As someone who took until my pre-teen years to get into RPG's I remember just hearing the story of this game from a friend that loved it and my reaction of, "That's all in this one game?!?"
There is nothing taken from jewish religion. Why would japanese game makers take inspiration from jewish religion?? Absurd. This guy talking in this video is a jew himself and he tries to make himself feel good by trying to create a connection with his favorite game and his religion. Its just sad. How some jews try to make themselves seem relevant.
The lore is so great because it synergizes so well with the gameplay revolving around materia which affects the everyday lives of the characters of FFVII. The other games did not do this quite as well. GFs in FFVIII didn't make sense and the sphere grid in FFX was not even really talked about as a tangible thing. But materia felt 100% a part of the world.
There is nothing taken from jewish religion. Why would japanese game makers take inspiration from jewish religion?? Absurd. This guy talking in this video is a jew himself and he tries to make himself feel good by trying to create a connection with his favorite game and his religion. Its just sad. How some jews try to make themselves seem relevant.
How exactly did GFs in FF8 not make sense? They are faustian psychopomps. That was readily explained in the game and it's a beautiful "deal with the devil" system imo.
@@EzekielGoldbergII because it is suggested they are so common that SEED initiates will have up to 3 before they even take the test, yet it is never explained whether other people can also use the GF that the main characters use, nor are there that many GF actually shown in the game. Especially compared to other final fantasy games, despite them apparently being so commonplace in FFVIII.
@@TheRetroPerspective The fact that they're so common makes the plot twist later in the game nonsensical, since if most SeeD initiates have up to 3 GFs before their first exam, their amnesia side effect would be well documented and not a rumor, or Gardens take an impossible amount of effort to cover up something that just about every one of their students is going through. Selphie discovered a GF and junctioned it when she was a child and we have no idea what GF that was. Griever is "in Squall's mind, the strongest GF", so did he hear about it or did he just make it up? Why did no one else have this GF until Ultimecia pulled it literally from his mind? Unfortunately it's not like in FFX, where different summoners can clearly draw from the same Fayth and summon the same Aeon to say that the few GFs we have can be junctioned to more than one person. According to gameplay, they clearly cannot.
Hey. couple of small things, as an israeli/native hebrew speaker. Sephirhoth=spheres Einsof means infinity (ein=no, sof=end) Adam kadmon means ancient man (Adam=person/human, Kadmon=ancient). It's basicly how we say prehistoric man. Shevirat hakelim=breaking of the tools/dishes. Shvira/shevira=breaking, kelim=tools/dishes Tikun=fixing. Tiferet= splendor/glory Hod is a bit tricky to translate, it's roughly glory as well just Netzach=eternity Chokmah=wisdom Chesed=grace or mercy All of these are not implying the mythology means anything diffrent, just that the direct translation to hebrew is as I wrote, dictionary wise.
Fun fact: The first draft of the social dynamics between the characters during development of FF7 had one character in it who was split up into Tifa and Aerith. So that would be a further connection to the way their names are derived from the same word!
There is nothing taken from jewish religion. Why would japanese game makers take inspiration from jewish religion?? Absurd. This guy talking in this video is a jew himself and he tries to make himself feel good by trying to create a connection with his favorite game and his religion. Its just sad. How some jews try to make themselves seem relevant.
@@dante1nero1 nah i am totally fine buddy. And the issue here is not " lots of different religions" , but the video author clearly made a claim that everything in ff 7 came from the jewish religion, and with that i disagree.
@@tanelviil9149 Sorry bud. I come from an antisemic country. I have little exposure to what Judaism is growing up. But playing FF7 as a teenager, the name Sephiroth is pretty damn weird. All i had to google it and, what do you know? Sephiroth is tied directly to Judaism. Not Buddism, not Islam. So no matter how you look at it, FF7 is definitely "inspired" by this religion.
It'd be cool if they made some games in the main series that followed a little closer to the game play and ascetic designs used in the first ten games.. I'm glad they try new stuff, but I kind of want to play a jrpg with modern graphics and 90's esoteric themes... Any recommendations?
When I played FF 7 years ago as a teenager, It was the most complete FF I have ever played, in terms of story, characters, also trying to stop Sephiroth from ruling over Midgard, I didn't realize religion, culture, and phycology we're woven into the game back then, now I can see how it helped make one of the best games I've ever played, thank you Max Derrat for showing me what helped make the best Final Fantasy ✌️
There is nothing taken from jewish religion. Why would japanese game makers take inspiration from jewish religion?? Absurd. This guy talking in this video is a jew himself and he tries to make himself feel good by trying to create a connection with his favorite game and his religion. Its just sad. How some jews try to make themselves seem relevant.
@@tanelviil9149 please say sike.. please lol. There's NGE (tv/movie series), and SMT has always incorporated religious themes. Heck, the **(spoilers) final boss of P5R is named Adam Kadmon.**
@@tanelviil9149 wtf you talking about dude? The writers take a lot of things from a lot of different cultures. The song : one winged angel literally has Latin in it…
I'm glad to see a recent player of FF appreciate VII. Its my favourite game of all time. I was 8 when it came out, I'd never played an RPG and it was a fair challenge. The story, themes and character development was a lot more complex than anything I'd ever encountered at school. I went to the FFVII remake music tour in London recently, and I struggle to hold back my tears. I also enjoyed the remake a lot. I hope part II doesn't stray too far from the original. But the music in Part 1 was UNBELIEVABLE.
As a player and fan of the 8bit ff games. FF9 when it arrived to limited fanfare was absolutely a love letter to the history of final fantasy and its own unique lore and style. The departure from ff8 into a pure fantasy and magic based world up to and including the score was a deliberate call back to the origins of the franchise.
There is nothing taken from jewish religion. Why would japanese game makers take inspiration from jewish religion?? Absurd. This guy talking in this video is a jew himself and he tries to make himself feel good by trying to create a connection with his favorite game and his religion. Its just sad. How some jews try to make themselves seem relevant.
@@tanelviil9149 It's long been common for the Final Fantasy games to draw inspiration from many different religions. Why the hell are you being so anti-Semitic? It's disgusting and I'm surprised no one else has called you out for it.
It's funny you say this. When i was younger i was hardcore about ff7 and hated ff9 because it was too different and not gritty enough. But after going back and playing through it(twice back to back lol), its my favorite ff. It really is incredible!
Damn, I remember getting this for my birthday back in the day right when it was released. I can still remember how blown my young mind was just playing through it. And that FF theme always gets to me.
Final Fantasy VII is truly the lucky 7th. I first played it in ‘99, and my perspective on most things that matter in life changed forever. As a practitioner of Kabbalah, your presentation of the basic foundation, explaining the terms and concepts was superb, and expanding on the symbolism and parallels had me glued. Thank you for the nostalgic trip into my favorite story complemented parallels drawn to my spiritual practice. Addendum: 10:45 the number “72” mainly deals with the 72 names of God - another aspect of Kabbalah
I could watch stuff like this all day. You’ve got a subscriber in me for sure. I’ll check your video library but deep dives into FF7-10, FF12, Xenogears, Chrono trigger, chrono cross, wild arms, parasite Eve, etc. would all be highly requested by this subscriber!
@@maxderrat Yes plz do the chrono series, i absolutely love them. Even though chrono cross kinda confused me a bit. But i was a kid so yeah. Anyways i love ur videos & i was just about to ask for an analysis on the chrono series when i stumbled upon this comment. Keep up the good work dude. :)
There is nothing taken from jewish religion. Why would japanese game makers take inspiration from jewish religion?? Absurd. This guy talking in this video is a jew himself and he tries to make himself feel good by trying to create a connection with his favorite game and his religion. Its just sad. How some jews try to make themselves seem relevant.
@@tanelviil9149 Are you some kind of nazi? You seem awfully determined to undermine the very REAL conncetions FF7 has to Judaism. Now I'll admit there are a couple things he said that are a bit of a stretch but it doesn't change the fact that he DID do legitimate research, and DID find legitimate information. He also showed that information. You turn around and spew garbage with no evidence at all. Stop being a bigot.
@@Capnsensible80 I guess it's my personal favorite, too. I first played it on the SNES when it had just come out, and I think it's still the only one that I've actually beaten (years later on the GBA)
FF6 and 7 are tied for my favorite, second Favorite is 8. First FF I played was the original, FF1 but at the time I just rented it and didn't beat the game until years later. First FF I beat and really got into was FF4.
You mean that Tifa didn't existed and it was just Aerith and then they created Tifa along with the love triangle dynamic? Because that's what happened, not that an X character was divided into them.
@@Traigame2cervezas You are kind of right. I’ll try linking the video if I find it. So Aerith was one of the first created characters along with Cloud and Barret, but this was when Cloud’s design was that of Zack and Aeirth actually looked like Tifa, and Sephiroth looked like Vincent(I swear I’m being serious.) At said be point, things changed and they decided to change character designs as well as create new characters, that’s how Tifa was ultimately created, and Aerith was resigned.
@@Traigame2cervezas in the video THE FINAL FANTASY VII ICEBERG EXPLAINED at 24:35 the commentator explains this, but I would watch the hole thing, cause it’s a fun video.
@@Traigame2cervezas you mean Aerith was supposed to be Sephiroth's sister and/or lover? And you can't deal with the fact that clerith isn't going to happen?
