Final Fantasy VII (1997)

Final Fantasy 7 is one of those special games that comes along maybe once a generation. It might arguably have been the most famous game at one point. I feel like most people know of Cloud and Sephiroth and it has one of, if not the most, well known cut scene in videogames. Add to that an iconic score and some excellent combat and you would think I would have this rated as a 10. The truth is, I was a bit of a contrarian when I first played this game in high school. Every single time I have come back though, I get more out of it and I see why this game is so beloved and even how it still resonates to this day. I was finally able to finish this game after struggling in the third act for reasons I will get into later. Just know that this game is still a classic and even though it won’t be my favorite Final Fantasy, I still have a lot of respect for this game and its place in the lexicon of gaming history.

Final Fantasy asks you a simple question in the beginning. Should a corporation have unchecked control over the military and regulation of energy? The answer should be no but one of the things this game does so well is start us off in Midgar which feels more and more like the world we live in today. Obviously we do not have a single entity in charge of the military but at the time of writing, I feel like I could blink and see it as a headline. At a time where corporate price gouging causes consumers to scrape by, it wouldn’t be hard to see this coming. Shinra is set up as the perfect building. A wealthy CEO who overcharges people for energy, searching for the promised land and not caring about the current state of the world where the story takes place. It reeks of the end time fascism I have referenced in my Pathologic review where it's about accelerating the end of the world by draining it of everything instead of spending any of those resources to try and make a better change.

The protagonists in this story are a bunch of eco warriors under the name of Avalanche. Their job is simple: stop Shinra and save the planet. It feels so easy to align with their goals and broadly speaking, I do. I don’t know much about a lot of the current climate crisis but I do know I don’t want AI datacenters built in poor towns as it poisons their water supply for a technology all the people in my life don’t want to use. It should be so simple and that is what I adore about the beginning of this game. The player gets to make an immediate impact on a corporation through property damage. I really do wish the game could keep up the momentum of Midgar and for the most part it does but we see it fade into the background as the party adventures around the world only really coming back into focus when the party confronts Sephiroth.

On Sephiroth, I still think of him and his presence in this game as some kind of existential metaphor for the climate crisis. I don’t particularly know if that was always the point of him but this playthrough he just felt existential in the way the characters talk about him. He is always brought up in conjunction with the end of the planet and even summons Meteor to bring about the end of everything on the planet. I think it makes sense given that Sephiroth isn’t even who the party interacts with. He is just in a hole while Jenova is going about their wider machinations combined with his will. With this I can draw the parallels to today with the existential dread of the climate crisis. It always feels like it is on my mind that temperatures will become too high or the sea levels will rise and start swallowing land masses. I know these things don’t just happen in one swift incident like a Meteor in Final Fantasy 7 but the existential feeling of Sephiroth and climate change feels so potent even today.

I haven’t even started talking about the main party who are mostly fleshed out really well starting with Barret Wallace. He is the leader of Avalanche, a man who has first hand witnessed the destructive nature of Shinra as they plowed through Correl even after they got what they wanted. You really get to feel and see his perspective and how he comes to the conclusions he does. How he ends up wanting to be the best father for Marlene. He is such an endearing character to get behind because he doesn't want to pay Cloud because it's money for Marlene's schooling. Even at the absolute end he really just wants to make the planet better for her. I feel like we have all lost sight of that in the modern day. A lot of focus on getting the bag.

Tifa Lockhart is one of the other members of Avalanche. She is the childhood friend of Cloud and is probably the most hesitant or reluctant to fight. She clearly has qualms with the violence but pushes through when she is needed. Tifa is one of my favorite party members because I love martial artist characters. Her reluctance is something I relate to because I think I feel the same way. Someone who wants change but isn't sure of the best way forward. Tifa goes through a more subtle character arc throughout the journey by helping Cloud piece together who he is and she never feels sidelined. I always made sure to keep her in my party throughout the journey.

Red XIII or Nanaki is an indigenous inspired red cat who accompanies the party after they rescue him from Hojo during their assault on Shinra. He comes from Cosmo Canyon which is my favorite location in the whole game. You learn that he thinks his father was a coward and you are given insight into his immaturity when Bugenhagen reveals that he is merely a teenager. I think that lens paints him in a real way. There were always people I knew in high school who were outspoken and more aware at a younger age. Hell even I have probably spewed something thinking people were cowards for one reason or another. If there is one criticism I have of Nanaki is that I wish the game would let you rename him when you find his real name. It felt wrong to see his lab name being used after you discovered his real name.

Aeris Gainsborough. I know it is Aerith but I kept the translation in the game this time. She is one of the most kind souls in the whole game. Aeris is the last of the Cetra, the race that Shinra views as nothing more than the keys to find the fabled promised land. Aeris has a compassion and understanding that I wish I could extend to people. She is even understanding of the people she doesn't like as we see with the Turks. She does not agree with Shinra or Tseng but she does not show open hostility toward him or the Turks. Aeris is also not a pushover either; we see she is quick witted as she hustles men in wall market for her flowers and is willing to get into a scrape. She is the voice of compassion for people caught up in life. She reminds me that people are not inherently bad but corporations and governments can be. It's why Sephiroth causing her death is so iconic. To connect back to the existential nature of climate collapse, it does not matter who it comes for but it will cause death, loss and grief for all as it takes our loved ones.

