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500 años después: Final Fantasy VII a través de sus creadores
500 años después: Final Fantasy VII a través de sus creadores es una emocionante exploración sobre la creación del aclamado juego de rol para PlayStation. Con más de treinta testimonios entrelazados y una fabulosa producción, este libro ofrece una perspectiva sin precedentes sobre el arte y la ambición detrás de uno de los RPG más célebres de todos los tiempos, narrada por las personas que lo hicieron posible.
Esta versión en papel es una adaptación extendida de la historia de veintisiete mil palabras escrita por Matt Leone y publicada en internet en el prestigioso medio especializado estadounidense Polygon en enero del 2017. La presente edición cuenta con ilustraciones exclusivas, ocho entrevistas individuales nuevas y un prefacio de Hironobu Sakaguchi, el creador de la saga. El libro definitivo para entender cómo se gestó el videojuego que cambió para siempre la historia de este medio.
Entrevistados: Shigeo Maruyama, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Motonori Sakakibara, Tomoyuki Takechi, Tatsuya Yoshinari, Kyoko Higo, Yoshihiro Maruyama, Hiroshi Kawai, Yoshinori Kitase, Tetsuya Nomura, Kazuyuki Hashimoto, Keith Boesky, Yoshitaka Amano, Shinichiro Kajitani, Darren Smith, Junichi Yanagihara, Shuhei Yoshida, Jun Iwasaki, George Harrison, Hiroki Chiba, Frank Hom, Nobuo Uematsu, Alexander O. Smith, Kazushige Nojima, Seth Luisi, David Bamberger, Elaine Di Iorio, William Chen, Rex Ishibashi, John Riccitiello, Yoichi Wada, Yusuke Naora
Esta versión en papel es una adaptación extendida de la historia de veintisiete mil palabras escrita por Matt Leone y publicada en internet en el prestigioso medio especializado estadounidense Polygon en enero del 2017. La presente edición cuenta con ilustraciones exclusivas, ocho entrevistas individuales nuevas y un prefacio de Hironobu Sakaguchi, el creador de la saga. El libro definitivo para entender cómo se gestó el videojuego que cambió para siempre la historia de este medio.
Entrevistados: Shigeo Maruyama, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Motonori Sakakibara, Tomoyuki Takechi, Tatsuya Yoshinari, Kyoko Higo, Yoshihiro Maruyama, Hiroshi Kawai, Yoshinori Kitase, Tetsuya Nomura, Kazuyuki Hashimoto, Keith Boesky, Yoshitaka Amano, Shinichiro Kajitani, Darren Smith, Junichi Yanagihara, Shuhei Yoshida, Jun Iwasaki, George Harrison, Hiroki Chiba, Frank Hom, Nobuo Uematsu, Alexander O. Smith, Kazushige Nojima, Seth Luisi, David Bamberger, Elaine Di Iorio, William Chen, Rex Ishibashi, John Riccitiello, Yoichi Wada, Yusuke Naora
256 pages, Hardcover
Published September 16, 2020
10 people are currently reading
146 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
July 3, 2021
A decent-enough read but not at all what I was hoping for. Lots of attention paid to Square as a business pre- and post-FF7, marketing a game like this internationally, and a few fun tidbits about the areas around it, like localization and the PC port, but precious little on the actual development of the game itself. I dont know if this was a problem of space or of the devs being cagey about this stuff or what - further FF7 media shows that the folks who originally worked on this game seem blissfully unaware of what they made or why it works - but if you're looking for insight on the creative choices made in one of the best and most significant games of all-time, you sadly won't find it here.
January 28, 2019
It's more of an oral history of the business fortunes of Square before and after Final Fantasy VII, rather than an actual history of the creative decisions that went into the game, but still quite interesting.
July 30, 2020
As someone who loves FF7 as one of their favourite video games of all time, it astounds me that in a 200+ page book that this says so little about the game itself. It spends more time talking about everything before and after the game's inception. UltimatelyI came away bored and overly informed of the banalities and politics of dated Japanese video game development. This is really only for the diehards. I will say that it's a very pretty book but that's about all it's good for.
