Final Fantasy 7 : Cut Content & History [Part 1] | Cut Content

Final Fantasy 7 had a very abruptive development. Shifting platforms twice and going through numerous ideas on what kind of story they wish to tell. Today we look in it's development in PART 1
Sources:
thelifestream.net/weekly-fami...
web.archive.org/web/201608241...
sidearc.com/the-development-o...
archive.org/details/Computer_...
www.ign.com/articles/2008/05/...
web.archive.org/web/201905292...
www.thegamer.com/final-fantas...
archive.org/details/NEXT_Gene...
thelifestream.net/ffvii-the-o...
tcrf.net/Final_Fantasy_VII
Footage Credits:
• Final Fantasy 7 PC HD ...
• Final Fantasy VII 033 ...
• Final Fantasy VII - Fu...
• Final Fantasy V - Galu...
• Final Fantasy VII - Me...
• Final Fantasy VII - Hi...
• FF7 - How to Get Yuffie
• Wutai Side Quest (All ...
• Final Fantasy VII - Me...
• Final Fantasy VII - Me...
• Ps4 Final Fantasy 7 Ho...
• Final Fantasy VII - Ru...
• Final Fantasy 7 (PSX) ...
• Xenogears (PlayStation...
• FF7 2D Remake PART 1
• FF7 2D Remake PART 2
• Alone in the Dark (199...
• SGI's $250,000 Graphic...
• All Jenova Battles
• Final Fantasy 7 - [Par...
• Final Fantasy VII - Co...
• Final Fantasy VII - Ma...
• Final Fantasy VII Walk...
• Final Fantasy 7 Battle...
• Final Fantasy VII - An...
• Final Fantasy 7 - Nort...
• FFVII - Rare Enemy Att...
Chapters:
0:00 - Final Fantasy 7's original concept on the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64
3:20 - Early Midgar of Final Fantasy 7
4:37 - Early Concepts and Designs of Cloud Strife and Barret Wallace of Final Fantasy 7
6:09 - Creation of the Limit Break System in Final Fantasy 7
6:26 - Early Concepts and Designs of Sephiroth & Aerith / Aeris Gainsborough in Final Fantasy 7
7:39 - Early Concepts and Designs of Jenova in Final Fantasy 7
9:10 - Continued Development of Cloud Strife and creation of Zack Fair in Final Fantasy 7
9:49 - Deciding on who should die in Final Fantasy 7
11:10 - Early Concepts of Tifa Lockhart in Final Fantasy 7
11:46 - Early Concepts and Designs of Red XIII, Cid Highwind, Yuffie Kisaragi, and Cait Sith in Final Fantasy 7
12:53 - Early Concepts and Designs of Vincent Valentine in Final Fantasy 7
14:18 - Original idea for Final Fantasy 7's ending
14:30 - Extro
#FinalFantasy #FF7 #Retrogaming

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

If you enjoy this video, give it a like and maybe also leave a comment to assist us with the algorithm!

[@weirdshitcoolideas]

Been subbed but I love this style of video a lot

[@RemoWilliams1227]

Here you go, enjoying very much.

[@gjtrue]

Looking up the development history of Final Fantasy VII is amazing and shocking. Sephiroth and Aerith originally planned to be siblings or even lovers as you mentioned, Zack and his role being created *very late* into development, unused plot points and character motives as well as designs, planned to be set in our real world of Earth, and so on. Like going by that flow chart, it even seems the were considering Tifa and Sephiroth possibly being siblings as well. Could you even IMAGINE lol. The biggest surprise to me personally being that 'Final Fantasy VIII' characters like Edea, Fujin, and Raijin were originally being for the prior installment here and even got as far as concept art. The creators at the time must have really wanted to use a Earth setting in some fashion. Seeing cool versions and plots of it in their later games like Parasite Eve and Einhänder.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

The biggest surrpise to me if the Sephiroth and Tifa connection they were planning. Granted Sephiroth was to have Vincents design at that point which would explain why both Tifa and Vincent have long, straight black hair lol

[@theblindfoldedbirdwatcher570]

​​@@TheObsessiveGamerConsidering the possible Zeiram/Iria anime influence on FFVII, the Tifa and Sephiroth connection isn't that far-fetched if you substitute Iria from the anime (who structurally has Cloud's hair if you look at it) for Tifa (Iria has Tifa's shirt-the straps in particular from the 1991? film) and have her brother (whose hair is borderline Sephiroth-esque in the hair bangs though not as long and not resembling physical 7s like Sephiroth's actual hair bangs.) be the Sephiroth stand-in. Also, at one point in Zeiram, Iria does wear a tunic similar to Vincent's, so.... Anyway, the developmental connections are complex for FFVII, and I believe not just with the Zeiram 1&2 and the Iria connections.

[@teruienages962]

Fun Fact: The entirety of Final Fantasy VII actually CAN fit on one N64 cart with but the omission of only one thing: The FMV's. If only FF7 as we know it had merely provided in-game renders or simply just still images and text descriptions of the few-in-number FMV cutscenes, the entire rest of FF7's game can fit on an N64 cart. The only reason they really wanted it to go on CD's was because they were most proud of their movie making technology and simply just wanted to show off.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

@@teruienages962 it can fit...but even then I believe still would require a bigger cart like a 32mb and 64mb cart that wouldn't release till later on since there were still quite a bit of environments, textures, and music files to keep in. But yeah they wanted a more cinematic game. The other issue however was the N64's ram making the transitions between low-poly field and high-poly battles quite tough due to bad architecture.

[@timog7358]

i highly doubt this. the little 3d ff6 demo they made already had 20mb

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

@@timog7358 tbf FF6 demo probably also was unoptimized as it was just a battle field with simple models which many N64 games had outdone by a lot. Also the textures were quite a bit higher quality than what N64 games could normally put it. With optimization this could be brought down significantly.

[@ShyArt85]

I enjoyed the video! Looking forward to the next one. This game is my personal top three. I called them the big 3. Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII. Growing up in the 90s,1997 and 1998 were the best years for that era. A lot of firsts and groundbreaking games that set an industry standard. ❤

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Thanks! Good thing is I've made videos on all 3 now haha. Those two years really were some of the best years in gaming that we still haven't been able to outdo

[@retrobution1262]

Great job on this. Learning about the connections this game has with parasite eve was very insightful, both titles were worlds away from squaresofts usual rpg fare in terms of aesthetic. It was a wondrous time to be a gamer. Looking forward to part 2!

[@SZF123456]

Yeah, as soon as he said NY I was like wait a sec…

[@retrobution1262]

@@SZF123456 Yeah man and Parasite Eve was so unique and different. Many elements in Midgar make it so obvious now too. Imagine if they had kept it for the final product? The rpg landscape in the west would be unrecognizable

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

If you toss in Xenogears as well, you got another game that was quite different from these two as well. Truly the golden age for RPGs. Thanks and look forward! :)

[@BryceNeuner]

Great video, very informative. I've never seen Nomura's storyboards for the Limit Breaks, thanks!

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Thanks! Yeah Nomura did some beauty with those

[@RoseBleueDuRosierSec]

I was waiting for this one! You never didappoint!

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

And I wish to never disappoint indeed :)

[@myekyl7448]

Lets also not deny that Cloud and sephiroth are def inspired by Guts and Griffith from Berserk. Troubled past protagonist with a massive heavy sword. White haired Rival who both embodied being very trusted , elegant and beautiful, more so when he was a Hero.

[@cal5964]

Great video learning what happened in the production is one of my favorite things

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Thank you! And that is some of my fav stuff to cover

[@jaim3_mm]

amazing vídeo, waiting for part 2

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Thank you!

[@OGBabygurl]

Super informative. Thank you!

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Thanks! :D

[@keymo9480]

This was very interesting!! Thanks for this! You earned a sub!

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

@@keymo9480 thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@ForzaTerra89]

Great video, the idea for Aeriths death being more real, sudden and sad versus Hollywood is something I really wish they stuck with in rebirth. It could not have been more Hollywood, it just sapped it of the emotional impact. I wish we saw it even if cloud didn’t. I don’t think seeing it in part 3 will have the same impact as if we saw it in the ending of rebirth or the original

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

While I like the Remakes handling of several things, I do wish they did better with the way that one was handled. I just beat it as this video had just gone online and thinking to what was said in here haha

[@ForzaTerra89]

@@TheObsessiveGamer oh for the most part I think they did an amazing job, but they got this bit wrong in my opinion. It was too extra

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

@@ForzaTerra89 yeahh too much extra I agree.