I know the others all have skin in the game but I didn't find myself having a lot to say about Yuffie, Cait Sith, Cid Highwind and Vincent Valentine. With Yuffie I feel for her with Wutai succumbing to being a tourist spot after losing to Shinra in a war. With Cait Sith I like the sentiment of trying to change the system from the inside but the more you climb the corporate ladder, the more you lose yourself along the way. He still ends up being a spy and threatening Marlene even if he is doing it for a “good reason” to try and break Shinra from within. I just don't agree with his methods. Vincent was a former Turk who watched the woman he loved give birth to Sephiroth. He is probably the most removed but is a very cool party member that I love personally.

Finally I'm going to talk about Cid. Put simply, Cid sucks. He is a misogynist asshole who is mean to Shera all because she, let me check my notes real quick, wanted to make sure the rocket was safe before launching. It turns out she was right too which really makes me upset with how belligerent he gets around her. She deserves better and should not feel like she needs to make up or owe him anything. This is probably one of my biggest faults within Final Fantasy 7. The fact it can have characters like Tifa and Aeris but it also still feels the need to say that women get in the way of man’s achievements is probably the worst thing to come across in this game. Shera deserves so much better.

I'm going to end my thoughts on characters by finally talking about Cloud Strife. I think my thoughts about Cloud have been so muddled by all the tie in media that this game has generated. I think my first interaction with Cloud was through Kingdom Hearts. After finishing this game I can really see how off he is in Kingdom Hearts and it is kind of amazing that they mangled him in such a way. Needless to say that Cloud is iconic but what I think I love about Cloud is that he is a deconstruction of masculinity. See Cloud wants to join Soldier to become a hero like the great Sephiroth but he doesn't make it. He hides in shame when he goes back to his hometown 5 years later. How touching it is that he is the one that defeats Sephiroth when he sets Nibbleheim ablaze.

For me the deconstruction comes from how Cloud is introduced to the player. He is introduced as a cool guy with a big sword. I titled my review after a line Barret says to Cloud and his response to Barret is that he doesn't care. Cloud thinks his masculine indifference is cool and manly and it makes sense with him chasing after the great war hero Sephiroth. Though that isn't who Cloud is. Cloud isn't a careless stripped down husk of a man. Cloud is not a Jarhead. He does care, you are shown that he is soft and he does care. He helps Jessie escape from the reactor, he promises to be there for Tifa, he assists Aeris across the journey, and he has emotions. He is only able to recover himself from mako poisoning because he remembers why he wanted to join Soldier separate from wanting to be like Sephiroth. He wanted to protect Tifa after an accident they both had when they were younger. This is the version of Cloud that has true strength. It's this caring person who defeats Sephiroth in the reactor and it's the same individual after recovering himself, that strikes down Sephiroth in the center of the planet. There is not a more beautiful moment to me than the end of the game where Cloud strikes down a shirtless Sephiroth. The image of masculinity itself is cut down by a man who cares, has feelings and does not repress them. It's beautiful.

I went through all of the characters paragraph by paragraph to arrive at this simple conclusion. They all represent different sides of myself. I am still very much learning but I do know I don't want to sit idly by as things get worse for my friends and family. I need the anger and action of Barret, the brash idealized statements of Nanaki, Aeris’s compassion and understanding, Tifa’s distinction of knowing when to fight and Cloud’s ability to strip away his indifference to find the emotions and purpose in carrying out the fight. All of these characters have felt like pieces of me. It just goes to show that this game really is special.

Over the course of writing this review my option of Final Fantasy 7 has changed. I'm not editing my intro because through the course of writing I have realized how great this game is. It isn't my favorite still but it is easily in my top 5, maybe even top 3. So how then am I supposed to reckon with a game that so clearly cares about the environment of our planet when the company that made it doesn't. Square Enix has been chasing the profits or the market trends for the last few years now and it makes me sick. I hate hearing about how they wanted to go in on NFT’s and about how they want to replace their QA staff with AI which is adding to the problem at this point. How do I reckon that this company holds the IP of plenty of series that I love under it? Am I supposed to just wait for the games to become super cheap or should I sail the seas? I'm not sure what I should do but I do know that I have been contributing to a company by buying their games at full price. I even just got the new Dragon Quest Remake. Essentially for me I need to sit and figure out how I want to make a change.

Final Fantasy 7 truly is an all time classic among RPG’s for a reason. The combat and materia system is still as fun and engaging today. The characters are very lovable with a lot of depth that can be extracted from them. Sure I might have complaints like that the third act is a little uneven or that the Shinra suits are a little underdeveloped and I don't like the huge materia arc as much but really when I think about this game and what it wants to say and do. I just think that no matter how clumsy it can come across at times, it always has heart and it always hits the notes that matter. I'm glad I was finally able to finish this game because every time I came back I found myself liking it more and more. Final Fantasy 7 is really worth the hype.

Platform: Switch

Language: English

Finish Status: Completed

Playtime: 23h

Difficulty: Very Easy = ALL Cheats

Now, on my 4th attempt after having restarted the game from scratch, a project I started in 2015 is finally done. And holy shit has it been a journey. I think my final thoughts on this playthrough are heavily tainted by the long playtime with long breaks in between. Also notably I tried playing this without cheats and quickly realised this would not be doable for me. Which means I had the unlimited HP and a limit on literally everything.

