaa". Kind of like telling what happened after Axis was moved away from colliding with Earth, kind of like telling what happened to Amuro and Char, and so on. Besides, the next big Gundam story in the U.C. timeline took place around three decades after Char's Counterattack (Gyakushuu no Shaa).
And doing a Final Fantasy VII sequel in style like Advent Children is a no-no, at least to me. There are reasons why Advent Children is direct to D.V.D. and premiered in Cannes.
Maybe a sequel of Final Fantasy VII should be done more in the style of a T.V. series. T.V. series don't have much budget, but then use tricks that are quite good and efficient.
And then it should be noted that a T.V. series couldn't be any T.V. series.
For example, I like the T.V series .hack//Legend of the Twilight Bangle (I forgot the exact Japanese name) more than its predecessor .hack//Sign (which I couldn't stand to watch). It's more fun and entertaining; besides, the character design is kind of like Ragnarok Online. I have more fun with Shuugo and company than Tsukasa and company. I wonder why the change of style. I mean that Sign was so gloomy and dark, while Twilight was more upbeat and bright.
Back to Final Fantasy VII. A sequel of Final Fantasy VII probably should start at the 500 years epilogue of Final Fantasy VII that was featured at the end of Final Fantasy VII.
This way, new settings, new features, and new characters could be added in, different enough that you don't see it as a repeat of the old thing, but similar enough that you get a sense of continuity (which no main Final Fantasy game ever had until Final Fantasy X-2). It could have been easy being Final Fantasy XIII (would they dare have the number 13/XIII?) renamed as Final Fantasy VII: (insert subtitle here). 500 A.M. (After Meteor) sounded good, but it sounded more like an hour than a year.
Besides, you could say that the Earth remodelled itself and the living creatures around it to be totally new places and new places. Remember that the team (Cloud and company) were quite worried if the Earth would decide to eliminate humans if it thinks that humans are hurting the Earth until they decided just to let the Earth decided by itself if humans should stay at Earth or not.
And besides, 500 years a long time to have things changed quite drastically. For example, 500 years into the future, the coastline is quite near Midgar.
Heck, I don't mind even if they added in the Mobile Infantry with their powered suits/armours (like in the novel "Starship Troopers", hopefully not in the perverted mechanized form like in some of its incarnations), mascot characters (like Bahamut Lagoon), giant robots (like in Xenogears or Gigantic Drive, besides the Weapons are already in the kaiju / giant robot category), space travel (like in Final Fantasy VIII, or Final Fantasy IV, or Star Ocean), and so on. It would be interesting to have done it like Xenogears, which basically patches so many different stories into one story.
Plus, some of the new characters could resemble the old characters, to make you guessing if these characters are the reincarnation of the old ones or even the descendants of the old ones or even both. The end of Final Fantasy VII had children laughing in the background, and Aerith once mentioned that someday they would look back on these events and laughed. One got to wonder if the characters of Final Fantasy VII are reborn again in the future as children. Remember, though, that they don't necessarily have to retain the same gender they had in the previous life, and they might get even get remixed (Kingdom Hearts' Cloud, for example, look like a cross between Cloud and Vincent).
And also, not to mention the possibility of adding characters from other Final Fantasy games, kind of like Kingdom Hearts. Or even characters from other Square and Enix games. Hey, I mentioned Gigantic Drive and Star Ocean for a reason.
Really, they should do a Final Fantasy game with plenty of space travel. You probably will get a solar system map like in Bugenhagen's planetarium (where he said that each planet/star has its own lifestream) and probably also a galaxy map.Besides, with the 500 years epilogue, you get to see the cubs of Nanaki (Red XIII),
Not to mention the extra benefit of NOT ruining the story of Final Fantasy VII, which I had the nasty suspicion that Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children will be done exactly just that.
Either that or a prequel, kind of like Xenosaga.
As for remaking Final Fantasy VII.
While there's no plan for it so far, I know.
If they do remake it, I hope that this isn't the remake where Tifa gets quite savy with Settler's language, decoding a Settler artefact. Cloud dumped Aerith in an instant, even go so far as domestic violence on her so he can go on mushy on Tifa. Then it was revealed that all humans are actually descendants of aliens/Settlers who came from outer space, instead of being created by the Earth, and how we should worship... er, I mean respect aliens and their cultures. And then some people claimed that it (the remake) has the same spirit and theme as the original.
Don't say that they wouldn't do that sort of thing because that sort of thing was already done around two decades ago.
Though I see one particular four frames fan comic making fun of the possibility of a Final Fantasy VII remake, it starts with Cloud announcing to everyone that they gonna redo Final Fantasy VII. Everyone was quite surprised. They talked about it. But Aerith is just standing there, holding her anger.
It's in Japanese, so I don't know why Aerith was so upset (the translator program can't translate Japanese in pictures). But suffice to say that the remake probably won't put her in a good mood.
As for Midgar.
