The classic PlayStation RPG Final Fantasy VII is perhaps the most well-known entry in the long-running Final Fantasy series from Square. The game was an enormous success in 1997 thanks to its stellar production values, great cast, engaging story, as well as its technologically groundbreaking graphics. Players were exposed to fully-3D cutscenes the likes of which hadn't been seen before, meaning that the game made something of an impression on the players of the day.
Of course, none of that presentation and polish would mean much were it not for the story and characters that keep players coming back to Final Fantasy VII. The game is home to dozens of memorable scenes burned into the memories of RPG fans forever, and there are so many in the running that it can be difficult to pick a favorite out of the game's main cast.
7 Cid: Making It To Orbit
Cid is an engineer with a short temper, but lofty dreams. His overriding goal is to travel into orbit around the Planet on one of the rockets he's built; a goal that has yet to come to fruition by the time the player meets this new character. Cid has an arrangement of convenience with the malevolent Shinra corporation; he sees them and their resources as his best chance at making it to space, and they need his engineering expertise to construct their rockets.
This changes, though, when it becomes clear that Shinra only wants to use the rockets as weapons to smash Huge Materia into Sephiroth's meteor, which threatens to destroy the Planet. Unwilling to let this come to pass, Cid and the party board a rocket bound for the Meteor, which unfortunately takes off with them still inside it. Cid fulfills his dream, but under different circumstances than he imagined. The view from space ends up being all he hoped it would be, though, and the view of the Planet inspires him towards its defense against Sephiroth.
6 Tifa: The Promise To Cloud
The iconic scene atop the Nibelheim water tower wherein Cloud resolves to leave his hometown and join SOLDIER is one of the most recognized in the game, mostly because it forms the simple foundation for Tifa and Cloud's relationship that will inevitably get far more complex as the story progresses. Tifa makes Cloud promise to come to her aid if she ever finds herself in danger, to which Cloud agrees. The moment marks a flash of innocence that the story will refer back to when things darken later on.
This scene is also impressively recontextualized later in the game when the player finally learns the truth of Cloud's past. When Cloud's status as a somewhat unreliable narrator is revealed, the player learns that not only was Cloud never actually in SOLDIER, but he was actually present at the destruction of Nibelheim as a Shinra infantryman.
5 Barret: Confrontation With Dyne
Barret's character design immediately invites an obvious question: what happened to the arm? Barret's signature weapon, a machine gun grafted to his arm, is also the mark of a guy who definitely has some history. Barret is also shown to be fiercely protective of his adoptive daughter in the early parts of the game, but he hesitates to reveal much about how the two met.
As it turns out, Barret has some pretty personal reasons for being somewhat reserved about his past. Before the party leaves the Gold Saucer, they come across the scene of a massacre that a witness describes as being perpetrated by a man with a gun on his arm. Assuming it to be Barret, the party travels down to the surface to confront him. Barret reveals that it was not him behind the killings, but a man from his past named Dyne. Dyne was a resident of Barret's now-destroyed village of Corel and the man who originally orphaned Barret's adoptive daughter. After this backstory is revealed, Barret has the opportunity to finally settle the score with the villain.
4 Red XIII: Statue Of Seto
Before making it to Cosmo Canyon, the party's genetically modified best companion, Red XIII, is fairly curt towards the main cast. He seems disinterested in the affairs of humans and is fixated on his goal of protecting the Planet from Sephiroth. That veneer starts to crack, though, once we learn the backstory of Red XIII's lost father, Seto.
Thought to be a coward by Red XIII for fleeing in the face of an attack from the warlike Gi Tribe, it is revealed to both Red and the player that Seto was not in fact fleeing, but advancing to defend another entrance to Cosmo Canyon from the invaders. Gravely injured by the poison arrows of his foes, Seto stood alone until the toxins overtook him and turned him to stone. Upon finding the petrified remains of his father, Red XIII's commitment to the party and the quest are renewed.
3 Aerith: The Death Scene
Although it might be the most spoiled character death in the wide world of video games, the fateful encounter between Aerith and Sephiroth in the Forgotten City remains iconic. Even if a player knows it's coming, Aerith's death scene is masterfully constructed from a presentation standpoint, meaning that it's still quite shocking and tragic for those who might have already been tipped off to one of the game's biggest plot twists.
Another reason why Aerith's death scene works so well is the believable reactions from the rest of the cast after the act is done. The monumental nature of the loss is immediately clear, and the audience gets to see Cloud emoting through his dialogue far more than he's normally prone to doing. Of course, none of this would work were it not for some other excellent scenes involving Aerith throughout the rest of the game, but her death scene stands out as one of the most prominent and shocking in the game for good reason.
2 Sephiroth: Also The Death Scene
While this might run the risk of gushing too much about the fateful encounter between Aerith and Sephiroth, it's worth pointing out that Sephiroth's merciless execution of Aerith is a huge part of what makes him work so well as a villain. Indeed, Sephiroth is among gaming's most recognized antagonists, with players remembering his sheer strength as well as his menace. Most of the early parts of the game are centered around the pursuit of Sephiroth by the party, but the player is typically only exposed to the aftermath of his actions, such as when the player comes across the remains of the Midgar Zolom.
That all changes when he kills Aerith, though. Suddenly, Sephiroth is not just a mounting threat on the horizon, but a person who has done terrible things to the characters the player has come to care for. All of the buildup he receives pays off at this moment, giving both Cloud and the player a strong personal reason to continue the chase and to motivate them to ultimately destroy Sephiroth.
1 Cloud: The Final Omnislash
Sephiroth is without a doubt one of gaming's greatest villains; a feat which is absolutely essential to the structure of Final Fantasy VII, as most of the game revolves around the pursuit of said villain. Sephiroth eludes the player at every turn, interrupting their progress at each given opportunity and just generally making life miserable for everyone.
That is until Cloud and company finally catch up with him. After a grueling final dungeon and boss battle which tests the limits of what the player has learned so far, as well as the stats of their characters, Sephiroth is finally defeated in his ultimate form.
Not quite, though. Sensing further danger, Cloud plunges back into the lifestream of the Planet to attack what remains of Sephiroth with his ultimate move: the final Omnislash. In an extremely well-deployed cinematic, the player is given the satisfaction of seeing Cloud absolutely wail on this poor bad guy, slicing him into nothing with a flurry of charged strikes, instantly gratifying all of the efforts the player has made thus far.
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