I think all in all it took me a long time to play because... It just kind of drags on. I think in terms of presentation and vibes, it's an S-tier experience. The backgrounds are incredible, and the music is fitting. Everything's excellent. All in all, I had a lot of fun exploring the spaces, although sometimes it was really difficult to know what a path is and what's not.

The story is interesting, and I'm sure it had a really big impact when it came out, but I felt like the pacing is kinda awkward. My 3x speed 20h playthrough felt like 100h. From what I understand, a lot is lost in translation as well, and it can definitely be felt. Most of the time, I had to consult a walkthrough to know where to go next. Taking a break and coming back made it absolutely impossible to know what to do next.

I can definitely see how much impact this had when it came out, and it's cool to play some gaming history. Does it hold up today? Um ... Maybe? I can't really comment on the combat/RPG stuff because I skipped the whole thing, but just from 3x speeding the encounters and bosses, I can't even imagine what this would have felt like on 1x speed plus additional grinding... Just awful.

To conclude, I'm very happy I finally rolled credits on this historical gem, though, and all in all it was a very memorable experience!

This, in my opinion, has to be the single most chore type of game that I've ever played. I love this game's artistics. Music, The pre-rendered background, the beautiful, just beautiful effects, the story, it's a very well rounded game. I love how this game look, and feel whilst how the world is breathing alive going past many of the levels, the journey, and everything in between. This game feels like it is breathing.

Notice how I did not mention the gameplay, and the polygon designs. It's an old game. I get it, but this game looks the best only on a CRT. I played this on Duckstation (PS1 Emulator) and I after messing with the configs, I managed to get the look of the CRT perfect for this game just to enjoy its beauty.

I do not like the Gameplay that much. I'm the type of person that loves to research stuff, and I'm down to read what all everything does in the game. I had a lot of fun trying different things on different enemies to know the result so I could strategies better for each upcoming encounter. but this approach make life go by extremely slow. then the beautiful pre-rendered background comes back to bite me during the gameplay. see, they are very low-res. so, you have some places to go which for average player, it is not noticeable enough to find or call out.

So silly me just spent 41 minutes looking for a ladder that was just right in front of me, but I guess because it is very small with a low-res background, it is very hard to point out it's location.

I'm not sure If I was frustrated with the Camera, the gameplay, or what. but I'm sure this wasn't as bad as probably JRPGs on prior gens like the SNES. will check them out later, but I do want to mention that I enjoyed the artistic feeling of this game much more than the game itself.

Playing the original right after Remake in time for Rebirth's PC release. Also playing it with the Shinra Archeology translation excluding the cut content.

It took me 3 hours to get to the end of Midgar which is 9 times less than it took me to beat the Remake with all sidequests done. And yet I appreciate how both are paced on the surface level. (Even if Remake has its hiccups with it)

Playing this section made me appreciate Remake's iteration of the Sector 5 slums more compared to the original. How the children are an important part of this area, wanting to be heroes themselves. I see it as part of Remake's metanarrative of defying fate and expectations and passing the torch to a newer generation for when Avalanche leaves Midgard/the devs making the Remake trilogy.

Also really enjoying myself playing this version on the go with how to the point it all is.

This is the first mainline Final Fantasy game I've ever completed, and I know for a fact that if I played this 20 years ago it would have permanently altered my personality for the rest of my life. It is so easy to see the impact this had and why it had it. Pretty much every element works still, from the combat to the characters to the story.

I played this on the beacause translation patch, which completely changes the entire game in terms of making a coherent and well delivered story out of whatever was happening in the original translation. Seeing them side by side really is such a huge difference, and I would highly recommend doing this if you're interested in the story and characters of the game. However, it does also strip it of a bit of personality, and it is significantly less funny as a result. I really enjoyed my time with the story and characters of FF7, but if Cloud doesn't say "Let's mosey" is it really an authentic experience? It's maybe more accurate to the original, but it's just not the same thing.

It still has some weaker sections that haven't aged very gracefully and nearly every side activity I thought was mostly terrible and I didn't want to engage with it, but generally the game will just let you mainline it and it's easy enough that it will never cause any problems. The materia menu is also just exhausting to deal with. It's so fiddly and the game is constantly throwing your materia around and forcing you into re-doing everything. I much preferred the way this worked in the remake, because the disadvantages associated with equipping green materias on physical characters tended to make them just less interesting to use.

It's a very easy recommendation for anyone to play in 2024, but I can't stress this enough that they just need to play the original PS1 version at a native resolution, because any other deviations from this and future releases completely ruined the visuals and direction of the game.

It says a lot when you have an experience with a game that is so strong it immediately made me want to jump into other Final Fantasies, because I really do just get it now.

Think i'm going to shuffle things up a bit and do the 7 platinum before 4, 5 and 6. This keeps it more interesting for me :)

Shouldn't take long because i could probably play this game with my eyes closed :D Then after that i will either finish the 'golden era' (so 8 and 9) or continue with 4, 5 and 6.

