Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VII may be the single most divisive game in RPG history. There are those who think of it as the best RPG ever, still having no equal, while others consider it the most overrated piece of trash ever. Either way, both sides agree: it is definitely one of the games of all time.

Unused Key Items
There are a few unused key items in the game. Note that there is no "Unlimited Money Card" here. Old rumor: proven false.


 * Letter to a Daughter - A letter for a daughter that lives in Kalm.
 * Letter to a Wife - A letter for a wife that lives in Kalm. There is an unused conversation in Gongaga for a travelling salesman who asks you to deliver this letter for him.
 * Mysterious Panties - This was intended for the Wall Market cross-dressing sequence, but the sequence where you'd have obtained it was cut (see below). There are three of just about every item obtainable here, in ascending order of quality, but there are only two lingerie items. This would have been the third.

Unused Materia
There are a handful of unused materia in the game's code. It's unknown what they were intended for (testing purposes?), but it's worth noting that they're only named in the Japanese version; they're nameless in the western release.


 * BUUSUTAA (Booster): Blue materia, 5 stars. Does nothing. 90000 AP. It's speculated that this would have boosted AP gain on the attached materia.
 * HOUSOKU (Law): Yellow materia, 2 stars. Teaches the Gil Toss command. This materia was unused in the original Japanese version, but was redesigned and released as part of the Throw command for international releases. This was a joke on the programmer's behalf (To hire lawyers, you throw money away). 20000 AP.
 * MABARIA (MaBarrier): Green materia, 3 stars. Teaches MBarrier at each level. 20000 AP.
 * RIFUABU (Refurbish): Green materia, 3 stars. Level 1 is blank, level 2 teaches Wall. 60000 AP.
 * RIFUEKU (Reflect): Green materia, 4 stars. Level 1 teaches Reflect, level 2 teaches Wall. 20000 AP.
 * SUICHUU KOKYUU (Underwater Respiration): The purple materia the man in Kalm gives you to fight Emerald Weapon. This was unused in the initial Japanese version, as Emerald Weapon did not exist.

Unused Character Portrait


A placeholder character portrait, reading "Now Printing" in Hiragana. "Now Printing" is a common placeholder used by Japanese media when a picture isn't ready at the time of press. To see this, add an undefined character to your party.

Unused Status
There is an unused status effect called 'Dual' in the game's code. It does nothing. It is possible that this would have been similar to the Double status from Final Fantasy VIII (which allowed the player to cast magic twice in one turn) but was cut in favor of W-Magic.

Unused Element
In addition to an unused status effect, an entire element was dummied out... or, the programmers attempted to remove it, anyhow, as it's still connected to several attacks, although most of these deal no damage, so their element is wholly unimportant. The only damage-dealing attack this "element" is used by is Ultimate Weapon's powerful "Ultima Beam", which can be helpful to know, as it's possible to halve/nullify/absorb this "element" if any non-elemental materia (such as Restore) is paired with an "Elemental" materia in a character's armor.

Enemy Encounters

 * Ho-chu: This giant plant monster can normally only be fought in the last round of the battle Square or round 2 of the special battle, but encounter data in the game indicates its use at one point in the Ancient Forest. This battle is tagged as inescapable, so this enemy would only have been seen in fixed encounters.


 * Tonberry: Another monster that can only be fought in the Battle Square. It has an unused encounter in the Whirlwind Maze section of the Northern Crater. He also has an almost unused attack called 'Time Damage', which has such obscure criteria for its use that no one likely ever saw it without explicitly trying to do so: the player must get three attacks in a row, something that likely requires hasting the attacker and slowing the Tonberry. The attack itself inflicts (100*hours played)+minutes played damage, making it potentially one of the most powerful attacks in the game.

Hidden Enemy Skills

 * Dual Horn: This enemy has a skill it will never use, as it costs 65535 MP. It targets a random combatant, friend of foe, has no name and inflicts no damage. Only the condition for its use exists: it will use the attack if its HP drops to 50% or below.
 * Acrophies: This hermit crab with a snake for an arm that you might fight in the forgotten capital has the unique almost-unused ability Isogin Smog (isoginchaku = sea anemone in Japanese) that inflicts damage and darkness on the entire party. The condition for its use is that the entire party already be under the darkness status.

Hidden Test Enemies
Some of the 256 battle scene data sets of the game contain dummied-out test enemies whose names have not been translated (or even re-encoded) for the international releases of the game, which is why they show up as garbage strings in battle. With the exception of scene 249, which can be started via the "BATTLE999" option in the debug rooms, none of these battles are accessible in-game.

