Final Fantasy VII

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Final Fantasy VII.

To do: Oh boy. There is a lot of pre-release footage, documents, and interviews that need to be archived here. Start looking in the Japanese-only Disk 4 first. This [https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://teleparc.com/en/game/geisen-x/news/* archived website] has many prerelease materials to sort through. Another website here. Check what game released on a Nintendo console after FF7 and link it with the last part of the last sentence.

Development Timeline#

1994

• April - Final Fantasy VI is released; development begins on Final Fantasy VII for the SNES.

1995

• August - A 3D demo, Final Fantasy VI: The Interactive CG Game, is shown at Silicon Graphics' SIGGRAPH 95 event in Los Angeles.¹
• December - Development resumes after Square hires 3D graphic design artists. Some developers consider development to have actually began at this point.²

1996

• January 2 - Development is shifted to the PlayStation.
• August 2 - A playable demo is released together with the fighting game Tobal No.1.³
• December - The first announced estimated release date.⁴
• December 11 - Square signs a publishing deal with Sony Computer Entertainment America to publish Final Fantasy VII and other titles in North America.⁵

1997

• January 31 - Final Fantasy VII is released in Japan.
• September 7 - Final Fantasy VII is released in North America.⁶

1994#

April#

After Final Fantasy VI had finished development, Square had already begun work on VII for the SNES. However, a lot of the staff were occupied with Chrono Trigger, and it became significant enough to the point where development on VII was halted.

At some point before development was paused, a mockup image was created using the SNES graphics style that depicted FF6 characters in a rural town. The Ultimania book labels this as "the first development image created" for FF7.

1995#

August#

Watch on YouTubeAfter Final Fantasy VI's development was finished, Square created Final Fantasy VI: The Interactive CG Game as a tech demo for the SIGGRAPH 1995 show. The demo was made to test out new hardware and determine what they wanted to do for the series' jump to 3D. The demo was playable at the SIGGRAPH showfloor on a single Silicon Graphics SG1 hardware station. The graphics were created using Softimage 3D software. Interestingly, despite Square having been at the event, the SIGGRAPH '95 webpage does not mention this demo at all.

The demo's creation led to the FF7 battle screen inheriting several design elements and its general visual direction from the demo, and contributed to Square's decision to use CD-ROM rather than cartridge (among other reasons).

• The cursor moving across the screen and the circular icons on the right side of the interface are part of the "interactive" part of the demo: the mouse has to be moved in the shape specified by the icons to successfully perform the action. This was apparently hard to do when people tried to play it on the showfloor.
• Several animations incorporate direct contact between the player characters and the enemies, which is something infeasible for an RPG with a broad range of enemy types. A similar situation occurred with the demo video for Pokémon Battle Revolution.
• An early version of the Bahamut (Mega Flare) summon is shown firing at a city.

December#

To do: Add info about how development resumed this year.

Final Fantasy VII officially resumes development as Square recruits 3D graphic artists.

1996#

January#

Wanting to keep costs low for Final Fantasy VII and needing to use more space for their games, Square knew that the Nintendo 64 wouldn't be fit for their standards. Although they initially considered switching to the Sega Saturn and PC, Square officially announced on January 2nd that they would be switching the development of their future games to the PlayStation instead. This would ultimately result in Nintendo shutting them out until the presidents of both companies had already left.

February#

A large press release was disseminated with an intricate first look at the game. Magazines like Dengeki PlayStation and Shonen Jump revealed that Final Fantasy VII would be released in December for a price of 5800 yen, that it would consist of two discs, and that it would be coming out on the PlayStation.⁷⁸

Battles#

The commands displayed in the battle menu were Fight, Item, Magic, Steal, and Grapple. The limit bar appeared next to the characters' names, rather than next to the time bar like in the final game. Also, characters' total HP/MP was displayed as a fraction.

Concept art, renders of the CG model, and in-game models of the Frog transformation were shown.

Characters#

The game's first three major characters, Cloud, Barrett, and Aeris, were also introduced with concept art, CG models, and their in-battle models.

Cloud:

As remarked upon in a later developer interview, Cloud originally had all-black clothing. However, this didn't stand out against the background, so it was changed.

Barrett:

Aeris:

Story and Setting#

To do: This doesn't sound right. Prerendered images are in these same articles.

At this stage, the entire game world was rendered in 3D, rather than the prerendered backgrounds in the final game.