FFVII has been the first of the franchise I got aware of, back in the days; the first one to make me aware of JRPG and thus, the one to seek out games like this before I had money to buy this. And yet, after distractions from other backlog games and attempted playthroughs, it is just after 27 years that I finally sat down and saw this game through to the end. And for that, it can now be crossed off as #1 on my gaming bucket list.

What can I say what hasn't already been said for this classic; a flagship product for Playstation back in '97 when 3D games were picking up and technology reached a new milestone? Suffice to say, the Final Fantasy games were successful for their uniquely engaging story, with a world building that provided more experience for each playthrough I've done (unless I am off the attention for details); this seventh entry is a standout with at that point, with themes of ecology, science and psychology. It also helps that they have a colorful cast, most with the background stories holding some kind of charm, unfolding with the progression. My favorites would be those of Cid, Barret and the mutual bond of Cloud and Tifa.

Over time, turn-based combat mechanics can be a trying feature for players with less patience, especially for grind sessions, unless there is some feature that breathes life into the experience anew. Here, collecting and using materia for growing your options of magic and abilities add to the strategic element in battles, making them more dynamic in the long run of gaming.

Some imperfections are to be expected, even in the classics. Final Fantasy VII flows well in the initial part with Midgar and keeps the engagement for progress close to follow. But soon after you get to travel the world, somewhere along the way, the pacing gets bogged down. I noticed I had to decide to come back to pick up the journey between gaming sessions. It doesn't even help that some objectives lack hints on where I should go next, turning into a hide and seek game on progress. So clues leave more to be desired, but that game's from the time when strategy guide books were quite a thing for the less explorative audience.

To this point, I have seen fragments of scenes throughout the game and finally I've pieced them together by clearing Final Fantasy VII myself. That leaves me to pick up on Crisis Core and then start with the remake series, to get the best of the old and the modern presentation.

I can warmly recommend the original game so that you can get up to speed with what made this a masterpiece of its time, as much as there are a few stumblings in the overarching progression. Should you decide try the original game in before-hand, then you are in for the experience. I would mention getting a handful of mods to buff the graphics, the soundtrack and the quality-of-life aspects. Echo-S puts together well-done voiced lines for practically everything, adding more to the cinematic factor of the story itself.

The magic is still in here. Jevnation out!

Jenova is the real antagonist and Sephiroth is her pawn. I will die on this hill. Yes, I know the creators have said otherwise. I don't really care. I think it's way more interesting to have a psychic alien wizard controlling an angsty soldier man. Even if her body gets destroyed, her psychic influence lingers. That shit is scarier than a sexy angel man with a giant rock fixation.

Let me have this.

Starting my little blogging thread here... My history with Final Fantasy VII was on quite a winding path...

• My first exposure to Final Fantasy was through a friend's son, who was playing through this game on Playstation back in the late 90's. That's when my fascination for the franchise took off.
• As I had none of the gaming consoles, my computer at the time (2000-2003) could only handle emulator games for SNES or earlier, so Final Fantasy VI was the first game I played through. The experience was well worth, so I played IV & V and even the demo of VII; that was the JRPG fever I was on.
• When my parents decided to buy me a game, the store had some of my wishlisted games. Though Final Fantasy VII was there, I ended up picking Age of Empires Gold Edition, which I spent plenty of time on.
• I finally started out on the full game of FFVII a few years later, which actually was downloaded the buccaneer way. Didn't get further than the astronomy scene when the game got locked, as it happens for the pirated version.
• At 2013, I finally bought the actual game on Steam and made my way through until the middle of disc 2/3. I don't know why, but I dropped it when other games got my focus. (which was beginning of my backlog habits)
• Finally beginning this year, I started the game that has been my #1 bucket list game for a part of my life. This time, I followed a Steam guide to get a bunch of mods to enhance the gameplay experience, including Echo-S. It's currently running as I write this post.
• Having the prequels and the first remake in my library, I figured that playing through the original would serve as an incentive to finish it before playing through the FFVII universe in a chronological fashion (Ever Crisis, Crisis Core, Remake Intergrade, then Rebirth).

I could easily break out into a long essay detailing how Final Fantasy VII's story is one of the most beautiful and life-affirming tales ever told in a video game format. But I'll spare all of you the suffering and try to keep it brief. Go to the bottom for some great Spanish translation mishaps.

The seventh entry in Square's Final Fantasy series came at perhaps the most pivotal turning point in video game history: the introduction of fifth generation home consoles. While many developers concerned themselves with how to utilize 3D space to enhance their games' mechanics, Square viewed the PlayStation as an opportunity to make their stories bigger, flashier and more cinematic. Composer Nobuo Uematsu once said that he approached the composition of Final Fantasy VII's music as though he were making a soundtrack for a film, and it feels like this ethos applies to the rest of the experience (And as a side-note, the soundtrack is incredible, of course).

Indeed, Final Fantasy VII's gameplay doesn't stray too far from the mechanics that the series had established up to this point. Though the Materia system allows for a great amount of customization, letting you build out your characters however you like, the game is quite easy for most of its duration. Today, Final Fantasy VII greatly benefits from the Switch version's fast-forward option to speed through its most grindy moments. In that way, it's just like any other Final Fantasy game before it: good for its time, but aged a little poorly.

