Talk:Final Fantasy VII

See here for previous discussions which have been archived. (Before July 2005)

European release date?

Does anyone know the exact date in November 1997 when FFVII was released in PAL territories?

November 1st for UK, so I assume for all other PAL too. — Cuahl ◌ 29 June 2005 10:36 (UTC)

*wipes sweat from brow* Whew! Next up...

Well, thus endeth a good two day editing spree on my part. I hope the article looks better for it. If nothing else, it's certainly shorter. As I was editing, though, I was thinking of several things that should be mentioned somewhere but aren't, as far as I can tell. It would be nice to discuss the different versions of the game somewhere (I'm specifically thinking of the international version here, but also the differences between the Japanese and English language releases), and the, well, "notoriety" of the English localization would be nice to mention somewhere. I'm taking a break for a couple of days at least, so if anyone else wants to take a swing at it, go ahead. If not, I'll see if I can cobble something together when I get back. – Seancdaug July 4, 2005 06:35 (UTC)

One-winged Angel Screenshot

I would think, as a general rule, it's a bad idea to put a screenshot of a game's final boss in an article. Is there another screenshot that can take the place of the Sephiroth battle? --Vyran 16:46, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

lol you're absolutely right, it is kinda dumb, but most people wouldnt know the difference unless they have already beaten the game. It could be changed to the overhead view of midgar from the beginning (which would make more sense anyways). I dont have access to it from here so someone needs to change it. -Tik

A screenshot from a fight would be best since it's in the gameplay section, but that would also work. --Vyran 18:07, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

I have no sympathy at all for people who read any Wikipedia pages and have their game spoiled for them. It doesn't make sense. I don't even think the spoiler tag should exist. I don't mean to be stuck up about it all - I too hate having things spoiled for me. But if I'm looking forward to something on my own I don't go reading a page about it. It doesn't make sense. Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia right? You wouldn't find spoiler warnings in written versions. — Cuahl 01:50, 17 July 2005 (UTC)

Then again, you wouldn't find "Final Fantasy VII" in a written encyclopedia either. I think it is the caption which sort of gives something away. I've tried to edit it such that someone who has played the game will recognize it, and someone who hasn't won't know what it really means. Someone42 05:29, 17 July 2005 (UTC)

I think this is more like, 'Rosebud,' or Darth Vader being Luke's father, in that, pretty much everyone knows what happens, and it's safe to insert. And it's not like it's a surprise (or irrational one, either... FFIX, anyone?)--"Whoa, the main antagonist of the game turns out to be the final boss?! Not only that, but you fight an advanced version of him! This is a shock and innovation to the video-game industry."

The only thing that would be lost is the "allure" of the "unknown." Like you want to be surprised in the final battle; a more "whoa, we fight in the clouds?!"-environment type thing.

:P

Lockeownzj00 01:28, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

Seconded. And if we're talking about not finding Final Fantasy VII as encyclopaedic material offline, why is it on Wikipedia? — Cuahl 01:47, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, I think by the time a player gets out of Midgar they're pretty sure Sephiroth is going to be the grand finale, but how would anyone guess that he'd look like that? But not everyone knows what happens if they're looking at the wiki article for it - they may be comparing Final Fantasy games to see which one they want to buy next (I've been looking at various material on a few of the games myself to see if I want to buy FFVIII, FFX or just get FF Anthology and play FF6 again for old times' sake). I think it's just for the sake of curious (but not "that" curious) players that the screenshot not be placed under a section so simple as describing the basic elements of gameplay. --Vyran 02:06, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

Maybe we should add "Wikipedia is not a catalogue" to what Wikipedia is not. Sorry to be annoying, but I'm one of those who tries to keep things Wikipedia. — Cuahl 02:27, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia can be informative and contain all necessary information without needlessly dropping it upon people who may not want to see it. People who want to find information about a book, movie, or game may not want to be told what happens at the very end, and we should not assume that a reader wants to find out a major detail in a tiny paragraph one of us wrote. Getting rid of information is not necessary and it's not what I'm suggesting, but at the very least, separating information or pictures that could spoil the experience would help people that may have come to Wikipedia to read about the game and not just read the game. --Vyran 03:34, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

