Who really is the guy in the pipe in Midgar Slums? Can you complete
any sidequest related to Aeris AFTER her death? Who did Cloud really
love, Aeris or Tifa? We'll never know the answers to those questions,
but at least we can learn a couple of interesting things about our
favourite game by... Editing it.
In the beggining there was Ficedula and his 'Cosmo'. 'Cosmo' is a free
editor in which you can view backgrounds and all of the game dialogs on
the PC version of FFVII. But that wasn't the end. Ficedula, along with
his friends, tried to decompile as much of the game they could and write
a sequel. The project is still alive, but sadly, the progress is very,
VERY slow. You think it was the end of hacking FFVII? Somewhere in
France, one man, snailrush, made '7mimic'. It _looked_ like it would be
the same as 'Cosmo', only for the PSX version. But to our surprise,
'7mimic' was way more advanced and you could view every background
perfectly, along with all the dialogs from the original version of FFVII
(remember, the PC version has changed dialogs from the PSX version).
Thanks to it, we got more unviewed dialogs, locations and... More
guesses.
Let's start with the 'easy' stuff. The pipe in the Sector 5 Midgar
Slums. The guy who's living in it is a first normal human who was
infected with Jenova cells, that's why he has a number 2 tattoo. By
editing this screen we can't see anything unusual. But at the very end
of the dialogs in this location there is a text showing, that we can
find an Elixir here. Well, from known sources, we can't find anything
here. Even the fourth disc of FFVII: International, a special Japanese
edition which knows the locations of every item in the game, stays quiet
about that item. Okay, so they scrapped that item. Let's think how could
we get that Elixir in the first place. Our first hypothesis brings us to
the Nibelheim clones. Every guy in a black cloak gave us some item after
we talked to him, right? So why not this guy in the pipe? Okay, okay,
you might say "Hey, maybe you could find an Elixir on the second/third
CD?". Good guess my boy, but I find it stupid that Square would remove
such a simple item only because they wanted to.
Let's move on! Our second location, Aerith's church. Heck, everyone
knows that this location wasn't totally finished. We all know about the
"famous" Aerith's ghost which appears only for a split of second in the
south area of the church, then it dissapears and appears again, tending
the flowers. If it wouldn't be for that split of second, everyone would
think: "Cloud only saw her ghost, because she's related to that place,
what's so strange about it?" But when we're viewing the script with
'7mimic', there's an interesting text written between two dialogs - the
Reno & Cloud one, and the Cloud & kids one:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Temporary stopper
October 7"
---------------------------------------------------------------------
It looks like they had a break during the translation of the text or
another team started to translate this part (the Reno & Cloud dialog
looks like it would be translated by someone who doesn't even know
English). It's possible that some error occured because of that and some
idea was scrapped from the final version. It's also possible, that there
should be an FMV scene in that place or... That the text was translated
from the Japanese version.
Bon voyage Midgar! We're heading for Kalm for one interesting rumour. In
the first articles about the game we could read that in the town of
"Mancharia" there was a clock in the top-right corner of a house and if
you'd press "X" before it, you'd get a card. When you use it, you'll get
some small amount of money. Then you can take another card, use it, and
another one, etc. There're many clocks in Kalm, so it's possible that it
IS Manarchia. By reading further we find an information that "Manarchia"
was the first town in the game. Well, not everyone called Midgar a full
fledged town, so I guess it's possible... But remember, it's only a
rumour, nothing more.
Time to get to the Corel Prison. I think most of you know about the
Test0 enemy who was located in a well in the prison. In the European
version you can find an empty treasure chest there. Many prisoners are
in Corel, so that shouldn't be strange. But... There's someone in the
well... Someone who's very well hidden... Someone in a red polyester
suit who's high on Mako or something and thinks he's a Power Ranger with
an eye patch. ...Well, I thought he looked just like that. You may think
something different.
Get on your Buggy SOLDIER, and head to Gongaga! Now, this isn't a
rumour. This is real. In Final Fantasy VII: International, you can view
specific background items in full screen. In Zack's house, you can click
on his parents desk and you'll see the letter he wrote them a few years
ago (see the pic at the bottom of the page). Anyone cares to translate it? The letter is probably
nothing new, but still, it's pretty interesting that even things as
small as that were hidden by Squaresoft.
Ladies and gentleman, it's time for one of the biggest proofs stating,
that FFVII isn't a finished game. Many years ago, someone was playing
with his GameShark and he discovered a code for every Key Item in the
game. Some time later, some FFVII fan checked this code and found two
items that never existed in the game. They were called "Letter to Wife
in Kalm" and "Letter to Daughter in Kalm". His first guess? "I can find
something new in this game!" Nice thinking ol' chap, but did you really
think that such an item would still be hidden? I mean, FFVII was
released in 1997, people would find a thing like that. No one found the
hidden items. No one found the people to whom these letters were
addressed. Some people said that the letters were addressed to Elmyra
and Marlene. Wrong. Thanks to 'Cosmo' and the FFVII Polish Translation
Project, an interesting dialog was found in the city of... Gongaga.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"I am a traveling salesman,
going around the world."
"I came because I heard that near
this village was materia strong
enough to shake the earth.'......"
"Even I get homesick and want
to see my family."
