I will never be a memory - perhaps Sephiroth's words ring true as Final Fantasy VII continues to shock, awe and shift in the minds of players as the antholog...
I’m not buying how FF7 wasn’t originally political in nature.
FF7 was deeply political, in a hamfisted way that games (especially of that era) tend to be, sure but it was deeply political all the same. Besides the most obvious parts, there’s a reason why the narrative takes you from North Corel to the Gold Saucer to Corel Prison and it was no accident.
I think this part of the video essay is illustrative of the whole “Back before I was politically-aware, things weren’t nearly so politicised as they are today!!” phenomenon.
FF7 message: Perpetual extraction of natural resources leads to global environmental collapse and the extinction of all life on the planet.
… What? Where did it say that?
FF7 message: Armed resistance is necessary to fight an armed adversary.
…uhhh… hmm… umm… what?
FF7 message: A corporation backed military force that solely serves the corporation’s interests destroys the lives/minds/bodies of civilians as well as the lives/minds/bodies of those individuals in that military force with no hesitation or remorse.
Not just a pipeline, but a whole power plant, and then your party members discuss the morality of blowing it up even though it had workers inside and come to the conclusion that working in a power plant makes you a comprador and valid target
I’m not buying how FF7 wasn’t originally political in nature.
FF7 was deeply political, in a hamfisted way that games (especially of that era) tend to be, sure but it was deeply political all the same. Besides the most obvious parts, there’s a reason why the narrative takes you from North Corel to the Gold Saucer to Corel Prison and it was no accident.
I think this part of the video essay is illustrative of the whole “Back before I was politically-aware, things weren’t nearly so politicised as they are today!!” phenomenon.
FF7 message: Corporations are bad.
FF7 message: Perpetual extraction of natural resources leads to global environmental collapse and the extinction of all life on the planet.
FF7 message: Armed resistance is necessary to fight an armed adversary.
FF7 message: A corporation backed military force that solely serves the corporation’s interests destroys the lives/minds/bodies of civilians as well as the lives/minds/bodies of those individuals in that military force with no hesitation or remorse.
Seriously, I mean the first mission is you blowing up a pipeline
Not just a pipeline, but a whole power plant, and then your party members discuss the morality of blowing it up even though it had workers inside and come to the conclusion that working in a power plant makes you a comprador and valid target
It’s amazing how the series went from FF7 to FF8, whose central message was that… uhhhhh