I loved Final Fantasy 7. It was the second game I had ever played after Crash Bandicoot for the PS1. I have downloaded and finished it on PS, PC, and mobile on both IOS by jailbreaking, and Android by using an emulator. When Square Enix officially released it for Android, I bought, downloaded, and beat that as well. It’s just one of those timeless games that everyone looks back at fondly. I wouldn’t call myself a super fan by any means, but there was no way I would miss the once in a lifetime opportunity to go to the Final Fantasy Remake event at Tokyo Skytree.
Ascending the 450 meters of Tokyo Skytree is an experience in itself. I love fast elevators, It’s not as fast as the elevator in Yokohama Landmark Tower but it was still fast enough for me to need to get my bearings after reaching the summit. There’s also a half glass ceiling so if you look up you can see the inner workings of the elevator.
The elevator itself is big enough for 40 people and is apparently the largest 40 man capacity elevator able to reach 600m per minute. There are videos online that show how busy Skytree can get. People are crammed into the elevator like sardines. Luckily, the day that we visited was after Japan had lifted it’s state of emergency and it was completely empty.
The view from the observation deck was unbelievable. Unless you have surveyed a city from 450-500 meters up, it’s really hard to wrap your head around the scale of things. I’m not scared of heights but looking down from the slightly over hanged ledge was like being inside a permanent vertigo episode. If I could give one piece of advice it would be this, download the Official Tokyo Skytree observation tower app. It’s an 360º augmented reality map that shows the location of Japanese landmarks that can be seen on clear days.
There were so many FF7 booths and cafes to visit. We stopped at the FF7 café to get our exclusive Final Fantasy drinks and coasters and take in the sights overlooking Sumida city.
Every 30 minutes the observation deck turns into a 360° projector light show displaying an extra long trailer of Final Fantasy Remake.
After the video we took another elevator to go another 50 meters up to the top deck where there was a hallway full of Final Fantasy memorabilia, artwork, and a store full of (extortionately priced) Final Fantasy merch.
There was a sour note to this great experience however. Once you are on the top floor you cannot return to the top floor after you leave. You get one chance to have a look around and buy what you need to buy because if you want to return to the top deck, you have to pay again. So you pay ¥3,100 (about £22-24) per person and you can only go to the top deck once. If you want to go again that will cost you another ¥1,000 (around £7). Also, these are weekday prices. Weekend prices are more expensive. I just think that considering the price, you should have free reign over whatever floor you want to visit. Bit of a sneaky money making tactic if you ask me.
All in all it was a great experience and has just made me hyped to play the Final Fantasy 7 Remake. I mean, even more hyped than I was before.
Lets Visit Tokyo 