FFVII Remake Easter Eggs And Compilation Continuity - Part 8: OG FINAL FANTASY VII

Tanabata 七夕 is a popular traditional Japanese festival of Chinese origins. This celebration commemorates the legend of Orihime and Hikoboshi (symbolized by the stars Vega and Altair respectively), lovers separated by the Milky Way who were only allowed to meet once every year, the Seventh night of the Seventh month. 

People celebrate Tanabata expressing wishes to the stars - written on small pieces of paper hung on bamboo, often concerning their love life due to the romantic origins of the legend. Tanabata is also called Star festival or Night of the loving stars (and, in China, Chinese Valentine’s day or Night of sevens). 

I think it’s easy to find some nice paralles with FFVII: the focus on the stars (星, that in FFVII universe is used to identify both the stars and the Planet) and number seven, wishes to the stars, separated lovers..? In can make the happiness of every shipper. But there’s one more cute detail.

Until the second half of the XIX century Japanese people used the Wareki calendar, based on lunar phases, so the 7th day of the 7th month is a variable date that usually falls on the firts half of August. 

August 11, 1986 - Cloud’s birthday - was indeed Tanabata day in real life!  (The date may vary between 11th and 12th but that depends on the time zone). It might be just a coincidence, but I love it a lot anyway! It surely is my new headcanon! ❤️

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花言葉は再会

FFVII Remake Easter Eggs - Part 2

SPOILER ALERT! Spoilers about the FFVII compilation.

FFVII Remake includes a lot of Easter eggs referring to the whole FF7 compilation. This is the second post, and it will include the references to…

Crisis Core is a PSP game released in 2007. It’s a prequel to FFVII and focuses on the adventures of Zack Fair.

1. RUDE BEING…RUDE.

“Haven’t seen him before. He your new boy toy?” Rude is referring to Zack, Aerith’s boyfriend at the time of Crisis Core. Very…rude though (Chapter 8).

2. THE PUPPY

- Angeal used to refer to Zack as a puppy.

- Stamp the dog is a new misterious element added in the Remake. He’s a beagle, but at the end of the game, when Zack survives, we see it changing in a terrier.

Are you Zack the puppy? My son wrote to me once about you, zero attention span, restless as a little puppy.

3. BANORA WHITE

- There are some billboards of “Banora White” apple juice in Midgar.

- These fruits only grow in Banora, and the juice was invented by Genesis.

4. DATING

Aerith asks Cloud to be her bodyguard in exchange for one date. Yes, this was already in the original FFVII but the gesture is taken from Crisis Core (Chapter 8).

5. SELLING FLOWERS

- Zack suggested Aerith to sell flowers and they started selling them together in Evergreen Park.

- Aerith and Cloud arrive in Evergreen Park and she remembers the time she used to sell flowers there (Chapter 9).

You know, a long time ago, I used to sell flowers here.

6. YOUR EYES

In Chapter 9 Aerith stares at Cloud’s beautiful eyes the same way she did with Zack. In Japanese Zack and Cloud answer with the same sentence.

7. PINK DRESS

- Zack asked Aerith to wear something pink when they would have met again.

- The pink dress has always been Aerith’s distinctive mark since 1997, but her optional outfits in the Remake, that were not in the original FFVII, are pink too (Chapter 9).

From now on, why don’t we make a promise every time we meet? (…) For example, when we meet, you always have to dress in pink.

8. TRAINING ROOM

- The training room was a virtual reality simulator used by SOLDIERs in Crisis Core.

- Cloud, Tifa and Barret find a battle simulator in Shinra HQ in Chapter 16.

9. PROJECT S AND PROJECT G

- Hojo says he wants to breed Aerith with S and G type SOLDIERS.

- In Nibelheim Mako reactor Genesis told Sephiroth about Project S and Project G. The first gave birth to Sephiroth, the second to Angeal and Genesis. Project G was also used to create Deepground SOLDIERs (Chapter 16).

CC: “Jenova project G gave birth to Angeal and monsters like myself. Jenova project S used the remains of countless failed experiments to create a perfect monster.” 

FF7R: “We could have the Ancient reproduce. (…) I would start with candidates from SOLDIER. These would of course include S and G types.”

10. CELLULAR DEGRADATION

- Genesis was a failed experiment and his body kept degrading irreversibly.

