GilliamYaeger
M'crazy.
People on the bench get 50% XP.
Let's Play Every Final Fantasy Game In Order Of Release [Now Finished: Final Fantasy Tactics]
- Thread starter Omicron
- Start date
- Let's Play
MiskWisk
Hoot
- Location
- Somewhere devoid of wit
- Pronouns
- He
Thanks, never actually figured out what the link was. Tended to just stick with one party.
Also yes, that did royally screw me over on Bizarro-Sephiroth.
- Pronouns
- They/Them/She/Her
My understanding is thatMiskWisk said:
the information Sephiroth found, and that we've just been given in turn, is in-universe incorrect on several key points, that being one of them.
RogueIce
Noctis Æternæ
- Location
- New Lunar Republic, Equestria
I also quite love the way they handle the soundtrack, Those Chosen By The Planet. At first it's just the creepy introduction, but as soon as he says, "I'm going to see my mother," the full chorus kicks in and shit gets real.
"Within minutes" for the player, but the game does a great job of relating that this has been several days for the characters. He didn't just make this sudden, violent turn - he's had at least three days or so building up to it. Given that this is an early PSX game, I think it works as well as can be expected for pacing. Maybe they could have tried to find some way to stretch it out longer, but I think it works very well as-is.
GilliamYaeger
M'crazy.
Wait shit that's the PC version with shitty music. Lemme find a better vid.
View: https://youtu.be/4ZMDWhLCJVw?t=1704
There we go.
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- Location
- Lake Wobegon
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I dunno, I'd say Barret and Vincent can kill them quite easily once levelled and geared up.
- Location
- SV's Only Complete Persona Quest
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It only just occurred to me that the Nibelheim Flashback is what in later decades we'd call a Walking Simulator (technically there's combat, but like really trivial combat the AI handles), if one within an otherwise non-WS game. Now I'm wondering how much it inspired that genre?
Egleris
Vagrant Dragon
- Location
- Italy
@Omicron - I will not comment on much because of spoilers, but there's something I wanted to point out because it often tends to get lost in the shuffle and I don't want it to be.
A few scenes beforehand, we're told by Sephiroth himself that he deeply respect this Professor Gast, of which we currently know nothing, and considers Hojo to be a charlatan. The research he read to spurn him to action is something that Professor Gast carried out.
Do you think Sephirot's reaction might have been different if he found the exact same information he did, but it was penned by Hojo rather than Gast? After all, the only thing we know of Gast is that he's dead, so in story-writing terms, the authors could have made the story less complex by simply having Hojo, already a detestable figure, be the one responsible for the research that sent Sephiroth spiraling into madness. The only thing lost would be a bit of Sephiroth's characterization, in that then for the story to work he'd have to show, if not respect, at least not a lack of belief in Hojo's credentials as a scientist. Gast is extraneous detail adding complexity to an already complicated piece of backstory.
So... why do you think the writers decided to go with this specific tack on the scene, creating an already dead character just to give Sephiroth characterization? Do you think it adds enough to the scene to justify its existence?
I know, this is more about narrative in general than FFVII in specific, but it's something I think is really important when discussing Sephiroth's characterization, which has been the focus of these last few updates, so I'd like to hear your take on the matter while it's still fresh in your mind.
A few scenes beforehand, we're told by Sephiroth himself that he deeply respect this Professor Gast, of which we currently know nothing, and considers Hojo to be a charlatan. The research he read to spurn him to action is something that Professor Gast carried out.
Do you think Sephirot's reaction might have been different if he found the exact same information he did, but it was penned by Hojo rather than Gast? After all, the only thing we know of Gast is that he's dead, so in story-writing terms, the authors could have made the story less complex by simply having Hojo, already a detestable figure, be the one responsible for the research that sent Sephiroth spiraling into madness. The only thing lost would be a bit of Sephiroth's characterization, in that then for the story to work he'd have to show, if not respect, at least not a lack of belief in Hojo's credentials as a scientist. Gast is extraneous detail adding complexity to an already complicated piece of backstory.
So... why do you think the writers decided to go with this specific tack on the scene, creating an already dead character just to give Sephiroth characterization? Do you think it adds enough to the scene to justify its existence?
I know, this is more about narrative in general than FFVII in specific, but it's something I think is really important when discussing Sephiroth's characterization, which has been the focus of these last few updates, so I'd like to hear your take on the matter while it's still fresh in your mind.
- Location
- The Z-Cave
Barret and especially Vincent are the farthest thing from randos with guns. Just for the first Barret is Mr. T meets the Terminator with the power of god and anime on his side. The dude can shoot plasma balls out of his gun hand through pure badassness as his first limit break.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well, mostly I was just assuming we'd be finding more about Gast eventually.
