Map Analysis Part 6 -

Part 6 of an analysis of all the prerenders found in Final Fantasy VII. Some of the text is too small to be seen without zooming in and some of the pictures are larger than can be displayed on this page, so click here to download them for yourself or here to view them one by one in full.

The piano here always bothered me since it used the “do re mi” system for notes instead of the usual ABC you’d normally think in when playing this instrument. However, I later realized it was because in Japan they do use “do re mi” to signify the notes for the piano. An interesting cultural difference left in the game.

The symbol over the furnace at the back reads “fire” (火).

BrutalAl says: You can see from the background here that this room in the Shin-Ra mansion is a greenhouse (if all the plants didn’t make it obvious). Wonder who’s been looking after the plants?

This building is called “The London”. The buildings in Kalm also have similar, pub-like names.

The fateful photograph.

This map has some Greek writing which reads “smkin 3” (σμκιν 3), a reflection of the filename of another map, leading Robert Seddon to speculate that at one point in development, this map from the North Mako Reactor once belonged in the South Reactor. Check out his detailed analysis and conclusions here.

Interestingly, the map here is shown in a prerelease shot to be missing its ladder, meaning the now-functionless little box at the top of the bridge was once the entrance. Always found that suspicious.