- In Chapter 7 President Shinra, after noticing that Cloud is a SOLDIER, points out that SOLDIERs usually die pretty soon because of cellular degradation.

Once a SOLDIER, always a SOLDIER. Though not, alas, for very long. Accelerated cellular degradation being the most common cause of death by far.

11. KUNSEL

- Kunsel was a SOLDIER and friend of Zack.

- When some infantrymen see Cloud and recognize him they say they’ll go and call Kunsel (Chapter 16).

Cloud? You’re Cloud, right? (…) We went through training together. (…) Hey, sit tight man – I'mma go get Kunsel.

12. BARRET’S LAST STAND

“Worst route ever. Gimme a suicidal last stand. At least– At least–at least that’d have an end!” Barret says this sentence while climbing Shinra backstairs, at 49th floor – SOLDIERs floor. It’s a reference to Zack’s last stand (Chapter 16).

13. FREEDOM

Before entering in the dimensional portal Aerith says that beyond it there’s “Freedom. Boundless, terrifying freedom”. It reconnects with Zack’s iconic sentence before his last stand “The price of freedom is steep” (Chapter 18).

14. THE SKY

- In Crisis Core Aerith told Zack that the real sky frightened her.

- At the end of the Remake Aerith says “I miss it. The steel sky”, referring the upper plate that covered the real sky. In Japanese she says “The  sky…I hate it”, because it took away from her Zack and her mother. (Chapter 18).

15. THE DEFEAT OF DESTINY

- Zack had a dream in Crisis Core that foreshadowed his death. He was looking at the sky wishing to have wings like Angeal.

- In the Remake he defeats his destiny and looks at the sky in the same position (Chapter 18).

16. ZACK’S LAST STAND

This iconic scene is replicated shot-for-shot in Chapter 18

PART 1 (BEFORE CRISIS)

PART 3 (ADVENT CHILDREN)

PART 4 (DIRGE OF CERBERUS)

PART 5 (ON THE WAY TO A SMILE)

PART 6 (THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT: A TURKS SIDE STORY)

PART 7 (PICTURING THE PAST)

PART 8 (FINAL FANTASY VII - 1)

PART 9 (FINAL FANTASY VII - 2)

PART 10 (EXTRAS)

The Unifying Theme of FFVII

So I recently got an ask that was very interesting and which I think I did a piss poor job answering. Republished here:

what is the biggest theme of FF7 that ties every character together to you? life? pro environmentalism? identity? connections?

My answer was, in a nutshell, "existentialism." It's broadly true, and was certainly an influence on the game (see: Martin Heidegger, Existentialist philosopher and known bastard) but it's a reductive and Western take overall.

So, here's the long version, and a disclaimer up-front that I'm a simple Western weeb doing internet research to the best of my ability; apologies to those who know more than me.

Square has always stated that the theme of the game is "life". This is wholly accurate, but comes off as a little twee to a Western ear. This is because "life" is a translation of the Japanese word "inochi" (命). It is a broader, more holistic concept than the English "life," with different nuances and connotations.

For a longer and much more informed read on inochi specifically, see The Concept of Life in Contemporary Japan by Masahiro Morioka. Otherwise, keep reading after the cut!

In addition to meaning life or lifespan, "inochi" also encompasses the idea of a "spirit" or vital force. It extends beyond referring to life in the general sense. Much like any one person's mind, spirit, and lived existence isn't interchangeable with anyone else's, one's "inochi" is unique and individualistic.

This concept extends beyond just human life. Animals, mountains, rivers, and trees all have "inochi" too. An illuminating quote From Aspects of Shinto in Japanese Communication by Kazuya Hara (and his primary source):

From the viewpoint of Shinto, nature itself is seen to have a spirit and life. For example, Japanese people have looked upon even a tree, a rock, or a river in nature as a figure of life. Kamata (2000) argues that the Japanese word inochi connotes the dynamic motion, flow, and circulation of all the universe.

That circulation also includes the idea that "inochi" does not refer to only a single individual life, but a chain of all the lives that have gone before. It encompasses the fleeting and finite life of the individual as well as the ecosystem in which they lived, and the influence and impact which will survive them and create the next link in the chain.

