FFVII polls

Important facts to consider

1.       This is NOT a formal study and should not be treated as such. It’s simply a survey.

2.       This was a representation of the Tumblr fandom, not the entire FFVII fandom

3.       Not all questions are required to be answered, so the percentage points indicated in charts are the percentage of VOTERS and not the overall participants. The only required question is the feelings about the Remake.

Due to the highly hostile comments in the shipping section, it will not be available for public viewing, but filtered comments will be posted with the shipping statistics results.

There is no gender comparison since there isn’t a significant difference, and the size of boys in the survey is dwarfed by girls. The skew makes the comparison unreliable. Although what I can say; boys tend to like Vincent more.

There are a total 646 participants and sadly 337 votes are null (meaning they opened the survey but got lazy and just abandoned it.)

Basics

So basically 88% of our participants live in the Western hemisphere.

People answered in “Others” are the following: Non-Binary, Demigirl, agender, Bigender, genderfluid, Male, Transboy, probably, It's complicated, nb trans

These two questions are supposed to test consistency (one at the beginning and the other near the end). I suppose some who didn’t play the games experienced the story through other mediums. BTW sorry for forgetting to include DoC at the early parts of the survey.

Favorite Characters

(one choice only)

(Up to five choices)

(two choices only)

(three choices)

(Three choices only, and this list is much smaller than the male one)

(context of the FFVII game, up to three choices)

Music

Compilation

(up to three choices)

(on the scale of one to ten, the distribution of scores is in the raw results)

When asked how many years have they been a fan of FFVII regardless of the games they played or entries they read/watched. Table:

Based on the chart the highest frequencies coincide with the release of the Original in 1997 (18 years) and Advent Children in 2005 (10 years).  There is also a concentration on 15 years (year 2000) and 5 years respectively (it’s possible that they are introduced by CC or ACC), and 1 year or less (probably attracted by the Remake). On average, FFVII fans have been in the fandom for 10.5 years.  I failed to ask which introduced the fans to FFVII, so please if you have time just answer this in this 10 second survey.

Has the Square to Square-Enix [merge] changed decisions regarding FFVII? Or were they not consistent with the original vision for the franchise?

To explain this: “Square Co., Ltd. (株式会社スクウェア Kabushiki-gaisha Sukuwea?) was a Japanese video game company founded in September 1983 by Masashi Miyamoto. It merged with Enix in 2003 and became Square Enix. “  (wikipedia) So FFVII was NOT created by Square-Enix, but the Compilation was created by that company.

(Sorry for the poor phrasing! I totally missed that error but at least some understood what it meant.) Here’s the other opinions:

·         I enjoy some of the compilation (very much so in a vaccuum!) while also being pretty unsure towards its effect on the original material - I'm really torn on this one. ·         This question is strangely phrases, i dont understand it. Sorry! ·         Lots of changes, some things too large for my liking and others fit perfectly ·         would agree with minor retcons/mostly consistent, but feel they haven't been so faithful to original characterisation et al- however, understandable with the time between installments, translation, etc. the feeling of an old playstation rpg is hard to recapture. they've possibly gone too far with adding characters (e.g. crisis core, nibelheim...) ·         Inconsistent, but I'm not upset. Crisis Core expanded on Sephiroth beautifully. ·         Idk ·         Yes, but the original game was an incomplete vision. Some things need to be changed to actually make sense. ·         I think this question is missing words? I don't understand. ·         mixed feelings ·         Unsure ·         I don't know to what degree the company change is responsible, but the compilation is pretty retconny to me ·         Yes, some are better than others, some stick out/are outright bad more than others, but it adds charm to the series. ·         No idea, haven't kept up with anything ·         They made changes, but I like a lot of the changes put forth by Crisis Core, one of the newest installments. ·         Consistent as a whole but still some holes. ·         Half and half. I think the remake provides a good opportunity to perhaps smooth out some rough patches that have popped up from the comp becoming made of so many interlinked storylines and perspectives across many years, games, and development teams ·         A lot of retcons I was not pleased with but also a lot of consistency or interpretation I was pleased with. ·         This question doesn't make sense, but I think you're asking if the change from "Square" to "Square-Enix" has impacted the compilation? My answer is that whether or not the company change has altered the compilation, I think that overall staff changes and just time passing and people forgetting their original vision(s) and/or actively wanting to change things has definitely altered the compilation. That’s going to happen any time you have hundreds of people working on one project instead of a single author. (Sometimes it happens with single-author works, too!) However, I don’t feel this is too many (is that what you meant?); I don’t have an opinion on it either way. It is what it is and we should adjust and try to find some sort of story in the middle ground without griping about not being led by the nose. ·         the characters have been getting more lifeless to show 'grittyness' ·         Crisis core can be a mess at times. Didn't play dirge tho. ·         Their vision for FF7 was incomplete in the very beginning and a more solid story was told through the compilation ·         i don't know ·         I think in the original game a lot of things were lost in translation. I eagerly await their reimajining of it. ·         Don't know ·         I don't understand the question I am sorry ·         I think they've made both large and minor changes, some for better and others for worse. ·         I don't really understand the question. I haven't really noticed a difference. But I definitely prefer the original game to any offshoots. ·         They made changes and some of them were good.  The game needs adpation and updating.  