Midgar: The first location introduced was the Mako city of Midgar. Several images of Cloud interacting with denizens of the city were published.

"Cloud: My target is the Northern Mako Reactor! I won't let grunts get in my way!"

"This city is finished."

"Cloud: Make no mistake. I don't care about you AVALANCHE. Once I get my reward, I’m off to look for my next job."

It seems likely that this map was once the Seventh Heaven secret AVALANCHE base and was repurposed as a Junon location after the latter got a redesign.

Mako Reactor:

"Cloud: A large volume of energy is being refined from the Mako Reactor. The planet is sure to wither completely if this keeps up."

Cave:

Tree:

Temple of the Ancients:

March#

This month heralded the first coverage of Final Fantasy VII in Weekly Famitsu. Regarding why Square, which had up till now only released games on Nintendo hardware, wouldn't be continuing on to make Nintendo 64 titles, the company was quoted as saying, "From the position of the creators, in order to create a new type of entertainment that will be capable of satisfying players, we require high-capacity ROMs: in other words, CD-ROMs. That's why we've decided to introduce our game on the PlayStation." As for why they'd specifically chosen the PlayStation from amongst other disk-based consoles, Square stated, "As the result of an examination of consoles with high-capacity CD-ROM media that are capable of making 'games that can to appeal to users' sensitivities' a reality, we've judged the PlayStation to be the most appropriate."⁹

April#

This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this. Specifically: Upload images from scans.

This month, Weekly Famitsu summarized all the information currently available about the game.¹⁰ According to a presentation by Square, its capacity would be around 1 GB, or two CD-ROMs in all, which would fit around 300 copies of its predecessor, Final Fantasy VI.

Graphics#

At this stage, everything was still drawn with polygons, including the characters, the field and towns, the backgrounds, the battle scenes, and the enemies.

Battles#

Active-time battles were now fully animated. One special characteristic was changing viewpoints. According to Square, they were still considering a variety of proposals, but two patterns were promising: being able to view the battle from any angle players desired, and the viewpoint switching based on the flow of battle. (Conversely, the player would not be able to change the viewpoint on the field screen, but instead, there were plans for sudden angle switches to show off performances effectively.) The developers had not yet decided on how the game would transition between map screens and the battle environment.

Square stated that numbers would still fly out when attacks hit an enemy, as in previous titles.

Battles were confirmed to include the ability to use summons and offensive magic. Models and screenshots of two summons were shown: Bahamut and Leviathan. Square stated that most of the summons that people were familiar with from past titles would appear in this game as well.

It was undecided what role Chocobos would play in battles.

Enemies#

Square had plans to include over 200 types of monsters. What's more, each monster would have at least four animation patterns. Three monster models were shown:

• Ceasar

• Pie (Final Fantasy VII) Hedgehog Pie

• (Final Fantasy VII) Sahagin

Some monsters from earlier games were confirmed to appear.

Characters#

Square confirmed that the game would have more characters than the three that had already been introduced (the giant sword-wielding Cloud, the rod-wielding Aeris, and the Vulcan cannon-wielding Barret), with plans for up to 10 in total.

A bestial fourth main character capable of speech, Red XIII, was newly introduced. Square wouldn't explain the reason why Red XIII had a scar over his right eye when asked, but said there must be some reason behind it.

Field models for Aeris and Cloud were shown as well.

Beyond the Yellow Chocobo's inclusion, it wasn't yet decided whether Black Chocobos and Fat Chocobos would appear in the game.

Story and Setting#

While the story was still unknown at this point, a mysterious industrial Mako city, also modeled with polygons, would serve as a setting for the adventure.

• Sakaguchi noted that locations called Mako Reactors would be central to the game's story.

• The coverage also featured a new screenshot of a map that became the basement of the Junon Pub in the final game, which was described by the editors as having a giant gun that Barret would equip on the righthand side. When queried, the developers described this location as a secret meeting spot, but were tightlipped on where the room was located and what Cloud and the mysterious characters pictured within would talk about there. As mentioned above, it seems likely that this map was once AVALANCHE's hideout and was repurposed as a Junon location after the background got a redesign.

Several other buildings were also shown, such as a pyramid, and the full backdrop of Rocket Town.

