Is Final Fantasy VII Incomplete?

by Yukiyoshi Ike Sato 

Is Final Fantasy VII Incompete? This rumor has started out with a stupid petition. Yes I am talking about the "Aerith Resurrection Petition". Someone who supposedly named himself a former Square employee said that the game was incomplete because they have taken out the event where Aerith resurrects in the story. Due to time constraints and unfinished programming codes, he accused Square of taking out the necessary materias, items and events to prevent her resurrection. I believe only one part of what he said is true. Indeed, Square was in a rush to finish the programming codes of the game. They did not finish the coding by December 1996, which was the originally slated release date. So they moved it a month further to Janraury 1997. At this point in time, it is said that Square recruited all CG artists and engineers outside their company all over the Tokyo district to help complete the entire coding. That is why you will notice a lot of CG artists and engineers who are creditted as outside contractors in the closing credits of the game.

So what about those characters, materias, weapons and items that can be found using Game Shark or Pro Action Replay codes? Well, let me explain a few of them.

• The "Breathe Underwater" and the "Prevent Floor Damage" materia was cancelled in the development stages. The battle/materia development staff of FFVII thought it be wierd to have a dungeon with that graphics to have a floor that induces damage while walking. Also, Cloud could have been able to swim in the underwater areas without the submarine with the "Breathe Underwater" materia after all the underwater events were done. Think about it...its pointless because there were no more events left, unless the players wanted it for fun. This had nothing to do with the resurrection of Aerith either.
• The summon monster "Golem" materia was deleted because of battle imbalances, instead, was changed into an enemy monster. Imagine summoning Golem just like FFVI? That makes the game too easy wouldn't it?
• The 4x Materia Growth weapon of Cloud and "Rising Sun", Yuffie's 2x Growth Materia weapon, was also deleted because of battle imbalances. I fully understand their intention because the game was easy enough without them anyways.
• The character Bakusa the boxer does exist...but doesn't have a name. It is actually refering to a goblin who appears as an enemy in the Goblin Islands. Probably the person gave the name Bakusa because the goblin did wear boxing gloves and "Goblin punch" was his unique attack =)

Was Aerith suppose to resurrect? Did Square delete key items, events, and CG movies for a cover-up? I don't think so...because I have full proof of that. The following has been taken from a book published by Aspect called "Final Fantasy VII Kaitai Shinsho", and here, the character designer and the story writer of FFVII, Nomura Tetsuya quotes:

"Actually, we only had Aerith at the beginning, and Tifa did not exist. But on a Sunday evening, I phoned the director Mr. Kitase and suggested 'Let's kill Aerith and put in Tifa' (laughs). So now we have two heroines, and we never had an event where one of them dies."

The truth can sometimes be too shocking....so based on this, Nomura Tetsuya had the intention of killing off Aerith in the story and completely denies the fact of Aerith's resurrection.

Some minor things I would like to point out. The ending CG movie originally composed of more than one sequence. But this has nothing to do with Aerith's resurrection. Some of you may have read in a magazine that there was suppose to be an extra sequence where it will feature Yuffie and Vincent. Because Yuffie and Vincent are optional characters, there is a chance one of the two is missing in your gameplay. And if they add each of the three additonal sequences (with Yuffie alone, Vincent alone, and Yuffie and Vincent together) during the ending, it would cause the loading time to slow down, which would ruin the ending CG movie. That is why they deleted the sequence. It's too bad we won't be able to see Yuffie or Vincent in any of the CG movies....*sniff*

This is just my personal guess but, one FMV sequence seems to be missing (not deleted) ...it is the part where Ultima Weapon dies and explodes creating a giant crater near Cosmo Canyon. In the Japanese version, it was quite obvious "something" was missing, because immediately after defeating Ultima Weapon, the screen turns black for a few seconds, and then shifts back to the field map with a giant crater near Cosmo Canyon. What caused appearance of the giant crater? It had to do something with Ultima Weapon based on deduction. I am guessing that the additional FMV sequence in the U.S. version may point out to this one.

Also, there are several bugs in the Japanese version. For example, start a new game with Disc 2 inside the Playstation. Then switch it back to Disc 1 when it asks you to. The opening sequence changes from the usual Midgar close-up to the scene where Cloud buries Aerith...a phenomenal opening! =) But this trick will not change anything in the gameplay and Aerith will not ressurect either. But you have to expect bugs in every game thats been released...this doesn't prove as evidence of FFVII being incomplete. Hopefully, Square will fix them in the U.S. version.

In conclusion, the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VII is not incomplete. I think the only part I consider incomplete is the FMV sequence of Ultima Weapon, and nothing more. Aerith was never suppose to resurrect, and that is FINAL!!! No more arguments please!!! If the U.S. version will indeed include a resurrection of Aerith, I think that will completely destroy the game...inside and outside the story board. So if you think the Japanese version is really incomplete and the U.S. version is going to be better and complete, I think that's a pretty selfish thought. To me, the Japanese version is complete and the changes in the U.S. version is something like a patch file.