I understand that if I was new to Final Fantasy VII, I wouldn't want the game spoiled myself. However, like you say, people read the article to read about the game, but Sephiroth is part of the game? Sorry, but I don't read certain articles (Serenity (movie) for example) because I'm looking forward to the experience. Wikipedia is just another website on the web, and I don't think we should have moral obligations to baby-protect users. As an example, people can go spoil that new damn Harry Potter book or, uh, not read the page in the first place. FFVII is eight years old now - do we really have to concern ourselves with it? Maybe this isn't the place to talk about this I guess.. I'll go see if there's a place on the Spoiler Policy page — Cuahl 04:13, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

True. After a certain time, someone is as likely to have something spoiled here as they are anywhere else they look. --Vyran 12:13, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

The fact that FFVII is eight years old is irrelevant. 10 years from now, people are going to still be playing it, just as people still play the Zork games (albeit in less quantity). Many people might, after having being introduced to a later Final Fantasy, decide to turn to Wikipedia as an unbiased, reasonably comprehensive source for older Final Fantasies because they suddenly are interested in the series. Of course we should not have the moral obligation to hide spoilers (obviously if you read below the spoiler warning, expect to see spoilers) - but there's nothing wrong if a Wikipedian goes out of their way to cover one up with a more subtle version, or point out one to fellow Wikipedians. Someone42 10:58, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

There's an entire article on Safer Sephiroth and no one bothered to put a spoiler alert on it. I guess its because its not linked to anything. Hmph. ~ Hibana

I imagine so. Strange that someone would write the article and not do anything with it. --Vyran 12:13, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

That always happens. That's why I'm trying to hunt down every FF-related article — Cuahl 16:03, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

I looked at the page and edited some portions of it that were clearly wrong (like Safer having only four wings) as there's a lot of speculation and many things can be argued either way. --IdoAlphaOmega 20:30, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

I replaced the OWA screenshot with a screenshot of Cloud, Tifa and RedXIII fighting some buggerlings in Mideel. I think this screenshot is better than the OWA screenshot, because

1. it shows sideways combat screen, which is far more common than the from-the-behind view in OWA shot, and
2. it is probably the place where most people playing FF7 will spend most of their time! =)

I hope there's no objections to this, now? The OWA shot is still used in Safer Sephiroth (and probably elsewhere). --Wwwwolf 20:38, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

File:FinalFantasyVII-Combat.png

I'm the one who put this screenshot on the page. My screenshot is used elsewhere, that's right like the one-winged angel page. Those pages are the right place to have the screenshot. I agree with the fact that a normal battle screenshot is more appropriate to show the gameplay system than the last boss. Good move Wwwwolf! — DarkEvil 15:38, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

I like it! It's a better looking screenshot and it's more use to people who aren't familiar with the game. Sigh. This makes me want to play this game all over again. — Cuahl 16:43, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

I just changed the screenshot, keeping in idea the facts mentionned by Wwwwolf being the sideway combat screen and not giving away the final boss showing a regular part of the game. It's a normal battle screenshot, in better quality than the older one and lower file size too. – DarkEvil 17:10, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

Are you sure you did? Image:FinalFantasyVII-Combat.jpg — Cuahl 17:27, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

I don't know what you mean, it was better quality looking as far as I can see, smaller file size and it did show something similar to Image:FinalFantasyVII-Combat.png, being a regular sideway battle and non-spoiler. – DarkEvil 19:42, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, sorry for the huge file and lack of clarity. I grabbed the pic from Playstation PAL version using tvtime. I don't have anything besides the composite video cable for PSone (which may make the pic a bit blurrier). I tried GIMP's deinterlacing/video filters but it only made the pic worse. And to top it all, I accidentally saved as PNG (as the original grab was) and uploaded that. Don't make screengrabs while coffeed. =) Yeah, PC version screenshots are probably far clearer. Still, I'd appreciate it if you'd run to Mideel and slash some monsters in the bushes (preferrably grab with Head Hunters instead of those worms in my pic). That was item 2 on my list. =) --Wwwwolf 08:56, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

OK, thanks for replying. I'll get there and try to do exactly what you said. I could've done it in either PC or PSX. I'll do it in PC taking a screenshot. It should not be too long. – DarkEvil 14:39, July 22, 2005 (UTC)

