Is there a character even more cruel than Sephiroth in the Final Fantasy universe? It must be said that between the devastation he caused in Nibelheim, his desire to destroy the planet and humanity and his multiple attempts to manipulate the heroes, and more particularly Cloud, the famous antagonist of the game occupies a place of choice in this ranking. However, he is perhaps not in first place because, at the helm of this tragedy, we find another man who is at the origin of everything, in a way! Warning, this article contains spoilers about the lore and story of Final Fantasy VII.
Crueler than Sephiroth, he is the antagonist of all antagonists
This will not have escaped anyone – even less since the recent holding of a State of Play dedicated to the second part of the remake trilogy -, the release of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is fast approaching and crystallizes many hopes, both among players and its creators. Deliberately opaque on the story ins and outs of the sequel to Final Fantasy VII Remake, the project executives only disseminated small clues through the game's communication, whether via trailers or numerous interviews. One of the proofs of this mystery remains the involvement of the character of Zack and this mysterious story of timelines. In the same way, Sephiroth's designs are also very obscure.we just know that Square Enix aims to make him an even more present villain than in the original work.
Advertisement
For twenty-seven years, the legendary SOLDIER warrior remains one of the major antagonists of video games in general. However, we know that behind her face is largely hidden The Calamity of the Heavens, the famous Jenova, trying to reach Reunion. If we have already mentioned the character of Sephiroth through a dedicated article, returning to the empathy that he will now be able to arouse and on the fact that it is an interesting idea to intensify the dramatic dimension and the tragedy that revolves around him, we wanted to focus on a character that we cite less often than the evil duo Sephiroth /Jenova: Professor Hojo. Casually, if he is not a very visually present antagonist, it is indeed he who is at the origin of the drama which innervates the entire universe of Final Fantasy VII.
The discovery of Jenova: the beginning of Professor Hojo's madness
If we go back very far in the past of certain characters in Final Fantasy VII, we quickly come across a common denominator which is none other than Hojo. The director of the R&D (Research and Development) department, aged 62, is presented (in the book Final Fantasy VII Ultimania) like a ” egocentric researcher with inhumane methods “, and that's the least we can say. It all started with the Jenova Project, initiated by Professor Gast Faremis (also the scientific director of Shinra at that time). It is thanks to this that Shinra discovers Mako, draws on it excessively and increases its influence in multiple areas (energy, politics, territory, military). It was through his increasingly in-depth research that he discovered Jenova in the North Crater. – it is also he who baptizes it thus – and thinks he has got his hands on one of the last representatives of the people of the Ancients (or Cetras), several millennia old, whose existence he discovered some time before . The idea of a process of resurrection of this precursor people is initiated with the hope of leading Shinra towards the Promised Land. To achieve this, Gast surrounds himself with eminent scientists such as Hollander,
Lucrecia Crescent, Grimoire Valentine and… Hojo.
The team of researchers therefore decided to settle in Nibelheim. But, very quickly, one of them, in this case Hojo, does not hesitate to put aside all forms of ethics to satisfy his ambitions… and erase the inferiority complex that he develops upon contact by Gast, considered a genius. For Hojo, we must go even further – humans are only guinea pigs for him – and therefore carries out experiments in vivo. It is also under his leadership that he will begin – in parallel with his friend Hollander, at the origin of Project G (for Gillian) – project S (for SOLDIER / SOLDIER). Discreet for a time, Hojo cannot hide indefinitely the cellular experiments he is carrying out, from Jenova, on human subjects. All this reaches the ears of Gast who, furious, dissociates himself from all Shinra research… and disappears. During this time, Gast actually meets a young woman named Ifalna who will tell him that she is the last descendant of the Cétras. In Gast's mind, everything is now clear: Shinra has gone astray. So, to keep this secret, they take refuge in Ice Cube Village… and give birth to Aerith. Act 1 of the tragedy is underway!
The tragedy of almost every character in Final Fantasy VII converges on Hojo
In parallel with Gast's major discoveries, Hojo continues to exert his control over the biological department of Shinra and even takes the reins as director. In a way, he succeeds Gast and goes even further in ethical prohibitions, not hesitating to eliminate the slightest person who tries to hinder him: Vincent Valentine, member of the Turks, will learn this the hard way. Having developed romantic feelings towards Lucrécia Crescent – a love impossible to experience due to the guilt that Lucrécia feels following the sacrifice of Grimoire Valentine, saving her at the last minute from a failed implantation type of a beast – kept rigid in the worst-case scenario – His members are assembled and the gaskets are mounted.
Advertisement
We learn about discoveries like this throughout the years. Final Fantasy VII. We understand, for example, that he has increased the number of experimentation attempts on Aerith as well as on Red XIII, who is released during the excursion to the Shinra Tower. Until the end of the original adventure, he will show pride like no other, wishing to realize his greatest dream: reincarnate as Omega, the Weapon of Last Resort, supposed to channel the entire River of Life and take flight into the cosmos to restart a new cycle. This is also what he will try to do, towards the end of the 1997 game, when he inoculates Jenova cells to face Cloud and the rest of the team. In a final effort to survive, he ma