But when it comes to presentation, VII was unlike any other Final Fantasy game before it. The beautiful pixel art and tiled maps of VI are replaced by detailed pre-rendered backgrounds, chunky 3D models, and FMV cutscenes that seamlessly cut in to give the illusion of a dynamic world. This particular graphical style has not aged very well either. In the latest releases of the game, high-resolution models garishly stand out against the pixelated backgrounds. In the original version of the game, they all blended together more seamlessly and gave the illusion of a unified image. Why Square Enix has not deemed it worthwhile to include filter options, I'll never know.

I was a Nintendo kid in the 90's, but Final Fantasy VII's impact was impossible to miss. I looked on jealously as I read magazines that raved about the game. It wasn't until the 2000s and the advent of PlayStation emulation that I was finally able to play Final Fantasy VII (And VIII and IX) for myself. By then, I was in high school and probably at a better age to take in the game's dense messages and metaphors.

Final Fantasy VII is a game with something to say, and it is not subtle. You begin the game as an eco-terrorist fighting against a fascist corporation that rules the world through its control of energy resources, the use of which is killing the planet. The city of Midgar, where the game spends its first 7 or so hours, has a striking visual representation of its inequality: the poor live in squalor in slums under massive plates that house the city's rich. Obviously, Final Fantasy VII presents an exaggerated version of our own world (And it's really not exaggerated that much!). Where Final Fantasy VII's world succeeds is in how it never presents humans and technology as being inherently opposed to nature--the true villainous forces represented by Shinra Electric Power Company are systemic oppression and greed.

But Final Fantasy VII's most resonant messages don't come from its world, but its characters. Perhaps the biggest theme in VII is that of identity. Cloud Strife, the game's central protagonist, is its best example. Cloud begins the game as the shining archetype of the JRPG hero. He's a bad-butt warrior with a giant sword. He's a bit aloof, but he's got a heart of gold, a moral compass and a sense of humor. On first impression, his confident demeanor impresses on you that he is a person who's got it all figured out. But from early on, the game leaves breadcrumbs hinting to the player that not all is well. Cloud has frequent blackouts and traumatic flashbacks. His stories don't always seem to add up. Cloud is hiding something.

In a way, Final Fantasy VII is in its entirety a deconstruction of Cloud's character. After the group leaves Midgar, his backstory and feud with sexy supervillain Sephiroth take the focus of the story. I won't go further in fear of spoiling too much, but this journey is filled with countless truly iconic moments that deeply affected me on an emotional level, which is something very few games accomplish.

When they come out on the other end, the main message being presented by Cloud's story is one of self-acceptance. Many of us go through periods where we don't understand ourselves--we carry trauma that we must confront, and hiding from it is a double-edged blade. Ironically, the lesson of this journey is that being a hero is not a matter of who has the biggest sword; to truly be capable of overcoming adversity, you have to untangle yourself and embrace who you truly are. It's a message that critiques not only the JRPG power fantasy, but the concept of video games as a form of escapism. There's still nothing else quite like it that I've experienced to this day.

I totally get why people might prefer other games in the series. There are Final Fantasy games with more complex mechanics and better graphics. Final Fantasy VII is not perfect, and even its story can have issues at times. But something about it resonated so deeply with me, and it has not left my brain ever since I played it for the first time. In terms of storytelling, not much can scratch the same itch. I'm hoping Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which is set to include a lot of the game's most iconic setpieces, is able to capture the same magic.

PS. I played the game in Spanish this time around, and the translation is a complete mess. Here's some highlights below.

"Mother, let's take the Planet back together." is translated to "Mother, let's return together this planet," as in returning something you bought from a store or borrowed from a friend...

"Stuck up ^%$#&!" is translated to "Up ^%$#&!", as though she were commanding Tifa to get up, even though she just tied her to the chair...

This one is my favorite. Cait Sith just put Scarlet to sleep with sleeping gas, and a guard shouts "Weirdo!!"...... This is translated as "Killer lobster!!" ?????????????

Nanaki says "Are you suggesting we're prepared, Cloud?" to Tifa, who is clearly not Cloud.

It somehow lived up to the hype.

If I had written this review back around the 15 hour mark of my playthrough-- more than long enough to judge most games, imo-- I would have said it was a decent game at best. I'd have said it didn't do much to improve upon the previous entries and aged poorly from a visual standpoint because it was the first 3D entry in the main franchise.

But right around the time I got to Cosmo Canyon I saw a spark of something really special. And with the end of the first "disc" I was blown away at how the game was suddenly firing on all cylinders. From that point on through the rest of my playthrough it just didn't stop firing. What a hell of a ride.

I wonder if the reason it took so long for the game to click for me was because the spoilers for disc 1 are impossible to avoid. Like I knew many of the big early plot beats going into the game and had played through the opening sequence a couple times before myself. So once I had all that out of the way and was experiencing stuff firsthand I was able to really sink into the game and appreciate it.

