h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Final Fantasy VII [Rewrite A412543] - A2713556
Author: RFJS__ - I hear voices in my head. Well, where else would I hear them? - U524615

Brought into being following F48874?thread=415936 and F47997?thread=417988, and fresh from a brief rest in the Writing Workshop ( F57153?thread=431416 ), this Entry is intended to replace A412543 and to complement LQ's FF Entries. I'm mostly repeating the following from the Writing Workshop thread:

The Internet positively haves under the weight of FF7-related stuff, and I wasn't inclined simply to duplicate what can be found in more detail on any of numerous other sites (although I've tried to pick out some good sites to link to). Hence the discussion of name theories -- picked out from various places on the Internet (apart from some of my own stuff in the Jenova footnote) and brought together here -- along with some mildly technical stuff and various other goodies; I even managed to track down that FF6-themed SGI demo. Hopefully this drawing together of information will make the Entry more than just a replication of other sites.

As noted elsewhere, I originally intended to discuss the various theories concerning the game's plot. However, given that Advent Children will probably have a impact on many of them, I decided that now is not a good time (plus researching and writing such a section would have delayed the completion of this Entry considerably); so I haven't given up on the idea, but it isn't realised here.

I've decided to avoid possible spoilers and give very little away; consequently details of the plot are quite brief.

It's still possible that I shall find better shrines to link to, or that better ones will be recommended to me, but I think the links I've put in are good enough for the Entry to be sent to Peer Review. In some cases I couldn't settle on a single shrine, so currently Cloud and Tifa have two shrine links each.

One source claimed that 'Aerith' is Old Greek (whatever stage of the language that refers to) for 'divine one', but I haven't been able to corroborate this, so I haven't included it; if anyone can shed light on the matter, please do.

I found something rather interesting while looking into the etymology of Mako (or more precisely 'Makou', as it turns out). The word in FF7 is written with two kanji: a kanji dictionar gave me 'witch, demon, evil spirit' for the first, and 'clear' for the second. When I checked to see whether the word exists elsewhere in the Japanese language, the only example of it I could find in the dictionaries that wasn't the name of a person or a place was an 'environmental' term meaning 'Mara's light'. This is also written with two kanji: the first is the witch/demon/evil spirit one again, and I gather it's the standard one for referring to Mara (the Buddhist figure). The second is the kanji for 'light', which is one of the two components of the kanji for 'clear'. Consequently the two words are written very similarly, and I wondered whether there was a possible connection. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any other references to Mara's light (which appears to be a somewhat specialised term), so I don't know what in the environment it refers to. Given that, and the fact that I'm generally getting out of my depth, I decided not to note this in the Entry. Anyone?

I've given only the more exotic/inobvious name sources; hence there's no discussion of what sort of clouds Square was thinking of.


So... here's hoping this doesn't stay here as long as my last submission. *Waits to be told he's been too pedantic/technical/otaku-ish/obscure/detail-obsessed.*

I just realised I menaged to copy my typo from the other thread.

The Internet positively haves --> The Internet positively heaves

Oh, and dictionar --> dictionary. (Note to self: don't start review threads in the middle of the night again.)

A few more spelling mistakes I've noticed:

As each character take damage - As each character takes damage (Gameplay)
varient - variant (footnote 10)
Cloud, and a not dissimilar character from Final Fantasy VII, appear in Ehrgeiz (Cloud Strife) - what do you mean - do you mean Squall from FF8, or another character from FF7?


I'm playing FF7 myself at the moment - more off than on, I guess - I haven't got past the end of disc 1 yet, but I enjoyed reading this entry. Especially as it doesn't really give away any of the plot!

If I had a criticism it would be that the footnotes are rather long - is there anything you can do to either remove them, reduce them, or incorporate them into the entry?

Oh, and in the sound section, maybe you could mention the music was written by Nobuo Uematsu, who has continued to write music for the FF series since then? (http://www.nobuouematsu.com)

Typos corrected.

'Cloud, and a not dissimilar character from Final Fantasy VII, appear in Ehrgeiz (Cloud Strife) - what do you mean - do you mean Squall from FF8, or another character from FF7?'