The other thing is Final Fantasy games reference one another constantly, without being in the same universe. Characters with similar names, and some similar concepts show up in different games, but the settings are entirely disconnected from one another. There was a whole daft scene made when the Return to Ivalice storyline of Final Fantasy XIV came out and used settings and characters from Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy Tactics... however Final Fantasy XIV takes place in an entirely different continuity and people were trying to say the games were set in the same world even though in-universe histories of Hydaelyn and Ivalice are entirely different, as are their geographies. Not even that, but the lore for Ivalice in FF14 (which in FF14, Ivalice is a historical term used for the area of Othard that in the present-day is called Dalmasca) is entirely the reverse of the lore for Ivalice in FF12 and Tactics, where the FF12-inspired cities, locations and characters are in the present while the FF Tactics ones are part of ancient history so the two cannot possibly be in the same universe. This is probably the case with FF10-2 and FF7, where they made a reference to FF7's Shinra corp via a character, referenced FF7's story as a joke, then in FF7-Remake, went back and added a fun little reference to FF10-2's Shinra. The histories however do not line up, nor does the world geography of both settings. The same goes for Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy II. Both have towns called Mysidia and FF2 has a character called Ricard Highwind, and in FF4, Kain Highwind's dad was apparently called Ricard... apparently this is enough "evidence" to say both games are set within the same setting... erm, no. Completely different geography again (where's the Tower of Babil in FF2? If they were the same setting, that Tower should be in FF2 but it isn't. It's rather hard to miss), and considering if they were the same world then the events of FF2 would be fairly recent history in the same way the events of World War II are still recent history to us so there'd be some mention somewhere of the Palamecian Empire, the mass murder and destruction of most settlements in the world, Princess Hilda, Firion etc... except there isn't. It's just two little references to make a nod to Final Fantasy II (given FF2 was the first game with Dragoons and the only other game then with a Dragoon character), like most games in the series do with earlier games, it's practically a staple at this point. The one possible exception being Gilgamesh from Final Fantasy V when it comes to his other appearances, though it's more just the character and not the setting in that case. By the way, should clarify I'm not arguing with you, Max, I'm just addressing the common theory.
@@Azdaja13 for real! It seems like 99% of these either require depth beyond any of the most detailed novels and movies or Olympian-level mental gymnastics to pull off.
@@Azdaja13 With the Shinra reference, Kazushige Nojima suggested that the two games might be in the same universe, just not in the same world: the Shinra company was supposedly created by Al Bhed Shinra's descendants, who travelled from Spira to Gaia and brought with them the knowledge that allowed the technological advancement that made Shinra the superpower it is. This raises way more questions than it answers, though. That's why I personally have another theory: if the two games are indeed in the same universe, that means their worlds share the same lifestream. After Spira's life ended, its lifestream travelled through the cosmos and gave birth to Gaia, and the memories of those who lived there were reincarnated in the people in new planet, so the Shinra company was willingly or unwillingly created by a man who had the original Shinra's memories. We saw something like this happen in Lightning Returns' ending, where the old FFXIII world's lifestream was transferred to a new world, in this case Earth, and Lightning was reincarnated there as a regular French woman in modern times (I guess). A novel published afterwards revealed that all the FFXIII saga's cast was reincarnated, and a certain event that happens there restores their memories of what happened in the games.
"is entirely the reverse of the lore for Ivalice in FF12 and Tactics, where the FF12-inspired cities, locations and characters are in the present while the FF Tactics ones are part of ancient history so the two cannot possibly be in the same universe." If it's entirely the reverse, then you mean that FF12 is ancient history while FF Tactics is further in the future. It's evidenced by guns and airships being commonplace in 12 and Balthier's surname of Bunansa, where FFT has Mustadio and Besrodio (distant descendants) treat guns as a rarity and airships as ancient tech. But you repeated your previous point twice.
I am quite happy to hear you played and finished FF7! I too actually fully beat it this year and was left quite drained trying to take it all in. Wonderful Video as always!
@@Canadish Says "#cloti4ever" Remember that you can pause a video and advance through it frame by frame on desktop and laptop using the comma and period keys.
@@Canadish Also, on mobile or pc, you can change to .25x speed then, around the time, start pausing and playing continuously and should be able to pause it exactly during the frame it shows up
? Sure you can go on a date even with Barret (and i like Yuffie and Tifa [its been a few years last time i played so i may butcher some of the names]) but Aerith was the gf in the story pretty strongly i would say.
@@xxXXRAPXXxx i disagree, i think Tifa. Perhaps you are confounding how much Aerith obviously/overtly liked cloud for the writers intending her to be 'the gf' or for her attraction being reciprocated.
@@Windraesa "Writers intending her to be the gf or her attraction being reciprocated" Wait in a story what writers want is what is canon (you can ship what you want [like sailor moon being with goku] but canon is canon) and reciprocating attraction kinda hints that someone is interested in you/that person. So unless i did not understand you correctly i don't get your point there mate. Tifa is the usual "childhood friend" trope where you had a crush on her when you ware younger but she did not notice you untill you got older/stronger/more successful but by then you had found someone else that you love or whatever.
You've got to play FFVIII.. don't let the hate deter you, it's a great game worth playing. For the record, I go back and forth between FFVI and FFIX being my favorite in the series 🤠
FF7 is John Carpenter's The Thing but with magic and The Thing gets out of the Arctic. Actually when the Ancients fought Jenova it was probably pretty close to the movie.
I didn't get into FF7 until the Remake's demo came out. Hell, I only knew characters from their appearance in Kingdom Hearts: CoM. I'm glad I finally got to experience this masterpiece but I regret not experiencing it much sooner.
I am a devoted bass guitar player. One of the books that first greatly inspired me to learn more about playing bass guitar was called “The Bass Grimoire”. The name of its author is “Adam Kadmon”! 4:29 it’s a totally random and eerie coincidence.
It's funny you've made this video at this time, I have a University essay due this week in regards to the religious elements of the FF series, with a heavy emphasis on FF7. Keep up the good work.
Since I haven't seen anyone talk about it yet, I'll give my two cents on Hebrew Gematria and Hebrew itself. When you mention "Chesed" not adding up to 72 to correspond to Aerith's birthday, there were a few things that were overlooked about how the Hebrew language and its alphabet function. For starters: the written Hebrew language does not traditionally have vowels, with few exceptions. The biblical name of God is a good example of this because the vowel-less nature of written Hebrew has is an issue of whether Yahweh or Jehova is correct form. In Hebrew, the name of God is written as four consonants, יהוה, which can be equated to YHWH in Latin script. The reader is then supposed to infer what vowels go between each consonant if there are any. So in reality it's a game of fill in the blank and would more properly look like Y_H_W_H_. There's a lot of history that goes into how people derived these proposed names, but I won't get into it. But that's why there's a lot of disagreement on which is more correct because you have YaHWeH vs YeHoWaH (Jehova). So in reality most vowels don't really need to be included in these Latin script-based Gematria calculators (with few exceptions). Secondly, and arguably most importantly, is how the Hebrew (עברית) alphabet is transcribed into the Latin alphabet. I'd like to point out that you used a Gematria calculator that takes Latin script as opposed to Hebrew script. I highly encourage you try a Hebrew one. In Hebrew, there are two letters that represent the sound "H" can make . There is ה (pronounced "hay") and is often written as the equivalent of H. It is like the softer of the two and is more like a breathy H. Then there is ח (pronounced as "chet"). This one is more complicated because it's a letter English speakers don't have. It is a very guttural sound, like clearing your throat almost. So it is often transcribed as "ch". This is where the problem with the Gematria you attempted for Aerith lies. Because you weren't using Hebrew script, the Gematria calculator misinterpreted the "ch" in "chesed" as representative of two letters ("c" and "h", respectively), instead of one. In Hebrew, "chesed" is written as "חסד". Remember: Hebrew lacks vowels in many cases and is also written from right to left. ח = Ch ס = S ד =D So all together, it should be noted that "חסד" transliterated into Latin script would be written as "Ch-S-D" where you infer the vowel in between. This makes much more sense when you use Gematria on it because: ח = 8 ס = 60 ד = 4 in traditional Gematria. 8+60+4=72 Therefore, the correspondence bewteen the "chesed" and Aerith's birthday is correct. Sorry for the mini Hebrew lesson, but I thought it was worth mentioning for sake of it. You can try Gematria with Hebrew script at this website: www.torahcalc.com/gematria/
No need to apologize for the mini Hebrew lesson, I found it quite informative and interesting! So that would mean the other two names he entered would be just coincidence as he included the vowels in their calculation?