August 31, 2020
As someone who's published quite a few narrative-driven biographies and oral histories of game development on the Internet, believe me when I say that, as readers kindly take the time to remind me on Twitter, these stories are easier to read on tablets or as a bundle of dead trees. Polygon editor Matt Leone's 500 YEARS LATER history of Final Fantasy 7 was a huge undertaking that I read in 2017… until I couldn't stand sitting at my computer any longer, and then saved to Pocket to continue reading on my iPad.
500 YEARS LATER is as engaging in print form as it was online. I've still never played FF7 beyond messing around in the first area at a friend's house--I was firmly in the N64 camp bac in the "PlayStation 1 vs. Nintendo 64" era, largely because I was still too young to get a job and had to choose one or the other for my parents to buy--but I love learning about how games are made. Thanks to Leone's comprehensive interviews from the spectrum of developers at Square Japan, Square USA, and multiple branches of Sony, I appreciate even more the game's technical, narrative, and cinematic achievements.
Being an avid game-player and gaming historian, I knew some of this material, but the majority of it was knew. I never realized, for instance, just how much power Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi wielded within Square after the firs game became such a success. I never realized a certain character died so early in the game--which makes this bold accomplishment even more impressive. Consider: Sakaguchi-san and his team had to 1) create a character; 2) endear you to that character early in the story without your attachment feeling forced so their death felt organic rather than plot driven; and 3) restrain themselves to take the easy way out by resurrecting the character later.
Killing a beloved character early makes for a powerful inciting event if done correctly. This issue continues to be a sticking point for designers and consumers today, as evidenced by the outrage over the death of a beloved character early in Naughty Dog's The Last of Us 2. FF7's developers deserve even more kudos for pulling this off.
I believe I read the web version of 500 YEARS up to the point of FF7's release, both for fun, and for research into an article I wrote on the innovation of FF7's marketing campaign. So I was surprised to find that the story covered the long fallout of the game's success. As an example, I knew the FF: Spirits Within movie bombed (never saw it, having no interest in the games), but I never knew that the even greater surplus of creative freedom given to Sakaguchi-san, who, like George Lucas, really needed someone to tell him "No," was largely responsible. I also knew nothing about Square's partnership with Electronic Arts going into 500 YEARS. As a historian, this and all the other material was a pleasure to read.
Or at least most of the other material. My only complaints about this edition of Leone's excellent history have nothing to do with the content and everything to do with their formatting. Read Only Memory worked with Leone and Polygon to publish the print edition of 500 YEARS, and I understand ROM's decision to omit all the photos, screenshots, and other images Leone included in the online edition. I'm sure there were legal hoops that would have been too expensive to jump through, and ROM would have been left with the choice to either print the book in black-and-white, which would not benefit all the colorful materials seen on Polygon; or print the book in full color at an exorbitant cost.
But the one formatting decision I cannot overlook was the call to seemingly arbitrarily color some pages an eye-searing shade of hot pink. That's bad enough, but the text of those pages is rendered in a slightly darker shade, though no less easy on the eye. These pages only pop up every so often in the main story, but all of the end matter after the epilogue--material that is of great interest to me as a historian--is printed in this pink-on-pink combination, and I simply can't read it. I hate to sound petulant, but reading these pages hurt my eyes. Reading it was literally painful, and I had to stop.
I hope to get around to the bonus content one day. Even if I don't, the body of 500 YEARS LATER as first published online stands on its own more than well enough. I review books based on their content, and the content here is fantastic and easily worth a 5-star rating. The question is, is the print book worth the money? I say yes, particularly for collectors like me who want something to place on their bookshelf. That said, you can read the online version without missing any of the primary content. If you want to read Leone's extras, keep a bottle of Excedrin handy.
500 YEARS LATER is as engaging in print form as it was online. I've still never played FF7 beyond messing around in the first area at a friend's house--I was firmly in the N64 camp bac in the "PlayStation 1 vs. Nintendo 64" era, largely because I was still too young to get a job and had to choose one or the other for my parents to buy--but I love learning about how games are made. Thanks to Leone's comprehensive interviews from the spectrum of developers at Square Japan, Square USA, and multiple branches of Sony, I appreciate even more the game's technical, narrative, and cinematic achievements.
