7 Final Fantasy VII Details to Keep an Eye on in Your Next Playthrough

Final Fantasy VII is a game renowned for its groundbreaking story, one that has gone on to revolutionize the potential of RPG storytelling for good.

One reason for this is that the game's well-written characters and tragic twists are foreshadowed throughout the game, some of which players only come to appreciate even more on a second playthrough. It's why, after all these years, players still find themselves going back to play the original and experiencing the JRPG classic in all its glory.

Sadly, due to some unfortunate localization issues with the English version of the game, there were a few plot elements fans missed or simply misunderstood over the years. While sequels, remakes, cameos in other games, and even movies would help to resolve some of these looming plot threads, there are still details players miss to this day.

7 Sephiroth Did, in Fact, Do That

Or Did He?

One of the most iconic scenes in Final Fantasy VII is when you stumble upon a Midgar Zolom graphically impaled onto a tree. As we see it, Cloud wonders if this is the work of Sephiroth.

It's a recurring theme throughout the game, where the party will stumble into events where Sephiroth is seemingly wreaking havoc, or has left annihilation in his wake, building tension towards our inevitable face-off. However, up until the Remakes made this more abundantly clear, it was uncertain whether this was the work of Sephiroth or his mother, Jenova.

After most encounters with Sephiroth, we are forced to fight a part of Jenova who is using her son's form as a pseudo-puppet to enact their destruction. This gave players for years the impression that Jenova was the actual main villain and was controlling Sephiroth through the cells coursing through his body.

Of course, this has later been debunked in later media, which showed that this was actually the other way around. In saying that, it does seem like the Remakes are teasing Jenova's impact to be more prominent in the last installment of the trilogy. Whether it's revealed that Sephiroth has been the one in control the entire time, or that the two are more in cahoots, as it seems, is still up for debate, but it lends to making Sephiroth a more tragic character, albeit one without any agency.

6 Cloud's Retelling of Nibelheim Doesn't Hold Up

More Holes Than Swiss Cheese

As most gamers familiar with Final Fantasy VII nowadays know, Cloud's retelling of the events at Nibelheim hardly passes the sniff test.

Throughout Cloud's story, we see a very different version of the character. He's affable, making jokes, which seems very unlike the character up to this point. While he talks himself up as a professional First-Class SOLDIER, once we get into combat, we see that Cloud is only level 1, which is a mighty gap next to Sephiroth's immense level 50.

When interacting with the people in the town, including Cloud's own mother, they act like they can't recognize him. That is, until a white flash hits the screen, then they suddenly do. At first, this flash seems like it's a simple passing of time, as Cloud replies, but as it turns out, it's Cloud's memories clashing with his false ones.

There are even earlier moments that foreshadow Cloud never becoming a First Class SOLDIER to begin with. For example, when Cloud dons a Shinra uniform, he gets a bit sentimental, remembering how proud he was when he first put one on. Which might strike as odd, given it's a standard grunt uniform, but it's a bit of foreshadowing to reveal that Cloud was never that First Class SOLDIER he thought he was.

5 Cait Sith Predicts Aerith's Death

Fortune Did Not Favor Us

When you first meet Cait Sith in the Gold Saucer, he merely poses as a friendly mascot who is all too eager to read your fortune. After a few bumbling attempts to tell you the location of Sephiroth, he'll deliver the ominous fortune that reads: "What you pursue will be yours. But you will lose something dear."

This is, of course, referring to Aerith's death later in the game at the Forgotten Capital. Given that Cait Sith is mostly an aloof character and is immensely suspicious, it's easy to dismiss his fortune as false. However, nearly every fortune he says does end up being true, and it's this leverage that he uses to worm his way into your party.

4 The Man in the Sewer is a Clone

"This Guy Are Sick"

In the Sector 5 slums, you'll encounter a sick man in a pipe. In true JRPG fashion, you'll spend ages thinking that there may be a way to cure the man later in the game, but no such cure exists.

As you come to learn later, the sick man is actually one of the hooded Sephiroth clones you'll encounter. When first encountering him, Aerith notes that the man has a tattoo of the number 2 on his body. Sadly, even if you get medicine from one of the coupons, you'll be unable to cure him.

When you return later in the game, a nearby resident will tell you that a group of Hooded Men came and left with him, mentioning something about a reunion.

3 Sephiroth Couldn't Care Less About Cloud

He's Just Not That Into You

Over the years, gamers have gone on at length about the deep relationship between Cloud and Sephiroth, but if you've only played the main game, this might be the first you've heard of it. In truth, most of Cloud's and Sephiroth's adversarial relationship comes from supplemental media and cameos in other games to flesh out their dynamic.

In the actual game, while Sephiroth may taunt and speak to Cloud, his overall relationship with him is distant and cold. As we learn through the Nibelheim flashback, Sephiroth barely acknowledged Cloud until the spiky-haired protagonist was able to throw him into the Lifestream. Until you fight him right at the end of the game, Sephiroth couldn't care less about Cloud and only sees him as a pawn he can exploit.

It's thanks to Final Fantasy: Advent Children and Kingdom Hearts, which make Sephiroth and Cloud out to be great rivals, that a sort of Mandela Effect took root, re-contextualizing their relationship.

2 Everyone in Nibelheim is a Paid Actor

Gaslighting Olympics

The second time your party visits Nibelheim following the events of Sephiroth's rampage, you may be surprised to see the town surprisingly populated with people again.

To your surprise, most are seemingly ignorant of Sephiroth's actions all those years ago. During my first playthrough, I just chalked this up as an uncomfortable, surreal moment. Although it wasn't until a second playthrough that it finally clicked that all of these residents are, in fact, paid actors from Shinra, looking to cover up the incident for any passersby.

It's a minor point in a section of the game that's mostly inconsequential (unless you're a big Vincent fan), but it does show the length of Shinra's power and propaganda.

1 Sephiroth is Missing His Gloves In The Infamous Aerith Scene

Someone Got Fired For That Blunder

This is a very minor continuity error that most players might have missed on their first time around. Which should be forgiven, as the scene that takes place is fairly upsetting.

As Sephiroth descends from the sky, ready to stab Aerith, you might notice the white-haired villain is, in fact, not wearing his iconic black gloves. However, his gloves suddenly appear shortly after stabbing your beloved party member.

Yes, I admit this is a fairly banal detail that doesn't really impact anything. It's akin to the nerds in The Simpsons complaining that one of Scratchy's ribs plays the same xylophone note. But it is a fun little bit of trivia you can bring up to people when or if the scene ever comes up in casual conversation.