@@Capnsensible80 I speculate that the vowels don't have a Gematria value or if they did, they would be 0. The only exception to this would be the vowel "A". א (aleph or alef) is the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet and is often transliterated as "A" in Latin script. Except the thing about א is it's really unusual because it's an exception to the "no vowels" rule in written Hebrew. It is most commonly seen at the beginning of a word that starts with a vowel. Because there would be no way to distinguish if a vowel did or didn't start with a vowel. For example "אדם" ("Adam"; like the first man in the Bible) is written as A-D-M. Notice how there is a vowel written at the start of the word but not for the second vowel? If there wasn't a Hebrew letter for this placeholder vowel, it would be "דם" ("dam"; lit. "Blood"). Which would be written as D-M. But א isn't just equivalent to the letter A, it can be equivalent to other vowel sounds like E. א itself is silent and more like a placeholder or an indicator of a vowel rather than an actual letter. So it would have a Gematria value (it's 1 because it's the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet). But the other vowels likely would have a Gematria value of zero because there is no other letter for these vowels. There are some weirder exceptions where letters in Hebrew can also represent certain vowel sounds. The letter ו (vav or waw) makes a "v" sound in modern Hebrew and a "w" sound in old Hebrew. But it can also be used as a substitute for a written vowel. It can make a "o" or "u" sound in some cases. Take for instance דוד, transcribed as D-V-D. But since the vav is multifunctional, it can now be D-O-D or D-U-D. "דוד" can have three different pronunciations. The first is DaViD (like the King of Israel), where the vav stays a consonant and you fill in the space with vowels. Next is DOD, which means "Uncle". And third is DUD, which means "boiler". The last two are cases where the vav is written as if it were a consonant but in reality is used as substitute for a vowel. But because "ו" (vav) is a consonant by nature and not originally a vowel, Gematria calculators don't consider "O" or "U" as the same as it would for "V" or "W" because they didn't have unique letters. Lastly is י (yod or yud) which makes a y sound (like when Y is a consonant). But it can also stand in for an "i" vowel sound. I think it suffers from not being accepted by Gematria for the same reason as above. tl;dr Hebrew doesn't have unique letters for vowels except for "A" because it functions as placeholder to indicate a word begins with a vowel. So my guess is that this Latin script-based Gematria calculator assigns all vowels, except A, a value of 0 so it doesn't affect the outcome when calculating.
I remember when this game came out..it was ahead of it's time..beside of Gran turismo(part1),Crash 2,Colony wars,Castlevania Symphony of the Night..(1997) FF7 was mindblowing..
@@zacky7572 oh yes, of course the story is amazing. But I love how you pick all these small little details, and I think Xenogears has A LOT of these to offer. Your content is really amazing and if it weren't for me making only minimum wage I'd be a Patreon! I like how it seems that you're talking to a friwnd sitting next to you. And I don't know much about Xenosaga, but I know the series has many fans and probably a good story as well.
@@Rod_Silva I’m not Max Derret, FYI, although I agree with you concerning his video style. I just think the Xeno-verse, or whatever, is fascinating. As far as Xenosaga, the first game was solid. The story builds on the concepts of Xenogears, which is why I ended up reading it’s lore. The story is…scattered, but good. The second game was not very fun at all, so I quit and just read all the lore after the third game came out. It’s too bad, too, because the overall story conclusion seemed very satisfying.
First RPG I ever played, got the Playstation because the commercials were so amazing. Its an experience I could only have once in my life, but it was profound and will always be special to me, free from all comparison, to me it was number 1. Edit X is my second fav, hated 9, sorry but I never played past games to it was lost on me.
@@maxderrat Nice! I know FFVIII is not as popular as VI, VII, and IX, but it is probably my second favorite. The story was a mess, but it was a really interesting RPG to play. Plus, it arguably has the best opening sequence in the series.
@@zacky7572 Arguably the best soundtrack as well. It got me into learning Mandarin (because Faye Wong), which led me to eventually living in China for just over a year. Funny how stuff like that works out.
Hey Max, found your channel a few months ago and have really enjoyed your breakdowns of religious themes and iconography that appear in games and anime. Something that I've noticed pop up with a lot of consistency is how prevalent Gnosticism is in Japanese gaming, with easy examples being the Final Fantasy series, Persona, SMT, Xenogears, and many others. I'd love to see a video on why this seems to occur so often, or at least a little tidbit about Japan's history with Gnosticism in another video you may come out with in the future. The only answer I can seem to find is that it's an "easy" excuse to get the player to kill God but I'm sure there's a better answer out there than that. Keep up the awesome work man! Every time I get a notification from your channel it makes my day so much better!
I'm no Max, but this is just me theorizing for fun: Although Japanese city dwellers tend to be non-religious, Buddhism is one of the most popular religions in the Japanese countryside, and maybe places like Kyoto. Jodo Shinshu Buddhism in particular. Even if young people don't cling to these religious ideas, chances are, their grandparents still do. Buddhism in general contains the idea of escaping the cycle of reincarnation. The cycle of death and rebirth is often seen as "shackles" to people within Hindu and Buddhist faiths. I come from a Hindu background myself, so I'm decently versed in these matters. Within both Hindu and Buddhist communities, there are people who find kinship with the old ideas of Gnosticism. The subject of Gnostic beliefs comes up every once in awhile, as it almost seems as if Gnosticism is a little bit of eastern philosophy that made it's way west. The theme that there is a Lifestream-esque oneness consciousness/emptiness is prevalent in all three of the above religions i just mentioned. Fictional examples of this include: The Lifestream(FFVII) The Unseen Realm(FFXIII trilogy) The Planetary Crystal/The Void(multiple FF games) The Sea of Souls(Persona) The Wave Existence(Xenogears) These religions also share the idea that there is some kind of tyrannical Demiurge ego construct that is arrogantly keeping us from merging with our true nature. This demiurge also has a tendency to "shame" vulnerable feelings within a person, like the human ego often does. It uses illusions and defense mechanisms to keep us away from vulnerable experiences such as love and enlightenment. It also seems to keep us trapped in the cycle of reincarnation. Hinduism and Buddhism just chalks this up to the human ego and it's machinations, but Gnosticism goes ham on the idea that the Old Testament god is a giant expression of this tyrannical ego. Fictional examples of egoic-construct gods are: Jenova/Sephiroth(FFVII) Bhunivelze/Fal'Cie(FFXIII trilogy) Ameno-sagiri(Persona 4) Yaldabaoth(Persona 5) Deus(Xenogears) Breaking destructive and abusive cycles are also a part of the three religions as well as these games. Breaking the cycle of "samsara" and returning to something truer is the natural way. Buddhism, Taoism(a more minor influence in Japan), and Gnosticism also associate the ego/demiurge with the government. Basically, all authoritative entities are just giant expressions of fear and egoic control. This includes theocratic societies like the Roman Catholic Church, capitalist societies like Shinra, and Chinese Neo-Confucian societal rules that are prevalent in Chinese, Korean and Japanese cultures. All of these are seen as "systems of control" that are born out of egoic fear. All extentions of demiurge. Anyway, i could go on and on. But you get the picture: Its possible that Japan's Buddhist heritage is already compatible with Gnostic belief. Breaking cycles, letting go of the tyrannical ego, and returning to a more natural existence are themes that they both share. Combine that with Japan's tumultuous relationship with traditional Christianity, and emotionally suppressive Confucianism, and you might have a recipe for genuine Gnostic sentiment among Japanese artists who are well-read in the subject matter. Just a theory though.
Man, that first time looking in the container at the pink Jenova goo really fucked me up as a kid. I couldn't eat gelatin based salads and snacks for years.
I love the strange monster designs in this - like what's the deal with the monsters Gighee and Christopher in the Northern Crater? Some kid who got lost wearing a jester mask with his stuffed animal and decided to live with the Tonberrys? The conjoined experiment in the Shinra Mansion's basement is a cool bit of lore potential that never gets expanded on either - I like to imagine they were prototypes for Lost Number that couldn't coexist as well.
The Shinra connection could imply that the Al Bhed are the Ancients but lore-wise it's more likely the society that existed before Sin (Zanarkand/Bevelle). Btw I need more on this. I feel I could watch like an hour of it.
Great video with interesting timing as I just finished another playthrough of FF7. I have to say, some of the ideas here are new to me, despite me having been an FF7 fan for over 20 years so this was a very worthwhile watch.
Another great video from Maxx. The whole Shinra thing and trying to connect seven and ten, is a good example of why I basically hate fandoms. Movies, music, games, can be awesome... Then the fandom ruins it.
Love these videos. I mean, FF7 can suck it, but these are very interesting perspectives on these games. The religious motifs explained are incredibly interesting.
@@WindraesaQuite frankly, i think it's a terrible game. I thought it was the bestest thing ever made when i was like 12 and the game was new, but upon trying to replay it again...well, let's just say that i think most of the game didn't "age" particularly well. I'd say the game has 3 main issues. The first being the glacial pacing. The second being the boring and useless cast, and the third quite frankly being the fact that it's so much a product of it's time that it's almost unplayable. Then again, i never did play the remake, maybe i'd enjoy that better.
I can't believe I played this game when it was released back in '97, after a few years of waiting and the surprising news it was Playstation exclusive, not Nintendo, which made my choose PS0 as my next console. 25 years later, I keep thinking about this game, the story and the characters. It's truly one of the most important things in my life.
Theres a ton of concepts in this video that make me think of a series of yugioh cards that kind of told a story, first part was a Massive war to fight off an invasion which resulted in "Sophia, Goddess of Rebirth" resetting everything, leading to the eventual awakening of the Qliphort, terrifying machines residing in the Sacred Tree that housed the demonic Infernoid monsters. Pretty neat stuff.
