I would argue it's harder in the US version. The Japanese version it does 2000 damage, whereas the US version has a longer cutscene, takes off 15/16ths of your current health, and then has the audacity to put a random status effect on everyone
While Aerith dying didn’t have as big of an impact on me as it did others, Yknow what broke me a bit? That moment on the airship where red goes “although she’s not here, she left us a window of opportunity…” and it just plays aeriths theme. Damn that was good
After playing FF7 for the first time just a few months before the remake's release, I was amazed by how well directed the whole thing was. Every story cutscene seemed tailor-made with the script, the soundtrack, the character movement (yeah, they're blocky, but it works really well in context), and even the gameplay whenever you could interact with cutscenes. It was both ahead of its time and unique, in a way that influenced games as a whole and still remains unique to this day.
@@thepriorstone4064 That was pretty much the logic. I asked during editing whether I should put the spoiler-skip time stamp at the start of OST talk or not because of that line, and John said to just put it there because pretty much everyone already knows that one.
For what it's worth, my wife who isn't very involved with the gaming scene watched me play the whole of FF VII and she legitimately cried when Aerith died because she didn't know the spoiler so she wasn't expecting it. It may be unlikely but never impossible. I was so excited to get a genuine reaction from her because I knew how rare it was to not have that spoiled.
She goes on later to state that she loves Cloud far more than she ever loved Zack, but she unfortunately confirms this with herself after she's already dead in the lifestream. This information which would put any Zack x Aerith shipper on suicide watch is seen in the canon novel Maiden who Travels the Planet. the book itself is pretty good imo, it explains what Aerith was doing after her death and has her interact with the many characters who died in the game. edit: correction she realized how much she loved cloud before her death around when they were in Gongaga.
Johnny did it again as he made another video that surpassed the run time of his Sonic '06 review. This was my first Final Fantasy game and I remember that I had to sell a few games in order to get the Greatest Hits version of the game. It deserved that label because it was a critical and commercial success unlike other games on the PS1 that got the label because they were commercial successes and not critical and commercial successes.
Some people actually consider it was the game that no only put Sony on the map, it made them win that generation, making Sega left the market, and relegating Nintendo to a distance second place (which then became third). I remember and ad with a picture of the Junon canon saying "someone get the guys who make catridges a cigarette and a blindfold".
@@Jose-se9pu really don't see FF7 doing that considering PS1 sold over 100M units yet FF7 didn't even sell half of that, especially in Europe where PS1 completely dominated the market, while FF series had no brand recognition before 7 for obvious reasons.
The Saturn never stood a chance outside of Japan but back in its homeland it was neck and neck with the PS1 in the early years... until FFVII dropped. The PS1 exploded and never looked back. It was that significant a game.
"Granola" actually is a word people used to describe the passionately nature-focused, but I had to look that up during editing. I've never heard it used myself.
It also definitely helps that he sponsors actually great services like Surfshark and Manscaped, not shady, borderline scam crap like Raid: Shadow Legends.
I only played FF7 last year (caught Covid and needed something to pass the time) and I was initially a bit wary because I didn't think turn-based games were really my thing, but boy did I fall in love with this game. I can't think of a single moment, song, boss fight or location that I didn't like throughout my entire playtime, and I still listen to the soundtrack as much as I can. Tifa's theme still manages to bring a tear to my eye at times
29:06 "You always remember your first time" I feel that this can apply to the Tales series as well, specifically Tales of Symphonia. All those twists and turns it throws at you, it leaves everyone who's never played a Tales game before so shocked and thinking, "holy crap"
Yeah, those stories could be downright brutal. Haven't played Symphonia myself, but I did go through most of the others up to Vesperia. How about that bit in Eternia where you played as a Bugbear? That was *rough*...
Symphonia was my first Tales game, and also my favorite game of all time. God, I loved everything about it when I was a kid; even now that I can see the few cracks it has an an adult, I still love it, and think it holds up pretty well, all told.
Abyss was my first Tales and holy hell, I absolutely adore that game. I have been waiting and begging for a rerelease like Symphonia just got and Graces is getting soon. The themes in Abyss and the characters going through the plot would still hit hard today as they did so long ago, which is 20 years ago as of next year December! For the JP release at least, but man, 20 years is crazy and I feel like it was only yesterday.
Whoever did the edited bits with Aerith and the cutesy text sprinkled throughout the video needs a goddamn raise. Stat. Yes, even if it's Johnny. He should give HIMSELF a raise. EDIT: Oh, it was Lewis. You did god's work, Lewis. You should tell John to give you a raise.
I remember when it came out, I had never played a Final Fantasy game. A friend in high school had the strategy guide and I looked at the back, which had all the characters on it. I thought, “Look at this ragtag bunch of weirdos. I wonder what their story is.” Bought a PS1 and FFVII a month later and ended up maxing out the timer. Loved every second of it.
Lewis was definitely having fun role-playing as Aerith whenever she shows up. Also, when Aerith dies "Goddammit!" Edit:The "R" word that Tifa uses during the stair climb is still there in the re-releases.
23:38 For the longest time, fans theorized that there was no blood because Sephiroth's sword is the Masamune, a blade that is said to be unable to cut/bleed the innocent or undeserving. Then Rebirth came along and just confirms that it was technological limitations :V
6:57 oh my god, the rest theme. i didn't expect that to be the music piece used for your spoiler warning, but man, that song gave me the biggest smile on my face
I have to rant a bit on comparing Aerith's death to the previous deaths in the Final Fantasy games. Aerith's death was significantly different from those. Characters like Galuf and Tellah were old men who valiantly sacrificed their lives for the greater good (I know Tellah didn't kill Golbez but he at least freed Kain from the mind control for a bit). In Tellah's case, his demise was pretty telegraphed. There was a big, dramatic fanfare with their departure. And they were cradled in the arms of their comrades as they crocked out their final words. Their deaths were very "Hollywood" so to speak. Aerith was a young woman around the age of 20 (so unlike the ones before, she didn't get to live a full life). It wasn't telegraphed in the slightest. It wasn't a valiant sacrifice for the greater good (she would have been able to summon Holy whether alive or dead and her choice to face Sephiroth alone was ultimately a grossly poor choice). It wasn't a spectacular death and in fact is chillingly mundane (it's basically the fantasy equivalent of someone sneaking up behind you and shanking you). And there are chance for parting words. She's here one moment, than the next she's gone. I think that's the real significance of the way Aerith died compared to what came before. There's no fanfare or spectacle happening there. It's just a sudden, unfair tragedy that's much closer to how death happens most of the time in the real world compared to the usual "Hollywood Deaths" we usually see in media. (I know those Hollywood-esque deaths DO sometimes happen in real life, but they are a lot more rare than our media landscape would have you believe).
I have a question! I was under the impression that it was Aerith's soul that led the Lifestream to save humanity from both Holy and Meteor at the end of the game. If Aerith hadn't died, would the Lifestream still have showed up and saved everyone at the end of the game?
Thats why I prefer the OG version of Zach's death over Crisis Core version, Crisis Core was too Hollywood-esque and making it a heroic sacrifice while the OG was a lot more abrupt and raw.
@@borttheattorney6012 if I remember Sakaguichi's words about the game it was supposed to be about loss and Aerith's death was supposed to be symbolic of him losing his mother if I remember the quote it goes something like "death comes suddenly and there is no notion of good or bad it leaves not dramatic feeling but great emptiness and you can't help but think if you had known this was coming you would have done things differently" or something like that
I replayed final fantasy 7 for the first time in 8 years in preparation of this video and I do not regret it. The game felt so different from when I was a kid. I love the story now more than ever and cloud is now my favorite to final fantasy protagonist because of the shear depth and development he gets. I'm so thankful that I was able to experience and relate to everything that you mentioned about this game in your video and I feel you did an amazing job with this review.
Even as a non-fan of this series, I think these have been great videos for Final Fantasy. This one and VI both really conveyed the personal attachment, in the way that you can hear the passion for these games. Also wanna give a shoutout to Lewis' editing, especially with his comments through Aerith.
I actually just bought tickets to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra to hear them play FFVII Remake World Tour. Johnny dropping this video today is a sign that it was the right decision
I think what was the most heartbreaking about Aerith's death wasn't her death itself but the music and how the scene was directed: the theme starts as the materia bounces off the ground and somehow that little detail really chokes me up.
Ah FF7...one of the let's plays on SGB that sadly got cut early thanks to COVID ruining it. I wonder if there has been anymore talk or development of Johnny and the guys going back to finishing that game (as well as Saints Row 2 and Spiderman 2) via discord chat during like they planned too during their farewell video from behind the scenes? I hope they didn't forget that...
