kradeelav | FF7 loveblog

started FF7 concurrently with the FF9 liveblog because ~~(a) because sephiroth~~ (b) I am a literal masochist, we know this (b) holy remake SPOILERS batman, might as well hop to it so i can read cryptic subtweets (d) because i weirdly missed the feel of early-game FF before you had auto-heals and 99 potions : P

(but mostly sephiroth)
(listen i never said i think with my head about hot villains, you feel)

POLYGONS
FUCKING YES ACTUAL POLYGONS SWEET BABY JESUS I MISSED YOU this game is so pretty
- like you think i say that ironically but i really do mean it - games these days are just too damn visually noisy and i can’t tell with bad vision half the shit that is going on, so simplicity is a TREAT. ohhhh this is going to be an instant OoT-level classic ;w;
- i mean, not that i also instantly give +5 rating to every game that has polygons on the sheer merit that it probably has its shit together re: a decent story (because if you can cry over three pixels for eyes, that’s a damn good story, or so you’d think-),
- but………..
holy shit cloud
- is
- an ASSHOLE
- (I love him) (he is me) (i am him)
- “i don’t care about you or your fucking pet project, give me my money :D ” is a MOOD
- (also that is ngl probably the best subtextual depiction of some serious high-tier C/PTSD in the first ten minutes of any media right outside hellsing itself)
- i need a bit to process Thoughts about that and I’m sneakily curious about where it goes in the first third of the arc, but uuhhh yeah i’m digging how the anger isn’t reading as just a generic white dude machismo, it feels rawer and as a reaction to some pretty hefty fuckery.
which speaking of, i love right off the back there is an undeniable concrete edge to this game - i don’t mean strictly ~*edgy goth*~ or edgy ~anti-authoritarian~, though those are indeed elements; every single part of this game sings with a “get on my level of fuck you, enjoy my campy genius or else” and it weirdly feels like home? in the way i’ve found only trashy early 00’s media has ever felt.
- it’s there in the grungy art, the trashily irreverent characters who are flagrantly terrorists, that general POV of siding with the little man in a 100% honest way in terms of themes and general plot with the taking-on-a-corporation-with-duct-taped-everything-including-trauma-spite, etc etc.
- ;______________;
fuck me, i say reverently, as I download the entire OST because the Reactor 1 music had me close to tears alone in the goddamn prologue
- i am legitimately going to cry when OWA hits in the end
- i just
- know it
- ~~(i did in the distant worlds concert goddamit I HAVE VILLAIN FEELS)~~
playing this is such a trip with the characters because my nostalgia comes from seeing Marlene, Barret, TIfa, etc in Advent Children as a teen, wheras I had no effin idea how the original incarnations read (body language, subtle language lines, etc). Likewise with the few scenes that’ve naturally been shared as pop culture osmosis - Aeris’ church and flowers, Tifa going after Sephiroth, etc - so it’s actually a particularly deliciously mix of knowing vaguely what’s coming down the pike in terms of BATSHIT PLOT TWISTS but being pleasantly surprised at when they hit.
(speaking of - somebody recently mentioned Aeris as a “low key troll” and HOO BOY yeah i’m feeling that - just got to her church and despite her archetype being not at all what I groove with in generality, I’m feelin’ her for sure.)

I don’t even know where I am now - past the Golden Saucer #1?

