A hidden programmer message is hidden in the files of Disk 3, stating:

"great special thanx to you, ARIKO...from your husband, HIDEJI".

In the very first Japanese release of the game, at the bottom of the well in Corel Prison, a rare debug enemy known as "Test 0" that was accidentally left in the game on its initial release can be randomly encountered. This encounter does not require cheats or hacks to occur, although GameShark codes can be used to access every other debug enemy battle in the game. This battle was removed from all future releases of the game. "The Completely Unauthorized Final Fantasy VII Ultimate Guide" by Versus Books, released in 1997, features an entry on this enemy (note that the HP listing in the guide scan is incorrect; Type 0 has 30000 HP).

According to the game's art director Yūsuke Naora, he liked how his design of the city of Midgar turned out, having envisioned the city in his head as a pizza while he was designing it.

After the first AVALANCHE mission at the start of the game, Barret will reference this inspiration when talking to Cloud about the upper plate of Midgar:


Additionally, the name of the song "Underneath the Rotting Pizza", which prominently plays in many of the slum areas in Midgar, is a reference to its design.

In the early development stages, producer Tetsuya Nomura planned to have only three playable characters in the entire game. However, during a phone call with Yoshinori Kitase, they decided that one of the three characters should be permanently killed off. After the staff chose Aerith, Nomura created Tifa as another possible love interest for Cloud.

In an interview, Tetsuya Nomura stated that he envisioned Cloud and Sephiroth's relationship to be like that of Musashi Miyamoto and Sasaki Kojiro. This influenced not only their appearances, but also the appearances of their swords.

"For me, it’s of course Cloud and Sephiroth. My concept for Sephiroth from the beginning was that everything about him would be kakkoii. His battle movements, and all his in-game scenes too. My image of the relationship between Cloud AND Sephiroth was that of Musashi Miyamoto and Sasaki Kojiro, and I had them in mind when I designed their appearance, as well as their swords. Of course Cloud is Musashi, and Sephiroth is Kojiro."

One of the advertisements for the game reads "Someone please get the guys who make cartridge games a cigarette and a blindfold." and "Good thing, if it were available on cartridge, it'd retail for around $1,200." This was a jab at Nintendo and their cartridge-based platform the Nintendo 64.

During the Motorcycle Chase FMV, Midgar is incorrectly spelled Midgal on the side of the truck door. This is probably because the letters "R" and "L" are commonly mistranslated from Japanese to English.

According to character designer Tetsuya Nomura, Aerith's dress was specifically designed so that it used a low number of polygons. Cloud was originally designed with slicked-back hair for the same reason.

Final Fantasy VII heavily references the Lurian Kabbalah [kah-ball-a]. Kabbalah is a Jewish school of thought that also refers to the mysticism of Judaism and Gnosticism, a collection of ancient religions. Not only does FFVII draw from the beliefs of these religions, but it incorporates what actually happened to the followers in real life, as well as using Hebrew in the formation of character names. A few examples are:

• The Gnostics were persecuted, like the Cetra.
• Sephiroth's name comes from the term Sefirot (meaning "counting" or "enumeration"), which refers to the ten aspects of God in the Tree of Life.
• The sixth sefira in Tree of Life is beauty, known in Hebrew as Tif'eret {ti-fah-ret}. It is possible that this is how Tifa's name was derived.

The original idea for the game had it set in modern New York City in the year 1999, and was intended to have a "detective story" theme, with a character called "Hot Blooded Detective Joe". The early script had him chasing the main characters, who would then blow up the city of Midgar.

One of the early art directions of the game was going to use 2D pixel-based graphics. There was one concept image early in the development featuring an isometric view in this style using Final Fantasy VI character designs, including Locke.

The meaning of "Safer Sephiroth", the name of the final boss -- not counting the unloseable battle that follows -- has been the subject of debate. Many assume that it's a mistranslation of "Seraph Sephiroth", as Sephiroth's form bears an explicit resemblance to the six-winged Seraph angels (particularly as depicted in the painting "Stigmatization of St. Francis" by Giotto).

However this is not true, as the Japanese name is romanized as Sēfa Sefirosu. The actual translation is 'Sepher', which is Hebrew for the word Book. Sephiroth's name itself is based on the Hebrew word Səphīrōth, which can be translated as Numbers. The name Sepher Sephiroth can thus be translated as "Book of Numbers", one of the books in the Hebrew Bible.

Cait Sith resembles the Esper "Stray" from Final Fantasy VI, which was also called Cait Sith in the original Japanese version. The name itself comes from Celtic mythology, and means "faerie cat".

During the events of Cloud's flashback to Nibelheim, the player can go into Tifa's house. Tifa isn't home, but the player still has the ability to explore her entire house. If the player interacts with the wardrobe in Tifa's room, they will find a joke item called the "Orthopaedic Underwear." The Tifa listening to the story in the present will scold Cloud for joking whilst he is retelling his story.

