Ep 128: Final Fantasy 7 (Part 10) - Odds, Ends and Random Thoughts

[00:00:09] Hello and welcome to episode 128 of A Gamer Looks At 40, I'm Bill Tucker. And this episode marks the 10th part of the Final Fantasy 7 series and we are at the home stretch. We had a ton of interviews and a ton of clips that never quite made it into the main episodes and this is what this episode is all about.

[00:00:33] Just not clearing out the backlog, but sharing just random stories from the people that made this Final Fantasy 7 series so special. There will be a part 2 to this coming next week where I'll finish out the series completely and then we'll take a quick Final Fantasy break. So if you have a favorite that you don't hear today, you'll probably hear them next week. Starting us off is Diana Luceria.

[00:00:59] You can find her at StormVexed on all the social medias as she shares stories of how she got into Sephiroth cosplay and some stories of her at conventions and experiencing the character. I'd like to pivot a little bit to Sephiroth because obviously that's a character you have a lot of connection with. You do your cosplay. So first off, why have you selected... Well, first off, how did you get into cosplay and that whole world in general?

[00:01:27] And then we can move a bit into the Sephiroth character, which I think is your main one that you portray, right? Oh yeah. I'm just getting started, I think. Oh wow, okay. I want to do more Final Fantasy cosplay, but I have just no time right now. I think I always liked Halloween when I was little. I think a lot of people, you know, like to dress up when they were little. And I didn't do too much of it, but in... I think my first... I didn't even know... What was it?

[00:01:57] No, I knew it was called cosplay. Like in high school, I was into anime, of course. And I was taking Japanese because it was the only school in the state that had Japanese. So I went there for Japanese. Nice. Like that's how determined I was. And there was a new local convention, An Amazement, in North Carolina that had just started. And it was in its second year by the time I heard about it. And it was still very small.

[00:02:25] And I was like, well, people... I think my friends were also dressing up. And of course, I did something completely different from them. They did a whole group cosplay. Oh, nice. Yeah. And I didn't know... I mean, I had taken sewing lessons in school, like home ec, but I did not know where to start. So I went to the Yellow Pages. This is dating me a lot, but... That's good. I went to the Yellow Pages and I found a seamstress because they just listed their number.

[00:02:55] And she was down the street from me. And I brought her a picture of Utena from Shoujo Kakume Utena, the Girl Revolution Utena. And I... You know, in her school uniform with a sword. And I was like, can you make me this? And she was like, what? Like, never heard of that before. Like working from a cartoon. Like... That's funny. Yeah. And I was like, really? No one's ever...

[00:03:22] So yeah, like making a fantastic dress out of something somebody drew instead of like from a photo or from, you know, duplicating something like that. That was the first time she had ever heard of that. So yeah. So she made my costume for me and then I made all of the accessories because that was more like arts and crafts. It was a little easier. But man, I loved that cosplay. And I spent so much time on it because, you know, I paid her a lot of money at the time. It was a lot of allowance. Okay.

[00:03:50] I saved up a lot of money. When she told me how much it was, I think it was only $150, which seems like a lot to a teenager. But now I'm like, she would have charged me like $1,000 or something easy. Something. Yeah. Easy. Yeah. 500 maybe, you know, cause it was a blazer. It was also a skirt, you know. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Wow. Okay. So it was, it was relatively simple than a lot of the other things. At least I didn't say, Hey, can you craft me foam armor? It was a blazer. So she made me a blazer.

[00:04:20] Um, but yeah, uh, uh, I, I, I wanted to, it to be perfect. So, um, because the creators of Udnup were at the show. Um, and I don't, okay. Yeah. So I met the creator and the producer and both at once dressed as their character. And I was like, this is a dream come true. And I don't think they told them what kind of convention it was. Like they showed up in North Carolina and they're like, they just showed up and was a, yeah. It was like 50 people there. And I'm like, but I had the time of my life. So, but yeah.

[00:04:49] What was their reaction when they saw you dressed as their character? They loved it. I was, I, I, yeah. You would think like, I didn't have any anxiety in high school. It was great. Um, I've tons of anxiety now. I wish I could go back. Cause I just didn't think of it. I was just like, this is what I want to do. And this is going to be awesome. And I'm going to talk to them Japanese. But yeah, they were so nice. And they were, they liked my questions. They weren't boring questions, I guess. And they, I got pictures with them in my cosplay. So that's very cool.

[00:05:18] I got, so you moved, so you moved on. So you moved on to step. No, you're good. Uh, you moved on to Sephiroth and, um, so what about Sephiroth inspired you to go that direction? I think, well, uh, so he, he, it's funny, you know, the, the, him being so iconic and so just, you know, designed gorgeous and the eerie green and, you know, um, the long sword and everything.

[00:05:47] It's just always been in the back of my mind. Like I've never created any, like I, cause I wrote stories. I did, I did comics. I did a bunch of stuff, but it's like, I never, I was like, well, I can't top that, you know? So I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna even create like a clone or like a fan version. I'm like, no. So I've just always been a fan. Like, I'm not a fan. Like, oh my God, I want to date him. You know? Right, right, right, right, right, right. Yeah. Cause that would be difficult. I mean, he's gorgeous. Don't get me wrong.

[00:06:18] It'd be just, I can't figure out the logistics. Um, but yeah, he, he's super gorgeous and hot, but, um, yeah, I've just, oh, he's like a thought experiment. It's like, like if I'm bored, I just, I just start thinking about all of the things that led to his creation because we didn't know a lot at the time, like from the game and they've expected, like they've expanded a little bit upon it. Yes.

[00:06:43] And I was super obsessed with Lucretia, Lucretia, his mom. Um, cause she's not in it a lot. And I was like, oh my God, I could write a whole novel just about her. Um, it would probably be a horror, horror story, but, um, cause she had kind of the short end of the stick of that story. But, um, yeah, it's just always been in the back of my head and, uh, you know, every once in a while it would crop up. And if they, they mentioned a Final Fantasy thing, seven thing, I would be like, oh yeah,

[00:07:12] I gotta, I gotta, I have to check that out. Um, and then, uh, quite recently, it's funny, I was playing another character that has extremely long hair and like front bangs, um, Integra from Helsing, Sir Integra from Helsing. And somebody was like, it's a blonde Sephiroth. And I, you know, I had loved Helsing and wanted to cosplay Integra for 20 years. And so I, you know, that, that was like a dream come true. I didn't think I was going to do anything else on Tik Tok. I was like, this is it.

[00:07:43] This is my fun moment. I'm having fun. Um, and then, and I don't know, it was not just that comment. It was probably a lot of stuff in the air at the time, but I was like, could I, could I pull that off? Cause, um, the crazy thing is that you can just buy a Sephiroth cosplay. Like, sure. There's no, there's no law against it. No one is going to come to your house and stop you. Um, but yeah, there's, there's like packaged.