Sentiment on the FFVII Remake

Please see the raw results for the opinions on the Remake.

My answer to some comments:

·         On the CANON pairings section – it’s not asked to determine what is canon or not. FFVII fans tend to get heated with this, I’m aware it’s a sensitive topic but the question isn’t supposed to be taken seriously. That’s why there are options such as Cloud x Sephiroth. And thus, I learned that some of the voters think Clack is canon.

·         As for the Queer option, I apologize if it was offensive as one commented it’s a slur, but the reason I included it is because some of the participants of my past surveys thanked me for it. Next time I’ll find a better way.

·         Yes the survey is imperfect, and thank you for the criticism. But what I can say is that if you guys want a serious academic-grade study, I would need a lot of help and more time.

·         For future surveys? It depends on the success of this one, but generally this has been so draining and time-consuming.

·         Thank you for the participation, I think it’s great we get to know a little more about the fandom.

Zack's character rating is 8.56 and his love rating is 9.06! People love him more than they think is character is great.

Here are the comments:

I’ll give him a 7 character-wise and 8 in love for the character. Comments: “Upbeat, he makes Aerith happy, very much an optimist. Easy to mis-interpret too, if you just look at his OG speech and not how Aerith talks about him; she genuinely cared for him, and she’s not going to do that with someone who would just leave her. The idea of Zack finding someone else is her way of coping with his absence and seeming abandonment.”

Zack Fair is a wonderful character, who's easily likable, playful, sweet, and brave. He sacrificed himself for Cloud, had to fight his mentor, and friend, and still managed to keep on smiling. He was a character so full of joy, and devotion, it's hard not to love him

I love him coz he is so optimism, friendly, easy-going, funny and handsome <3 he is the true hero, because if it's not because of him, there will be no FF 7

I gave him on both options a nine, because he was a great influence on Cloud before the events of the VII main game, and Zack is just an incredible, amazing character I can't help but love.

He has become the true hero for everyone. He didn't regret what he has done as long it helps his friends, as we can see in his last smile of his live. Cheerful yet serious, childish yet mature,, that's Zack for sure.

I gave Zack a 7 in Character score because he serves his part in the story and he's characterization is only weak in Crisis Core, LO and the original game have a more tolerable representation. I gave my personal feelings for Zack a score of 4, because I don't particularly like his character archtype much anyway, even when done right. He's boring. Or rather, generic. As far as the 'Main character, hero' look and personality goes. Also, shallow ladies men make me sick to my stomach. Sincerity is key when giving a compliment to a lady.