"I have a favor to ask of you.
Can you get this letter to my lovely wife?"
"Will you do it for me?"
Take the letter
Not interested
"My wife lives in the town of Kalm.
I really appreciate this."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
If you wouldn't accept his proposition, he'd answer:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"What's going on...
In a world about to end,
is people's kindness the first to vanish...?"
---------------------------------------------------------------------
...Thanks to this we know, that this dialog takes place after the Meteor
was summoned. Unfortunetly, there isn't a text "Received Key Item
"Letter to Wife in Kalm"!". You win Square, no one knew about this item.
But thanks to us, we're one hundred per cent sure that FFVII is an
unfinished game.
Let's get back to Midgar, shall we? Or to be more exact, to the
flashback scene showing how Cloud and Zack escape from Nibelheim. Almost
every screen of this scene has the same dialogs of Shin-Ra soldiers
talking "Should we leave him alone?", or something. Of course, they're
talking about Cloud, after they killed Zack. But the interesting thing
is a short text "Received "High Blow ST"!". If this is real, we should
find this item in the Nibelheim Mansion basement, the entrance to
Nibelheim or... In the hills near Midgar. Well, no one ever found how to
get to the place where Zack was killed. Maybe this item will be waiting
for us there...? Unfortunetly, this item doesn't exist in the game.
Another discarded item? Guess so...
Time for an old rumour. After you pass the Sleeping Forest you'll get to
the Coral Valley, At the right side of the screen
you can see a cave where Cloud "could" enter. To get there, you could go
up the vines, but you can't. Well... Thanks to Cosmo we discovered, that
this screen has a foreground and a background (like most of the
screens), but that cave also has a foreground which means you could go
inside. Thanks to a GameShark code we could go up there (a code for
ignoring walls). Cloud got up there, he went to the cave and... Nothing
happened. A trashed location or a useless background? You decide.
"I'm sickle...xxxx I mean...Icicle Inn. ...ok, bad joke." - if you ever
were in the debug room, you should know this text. Let's go to Icicle
Inn! In the weapon shop we can see a treasure chest. It's a
part of the background, but, as snailrush discovered, you can open it...
Thanks to '7mimic'. Sadly, there's no dialog saying "Received
"Someitem"!" here. Another scrapped item? Square, slow down next time
and finish the game properly, okay?
Hello Gaia Cliff! Yes, GAIA Cliff. Gaea was only a translation error.
No, really. Actually, the guy who was translating this location was
REALLY high on Mako. We all know the special item called "Last Elixir",
which was really a normal Megalixir. In the dialogs on the cliff we can
find a text saying "Received "Protection Ring"!". I think you mean
"Protect Ring", right? Well, guess what. You can't get an item called
like that. You can't even get a "Protect Ring" on Gaia's Cliff! Good job
Square. Really, good job.
Okay kids, it's time for something BIG! Well... Hardly big, because it's
nothing big... Okay, okay, my mistake. It's almost nothing. Some time
ago, you could find a screenshot of a strange location on FFVII Citadel
(http://ff7citadel.com), found through the debug room. It was called
TRNAD_53. "Aerith's Theme" was playing in the background
so... First guess? "Hey, not only Aerith's Theme is playing, it's a
place where Sephiroth, Cloud and the Weapons are. It all may be
related!". No way dude. After investigation we found that this location
is really... Part of an FMV movie (screen 06 - three combined
screenshots from the FMV). Nothing new, carry on.
And finally, let's get back to Nibelheim. During Cloud's flashback in
the main town of Nibelheim, by editing it with '7mimic', you can found a
short dialog of Cloud with his mother. After it, he receives a secret
potion... And that's it:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"Is that you, Cloud?"
......Yeah
......No
"...Mom?"
"Here, I've brought you something!"
"Don't tell anyone in town!"
Received "Homemade Potion!"
---------------------------------------------------------------------
And that's it. I think I should right at the very end: You can't revive
Aeris. There are still people who believe it, but it's simply
impossible. Besides, how would the game play when she would be revived?
But now, knowing all those errors and negligences from Squaresoft, you
can say one thing - Final Fantasy VII isn't and never was a finished
game. Translation errors, the restricted version of the game in Japan
and the things we wrote about in this article. If FFVII would be
released again, those errors would probably be fixed. Maybe Square would
add some sidequests and items they scrapped from the final version, who
knows. But it's all because of... Fans. They wanted FFVII to be released
on schedule both in Japan and in the USA. Square had to delete all the
quests and locations they were still working on and release the game.
Even though I don't like the idea of a re-release of FFVII, I still
support every fan petition to Square Enix regarding remaking of FFVII.
Why? Because I want to receive the best game in the world. I want to
know the real story behind the game. I want Square to release the game
which they wanted to release. I want them to release Final Fantasy VII.
This is a letter written from Zack to his parents in the Japanese Version, found as a hidden secret or glitch that was not meant to be in the game!
It is translated as:
To Father & Mother
How are you?
Sorry for rushing out of the town so suddenly.
The truth is that I decided to become a SOLDIER.
I thought you get worried...
Now I become "something" (I couldn't clear out the Kanjis) and try my best as a SOLDIER.
P.S I got a girl friend
Thanks to FinalGMR once again, for translating the letter.