"Metropolis" and "Final Fantasy VII"

Fritz Lang's Metropolis has influenced all forms of media and entertainment, and I finally had the pleasure of viewing the film for the first time. Luckily, my first experience with the film was the near-completed version released in 2010. While Final Fantasy VI was the first game in the franchise to borrow the steam-punk aesthetic from Metropolis, it is Final Fantasy VII that took the most inspiration from the film. There are obvious parallels between the two, but I want to focus on one scene (or area, to be exact) in particular that Final Fantasy VII takes directly from Lang's masterpiece.

During the creation of robo-Maria, the lead character, Freder, is stuck in the rooms of Dr. Rotwang while trying to save her. Eventually he finds a door that leads down a winding staircase in a cellar and then into Rotwang's basement laboratory. Anyone who's a fan of Final Fantasy VII can tell you that sounds strangely familiar to a certain flashback scene in Nibelheim. The room Freder is stuck in also happens to be a library, while the basement laboratory in Final Fantasy VII also doubles as a library.

Here are videos of the scene from the film, and the scene from the game:

Metropolis: http://youtu.be/bioZDgrTiT4?t=4m1s

Final Fantasy VII: http://youtu.be/dlYQGpZlLPU?t=2m20s

Intriguing. There are obvious parallels between the two like you say. Even the general atmosphere of both clips has that similar air of foreboding. I'll admit that I've never seen 'Metropolis' but this had definitely fueled my desire to watch it.

I think that the creative minds at Square may well have had this scene in their minds (maybe even only sub-consciously) when designing Shinra Mansion. Obviously, the spiral staircase can be imagined on a much grander scale in a computer game environment but the influence is clear for all to see.

Shinra Mansion was always a particularly scary place for me when playing the game. I never enjoyed being in Nibelhelm just for that reason.

Great thread, Kenshin IV

Oh, why thank you. I actually think it was very conscientious of them to do this. Kitase came from a film-school background, and the whole look of Final Fantasy VII borrows heavily from the movie. Many, many films, directors, and other forms of entertainment have borrowed from Metropolis over the years.

While on the subject, another direct parallel is President Shinra and Joh Fredersen. There are lower level slums in both Final Fantasy VII and Metropolis (where the Workers City is), and both Shinra and Frederson are the creators of their grand cities, but separate their people in segregated classes. Both even live in the largest towers, which is called the "Tower of Babel" in Metropolis.

Interesting! I see what you're saying I'm gonna have to check up all of this.

More imagery I believe to be clearly inspired by the film:

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It reminds me of alot of dystopian films so I can see the parallels of Metropolis. Then again, I can also see some resemblances in the film Tank Girl, but I don't think they were trying to go for the same exact thing.

Are there any interviews in which the developers or directors have talked about this? A game industry interview more than likely wouldn't ask them about something like Metropolis, but I'm interested in just how many maps are inspired by the cinematography in classic films. VII was Square's first major attempt at this kind of art direction, so I wonder how many movies they watched in order to nail down just how a cinematic-y game should look.

If I can ramble for a second: Another thing I always thought was neat about VII was how often the screen perspective would pull wayyyy back and Cloud would be a little speck running across a really nice looking background. I wonder if, coming out of the SNES days, they were still trying to balance functional perspective and art direction. FFVIII and IX are a lot more 'zoomed in'. For example, Balamb doesn't have a whole lot more going on than, say, the Sector 5 slums, but there are like 5 or 6 in-town screens plus all of the multi-room houses.

I always liked that myself. That's how Cloud got his infamously iconic spikey hair, actually. Square was afraid the player would lose track of Cloud and his blocky-spriteness so they made his hair big and bright yellow.