[SOLDIER]

If you've looked at any website or database that collects concept art for Final Fantasy VII, you may have stumbled across this image:



Those are "Mystery Panties", which was an unused key item for the original game.

Most people deduced these were Tifa's "Orthopedic Underwear", which you could collect jokingly during the Nibelheim flashback.

It turns out, however, that the panties are part of a bigger, darker secret buried deep within FFVII's coding.

The passage below is taken from two websites, GlitterBerri and Lifestream.net:

http://www.glitterberri.com/final-fa...i/unseen-text/

http://thelifestream.net/final-fanta...d-text-series/

Originally, the HoneyBee Inn was supposed to have several extra floors and rooms to visit, filled with patrons talking about the newest hostess, Tifa. Turns out in order to seek an audience with Don Corneo, Tifa had to work her way up the sleaze ladder to rank as one of the top girls at the Inn in order to catch Corneo's attention.

During this stage of the game, Tifa is already at Corneo's mansion awaiting an audience, so Cloud is tasked with collecting the necessary items in order to create a convincing crossdressing outfit in order to be let in.

Now that the context has been established, I'll let the video speak for itself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=3iEHsGeaDbY

If you hadn't quite pieced it together, you can get the quick and dirty version below:

At one point in FFVII's development, you were able to procure a stolen pair of Tifa's panties from a pervert, which can be used as part of Cloud's disguise.

Only they aren't Tifa's panties....they're Marlene's.

Once you've come back from your fifth shower scrubbing off the imaginary filth you feel yourself covered with, you're probably wondering who would come up with such a twisted idea.

Behold the man responsible...

A translation from page 569 of the FFVII Ultimania Omega, in response to a question asking the developers about ideas they’d had that weren’t implemented in the game, highlights this disagreement: Nojima: What I remember is the Honey Bee Inn. Toriyama (Motomu Toriyama, the director of FFX-2) was in charge of the Honey Bee Inn’s events, but at first what took place there was more extreme, and everyone was saying “That’s going too far.” Kitase: Was it really that bad? Nojima: Yeah… for example, Palmer would emerge from the inn saying “Well, that was refreshing~!” *laughing* Kitase: Toriyama was always making weird, tricky little events like that that kept getting edited. For instance, there was once a scene on the station platform where Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie from AVALANCHE would face each other and try to combine into one. Naoyoshi: Yeah, that’s right. Kitase: When an event begins in FFVII, the other 2 party members separate themselves from Cloud’s avatar. Once the event finishes, the party recombines and Cloud is alone once more. It’s just the way the game’s set up, but Toriyama parodied that. The 3 members of AVALANCHE were like “Let’s do that too!” and do their best to combine together, but they just ended up running into each other and muttering “I guess we still don’t have enough practice.” *laughing* Not only do we get proof that Motomu Toriyama was the most perverted of the bunch, but his desire to joke and break the fourth wall also resonates with the unused “We apologize, but the following contains material unsuitable for the general public” line from ONNA_4. Elements like the Mystery Panties and the stronger adult “showgirl” tones of the lobby are clearly aspects that Toriyama would have greenlit while others might not have been so keen.

Food for thought.

[Nat3yBo1]

I need to shower.

[How About No]

I...uh...what

[avrophantasm]

DDDDDDDDDDDD:

[Raonak]

No... Not like this.

[Andrefpvs]

Isn't this the only Final Fantasy to feature a humping man (Don Corneo)? I'm not surprised.

Anyway, I love stuff like this. I mean, the hidden game mysteries, not the... uh...

[H_Prestige]

Legendary game

[kuroshiki]

Square's two biggest problems are its CEO and Toriyama.

Are they lovers or something? because clearly I can't think of other reasons why they are not fired.

[Dascu]

I guess this sort of qualifies as a cloud-bush revelation.

[Lactose_Intolerant]

Isn't this the only Final Fantasy to feature a humping man (Don Corneo)? I'm not surprised. Anyway, I love stuff like this. I mean, the hidden game mysteries, not the... uh...

Doesn't Cloud get raped by body builders in a sauna or something.

[disappeared]

THEN WHO WAS PANTIES?

[Coxy]

This explains everything with Toriyama

[DiipuSurotu]

Kitase: When an event begins in FFVII, the other 2 party members separate themselves from Cloud’s avatar. Once the event finishes, the party recombines and Cloud is alone once more. It’s just the way the game’s set up, but Toriyama parodied that. The 3 members of AVALANCHE were like “Let’s do that too!” and do their best to combine together, but they just ended up running into each other and muttering “I guess we still don’t have enough practice.” *laughing*

This part would actually be kinda cool.

[CO_Andy]

Paging Icecream

[entrement]

Whole Honeybee Inn scenario was pretty creepy, IMO.

If there's ever a remake, I wonder how they could pull it off. It would look weird with hyper realistic models.

[iKeepPlaying]

Who the fuck is so twisted to put underage girls panties items in a...

