Saving the world is hardly a unique motif in role-playing games, and it usually goes something like this: A ragtag group of strangers-turned-into-allies face a great evil they must defeat in order to prevent total world annihilation.

In this sense, Final Fantasy VII closely follows the script.

Cloud, a mercenary, joins a flower girl, a rebel fighter with a machine gun arm, a vampire (sort of), a barmaid boxer and several others to take down Sephiroth, a spawn between a human baby and an alien life form hell-bent on destroying the earth and becoming a deity.

What distinguishes Final Fantasy VII from other RPGs released in the mid to late ‘90s, however, are two powerful themes that are explored during the course of the game.

In this week’s Throwback Thursday we’re taking a look at how Square (now Square Enix) was able to set Final Fantasy VII apart from competing role-playing games through its insight into insidious problems that modern societies face today.

Mako and ecological preservation

The Lifestream is an ethereal substance that all living things are a part of when they are born and return to when they pass away. The Lifestream is crucial for life on the planet and contains all the memories of every being that has every lived. It is analogous to the Chinese concept of Qi, a life force that courses through all organisms.

The Life Force

Somewhere down the line, the inhabitants of Gaia (the planet that Final Fantasy VII takes place in) figured out how to harness the power of the Lifeforce by extracting its liquid form, known as Mako, through reactors. Mako allowed for electricity, setting off a period of industrialization that saw the rise of large cities like Midgar and entertainment complexes like the Gold Saucer. Serving as an analog to nuclear energy, Mako could also be condensed into a substance called materia, which could be used for magic. *cue steampunk motifs à la Final Fantasy VI*

Mako may be likened to oil and uranium, which have both unraveled massive ecological concerns. In addition to global warming and the Fukushima and Chernobyl disasters, nuclear weapons remain a politically tense issue with respect to Iran and North Korea. In Final Fantasy VII we see Gaia slowly dying as mako continues to be harvested for energy, and the mako cannon serves to show us the power of nuclear warfare.

Weapon of Mass Destruction

Perhaps more telling are the years to come. After the rolling credits of Final Fantasy VII, we are treated to a cut-scene where, 500 years after the main story line, Red XIII (or, Nanaki) is seen running up a cliff with his two cubs (who's the mother?). As they reach the top, we see a view of a now-forgotten Midgar, covered in moss and overgrowth. A flock of geese fly over the abandoned city and we hear songbirds in the background. While Gaia has healed, it is unclear if civilization has moved elsewhere or returned to a more primitive state.

...bad things will happen.

Our earth also goes through a "reset" period roughly every 100,000 years during what is known as an ice age. While we are not due for one for another 80,000 years, global warming may precipitate the return of biblical floods, as it is widely acknowledged that the melting of the polar caps would lead to a rise in sea levels that would wipe out many coastal cities. While I'm not prognosticating any certain disaster, Final Fantasy VII has a metaplot of human-created disaster that rings true to the ecological issues we currently face.

LIfe always finds a way.

The Rise of Corporatocracies

Warring city governments and kingdoms form the typical political backdrop of most role-playing games, but in Final Fantasy VII it is a corporation that rules the world. Shinra Electric Power Company (or, Shinra), which rose to a superpower after they successfully harvested mako for energy use, employs a private army known as SOLDIER, operates multiple mako reactors around Gaia, and is obsessed with discovering the "promised land," a mythical place where it would be possible to harvest unlimited amounts of mako.

Final Fantasy VII starts off in Midgar, the largest city in Gaia, built and controlled by Shinra. The opening scene takes the player deep inside a mako reactor that Cloud, a hired mercenary for the eco-activist group AVALANCHE (what's with the all-caps naming schemes?), helps blow up with explosives. As Cloud and Barret, the leader of Avalanche (sorry, I can't), head back to the hideout, Shinra (Fox) news comes on and condemns the actions of Avalanche as those of terrorists.

Mako reactor in Nibelheim

As the de facto ruler of Gaia, Shinra wields all the economic and political and has a chokehold on how information is disseminated while employing Turks, a sort of C.I.A. department, to conduct covert operations.

Sound far-fetched?

It is currently merger mania in the business world, and while there are many examples of corporations being stopped by anti-trust concerns, there is a growing fear that eventually corporations will consolidate to form mega-corporations. These mega-corporations enjoy low accountability, existing across international boundaries, and concentrated power.

Still sounds too hard to believe? Watch the video below:

While the corporations of our time do not come even close to having the level of power that Shinra has, it is illuminating to see Final Fantasy VII tackle such a mature topic, 17 years ago!

Shinra Headquarters

Can corporations be too big (to fail)? At what point do regulatory bodies no longer have enough resources to legislate against a corporation with an insurmountable lobbying arm?What can the powerless do against an all-powerful corporation when they do not have a chance to participate in meaningful democratic process?

These are all questions that Final Fantasy VII explores and they are increasingly becoming talking points in congressional hearings and political debates.

Parting thoughts

This article could have as easily been about the ethics of cloning, bio-engineered soldiers, the anatomy of modern love, Freudian discovery of the self and so on and so forth—a testament to the diversity of ideas presented in Final Fantasy VII.

Each time I play through the game (a total of six so far) I learn something new, which is something I've found in only a handful of games. In many respects, Final Fantasy VII heralded the arrival of "serious" RPGs to the (then) next-generation platforms, which is probably why it went on to sell over 10 million copies worldwide and became known as "the game that sold the PlayStation."

A part of me wishes that, come 2017, Square Enix will reboot the franchise with a Final Fantasy VII remake—though I believe the odds of hell freezing over are far greater. In the meantime, the original PlayStation version will do just fine.