You'll recognize many of these concepts as being expressed through the Lifestream, and extant in the environmentalist elements of the game. Navigating the apparent paradox of a finite and infinite "inochi" also pulls our cast in, all of whom are characters struggling with their individual existence in the context of a greater, deeply interconnected crisis.

"Inochi" is also connected to FFVII's strong themes of navigating identity and uncovering the fundamental self. The word can also be used to refer to the core or fundamental part of something, its "most essential quality." This echoes Cloud's journey to rediscover himself, and it's noteworthy that he find again within the Lifestream, the manifestation of "inochi" itself.

"Inochi" is definitely a very accurate unifying theme. We've touched on how that connects to Shinto themes, but Buddhist philosophies of life and existence are just as culturally prevalent in Japan and influential on the themes of VII in turn. So, let's talk about Buddhism, with another disclaimer that I'm not expert by any means whatsoever.

A foundational concept in Buddhism is the Three Marks of Existence: Impermanence, the non-self, and suffering. We'll mainly focus on the first two.

The first, impermanence, is as it says on the tin. According to Buddhist thought, impermanence is inherent to the natural world, and failing to recognize this will bring suffering. The bad passes along with the good, the big as well as the small. The strain of Buddhist thought through the game is part of why FFVII's original ending is so appropriate, and Aeris' death so integral to the rest of its themes.

The second is the non-self. Related to the concept of impermanence, the idea here is that there is no permanent incarnation of the self, and there is no way to separate the self as an individual from its myriad pieces and its context. From What Are The Three Marks of Existence by Dana Nourie:

When you start to see how you aren’t a solid, unchanging self, but a impermanent, dynamic person, you also loosen your clinging to thoughts, ideas, emotions, and the idea of a “real you”.

The connection to Cloud's personal journey throughout the game is obvious - an abundance of attachment to an artificial self causes him to suffer until he is able to reconcile it and let it go. Sephiroth, meanwhile, faces a similar challenge to his own identity and slips sideways into Nihilism, unable to overcome (or even admit) his own suffering.

There's a connection between Buddhist and Existentialist/Existential Nihilist thought. While Buddhism incorporates the concept of suffering as an inherent and endless facet of life until nirvana can be reached, Existentialists struggle with a post-modern feeling of dread or anxiety fundamental to living in a meaningless and chaotic world. There's also been plenty of cultural exchange between eastern and western concepts here - Heidegger is one notable participant.

Another is Keiji Nishitani from the influential Kyoto University of Philosophy. Engaging with western Existentialist thinkers, he wrote Religion and Nothingness on the connection between the concept of the non-self and the western philosophy of Nihilism. He compared the similarities between the two, while ultimately refuting Nietzche's perspective. This quote (helpfully, from his Wikipedia page) seems particularly instructive, especially in returning back to some of the initial concepts expressed by "inochi":

"All things that are in the world are linked together, one way or the other. Not a single thing comes into being without some relationship to every other thing."

My original answer to this question was Existentialism because there simply isn't a word or a tidy concept in my vocabulary that can convey all of this disparate information. Existentialism seemed to me like the most familiar and broad concept to encompass these themes, always in the form of questions: How do we live? How do we separate subjectivity from objective truth? How do we preserve the sense that our lives are meaningful?

You must decide for yourself; you must remember your connections to other lives; you must let go.

Woof

“Tifa said to take you home, kid.”

Talk about a coincidence!

A debated canonicity

(Previous post here)

Mad1en who Trave1s the P1anet (adding typos to prevent unpleasant comments) is one of the most controversial entries of FFVII lore.

It was included in FFVII Ultimania Omega, published in 2005. Fans have debated ever since if this short story is part of the canon entries of the compilation, as it was written by an external writer that never took part to the realisation of the game.

Part of the fandom thinks it's canon because Square Enix never said it isn't, another part thinks it's not canon because Square Enix never mentioned it again ever since it was published (neither ever provided an official translation nor decided to sell it outside Japan. Quite self-explanatory, considering that "Picturing the Past" has been immediately translated and it's sold everywhere in the world).

The particularity of this novel is that here Aerith states she loves Cloud more than Zack. Not a word is spent to describe how she feels when she understands that Zack didn't cheat on her but endured experimetations for years and died to save Cloud, and that Cloud had created an alter ego based on Zack's traits. These lines started to divide the fans after the release of Crisis Core, that describes a tender and sincere romantic relationship between Zack and Aerith.

