Introduction
What is Final Fantasy VII?
I think everyone and their mother have heard of Final Fantasy VII. Released in 1997, the RPG quickly became an overwhelming success. Some people believe FF7 is the reason the PSX succeeded [citation needed]. Although it wasn't the first J-RPG for the Playstation, the game redefined the genre as it was and the companies quickly jumped on the bandwagon. It was the golden era of J-RPGs and a great time to be a gamer, but then the PS2 came and Square started taking, let's say, controversial decisions.
But FF7 is not without controversies. The game was huge on its release and still has a considerable fanbase - maybe the largest of any Final Fantasy, given how Square-Enix likes to milk the franchise dry, its hands holding the teats so strongly that they leak more blood than milk. However, despite of or because of its success, FF7 is considered one of the most overrated games of all time. This isn't helped by the fact the spin-offs (for the most part) suck, the game had less than sub-par translation and every 13 years old kid wanted to name their Diablo character or ICQ Nickname as a variation of _-~SepHiROTH~-_.
Regardless, the game is very well-made and like all other PS-era Final Fantasies, extremely detailed. The characters got a bit distorted over time in the spin-offs, but when not being racist FF7 features some great dialogues and attempts to do some very creative things.
So what is the game about?
Final Fantasy VII is set in a dystopian "modern" fantasy world with a heavy Cyberpunk theme. The game is also different from other Final Fantasies or J-RPGs (and closer to W-RPGs) in the sense that it's not afraid of talking about sexuality and featuring less than subtle gay undertones. The game also features themes that are much closer to issues from our real world like consequences from screwing up with the environment, unresolved love triangles, poverty and social issues, etc. It's by no means a treatise on those subjects but it's a nice human touch.
It was also the first Final Fantasy to feature a modern world. While usually in previous games the theme was medieval, in FF7 there are cars, guns, helicopters and technology that is similar to ours. It was also the culmination of the series trend to make progressively darker games, a trend that ended somewhat on FF9. Also, like FF6 it mixes different genres, periods and cultures instead of going full-D&D. Hence you have a modern world with magic and swords and all sorts of crazy shenanigans.
LP Rules
* Boss fights will include a video because hey, why not?
* NO SPOILERS. I met two people this year who had just started playing FF7 and did not actually know anything, even the major events everyone knows about. So it's possible there will be one or two readers who don't know either. Don't talk about anything beyond what we've seen.
* Again, NO SPOILERS. This includes fake spoilers, wink-winking about spoilers, or eliminating possibilities about which we can't draw a conclusion yet.
* I'm gonna break this game's combat mechanics horribly, without glitches, the "way the developers intended". You're not gonna get a raw experience when it comes to boss fights, or see me struggling. But the thing is, most of the boss fights in this game are completely irrelevant to the plot and the bosses are just stuff that happen to be in your way. Most of the fights result in the boss dying without doing anything and I do it in many, many different ways. If you enjoy seeing the game's battle system being exploited, molested and otherwise broken, you're gonna enjoy watching the videos. If you have never played the game, I still explain everything that is combat-related.
Thread Rules
* NO EU TALK.
* Don't talk about which FF is better/worse.
* THIS GAME IS NOT POLITICALLY CORRECT. From the beginning to the end, it's a roller-coaster of things that are just downright wrong. It's negative, morbid and depressive. It has humor of questionable taste. It assumes that you're an adult and can judge correctly what is going on. You're free to point out how a character is an asshole but don't go meta and argue about how the game is not being sensitive. If you're sensitive to these things, this might not be the game for you.
* Talking about other Final Fantasies or even J-RPGs is allowed. You can go OT as long as it's not about something incredibly stupid.
* Do not talk about other posts. Like "People need to stop discussing X". As long as it's not a terrible nitpick debates, you can go crazy on tangents.
* About FF7, you can talk about everything mentioned in the manual (like that other characters such as Cid exist) as long as you don't spoil anything about them. Similarly, you can talk about battle mechanics as long as it doesn't spoil anything, and most of the time it doesn't. So don't spoiler-tag spell names, it's not a spoiler that we get a spell called Fire 3 or that you fight Goblins.
So without further ado, let's start shall we?
Content:
CD 1
Chapter 1 - In which we put rose-tinted glasses
Chapter 2 - A Tribute to Joss Wheddon
Chapter 3 - Who's Bad?
Chapter 4 - In which we talk about limits
Chapter 5 - A Naming of Stoners
Chapter 6 - Mods and the Shinra Mafia
Chapter 7 - In which we finally get to the LP title
Chapter 8 - The Soap Opera Appreciation Station
Chapter 9 - The Wall Market
Chapter 10 - Transgender Megathread
Chapter 11 - [Yahoo Questions] "Am I gay if I like crossdressing?"
Chapter 12 - [E/N] How do I avoid being Friend-Zoned?
Chapter 13 - Shit Gets Real
Chapter 14 - Flashbacks
Chapter 15 - A Golden Shiny Wire
Chapter 16 - Obligatory Puzzle Dungeon
Chapter 17 - God damn it, Hojo
Chapter 18 - Creepy Korean Horror Movie Hour
Chapter 19 - Out of Darkness, Out of Mind
Chapter 20 - A minute of chillaxation
Chapter 21 - Major Plot Exposition Time
Chapter 22 - Let's drink the whole whiskey bottle
Chapter 23 - In which we side-quest
Chapter 24 - In which we do more side-quests
Chapter 25 - A Parade... of Mini-Games
Chapter 26 - Trip-Hop City
Chapter 27 - It's a Boat time
Chapter 28 - It's a Bossa time
Chapter 29 - Life's a beach
Chapter 30 - VEGAS, BABE!