The game looks uh... rough, we'll say. The 3D models used throughout have certainly not aged well. Cloud's wrench-shaped arms leave me snickering whenever I look at them. Beyond that though, many of the prerendered backgrounds are actually very nice. There's a ton of detail in them that helps to bring the world to life. The game also just oozes atmosphere, and it's largely due to these backgrounds and the stellar soundtrack I think. Sometimes it can be very tough to tell what you're meant to interact with or what part of the screen you can walk through, but overall the pros outweigh the cons, and I certainly prefer these backgrounds to what would have been a blocky low poly alternative. I was also impressed by many of the prerendered CGI cutscenes. Again, it's been 26 years, so they don't look great, but they are more than serviceable and do a lot to punctuate the major moments in the game's story.

The gameplay definitely underwhelmed me a bit here, after having played the previous 6 games. Materia works as a neat way to give your characters a versatile spellset but became much less appealing to me once I noticed how easy most of the game is. Like I would compare it to the Pokemon games released around the same time in terms of difficulty, meaning you'll get hung up on a boss or two at most. Sure, the final boss will fuck you up if you aren't prepared, but you can pretty much mash the attack button through the majority of the game and come out fine. There just wasn't as much depth to the combat as there was in the last two games, which was a bit of a letdown.

In the previous game, FFVI, each character felt as though they had their own identity in combat. Each had a special set of moves or abilities that no other character had access to (for the most part, anyway) and many required special inputs to control. They sort of try to do something similar in VII with limit break abilities, but save for a few outliers such as Tifa's limits, these all really just boil down to clicking a button to "attack one enemy with big damage" or "attack all enemies with big damage" with a character-specific set of explosions and SFX to accompany the move.

The cast is a good bit smaller than the cast from VI though, and from a storytelling perspective, I think this works in VII's favor. Each of the characters feel more fleshed out and their stories feel better woven together, resulting in more interesting and deep relationship dynamics between the members of your team. I didn't get to dig much into Vincent, as I only got him near the end of my playthrough, but all the other characters felt very well written. I also think this game my have one of my favorite Cids in the series so far. He felt like a return to form, back to the badass Cid of FFII, which I much prefer to the old man stereotype we got in III, IV, V, and to a lesser extent VI.

As I said above, I loved the story in this game. It always kept me curious to see what would come next and the slew of memorable locations throughout the game gave the world a lot of depth that I think many of the earlier entries lack. I did take some issue with how vague the connection between Cloud and Sephiroth is. Like they keep saying Cloud is a failed Sephiroth clone and how his memories were implanted but they never really explain if they were taken from the real Cloud, who's somewhere out there, or if our Cloud is the real Cloud. If the latter is the case, what's up with them constantly referencing how "not real" this Cloud is?

I suspect the very poor translation is to blame for my confusion. There were many moments, especially the section in the Temple of the Ancients, where I could not for the life of me understand what the characters were trying to say. Lines will sometimes cut off before they feel finished, characters will ask a question and then nobody will really answer, etc. It's kind of shocking how bad it was, to be honest. And this was the corrected version of the game. I can't imagine how bad the OG must have been.

This all brings me to one final point. This game deserves a real remaster with quality of life fixes. Something in the line of Bluepoint's Demon's Souls or Shadow of the Colossus where the game mostly plays the same but visuals, item text, menu design, combat speeds, and more are overhauled. I played the Steam version which does have some minor updates but there's so much clunk when navigating menus, moving your character around, and other stuff that it tends to bog down the experience. A game this loved really deserves some more thorough tweaks and updates to bring it in line with modern standards. Hell, the first six games got it in the form of the pixel remasters; why not give the 3D games some more love too?

I'll probably jump into FFVII Remake later tonight because I'm itching to see what a fully realized Midgar looks like, but yeah, we should get a smaller scale remaster too someday imo. The game is really really good and deserves it.

Ok. I didn't rate this much back in the day. I thought it was a confusing mess. But seeing Sephiroth defeated is one of those "Gamer Goals" (cringe) and I can tick that one off now.

And along the way, i grew to like FF7 a lot more. Solid gameplay, although not always clear where to head next. Some great visuals throughout, ruined by the lego brick character models, decent variety in the cast of characters, each with their own story, main quest is an epic, if somewhat silly tale, but not as impenetrable as I thought in the end, unlike say, Kingdom Hearts.

I can see why people love this game.

Working my way through more iconic games that were “before my time,” this one made sense to tackle right as the new DLC came out for its remake, my personal GOTY pick of last year.

(Above: Some of the game’s topics hold up in today’s world.)

Though this game is deservedly lauded as a significant generational leap that changed gaming forever, like many first tries at moving a series to 3D, in a couple ways it felt to me like a downgrade from its stunning 2D predecessor. In some aspects, it looks particularly ugly, even for its era, which to me makes a difference for immersion in a story. Getting around is awkward with some hard-to-see pre-rendered backdrops. Worst of all for me, the game is full of dozens of these awful required minigames that can really drag the fun down at times.

(Above: Next-gen gameplay.)

Luckily, the story elevates this game by a lot. The Midgar segment of the game covered by the first part of the remake is especially spectacular. It’s so high-energy and fun, with such efficient buildup of the world and characters, and a good sense of humor. The themes it establishes early on of environmentalism and a future world run by corporations are super interesting and make the game feel fresh. It’s just a killer, unbeatable setup for an RPG, so a whole remade game based on that first part makes perfect sense.

(Above: A leaked excerpt from the DSM-VII.)

