Did You Care When (a certain someone) Died in FF7?

[RJ 17]

Do...do I really need to guard against spoilers when talking about this game? Well just to be safe so don't get nagged at by the one person on this forum who hasn't played the game and will click this topic just to nag and say "I haven't played the game you asshole!" I'll speak in neutral terms.

Anyone that has played the game will definitely know who I'm talking about...it's the only death in the game worth talking about. So, did you really care when "that person" died?

The reason I ask is because I'm watching The Completionist's videos on FF7 (a friend recommended them to me and I've got time to kill) and when they got to that part, they had a number of celebrity youtubers give their thoughts on it. And while most of them expressed how moving it was or how personally devastating and shocking it was that someone in an RPG would suffer a perma-death, Egoraptor said that he really didn't give a damn, that he didn't like "that person" to begin with and, in fact, was frustrated with "that person" since they force you to use "that person" in a boss fight and he didn't like using "that person" to begin with, saying he much preferred Tifa anyways.

So think back to the first time you played FF7...what did you feel at that pivotal moment in the game?

Personally, I was never a huge fan of "that person" myself and don't see why everyone always gets their knickers in a twist regarding "that person". Really I just remember thinking "Damn...well that just happened."

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Nope, not really. That person died very early one and that person and Cloud had little to no chemistry. Didn't miss that person at all.

 

[tippy2k2]

Do you really need to "Spoiler Alert"-speak in the thread itself? If someone has clicked into this thread, it's their own damn fault. Besides, how are they going to tell you how they felt about [name retracted] dying if they didn't experience [name retracted]s death?

Anyway, I was incredibly sad and heartbroken when it happened. However, keep in mind that this was 1997/1998, when a young twelve year old tippy2k2 was just....discovering himself. She was sweet, kind, and she had a weird kind of free spirit with the flower stuff that really spoke to my....blooming sense of self...

Plus, that ruined my three-way chances that a kind of stupid young tippy2k2 was hoping for. Twelve year old tippy2k2 was such a pervert...

 

[ZiggyE]

Nah, Cait Sith's death didn't really affect me much, since he was replaced pretty much immediately and I never used him in my party anyway. That's who we're all talking about, right?

 

[Glongpre]

No, I didn't care when Pres Shinra was killed. But I was like "Oh shit! Seph is alive!!"


But seriously, if you don't know that Aeris dies then you do not use the internet.
And when he came down, I was like "OOooooooooooooooOOOOOhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh shit! She dead." then was like "grab the materia!!!!!!!!!"

 

[Silvanus]

NB: I played FF7 only quite recently, not when I was likkle.

The death didn't really bother me-- it was fairly standard plot, and I hadn't become terribly attached to her.

 

[RJ 17]

And when he came down, I was like "OOooooooooooooooOOOOOhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh shit! She dead." then was like "grab the materia!!!!!!!!!"

I remember thinking "So, who's got the Phoenix Down? What? Not going to use it this time? Alright...moving on, I guess."

 

[FootloosePhoenix]

Darth Vader is Luke's father and Aerith dies in Final Fantasy VII. I try to be pretty sensitive concerning spoilers, but I feel like those are two things everybody (or at least everybody who would remotely understand the significance of either of those things) knows. She was an all right character, I guess, but her death was unmoving. Of course, it was only a few years ago that I played FF VII for the first time, so I was well aware of what would happen to her. The part where Cloud lowers her body into the water was kind of beautiful though.

 

[Dalisclock]

At the time, I cared. I was also in high school at the time, so that kind of thing was new to me.

 

[Aerosteam]

[HEADING=1]He's talking about Aerith for fuck's sake.[/HEADING]​

In a game where characters survive harsher things than a sword stab and can be revived using an item, I thought it was pretty dumb.

 

[Olrod]

She was my favorite character because she was a: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WhiteMagicianGirl

They are ALWAYS my favorite characters in RPGs.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

I was too young to feel empathy back then. I could watch any tragedy with zero emotion. Now im a big old softy for some reason so it would probably get to me now.

 

[Zhukov]

Nah.

I find it hard to feel much empathy for polygonal finger puppets who talk in stilted dialogue.

Maybe if I'd played it at the right age. But it would have been a pretty narrow window between willing to invest in a story heavy video game and not turning my nose up at the likes of FInal Fantasy.

 

[Chaos Isaac]

Well. Yeah. I wasn't much older then ten or something when I played through it, and while I do remember just like wondering why no phoenix down, I also remember I was out of phoenix downs, and so took it in stride.

But it did make me a wee bit sad.

 

[Signa]

I remembered I cared a lot back then, and always hoped for a way to revive her. Now, the scene doesn't move me much, but the music, oh the music moves me to tears.

 

[Pete Oddly]

Indeed, that moment shocked the hell out of me. To my 13-year-old self, someone who hadn't seen a playable character die permanently in a game until that time, it was almost devastating. I didn't tear up, but my friend and I (we played the whole game together, from beginning to end) had to put down the controller and digest what we just saw. It was a fantastic moment in videogaming, at the time.

Now, though? Eeeeeh, not so much. Since that time, games have only gotten better at presenting narrative, and with scene's like

Spoiler

Lee's death

in The Walking Dead, and that intro sequence from The Last of Us (I tear up every damn time I see it), that particular scene from FFIV is fairly obsolete by comparison.

 

[Risingblade]

Did I care my healer died? Yes, yes I did.

 

[Fox12]

I really liked her character, and I thought the scene was absolutely beatiful. Clouds reaction was powerful, as we're the reactions of the other characters, especially yuffie. But did I really feel anything when the character herself died? Not really. I knew it would happen, so maybe that's why. I was probably more affected by the other deaths, actually, especially the bit where the slums were destroyed. I do think it was essential to the games themes though, so it's important. I liked Tifa more as a character anyway, to be honest. My sister broke down crying while playing it, though. I managed to keep it secret.

It's important to remember that the game isn't really about Aerith's death. What matters is how the other characters deal with loss. The writer wrote the story after burying his mother, and these themes were weighing on his mind at the time.

The game is filled with powerful moments, though, particularly when cloud is hospitalized. All in all, it's still my favorite game.

Edit: also, for the 10^1000 time, Phoenix Downs revive the unconscious, not the dead. Otherwise death would mean nothing.

 

[Darknacht]

At that point I had played other games that did perma-death on party characters much better so I mostly just though it was poorly written and a bit nonsensical. FF7 also did a piss poor job at getting me to care about the characters so I had no emotional connection to her anyway.

 

[Elijin]

Did I care my healer died? Yes, yes I did.

Yup. This was my response more or less

Sort of a "Shit! I had been leveling her up as my main healer and dont really have a good backup! fuck!"