Line #40 Trivia/FinalFantasyVII


1	* AscendedFanon: Sephiroth's signature black wing never appeared in the original game. While he ''is'' the original "OneWingedAngel", and sports a black wing in his final form, he never had any wings in his human form. Said wing made its first appearance in ''Franchise/KingdomHearts''. It seems to have proven popular with (most of) the fanbase, though, since it appeared in ''Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren'' and pretty much every game Sephiroth's made a cameo in since.
2	* BeamMeUpScotty: Sephiroth's final form was never called "One Winged Angel". The name of the track playing during the boss fight was. The final form is referred to as Safer Sephiroth by the game's in-battle tip bar. This may be a bit of poor translation, as Sephiroth's final form resembles an angel, or "seraph." His name could also be a mistranslation of the Hebrew word for "book," "sefer," given Sephiroth's name coming from Kabbalah.
3	* BreakthroughHit: If ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' made Square a big name in Japan, this game made Square a big name all over the world. It also served as Creator/TetsuyaNomura's breakthrough.
4	* {{Defictionalization}}: In 2014, Creator/SquareEnix started up a subsidiary company to explore the potential applications and development of [[IncrediblyLamePun "cloud"]] gaming platforms. They named it "Shinra Technologies, Inc." The real-life company even uses a variant of the in-universe Shinra logo.
5	* DevelopmentGag: Ace Chocobo racer Joe is most likely named after a cut character known as "Hot-Blooded Detective Joe", who was a major character in an earlier version of the story.
6	* DuelingWorks:
7	** A pretty one-sided case with ''VideoGame/PanzerDragoon Saga''. ''Saga'' was made to compete with this game and be the KillerApp for the Platform/SegaSaturn. Unfortunately, since ''Saga'' was a late arrival in the Saturn's troubled life, it never stood a chance.
8	** Could also be seen as this with ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''. Both of these games are considered by many to showcase the capabilities of the Platform/PlayStation and Platform/Nintendo64, respectively.
9	* FanTranslation: There have been several attempts from fans to bring the translation of the game up to par with modern ''Final Fantasy'' translations as well as make the text much clearer than before. [[http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=14914.msg209227#msg209227 This]] is one example.
10	* FountainOfExpies:
11	** Sephiroth is one of the {{Trope Codifier}}s of the WhiteHairBlackHeart character type, and has numerous Expies in Square-Enix titles alone.
12	** Cloud Strife has been imitated so many times that JRPG protagonists in general have been stereotyped as [[{{Angst}} angsty]], [[LaserGuidedAmnesia amnesiac]] {{Bishonen}} with AnimeHair and [[{{BFS}} impractical swords]]. In fact, almost every subsequent ''Final Fantasy'' protagonist that came after this game is either directly based off of Cloud or is an intentional aversion of his character.
13	* KillerApp:
14	** This is the game that elevated the Platform/PlayStation into a must-have console and cemented Creator/{{Sony}} as a major player in the gaming world.
15	** ''Final Fantasy VII'' is regularly pointed to as the game which led discs to replace cartridges as the preferred format for console game developers.
16	** Prior to the game's release, [=JRPG=]s often performed poorly in western markets and many game companies, including Square themselves, regularly avoided localizing them. The runaway success of ''VII'' greatly vitalized the genre's popularity worldwide.
17	* MovedToTheNextConsole: Development for the game originally started on the Platform/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem, but was postponed in favor of working on ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger''. Once that game was released, Square revisited the project on the Platform/Nintendo64, until frustrations with Nintendo's use of cartridges on the system (rather than the more capable UsefulNotes/CompactDisc format) combined with longstanding issues with the company's licensing and censorship policies motivated the developers to shift focus to the Platform/PlayStation, on which it would ultimately release.
18	* MultiDiscWork: ''Final Fantasy VII'' is split into three discs on the [=PS1=]. The first PC port of the game was split into four.