[00:08:08] You like they're, they're obviously from a Chinese sweatshop or something, but they're relatively affordable and actually really high quality. I was, I was kind of shocked. Um, so yeah, I, I ordered it and then I found a wig artist and, um, and I ordered a wig cause I didn't trust myself at all. And I did not want it to look, I know it's like cosplay isn't necessarily, you know, it's

[00:08:35] the spirit and everybody, you know, closet cosplay is valid. I would just want to say that. But it's like, if I don't look per me, I was like, if I don't look remotely screen accurate, no one will believe I'm him. And, and that would, that would mean I failed. So. And you're embodying this character because from what I've taught to other cosplayers, a lot of it is almost portraying the character. And if you don't feel comfortable in the, in the outfit and the makeup and the hair, everything

[00:09:05] else, you're not going to be comfortable portraying the act, portraying the character. So that makes sense to me. Yeah. That totally makes sense. And I could, I could talk about this forever, but, um, there were so many, I mean, it wasn't like logistical problems. It was one of those things where I just was like, yeah, I'm going to do it. And then, and then it showed up and I was like, Oh my God, what did I do? And then I like, I, cause the wig took longer.

[00:09:29] So I put on the costume and then I immediately was like, what am I going to do with my boobs? Like, oh no. Like, it's like, you know, everyone's thinking about gender all the time, except for me, I guess I'm just like, Oh, and I was like, I don't want to be, I was like, maybe I could just film, you know, uh, bust shots like, like shoulders and up. And I'm like, no, that's stupid.

[00:09:56] I mean, I don't have a lot of room right now, but I wanted to do full length shots and stuff. And then once I put on the costume, I was like, okay, this is kind of hot. Like I, I was like, why does this look okay? And then I started to really get into it. And then, you know, the bodying the character thing, you know, some, I guess, cause I've also done some acting, but it's like, you know, some actors use the costume to help them. Sure. Cause they look at themselves and then they're like, Oh, I don't see me anymore, which is definitely helpful. Yeah.

[00:10:26] And I feel like in a lot of my, a lot, a lot of my videos, like I'm, I feel like I've successfully pulled off visually. Like if you took a screenshot, I'd be like, there he is. There he is. There he is. But, but like overall, like, I don't think I worked as hard. Like I, I didn't quite get him. I was more concerned with like the audio or the joke or, you know, looking cool.

[00:10:54] And, and I was like, Oh my God, I don't think I've really, cause I didn't use his voice. It was, I was, I was trying to stay away from using English audio. I used some Japanese audio. Um, but yeah, long, long story short, it's, I don't know if I fully embodied him, but that is definitely a thing. Like Integra, when I put that wig on, I was like, I didn't think I looked anything like her. I didn't, I was like, this is, this is going to be just me in a wig.

[00:11:23] And then I, I was like, Oh, cause she's like who I want to be when I grow up. Like, so I was like, I, she's like my, one of my favorite characters of all time. And, and I felt like, you know, I started getting a little lazy, but, but at the beginning I was like, I'm really channeling her. Like I got it. Like I know who she is from years of reading this comic book and watching the show. And like, I, and, and I identify with her and I know her.

[00:11:50] And then several of us like, like I, I guess I admire him. I respect the design, the creation. And, and as for what drew me to him, I think the thing that put me over the edge, um, was the really cool line that is unfortunately in a very strange video game. I feel like it's either kingdom hearts or smash brothers, but it's the, I will, uh, uh, I will never be a memory.

[00:12:18] And that like became his thing. Like from that point on, I don't think he's ever said that before that. Interesting. Yeah. I'm not familiar with the line, but it sounds like a Sephiroth thing to say, especially given the context. Yeah. And yeah. And so I'm like, I don't remember the first time I heard that, but I was like, oh, that's his, that is his. And he said it a bunch of times now, now that I think people glommed onto that, but his

[00:12:42] general attitude, the whole game was like, well, you're, you're never going to get rid of me. You know, like you're, you can try. I'm going to be here forever. And that's, that's just what I'm going to do. Yeah. I also like Terminator, uh, for several reasons, but it's the, it never sleeps. It never stops kind of vague horror.

[00:13:06] Like, uh, Oh, I just, I just lost the word, but like anxiety, you know, like the panic of like, you'll never be free. It, you can't kill it. It's always going to come for you. You can't, you, it never stops. It never sleeps. And like, that's kind of like the, the, you know, the shark in the dark water of the game where like you're, you're cloud and you're, you're fighting this corrupt governmental

[00:13:34] corporate talkercy monster that's grown out of control, you know, fascist empire thing that's lying its ass off with propaganda. And you're trying to, you know, first of all, he doesn't even care. He's like a mercenary for hire. Yeah. Just, just pay the check to sign the check and let me get on with it. Right. And you know, avalanche is painted as extremists. And I was like, I don't know who dropped the fricking plate. It was the extremists. Like, I don't know.

[00:14:02] Anyway, that's a segue, but yeah, it, um, I think it was that line. And then I was like, do I feel like him? And I feel like I don't, I don't know how to identify with him. It's a very strange relationship. I, as you can see, I can't explain it very well. No, no, that's fine. It's, it's hard. It's hard. It's challenging because from what I'm, what I'm gathering from it is you were intrigued

[00:14:27] by the character and it almost feels like through this cosplay, you're still exploring the character. It's still, it sounds like you're still trying to, what is this person about and what better way to kind of figure that out is by actually embodying it. Uh, yeah, I think it's interesting. I think it's interesting that you're still on that journey and that you don't have like a quote unquote tight answer for it. That's fine. You don't have to. Um, I think it's, I think it's cool that you're using this cosplay and using the performances

[00:14:56] as a way to get to know that character more. And I think to me, interesting as you evolve that character, what comes from that? Yeah. I'd love, I'll be interested to see that for sure. Thank you so much for saying that so succinctly like that. That's probably what I was trying to articulate. Thank you. It's all good. It's all good. Uh, I'd love to hear some stories of you at shows, like any reactions you got, any cool moments portraying Sephiroth. Yes. I'd love to hear some of those stories.

[00:15:23] Since it's a, you know, um, somebody else, a wonderful artisan that's not me made it. Um, you know, I haven't entered it in any contest, so I, it was literally just for fun. And, but I did debut it at, um, Animasement and I dragged my close friend, uh, and she doesn't really know a lot and she knows Final Fantasy. She likes retro gaming, you know, but she's just, she's not as big a fan as me. And she was, I think trying to play remake at the time and she really liked Aerith.

[00:15:52] And I think she had been in, you know, the, this was what my God, two, three years ago, two, three, something like that. And, uh, you know, she, she had been around long enough. I think she knew all the spoilers, you know? And I was like, and she's like, cause I was like, could you please come to this convention? Like, we'll hang out. We'll have fun. But I feel like, you know, especially cause like, I didn't want the cosplay to be sexy.

[00:16:17] I just want to say, I try very hard not to be sexy, but also I didn't want to, I didn't want to make a big deal. And honestly, when I put the jacket on, I was like, oh, it doesn't matter. Like, yes, yes. I'm like, but I don't, I was like, I'm not even trying to be a man. Like, but it also felt like it didn't matter. So in case, in case no one's seen my, my cosplay, uh, like not my boobs are not out, but they're like there. Right. Yeah. The present. Right.