The latter -- it's the only thing that sentence can mean. I'm referring to a character you haven't seen yet, although you'll have heard a bit about him. I'd hate to give too much away.

'If I had a criticism it would be that the footnotes are rather long - is there anything you can do to either remove them, reduce them, or incorporate them into the entry?'

I stuck some of this stuff in footnotes in order to keep it out of the way; I wanted to include, say, the stuff about the source for 'Shin-Ra' in order to make this Entry more than just a pale repetition of any general FF7 site, and so I'm not inclined to cut it down, but I don't think including it in the main body would do much to enhance the flow. Footnotes don't really get in the way -- they're designed not to get in the way of the main body of text -- so I don't think their reduction would benefit the Entry more than the retention of the information they provide; neither am I convinced that trying to slot them into the main body would have a positive effect on the Entry sufficient to outweigh the increased awkwardness.

Since Nobuo Uematsu's contribution is to the entire series, mentioning him would perhaps be more important for A2591129, although I'm not sure LQ will take you up on that suggestion if you choose to make it.

I've had another look at that sentence, and I've tried to make it clearer. I've also added a brief reference to Shera, about whom I'd somehow temporarily forgotten.

That sentence makes more sense now, thanks (and thanks for not giving it away too...)

I'm afraid I have no idea what 'Mara's light' is...

I've added a smidgeon of extra detail on the quality of the conversion to the footnote concerning the PC version.

(N.B. Anyone subscribed to this is likely, judging by my last Peer Review thread, to be occasionally notified of incremental changes.)

Speaking of which, I've found a bit to add to the section on Cid's name.

Oh, and my excuse for bumping this thread back up to the first page is that I've added another sentence on compatibility problems for the P.C. version.

This time the excuse is a new sentence in the first paragraph of the Playable Characters section.

(I suppose it was just my bad luck to send an Entry to PR just before a clear-out.)

Oh, and since LQ didn't use the Uematsu link, I'm going to include it after all. It looks a touch commercial, but I think it should be okay to link to.

Plus the site includes a new Aeris name theory for me to include!

However, I've now removed the link; I've checked the MIDIs available for download from that site, and some of them are direct lifts from FF7. I can't be certain they're availability's legal, so I'm going to link to Uematsu's official English-language site instead -- despite its being less interesting.

Hey! I was going to do some stuff about Uematsu! I just haven't got around to it yet...

Sorry; I thought you'd signed your Entry off as complete apart from 'the odd bits [you] mentioned' in Posts 63 and 64. Having more closely re-read the reference to 'the links' in 64, yes, I accept that it could include linking to an Uematsu page.

I found a pretty good piece on the Masamune on a Sephiroth shrine, so I've added a link to that.

Having joined the Japan Today fora specifically to ask whether anyone there knows what Mara's light is, I've established that at least one native Japanese speaker doesn't; it seems to be a rather obscure term. However, I did find this:

http://www.acmuller.net/cgi-bin/xpr-ddb.pl?4e.xml+id('b4e8c-7a2e-5149-660e')

(If you're asked for a username and password, enter 'guest' as the name, with no password.)

That tells me a bit more; I've added a new footnote, complete with a link to an external page on Mara (although I may see whether I can find a better one later), setting forth my hypothesis and making it absolutely clear that that's what it is.

I've also added the claim that 'aerith' is 'Old Greek' for 'divine one', on the grounds that I have as much reason to believe it as I have to believe the claim that 'Shin-Ra' refers to a vampire-like creature. Hopefully I've made it clear that these are hypothetical suggestions, and not necessarily supportable.

So... would anyone like to delurk and tell me how thrilling it was to see there's now more about kanji in the Entry?

That thrilling, then?

I've added a link to A794333, Handy Japanese Phrases, since it includes basic pronunciation. Unfortunately it doesn't include the detail that 'ou' is pronounced as a long 'o', which is probably the most important detail when dealing with the Mako/makou transliteration, so I'm going to add that detail myself.

I'm starting to work my way through this version.

One thing from near outset - you might like to make the links open in different windows, as I've changed mine to do? It's just, personally, I like to keep the original entry window open while I open up and glance through a linked page.
Just a thought.