The unusually named boss "Bizarro-Sephiroth" was a result of a mistranslation. The boss is actually known as "Rebirth-Sephiroth", but due to the letters "B" and "V" being interchangeable in Japanese and "th" often being translated as "S" (the same issue led to Aerith being known as Aeris), it ended up being translated as "Reverse-Sephiroth."

The translators then replaced the word "Reverse" with "Bizarro", which in the west can be used as a slang term to refer to something that is opposite or backwards. It is derived from the character Bizarro from the Superman comics, who was an imperfect clone of Superman who consciously did things the opposite way they were expected.

Both Ruby and Emerald WEAPON were not in the original Japanese version of the game. They were added later for the international versions of the game.

Cloud's Buster Sword was originally a lot smaller and thinner with only one Materia slot. Tetsuya Nomura's original vision of the Buster Sword was unrefined steel, and he referred to it as "the Giant Kitchen Knife".

The intro to Sephiroth's theme, "One-Winged Angel", was inspired by the intro to the song "Purple Haze" by the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Due to both Vincent and Yuffie being optional recruits, they do not appear in the game's ending cutscene.

In the 2012 PC re-release, using a Save Crystal in a specific screen of the Northern Cave will display the area name in the menu and save file as "Secret Cow Level". This is a reference to the Secret Cow Level in Diablo II.

With help from a GameShark code, the player can reveal that Sephiroth has only 1 HP.

The character Zack Fair was created late into development. He was made up along the way as Kazushige Nojima was building up the mysteries surrounding Cloud (most importantly, who he was and who he based his fake cocky personality on). Before Zack was created, Aerith was to see her first love in Cloud, though who that person would be was not yet decided until later, but there were plans to make this person Sephiroth. Eventually, Zack was placed to serve as both Aerith's first love and to solve the mysteries surrounding Cloud. When he was finally developed, Nojima asked the staff in charge of the event scenes to add foreshadowing to Cloud's true persona and to Zack himself. Zack was also the last character to be drawn by Tetsuya Nomura.

The number 7 is very prevalent in the game.

• AVALANCHE resides in Sector 7 of Midgar.
• Tifa's bar is called 7th Heaven.
• At the start of the game, seven people are either living or staying at the 7th Heaven -- Cloud, Barret, Tifa, Marlene, Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie.
• The books in the Shinra Mansion library shelves form the letters "VII".
• The red plane in Costa Del Sol harbor has "VII" painted on the side.
• The Gold Saucer has seven areas of attractions.
• The Ancient Forest has seven treasures.
• The Turtle's Paradise awards seven items for completing the flyer-hunt sidequest.
• Aeris and Ifalna were held captive by Hojo for seven years.
• It's been seven years since Cloud left Nibelheim to join SOLDIER.
• Tifa spends seven days unconscious before waking up after the Weapons awake.
• Red XIII tells the party that Meteor will reach the Planet in seven days.
• Cloud levels up to level 7 in the first battle.
• If a unit's HP hits 7,777 during battle they enter All Lucky 7s status.
• The "lucky" handicap reel on the Battle Square is called Lucky 7.
• Most characters have seven different Limit Breaks. The exceptions are Cait Sith, who has two but with various different outcomes, and Vincent, who has four, but each form has two special attacks. This makes for seven characters who have seven Limit Breaks.
• There are nine main playable characters, but only seven are mandatory.

There is a bit of unused dialogue found in the Final Fantasy VII game data that would have taken place outside the Shinra Headquarters, before the party head in for the first time, and in the elevator, if the player entered the building through the main entrance. Outside the building, Barret would suggest that Cloud knows the place well, to which Cloud would have answered it to be his first time there. Barret would then have said he has been at the headquarters before, back when he still had both his hands. The elevator scene is similar, with Cloud saying he's never been to the place before and asking if Barret is familiar with it, which would have prompted the same response from Barret. These bits were cut off the final game and nothing in the finished version suggests Barret would have ever visited the Shinra Headquarters before.

Barret was the first consistently dark-skinned playable character in the Final Fantasy series as Leo Cristophe from Final Fantasy VI was light-skinned in his sprite form.

Final Fantasy VII's original Spanish translation is considered to be one of the worst of all time, even being called the "Spanish Zero Wing" by some (the infamous "All Your Base are belong to us" videogame).

There are some minor mistakes, such as mistaking "Well" for "Rueda" (that means Wheel) or "Hurry" for "Hurra" (which means "Hooray") but there are others which completely destroy the dialogue. The most remarkable examples are:

-Every time that someone talks about Aerith, Yuffie, Tifa or any other female character from the game, they will be referred as if they were male, as some words in English ("the", "a", almost every adjective... etc.) are used for both males and females, but not in Spanish where most of them vary depending on the gender ("un/una", "el/la"...).

-The word "You" in English is both singular and plural, but in Spanish there are two words for that, "Tú" for singular, and "Vosotros" for plural. The word "Vosotros" is never used in the game.

-The word "Miss" is translated as "Merma" (literally "Decreases").