[00:16:47] And I feel like with where his like harness thing crosses, it's like right over top of them. So it, you know, didn't bother me after a while, but I did feel exposed suddenly thinking about walking around a convention floor and it turned out to be fine. Yeah. Thankfully. No, that's a, that's a very real concern. So that's, that's smart that you brought somebody with you just, even if it's just for emotional support, you know, that's, that's a lot, you know, it's a, that's a big step to go out there and do that.

[00:17:17] Yeah. And I was, I was shaking a little bit as you know, we parked and I had to finish changing like in the parking lot. Cause I had like a wing. It wasn't that great. I hadn't really attached it, but, but she, she decided to do like a, not a quite a closet cosplay. Like she got a cosplay to like someone made it specifically to look like Aerith. And, um, so she was Aerith and I was Sephiroth and we were just walking around this con together. And you know, and I feel like, I don't know why, I mean, I know why I was nervous.

[00:17:47] Cause obviously it is a concern, you know, when you go to a convention, um, sometimes there are unsavory people who don't have boundaries, but then I was like, who's going to come up and try to sexually harass Sephiroth? Like who, who's, who is that person? Cause I kind of want to meet them. I'm going to be like, are you kidding me? And also I had, I had the Masamune and I mean, yeah, it was, you know, foam, but I'm like, yeah, I'm like, don't, don't step to me. And you know, like, what are you kidding? You want to die?

[00:18:17] And I feel like the aura, the aura of the character alone protected me from anyone who was like going to stare at me or like do something. People just kept asking, you know, for not just for pictures, but like, there were so many clouds. There was like a cloud every five feet. So I just kept walking from cloud to cloud. And then we would do a, you know, a fight, a fight pose or something. Yeah. And it was, it was all about the character and that was what was so refreshing. It was like, I wasn't me.

[00:18:44] I was, I was this character that I really, I'm just obsessed with and that I love. And people are recognizing me, recognizing me as that. So I was successful enough without video editing that people were like, obviously that iconic outfit and sword is Sephiroth. So I was like, okay, cleared that hurdle. That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. It made me feel very good. Like it wasn't like, you know, some kind of validation I was expecting.

[00:19:13] It was just totally just chill. And then somebody did. And that's when I realized that the Sephiroth simps and the fangirls are so many. And that, that is actually more of the problem, not the harassing, but like the constant people like dedicating your life, their lives to you as you're walking through the con. Yeah. Somebody called a lot of people stop. You see a lot of people calling for you and like, Hey, yeah. Like a lot of that.

[00:19:41] Now I answer to Sephiroth was super. That's really funny. Not like all the time, but I look. Yeah. That's interesting. That's interesting that you actually find yourself answering to that name. Again, it shows that you are trying to embody that character and, and even more than a homage and more of a, yeah, the more than a homage, it's more like a performance. That's really how I see it. Like when I watch your TikToks, it feels like performance, like, and like Mama Terra and a lot of the cosplayers

[00:20:10] that started to watch via that kind of circle, it's performance. And I think that's really interesting and cool because as you're performing, like I said earlier, you're, it looks like you're starting to try to really get to the meat of who Sephiroth is, which there isn't a ton of backstory. You have enough? It's there. I mean, I think there's, I know that there is a new game out and it's a mobile game and I can't play it. I don't want to play it.

[00:20:33] Um, but it delves a little bit more in granular history from the time when he started in soldier and got famous and stuff. And I almost don't even care. Like I, I shell out money. You know, if you, you said final fantasy seven, I'd be like, like getting my credit card out, you know, like, what do you have for me? And, um, but you know, not, not everything. It's like the Maleficent movie that Disney made the live action. And I'm like, I don't need this.

[00:21:02] I don't, this is not who Maleficent is. She's an evil fairy. Let her be an evil fairy for God's sake. Like she just, she just took the slightest excuse of, of being snubbed at a birthday party that she had no business thinking she was going to be invited to anyway. And she was like, look, bitches, I'm going to ruin all of your lives. And I was like, she was bored on a Wednesday. It's very relatable. Um, don't, yeah. Like, don't you, we don't need the sob story.

[00:21:31] And I know that he, I mean, there's a huge tangent about, but I just want to say one more thing about the cosplay. And that's what brought me to Tik TOK is like the cosplay community. And it was originally Star Wars for me because I was the, the last trilogy had just ended. And I was just like, I need more than that. I can't just stop, you know? So I ended up on Tik TOK after seeing a couple of cosplayers and they're making like really funny videos.

[00:22:01] And I went from the trilogy characters into this world of prequel characters and people just like having the time of their lives, making the most ludicrous jokes you've ever imagined. And like fully dressed as these, you know, very convincing, like they could be cast in the movies. And I quickly like surrounded myself with like 20 or 30 people who all did Star Wars, uh, cosplay. And I was like, what is happening to me right now?

[00:22:31] Cause I've always liked Star Wars, but I was like never a Star Wars fan. And then, and now I'm like, am I now? Am I? Yeah. But, but I, my first cosplay official experience was anime. So that's, I got through to Integra and, and yeah, that key thing about performance. Cause I also miss acting. I love acting and I love interpreting characters and, you know, embodying characters. And I think a lot of cosplayers love that, especially, I know mama Tara does.

[00:22:59] Um, she knows Tara and, uh, inside and out. So, but yeah. And, and there, and the thing about the performance is that there are aspects of Sephiroth that I love that don't get talked about a lot. And I, I haven't really even scratched the surface of making videos about the topics that even just snippets, like ideas. I really like making like, you know, short music videos that show a whole scene.

[00:23:26] Then, you know, the, the, the back, uh, you know, like the cute jokes and the stuff. I mean, I love it all. Don't get me wrong. Next up is games with coffee. Talking about his Mobius seven fan fiction. It's a fascinating story of a labor of love. Please give it a listen. And then following that some talk about the PC version of final fantasy seven and the music therein.

[00:23:54] And that someone who's, and I do want to spend some time talking about the fan fiction because I find that whole thing fascinating. Um, that's going to be a good segue because you've had to build a lot of headcanon. Oh yeah. Oh man. You've spent a lot of brain cycles working headcanon. People may or may not know if they listen to this for the first time, they're not in the, in the whole well-read mage gamers. We community circle of friends and, and podcasters.

[00:24:19] They may not know you do a, you, you've spent years working on a final fantasy seven slash sonic fan fiction. So if people aren't familiar with it, I'd love for you to give a quick blurb about what it's about and, and why you started this and why. All right. The floor is mine. All right. Ladies and gentlemen. Uh, so the fanfic is called Mobius seven. Uh, it has its own website. It lives on its own place. Yeah.

[00:24:45] And, uh, that is Mobius V I I as in the Roman numeral seven. So Mobius M O B I U S V I I dot C A, you know, because you have to emphasize the Canadianness of it all.

