Final Fantasy VII · Super Nintendo Entertainment System (planned) · Build: early 1994 · Discovered: 2017 · Developer Archive
Final Fantasy VII was first planned for the Super Famicom, with an early story idea set in New York, before Square moved the project to the PlayStation and 3D graphics.
After Final Fantasy VI, Square began early planning for its successor on the Super Famicom. Early story ideas reportedly included a modern-day setting in New York with a detective-style plot. Work was paused while staff moved onto other projects such as Chrono Trigger. In 1995 Square showed a real-time 3D demonstration featuring Final Fantasy VI characters running on Silicon Graphics workstations, signalling its shift to 3D. Cartridge size limits pushed the company towards CD-based hardware, and Final Fantasy VII was developed for the PlayStation, where it was released in January 1997 with pre-rendered backgrounds and polygon characters designed by Tetsuya Nomura.
Square's decision to move Final Fantasy VII from a planned SNES release to PlayStation was among the most consequential platform decisions in gaming history. The SNES prototype stage was not simply a matter of porting — transitioning to PlayStation required reconceiving the game's visual presentation, redesigning its mechanical systems, and rewriting scenario elements that had been designed around the constraints and conventions of 2D SNES game design.
The 3D world map, the pre-rendered background technology, the polygonal character models in battles — none of these existed in the 2D concept. Square's development of the PlayStation build required solving technical problems that had no established solutions, including the famous pre-rendered background system that placed 3D character models in front of static painted environments. That system, developed as a practical response to the PlayStation's polygon limits, became one of the game's defining visual characteristics.
Accounts from Square staff describe early story ideas that differ from the finished game, including a modern-day New York setting. These accounts are fragmentary, and the early concepts are best seen as a starting point rather than a version of the finished game, which developed its own world around the city of Midgar.