I uploaded the new screenshot, but it's still the old Image:FinalFantasyVII-Combat.jpg that's appearing for me when I go to the image page for now. Can someone explain to me why everytime I upload a screenshot over an old one, it takes like 20 minutes to show the new one, even if I delete old temporary files, cookies and press refresh? – DarkEvil 15:50, July 22, 2005 (UTC)

When I made my comment earlier, it was because there was no image uploaded, and no image was on the page. That's why I reverted because the image had essentially been taken away. Sorry for the confusion. Oh, and Wikipedia uses a cache, but that shouldn't take 20 mins, so that'll be your browser probably. Close, reopen, and then Shift+F5 on the page should do the trick some. — Cuahl 17:14, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

It was a lot of confusion for nothing, no problem. Anyway, the new pic I uploaded over it is better. Thanks for the help with my browser, the trick worked perfectly. – DarkEvil 23:16, July 22, 2005 (UTC)

Absolutely better - better quality, better enemies, and Cloud isn't wielding Ultima Weapon like in my screenshot (the point of fighting these enemies is to get XP and tons of AP, thus having a zero-growth weapon is kind of pointless - the only reason I was using it in my screenshot was that the nearest savegame I had at hand was "ready to kick Sephiroth rump" and I was too coffeed to notice it until FAR later...) Thank you! --Wwwwolf 11:25, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

I've got to say thank you for the compliment myself. The screenshot didn't take me too long of my own time to take and it was rather easy, I was already prepared. Plus, you're the one who put the idea of this particular scene first, I just copied it in the better way possible. – DarkEvil 18:52, July 23, 2005 (UTC)

Perhaps this isn't the place to put this, but just thought I'd point it out: Square has said that they're bringing a graphically updated version of FF7 to PS3...so, all those points about "the game being 8 years old" go out the window. People will soon be playing it for the first time on a massive scale.

Isn't that just a rumor? --JiFish(Talk/Contrib) 18:49, August 6, 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, that's in no way confirmed. That PS3 tech demo proves nothing. ~ Hibana 19:10, August 6, 2005 (UTC)

Heated safer sephiroth discussion

If anyone is interested, there is a heated discussion about the symbolism and visual representation of safer sephiroth (one winged angel) on the -Safer Sephiroth- page that i would recommend reading and supplying your opinion on. i have found the arguement (cant spell*) very entertaining. Kind of a left turn in this discussion board but i thought u might like to know. -Tik

UPDATE: the discussion is no longer on the page, as it was merged with another page and was removed.Tik 13:18, 13 August 2005 (UTC)

Actually the discussion can still be found - Just go directly to Talk:Safer Sephiroth. --Wwwwolf 18:13, 14 August 2005 (UTC)

oh ok cool, i couldnt find it when i went back there, thx for the link.Tik 13:48, 20 August 2005 (UTC)

Rumors

Should rumors of a Final Fantasy VII remake for the PS3 be mentioned in this article (this rumors are said to come from "credible" sources)? There is also a rumor that the technical demo is actually footage from the remake itself, although Sony has denied this.

• No, not for now, these are only rumors, started by fans, and as they said, don't expect anything out of this, it was just a tech demo. I'm not saying they never will, but that is nothing more than speculation for now. – DarkEvil 23:52, August 5, 2005 (UTC)

To be honost you are probably right, the game is probably gonna be made sooner or later, since SE interviewed that since they got such a good responce from the demo that they may LOOK into doing a remake, but sadly, so sadly, there is no announcement and should be considered rumor until SE comments further. -Tik — Comment by User:68.153.29.23 15:42, 7 August 2005 (UTC) (— CuaHL)

Supernova

I've never played the Japanese version of the game, but I read that the animation for Safer Sephiroth's "Supernova" is very different than in the US localization. Like, it doesn't show our solar system in the Japanese version, it's just a few planets. I'm wondering if this is why they never mention the name Earth when referring to the "Planet" in the game, even though US Supernova clearly shows it. I thought maybe it could be mentioned in that little Versions that was recently added if it's significant. ~ Hibana 06:56, August 9, 2005 (UTC)

This is true, the Japanese Supernova merely cuts to black, then to starry space, then there's a big loads of random white explosions, and it's over. Comes back to the battle and you receive 9998 damage or something. Certainly doesn't say 'Earth.'--alfakim 09:08, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

