97 Fun Facts About Final Fantasy VII

On which console was Final Fantasy VII originally released?

PlayStation's CD-ROMs won out after Square found the game simply would not fit onto the cartridge-based Nintendo 64.

What is the name of Cloud's signature oversized blade in Final Fantasy VII?

Buster Sword had been Zack Fair's, and Zack passed it on to Cloud as he died.

Cloud claims to be a former 1st Class member of which elite Shinra fighting force?

SOLDIER never accepted Cloud: he was really an infantryman who had modelled himself on his friend Zack.

In Final Fantasy VII, which eco-terrorist group does Cloud work with at the start?

AVALANCHE opens the game by blowing up a Shinra Mako reactor in Midgar, hoping to stop the Planet being drained.

Which Final Fantasy VII settlement is home to Cid Highwind?

Rocket Town is where Shinra scrapped its space program after Cid's launch was aborted over his assistant Shera, whom he long blamed.

What is the name of the flow of spiritual energy that gives life to the Planet?

Sakaguchi chose life as a theme after his mother died during development of Final Fantasy III.

Which optional Final Fantasy VII party member is found beneath the Shinra Mansion?

Vincent Valentine became a test subject after a scientist shot him in an argument over experiments on the woman he loved.

Who leads Final Fantasy VII's eco-terrorist group, fighting Shinra to save the Planet?

Barret Wallace blames himself for his hometown, Corel, which Shinra razed after an accident at its Mako reactor.

In Final Fantasy VII, which martial artist is Cloud's childhood friend?

Tifa Lockhart was absent from early versions of the game, which planned only three playable characters, and joined when the cast grew.

Which Final Fantasy VII party member is a talking feline beast from Cosmo Canyon?

Red XIII long thought his father Seto was a coward, until he learned Seto had been turned to stone defending their home from invaders.

Which Shinra staff member secretly controls the robotic cat Cait Sith?

Reeve Tuesti first used Cait Sith to spy on the party for Shinra, then came to sympathise with their cause and joined them.

Which optional Final Fantasy VII party member is a skilled Materia thief?

Yuffie Kisaragi steals Materia hoping to restore her homeland, Wutai, to the glory it lost in a war with Shinra.

What is the name of the covert branch of Shinra's security forces?

The Turks do Shinra's covert work, from spying to kidnapping, and they are the ones who finally capture Aerith.

What is the name of the hostile alien life-form from which Sephiroth was created?

Jenova was falsely recorded as one of the ancient Cetra, which is why Sephiroth came to believe he was their heir.

What is the name of Shinra's giant Mako cannon in Final Fantasy VII?

Sister Ray's blast brought down a giant WEAPON and broke the barrier shielding Sephiroth's base.

Which spell does Sephiroth intend to cast with the Black Materia?

Meteor would wound the Planet so gravely that Sephiroth could absorb the energy rushing to heal it and become a god.

Which mad Shinra scientist is revealed to be Sephiroth's biological father?

Hojo infused his own son with an alien life-form's cells, creating the superhuman Sephiroth.

In which town did Sephiroth learn of his origins and go insane five years before Final Fantasy VII?

Nibelheim was burned to the ground by Sephiroth after he spent days locked in the Shinra Mansion basement reading about his origins.

After Sephiroth kills President Shinra, who takes over the megacorporation?

Rufus, the president's son, took charge of the company until a blast from Diamond WEAPON hit his office dead-on.

In Final Fantasy VII, what are the special attacks each character charges by taking damage called?

Limit Breaks replaced Final Fantasy VI's underused Desperation Attacks, turning a last-gasp move into part of everyday battle strategy.

Final Fantasy VII's epilogue shows the ruins of Midgar covered in what?

Plant life covers Midgar 500 years on, showing the Planet has healed.

For which console was Final Fantasy VII first planned as a 2D game?

Super Nintendo development began in 1994, before the move to 3D pushed the project onto more powerful hardware.

What giant creature does Cait Sith ride in Final Fantasy VII?

A moogle carries Cait Sith, which is really a mechanical puppet worked remotely by a Shinra employee.

What is the name of the Midgar slum bar where Cloud's rebel allies meet?

7th Heaven was destroyed when Shinra dropped the city plate above onto the slums to wipe out the rebels hiding there.

Final Fantasy VII's team paused development to help finish which 1995 Square game?

Chrono Trigger's writer, Masato Kato, was later called in to write several of Final Fantasy VII's late-game scenes.

Who produced Final Fantasy VII and created the Final Fantasy series?

Hironobu Sakaguchi wrote the first draft, in which the heroes were chased by a hot-blooded detective named Joe.

