
But we don’t know for sure whether it smells bad or good, sweet or bitter. It powers virtually every technological advancement, including the magical orbs of Materia that let you hurl fireballs or summon an obese mystic chicken to smother your enemies.įor all its benefits, harvesting Mako is destroying the planet We see as much in the barren wasteland that surrounds Midgar. In the world of Final Fantasy VII, Mako functions as both crude oil and electricity. Warning! Spoilers for Final Fantasy VII follow Thank you to the more than 500 people who submitted their ideas that make up this story. We polled the Inverse community and were overwhelmed by the imaginative, clever, and persuasive suggestions for what exactly this mysterious substance smells like. The overwhelming aroma of Mako is mentioned often in the game but what exactly it smells like - gasoline, sulfur, chlorine? - is left to the imagination of players. Final Fantasy VII Remake runs on Mako: Much of the game is set in the metropolis of Midgar, a city of technological advancements that runs entirely on Mako power. The game’s protagonist, Cloud Strife, is hired by a group of environmental activists called Avalanche to help destroy Shinra’s Mako Reactors, which are draining the planet of its life force.

In the game, the evil Shinra Corporation harvests a substance called Mako from deep within the fictional planet of Gaia.

In Final Fantasy VII Remake, an immersive remake of the 1997 video game, one question has spurred conversation among players of the game, which sold 3.5 million copies in three days: What does Mako smell like?