Unused Areas
There are three unused maps originally intended for the Honey Bee Inn. These maps exist only on the original (non-International) Japanese version.

Sign above left door: 今日の女の子 Today’s Girls 2nd sign above left door: はいっちゃダメ No entry! Sign above stairs: お二階へどうぞ Go on up to the second floor. Sign on reception desk: 受付 Reception Sign above right door: 待合室 Waiting Room Fans in foreground: みつばち美人 Honey Bee Beauties Various messages on the screen: 美少女との語らい Chat with beautiful women!

蜜蜂の館 すべしゃるコース ３０分コース １５０分コース Honey Bee Inn Special Courses: 30 Minute Course 150 Minute Course

わたしの巣箱へいらっしゃい Come on in to my hive.

はちみつはいかが？ How about some honey? Sign on right wall (kanji difficult to make out): ？？？・？？者・スカウト・未成年 お断りします. ？を？いた場合 「１０万ギル」 の罰金です. ???, ???, scouts, and minors not accepted. In the event of (?) a fine of 100,000 gil will be enforced.

_aG_6b2B8QY Kwedge: "Thumpa thumpa thumpa... Mebbe it's just in my head. I feel eyes burning into me. Don't like being here. Don't wanna be seen. If my big brother knew... Wouldn't be able to face him. 'S bad for the planet." "Ah, won't Tifa hurry back...?" "Oi, you don't know, do ya?" 1. Know what? 2. ...Just shut up. Kwedge: "Phew!! Scary, ain'tcha." "The rumors about Tifa. Tifa's that famously cute girl in the Sector 7 slums. There's a rumor that she's been out and about hunting for men. But to think that she'd come to a place like this... Women.. don't understand 'em." 1. I know, right... 2. There's gotta be a mistake! Kwedge: "No need to shout. Ain't no use sayin' it to me." "Right? I'm looking forward to Tifa's new Honey Bee look." "Oops, looks like I said the wrong thing." "Don't let it get to ya. I'll give ya somethin' good." 1. No, thanks. 2. I'll take it. Kwedge: "Psst... (Snitched these from the clothesline out back of Tifa's shop, Seventh Heaven. It's genuine proof.)" "Received Panties of Unknown Origin!" Kwedge: "Now our destinies are intertwined." Cloud: "The pattern on these looks like it's for kids... Might come in handy for cross-dressing." Kwedge: "Ooo... Tifa... ♥♥ ...Mumble mumble." Mukki: "Puff puff... Nothing beats coming here after training." Unknown: "Puff puff..." "Mr. Mukki's awful. Leaving me behind and all..."

Unused Music


This track is found in the original Japanese version and PC version (with the filename COMICAL.MID) but unused. It was intended for a scene in the alternate unused version of the Honey Bee Inn (seen in unused areas) involving Palmer.

Despite this, the track itself bears resemblance to a theme associated with Yuffie.

Hidden Notes in Graphics


The final image of the end credits of the Japanese release has the date "12/16/1996" scribbled in, which is not visible in-game.



In the German PAL release of the game, the HUD texture set of the submarine minigame carries the note 本当のドイツ用深度 ("real depth for German"). The pointed-to HUD element ("TIEFE" = German for "DEPTH") is specific to the German version of the game. The US and Japanese versions use the DEPTH indicator in the upper right corner of the image instead.

Debug Text
The code of the PlayStation version contains strings which presumably belong to debugging functions used during the game's development. There is no known way to access these functions in released versions of the game.