19	* NetworkToTheRescue: Not only did Creator/{{Sony}} help cover the costs for the game, but they also handled the North American distribution (Square didn't have an American distributor at the time, having previously relied on Creator/{{Nintendo}} for that department).
20	* NoDubForYou: When ''Last Order'' was finally released in North America and Europe in the collector's edition of ''Advent Children'', it was subtitled only. This is ironic, since ''Last Order'' is traditionally animated while ''Advent Children'' is CG, which is ''much'' harder to dub due to the more detailed lip movements resulting in LipLock.
21	* NoExportForYou: ''VideoGame/BeforeCrisis'', particularly annoying because it's almost universally agreed by reviewers to be the highest quality cell phone game of all time, even as of TheNewTens. There may yet be hope now that Square has ported two cellphone projects to other platforms explicitly to ensure Western release, but this one remains a curious omission.
22	* TheOtherDarrin:
23	** Twice with Aerith, counting Music/MandyMoore from her ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' appearance. Since then she's been voiced by Creator/MenaSuvari in ''[[Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren Advent Children]]'' and ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', and has since been replaced by Creator/AndreaBowen for ''VideoGame/CrisisCore'', ''[[VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy Dissidia 012]]'', and ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII''.
24	** Sephiroth's VA in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' was Creator/LanceBass. Creator/GeorgeNewbern took over the role in ''Advent Children'', and has held on to it ever since.
25	** Yuffie's VA in ''Kingdom Hearts I'' and ''Advent Children'' is Creator/ChristyCarlsonRomano; in ''Dirge of Cerberus'' and ''Kingdom Hearts II'', she's played by Creator/MaeWhitman.
26	** Creator/BeauBillingslea, who consistently voiced Barret in English up to the gameplay trailer used to announce the remake in 2015, has confirmed that he will not be returning to voice Barret in the full game; the role will instead go to Creator/JohnEricBentley. It was later revealed that every character would receive new voice actors.
27	* PopCultureUrbanLegends:
28	** There has been a rumor persisting among fans ever since the game first released, which states that the reason Aerith [[KilledOffForReal dies at the end of the first part and the player is never able to bring her back]] is due to Hironobu Sakaguchi's mom passing away during the game's development, which caused him to want to portray that sense of loss in the game's narrative. While Sakaguchi's mother did die during the production of a mainline Final Fantasy game, it was during development of ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII Final Fantasy III]]'', not ''VII''. This event did indeed have an influence on that particular game's narrative, but Aerith's death in ''VII'' was completely unrelated. Yoshinori Kitase and Tetsuya Nomura wanted to have a main character die during the course of the game since very early in development, with the intention of having the rest of the cast have to deal with their loss, and Aerith was eventually chosen for this part. Sakaguchi was not really involved with the writing on ''Final Fantasy VII''.
29	** Naturally, after it was announced that the game would be a Platform/PlayStation exclusive, there were persistent rumors among Nintendo loyalists that the game would eventually be ported to the Platform/Nintendo64. In fact, throughout pretty much the entirety of MediaNotes/TheFifthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames, gaming forums were regularly flooded with fake previews, videos, etc. for the Nintendo 64 version of [=FF7=]. This was all despite Square ''repeatedly'' stating that a Nintendo 64 version would've been literally impossible to make, due to the system's cartridge unit. Plus, at this time Square and Nintendo were on very bad terms, due to the latter company's censorship policies, choice of cartridges rather than [=CD's=] for the [=N64=], etc. Leading Square to not release anything on a Nintendo console until 2003, by which point the [=N64=]/Playstation era of console gaming was long gone.
30	* RealitySubtext: There are some circulating rumors that the reasoning for Zack's anti-climatic death in the original compared to a valiant LastStand in ''VideoGame/CrisisCore'' was because [[PopCultureUrbanLegends the mother of Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the series, died during the game's production]]. This in turn made him pursue "human deaths", meaning no {{Last Stand}}s or any [[DyingSpeech parting words]]. Keep in mind that despite what many people think, Sakaguchi did not actually direct or do much writing for the game. This was, however, stated by the actual director Yoshinori Kitase, to be the intent behind Aerith's death.
