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Thursday, February 21, 2013

5 Unsolved Mysteries in FFVII


I'm going to turn this into a series of posts, considering how much I like to write about Final Fantasy. As I mentioned in my previous post, I have played Final Fantasy VII dozens of times and still play through it every now and then. I'll probably be making more of these so stay in touch. Anyway...

Every popular game has its share of urban legends and myths; just look at the GTA series. You wouldn't expect a story-driven RPG to have a bunch of random mysteries, but Final Fantasy VII is actually filled with them. These mysteries have existed for years, and despite the theories and rumors being all over the place, nobody has been able to agree on a conclusive answer for any of them. Here are 5 of my favorite mysteries in FFVII. After describing them, I'll give you my 'probable explanation' as a way to try and debunk the myth in a way. Feel free to give your own theories as well!


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5. Man in the pipe
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Back when I was really into the crazy rumors flying around about the game, I was always fixated on this one mystery. Who is the guy in the pipe in Sector 5? Rumors often claim that it is Zack; he has a '2' tattooed on his body, and he is awfully close to where Zack was shot and killed. The belief was that he survived his final battle, crawled over to Sector 5, and made a home in a pipe.

It seems a little ridiculous, but it's intriguing nonetheless. I know now that this theory is probably untrue; Zack was a failed Sephiroth Clone so he probably wasn't tattooed, and Crisis Core/Advent Children have shown us that he is certainly quite dead. So, who IS the guy in the pipe? The most likely answer? It's just one of the many Sephiroth Clones that Hojo tattooed as part of his Reunion experiment. He has no real significance. Still, his presence is not entirely explained and it's unusual to see him so early on in the game.


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4.  1/35 Soldier, Masamune Blade, Etc...
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Anyone who has played through the game once will be familiar with this. There are several items in the game that have no discernible purpose whatsoever. The Masamune Blade and Super Sweeper items are prizes you get at the Gold Saucer. They sure sound cool, right? Unfortunately, nobody can find any use for them. My guess is that they're really just novelties, and they're meant to be nothing more than Gold Saucer prizes.

Then there are those 1/35 soldiers. You find two of them on your trip to upper Junon. I was so dumb-founded by these items...what do they do? Why are there two of them? Many people assume that they're meant to be a part of a set, but 1/35 is referring to the scale; they're models of Shinra soldiers. They may have been intended for an item or side quest that was dropped at the last minute of production, because although I'm inclined to believe that they're useless, it's just too odd that there's two of them for no reason at all.


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3. Unreachable Cave at Forgotten Capital
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I actually wasn't aware of this until I did some surfing around this website. Final Fantasy VII Citadel is a really good source of mysteries and rumors, so check it out. Anyway, if you look at the picture above, there is a cave in the upper-right corner. As far as we know, there is no way to get to it. It's so tantalizing; what could this cave contain? FFVII Citadel had some theories, one of which I think is very likely: it contains an item or materia that they dropped before finishing the game.

There is a large vine just below the cave that looks like it can be climbed, but nobody has been able to find a way to reach the cave at all. My reasonable explanation? It's probably just there for decoration. It's part of the background, and serves no real purpose. Still, I'd like to believe that it's an inaccessible cave for the sake of imagination, and nobody has been able to reach a conclusion, so it's one of the game's biggest mysteries.


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2. How does Cait Sith work?
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Yes, it's a mechanical cat controlled by Reeve, a Shinra executive. At least, that's the explanation they give in the game. They actually don't do a very good job of explaining just how Cait Sith operates. To begin, it's safe to assume that Reeve controls the little black cat that rides on top of the giant mog...thing. So, does that mean he is controlling him at all times? There is a portion of the game where Cait Sith is giving live information to Cloud and party as Reeve is sitting quietly in a Shinra meeting. How is Reeve controlling Cait Sith and talking to the party while sitting quietly among a large group of Shinra executives?

In another portion of the game, Cait Sith sacrifices its body to grab the black materia from the Temple of the Ancients. The whole scene has a very sad, dramatic feel to it, and Cait Sith himself says: "There's plenty of stuffed toys like my body around, but there's only one me!" Huh? Does that mean Cait Sith is a sentient being? These events obviously point toward the conclusion that Cait Sith has an artificial intelligence, and that Reeve simply gives it orders on occasion. However, the game never makes this clear, so it remains up in the air as one of FFVII's mysteries.


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1.  "I'm sick of this"
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This one is interesting. At the end of the snowboarding minigame, your party takes a leap of faith and ends up at the beginning of the Great Glacier. Each of your characters get up and make generic comments...including Aeris. Obviously, Aeris is dead by this point. However, if you make use of hacks to get her in your party, she will say "I'm sick of this". This is notable because she shouldn't even exist; the fact that she has a unique message is incredibly unusual.

This quickly led to fans theorizing about this being related to a possible resurrection plot. Maybe it was possible to revive Aeris, and maybe she was supposed to be with you at this point in the game. Personally, I think all of the Aeris resurrection theories are ridiculous; none of them have any merit whatsoever. However, I really have no explanation for this little mystery. It's definitely up in the air, and up for any manner of theories.

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