I’m one of the guys that loves this one so much I’m not even thinking about the remake. I bought the ps1 because for this game. When Square left Nintendo I kinda just went along. There was a Teefa in Arcana also, another lore and mythos rich game. Man I wish it hadn’t been so fringe, id’ve loved a whole series of that style.
glad someone new got to ezxperience ff7 for the ffirst time. its such an amazing game and the whole thing brings back my childhood. i could sit and listen to ff7 music and menu sounds aallllll day stilll. the world is just a masterpiece
Play 6 too, ff6 and ff7 are my favorites. I like ff6 a little bit more, because I think it has the best characters, ff7 is a little bit cartoonist for my like, but both are my favorites of the series.
@@nintendude794 yes, the sephiroth theme and the kefka last battle music (dancing mad)... I shiver every time I hear. 3 games I think will be very difficult for square to top, FF6, FF7 and another favorite of mine FFT.
@@itsasecrettoeverybody check out the OCremix (OverClocked ReMix) tribute albums Voices Of The Lifestream (FF7) and Balance & Ruin (FF6) if you haven’t already! Both albums have a lot of great tracks, in many different styles.
It's incredible how one company was making two of the greatest games ever at the same time. They started this while they were still finishing FF6(/3), and each one is a strong candidate for the best game on its respective system.
I started playing rpgs in the early 90s, ff6/3, breath of fire etc. Then came ff7 and it was in 3d, dang the feeling was awesome. I'm glad I was one of those who got to experience that feeling.
Have you noticed that the black and white portal in ff7 remake to the edge of creation is basically the same as the portals in shadow of the colossus ps4 when wander kills a colossus and goes back to the temple except cloud goes through his faster than wander. Because I cant un-see it now lol, a homage maybe? It's pretty cool.
I love everything about this game. No game has had a bigger impact in my being as ff7. It is so spiritually profound. Its no surprise that cloud and i share the same birthday. I have the sensation that you will also fall in love with ff8.
Forever grateful to an old friend of mine who introduced me to final fantasy 7, I was about 8 years old at the time, but I fell in love with the game ❤
The first five minutes of this explanation, and I can't help but think, "Man, if only Max Derrat did a video on Persona 5 where the Demiurge and Adam Kadmon are stated outright in the text as literal characters in the game."
So, the worlds in Final Fantasy, all the series, are part of the same universe, maybe even all on the same planet, but separated by hundreds or thousands of years. You'll hear references to a great war hundreds or thousands of years ago in each one, and each of those war rumours and references are referring to another volume in the series, the wars often being why the world no longer holds the same shape as in another volume, but it is still similar with many cultural aspects surviving great cataclysmic events. Final Fantasy XV seems to be one of the earlier stories, so it's possible that each storyline is working backwards through time. The Final Fantasy moniker represents how each cycle the world faces destruction from those who seek greater and greater power for various reasons. To me the series is almost like a warning, or preparation for what will happen after technology reaches a certain point, a point that we are likely only a few short decades away from at most, where people will be able to create chimaera and essentially, through their experimentations, unleash monsters onto the world. There is a lot more to the Final Fantasy story that I feel like it is important to be aware of. Final Fantasy is similar to many religions, and it seems to me that the whole point of these religious beliefs and passed down information is to forewarn of what happens when a society becomes too technologically advanced and fails to create appropriate regulations in time to stop the mad scientists. Then, about a hundred years or more passes, society is kicked back a few notches because of whatever cataclysmic event was caused by those out of control corporations and mad scientists, and when we start to forget about it, new corporations and crazies pop up to start the cycle all over again after stumbling across some ancient tech they likely used to make themselves insanely wealthy. Anyway this comment is too long already, so in conclusion, I would like to say that it is highly likely that the world of Final Fantasy, and the world we find ourselves in are one and the same, and it's probably been about 5,000 years since our last major incident, and the Final Fantasy writers seem to believe that we may be fast approaching the next big cataclysm that reshapes the world, and, with a fairly full understanding of the current state of technology, CRISPR, Fusion, Antimatter, etc..., I'd say they are probably right.
I believe ff9 also has a ff7 Easter egg. If I remember right. In ff9 if you go to a certain weapon shop either Zidane or the shop owner mentions seeing a spiky haired guy carrying a large sword. It's been a while though so I may be mistaken.
8:15 - this was the point i wrote your theory off. There is no way Tifa had balance with those things! Only joking, great vid and some genuine lore i didnt realise about FF7
About Cloud's and Tifa's birthdays, jot sure if that holds up, most country's do day month year, in the USA its month day year, which is of course, weird.
I've never played FF7, but everything I hear about it makes me wish I had, back when it was still fresh and new. I had never heard about the Kabbalah influence either, so now you made it worse, Max. Thanks.
There is nothing taken from jewish religion. Why would japanese game makers take inspiration from jewish religion?? Absurd. This guy talking in this video is a jew himself and he tries to make himself feel good by trying to create a connection with his favorite game and his religion. Its just sad. How some jews try to make themselves seem relevant.
@@tanelviil9149 Sephiroth IS a term from kabbalah, one can take inspiration from other s culture. Yeah I get it, they rule the bank, but this doesn t mean you have to rage about it anytime they re mentioned, I guess
@@tanelviil9149 Japanese games love to explore various philosophies and infuse them into their stories. You can't shake a stick without hitting one, most of the time. I don't know if Max is Jewish, but based on what I've seen from him, your assessment is more telling of your outlook, rather than his. Twas quite a specific target in your gripe. Haha
The music in the game litterally changed my life. Its helped me through lots of hard times.
...glad to hear that..
i lost my girlfriend back then when it came out.
instead of meeting her for sunday breakfast at 7 am, i arrived at 7 pm.
@@dshoadsh 🤣
As someone who took until my pre-teen years to get into RPG's I remember just hearing the story of this game from a friend that loved it and my reaction of, "That's all in this one game?!?"
There is nothing taken from jewish religion. Why would japanese game makers take inspiration from jewish religion?? Absurd.
This guy talking in this video is a jew himself and he tries to make himself feel good by trying to create a connection with his favorite game and his religion.
Its just sad. How some jews try to make themselves seem relevant.
That was also my reaction when I first played it in 2017. I did CC first and wasn't expecting the main story to have such a wider scope
@@tanelviil9149 religious symbolism and themes are very popular in japanese games
@@freak4219 sure, but this is not what i argued.
@@freak4219 delusion is a helluva drug lol. It’s literally exactly what he argued, lmao. Can’t make this kind of comedy gold up.
The lore is so great because it synergizes so well with the gameplay revolving around materia which affects the everyday lives of the characters of FFVII. The other games did not do this quite as well. GFs in FFVIII didn't make sense and the sphere grid in FFX was not even really talked about as a tangible thing. But materia felt 100% a part of the world.
ffvi had the same with the espers and magicite! Chefs kiss level weaved into plot
There is nothing taken from jewish religion. Why would japanese game makers take inspiration from jewish religion?? Absurd.
This guy talking in this video is a jew himself and he tries to make himself feel good by trying to create a connection with his favorite game and his religion.
Its just sad. How some jews try to make themselves seem relevant.
How exactly did GFs in FF8 not make sense? They are faustian psychopomps. That was readily explained in the game and it's a beautiful "deal with the devil" system imo.
@@EzekielGoldbergII because it is suggested they are so common that SEED initiates will have up to 3 before they even take the test, yet it is never explained whether other people can also use the GF that the main characters use, nor are there that many GF actually shown in the game. Especially compared to other final fantasy games, despite them apparently being so commonplace in FFVIII.
@@TheRetroPerspective The fact that they're so common makes the plot twist later in the game nonsensical, since if most SeeD initiates have up to 3 GFs before their first exam, their amnesia side effect would be well documented and not a rumor, or Gardens take an impossible amount of effort to cover up something that just about every one of their students is going through.
Selphie discovered a GF and junctioned it when she was a child and we have no idea what GF that was.
Griever is "in Squall's mind, the strongest GF", so did he hear about it or did he just make it up? Why did no one else have this GF until Ultimecia pulled it literally from his mind?
Unfortunately it's not like in FFX, where different summoners can clearly draw from the same Fayth and summon the same Aeon to say that the few GFs we have can be junctioned to more than one person. According to gameplay, they clearly cannot.
Hey. couple of small things, as an israeli/native hebrew speaker.
Sephirhoth=spheres
Einsof means infinity (ein=no, sof=end)
Adam kadmon means ancient man (Adam=person/human, Kadmon=ancient). It's basicly how we say prehistoric man.
Shevirat hakelim=breaking of the tools/dishes. Shvira/shevira=breaking, kelim=tools/dishes
Tikun=fixing.
Tiferet= splendor/glory
Hod is a bit tricky to translate, it's roughly glory as well just
Netzach=eternity
Chokmah=wisdom
Chesed=grace or mercy
All of these are not implying the mythology means anything diffrent, just that the direct translation to hebrew is as I wrote, dictionary wise.
Fun fact: The first draft of the social dynamics between the characters during development of FF7 had one character in it who was split up into Tifa and Aerith. So that would be a further connection to the way their names are derived from the same word!
There is nothing taken from jewish religion. Why would japanese game makers take inspiration from jewish religion?? Absurd.
This guy talking in this video is a jew himself and he tries to make himself feel good by trying to create a connection with his favorite game and his religion.
Its just sad. How some jews try to make themselves seem relevant.