Being an avid game-player and gaming historian, I knew some of this material, but the majority of it was knew. I never realized, for instance, just how much power Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi wielded within Square after the firs game became such a success. I never realized a certain character died so early in the game--which makes this bold accomplishment even more impressive. Consider: Sakaguchi-san and his team had to 1) create a character; 2) endear you to that character early in the story without your attachment feeling forced so their death felt organic rather than plot driven; and 3) restrain themselves to take the easy way out by resurrecting the character later.
Killing a beloved character early makes for a powerful inciting event if done correctly. This issue continues to be a sticking point for designers and consumers today, as evidenced by the outrage over the death of a beloved character early in Naughty Dog's The Last of Us 2. FF7's developers deserve even more kudos for pulling this off.
I believe I read the web version of 500 YEARS up to the point of FF7's release, both for fun, and for research into an article I wrote on the innovation of FF7's marketing campaign. So I was surprised to find that the story covered the long fallout of the game's success. As an example, I knew the FF: Spirits Within movie bombed (never saw it, having no interest in the games), but I never knew that the even greater surplus of creative freedom given to Sakaguchi-san, who, like George Lucas, really needed someone to tell him "No," was largely responsible. I also knew nothing about Square's partnership with Electronic Arts going into 500 YEARS. As a historian, this and all the other material was a pleasure to read.
Or at least most of the other material. My only complaints about this edition of Leone's excellent history have nothing to do with the content and everything to do with their formatting. Read Only Memory worked with Leone and Polygon to publish the print edition of 500 YEARS, and I understand ROM's decision to omit all the photos, screenshots, and other images Leone included in the online edition. I'm sure there were legal hoops that would have been too expensive to jump through, and ROM would have been left with the choice to either print the book in black-and-white, which would not benefit all the colorful materials seen on Polygon; or print the book in full color at an exorbitant cost.
But the one formatting decision I cannot overlook was the call to seemingly arbitrarily color some pages an eye-searing shade of hot pink. That's bad enough, but the text of those pages is rendered in a slightly darker shade, though no less easy on the eye. These pages only pop up every so often in the main story, but all of the end matter after the epilogue--material that is of great interest to me as a historian--is printed in this pink-on-pink combination, and I simply can't read it. I hate to sound petulant, but reading these pages hurt my eyes. Reading it was literally painful, and I had to stop.
I hope to get around to the bonus content one day. Even if I don't, the body of 500 YEARS LATER as first published online stands on its own more than well enough. I review books based on their content, and the content here is fantastic and easily worth a 5-star rating. The question is, is the print book worth the money? I say yes, particularly for collectors like me who want something to place on their bookshelf. That said, you can read the online version without missing any of the primary content. If you want to read Leone's extras, keep a bottle of Excedrin handy.
May 23, 2025
Muy bueno. Ameno y divertido de leer, con una estructura muy original, complementando muy bien lo que sabía de aquí y allá de uno de mis juegos favoritos. Con secretos y todo. Una edición genial. Muy recomendado.
December 13, 2018
Interesting read, even though ive never played FFVII! It provides a really fascinating glimpse at an era and industry you dont often get this much insight into.
January 16, 2022
The first fifty pages of this book are somewhat interesting in terms of shedding light on where the idea for Final Fantasy VII came from, but the rest of the book is corporate gossip. There are dozens of pages of people hinting at things but not explaining them. In addition, there are a lot of contradictions, as well as people vaguely suggesting that perhaps someone is misremembering something. There's also a lot of discussion about why Square's Honolulu studio failed, but almost no one will come out and say what they mean.
The interviews offer occasional flashes of insight regarding the creative decisions that went into the game, and these bits of information are fascinating. I very much enjoyed Tetsuya Nomura's explanation of Cloud's name, for example. I wish the interviewers had asked more questions about the content of game itself, because there isn’t much of interest here unless you care about Japanese corporate culture.
