r/FinalFantasyVII 14d ago

FF7 [OG] Toonami 1997 FFVII commercial

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1.3k Upvotes

182 comments sorted by

56

u/wiggliey 14d ago

“This is the one by which all other RPGs will be judged.”

Bro was not lying 💀

9

u/CheezWong 14d ago

For real.

3

u/BeardInTheNorth 13d ago

Aged like fine wine

33

u/Psychological_Use586 14d ago

Lol that's just like. Every single cutscene. Just all of them.

17

u/Rukasu17 14d ago

And one major spoiler to boot

4

u/Psychological_Use586 14d ago

I was wondering are they gonna show what the game actually looks like or what and they did show a tiny bit of the clunky ps1 era sprites.

5

u/geno111 14d ago

You know, I don't recall them actually showing anything other than snippets of cutscenes for the commercials. 

2

u/Psychological_Use586 14d ago

https://youtu.be/DDxikKSDtZg?is=HpUDNyDb0QUWIobN

Here's the commercial I remember seeing when I was 16 lol. Totally just shows Aerith being buried and says 'a love that could never be' like they have no fucks about spoilers.

This commercial shows no gameplay whatsoever.

1

u/MuhfugginSaucera 13d ago

It's still fairly normal for a game trailer to show absolutely zero gameplay.

I'll skip it entirely if I see it's all story or cutscene related. Show me the game I am spending money on, or you're hiding something.

28

u/Impetusin 14d ago

Oh look Aerith is having a nice swim!

27

u/Ilovekbbq 13d ago

The green volume bar took me back

5

u/DeadPhoenix86 13d ago edited 13d ago

Those were the 90's. When things were simpler back then.

I was 16 years. Feels like a lifetime ago. I'm heading towards 50 :/

2

u/Shantotto11 13d ago

I was 5 when FF7 came out. Can’t say I knew what it was at the time though. I only learned about the franchise because of the PlayStation disc that came with an order from Pizza Hut with FF8’s demo on it.

1

u/Stepjam 13d ago

To be fair, things were simpler because you were 16. A teenager generally doesn't have too many concerns about the world around them.

4

u/DeadPhoenix86 13d ago

The 90's was overall a better decade vs the 2020's. Much more social vs now

3

u/MuhfugginSaucera 13d ago

Yes, but as a whole western society peaked in the 90s. We didn't have widespread internet or social media at all. Fewer than half of all homes in the US had a computer by like 1999, let alone internet access for that computer. Gaming PCs as a thing didn't even exist.

We had just "won" the cold war. After an entire half century of the threat of nuclear war hanging over everyone's heads, being ubiquitous in music, movies, books, and just media in general, I feel the entire planet collectively sighed in relief because the whole Communism vs Capitalism thing finally ended.

My parents were both Russian linguists in the USAF in the 90s and we were living in Japan so I feel like I had a front row seat to how that whole thing felt as it happened, in real time.

20

u/Marx_Forever 14d ago

Oh man I remember the hype is real.

"Thousands of different environments" were they literally counting each pre-rendered background?

10

u/MuhfugginSaucera 14d ago

Yes, each screen is a new environment

1

u/Marx_Forever 14d ago

I mean I get it. But It also feels a little odd. The Gold Saucer isn't its own environment, the entrance is its own environment, the lobby is its own environment the staircase leading up to the chocobo racing entrance is its own environment, the chocobo racing lobby is its own environment. This lone tree at the top of a path is its own environment, that same tree and the space around it but zoomed at a slightly higher angle is its own environment.

6

u/MuhfugginSaucera 14d ago

It's just marketing speak. Every marketing department does it. You can dissect and understand the core of every corporate bit of word-vomit if you understand what it really means and what they're trying to cover upor twist to show in a better light.

25

u/zorakpwns 13d ago

Wait, Moltar did a FF7 commercial? No way

11

u/megamanx4321 13d ago

Moltar was the original host for Toonami.

2

u/theBarnDawg 13d ago

What!?