After this part and some intriguing flashback scenes, the game threatened to lose me as it seemed to head toward a more normal JRPG plotline and world, but things changed in late Disc 1 and Disc 2 as the story took a more psychological turn with some really cool twists. One “dream sequence” toward the end of Disc 2, for example, is some mindblowing stuff for the time and holds up well. Some of the presentation is really creative and makes the most of the technical limitations the team faced. The characters added later in the game add a lot of value to the cast, even if they are a bit lacking in meaningful screentime.

(Above: The game’s meaningful role-playing options.)

Also excellent is the game’s soundtrack, full of both recognizable and original tunes. Some of the character designs and areas are also just really cool-looking. Though I don’t love the Gold Saucer itself, for example, since it’s just a hub of more minigames, it looks really cool and there’s a great cutscene there where Cloud spends an evening with one of his party members. More moments like this would have been great, and luckily the remake recognized and leaned into this strength.

After playing the game, I am reaffirmed in my love for its remake and my confidence in the fact that a slower, multi-game setup was a brilliant choice for such a dense title. But the original also has its place as a fast-paced, fun RPG adventure, and I found it definitely worth experiencing thanks to the excellent story and characters and the cool world it builds.

Perhaps a bit drawn out and at times mystifying but Final Fantasy VII has a very fun plot & characters. Mini-games are wonky but help break up the pace. Final Boss's Special Attack/Summon Cutscene is way too long and unskippable , and he spammed it so much it really took the wind out of my sails during the climax. Otherwise the battle system and gameplay is fun if a little a on the easy side outside of the optional bosses. Plenty of goofy and oddball moments that break up the moodiness and dark tones of the plot. Peak Square humor in my opinion. Barrett has all the best lines.

I first started playing FF7 when I was 11, it was new, and I had just bought a PS1 off one of my Dad's friend for a really cheap price. I was riveted by the setting, the seemingly more mature characters and story, and the depth of the game play. It reminded me of some of the D&D RPGs I had played on the PC, but had (at the time) the graphics to back up everything. However, little 11 year old me didn't understand how memory cards worked, so I continually played thru the first 1-3 hours, saved at a save point, turned it off, and then lost all the data. I eventually figured out I needed a memory card LOL

Fast forward to High School, I had a memory card, and while the game was older, my friends still talked abut it all the time, so I figured now was the time. I flew thru the game, but must have ignored large parts of the materia system, because by the time I got to Northern Cavern my party was so weak random encounters one hit me :(. Frustrated, I quit and just thought I would give it a try in the future.

Go forward about 10 years, FF7 is on Steam, excited I purchased it and resolved myself to finally beat it. As I was playing I realized I had made major errors in my past play through. I didn't understand basics, such as the effects of All Materia, back row and front row for the party, or understand the purpose of things like Counter and Cover... This was a real eye opener to just how rich this gameplay was, and why I had failed so miserably before to beat the game. However, like many games of the past, I got halfway thru, became distracted, and then yet again failed.

BUT, with the release on the Switch, x3 Play speed, and portability, I finally, after 20 years of sporadic attempts, finally, finally, beat this game!

So my thoughts:

Overall: This game lives up to the hype. I loved the characters, the story is deep and filled with twists. The sound track is stunning, and the graphics still hold up ok.

Characters: Honestly I loved them all. Yes Cloud can get angsty, but it still didn't keep me from loving using him in battle. Yes Sephiroth's goals are nebulous and confusing, but the continued threat of his presence provides tension throughout the game, and in the final fight getting his theme song was awe inspiring.

story: Most of the story nailed it. I love the misfit band struggling against a giant corporation. As the game expands, so does the world and the cast, in an organic way. Every character gets a chance to shine, and I love how after hours and hours of struggles, when the game is near finishing we have a break of combat, where the characters rediscover why they are fighting. It was elegant, made the stakes real, but also served as a great reminder.

The story did have some weak points. It is never really explained why Cloud has his identity crisis, or why Sephiroth controls him in parts. Jenova cells only goes so far as a reason... Plus the weird plot hook of you are a clone, and then discovering he actually wasnt... weird.

Sephiroth's goals are always sort of hard to grasp, but they do such a great job showing reactions to his actions that he still feels incredibly threatening in a way few villains in games have managed for me.

The end got some hate, but I liked it. It left questions, but also was shocking. It fits so well with Aeris's sacrifice. Love it!

Gameplay: WOW I LOVE the battle system and Materia system. I love the variety in the characters, and I love that all of them (Minus Cait Sith) seem to be pretty solid in the game.

So yeah, finally beating this game has been very cathartic, and rewarding. Play it if you haven't!

It was a long time coming, i had always heard good things but i was never able to play it, mainly because the only way i was able to play it was by emulation and i really couldn't get into it.

But with the (fairly) recent release of the switch version, i had no excuses, i HAD to play this game... And wow, this game definitely deserves all the praise it gets !

Although the title has aged on many points, in particular on the modeling of the characters , the game has lost nothing of its superb and artistic quality.

The materia system is probably one of the best magic systems in a JRPG i've seen. In addition, the plethora of objects, weapons and armor to be found offers an extensive personalization of the playable protagonists.

The themes concocted by Nobuo Uematsu are a real joy for the ears. Although the songs are not orchestrated, some melodies will remain etched in my memory for the rest of my life.

