Final Fantasy VII’s story is often attributed as being the first video game that many players were actually invested in. VII ushered in the era of 🃏the orꩵiginal PlayStation and gave gamers a new kind of story that wasn’t like anything like the classic Nintendo games on NES and SNES.

Final Fantasy VII was not about the heroes that needed to save a defenseless princess. Instead, the game centers on the ideas of a corrupt mega-corporation, the unreliability of memory, discovering your own identity, and, probably most importantly, mortality. VII wasn’t the first game to put down a major character. In fact, it isn’t the first game in the franchise to have major characters pass away. But it was executed in such a way that made it very profound and has stuck with gamers since the game was released. In a typical video game, having a main character pass away usually just means a game over and you have to redo a level. In VII, when Aer♛ith passes, she stays gone, and that has a lasting effe༺ct on players.

Of course, I’m just speaking about the story elements that were on the forefront with the game. There are actually a lot of secret themes and plot points that went over some fans’ heads. There are a lot of hidden plot lines that many gamers would miss, which is why I’ll be going over the 20 Hidden Plot Lines Fans Missed In Final Fantasy VII.

20 Red XIII May Have Been The ꦐOnly Survivor

Thanks to spin-offs and sequels, it is well established that the main cast of Final Fantasy VII survived the events of the g🌄ame. While it is somewhat gratifying to knoꦕw that the characters we love were able to make out in the end, it also lessens the impact of the original ending.

The ending of Final Fantasy VII was intentionally very vague. As a meteor is about to crash onto the planet, the Lifestream🎃 suddenly springs from within the planet 𒅌to stop it. Though the meteor is destroyed, the fate of the human race was left unknown.

The silver lining is that Red XIII is shown to❀ have at least lived, as shown in a secret ending.

19 Mortality Is A Major Theme 🦩 ꦓ

The passing of Aerith at the end of part 1 was not only a surprising plot twist, but it is used to further emphasize one of the main themes of the game. The story of the game forces players to face the idea that everything passes, and it is a constant topic throughout the narrative. Early in the game, it was revealed that Aerith’s adoptive mother had a husband who passed in a war. It is a sobering scene, and it compels players to think of mortality early on in the narrative. Though many gamers were initially caught off guard by Aerith’s passing, Final Fantasy VII was secretly laying out thℱe seeds since the very bꦫeginning.

18 Gaining The Turks’ Respect ꦛ

The Turks are recurring antagonists within Final Fantasy VII. They are a group of investigators hired by Shinra for reconnaissance and are also hired to eliminate specific problems facing the company. Comparatively to the other major antagonists within the game, the Turks are actually reasonably likable. The main characters develop a rivalry with the Turks, and depending on what side missions you accomplish, the Tu💙rks may actually begin showing respect towards the leads. In their final conflict towards the end of the game, the Turks give players the option to avoid their climatic last fight. The option is only available if you did the side mission in Wutai before the end of Disc 1.

17 ꦺ Foreshadowing Of Major Plot Twists

There was actually a lot of foreshadowing for some of the biggest twists in Final Fantasy VII. For instance, early in the game when Cloud is retelling the Nibelheim incident in Kalm, there is missing information that Cloud couldn’t remember. He had a hard time remembering what he did when he was visiting his mother, and he doesn’t remember how he survived Sephiroth’s attack. Th👍is foreshadows that Cloud’s past as a 1st Class SOLDIER is a lie, and his memories cannot be🐼 trusted.

Another example of foreshadowing is when Cait Sith uses his fortune telling to predict that Cloud would lose something clo🧜se to him. This foreshadows Aerith’s pass﷽ing.

16 💃 Sephiroth Never Cared For Cloud

It’s hard not to imagine Sephiroth and Cloud as nothing more than rivals with a long history; however, that was not really the case in the original Final Fantasy VII. While future installments and spin-offs would try to establish a more personal rivalry between the two, within the context of the original VII Cloud meant nothing to Sephiroth. As directly stated by Jenova, Cloud was nothing more than 🉐a puppet for Sephiroth to use. Cloud looked up to Sephiroth, and later wanted revenge for what he did in Nibelheim, but their relationship in the game was always one-sided. Sephiroth never really cared that much about Cloud, and he greatly underestimated him until the very end.

15 ൩ Vincent’s Backstory

Vincent is an optional playable character in Final Fantasy VII. He can be found in a coffin beneath the Shinra mansion at the rebuilt Nibelheim. When the party first talks to him, he reveals to them some startling revelations about Sephiroth. Later, t🍰he main characters can a visit a cave near Nibelheim where they meet Lucrecia.

Lucrecia is a scientist that Vincent fell in love with 🌊during his time as a Turk. Unfortunately, Lucrecia would end up marrying someone else and becomes pregnant. When he finds out that the father wants to experiment with the unborn child, Vincent tries to stop him. Instead, he was captured and was experimented on. He became an immortal being, with the power to transform into different monsters.

14 Aerith Had The White Materia T🌸he Whole Time

One of the most powerful images during Aerith’s passing scene is the White Materia bouncing on the floor. Materia are small orbs that are made up of Mako, which is energy taken from within the planet. The White Materia is the only thing that can summon Holy. Holy is a powerful spell that is𝐆 supposed to match that of Meteor, the most powerful spell from the Black Materia.

For the longest time, I never understood where Aerith got the White Materia. Apparently, there was some dialogue early on that reveals that Aerith carries with her a s✅pecial Materia that she believes is useless. The White Materia has been passed down throughout the generations by the Cetras. Aerith is the last Cetra, so she was the last to inherit the White M♚ateria.

13 The Tragedy Of Barret’s Arm 🌳

The tragedy of Barret’s gun arm is touched on in the original Final Fantasy VII. While Barret comes off as a tough-talking man with a gu✤n aﷺrm, there is real pathos with Barret’s machine arm.

Barret is the adoptive father of Marlene. He later meets with his former best friend, and biological father of Marlene, Dyne. Dyne also has a robot arm, and rejects Barret’s offer to see Marlene. Feeling like he can’t hold her because of his arm, Dyne then ends it all. Barret’s also confess that he also fears his gun arm when holding Marlene. Barret later tries to replace his gun arm with a real robot arm, only to change his mind in On the Way to a Smile.

12 ಌ Nibelheim Is Filled By Actors 𝔉

The poor English translation of Final Fantasy VII may explain why this particular plot point went over my head,𒐪 though it was never really important enough to the main story anyway. Five years before the events of the main game, Sephiroth went insane and ended almost everybody in Nibelheim. Yet somehow when the party visits the town in the present, the place is apparently fully populated.

Apparently, all the cꦛitizens in the town are actors, who are pretending to be the townsfolk so that Shinra can hide the fact that Sephiroth went insane. Nibelheim never really played an important role in the present-day storyline, despite being the hometown of Cloud and Tifa, so this plotline wasn’t necessary for the main story.

11 Denzel, On A Way To A Smi🙈le

Denzel was always an odd character in the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children movie. He wasn’t a pre-existing character from the original Final Fantasy VII; howev🅰er, the original cut of the film didn’t give him a backstory whatsoe🌊ver. He was just there, and he automatically had a connection with the rest of the cast.

On a Way To A Smile details his backst🌠ory, revealing he was an orphan during the course of the oriꦐginal game. He ends up in the care of Reeve’s mother, Ruvie. Reeve is one of the executives of Shinra, and was the one controlling the character Cait Sith. Ruvie would later pass away from the Geostigma virus. Not long after that, he comes across Cloud’s motorcycle, Denzel passes out due to contacting the Geostigma.