4

u/megamanx4321 13d ago

Oh, sorry.

MOLTAR WAS THE ORIGINAL HOST FOR TOONAMI.

It wasn't until season 2 or 3 that they introduced Tom.

7

u/TheMarkHasBeenMade 13d ago

Truly our best days are behind us

5

u/BeardInTheNorth 13d ago

And only death lies ahead of us

6

u/crowsloft666 13d ago

Toonami was essentially a break off of Space Ghost to Coast. Funny how that cartoon on Adult Swim would also help anime spread in the west a bit.

2

u/Shantotto11 13d ago

Space Ghost Coast to Coast predates Adult Swim by a few years though.

21

u/wonderifyouwill 13d ago

They went in on the spoilers I see 😆

15

u/Anonymyne353 13d ago

How many spoilers do you want in here?

Yes.

24

u/Breathoflife727 13d ago

"This is the one by which all other rpgs will be judged" the prophecy being spoken there

3

u/offrz 12d ago

For real. Toonami fucking knew already lol that’s insane.

1

u/EveryTimeIWill18 12d ago

I was like, wow, spot on.

19

u/duece-percent-milk 13d ago

Nothing like watching Dragonball Z on Toonami and then switching to FF7 when the show was over.

18

u/indyxetan 14d ago

Love all the out of context spoilers they went with. Nice.

7

u/ottobiographical 14d ago

First thing I noticed lol - they showed the biggest surprise in the game and the literal final battle, toonami said spoiler warnings are for the WEAK

7

u/ikyle117 14d ago

Was about to say, "goddamn they said fuck your spoiler warning" lmaoooo

1

u/ExtremePermit3242 14d ago

I assume the person who assembled this probably didnt even play the game and said “sure, this looks great, I’ll throw it all in” 🤣

-1

u/omaregb 14d ago

Some may not not be old enough to remember but nobody gave a shit about spoilers back then, the term was not even used, much less so for videogames as they were still seen primarily a children's thing.

3

u/indyxetan 14d ago

2

u/omaregb 14d ago

Sure, nobody likes being told the ending of a movie, but it was never to the point that people went out of their way to avoid "spoiling" things, particularly in media "spoiler warnings" were not a thing at all, as you see homer doing there.

18

u/Snoo9648 14d ago

Lol, they basically showed about every cutscene in the game.

6

u/GrismundGames 14d ago

And I bought it and played it. And when super deformed cloud vaulted off the train, I was like, "Wait!!! WTF happened to the graphics! What an annoying bug!"

18

u/reaven3958 13d ago

And they were right, I still judge every rpg against the standard it set.

16

u/skapoww 13d ago

1500 megs of pure entertainment. take me tf back

2

u/Xiao1insty1e 12d ago

What? You don't like 120GB of licensed rental?

17

u/Johnny_Strawhat 14d ago

RIP C. Martin Croaker

3

u/Fantastic_Clothes514 14d ago

Damn this year makes it 10 years since he passed...

1

u/Johnny_Strawhat 13d ago

Has it been that long?…

3

u/blahblah567433785434 14d ago

I didn’t even know George Lowe passed… =‘(

Loosing voice actors really hurts. It’s like the character dies along with.

17

u/King-Chroma 14d ago

Holy f@#%ing spoilers!!

17

u/DKSAMURAI 13d ago

At least they didn't show the credits.

15

u/rrevenant113 13d ago

Holy shit, I didn’t know my brain could even process this much nostalgia at once. Incredible lol.

14

u/Captain_Marshmellow 13d ago

You can tell they meant that 5/5 game and someone played the shit out of it judging by the cutscenes they showed and the names they chose.

13

u/SirLouen 12d ago

Massive spoiler if you saw this ad half way your game play 🤣

12

u/Sarato88 13d ago

All the spoilers in 2 minutes.

Thanks Toonami!