Well, Zack is a hero, he's a legend, but I don't wanna fall to overhype him as flawless and perfect character so I give him 7 point. He's still a good die young, afterall. I think I dont need to explain how I love him to death and rate him at 10 point. Western critics praised this character and he's also winning the Japanese polling of the FF Heroes in Official Square Enix Forum Site. My reason would be the same as them. -Eleamaya-

I have to give Zack credit, going from an extremely missable NPC to the most popular FF male in Japan is really something. And I love how even in the Nibelheim flashback, they managed to make Zack really touching with such short screentime. But I feel like they tried too hard to make him easily likable in spite of Shinra's rather grey morality, and impressive at the expense of both credibility and other characters, so the result is I like him but I'm not impressed by most of the writing

Tifa's character rating is 8.74 but her love rating is 9.1! People love her more than their rating of her character.

Comments:

I think Tifa has many flaws, but that makes her perfect, that's why I have her 10!

She's just such a strong-willed character. I just...if she were real, I would SO date her.

There was never time in which I hated Tifa. I've always loved her from the start. I guess it's because I like women who are strong and fight with fists or something, idk. I love how, out of all the characters in FF7, she is the most "human", in a sense that she's not a total fantasy character like the rest of the cast (enhanced soldier, half-Cetra, talking feline-dog etc etc). She's just a girl from a backwater town who simply wants to avenge the people she lost. She makes mistakes, gets jealous, succumbs to hate, loses to confusion, and that makes her so much more human and relatable. Even then she's also caring, devoted, supportive, and an overall nice person who wants to atone for her sins and loves unconditionally. She's also pretty badass. She can hold a freaking Weapon and smash it into the ground. IDK why people seem to forget this and just hate her. It's not safe. In her own words, "Mock me and I'll squash you!". So don't be hatin'. ;3

I love Tifa. She's strong without being overbearing. She's loyal and would do anything for her friends, even if it means losing out on her own happiness. I also love Tifa's honesty. If something's up, she'll tell you. If she thinks you're doing something wrong, she'll tell you. And if you're being an idiot, she'll try her hardest to set you on the right path. I love that she's the opposite of what you might think her archetype is: compassionate, caring, and kind at the core. There are times when Tifa is afraid, but not only does she allow herself to show it, she knows how and when to put those fears aside and fight. The unfortunate thing about Tifa, isn't actually about Tifa herself, but rather her design. Specifically, her original game outfit (and her Crisis Core outfit, now that we've gotten a better look at it). I love her outfits, I think they're great and compliment her really well. But not everyone sees that. It seems like, when a lot of people look at Tifa, they see her revealing clothing and large chest and think that she's promiscuous and that is just the farthest thing from canon. She's never acted that way, not once. And she's never canonically been depicted in a promiscuous pose or fashion, EVER. People just seem to have this thought that her body type and they she dresses automatically make her those things. That's not the case. tl;dr: Tifa is pillar of strength and support for those who need it, while still holding on to her own strength and ideals. She can handle herself in a fight, but she knows it's okay to need the help of others. Quite frankly, Tifa has everything I love to see in a strong female character, or ANY character, really.

Something that distinguishes good from bad characters is the writing they have been written in. However, rarely does this mean that said characters would be considered "good" or "bad" from the audience. As people, we like seeing characters to triumph (if they're the good ones), or fail (if they're the bad ones). This is a by-product of our initial education that doing good things will be rewarded, while doing bad things will be punished. We want to see energetic characters that are determined, beacons of goodness and righteousness and we want to see them active and successful. This (deeply flawed) impression from our lives follows us in our viewings and in our interpretation and perception of the stories we read/watch. Video games are not different from that aspect. They are a medium to tell a story like any other (books, movies, even songs). As expected, we want to see the characters in it as we get used to see them before. Tifa Lockhart hardly fits this matrix. She's a well-written flawed character. No, a marvelously-written flawed character. You see, as a character (person who exists in the fictional world someone had built), she's full of flaws, a dark and even depressing storyline and bad decisions the writers made her take: She used to be a day dreamer who wanted a knight to save her, later changed her mind and started martial arts, because "standing there doing nothing goes to nowhere" (to paraphrase her words from CC), she never noticed the protagonist, Cloud (the one we want to see with the best, because... well, protagonist and he DOES get what he wants, he IS the protagonist... you get the gist) or his crush on her. Later, she did when they met in the well, but story (and history) separated them, with her harboring feelings for a possibly dead man. Her feelings changed for him full force when she met him again, years later, catatonic and aloof, she crushes on him, only to get jealous of the attention Aerith gets from him later. When it's the most important time, she fails him, and doesn't support him when Sephiroth breaks his mind and make him believe he's a clone, not the real Cloud. She loses her determination and when she finds him again, fully catatonic this time, she stays with him.

