Finally! After ten years, I was finally able to beat this game. It took ten years to get through the entire game, but I did it. So yeah, my personal problems aside, Final Fantasy VII is still a good game.
Final Fantasy VII follows Cloud Strife pre-Advent Children emo phase as he joins the rebellious group known as AVALANCHE to stop Shinra from draining the earth of Mako energy that keeps it alive. But this soon turns into something more as they get involved with mama’s boy Sephiroth who wants to gain the earth’s energy to gain the power of a god and destroy the earth for… raisins. Also a race of Ancients are involved. The usual stuff really. This was my first entry into the Final Fantasy series and ever since, it is still my favorite in the franchise. I remember being so invested in the world thanks to the characters and the music. Final Fantasy has a great cast of characters, from Tifa to Barret to Yuffie to Cid and Cait Sith can go die in a hole. But aside from that one, the party is full of some classic characters. The battle system is also a ton of fun. I remember playing this and thinking, “Wait, what? I gotta wait to make a turn? Where’s the action, the destruction, all that cool stuff” but as I played it and learned, I Was able to get real invested in this game at that point, and remember making a ton of progress. And by a ton, I kept thinking, “Oh my god, we’re so far into the game and we still have two whole discs to get through. How can there be so much stuff in this single PS1 disc”. Nowadays, that’s probably child’s play for what we can store on a disc, but back then, three discs was insane amount of content. Hell, 360 used multiple discs for stuff like L.A. Noire and Lost Odyssey, and those had four discs. But, enough with that. Another feature to Final Fantasy VII is the use of Materia, items that you can give to certain characters to give them new stats. And anyone can use these stats. You wanna make a tank like Barret a healer, go right ahead. Sure, his strength will crumble, but at least he can heal you when you’re about to die. It’s like Final Fantasy X’s leveling up system, only instead of doing it for a long time, you can make a healer have destructive magic almost instantly as long as you have the materia. But, the real kicker for why I love this game is, once again, the music. I loved the funky tunes of just walking around the city of Midgar without fights, I loved hearing the battle theme and hearing that classic victory tune, and of course, hearing the Prelude, the theme of Final Fantasy, as you explore the massive overworld to fight off enemies and do side quests or travel to another location is always a nice touch to hear. Final Fantasy VII just does so much right and it all just hits me with a wave of nostalgia.
Final Fantasy VII is a game that many people started with, myself included, and I loved the entire franchise ever since. Sure, it’s had it’s ups and downs, like Spirits Within, Final Fantasy VIII… Lightning… But through it all, it has managed to stay around and be a massively popular franchise and I’m happy for that. And maybe that remake will be pretty good… whenever the hell it comes out.
