Golden Arches salute the landmark video game’s milestone.

In Japan, it’s not unusual for fast food chains to give a salute to popular anime and video game series. For example, in just a couple days Mos Burger is going o start offering a Sailor Moon sausage sandwich.

So it didn’t seem like such a shock that McDonald’s was taking the time to put out a special tweet celebrating the 25th anniversary of the release of Final Fantasy VII…until I noticed that the message wasn’t from McDonald’s Japan, but from McDonald’s USA.

September 7, 1997 was when Final Fantasy VII was released for the original PlayStation in North America, and it can’t be overstated how much of a turning point it was for the both the video game industry and for the international spread of Japanese pop culture. Prior to Final Fantasy VII’s release, Japanese-developed RPGs were very much a niche genre outside of their home country. Final Fantasy VII would go on to take the world by storm, though, establishing the international viability of the genre and opening the floodgates for future titles in the category to make their way to gamers around the globe.

Even the most ardent preexisting fan of the franchise couldn’t have predicted what a huge deal Final Fantasy VII was going to be in the U.S., though, and with video games themselves being a less prevalent hobby, it was pretty much just gamers and game magazines that were exited on September 7 in 1997. So it’s pretty cool to see Final Fantasy VII getting this sort of mainstream recognition, and it even prompted a reply from the game’s official Twitter account.

Whoever’s in charge of McDonald’s tweet also seems to be pretty knowledgeable about the game, dropping references to multiple aspects of it in its replies.

As for that last one, speaking as someone who actually has eaten materia, it’s delicious, and I’d highly recommend it, but I’m not sure if McDonald’s USA is ready to start serving alcohol.

Source, featured image: Twitter/@McDonalds
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Follow Casey on Twitter as he continues his quest to eat as much Final Fantasy-themed food as possible.