Who directed Final Fantasy VII?

Yoshinori Kitase reworked the early plot when he took charge, dropping its mystery angle and sharpening the Cloud and Sephiroth rivalry.

Who composed the score for Final Fantasy VII?

Nobuo Uematsu wrote the score like a film soundtrack, with music meant to match the mood of each scene.

Who was Final Fantasy VII's main character designer?

Tetsuya Nomura, until then a minor monster designer, got his first lead role and first drew Cloud with slick black hair.

Which artist drew Final Fantasy VII's logo artwork?

Yoshitaka Amano took only a small role on Final Fantasy VII because he was busy with exhibitions overseas.

Which writer shaped Final Fantasy VII's scenario, including Cloud's hidden past?

Kazushige Nojima created Zack late in development to add mystery to Cloud's background.

Which 2005 anime short, released with a special edition of Advent Children, retells events from five years before Final Fantasy VII?

Last Order retells those events, but its version contradicts how the original game had shown them.

Cloud and Sephiroth's rivalry was modelled on which two legendary Japanese swordsmen?

Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojirō shaped the designs of both characters, right down to their swords.

Which Final Fantasy VII final-battle track was the series' first with high-quality digitised vocals?

One-Winged Angel grew from random phrases its composer recorded over two weeks and then pieced together, a method he never used again.

Where does Sephiroth kill Aerith in Final Fantasy VII?

The Forgotten City is where Aerith went alone to pray to the Planet for help, and her prayer succeeded despite her death.

Which soft drink brand teamed up with Final Fantasy VII in its launch marketing?

Pepsi's tie-in was part of a North American campaign that also ran prime-time TV commercials alongside shows such as Saturday Night Live.

Which Square subsidiary produced Final Fantasy VII's CG cutscenes?

Visual Works later began Advent Children as a short presentation, which grew into a feature-length film.

At which 1996 event were visitors handed a playable Final Fantasy VII demo disc?

Tokyo Game Show visitors could play an early Midgar mission with Aerith in the party, which the finished game doesn't allow at that point.

What name was Aerith mistakenly given in the original English release?

The slip came from poor communication between the localisation staff and the QA team.

Which Final Fantasy VII scene did Sony publicly consider cutting before its North American release?

The Honey Bee Inn scene drew fan letters and online petitions once Sony said it might cut it, and Square answered that Sony would never localize the game.

In which 1997 Square game does Aerith make a cameo as a flower girl?

Final Fantasy Tactics also brings Cloud himself into its world through an ancient machine, and he can be recruited.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, set two years after the game, centres on which mysterious plague?

Geostigma afflicts even Cloud, who has pulled away from his friends since Sephiroth's defeat.

Which 2007 Compilation action RPG centres on Zack's past?

Crisis Core ends with Zack's death defending Cloud from Shinra's army, just before Final Fantasy VII begins.

What is the title of the third part of the remake trilogy, following Remake and Rebirth?

Final Fantasy VII Revelation, announced in June 2026, is set to launch on every major platform at once, unlike Remake, which began as a one-console exclusive.

Cloud arrived as downloadable content in which Nintendo game in December 2015?

Super Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai added Cloud because he was the Final Fantasy character fans requested most.

A company in China made an unofficial 2D version of Final Fantasy VII for which console?

NES bootleg makers Shenzhen Nanjing Technology squeezed the story onto a cartridge, dropping only a few optional side stories.

In Advent Children, which trio embodies Sephiroth's surviving spirit?

Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo are the Remnants of Sephiroth, and they set out to bring him back to life.

Which NSYNC singer provided the English voice of Sephiroth in the first Kingdom Hearts game?

Lance Bass played the villain only once: George Newbern took over the role from Kingdom Hearts II and kept it for years of sequels and spin-offs.

Midgar's designer says which food, not Blade Runner, inspired the Final Fantasy VII city's shape?

A pizza was the image in the art director's mind when he drew the round, plated city. The joke runs deep: Midgar's mayor is named Domino.

Final Fantasy VII's rebels Biggs and Wedge are named after pilots from which film franchise?

Star Wars supplied the names of Biggs Darklighter and Wedge Antilles, and duos called the same thing turn up across the Final Fantasy series as comic relief.

In the first Kingdom Hearts game, Cloud Strife works for which Disney villain?

Hades hires him to kill Hercules, then sets Cerberus on Cloud after the fight, and it is Hercules who comes to the rescue.

Which yellow birds, first seen in Final Fantasy II, can be caught and ridden in Final Fantasy VII?