[00:24:59] And, um, yeah, the, the whole premise of the story is if you take what would happen if you take the plot of final fantasy seven and merge it with the extended Sonic, the hedgehog universe. And I'm not just talking about the video games. I'm talking about the comics comics as in plural. Cause we are Archie comics to the IDW comics. We got the TV shows, Sonic, uh, sorry.

[00:25:27] Saddam Sonic adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Well, maybe, maybe loosely inspired that one. Sonic X, um, even that's a Sonic the prime probably going to find its way in there somehow. Like anything that had to do with, in terms of media, when it comes to Sonic the Hedgehog, finding the ways to integrate that into the plot of final fantasy seven. And believe it or not, there are a lot of parallels between the two.

[00:25:53] And it's, it's fascinating to really think about how well both like the, like the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise and the final fantasy seven story just really mesh together because in essence, Sonic the Hedgehog, the it's, it's main essence is, uh, is around ecology and the nature of.

[00:26:18] Preserving, preserving, preserving nature versus, uh, the encroaching, uh, the encroaching, um, takeover of technology and pollution and on all that stuff. But they're like, it's pretty much what you see in final fantasy seven with the life stream and Mako and Shinra explaining this precious resource of life. I mean, I can go on, but I will go on actually.

[00:26:44] And, uh, that kind of became automatic, but, um, yeah, it's, it's just all that stuff. And it's, it, uh, it kind of blew my mind when I first thought of the, of the concept almost, man, let's almost be 20 years. I was 18 years old when I came up with this concept. I'm now 37. So 20 years getting up on there. That's amazing. That's such a, and that's, it's such a journey too.

[00:27:14] And it's actually excellent work. I've read some of it and I won't say I've read all of it, but I've definitely read some. And it's, it's really solid writing and solid work. And it, you've blended the two worlds very nicely. It makes sense. And so, but I find it amazing that you just kind of thought of it as a, like, you just had way, what if moment. And then you just spent the next 20 years working on this, what if moment. That's crazy. I love that. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:27:42] It's, um, I, I still can't, I still can't forget how it all started. It's, I was supposed to be working on a, I was supposed to be working on an essay in philosophy. Like I had a philosophy elective in college and I decided now, you know what, I'm just gonna play final fantasy seven instead. And for some reason I was thinking about Sonic that junk cause I had, I had purchased like an, an entire back catalog of Archie Sonic comics during that time.

[00:28:12] And, you know, I just started reading it and it's like, Oh, this is, I mean, some, some issues can get really, really weird, but overall the stories, like it was deep. It was mature. It was, it reminded me a lot about final fantasy seven in, in many cases because it's complex. It's, you have all these complex character arcs and you have all these different motivations and stuff like that. And, uh, for some reason I was just, I was playing through final fantasy seven and I,

[00:28:41] my mind, like during the flashback sequence between cloud and Zach, which is a secret flashback, by the way, if you visit, uh, the Nibelheim mansion, uh, as cloud, when you get them back, um, during usually it's can start anytime at disc two, but you really should try to visit in a disc three for that, you know, um, dramatic effect. Right. And during that flashback, you see how, you see how cloud and Zach escape, how they find

[00:29:11] their way towards Mankara and how, you know, Zach gets shot and cloud inherits the buster sword from his still warm corpse. Yeah. I'm sorry, Zach. I love you. Don't, don't, don't, don't be mad at me. It's okay. It is what it is. It's how it happened. Yeah. But, um, in that moment of thinking about myself, it's like, that's kind of like Sonic and tails.

[00:29:36] And since that, Sonic is, is like Zach, he's that, you know, devil may care, um, lives for, lives for freedom, lives to, lives to just be the hero. Right. Kind of deal. Right. And tails is kind of like the hanger on, like he's kind of, he kind of looks up to looked up to, he looked up to Sephiroth, but he also looks at the Zach as well as someone who like really, you know, really watched out for him, really, um, took him under his wing in, in many cases.

[00:30:05] And it's like, yeah, it's, that's basically the story of, of Sonic and tails. That's so interesting that you were able to connect those dots. How, how is the, uh, how is the, um, reaction been to it? Cause I'd say it's, I mean, I'm, I'd say like I have got, I've gained of good, a good solid handful of fans. And it's like people who are like, people who read myself, it's like, yo, I'm reading your stuff regardless of whatever you write.

[00:30:34] I'm reading it because I mean, I guess I'm not good. So, Hey, it's, it's awesome, man. And it's, it's hard to carve out a fan base. It's a very unique premise and it's, it's, and I think it comes from a really cool, pure place. So I hope more people check it out. I encourage you to do so. It's, it is really, really fantastic stuff. And it's all available on your website, which is, uh, is it Mobius? What's your, what's, what's the actual website? It's Mobius seven as in a V I I. Dot CA. Gotcha. Mobius V I I.

[00:31:04] Dot CA. Definitely check it out. I'll make sure that's in the show notes. So if you want to go check out your work, they should, cause it is really good. And you're working on the second, the second novel still, right? Yeah. I'm actually halfway through. I've took, I've taken a really long, um, I guess a really long break because I was working on a critique for final fantasy seven remake. Um, which I love, I love that game to death.

[00:31:30] I loved the, I love, I mean, I wasn't in love with it at first, but then I kept playing it, especially after I got my PS five. It was like one of the first games I played like to completion. And I just like, no, I can't. I, I, I, I love this game too much now. It's like re-experiencing the original final fantasy seven all over again in, in my eyes. So it's like, yeah, so I've spent, I spent the good part of six months just working on that critique. It's finished now. I still have a little bit of editing to do.

[00:31:59] I got some screenshots to get, but yeah, you'll be able to find it on the pixels very soonish. I'm hoping in the next, in the next week or two or so. Nice man. I'll check it out. So yeah, I'll check that out. But I mean, if anyone does decide to read the fan fiction, I would really appreciate any sort of feedback. Um, one of my, one of my biggest things is that I'm constantly, constantly striving for feedback on how to be a better writer.

[00:32:26] I mean, many people say, oh yeah, you're, you're good. I'm like, no, I can't just be good. I can be better. Right. What can I do to be better? Yeah. What can I do to be better? It's, it's, it's a constant, constant thing with me. I mean, I take courses and stuff like that. And I mean, this is aside from all the final fantasy seven, Sonic the Hedgehog fan fiction stuff. It's, it's just, it's, it's, it's a skill that I find that I, that I excel in. And I just want to find ways to get, make myself better. I want to find ways to make my story better.

[00:32:56] I mean, I just went and, uh, skimmed through the story, like the, the first book again. And I'm like, I noticed a few things I could change here. No, not in terms of content, but in terms of story structure that I can do. And I'm not going to do it right now because I mean, I even mentioned, I even mentioned it in my afterward. This is going to be, this is a living document. Um, the story itself is a living document. And it will change consistently, um, based on how I'm progressing.

