Scene Selection - The Opening of Final Fantasy 7

People will often tell me that Final Fantasy 7 is their favorite JRPG of all time, or sometimes even their favorite game of all time. While I can see that as a rational decision I often find myself scoffing at that idea internally. Recently I’ve tried to get myself out of this mindset because it both makes me seem like a giant tool and is a totally reasonable thing for someone to say. Final Fantasy 7 was the first fully polygonal JRPG, and was the first major JRPG on the Playstation One. When it released in 1997 the visuals and scale of the game were unparalleled. It also hit a lot of people in my age range at the exact right time to become one of their favorite pieces of media. I get it, there’s a lot to love, but for me I have a lot of issues with it.

I can’t really gripe about my issues with Final Fantasy 7's story too much, because I don’t want to get into too many spoilers now that the game is being shown to a whole new generation of people. The main thing is that I never personally connected with most of the characters and to me that’s most of the JRPG experience. Cloud is an emotionless twat most of the time (I realize this is part of the plot, but it doesn’t make me like it) and some later game revelations almost destroy him entirely for me. It’s not necessarily bad writing or anything, it just doesn’t gel with me personally and that’s fine.

From a more mechanical standpoint most of the characters in the original FF7 feel the same in battle. While the material system gives the player the choice to spec out characters however they want with magic it makes everyone feel replaceable. Aside from base character stats and limit breaks the characters can all essentially fill any role. On one hand that’s cool, but on the other it removes their personality. This complaint is actually addressed brilliantly in the remake, while Cloud continues to be an emotionless twat.

My complaints about FF7 are not why I’m here today though. Due to the pandemic I’ve been largely alone at work recently and have been using the FF7 and FF7R soundtracks to fill the silent void left behind by my missing co-workers. So I guess this can technically be considered a Memorable Melodies entry as well, but I wanted to talk about the opening moments of the game.

Unlike most people I didn’t play FF7 for the first time on the PS1. My dad worked in a computer store and was often able to bring home games that weren’t selling well for me to play. One weekend he brought me the PC version of FF7 and I was absolutely thrilled. I have a very vivid memory of getting to the church with Aeirth when my best friend at the time called and asked if I wanted to sleep over. I lied and told him my mom said I couldn’t go anywhere for the weekend because I just wanted to keep playing. That is also my earliest memory of lying to get out of a social gathering. Back then I quite enjoyed myself with the game, but time turned my opinions more harsh.

Despite my general distaste for the game now the opening of FF7 has always stuck in my mind as being very special, and the way it appears in the remake is near perfection. Every time I see either version of the opening paired with Nobuo Uematsu’s fantastic score I get chills and am immediately excited. Part of the excitement comes from the fact that no Final Fantasy had taken place in a large semi-modern city before. Every previous game was largely high fantasy with some strange high-tech/magical stuff thrown in for good measure, but here comes a new entry with a sprawling steam-punk aesthetic.

It’s burned into my memory. Aerith picking up flowers. She moves out into the bustling street. The camera zooms out to reveal the whole city. The title card appears. The camera moves back down through Midgar to a train. Cloud jumping off the train to make his debut. It’s all so well done.

Here is a video of the opening as it originally was for reference. What I’m referring to is only the first 2:22 of the video.

When people say that they love Final Fantasy 7 this is the scene I imagine plays out in their head as they say it. For a lot of people it was life altering. It was unlike anything that had come before, so when fans pushed for a remake I completely understood where they were coming from. In a turn of events that I still can’t fully comprehend Square listened to the pleas of passionate fans and now we have the first part of the Final Fantasy 7 remake. Does it have its issues? Yeah, totally. However, I still think it’s an excellent game that modernizes this classic quite well. I especially love the opening sequence! Take a look at this!

The remake adds a few minutes giving context to the different areas of Midgar and ends up being a bit more ominous to show how Shinra is effecting the planet, but everything else remains largely the same. This is like what 8-10 year old Manny fondly remembered the intro looking like instead of the comically polygonal models of the original game. Our minds glorify things we’re nostalgic about, but now we don’t have to do that anymore. The remake takes care of it perfectly. It still gives me chills, and still gets my psyched up. While Cloud continues to be an emotionless goon he still looks cool as hell when he jumps down off the train gripping his ridiculously oversized sword.

Openings are meant to get you invested immediately and FF7’s does just that. I love it so much.