The Capitalist Dystopia of Final Fantasy VII

In Midgar (the fictional city where the story takes place), Shinra Corp. is built on a plate, along with other wealthy parts of the city. Under the plate, on the ground below, are the slums. The people in the slums literally look upon a steel sky built by their oppressors each day, living in a shadow of the people who benefit from Shinra, entirely ignored, and left for dead. This portrayal, though quite literal, strongly echoes the reality of existing slums in actual cities of both America and Japan. Criticism has always existed against the exponential growth of Capitalism, and these criticisms tend to have quite a bit of similarities across capitalist nations. In both the U.S. and Japan, the boom of industry has raised issues concerning income inequality, environmental degradation, and the general evil of corporate greed. Perhaps the most compelling aspect of Final Fantasy VII’s stance on the issue is its understanding of the helplessness faced by the working and lower classes. Continuously, we are shown how the lower classes suffer at the hands of not only the Shinra Corporation, but also the people of higher class benefitting from Shinra’s domination of their society. A prominent piece of symbolism communicating this sentiment is the literal placement of lower classes below the higher ones. There are always people who do not benefit from a current dominant system. In the same way that many people in Midgar do not benefit from the Shinra Corp’s widespread domination, there are people in the real world who suffer due to the growth of capitalism. The raw, often dramatic, and varied portrayal of the class disparity is one of the strongest parts of the game’s argument against Capitalism and is always the backdrop of the various occurrences in the story. The game was widely popular in both Japan and the U.S., as both countries share a strong Capitalist economic system, with similar downsides, the game’s anti-capitalist stances resonated with audiences in both countries. Through symbolic, exaggerated, and extreme plot elements, Final Fantasy VII pulls together a raw and grim portrayal of the helplessness and inescapability people feel in a world dominated by a Capitalism system.

To understand the broader concepts I will be discussing, some knowledge of the game’s plot is required. (A quick disclaimer, I will be discussing large spoilers as they are pertinent to understanding the game’s themes and message, I recommend the game to everyone so be wary!) We are in the city of Midgar, run by the massive electricity corporation Shinra. Mako energy, a fictitious energy source that is the literal lifeblood of the Earth is harvested by Shinra to provide electricity to the entire city. Boasting immense military power, including extremely skilled, mako-infused soldiers, and a monopoly on mako energy, it isn’t an understatement to say they run the world. The game follows Cloud Strife, a mako-infused ex-soldier of Shinra Corp. He befriends the members of the eco-terrorist organization Avalanche who are waging a war on Shinra, attempting to put a stop to the corporation’s unregulated harvesting of mako, which unchecked will lead to severe environmental destruction. Together, Cloud and Avalanche plan and execute various extremist heists, often involving bombing Shinra facilities or reactors. Although Avalanche is only trying to push back against a destructive corporation that is literally destroying the Earth, their methods are often looked down on and disapproved of by people of all classes, hence their notoriety as terrorists rather than activists. It is also important to understand that Shinra built Midgar, the upper classes, which are closely tied to Shinra, live on a plate, split into several sectors, elevated off the ground while the slums are on the ground level. This basic outline should suffice for the topics I will be discussing.

To better understand why the game was so well received by both Japanese and American audiences some historical context is also required. In Japan, previous entries into the Final Fantasies were very well received so there was already a built-in audience that would be exposed to the game. In America, rather than a built-in audience, there was a prominent advertising campaign that exposed the game to many people through trial versions. The campaign was extremely successful and piqued enough interest to make the game an enormous commercial success upon release. Of course, simply selling a lot of copies does not make a game good. People truly loved this game, both in America and Japan, the game, to this day, holds the title of “The Best Final Fantasy Game Ever”, triumphing the countless newer entries to the series. The true appeal of the game lied in its ability to relate to people discontented with their own societies. It magnified and validated the feelings of helplessness and stagnation felt by the lower and middle classes of capitalist countries and even put them in the shoes of a character rebelling against the system. In both Japan and America, there is a severe class disparity between the rich and the poor, with the rich typically allowed to ignore the plight of lower classes. This similarity is vital to understanding the game’s success in both countries, but there are also cultural differences that result in different interpretations of elements in the game. The work culture in Japan is of particular interest. Although both countries work similarly long hours, the environment in the actual workplace is much more serious and constricting in Japan. All employees must relinquish all decision-making to their superiors, with their own opinions holding no importance and making it seem like anyone could do their job. There is no individualism in the Japanese workplace, and it is often a place where the workers are simply meant to fulfill tasks like a well-oiled machine. Of course, I don’t want to imply that absolutely all workplaces in Japan are this dreadful and suffocating place. There are workplaces that allow more freedom and openness among the employees, but unfortunately, the previous concept is still, largely, the reality in the Japanese workplace, albeit in varying degrees. As a result of this difference in work-culture American audiences might not have resonated as much as Japanese audiences with the game’s portrayal of being replaceable and ignored. So, while Americans feel overlooked by higher classes, in Japan the sentiment is often felt every day in the workplace.

