The Medium of Videogames – Final Fantasy VII
Videogames are things I feel very passionately about. I can passionately hate them or love them. I think they’re an underrated form of expression and aren’t as recognised as books or films. So, because of this, I have a real desire to analyse a particular videogame that I feel very strongly about: ‘Final Fantasy VII’. I’ll begin with the fan-desired sequel that it spawned: the movie ‘Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children’.
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children differs from most films based on videogames because, essentially, this is a continuation of the story of the original videogame told through another medium; Film. It is not just another ‘videogame to film’ made “for the sake of it”. For example; Doom or Resident Evil which, although being good films, were not worthy of note and are not as true to the games they are based upon, whereas Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is true to Final Fantasy VII. There is purpose behind its creation.
Advent Children DVD Cover
It is completely impossible to watch the film and give it any justice without having played and understood the original videogame to its fullest. The game is more influential than any book I’ve read or film I’ve seen. The film ‘Advent Children’ merely explores what is created in the original videogame, so this is not what I will dwell on. It is the game that is most important, yet is still a greatly misunderstood medium of storytelling.
Final Fantasy VII was developed by Square Co. Ltd (now known as Square-Enix) and was published by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. It is an RPG (role-playing game) and is based around active time battles, compelling storylines and statistics. It, in a way, is an interactive story, not dissimilar to a book in itself. It just uses imagery to convey some things, making videogames perfect to be made into films, if done well and done correctly. Final Fantasy VII is by no means a normal videogame however, so its change to film was not exactly going to be classic cliché.
Final Fantasy VII Cover
The history in the game can be easily related to occurring events in today’s world. A city names Wutai in the game is oriental based and was waged war upon by the mega-corporation ShinRa as a means to force them into accepting their plan to use the Lifestream as an energy source, feeding the world with electricity etc. The Lifestream I must quickly explain is the river of life that flows through the planet and which all humans return to when they die, feeding the planet and keeping it alive. Such abuse by the ShinRa corporation (roughly translated as ‘God corporation’) represents the lack of care for nature today when it comes to global business and industrial movements. Remember though, this was made many years before certain outbreaks in today’s world (1997).
Some aspects involved in the game that relate to modern-day living almost seem like a premonition. Also, when you consider Japan’s history with the United States you can begin to understand why some of the conventions are present. The cultural codes really show in this game. Although it is Japanese created it was intended for American audiences to decipher the philosophies they were attempting to create in their work.
ShinRa Logo
The art director refers to the game’s atmosphere as “strong and dark”, achieved through lighting effects that he considers “the darkest of darkest”, and a story that emphasised realism while drawing on a variety of myths, legends, and religious and philosophical systems to “use as a framework for loftier ethical aspirations and ecologically conscious evangelism”. Clearly more than your average videogame. These concepts were reflected in names, such as ‘Sephiroth’ which involves transcriptions from the Kabbalah, also in Cloud’s personal conflicts (the main protagonist who I‘ll discuss later on), the permanence of Aerith’s death (having a playable character who you grow to love taken away from gameplay permanently) and the plot element of the Lifestream.
The purpose of the game (holding such an emotional tie to real life, death and birth) was so compelling to the creators that they delayed the game’s release from December 1996 to January 1997 so that they could make several additions the to gameplay and story for the game’s North American release. The creators themselves translated the text so that the game’s philosophy would not be lost in cultural codes via shoddy mistranslation. This is how deeply the story behind the story of the game affects those that understand it.
Aerith's Death
Barret is a perfect example of some of the myths surrounding black videogame characters. His appearance is almost identical to Mr T from ‘The A-Team’. They exploit the stereotype throughout the game with him being the most leading character up until a point where you delve into his past, discover the reason for his gun-arm, which is grafted where his arm should be. Basically, once the obviousness of his strength, his gun, is stripped away, he starts to show emotions not of anger or courage but despair and sadness and regret. Still though, the patriarchy remains and he always wants to protect those that follow him and especially his daughter who is his reason for fighting against ShinRa and what they are doing to the planet. This challenges the audiences myth for that ‘type’ of black man.
ShinRa Hierarchy
The game purposefully has a few inspirations of its own, most noticeably the characters Biggs and Wedge which share their names from two characters in Star Wars. A film most of the targeted audience will know. This is an attempt to connect with the player of the game. It is one of the very few connections that one Final Fantasy game has with another and is always known as the most obvious tie-in between Final Fantasy and Star Wars. In Star Wars, Biggs was Luke’s good buddy from Tatooine. When Luke runs into Biggs right before the Death Star battle, Luke is thrilled. Soon enough, most of the rebels have been blown out of the sky. Luke prepares for his run at the Death Star, and his two wingmen are Biggs and Wedge. Wedge Antilles gets shot and pulls out. Biggs stays with Luke and is killed. In most Final Fantasy games, the two randomly show up in different spots during each game as sort of homage.
