Aspect Analysis – Final Fantasy VII: Rufus Has a Helicopter, and This Cause a Problem

So this will be an Aspect Analysis that spoils some bits of Final Fantasy VII (Original) so you have been warned. I was never as big of a fan of FF VII as many, though I do quite enjoy it. I've been replaying the Steam port of the original and have noticed a few things I didn't the last few times I played through this game, and there are a variety of small details that start to bother me after a while. I'll start with the one in the title.

At first, you may be wondering why Rufus having access to a helicopter creates a problem. See, when you reach Rocket Town and meet Cid, you are interrupted by Rufus. Rufus wants to take Cid's Tiny Bronco, and old Biplane, to chase down Sephiroth. This is the cause for Cid joining with you, as he doesn't want to give up the one thing he has left, his ability to fly. I am struggling to find a reason why he would ever want to take that old thing, which can barely hold five people, this is assuming people are hanging out of a flying airplane as it's moving when the dude is the richest and most powerful man in the world who already has access to at least one helicopter (And also the Highwind). And it's not like they couldn't have called it in on the chance they just didn't bring it with them for some god awful reason, because as Cait Sith has shown they can produce radio signals that can control a full robot from across the planet, they can call for an airplane. Even if they had no other option than the Bronco, that is a horrible plan, as everyone involved should know they would need more than what that plane can hold to deal with Sephiroth. His abilities aren't exactly a secret from them.

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Another issue comes in when you start to think about the Junon Cannon, or later Sister Ray. Just look at how this cannon is positioned, and look at where Junon in on the world map. It doesn't look like it has a whole lot of ability to rotate the barrel, so it's a very limited arc it can shoot in. What exactly was this thing built to fire at? I've heard it was aimed at Wutai, but the one city you can see where this thing couldn't feasibly hit due to the arc, all the land in Wutai this thing could even strike are uninhabited. I mean the cannon could hit Cosmo Canyon. Don't get me wrong, the game makes a lot of use out of the Cannon concerning Weapon and destroying the Barrier around the Northern Crater, but this thing existed well before any of that. Why was this cannon created and placed there? Just to say they have one?

Then there is the deal with the Huge Materia. When Meteor is summoned, Shinra is attempting to gather Huge Materia to shoot down Meteor and destroy it, and I am attempting to stop them. Other than not wanting them to kill innocents at Fort Condor, which I understand, why am I trying to stop them? Yes, they tried to kill me and we are not allies, but what harm is them gathering the huge material to launch a rocket at Meteor to stop it going to do? We aren't friends, but neither party here wants that Meteor to hit. And it's not like the party has any plans to use the Huge Materia, they just... kind of store them afterward. Yes, in hindsight we know even with all the Huge Materia it isn't enough to stop Meteor, but there was no way of knowing that before this. There is no reason to stop Shinra from firing off the Huge Materia, other than the party doesn't like Shinra. I know it's not the intent, but it feels like your gang is being fucking petty.

This is a bit of a running issue I have with Final Fantasy VII, so I won't go into every detail, but so much of what happens in the game feels like it happens just to keep things going forward. The game wanted Cid in the party so you had a Pilot, so Shinra came in to give him a reason to join you. Shinra was a threat that needed to be fought, so Huge Materia was your excuse to fuck with them (And honestly the same with Weapon), they needed a way to break the barrier so the cannon was a thing. Not a whole lot of thought seemed to be put into why these things happened though, and it happens often enough to pull me out of the game pretty heavily. I do still like Final Fantasy VII. It's a good game, it's worth playing even after all these years, and there are plenty of things the game does right.