Some FF7 Trivia after 15 Years from Release

As part of a Final Fantasy VII 15th anniversary feature, Weekly Famitsu posted interviews with Tetsuya Nomura, Yoshinori Kitase and Kazushige Nojima. Here's a sampling of what the three FFVII VIPs had to say, via Sokuho's summary.

Yoshinori Kitase

When it was decided that the game would be 3D, they looked at either having sprite-based characters or polygon-based characters. The sprite-based character idea was originally the more popular of the two, but they ended up going with the polygons because it would allow them to better express character movement.

Alone in the Dark caused great stimulus.

FFVII's battle character models are normal proportioned while its field character models are SD-style. Hironobu Sakaguchi had wanted the SD characters for the fields in order to show character expression.

Sakaguchi placed his effort on the game's battle system, and also came up with the idea for the Materia system.

While Tetsuya Nomura is known for his work on the game's character designs, he also contributed to the gameplay systems, including coming up with the idea for limit skills.

Kazushige Nojima

Kitase wanted a mysterious scenario.Nojima took joined the FFVII team after the main character settings were complete. He feels this is quite early in the process.

Zack was added towards the end of development. They needed to show Aerith's first love and a true soldier, resulting in the need for the character.

Tetsuya Nomura

Once FFVII's production was given to Kitase, he and Nomura rethought the plot from scratch. Nojima was still working on Bahamut Lagoon at the time.

Nomura wanted to have one of either Tifa or Aerith die.

Tifa actually wasn't in the game initially. Aerith was the sole heroine, but Tifa was added later.

Instead of his final spiky hair, Cloud was originally designed so that his hair was slicked back. This was to reduce polygon use. Aerith's one piece was also the result of polygon considerations.

The original character setting had Aerith and Sephiroth as brother and sister. The effect of this setting can still be seen in the designs of their front hair. Later, they changed the setting so that Sephiroth was Aerith's first love. That eventually resulted in Zack.

[Source: FF7Citadel.com] 

I like reading stuff like this.. they need a behind the scenes documentary :)

Bahamut was mentuoned in here. I love that game :P

Also pretty interesting stuff! 

Wow, they had to restart the plot from scratch.

It is kinda funny, first they want Sephiroth and Aerith to be siblings, then rethink it so they were in love. My First thought in FFVII when Aerith said she had a boyfriend in SOILDER 1st class was that it was Sephiroth.

It was Genesis:P Zack is impressive because he had no Jenova cells yet was first class and stood his ground against them.

They set up for Genesis at the end of Dirge of Cerburus which was the latest VII in the chronological order. Genesis was considered the antagonist of Crisis Core though not Sephiroth. Genesis was causing the problems throughout the game and I count him as the final boss. Not the Shinra soldiers that kill you. Sephiroth was good througout most of Crisis then dies right after he turns bad.

Actually in CC you fight Genesis after the Sephiroth battle. Sephiroth is more of Cloud's antagonist. Genesis was Zacks considering almost every conflict in the game was a result of Genesis. Even Sephiroth going insane was Genesis.

Hmm, well I still think there needs to be another villian in the series. I was thinking a FFX prequel would be cool too.vegamineral

Rufus and the the turks as the villian. Genesis still wants revenge on Shinra. Cissenei returns. Tifa and Cloud get married. Rufus asks Cloud for help with Genesis. Cloud helps. Rufus fuses with a weapon of the planet......Diamond. Teams up with Turks and Genesis to bring him down. Then a prequel to V with Bartz father.

Well. Genesis was at once considered to be just as strong if not equal to Sephiroth during his days as a First Class SOLDIER(Crisis Core Ultimania Omega Guide). He was actually trying to find his place in the world. Genesis gained redemption at the end of Crisis Core and fulfilled his real dream. In fact the dream was to eat Banora Whites with his best friends Sephiroth and Angeal. And thanks to Zack eating the fruit with him after their final battle he regained his SOLDIER pride. Genesis believed that since Zack possessed Jenova cells via an esqued version of Jenova Project S(Sephiroth) and he had the Buster Sword(Angeal) that would be the closes thing to having his favorite fruit with his best friends.

Later Weiss and Nero appear and take Genesis to Deep Ground. They wanted Genesis to help them rebel against the elite SOLDIERs(called the Restrictors) who controlled Deep Ground, but he refused. This is where Genesis goes into a slumber state only waiting for a "true" threat to emerge against the Planet. And when that day would come he would awaken to help "save" the world.

That's why the Dirge of Cerberus secret trailer is so...baffling.. :|

EDIT: My only suggestion is Hojo's mind transferred from Weiss to Genesis with some form of multiple personality syndrome. :lol:

Rufus and the the turks as the villian. Genesis still wants revenge on Shinra. Cissenei returns. Tifa and Cloud get married. Rufus asks Cloud for help with Genesis. Cloud helps. Rufus fuses with a weapon of the planet......Diamond. Teams up with Turks and Genesis to bring him down. Then a prequel to V with Bartz father.

johngrose77