The Top 11 Best Moments in Final Fantasy 7- Number 4

The year was 1997. The computer was JUST starting to become the most important part of animation; Toy Story had been released a year prior to critical acclaim, ReBoot and Beast Wars were two of the most popular shows for children, and Toonami was just starting to come out. Likewise, video games were graphically improving, impressing gamers with the use of CGI cutscenes. Final Fantasy 7 owes a good part of its success to the use of CGI, and today's moment may be the BEST example of its use throughout the whole game: WEAPON's attack on Junon.

About an hour or two into the second disc of the game, the player experiences some truly shocking moments, from discovering Cloud might just be a clone of Sephiroth (he isn't) to discovering that his memories of what happened in Kalm were a lie (they weren't entirely), Cloud loses his mind and hands Sephiroth the Black Materia, effectively undoing ALL the effort the player spent trying to keep that Materia OFF of Sephiroth's hands, to a set of ancient beings awakening and threatening the Planet, and finally, having Sephiroth summon Meteor, giving the Planet an expiration date.

Those ancient beings are known as WEAPON, and they are created by the Planet itself to deal with any threat that might endanger the Planet's life. Logically, that would be Meteor, the big red ball in the sky that is slowly hurtling towards the Planet. Sadly, WEAPON also recognizes humanity, and specifically Mako energy, as a threat to the Planet as well. Thus, WEAPON starts going on a rampage all across the world.

Around this time, the player is given control of Barret, who explains to Tifa the current events surrounding WEAPON. He explains that Shinra had been fighting each WEAPON, to varying success. And by "varying success", I mean that they manage to drive them off for a bit if they're lucky.

The world's population is angry, and they are looking for someone to blame. Rufus Shinra, president of Shinra Inc, decides to land the blame on the people who had been blowing up Mako reactors: AVALANCHE. And of course, so everyone can sleep just a little bit better, he decides to execute them on live TV. Just as he's about to gas Tifa, however, Saphire WEAPON attacks.

Rufus orders a counter attack. Shinra uses a cannon that fires a shell whose destructive power seems to equal that of an atomic bomb (as it creates a ripple that extends several miles across the sea), and apparently they hit it dead on. The shot, however, has no effect, and WEAPON simply swims towards Junon (the city Tifa and Barret are being held in), tanking several turret shots, as well as missiles launched from bazookas. These do NOTHING to stop this beast.

WEAPON's attack gives Tifa the opportunity to finally escape her execution, blasting  a hole in what equates to a military super fortress that got re-purposed as a city. After some preparation, the Junon cannon fires a second shot, point blank, blasting WEAPON's head clean off. As WEAPON sinks down to the ocean, the world can breathe a sigh of relief; the weakest of the WEAPONs is dead, and there are only four more out there.

I believe that, as far as cinematics goes, words do not do this scene justice, but a video does. I managed to find this video:

Now that we're all done gawking, let me tell you all about why this moment is so great from a narrative perspective. Simply put, the stakes have been raised. During disc 1, there was never this great urgency in finding Sephiroth; everything seemed vague, and there seemed to be many twists and turns that didn't make much sense. For example, the Gold Saucer visit. Sure it was fun, but what did a visit to an amusement park have to do with chasing a murdering mad man? That's a topic for another blog, though.

With WEAPON's attack, the player sees first hand just what's on stake now: there are now giant monsters attacking the world. And the reason for this is because the Planet itself has decided that humanity was JUST as much a threat to it as Meteor was. Of course, the fact that it's GIANT MONSTERS is but a plus: you can never go wrong with giant monsters as being a credible threat.

And of course, from a gameplay perspective, these WEAPONS do not disappoint. Ultimate WEAPON is a recurring boss that needs to be fought at least five times before it bites the big one. Diamond WEAPON is a boss that needed to be killed by a super enhanced laser cannon that was fed by 7 Mako reactors. and whom a single shot took so much energy that it caused a city wide blackout in Midgar. Emerald WEAPON has one million HP, the highest amount in the whole game, where your max is 9999. And Ruby? Half a million HP.

But back to the narrative, there is now a new sense of urgency: there's a giant meteor coming to the sky, there are giant monsters roaming the world, Cloud's not around, and there's seemingly no way to save the Planet. This is the lowest point AVALANCHE has ever found itself in, and there's seemingly no hope left. The first half of Disc 2 starts here, and it will be characterized by its heavy atmosphere, a sense of hopelessness and fractured family, and of course, a seeming lack of direction; where everything the heroes do is merely a reaction to what's happening. But of course, this will all change soon...

A cinematic masterpiece, a game changing narrative. A monster attack is the fourth best moment in Final Fantasy 7.