Entry tags:

fandom: final fantasy vii, usenet wank, vintage wank

Some genuine vintage FFVII wank
If you've been in the Final Fantasy VII fandom a long time, you may have heard this story. If not, settle down and I'll tell you the tale of one Ben Lansing, the alleged Squaresoft employee who duped FFVII fans all over the internet into believing that the company intentionally left incomplete the means to resurrect Aeris, the beloved last-of-the-Ancients who dies in a dramatic fashion partway through the game.

Quick disclaimer: A couple of the links are from the FFVII Citadel, which I currently host and have been on the staff of for several years. Though it wasn't directly involved (and neither was I), the Citadel maintains a decent archive of Lansing-related materials; the ones linked here were donated by Tony Destro, who was involved. My intention is not shameless promotion, but to share the history of this kerfluffle, and for that, I needed some of the Citadel's links, which I've done my best to keep to a minimum. Anyway, let's get started.

Way back in March of 1997, there was a forum called the Final Fantasy Discussion Group (now defunct). At the time, some members there were playing through Final Fantasy VII, which had been released in Japan on January 31st of that year, and was scheduled to hit the US on September 7th. On March 7th, a new member of the group burst onto the scene in a thread titled "A SQLA rep hits the discussion!"¹ (scroll about halfway through the page for beginning of this thread):

Hi there. I don't have TOO much free time with the releaes of FFVII US coming up, but what little I have, I plan on writing here and giving what little help I can give. I was a key scene translator for FFVII, and can help with story elements and events (like Aeris). HOWEVER, there are a couple of legalities keeping me from telling you EXACTLY what you need to know. It is against my contract for me to give game help, since SQLA has a 1-900 hint line. UNFORTUNATELY, until Sept.7, this hint line will NOT support FFVII!!! Quite a paradox, but I figured out a way to still help out... By hinting around, giving MAJOR tips about how things COULD be done, and letting you find them on your own. I see that Mooncalf has already spread the word about Aeris and what I said... any other questions??? Cool... Bring em on!

This new member, Ben Lansing, proceeded to address some of the questions and thoughs that other members have been tossing around, mainly relating to FFVII's naming (as FFIV was released in the States as FFII, and FFVI as FFIII). He also claimed that all of the previous Final Fantasies were being remade for the PSX.² Of course, the arrival of a genuine Squaresoft employee was an opportunity too good to pass up, and the members took advantage of this newbie's generosity almost immediately.

Meanwhile, the group continued discussing the game, including the possibility of reviving Aeris (Mooncalf compiled the info on the resurrection process into a succinct summary). It appears that sometime around then, Lansing wrote this post, in which he claimed that Squaresoft meant to include Aeris' resurrection in FFVII, but left it unfinished; furthermore, the "ghost of Aeris" that can be seen in the Sector Five church was proof that her revival was meant to be.³ An excerpt:

Well, the FMVs were all completed on time, but a lot of coding was not. They then delayed the games release by a month (Dec -> Jan). However, it seemed that even by late December, the coding STILL wasn't finished, so Square told production to wrap it up quickly. In order to get the game out on time, SqJP sacrificed what could have been a miraculously better game than FF7... The main coding that was not finished dealt with manipulating the transparent polygon of Aeris' spirit in the church. Since they were forced to wrap production up to meet the many-delayed deadline, they had to stop with the Aeris process unfinished. So, to keep things from ever happening, they simply removed the one item that allowed any hint of the process to take place... The Key to Midgar, from the first CD. This completely stopped the ability to ressurect Aeris. HOWEVER, they left out the removal of one thing, and that was the split-second of seeing the ghost of Aeris once you return to the church. Unforunately, this, along with the insanely big size of the ending MOV, are the only hints to Aeris' existence that we have.

Many took Lansing's post as being true, and a petition was drafted to get Square to "complete" the game. From an email to K. Megura sent by James Smith, as recounted in an early draft of the former's FF7 Changes FAQ:

First of all, the game is 'unfinished'. You may have heard rumors of thos, but I can swear they are true. The major thing removed was a large scenario by which you can revive Aerith. In December, when the game development was being finished, Square got a bit lazy and as a result just pulled the whole revival process. In fact, the movie files and code for the revival all exist on the discs, but a small part where you could get the key to Midgar in disc 1 was removed, making the whole process impossible.

Of course, as a poster on the rec.games.video.sony newsgroup soon found, Lansing's claims rang false:

If you still don't believe me notice how his clues completely changed over time... I have left out a lot MORE proof (but I don't want to spend all day typing this)...but consider this...his story changed completely over time but he insisted he knew about the method from the original script Square had (note: Scripts don't change information over time...) and that he indeed worked for Square as a translator for FF7. Too bad Sony is translated the game (why do you think THEY made the statement that FF7 will not be altered)...sorry I took so long to get to the solid proof, but I wanted to show you beyond reasonable doubt...that Square did not make an unfinished game and you WILL NOT GET A "REAL" VERSION! Sony is delaying the game till September (like they did last year) because they want to save the top titles for the Christmas Season. Now I don't want to hear any more rumors about this AGAIN! YOU HEAR ME!

