If the victory fanfare from Final Fantasy 7 played in your mind when you read the title, you’re not alone. And I’m the one who WROTE the title. Heck, it’s playing on loop. RPG speedruns can be a bit tedious to watch because of all the battling, and Final Fantasy 7 is quite a large game. But this particular run is just under three hours, so it’s watchable in one go or in two or three sittings. This is all thanks to one certain trick, without which the play time would extend to over seven hours. The category is any%, anything goes, the platform is PC, the time is 2:48:07, measured in real time. Let’s get started.
XeroKynos obviously employs glitches in this run, in particular, a trick called extended battle mode warping. As the name implies, it’s a kind of wrong warp that gives him access to Final Fantasy 7’s debug room. Admittedly, a large chunk of the run besides that is watching cutscenes play out – the EBMW happens a bit after the two hour forty minute mark, so feel free to skip ahead if you get impatient. This is one of the few speedruns that uses this trick, though more runners have employed it since then to score similar end times.
Really, what can be said about Final Fantasy 7 that hasn’t been repeated since the dawn of time? It’s beyond classic, and deserving of every last bit of critical acclaim it’s achieved. And don’t forget there’s that remastered version in the works to look forward to as well. It’ll even have Cloud’s original voice actor returning for the role. Can’t wait for the side-by-side comparison plays to come rolling in.
Need to catch up with Speedrun Fast? Then you’d best start climbing, ‘cuz Catherine is looking to devour you, and she’s gaining ground fast!