But even as it stands it's something I've been thinking about, and I think it's important for Gast to exist because it means that Sephiroth has something vaguely resembling a father figure in his background (I don't know if Gast was alive long enough to remember him or if he'd already died by the time Sephiroth was old enough to form memories, but at least hypothetically there's a figure in his 'family tree' that he admires), and it's that figure, it turns out, who decanted Sephiroth out of a vat or however else they produced him, and wrote all the research on the Ancients.
So there is a combination of betrayal - "Even Gast lied to me about my true nature/Gast never had the chance to tell me the truth and Shinra suppressed it," depending on when exactly Gast died - and vindication - "Gast, the only scientist I respect, has written all this research which justifies my belief in my own uniqueness and superiority and validates me as being the true heir to the planet."
I don't think you can get that from Hojo. Like, for one thing, if Hojo started rambling about the true nature and secret history of the Ancients I would simply Press X to Doubt.
Terra Allias
World's only Magical Girl Spec Ops Asuka fan
- Location
- Cheverly
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I'm on the final fantasy 3 updates, miss the lil onion knights looking guys, they make me feel something I rarely feel. Innocence...
So how common are airships in universe anyway? Are there entire fleets of them?
So how common are airships in universe anyway? Are there entire fleets of them?
- Location
- NC
I'm not sure if it's ever stated in-game or elsewhere, but the impression I got was that it was just a research facility, but since it was top-secret illegal/unethical stuff they were researching, Shinra put it in a nowhere town and had the staff living on-site/nearby.
Tifa's martial arts instructor was still running around… maybe over the course of his career, he mastered a Cure materia? Or collected rare powerful medicines (elixirs), and he was willing to give one to his precious student? Otherwise it might just be a "fantasy setting humans are stronger/tougher than real world humans" thing.
Tends to vary heavily from game to game. FFI it's ancient technology so you have what is probably the only functioning airship in the world, FFII There's only Cid's airship and the Dreadnought (maybe the Emperor's Tornado Palace if you count that), FFV and FFVI fall under similar levels of "only one or two airships exist/are built."
FFIII on the other hand seems to have several and could potentially have more commercial airships that just don't come up, and FFIV... well, game straight up opens with Cecil bringing an attack fleet of airships to a foreign kingdom, and you deal with the Red Wings popping up multiple times throughout.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
i say this with all the love in the world and from the bottom of a heart that is filled with amazement to have so many wonderful readers that they are even discussing my adventures outside of this thread and I won't be naming names, but this is the second time I have received the message "[USER] quoted your post in the thread The Omicron Plays Final Fantasy Spoiler Thread" and if this keeps happening I will Gigaflare this entire endeavour
- Location
- Singapore
- Pronouns
- Singular They
Technically it's made-up in the sense that all names are made-up: "Personal Handy-phone System" is a real thing, or at least was a real thing at the time of FFVII. It's basically another implementation of cellphones, competing with GSM (which we might be more familiar with as "2G").
Allegedly FFVII's Japanese script describes it as the "Party Hensei System" in-game, where "Hensei" is 編成. Which makes it the "Party Formation System". Checking the dialogue comparison site does not give anything like that, so either this is actually from out-of-game sources, or it's in optional dialogue that the site doesn't cover.
Amusingly real life PHS would be the worst option for a cellphone system in this situation: while it's overall cheaper in implementation than GSM, it's also only useful in dense urban areas where you can spam base stations everywhere. In the relatively wide open fields outside of Midgar, nobody's going to get any reception.
This might be slightly clearer in the Japanese text: "Ancients" in FFVII are consistently referred to as "古代種" ("kodai-shu"), which is something like "of the Ancients", in the sense of "species" or "variety" or "(categorical) lineage". So Aerith's mother was an Ancient in that she is of the Ancient "race", but she isn't literally ancient from ancient times.
If it matters, the usual way to write "Ancient people" is 古代人, "kodai-jin". For example, this is how FFXIV refers to their Ancients, and it's a fairly straightforward meaning of "people who live in Ancient times".
Given what Yang managed to survive back in FFIV, I would say martial artists in the Final Fantasy series are indeed just built different.
Connelly
As useless as a penguin with mittens
- Location
- Salamanca, Spain
With all the talk of "ancients", my mind was following the track of "so these are another splinter group of Ancients who lost their Stargate address book before they were fully ready for ascension and by the way that's where magic comes from". Where my SG1/Final Fantasy crossfics at.
But these people being the descendants of the Colonials is fun too. Would wee lil baby Athena turn out to be Jenova and Sephirot just a lab rat human/Cylon hybrid? Dun dun-dun.