The book's physical design is very stylish, but there are a distressing number of pages in which magenta text is printed against a slightly lighter magenta background. If you don't read these pages in direct sunlight, they're illegible. The staff bios at the back of the book are printed in tiny pink font, and I didn't even try to read them. Hot pink magenta isn't a color I associate with Final Fantasy VII, so I’m not sure what's going on there.
Still, the book design and text layout are both phenomenal, and the interviews are edited and structured in a way that makes them easy and entertaining to read. Despite my lack of interest in the oral history of Square Enix as a corporation, I enjoyed these interviews, and the physical book is a treasure.
The interviews offer occasional flashes of insight regarding the creative decisions that went into the game, and these bits of information are fascinating. I very much enjoyed Tetsuya Nomura's explanation of Cloud's name, for example. I wish the interviewers had asked more questions about the content of game itself, because there isn’t much of interest here unless you care about Japanese corporate culture.
The book's physical design is very stylish, but there are a distressing number of pages in which magenta text is printed against a slightly lighter magenta background. If you don't read these pages in direct sunlight, they're illegible. The staff bios at the back of the book are printed in tiny pink font, and I didn't even try to read them. Hot pink magenta isn't a color I associate with Final Fantasy VII, so I’m not sure what's going on there.
Still, the book design and text layout are both phenomenal, and the interviews are edited and structured in a way that makes them easy and entertaining to read. Despite my lack of interest in the oral history of Square Enix as a corporation, I enjoyed these interviews, and the physical book is a treasure.
January 30, 2020
This book is a reprint of an extensive article that was originally published on Polygon.com (a gaming website). It was a tricky read in a web browser: With over 30 different people telling the story, and being 27,000 words long, it was a painful experience to scroll through. Job titles and photographs were added to help, as was a clever bookmarking system, but it was still difficult. So when a printed version was announced, FF7 fans rejoiced.
The printed book version makes for an easier read than its web counterpart... but only just. Less time seems to have been spent on thinking about the best way to layout a 27,000 word oral history, told by 30 different people, and more on making the book's graphic design look "dynamic".
Gone are the photographs (so it's up to you to remember the Japanese names without any visual cues). New illustrations were commissioned instead, but they appear scattershot throughout the book, with no seeming consideration of where they sit. Money was spent on producing not one, not two... but THREE bookmarks! Because that will aid your reading.
Pages are sometimes pink text on pink pages, which are extremely difficult to read (forget it if you've got any vision issues). This is the worst on the biography pages.
Still, it's a wonderful oral history, and despite the complaints, the book is an improvement overall. I just wish they'd remembered that design follows function, not the other way around.
The printed book version makes for an easier read than its web counterpart... but only just. Less time seems to have been spent on thinking about the best way to layout a 27,000 word oral history, told by 30 different people, and more on making the book's graphic design look "dynamic".
Gone are the photographs (so it's up to you to remember the Japanese names without any visual cues). New illustrations were commissioned instead, but they appear scattershot throughout the book, with no seeming consideration of where they sit. Money was spent on producing not one, not two... but THREE bookmarks! Because that will aid your reading.
Pages are sometimes pink text on pink pages, which are extremely difficult to read (forget it if you've got any vision issues). This is the worst on the biography pages.
Still, it's a wonderful oral history, and despite the complaints, the book is an improvement overall. I just wish they'd remembered that design follows function, not the other way around.
February 27, 2024
I enjoyed reading this 'book', but let's be real - this is a long-form internet article in book form. At first I found myself asking, 'why is the font size for the non-interview segments SO LARGE?' (like, 2x what you'd see in a large-print book). Then I realized that, on a website, these would be the couple of paragraphs between sections, so I guess they blew up the type to make the book appear longer?
I also saw a lot of reviews complain that the book was more about the making/aftermath of FF7 than the actual game, but I'd argue that that's kind of what an oral history is... It's not commentary. An oral history of grunge music or MTV or ESPN isn't going to talk about what those things are conceptually, it's going to be stories about the scene or working in those places from the people who were there. And that's what you get here, although it did seem like there could have been more stories about the actual making of the game. To me, the highlights were the interviews with Kitase and Nomura where they were clearly in the same room, talking back and forth about story decisions and things.