31	* ReferencedBy:
32	** ''WesternAnimation/{{Ark}}'' has a chase scene where the two leads hijacks a gigantic mecha resembling the Guard Scorpion.
33	** In ''WebVideo/WrestleWrestle'' Spoony is discussing all the moves done in a match, and then starts naming moves in this game, like Omnislash and Knights of the Round.
34	** In ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheGatheringStorm'', the Partnership Towers dungeon is basically one big reference to this game’s Shinra Headquarters, including the option to skip part of it by taking the stairs.
35	** In the piviv version of Chapter 11 of ''Webcomic/WhatIfIKnowTooManyReasonsICanBeStrong'', Tanjiro kills Nakime the same way Sephiroth does to Aerith. Doma tells him afterward, "[she] will no longer talk, no longer laugh, cry... or get angry... What about me... what are I supposed to do? What about my pain?".
36	** A Skylit Drive makes a bunch of references to Final Fantasy in general in their music, but they seem particularly fond of VII and X. To note, their second album ''Wires...and the Concept of Breathing'' has song titles such as ''Knights of the Round,'' and ''This Isn't The End'' referencing the summon and a line from Aerith respectively. But ''All it Takes For Your Dreams to Come True'' takes the cake. The entire song is about the events of the game and the title is taken from a speech Rufus delivers to Cloud during their showdown in Disc One:
37	--> ''“All it takes for your dreams to come true is a little money.”''
38	** There's a metalcore band called Aerith. They released a song in 2020 called ''For The Fallen,'' which is about the relationship between Aerith and Zack. The cover art is flowers with a buster sword.
39	** Veil of Maya has a song called ''Aeris.''
40	** The songs ''Masamune'' and ''Ragnarok'' by {{Music/Periphery}} were both named after weapons used by Sephiroth and Cloud, respectively.
41	** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteelIV:'' In cutscenes, Crow will sometimes say Cloud's famous line "Let's mosey" when it's time to get moving.
42	** ''Manga/DestroyAllHumankindTheyCantBeRegenerated'': ''[=FF7=]'' is mentioned constantly throughout the manga, as the game indirectly introduced Hajime and Kurushima to ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' and inspired them to pick the sorcerer names Cloud and Zack.
43	** ''Manga/SummerTimeRendering'': Masahito discusses his love for [=JRPGs=] with Shinpei, in particular ''[=FF7=]'' and its upcoming remake. Winds up being thematically relevant immediately afterwards when it's revealed that Hiruko and Shide are very similar to JENOVA and Sephiroth in origin and motivation respectively as well as the fact that Shadow Ushio is killed by Shide in a very similar manner to Aerith.
44	* SequelInAnotherMedium: The game received a direct sequel in the form of an animated film, ''Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren'', not to mention the various sequels and prequels, one of which was an anime short titled ''Before Crisis''.
45	* ShoutOut: ''Loveless'' is named after Music/MyBloodyValentine's magnum opus. You can actually see the band's name on [[http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Loveless?file=LOVELESS_Posters.jpg one of the posters for it]] in an FMV.
46	* ThrowItIn: The battle against JENOVA Life following Aerith's death was not supposed to play Aerith's theme. However, because of a bug, the typical JENOVA music didn't play and Aerith's theme continued playing, and the developers liked it so much, it was programmed in more intentionally.
47	* TrollingCreator: Square revealed in December 2014 that the game would finally come to the [=PS4=], only to reveal (to the disappointment of everyone watching) that it was simply the PC version being ported. Then in E3 2015, the ''actual'' remake was finally unveiled to the public - and they revealed it had also been in the works for ''eighteen months''. Dammit Square.