• Is it also a cheap version of the supernova in the Japanese international version? – DarkEvil 14:54, August 9, 2005 (UTC)
• Dunno.--alfakim 23:10, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

There was also that Test 0 enemy in the Corel Prison that wasn't included in the US PS1 version. Does anyone know if it was in either the PC version or European release? ~ Hibana 04:15, August 10, 2005 (UTC)

I can confirm it wasn't in the US PC release too, but I don't know about European releases. I had heard about this monster, I think he is in both the old and the International Japanese versions. – DarkEvil 14:57, August 10, 2005 (UTC)

I think it doesn't say the planet's name because the Planet in the game is supposed to be alternate-reality version of Earth or something, and the player was meant to draw this conclusion themselves. That was the simplest explanation for the whole thing that I could think of. --Wwwwolf 10:51, 13 August 2005 (UTC)

Well, like with Final Fantasy IV, I asked on its Talk page if the planet was called Earth in just the English localization. It was explained to me that it was not only mentioned in the game's "Legend" sequence, but that it is proved by showing our solar system in the ending. Supernova, on the other hand, shows our solar system only in the English version of FFVII. I figured it was just called the Planet because it wasn't given a formal name like FFIX (Terra) or FFX (Spira). ~ Hibana 12:31, August 13, 2005 (UTC)

Right. Makes sense. How about the Japanese "international version"? Does it have the longer or shorter version? If so, it might indicate that such relationship was originally intended, or that it was retconned. --Wwwwolf 12:48, 17 August 2005 (UTC)

In-game character shots

Red XIII article has a cute picture of Red's in-game appearance. It would be neat if the other character articles had in-game and preferrably combat character shots too. Like the Red pic, I'd hope these were from game, not extracted from model viewer. Though, getting a good, and typical, pics of the characters is probably pretty difficult, but I hope they can be done. And, please, Cloud should be either scratching his head or shrugging :) --Wwwwolf 10:47, 13 August 2005 (UTC)

I have CGs that are essentially high-res versions of the main characters' battle models (in various poses). They're official JPEGs that circulated through the Internet some time ago (I acquired them a while back). Are these the sort of thing you would like to somehow implement into the articles? -Reichu 01:09, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Spelling, which we stuck on

Two interesting questions:

1. Should it be JENOVA or Jenova? The full-capitalized name is only used in the Nibelheim room and the helmet, dialogue and combat helper refers to her consistently as "Jenova", so unless anyone has any objections, I think I'll one day try to make articles stick with the latter spelling.
2. How about the nomenclature for the monsters with unusual punctuation? The names in the game read "Jenova•BIRTH", "Jenova•LIFE", "Jenova•DEATH", "Jenova•SYNTHESISA" (and B and C), "Bizarro•Sephiroth A" (B,C,D,E) and "Safer•Sephiroth".

The latter is particularly interesting, because it uses the centered dot / bullet / whatever and such. I'm not even sure it's supposed to be a centered dot, just weird punctuation. In many online sources, I've seen it

• getting replaced by a dash (eg. "Jenova-LIFE")
• getting replaced by an asterisk (eg. "Jenova*BIRTH")
• getting omitted and used space insted (eg. "Bizarro Sephiroth")

So, my humble and completely inconsistent and arbitrary proposition to increase consistency: Let's use dash for Jenova's forms (eg. "Jenova-LIFE") and space for Sephiroth's forms ("Bizarro Sephiroth"). I have no other rationale for the dash except for the fact that Jenova's second parts are capitalized, thus a dash seems more aesthetically pleasing. Or something like that. Of course, if we were to ignore Jenova's funky spelling in game, it'd make sense to use spaces there too (eg. "Jenova Synthesis") --Wwwwolf 12:48, 17 August 2005 (UTC)

Keeping all of it capitalized would keep with continuity of the game, as we all know, in-game wording can be dodgy at best. Ereinion 08:40, August 18, 2005 (UTC)

I was under the impression that all-caps JENOVA was to be associated with the project itself; spelling it Jenova referred to the creature. But that's just me. --Jiffypop 06:51, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Final Fantasy SGI demo removed