Chocobos owe their name to Chocoball, a popular Japanese sweet. Their creator based them on a chick he raised as a child.

In Final Fantasy VII, which object does the cat Cait Sith use to control the larger body it rides?

A megaphone does the job, and a better one gives tighter control. The crowned cat itself was drawn to resemble Puss in Boots.

Midgar, the plate-covered metropolis of Final Fantasy VII, takes its name from which mythology?

Norse mythology named the city, as it did other parts of the story. Midgar's plate is split into eight sectors, each with its own reactor.

The developers of Final Fantasy VII say the name Aerith is a near-anagram of which English word?

Earth fits a heroine who earns her living growing and selling flowers in the slums. In Japanese her name is written Earisu.

Which technique, Cloud's strongest in the original Final Fantasy VII, was sped up for a film duel?

Omnislash returned in Advent Children as a faster 'Ver. 5', a name the staff laughed at while they were making the film.

Sephiroth's name in Final Fantasy VII comes from the ten sephirot of which mystical tradition?

Kabbalah arranges its ten sephirot on the Tree of Life, each standing for an attribute through which the divine is revealed.

Which blade, named after a famous Japanese swordsmith, does Sephiroth wield in Final Fantasy VII?

Masamune is an elongated nodachi, and replica makers have produced six-foot copies of it. The real smith's blades are counted as national treasures in Japan.

In Final Fantasy VII, Aerith is among the last of which near-extinct tribe tied to the Planet?

The Cetra were nearly wiped out by a virus spread by an invader from space, which the survivors managed to imprison 2,000 years before the game.

Which spell does Aerith call on through her White Materia to save the Planet in Final Fantasy VII?

Holy is held back by Sephiroth even after her prayer succeeds. It is only set free once he has been defeated at the very end of the game.

Cloud boasts of an elite past in Final Fantasy VII, but what was his real job in Shinra's army?

An infantryman was all he ever was: the war-hero memories he recites belong to a friend, and facing that truth is the turning point of his story.

Which publisher, newly rich from Tomb Raider, brought Final Fantasy VII to Windows PCs in 1998?

Eidos Interactive forecast sales of 100,000 copies and passed a million. It gave the box a trapezoid shape so the game would stand out in shops.

At which trade show was Final Fantasy VII Remake announced, after a decade of fan speculation?

E3 hosted the reveal during Sony's 2015 conference. The rumours had started at the same show ten years earlier, when a tech demo recreated the game's opening.

Which ghostly beings in Final Fantasy VII Remake exist to stop the course of destiny being altered?

Whispers step in to correct any deviation from that course, and near the end the party must defeat a Harbinger formed from a mass of them.

Which actor, who has also played Superman on screen, voices Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII Remake?

Tyler Hoechlin, the Derek Hale of Teen Wolf, took the part for Remake and kept it for Rebirth, replacing the villain's long-serving English voice.

Rather than make its own, Square Enix licensed which technology to build Final Fantasy VII Remake?

Unreal Engine 4 was optimised for the project by Square Enix and Epic Games Japan working side by side.

Which American pop singer voiced Aerith in the English version of the first Kingdom Hearts game?

Mandy Moore played her just once, in a cast that also had Billy Zane, David Boreanaz and Sean Astin. Other actresses voiced Aerith from the sequel on.

Which Greatest Showman soundtrack singer performs the theme song of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth?

Loren Allred recorded 'No Promises to Keep', which was unveiled in a trailer at The Game Awards 2023 and later released as a single.

In the film Advent Children, what is the name of the motorcycle that replaces Cloud's Hardy-Daytona?

Fenrir was drawn by designer Takayuki Takeya, and a wolf follows Cloud through the film as an image of the burden he carries in his heart.

What is the birth name of Final Fantasy VII's talking beast, who calls Cosmo Canyon home?

Nanaki was picked by the staff for its Native American sound, which matched the character's theme and backstory.

In Final Fantasy VII, which young girl is the adopted daughter of the leader of Cloud's rebel cell?

Marlene is the daughter of his old friend Dyne, who long believes her dead. By the time of Advent Children she is living with Cloud.

Which Shinra scientist, a key figure in Dirge of Cerberus, is the biological mother of Sephiroth?

Lucrecia Crescent was so minor in the original game that artists rebuilt her from low-detail models, using Sephiroth's own look as the base.

Which Japanese singer performed the Dirge of Cerberus theme song and was the model for Genesis?

Gackt also voiced Genesis in Japanese and shaped his manners, then took to wearing the character's outfit at his own concerts.

Which new city do the survivors of Midgar found before the events of the film Advent Children?