• In the shots of Rocket Town, it was noted that Cloud and his group got bigger as they approached the camera, and that the viewpoint changed. The rocket was said to have been neglected for over a decade, resulting in it becoming covered in moss.

• A map of a weapon shop that appeared in Upper Junon in the final game was analyzed. It was noted that, outside of the giant guns, bullets, helmets, and swords that decorated the shop's interior, other weapons familiar to the series, such as spears, bows, and Japanese blades would appear in the game. Weapon shops would sell bullets usable by Barrett.

• A caption on a screenshot of an early version of Cosmo Canyon describes the area as a mysterious structure that could be a castle, fortress, or a hall belonging to a regional ruler, with countless propellers sticking out of its roof. The editors wonder if the building flies, or if it's powered by wind. The canyon of the final game has 5 of them, but none are positioned atop buildings, suggesting that they were interpreting the entire map as a single building.

• The Ancient City was depicted, but no details about it were revealed at this point.

Footage#

Final Fantasy VII International Bonus Disc#

Watch on YouTubeThis video, which is on a bonus disc from the Japanese International re-release, showcases several development videos and models.

Pre-rendered Maps#

The section after the intro FMV cuts to Cloud walking through some pre-rendered backgrounds that seem to be in various stages of completion:

• Cloud running about on two screens of the Midgar station at the very start of the game.
• An early design for Nibelheim, according to the Ultimania book, with strange yellow untextured machinery everywhere, and some static NPCs scattered around. The lamp posts have bright blue lights that don't actually cast onto anything else in the pre-render. The NPCs seem to be on a different layer, as Cloud walks underneath one of them.
• Two sections of Cosmo Canyon. The campfire isn't animated and Cloud walks directly over the top of the flame graphic. This clip seems to have been included in some press releases, as the lack of animation in backgrounds is mentioned in some magazines.
• A house interior that is seen in some other prerelease images.

Battle#

1st Battle Section

• There are several "freeze frame" battle scenes where animations are stopped but the camera can still move around.
• There is a slightly different battle UI, including the face icons and status text at the top of the screen.
• The menu actions are Fight, Item, Magic, Steal, and Grapple.
• A lot of shots of a Bahamut battle, and Bahamut summoned to fight some enemies.
• Turnarounds of several battle models, renders of which are also seen in early magazine coverage, including the same untextured version of Leviathan.
• The in-battle models of the protagonists had changes made to them; the most notable one is probably Barret, who is very tall in this video.

2nd Battle Section

These shots (seen after the Materia cutscene) appear to be later on in development. The biggest tell is that the UI/battle scene graphics seem to have progressed to resembling the demo in some aspects.

• Tifa is now present.
• No more face icons/status text on the screen.
• The commands available for Barret are Fight, Magic, and Item.
• The yellow cursor to show whose turn it is is present now.
• Someone's commands (Cloud's, judging by the yellow cursor position) are Fight, Magic, Item, Summon, and Mug.
• Limit break menu text is different.
• The post-battle results screen has small full-body sprites instead of portraits. These three sprites still persist in the final game's files. No other sprites in this style seem to exist for any of the other characters.

Other#

• Seventh Heaven secret base room scene about Materia.
  • The newscaster on the TV seems to be a photo of a real person instead of a cartoon guy.
  • The save point is a bluish diamond that rotates between two sides which respectively say "Save" and "セーブ" ("Save" in katakana) in white text.

Famitsu PlayStation 1st Issue Commemorative Special Video#

Watch on YouTube

V-Jump Festival '96 Video#

Watch on YouTube

Help/Info Sources#

• Unseen64
• FF Wiki
• 1997 Developer Interviews
• Concepts from the Ultimania book
• Pre-release coverage in the May 1996 GameFan
• FF7's first coverage in the Famitsu magazine from 1996.
• CVG Magazine Issue #185
• Next Generation Magazine Issue #29
• Weekly Famitsu No. 1224 - Yoshinori Kitase Interview
• Weekly Famitsu No. 1224 - Tetsuya Nomura Interview
• IGN Presents The History Of Final Fantasy VII
• How The Chaotic Development Of Final Fantasy VII Changed The Course Of The Franchise - Gameinformer.com
• Final Fantasy 7 An oral history - Polygon.com
• The Development of Final Fantasy VII - Sidearc.com
• The making of Final Fantasy VII and how Squaresoft conquered the RPG market - Xenon.stanford.edu

References#