In Final Fantasy VII, They both show up right at the beginning as members of the Rebel Alliance called ‘AVALANCHE’ of which Cloud is a new member and the team is led by Barret.
Biggs has a line mourning those who lost their lives to bring in some information, “Think of how many people risked their lives, just for this code…” just like the character Mon Mothma has in the Star Wars series. In Final Fantasy VII, you (the player) and your rebel group (‘AVALANCHE’) are fighting the evil Corporation (‘ShinRa Inc.’) who is killing planets (sucking out the life force of the planet) with their technology. Coincidence?
Star Wars Influence
Jenova is a being that crashed onto the planet over two-thousand years ago bringing the ancient race of the Cetra to the brink of insanity. It did this by posing as their deceased loved ones using it’s unique ability to change it’s shape and ‘Reunite’ it’s cells if they are separated. This is called ‘The Reunion Theory’ and the ‘Reunion’ takes place during the entire course of the videogame.
Jenova was sealed away by a few remaining Cetra and during the years that past, most of the Cetra died out and a new race of humans lived on who did not have as much of a spiritual connection with the life of the planet as the Cetra did. Then, a few years before the game begins, the Shin-Ra electric power company found Jenova and began experimenting on her. This leads us to Sephiroth.
Sephiroth
Sephiroth is a man whom Hojo (who worked at ShinRa) experimented on by injecting Jenova cells into his mother’s womb and therefore into Sephiroth’s unborn foetus. However, Sephiroth eventually misinterpreted his findings about his birth and came to think that Jenova was actually his mother. He went insane, hating ShinRa and eventually hating everything.
Jenova = Jehova + Nova = New God
The game explored ideas such as:
- Vast misinterpretation, leading to catastrophic events way out of proportion; (Sephiroth summoning a meteor to smash into the earth, then absorbing the life stream that would seal the wound of the planet and becoming a ’God’).
- Birth, life and death; (the main protagonists discovery that his memories were in fact not his own but those of his best friend whose life he took over, unable to cope after his friend had been killed. His eventually recovery of those memories through a state of vegetation and rebirth and ultimately his complete revolutionary understanding after thwarting Sephiroth’s plan.
- Influence; (the truth that since Jenova came to the planet over two thousand years ago she subliminally influenced the creation of ShinRa, it’s army, the ability to use the Lifestream as an energy source, the creation of Sephiroth and the almost destruction of the planet and all life on it).
Connotations to the outlook people can have on America can mostly be seen through the words and actions of Rufus Shinra, the president of ShinRa Inc. A famous quote is as follows: “A little fear will control the minds of the common people.”
Rufus Shinra
All he has to do is invoke fear into the hearts of those he deals with and provides energy, security and basic living to; the general public of Midgar (the city in which the Shinra corporation resides). Most Americans live in fear of terrorism today and such things are not yet fully explainable, but this is one example of how Final Fantasy has had a view on the present, even though it is the past that once held its original allusions.
What it all comes down to in the end (and few people pick up on this, especially with only playing through the entire game just once) is that there never really is a true antagonist other than Jenova, the instinctual extraterrestrial life form that crashed onto the planet many years ago. It is incapable of conscious thought, it is merely a parasite. Every seemingly antagonistic character in the game is only seen through one perspective. In the end everyone is only doing what they do for what they believe in, but only one answer shines true.
This is a very controversial concept of religion. Complete subliminal influence on the lives of those that live blindly in it’s wake, believing in it because they are told to. This is the essence of the character of Jenova, yet who is not a ‘character’ in the true sense of the word. She only speaks five words in the entire forty-nine hours of gameplay and it is only said once: “…because you are a puppet.”
Jenova Dialogue
References from:
(2005) in Studio BentStuff: Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Ω (in Japanese). Square Enix, 57. ISBN 4-7575-1520-0.
(2005) in Studio BentStuff: Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Ω (in Japanese). Square Enix, 198. ISBN 4-7575-1520-0.
(2005) in Studio BentStuff: Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Ω (in Japanese). Square Enix, 591. ISBN 4-7575-1520-0.
The Final Fantasy VII Citadel site staff (2005).
Hironobu Sakaguchi Interview.
The Final Fantasy VII Citadel.
Vestal, Andrew (1998). The History of Final Fantasy. GameSpot. Retrieved on August 10, 2006.
http://www.noiresensus.com/bookshelf/ff7/site/quotes.html