@@tanelviil9149 Obviously the franchise Final Fantasy takes a lot of inspiration from lots of different religions. You seem a little confused, buddy.
@@dante1nero1 nah i am totally fine buddy. And the issue here is not " lots of different religions" , but the video author clearly made a claim that everything in ff 7 came from the jewish religion, and with that i disagree.
@@tanelviil9149 Sorry bud. I come from an antisemic country. I have little exposure to what Judaism is growing up. But playing FF7 as a teenager, the name Sephiroth is pretty damn weird. All i had to google it and, what do you know? Sephiroth is tied directly to Judaism. Not Buddism, not Islam. So no matter how you look at it, FF7 is definitely "inspired" by this religion.
@@junjinwong8002 nah it is not
I'm glad you are enjoying the Final Fantasy games, they are a true treasure. A treasure so many people are missing out.
It'd be cool if they made some games in the main series that followed a little closer to the game play and ascetic designs used in the first ten games.. I'm glad they try new stuff, but I kind of want to play a jrpg with modern graphics and 90's esoteric themes...
Any recommendations?
When I played FF 7 years ago as a teenager, It was the most complete FF I have ever played, in terms of story, characters, also trying to stop Sephiroth from ruling over Midgard, I didn't realize religion, culture, and phycology we're woven into the game back then, now I can see how it helped make one of the best games I've ever played, thank you Max Derrat for showing me what helped make the best Final Fantasy ✌️
Sephiroth didn’t want just midgar… he wanted to use the planet as a vessel to travel the cosmos to find the promised land
There is nothing taken from jewish religion. Why would japanese game makers take inspiration from jewish religion?? Absurd.
This guy talking in this video is a jew himself and he tries to make himself feel good by trying to create a connection with his favorite game and his religion.
Its just sad. How some jews try to make themselves seem relevant.
@@tanelviil9149 please say sike.. please lol. There's NGE (tv/movie series), and SMT has always incorporated religious themes. Heck, the **(spoilers) final boss of P5R is named Adam Kadmon.**
@@MindfulProgramming nah bro you wrong.
@@tanelviil9149 wtf you talking about dude? The writers take a lot of things from a lot of different cultures. The song : one winged angel literally has Latin in it…
I'm glad to see a recent player of FF appreciate VII.
Its my favourite game of all time.
I was 8 when it came out, I'd never played an RPG and it was a fair challenge.
The story, themes and character development was a lot more complex than anything I'd ever encountered at school.
I went to the FFVII remake music tour in London recently, and I struggle to hold back my tears.
I also enjoyed the remake a lot. I hope part II doesn't stray too far from the original. But the music in Part 1 was UNBELIEVABLE.
As a diehard fan of FF7, my love of FF9 outshined 7 after playing all the games before it, it's basically a giant love letter to Final Fantasy
As a player and fan of the 8bit ff games. FF9 when it arrived to limited fanfare was absolutely a love letter to the history of final fantasy and its own unique lore and style.
The departure from ff8 into a pure fantasy and magic based world up to and including the score was a deliberate call back to the origins of the franchise.
There is nothing taken from jewish religion. Why would japanese game makers take inspiration from jewish religion?? Absurd.
This guy talking in this video is a jew himself and he tries to make himself feel good by trying to create a connection with his favorite game and his religion.
Its just sad. How some jews try to make themselves seem relevant.
9 and 13 are the only two games in the series I don’t like
@@tanelviil9149 It's long been common for the Final Fantasy games to draw inspiration from many different religions. Why the hell are you being so anti-Semitic? It's disgusting and I'm surprised no one else has called you out for it.
It's funny you say this. When i was younger i was hardcore about ff7 and hated ff9 because it was too different and not gritty enough. But after going back and playing through it(twice back to back lol), its my favorite ff. It really is incredible!
Damn, I remember getting this for my birthday back in the day right when it was released.
I can still remember how blown my young mind was just playing through it.
And that FF theme always gets to me.
Final Fantasy VII is truly the lucky 7th. I first played it in ‘99, and my perspective on most things that matter in life changed forever.
As a practitioner of Kabbalah, your presentation of the basic foundation, explaining the terms and concepts was superb, and expanding on the symbolism and parallels had me glued. Thank you for the nostalgic trip into my favorite story complemented parallels drawn to my spiritual practice.
Addendum: 10:45 the number “72” mainly deals with the 72 names of God - another aspect of Kabbalah
I could watch stuff like this all day. You’ve got a subscriber in me for sure. I’ll check your video library but deep dives into FF7-10, FF12, Xenogears, Chrono trigger, chrono cross, wild arms, parasite Eve, etc. would all be highly requested by this subscriber!
Xenogears is definitely coming soon... then after that, I imagine would be Chrono Trigger/Cross.
@@maxderrat Yes plz do the chrono series, i absolutely love them. Even though chrono cross kinda confused me a bit. But i was a kid so yeah. Anyways i love ur videos & i was just about to ask for an analysis on the chrono series when i stumbled upon this comment. Keep up the good work dude. :)
There is nothing taken from jewish religion. Why would japanese game makers take inspiration from jewish religion?? Absurd.
This guy talking in this video is a jew himself and he tries to make himself feel good by trying to create a connection with his favorite game and his religion.
Its just sad. How some jews try to make themselves seem relevant.
@@tanelviil9149 Are you some kind of nazi? You seem awfully determined to undermine the very REAL conncetions FF7 has to Judaism.
Now I'll admit there are a couple things he said that are a bit of a stretch but it doesn't change the fact that he DID do legitimate research, and DID find legitimate information. He also showed that information. You turn around and spew garbage with no evidence at all. Stop being a bigot.
You should keep going backwards and play 6 next. It's a really different kind of game from what came later and it also has a good amount of lore
6 is still my favorite, but admittedly a lot of the reason is probably nostalgia lol
@@Capnsensible80 I guess it's my personal favorite, too. I first played it on the SNES when it had just come out, and I think it's still the only one that I've actually beaten (years later on the GBA)
FF6 and 7 are tied for my favorite, second Favorite is 8. First FF I played was the original, FF1 but at the time I just rented it and didn't beat the game until years later. First FF I beat and really got into was FF4.
6 is the goat of gaming
@@Capnsensible80 same. I absolutely adore VI even more than VII. It's so satisfying to beat and I replay it every couple years.
The “Tifareth” spelling is interesting, especially since in early design of the game, Tifa and Aerith’s characters were the same.
You mean that Tifa didn't existed and it was just Aerith and then they created Tifa along with the love triangle dynamic? Because that's what happened, not that an X character was divided into them.
@@Traigame2cervezas You are kind of right. I’ll try linking the video if I find it. So Aerith was one of the first created characters along with Cloud and Barret, but this was when Cloud’s design was that of Zack and Aeirth actually looked like Tifa, and Sephiroth looked like Vincent(I swear I’m being serious.) At said be point, things changed and they decided to change character designs as well as create new characters, that’s how Tifa was ultimately created, and Aerith was resigned.
@@Traigame2cervezas in the video THE FINAL FANTASY VII ICEBERG EXPLAINED at 24:35 the commentator explains this, but I would watch the hole thing, cause it’s a fun video.
@@Traigame2cervezas you mean Aerith was supposed to be Sephiroth's sister and/or lover? And you can't deal with the fact that clerith isn't going to happen?
Shipping wars... shipping wars never change.
FFX made a cameo in the mobile remake FFVII: Ever Crisis, as a blitzball on the beach of the Costa Del Sol, during the summer watermelon bash event.
As a fan of VII or Final Fantasy period, YOU...BLEW...MY...MIND. I'm glad I discovered your channel.
The other thing is Final Fantasy games reference one another constantly, without being in the same universe. Characters with similar names, and some similar concepts show up in different games, but the settings are entirely disconnected from one another. There was a whole daft scene made when the Return to Ivalice storyline of Final Fantasy XIV came out and used settings and characters from Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy Tactics... however Final Fantasy XIV takes place in an entirely different continuity and people were trying to say the games were set in the same world even though in-universe histories of Hydaelyn and Ivalice are entirely different, as are their geographies. Not even that, but the lore for Ivalice in FF14 (which in FF14, Ivalice is a historical term used for the area of Othard that in the present-day is called Dalmasca) is entirely the reverse of the lore for Ivalice in FF12 and Tactics, where the FF12-inspired cities, locations and characters are in the present while the FF Tactics ones are part of ancient history so the two cannot possibly be in the same universe. This is probably the case with FF10-2 and FF7, where they made a reference to FF7's Shinra corp via a character, referenced FF7's story as a joke, then in FF7-Remake, went back and added a fun little reference to FF10-2's Shinra. The histories however do not line up, nor does the world geography of both settings. The same goes for Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy II. Both have towns called Mysidia and FF2 has a character called Ricard Highwind, and in FF4, Kain Highwind's dad was apparently called Ricard... apparently this is enough "evidence" to say both games are set within the same setting... erm, no. Completely different geography again (where's the Tower of Babil in FF2? If they were the same setting, that Tower should be in FF2 but it isn't. It's rather hard to miss), and considering if they were the same world then the events of FF2 would be fairly recent history in the same way the events of World War II are still recent history to us so there'd be some mention somewhere of the Palamecian Empire, the mass murder and destruction of most settlements in the world, Princess Hilda, Firion etc... except there isn't. It's just two little references to make a nod to Final Fantasy II (given FF2 was the first game with Dragoons and the only other game then with a Dragoon character), like most games in the series do with earlier games, it's practically a staple at this point. The one possible exception being Gilgamesh from Final Fantasy V when it comes to his other appearances, though it's more just the character and not the setting in that case.