Well... It had the classic movie Metropolis much to thank for its inspiration, along with the Norse Midgard (which means roughly Middle Garden or at least Middle Area). Though Aerith isn't like Maria in Metropolis, she usually attends her own business and actually quite girlish for a girl (woman?) of her age.
If Aerith was named "Maria" instead of an anagram of "I Earth".
http://www.cool-baby-names.com/Search/search-categories-timeless-results.asp?Gender=Girls&Name=Maria
I think that the Danish / Swedish and Italian nicknames would be much better suit her.
Back to Midgar. In real life, some of the actual villages actually ARE now referred to as sectors, much like what happened in Midgar. In the real estate where I lived, for example, I have applied for sector numbers. So... I probably would at home in Midgar in regarding sector numbers, there's a mall on sector 3, and they sell plenty of flowers at sector 9.
As for "Aeris an innocent flower girl (Don't we all want one like her?)."
Pure hearted, yes.
Innocent. Hmmm... Hmmm... I would say it's a 'Sweet Innocent' girlish 'we can meet anytime' kind of way, a 'Super Girl' with a 'Happy Smile'. As for being innocent as in 'innocent', to quote one particular song, "I'm not THAT innocent!" Remember that this is the same girl that con Cloud into disguising himself as a girl.
If you got a girlfriend like Aerith, you wouldn't know whether to consider it as a blessing or a curse.
A charming girl can be quite hyper, and if you're not careful, she can control you (either by instinct or consciously, but mostly by instinct).
But I think that the same thing can be roughly said to Rinoa Heartily?
As for what got me hooked with Final Fantasy VII.
Well...The answer to the original question by the original post in this thread is...
What started with E and ended with Ru?
---Fin---
FF7 was a huge hit becuase it was one of the first truly in-depth RPG's that many people played for the first time. As for me, it was as well.
The thing that I liked about FF7 was the "feeling", or the atmosphere. I felt like I was involved in the storyline, and I felt an attachement to the characters and the world itself. The graphics were incredible (at the time), the sound was great (FF7 world map theme > all other FF songs), and the story development was very in-depth.
If you read the quote on the back of the CD case, you will know what I mean... "Quite possibly the greatest game ever made."
I am actually replaying the whole game again for the 5th time right now
The thing that I liked about FF7 was the "feeling", or the atmosphere. I felt like I was involved in the storyline, and I felt an attachement to the characters and the world itself. The graphics were incredible (at the time), the sound was great (FF7 world map theme > all other FF songs), and the story development was very in-depth.
If you read the quote on the back of the CD case, you will know what I mean... "Quite possibly the greatest game ever made."
I am actually replaying the whole game again for the 5th time right now
EscaFlowne
後輩
- 14 Nov 2003
- 2,757
- 38
You mean you have never got the gold chocobo.... 
Nuala
Hell's Finest Daughter
- 15 Jul 2004
- 1,725
- 39
There is this wonderful kid that goes to my school. He's "goth" and he listens to Gackt and always says bakayarou. It got kinda annoying. Then started bragging about the awesome, wonderful Japanese version of FF7! I just don't talk to him anymore. He doesn't like reading, or going on the internet to read things about Japan. It's bloody annoying, he assumes things like there is no tomorrow.
Me: So, did you hear about the raids on the Microsoft offices?
Kid: No, I haven't. You ******* liar, what is your problem! Why'd you try lying to me?
I WANT TO STRANGLE HIM.
Me: So, did you hear about the raids on the Microsoft offices?
Kid: No, I haven't. You ******* liar, what is your problem! Why'd you try lying to me?
I WANT TO STRANGLE HIM.
neptunemoon
Crazy Kitty Girl "Meow"
- 3 Nov 2003
- 1,098
- 3
OMG this is the best game known to man. My first rpg. You know the graphics are still awesome i mean yea everyone these days are all about the graphics. Screw that. 2d and stuff still rocks. Those are the real gaming days. I miss the materia system. I was a newbie and mastered that. That needs to return. Characters were f***ing awesome. I mean there was a love story yet they didnt go there. I mean it started small and then you were thrown all over the place. Thought you only fought with three characters you still learned about the other ones. It has been years since I played and I still remember where the first treasure chest is and what is inside. FF7 are my memories. I lived it. I am a die hard fan. Yes I found characters hot both male and female. I remember being scared of the ultimas cuz you know i thought I am a girl i suck at video games (at the time I had just got my ps2 in the seventh grade) When I would beat them omg the passion that filled me and satisfaction. I used to level up like crazy. Soundtrack hot too. I remember where everysong is from. FF7 made me fall in love with squaresoft. now square enix. fell and fell hard. they became my existance. FF7 became my existance. Hell my morals probably came from video games in a good way though. Like fight for you loved ones no matter how tough or if the world is gonna end. I felt like i was there right with them. Hell i cry when i play video games. FF7 was the beginning. FF7 my life story.
EscaFlowne
後輩
- 14 Nov 2003
- 2,757
- 38
*Perfect....*