48	* UrbanLegendOfZelda:
49	** Rumors abounded for ''years'' about ways to bring Aerith back from the dead. One of the most popular back in the day stated that you could retrieve the White Materia from the pool in the ancient city and use it to revive her. Another popular rumor says that if you were really mean to Aerith but nice to Tifa, then ''Tifa'' would die instead. Before the days of the internet and data mining, rumors like this caught a lot of traction. Also not helping is that if you go back to the Sector 7 church (after getting the Midgar key) where you met Aerith, you can see her 'ghost' make a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance above the flowerbed.
50	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
51	** The infamous [[{{Woolseyism}} Ted Woolsey]] was approached about translating VII into English, but he left Square and struck out on his own. In an interview 10 years after the fact, he wryly noted that this was right before Square really blew up, and all the employees bought stock.
52	** Despite being one of the defining games of the [=PS1=] era, it was originally intended to be released on the Platform/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem, and later the Platform/{{Nintendo 64}}. Square had a long-standing relationship with Nintendo, but it went sour after Square grew frustrated with Nintendo's censorship policies, their decision to scrap the Platform/{{SNESCDRom}}, and especially their steadfast refusal to switch from cartridges to CD technology with the [=N64=]. This has since come full-circle with the rerelease on the cartridge-based Platform/NintendoSwitch.
53	** Square also considered developing the game for the Platform/SegaSaturn and Platform/MicrosoftWindows (onto which it would later be ported); had they picked the Saturn, [[NoExportForYou it would've never seen release in the United States]] thanks to Bernie Stolar's fierce anti-RPG bias in his management of the console's US presence.
54	** The earliest SNES-oriented drafts of the game kept up the [=2D=] sprite art of previous titles, fitting the limitations of the console. When the project shifted focus to the [=N64=], Square were stuck between whether to keep the [=2D=] approach or shift to a riskier polygonal [=3D=] direction; they ultimately chose the latter.
55	** Before becoming the ''Final Fantasy VII'' that everyone now knows, the game underwent two rejected proposals:
56	*** According to legend (referenced extensively online, but apparently missing magazine scans/transcriptions of those interviews), Hironobu Sakaguchi's original pitch for ''Final Fantasy VII'' was a DetectiveDrama taking place in modern-day [[BigApplesauce New York City]]. Obviously, these segments were incorporated into the first few hours of the game, followed by a more traditional RPG world (OverworldNotToScale) once the party leaves Midgar. Eventually, Sakaguchi had his way and got his NYC gumshoe plot made in the form of ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve'', starring a [[DistaffCounterpart gender-flipped]] Cloud, to boot.
57	*** More well-known, however, is that Square employee Tetsuya Takahashi made a proposal for ''Final Fantasy VII'' that consisted of an ambitious, sprawling story set spanning ten thousand years, featured heavy religious symbolism from UsefulNotes/{{Gnosticism}}, and got more psychological than ''Final Fantasy VII'' did, taking influence from the works of Jung and Freud. It was rejected by Square for being too dark even by the standards of ''Final Fantasy'', but was allowed to be developed as its own thing - ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}''.
58	** Cloud turning out be [[TomatoInTheMirror a copy of the original Cloud]], who would occasionally speak through him. In the final product, Sephiroth is lying about Cloud's clone origins, whereas he was originally planned to have been telling the truth.
59	** At the end of Disc 2, if Cloud's affection points with Tifa are high enough, the two of them will spend the night together underneath the ''Highwind'', with the implication that [[PreClimaxClimax they had sex]]. This was toned down significantly from what was originally planned: the game would have cut to a scene of Cloud and Tifa [[RollInTheHay exiting the Chocobo Stable]], looking disheveled and nervously looking around to see if anyone had spotted them.
60	** Red XIII had an entire subplot based around him cut from the game. He was going to have his own QuirkyMinibossSquad of feline clones created by Hojo who would routinely fight the party.
