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Non-battle materia interactions in Final Fantasy VII

signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
40,183
There are some interesting uses of materia in FFVII outside of normal battles. For example, Cait Sith forces himself to come along with you, and if you check his equipment you can see he has the Manipulate materia equipped.




XcA9Jyl.png



A more interesting example would be that during the flashback sequences, Cloud's (Zack's) Buster Sword has the Pre-Emptive materia equipped on it. This can maybe explain why Cloud was able to sneak up on Sephiroth in the Jenova room after Zack gave him the sword.


uW2zo0Y.jpg



Current mystery - why Sephiroth throws the Destruct materia at Cloud:


Could it be because Jenova understands Sephiroth is starting to take over control, and she uses the last bit of control she has to give Cloud the materia to use on Safer Sephiroth (since he casts Wall at the beginning of every battle)
0pGGQQ2.png
? Clearly no, but come up with something better.
 
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XaviConcept

XaviConcept

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Oct 25, 2017
4,896
Thats pretty cool, I am a big fan when the systems work their way into the story. I know people hated the GF stuff in VIII but I thought it was dope and, of course, the espers in VI.
 
Gots

Gots

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Feb 20, 2019
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Canada
Thank you for providing an explanation as to why Cloud could sneak up on Sephiroth. This had bothered me for years
 
bwahhhhh

bwahhhhh

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Oct 25, 2017
3,162
I don't have anything to add, I just wanted to say I like this thread. The pre-emptive one is especially cool
 
Laxoon

Laxoon

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Jan 24, 2018
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I haven't replayed the game in years but damn, the pre-emptive one is super on point and went completely over my head. That's awesome.
 

B.K.

Member
Oct 31, 2017
17,020
Did Cait Sith use the Manipulate materia to force himself into Cloud's group or was the Manipulate materia how Reeve controlled Cait Sith?
 
DiipuSurotu

DiipuSurotu

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Oct 25, 2017
53,148
Cloud starts out with the Bolt and Ice materia. Why not Fire? Because his hometown was destroyed in a massive fire.
 
RecRoulette

RecRoulette

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Oct 25, 2017
26,044
Holy shit.

I liked the way Yuffie gave all your materia back but it was completely random
 
Sterling's Gold

Sterling's Gold

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Oct 27, 2017
1,443
Cloud doesn't have Pre-emptive materia, though. That is from the flashback where you are actually playing the role of
Zack

Edit: nvm forgot he picked up the buster sword
 
shoptroll

shoptroll

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May 29, 2018
3,680
Wow, nice work on that! Did VI or V do anything like this? I remember IV had some plot bits that fused narrative with mechanics, but can't think of anything similar in other FFs before VII.
 
SolVanderlyn

SolVanderlyn

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Oct 28, 2017
13,499
Earth, 21st Century
Here's another detail

Cloud's flashback portrait and his present day portrait show one key difference

latest
latest


His present day portrait has his eyes with the signature "glow" everyone mentions mako-infused soldiers having, while his flashback portrait has him with regular blue eyes. The difference is really subtle but I think you can still tell

This shows that Cloud couldn't have been in SOLDIER, because if he had been, he would have had the glow five years ago. Instead, he doesn't get it until after Nibelheim

I don't know if it was 100% intentional but I think it was. VII is full of little details like this.
 
OP
OP
signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
40,183
halcali said:
Also, even without Pre-Emptive materia equipped, Cloud might've rushed Seph from behind.
Seph was so distracted by JENOVA and his fate.
Click to expand...
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Maybe Cloud was just quiet, since Zack did get attacked by Sephiroth with the same sword lol. Though we can pretend he went into the room yelling or something.
 
Keekon

Keekon

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Mar 30, 2019
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My fave game of all time and I've never caught this before either.

A replay on Switch is in order!
 

Deleted member 721

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one thing for me that changed the way i see the game, was the translation differences especialy barret, where
Barret US = MR. T
Barret JP = Solid Snake
(tim rogers, kotaku videos)
and the remaker trailer when barret talks is closer to the original japanese one (and his cool side)
 
Chaosblade

Chaosblade

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SolVanderlyn said:
I don't know if it was 100% intentional but I think it was. VII is full of little details like this.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yet also full of silly oversights like Cloud coming to terms with the fact he was never in SOLDIER and explaining that to the party on the Highwind, then immediately afterwards has an optional conversation with Yuffie about how he overcame motion sickness while he was in SOLDIER.