Chapter 31 - It's Funday Sunday!
Chapter 32 - A Desert Tale
Chapter 33 - The Terrible Secrets of Chocobo Racing
Chapter 34 - Of Side and Games
Chapter 35 - Gon Ga Ga
Chapter 36 - A Star Wars Holiday Special
Chapter 37 - The Sealed Cave that wants to kill you
Chapter 38 - Vincent, Part I
Chapter 39 - Vincent, Part II
Chapter 40 - Mount Piñata
Chapter 41 - Rocket Town, Part I
Chapter 42 - Rocket Town, Part II
Chapter 43 - Wutai
Chapter 44 - Smoke and Mirrors
Chapter 45 - Damsel
Chapter 46 - Unfinished Business
Chapter 47 - The Calm
Chapter 48 - Exposition
Chapter 49 - Do you wanna date my Avatar?
Chapter 50 - [Temple of the Ancients]
Chapter 51 - Wherein the plot finally starts
Chapter 52 - Nothing else materias
Chapter 53 - Distress
Chapter 54 - The Storm
CD 2
Chapter 55 - Onward
Chapter 56 - Cold Exposition, Part I
Chapter 57 - Cold Exposition, Part II
Chapter 58 - Holzoff Ice
Chapter 59 - Iceburn
Chapter 60 - Cool Cool Mountain
Chapter 61 - Upward Slope
Chapter 62 - Paradise Lost
Chapter 63 - Climax
Recap
Chapter 64 - Fade to Black
Chapter 65 - World of Ruin
Chapter 66 - Weapon ex Machina
Chapter 67 - Bad Breath
Chapter 68 - Poppin' and Slappin'
Chapter 69 - Sweet Ride
Chapter 70 - Around the World
Chapter 71 - Searching for Friends
Chapter 72 - Winds of Change
Chapter 73 - Visiting Mideel
Chapter 74 - Preparations
Chapter 75 - Mako Age
Chapter 76 - Visiting Cloud
Chapter 77 - A Cloud to the Past
Chapter 78 - Revelations
Chapter 79 - Status Quo
Chapter 80 - Zephyr
Chapter 81 - Update de Chocobo
Chapter 82 - Capitulo de Chocobo
Chapter 83 - Digging the Past, Part I
Chapter 84 - Digging the Past, Part II
Chapter 85 - Under the Sea
Chapter 86 - Red Submarine
Chapter 87 - Like a Rocket Man
Chapter 88 - Rocket Queen
Chapter 89 - Guidance
Chapter 90 - Secrets of the Deep
Chapter 91 - Redacted
Chapter 92 - Hope
Chapter 93 - Attack on Weapon
Chapter 94 - Crossfire
Chapter 95 - Measures
Chapter 96 - Bungee Oogie Oogie
Chapter 97 - Looting
Chapter 98 - Will it Blend?
Chapter 99 - Choices
CD 3
Chapter 100 - Hide and Seek
Chapter 101 - Jump Puzzles
Chapter 102 - North Crater, Part I
Chapter 103 - North Crater, Part II
Chapter 104 - Weapon
Chapter 105 - Into Light, Part I
Chapter 106 - Into Light, Part II
Bonus - A bit more into Japanese Horror and Tokusatsu Villains
Bonus - Tarepanda's Notes
Epilogue, Part I
Epilogue, Part II
Lamprey Cannon presents: Let's Play Final Fantasy VII, Famicom Edition!
Part 1 - Untitled Document
Part 2 - Remember when we were blue, Cloud?
Part 3 - Just because he aren't sick doesn't mean he are well.
Part 4 - This whole thing's stupid. Let's keep going.
Part 5 - Snake? Snake! SNAAAAAKE!
Part 6 - Geographical Improbabilities
Part 7 - Ho Ho Hooooo!
Orange Fluffy Sheep presents: FFVII Low-Level Run Extreme OCD Edition!
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Fan Art
Screaming Idiot:
This is something of beauty:
Screaming idiot on Hojo's crazy breeding schemes:
Sephiroth and Jenova would make a great sitcom:
Pesky Splinter:
That's the question.
Pesky Splinter reveals what Scarlet is doing with the military fund:
Pesky Splinter decides to show Hojo's secret to dating hot girls:
Pesky Splinter infuses me with horrible, horrible nightmares:
I have no words to describe this, you have to see for yourself:
Faraday Cage:
Faraday Cage found the successful algorithm for condensing the maximum amount of IP hype in a single image, and disguised it as a joke fanart.
HotAndColdAF:
HotAndColdAF uncovers the truth of Sephiroth's arrival at Costa Del Sol:
Orange Fluffy Sheep:
OFS decides to follow today's trends to make everything dark and gritty:
OFS shows what every woman knows - five Enemy Skills are better than four.
OFS knows how to teach about health hazards better than his parents ever did.
L5 Death:
L5 Death shows that a year long routine of bad puns and screenshots can become an addictive combination.
ArchWizard:
ArchWizard reveals Tifa's sudden change of career. The bar just wasn't working for her.
MarquiseMindfang:
MarquiseMindfang shows Dr. Octavius has got nothing on Barret.
Macaluso:
Macaluso shows that there's no limit to FF fans when it comes down to bizarre crossovers.
Ropnolc:
Ropnolc shows the softer, almost gelatinous side of Cloud's heart.
Frogisis:
Bregor posted:
We're all cheering for your escape, Tifa.
Frogisis makes EponymousMrYar's vision come true, and Hojo's fantasies come truer.
Even Lightning wouldn't return from the iceburns.
Zeikier:
Zeikier reveals what truly happened to Meteor after the game's ending.
