The Reason Final Fantasy 7 Is The Creepiest In The Series

Final Fantasy pushes the boundaries of fantasy, venturing into science fiction and even horror. Final Fantasy 7 is especially guilty of utilizing questionable themes. The entire story centers around human experimentation, after all. Ever take a good look at Jenova? Despite having a reputation as a revolutionary, fun game that 12-year-old PlayStation users flocked to, Final Fantasy 7 can be downright disturbing.

To get to the core of what's creepy about Final Fantasy 7, you have to go back to the very beginning. The conflict of the game is the result of unscrupulous scientists who have no problem experimenting on unborn children. Their own unborn children, to be precise. 

Hojo and Lucretia, two Shinra scientists, decided it would be totally cool to inject their unborn son with cells from an alien referred to as a "Calamity that fell from the sky" It's not all that shocking, then, when this child grows up to be Sephiroth, the de facto villain of the game.

Sephiroth isn't the only abomination of science in the game. Shinra wanted to make super soldiers in his image. What better candidates than some half-dead victims of a Sephiroth tantrum? This led to the horrific creation of the Sephiroth clones, many of which were labeled as "failures," including protagonist Cloud Strife. Final Fantasy 7 could be construed as something of a psychological horror game because of this little detail.

Cloud doesn't know who he is. Due to the trauma he's experienced, including watching his friend Zack gunned down in front of him, he has combined his identity with Zack's. He struggles with what's real and what's imagined throughout the game, and because he's a Sephiroth clone, he can be mind-controlled by this megalomaniac. 

You might be surprised by how heavy and disturbing Final Fantasy 7 gets. It's not all about friendship and eco-terrorism in the end. Rather, the game raises some thorny questions about science, what it means to be human, and whether or not it's the best idea to engage in human experimentation.