the storytelling beats in this game are so good … such a glorious mishmash of predictable tropes that it codified (Sephiroth’s villainy being telegraphed from a mile away, etc) but also amazing boomerangs that hit you out of nowhere (clouds whole …. deal) - and even right down to the little things; i legit shrieked with the trap-door in the don’s house
- AND AERITH / TIFA THREATENING TO SMASH HIS DICK LOl
- (he more than deserved the threat) (but)
- ouch
- talk about ladies you don’t want to mess with lol
Sector 7 collapse….. ;___; jesus, that was brutal. And probably one of the best “tragedy aftermaths” I’ve seen in a game - everyone reeling from it in Aeris’ house sounded eerily a lot similar to my memories of 9/11. like - it’s realistic when it needs to be, but juuuust when it starts getting too melodramatic/serious, it takes a trip into the surreal humor that just … works flawlessly.
Hojo!!! i admittedly have-too-fond thoughts of that bastard after following several unreasonably talented RP’ers for years who *got* him (~~in the same way I felt a kinship with Vau?~~) - so had some weirdly mixed feelings there.
- still, DUDE BREEDING AERIS WITH XIII LOL
- ~~bet there’s some interesting fics there lol~~
god, the music is exquisite. jenova’s theme!!!! CHILLS!!
count FF7 as the thing along with MGS2 that, uh, was a little too prophetic about current events than what’s comforting? President Shinra sounded word-for-word like a certain Musk that we all know that I nearly choked on my coffee at a few of his lines - the whole neo-Midgar thing sounding a whole hell lot to the let’s-go-to-Mars-and-give-up-on-Earth deal.
- upside_down_smiley!!!!!!!
> plays through the Niebelum cutscene
- > puts down the controller with a thousand yard stare
- what
- the
- FUCk
- HOLY FUCKING SHIT
oh dear jesus that was terrifying and a masterpiece of visual storytelling
- (spiral staircase in shinra mansion resembling sephiroth’s downward spiral of self!!!)
- (the mako monsters in egg-like containers!!!) ( that horribly jarring triple-clash-of-realities-going-back-to-tifa’s-house!)
- (what the fuck)
- ( i am never going to look at fanart of sephiroth in the library the same ever again )
- (what the fuck!!!!!!)
- BEING REAL THOUGH it makes beyond perfect sense now that FF7 has had a bit of a … dark side? to the fandom? (like to the point of having actual cults and a few dears mmmmmmmmaybe empathizing just a tad much with the characters to the point of some ego-slash-reality-boundaries starting to dissolve alarmingly? because these characters are weirdly realistic given the trauma that they’ve been put through - isolation, experimentation, loneliness, disassociation, etc - and if you saw this early on as a kid when (a) you didn’t have the language resources to parse why those skeletons seemed awfully similar to yours, and (b) didn’t have the money or social resources to, you know, eventually check in with a therapist - it’s one of the few media that could absurdly get (and verbalize) it. (the other being NGE. god, these two games/anime really explains a lot about a certain generation lol.)
- (i say this having been there with a few other characters. mmm, this may need to be another post once when i finish this game.)
Rufus is hot, and I’m not afraid to Say It

(this fucking game goes places hollywood never would, is2g)