[00:33:25] I mean, second book, I can, I can even put some spoilers in right now. Like the first, first 10 chapters of the second book is just, um, dealing with the Nibelheim flashback. Wow. Or my, or my, or in my, uh, my interpretation of it. Yeah. Um, it's not even that too. It's just, it's just the gang trying to get a bit of respite as well too. And the first town outside of, uh, of the Midgar equivalent. Right.

[00:33:50] And it just kind of, I, I, I've been, I've been trying to do a lot of like character exposition and, and starting to inject some, uh, some motivations to their, to each person, each person's like kind of character arc in a sense. I've completely changed like red 13 story. Like his, like his story is gone because a, there's a different character in it. And that character is more related to the Archie Sonic universe. Right.

[00:34:20] But it also, it also fits in perfectly because there's, there's just this, there's just this beautiful element of betrayal that I'm putting together for it. And I mean, I'm like, I'm hoping I can, I can really just like have that great tension that leads up to that betrayal. Yeah. Which I do. I do kind of, I do kind of, um, I do kind of prelude it as like, as a prologue to the book. Like the first thing that happens is this like this great betrayal and they're like,

[00:34:48] why, why is there a betrayal right in the beginning of the book? How did this happen? And then I'm like laying out the exact, the exact sequence of events that led up to that moment. So it's, it's one of my favorite ways to start stories and media res. Yeah. Just drop them right in. I love it. I absolutely love it. And then you kind of have to, I have to work backwards to see how it all started. And I'm like writing this thing and it's just like, Oh my God, this is delicious. I just hope I can just pull it off. That's like my biggest fear.

[00:35:15] And then we have like side stories with, with like Knuckles as part of, as the leader of the Turks. Like he's basically the equivalent of song, but he has his own motivations to do things. Um, and it's all related to, again, back to his role in the original games as the guardian of the master emble kind of deal. And I mean, I, I actually went through this entire story arc with my brother. I gave him the entire layout, the entire timeline, like the entire timeline of the, of the story

[00:35:44] from start to finish. And he looks at me and he's like, you're crazy. How did you think of all this? How did you think of all this stuff? I'm like, dude, I spent years just like writing out a timeline. I know everything that needs to happen in the story. And with the introduction of some of the stuff in the IDW, I honestly did not really expect some of the elements and IDW to fit so well with my concept.

[00:36:11] Um, but I'm not going to, I'm not going to put any spoilers in case, but, but, um, no spoilers, but one thing I can tease is it involves more cyberpunk elements, lots and lots and lots of cyberpunk elements. And, um, heck there's even a story, I'm even trying to develop a story arc with my bear character because his arm, like, I don't know if you know, like when, when somebody gets their arm amputated, like you feel phantom pains and stuff like that.

[00:36:39] There's a little mini arc and that's in, in his story where he still kind of feels that, you know, he feels like his arm is still there, but it's not, it's just a piece of metal. And he's like grappling with that, with that, uh, with that notion, which you don't think about in the original game, it's just, he's just a dude with a gun on his arm. That's it. That's his entire, that's his entire modus operandi. But then you think of the stuff behind the gun, the man with the gun for an arm. Totally. Yeah. So it's, it's, it's going to get, it's going to get heady and I'm only halfway through

[00:37:08] and now talking about this is like, okay, I want to get back to it now. So there you go. That's good. Nice. I keep hearing about this PC version of final fantasy seven and it sounds like this wild unicorn that doesn't really exist, but more people keep saying that final fantasy seven existed on PC. Yeah. Blows my mind. Yeah.

[00:37:36] It, it, it absolutely did. A hundred percent did. It was made by Ido studios. Um, I don't know if I was interactive. So the guys who made tomb Raider, apparently I guess they had a deal with square unix to port the game to PC, but, um, the difference, the main, the biggest difference between the PC version and the P and the PlayStation version is the sound used in the PC version. So the sound, so the PC version uses MIDI files.

[00:38:05] So like music is in MIDI versus the, I think the piece, I think the, the, the sound format, the audio format on the PS on the PlayStation was called PCM. Okay. No listeners. So listeners, you may, you may want to fact check me on that. That's fine. I will, I will do a quick fact check for you, but PCM, like a wave, like a wave form kind of thing. Like a wait, like a CD audio type of thing, but that's interesting that I can't imagine final fantasy seven with, with a MIDI soundtrack.

[00:38:31] That sounds, I will have to source that out and play it right here with the magic of editing, but uh, right there, I'll throw it here, cut all this out and make it all nice and pretty. That's, that's really fascinating. Time to say thank you. Thank you.

[00:38:57] Thank you to the following amazing people who are supporting this show on Patreon. Starting with Lindsay Harney, Joey Coro, Greg Seward, the Let's Play Princess, Tim Knowles, formerly of the Lidus, Seth Sergil of the All-In Media Network, Julian of the Stage Select Podcast, BT Goebbels, Games with Coffee, Terry Kinnair, Philip Becker, Lucas Thompson, and the one and only editor extraordinaire, Pete Harney.

[00:39:24] If you'd like to join these amazing human beings in their generous giving to this program, then go on over to patreon.com forward slash agamerlooksat4040, check out the tiers, and sign up today. Greg Seward of the Player One Podcast and Generation 16 series of videos, and Ian of the Nerds

[00:39:53] Abroadcast Podcast talk about some of the mechanics in Final Fantasy VII. It's a topic we didn't cover too much on the show, but we did chat about the nuts and bolts a bit. They're going to talk a bit about the materia system and some other final thoughts about the game in general. Getting back to Final Fantasy VII, though, talking about gameplay, one of the things that I was thinking about tonight when I was really sort of getting ready to get on this call is,

[00:40:19] and we touched on this a little bit when we talked about Final Fantasy VI, but they really went for the idea of, you didn't have characters that had innate abilities, especially when it came to magic in Final Fantasy VII. And you didn't really, you did, I guess, a little bit in Final Fantasy VI, but there was the Esper system where you could do summons and things like that. But with VII, they went all in on that with the materia system. I really, really liked that a lot, actually.

[00:40:48] Um, I, especially where you were limited to three players in your party at any one time, it was nice to be able to move things around and sort of just, you could pick a load out. And when it came to magic and summons, you know, for the most part, it's like, it didn't really matter necessarily what characters you had in your party. You just needed the right materia, um, uh, equipped. And I really liked that a lot. Um, which is weird because I really liked the idea of like, this is my healer.

[00:41:18] This is my fire user. This is my water user. Like I'm a, I'm a fan of that, but, um, for what they were doing with Final Fantasy VII, the materia system made a lot of sense. Yeah. And oh my God, the summons. Oh, they're so good. They were amazing. I mean, they're so cool. I mean, by and large, so cool. Um, I really liked the materia system as well. For me as somebody who never loved jobs in games, it was great for me because I was never a job.

[00:41:47] I mean, we've had this conversation, but I was never a jobs person. Like I never, I didn't like the risk of, am I, am I leveling the wrong job for a scenario? I don't have enough information to choose what job I want and I don't have enough bravery to just go for it. So what job should I pick for this scenario? I don't know. No, but, uh, what I do like about what I liked about Final Fantasy VII, it's a very good way of putting it. It's a loadout as opposed to a job.

