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When Square-Soft released FFVII back in late 1997, they probably didn't have any idea exactly what they were getting into. They wanted the newest insallment of Final Fantasy to be popular and successful, of course, but I doubt they set out to make a masterpiece. Which, I think, is exactly why it is a masterpiece; a spiritual cyberpunk tragedy told in the medium of an RPG. The first graphics you see in the game--stars and space, some space, a lot of stars, and some space--really don't say much (on the surface) other than, "Hey, lookit! We can do 3D these days!"
Then the "camera" pans down and we see a girl with a pink bow in her hair, surrounded by a green aura. There are white-green sparks flying around her face. It all looks kinds of peaceful and mystical. There's graceful, tinkling music to go with the scene, even: when the girl looks up, we hear three bell-like notes. Then the camera pans out, and as the character stands up, we see that she's standing in an alley, looking at a malfunctioning circuit box that is throwing off green sparks. With a basket of flowers in her hands, she walks out of the alley and onto the street, where she's cut off by a speeding car. The music changes to big, industrial sounding drumbeats. Above the street, a sign advertises a play called "Loveless." The camera pans back further. Finally we see that the flower girl is in a kind of enclosed, covered city, surrounded around the top by seven buildings spewing green smoke. It looks polluted and claustrophobic. Then, a big old logo fills the screen.
Pan back into a different section of the city now, flashing every few seconds to the wheels of a speeding train. When we get into the innards of this part of the city, the train pulls into the station and stops. A crazy, spikey-headed, badly rendered blond guy leaps out of the train towards his first mission. Then you spend a good few minutes figuring out how to make him run.
You may, until seven days from now, download that scene here, at just over 5 MBs. It stops before the crazy blond guy jumps off the train, unfortunately. (I tried to match the music up with the movie. The music goes on after the FMV is over, sorry about that.)
But enough of that crap. Forget the flower girl for now. Start with the crazy, spikey-headed, badly rendered blonde.
( The story of Final Fantasy VII: )
Keep in mind, always, that most of FFVII was left up to the player's interpretation. There was a lot of freedom to make minor story-altering choices in this game, so it's likely that other people didn't get the same exact story. ALso, much of the plot is left to personal interpretation, too, most of all the question of, who was the real villain? Sephiroth, Jenova, Hojo? Some combination of all of them? It's up to you to figure that out. This is just the way I saw it all when I played it. And may or may not see it that way again the next time I play it. :D
Then the "camera" pans down and we see a girl with a pink bow in her hair, surrounded by a green aura. There are white-green sparks flying around her face. It all looks kinds of peaceful and mystical. There's graceful, tinkling music to go with the scene, even: when the girl looks up, we hear three bell-like notes. Then the camera pans out, and as the character stands up, we see that she's standing in an alley, looking at a malfunctioning circuit box that is throwing off green sparks. With a basket of flowers in her hands, she walks out of the alley and onto the street, where she's cut off by a speeding car. The music changes to big, industrial sounding drumbeats. Above the street, a sign advertises a play called "Loveless." The camera pans back further. Finally we see that the flower girl is in a kind of enclosed, covered city, surrounded around the top by seven buildings spewing green smoke. It looks polluted and claustrophobic. Then, a big old logo fills the screen.
Pan back into a different section of the city now, flashing every few seconds to the wheels of a speeding train. When we get into the innards of this part of the city, the train pulls into the station and stops. A crazy, spikey-headed, badly rendered blond guy leaps out of the train towards his first mission. Then you spend a good few minutes figuring out how to make him run.
You may, until seven days from now, download that scene here, at just over 5 MBs. It stops before the crazy blond guy jumps off the train, unfortunately. (I tried to match the music up with the movie. The music goes on after the FMV is over, sorry about that.)
But enough of that crap. Forget the flower girl for now. Start with the crazy, spikey-headed, badly rendered blonde.
( The story of Final Fantasy VII: )
Keep in mind, always, that most of FFVII was left up to the player's interpretation. There was a lot of freedom to make minor story-altering choices in this game, so it's likely that other people didn't get the same exact story. ALso, much of the plot is left to personal interpretation, too, most of all the question of, who was the real villain? Sephiroth, Jenova, Hojo? Some combination of all of them? It's up to you to figure that out. This is just the way I saw it all when I played it. And may or may not see it that way again the next time I play it. :D
