A developer story resurfacing from Final Fantasy VII’s production reinforces just how unnerving the game’s atmosphere truly was.
The story comes from Takashi Tokita, who recalled an unexpected bug during development that genuinely startled him.
While he was working normally on his PC, the PlayStation development hardware nearby suddenly began playing a Jenova cutscene on its own.
The game provided no context or lead-up before launching into one of its most disturbing scenes.
Tokita said the scare was severe enough that he believed he was on the verge of a heart attack, something many players admit would have happened to them as well in a silent room at night.
Which Cutscene Triggered the Scare?
The incident felt especially disturbing because Tokita later confirmed it involved the Nibelheim flashback, the key scene where Sephiroth discovers Jenova and begins his descent into madness.
Even by modern standards, the scene feels unsettling, but the 1997 original has a darker edge, using muted colors, pre-rendered backdrops, and haunting music to heighten its psychological horror.
The fact that this scene activated without any player input or developer intention made it like a genuine jumpscare.
Fans have since highlighted that Final Fantasy VII has always featured unsettling visuals, especially in its opening hours, which helps explain why Tokita’s reaction didn’t feel exaggerated.
The anecdote resurfaced when Japanese indie developer Kenpi Beniimo encouraged other developers to recount the most unusual bugs they’d experienced, leading to widespread sharing across the industry.
Alongside Tokita’s experience were stories ranging from unintentionally terrifying to outright absurd, including arcade games that broke once they reached a specific number of lifetime plays, region-specific bugs caused by Japan’s differing power frequencies, and sound systems that delayed every effect by exactly fifteen minutes before playing them all at once.
Collectively, these anecdotes reveal how unstable development conditions in older hardware eras could result in experiences that felt almost supernatural.
In that broader context, Tokita’s Jenova scare stands out not just as a technical curiosity, but as proof that Final Fantasy VII’s unsettling atmosphere was powerful enough to escape the screen and momentarily frighten even its own creators.
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