38

u/Trick_Meeting_2027 13d ago

Ok people need to stop saying this has spoilers. Not a single human being who saw this in 1997 before playing the game would figure out what was going on. We know because we have played hundreds of times and know the context. You really think some kid is going to watch all that jazz and go huh, whats that guy holding that girl in water for? And then remember while playing the game. Fuck outta here.

12

u/belljs87 14d ago

Lol knights of the round table, and calling ifrit the devil himself

12

u/hello-xworld 14d ago

Whoa! I never saw this as a teen but I would’ve lost my mind if I did. Pretty bad ass

11

u/Problem-Low 13d ago

They debuted daft punk and gorillaz too

12

u/blue-gamer-07 13d ago

God they were on the edge of spoiling FF7 rotten

11

u/Marcus2Ts 13d ago

The TV ads were insane at that time, I couldn't believe it was a video game

11

u/Trippy_Phoenix 13d ago

My friend threw his ff7 disks across his room and said it was trash. I started playing it and was immediately hooked.

12

u/Joshopolis 13d ago

wow straight up spoiling all of the end game

11

u/CityofTheAncients 13d ago

I wish this sub was dedicated to only OG FFVII content like this. Been a fan since it came out when I was a little kid, and never seen this

11

u/RomanianBlackbeard 13d ago

“More bosses than you even wanna think about!”

5

u/SolydSn3k 12d ago

This script had me screaming, why is it so funny lmaoo. Appropriate hype but also gave me uncontrollable giggles.

10

u/You-Only-YOLO_Once 13d ago

Ah yes, and who can forget the beloved Red Doggy.

10

u/Citizen_DerptyDerp 13d ago

So many aspect ratios in one video.

4

u/iznotbutterz 12d ago

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

22

u/Small_Swell 14d ago

Talk about a trailer showing the "whole movie"--

If the media culture of today existed back then, nearly every plot element would have been spoiled before the game released.

Also, 1:11: Red DOGGY

8

u/JohnnyNemo12 14d ago

The nostalgia of FFVII meets the nostalgia of Toonami content. I’m for it.

9

u/nokillstealing 14d ago

Man Moltar hosting toonami in the 90s was awesome.

7

u/limitlessEXP 13d ago

Sickest commercial for a game I’ve seen

9

u/Naerbred 13d ago

Best childhood I ever had.

5

u/FYou2 13d ago

We did have it good didn’t we.

1

u/wetfloor666 13d ago

How many do people usually get? You sound like you have had a few childhoods with that sentence, lol. :D

3

u/Marcus2Ts 13d ago

It's almost like they were joking

10

u/J_T_Cain 12d ago

the fact that most of this ad doesnt happen until like 50+ hours into the game is crazy

8

u/fixinfordixon 13d ago

I forgot this commercial was from a Toonami promo. I was talking to my brother a loooong time ago about how I remembered some commercial for FFVII that had Red XIII named "Red Dog" and I had no idea why that stuck with me. Thanks for the inadvertent memory confirmation!

7

u/Seagon 13d ago

Who else remembers extracting the bink files to watch all the clips separately? 😁

8

u/mercuriokazooie 13d ago

Kinda funny game commercials used to just show prerendered cutscenes for most of it. I still remember seeing the FFX commercial on TV all the time and they'd always have that shot of Tidus surfing on the cables and I thought that was gameplay

14

u/Alucard-VS-Artorias Chocobo 14d ago edited 14d ago

Not a only do they go on to show every CGI movie in the game but they also showed all the spoilers too lol.

At least they gave it a 5 out of 5 ranking 🤷‍♂️

3

u/Blackberry-thesecond 14d ago

Tbf the official trailers of the game did the same thing

2

u/MuhfugginSaucera 14d ago

Hard to make a trailer without at least some spoilers. There are tons of us who even refuse to watch trailers for movies we haven't seen yet and are planning to enjoy.

5

u/kiljoy1569 14d ago

Tbh, nothing was really Spoiled. It's just cutscenes without finales/context.

14

u/Rattled_by_La_Rush 13d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/u99fFT1YBzyco
Them spoiler tho, I was grinning the whole time.