I find that I relate to her the most in the game. Also that her story was complex and sympathetic, and then when I really get to analyzing her character, it seems clear to me that her origin story can fit any hero's story if she were the protagonist. I like her design, since conceptually it's pretty clean but has an impact. It's ridiculous in the sense that superheroines' costumes can be ridiculous, so it doesn't faze me and kinda just adds verisimilitude. I'm more intrigued by her story than I do with other characters, though generally I think all the ladies in the FFVII-verse has very unique stories that are more interesting to me.

Tifa is not my No. 1 favourite character, but I really think she's great. I love how in the OG she subverted her own appearance: designed to look like a slutty barmaid, she was actually the warm, maternal, hard-punching "preimium heart" of the party. Her loyalty, determination, courage, patience and optimism are wonderful qualities. In the Wall Market section of the OG, it was wonderful how Aerith (outwardly demure) was completely in her element while Tifa (outwardly sexual) was out of her depth. She had bravely set off alone to question Don Corneo, but didn't really have a clear idea of what she was getting into. Aerith has no problem managing the guys outside the Honeybee, some of whom - creepy thought - are hanging around hoping to have sex with "the new girl". Tifa's still a homemaker from Nibelheim at heart, and there's nothing wrong with that!!

1) 7 I think, because she’s sweet and wonderful character but sometime she get on my nerves XD

2) 6)

3)I would like to put more but I have to be honest, when I was a kid I hate her so much (for example I was used to killed her everytime I was forced to get her in my party) now I love her (since I try to put myself at her place), but to be honest I just hate her from when Cloud disapear (disk 2) to after the lifestream event, I just yell at my tv “THE PLANET IS GOING TO DIE AND YOU JUST CARE ABOUT A F*CKIN CHOCOBO’S HEAD? WTF?” XD even if I totally understand her pov… I also don’t like what producer made her become in AC, to me she’s not so moralist, she cares about Cloud of course, but I would like to see her literraly kick his chocobo’s butt rather than lecturing him. But I have to say I’m in love with her character in dissidia, as long as they ruined Squall and terra’s character, Tifa’s one is just perfect *w*

cloudxaerith

1. I’d probably give Tifa an 8. I think she is one of the more real characters that I’ve come across, and I find her to be pretty relatable.

2. For this one I’d give her a 7. I like Tifa a lot but there are some aspects of her character that I’m not really a fan of.

3. Tifa’s a great character. I really love how she cares for her friends. She’s more than meets the eye, one would expect her to be very outgoing and flirty, when in actuality she is an introvert and very sweet and motherly. The one aspect of her character that I like the most is that she doesn’t let her feelings for Cloud get in the way of her friendship with Aeris. If there’s one aspect of her personality that I don’t like it’s that she can be a little jealous, but that is one aspect of her that really humanizes her so I can appreciate it.

cleris4ever

When I first started with the game, i grew attached to her right away. I thought she was interesting and wondered how she and Cloud had come from that small town into Midgar to fight a war. She never feared the fight but was shy, something it took her a long time to work past with big consequences. She's scared and she messes up, obvious flaws, but good characters aren't perfect. She soldiers on as a loyal gal anyway. I just love her more for it.

I adore her, but I only rated her character an 8 because I honestly think the writers could have done a better job. She's shown as too flawed (jealous, secretive) without enough positive scenes to balance her out. Her importance to the story almost entirely revolves around Cloud, and I think that's why she's bashed and hated so much. If her caring for her family was shown more in-story, I don't think she'd be so polarizing.

I like Tifa's character because she actually feels like a real person. I think she is someone you can sympathize with and yet she doesn't come off as tragic or depressing. I also like that she is very kind and modest, but is more than capable of taking care of herself and others. She's no damsel in distress, but she's not made of steel. She has her flaws but there are still plenty of good aspects about her. Some of the best characters are ones that have many dimensions to them. There's something undeniably awesome about this sweetheart who can take care of your kids and be your best friend but can turn around and hand your ass to you if you try to pull anything. I think that's why so many people like her.