[00:42:13] Well, how do I want to equip these characters based on the characters themselves? And regardless of who the character is, how do I want to spec them out now? And having that very simple to understand yet very flexible system was really good. I remember walking away. That was the one thing I was saying. I really like this material system. I think this is a very cool implementation. I think that's a great point too, that it was simple to understand because we were right

[00:42:41] on the cusp of, you know, one of the things Final Fantasy VII did, I think for the North American market is really broke it wide open for role-playing games in a way that the Super Nintendo hadn't. And that's not to denigrate the Super Nintendo or its RPG library. It was great for the people who knew about it and loved RPGs, but this was the thing that broke it wide open. But also I feel like from that point onward, especially Japanese role-playing games got more and more complicated.

[00:43:09] And to the point that I've sort of, I backed away from the genre because I didn't want to deal with exactly that. Because if I didn't understand a system, especially if it was a system that you had to, you know, upgrade or level up or whatever, I was too paralyzed by the idea that I wasn't doing it right. Yeah. And I never, ever had that worrying in Final Fantasy VII. Yeah. Yeah. It was more of like, oh, I like this character. So I want this character to come along in the story because I want to see what's going on with this character.

[00:43:39] And if I'm with this character, I may learn something more about them. That was like literally my only decisions because I knew I could just slap whatever material on whatever weapon they had or armor. Because remember they went down to, I think it was just, I think it's just like sword or weapon armor and accessory. I think. I think so. Yeah. I think there's like three. So they even paired that down to the bare minimum, which again, I think if you're a lover of RPGs, it's probably a disappointment. But for someone like me who probably is a bit more casual, I'm fine with that.

[00:44:09] That's not what I was there for. And I think the material system, material system was very elegant and it's a simplicity, but in its customization power as well. Like you can do a lot with it. I also love the material system. It might be one of my favorites in Final Fantasy. I just, I just love the. Yeah. Did you find yourself experimenting a lot with it? Oh yeah.

[00:44:38] It was some, something that I didn't really at first, but once I got used to it and started playing around with it, I thought, oh, I get it now. I can use this with this and it creates this effect. Oh, this is great. I can, I can do all sorts of things with this and suddenly losing hours, just playing around with this material system. Absolutely. Now it's, it's a really great system because again, it lasts for so much control and customization. It's easy to figure out.

[00:45:08] Like it's not complicated. You know? It's so, so simple. Even 13, 14 year old me could figure it out. So yeah, no, absolutely. I got into that. Absolutely. Playing it on the PC as well. I seem to remember the movement was with the number keys over on the right hand side of the keyboard as well, which was novel to me. I'd never used them at all for anything.

[00:45:37] I mean, I played first person shooters with WASD and the mouse, but never actually used the number keys for anything and having to use those. Oh, this is different. Yeah. That sounds terrible. What do you think about the remake? I enjoyed it. Okay. I enjoyed it a lot. I think there were some aspects of it that, um, I personally would have done differently as someone that loved the turn-based aspect of the original.

[00:46:03] The more action oriented side of it was not without its faults. It was good. It was good. But I think if you remember the part where you're climbing up the, uh, base of one of the plates, I think it was, and there's a long winding staircase and every five minutes you're being stopped by jet pack dudes who just hover over the other side of the railing where your sword can't reach them. And you're just thinking, come on, come on.

[00:46:31] Um, yeah, not without its faults, but I did enjoy it a lot. And I've, I'll be, I'll be more, even more controversial if you like. Go for it. I think at the ending, it would have been even more of a shocker if Barrett had stayed dead. Oh, okay. Because I think that would have been a case of, no, they're not doing it. They're doing it. And then they didn't do it.

[00:47:01] Yeah. Yeah. But of course the whole, uh, you know, whispers thing. I, yeah, I am interested to see where they're taking that. Um, lots of disagreements, very heated arguments on Twitter that I've seen about that. But as a fan, I'm of the mindset of let's see where they're going with this. So you have a cautious optimism. You're like, you know what? I'm ready to. Yeah.

[00:47:31] Yeah. I think it could be something absolutely brilliant if they do it right. Hmm. Interesting. And you can sit, obviously I don't, from what your converse for, from, from our conversation, it doesn't sound like you consider this to be a replacement for the original. It's a sequel. That's the way I look at it. It's, uh, there's, there's days when I think of it as a sequel and days when I think of it as a sidequel. Um, it's definitely not a replacement.

[00:47:58] It's a new story in that world or, uh, it's kind of a multiverse of madness kind of thing, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. I, I always consider it to be like a companion piece. Yes. Like it sits alongside of it. It's something else in the same world with those familiar characters, but are they familiar characters? These are new versions of those characters. Like I say, a different part of the multiverse, if you want to put it that way. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:48:26] Multiverse, I think is actually really fair and really, really fair estimation of what that, what that looks like. Yeah, for sure. Next up is the dynamic duo of James and JJ of retrofits as they talk about mini games, materia, and share some final thoughts on final fantasy seven as an experience.

[00:48:55] I, what I love about the, about the game too, is that there's all sorts of cool side stuff in final fantasy seven, more than anything previous. And I'm not talking about like side quests or side, or like, like just emerging gameplay stuff, like the snowboarding and you're running against this timer. You're having a slap fest, like all these weird little gameplay elements sprinkled through makes it really fun and really cool. I love that about the game.

[00:49:20] Or even the little mini game when you were climbing up the mountain and you had to keep your core temperature up. Yeah. Yes. That was a weird one. Yep. The, the motorcycle I was always glad they made into one of the games in the arcade at the gold sauce. Yeah. Yeah. Those are great. Like most of them. They made all of them, including the submarine battle into a mini game. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:49:47] Well, so many of them just come out of left field and like the, the slap fight in particular, now that you brought that up was funny to me because you're supposed to act before the instructions come up on the screen. Cause if you wait for like the, the little screen to pop up that actually has the controls on it, like that half a second you have has already passed and Scarlet immediately just

[00:50:14] like smacks you super hard and you have to like recover. So it's like, you don't know. I don't know about that one. Oh, and I recently, I recently, and you can, you can cut this out if you feel like I'm, I'm adding or outing someone. Uh, I recently blew Julian's mind, uh, from, um, uh, the stage select, uh, because I, I

[00:50:44] told him the secret of the Mr. Dolphin jumping section, uh, which is, and this is absolutely true. And I still, to this day, don't know how I figured it out. It was through pure trial and error. And I don't remember the exact moment of childhood I was at when I figured out this worked because you're supposed to like move cloud around by swimming and try to get the perfect angle and just jump him up.

[00:51:09] If you leave cloud perfectly where he is and you blow the whistle once the dolphin will come and he'll jump you and you'll miss. Obviously you, you move nowhere, but if you blow the whistle again without moving at all, that's the perfect spot. It gets you right on the pole and you can just go straight up. It takes two seconds. I do remember that. Yes. Wow. Whoa. Okay. I had no idea. It automatically resets you into the perfect position. Oh, weird.

