- 1 day ago
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:07Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we're diving deep into one of the most beloved
00:11Final Fantasy games of all time to uncover all its many hidden secrets,
00:16easter eggs, and behind-the-scenes details you might not have known.
00:31Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified about our latest
00:36videos.
00:39Real World References
00:45Despite taking place in the fantastical world of Gaia,
00:48that didn't stop the developers from including numerous real-world locations and landmarks within the world of Final Fantasy VII.
00:55For example, Costa de Sol is a real-world tourist location in Spain,
01:00and the signs on the front of Tifa's bar, as well as inside it, make reference to the great state
01:05of Texas.
01:06In one of the homes in North Corral, players can find a map of Japan hanging on the wall,
01:10and in Rocket Town, the inn is called the Shanghai Inn,
01:14and features a large neon sign hanging on the wall in the welcome area.
01:24Red Man
01:25The basement area in the Corral Prison seems to serve no purpose whatsoever,
01:29with even the only chest in the area being completely empty.
01:33But there is actually a hidden secret within the tiny space.
01:37Hidden within a separate background of the room is a tiny red man,
01:41which is not visible during normal gameplay.
01:43The small polygonal figure has sparked a number of debates online,
01:47with theories ranging from a developer's signature to him triggering the rare test battle scenario,
01:52although no concrete reason for his existence has ever been uncovered.
01:56The Mistranslations
02:03The early days of localization were a struggle,
02:07especially with dialogue-heavy games such as Final Fantasy VII.
02:10Due to this and major time constraints between the Japanese and Western release of the game,
02:15there were a multitude of mistranslations or outright incorrect updates to the dialogue and signage within the game.
02:22Examples such as during the motorcycle chase cutscene,
02:25the name Midgar on the truck is incorrectly labeled as Midgals,
02:28and the numerous phases of Sephiroth were incorrectly translated to Safer Sephiroth and Bizarro Sephiroth,
02:34when they should have been Sefer Sephiroth and Rebirth Sephiroth, respectively.
02:38One of the most infamous and hilarious mistranslated lines was Aerith proclaiming this guy are sick.
02:45Even Aerith's name is incorrectly translated to Aeris in the North American release,
02:50leading to quite a lot of discourse between fans until the name debate was settled once and for all years
02:55later.
03:02Spoilers
03:09Aerith's death was a defining moment not only in Final Fantasy VII,
03:13but also for the many fans playing the game for the first time,
03:17leading to years upon years of unresolved trauma.
03:20However, Square unintentionally managed to ruin the pivotal moment years before the age of online spoilers.
03:26For the European Platinum re-release of the game,
03:29Square decided that putting a screenshot of one of the biggest spoilers in the game,
03:33namely, clouds standing over a lifeless Aerith floating in the water,
03:37was the best way to attract new players.
03:39Considering the game had only been out for a few months by this time,
03:43this was a pretty substantial blunder that potentially ruined one of the most shocking moments in the entire game.
03:55Xenogears Fantasy
03:56One of the stranger connections Final Fantasy VII has to another classic Square JRPG is Xenogears.
04:02Originally, Xenogears started production as Final Fantasy VII,
04:06but was deemed too dark and complicated for the Final Fantasy brand,
04:10so it was spun off into its own game.
04:12However, the developers of both games pay homage to one another in their respective games.
04:17Within one of the sector houses you can explore in Xenogears,
04:20you can find a poster of Tifa hanging prominently on the wall.
04:24And if you speak to Cloud when he's in the hospital after recovering from falling into the livestream,
04:28he'll mumbo Xenogears,
04:31and even recite the lyrics to Xenogears' theme song, Two Small Pieces.
04:35For those who only played one game or the other,
04:38these moments can be quite confusing,
04:40but for fans of both series,
04:42it's a moment for diehard JRPG fans to geek out over.
04:46Nintendo.
04:57Final Fantasy VII was one of the biggest releases for the then-newcomer PlayStation,
05:02and considering the series had been a Nintendo staple since its inception,
05:06the move to Sony's new console marked a pretty substantial shake-up in the industry,
05:10one that led to a jaded Nintendo to allegedly tell Square,
05:13don't come back.
05:14Starting production as another 2D entry for the SNES before moving to the N64,
05:20the team's ambitions soon grew too large for the cartridge-based N64,
05:24and Sony's new disc-based technology was far more suited to Square's vision for their ambitious seventh entry.
05:29Sony, still sour over their own dealings with Nintendo,
05:33also took full advantage of the situation to throw shade at Nintendo
05:37and launched a marketing campaign taking shots at the big N and their cartridge-based console,
05:42going so far as to point out how much more expensive a game of this size would cost on cartridge.
05:57Detective Cloud.
