Final Fantasy Vii

1997video game / fandom memeclassic

Final Fantasy VII is Square's 1997 PlayStation RPG that pushed 3D JRPGs into the mainstream, following mercenary Cloud Strife and the eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE against the Shinra corporation. Decades of fan devotion turned the 2015 E3 remake reveal into its own viral event, with reaction videos, trailer view counts, and Cloud vs. Aeris flame wars keeping it in meme rotation.

final fantasy memesgamingfandom discourse memesconsole war memesnostalgia memes

Overview

Final Fantasy VII is a Japanese role-playing game set on the planet Gaia, built around mercenary Cloud Strife and the eco-terrorist cell AVALANCHE waging war on the Shinra energy conglomerate3. It was the first mainline Final Fantasy built with 3D character models over pre-rendered backgrounds, and its mix of CGI cutscenes, melodrama, and Materia-based combat made it a touchstone game for a generation of RPG fans3.

The game holds a 92 Metascore6 and Empire ranked it second on its list of the 100 greatest video games7. Its fanbase is big enough that fan discourse became meme fuel on its own, with Cloud vs. Aeris jokes and 'FF6 vs FF7' flame wars still cited across 4chan, Tumblr, and GameFAQs threads3. Urban Dictionary entries dating back to 2003 already tag it as 'quite possibly the greatest game ever made'2.

How It Spread

On December 6, 2014, Square Enix announced Final Fantasy VII for PlayStation 4 at the PlayStation Experience press conference, but the reveal turned out to be a digital port rather than a rebuild, and fan reaction was hostile4. Kotaku framed the PS4 announcement as 'the ultimate troll' on the fandom5, which set up the real fireworks six months later. On June 15, 2015, an HD remake was announced at Sony's E3 press conference, directed by Tetsuya Nomura with Kitase producing3.

Within 24 hours a PlayStation announcement tweet pulled more than 8,400 retweets, and a YouTube upload of the remake trailer racked up 2.8 million views and 8,800 comments1. The trailer opened on CGI Midgar before revealing Cloud with his Buster Sword next to Barret, and multiple posts about the reveal hit the front page of Reddit that day3. On December 5, 2015, at PlayStation Experience, Square Enix aired a second trailer with combat closer to Final Fantasy XV, then confirmed the remake would ship as a multi-part episodic series, splitting the fanbase between excitement and complaints3.

Side entries kept the world in circulation between the original and the remake: the Japan-only mobile RPG Before Crisis launched on September 24, 2004; the CGI film Advent Children arrived on April 25, 2006; PS2 shooter Dirge of Cerberus followed on August 20, 2006; and the PSP action RPG Crisis Core dropped on March 25, 2008 and is often ranked among the best games on that handheld3. A DeviantArt search for 'Final Fantasy VII' still returns over 117,600 fan art results, a rough proxy for how deep the fandom runs3.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Fantasy Vii

1997video game / fandom memeclassic

Final Fantasy VII is Square's 1997 PlayStation RPG that pushed 3D JRPGs into the mainstream, following mercenary Cloud Strife and the eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE against the Shinra corporation. Decades of fan devotion turned the 2015 E3 remake reveal into its own viral event, with reaction videos, trailer view counts, and Cloud vs. Aeris flame wars keeping it in meme rotation.

final fantasy memes gaming fandom discourse memes console war memes nostalgia memes

Overview

Final Fantasy VII is a Japanese role-playing game set on the planet Gaia, built around mercenary Cloud Strife and the eco-terrorist cell AVALANCHE waging war on the Shinra energy conglomerate3. It was the first mainline Final Fantasy built with 3D character models over pre-rendered backgrounds, and its mix of CGI cutscenes, melodrama, and Materia-based combat made it a touchstone game for a generation of RPG fans3.

The game holds a 92 Metascore6 and Empire ranked it second on its list of the 100 greatest video games7. Its fanbase is big enough that fan discourse became meme fuel on its own, with Cloud vs. Aeris jokes and 'FF6 vs FF7' flame wars still cited across 4chan, Tumblr, and GameFAQs threads3. Urban Dictionary entries dating back to 2003 already tag it as 'quite possibly the greatest game ever made'2.

How It Spread

On December 6, 2014, Square Enix announced Final Fantasy VII for PlayStation 4 at the PlayStation Experience press conference, but the reveal turned out to be a digital port rather than a rebuild, and fan reaction was hostile4. Kotaku framed the PS4 announcement as 'the ultimate troll' on the fandom5, which set up the real fireworks six months later. On June 15, 2015, an HD remake was announced at Sony's E3 press conference, directed by Tetsuya Nomura with Kitase producing3.

Within 24 hours a PlayStation announcement tweet pulled more than 8,400 retweets, and a YouTube upload of the remake trailer racked up 2.8 million views and 8,800 comments1. The trailer opened on CGI Midgar before revealing Cloud with his Buster Sword next to Barret, and multiple posts about the reveal hit the front page of Reddit that day3. On December 5, 2015, at PlayStation Experience, Square Enix aired a second trailer with combat closer to Final Fantasy XV, then confirmed the remake would ship as a multi-part episodic series, splitting the fanbase between excitement and complaints3.

Side entries kept the world in circulation between the original and the remake: the Japan-only mobile RPG Before Crisis launched on September 24, 2004; the CGI film Advent Children arrived on April 25, 2006; PS2 shooter Dirge of Cerberus followed on August 20, 2006; and the PSP action RPG Crisis Core dropped on March 25, 2008 and is often ranked among the best games on that handheld3. A DeviantArt search for 'Final Fantasy VII' still returns over 117,600 fan art results, a rough proxy for how deep the fandom runs3.

Frequently Asked Questions