[00:51:37] So it is assuming you're going to try to like move around and get and find the right spot, but no, it just puts you. Oh, that's so weird. If you, if you move from the very starting position and then blow the whistle, the technique doesn't work because it drops you somewhere like that it would measure for you to be. So blowing it again from there won't work, but where you start, the game is just designed to let you blow the whistle twice and get past it. That's so interesting and good. Oh my gosh.

[00:52:04] Imagine if you would reveal that to people back in the day, like the amount of time people wasted trying to get that stupid dolphin to do that thing. Oh, that's wild. Some people like had to work for hours because it was not, it was not particularly obvious. Yeah. Exactly how far you moved at which particular height. It was brutal. That is pretty brutal. That is funny.

[00:52:41] Speaking of the material system, I'd love to talk about that a little bit because I think mechanically Final Fantasy VII is actually one of my favorite Final Fantasy games. I really love the material system. I like how it stripped down, it really strips down a lot of it to the bare essentials, which I actually, for me, I like, I'm not big into systems. So for me, that's a good thing. What's your take on the play of Final Fantasy VII?

[00:53:03] It allowed for customization in such a way that limited it in terms of utility. And what I mean by that is, so the closest comparison, I guess, would be Final Fantasy VI. If you equip people with an Esper, you know, they learn spells and essentially everybody can learn every spell. You get different bonuses.

[00:53:30] You get different level up bonuses depending on which Espers that you equip. Essentially, you can mold any character to, like, become a god, essentially. Right. And at face value, because obviously, JJ described the broken materia combinations you can get. At face value, the materia system is very different because you have to sort of pick and choose.

[00:53:59] Like, you only have so many slots that you can use, and some of them are, like, are just single slots. Some of them are fused together for those, like, combo moves that you can try to do. But essentially, you have to pick and choose, like, okay, well, who's going to be the person that, like, steals for this part of the game? Like, who's going to be the person who, like, is almost exclusively magic user?

[00:54:23] Or who's going to be the person that, you know, has magic, but I'm just using the elemental combination so that their, like, superpowered attack moves are even better. That sort of thing. It made you really think about what you were trying to do rather than just omni-specking out everybody and then trying to figure things out from there. Yeah. Mm-hmm. No, I agree with that. That makes a lot of sense.

[00:54:53] Yeah, I agree with that. JJ, what do you think about it, man? Yeah, he said it exactly, and especially with, it really would depend on the boss, too, because you could have a general build, but more often than not, you'd run up against a boss, you'd get your shit completely cleaned, and then you would have to be like, hmm, let me try something different. Yeah. You're exactly right. I love the idea that it made me feel like a genius when I cracked the code.

[00:55:23] I figured it out. I was like, oh, I'm a genius. I am the master of this system. When it really was just putting colors together and making it make sense. But I think it's really elegant in that way. I like when I feel smart. What can I say? I don't get many opportunities to feel smart in a given day. So, yeah. The material system is good at that. It is good at making you feel like smart. It really is. It really is effective at that, for sure. With our last few minutes, man, I'd just love to hear any final thoughts on Final Fantasy 7.

[00:55:52] Where does it rank for you, maybe, in the long lineage of Final Fantasy games? And, yeah, you just kind of have final thoughts on the game from a personal perspective. Kind of what it means to you. Yeah. Just love to hear it. It's something I kind of have to consider carefully because I know it's within the top five for me. It just has a personal ranking.

[00:56:20] But at the same time, I kind of like it. It's the five. And it's not that I don't still love it. It's not that I don't still have a great affection for it. But, you know, it's more along the lines of I don't think that people quite understand

[00:56:47] how gaming has progressed as an interactive media form. Because when they re-released the original Final Fantasy 7 and it was coming out on Steam, it was coming out on Switch and like PS3 and PS4. And, well, the PS3 one was just the PlayStation game again.

[00:57:14] But the PS4 one where it was like somewhat redone, they all had things where like you could click in one of the sticks and suddenly all of your attacks did like quadruple nines. Right. You know, or like you got all your health back and all your characters are invincible, like stuff like that. Little cheat modes. Yeah. And the thing is, those were put in specifically because they were absolutely necessary.

[00:57:45] I promise this actually has a point that makes sense. So when Final Fantasy 7 came out, gaming was something that was, you know, thanks to the PlayStation, the oldest demographic of gamers that were really targeted. I don't think it's fair to say that this is all that there was, but it was definitely the major target audience were at most somewhere between 14 and 16 years old. Like you didn't necessarily have to have a job.

[00:58:13] You, you know, you went to school and then as long as you were like getting your homework done and even then, you know, that, that's sort of optional. Right. You know, you could just spend hours doing that on, on some days. And the thing is that as gaming has progressed with time, that same demographic is still like

[00:58:39] the main audience for, for gaming in the like contemporary era. But we don't have that time anymore. What, what they call quality of life updates are things like, oh, you can skip cut scenes. And that's because like, if you lose progress and you have to go back through an area where the cut scenes are like 30 minutes total, just to get through story, you might not have

[00:59:09] 30 minutes to get through it again, to, to try the part where you lost again. You know, we save often. Well, that's kind of what I mean is like, yeah, with the heavy storytelling in a lot of games, you might not have had a chance to save. Like it could be like all these cut scenes lead up to the boss fight that you lost and that you have to like try again with a different strategy. And then you're just like, oh, I, what do I, I guess I can, oh good. I can skip this.

[00:59:38] And like having story difficulty in games is sort of like thrown in as a joke for, for a lot of like meme, memery and internet, like funny shenanigans. But in reality, there's people who are like, this is a very cool world. And I like, this is very well written. And I want to experience this story for all that it is.

[01:00:01] And I do not have 50 hours to master the exact angle to fire this very specific arrow at this very specific metal dinosaur part eight times in a row just to disable it so that I can then figure out which arrow actually does damage to it before it gets up and tramples me.

[01:00:27] I, I do not have time to put it on extra hard mode to fight the thunder jaw and feel like a big old grown man. I just need to get past it so that I can get to Meridian and get the parts I want. Okay, man, I can't do this right now. And that's, that's the truth of it is that Final Fantasy seven as it is just as its own product for PS one.

[01:00:53] It requires time investment because absolutely, we didn't consider it like hardcore grinding as kids because we're like, oh, you know, it's hops out between like 40 and 50 hours, you know, if you really know what you're doing. Most people don't have that for a game they've already played. And most of that time is spent in between the stuff you actually enjoy about the game, right now that makes so much sense.

[01:01:21] You're it is a game that requires a time investment and it vanilla. It's there's no shortcuts. There's there really isn't you got to fight those eight arrows. That's very, very interesting point. So I think it makes so I guess what I'm getting from that is it's almost a challenging recommend for like a modern gamer unless you have the time unless you have time or play a version where you can kind of hit this double six and it's 999 damage. You can get through the friction of it. Yeah, I think that's a fair assessment.

