Juche

Final Fantasy VII is a best selling RPG for the Sony Playstation. Despite being a best seller the game is filled with highly offensive material. For one it features a hockey team named the AVALANCHE who are also a terrorist group. They blow up a coal power plant but justify it by saying they are helping the environment. The game is also filled with profanity especially from Cid and Barrett (who bears a strong resemblence to Mr. T). The game was also critcized harshly because of the sexual liasons of the main character Cloud Strife. He has relations with three girls in the course of the game including a 16 year old Japenese girl named Yuffie.

Characters

Cloud

The main protagonist of the game. Once a member of the US marines, now heads an eco-terrorist group called Avalanche

Barrett (aka Mr. T)

An African-American man who is second in command in Avalanche to Cloud. Has an adopted white daughter named Marlene. Shows love and affection to her, one of the few redeeming qualities of this highly offensive game.

Tifa

Cloud's gf from his childhood. Flashbacks show Tifa and Cloud engaging in sexual acts as early as age 12. This part of the game as been highly criticized

Aeris

Another one of Cloud's love interests. Cloud steals Aeris' virginity. To be fair though, Cloud does show genuine affection towards her and becomes extremely upset when she is brutally murdered by Sephiroth.

Cid Jefferson

Owner of the Jefferson Airplane, an aircraft you can use to fly all over the world. Joins your group after he is offered a night with Yuffie and a 12 pack of Blue.

Vince the Pince

A mysterious man who has been locked in the Shinra mansion in Nibelheim for 30 years. He has been crygenically frozen so he still resembes a 27 year old man. Shoots people with his Colt 45.

Cait Sith

A puppett controlled by a 40 year old virgin who works in an office in Midgar. Turns out to be a mole for Shinra but later joins the cause of AVALANCHE

Yuffie Kisagari

An attractive Japenese teenager. She has a passionate affair with Cloud Strife and also has relations with Cid (she only slept with Cid so the crew would get access to the Jefferson Airplane). She was kidnapped and molested by Don Corleone in Tokyo but was rescued before Corleone could have intercourse with her.]

Red CXIX

Cloud's pet dog. A loyal companion with a gentle temperment, Red is probably the most moral individual in the game (sad to say because he is not even human). He shows affection to all he meets especially children.

Sephiroth

A highly dangerous psychopath with superhuman strength. He is also a leader of a dangerous cult known as Jenova's Witnesses. He is the main antagonist of the game and brutally murders Aeris in the Canadian Rockies.

Criticisms

Although from a commercial standpoint Final Fantasy VII was highly successful, it has been criticized by a variety of both liberal and conservative groups including Christian groups, women's groups, and minority groups.

Christian Criticisms

Although the game does not mock Christianity or make any references to God or Jesus, the game does violate Christian values. On one hand, Cloud does show genuine affection to his friends and lovers and Barrett is shown to have a good relationship to his daughter but the game is fraught with moral relativism. The protagonists of the game are eco-terrorists who although their cause may be noble, their methods are brutal and repugnant and their actions kill innocent civilians. Although their renounce terror later in the game, this does not excuse their actions. Also sex is trivalized in the game. Instead of being the ultimate act of intimacy between a man and his wife; Cloud has relations with three unmarried young women, one of whom is still a teenager. Although the acts were depicted as consensual, this does not send a good message to young impressionable children and teens.

Women's Rights Group Criticisms

Ironically, many women's rights groups share some of the same complaints as Christian groups. Despite often being at odds with each other, feminists and Christians find some common ground in their opposition to this game. Women's groups find the way sex is trivalized to be highly offensive as well as the fact that the girls in the game are sometimes treated as sex objects by the other characters. The fact that a 16 year old is depicted in sexual acts with an older man (Cloud is 21 years old) has also been harshly criticized.

Minority Rights Group Criticisms

Both Japanese and African-American groups have been highly outraged by the stereotypical portrayal of Japenase and African American characters. Barrett is depicted as loud, hot-headed and prone to violence, reinforcing the stereotype of black gang members. Yuffie is portrayed as a nymphomaniac which perpetuates the stereotype that Japanese women are merely the playthings of Western men.