(In fairness I can see how that could be a localization issue and not in the original Japanese script)
 

Mattersnotnow

Member
Jan 15, 2018
1,003
I'll take every excuse I get to say FFVII is fantastic. Tks op

Chaosblade said:
Yet also full of silly oversights like Cloud coming to terms with the fact he was never in SOLDIER and explaining that to the party on the Highwind, then immediately afterwards has an optional conversation with Yuffie about how he overcame motion sickness while he was in SOLDIER.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I guess even if he knows he wasn't actually, these are still vivid experiences to him...
 
Dark_Castle

Dark_Castle

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Oct 27, 2017
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If you equip Aerith with Final Attack + Phoenix materia, she will survive against Sephiroth and give him a middle finger.
 
Kikujiro

Kikujiro

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Oct 27, 2017
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Wow OP, this is my favorite game, played it countless of times and I never noticed these two.
 

Deleted member 12790

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"Aeris drops the white materia, that's why phoenix down doesn't work on her" was this random theory I remember reading on so many FFVII fansites back in the day lol

Lots of "revive aeris" stories revolved around getting her white materia back.
 

Deleted member 71

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,857
I played VII recently and didn't notice any of this. It's really cool.

Like others have said in the thread, I love it when games use mechanics like this in subtle ways.
 
MilkBeard

MilkBeard

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Oct 25, 2017
7,780
It's really cool when developers think about their games' systems on this level and add little details that make them more consistent in the narrative.

It's less of a revelation, but I recently had this experience playing Phantasy Star IV: in the beginning, after a boss battle, the main character tells another that he needs to improve, because his attacks are too slow. In the battle beforehand, I noticed that he was missing quite a bit, so I was amused by this. I just like these little touches.

Eylos said:
one thing for me that changed the way i see the game, was the translation differences especialy barret, where
Barret US = MR. T
Barret JP = Solid Snake
(tim rogers, kotaku videos)
and the remaker trailer when barret talks is closer to the original japanese one (and his cool side)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeah, I hope the English version of 7R this time around is more like that. Translators were really hamming it up on the American tropes in the original.
 
OP
OP
signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
40,183
Krejlooc said:
"Aeris drops the white materia, that's why phoenix down doesn't work on her" was this random theory I remember reading on so many FFVII fansites back in the day lol

Lots of "revive aeris" stories revolved around getting her white materia back.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
What's the logic here lol. Why would the phoenix down not work on someone without materia?
 
Ayirek

Ayirek

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Oct 27, 2017
4,252
Holy fuck, I've lost count of how many times I've played this game and I've never noticed those bits. Excellent thread!!
 
Shan

Shan

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Oct 27, 2017
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signal said:
There are some interesting uses of materia in FFVII outside of normal battles. For example, Cait Sith forces himself to come along with you, and if you check his equipment you can see he has the Manipulate materia equipped.




XcA9Jyl.png



A more interesting example would be that during the flashback sequences, Cloud's (Zack's) Buster Sword has the Pre-Emptive materia equipped on it. This can maybe explain why Cloud was able to sneak up on Sephiroth in the Jenova room after Zack gave him the sword.


uW2zo0Y.jpg



Current mystery - why Sephiroth throws the Destruct materia at Cloud.

Could it be because Jenova understands Sephiroth is starting to take over control, and she uses the last bit of control she has to give Cloud the materia to use on Safer Sephiroth (since he casts Wall at the beginning of every battle)
0pGGQQ2.png
? Clearly no, but come up with something better.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Maybe a hint that Sephiroth intend to bring destruction to the humanity with the meteor. Though I forgot if by that point they already know about the meteor...been too long.
 

Deleted member 12555

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Whew, learning new stuff about a 20+ year old game, imagine that. You're really making me want to replay this yet again.

I take it the switch version still has the sound bug? I'd really love to play that version.
 

Deleted member 5148

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bit off topic. I watched a YouTube video of a guy that got a code from a Japanese dev that pressing r1l1 o during the ghost of aeris she would mentioned hades and be revived? is it true and do you know which video I'm talking about
?
 
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