FFX FFVII Connection?

[Lavos]

I have been replaying FFX and FFX-2 for nostalgia's sake, and, possibly due to the fact that I had replayed FFVII 2 months ago, have noticed that with certain comments, subtle hints, and plot holes, that FFX/X-2 may be a prehistory of FFVII. The most obvious one: A kid named Shinra that is researching how to make energy using the planets natural energy. hmmmmm...

Are there any more people convinced? Or am I just crazy?

[Dodie16]

I read this in Wikipedia. I found it when I looked up FFVII.

The game's popularity and open-ended nature also led director Kitase and scenario writer Nojima to establish a plot-related connection between Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X-2. The character Shinra from Final Fantasy X-2 proposes the concept of extracting the life energy from within the planet Spira. Nojima has stated that Shinra and his proposal are a deliberate nod to the Shinra Company, and that he envisioned the events of Final Fantasy X-2 as a prequel to those in Final Fantasy VII.

I don't think you are crazy. I do, however, think it's crazy that Nojima is trying to bridge these two games together. I think they should be left to stand on thier own, with no weird cross-overs. Leave those sort of shenanigans to Kingdom Hearts.

I love Kingdom Hearts, btw, so that above statement is by no means a bash against KH.

[Zeron175]

That is in no way crazy. I think that all the FF's in the main series follow this chronological order but are just very far apart.

[Lavos]

ok after doing that wikipedia search i figure Im not crazy. Very wierd, but just that nod I dont exactly see how that is a connection. Are there any others that I am missing? And if it is a prequel, why does Spira and Gaia look so different? There are just too many gaps to have a worthwhile answer

[Dodie16]

Have you ever played Dirge of Cerberus? There's a mention of a lost civilization that had airship technology. It's stated by one of the NPC's when Vincent is in the engine room of the Shera. I think this could also be a link to FFX and X-2, but I'm not sure.

Oh, and if I were to try to come up with a reason why Spira and Gaia look so different, I would say plate tectonics would be my first guess. Our world today looks very different from what the world looked like millions of years ago. So who's to say the same thing can't happen in the FF worlds.

You're right, though. There are gaps in the links between these two games. So, honestly, I don't really try to link them at all.

[T.G. Oskar]

I'd take the opposite side of the discussion, and simply say "it's a nod to FFVII". There's too little to work with.

At first, you'd have to explain in great terms how the two worlds widely diverge. Mostly, how do you explain the first Crater, the Cetra civilization which is almost quite well documented, the very existence of a Lifestream which in no way does it resemble even the shadow of the Farplane, the existence of a quite literal "goddess of the Lifestream" which by all means staunchly contrasts with the idea of a godless world with the failure of the Yevonite faith, and most importantly, how do you pass from Fayth to Materia in the concept of perhaps a millennia or two. You can't simply consider that Shinra (notice the lack of a hyphen, as in "Shin-Ra") is truly the precursor of Mako energy extraction (and thus of Materia) if the latter pretty much spontaneously existed since time immemorial (or at least as far as the records state, as Materia can seemingly form of its own)

The simplest statement, thus, is that the boy "Shinra" is just a nod to FFVII, which has been taken a bit too far. Spira and the Planet (notice the difference, as Gaia is the name of FF9's world) are just too different in virtually all aspects aside from the shared aspects of Final Fantasy to draw a connection towards it. I mean, it's the same as trying to tie FFIII and FFVIII because of the mention of "the great Hyne".

[Lavos]

Mostly, how do you explain the first Crater, the Cetra civilization which is almost quite well documented, the very existence of a Lifestream which in no way does it resemble even the shadow of the Farplane, the existence of a quite literal "goddess of the Lifestream" which by all means staunchly contrasts with the idea of a godless world with the failure of the Yevonite faith, and most importantly, how do you pass from Fayth to Materia in the concept of perhaps a millennia or two.

Most of this can be answered after i did a little digging into FFVII's history. It clearly states that the Cetra were once travelers of different Planets. Spira already had airships. Could it not be possible that a rocket was invented some time later? Spira/Cetra could have been mistranslated upon reaching the Planet. And then could Jenova be an Aeon? It may seem far fetched, but it could be slightly possible.

I agree on the fact that there are way too many plot holes. Either Nojima wanted it to be up to the fans, he wanted to make a FF X-3, or there really is no connection.

[loaf]

Hey guys lets come up with made up ideas so we can sleep at night so we can believe that there is a connection between the two games. Putting the character Shinra in X-2 is like repeating the cameos of Moogles and Biggs and Wedge in other Final Fantasies. Square just likes to do things like that. Spira is Spira, no connection.

[Silver Spyro]

Woah. Good find. I agree..

[T.G. Oskar]

Most of this can be answered after i did a little digging into FFVII's history. It clearly states that the Cetra were once travelers of different Planets. Spira already had airships. Could it not be possible that a rocket was invented some time later? Spira/Cetra could have been mistranslated upon reaching the Planet. And then could Jenova be an Aeon? It may seem far fetched, but it could be slightly possible.

Well, about the Cetra...

It's not very clear how exactly did they reach the Planet, but most certainly it wouldn't be through airship.

You'd have a better chance of pulling it off if you took some of the story of FFVIII. Here, not only there is a Centra civilization which also fell into despair and the nature of Guardian Forces, but also a civilization advanced enough to make a functional spaceship that could subsist in space for a large amount of time (even though it seems the speed of the ship does not lend to the idea of planetary travel, mostly atmospherical and orbital flight.

It's a bit more difficult in the case of Spira, whose population spent one millenia on a technological retrocession, with the rediscovery of airships barely advancing from atmospheric travel, and whose half of the population still considers "Machina" as something to be wary about, if not retain their old ideas of technology as anathema.

[Christa Pho!]

While it would be a nice thought that these two stories occur on the same planet, eons apart, I can't help but find it a little ridiculous when thinking objectively. "Shinra" is most likely a reference of Final Fantasy 7 and nothing else.

As for the rest of the clues, I could probably find many more plot connections with other titles in the Final Fantasy series.

[Che]

This is all rubbish, as we all know there was no airship technology in FFX. You simply pointed and clicked on a place and magically appeared there.

[Ryu-Kentoshii Hirokima]

Sounds pretty Convincing that this may be true...I'm not completly sure, But you may be on to something.

[Zargabaath]

While I prefer that Shinra is just a nod to FF VII, just how there is a shop in FVIII with the owner's name being Cloud. However, there is book that was created by Nojima saying, generally, that some Spirans flew to another planet and they had the knowledge of Shinra's (FFX-2) research, thus the Shinra company is named after him.

However I'm against Nojima's efforts to tie in certain Final Fantasy games; each game is supposed to be its own having no connection to other games. That is one of the essences of the series and I'm unappreciative of Nojima and a few others to tarnish it.

[TobiasRainey]

There are lots of "easter eggs" in other FF games, don't look so far in to it. VII was good but don't be one of those people that try to tie it to everything else...

[Locke4God]

This is crazy I know, so don't throw tomatos. I'd heard somewhere, and I don't remember where, but there was a supposed spiritual connection between 7 & 10. Before you start cranking out the "Final Fantasy games aren't set in the same world's" commentary, please know that I'm aware of that. But still there was a statement that said symbolically they were linked.

I'd had a number of thoughts including how Arieth and Tidus both dissapear at the end, and the similarity between spheres and materia among other things, but I wasn't sure what that really meant.

But then I was just reading a clip from Wikipedia on Gaia on the use of Shina in both titles

"In Final Fantasy X-2, a member of the Gullwings named "Shinra" proposes the concept of extracting the life energy from peoples' lifeforces, like Shinra does in Final Fantasy VII.[5] In the Final Fantasy X-2 Ultimania guidebook published by Square Enix, Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X-2 scenario writer Kazushige Nojima stated that the character Shinra and his proposal are a deliberate nod to the Shinra Company of Final Fantasy VII, and also revealed that he envisioned the events of Final Fantasy X-2 as a prequel to those in Final Fantasy VII.[6][7][8] This connection had previously been hinted toward by Nojima and lead Final Fantasy developer Yoshinori Kitase during an interview in the Final Fantasy X Ultimania Ω guidebook, and was again detailed in the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Ω — two other official publications of Square Enix.[9][10]"

And then I started to wonder. Are the two games actually linked more physically than symbolically? If 10 hypothetically comes after 7, then that could make the citizens of 10 the ancients mentioned in 7. And that idea got me to thinking about Spira.

I had wondered throughout my playing of 10, as many of you did, why there wasn't a proper airship. You couldn't really explore the entire world, and so you aren't really sure if Spira is the only landmass. In fact we know from playing the game that Dream Zanarkand existed out in the oceans, unbeknownst to the people of Spira, so it stands to reason there could have been an entire other continent.

And that thought led me to try to compare the Spira from 10 to any of the continants in 7.

Here are the maps.

http://www.ffshrine.org/ffx/ffxmap.jpg
http://www.fantasyanime.com/finalfantasy/ff7map.htm

Does Spira not resemble the Northern continent? Is it coincidense that the Ancients came from the one continent in 7 that resembles Spira? Is it coincidense that the Northern crater is exactly where the original Zanarkand would be?

Would it be silly to think that after Sins defeat, the people of Spira ventured out into the Oceans for the first time in a Thousand years and discovered other land masses, and perhaps other civilizations? Would it be silly to think that the Farplane, was a way of interacting with the Lifestream that we know souls return to in 7? After all during 10, several characters went out of their way to explain that they didn't understand how the Farplane worked. If in fact it was the Lifestream, 7 answers that quite well. Is it possible that as stated above, the child Shinra, began the process of harvesting that Lifestream for energy, leading to the foundation of the company known as Shinra, which over the following thousand years led to the world we see in 7?


I know this is complete conjecture, but I thought it was sort of fun. In truth you really don't know in 10, if there are any other landmasses outside of Spira. We did all feel a little odd that there was no airship to circle to globe with, and this could explain why. It was also very interesting that nobody, despite their devout faith, could explain the events that took place on the Farplane, and which similar events are clearly explained in 7.

I'm sure there are plenty of reasons why not to put any faith in this, but I was more interested in anybody who thought this could be a possibility. There are official statements suggesting that it could be. Any takers?