FF7 Technology

[Dragon Mage]

Okay, I was wondering what is the technological capibility of the world FF7 is set in? You can't really tell how advanced or otherwise the world is in the game. For example; they can genetically engineer human beings but there are only a handfull of airplanes in the world? They've gained space-reaching capabilities, but there are no satellites? How could they have cell phones without a satellite? They have energy guns, and yet they issue swords as the standard weapon for the best fighters, those in SOLIDER? You can see the gaps. So, I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on this, 'cause this needs to be cleared up.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Sure.

[PerpetualBurn]

It's just a traditional mix of sword fighting, sci-fi, and magic.

It is always important in a game that the plot itself be logically coherent and possible, but in a game like FFVII I wouldn't even try to analyse the world they live in. It just wouldn't make sense.

[cloud21zidane16]

it woudnt be final fantasy if there were wasnt a sword

[Mirage]

Don't need satellites for mobile phones. Also, the rocket the party uses to get into space is the first machine to leave the planet, so naturally there wouldn't be any other artificial satellites orbiting the planet.

[fantasyjunkie]

it woudnt be final fantasy if there were wasnt a sword

Yes! Exactly!

[Bolivar]

alot of FF's mix up guns & swords, I think it has alot to do with Japanese Reversion to the sword.

When the gun was really being spread around the world, Japan probably capitalized off of it the most. Shortly after it being introduced, it was being mass produced and people were being armed. There were alot of battles in Japan's "Age of the Country at War" where the battles were that of WWI, only about a hundred years before.

Guns were probably used more and better in Japan than anywhere else in the world for a long time, but it caused alot of cultural problems. For example, a no-name peasant could now kill just as many people as a samurai.

This caused Japan's government to start several policies which would eventually lead to the depopularization of the gun in favor of the sword.

This is symbolized in the game that the Shinra MP's (peasants) use guns, where as SOLDIER (Samurai) use swords.

In short, it's one of those things about Final Fantasy that most non-Japanese players don't get.

[Zeromus_X]

Sure.

[Bolivar]

They have energy guns, and yet they issue swords as the standard weapon for the best fighters, those in SOLIDER?

This quote emphasizes the cultural difference between American and Japanese fans of the series.

YOU consider a gun progress over a sword, however the Japanese thought the complete opposite.

Alot of sentiments held by American players are not necessarily held in Japan, and this is probably why alot of the players have a problem with the direction the series has headed.

[Dragon Mage]

it woudnt be final fantasy if there were wasnt a sword

Good point.

It is always important in a game that the plot itself be logically coherent and possible, but in a game like FFVII I wouldn't even try to analyse the world they live in. It just wouldn't make sense.

But people analyze the characters to the umpteenth degree. Why not their world?

Don't need satellites for mobile phones. Also, the rocket the party uses to get into space is the first machine to leave the planet, so naturally there wouldn't be any other artificial satellites orbiting the planet.

No, but satellites would sure help. And the rocket wasn't the first machine to leave the planet. It was the 26th one to do so.

YOU consider a gun progress over a sword, however the Japanese thought the complete opposite.

Natuarally the Japanese would think such, as that is part of their culture. I can see where, in the game, they're trying to get through the level of skill required in order to use a sword, and thus make those who do, better fighters, but it just seemed a little backward at first, since you could turn out really good soldiers faster.

[Neo Blackheart]

Just stop thinking about why you have guns and swords.

as well ask why barret is able to have a changeable gun put on his arm. What I believe is it is a future in which most all of the technology has cesed to exist and they are just then gaining the ability again to use it.

This is also how a book series goes by the name of The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. IT is set after airplanes and everything but after the world "Broke" meaning it was put in to disaster They then started geting the stuff back and even stuff that was not invented before the "Breaking"

This is I believe the world of FFVII

Also kinda like FFX where the Machines "Machina" was old and they where just learning how to use them again.

[Dragon Mage]

Hey, it's the cool new thing to learn how to use a sword nowadays, isn't it? I'm cool with that. And I'm an NRA member, so I'm cool with guns. Guns will get upgraded but swords will never die out. So I'm fine with guns and swords. (except for the fact that everyone think the Japanese were the only ones that knew how to use a sword and the katana is the only good sword ever made. That just ticks me off.)

And what disaster occured to make them lose that technology? The world seems pretty stable to me, in history. The mako reactors were actually a breakthrough in technology that was just discovered and putting the other alternitave fuel sources out of buisness.

But what really gets me is the fact that there are only a handful of air planes out there. What's up with that?

[Zeromus_X]

*sigh*

[Araciel]

wow

that's a lot of analysis for something that looks cool in a video game

[Aralith]

No, but satellites would sure help. And the rocket wasn't the first machine to leave the planet. It was the 26th one to do so.

Well, it was the 26th object, but it certainly wasn't the 26th object in space that had a use. Remember, Cid would have been the first man in space. The Russians first put a man in space in 1961; two years before the first communications satelite that was capable of staying in the same place over the earth was put into space. Plus, who's to say that any of the other 25 objects Shinra put into space weren't communications satelite (and not just satelites with no purpose other than being in space; i.e. Sputnik). So, it is entirely possible that they had the technology to get a man into space and not satelites. And that's assuming that there aren't any satelites up there.