They made a update video on SGB and Johnny has talked about doing it again it’s just with their current living conditions as well as their personal lives it’s made it extremely difficult to do anything SGB related sadly
To me, Final Fantasy VII and Pokemon Red & Blue were the one-two punch that opened the mainstream in the west to JRPG’s. Sure, there had been other great RPG’s before these two, but none of them had garnered the massive amount of attention and imagination from western mainstream media and gamers alike until these two games came out.
I always loved the way Cloud interrupts Sephiroth’s villain speech after killing Aerith by just shouting at him to shut up and his text box covers Sephiroth’s. Just a nice little presentation touch that can only work that way in a text based game. Makes the moment feel so raw to me. Cloud is so pissed he’s just straight up not listening.
One of the most formative games - well, stories - of my time on this Earth. It's brilliant, and I find it's aged qualities still charming. But . . . it has been diminished by Square's inability to move on from it. Yeah, it's because it's their biggest title, however between the Compilation, Remake, and how its all been boiled down to two dudes with giant swords and shipping of characters, the work just isn't special to me anymore. Like what happened to Star Wars, Jurassic Park etc. Let the past be the past
Love these longer videos and hearing Johnny go into his personal past with a game and gush over his personal thoughts/mild theories about characters and thing story, reminds me of similar times when I was a kid and really takes me back
As someone who played the Remake as my first Final Fantasy and then jumped into the original, it was absolutely stellar. FFVII is a wonderful time even for a modern gamer
25:43 - HA! Every time that event gets referenced I can't help but laugh. VII was my first Final Fantasy and holds a nostalgic place in my heart. It's not the only game or story to do the kinds of things that it does, but for me, and for a lot of people, it was the first time we encountered anything like it. It was magical. And now I'm irrevocably attached to the world and cast.
I gotta give you props for explaining the convoluted story in this game. I get it now as an adult, but when I played this back in the day, I had no idea what was going on.
42:45 This alone is what made me never actually finish OG FF7 sadly. Watching supernova twice in one fight and then wiping made me not wanna bother with the fight again.
My relationship with this game is weird. Unfortunately I never got super into FF7 due to kinda getting off on the wrong foot. Most of my exposure to it was from Kingdom Hearts' depictions of its characters, the compilation of FF7 which is...mixed, and of course tons of people fanboying over it to a borderline obnoxious degree. All of that combined in a way that turned me off of the whole thing as a teen and I ended up being dismissive towards it, thinking it as "severely overrated". Obviously I don't think like that anymore, I played through the whole thing (sans actually finishing the final boss or doing the extra post game stuff) and totally see why it's so beloved and important. That said, I can't ever say that this is a favorite of mine. It has aged worst than a lot of other games in the series and honestly the whole compilation of FF7 (Remake included) have sadly scarred my opinion of it with all the weird plot additions that they've made to that world. I don't know if I can ever fully enjoy and appreciate FF7 on its own if that makes any sense.
Speaking as someone who played a bunch of the FFs before I played FFVII, I think the reason Aerith's death hit hard back then (and still does to this day) is that it was the first time people had seen a fully fledged main character die mid-story in a high profile video game. Aerith had a likeable personality (my favorite of FFVII), was fully customizable, and had her own distinct niche in the party so there was NO indicator she was going to die, adding to the shock and sadness. The only FF playable character western audiences knew of who died before then was well... Tellah. Aerith's death and how well it's handled (the party mourns, there's frequent callbacks to her, and her leitmotif still plays at some parts throughout the game) is one of my favorite things about FFVII.
Protip: if you have berserk status on a character, they learn their limit breaks significantly faster. I'd have over half of my party's limit breaks before even leaving Midgar.
I always love any long-form FFVII video. It is actually my most favourite game ever, and I sincerely think it was where video games peaked: It was never going to get this good ever again. You made a great point in comparing the spirited characterisations as opposed to VI. What I'll never forget is Cloud's speech at the end of CD1, and the strong resolve he made to move forward even if he deeply doubts he would be logically or emotionally stable. Or the way he managed to enter a 30-minute long flashback with barely any fighting in a hotel room in a video game. That's the kind of stuff you just never see in a video game, and it's as daring today as it was daring then.
So many nights I stayed up as a kid and fell asleep playing this game. Great review man. Sent me back to my childhood and back to our Livestreams. Nostalgic stuff
Another amazing video essay. I could listen to you talk about ANYTHING with your lovely voice. If you ever (somehow) run out of video topics, I wouldn't mind several long videos about character or location analysis....
I believe the reason they try to stop Shinra from using the Huge Materia is because Shinra's plan is basically just a last ditch effort with little means of success. The party knows that Shinra is unlikely to succeed and that they personally have a much higher chance of beating Sephiroth by actually using the Huge Materia and not just shooting it into Meteor with a rocket. If you fail to get all of the Huge Materia and it does get blasted into Meteor it's proven that it would have done absolutely nothing to stop it. I think it's also emblematic of Shinra in general, their first reaction is to just blow things up with a massive explosion rather than approaching the situation with a logical intelligence.
This is and probably will always be my favorite game of all time. I love the expanded universe, I love the remake, all of it. I love the story, Cloud's journey as an amazing protagonist who overcomes adversity and comes into his own as a person against all odds, most of the characters, and even if it's flawed and a bit overrated, it taught me to hold on to the ones you lose and that no one truly dies if you hold the memories you make with them in your heart forever. I had lost my grandfather a year ago and I know he'll always be with me as long as I remember the message this game imparted upon me.
Even though I prefer VI and IX over this, I still really love and have a huge amount of respect for Final Fantasy VII. Just beat this for the first time recently and I’ll say this game still deserves a lot of the attention and praise it gets. Great story, memorable characters, fun gameplay, dated, but still groundbreaking visuals for its time, one of Nobuo Uematsu’s best soundtracks, and some of the most memorable moments in gaming history! One of the influential RPGS ever made and one of Square’s greatest achievements!
To me, the way the love triangle works is: when Cloud thinks he is Zack, he’d love Aerith - when cloud remembers his true self, he’d love Tifa. And the game does let you play it that way to get that moment with Tifa near the end. It’s best of both worlds
I can't overstate how important Final Fantasy VII is to me. I didn't play even half of it when I was growing up, but it was so beyond any fiction I experienced at the age of 10, that it was mind blowing. Like the most serious fiction I got into before that time was...honestly, Power Rangers in Space. And outside of a few MTV/Fox shows and Mortal Kombat, I had seen almost nothing that wasn't kid friendly. Every single aspect of this game (barring a very basic knowledge of JRPGs from Pokemon) felt entirely new to me.
FF7's an interesting one. I didn't grow up with the game so I have no nostalgia for it and I feel many of aspects of the game were poorly implemented or didn't age well. But what I really loved about the game was how well it was written and how much attention to detail there was. It's abundantly clear that the devs really cared about FF7 and wanted it to be a rich experience that would reward players for slowing down and paying attention and for doing repeat play throughs. Cloud in particular was a pleasant surprise since his guest cameos in other games and all the 2007 era AMV's gave me a really bad impression of him as an annoying edgelord, but in FF7 I really connected with his struggles and enjoyed how Cloud's resolve and humanity defined him. Him, along with the rest of the cast were a treat, and their story is what kept me motivated to continue playing to the very end. Personally I'm not the biggest fan of FF7, but I definitely still had fun playing the game and can appreciate how impactful and meaningful it was for people at the time. I can see why a lot of people hold the game in high regard even to this day!
Man it is fucking insane how much Square popped off in the 90s. FFIV, FFVI, Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, FFVIII (people don't hold it in as high regard as VII but I still think it's cool), etc. Classics that have all withstood the test of time as genre defining RPGs.
As expected, another really long video from Johnny, and on one of the biggest games in the planet. It'll be interesting to see how this video goes, as someone who came from Remake first since I grew up on the N64 instead and didn't get to experience this back then.
This was my first Final Fantasy games and it still remains one of my favourites (alongside 9 and a couple of others). The soundtrack is still my favourite. I've been lucky enough to see Distant Worlds in London 4 times in the last 15 years, and it delivers every time. To hear Nobuo Uematsu's work played by a full orchestra is something amazing and I'd highly recommend it to anyone.