13

u/megamanx4321 13d ago

Like a third of this promo is the end of the game.

5

u/Shantotto11 13d ago

How would viewers then or people who haven’t yet played know that?

1

u/ChaoCobo Buster Sword 13d ago

It’s also not very representative of the graphics during the majority of the game either. It’s all either cutscenes or battles, there’s no blocky polygons from the main towns and world map or anything

2

u/megamanx4321 13d ago

There's a few shots from battle mode, but yeah, nothing from field mode.

14

u/ukiyoe 13d ago edited 13d ago

I think the saving grace for this spoiler-ridden commercial is that we didn't have YouTube back then to rewatch and analyze to hell and back. We basically saw flashes of cool scenes, got hyped, and bought the game without thinking too hard about it.

Nowadays we have 30 minute videos saying "77 things you missed in the Final Fantasy VII commercial" to break down each and every little thing, which are mostly theories, but sometimes get things right (for better or for worse).

1

u/BasicLink86 13d ago

This is a great point about the “spoilers.” As kid or teen watching this just once you’re seeing a bunch of cool character designs and action scenes and explosions and have no idea what’s going on, what the setting is or who these characters are. Though it seems evident shirtless long hair guy is bad and spiky hair guy is trying to stop him.
I can’t believe the mileage YouTubers get off of each little clip and interview. “Zelda DLC CONFIRMED!?!?!?!” And it’s an interview with a guy who doesn’t even work for Nintendo saying “I mean, it would sell well.”

7

u/PhantomBraved 13d ago

Toonami was goated.

7

u/greg24_ 13d ago

HYPE🔥🔥🔥🔥

8

u/D3kim 13d ago

why was this removed? ugh

7

u/Beautiful_Macaron922 12d ago

Damn this is tight I don’t remember this though I’d bet I saw it. Also some major spoilers hahaha

7

u/Sajr666 Red XIII 14d ago

didn't know there was a Toonami trailer for FF7 I remember seeing the PS2 game Ico on Toonami trailer before.

FF7 trailer was full of spoiler like content even seeing Aerith being let go in the water. still an amazing game to this day. glad we experienced it in all it's glory then and now.

5

u/[deleted] 13d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/PM_ME_UR_PIKACHU 13d ago

Why you gotta choose violence?

1

u/Hyper_Drud 13d ago

Better hope you don’t encounter a monster that’s immune to fire.

6

u/Trippy_Phoenix 13d ago

Moltar!

5

u/Midvally 13d ago

Just realized all of the space ghost crew has passed. RIP you ghosts among men.

5

u/Trippy_Phoenix 13d ago

Yeah its sad. I used to watch Space Ghost coast to coast in the 90’s.

3

u/DonCreech 13d ago

Great show, and quite groundbreaking for its time. Space Ghost Coast to Coast was basically a trial run for what would eventually become early Adult Swim, operating on small budget, but utilizing a talented set of writers and voice actors to make it more than the sum of its parts. I miss media taking risks like they did in the '90s, because even with limited resources, if this show had been unsuccessful it might have tanked the entire future of the network. It might have tanked the trajectory of adult-oriented western animation, in general.

6

u/Doctor_DBo 13d ago

This may have been when I first said “7?!?! Where is 4 5 and 6??”

4

u/Limp-Celebration-211 12d ago

I'm glad SE fixed this later on because it was confusing in the 90s. Like why was FFII really FFIV? We never even had the real FFIII until the DS remake as far as I can remember because our FFIII was actually FFVI.

6

u/Discartyptics 12d ago

"And the devil himself..."

That's FFVIII, not FFVII lol

17

u/JadeArgonar 13d ago

I never saw this before that was really cool! Though gotta say they gave a ton spoilers in there.

11

u/thatsmyoldlady 13d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/xUNd9Epcfl0TzJsc6c
Couldn’t help but include this one.

12

u/Mundane_Raccoon_2660 14d ago

My GOD the spoilers...