61	** Yuffie also had a major character-based subplot cut from the game due to time constraints, in which she was a former SOLDIER hired by Shinra to kill Sephiroth & Cloud. She was also intended to be 25 years old, nine years older than she turned out to be in the final game.
62	** Aerith's death was originally supposed to happen at the Northern Crater instead of the Lost City.
63	** Believe it or not, a significant chunk of the Honeybee Inn was left on the cutting room floor. Probably because the final product [[RefugeInAudacity was already pushing things]].
64	** Sephiroth and Aerith being former lovers, or possibly [[CainAndAbel brother and sister]].
65	** Most interesting is the idea that "Jenova" would be the term for a certain aspect of humans which, when "awakened" with Mako, endows them magical abilities. (Again, this was later incorporated into ''Parasite Eve'' with its power-hungry mitochondria.) Sephiroth's "Jenova" powers would be heightened, and his madness caused by over-exposure to Mako. In other words, Sephiroth could have ended up being a [[MeetTheNewBoss substitute]] for [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI Kefka]].
66	** Sephiroth was at one point meant to be a ChildByRape, with his conception and the subsequent experiments being an explicit case of MedicalRapeAndImpregnate. The final product made the story more ambiguous, with the Compilation eventually revealing that his mother, Lucrecia, was a willing participant.
67	** In Kalm, you can find the Peacemaker, a weapon for Vincent, long before the player actually meets him in Nibelhiem. Usually, the player doesn't find new weapons for a character until at least the first town after recruitment. This has led some to believe that the player was supposed to encounter Vincent much earlier in the game.
68	*** Early concepts of Vincent had him wielding a [[SinisterScythe scythe]] instead of a handgun. His profession changed from horror researcher to chemist, to {{Film Noir}}-style detective who [[{{Expy}} heavily resembled]] [[Series/TheXFiles Agent Fox Mulder]], and finally the ex-Turk turned undead gunslinger we know today. The detective plot would have kept him, the party, and even the player in the dark about his shapeshifting powers. His various forms would carry over into the Field maps and cutscenes.
69	*** Vincent has a lot of WCHB entries, mainly because his character is half-finished. Both he and Yuffie were supposed to be mandatory party members, but deadlines got in the way, so they were made optional instead. While Yuffie at least got some subplots, Vincent's arc was mostly left out, leaving just a few story snippets behind i.e. the parts which shed light on Sephiroth's origins. It's possible this is why his stats are so low; as mentioned above, his arc was supposed to revolve around awakening his powers.
70	** A plan which was discarded ''very'' late in development involved the Midgar air raid towards the end of Disc 2. When the party parachutes from the airship into the city, anyone you did ''not'' pick for your main party would have been killed off in the ensuing chaos. The dev team decided that this was a little bit too bleak and scrapped the idea.
71	** Jenova originally had a different battle theme, which would later be reused as the FinalBoss theme of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'': [[https://youtube.com/watch?v=RVkcmx2l3WA "The Extreme".]] Additionally, Edea from the same game was originally intended and designed for ''Final Fantasy VII'', possibly as a humanoid (or Cetra) version of Jenova. Edea's battle theme even has bits of VII's overworld theme in it.
72	** Aerith originally was not supposed to die, and was implemented at Nomura's suggestion. This decision was made very early in development, when Cloud, Aerith, and Barret were the only party members to have been designed.
73	** The party members were all originally supposed to have official job titles listed, as had been the case in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV''. For example, Tifa was listed as a Shooter (as in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shootfighting the martial art shootfighting]]), while Aerith was labeled a Geomancer.
74	** Angel Studios (Now Rockstar San Diego) originally wanted to port this game to the Platform/Nintendo64 before they went with VideoGame/ResidentEvil2.
75	** Aerith was originally conceived as a Geomancer back when ''VII'' had a job system; remnants of this can still be seen in her Cetra heritage and her [[LimitBreak Limit Breaks]] that manifest as drawing power from the earth.

Context Trivia / FinalFantasyVII