Mysterious appearances of the number 27 in FFVII

[PenguinLord27]

I'm currently playing through FFVII (Switch) for the first time and am absolutely loving this beautiful game. I'm about halfway through- just past Mideel.

Something I noticed was that the number 27 seems to inexplicably crop up several times throughout the game in the backdrops of various areas. I've included a couple of examples in the photos: North Corel Reactor and Junon Airport. I've definitely seen at least one other somewhere although I can't remember right now (I will find it later if people are interested, and hopefully discover even more).

This wouldn't be strange except that it is always the number 27, and there are no other occurrences of numbers in the backdrops other than maybe doors which are numbered or the sectors in Midgar which are numbered in Japanese Kanji. I researched online but wasn't able to find any discussion about this.

Does anyone know what the significance of the number 27 in the game might be? Whether it's within the story (Shinra? Cloud?) or perhaps something special to the developers? If it is a spoiler please let me know ("It's a spoiler, be patient") but don't spoil it please!!

I don't know if this is also the case in FFVII Remake as I haven't played it yet, although definitely intend to someday!

Incidentally, the number 27 has been a kind of good omen in my life, cropping up far more than seems likely. This is obviously why I noticed the number reoccurring in the game.

This is my first post - thank you in advance

 

[Ite]

Hi! So awesome that you’re discovering this masterpiece for the first time! And with the Switch, so you can enjoy it on-the-go as well!

There’s nothing in the story that relates to the number 27. I think it’s just a nice-feeling number that they happened to put in several places without realizing. There’s a hidden safebox puzzle in the game, and I think one of the combination numbers is 27 as well? (Edit: nope! 27 isn’t one of the answers. If you haven’t found the safe yet, good luck!)

As a side note, I love the number 27, it’s more than two dozen but less than thirty, which makes it and ideal kinda “whack load but not an army” sized number. For some reason, 9 x 3 was the first multiplication answer I could give instantly, back in Grade 2. And of course there’s the 27 Club.

Have fun with the rest of the game! There’s lots of twists that reward keen observation, so you’re on the right track! Sadly, none involving 27.

 

[Ⓐaron]

27 is 3³, if that means anything

but it’s probably just a number someone in the dev team liked. A lot of games have numbers that crop up over and over again, and it’s beyond anyone else whether it means anything or not. There’s a long page about the number seven in the Marathon trilogy on the Marathon’s Story Page, but it’s probably just a coincidence that it shows up so much; I seem to recall seeing a study that if you ask people to think of a random number, a disproportionate number of them will choose seven It could be like this, except whoever was at Square just chose twenty-seven instead.

 

[Master Bates]

Is this Japan's version of the A113?

Or maybe it's foreshadowing a remake; that they'll be making TWO (2) versions of Final Fantasy 7 (OG and Remake).

Thus, 27.

Or I'm just delusional.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

@PenguinLord27
How is your playthrough of the game going?

 

[Sephira]

Wait a second, isn't Sephiroth 27 years old during the main events of FFVII?

According to the timeline, he was born in 1980 and the events of the OG happen in 0007 (which is 27 years later).

It could be a coincidence, but... hmm. Interesting.

 

[S.L.Kerrigan]

Sephiroth was kind of a rockstar, maybe he deserves membership of the 27 Club !

 

[Sephira]

I can perfectly picture Sephiroth rocking those guitar solos XD haha!

 

[PenguinLord27]

Thank you all for your responses! Really glad to see the interest shown by everyone. Sorry for being so late to respond though.

I completed the game last week. Looking back I think I only saw references to 27 three or so times during the game, so it's not that crazy, I guess. Thank you all for your ideas and suggestions. Would be really cool if Sephiroth is 27 during the events of FFVII but from what I can see online he is around 25... so maybe. Come to think of it something else that I did notice was that during the rocket sequence, the rocket is referred to as 'Shinra Rocket No. 26'... close lol.

Also my screenshots appear to have been removed so apologies if they were inappropriate.

(@The Twilight Mexican) FFVII was my first FF game, and I absolutely loved almost everything about it. I found especially fascinating the themes of Cloud's internal struggle with his identity and the squad's (mainly Aeris') fight for the planet. For me, Cloud and Aeris were the best and most important characters.

The game has convinced me to buy a PS4 and play Remake lol.

I have a couple of small questions about the overall story (including one about Cloud's internal struggle) but I believe I should make a new thread for that so as not to go off topic on this one, but if any of you are interested in helping me out, please check it out! Posting soon after this.