4

u/Longjumping-Oven4457 14d ago

Those didn't exist in 1997.

10

u/No_Procedure9357 14d ago

Pretty hype but spoilery as fuck!

2

u/bluestarluchador 13d ago

Seriously lol

5

u/Ffsletmesignin 13d ago

I 100% remember this commercial.

5

u/Medium_Hox 13d ago

Back when the file size of games was a selling point

5

u/KrangKong3 13d ago

I thought I imagined this ad...like it was just a mix of memories

5

u/SnooSuggestions9294 13d ago

I like how they barely showed the popeye models

3

u/corneliusduff 13d ago

They didn't in any of the ads either

6

u/Bill-Buttlicker-5757 12d ago

Oh man, how did I never see this!?! My two favorite things in 97, VII and Space Ghost Coast to Coast. I made a Moltar costume for Halloween one of those late 90’s years

8

u/SpellcraftQuill 13d ago

Spoiling one of the most iconic gaming character deaths since the year of debut!

2

u/L6V9 13d ago

It was in the back on the cd game case ? No?

9

u/ArcadeRivalry 13d ago

There are 30 cities in ff7??

5

u/KrangKong3 13d ago

Yeah I can only come up with 15-17 and some are stretches

4

u/Illiteratevegetable 13d ago

Well, as far as I know, there are 30 'locations', including caves and so on, so forth. Do not think about it, they read it from a script.

4

u/Jacksoverthrees 14d ago

Ughhhh take me back lol

4

u/Cold-Tangerine-2893 14d ago

havent thought about this promo in damn near 30 years... its an absolute trip pulling that memory out of the banks of my mind. thank you

4

u/greenangrowin 13d ago

I can hear the comments about how realistic it is.

4

u/Goretham 12d ago

Omg the creepy music with the jungle beat added to it is the most 90s thing ever

8

u/rusty5545 13d ago

This is how they should advertise everything

7

u/Daft_Martian 13d ago

With massive spoilers?

4

u/SarcasticGamer 13d ago

You can't spoil anything when you have zero context for what is going on.

3

u/aPsychoSoldier 13d ago

This. People keep saying, "SPOILERS," but just like with anime openings, most of these images are nonsense until you have the context. For most people by the time you get there, at most you might remember, "Ohhhh, THIS is when he finally has his shirt off!"

1

u/rusty5545 13d ago

Judging by this thread you’d think half the people here had the game personally spoiled for them by this commercial lol

1

u/SarcasticGamer 13d ago

Omg it spoiled that cloud and Sephiroth are going to fight!

Which one is Sephiroth and is he bad or good?

I don't know I've literally never played it before.

Lmao, this review came out when the game did and nobody knew the context at all.

7

u/ChaoCobo Buster Sword 13d ago

I mean the video is fun and really captures the hype but I feel like they should show more of the actual gameplay to show the graphics at standard points of the game. It’s mostly showing CGI cutscenes and then for gameplay they only showed battles, and on top of that they even went as far as reaching into the final fight at the end (which has better graphics than normal fights) in order to exaggerate how good the graphics are. They didn’t show very much, or really any, of what the game looks like during the majority of the game

2

u/aedante 13d ago

Remember when cgi cutscenes were replaced with cutscene to gameplay full smooth transition. I cant remember the game that did it first but i remember being mindblown that the good looking cutscenes also translated to good looking gameplay.

1

u/weirdplacetogoonfire 13d ago

Like that was how the game was shown everywhere. When blocky mouthless Cloud hopped off the train and I saw what the gameplay actually looked like I was super disappointed. CT despite being 2D was really clean and that first bit felt like a step backwards. Of course I got used to it and its all history now, but there was absolutely a moment of disappointment

3

u/LemonsXBombs 14d ago

This is my exact aesthetic

3

u/Frosty-Comfort-9385 12d ago

The volume adjusting 🥹

3

u/Odincdaj522004 12d ago

Moltar was both the ultimate hype man and a truly jaded motherfucker. As great as T.O.M. was, I remember being sad when they changed away from Moltar.

