Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII sold over two million copies within three days of its the 31st of January 1997 release in Japan. Thousands of North American retailers broke street dates in September to meet public demand. In its debut weekend there, it sold 330,000 copies. Those numbers captured something no one at Square had fully anticipated: a Japanese role-playing game had crossed into mass-market territory in the West, a place the genre had never reached before.
The game was developed by Square for the PlayStation, published internationally by Sony Computer Entertainment. Its story follows Cloud Strife, a mercenary hired by an eco-terrorist group called AVALANCHE to sabotage the Shinra Electric Power Company, a megacorporation draining the planet's life force for energy. What begins as an act of sabotage becomes a pursuit of Sephiroth, a former supersoldier seeking to wound the planet and absorb its healing power. The combined development and marketing budget reached approximately 80 million dollars, making it one of the most expensive video game projects of its era.
By May 2010, the game had sold over 10 million copies worldwide. As of September 2025, that figure stands at over 15.3 million units. Its success reshaped not only Square but the entire global video game market, and it triggered a multimedia expansion still adding chapters nearly three decades after launch.
Initial concept talks for Final Fantasy VII began in 1994, following the completion of Final Fantasy VI that same year. The team's first instinct was conservative: continue with 2D graphics on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. After building an early prototype, they paused development to help finish Chrono Trigger in 1995.
When discussions resumed, the team faced a fork in the road. An industry shift toward 3D gaming was coming, and Square had to choose between Nintendo 64 cartridges and Sony's CD-ROM-based PlayStation. A successful tech demo using Softimage 3D software on Final Fantasy VI characters demonstrated what was possible. The escalating price of cartridge-based games was also a concern, as it was limiting Square's audience.
Tests on a Nintendo 64 version revealed the problem concretely: rendering the Behemoth monster required 2,000 polygons, which caused frame rate drops on Nintendo hardware. Running the full game would have required an estimated thirty 64DD discs. Square shifted development to the PlayStation, and moved all other planned projects there as well.
The equipment costs alone were staggering. Square purchased SGI Onyx supercomputers and accompanying software including Softimage 3D, PowerAnimator, and N-World for an estimated total of $21 million. The development team grew to between 100 and 150 people, split between Square's Japanese offices and a new American office in Los Angeles. At a time when most game teams numbered around 20, this was described as the largest development team for any game up to that point. Total development costs reached an estimated 40 million dollars, equivalent to $61 million in 2017 adjusted for inflation.
Art director Yusuke Naora, who had previously worked on Final Fantasy VI, recognized immediately that 3D required relearning the craft of drawing. He was given an entire department focused on illustration, 3D character modeling, texturing, environments, visual effects, and animation. Naora personally drew the Shinra logo, which incorporated a kanji symbol. The promotional artwork and logo was created by Yoshitaka Amano, whose history with the series went back to its inception; his logo image was based on Meteor, with green coloring representing Midgar's lighting and the Lifestream, and blue reflecting the story's ecological themes.
Character designer Tetsuya Nomura joined after impressing producer Hironobu Sakaguchi with handwritten, illustrated ideas rather than typed notes. When Nomura came aboard, the main scenario was not yet complete. He designed the hero and heroine first, then continued developing characters whose personalities would be interesting to portray. He designed the Limit Break system as an evolution of the Desperation Attacks from Final Fantasy VI, giving each character a combat ability that also expressed their personality.
Cloud's original character design featured slicked-back black hair, which developers considered "not very heroic." His hair color was changed to bright blond. Vincent's occupation shifted from researcher to detective to chemist before settling on a former Turk with a tragic past. When designing Cloud and Sephiroth, Nomura drew on his view of their rivalry as mirroring the legendary antagonism between Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro, with Cloud as Musashi and Sephiroth as Kojiro. Sephiroth's look was defined by a Japanese term, "kakkoii," combining good looks with coolness.
The CGI cutscenes were produced by Visual Works, a then-new Square subsidiary. The international FMV team included artists who had worked on Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and True Lies. Those sequences total around 40 minutes of footage, only possible because of the PlayStation's extra memory space.
Sakaguchi wrote the initial plot, which was set in New York City in 1999 for the planned SNES version, with characters trying to destroy Mako reactors while pursued by a detective named Joe. That concept was dropped, and when director Yoshinori Kitase took charge, he and Nomura reworked the entire narrative. Scenario writer Kazushige Nojima joined after finishing Bahamut Lagoon in 1996.
Nojima's biggest contributions included Cloud's false memories and split personality. Cloud believed himself to be a former 1st Class SOLDIER, but the truth was different: he had been a low-ranked infantryman who was never accepted into SOLDIER. The figure in his memories was his friend Zack Fair. After a mental breakdown at Nibelheim, Sephiroth murdered the townspeople; Cloud wounded Sephiroth, but Jenova preserved Sephiroth's life. Both Cloud and Zack were then subjected to four years of experimentation by the scientist Hojo, injecting them with Jenova's cells and Mako. Zack was killed while the two escaped, and Cloud constructed a false persona built from Zack's stories and his own fantasies.
Sakaguchi framed the game's central theme as the need to depict not just life but "living and dying. In any event, you need to portray death." That commitment led to the decision to kill Aerith Gainsborough. She had been the only heroine; killing a female protagonist required creating a second, which led to Tifa Lockhart. Kitase wanted Aerith's death to feel sudden and unexpected, leaving "not a dramatic feeling but great emptiness," and "feelings of reality and not Hollywood." The script for that scene was written by Nojima. Kitase and Nojima subsequently planned to kill most of the main cast before the final battle; Nomura vetoed the idea because he felt it would undermine the impact of Aerith's death.