By the way, should clarify I'm not arguing with you, Max, I'm just addressing the common theory.
They do it with FFIII and FFVIII supposedly in the same universe, as well. One of the big "clues": a clock in VIII with the hands pointing at 3 and 8.
@@justinblair9661 Oh my god. xD
@@Azdaja13 for real! It seems like 99% of these either require depth beyond any of the most detailed novels and movies or Olympian-level mental gymnastics to pull off.
@@Azdaja13
With the Shinra reference, Kazushige Nojima suggested that the two games might be in the same universe, just not in the same world: the Shinra company was supposedly created by Al Bhed Shinra's descendants, who travelled from Spira to Gaia and brought with them the knowledge that allowed the technological advancement that made Shinra the superpower it is.
This raises way more questions than it answers, though. That's why I personally have another theory: if the two games are indeed in the same universe, that means their worlds share the same lifestream. After Spira's life ended, its lifestream travelled through the cosmos and gave birth to Gaia, and the memories of those who lived there were reincarnated in the people in new planet, so the Shinra company was willingly or unwillingly created by a man who had the original Shinra's memories.
We saw something like this happen in Lightning Returns' ending, where the old FFXIII world's lifestream was transferred to a new world, in this case Earth, and Lightning was reincarnated there as a regular French woman in modern times (I guess). A novel published afterwards revealed that all the FFXIII saga's cast was reincarnated, and a certain event that happens there restores their memories of what happened in the games.
"is entirely the reverse of the lore for Ivalice in FF12 and Tactics, where the FF12-inspired cities, locations and characters are in the present while the FF Tactics ones are part of ancient history so the two cannot possibly be in the same universe."
If it's entirely the reverse, then you mean that FF12 is ancient history while FF Tactics is further in the future. It's evidenced by guns and airships being commonplace in 12 and Balthier's surname of Bunansa, where FFT has Mustadio and Besrodio (distant descendants) treat guns as a rarity and airships as ancient tech. But you repeated your previous point twice.
This game blew my fourteen-year-old mind when it came out, can't wait for the nostalgia
I am quite happy to hear you played and finished FF7! I too actually fully beat it this year and was left quite drained trying to take it all in. Wonderful Video as always!
This is great, Max. Also, your exploration of Gnosticism has helped me to better understand P5 and P5R. Your mind works in incredible ways.
It's that one frame at 9:12 that lets me know that Max is a true fan of FF7.
No matter how much I try pause it, I can't catch it. What's it say?
@@Canadish Says "#cloti4ever"
Remember that you can pause a video and advance through it frame by frame on desktop and laptop using the comma and period keys.
@@Canadish Also, on mobile or pc, you can change to .25x speed then, around the time, start pausing and playing continuously and should be able to pause it exactly during the frame it shows up
FF 7 is the reason I got into the Final Fantasy games. I was so hooked on that game. I got hooked like crack addict
Final Fantasy 7 was epic but wait till you see Xenogears
Wonderful analysis. The only nitpick I could have, is that, technically, Cloud has not officially been tied to any of the girls. :)
? Sure you can go on a date even with Barret (and i like Yuffie and Tifa [its been a few years last time i played so i may butcher some of the names]) but Aerith was the gf in the story pretty strongly i would say.
@@xxXXRAPXXxx I definitely feel that way too, but I do hope Square one day comes out and makes an undeniable statement about it in the story.
@@xxXXRAPXXxx i disagree, i think Tifa. Perhaps you are confounding how much Aerith obviously/overtly liked cloud for the writers intending her to be 'the gf' or for her attraction being reciprocated.
@@Windraesa "Writers intending her to be the gf or her attraction being reciprocated" Wait in a story what writers want is what is canon (you can ship what you want [like sailor moon being with goku] but canon is canon) and reciprocating attraction kinda hints that someone is interested in you/that person. So unless i did not understand you correctly i don't get your point there mate. Tifa is the usual "childhood friend" trope where you had a crush on her when you ware younger but she did not notice you untill you got older/stronger/more successful but by then you had found someone else that you love or whatever.
You should really play Xenogears. Your explanation of Adam Kadmon actually helped me understand an aspect of the Xenogears story.
You've got to play FFVIII.. don't let the hate deter you, it's a great game worth playing.
For the record, I go back and forth between FFVI and FFIX being my favorite in the series 🤠
Your analyses are so brilliant, thank you for this. I'd love to see you tackle Xenoblade one day.
for those who gno; the Demiurge shall fall
I hope 🙏 they have a [remake] "Advent Children" Episode/movie.
Finally..you expressed in words my feelings about FF7, THNKS Bro
Amazing content in this video! Great angles I’ve never considered. Love it.
FF7 is John Carpenter's The Thing but with magic and The Thing gets out of the Arctic. Actually when the Ancients fought Jenova it was probably pretty close to the movie.
I didn't get into FF7 until the Remake's demo came out. Hell, I only knew characters from their appearance in Kingdom Hearts: CoM. I'm glad I finally got to experience this masterpiece but I regret not experiencing it much sooner.
I am a devoted bass guitar player. One of the books that first greatly inspired me to learn more about playing bass guitar was called “The Bass Grimoire”. The name of its author is “Adam Kadmon”! 4:29 it’s a totally random and eerie coincidence.
Wow dude. This does indeed go beyond the usual trivia compilation or facilic plot synopsis that other videos convey. Great work!
It's funny you've made this
video at this time, I have a University essay due this week in regards to the religious elements of the FF series, with a heavy emphasis on FF7. Keep up the good work.
Did you get to choose the essay topic yourself or was it assigned as part of the class? And if it was assigned by the class, what class is this for?
@@EternalSilverDragon chosen and it's a course called popular culture in religion
Since I haven't seen anyone talk about it yet, I'll give my two cents on Hebrew Gematria and Hebrew itself.
When you mention "Chesed" not adding up to 72 to correspond to Aerith's birthday, there were a few things that were overlooked about how the Hebrew language and its alphabet function. For starters: the written Hebrew language does not traditionally have vowels, with few exceptions. The biblical name of God is a good example of this because the vowel-less nature of written Hebrew has is an issue of whether Yahweh or Jehova is correct form. In Hebrew, the name of God is written as four consonants, יהוה, which can be equated to YHWH in Latin script. The reader is then supposed to infer what vowels go between each consonant if there are any. So in reality it's a game of fill in the blank and would more properly look like Y_H_W_H_. There's a lot of history that goes into how people derived these proposed names, but I won't get into it. But that's why there's a lot of disagreement on which is more correct because you have YaHWeH vs YeHoWaH (Jehova). So in reality most vowels don't really need to be included in these Latin script-based Gematria calculators (with few exceptions).
Secondly, and arguably most importantly, is how the Hebrew (עברית) alphabet is transcribed into the Latin alphabet. I'd like to point out that you used a Gematria calculator that takes Latin script as opposed to Hebrew script. I highly encourage you try a Hebrew one.
In Hebrew, there are two letters that represent the sound "H" can make . There is ה (pronounced "hay") and is often written as the equivalent of H. It is like the softer of the two and is more like a breathy H. Then there is ח (pronounced as "chet"). This one is more complicated because it's a letter English speakers don't have. It is a very guttural sound, like clearing your throat almost. So it is often transcribed as "ch". This is where the problem with the Gematria you attempted for Aerith lies. Because you weren't using Hebrew script, the Gematria calculator misinterpreted the "ch" in "chesed" as representative of two letters ("c" and "h", respectively), instead of one. In Hebrew, "chesed" is written as "חסד". Remember: Hebrew lacks vowels in many cases and is also written from right to left.
ח = Ch
ס = S
ד =D
So all together, it should be noted that "חסד" transliterated into Latin script would be written as "Ch-S-D" where you infer the vowel in between. This makes much more sense when you use Gematria on it because:
ח = 8
ס = 60
ד = 4
in traditional Gematria.
8+60+4=72
Therefore, the correspondence bewteen the "chesed" and Aerith's birthday is correct.
Sorry for the mini Hebrew lesson, but I thought it was worth mentioning for sake of it.
You can try Gematria with Hebrew script at this website: www.torahcalc.com/gematria/
No need to apologize for the mini Hebrew lesson, I found it quite informative and interesting! So that would mean the other two names he entered would be just coincidence as he included the vowels in their calculation?
@@Capnsensible80 I speculate that the vowels don't have a Gematria value or if they did, they would be 0. The only exception to this would be the vowel "A". א (aleph or alef) is the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet and is often transliterated as "A" in Latin script. Except the thing about א is it's really unusual because it's an exception to the "no vowels" rule in written Hebrew. It is most commonly seen at the beginning of a word that starts with a vowel. Because there would be no way to distinguish if a vowel did or didn't start with a vowel. For example "אדם" ("Adam"; like the first man in the Bible) is written as A-D-M. Notice how there is a vowel written at the start of the word but not for the second vowel? If there wasn't a Hebrew letter for this placeholder vowel, it would be "דם" ("dam"; lit. "Blood"). Which would be written as D-M.