Because I find her too insecure, and far too aggravating for me to ever wish to keep in the party. I find her clingy at times, and it aggravates me to no end. However this is my personal opinion only.

I was feeling all fired up about this earlier but I guess it's hard for me to stay fired up about ambivalence for long. Tifa varies between "like", "okay", and "ehhhhhhh" for me. Lately it's been dipping on the low end because I think of Case of Tifa and it kills me that she keeps thinking Cloud will leave without trying to talk to him about it. I usually like her early in the game, though there's small moments that niggle at me, but then I have no fun with her as team leader (maybe the writers intended that but fff. I guess I do get one good Vincent quote from it) and, though her encouragement of Cloud in the Lifestream is wonderful, I often spend the rest of the game feeling apathetic towards her. Auncyen

Tifa has always been my favorite character, I felt she was incredibly human with a strong character, that was incredibly easy to both admire and relate to and did so by being subtle and not falling into extreme mannerisms. There are some issues with her characterization and development being so closely tied to Cloud's, so I gave her an 8- not perfect but still a solid character all around. But she is one of my favorite fictional characters and probably the first one that had a profound affect on me.

I love everything about Tifa because I am a lot like her. She was my connection to the game, and I saw things through her eyes more than Cloud's. Seeing Tifa overcome her obstacles has given me courage to get through things in the past. Seeing her move on from a close friend's death has helped me to do the same in the past. Tifa is just absolutely wonderful, and I love her a lot. That's why I gave her a 10 on the character aside scale. For the feelings aside one, I also gave her a 10 because she is so well done. She is real. She feels, loves, and fights. She is a brilliant character, and I hope that I can create characters like her in the future.

Like Aerith, Tifa is a character it is seemingly easy to misinterpret. The nay-sayers get hung up on her physical attributes and skew/misinterpret some of her earlier actions. So she wasn't a great friend as a child to Cloud. So she might not have entirely meant the promise when she asked for it on the water-tower. Doesn't matter; Tifa grew up, Tifa changed. Both those things meant far more to her later in life. Yes she lied to Cloud through a lot of the game with regards to Nibelheim; but beneath the surface and kept well out of sight are her doubts and worries about what happened. Cloud's words confused her; her memories were different to his, and could she really be sure hers were correct? She's kind and loving; its much more then guilt that lead her to care for Cloud in Mideel, She cherishes her friends; she was heart-broken when Aerith died but is resolute for Cloud's sake; at the end she wants to see their friend again just as much as he does. And unlike Cloud she's able to begin moving on after Sephiroth's defeat; she doesn't want to forget Aerith - she wears the ribbon just like the others, but she wants to honour her friend, not mourn her.

Because Tifa is the most beautiful, wonderful, amazing, angel to ever grace the earth <3 No amount of words describe how lovely I find her, and how strong and inspiring she is. I love everything about her 10/10s across the board.

I love that her personality doesn't match her appearance. I love that she's not perfect, but she won't admit her true feelings. That she acts kind of spunky but is secretly so shy is just asl;df Frankly, the fact that I love that I love her so much gives her a 10 in both areas <3

Tifa's a great character. I really love how she cares for her friends. She's more than meets the eye, one would expect her to be very outgoing and flirty, when in actuality she is an introvert and very sweet and motherly. The one aspect of her character that I like the most is that she doesn't let her feelings for Cloud get in the way of her friendship with Aeris. If there's one aspect of her personality that I don't like it's that she can be a little jealous, but that is one aspect of her that really humanizes her so I can appreciate it.

I really love Tifa overall. She's beautiful, strong, bright, and she's warm-hearted. I knocked a rank down on her character though because I felt like sometimes, she should be a little more assertive; I find her to be too passive in certain situations. I don't want to get into too much detail, but Tifa is definitely one of my top 5 favorite fictional characters! -eyes-on-lilyy

Thank you to all who voted and gave their comments!