Cloud didnt take zacks personality, he took his memories of him, the storys zack told, and put himself in those, thats why he has zacks mannerisms, but not his personality. The personality he has at the start of 7, is based on clouds own idea of a badass soldier dude, parts of his own personality, and tifas idea of cloud, that got all intermingled when she met cloud at the train station because of jenova fuckery. This is why aerith got confused at first, because cloud remembered her of zack, but that he was different, and because of her ancient shenanigans knew he had issues and wanted to help him
I actually think the hype about the sadness of Aerith's death is derserved, especially if you've had her as a party member as much as possible, and had the date with her. It was her presence, all the time she spent with you/cloud, mixed with cloud's reaction to the death and the soundtrack playing, it all combined to be a pretty hard hitting scene. But of course there are so many sad scenes on the older FF games too, and they are also powerful
Sephiroth has always been my favorite video game villain of all time. What makes him so special to me is how he never started out as a villain and as a good caring role model, but then he slowly goes mad as he realizes his true self, and he can mentally get inside a person’s head, hence his iconic phrase “I will never be a memory.” He is someone you don’t EVER want to fuck with.
lol The editor's note about the Beta spell is great XD I loved FF7, not as much as 6, but god. Tifa was my girl crush back in the day and still is, but now that I'm older, I can respect her as an amazing woman and I take with me her strengths when I think about her as a person. Course she hits hard~
Being lucky enough to have experienced the death scene of Aerith during the release of FF7. Not years later, etc. So it hit me (at age 13/14) far more than anything before then - at honestly, since then. It probably helped that I was absolutely enamored with FF7 at the time - and it was largely my first straight up RPG. I had played games on the NES and PC that were similar (I went onto the Genesis after the NES) but nothing came close to the scope, depth and scale of FF7. It was truly in a league of its own, and has never been replicated since. It was at the right place, and the right time. It was literally the perfect storm.
This was the first Final Fantasy I LEGIT played (tried the original on Wii shop for ten minutes then gave up). While I thought FF IX was better, I understand why this game is so popular to the point of being the FF rep for Smash Bros. Maybe I should replay it in the near future.
@@jaretco6423FF7 remake is one of my favorite games in modern gaming. But I wish they would have remastered the original story first so we and new players could play through it on today's hardware. I feel like the changes are obviously for players of the original. So for newcomers to the series they have to play the very graphically outdated version to understand the remake.
After not surpassing his Sonic 06 review for like 9 years, he did it twice in a month. Congrats! Man, if we ever get a Persona marathon, or Johnny ever covers Record of Agarest War, we'll be sitting down to hour and a half-long reviews every month. Exciting times.
I can relate to Aerith's death moment not being monumental. Growing up in the era, it felt like people were far more interested about bringing her back to life than her actually dying. The death that struck me the hardest was in another FF and it felt completely unexpected due to when it took place in the story.
@@Road_to_Dawn not 12 😊 . . . . . . . It was FF5 for me. Experienced it after 7 and 4. 4 had great moments but desensitizes you to loss of characters while Aerith death really stands out because it's the end of the first disc.
@@EmrlsCommunity Ah, I was wondering if maybe it was 5! I knew about Aerith's death, but I started really playing the FF series with 1&2 on the GBA, and in 2... man. Like, aside from Firion, Maria, and Guy, no one is safe. The extra Soul of Rebirth story you unlock upon beating the game was really cool for me, getting more out of these characters I lost. I loved FF5, and seeing Krile fill in Galuf's shoes was really cool for me. It was amazing seeing them bring in a Krile character when she debuted in 14! I instantly fell in love with her.
@@Road_to_Dawn yeah 2 was such a bizarre game story wise for me because i played the Dawn of Souls version as well and couldn't figure out why EVERYONE was dying so frequently! Josephs death came so sudden i was stunned 😂 it's one of my least favorite FFs but I really enjoyed the idea of playing a continued story from the fallen allies
You really need more subs. Laughed out loud several times during this video. Props to Lewis for the brilliant editing here as well. Can;t wait for the FFX vid next year
Yeah, FFX will be the next "big one". I'm really interested what he'll say about VIII, though, as I'm one of the people who are willing to cut it more slack than most. I know IX is very popular as well, but I haven't played it for ages, so I don't remember it too well. I've played TZA version of XII, recently, however, and that was AWESOME! Really looking forward to that one as well.
@Antis14CZ FFIX will be big too for story reasons and maybe some gameplay. Even if the combat is very standard, there are a good number of additions like synthesis and Tetramaster.
Only just started the video but I wanna say that you're one of the few creators whose sponsorship I usually watch all the way through, you always do a great job of making them entertaining
It's amazing how the story transitions from an evil corperation doing bad things to one being becoming a god and threatening all of humanity. Literally every Persona game in a nutshell lol
I learnt a lot about FF7 by watching Tim Rogers's excellent Final Fantasy 7 translation series on Kotaku's TH-cam channel. It made me realise that the game in general is a bit more complete and polished than the sometimes-wonky PS1 translation implies it was. I think in general my opinion on the game was tainted by all the sequels, compilations, and whatever the hell Advent Children is being something I heard about before even having a chance to check out the original. Newer FF7 stuff seems to lean a lot more into 'modern Square-Enix tropes' that just frustrate me - the feeling of style over substance, and what substance there is being something that's never explained in a straightforward way. Or within the piece of media itself.
I think Aerith’s death is so effective because she never gets replaced, but her character is unique so no matter how much you try to cover the hole it’s never right, idk I knew the plot twist for years and every time I tried to cover the hurt it made me sad
I was so excited for this review, I love hearing people's passion and happy memories of the game. I will say I always interpreted Rita's hesitation to bring up clouds. . . Inconsistent memories is because she didn't have an explanation for how Cloud even has any of those memories of an event she doesn't remember him being there for, yet a lot of his details are still right.
One of my favorite 'fun facts' about Final Fantasy VII is that things could have gone very differently. Tetsuya Takahashi and his wife (who both worked for Square at the time before founding Monolith Soft later) offered a script they had written as a proposal for Final Fantasy VII. That script was declined for being too dark (though I raise my eyebrow at that reasoning), but the project became allowed to be developed on its own. First as a potential sequel to Chrono Trigger before finally just being a completely new property initially called 'Project Noah' with a final name of Xenogears. Yeah...the Xeno series (and probably Monolith Soft itself) exists because Square declined having it as FFVII. And I am happy things turned out that way personally because I do love the Final Fantasy VII we actually got and it allowed another of my favorite RPG series of all time to be born. My favorite of the incarnations of the franchise is Xenoblade Chronicles, but I do love Xenogears and Xenosaga too (even with them not being allowed to be completed projects due to Square and Namco's respective hiccups). Tetsuya Nomura, FFVII's lead designer and the father of Kingdom Hearts, even contributed to Xenoblade Chronicles 2 with designing the characters of the Torna group.
I remember the FMV-only advertisements! As a Saturn owner at the time it pissed me off because everyone was jumping on the PS1 bandwagon because of that shiny video, not even seeing an ounce of gameplay. In hindsight it was dumb to be bitter, considering how good the PS1 is and how well FF7 turned out, but man, even at 14 I could see right through that advertising, haha.
26:55 THIS. THIS. THIS. I don't usually get upset about shipping, but Cloud and Aerith actually make me MAD as a couple. You pick Tifa, Yuffie, or even Barrett (yeah that's totally an option) because they know who Cloud REALLY is. Don't pick Aerith and fuck the arc. I'm begging you.
Appreciate you tackling this underrated, hidden gem! I didn't get to grow up with this game like so many did so I'll probably never get to appreciate it much the same way, but I can definitely appreciate the legacy it left behind.
@@Cross-chan no FF7 had glitches that you had to actively do on purpose or by accident during one boss fight if you open your ps1 you could beat it faster ignoring the ports that add glitches a big one is during scenes where your talking you can move and it's in scenes where there's no one there it's funny
By the way, I’m looking forward to seeing Johnny’s review of Resident Evil 6 soon! I’m just hoping he doesn’t hate on it too much. I know that most people hate it, so it might happen, but I’m one of the few that loves it(no it’s not just because of the hot girls and action sequences, gonna stop you right there), it’s the story and characters personalities. I need to get the animated movies Resident Evil Degeneration and Damnation sometime too since I love 4 and 6 a lot(it sounds like they take place after and before the games respectively). The Revelations Games will be interesting to learn about too since I don’t know much about them myself.🤓👍🏻
Honestly, the materia system was pure genius. The truly don't make stuff like that anymore. They try, but they never get seem to quite get there. Lost Odyssey was a bold attempt, but it ultimately fell flat, at least for me.
@@They_are_Arthur It's such a well done scene. it's hard for me to come to tears over anything, and while I didn't cry at the scene, it sure was emotionally impactful. The battle afterwards with jenova that continuously plays aeriths theme... what a moment
@They_are_Arthur Same here. I never grew up with FF7. But when it and the other Playstation Final Fantasy games came to the Switch, I give them an try. Started with 9 cause it was first to come out and I enjoyed that. But 7 was the one I'm more curious about and I thought I wouldn't like it due to it's popularity and such. But boy. Was I wrong. The game is so much better than I thought it would and as someone who has no nostalgia toward it, I can see why FF7 is so popular. Not because of nostalgia. But because it's an darn amazing game and how it helps push RPG'S into more popularity.