(-which speaking of, oh man my previous 'rufus as musk lols’ got a whole lot more eerily prescient with Cid’s rockets sub-plot holy shit)
- shinra <=> spacex what_do_you_mean_it’s_not_aliens.jpg
Cid is … idk, i want to like his roughness, but man that whole 'verbally abusing his wife for some definition of teasingly" hasn’t aged well, even if he did save her life and otherwise treats her well. i get that it’s probably meant as a 90’s tounge-in-cheek way, but egck. jury’s still out as I’m using him just to see if that plotline wraps up in a satisfactory way.
- generally operating with cloud/vincent/cid as my main healer/mage/tank trio with tifa as a backup - tho tbh materia in general is so overpowered that they all kinda operate as dual mage/tanks and it’s awesome.
- game scaling is great here for a beginner - there’s occasionally some vaguely tough bosses, but you’re never stressed the fuck out about getting every single item in order to survive.
- (now game direction on where to go next is a different story…)
aerith’s death was … a letdown lmao.
- i was, however, surprisingly more emotionally attached to her when she was still kickin’ to the point she was voluntarily a reoccurring part in the team in disc 1, no mean feat considering i either latch on to characters or they don’t exist.
- /salutes u, u magnificent troll
- (I like Tifa more-than-i-thought-but-less-than-aeris as well, but she’s just the type I don’t have a lot to say about.)
- (i think the lack of death-feels are ironically less due to the fact it’s been common knowlage as 90% of this game’s already been spoiled here, AKA i vaguely knew about the zack twist - but more of the sheer break in reality of Sephiroth ~nyoom-flying~ down from six meters above - felt strangely off tone? i get it’s to reinforce the fact he’s not human, but he could’ve easily appeared transparently behind the screen like the reality-breaks in the temple of the ancients (which were fucking terrifying in a great way tbh).
- all this time i thought sephiroth was a badass villain with the greatest vaguely kinky vibe to ever exist and had no idea he was legitimately THAT TERRIFYING lol
- like 'i will purposefully mindfuck with you until you are a quivering blob in a coma’ satou levels
- (this is making me crack up as krad was the edgy dear that had one of his quotes in my highschool senior book, heh) (i was… consistent?)
another mention of: can’t believe there isn’t more 'cloud has legit cptsd’ meta/(wank) and then i remember that was only a recent definition in the last …. three years, urp.
- not that it’s the only thing cloud is to me, but it’s one of those instances that fit into my pet theory of ’the first media to do a trope really fucking well is the best instance for 2-3 decades as everyone else wants to ape them’
- as always, i am stunned at how the gameplay actually gets that not-at-all-with-reality vagueness with the different colors of the text overlays (with and without backgrounds); transparency of characters - it’s the kind of art form that plays with the medium and I’m so glad it translates well to the switch.
- on a lighter bit: i am floored there’s not more 'get in the robot, cloud’ jokes with the Weapons looking exactly like EVA units and the whole psychological trauma plotlines, lol.
- (if i was the type to capitalize on fandom popularity i would, but w/e)
enjoyed the gameplay but kinda zoned out of the plot untiiiiiil we got right back into Meteor happening.
- (In fairness i think it’s because I’m Most™ invested in Vincent/Hojo’s/Jenova’s whole even-more-fucked-up deal)
- > barrett opening the blinds silently to reveal BIG ASS DOOMSDAY METEOR
- me, even knowing about the reveal, clapping hands to face in glee: holy shITTT
- ( actual majora’s mask-apocalyptic-moon-crash chills yeah) (listen, MM will forever be That Media along with ME2/3 that codified ‘what makes a good apocalyptic backstory’)
i also love how already you can tell shinra as a whole is collectively loosing their shit, for some reason ff7 hit the ‘corporate petty drama’ tone remarkably well, especially with the turks.
in hindsight, this would be a great ‘let’s get tipsy and power this up on a liberated class projector’ group play game, ngl - the minigames feel well for that kind of camaraderie of fucking with the actual player lol “go right, go right OHMYGODNO NO GO LEFT-” etc. only did that a few times with Anmesia in college but man those were hilarious times….

~~and before krad absolutely looses it and sobs like a baby at the favorite villain song of all time.~~

Vincent meeting Lucrecia (when you get his ultimate weapon) was a lil bit of … a letdown? it’s the kind of scene where you can tell he was an extra character kinda-sorta hacked in at the last minute - where taking a few extra dev weeks to build up a mini dungeon around would’ve made all the difference. I want to give all the fucks about her but man the game doesn’t make it easy, and there’s ways to do it on a budget too.
- I’m comparing it to that random-ass flashback with Aeris’ mom in particular, that was the kind of flashback that made you curl up in a fetal position of Feels™ on a few lines of text.
- in reverse, Cloud’s dream-consciousness walk with Tifa was awesome (if slightly cheesy) - one of those rare protagonists I like above the entire rest of the cast, actually. It’s actually quite rare when a game takes such a visual but also present interest in the inner mind - Majora’s Mask is the only one I can think of that did the same without being a very convenient flashback (meeting the Giants, the moon-tree, remembering the Song of Time song, etc).
the little things: the overland theme is still banging. trying to avoid the Emerald weapon while zipping around in the submarine is low key TERRIFYING jesus. Cid’s airship is so much fun to putz around in. Vincent twirling around a shotgun like a revolver makes me crack up every time. etc.
- ( @thelastdogfighter had an awesome comment of it being inspired by Parasite Eve early on in the dev process and I can definitely see that with the Materia + the Weapons plots :D )
… man diamond weapon was a pushover lol
- (having the Bahamut ZERO probably helped, i <3 my nuke dragons)
every cutscene involving Midgar is so, so good - I was starting to feel bored/impatient with all of the traveling around, but it’s picking up again.
tbh FF7 is at its best when it’s horrifyingly apocalyptic and how intensely/well it contrasts against the sincere actions and gestures of the gang? So many pieces of media (*marvel movies/NT star wars cough*) don’t know how to retain that sincerity while jacking up the stakes to a steroid-level - the Sister Ray is actually really similar to the Death Star in terms of plot importance, but the game spends that first third of time in Midgar to really lay down the emotional blocks and it works.