Also of note are these two discussions from alt.games.final-fantasy, from early October 4th and October 7th (keep these dates in mind):

- Aeris/Aerith questions answered

Tony Destro wrote: OH, gohere we go again it's it's it's THE FINAL FANTASY VII FOR WINDOWS 95 PETITION TONS of proof that the game isn't finished, UNtouched captures of (5+) Ben Lansings Messages (MOST NEVER SEEN BEFORE except on the board), why ff7 should be fixed. These and more at: FF7 Win95 Petition http://www.geocities.com/timessquare/castle/2809 


Ugh, and Lansing still has brainwashed a select few...

- Final Fantasy VII **is** complete

For one thing, what credibility have YOU got? Secondly, anyone with "credibility" hasn't explained the evidence that suggests otherwise, other than: FF7 is finished because...it is. Ben Lansing may be a f***ing liar, but he does bring up some good points... Until there are some logical facts that prove otherwise, I will believe FF7 is NOT finished.

Ben Lansing had apparently disappeared for awhile (see James Smith's third letter in K. Megura's post), but on October 9th, 1997, he came clean:

Hmm... you leave the internet community for a few months and people are STILL dragging your old shit around.

 Okay folks, this is getting a bit absurd. Can't you all take a joke? Look, I have a confession to make, and if you stick with me and this WHOLE post, you'll learn a lot more about this whole AERIS thing (...) I decided to see just how silly people could be. I had actually understood everything that had gone on during the game, so I knew lots of ways to trick people into believing things. I already had a silly audience who believed nearly anything, so I took the great step when I came out with my Aeris Resurrection process, under the name of Ben Lansing, an alleged translator for Square. Without even reading this process, people should have known I was lying to start with. I claimed to be a temporary translator for Square. Well, anyone with any common sense knows that Ted Woolsey and the Square team did NOT translate FF7 ... SONY did it, all in Japan,and all within the parent company - NOBODY WAS HIRED FROM THE OUTSIDE! But ... being the gullible fish that I thought everyone was, they swallowed it whole without a second thought, and I became a near-idol on that message board. I decided to see just how far I could carry all of this.

FFVII fandom was not amused. In the meantime, Lansing invited others to talk to him via IRC (no one responded, at least on Usenet). Here's some related discussions I found in the archives of alt.games.final-fantasy:

- The final (and officially final, too) word about Ben Lansing and other things...

But, honestly, I'm still a tad PO'ed at the amount of lamers he's drawn. I knew it was crap from before I saw it (having read the assorted interviews with Square) but he's caused a lot of us here no end of annoyance. And, for that alone, he can at least live with a little anger. The "It was only a joke" defense doesn't fly.

- I found a dude that works for SquareSoft!!! (NOT BEN LANSING)

Yeah, I work for Square too.  Really, I do.  How many times do we have to fall for this before we learn our lesson?  Is it just me or do 75% of people in the world work for Square, or are related to someone who does?  It gets old.

Lansing eventually moved on to other things, but some people took years to forgive him, if they ever did. Note this first letter sent to the Gaming Intelligence Agency and another one, sent by the man himself, to RPGamer. From the reply to the latter:

I just wanted to let everyone know of Ben's attempted escape from Hell by moving to Antarctica and keeping us posted on Square's supposed new branch there. It won't work, pal. There's only one sure way to escape fire and brimstone in the afterlife, and that's to drink a cup of poison and atone as it's killing you(too bad that only works once =/).

To this day, the name "Ben Lansing" is synonymous with Aeris resurrection rumors (though I've gotta give The Equinox props for being so damned elaborate), and believe it or not, several years on, there are still people who have been suckered by Lansing's claims that FFVII was an incomplete game.

Footnotes:
¹ - SQLA stands for "SQuaresoft Los Angeles", I'm assuming.
² - Oddly, there's a bit of truth to this. FFI, FFII, FFIV, FFV, and FFVI would be ported to the system later on with FMV sequences added—Lansing claimed that "Key scenes in each game will be CG rendered (FMV), and tweaked graphics, but no new 3D engines..." FFIII, on the other hand, never made it to the PSX.
³ - The "ghost" is genuine. When you enter the church after Aeris' death, sometimes, for a split second, an image of her will appear. However, this was confirmed to be a glitch several years later when it was found that the "ghost" can also be seen while Aeris is still alive.