I've removed the summary of the Final Fantasy SGI demo on the grounds that it really doesn't have anything to do with Final Fantasy VII. The N64/PlayStation background logically predates this game, and really is better discussed in the Square Co., Ltd. article, anyway, and the demo itself would more comfortably belong in the Final Fantasy VI article, since it features characters from that game. It sticks out like a sore thumb here, IMO. – Seancdaug 12:09, August 26, 2005 (UTC)

• Not a bad idea, you should go ahead and add the part about the demo to FFVI? -- ZeWrestler ^Talk
  • Yeah, I'm going to. But first I had to go and rewrite the demo article ;-) – Seancdaug 12:45, August 26, 2005 (UTC)

Needs a better map

The locations map appears to be a scan from some completely uncredited source - fair piracy use or not, it would be very cool to know where it was taken from. Plus, it's got that nasty black streak through it where the binding is. So, um, what I'm proposing is that it should be replaced, preferrably with a version drawn for Wikipedia specifically. I have a hazy recollection of there being a partial map somewhere in an earlier version... --Wwwwolf 12:40, 26 August 2005 (UTC)

On main theme

I went on and trimmed this bit off of the article (/* Musical score */)

The game also boasted a 6 minute symphonic "main theme" track played while the character was on the world map (only during disc 1, after which it was replaced with a secondary theme). The previous Final Fantasy games had world theme tracks that were only in the range of 45-90 seconds, and given the new audio capabilities of the Sony Playstation (it could render real audio as opposed to utilizing a soundchip or MIDI), players were thrown back after being accustomed to the SNES's audio capabilities. The unfortunate irony of this is that, given frequency of battles and distance between towns/dungeons, most players would never hear the composition in its entirety unless they tried to. The chord progression and keys used in the main theme could also be heard in many of the other tracks throughout the game, and were used as part of a piano minigame to receive a prize.

I had some good ideas why this was taken off:

1. Fancruft.
2. So FF7 had long world map music. Woohoo. Big deal.
3. Ironically enough, the FF7/Playstation music is still "soundchip or MIDI". There isn't a single stinken bit of full PCM in the game, and only one audio track with synthesis + PCM samples. There certainly is no PCM bits in the main theme, so why ramble about that?

I just put "The game's main theme, heard on the world map in Disc 1, is over 6 minutes long" in the notable pieces bit. I hope this trimming won't annoy people. --Wwwwolf 18:49, 7 September 2005 (UTC)

I agree with your changes. --JiFish(Talk/Contrib) 19:08, September 7, 2005 (UTC)

Agreed. – Seancdaug 19:44, September 7, 2005 (UTC)

On a similar tone, I also moved the "Aeris debate" section from the same anonymous user to Aerith Gainsbourg... well, not really moved, just plagiarised whatever good ideas it had and threw there some of mine too. =) --Wwwwolf 02:19, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

First Squaresoft game to be advertised on television in the US?

I don't think so. Does anyone have any proof of this statement? I am absolutely certain it is false as I saw commercials for Chrono Trigger predating FFVII. I'm removing the line until someone provides actual proof.

It's not true. The first Square game to be advertised on North American television was Rad Racer, and there were also ads for Final Fantasy VI (it used to mentioned in the FF3 article, but was sliced out as it was kind of pointless trivia). I'm not aware of any Chrono Trigger commercials in the U.S., but, even so, there were quite a number of commercials for other games before FFVII. – Seancdaug 15:47, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

Didn't know Rad Racer was a Squaresoft game. My mistake. DirectorStratton 16:29, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

I remember there being one for Secret of Mana also, circa 1993. ~ Hibana 19:06, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

LGBT category

There's now a small revert war - should I say a skirmish - going on - people don't seem to want this article listed in Category:LGBT computer and video games.

Well, I wouldn't, either. But the category has games where LGBT themes are shown in small amount (which is undeniably true in FF7's case); Nobody is claiming FF7 is a homosexual sex game or anything. I mean, Super Mario Bros. 2 qualifies in the category because it had (in some translations of the manual) a transgender boss.