Overall, I'm glad I read this and that it exists... But also glad I got it as a gift bc I don't know if this was worth $40-50.
I also saw a lot of reviews complain that the book was more about the making/aftermath of FF7 than the actual game, but I'd argue that that's kind of what an oral history is... It's not commentary. An oral history of grunge music or MTV or ESPN isn't going to talk about what those things are conceptually, it's going to be stories about the scene or working in those places from the people who were there. And that's what you get here, although it did seem like there could have been more stories about the actual making of the game. To me, the highlights were the interviews with Kitase and Nomura where they were clearly in the same room, talking back and forth about story decisions and things.
Overall, I'm glad I read this and that it exists... But also glad I got it as a gift bc I don't know if this was worth $40-50.
August 15, 2024
This is the printed book edition of a long-form oral history of the making of Final Fantasy VII. It's a nice coffee table or bedside book for light reading. I'm personally a sucker for oral histories and I remain a huge fan of the Final Fantasy series. If you're interested in this series and/or in the video game industry, this is a nice, light read. It captures how difficult success is to consciously create and recreate. Sometimes, the confluence of events out of your control, sprinkled with more than a little bit of luck regarding the people that gather and where they are in life, manages to produce truly special moments and works of art. Final Fantasy VII was such a product. I'm about to play FFVII: Rebirth, after completing Remake and Intergrade and loving both of them, so this was an apt time to finally finish this book. I first played it on the PC since I didn't have a PlayStation back in the day; I still remember begging for it and being profoundly excited in the way you can only feel when you're a child old enough to be aware of things you independently want, but young enough to have not gotten too many of them quite yet.
July 9, 2025
Я заказал оригинал в начале 2022, за несколько недель до войны. Он так никогда до меня и не доехал.
Поэтому закупил русскую локализацию. Оценивать оформление и вёрстку не буду, в локализованной версии они сильно хуже.
Но даже строго по тексту — очень сомнительно. Вроде бы и есть сколько-то новых или малоизвестных фактов, но по факту они все малозначимые.
Вообще непонятно, для кого и про что книжка.
Для любителей FF7? В книге про это на удивление мало.
Для тех, кому интересна внутрянка разработки? И этого тоже мало, "Кровь, пот и пиксели" лучше.
Кажется, книжка сугубо для тех, кому интересны взаимоотношения между отдельными менеджерами и руководителями направлений Square, Nintendo, Silicon Graphics и Sony, причём в отрыве от непосредственно игры. И мне сложно представить, что такие люди вообще есть.
Поэтому закупил русскую локализацию. Оценивать оформление и вёрстку не буду, в локализованной версии они сильно хуже.
Но даже строго по тексту — очень сомнительно. Вроде бы и есть сколько-то новых или малоизвестных фактов, но по факту они все малозначимые.
Вообще непонятно, для кого и про что книжка.
Для любителей FF7? В книге про это на удивление мало.
Для тех, кому интересна внутрянка разработки? И этого тоже мало, "Кровь, пот и пиксели" лучше.
Кажется, книжка сугубо для тех, кому интересны взаимоотношения между отдельными менеджерами и руководителями направлений Square, Nintendo, Silicon Graphics и Sony, причём в отрыве от непосредственно игры. И мне сложно представить, что такие люди вообще есть.
March 5, 2021
I haven't ever played the game (or any Final Fantasy game for that matter), but the design of this book really attracted me, as well as the prospect of learning something about the process of developing a larger game like this. The book is beautifully laid out, with some really nice black and white illustrations of the interviewees and their imagined work environment. It really feels like a cohesive work of art.
The interviews themselves are also fascinating and very informal, which gives the text a very genuine feeling. They're edited together well to tell a story, and they cover a wide range of topics from hardware adaptation challenges to music, infighting, marketing, and the movie adaptation. It's a great read for anyone interested in the details of how games are made.
The interviews themselves are also fascinating and very informal, which gives the text a very genuine feeling. They're edited together well to tell a story, and they cover a wide range of topics from hardware adaptation challenges to music, infighting, marketing, and the movie adaptation. It's a great read for anyone interested in the details of how games are made.