[@theblindfoldedbirdwatcher570]

​@@TheObsessiveGamerI can't think of Aerith 's death anymore without considering: The possible Celes/Rachel parallels from Final Fantasy VI in terms of their roles (Celes 's close association with Kefka, the love interest, possible hair style, Rachel being the former regret of Locke, being dead, etc.) Terra's half-Esper heritage being similar to Aerith 's half-Cetra heritage Rosa/Rydia parallels (Rosa being the love interest, Rydia being the last summoner). The ending of the Medieval Section (or said chapter in general) from Live A Live (which is more of a stretch, but may have something to do with Sephiroth 's style of killing/Aerith kicking the bucket) The Heroine from Final Fantasy Adventure (Seiken Densetsu 1) (whose role is similar to Aerith 's and this was a first project made by FFVII's director)

[@ahabgaddis7277]

this is a really cool video, lot of neat info

[@kalebsithnerd119]

My heart sinks everytime I see Sephiroth impale Aerith with his sword

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Yeah it's painful. Tried to make it as dramatic as I could too here just for it lol

[@laithamekir5778]

Worlds joined by sarrow...

[@TheAufziehvogel]

As with many here, I've waited for the Final Fantasy VII video and man, lot's of details I did not know (we might know more if SE hadn't refused to release the Ultimania Guides that were published in Japan). So really waiting for Part 2 here. There is, however, a small mistake you made. I actually do not know how Masafumi Miyamoto looks, but on the picture you present this is clearly Yosuke Matsuda, former controversial Square Enix President indeed (now replaced by Takashi Kiryu) who was not in charge at the Square Enix lead before 2013. Just a little heads up here. You find this falsly marked picture also on Google. Cheers and can't wait for Part 2.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Thanks and glad you enjoyed it! Yeah alot of info that never got through cause that. Thankfully alot of fan translations were done which is how I found a lot of the info. Sorry for that small mistake,will make a note in the pinned comments on it. Thanks for bringing it up!

[@napoleonfeanor]

I'd like to hear more

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

That's what part 2 is being planned for :)

[@TrueKoalaKnight]

The concept for FF7 was Parasite Eve? Dodged a bullet right there. I would have hated them setting a Final Fantasy game in New York.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Crazy thing is that this isn't the only thing that was pitched for FF7. Technically Xenogears was also pitched as FF7 but rejected.

[@remembershooting2064]

Interesting stuff mate! New sub.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Thanks man! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@ourfamilyaccount]

I'm surprised they never changed the hair-styles of Sephiroth and Aerith, they do look alike definitely see them as siblings if Square Enix went that route.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

I imagine they still wanted some allusion between them. One who is an ancient vs one who only THINKS he is an ancient

[@Koniving]

At launch I could believe, but turok 2 was 67 megabytes on a cartridge. And most 64 games are around 16 to 96... 4, 8 and 12 megabytes? Hard to imagine.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Yeah at launch which I mentioned there. Also those sizes you mentioned are MegaBITS, which are calculated differently from Megabytes. Thus Turok 2 is actually 32 Megabytes, while games like Dr Mario are only 4MB while RE2 and Conker which are late stage games are at 64MB.

[@squidsona8509]

Theres something so funny about midgar basically being new york

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Considering all the cheap pizza you could buy in NYC too, this gets even more hilarious

[@mrjwhite1989]

Great video, informative and interesting and I'm looking forward to more! If I have one piece of feedback it would be to avoid using footage with PC Mods for character models etc. While I fully support their existence I feel it's a bit confusing and inappropriate when the subject is the game's development. Just a thought 😊

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Thank you! Yeah apologizes for that, gonna try to swap to non-modded version for the next part

[@mrjwhite1989]

@@TheObsessiveGamer No apologies necessary! Appreciate you taking friendly feedback like a champ 👍

[@SorcererLance]