29:24: “I don’t know, am I a monster?” Yes. Yes you are. The concept that not just a character, but a main character and love interest in whom there had been much narrative investment could be permanently killed off was earth-shattering. Something like Celes trying but failing to hurt herself or Shadow (not an important character) possibly dying but being saveable does not compare to Aerith’s death. Not to mention Aerith was the only person who ever cracked Cloud’s shell and got him to laugh, open up a bit, flirt, etc. Once again, Sephiroth stole Cloud’s humanity from him. It was and still is iconic.
Actually, I too wasn't too shocked at Aerith dying when I played it last year, but as the game went on I did find myself occasionally thinking "Aerith would help a lot here" or seeing a weapon and thinking how useful it'd be, only to realize that I couldn't use it even if I did buy it. That's pretty well-done of the game, thinking about it now
3:18- fun fact. As shown on VGFacts, there was an FFVII ad that mocked cartridge games, stating “Someone please get the guys who make cartridge games a cigarette and a blindfold." and "Good thing, if it were available on cartridge, it'd retail for around $1,200”
One of my favorite memories is going to my local library as a kid because I didn’t have internet and using its wifi to download final fantasy 7 on my psp. I remember my mom always talking about how much she loved the game so I wanted to try it and man did it blow my mind as a 13 year old even in the 2010’s! Such a great game
This was technically my first Final Fantasy game, as well as the first JRPG I’ve played to completion and I loved it. I know why it’s such an iconic game. Technically FF13 was the first one I played, but I hated it. Now that I’ve played more Final Fantasy games, FF7 has actually gone down in my opinion. It’s not a bad game at all, don’t get me wrong. But FF9 beats it in my opinion, and as controversial as this will sound, I rank it on the same level as FF8. The biggest problem I have with this game (and FF8) is that there’s nothing separating the characters aside from their weapons and Limit Breaks. And some characters I just don’t bother with like Cait Sith and Red XIII.
I'm in the same boat, this is my first FF game but it ultimately has fallen down the list in terms of whether or not it's my favorite. It's still an amazing game (It regularly jumps between the third and fourth spot in my tier list - 9 and 6 hold the top two spots) and I think to date it has the best minigames in the entire series (and believe me that's a gigantic plus) and some of the most interesting characters. It's also the funniest FF game, just beating out FF5 for the number of times I almost pissed myself laughing. But like you said the characters really aren't that unique in combat outside of a few core flavor differences due to how materia essentially homogenizes their abilities. It's good for when you want to take your favorites along with you for most of the journey. But not so great when you can reliably interchange most of them unless you're min-maxing. It's still a fun system but once you pick your favorites there's really no reason to ever use anyone else. Unless the plot demands it of course.
I read the editor's note in the Zuul voice. Final Fantasy VII is my first FF. It helped me get into the series and without it, I wouldn't have found my all time favorite FF in VI, nor would have been engulfed by FFXIV as I became. As a result of VII's influence on me, I've beaten a majority of the series and played almost all of them, save XI and XV, with key FFs standing out in my memories more profusely than others. Top Numbered FFs being VI, XIV, IX, XII, and VII. If we include spin off titles, Tactics takes the top spot and Vagrant Story knocks both XII and VII out of the top 5 as I absolutely LOVE the world of Ivalice Yasumi Matsuno lovingly crafted (Orbonne Monastery is my all time favorite Alliance Raid in XIV as a result).
As someone who played Final Fantasy I, II, IV, V, and VI before VII, I consider Aerith's death to be a far more powerful scene than Celes' attempted suicide. Celes' scene never did anything for me because I knew she was going to survive. Well I didn't "know" she was going to survive, it wasn't spoiled for me or anything, but at no point during that scene did I think she was in any danger of the story actually killing her off. Also, I never took it as a character moment, it wasn't about Celes, it was a world building moment to establish how bad things had gotten under Kefka. To get you in the right mindset and view the world properly. Watching Celes obviously not about to die did not prepare me for Aerith actually dying. I don't think they are comparable scenes as they are both used for such different purposes.
33:08 Final Fantasy VII abridged actually explains that decently well since all the materia would explode and the residue in the sky would not be a good thing
That's not really something established in the real game, though. The real reason is that the party doubts it could work and thought it'd be better used by them instead, leading into the Master Materia stuff. It just seems like filler since the resolution to this little arc is tied to optional content.
Sephiroth Supernova could kill you in the Japanese version it was changed everywhere because a 2 minute cutscene attack that might kill you isn’t fun
KEK
I would argue it's harder in the US version. The Japanese version it does 2000 damage, whereas the US version has a longer cutscene, takes off 15/16ths of your current health, and then has the audacity to put a random status effect on everyone
Eh, its was like 15 seconds or so in that version. Sucked, but wan't too bad. I prefer our Michael Bay edition anyway. lol
Actually it was changed everywhere to BE that 2 minute cutscene, the original Japanese version was 10-15 seconds I think
it's shorter in the japanese version though so that's obviously not the reason...
While Aerith dying didn’t have as big of an impact on me as it did others, Yknow what broke me a bit? That moment on the airship where red goes “although she’s not here, she left us a window of opportunity…” and it just plays aeriths theme. Damn that was good
I played crisis core first same with xenoblade 2 the golden country so it actually hit cause of build up and knowing the past first
After playing FF7 for the first time just a few months before the remake's release, I was amazed by how well directed the whole thing was. Every story cutscene seemed tailor-made with the script, the soundtrack, the character movement (yeah, they're blocky, but it works really well in context), and even the gameplay whenever you could interact with cutscenes.
It was both ahead of its time and unique, in a way that influenced games as a whole and still remains unique to this day.
@@victorhugocosta1127 yeah it’s nuts, outside of movement and some little things it aged insanely well. Damn I wanna replay it now lol
@@brycecartwright2403 it's on switch and steam
I thought her name was "AERIS".
EDIT: After further reading, her name is actually Aerith, and got mistranslated in the first NA release.
Johnny: Skip to 35:21 to avoid spoilers
Also Johnny: 36:02 *Aerith's Death Scene*
To be fair, who DOESNT know about Aerith dying?
@@thepriorstone4064 That was pretty much the logic. I asked during editing whether I should put the spoiler-skip time stamp at the start of OST talk or not because of that line, and John said to just put it there because pretty much everyone already knows that one.
@@OneTrueNobody it really is the worse kept secret in maybe gaming in general
@@OneTrueNobody Oh hai, Lewis. I love how you turned Aerith into a running gag here.
For what it's worth, my wife who isn't very involved with the gaming scene watched me play the whole of FF VII and she legitimately cried when Aerith died because she didn't know the spoiler so she wasn't expecting it. It may be unlikely but never impossible. I was so excited to get a genuine reaction from her because I knew how rare it was to not have that spoiled.
When you date Aerith at the Gold Saucer, she confesses to Cloud that she originally saw Zack in him, but later came to like him for who he was.
She goes on later to state that she loves Cloud far more than she ever loved Zack, but she unfortunately confirms this with herself after she's already dead in the lifestream. This information which would put any Zack x Aerith shipper on suicide watch is seen in the canon novel Maiden who Travels the Planet. the book itself is pretty good imo, it explains what Aerith was doing after her death and has her interact with the many characters who died in the game.
edit: correction she realized how much she loved cloud before her death around when they were in Gongaga.
It's pronounced "Arif"
The only thing that can make me enjoy watching an hour-long review of a game I've never played is the passionate commentary of a man like Johnny.
Not gonna lie, the Cloud, "good job team!" moment got a pretty big laugh out of me.
One of the biggest games in history, being covered by Johnny this feels like a landmark event
I swear god Johnny is best gaming reviewer I have seen.
lol relax
He already reviewed Sonic 06
One of the most overrated**
Facts!!!
Popped that '06 cherry and now we're getting multiple longbois. Welcome to the dark side, we're eating tonight gamers
Oh hey, Golden Bolt, nice to see you over here!
“Popped that cherry”
Johnny and Matt: NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!
Pretty sure VIII will be much shorter, though. Not sure about IX. X will probably be close to this again.
@@Antis14CZ Wait for the inevitable Johnny VS Final Fantasy XIV.
@@diegomedina9637 That will be Avengers Endgame long.
Johnny did it again as he made another video that surpassed the run time of his Sonic '06 review.
This was my first Final Fantasy game and I remember that I had to sell a few games in order to get the Greatest Hits version of the game. It deserved that label because it was a critical and commercial success unlike other games on the PS1 that got the label because they were commercial successes and not critical and commercial successes.