[01:01:51] Yeah, for younger gamers and like kids and people who don't just have the time but like want to invest the time and really want to get into it. It's a definite recommend. But, you know, for for people in our like age bracket that like grew up with this stuff. Oh, no, you need to get the new version that has the like I can win this battle and get out of this area faster. Yeah, it sounds like cheating.

[01:02:18] But then you realize, oh, I can do so much more of the parts of this game that I actually really like. Right. Right. That's fair. I respect that a lot. JJ, what are some final thoughts from you, man? For me, the series as a whole, it really helped me growing up because my dad died whenever I was young. And honestly, the Final Fantasy games helped me get through that.

[01:02:48] And seven, eight, I mean, nine, of course, is my all time favorite. In terms of where I would put seven, I would definitely say top five. I would agree with that. And yeah, it was just I mean, there's a reason I've come back to this game many times. Well, some of it was because my brother erased my save game. It has like 70 hours on it. No.

[01:03:18] Oh, yeah. That happened more than once with more than one game. No. But this is a game you still find yourself going back to, though. Yes. It sounds like it has that. It sounds like it really was a formative game for you. Oh, totally.

[01:03:43] And finally, closing out this edition of A Gamer Looks at 40 is Josh from the Still Loading Podcast. So let's talk a bit about some of your personal history with the game. What was your first experience with Final Fantasy? Maybe your first entry point. And then we'll kind of go from there and talk about the games themselves. So my first entry with Final Fantasy was Final Fantasy seven, as with a lot of people kind of my age, like in their mid 30s and whatnot, growing up with RPGs.

[01:04:12] What what kind of made me fall in love a little bit more with the series as a whole, though, was as I kind of saw how the series evolved from seven through nine, seven through ten. But seven, I remember being at a friend's house down the street. And I very I vividly remember the section of the game because I didn't know what was happening. And he was telling me about how great the graphics were. And I had an N64 at the time, not a PlayStation.

[01:04:39] So when I saw cloud, like not battle, not in the battle screen cloud, but regular little chibi cloud climbing up. Like, excuse me, it was in Wall Market. And it's going up the big thing to get to the top of the plates in Midgar. And he's telling me like, he's like, look at these graphics. And I'm watching. I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about. This doesn't this is nowhere near as good as Zelda. This like Ocarina of Time. Way better looking. And then he showed me the battle systems.

[01:05:08] I'm like, OK, that's actually pretty cool. He did not show me any of the CG cut scenes, which I'm sure if he would have, it would have blown my mind. But he he did not show me any of that. So that was my first experience with it. I didn't really understand what I was looking at. I didn't understand what was happening. I had no idea what was going on. So that was the first one. And then the second time I remember I became friends with someone I'm still friends with now. His name's Andy.

[01:05:36] And he was telling me like, oh, Final Fantasy seven is great. And I said like, oh, that's cool. But like, I've never played a Final Fantasy. Shouldn't I start at the first one? He's like, no, you don't you don't need to worry about it. Like you you don't like they're completely different stories in each one. Like, oh, so there's no there's no like sequel type of thing. The stories don't continue. All right. I'll give Final Fantasy seven to try and played Final Fantasy seven and fell in love with it. Absolutely fell in love with it.

[01:06:02] It was one of the first times in a game that I remembered like really experiencing like this epic story. And it's one of those games where it hit me at the right place at the right time. I feel like gamers, kids who grow up to be gamers and have this passion for gaming, even into adulthood. I feel like the most seminal games for that specific individual are the games that affected

[01:06:27] them emotionally between like 11 and 16 years old, like somewhere in that five year age range, five year gap where you are you've gained enough emotional and mental faculty to start being discerning and learning what games you like and what you don't. And you think you're a lot smarter than you actually are because everyone does at every single age. I know part of this also, we want to, you want to, we were talking about like memories and stuff with this, like just the memories around it. Yep.

[01:06:56] Well, my, one of my close friends, Tristan, I actually got him into Final Fantasy as well. After my friend Andy got me into it, I played one through eight or sorry, not one through eight, sorry, seven and eight. And then Tristan, I told Tristan about it. Tristan was really hesitant to get into it because the graphics, he was very much like, these graphics are awful. This is nothing.

[01:07:21] Cause I think this, I was getting him into it around like 2004, 2005. So this is like right on the, the, like the beginning of like PC gaming really kind of taking off and like the 360 eras either here or close to, I think what 360 came out in 2004. So yeah, like it was like 360 era was already here. PS3 was just about out. So graphics were much better than what we were seeing in Final Fantasy seven, but I convinced

[01:07:51] him to play it. Once he got over the graphics, he really liked Final seven. He really liked Final Fantasy eight and then nine ended up being one of his favorites as well. And then we would play 10. I would go over to his house every single day to play Final Fantasy 10 and I would bring over my memory card and we would, um, we were trying to actually get all the, uh, what is it? Ultimate weapons for all the different characters in 10, which has like, that's a wild way. I don't know how much you know about those ultimate weapons in 10. 10.

[01:08:20] Oh, it's, I've gotten all of them. 10 is one of these. I have a ton of experience. I have, I have done it in my past, but not as a, not as a 40 year old, or I don't even think a 30, maybe I was like, maybe 30. I don't even know when I did it, but, um, I do not have the time for that, but I have dodged all the lightning bolts and the Thunderplanes and I have, and I've played full seasons of Blitzball because I love me some Blitzball. I love, I, I just had this conversation with somebody the other day. I love me some Blitzball. I wish I did. I defend Blitzball to the end.

[01:08:50] It's a really well thought out mini game. It's not, excuse me, it's not a mini game. It's a full on sport programmed into the game. Yes. It's nuts. It's, I absolutely, I love it. I am a big, big fan of all that stuff, but, um, yes, I have undergone, I've tried to get the Chocobo, the Chocobo race under, uh, under zero seconds. Cause you can, I think to get one of them, it might be for Titus.

[01:09:16] I can't remember which I think for one of them, you have to win the Chocobo race with a combined time of less than zero seconds. That means you have to pick up, again, there was my, enough negative five. I did that one. That your, your time is under zero. That was one of the only ones I did. I did cause Unis was really easy. And then I did Titus's cause I wanted Titus's, but I didn't care about anyone else's. Oh no, I got all of them. All of them.

[01:09:52] 10 down, one more to go as we continue our deep, deep subterranean dive of Final Fantasy 7. Next week, we are going to conclude the series with some more final thoughts from a whole bunch of mics. So if you're a fan of people named Mike, you come on by next week, you will be more than satisfied. Many thanks as always to my editors, Kev from the discord and Pete Hardy.

[01:10:20] Thank you again to my patrons for supporting me on Patreon. And thank you for listening, commenting and sharing all of these episodes of a gamer looks at 40 success of the show. It depends entirely on you. So thank you for being a part of it. And until next time, just be kind to yourselves and each other.