Manga Focus By Dov Sherman

With Sony's recent media blitz, nearly anyone with a television will have heard of the exciting new PlayStation RPG Final Fantasy VII from SquareSoft, recently released in the US. This three-disc game boasts dynamic camera movement for battles, more exquisite graphics than any previous RPG (role playing game), and a longer story with dozens of hours of gameplay. What you don't hear about in the commercials is any boasting about the very enjoyable little cross-dressing sequence in the early stages of the story.

Cloud Strife, the spikey-haired hero

The Final Fantasy series of role-playing games from SquareSoft, now reaching its seventh installment (of which FF7 is the fourth to be released in the US), is known for telling a series of unrelated, encapsulated stories featuring complex and dynamic characters, soaring melodrama, and a common gameplay interface. In the gaming world, SquareSoft is often considered to be the very epitome of RPG production, consistently delivering stories with great depth of character. While I wouldn't want to spoil any surprises in FF7, it is notable that after a certain dramatic event occurring near the end of the first disc, many gamers have been known to require a period of mourning before being able to continue the game.

The main plot of Final Fantasy VII revolves around Cloud, a mercenary whose past seems shrouded in mystery, even to him. He's the guy with the huge sword and spikey hair you see in all the ads. As the story begins, Cloud has taken a job with Avalanche, an environmentalist group led by the gun-armed Barret plotting the destruction of a power reactor owned by the vast and powerful Shinra Corporation in the city of Midgar. Following their attack, we are introduced to Tifa, Cloud's childhood friend and a strong martial artist in her own right. During an attack on a second reactor, Cloud is seperated from the group and meets Aeris, a gentle flowergirl who is pursued by Shinra for mysterious reasons.

When Aeris escorts Cloud back to Sector 7, the home of Avalanche, they see a carriage carrying Tifa in a slinky evening gown. Worried for her safety, the two follow her to the seedy Wall Market where, at the local brothel, the Honeybee Inn, they discover that Tifa has been hired as a new Honeybee girl and is having a special interview with the owner, Don Corneo, at that very moment. Aeris and Cloud rush to Corneo's mansion but Cloud is refused admittance because Corneo has no interest in men. Aeris offers to check on Tifa alone but the heroic Cloud refuses to allow her to go into such a dangerous place unescorted. So Aeris suggests he disguise himself as a girl to go in with her. Reluctantly, Cloud agrees.

Back in Wall Market, they find the local dressmaker drowning his sorrows at the bar because he feels very stuck in a rut. Aeris appeals to him privately, confiding that Cloud has a secret desire to dress up as a girl. The dressmaker is overenjoyed by the novelty and agrees to make a dress for Cloud to wear. After Cloud tries on his new dress, Aeris points out that he'll need a proper wig to be really convincing and the dressmaker suggests they ask his friend at the local gymnasium for a wig since they're all cross-dressers too. At the gym, Big Bro agrees to give Cloud a wig if he'll agree to a contest to see who can to the most squats. With his new wig, Cloud is ready to dress up and enter the mansion of Don Corneo.

My own rendition of Miss Cloud with friend Barret Wallace

Aeris and the pretty Miss Cloud are welcomed into Don Corneo's mansion where they find Tifa who explains that she's there to uncover rumors linking Don Corneo to Shinra. Unfortunately, she hasn't been able to get in to see the Don yet. Each night, Don Corneo invites three girls to his mansion and chooses only one with whom to share his bed for the evening. Aeris points out that, if all three girls are in on Tifa's plans, it won't matter which girl is picked. So Tifa, Aeris, and Cloud are led to Don Corneo's office where the night's selection will be made.

At this point, Don Corneo will usually pick either Aeris or Tifa, leaving Cloud as a consolation prize for his henchmen. However, it is possible to get Don Corneo to judge Cloud as the prettiest of the three, choosing him as his "bride" for the evening. To get Cloud looking his best, he'll need a silk dress, a blonde wig, sexy cologne, perfume lingerie, and a diamond tiara, as well as getting the girls at the Honeybee Inn to give him a little make-over. While there is no material reward for getting Cloud dolled up enough to be chosen, you will be treated to a very funny scene in which you get to decide how far Cloud will play along with the Don's advances.

While this certainly isn't the first game to feature a cross-dressing scene for comedic purposes, it's important to note the foretought that went into the design of this particular instance. Since it is possible to continue the game with just a simple cotton dress and a plain wig, the average gamer will acquire these items and finish up the obvious goal to save Tifa from Don Corneo's grasp, thus completing the short cross-dressing sequence before the more priggish players have a chance to be upset by this transgender perversion. But the faint clues to the possibility of making Cloud pretty enough to be chosen are there for those of us who would be receptive and choosing to pursue those optional side quests provides that special reward and satisfaction found in truly getting Cloud dolled up to the nines.

Flea, a bossomy villian from Chrono Trigger

Gogo, a mysterious hero from Final Fantasy VI

This is also not the first transgender element to appear in a SquareSoft game. Final Fantasy VI (released in the US as Final Fantasy III) featured a hidden character named Gogo whose description reads, "Is it a man? Is it a woman? Should we ask?" But more significantly, in the time-travel RPG Chrono Trigger, noted for its non-linearity, providing more than a dozen possible endings, and beautiful character designs by manga artist Akira Toriyama, one of the villians, Flea, is an exceedingly attractive transgendered lady who, despite his feminine curves, is always referred to by friend and foe as male.

Final Fantasy VII while not containing anything beyond the Wall Market adventure in the way of transgender escapades, is loaded with other optional side quests which make the game quite non-linear, giving the player as much freedom of choice as possible. In addition, there is a very subtle "romance" simulation algorithm which watches how Cloud interacts with the female characters in the story. Later in the game the results of that algorithm come into play as Cloud will go on a date with one of four characters: the demure and gentle Aeris, the childhood friend Tifa, the obnoxious ninja girl Yuffie, or, if you manage to alienate all three girls, Barret, the large gun-armed man who joins Cloud and the others in their adventures in the world beyond Midgar. And just so you don't think I've told too much of the story, that enjoyable adventure in Wall Market occurred only four hours into my own game experience with a further eighty hours before I even reached the beginning of disc three.

The hype surrounding Final Fantasy VII is well-deserved and I gladly join in with the critics saying that FF7 is perhaps the best RPG to have been made to date, well worth my own purchasing of a PlayStation just to play this game.