I'd like to imagine Sorceress Edea's potential role in FF7 to be Jenova's possible human form once her parts were finally assembled... instead of what we got as a final form with "Jenova Absolute" near the very end of the game (but to be fair, Jenova Absolute does look more appropriately alien-like rather than having yet another nearly-indistinguishable humanoid figure like FuSoYa in FF4 or Zidane/Kuja in FF9). My basis for this theory? They later recycled Jenova's manipulative "mother" role for Edea in FF8 when she bewitched Seifer to become her unwavering bodyguard, not unlike what Sephiroth saw himself as with his obsession with Jenova as his perceived mother... FF8 even took it a step further with the later reveal that Edea was most of the protagonists' Matron, their motherly caregiver in their old orphanage they once shared.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Never even thought about the allusions being Edea being the Matron may even be a carry over of her being Jenova at one point. Facinating

[@theblindfoldedbirdwatcher570]

All possibilities, I agree. but to be fair, the reason why the orphan kids in FFVII call Edea "matron" later on is because Edea (the non-possessed version) is a reference to Terra with the orphanage in FFVI. The kids call Terra "Mama" there too, which is the non-Latin version of Mother, unlike the Latin "Matron".

[@SorcererLance]

@@theblindfoldedbirdwatcher570 A lady with magical powers being motherly to a bunch of young orphans... I definitely can see the parallels there.

[@peanutbutterrocket]

I love final fantasy 7!!!!

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

One of the best RPGs ever!

[@wingedmirage4226]

It's wild seeing the FF7 cast in the artstyle of the original Final Fantasy artist

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

@@wingedmirage4226 Amano art style feels really wild for them. Aerith especially looking different

[@Shiny_Gaming]

3minute intro. Fun. :D

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

In this instance it was technically a "recap" of the last FF7 video here, and that was a lot to crunch down as a result before hitting the title card haha

[@Shiny_Gaming]

@@TheObsessiveGamer yeah

[@LPandbeyond]

great vid but was discovered recently his mom dying during development was a translation error

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Was it? May I see what the actual translation was?

[@LPandbeyond]

@@TheObsessiveGamer hi I can’t find the translation rn but his mom died in 1988 To be more accurate Sakaguchi's involvement with FF7 was very light as he himself stated that he wanted to let the newer guys do their own thing and Kitase re-confirmed this some years ago during his FF7 15th anniversary Ultimania interview, saying that before FF7 sakaguchi was always very involved with projects but with FF7 he intentionally kept his distance and focused more on producing and only offered advice in regards to the battle system.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

@@LPandbeyond Indeed Sakaguchi's involvement was alot less which I mentioned via him being just the producer this time around. Granted he still had some input on creative ideas too here and there

[@LPandbeyond]

@@TheObsessiveGamer sure but the development of ff7's main core themes of "loss" had nothing to do with his mom passing away

[@sonic_genesis]

you gotta use the og content and not the modded version.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

@@sonic_genesis yeah sorry about that, gonna be planning to use that for following parts

[@JejeSolitaireDechu]

Pas traduit en français dommage j'aime beaucoup cette chaine

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

mais je ne traduis jamais en français ? Comment avez-vous regardé quoi que ce soit sur cette chaîne en tant que telle ? Je sais que ce n'est pas idéal, mais peut-être utiliser ici la fonction de sous-titres qui est générée automatiquement dans n'importe quelle langue ? Je m'excuse également si cela semble mauvais, car j'ai utilisé Google Translate pour cela.

[@JejeSolitaireDechu]

@@TheObsessiveGamer désolée la langue française est pas simple a parler pour toi donc merci d'y avoir répondu a mon message . mais pour faire cour je suis ta chaîne car très intéressante j'aime savoir les contenus non inutilisé de jeu vidéo où univers relié à ça . J'ai essayé d'avoir en français automatiquement part traduction il y est rarement je crois que c'était dans quelques vidéo si je me souviens bien mais si tu n'a pas traduit le français je comprends aussi . C'est ce que je disais c'est dommage qu'il a pas de traduction car ta chaîne est très intéressante j'essaye de comprendre l'anglais comme je peu mais pas simple pour moi aussi mais merci de m'avoir répondu en français c'est gentil bonne continuation je regarderai ta chaîne du mieux que je peu pour continuer a comprendre heureusement que tu met des image sur les contenus supprimée ça m'aide a comprendre aussi .