🙃
Fitting because cloud fighting a super dimensional being is a pretty fair fight
The next few FF games are going to be like that.
I wonder, though:
Do you think he cheated due to the sponsorship at the beginning of the video?
Even if you take out the ad in the beginning it’s still longer than the Sonic 06 review.
The influence this game had on gaming was crazy.
yeah, insane amount
Some people actually consider it was the game that no only put Sony on the map, it made them win that generation, making Sega left the market, and relegating Nintendo to a distance second place (which then became third).
I remember and ad with a picture of the Junon canon saying "someone get the guys who make catridges a cigarette and a blindfold".
@@Jose-se9pu really don't see FF7 doing that considering PS1 sold over 100M units yet FF7 didn't even sell half of that, especially in Europe where PS1 completely dominated the market, while FF series had no brand recognition before 7 for obvious reasons.
The Half-Life of RPGs
The Saturn never stood a chance outside of Japan but back in its homeland it was neck and neck with the PS1 in the early years... until FFVII dropped. The PS1 exploded and never looked back. It was that significant a game.
9:47 - Johnny of all the analogies you have used, I think this might be the one where I'm left speechless. Congratulations.
"Granola" actually is a word people used to describe the passionately nature-focused, but I had to look that up during editing. I've never heard it used myself.
@@OneTrueNobody well damn, u learn something new everyday.
@@OneTrueNobody wait, are you Lewis? If so, great job, man; this is a behemoth of a video to make
I like that Lewis takes parts of the review itself without being too distracting or taking away the focus from Johnny.
I love how we just get a sort of running gag with some of these FF reviews, like FF4 gets the Jameson laugh and here we get random Aerith captions
I honestly think Johnny is like the ONLY person whose sponsorships I dont skip. The voice and the humor are what do it for me
It also definitely helps that he sponsors actually great services like Surfshark and Manscaped, not shady, borderline scam crap like Raid: Shadow Legends.
@@Marv1089 idk, I always see videos about how the vpns advertised in TH-cam videos aren't very good.
He and Internet Historian do sponsorships so well
@@Super_Suchi As well as Brandon Rogers
Internet Historian tho.
I only played FF7 last year (caught Covid and needed something to pass the time) and I was initially a bit wary because I didn't think turn-based games were really my thing, but boy did I fall in love with this game. I can't think of a single moment, song, boss fight or location that I didn't like throughout my entire playtime, and I still listen to the soundtrack as much as I can. Tifa's theme still manages to bring a tear to my eye at times
29:06
"You always remember your first time"
I feel that this can apply to the Tales series as well, specifically Tales of Symphonia. All those twists and turns it throws at you, it leaves everyone who's never played a Tales game before so shocked and thinking, "holy crap"
Yeah, those stories could be downright brutal. Haven't played Symphonia myself, but I did go through most of the others up to Vesperia. How about that bit in Eternia where you played as a Bugbear? That was *rough*...
Symphonia was my first Tales game, and also my favorite game of all time. God, I loved everything about it when I was a kid; even now that I can see the few cracks it has an an adult, I still love it, and think it holds up pretty well, all told.
Abyss was my first Tales and holy hell, I absolutely adore that game. I have been waiting and begging for a rerelease like Symphonia just got and Graces is getting soon. The themes in Abyss and the characters going through the plot would still hit hard today as they did so long ago, which is 20 years ago as of next year December! For the JP release at least, but man, 20 years is crazy and I feel like it was only yesterday.
“Never thought I’d see the day…”
Just kidding. Ready for another solid video from the resident RPG guy.
The Resident Evil RPG guy :3
*THE KIRBY GUY*
@@inakibolinaga8078 that’s Antdude
The Sonic guy
The Metroid guy
"1997, that was a magical year for me and a lot of other people"
Given that I was born in '97, I'd have to agree with that statement lol
Same, lol
Also same, was born exactly a week prior to FFVII's release
Same, especially being born a day before Castlevania Symphony of the Night came out
97 Gang
90s kids are lucky to have grown up with great games, here I am born in 2002 😭
Please continue the marathon, Johnny! It’s been 2 years and we’re still waiting.
Whoever did the edited bits with Aerith and the cutesy text sprinkled throughout the video needs a goddamn raise. Stat. Yes, even if it's Johnny. He should give HIMSELF a raise.
EDIT: Oh, it was Lewis. You did god's work, Lewis. You should tell John to give you a raise.
I'm trying to figure out if "I'm gonna name it Bob" when talking about the planet was a Titan A.E. reference or just a coincidence
I remember when it came out, I had never played a Final Fantasy game. A friend in high school had the strategy guide and I looked at the back, which had all the characters on it. I thought, “Look at this ragtag bunch of weirdos. I wonder what their story is.” Bought a PS1 and FFVII a month later and ended up maxing out the timer. Loved every second of it.
Lewis was definitely having fun role-playing as Aerith whenever she shows up.
Also, when Aerith dies
"Goddammit!"
Edit:The "R" word that Tifa uses during the stair climb is still there in the re-releases.
A good callback to his lets play where he named Aerith “goddammit”
@@kowjuice11 Exactly. Still have a laugh whenever she gets killed and Cloud just responds "Goddammit..." Instead of "Aerith..."
23:38 For the longest time, fans theorized that there was no blood because Sephiroth's sword is the Masamune, a blade that is said to be unable to cut/bleed the innocent or undeserving.
Then Rebirth came along and just confirms that it was technological limitations :V
6:57 oh my god, the rest theme. i didn't expect that to be the music piece used for your spoiler warning, but man, that song gave me the biggest smile on my face
"This is the hardest round of Smash or Pass Ever"
I don't know why but that made me laugh out loud harder than it should have
Need more snarky editor Lewis
So was it a smash or pass
I have to rant a bit on comparing Aerith's death to the previous deaths in the Final Fantasy games. Aerith's death was significantly different from those.
Characters like Galuf and Tellah were old men who valiantly sacrificed their lives for the greater good (I know Tellah didn't kill Golbez but he at least freed Kain from the mind control for a bit). In Tellah's case, his demise was pretty telegraphed. There was a big, dramatic fanfare with their departure. And they were cradled in the arms of their comrades as they crocked out their final words. Their deaths were very "Hollywood" so to speak.
Aerith was a young woman around the age of 20 (so unlike the ones before, she didn't get to live a full life). It wasn't telegraphed in the slightest. It wasn't a valiant sacrifice for the greater good (she would have been able to summon Holy whether alive or dead and her choice to face Sephiroth alone was ultimately a grossly poor choice). It wasn't a spectacular death and in fact is chillingly mundane (it's basically the fantasy equivalent of someone sneaking up behind you and shanking you). And there are chance for parting words. She's here one moment, than the next she's gone.
I think that's the real significance of the way Aerith died compared to what came before. There's no fanfare or spectacle happening there. It's just a sudden, unfair tragedy that's much closer to how death happens most of the time in the real world compared to the usual "Hollywood Deaths" we usually see in media. (I know those Hollywood-esque deaths DO sometimes happen in real life, but they are a lot more rare than our media landscape would have you believe).
I have a question! I was under the impression that it was Aerith's soul that led the Lifestream to save humanity from both Holy and Meteor at the end of the game. If Aerith hadn't died, would the Lifestream still have showed up and saved everyone at the end of the game?
Thats why I prefer the OG version of Zach's death over Crisis Core version, Crisis Core was too Hollywood-esque and making it a heroic sacrifice while the OG was a lot more abrupt and raw.
@@IzunaSlap I think so. I'm pretty sure what she did at the end of the game was what she was trying to do when Sepheroth killed her.
Aerith is 22 years old in FF7. fun fact this makes her older than cloud who is 21 in FF7.
@@borttheattorney6012 if I remember Sakaguichi's words about the game it was supposed to be about loss and Aerith's death was supposed to be symbolic of him losing his mother if I remember the quote it goes something like "death comes suddenly and there is no notion of good or bad it leaves not dramatic feeling but great emptiness and you can't help but think if you had known this was coming you would have done things differently" or something like that
I replayed final fantasy 7 for the first time in 8 years in preparation of this video and I do not regret it. The game felt so different from when I was a kid. I love the story now more than ever and cloud is now my favorite to final fantasy protagonist because of the shear depth and development he gets. I'm so thankful that I was able to experience and relate to everything that you mentioned about this game in your video and I feel you did an amazing job with this review.
Well here we are, Final Fantasy VII, The absolute big one, I'm still liking this review already before I'm actually watching this.