But א isn't just equivalent to the letter A, it can be equivalent to other vowel sounds like E. א itself is silent and more like a placeholder or an indicator of a vowel rather than an actual letter.
So it would have a Gematria value (it's 1 because it's the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet). But the other vowels likely would have a Gematria value of zero because there is no other letter for these vowels. There are some weirder exceptions where letters in Hebrew can also represent certain vowel sounds. The letter ו (vav or waw) makes a "v" sound in modern Hebrew and a "w" sound in old Hebrew. But it can also be used as a substitute for a written vowel. It can make a "o" or "u" sound in some cases. Take for instance דוד, transcribed as D-V-D. But since the vav is multifunctional, it can now be D-O-D or D-U-D. "דוד" can have three different pronunciations. The first is DaViD (like the King of Israel), where the vav stays a consonant and you fill in the space with vowels. Next is DOD, which means "Uncle". And third is DUD, which means "boiler". The last two are cases where the vav is written as if it were a consonant but in reality is used as substitute for a vowel. But because "ו" (vav) is a consonant by nature and not originally a vowel, Gematria calculators don't consider "O" or "U" as the same as it would for "V" or "W" because they didn't have unique letters.
Lastly is י (yod or yud) which makes a y sound (like when Y is a consonant). But it can also stand in for an "i" vowel sound. I think it suffers from not being accepted by Gematria for the same reason as above.
tl;dr Hebrew doesn't have unique letters for vowels except for "A" because it functions as placeholder to indicate a word begins with a vowel. So my guess is that this Latin script-based Gematria calculator assigns all vowels, except A, a value of 0 so it doesn't affect the outcome when calculating.
@@bVItpk Oh I see, that's quite interesting. Complicated as well, thanks for the information :)
Oh boy, I can't wait till you get to final fantasy 6 cause that's a deeeeeeeep dive.
3:49 Yaldaboath is in Persona 5 also the demiurge
FF7 is the 1st JRPG i ever finished
mind you, i am not internet savvy in elementary school.
so everything is trial and error
fkn Aire Tam
I remember when this game came out..it was ahead of it's time..beside of Gran turismo(part1),Crash 2,Colony wars,Castlevania Symphony of the Night..(1997) FF7 was mindblowing..
Fuck me colony wars
Boy, am I looking forward to you playing Xenogears (PS1) and making a video like this one (I'm secretly hoping for a +1h video)
I didn’t play that one, but the story was so interesting that I still studied the lore. Same with Xenosaga.
@@zacky7572 oh yes, of course the story is amazing. But I love how you pick all these small little details, and I think Xenogears has A LOT of these to offer. Your content is really amazing and if it weren't for me making only minimum wage I'd be a Patreon! I like how it seems that you're talking to a friwnd sitting next to you.
And I don't know much about Xenosaga, but I know the series has many fans and probably a good story as well.
@@Rod_Silva I’m not Max Derret, FYI, although I agree with you concerning his video style. I just think the Xeno-verse, or whatever, is fascinating.
As far as Xenosaga, the first game was solid. The story builds on the concepts of Xenogears, which is why I ended up reading it’s lore. The story is…scattered, but good. The second game was not very fun at all, so I quit and just read all the lore after the third game came out. It’s too bad, too, because the overall story conclusion seemed very satisfying.
There's stuff in here I'd never heard before, great work!
First RPG I ever played, got the Playstation because the commercials were so amazing. Its an experience I could only have once in my life, but it was profound and will always be special to me, free from all comparison, to me it was number 1. Edit X is my second fav, hated 9, sorry but I never played past games to it was lost on me.
You think you’ll ever get around to FF8? I’d love to see your thoughts on it.
Definitely. Next time I do a video on Final Fantasy, it's going to be on either 8 or 6.
@@maxderrat Nice! I know FFVIII is not as popular as VI, VII, and IX, but it is probably my second favorite. The story was a mess, but it was a really interesting RPG to play. Plus, it arguably has the best opening sequence in the series.
@@maxderrat thank you and take your time, I know you probably have a lot on your plate and I’ve got the patience to spare. As always tho great video.
@@zacky7572 Arguably the best soundtrack as well. It got me into learning Mandarin (because Faye Wong), which led me to eventually living in China for just over a year.
Funny how stuff like that works out.
@@deanchur Yes, the OST on VIII was awesome! The reason that opening sequence was so effective was the epic track that played during it.
Another great video. Love your work man. Keep it up!
Stay yellow 💛
Hey Max, found your channel a few months ago and have really enjoyed your breakdowns of religious themes and iconography that appear in games and anime. Something that I've noticed pop up with a lot of consistency is how prevalent Gnosticism is in Japanese gaming, with easy examples being the Final Fantasy series, Persona, SMT, Xenogears, and many others. I'd love to see a video on why this seems to occur so often, or at least a little tidbit about Japan's history with Gnosticism in another video you may come out with in the future. The only answer I can seem to find is that it's an "easy" excuse to get the player to kill God but I'm sure there's a better answer out there than that. Keep up the awesome work man! Every time I get a notification from your channel it makes my day so much better!
I'm no Max, but this is just me theorizing for fun:
Although Japanese city dwellers tend to be non-religious, Buddhism is one of the most popular religions in the Japanese countryside, and maybe places like Kyoto. Jodo Shinshu Buddhism in particular. Even if young people don't cling to these religious ideas, chances are, their grandparents still do. Buddhism in general contains the idea of escaping the cycle of reincarnation. The cycle of death and rebirth is often seen as "shackles" to people within Hindu and Buddhist faiths. I come from a Hindu background myself, so I'm decently versed in these matters.
Within both Hindu and Buddhist communities, there are people who find kinship with the old ideas of Gnosticism. The subject of Gnostic beliefs comes up every once in awhile, as it almost seems as if Gnosticism is a little bit of eastern philosophy that made it's way west. The theme that there is a Lifestream-esque oneness consciousness/emptiness is prevalent in all three of the above religions i just mentioned. Fictional examples of this include:
The Lifestream(FFVII)
The Unseen Realm(FFXIII trilogy)
The Planetary Crystal/The Void(multiple FF games)
The Sea of Souls(Persona)
The Wave Existence(Xenogears)
These religions also share the idea that there is some kind of tyrannical Demiurge ego construct that is arrogantly keeping us from merging with our true nature. This demiurge also has a tendency to "shame" vulnerable feelings within a person, like the human ego often does. It uses illusions and defense mechanisms to keep us away from vulnerable experiences such as love and enlightenment. It also seems to keep us trapped in the cycle of reincarnation. Hinduism and Buddhism just chalks this up to the human ego and it's machinations, but Gnosticism goes ham on the idea that the Old Testament god is a giant expression of this tyrannical ego. Fictional examples of egoic-construct gods are:
Jenova/Sephiroth(FFVII)
Bhunivelze/Fal'Cie(FFXIII trilogy)
Ameno-sagiri(Persona 4)
Yaldabaoth(Persona 5)
Deus(Xenogears)
Breaking destructive and abusive cycles are also a part of the three religions as well as these games. Breaking the cycle of "samsara" and returning to something truer is the natural way. Buddhism, Taoism(a more minor influence in Japan), and Gnosticism also associate the ego/demiurge with the government. Basically, all authoritative entities are just giant expressions of fear and egoic control. This includes theocratic societies like the Roman Catholic Church, capitalist societies like Shinra, and Chinese Neo-Confucian societal rules that are prevalent in Chinese, Korean and Japanese cultures. All of these are seen as "systems of control" that are born out of egoic fear. All extentions of demiurge.
Anyway, i could go on and on. But you get the picture: Its possible that Japan's Buddhist heritage is already compatible with Gnostic belief. Breaking cycles, letting go of the tyrannical ego, and returning to a more natural existence are themes that they both share. Combine that with Japan's tumultuous relationship with traditional Christianity, and emotionally suppressive Confucianism, and you might have a recipe for genuine Gnostic sentiment among Japanese artists who are well-read in the subject matter. Just a theory though.
There's a little bit on Norse mythology in all the Final Fantasies... Because... You know... Odin.
FF8 is my all time fav, hope you will play it someday too.
I absolutely just love this kind of shit. Good video!
Man, that first time looking in the container at the pink Jenova goo really fucked me up as a kid. I couldn't eat gelatin based salads and snacks for years.
This is new to me (your insight about the game) and you never fail to blow my mind.
This was a really fun video to watch. I'm a huge FF fan, in general, and it's cool to see all the theories brought up. Subbed!
I love the strange monster designs in this - like what's the deal with the monsters Gighee and Christopher in the Northern Crater? Some kid who got lost wearing a jester mask with his stuffed animal and decided to live with the Tonberrys?
The conjoined experiment in the Shinra Mansion's basement is a cool bit of lore potential that never gets expanded on either - I like to imagine they were prototypes for Lost Number that couldn't coexist as well.
Woah. I was never aware of this. Great vid!
Welcome to the FFVII fanclub! :P Glad to have ya!
The Shinra connection could imply that the Al Bhed are the Ancients but lore-wise it's more likely the society that existed before Sin (Zanarkand/Bevelle). Btw I need more on this. I feel I could watch like an hour of it.
