Monday, December 30, 2013

Final Fantasy 7 (Spoilers!!!!) Late-ish game thoughts

Note: I'm putting up spoiler tags, but by now this has become one of gaming's most infamous scenes, so I feel like you shouldn't care so much.

So I just thought I'd post my thoughts on the Middle Plot Twist of Final Fantasy VII.

Yes, Aerith dies near the middle of Final Fantasy 7. It's an infamous and famous scene that has garnered a lot of jokes, analyses, and sad montages over the years. One guy (TheGamingTheorist) even suggested that the entire scene should be viewed a different way, that Cloud killed.

To fill those of you who haven't heard his ideas, he says that Aerith doesn't die from Sephiroth stabbing 7 (or 9, I forget which it is) feet of steel straight through her, but instead drowns when she sinks far too far into the murky depths of a nearby pool. Go look it up if you want. Be warned: the creator, MattPatt, is fond of inappropriate imagery. Look up a transcription of his theory instead. I personally find it a bit far-fetched, but it is believable that Cloud subconsciously finished the job under Sephiroth's control. After all, shortly before this scene, Cloud was about to kill Aerith himself, albeit under the influence of Sephiroth.

Anyway, I felt like the scene was executed pretty well, however, the camera focused a bit too much on Aerith's mother's Materia bouncing away from Aerith. It kinda ruins a death scene when you literally say to yourself: "Hey look, a Materia!" instead of "Oh no! Aerith is dead!!" As far as I can tell, it's justified in that the Materia is important, it being the opposing Materia to Meteor and all, but it still kinda messed up the scene a bit.

Soon after, Sephiroth drops a Jenova boss for you to fight, as he has been doing all game. What's different is that you fight it to the sound of Aerith's theme. The boss is intentionally easy, and it seems to be nothing but a distraction. Finally, Cloud "buries" Aerith by dropping her into a nearby pool of water.

I thought the entire scene was really emotional. I'm somewhat ashamed that I wasn't all that sad, but, in my defense, I'd known all about the death scene for years previous to starting this game. All I wondered was when it would happen.

I haven't finished Final Fantasy 7 quite yet, but I've enjoyed the continuing Saga of Cloud and his motley crew trying to stop the Meteor.

Till next time,
Joseph

P.S.: To those of you who are FFVII veterens, is there supposed to be a huge difficulty spike when you get to the downed airship? I keep getting instakilled by random battle enemies.

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