FF7 brings these issues with feeling replaceable and unimportant to the forefront, with Shinra being the machine that everyone must work for yet is the root of most issues in the city. An interesting part of Yasmin Merchant’s article regarding the differences between Japanese and American work culture mentions “Many Japanese companies adhere to a mantra called ho-ren-so… This means that an employee in Japan must always keep their superiors informed about what they are doing. Every decision, no matter how small it may seem, should go through the chain of command and get the stamp of approval from the boss.” Essentially, before making any decisions on their lonesome, workers must seek out the opinion and approval of their superior, making the worker’s opinions negligible. The workers literally must only do what they are told and not in between, and this concept is extremely adhered to in Japan. This sense of lacking decision-making in the game may not have been felt as much by American audiences. People in Japan are often under a lot of pressure in their workplaces, with intense work values that lead to overworking and general dissatisfaction. Often the average worker will feel they aren’t progressing in life or doing anything of use as a result of their complete lack of individual value in their place of work. As I mentioned, it feels like they are parts of a corporate machine. By highlighting how prominent these problems are in Japanese work culture are I don’t mean to say they don’t exist in America, I am simply saying they seem to be more common in Japan due to different cultural standards and norms. The people that work for Shinra are normal people, yet they are often shown masked in the game, they look interchangeable and replaceable. Shinra never places too much value in an individual, all their workers only need to carry out their tasks without asking questions or knowing anything about the company’s true intent. I mean the company is literally sucking the Earth’s lifeblood dry and almost nobody other than Shinra’s top brass knows about it. The ignorance of the average person in Midgar is staggering, yet there is very little they can do without resorting to extremist tactics like Avalanche.

There is an overwhelming feeling of being overlooked and ignored among the lower classes of Midgar. It is clear that Shinra doesn’t even see them as people. To prove this, I will highlight one of the most intense moments of the game’s story (spoiler), the dropping of the plate onto the slums. Some context for anyone unfamiliar, at this point in the game, Shinra is aware of Avalanche’s presence in the slums. Although I should clarify that this isn’t indicative of the people of the slums support of Avalanche, most people still view them as terrorists. In an unimaginably cold move, Shinra decides to drop the Sector 7 plate onto the slums, crushing everything and everyone below, all the while framing Avalanche as the perpetrators. Doing so accomplishes two things for them: (hopefully) getting rid of everyone in Avalanche and disposing of the people in the slums who weren’t of any value to the corp. The overwhelming feeling of having no value as a person in the eyes of this Company (or government) that is meant to provide and help you is at the center of this moment. What makes this moment even more nuanced and powerful is understanding that Shinra also destroyed Sector 7 in the process. Sector 7 is on the plate, which is supposedly where people Shinra value and protect live. Yet, Sector 7, made up largely of residential areas for Shinra’s working class, is thrown away by Shinra in the blink of an eye. This supremely highlights that not even the upper classes are safe from the evil of a corporation that’s sole purpose is prosperity and money. The people in Sector 7 simply worked normal jobs for the corporation, they held no decision-making power, hence they were of no real importance to Shinra, they may as well have been like the people in the slums. This sounds familiar, doesn’t it? This echoes the sentiment of the Japanese workplace, where every person is replaceable and although the company can lull you into a sense of security, it is never truly there. Of course, in reality, a single corporation does not rule over the entire populace, this occurrence is more symbolic of how the capitalist system often only rewards the upper class while disregarding and harming the lower classes. This issue of class disparity is one of the most powerful topics tackled by the game, a topic both Japanese and American players can relate to. America, in particular, has an income inequality that is quite large, Americans identified with the portrayal of the gap between the rich and the poor in Midgar because it echoed a lot of issues people in lower economic standings actually face. It’s difficult not to see parallels with Midgar’s class structure and the U. S’s, in both, there are the extremely rich who hold the most power and often not the best intentions, the middle class, which panders and works for the upper class’s system, and the lower class which isn’t involved in the system and as such, ignored. Japan's class system has a similar structure. For these reasons did this portrayal of class disparity and corporate evil mean so much to both Japanese and American players. Even though the culture of Japan and The United States may be very different, including the work culture, as previously mentioned, their economic systems are quite similar. So essentially, they are working for the same thing just in different ways. With all these negative feelings towards their society and economic structure, it also makes sense why players enjoyed Cloud and Avalanche so much as well.

Cloud is an ex-Shinra soldier, he wasn’t good enough to make it into their prestigious SOLDIER program, and as a result of that and other hardships (this is a spoiler and not important to the point I’m making so I’ll leave it out) he leaves Shinra altogether. But as he works with Avalanche, he begins to truly believe in what they are trying to do. Shinra is going to completely destroy the planet if they continue harvesting mako, and most people don’t even know how dangerous this is, they are left ignorant by Shinra yet still must work for them. Unknowingly the workers end up contributing to the harm Shinra causes. Avalanche is trying to go against the system that most people are comfortably used to, and they’re not very subtle about it either. They bomb reactors and have high-speed car chases on the streets. It isn’t surprising that most people, both in the slums and plate, see them as terrorists. Even though Avalanche attempts to spread awareness of the dangers of harvesting mako, people simply don’t believe them, don’t want to believe them. They don’t want to see that the system they have been abiding by is actually horrifically bad. But the issue of environmental degradation is so serious that Avalanche has no choice but to resort to such violent and dangerous tactics. These issues echo problems in the real world, the current inaction of governments to environmental degradation to the point that it seems only drastic measures could be of any help, the label of an outsider anyone going against the system receives, and the ignorance most people wish to retain about the system which they are apart of. Attempts to resist are so difficult in the real world, hence the appeal of playing as an extremist who is unwavering in going against the system that is causing so much harm. In a way it is something many people can dream about or idealize, standing up for themselves and showing the system that oppresses them that they can’t just do whatever they want. Yet this dream is largely impossible, even in the game, the plate drops, thousands die, Cloud and Avalanche aren’t able to prevent it. Perhaps this raw sense of hopelessness is what truly resonates with people the most.