Sakaguchi's motivation for the Lifestream theme was personal. His mother had died while Final Fantasy III was being developed in 1990, and choosing life as a theme helped him process that loss. The New York setting the team abandoned found a later home in Square's Parasite Eve in 1998.
Composer Nobuo Uematsu had served as the sole composer for all six previous Final Fantasy games. For the seventh, he initially planned to use CD-quality music with vocal performances to take advantage of the PlayStation's audio capabilities. Load times per area proved too long, and Uematsu abandoned that approach.
He opted instead for MIDI-like sounds from the console's internal sound sequencer, similar to his approach on the Super NES. The Super NES had offered eight sound channels; the PlayStation had twenty-four, with eight reserved for sound effects, leaving sixteen for music. Uematsu's compositional approach treated the score like a film soundtrack, composing to reflect the mood of scenes rather than creating strong melodies to "define the game." For the scene where Aerith dies, he aimed for music that was "sad but beautiful" rather than overtly emotional, creating what he described as a more understated feeling.
The track "One-Winged Angel," accompanying the final battle, was the first in the series to include high-quality digitized vocals. Uematsu cites it as his most recognizable contribution to the Final Fantasy series. He drew from The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky to achieve a classical quality, and from rock and roll music of the late 1960s and early 1970s to add what he called a "destructive impact." He spent two weeks composing short, disconnected musical phrases and then arranged them together, an approach he had never used before.
The main soundtrack album, Final Fantasy VII Original Soundtrack, was released on four Compact Discs through Square's DigiCube subsidiary in 1997. The regular edition reached third on the Japan Oricon charts; the limited edition reached 19th. By January 2010, the album had sold nearly 150,000 copies. A companion single-disc album, Final Fantasy VII Reunion Tracks, reached 20th on the Oricon charts in 1997.
Square announced Final Fantasy VII in February 1996, with a playable demo at the Tokyo Game Show that year. The game launched in Japan on the 31st of January 1997; in North America on September 7; and in Europe on November 17, becoming the first Final Fantasy title released on the continent.
To promote the Western launch, Square and Sony ran a three-month advertising campaign beginning in August 1997. Television commercials ran alongside Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons. The campaign included magazine articles, advertisements in DC Comics and Marvel Comics publications, a collaboration with Pepsi, sample discs, and merchandise. According to Square president Tomoyuki Takechi, the total worldwide marketing budget came to 40 million dollars: $10 million in Japan, $10 million in Europe, and $20 million in North America.
Critics gave the game universal acclaim. Reviewers praised its graphics, audio, gameplay, and story. GameFan called it "quite possibly the greatest game ever made," a line that ended up on the back of the jewel case. Electronic Gaming Monthly's four reviewers unanimously gave it a 9.5 out of 10. Some critics noted the English localization contained errors; the localization was handled by a team of about fifty people led by Seth Luisi, with Michael Basket as the sole translator. The challenge of converting Japanese sentence structures to natural-sounding English, combined with poor communication between offices and lack of professional editors, produced a result the team itself acknowledged was imperfect. Aerith's name was localized as "Aeris" due to a miscommunication between the localization staff and the QA team.
By the end of 1997, the game had sold 3.27 million units in Japan according to Weekly Famitsu. By the end of 2005, the PlayStation version had sold 9.8 million copies, making it the highest-selling title in the Final Fantasy series. At the second CESA Awards, the game won the Grand Prize, Scenario Award, and Sound Award. It also won "Console Role-Playing Game of the Year" at the inaugural Interactive Achievement Awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences.
The game's multimedia legacy includes the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, which encompasses mobile games, the CGI film Advent Children, and the shooter Dirge of Cerberus. A full remake was announced at E3 2015. Final Fantasy VII Remake was released for PlayStation 4 in April 2020; Final Fantasy VII Rebirth followed for PlayStation 5 in February 2024. The unnamed third installment is currently in development for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S.
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Common questions
When was Final Fantasy VII first released?
Final Fantasy VII was released in Japan on the 31st of January 1997, in North America on the 7th of September 1997, and in Europe on the 17th of November 1997. The European release was the first time any Final Fantasy game had been released on that continent.
How many copies has Final Fantasy VII sold worldwide?
As of September 2025, the original Final Fantasy VII has sold over 15.3 million units worldwide. It sold over two million copies within three days of its Japan release, and had passed 10 million worldwide by May 2010.
Who developed Final Fantasy VII and what was its budget?
Final Fantasy VII was developed and published by Square for the PlayStation. The combined development and marketing budget reached approximately 80 million dollars, with development costs alone estimated at 40 million dollars (equivalent to $61 million in 2017 when adjusted for inflation).
Why did Square choose the PlayStation over the Nintendo 64 for Final Fantasy VII?
Square chose the PlayStation primarily because the Nintendo 64 hardware could not handle the polygon requirements of the game; rendering a single monster called the Behemoth required 2,000 polygons and caused frame rate problems. The full game would also have required an estimated thirty 64DD discs. The CD-ROM format's greater storage capacity made the PlayStation the practical choice.
Who composed the music for Final Fantasy VII?
Nobuo Uematsu composed, arranged, and produced the entire Final Fantasy VII soundtrack. He had served as the sole composer for all six previous Final Fantasy games. His track "One-Winged Angel," used in the final battle, was the first in the series to feature high-quality digitized vocals and is widely cited as his most recognizable contribution to the series.
What is the Final Fantasy VII Remake and how many parts will it have?
Final Fantasy VII Remake is a multi-part trilogy reimagining the original 1997 game with an updated story and combat system. The first part was released for PlayStation 4 in April 2020, and the second part, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, was released for PlayStation 5 in February 2024. The unnamed third and final installment is currently in development for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S.