Even as a non-fan of this series, I think these have been great videos for Final Fantasy. This one and VI both really conveyed the personal attachment, in the way that you can hear the passion for these games. Also wanna give a shoutout to Lewis' editing, especially with his comments through Aerith.
“Never thought I’d see the day”
-Cloud
**Cloud storms into battle!**
I actually just bought tickets to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra to hear them play FFVII Remake World Tour.
Johnny dropping this video today is a sign that it was the right decision
I love clicking on a video about a game which means a lot to Johnny, let’s us know we’re in for something special
I love seeing Johnny make long reviews these days, because you know he’s not talking about a game he can’t stand, but a game he loves.
Sonic 06
I think what was the most heartbreaking about Aerith's death wasn't her death itself but the music and how the scene was directed: the theme starts as the materia bounces off the ground and somehow that little detail really chokes me up.
Ah FF7...one of the let's plays on SGB that sadly got cut early thanks to COVID ruining it. I wonder if there has been anymore talk or development of Johnny and the guys going back to finishing that game (as well as Saints Row 2 and Spiderman 2) via discord chat during like they planned too during their farewell video from behind the scenes? I hope they didn't forget that...
They made a update video on SGB and Johnny has talked about doing it again it’s just with their current living conditions as well as their personal lives it’s made it extremely difficult to do anything SGB related sadly
To me, Final Fantasy VII and Pokemon Red & Blue were the one-two punch that opened the mainstream in the west to JRPG’s. Sure, there had been other great RPG’s before these two, but none of them had garnered the massive amount of attention and imagination from western mainstream media and gamers alike until these two games came out.
Very tru FF7 and Pokémon were my first two rpgs I ever played.
I always loved the way Cloud interrupts Sephiroth’s villain speech after killing Aerith by just shouting at him to shut up and his text box covers Sephiroth’s. Just a nice little presentation touch that can only work that way in a text based game. Makes the moment feel so raw to me. Cloud is so pissed he’s just straight up not listening.
I loved Lewis' little annotations for Aerith, they were great.
One of the most formative games - well, stories - of my time on this Earth. It's brilliant, and I find it's aged qualities still charming. But . . . it has been diminished by Square's inability to move on from it. Yeah, it's because it's their biggest title, however between the Compilation, Remake, and how its all been boiled down to two dudes with giant swords and shipping of characters, the work just isn't special to me anymore. Like what happened to Star Wars, Jurassic Park etc. Let the past be the past
Love these longer videos and hearing Johnny go into his personal past with a game and gush over his personal thoughts/mild theories about characters and thing story, reminds me of similar times when I was a kid and really takes me back
As someone who played the Remake as my first Final Fantasy and then jumped into the original, it was absolutely stellar. FFVII is a wonderful time even for a modern gamer
25:43 - HA! Every time that event gets referenced I can't help but laugh.
VII was my first Final Fantasy and holds a nostalgic place in my heart. It's not the only game or story to do the kinds of things that it does, but for me, and for a lot of people, it was the first time we encountered anything like it. It was magical. And now I'm irrevocably attached to the world and cast.
I gotta give you props for explaining the convoluted story in this game. I get it now as an adult, but when I played this back in the day, I had no idea what was going on.
42:45 This alone is what made me never actually finish OG FF7 sadly. Watching supernova twice in one fight and then wiping made me not wanna bother with the fight again.
My relationship with this game is weird. Unfortunately I never got super into FF7 due to kinda getting off on the wrong foot. Most of my exposure to it was from Kingdom Hearts' depictions of its characters, the compilation of FF7 which is...mixed, and of course tons of people fanboying over it to a borderline obnoxious degree. All of that combined in a way that turned me off of the whole thing as a teen and I ended up being dismissive towards it, thinking it as "severely overrated".
Obviously I don't think like that anymore, I played through the whole thing (sans actually finishing the final boss or doing the extra post game stuff) and totally see why it's so beloved and important. That said, I can't ever say that this is a favorite of mine. It has aged worst than a lot of other games in the series and honestly the whole compilation of FF7 (Remake included) have sadly scarred my opinion of it with all the weird plot additions that they've made to that world. I don't know if I can ever fully enjoy and appreciate FF7 on its own if that makes any sense.
Speaking as someone who played a bunch of the FFs before I played FFVII, I think the reason Aerith's death hit hard back then (and still does to this day) is that it was the first time people had seen a fully fledged main character die mid-story in a high profile video game. Aerith had a likeable personality (my favorite of FFVII), was fully customizable, and had her own distinct niche in the party so there was NO indicator she was going to die, adding to the shock and sadness. The only FF playable character western audiences knew of who died before then was well... Tellah. Aerith's death and how well it's handled (the party mourns, there's frequent callbacks to her, and her leitmotif still plays at some parts throughout the game) is one of my favorite things about FFVII.
7:12 Hey, that’s a Titan A.E. reference!
Yes. Yes, it is.
@@OneTrueNobody so you edited this? Sneaky devil.
Protip: if you have berserk status on a character, they learn their limit breaks significantly faster. I'd have over half of my party's limit breaks before even leaving Midgar.
Fury not Berserk but it's a common misconception
Sonic 06: At least only Final Fantasy 6 surpassed me.
Final Fantasy 7: Let’s dance, asshole!
*Happy Andrea Rodea posing*
I always love any long-form FFVII video. It is actually my most favourite game ever, and I sincerely think it was where video games peaked: It was never going to get this good ever again. You made a great point in comparing the spirited characterisations as opposed to VI. What I'll never forget is Cloud's speech at the end of CD1, and the strong resolve he made to move forward even if he deeply doubts he would be logically or emotionally stable. Or the way he managed to enter a 30-minute long flashback with barely any fighting in a hotel room in a video game. That's the kind of stuff you just never see in a video game, and it's as daring today as it was daring then.
So many nights I stayed up as a kid and fell asleep playing this game. Great review man. Sent me back to my childhood and back to our Livestreams. Nostalgic stuff
Another amazing video essay. I could listen to you talk about ANYTHING with your lovely voice.
If you ever (somehow) run out of video topics, I wouldn't mind several long videos about character or location analysis....
I believe the reason they try to stop Shinra from using the Huge Materia is because Shinra's plan is basically just a last ditch effort with little means of success. The party knows that Shinra is unlikely to succeed and that they personally have a much higher chance of beating Sephiroth by actually using the Huge Materia and not just shooting it into Meteor with a rocket. If you fail to get all of the Huge Materia and it does get blasted into Meteor it's proven that it would have done absolutely nothing to stop it. I think it's also emblematic of Shinra in general, their first reaction is to just blow things up with a massive explosion rather than approaching the situation with a logical intelligence.
This is and probably will always be my favorite game of all time. I love the expanded universe, I love the remake, all of it. I love the story, Cloud's journey as an amazing protagonist who overcomes adversity and comes into his own as a person against all odds, most of the characters, and even if it's flawed and a bit overrated, it taught me to hold on to the ones you lose and that no one truly dies if you hold the memories you make with them in your heart forever. I had lost my grandfather a year ago and I know he'll always be with me as long as I remember the message this game imparted upon me.
Even though I prefer VI and IX over this, I still really love and have a huge amount of respect for Final Fantasy VII. Just beat this for the first time recently and I’ll say this game still deserves a lot of the attention and praise it gets. Great story, memorable characters, fun gameplay, dated, but still groundbreaking visuals for its time, one of Nobuo Uematsu’s best soundtracks, and some of the most memorable moments in gaming history! One of the influential RPGS ever made and one of Square’s greatest achievements!
We are getting a ff9 remake this year
I’ll believe it when Square Enix confirms it.
@@jdude9314 when it comes out I'll make sure to come back to this comment
I’m looking forward to it.
To me, the way the love triangle works is: when Cloud thinks he is Zack, he’d love Aerith - when cloud remembers his true self, he’d love Tifa. And the game does let you play it that way to get that moment with Tifa near the end. It’s best of both worlds
Barret's still the right choice tho
@@jadesapphira4325 nah son, clearly the proper choice is red XIII. It's the otp that square truly wished. truly. No joke.
@@lanereynolds4567 Nah the true otp is Cloud x Depression
@@borttheattorney6012 you sure it's not cloud x casualties x collateral damage?
Besides, Tifa's inly got eyes for Italians
35:10 I mean given how crystals in older FF where just rocks that granted powers to the heroes, materia is basically FF7 equivalent of crystals.
Not one, but TWO reviews that surpassed the Sonic 06 review in length. Amazing.
I can't overstate how important Final Fantasy VII is to me. I didn't play even half of it when I was growing up, but it was so beyond any fiction I experienced at the age of 10, that it was mind blowing. Like the most serious fiction I got into before that time was...honestly, Power Rangers in Space. And outside of a few MTV/Fox shows and Mortal Kombat, I had seen almost nothing that wasn't kid friendly. Every single aspect of this game (barring a very basic knowledge of JRPGs from Pokemon) felt entirely new to me.
