Older version of disc 2 FMV 'Escape from Northern Crater'

[Shademp]

Ok MAYBE I am late to the party yet again but in all my years as an FFVII fan I've never heard of this fmv until I saw it myself less than an hour ago. My standard recording equipment only records in black-and-white so I used my digital camera instead.

VIDEO DESCRIPTION:
(Jump to 0:32 for the good stuff)

This is the alternate version of the disc 2 fmv 'Escape from the Northern Crater', seen only in the first japanese release of FFVII.
Not only are the camera angles and visuals different, but instead of the music transitioning to the fmv-specific audio we're used to, Sephiroth's theme keeps on playing.
After this scene the game immediately jumps to Tifa waking up in Junon, which means there is no scene of Tifa running after Cloud in the dark or finding him at the Sector 7 Slums train station.

EDIT: Uploaded a ripped version of the FMV.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EKU8ZtcQMI

 

[Dana Scully]

Neat, I wonder why they decided to change the angles?

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

It also lacks the emergence of the WEAPONs and Tifa being knocked out. Game definitely shouldn't have been released when it was.

 

[Username]

Thats weird, its like its in beta even though they released it. Agreed with Ariadne, should of been kept back.

 

[Mitch Connor]

I'm sure ppl might already kno about this but Ive never seen that before, nice find Shademp.

 

[Dark and Divine]

For some reason, I would have liked if the part where the Crater starts collapsing (at 0:41) was included in the final version.

But I missed like hell the "BOOOM" when the Lifestream erupts from the Crater.

Glad that they put it in the final version.

 

[Tifabelle]

I guess they didn't have the Final Mix version back then...

 

[Tetsujin]

I guess they didn't have the Final Mix version back then...

They did, as they got the International version with all the added content plus a bonus cd.

 

[Dashell]

Hmm... cool.. I always love this beta stuff

No Tifa falling down either. In fact she stayed on that thing pretty well, for how it was moving.

 

[Pixel]

Hmmm i guess its because some of the weapons didnt exist in the original japanese release. It could have been an afterthought that they could be released when the crater colapsed, so were added to the fmv

Nice find btw

 

[Shademp]

Until now I didn't think much about the fact that the Northern Crater isn't that deep until after the Reunion has occurred. It goes from being a fairly shallow crater to a very deep one, complete with intricate caves. Obviously this change occurred when Sephiroth summoned Meteor.

Also, only now when I watch the standard version of this scene (complete with the Weapons) I notice that the background is collapsing when we see Diamond Weapon climbing up. Also, rocks are falling all around in the obscure environment where Sapphire Weapon rises. So we are seeing the same collapse as in the old FMV, albeit more obscurely (and in better graphics).

It's great that this old scene now has brought my attention to these little details I didn't think about before.

But I missed like hell the "BOOOM" when the Lifestream erupts from the Crater.

Glad that they put it in the final version.

I agree whole heartedly.

 

[ForceStealer]

That's exactly what I thought when I saw that scene - I never really noticed that the crater was shallow until that explosion. I guess I always thought that whole Whirlwind Maze segment took place in the larger crater surrounding the center one. Interesting.

 

[Shademp]

I ripped the FMV from the game and uploaded it to youtube as well. Quality is kinda bad but it was the best I could do on short notice. I'll see later if I can create an even better version.

Will change name and description of video after some sleep. *faints*

 

[Sprites]

That's pretty cool, I love little things like this. I think I defintley prefer the other version to this anyways but its still pretty cool being able to see parts of the crater collapse more. I didn't realise it was actually pretty shallow until that either.

 

[ForceStealer]

I knew the English version added Ruby and Emerald, I hadn't known that it actually added ALL the Weapons to the scene.

 

[Kobato]

It seems kind of cooler with Sephiroth's theme still playing in the background. Like you're escaping from Sephiroth's destruction. It kind of shows you what power Sephiroth is capable of. Which is pretty neat.

 

[DLPB]

Cool, never knew about this, although I do know Supernova in Japanese game was a bog standard version which was later greatly improved.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Interesting. I'd never seen this either. The collapsing of crater is the most interesting part to me, because as Monochrome Delirious mentioned, it's super shallow. Quite glad that the US got the better version upon initial release.


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