So, before this thing gets any more weight, I suggest leaving the category as it is for now and everyone to voice their concerns in Category talk:LGBT computer and video games. There are strong arguments that the category should be turned into a list with explanations added. I'm in favor of that; this revert war is a good indication of the necessity of that thing. --Wwwwolf 10:49, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

Aeris resurrection hoax ("Ben Lansing")

Should the rumors about being able to resurrect Aeris have a part in the FFVII article? Considering the number of people who believed it, I think it does; if nothing else, mention of the "Ben Lansing" user who claimed to be a Square translator and whom blew the rumors out of proportion. --Jiffypop 06:51, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Erm... the number of people who believed it is probably a fairly insignificant subsection of the number of people who have played the game (in total). It's a fan phenomena, and while it's important to the fan scene, I'm not convinced its relevant to anyone else. If we do mention it, it should be extremely brief (I wouldn't take more than a single sentence, actually), and we should have some sort of source to cite. – Seancdaug 11:21, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

The Lansing hoax is mentioned - briefly - in the Aerith article. I'm not sure how much citations should be added, but I put there link to a copy of the original hoax article and the retraction put out by the same person.

While the number of people who believed in this thing may have been fairly small, it did help the resurrection debate snowball into ridiculous proportions. People talked years afterwards about theories on how to do this - it has only recently died down because these days the game has been taken apart so many ways and there's not a shred of solid evidence found in the game data, so there's rational proof that the whole thing is a hoax. And so on.

Oh, and the FF7 Wikibook has plot analysis sections and so on, and already a brief bit on Aerith resurrection rumors; If anything shows up here that's too extensive for Wikipedia, feel free to dump it to Wikibook side. =) --Wwwwolf 15:43, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Yes, but the number of people involved in the debate was insignificant compared to the total number of people who have played/were aware of the game. Hence, it's a fan phenomena, and one that we need to be careful not to over-represent. This isn't a fansite, and we need to keep in mind that the majority people who will ideally be viewing this article aren't likely to be interested in internal fanbase politics. – Seancdaug 18:27, 30 September 2005 (UTC) (Moved to correct place by Wwwwolf)

Since there isn't a very in-depth story entry for FFVII (rightfully so, I suppose) even mentioning that Aeris dies in the main article, I suppose this works. What sense would it be to discuss a resurrection rumor without mentioning the death itself? =) But something to remember if the story block is ever edited to include more spoilers. --Jiffypop 16:58, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

I think it's more of what's appropriate for main FF7 article and what's appropriate for sub articles. On same grounds as Seancdaug says above, I don't think it's significant enough to be mentioned in the main article. I think the thing is worth mentioning in Aerith article though. This is, after all, marginal comments. --Wwwwolf 11:10, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

Rumours 2

I don't really like removing whole paragraphs of text, so I feel I have to justify it here. The "remake for PS2/PS3" rumour has been added before and discussed here, and it was decided that since a rumour is a rumour and not fact, it shouldn't be included here.

Also, one must remember that rumours can be made up about anything, and if Aeris resurrection/secret Weapon rumours are allowed here, then by example that permits a slew of speculation and fancruft. Someone42 11:14, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

It was just a repeat of what's on the Final Fantasy VII Technical Demo article anyway. ~ Hibana 14:45, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

Agreed, the stuff is repeated on other articles. No reason to mention this stuff on the main article. --Wwwwolf 16:40, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

Re: Character-specific Pages

In some of the clean-up I've been doing lately (mostly as a result of browsing around and getting that "itch that must be scratched"), I've noticed that there is a bit of disarray with the main character page, when an entry exists for a character that has a specific page devoted to her/him. Presumably, in such cases, the entry on the main page should be very brief and to-the-point, with the various details reserved for the in-depth page. Also, one would suspect that any details mentioned in the main entry should be also present in the full article, albeit in greater detail. It's probably about time that this matter was tidied up. I've made a start (mostly with Aerith, Vincent, and the Turks), but if anyone else feels inspired to tackle the others, be my guest...

There are also many links left to individual character pages that have since been removed (Hojo, Zack, etc.). These ought to be cleaned up at some point.

