How does the design of Final Fantasy VII create meaning
Final Fantasy VII (FF7) is a role-playing game developed by Square Enix and released to the Sony Playstation in 1997, and to the PC in 1998. I will argue that the game took traditional elements of RPG games and combined them with influences from other genres in a new and effective way, which is why FF7 remains significant and memorable.
FF7 was the first in the Final Fantasy series to combine 3D graphics with 2D pre-rendered background art. This approach was innovative at the time, as the Sony Playstation was still a relatively new platform (it was launched in 1994) and games developers were still experimenting with how to harness the platform’s 3D capabilities. This innovation could be said to have helped players empathise with the characters, as they existed in three dimensions for the first time. The game’s aesthetics present a mixture of cute, cartoon-like, manga-inspired imagery with more realistic, or naturalistic artwork. It mixed traditional fantasy elements (swords, magic, goblins) with a futuristic, steampunk sensibility (machinery, modern weapons, and gritty, industrial settings). On the whole the game has a unified look and feel, although in retrospect the aesthetics are inconsistent in many ways - a paradox which may actually account for the game’s popularity, possibly because it was an exciting and novel approach. For example, there is a jarring difference between the blocky 3D characters and the painterly backgrounds, or the combination of low-fi dramatic scenes with cinematic CGI sequences that mark the end of chapters in the story. This contrast gives the fictional world a feeling of dissonance, but also an exciting sense of synthesis and cohesion.
The game creates a fictional world on a global scale, mixing a traditional RPG setting of ancient kingdoms and quaint villages with an industrialised dystopian future. It presents a variety of terrains, cities and villages, and people to interact with, which create a strong sense of cultural and ethnic diversity. The locations are fictional but recognisable. For instance, the village named Wutai is reminiscent of an antiquated Japanese village, and Cosmo Canyon has the feel of an American Indian settlement. The soundtrack also reflects this diversity, and the scenery and associated imagery often feel as if they have been directly appropriated from the real world. The effect of these elements is that players bring their own associations to the game, and as such it could be said to assist with making the drama more human-entered.
The story proceeds with an escalation of different types of crisis. The game begins with a city-scaled crisis where the mercenary Cloud and his rebel gang try to overthrow the Shinra Corporation, the ruling power, and ends with a global crisis of an approaching meteor that will destroy the planet. The overall storyline brings together the elements of the ‘epic’ form of narrative. It centres around the adventures of a hero, involves deeds of superhuman valour, has a vast setting, and deals with the supernatural (Drake). The plot is complex and large in scale, and contains numerous subplots, side quests and secrets. Many themes are explored, allowing for a range of different tones and emotions to emerge, from death and to romance and comedy.
A particularly memorable aspect of FF7 is the characters. The characters are in fact caricatures, with exaggerated body parts, enormous hair, impossibly muscled arms, and could be said to be stereotypes: the adorable female, the tough stubborn guy, the heroic yet brooding protagonist. However the rendering of the character’s inner lives is in-depth and complex, which works against them being clichés, and invites the player to invest emotionally in them. Some of the characters even undergo role reversals, for instance where the ‘“damsel in distress” character Tifa actually comes to Cloud’s rescue’ (Group, 2016). This inhabiting of multiple roles can be related to Propp’s ‘spheres of action’.
The characters all have different goals, and this informs how we can relate to them. The protagonist Cloud is an eco-warrior with lots of personal demons, a kind of flawed anti-hero. The villain Sephiroth is a disillusioned hero - a good guy turned bad. Barret is a lot like Mr. T from the A-Team: hot-headed but essentially good. The characters often mimic stereotypes from the real world, but they are always nuanced and fascinatingly portrayed in the game. Together they create conflict and rivalry, or agôn, and help to build a convincing portrait of a troubled but hopeful society with its own hierarchies and power struggles.
FF7 is full of variables. Chance-based encounters with enemies create suspense, and the turn-based event system is always evolving and being affected by randomly imposed constraints and Random Number Generators, which can create a disorientating sensation, and introduce a degree of instability, or Ilinx, into the gameplay. The challenges FF7 presents are compelling because they directly affect the way the characters develop, and to some extent the story itself, however some of the technical challenges were perhaps too difficult for some players. For instance, some reviews at the time of the game’s release praised the game’s magic system, stating that the ‘special attacks and spells [...] are the game's strongest points’ (Boor, 1997), whereas others were baffled by its mechanics: ‘The magic system is so complicated as to defy simple explanation’ (Dulin, 1998). But the free-roaming world map, and the ability to customise a character's magic, weaponry and armour can be said to create a sense of freedom, or alea, where the player feels that he or she is in control of his or her own destiny. FF7 was important for challenging the idea of linear progression in a game. It was an important step towards the degree of agency seen in the games of today, where the player can influence the outcome of a narrative, or experience several narratives (for instance, the ‘butterfly’ effect). I think it is this sense of freedom which helped to make FF7 a meaningful and rewarding experience. The game can be said to be more ludus than paedia in its freedoms - more controlled and rule-based than spontaneous or improvisational - however it took important steps towards giving the player more agency. (Caillois, 1979).
FF7 is still relevant and memorable today as a game that changed gamers’ perceptions of what an RPG could be. Since the release of FF7 the audience for the RPG genre and the sheer amount of games has grown considerably, yet FF7’s iconography is still popular in the wider culture. Its characters have appeared numerous times in related games and movie franchises, orchestras have played public performances of the game’s soundtrack, and by popular demand the game is being remade for the PS4, proving that it still has appeal for a modern audience. FF7 was the most significant step in the Final Fantasy series towards challenging the possibilities of the RPG format, encouraging the series to ‘move beyond simple genre fiction and into critical examination of what that fiction means’ (Mackin, 2016).
Bibliography
Boor, J. (1997) Final Fantasy VII. Available at: http://uk.ign.com/articles/1997/09/04/final-fantasy-vii (Accessed: 4 November 2016).
Dulin, R. (1998) Final Fantasy VII Review. Available at: http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/final-fantasy-vii-review/1900-2536027 (Accessed: 4 November 2016).
Mackin, H. (2016) Final fantasy VII’s legacy gets everything about final fantasy VII wrong. Available at: https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/04/final-fantasy-viis-legacy-gets-everything-about-fi.html (Accessed: 4 November 2016).
Drake, T. Six elements of the epic (no date) Available at: https://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/engl257/General%20lit/six_elements_of_the_epic.htm (Accessed: 16 November 2016).
Caillois, R., Barash, M. and Caillos, R. (1979) Man, play, and games (les jeux et les hommes, engl.). New York: Schocken Books.
Amelivia, J. Final fantasy VII scene reconstruction using blender (part 1) (2015) Available at: http://namelivia.com/final-fantasy-vii-scene-reconstruction-using-blender-part-1/ (Accessed: 16 November 2016).