August 7, 2021
Una lectura amena que permite al lector conocer Final Fantasy VII a través de sus creadores. Es una historia oral, compuesta de entrevistas a 30 personas que estuvieron relacionadas con los procesos de producción y distribución del juego, pero no deja de ser un artículo Web llevado a papel.
Y ahí está el principal problema de esta obra: el formato. Para justificar la impresión del texto, se ha usado todo tipo de artimañanas, desde fuentes a tamaños ridículamente grandes hasta páginas vacías intercaladas sin motivo. El súmmum son las páginas de color rosa con tipografías minúsculas en otro tono de rosa, no aptas para personas con visión reducida.
Una pena que una lectura interesante y entretenida se vea enturbiada por una edición sin pies ni cabeza.
Y ahí está el principal problema de esta obra: el formato. Para justificar la impresión del texto, se ha usado todo tipo de artimañanas, desde fuentes a tamaños ridículamente grandes hasta páginas vacías intercaladas sin motivo. El súmmum son las páginas de color rosa con tipografías minúsculas en otro tono de rosa, no aptas para personas con visión reducida.
Una pena que una lectura interesante y entretenida se vea enturbiada por una edición sin pies ni cabeza.
December 10, 2021
The focus is less on creative decisions involving VII and more on the corporate switch at Square as a result of the platform choice and the game's subsequent success. This asks for a level of candor from working professionals on potential employers that can only be guarded. It still remains an insightful, thoughtful, and enjoyable read - an impressive piece from Leone - and I look forward to Read Only Memories upcoming print edition of his Street Fighter oral history.
September 28, 2018
While I want particularly a fan of the layout or typography in the book, the content itself was very interesting. It was great to get an insight in to the mind behind one of the most important RPGs (at least to me) of all time, and to learn of the stumbling blocks and successes they had along the way.
January 28, 2019
Incredibly interesting to an avid fan of the final fantasy series. Some brilliant backstory knowledge of the goings on at square during the release of final fantasy vii. Plus who doesn't look a code hidden In the book ;)
October 8, 2019
Bonito libro sobre cómo se hizo uno de los mejores juegos de la historia, con su antes, su durante y su después. Una oral history, es decir, todo lleno de entrevistas y declaraciones de primera mano de todos los implicados.
Muy interesante y un libro que no debe faltar si te gustó el juego.
Muy interesante y un libro que no debe faltar si te gustó el juego.
December 4, 2018
Only 1.8 million $ guarantuee for the PC-version of FFVII by Eidos - can´t get over it.
Amazing book - beautifully designed!
Amazing book - beautifully designed!
Read
November 7, 2022Thorough reflections from key staff on FF7 in a beautifully designed book.
January 24, 2023
4.5
Great look into the development of FFVII and Square in the late 90s and early 2000s. Wish that some of the pages weren't pink text on a pink background, though.
Great look into the development of FFVII and Square in the late 90s and early 2000s. Wish that some of the pages weren't pink text on a pink background, though.
August 13, 2023
Very much an oral history of the business side of developing a video game. Less so on the story aspects, but from my understanding that's very common for Japanese companies.
August 10, 2023
A lot of great information about the creation of one of my favorite games of all time. The book and typography are well designed, but I was hoping for more artwork relating to the game. There are relatively few illustrations and they chronicle the makers and behind the scenes events. I would have liked to see more illustrations and artwork that tie back to the game. It's an oral history on its creation, so it makes sense to not go in that direction though, and overall it is really well made.
Read
April 10, 2025Es un reportaje conformado por entrevistas a los desarrolladores de Final Fantasy VII pero en formato de libro, con algunas ilustraciones. La manufactura física y valores de producción son muy elevados, lo que hace que se sienta mucho más premium de lo que el contenido en realidad es. VII no es mi Final Fantasy favorito, pero le tengo mucho respeto y la historia que se muestra aquí es una muy interesante, sobre todo porque se aborda desde una perspectiva poco común, consistente casi completamente de puras entrevistas, permitiéndote conocer una versión de la realidad que muy rara vez se ve.
Sin calificación.
Sin calificación.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews