Final Fantasy VII is bigger than spoilers

Last week, a teaser of a minute brought the Final Fantasy VII Remake is coming back to the screen for the first time since its announcement in 2015. The images were spectacular, a dazzling new way to play one of the most familiar and beloved games of the past 25 years . But is it safe to spoil?

This is an issue that has been raised on various online forums in one form or another, and that is understandable. Final Fantasy VII is the game with That Moment. This is not only an important and unforgettable development in the plot of the game, but a scene that proved to be a turning point for the medium. A generation of people who play video games see it as a fundamental moment in their relationship with games, the video game version of the end of The empire counter-attack. If this experience could be preserved for a new generation, it would be great.

On the other hand, the game is 22 years old and, for most of these years, it is readily available. If there is a reasonable limitation period for spoilers, we have already done so some time ago and we should be able to discuss it freely. This is what happens with popular culture. He is engrossed in the endless conversation between us all, a point of contact that we can refer to and that we can reasonably expect other people with similar backgrounds to know. If it is not the case, it is quite correct. It's just that far from the exit of the game, to avoid the spoilers belongs to them completely.

Spoilers are a particularly sensitive subject on the Internet, an asynchronous and nonlinear environment in which people discover old and new things all the time, at their own pace. It is also a media that prefers newness, and what is new to one person may be obsolete for another.

My experience with Final Fantasy VII was a "spoiled". I did not have a PlayStation when I finally started playing RPG very early in the year, which was tragic because I had seen the commercials and art and I was completely fascinated . I wanted to know everything about this game, I wanted to create in my mind an image of what it looked like, even if I could not play it myself. We did not have YouTube or Let Play, so I did the best thing: I read the official strategy guide more than once. So yes, I was rotten spoiled.

Would I have liked to be surprised by the great death of the game? Absolutely. It would crystallize this day in my memory forever. I remember the room I was in, what I was doing, how I felt. But I did not choose – and I'm not poorer for that. For me, it's a powerful beat among many others, and when I finally played the game, I had so much many other things to obsess. The descent of Sephiroth into madness. Cloud learns his past. Literally everything about Jenova. There is so many to this game, and it's just at the level of the plot. Engage with his themes, and there are rich veins of material contemplating the nature of identity, and an incredibly melancholic thread of loss, environmental disaster and corporate greed.

In addition, the original game could have done better, and should be revisited if a remake is input. We should talk about these things freely, so that we can understand how much we have become a culture and how far we have to go.

Spoilerphobia can hinder meaningful discussions and paralyze pop culture as a facilitator of true human relationships. No honest person will do anything to spoil you: this first pure experience is a wonderful thing, and most are accommodating if they know you do not want to be spoiled by a thing to come. time. Unfortunately, we do not always control what is spoiled, and the further we get away from the work, the more likely it becomes. It's reassuring not to forget that knowing what happens next is just the beginning of the pleasures of a story. The best part comes after you have to live a little with, and we will live with Final Fantasy VII for a long time.