-One of the worst translated parts is the Gold Saucer, with sentences that don't make any sense, such as "Allévoy" (something like "Hericome" instead of "Allá voy", which means "Here I come") or "¿Quién participaré??" (literally "Who will I participate?").

-The word "Party" is used in every wrong way possible. Sometimes it says "Haz un partido de tres", which means "Make a political party of three", but the most known mistake is in Kalm's Inn, where the inn's owner says "Su fiesta le espera en el piso de arriba" ("fiesta" here meaning cheerful celebration).

When returning to the Sector 5 Church, two different images of Aeris may be seen. One appears for a split second in the center of screen before disappearing, while in the other Aeris is seen tending the flowers before Cloud moves closer. It has been speculated this is meant to be her "ghost".

During the cutscene Spoiler:in which he kills Aeris, Sephiroth's hands are bare as he descends from the ceiling. However, during the rest of the scene, he has black gloves on.

Aeris, after being brought back via a cheat device, has dialogue in discs 2 and 3. This seems to imply that either Spoiler:she was not meant to die at the end of disc 1 or that Spoiler:she was intended to be revived later in the game.

After you find Cloud in the hospital after he falls in the Lifestream, he will mumble incoherent things when you speak to him. One of the things he mumbles is "zeno... gias..." This is a translation error and a reference to the game Xenogears. In the PC port of Final Fantasy VII, the spelling is corrected to "Xeno... gears".

Cloud also says "A billion mirror fragments.... small.... light..." which is a reference to the vocal song of Xenogears, Small Two of Pieces. One of the lines to the song is "Broken mirror, a million shades of light".

According to the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega, earlier drafts of the game's scenario involved three characters known as the '3 Saints'. Not much is known about their original role in the story, other than they were kidnapped by Sephiroth, and that Red XIII knew more about them than the rest of your party. The only Saint mentioned by name was called Gandalf, who was captured by Hojo and "practically crippled" in a Shinra laboratory.

While at the Honeybee Inn, if you look into one of the occupied rooms through a key-hole, you can see a mini Cait Sith inside a bath tub jumping around.

Red XIII had a subplot that was cut from the game as the plot developed in a different direction. Originally there were to be two Red XIII clones created by Hojo called Cobalt XIV and Indigo XV. The player would have to fight all three of the "Red XIIIs" and figure out which was the real one, with the three swapping places periodically. Defeating the real Red XIII by accident meant the player had to fight the following boss battle with Hojo with only two party members. Cobalt and Indigo would return in the final dungeon of the game, turned into cyborgs and determined to prove they were superior to the real Red XIII.

There is a hidden "Red Man" in the Corel Prison. The model is hidden from view in normal gameplay. There are no other models like this in the game, and it is thought to be a signature from one of the designers.

During the scene where Sister Ray is about to fire the Diamond Weapon, there is a voice that comes through the intercom. The voice actor is not credited in the credits, and the person who spoke through it is unknown.

Although a voice was heard, and ultimately makes Final Fantasy VII the first Final Fantasy game with a voice actor.

During development, series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi's mother passed away. At the time, Sakaguchi wanted to craft a story that would show just because somebody has passed on, it doesn't mean that they are forever lost. He also wanted to present a realistic death, rather than a Hollywood sacrificial end. These two desires resulted in the concept of the Lifestream and Aeris' iconic death. The characters continuing to go on, attempting to save the world, after Aeris' death is a reflection of his own feelings coping with his mother's tragic death.

Many people still don't know how Cloud's legendary "Buster Sword" sticks to his back, but if you look at his initial design, it shows there is a magnet held by his pant straps that keeps his sword in place.

Cloud's hair was originally supposed to be black and slicked back to contrast with Sephiroth's long white hair. The developers also thought it would be a good way to render less polygons on screen. The idea was eventually ditched for his iconic spiky hair. The idea was later used for Angeal, the original wielder of the Buster Sword and Sephiroph's close friend in Crisis Core.

There are large quantities of cut content from the soapland 'Honey Bee Inn'. The content is as follows:

Whilst in the club, Cloud could end up in a bathtub with nine muscular men, peep through keyholes of occupied rooms, have makeup applied, and choose a room to stay in. You could have also encountered Palmer, head of the Shinra company's space program, coming from one of his regular "bath sessions". There was also a waiting room and employee's louge which players could visit and interact with NPCs.

Whilst some of this content was ultimately cut from the game, the unfinished content can be found on the discs of the original Japanese release and can be accessed through file hacks.

The inscription on Jenova's helmet is a reference to the real world, and read:
Made in Hong Kong
All rights reserved 1996
Squer Company Limited

It wasn't until 2005 (When a high-res image emerged) that this was found, 8 years after the game was released.

In the Ghost Square section of the Gold Saucer there is a pumpkin with green eyes in the corner of the room to the left of reception at the inn. Interacting with this pumpkin will cause it to laugh. This laugh is in fact a slightly slower version of the iconic laugh of Kefka Palazzo, the villain from Final Fantasy VI.