FF7's an interesting one. I didn't grow up with the game so I have no nostalgia for it and I feel many of aspects of the game were poorly implemented or didn't age well. But what I really loved about the game was how well it was written and how much attention to detail there was. It's abundantly clear that the devs really cared about FF7 and wanted it to be a rich experience that would reward players for slowing down and paying attention and for doing repeat play throughs. Cloud in particular was a pleasant surprise since his guest cameos in other games and all the 2007 era AMV's gave me a really bad impression of him as an annoying edgelord, but in FF7 I really connected with his struggles and enjoyed how Cloud's resolve and humanity defined him. Him, along with the rest of the cast were a treat, and their story is what kept me motivated to continue playing to the very end.
Personally I'm not the biggest fan of FF7, but I definitely still had fun playing the game and can appreciate how impactful and meaningful it was for people at the time. I can see why a lot of people hold the game in high regard even to this day!
Man it is fucking insane how much Square popped off in the 90s. FFIV, FFVI, Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, FFVIII (people don't hold it in as high regard as VII but I still think it's cool), etc. Classics that have all withstood the test of time as genre defining RPGs.
As expected, another really long video from Johnny, and on one of the biggest games in the planet.
It'll be interesting to see how this video goes, as someone who came from Remake first since I grew up on the N64 instead and didn't get to experience this back then.
This was my first Final Fantasy games and it still remains one of my favourites (alongside 9 and a couple of others). The soundtrack is still my favourite.
I've been lucky enough to see Distant Worlds in London 4 times in the last 15 years, and it delivers every time. To hear Nobuo Uematsu's work played by a full orchestra is something amazing and I'd highly recommend it to anyone.
I can't wait for Johnny to do Final Fantasy 8 I don't think he has ever played it until the end.
Cloud didnt take zacks personality, he took his memories of him, the storys zack told, and put himself in those, thats why he has zacks mannerisms, but not his personality.
The personality he has at the start of 7, is based on clouds own idea of a badass soldier dude, parts of his own personality, and tifas idea of cloud, that got all intermingled when she met cloud at the train station because of jenova fuckery.
This is why aerith got confused at first, because cloud remembered her of zack, but that he was different, and because of her ancient shenanigans knew he had issues and wanted to help him
I actually think the hype about the sadness of Aerith's death is derserved, especially if you've had her as a party member as much as possible, and had the date with her. It was her presence, all the time she spent with you/cloud, mixed with cloud's reaction to the death and the soundtrack playing, it all combined to be a pretty hard hitting scene. But of course there are so many sad scenes on the older FF games too, and they are also powerful
Sephiroth has always been my favorite video game villain of all time. What makes him so special to me is how he never started out as a villain and as a good caring role model, but then he slowly goes mad as he realizes his true self, and he can mentally get inside a person’s head, hence his iconic phrase “I will never be a memory.” He is someone you don’t EVER want to fuck with.
lol The editor's note about the Beta spell is great XD
I loved FF7, not as much as 6, but god. Tifa was my girl crush back in the day and still is, but now that I'm older, I can respect her as an amazing woman and I take with me her strengths when I think about her as a person. Course she hits hard~
Being lucky enough to have experienced the death scene of Aerith during the release of FF7.
Not years later, etc.
So it hit me (at age 13/14) far more than anything before then - at honestly, since then.
It probably helped that I was absolutely enamored with FF7 at the time - and it was largely my first straight up RPG.
I had played games on the NES and PC that were similar (I went onto the Genesis after the NES) but nothing came close to the scope, depth and scale of FF7.
It was truly in a league of its own, and has never been replicated since.
It was at the right place, and the right time. It was literally the perfect storm.
The first character death from any medium that I actually felt (age 15)
This was the first Final Fantasy I LEGIT played (tried the original on Wii shop for ten minutes then gave up). While I thought FF IX was better, I understand why this game is so popular to the point of being the FF rep for Smash Bros. Maybe I should replay it in the near future.
Nah just worry about the remake and we are getting a ff9 remake this year
I just wish more FF games were acknowledged in Smash Bros.
Definitely. Love both the OG and the Remake
@@jaretco6423FF7 remake is one of my favorite games in modern gaming. But I wish they would have remastered the original story first so we and new players could play through it on today's hardware. I feel like the changes are obviously for players of the original. So for newcomers to the series they have to play the very graphically outdated version to understand the remake.
After not surpassing his Sonic 06 review for like 9 years, he did it twice in a month. Congrats!
Man, if we ever get a Persona marathon, or Johnny ever covers Record of Agarest War, we'll be sitting down to hour and a half-long reviews every month. Exciting times.
I can relate to Aerith's death moment not being monumental. Growing up in the era, it felt like people were far more interested about bringing her back to life than her actually dying.
The death that struck me the hardest was in another FF and it felt completely unexpected due to when it took place in the story.
I'm going out on a limb and (at the risk of spoilers) gonna guess you're talking about FF12.
@@Road_to_Dawn not 12 😊
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It was FF5 for me. Experienced it after 7 and 4. 4 had great moments but desensitizes you to loss of characters while Aerith death really stands out because it's the end of the first disc.
@@EmrlsCommunity Ah, I was wondering if maybe it was 5! I knew about Aerith's death, but I started really playing the FF series with 1&2 on the GBA, and in 2... man.
Like, aside from Firion, Maria, and Guy, no one is safe. The extra Soul of Rebirth story you unlock upon beating the game was really cool for me, getting more out of these characters I lost.
I loved FF5, and seeing Krile fill in Galuf's shoes was really cool for me. It was amazing seeing them bring in a Krile character when she debuted in 14! I instantly fell in love with her.
@@Road_to_Dawn yeah 2 was such a bizarre game story wise for me because i played the Dawn of Souls version as well and couldn't figure out why EVERYONE was dying so frequently! Josephs death came so sudden i was stunned 😂 it's one of my least favorite FFs but I really enjoyed the idea of playing a continued story from the fallen allies
You really need more subs. Laughed out loud several times during this video. Props to Lewis for the brilliant editing here as well. Can;t wait for the FFX vid next year
Yeah, FFX will be the next "big one". I'm really interested what he'll say about VIII, though, as I'm one of the people who are willing to cut it more slack than most. I know IX is very popular as well, but I haven't played it for ages, so I don't remember it too well. I've played TZA version of XII, recently, however, and that was AWESOME! Really looking forward to that one as well.
@Antis14CZ FFIX will be big too for story reasons and maybe some gameplay. Even if the combat is very standard, there are a good number of additions like synthesis and Tetramaster.
SomecallmeJohnny, Your videos always make me happy, so I subscribed!
Only just started the video but I wanna say that you're one of the few creators whose sponsorship I usually watch all the way through, you always do a great job of making them entertaining
It's amazing how the story transitions from an evil corperation doing bad things to one being becoming a god and threatening all of humanity. Literally every Persona game in a nutshell lol
"You never forget your first time, especially if it involves the death of your beloved."
Phrasing!
I learnt a lot about FF7 by watching Tim Rogers's excellent Final Fantasy 7 translation series on Kotaku's TH-cam channel. It made me realise that the game in general is a bit more complete and polished than the sometimes-wonky PS1 translation implies it was. I think in general my opinion on the game was tainted by all the sequels, compilations, and whatever the hell Advent Children is being something I heard about before even having a chance to check out the original. Newer FF7 stuff seems to lean a lot more into 'modern Square-Enix tropes' that just frustrate me - the feeling of style over substance, and what substance there is being something that's never explained in a straightforward way. Or within the piece of media itself.
I think Aerith’s death is so effective because she never gets replaced, but her character is unique so no matter how much you try to cover the hole it’s never right, idk I knew the plot twist for years and every time I tried to cover the hurt it made me sad
I love it when Johnny uploads i always drop what im doing to watch his great vids.
I was so excited for this review, I love hearing people's passion and happy memories of the game. I will say I always interpreted Rita's hesitation to bring up clouds. . . Inconsistent memories is because she didn't have an explanation for how Cloud even has any of those memories of an event she doesn't remember him being there for, yet a lot of his details are still right.
One of my favorite 'fun facts' about Final Fantasy VII is that things could have gone very differently. Tetsuya Takahashi and his wife (who both worked for Square at the time before founding Monolith Soft later) offered a script they had written as a proposal for Final Fantasy VII. That script was declined for being too dark (though I raise my eyebrow at that reasoning), but the project became allowed to be developed on its own. First as a potential sequel to Chrono Trigger before finally just being a completely new property initially called 'Project Noah' with a final name of Xenogears.