Nojima: What I remember is the Honey Bee Inn. Toriyama (Motomu Toriyama, the director of FFX-2) was in charge of the Honey Bee Inn’s events, but at first what took place there was more extreme, and everyone was saying “That’s going too far.”

Oh... now everything makes sense. This is why FF13 ended of being a POS.

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

D:

Can't believe they kept promoting him...

[sixteen-bit]

Whole Honeybee Inn scenario was pretty creepy, IMO. If there's ever a remake, I wonder how they could pull it off. It would look weird with hyper realistic models.

It probably would be cut from any of the international releases

[HK-47]

Not surprised

[Sub_Level]

[Cosmo Clock 21]

I guess this sort of qualifies as a cloud-bush revelation.

[PantyPhantom]

Hahaha :D

[udivision]

I guess this sort of qualifies as a cloud-bush revelation.

So do you want a trophy or a medal for that one? Heck, you deserve both.

[jred250]

This part would actually be kinda cool.

Yeah, I got a little chuckle just reading that. I am still unsure what exactly is going on with the panties, but I love reading about cutting room floor stuff.

[SOLDIER]

This part would actually be kinda cool.

Toriyama is capable of coming up with some decent ideas, and can also function as an event director, so long as he's reigned in and kept under check.

I don't know if FFX-2 and FFXIII-2 are what happens when you let him go completely off the rails, but I'd rather not see what he's capable of if further left to his own devices.

Had this scene actually made it in, it would have undoubtedly been the low point of the entire franchise.

[Cjdamon042]

This part would actually be kinda cool.

Yeah I'd actually have liked to see that; would have been a quick giggle.

The other part...not so much.

[SOLDIER]

I'm hoping this story spreads out across the internet. I even posted the thread here in the hopes Kotaku will sponge off of it and make it into a story, as they are want to do.

It's too crazy a discovery to leave obscure. I don't think even Japanese gamers are aware of it, since this de-coding was discovered by English-speaking fans.

[Pyccko]

I dunno, there was nothing explicitly stating they were Marlene's panties.
A woman wearing underwear with childish patterns on it seems to be some kind of Japanese joke trope. I've come across it in a few different manga. But if I'm wrong, well shit. That'll show me for giving someone the benefit of the doubt.

[SOLDIER]

While it is a possibility that the joke is simply that Tifa has a secret affinity for cute underwear, such a revelation would only make this story slightly less creepy.

Regardless of their origins, it's still a key item that Cloud can use and equip that belongs to someone he knows.

"When I said I wanted him to get into my underwear, I didn't think he'd take it literally..."

[RoboPlato]

:0

[lifa-cobex]

An RPG that i thought had everything......
now has too much....

[brandonh83]

And that's why I love videogames.

[Gunmonkey36]

The more you know ... the less you want to live.

[JerzeyDevil]

But the bodybuilder rape still made it in guys! We should be thankful for that, atleast.

I think.

What does being a member of the " young bubbys group " entail anyways?

[djplaeskool]

[Parallax Scroll]

wat

[Pinko Marx]

Well then

[The Praiseworthy]

Kitase: When an event begins in FFVII, the other 2 party members separate themselves from Cloud’s avatar. Once the event finishes, the party recombines and Cloud is alone once more. It’s just the way the game’s set up, but Toriyama parodied that. The 3 members of AVALANCHE were like “Let’s do that too!” and do their best to combine together, but they just ended up running into each other and muttering “I guess we still don’t have enough practice.”

Oh Toriyama........

oh oh, Toriyama........

[RagnarokX]

They could still be Tifa's childish underwear. Them being Marlene's is kind of a jump.

The hot tub scene is pretty explicit and therefor worse.

I can't believe that Sector 5 quest made it in as it is.

[Parallax Scroll]

I guess this sort of qualifies as a cloud-bush revelation.

ok, that's pretty clever.

[h3ro]

I feel an obligation to post in this thread.

[BlazingDarkness]

The bit with AVELANCHE trying to join together should have been left in

The whole pantsu thing isn't particularly shocking to me really, it sounds more like they left it out because it wasn't necessary (Tifa working there etc)

[anaron]

Ugh I actually kinda love the party-merge spoof. Why did he have to come up with that.

[luka]

I guess this sort of qualifies as a cloud-bush revelation.

i came in here to make a joke, but this is pretty much the best anyone could do.

...and i'm out.

[Himself]

If Toriyama has a tendency to be silly, why was FFXIII so damn humorless?

[Ondore]

My reaction:

[FreeMufasa]

This game just keeps on giving.

Just last month I discovered cloud was raped by like 10 dudes at one point.

[OTIX]

While it is a possibility that the joke is simply that Tifa has a secret affinity for cute underwear, such a revelation would only make this story slightly less creepy.

No, it's a big difference.

Wearing Marlene's panties = super creepy
Wearing Tifa's panties = super hawt

[crimzonflame]

Tifa is the best.

[Stitch]

Haha oh man, I love this game so much.