Edge is home to Cloud in the film, which opens two years after the game, and to an orphan named Denzel whom he helps to look after.

What kind of business is Cloud running in Advent Children, two years after Final Fantasy VII?

A courier service is his trade in the film, which was made as a direct-to-DVD sequel and also came out on Universal Media Disc.

In which town does Cloud tell his friends of his past with Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth?

Kalm is the party's first stop after leaving the big city. Shinra troops raid it the very next day, forcing everyone to flee.

Where does the party descend to the Planet's core for the last battles of Final Fantasy VII?

The Northern Crater is only open because a Shinra attack punctured it earlier in the story, giving the party a way down.

Where does Cloud's party obtain the Black Materia in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, only to lose it?

Temple of the Ancients is Shinra's name for the place. The prize is lost at once: Sephiroth takes control of Cloud's mind and makes him hand it over.

Which radio station's 2012 Hall of Fame included 'Aerith's Theme' from Final Fantasy VII?

Classic FM listeners placed the piece 16th out of 300 compositions, a striking result for music written for a video game.

Which gauge-based combat system of the original Final Fantasy VII was reworked for Remake?

Active Time Battle makes a fighter wait for a gauge before acting. In Remake the gauge fills slowly by itself and faster whenever attacks land.

Which Final Fantasy VII minigame became a standalone mobile phone game in 2005?

Snowboarding reached V Cast phones in North America in March 2005 with new courses, more than three years before Japan got it.

Which recurring item revives a knocked-out party member, in or out of a fight, in Final Fantasy VII?

Phoenix Down was shortened to 'Fenix Down' in early games, and it has been reviving fallen heroes since Final Fantasy II.

Which weapon does Cid Highwind wield, echoing the Dragon Knights of earlier Final Fantasy games?

A spear and high jumps were his designer's nod to that class, and Cid lights a cigarette every time he wins a fight.

Before it became spiky and blond, Cloud Strife's hair was first drawn slicked back in which colour?

Black hair was meant to contrast with his rival's long silver locks and to keep the 3D model's polygon count down.

Sephiroth is celebrated in Final Fantasy VII as a hero of Shinra's war against which nation?

Wutai lost that war to Shinra, and its leader began turning the nation into a tourist attraction, a decline that drove his own daughter to run off stealing Materia.

A scrapped early Final Fantasy VII script lent its real-world setting to which 1998 Square game?

Parasite Eve inherited the setting from a draft about a hot-blooded detective named Joe chasing a band of reactor saboteurs.

Users of which gaming website voted Final Fantasy VII the best game ever in both 2004 and 2005?

GameFAQs users crowned it two years running and still placed it second when the site asked again in 2009.

Which art director of Final Fantasy VII designed Midgar and many of the game's other locations?

Yusuke Naora built the city as a round upper plate on a central pillar, with a network of slums in the shadows below it.

Which actor became Cloud Strife's English voice after a Square employee saw him in The Last Castle?

Steve Burton went on to voice the hero in most of his English-language appearances, the film Advent Children among them.

What is the name of the hydroplane that Cid Highwind brings along in Final Fantasy VII?

Tiny Bronco comes along when Cid joins the party. He had been trying to restart a space programme that Shinra had cancelled.

Dirge of Cerberus, a 2006 Final Fantasy VII spin-off, was the series' first game in which genre?

A shooter was new ground for the series, and its producer found the work a challenge. The story is set three years after the original game.

Aerith's signature Final Fantasy VII outfit pairs a bolero jacket with a long dress of which colour?

Pink is also the colour of the ribbon that ties her long braid, and a pair of brown hiking boots completes the look.

In Final Fantasy VII, what does Sephiroth plan to become by harnessing the Planet's life force?

A god is his goal once he learns how he was created, and he means to wipe out every other living thing along the way.

What is Cloud Strife's profession when he joins a rebel raid at the start of Final Fantasy VII?

Mercenary work is all it is to him at first. Fleeing the raid, he stops to talk with a florist in the street: his first meeting with Aerith.

The Latin lyrics of Final Fantasy VII's final boss theme come from which medieval poetry collection?

Carmina Burana, best known in Carl Orff's setting, supplied four passages for the choral track, the famous 'O Fortuna' among them.

Cait Sith of Final Fantasy VII is named after a fairy cat from which country's mythology?

Scotland's Cat-sìth lends the name, and from Advent Children onward the character speaks English with an accent to match.

Which 1998 fighting game, published in arcades by Namco, has Cloud Strife as a playable fighter?

Ehrgeiz kept its guest fighters hidden: in arcades, Cloud was revealed only thirty days after a machine was first installed and switched on.