In the dystopic world of Final Fantasy VII — a classic role-playing game released on the original PlayStation way back in 1997 — a mega-corporation known as the Shinra Electric Power Company controls much of daily life, bleeding the planet of a precious natural resource called Mako and then selling it back to people as energy. The game has you fighting against Shinra in an attempt to repair the damage that's been done, and return the planet's sense of equilibrium. But if you've ever wanted to fight The Man in a different way, the upcoming FF VII version of Monopoly should be a perfect fit.

Due out next April, the board game comes way of online retailer Merchoid, which describes the set-up thusly:

Delve into the evolving city of Midgar in search of the latest business opportunities. Perhaps you'll buy up a string of plots for housing development for the people, or go industrial and build a Mako reactor plant. Trade with fellow players to secure key location and facilities and watch as savvy buyers secure a big pay day. A roll of a dice and a shrewd business mind will pave your way to success... Just watch out in case Shinra bring your empire crashing down!

(Midgar, for those of you who have never felt the sting of losing Aeris, is the grimy metropolis that serves as FF VII's starting point.)

We don't have any more details about the game, and there are currently no images of it aside from the above box mock-up. But, as weird as it may sound at first, the mash-up of Midgar and Monopoly actually makes a lot of sense. Shinra literally has a monopoly on power, and Midgar is your typical dystopic city, with everything from run-down areas full of the displaced (the Sector 7 slums) to more affluent sections for the elite (Shinra Headquarters). It's a great fit from a gameplay perspective, offering a range of properties to buy and utilities to operate. And it also fits thematically — Midgar is a depressing place, after all, and Monopoly is usually only fun for the first 30 minutes.

Cloud and the rest of the FF VII crew managed to defeat Shinra using force, but the new Monopoly is a chance to do it in a very different way: by building an even bigger, more controlling mega-corp.