Yeah...the Xeno series (and probably Monolith Soft itself) exists because Square declined having it as FFVII. And I am happy things turned out that way personally because I do love the Final Fantasy VII we actually got and it allowed another of my favorite RPG series of all time to be born. My favorite of the incarnations of the franchise is Xenoblade Chronicles, but I do love Xenogears and Xenosaga too (even with them not being allowed to be completed projects due to Square and Namco's respective hiccups). Tetsuya Nomura, FFVII's lead designer and the father of Kingdom Hearts, even contributed to Xenoblade Chronicles 2 with designing the characters of the Torna group.
I remember the FMV-only advertisements! As a Saturn owner at the time it pissed me off because everyone was jumping on the PS1 bandwagon because of that shiny video, not even seeing an ounce of gameplay. In hindsight it was dumb to be bitter, considering how good the PS1 is and how well FF7 turned out, but man, even at 14 I could see right through that advertising, haha.
26:55 THIS. THIS. THIS.
I don't usually get upset about shipping, but Cloud and Aerith actually make me MAD as a couple. You pick Tifa, Yuffie, or even Barrett (yeah that's totally an option) because they know who Cloud REALLY is. Don't pick Aerith and fuck the arc. I'm begging you.
It's amazing that this video wasn't longer than the final fantasy VI video
Man, I absolutely love your videos and I’ll never get tired of em. You’re so well spoken and naturally funny. Now back to binging your vids lol
Appreciate you tackling this underrated, hidden gem!
I didn't get to grow up with this game like so many did so I'll probably never get to appreciate it much the same way, but I can definitely appreciate the legacy it left behind.
The most Glitchy Final fantasy making the first game blush
nah bro the most glitchy game has to be ff6
@@Cross-chan no FF7 had glitches that you had to actively do on purpose or by accident during one boss fight if you open your ps1 you could beat it faster ignoring the ports that add glitches a big one is during scenes where your talking you can move and it's in scenes where there's no one there it's funny
are you *sure* about that
there's glitchy and then there's NES FF1 glitchy, like that crap's almost on par with gen 1 pokemon and that takes a lot
30:29 also like Emperor Palpatine.
" I did not want you dead Cloud, I wanted you here."
By the way, I’m looking forward to seeing Johnny’s review of Resident Evil 6 soon!
I’m just hoping he doesn’t hate on it too much.
I know that most people hate it, so it might happen, but I’m one of the few that loves it(no it’s not just because of the hot girls and action sequences, gonna stop you right there), it’s the story and characters personalities. I need to get the animated movies Resident Evil Degeneration and Damnation sometime too since I love 4 and 6 a lot(it sounds like they take place after and before the games respectively).
The Revelations Games will be interesting to learn about too since I don’t know much about them myself.🤓👍🏻
Such a masterpiece game it makes me sad we don't get RPGs or games on this caliber anymore. It's an experience that was one of a kind
Honestly, the materia system was pure genius. The truly don't make stuff like that anymore. They try, but they never get seem to quite get there. Lost Odyssey was a bold attempt, but it ultimately fell flat, at least for me.
I played this game in 2021 for the first time, was absolutely floored and enjoyed my time with it. Easily a top 10 game.
I played it a year or so prior and I agree, my fave of all time with absolutely zero nostalgia attached. it shows how damn timeless it is
@@vivilover9409 Even knowing about Aerith's death for years, I still ended up crying when she died.
@@They_are_Arthur It's such a well done scene. it's hard for me to come to tears over anything, and while I didn't cry at the scene, it sure was emotionally impactful. The battle afterwards with jenova that continuously plays aeriths theme... what a moment
@They_are_Arthur Same here. I never grew up with FF7. But when it and the other Playstation Final Fantasy games came to the Switch, I give them an try. Started with 9 cause it was first to come out and I enjoyed that. But 7 was the one I'm more curious about and I thought I wouldn't like it due to it's popularity and such. But boy. Was I wrong. The game is so much better than I thought it would and as someone who has no nostalgia toward it, I can see why FF7 is so popular. Not because of nostalgia. But because it's an darn amazing game and how it helps push RPG'S into more popularity.
8:52 Vince: Yeah that’s how Wedge joined.
Wedge: Haha- Oh f**k me I saw too much!
29:24: “I don’t know, am I a monster?”
Yes. Yes you are. The concept that not just a character, but a main character and love interest in whom there had been much narrative investment could be permanently killed off was earth-shattering. Something like Celes trying but failing to hurt herself or Shadow (not an important character) possibly dying but being saveable does not compare to Aerith’s death. Not to mention Aerith was the only person who ever cracked Cloud’s shell and got him to laugh, open up a bit, flirt, etc. Once again, Sephiroth stole Cloud’s humanity from him.
It was and still is iconic.
Actually, I too wasn't too shocked at Aerith dying when I played it last year, but as the game went on I did find myself occasionally thinking "Aerith would help a lot here" or seeing a weapon and thinking how useful it'd be, only to realize that I couldn't use it even if I did buy it. That's pretty well-done of the game, thinking about it now
3:18- fun fact. As shown on VGFacts, there was an FFVII ad that mocked cartridge games, stating “Someone please get the guys who make cartridge games a cigarette and a blindfold." and "Good thing, if it were available on cartridge, it'd retail for around $1,200”
We truly have came this far, haven't we folks?
One of my favorite memories is going to my local library as a kid because I didn’t have internet and using its wifi to download final fantasy 7 on my psp. I remember my mom always talking about how much she loved the game so I wanted to try it and man did it blow my mind as a 13 year old even in the 2010’s! Such a great game
This was technically my first Final Fantasy game, as well as the first JRPG I’ve played to completion and I loved it. I know why it’s such an iconic game. Technically FF13 was the first one I played, but I hated it.
Now that I’ve played more Final Fantasy games, FF7 has actually gone down in my opinion. It’s not a bad game at all, don’t get me wrong. But FF9 beats it in my opinion, and as controversial as this will sound, I rank it on the same level as FF8.
The biggest problem I have with this game (and FF8) is that there’s nothing separating the characters aside from their weapons and Limit Breaks. And some characters I just don’t bother with like Cait Sith and Red XIII.
I'm in the same boat, this is my first FF game but it ultimately has fallen down the list in terms of whether or not it's my favorite. It's still an amazing game (It regularly jumps between the third and fourth spot in my tier list - 9 and 6 hold the top two spots) and I think to date it has the best minigames in the entire series (and believe me that's a gigantic plus) and some of the most interesting characters. It's also the funniest FF game, just beating out FF5 for the number of times I almost pissed myself laughing.
But like you said the characters really aren't that unique in combat outside of a few core flavor differences due to how materia essentially homogenizes their abilities. It's good for when you want to take your favorites along with you for most of the journey. But not so great when you can reliably interchange most of them unless you're min-maxing. It's still a fun system but once you pick your favorites there's really no reason to ever use anyone else. Unless the plot demands it of course.
Ff9 is getting a remake this year guys
Did you play crisis core too? It's ff7 and ffx for me
I read the editor's note in the Zuul voice.
Final Fantasy VII is my first FF. It helped me get into the series and without it, I wouldn't have found my all time favorite FF in VI, nor would have been engulfed by FFXIV as I became. As a result of VII's influence on me, I've beaten a majority of the series and played almost all of them, save XI and XV, with key FFs standing out in my memories more profusely than others. Top Numbered FFs being VI, XIV, IX, XII, and VII. If we include spin off titles, Tactics takes the top spot and Vagrant Story knocks both XII and VII out of the top 5 as I absolutely LOVE the world of Ivalice Yasumi Matsuno lovingly crafted (Orbonne Monastery is my all time favorite Alliance Raid in XIV as a result).
As someone who played Final Fantasy I, II, IV, V, and VI before VII, I consider Aerith's death to be a far more powerful scene than Celes' attempted suicide. Celes' scene never did anything for me because I knew she was going to survive. Well I didn't "know" she was going to survive, it wasn't spoiled for me or anything, but at no point during that scene did I think she was in any danger of the story actually killing her off. Also, I never took it as a character moment, it wasn't about Celes, it was a world building moment to establish how bad things had gotten under Kefka. To get you in the right mindset and view the world properly. Watching Celes obviously not about to die did not prepare me for Aerith actually dying. I don't think they are comparable scenes as they are both used for such different purposes.
33:08 Final Fantasy VII abridged actually explains that decently well since all the materia would explode and the residue in the sky would not be a good thing
That's not really something established in the real game, though. The real reason is that the party doubts it could work and thought it'd be better used by them instead, leading into the Master Materia stuff. It just seems like filler since the resolution to this little arc is tied to optional content.