10 Iconic Video Game Moments You Had NO Idea Were Taken From Movies
7. Final Fantasy VII – Sephiroth's Flame Walk
Inspired by: Akira (1988)
There are few images in gaming more burned into players’ brains than Sephiroth standing in front of a wall of fire, calmly turning his back on a burning Nibelheim like he’s just popped out for milk. It’s a defining moment in Final Fantasy VII - the point where the pretty-boy SOLDIER becomes something much darker.
But Square didn’t pull that shot out of thin air. It’s a clear visual lift from Akira - Katsuhiro Otomo’s animated masterpiece, where Tetsuo, drunk on power and madness, strolls through burning wreckage after laying waste to Neo-Tokyo. The same calm silhouette against roaring flame, the same eerie stillness after chaos.
It’s not just a cool shot - it’s the shot that tells you everything’s changed. That this character is no longer part of the world, but something above it… and willing to burn everything down just to make a point.
Plenty of JRPGs riff on anime - Final Fantasy VII absorbed it into its DNA. And in that moment, FF7 didn’t just borrow the style of Akira, it channeled its apocalypse.