I remember someone bringing up killing Hojo as step one in fix fics and time travel fics, personally for me the first step would just to have my own little book burning party in the Shinra Mansion since there's less chance of getting shot.
Maybe make some S'mores with a local
Maybe make some S'mores with a local
Wouldn't help. It's implied in one of the games that the research that drove Sephiroth over the edge is heavily edited and planted by Hojo shortly before. He deliberately set up the entire Niebelheim mission to trigger Sephiroth. Gast had very little, if anything, to do with Sephiroth's creation. Jenova Project S is what got Hojo the position as Science Department Head.
Gast faked his own death and ran off with Ilfana. Sometime later Aerith was born. Sometime after that Hojo tracked them down, killed Gast and captured Ilfana and Aerith.
well I know the parts about Gast and that Hojo wanted to trigger Sephiroth, my knowledge of the time line isn't perfect so I figured the edited books were older, which would be funny to imagine "Alright time to burn the edited books... And there's nothing of the sort here @#$%!"
Oh well guess I'd have to skip to part of my "plan" and then hopefully wake up Vincent, Ideally as a former Turk he could help both blow up Jenova's little hiding place and assassination Hojo
Oh well guess I'd have to skip to part of my "plan" and then hopefully wake up Vincent, Ideally as a former Turk he could help both blow up Jenova's little hiding place and assassination Hojo
Geckonator
Saint of Awe
So, something to note about Gast on both the "transliteration is fun" and "these puns are awful" fronts.
His last name is "Faremis", which is just one swapped pair of kana away from "famires", the Japanese contraction of "family restaurant" to refer to American-style casual diner chains. And in particular, one such restaurant chain is "Gusto"... which is spelled the exact same in katakana as "Gast". This is another one where the Reunion makes it blunt by just retranslating him to be "Gusto", just like making Hart into Hut.
So, once again, major figures in Shinra history are named after their overriding pizza/fast food fixation!
His last name is "Faremis", which is just one swapped pair of kana away from "famires", the Japanese contraction of "family restaurant" to refer to American-style casual diner chains. And in particular, one such restaurant chain is "Gusto"... which is spelled the exact same in katakana as "Gast". This is another one where the Reunion makes it blunt by just retranslating him to be "Gusto", just like making Hart into Hut.
So, once again, major figures in Shinra history are named after their overriding pizza/fast food fixation!
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- Location
- Amman, Jordan
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
....F***! I completely forgot that long-time internet spoilers still count as "do not post here". I deleted my post, my bad, I won't do it again...
- Location
- Canada, probably
…What.
OK, I was sold on past!Sephiroth as a character. I had no idea where the idiot emo edgelord that is Sephiroth's impact on popular culture came from, because it sure wasn't this guy!
Well, here he is.
OK, I was sold on past!Sephiroth as a character. I had no idea where the idiot emo edgelord that is Sephiroth's impact on popular culture came from, because it sure wasn't this guy!
Well, here he is.
It absolutely does not work for me. Three days of reading in a library and suddenly he's a fucking cartoon idiot nihilist. I… I can't believe how dumb this is.
No, he really isn't.
GilliamYaeger
M'crazy.
Three days of reading in a library on zero sleep right after discovering that he's not a real person and he was made in a vat. By fucking Hojo, a man that he clearly loathes by the way he talks about him throughout the flashback.…What.
OK, I was sold on past!Sephiroth as a character. I had no idea where the idiot emo edgelord that is Sephiroth's impact on popular culture came from, because it sure wasn't this guy!
Well, here he is.
It absolutely does not work for me. Three days of reading in a library and suddenly he's a fucking cartoon idiot nihilist. I… I can't believe how dumb this is.
No, he really isn't.
- Location
- Canada, probably
…So? He's not "not a real person" however he was born. Cogito sum.
OK, so his father is the most loathsome man on the planet. That's super rough, true.
What's the connection to "kill everyone"? There isn't one.
I was memeing a little, but I'm genuinely crushingly disappointed. I was really interested to learn what happened between then and now to drive Sephiroth to villainy. And the game's answer was "he read some books and went crazy lol."
- Location
- The Great Beyond
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
Honestly, as someone who is largely blind to FF7 beyond following the LP, my immediate read on the dialogue from your screenshots etc is that Sephiroth is indicating the human ancestors survived the disaster because, literally, they settled down and built shelters so when the... meteor storm or regular storm or acid rain or whatever unspecified disaster it's going to actually be happened the Cetra were literally caught out in the open air and killed because they're just going to leave anyways who needs houses?- while the human ancestors had like, at least some survivors because shelter (and possibly like, food stockpiles in granaries or whatever).