Great video with interesting timing as I just finished another playthrough of FF7.
I have to say, some of the ideas here are new to me, despite me having been an FF7 fan for over 20 years so this was a very worthwhile watch.
Another great video from Maxx. The whole Shinra thing and trying to connect seven and ten, is a good example of why I basically hate fandoms. Movies, music, games, can be awesome... Then the fandom ruins it.
Did you catch the cute Evangelion reference in the Gold Saucer?
Love these videos. I mean, FF7 can suck it, but these are very interesting perspectives on these games. The religious motifs explained are incredibly interesting.
why can FF7 'suck it'?
@@WindraesaQuite frankly, i think it's a terrible game. I thought it was the bestest thing ever made when i was like 12 and the game was new, but upon trying to replay it again...well, let's just say that i think most of the game didn't "age" particularly well.
I'd say the game has 3 main issues. The first being the glacial pacing. The second being the boring and useless cast, and the third quite frankly being the fact that it's so much a product of it's time that it's almost unplayable.
Then again, i never did play the remake, maybe i'd enjoy that better.
I can't believe I played this game when it was released back in '97, after a few years of waiting and the surprising news it was Playstation exclusive, not Nintendo, which made my choose PS0 as my next console. 25 years later, I keep thinking about this game, the story and the characters. It's truly one of the most important things in my life.
Seems you need to get a life then
Once again Max you have blown my mind
Great video as always, very thought provoking.
Theres a ton of concepts in this video that make me think of a series of yugioh cards that kind of told a story, first part was a Massive war to fight off an invasion which resulted in "Sophia, Goddess of Rebirth" resetting everything, leading to the eventual awakening of the Qliphort, terrifying machines residing in the Sacred Tree that housed the demonic Infernoid monsters. Pretty neat stuff.
This was an awesome video!
I’m one of the guys that loves this one so much I’m not even thinking about the remake. I bought the ps1 because for this game. When Square left Nintendo I kinda just went along.
There was a Teefa in Arcana also, another lore and mythos rich game. Man I wish it hadn’t been so fringe, id’ve loved a whole series of that style.
Could you share the picture that shows Adam Kadmon within the Tree of Life in 7:21? Great work. Thanks.
I always thought the same thing about Shinra in FF10.
I hope that gets canonized. It would link my 2 favorites in the series.
@Big Tatsu if you have proof of that it would make my day.
glad someone new got to ezxperience ff7 for the ffirst time. its such an amazing game and the whole thing brings back my childhood. i could sit and listen to ff7 music and menu sounds aallllll day stilll. the world is just a masterpiece
The Silent Hill 2 reference in the opening I love it 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Genius!! Seriously fugkin awesome bro!!
Thank you for not only helping me understand FF7, but also Evangelion on the side!
Final Fantasy VI ( FF3 here in the US) on SNES is another one with so much lore and is overlooked by so many!
You JUST played it?! Congratulations! I’m so happy you loved it.
Can you do the Elder Scrolls lore next? I bet you’d love it!
I love the games! Could you recommend what you'd like to see me cover in regards to Elder Scrolls lore?
@@maxderrat The Lusty Argonian Maid
Play 6 too, ff6 and ff7 are my favorites. I like ff6 a little bit more, because I think it has the best characters, ff7 is a little bit cartoonist for my like, but both are my favorites of the series.
Mine too. Especially because of the soundtracks.
Haven't finished 4 yet, but so far i would rate it really high.
@@PieFoot 4 is a really good one too.
@@nintendude794 yes, the sephiroth theme and the kefka last battle music (dancing mad)... I shiver every time I hear.
3 games I think will be very difficult for square to top, FF6, FF7 and another favorite of mine FFT.
@@itsasecrettoeverybody check out the OCremix (OverClocked ReMix) tribute albums Voices Of The Lifestream (FF7) and Balance & Ruin (FF6) if you haven’t already! Both albums have a lot of great tracks, in many different styles.
You ought to play Final Fantasy VI
It's incredible how one company was making two of the greatest games ever at the same time. They started this while they were still finishing FF6(/3), and each one is a strong candidate for the best game on its respective system.
I started playing rpgs in the early 90s, ff6/3, breath of fire etc. Then came ff7 and it was in 3d, dang the feeling was awesome. I'm glad I was one of those who got to experience that feeling.
Have you noticed that the black and white portal in ff7 remake to the edge of creation is basically the same as the portals in shadow of the colossus ps4 when wander kills a colossus and goes back to the temple except cloud goes through his faster than wander. Because I cant un-see it now lol, a homage maybe? It's pretty cool.
I love everything about this game. No game has had a bigger impact in my being as ff7. It is so spiritually profound. Its no surprise that cloud and i share the same birthday.
I have the sensation that you will also fall in love with ff8.
Forever grateful to an old friend of mine who introduced me to final fantasy 7, I was about 8 years old at the time, but I fell in love with the game ❤
Wow never knew these influences! I can't believe I'm still learning new things about ffvii.
I saw this uploaded 7 seconds ago with 7 views. Fate preordained me being here
I bought my first gaming system the PS1 because of this classic and now i have it on steam and started playing it a week ago.
I clicked thinking it was some in game secret or something.
I was very pleasantly surprised.
The first five minutes of this explanation, and I can't help but think, "Man, if only Max Derrat did a video on Persona 5 where the Demiurge and Adam Kadmon are stated outright in the text as literal characters in the game."
interesting video! And yes i agree with your secret message at 9:12
So, the worlds in Final Fantasy, all the series, are part of the same universe, maybe even all on the same planet, but separated by hundreds or thousands of years. You'll hear references to a great war hundreds or thousands of years ago in each one, and each of those war rumours and references are referring to another volume in the series, the wars often being why the world no longer holds the same shape as in another volume, but it is still similar with many cultural aspects surviving great cataclysmic events. Final Fantasy XV seems to be one of the earlier stories, so it's possible that each storyline is working backwards through time. The Final Fantasy moniker represents how each cycle the world faces destruction from those who seek greater and greater power for various reasons. To me the series is almost like a warning, or preparation for what will happen after technology reaches a certain point, a point that we are likely only a few short decades away from at most, where people will be able to create chimaera and essentially, through their experimentations, unleash monsters onto the world. There is a lot more to the Final Fantasy story that I feel like it is important to be aware of. Final Fantasy is similar to many religions, and it seems to me that the whole point of these religious beliefs and passed down information is to forewarn of what happens when a society becomes too technologically advanced and fails to create appropriate regulations in time to stop the mad scientists. Then, about a hundred years or more passes, society is kicked back a few notches because of whatever cataclysmic event was caused by those out of control corporations and mad scientists, and when we start to forget about it, new corporations and crazies pop up to start the cycle all over again after stumbling across some ancient tech they likely used to make themselves insanely wealthy.
Anyway this comment is too long already, so in conclusion, I would like to say that it is highly likely that the world of Final Fantasy, and the world we find ourselves in are one and the same, and it's probably been about 5,000 years since our last major incident, and the Final Fantasy writers seem to believe that we may be fast approaching the next big cataclysm that reshapes the world, and, with a fairly full understanding of the current state of technology, CRISPR, Fusion, Antimatter, etc..., I'd say they are probably right.
I believe ff9 also has a ff7 Easter egg. If I remember right. In ff9 if you go to a certain weapon shop either Zidane or the shop owner mentions seeing a spiky haired guy carrying a large sword. It's been a while though so I may be mistaken.
5:53 as a Jew, there is Tikkun Olam, to fix the World
I have a a over a thousand hrs on this game and still didn't find all the secrets. Probably going to dig it out and play again.
8:15 - this was the point i wrote your theory off. There is no way Tifa had balance with those things!
Only joking, great vid and some genuine lore i didnt realise about FF7
Me waiting patiently for you to play FF6 an touch on the waring triad, Sephirot, Sophia, and Zurvan
what does #cloti4ever mean? @ 9:12
brief flash
About Cloud's and Tifa's birthdays, jot sure if that holds up, most country's do day month year, in the USA its month day year, which is of course, weird.
that intro was clean AF
I've never played FF7, but everything I hear about it makes me wish I had, back when it was still fresh and new. I had never heard about the Kabbalah influence either, so now you made it worse, Max. Thanks.
Soon there will be no excuse ;)
Its never late to play it. Even if you know some scenes that became popular, is truly an unique experience that con only be enjoyed by playing it
There is nothing taken from jewish religion. Why would japanese game makers take inspiration from jewish religion?? Absurd.
This guy talking in this video is a jew himself and he tries to make himself feel good by trying to create a connection with his favorite game and his religion.
Its just sad. How some jews try to make themselves seem relevant.
@@tanelviil9149 Sephiroth IS a term from kabbalah, one can take inspiration from other s culture. Yeah I get it, they rule the bank, but this doesn t mean you have to rage about it anytime they re mentioned, I guess
@@tanelviil9149 Japanese games love to explore various philosophies and infuse them into their stories. You can't shake a stick without hitting one, most of the time. I don't know if Max is Jewish, but based on what I've seen from him, your assessment is more telling of your outlook, rather than his. Twas quite a specific target in your gripe. Haha
What is the importance of the beast number 6x3?is that on FF?
Wow, so through. Love the way you think