Thursday, February 4, 2016

Final Fantasy Seven


Final Fantasy VII is one of my favorite games in the world, and was the perfect spark of interest to lead to where I am today. It sounds really dramatic at first, but if it weren't for this game, I wouldn't have decided to study Japanese, work overseas, and have my multicultural life. The reason for all of that is a rumor that the Japanese version of the game had story variations, and this baited me to start my path to where I am now. FF7's story is great and doesn't take too many leaps in logic and bullshit.

ShinRa...I'm coming for you!
It starts out with AVALANCHE, an eco-terrorism group, destroying a power plant in the mega city of Midgar. Cloud, ex-soldier, has joined this group to make ends meet, only to learn that a mega-corporation called ShinRa owns this reactor, and is exploiting the planet. ShinRa owns the military, has the greatest technology, and generally runs the continent, so being on their bad side is a big deal. To get revenge at AVALANCHE for blowing up the reactor, the president decides to rig a section of the city to be destroyed, killing lots of innocent people in the process. The plan is to blame this destruction on AVALANCHE and cast them as a terrorist group.

As Cloud and his group heads to the top of ShinRa headquarters to get even, they find that some of ShinRa's experiments have turned on their scientists. It turns out ShinRa was making super-soldiers by exposing them to mako, a naturally powerful form of energy. In the old days, mako gave the planet's ancient race of people, the Cetra, the ability to use magic. In modern Midgar, mako is used to provide cheap electricity and power weapons.

...yeah OK, we get your sword, dude.
Enter Sephiroth and Aeris. The first is the best soldier in the world, who was the result of exposing a human to unprecedented levels of mako. The second is a descendant of the Cetra, and ShinRa really wants to capture her. Everyone assumes Aeris can lead them to the Promised Land, a place with unlimited mako. Sephiroth isn't having any of this and beats Cloud and co. to the corporation's headquarters, killing lots of ShinRa in the process. After the president of ShinRa, who ordered the earlier destruction of Midgar, is killed, his son escapes the city and the party follows. The new president of ShinRa leads a much more aggressive company.

Once outside of the giant city of Midgar, the group learns more about everyone's past. The group runs into Corel, a city that exposes Barrett's biggest regret. The villagers hate him because he abandoned them when they needed him most. After some time, ShinRa tries to steal a Huge Materia from a reactor near Corel, and casually kills half of the town doing so. Barrett saves the day and sees his old friend Dyne for the last time. Dyne has the bitterest feelings towards Barrett, and upon learning his daughter is alive and being taken care of by Barrett and Tifa, kills himself.

The Sephiroth chase is still on, and the party heads to Nibelheim, Tifa and Cloud's hometown, and victim to ShinRa and Sephiroth's attacks. ShinRa wants to collect another Huge Materia from a nearby reactor. In the distant past, ShinRa used DNA from an alien named Jenova. They thought it was an ancient Cetra, and mixed that DNA with other organisms, resulting in Sephiroth, Cloud, and a number of failures. In the more recent past, Sephiroth learns this and starts to go crazy, destroying the town as vengeance on puny humanity.

Before Nibelheim, the party wanders through Cosmo Canyon, a spiritual center and home to Red XIII. The party learns more about mako, the Lifestream and the planet's suffering. Red learns that his father, whom he had previously thought was a coward, died protecting Cosmo Canyon from an attack from spirits who'd gone bad.

Next comes Cid, the angry pilot who loathes his wife Shera. Cid's theme, as well as his airship theme, are two of the best music tracks in the game. Before ShinRa found that mako refining was profitable, they used to fund a space program. Cid was chosen to pilot the first space rocket, but during launch, his then-assistant Shera called it off at the last moment because she found a loose part that would have compromised the mission. ShinRa abandoned the space program completely after that failed launch, and Cid blames both her and the company for crushing his dreams. Back in the present, you realize that Rufus is chasing Sephiroth and needs to take Cid's only plane.



Shera helps you escape, but the plane is so damaged in the process that it now works like a hovercraft. You also decide to chase both ShinRa and Sephiroth, so take this strange vehicle to a mysterious place called the Temple of the Ancients. You see Sephiroth figure out that to gain power/mako/materia, he has to damage the planet so badly that all of the spirit energy gathers in one place to heal. He's going to do this using the Black Materia, which he manipulates Cloud into handing over. He also kidnaps Aeris!

On the way to retrieve Aeris, you learn about her mother Ifalna falling in love with an ex-ShinRa scientist. In this flashback, the evil scientist Hojo barges in on the two and steals baby Aeris, too. When you finally catch up with Sephiroth, he kills Aeris, the last Cetra/Ancient alive that you know about. Then, Sephiroth starts to unravel your past, messing with your memories. You see a flashback of another soldier named Zack helping Cloud escape Nibelheim. The twist is that some of Cloud's memories actually belong to this guy Zack, leading Cloud to believe that he's a ShinRa creation, just like Sephiroth.

In a dreamy hallucination, you hear that the real Sephiroth died 5 years ago, and that he was revived using "Jenova" cells and mako. Cloud was a clone of the same DNA/cell mixture. Jenova is an alien that was diced up and spliced with Sephiroth clones, who all gather at one place during what's called Jenova's Reunion. The clones gather, with Cloud at the vanguard, delivering the Black Materia to Sephiroth's preserved body.

The Black Materia unleashes hell on the world in the form of Meteor, and your party is separated from Cloud while he figures his past out.

Barett and Tifa wake up on a military based called Junon, and are going to be blamed for Meteor and publicly executed by ShinRa. Right before this happens, Weapon, the planet's creation and defense against Meteor starts to attack Junon, which doesn't go very well for either party. ShinRa goes about their plan to collect Huge Materia from around the world, put it on a rocket and send it into Meteor. Cloud's party would rather use the Huge Materia to research and learn new abilities.

Note: the opposite of this happened.
After Cloud and co. thwart the attempt to launch the rocket into Meteor, ShinRa decides to move a giant mako cannon to Midgar, hoping to destroy the sleeping Sephiroth from the other side of the world. Well, the blast wakes him up and removes a protective barrier, so it's time for the party to go in and finish him off.

Sephiroth is in the heart of a wound in the planet - and doused in mako from the Lifestream, as the planet tries to heal itself. Meteor continues to descend, even after the party defeats the super-mako-powered Sephiroth. Right before it hits Earth, Aerith's magic, Holy, destroys Meteor, and then starts to heal over some of the scabs that humanity has left.

So, while the story unfolds over 40 hours or so, some great lines, amazing sound track and addictive fighting system make this game a timeless hit!

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I am one of those people that uses the word  perfect subjectively. I think something is perfect if it does what it's intended to do ...