Final Fantasy VII

One could argue that this is the game that brought Square truly back into the RPG game. In September of 1997, I started 11th grade. I remember crystal clear my friend reading the Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) magazine and caught a glimpse of this young boy holding a huge sword. I asked him about it and he said Square came out with a new FF game. I got pumped, then quickly was heartbroken. This game wasn’t for the SNES. It was for the Playstation. After years of partnering with Nintendo, Square packed up and went with Sony. I assumed it was because the game couldn’t fit in a cartridge. Then after I saw some of the screenshots, I knew immediately this game was not designed for the SNES. Gone were the 8/16-bit sprites and the glory CGI was welcomed. It was a new era for Square/FF and that huge shift in platform was necessary and vital for its success. Never had FF looked and felt so real. Never before had it sounded so good. It felt dark and mysterious seeing the pictures of Midgar. I poured over countless images from various magazines and whatever information AOL had on it at the time. I didn’t own a Playstation then. I was still rocking out on my SNES. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to play this game any time soon, and thus the waiting began.

My first taste of FF VII came at the purchase of the PS One in 2000. I was three years late to the game. However I was fortunate enough to avoid major spoilers that whole time and experience the game in all of its glory. Besides the annoyance of load times, this game played like no other FF title. Let’s break it down: characters were bigger, the landscape more detailed and the music fit every situation perfectly. Other things to note was that the party shrunk to just three members. The fewest in a FF title at that time. The materia system was just mind-blowing. There were so many customizations and you could have essentially all members learning everything there is to learn with a lot of time and patience. The varying camera angles when battles engaged was awesome. Thank you 3D! It added such depth and was very visually pleasing.

(Story spoilers) You got to maneuver a land rover, a downed plane which made a fine flotation vehicle, a submarine and an airship. Of course you could ride chocobos and even more so, breed your own and race them. The Gold Saucer was a lot of fun if you took the time to really explore and play the various games. Certain scenes during your time at the Gold Saucer was very funny too. That’s another thing that really made this game stand out was the dialogue. While I throughly enjoyed the dialogue of VI, it was the first time an FF title took dialogue in a completely different direction. It really showcased the character’s persona, especially Barret and Cid. Man, did they have a mouth on them! I lost count how many times Cloud shrugged his shoulders. Talk about nonchalant. You also got to control a snowboard, which became a fun mini game later on. Earlier in the story, you got to control a motorcycle on this high speed getaway. Just imagine swinging this huge sword while going 60+ mph with ease (some things you just had to laugh at how absurd it was). Cloud gave old school CPR to a young girl, saving her life. You had to out-squat a wrestler, play dress up (as a girl), and a bunch of other stuff which made this game just completely unpredictable, yet fun and memorable.

When it came to the party overall, you definitely had quite the cast of characters. After playing VI with it’s 12–14 playable characters, VII vastly reduced it’s cast. Two characters are optional depending on if you wanted to complete their side quests, one felt absolutely useless (did anyone use Cait Sith)? (Spoiler) One met an unfortunate and very sad end, so you’re really dealing with five characters throughout the game and really if you want to stretch this, three (Cloud, Tifa and Barret). You can argue that you feel drawn to utilize these characters the most since they really play major roles throughout the story. As the story unfolds, each character has its moment to steal the spotlight so you can progress through the main story of the game. Each have a very interesting back story and are really dealing with some deep stuff. For example, Red XIII we come to discover is really young, and has a personal issue with his father who he considered to be a coward. Barret had some beef with his hometown and best friend who’s daughter he’s taken as his own to raise. That situation did not end well. As for Cloud, his story is very muddy and convoluted, but the pieces slowly come together as the story progresses, but it wasn’t hard to get lost at times and just scratch your head asking, “what just happened?” That’s just a brief synopsis of a few of the characters, but seriously, everyone’s story is pretty in-depth and some are really jacked up. This really made the “feel” for the game a lot different than another other FF title up until that point.

There’s also a lot to say about Sephiroth, the game’s antagonist. Besides being shrouded in mystery, seemingly steps ahead of the party and whether or not they’ve been chasing some ghost; I never came across a villain who played so many mind games. These games really get to Cloud, but as the player, you’re constantly asking yourself “what is truly going on here?” Ultimately, as in all FF major villains, the world needs to be destroyed, but why? This FF title never seemed to answer the question on why did Sephiroth want to summon meteor? Meteor inevitably would have destroyed the planet. Had Sephiroth achieved a god-like status, who or what would he have governed? The planet would have ceased to exist had the mission been carried out. That really made no sense to me. Also after Sephiroth is defeated, even Holy couldn’t save the planet from Meteor. Had it not been for the Lifestream, the planet would have been destroyed. I also don’t understand how Cloud and Tifa survived being in the Lifestream, but again, that’s probably just me. Attempting to make sense of all of this has sparked endless debates. I guess it’s truly up to one’s interpretation, but I can’t front and feel a bit disappointed with how it all ended. (Spoiler) Especially the cut scene to 500+ years later, Red XIII is running with some cubs. However we learn (and later played) the prequel, spinoff’s and watched the Advent Children movie. So the FF VII Universe was certainly expansive.

I’ve replayed this game numerous times and just recently on the PS4. There were some added features to speed the gameplay, avoid random encounters and also have your limit break filled at the start of each battle. It made the game incredibly easy to breeze through so you can just focus on the things that matter to you. It was a fun way to replay through the game and it’s crazy that after 16 years since first playing it, I still have the same burning questions. I believe this will always be a timeless title in the franchise. I was truly surprised to see an actual remake being done for this generation. People have been asking for this for many years. I never thought it would come to fruition, but it certainly will be interesting to play this game once again. Perhaps my questions after all these years will be answered since I read that this game is episodic. Perhaps it will all be made clear this next time around. It looks like another post on FF VII will happen in the near future. I look forward to experiencing the game again once the remake releases.

Have any comments? Please feel free to leave them. I’m always up for discussion. Thanks for reading!