05:58Detective Cloud.
06:06Much like any game production, Final Fantasy VII went through its fair share of rewrites,
06:10but one idea would have given the game a completely different tone from the final product.
06:15Originally, while the basis of the story was still intact,
06:18Hironobu Sakaguchi had envisioned Final Fantasy VII as a detective noir set in modern-day New York City,
06:24with hardened Detective Joe standing in for Cloud,
06:27investigating a group attempting to destroy the Mako reactors.
06:31Oddly enough, one of the characters Joe was investigating
06:34ended up being the blueprint for Cloud we all know and love.
06:37Once Detective Joe was written out of the story,
06:39most of the blueprint of Final Fantasy VII remained close to what we know today.
06:43But it would have certainly been an interesting approach for a Final Fantasy game.
06:56Midgar Pizza.
07:05Midgar has one of the most distinctive designs of any Final Fantasy hub world,
07:09and its origins are surprisingly simple.
07:11Art director Yusuke Noora explained that Pizza was the main inspiration for the design,
07:16and looking at an aerial view of the city,
07:19it's not hard to make the comparison.
07:20With eight perfectly cut sections of the city enclosed by large city walls,
07:25the resemblance is unmistakable.
07:27This is further reinforced later in the game when Barrett compares those who live on the upper levels to pizzas,
07:32the mayor and deputy mayor are named after Domino's Pizza and Pizza Hut respectively,
07:37and the soundtrack for the lower levels is even called Underneath the Rotting Pizza,
07:41just to further nail home the metaphor.
07:51A Man of Mystery.
07:57Not only did Yuffie and Vincent almost not make the final cut of the game,
08:02which is likely also why their recruitment is entirely missable,
08:05but Vincent especially went through a number of changes during his development.
08:09The devs just couldn't decide what to do with Vincent's character,
08:12and this likely led to his murky past,
08:15with him originally being everything from a horror researcher to a detective,
08:19and even a chemist.
08:20Players don't even learn much about Vincent until his standalone game Dirge of Cerberus,
08:25where it goes into greater detail about him once being a Turk,
08:28something that was only ever mentioned once in the original Final Fantasy VII.
08:38Ruby and Emerald Weapon.
08:56If you've ever played Final Fantasy VII,
08:58you know the sheer difficulty spike of encountering Emerald or Ruby Weapon out in the world,
09:03and losing countless battles against these incredibly powerful foes.
09:07But what you might not know is that these two secret bosses weren't in the original Japanese release of Final
09:12Fantasy VII,
09:13and were instead added for the game's international release.
09:16The Western version released eight months after the initial Japanese one,
09:20and in that time, the devs not only added Emerald, Ruby, and Diamond,
09:24but even added additional details to the cutscene after Sephiroth acquires the Black Materia,
09:29showing the weapons flying out of the Northern Crater.
09:31Japanese players eventually got to face down these difficult bosses in the definitive international version of the game.
09:44Pandora's Box.
09:45The introduction of Materia in Final Fantasy VII opened a wealth of possibilities for players to customize their playstyle,
09:51and one could make them quite the powerhouse,
09:54if you were able to make sufficient use of the enemy skill Materia.
09:58With this Materia equipped, players could learn enemy abilities simply from the enemy using their special skills.
10:04But, there was one skill in the game you only get one chance to collect,
10:08making it so rare, many players didn't even know it existed.
10:12The Pandora's Box skill can only be learned from the Dragon Zombies near the Northern Crater towards the end of
10:17the game.
10:17And even still, you only have the possibility of learning the skill from the very first Dragon Zombie you defeat.
10:23If you miss this chance, or it fails to cast a spell, that's it.
10:27No second chances on that save file.
10:30One-Winged Angel
10:31Final Fantasy VII not only has some of the series' best music,
10:44but also its most recognizable,
10:46and without a doubt, the fan-favorite track is Sephiroth's theme, One-Winged Angel.
10:50Oddly enough, this iconic track has rather humble origins,
10:54and was heavily inspired by Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze.
10:57But, there is one other source of inspiration many fans might not have caught on to.
11:02As it turns out, composer Noboyo Iwimatsu listened to a number of horror movie soundtracks
11:07when composing the villain's many themes,
11:09and the one he gravitated to the most was Alfred Hitchcock's seminal horror film, Psycho.
11:14Which, if you really think about how cold and downright menacingly psychotic Norman Bates is,
11:19it's a fair comparison.
11:29Sephiroth's Final Forms
11:31The climactic battle against Sephiroth's many forms at the end of the game
11:34is the perfect encapsulation of everything the game has been building to up to this point,
11:39and likewise, the battles themselves are equally challenging to meet the stakes.
