Is the crew rich? Where do they get their money?

[Celes777]

Reading through OTWTAS and barret says "money is one thing that I don't need".

Where do they get all the money? Is AVALANCHE rich? Who's GIL are they spending when they are traveling?
Cloud's?
Any thoughts?

 

[Kai Schulen]

Given that while Zack is on the run from ShinRa in the latter half of CC and ShinRa keeps sending him missions, I would assume that Shinra keeps sending Cloud money while he's clearing out Zack's mission log which has been backlogged by like 5 years. Mega Corporations, HR, and the minute of doing paperwork properly, amirite?


Serious answer: Money isn't important, rebuilding their life post-Meteor and living their lives out for those who lost theirs has more value.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I got the impression Barret worked as he went along, or he just didn't need money because in their world people share their food and let strangers sleep in their barn and so on. Or else he breaks into people's houses, steals their elixirs and sells them.

 

[Strangelove]

from the corpses of the foes they leave in their wake

those magic pots have deep pockets

 

[Clean Cut Chaos]

Bitcoin.

Also, maybe random chests of loot that are sitting all over the place for some reason. He was worried about tapping into gil for "Marlene's schoolin" so I didn't get the impression he was overly flush with moneys. Wonder how much an arm gun graft costs?

 

[Celes777]

from the corpses of the foes they leave in their wake

those magic pots have deep pockets

GIMME ELIXIR

 

[billy22]

Tifa gets a lot of tips.

 

[Rydeen]

I got the impression Barret worked as he went along, or he just didn't need money because in their world people share their food and let strangers sleep in their barn and so on. Or else he breaks into people's houses, steals their elixirs and sells them.

I like to think that all the loot the party obtained from defeating monsters and enemies made them all pretty well off financially. Although Barret was not necessarily the image of a saint (none of the characters were - most of them had similar secret motives for revenge), I can't see him or any of the other characters save Yuffie robbing innocent peoples' houses, unless they were like, employees of Shinra maybe, or if Barret was in danger of not being able to help provide for Marlene. Especially after meteorfall, when they're all mostly working on themselves to become better people.

 

[Celes777]

But why do monsters carry GIL?

 

[Rydeen]

But why do monsters carry GIL?

Yeah, that thought crossed my mind when I wrote that post. The other loot can be exchanged for lots of gil, but that doesn't explain why monsters carry plain gil as well. We can obviously chalk this up to gameplay mechanics, but in this fandom we always like to have a rationalization for everything (not complaining, I'm the same way) to enhance the immersion/lore. We don't know how intelligent these monsters are, but they don't appear to talk. They are probably scared of settlements since we don't really see them in towns, much like wild animals IRL. They probably think "shiny!" and take the coins from their traveler victims because they look interesting to them, and have enough intelligence to keep items that enhance their combat or heal them. Based on their behavior, I would think they have a level of intelligence comparable to apes. WIth all that leaves the question of where they carry things.

 

[Ite]

In FFXII, enemies dropped loot that you had to sell for gil at markets. I figured every other FF cuts out the middle man and just says "You found 32 gil worth of stuff on this monster."

I don't exactly know at what point in the FF7 story we're talking about here, but by the end of the OG I'm always pretty rich, even in speed runs.

 

[Keveh Kins]

I always figured that outside of the mass manufacturing strongholds like Midgar and other cities, there still exists a healthy old school Hunter tradesman economy.

So the gang kill loads of monsters, harvest the pelts and meat and bits and bobs (zemzelett claws are essential for making healing potions,what with their natural White Wind healing ability) and funded themselves off of the proceeds.

Eventually they mastered enough rare materia they sold some of it off and more or less made themselves financially comfortable for life.

They did this before the populace started to really shy away from materia usage by Advent Children. So I guess that makes them opportunistic market investors who made their profit and bailed before the market crashed.

I like to think Tifa has good business sense from her years running the bar and handled party funds, and Cloud felt cool in his dorky way by spending some of it on the villa. Tifa knows it's purely a vanity purchase, but her soft spot for Cloud and seeing him all goofy happy and the very real possibility they would die soon meant she didn't protest such a colossal and expenditure

 

[Ite]

When Cloud has his delivery service, was the headquarters Villa Cloud?

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Maybe they are rentiers?

I think SE introduced the selling of pelts and drops and bits and bobs to inject a note of realism, since it really doesn't make sense for monsters to literally drop gil. I hope they use this trade economy in FFVIIR as well.

 

[Clean Cut Chaos]

I think SE introduced the selling of pelts and drops and bits and bobs to inject a note of realism, since it really doesn't make sense for monsters to literally drop gil. I hope they use this trade economy in FFVIIR as well.

I enjoy this mechanic much more over just grinding for Gil. I (eventually) enjoyed the FF13 system of using bits and bobs to upgrade your gear, but I wouldn't want that in 7 though.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I liked having to hunt and forage for my own supper in FFXV.

 

[Roger]

Cloud being the defending Chocobo racing champion is canon, I suppose.

 

[Keveh Kins]

Not to mention his burgeoning acting career! Who could forget that stellar performance as the great hero Alfred

Should have been nominated for a Golden Saucer Award for Best performance in a leading role. A 'Saucy', if you will

 

[Kai Schulen]

Come to think of it, the economy's probably mostly shit post-Meteor and with the fall of ShinRa.

 

[Celes777]

Not to mention his burgeoning acting career! Who could forget that stellar performance as the great hero Alfred

Should have been nominated for a Golden Saucer Award for Best performance in a leading role. A 'Saucy', if you will

He even does the ballet spin like those actor. LOL

 

[Clement Rage]

Post meteorfall, they're probably mostly on a barter economy. The gang have the useful skill of monster hunting, so they're comfortable. I dunno about 'rich', but they could get by in game by selling off their gear. Afterwards, less so, but they can leverage their combat skills hunting monsters and the like.

A delivery service becomes really important when travelling becomes difficult, and Cloud doesn't have much to fear from bandits, monsters, etc. Bars (and safe bars at that), are also really important in these situations. Yuffie and Red don't need money, Cid is really useful as a skilled pilot and engineer, Vincent can probably get by alone. Barret in one of the novellas hunts monsters I think?

 

[Claymore]

I always used the personal headcanon that the gil that enemies possessed was simply retrieved from the dead and mutilated bodies of their unsuspecting victims.

 

[Cthulhu]

When does OTWTAS take place? I mean in AC, in a spat of irony, Barret calls Cloud to mention he's found oil. Maybe they get monies though Barret's mining / drilling endeavours?

 

[Roger]

Between the original game and Advent Children.

 

[Jairus]

Selling mastered All materia. Lots of mastered All materia.

Seriously, though, they probably built up enough coin during their travels from, as some have said, monster hunting and selling bits of item components that they ended up having enough that they didn't need to worry about it.