4.5 out of 5, the fantasy to end all fantasies

(Ps : Forget about Tifa and Aerith, crossdresser Cloud is the one true waifu.)

As revolutionary as it's considered, Final Fantasy VII doesn't stray too far from typical JRPG traditions. To be honest, I think this is a valuable anchor to have as Squaresoft takes their iconic franchise into its first 32-bit, first polygonal outing. There's a lot to cover here, so I'll start with the game from a mechanical standpoint.



Again, it's all pretty typical JRPG fare here, and to be honest I was actually kind of surprised to see just how much FF7 had in common with its predecessors. There's plenty of towns and interiors, with item, weapon, armor and skill shops in the form of Materia. There's dungeons and a world maps, all with random encounters, and the game even adheres to the established canoe/ship/airship system when it comes to vehicles. It all comes together to drive home the fact that this is a game that both maintains what it is that makes Final Fantasy Final Fantasy all while still driving the series forward.

While other Final Fantasy's have Magicite, jobs and garment grids, Final Fantasy 7 uses the Materia system for skill progression and character customization. Weapons and armor have Materia various amounts of Materia slots, with various growth rates, and Materia itself can be bought and found all over the world. Equipping Materia will allow your characters to use associated magic and abilities, or grant them passive or active effects. Materia itself can be augmented by Support Materia, changing the way it behaves, as well as leveled to provide stronger abilities or effects.



The Materia system, mechanically speaking, is both Final Fantasy 7's greatest strength, and the cause of its biggest issues. To be clear, I love Materia, and it may be my favorite form of skill learning or character customization in a Final Fantasy game. It offers tons of flexibility, role specialization, and is just downright fun to use. Finding Materia always feels rewarding and exciting. That said, balance quickly becomes an issue. Its this endless level of possibility that leads to some seriously broken combinations, trivializing the majority of the already easy game. W-Summon Knights of the Round into Mime? Right...

Of course, I've been told that I don't have to take it that far. I don't have to breed a Gold Chocobo or play all those Gold Saucer minigames or go collecting all the hidden items and ultimate weapons. And, hey, if I really wanted a challenge out of the game I could always go fight the optional Ruby and Emerald Weapon bosses who are insanely difficult. That's my cheeky way of acknowledging all the great content there is to do here outside of just playing through the game. I beat Final Fantasy 7 in just about 30 hours even, I could have easily gone on for another 10-15.



For all of my complaining about how obscure the story in Final Fantasy 7 is, it's actually pretty basic. Well, maybe not "basic", but it's easy enough to follow when you're not 15 and home-schooled and maybe I need more therapy. Anyway, you follow Cloud, an identificationally (it's a word now!) confused Ex-SOLDIER from the evil Shinra organization, his childhood friend Tifa, and definitely not a Mr. T rippoff man with the prosthetic ballistics, Barret. What starts off as a few simple acts of freedom fighting quickly turns into a quest to save the planet from cataclysmic destruction! Along the way you'll meet tons of interesting characters, and dig deeper into the ones you've known from the start.

The story on the whole is very good, however I can't help but find the game's main antagonist, Sephiroth, lacking. He's certainly iconic, don't get be wrong, but his pseudo-presence throughout the game makes it easy to forget he's there. He's more of an "idea" during the course of the game rather than an actual, tangible villain. Sure, that sounds like a concept that could be terrifying, but I just don't feel like it works great here.







At this point, everyone knows how poorly Final Fantasy 7 has held up graphically over the years, so I'm not going to spend a bunch of time ripping on it. No, the visuals are not very good, but it's not just that. One thing I found myself having a problem with was the simple fact that the game couldn't decide on a graphical style. Some cutscenes were in-engine, some where in-engine with post production, and some used more detailed models. On top of that, the battle models were different from the normal models. They should have picked a style and stuck with it! As for what the game actually gets right, I was pretty impressed with the use of pre-rendered backgrounds as environments. It helped add a lot of personality to the different areas, while also adding a nice visual experience.



Sound effects all work really well within the game, so there's really nothing to talk about in that regard. The music, on the other hand... I think the music in Final Fantasy 7 is almost too iconic for its own good. It's too easy to be playing this game and take the soundtrack for granted, I mean we've been listening to it for the last 20 years or so. You almost have let yourself fall into it, and really listen, beyond the familiarity. Do that, and you'll find an epic score, one just as captivating as it was the first time you listened to it. Every song is fantastic, and I'm finding myself adding it to my regular music rotation.







I'm lucky in getting to go into Final Fantasy 7 completely cold, back when it was only a couple years old. I got to have all experiences the game brought with it first hand, unspoiled by friends or magazines. Over time, playing more and more RPG's and even more and more Final Fantasy games, I lost a lot of love for this one. Looking back, I couldn't make sense of what I remember of the story, and I started focusing on a lot of the game's faults. I became one of those guys who'd say things like "Final Fantasy 7 was an important game, sure, but when you look back on it there were a lot of issues. It's WAY overrated."

To a degree, yes, it is definitely an overrated game. At the same time, it's earned a lot of its accolades. Playing it again as an adult has really given me a new perspective, and respect, for the game, and I hold it in much higher regard than I did just a few weeks ago!