11:43However, there are actually a few things you can do during these final encounters
11:47that make the numerous stages easier or harder on yourself.
11:50For example, if you cast Knights of the Round during the Jenova Synthesis battle,
11:54Safer Sephiroth gains an additional 80,000 HP.
11:58But, you can also reduce Safer Sephiroth's HP by repeatedly defeating Bizarro Sephiroth's head in the previous fight,
12:04which can reduce Safer Sephiroth's HP by 100 each time, reducing his overall HP by 900.
12:11Not a significant amount, but anything helps.
12:14Avalanche.
12:22The Final Fantasy series is well known for their large cast of characters in each game,
12:27but Final Fantasy VII's cast was originally much smaller than it ended up being in the end.
12:32It's hard to imagine FFVII without the now-iconic Avalanche Troop,
12:36but the entire organization wasn't added until much later in development.
12:40The entire story of Final Fantasy VII was designed with clout in mind from the beginning,
12:44and because of this, many of the other characters weren't even part of the original game's concept.
12:50Now-iconic characters such as Tifa and Barret, and even Cid, weren't part of the original plan.
12:55Although Barret was a design Tetsuya Nomura had been wanting to use for some time
12:59before Final Fantasy VII finally gave him the perfect project to do so.
13:08The fourth disc.
13:10While Western players got additional content that wasn't available in the initial Japanese release,
13:15Japanese players eventually got the North American version re-released in Japan
13:18under the Final Fantasy VII international version.
13:21This version included an additional fourth disc titled FFVII Perfect Guide,
13:26and contained a multitude of designs, maps, and behind-the-scenes development insights,
13:31along with highly detailed concept and in-game art of nearly every aspect of the game,
13:36from characters to equipment and everything in between.
13:39These also included high-resolution pictures of in-game items and areas that were normally harder to decipher
13:45on a standard CRTV screen's output.
13:47Unfortunately, this edition was never released outside of Japan,
13:51making the mythical fourth disc incredibly rare.
13:54A bloody good time.
13:56The Final Fantasy series has always dealt with some mature themes,
13:59but generally kept things typically PG-rated, no matter how dark the material tended to skew.
14:05However, with the advancements in technology thanks to the additional power of the PS1,
14:09the developers at Square gave the game a decidedly more realistic edge,
14:13which included the use of blood for the first time in the series.
14:16While not overly explicit like in later entries,
14:19this was still a big deal for both Square and Final Fantasy as the series and genre
14:23had typically been viewed as cutesy and childlike,
14:27and Final Fantasy VII managed to break the stereotype and forge a new, more mature future for the series in
14:32the process.
14:33Star-Crossed Lovers
14:46Aerith and Sephiroth have quite a complicated backstory,
14:49as the pair went through numerous phases during the development of Final Fantasy VII.
14:54Early on in development, Aerith and Sephiroth were initially imagined to be lovers,
14:58with Sephiroth filling in the role of Zack before he was added into the game.
15:02Another scenario considered the pair to be siblings,
15:05a concept which can be seen in the two similar hairstyles,
15:08as their character models had already been settled upon by the time this idea was scrapped.
15:12Interestingly, Tifa also didn't exist in the earlier drafts of the game's script,
15:17and at one point there was a debate over whether it should be Aerith or Tifa who dies to Sephiroth's
15:21blade.
15:29The Three Amigos
15:37Aerith's death marked a truly pivotal moment in the narrative of Final Fantasy VII,
15:42but if one developer had their way, a lot more characters would have met their end before the game rolled
15:47credits.
15:48During the sequence in which the party parachutes into Midgar,
15:51one developer wanted all but three of the team to perish before they landed.
15:54The scenario would see the player choose their party of three before initiating the jump,
15:58and everyone else would die before they hit the ground,
16:01leaving only the three characters the player chose remaining alive.
16:04The rest of the team understandably rejected this idea due to its sheer absurdity,
16:09while others believed it would lessen the impact of Aerith's death to lose so much of the team so quickly.
16:15Thankfully, common sense prevailed.
16:21Aerith lives.
16:29Aerith's death was understandably devastating for many experiencing this shocking moment for the first time,
16:34leading many to search for ways to save the poor flower girl.
16:37This became such a dedicated movement that some players even discovered unused code and dialogue,
16:43suggesting that at some point during development that Aerith was planned to survive,
16:47but outside of using cheat devices, there's no real way to bring Aerith back to life.
16:52However, for those hoping to see her one last time,
16:55if you return to Aerith's church after her death,
16:58you can briefly see a ghostly image flash in the flower bed where she first met Cloud at the beginning
17:03of their adventure.
17:12Minigame Madness
17:18The sheer number of minigames available for players to interact with at the Gold Saucer
17:23was unheard of at the time and is still impressive even today,
17:26with each game including its own rules and mechanics.
