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

[busterkeatonrules]

The demise of [REDACTED] had little impact on me at the time, since I considered it a given that [THEY] would be revived later. We,, that's how it usually goes, isn't it? The developers want a dramatic death scene for narrative purposes, but they don't want to cheat the player out of untold hours of stat-building efforts - and so, the affected character has to make a comeback ASAP.

I actually think my very first thought was something along the lines of, 'Great. Now we have to travel to the afterlife or something to bring [REDACTED] back before the story can move on.' Yeah. I found myself actually wishing that the developers would grow some balls and actually perma-kill someone for a change.

I can't remember exactly when I realized that [REDACTED] really WAS gone for good, but the impression it ultimately left on me was mostly just, 'Wow. They actually DID have the balls!'

 

[Treeberry]

Not particularly, I should have but I didn't. I mainly kept Aeris around for healing. I liked her but I just didn't get that 'click' you do with other characters. I was mainly concerned about the thingamabob that fell into the water - my reaction was "Cloud! Get the thingamabob! The thingamaboooooob! You'll probably have to come back for it at some point! -__-"

Guess what video game death I DID care about?
*Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion spoilers*

~SPOILERS HERE 'CAUSE TAGS HAVE STARTED NOT WORKING FOR THIS POOR FOOL~

Lucien Lachance

~END SPOILERS FOR THIS IDIOT~

I surprised when I realised I cared after all.

Maybe if I replay Final Fantasy VII again it'll finally hit me....

 

[Maximum Bert]

Well FFVII is the first RPG I played that I did not hate the guts of and thus the first one I completed its also my favourite game ever by far and has my favourite cast of characters in any game ever.

That saying the oh so big death scene did affect me but only as to make me incredibly pissed off as I had just spent a good few hours previous purposely levelling her up. I did like Aeris though I kept her in my party all the time first time I played. I always found the scene where Nanaki finds out the truth about his parents more moving emotionally still gets me now actually.

I did like the scene and music for the death scene though.

 

[Demagogue]

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!"

Ditto...

 

[Tiger King]

I remember you could rename the characters in ff7, I just thought I'd bring that up because if we were still using 'spoiler speak' then I could use the name my older brother picked out.
'Slofdy'
Like a sloth, you know.

Anyway, Aries was given the boot from my party at the earliest possible moment because she was a bit useless I found.
In hindsight I'm glad I did, imagine investing in a character and then losing them?
I think I used to have a cloud, Vincent, red, party. Did anyone else notice that cloud would level up really well but all the others would lag behind?

Story-wise I found the death sad, especially since she was the last ancient.
I imagine cloud was thinking 'hmmm good thing I had a backup love interest in Tifa'

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Yes at the time I did care a lot when she died but I also cared when everyone else died like Jessie, Biggs and Wedge which people seem to forget about unfortunately. I was even said when Cait Sith died for 5 minutes and was elated wen it turned out he was alive. That said I was quite young at the time when I played it but it still makes a bit sad now. I always get a little said when I hear Aerith's Theme.

 

[Lilani]

Not really, honestly. I knew about it for years before I played the game so by then I was rather desensitized to it. And as others have pointed out, no chemistry was really established between them. I get that he loved her, but in an abstract sense which I felt detached from.

Honestly, my main concern after her death was that I had lost the character I had outfitted to heal the party.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

I had been spoiled completely, which made me distance myself from being attached to her, story-wise and game-wise, and colored every bit of her characterization.

I went back and played the game about a year ago and I realized that I don't really like her as a character. I don't DISlike her, but her quasi-flighty personality just didn't jive with me, at least not in the core game. In the Crisis Core prequel, I really liked the way they portrayed her relationship with Zack.

 

[darkcalling]

I never liked her myself. She was a rather painful Purity Sue and due to the way the magic and upgrade system worked there was nothing she could do that someone else couldn't do as well or better.

I was reading several years above my grade level so character death was nothing new. I actually cheered because I didn't need to have anything to do with her anymore.

Now when a certain grumpy old dwarf died in Dragons of Spring Dawning? I was in tears for the rest of the day.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

[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.

harsher things like an attack that destroys the SOLAR SYSTEM before it hits you!

 

[sXeth]

Nah, I'd played FF4 (or 2 in NA) first, which had half the cast die for less dumb reasons. Kind of unfazed by it, other then thinking it was wonky to somehow die from the single sword attack (to say nothing of being nonsensical with what the end tells you about Sephiroth's physical whereabouts)

 

[Michel Henzel]

Yeah I cared, she was my main god damn healer. For her as a person? Nah, she was horribly bland and uninteresting

 

[Maximum Bert]

Nah, I'd played FF4 (or 2 in NA) first, which had half the cast die for less dumb reasons. Kind of unfazed by it, other then thinking it was wonky to somehow die from the single sword attack (to say nothing of being nonsensical with what the end tells you about Sephiroth's physical whereabouts)

But dont all the characters return in IV? its been a while since I played and finished it but I remember loving Golbez he would be by far my favourite FF villain if not for that ending everytime he showed up he would seemingly kill off one of the cast or turn them against one another or do something else totally badass. I remember thinking holy shit this is awesome cant believe they have the balls to kill off all these characters I really dont know whos gonna survive and then they all come back and I was sad and then the end happened and it really put a marring on Golbezs character for me.

I think FF2 did have characters that died permanently but these were only secondary characters if I remember correctly and never stuck around to long.

Been a while since I played VII as well actually (need to fix that again soon) but if I remember correctly the Sephiroth that killed Aeris (and others) was a clone as for dying from a single sword attack well I think its established that Sephiroth is pretty powerful (and since it takes them ages to figure out the clone is not the real Sephiroth I would and some of the acts he does I would say the clones pretty powerful as well) and the game establishes that attacks do damage based on their strength so a single sword attack from Sephiroth would be quite capable of killing a character he kills a dragon in a single hit in the Nibelheim flashback for instance.