Yes, SE never officially said if this novel is canon or not, but I'd like to point out a fact:

The Remake includes tons of references to all the entries of the compilation.

Some examples?

The Avalanche members that show up in Chapter 4 wear the original uniforms of Before Crisis:

Crisis Core references can be found everywhere in the game, for one thing, Zack's last stand:

Dirge of Cerberus was already hinted in the game when Cloud, Tifa and Barret fell in the misterious lab beneath Sector 7 and is going to be heavily referred in the Intergrade. From the trailer we can see Weiss:

There are many references to Advent Children too. For example, Sephiroth has the black wing that he only showed in the movie:

Last order is quite difficult to refrence, as it doesn't add anything new to the story but it's rather a reinterpretation of Nibelheim incident. Anyway, it is mentioned in FFVII Remake World Preview (Square Enix book that includes "Picturing the Past"):

And now talk about the novels:

New characters, like Kyrie, come from The Kids are alright, a Turks side Story:

And here's an example from On the Way to a Smile too: from a dialogue with Jessie it's revealed that Cloud doesn't know the names of vegetables:

...turned out he [Cloud] didn't know a carrot from a gysal green. At first, Tifa was amused that mighty Cloud's new life started with learning vegetables names... (Case of Tifa)

So:

Before Crisis

Crisis Core

Advent Children

Dirge of Cerberus

Last Order

The Kids are alright

On the way to a Smile...

Picturing the Past was written alongise the Remake to clarify the origins of the mural painting in Aerith's room...

They are all abundantly referenced multiple times during the game. Find a more exhaustive list here.

And now it's the turn of Ma1den who trave1s the P1anet.

The author of this novel based himself on the original dialogues and story of the OG and reinterpreted them adding some new elements to create a coherent narration (full of discrepancies that, ehm, have already been disproved years ago, like Aerith's age when she met Zack, Hojo being not really dead, Zack's personality being totally different from Crisis Core, Aerith already knowing about Zack's death, normal souls that should merge immediately in the Lifestream, Omnislash being not Zack's ability...not that this ever convinced anyone).

Correct me if I'm wrong, but...

There are no references at all in the whole game. Not a single word that inequivocally refers to this novel.

Not a word to hint the fact that bad people's souls will rot in the Lifestream and won't be part of it because their spirits are beyond redemption (like what happened in the novel to President Shinra and Hojo).

In the novel Biggs, Wedge and Jessie are tormented by the deaths caused by the explosion of Mako reactor n.1. Jessie feels guilty both in the OG and in the Remake but Biggs and Wedge don't show much regret and the Remake shows that Shinra caused the massive explosion of the reactor, not Jessie. But wasn't the Lifestream supposed to be the place where all knowledges are merged together? I may be wrong but this would suggest that Jessie would have known it after her death.

There are hints that suggest the Aerith of the resolution scene is the one who already died in the OG: she talks to Cloud as if they had passed a long time together, she talks about death and finally disappears in a sparkling greenish light.

It would have been a great scene to put any reference to Ma1den but...it didn't happen.

Well...wierd the devs forgot to mention just this entry...

What a coincidence.

Talk about a coincidence!

(Find the previous post here)

Tiny beautiful details: little CloTi hint

Final Fantasy universes are populated by all kind of fantastic creatures and monsters, like Moogles, Chocobos, Bahamuts, etc..

Cloud has always been compared to Chocobos by fans because of his hairstyle. In the OG Tifa points out this resemblance.

In Chapter 9 of the Remake Chocobo Sam compares Tifa to a Bomb. The name of the side quest is A dynamite body so we can guess the reason of his comment.

Interestingly enough, in the OG Tifa compares Cloud to a Chocobo when the group finds the bird’s nest on the way to Mt Corel, and the “Bombs” could be fought for the first time on the bridge in Mt. Corel.

---

The following picture is Tifa’s key art for Final Fantasy VII Remake. She is wearing her default weapon, the Leather Gloves. Their description is: Well-worn leather gloves that have seen their fair share of fights. It implies that she’s had them for a long time.

...Now let’s take a closer look at her bracelets

Do I need to add anything else?

EDIT:

Sure I do!!! In Chapter 10, when Aerith and Tifa talk about going shopping together, Aerith sais Cloud will be their pack-Chocobo!

...What a coincidence!