Field Module
Talk= Push= Acrs= Toch= TochON = TochOFF= =recieved =ret =ignored ctrl: RqLv= Tg= Abst line= off man= dir= B-R   X= R-G    X= G-B    X= Offset X= G cons= G indx= G glov= G mapv= G data err= Bad Event arg! S indx= S glov= S mapv= S data err= Bad Event code! wait wait_st= wait_end= wait= set2 lbyte hbyte 2byte setx getx srchx biton bitof bitxr line many lineobj! sline linon slip if=true if=false lif=true lif=false ope err= if2=true if2=false lif2 lif2=true lif2=false key! keyon keyof key now= key chk= key=true key=false reqsw reqew preq prqsw prqew rqew=no one rqew=wait rqew=end rq=skip rqw=busy rqw=busy* ret= retto back lback skip lskip mjump evt cmd= pmjmp mgame batle akao akao2 music musvt musvm cmusc music= bmusc bmusic= fmusc tutor data= evt result= mulck bgmovie scrlo dskcg btlon mpdsp mvcam gmovr char dfanm ccanm anime anim! canim canm! animw animb move fmove cmove fcfix jump lader pmova mova dira pdira tura ptura ofstd ofstl ofstc ofstw turnw turn turnc turnl turnr trnlc trnrc slidR sldR2 talkR tlkR2 msped asped gtdir pgtdr getai getaxy axyzi pxyzi visi kon xyzi mpnam wcls! wsizw wsize wrow wmove wrest wclse wmode and2 xor2 plus plus! plus2 pls2! minus mins! mins2 mns2! mul2 div2 remai rema2 inc! inc2 inc2! dec! dec2 dec2! randm rdmsd bgon bgoff bgclr bgrol pmvie movie mvief mpjpo scr2d scrlc scrla scrlp scrcc scr2dc scr2dl scrlw stpal stpls ldpal ldpls cppal rtpal adpal mppal prtyp p+ ef= p+ lf= prtym prtye sptye gptye prtyq prty=TRUE prty=FALSE membq memb=TRUE memb=FALSE mmb+- mmblk mmbuk solid vwoft join split join p0= join p1= end setmove split p1= set move x= set move y= end move set turn= end turn fade nfade fadew idlck gwcol swcol lstmp shake stitm S item= dlitm G item= ckitm C item= spcal clitm rsglb spcnm mvlck btlck flitm flmat smspd gmspd pname arrow ????? bgscr bgdph smtra dmtra cmtra menu getpc mpara mpra2 mhmmx hmpmx gold+ gold- chgld chmph chmst sttim wspcl wnumb btlmd btmd2 btrlt btltb blink kawai kawiw mes reset= win limit x= win limit y= No mes data! mes busy= mpara= gstr= glen= Authr: Event: Go Stop Step Actor OFF Info OFF Actor: Word: These look like remnants of a field event script debugger. Most of the strings are the mnemonics of script opcodes (e.g. "batle" which starts a scripted battle).

World Map Module
NEW OLD JUMP FROM SCR-H mes reset= win limit x= win limit y= No mes data! mes busy= mpara= gstr= glen= Some text related to the windowing/message functions of the world map.

The Prison Well
The well in the Corel Prison (officially called 'Basement' in the menu) appears to be entirely useless... but there are two little oddities surrounding it.

The Red Man
This weird little guy is on the foreground layer of the pre-rendered graphic, but is masked out by the game code. There is an empty treasure chest roughly in the same location that one may think was only to cover him up, but that is not the case as the chest does not overlap the character. It may be a signature/cameo by one of the CG artists.

Test 0
bxYBDikspc4 Strangely, the original Japanese version forgot to remove a test monster from the random encounters in this room. テスト0(ガードハウンド)("Test 0 (Guard Hound)" in Japanese) uses the Guard Hound model and appears in formations of four, but otherwise is identical to the Pyramids in the Debug Room.

Inaccessible Cave
In the last screen of Sleeping Forest leading to the Forgotten Capital, a prominent ledge with a cave can be seen with a vine hanging from it, obviously for the player to climb. Despite there being a detour to allow the player to approach the vine it cannot be interacted with, making the cave inaccessible. Pressing Select shows that the exit is nonfunctional regardless.

Regional Differences
Changes from the original Japanese to US/PAL versions:
 * The number of available spaces for character names was increased from 6 to 9.
 * The random encounter rate was reduced in some areas
 * Diamond Weapon was made a into a boss rather than just appearing in a cutscene. This also made it possible to steal Yuffie's "Rising Sun" weapon, which was unused in the Japanese version.
 * The optional Emerald and Ruby Weapon bosses were added.
 * An FMV on Disc 2 was extended to show the new bosses.
 * The Underwater materia was made accessible.
 * Three items related to the Emerald/Ruby Weapons were added: The Guidebook, Desert Rose, and Earth Harp.
 * It was made easier to keep your body temperature up while climbing Gaea's Cliff.
 * The Temple of the Ancients' clock puzzle was simplified.
 * The mechanics of the Chocobuckle attack were changed from damage=(number of escapes)*(level of user) to just the number of escapes.
 * The animation for Safer Sephiroth's Super Nova attack was changed completely, bearing little resemblance to the original and being nearly two minutes long. Japanese Super Nova, US Super Nova.
 * A screensaver-like star field was added after the credits, similar to the end credits sequence of Final Fantasy IV.
 * The Test 0 enemy was removed.
 * Minor graphical changes to some backgrounds.

All of these changes were incorporated for the game's re-release in Japan as Final Fantasy VII International, along with a bonus disc that westerners never received.