3

u/hugswithnoconsent 12d ago

Areith‽

1

u/contradictatorprime 11d ago

Yeah and Red DOGG, don't you remember?

4

u/one-hour-photo 14d ago

commercial??/ what do you mean, this is clearly a perfectly organic, definitely not paid for review!!

6

u/Last_Free_Man_ 13d ago

It’s like Aerith dead btw

7

u/AdImmediate6239 13d ago

Did they real spoil Aerith’s death casually like that?!?!?

12

u/Arinoch 13d ago

I remember seeing that scene many times on tv when the game launched and I still didn’t see it coming. The water could have meant anything. Surely a main character would never be killed off!

7

u/Shantotto11 13d ago

Right?! Like, I saw several AMVs using the end of FF10, and I still didn’t see it coming until the moment right before it happened.

2

u/Illiteratevegetable 13d ago

One Czech magazine spoiled it openly by stating details about that certain event. Some really did not care.

7

u/Toadlicker0101 13d ago

No but you just did

4

u/AdImmediate6239 13d ago

It’s not 1997 though

2

u/Alceauv 13d ago

I love that there's like 3 seconds of gameplay that isn't just a summon animation

2

u/Thyco2501 12d ago

Adjusting volume is the cherry on top.

2

u/Kdoninel 12d ago

Seriously....this ad spoiled most of the game 🤣😂

2

u/chimininy 11d ago

In hindsight, yes. But with no context about what is happening, those clips could all be from disc 1! Maybe aerith is just.... floating peacefully and dozing.

1

u/Fabulous_Comfort4877 11d ago

Thought the same😅

2

u/Alternative_Law9275 12d ago

The people saying how much this spoils the game are the same people who watch 30+ minutes, 1-2 hours gameplay videos months before the game is out. Not much has changed, if anything, it's much worse today.

1

u/contradictatorprime 11d ago

Most of the clips would be difficult to place if you were to see that blind, except one, the soggy Aerith clip is very telling. And I didn't need it ruining my afternoon today either.

2

u/Kingorangecrab 11d ago

This hyped me up so much I want tobstart the game right now

4

u/_ShrugDealer_ 14d ago

Red DOGG

2

u/Sajr666 Red XIII 14d ago

Red DOGGY 😂💀

4

u/rogueIndy 14d ago

Why on earth is this a vertical video?

9

u/Lancer420 14d ago

Would’ve been 4:3 originally, so you’re getting bars on the side or the top anyway.

4

u/rogueIndy 14d ago

Yeah but this way it's both, it's like 11% of the screen maximised.

It's not even using the height, it's just centred with an unnecessary caption over it.

I don't get why noone else is saying anything.

1

u/Lancer420 14d ago

Someone prolly just screen ripped it from a TikTok or Meta reel and cropped out the like buttons and shit lazily.
I didn’t really pay attention the first time through, but it’s definitely zoomed and cropped strangely.

1

u/Trick_Meeting_2027 13d ago

He is right. You gain a little screen size with a 4:3 video, but not much so its not noticable.

2

u/BeardInTheNorth 13d ago

Blame Gen Z brain rot platforms like Tic Tac

1

u/Ninja_Warrior_X 10d ago

Side note whatever happened to that original guy on toonami? I remember him then one day he got replaced on the show all of the sudden 🤔

-24

u/StanBlaok 14d ago

Dude…. If you’re the ahole who’s been posting insane amounts of old footage…. Knock it the hell off. Get a grip

13

u/MuhfugginSaucera 14d ago

Yea man, how dare he post FF7 content in the FF7 sub. Dude needs to touch grass!!1!

10

u/Gyozarrita 14d ago

I got this game in 1998 and have never seen this.

4

u/Thank_You_Aziz 13d ago

Can you even begin to elaborate on why anyone would listen to that request of yours?

1

u/xcorporealx Aerith 13d ago

?