17:29As the team grew significantly from previous entries,
17:32there was an overabundance of talented developers as the team grew from 30 to 40
17:37to roughly 150 devs working full-time on Final Fantasy VII.
17:42However, to make sure game development progressed smoothly,
17:45many first-time or inexperienced devs were assigned to work on the Gold Saucer minigames,
17:49with some of the more experienced devs even assisting during their spare time.
17:53Even later entries in the series haven't offered the same variety of minigames as Final Fantasy VII.
18:05Bromance Date
18:06Everyone is familiar with the ability to take one of your party members on a date to the Gold Saucer.
18:11But what many people didn't know until years later was it's possible to have a bro date with Barret.
18:16At the start of the game, every datable character has several minor events that can apply a numerical value to
18:22their bond with Cloud,
18:23and through this, the game decides who Cloud will take on a date based on who has the highest number.
18:28The game immediately skews the percentages towards Aerith,
18:31awarding her a higher starting number than any of the other characters and Barret has the lowest,
18:37meaning players will need to be especially mindful of their interactions to take their desired companion along on the date.
18:42Red 13's Battle
18:49Red 13 had no shortage of struggles and the numerous experiments at the hands of the nefarious Hojo,
18:55including the fact his name was decided by simply combining a color with a number,
18:59but there potentially would have been one final emotional arc for Red 13 to overcome.
19:04Originally, Hojo would have created two clones of Red 13, Cobalt 14 and Indigo 15,
19:10and Red 13 would have been forced to fight them alongside the rest of the party.
19:14Upon defeat, Red would have asked Cloud and company to spare their lives as they were the only thing close
19:19to kin he had left.
19:21This then would have come back to haunt him towards the end of the game, however,
19:24as Cobalt and Indigo would have returned to the Northern Cave as mechanized cyborgs determined to prove their superiority over
19:31Red 13,
19:31forcing Red to finally put them down once and for all.
19:43The Instances of Seven
19:44As with all major mainline Final Fantasy games, the devs love to include references to their numbered entries within the
19:50game,
19:51and Final Fantasy 7 is absolutely loaded with them.
19:54Avalanche is in Sector 7 of Midgar, Tifa's Bar is called Seventh Heaven,
19:59the Red Plane in Costa de Sol has the Seven painted on the side,
20:03the books in the library in Shinra Mansion form the Numeral Seven,
20:06Aerith and her mother were held captive by Hojo for seven years,
20:10and it's been seven years since Cloud left Nibelheim,
20:12the Gold Saucer has seven attractions,
20:15Meteor will impact the planet in seven days,
20:17and Cloud levels up to seven after the opening battle at the start of the game.
20:21This isn't even including the all lucky seven status if the party member's health lines up exactly to 7,777.
20:29Guess seven really is the luckiest number after all.
20:32A very different villain.
20:44Sephiroth is without a doubt one of the most iconic villains in all of Final Fantasy,
20:49but earlier drafts had him more akin to Kefka from Final Fantasy 6
20:53than the calm and collected baddie we all know and love.
20:56The idea for Sephiroth was to always have him be an imposing but capable figure,
21:00someone whose ego matched his skill.
21:02But early versions painted Sephiroth as being a villain simply because he enjoyed being evil
21:07as well as someone who reveled in the idea of killing and causing chaos with reckless abandon.
21:12This would have been explored further as Sephiroth would have had a Mako addiction
21:16and due to his excessive overuse would have led him to descend into madness.
21:21Thankfully, these ideas evolved over time into a more calculating and tragic figure
21:25whose motivations were much more understandable.
21:35Not the first remake.
21:43Believe it or not, the current remake trilogy wasn't the first remake of Final Fantasy 7.
21:48Although maybe the term demake might be more appropriate in this case.
21:52In 2005, Chinese developer Shenzhen Neijing Technology demade the classic game for the Famicom.
21:58The demake of FF7 is almost identical to the original,
22:02but some sections such as the weapons and materia plot points were cut due to the limited technology of the
22:08Famicom.
22:08Everything is recreated remarkably well in the original classic 2D Final Fantasy art style of the original Famicom and NES
22:16releases.
22:16For anyone who has replayed the original game to the point of memorization,
22:20this is a must-play just for its unique approach and thankfully has also seen patches to include localization as
22:27well as graphical and gameplay improvements making it worth tracking down.
22:36What's your favorite bit of history about Final Fantasy 7?
22:39Did we miss anything? Share your favorites in the comments.
22:43Did you enjoy this video? Check out these other clips from MojoPlays and be sure to subscribe and ring the
22:48bell to be notified about our latest videos.
23:01I'll see you in the next video.
Comments