'Final Fantasy VII' Was Originally Going To Be A Detective Story (In New York City)

The Final Fantasy VII brand holds so much power over gamers that its devs made a remake that fundamentally changes the basis of the main game and it still got rave reviews. Interestingly, that's not even the first time Final Fantasy VII got completely changed. Old scrolls documenting the early days of project Final Fantasy VII tell not a fantastical tale of a spiky-haired badass who impersonates an even bigger badass to get a girl, but one much more grounded in reality.

As most know, Final Fantasy is an anthology series where each game takes place in a different universe. That's the reality of the FFVII that we know – and of all the following ones, but the trend nearly came to an end in the early '90s. The PS1 had arrived and Square was moving away from Nintendo to cause a splash with Sony's console. How to do it? They had the great idea of making the jump to 3d, but they paired it with the not-so-good-one of making it a detective story – one set in actual New York City. Instead of playing as a group of rogues who try to prevent mega corporations from destroying the world by sucking it dry, the game followed the footsteps of a guy called only “Detective Bob” as he tried to catch a group of “echo terrorists” trying to do the same goddamn thing.

 We're pretty glad that Square ended up making that 180º turn and had us playing as the actual good guys, but we're not sure if they are. Yeah, despite all the success they've achieved with FFVII, the company seems currently way less interested in the message they let out with their games and more in doing exactly what their villains do by diving into dumbass crypto-mining endeavors.

Top Image: Square Enix