First, Hojo:

“Oh, the Failure.” lol, damn what an epic opening burn
- “quit asking why, you moron” [beat] “hmm you may make a good scientist, actually.”JESUS HOJO you’re killing it, ilu :D
huge kudos to whoever designed Hojo’s battle forms because holy FUCK were those creepy but in awesomely id-scrapey-symbolic ways - you had the “off” Hojo, you had GIANT!mutated-akira-blob version of him, and then at the very end you had this shrunken-floating distressingly-human shell version - sometimes I super feel the monster designs, sometimes not ~~coughWeapons~~ but this nailed it.
I’m still not super sold on Hojo’s motivations wrt Sephiroth, but overall that was a super satisfying boss fight and a run-up - I didn’t have to restart, but it was close, and had a blast sic’cing Vincent’s beast form on him for extra irony points.
- (though actually in hindsight using Death Penalty for Lucrecia nods would have been even better mmm nice)
“Rest in peace.” from Vincent?! ow. ;a; ~~fucker’s a better man than I am~~.

Northern Crater:

aww Cloud and Tifa were adorable, now kith ;w;
OKAY WHATEVER MOVING ON WE’RE BEATING THIS BITCH
- FUCK YEAH !!!!!!
- THIS!
- BITCH!!!!!!!
MY BABY
I HAVE WAITED FIFTEEN GODDAMN YEARS FOR THIS MOMENT
[ cue an c o m i c a l l y long blueball period trying to beat the northern crater enemies including the BLASTED sudden-death jokers. (I legitimately thought I was going to run out of phoenix downs until I forgot I had the phoenix summon, those end game summons are so broken.]
- ( also completely fucked up the equipping items for the jenova fight lol; the one area this game doesn’t age well is clunky battle menus) (thank god it let you change it one more time before the Sephiroth fights)

…………… tears weren’t shed, but damn if those opening chords of One Winged Angel weren’t perfectly sung to with a bit of misty-eyed-ness. :’)
- mi fili veni, veni veni mi fili -
Bizzaro!Sephiroth’s song isn’t OWA, but damn if that isn’t something I’m putting on the itunes as well. That’s also another monster design I wasn’t feeling, but honestly? the setting itself was such an amazingly vivid/original/abstracted “character” stage in itself that I could excuse it, like all the way back when you jumped off that main ledge in the Northern Crater - these days games tend to way overuse mood lighting and TEXTURES and DETAIL and forget about what even chunky polygons can do. (those blood red rocks that look like human veins surrounding that crystal, ughh)
I go back and forth as to whether Sephiroth’s arc was actually executed well now that I’ve seen it - there’s really high periods like everything in Niebelum, that one specific moment in the Temple of the Ancients, and that very final scene where he shows up in Cloud’s mind - but this is weirdly the high-concept game where it doesn’t particularly care to explain the jokes or explain shit to you? He went stark raving bugfuck mad and no, there’s no undoing it or a pithy excuse that’s easier than mercy-killing him.
- (and sometimes it be like that).
- long story short the emotional beats don’t land for me like everything in ME2/3 (and FE9) did for me - FF games in general are, mm, less tight with consistent visual framing (as the summons feel like they break immersion, and the worldbuilding/tech makes no fucking sense) - but when all the pieces line up right and it commits to a very specific Mood (horror in particular in this game), it makes a hell for a scene.
feelin’ a little uncomfortably deja vu-ish with Meteor/the lifestream and the recent bits in the news, ngl
lies down

fuck me that was a game.

krad

FF7 loveblog

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