On a final note, I thought I'd mention that I'm adding the Japanese renditions of the various character names, whenever I can locate them. (The "Advent Children" page inspired me. :D ) Probably the majority of visitors won't be able to make any use of these, but they're nice to have for the sake of completeness and to meet the needs of hard-core fans (i.e., those who are interested in such things but aren't proficient enough to comb the Internet for the Japanese renditions of the names). -Reichu 07:54, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, the character page is a bit of an unresolved problem, IMO, from several months back. Thanks for taking a crack at it. As for individual character pages, I've been doing so fairly heavy pruning on that front. My immediate goal is to keep such pages limited to playable characters and demonstrably notable NPCs (Sephiroth, and maybe Rufus are the only two that come to mind for FF7): the broader, Wikipedia-wide consensus would probably consider even that excessive, and not without good reason. Any article discussing, say, Yuffie is going to be a discussion of Final Fantasy VII, meaning that the information in the former article should ideally be folded into the latter. But, hey, baby steps, right? Also, good call on the Japanese language names: it's good policy, I would think, considering that this is a Japanese game, and I think the relevance goes beyond "hard-core fans." – Seancdaug 16:41, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

Well, I definitely think that there is enough stuff on many of the characters (as in, two paragraphs or more) to warrant individual character pages. Yuffie is iffy, yeah, but characters like the Turks, Cloud, Aeris, Vincent, Sephiroth, Jenova, etc., definitely deserve their own articles. What sort of stuff are you planning on culling, BTW?

Glad you appreciate the Japanese language names, too; they can be a bee-yotch to find (although Googling until I uncovered a Japanese script for the game has been a big help <wink>). Since the katakana is a pretty direct indication of the name's pronunciation (once one understands how foreign sounds are approximated in Japanese syllabery, and all that), I've also taken the liberty of adding pronunciation notes to the more ambiguous or "less obvious" (to the average English-speaker) names, like Cait Sith, Tseng, Reno, and Lucrecia. However, I bet there is a more accepted notation for doing this in Wikipedia articles... I looked at the IPA page, but it is way too specific to be useful here, IMO. Any suggestions on how this should best be done? -Reichu 01:38, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Well, heh heh, I'm an overanxious one... I attempted to provide pronunciation guidelines anyway, and if anyone has issue with any of them, please bring it up here before changing any and I'll attempt to explain the logic involved first... -Reichu 15:11, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

Prerendered backgrounds

In the first paragraph it says the backgrounds were prerendered. This suggests (to me at least) that they were drawn in 3D, which they don't appear to have been.--Undc23 10:26, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

Well, they're "prerendered" in sense that they're not rendered realtime in 3D or constructed from 2D tiles. I agree the wording is a bit misleading, but what would be a better wording? "static hand-drawn 2D backgrounds"? Suggestions, anyone? --Wwwwolf 11:41, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

Well, the term "prerendered" was what was used at the time of the game's release. I'm not convinced it implies 2D or 3D one way or the other, but I'd suggest "prerendered, two-dimensional backgrounds," personally. – Seancdaug 16:35, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

"Prerendered background" is pretty standard video game notation. Most video game nerds would understand it immediately, I imagine. "Prerendered" implies "generated in CG beforehand, as opposed to being generated by the in-game engine" (basically paraphrasing what was said already). I don't think a non-CG (including digital paint) background would be called "prerendered", although I might be wrong. -Reichu 01:04, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

advent children

have any of you seen the new japanese animated movie about final fantasy 7 called advent children. first of all the graphics are amizing (<-- bad spelling) they are so life like in some scenes that it's almost freaky. For those of you out there who love anime or just love a little action in a movie once in awhile, i would really recoment that you watch this.

I am not certain when the dvd is going to come out but you should check the offical website at

http://www.square-enix.co.jp/dvd/ff7ac/

there are also trailers there

Firstly see here: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children; Secondly, Don't use talk pages as a chatroom or bulletin board. --JiFish(Talk/Contrib) 22:33, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

Name Pronunciation

I've added the katakana versions of most names, as y'can see. Since these are a pretty direct indication of the names pronunciations (once one understands how foreign sounds are approximated in Japanese syllabery, and all that), I've also taken the liberty of adding pronunciation guidelines to the more ambiguous or "less obvious" (to the average English-speaker) names, like Cait Sith, Tseng, Reno, and Lucrecia, in IPA. If anyone has issue with any of them, please bring it up here before changing any and I'll attempt to explain the logic involved first... -Reichu 15:22, 17 October 2005 (UTC)