[@gabemorales7814]

The SGI workstation demo has absolutely nothing to do with the N64 and the stats of the machine that ran it are not even remotely similar.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

@@gabemorales7814 it's been confirmed to be a test by then on how it can run on the N64 due to the silicon graphic chip the that N64 utilized

[@gabemorales7814]

@@TheObsessiveGamer I have an SGI indigo and did N64 development professionally. No, the station used to make the demo was not remotely similar to the N64 and shared no N64 tools. There is no singular "silicon graphics chip," every model was custom made and different. The Final Fantasy demo was made on an SGI Onyx workstation and the N64 development kits were indigo 2s. The Onyx shares absolutely nothing in common with the N64. The onyx workstation they used went on to be the tool they used to do the 3D renders for the playstation game, it was never used anywhere for N64 development. That's like thinking you could use an Atari 800 to do 68000 development just because it's also an "atari."

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

@@gabemorales7814 yes the Onyx was used on the PlayStation no doubt but as the N64 had a silicon based chip called the Reality co-processor, this demo was made using both Onyx AND SGI Indy, Indy being what was commonly used by N64 devs to make N64 games. Let alone Onyx did see this used for N64 development too. I's been well documented that this was their test on utilizing such tools to make the demo as a demo and test of what could be done on the N64.

[@gabemorales7814]

@@TheObsessiveGamer The SGI indy is not the same machine as the SGI indigo. You really don't know what you are talking about. This was not developed for the indy or the indigo, it was soley developed for the SGI Onyx, and the Onyx was not part of our N64 development kit. In fact there are many pages out there specifically dedicated to debunking this myth, this had nothing to do with the N64. You should stick to talking about things you actually experienced.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

@@gabemorales7814 you claim all this, but where is your source? Cause I've read enough documentation on this that this demo was built on SGI Indy and Onyx which N64 games did get commonly developed on. And even then, we know it was a test on how FF could look on N64 as in 1995 they were still solidly with Nintendo. 1996 was Sony.

[@weirdshitcoolideas]

This video is amazing thank you!! Can’t wait for part two

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Thank you! That one coming very soon as planned!

[@timog7358]

feeling of reality and not hollywood... unfortunately rebirth makes it feel exactly like hollywood

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Well I mean Kitase didn't direct the Remake trilogy, so he couldn't get it done the way he originally did it. But yeah this was Inception level of hollywood lol

[@ninten360]

I think it's a bit disingenuous to say they never wanted it to feel like Hollywood when so much of the marketing of the original game focused so much on the fancy production values and how the FMVs looks "just like a movie"

[@AmorFati777X]

OG cut content like red xiii clones is what I hoped remake would have not the bullshit they added to it. Although really I just wanted a faithful recreation of the story. FFVIII would have been the game to retcon with time travel alternate timeline bullshit if you just have to, and games like FF II and IV were bare bones enough to be remade with embellishment.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

I mean...we got Test 0 at least xP But overall the story still is the same...just heavily padded in both good and bad ways imo

[@RIBANNI]

nice

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

Hope you enjoyed it!

[@AmorFati777X]

1997 Tetsuya Nomura: No absolutely not. That will only cheapen Aerith's death. Veto veto veto. Its completely out of the question. 2024 Tetsuya Nomura: hold my beer

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

I mean... Rebirth still ended the same in the end, so he isn't completely against what he said in 97

[@AmorFati777X]

@@TheObsessiveGamer the entire re-tcon cheapened the legacy of the og.

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

@@AmorFati777X I feel the padding did make what happened feel way less emotional, so yeah.

[@AmorFati777X]

@@TheObsessiveGamer I think "emotional" chasing is what all these new fans are really after. It's like they're satisfied with cheap feels at the cost of structural integrity to the story

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

@@AmorFati777X Well the biggest problem is at this point that most people know about Aerith's fate so it's harder to have the new generation feeling as sad as most of us did back then. But overall I can still imagine they'd feel more emotional with the original ending over this. Realistically all that came after should have been more AFTER Aerith had been buried in the pond so we still could have had the original emotional scenes that came with it.

[@weirdshitcoolideas]

Well Jenova probably uses Edea as her human form. Or would have

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

That is my theory. If she was being made as a more prominent villain, I doubt the team would have Jenova without a human form

[@KrusherMike]

Why!? Why could it not have been Yuffie!?!? It should have been Yuffie... 🥲

[@TheObsessiveGamer]

@@KrusherMike yfw Wutai would have declared war on Sephiroth over this :P