Happy 15th birthday EoFF! With the help of a few fantastic people, I've got you a present. And here it is.






Preface

Final Fantasy VII is a game full of incredible moments. Some of these are very, very well known. Many people remember, for example, Sephiroth standing in the middle of a burning village. You’ll also likely recall him later on, piercing a certain someone’s body to the dismay of millions around the world.

But do you remember all the little things? Many people would have unwittingly skipped right past a couple of scenes featuring Johnny. I dare say some of you might not even know who Johnny is! Or perhaps you might not recall the finer details of how Barret lost his right hand. The famous moments have been drawn time and time again—and rightfully so—but it is the complete story, full of small moments as well as the big ones, that really makes this game great.

When the wonderful staff I work with at Eyes on Final Fantasy asked what we should do for our 15th anniversary, a few ideas were tossed around and I mentioned that we could get our much-loved artists the DeviantArt group involved. After mentioning examples of what we could do, the idea of a complete Final Fantasy story—told through artwork—sprang to mind. I never expected anything this big.

The original plan was to get about 60 artists involved initially, knowing that some would have to cancel as is the way with people who have busy lives. I put together a list of 180 moments in the game, thinking I may as well start high because then if I get around half that, it’s still a huge project. In the end, over 100 artists created over 200 works of art, and I am—a week before this project is due to be released—still getting more art in, and still getting artists asking if they can do something. I’m having to come up with more and more ideas on what to draw!

After this page, you will stumble into an unprecedented gallery of artwork created by fans out of nothing but love of Final Fantasy VII, the Final Fantasy series as a whole and—of course—the love of art. On each page you will see their name (real or nickname), their DeviantArt account and their country of residence (some countries were undisclosed out of artist preference). The DeviantArt name is also a link to their DeviantArt page, I encourage you to click them!

Name - DeviantArt Account Link - Country of Residence

Beneath their credit information you will find text provided by the artist, and in their own native language. This may annoy some, but in the end Final Fantasy VII is a game loved around the world, and this is our way of showing off just how global that love really is. In some cases the text will be a quote from the game, in some cases an invented quote. More often, it will be their thoughts or feelings on the moment they have created in art form.

Every work of art seen in this document was created from scratch for this project. Everything is new. I personally can not thank the artists enough—each and every one of them has taken the time to do something for nothing in return, sometimes spending months working for it. I couldn’t be more proud of them or their artwork.

- Daniel Towns / Loony BoB, owner of Eyes on Final Fantasy