I’m not buying how FF7 wasn’t originally political in nature.
FF7 was deeply political, in a hamfisted way that games (especially of that era) tend to be, sure but it was deeply political all the same. Besides the most obvious parts, there’s a reason why the narrative takes you from North Corel to the Gold Saucer to Corel Prison and it was no accident.
I think this part of the video essay is illustrative of the whole “Back before I was politically-aware, things weren’t nearly so politicised as they are today!!” phenomenon.
FF7 message: Corporations are bad.
… I didn’t see itFF7 message: Perpetual extraction of natural resources leads to global environmental collapse and the extinction of all life on the planet.
… What? Where did it say that?FF7 message: Armed resistance is necessary to fight an armed adversary.
…uhhh… hmm… umm… what?FF7 message: A corporation backed military force that solely serves the corporation’s interests destroys the lives/minds/bodies of civilians as well as the lives/minds/bodies of those individuals in that military force with no hesitation or remorse.
…nuh uhh!..Seriously, I mean the first mission is you blowing up a pipeline
Not just a pipeline, but a whole power plant, and then your party members discuss the morality of blowing it up even though it had workers inside and come to the conclusion that working in a power plant makes you a comprador and valid target
It’s amazing how the series went from FF7 to FF8, whose central message was that… uhhhhh
don’t much care for final fantasy but one sure can’t help thinking that we took a really really wrong turn when it comes to game development when in 1997 they could sell you all of final fantasy vii for sixty bucks, gave you three discs and a full game and then made three more final fantasy games within the next four years while now two decades later it takes more than a fucking decade to remake the very same game and they need to sell it to you three times
