Before the FFVII Rebirth Ultimania comes out, I wanted to write a thread on where my personal theorizing stands. This is more for posterity and future reflection than anything else, but feel free to follow along. 🧵 Disclaimer: I usually deal in either direct translations or straight shitposting, and not so much in theorycrafting, which, respectfully, lies somewhere in between. For god's sake, don't respect anything I say more than what you yourself think.

For me, one of the biggest takeaways from that Kojima article is that to a contemporary Japanese audience, mako and Shinra's abuse of it bore a lot more similarity to nuclear power than fossil fuels. We tend to see FFVII's mako harvesting and pollution underplot as a clear allegory for fossil fuel extraction and global warming. But I think that relationship is actually secondary.

I've got something a little different for you in this 🧵. It's an article from the June 1997 issue of Jugemu. "Philosophizing FFVII" is a contemporary Japanese analysis of FFVII's plot, characters, and mythos that delves into the game's late '90s cultural and media inspirations. The author of the article is Yukihiro Kojima, then–Jugemu staff writer who later went on to work for the hugely successful MMO developer and publisher GungHo Entertainment (Puzzle & Dragons, Grandia Online, Ragnarok Online JP server).

Next up in FFXVI coverage: translations from GameWatch's interview with Yoshida, Takai, and Suzuki, conducted by the inimitable Rina Asami FFXVI's seamless boss fights, which transition fluidly from human to Eikon scale, left a big impression on Asami. Takai says some QTEs have been added in to maintain engagement during long cinematic portions.

I'll be kicking off today's FFXVI coverage with translations from 4Gamer's interview Naoki Yoshida, Hiroshi Takai, and Ryо̄ta Suzuki. 🧵 4Gamer was one of the first to player the new FFXVI demo. Their impression: over-the-top good. Yoshida responds with relief, not knowing whether others would think it's as good as the devs themselves do.

In this 🧵: the next rare interview from V Jump's special February 15, 1997 issue is with Tetsuya Nomura. Involved not only with character design but overall planning and scenario, Nomura discusses FFVII's highlights and shares some of his art. (Scans from
@duskyLimestone
🙏) Although Nomura didn't let the constraint of polygons affect his initial character designs for FFVII, when it came time to model them, he had to change various aspects and give detailed instructions. (Image text: "Remote control antenna"; "This shoulder is a little bigger")

Poring over 1,500 pages of lore is a bit intimidating, so in this thread I'll highlight what I think are the 7 best documents you can read to buff up on FFVII in anticipation of Rebirth.

https://twitter.com/TurquoiseHammer/status/1628793574920708098

#1: The Ultimania Omega story playback. This is an absolute must for any avid fan who hasn't played FFVII in Japanese. In addition to clarifying everything lost in translation, it reveals tons of new behind-the-scenes lore.

Next up in this 🧵: another rare interview from V Jump's special February 15, 1997 issue—this time with Yoshinori Kitase. FFVII's director speaks about his cinema-like responsibilities and comments on the the game's noteworthy story. (Scans courtesy of @duskyLimestone 🙏) Kitase says that the increased capacity of CD-ROMs allowed for more realistic imaginary worlds than ever before. You didn't have to craftily manipulate and recycle a limited pool of assets, which translated to much more variety in locations and NPC models.

What's next in this 🧵: a very rare interview with the master himself, Hironobu Sakaguchi @auuo, from V Jump's February 15, 1997 special edition (courtesy of @duskyLimestone). He talks about FFVII's highlights, shares episodes from development, and names his favorite character. Development was a bit of a shitshow. Programmers and graphics staff had to learn the new tech as they were implementing it, and it wasn't uncommon to see math textbooks open as they worked. Kazuyuki Hashimoto, a CG specialist, joined the team and provided much-needed guidance.

In this 🧵: part 2 of an interview you've never seen. Jugemu continues talking over drinks with seven of FFVII's lead developers. As more alcohol flows, the devs shift to talking about their obsessions and attachments to the work. (Scans once again by Limestone!) Before I continue with this thread, a disclaimer: Until yesterday, Limestone didn't even have this interview, much less know its contents. We have no bias when it comes to what we translate and when. Any views it contains about certain FFVII characters and pairings are incidental

Investigating the late evolution of FFVII's scenario: a 🧵. In the interviews we recently unearthed, Nojima mentions two films that inspired his FFVII scenario: "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" (1983) and "Gamera 2: Attack of Legion" (1996). In the beginning, there was the Jenova—not the extraterrestrial calamity we know today, but a particular region of the brain or genes, named after an old text left behind by the Ancients. Awakening one's Jenova would enable the use of magic and other special abilities.

The March 1997 issue of Jugemu also included a Q&A section with 50 questions fielded by the staff at Square. The ones about the game's characters are particularly interesting, so I'll put them in this 🧵. Thanks again to Limestone for these incredibly rare scans! Q: The main character, Cloud, is an ex-SOLDIER. How many SOLDIERs are there?
A: We can’t give you an exact number, but the organization is split up into 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Classes, which are said to include anywhere between a handful and hundreds of members.

I didn’t expect to be giving Japanese lessons but a lot of people have asked me why I translated 認識（したこと） in this script as “registering” instead of “recognizing,” so here goes! “Recognize” is a valid way to translate 認識する, but in this context [1/4]

https://twitter.com/TurquoiseHammer/status/1549480092799307776

it would be misleading because 認識する does not mean “to recognize something you have seen before.” Rather, it means “to become aware of the nature or value of something.” The English word “recognize” has two distinct meanings: [2/4]

Since posting some of the FFVIIR Material Ultimania Plus recording scripts, I've been asked to translate or retranslate several others, so I've decided to simply do them all in order here. I'll continue to translate dialogue directly where necessary so it matches the stage notes. The FFVIIR Material Ultimania Plus recording script for parts of Chapter 1: Infiltrating Mako Reactor 1