 Final Fantasy VII is the ultimate at the time game, at the time the graphics were incredible, at the time the variety of gameplay was unheard of, at the time nobody had ever seen a game like this before. Nearly 20 years later though, some of those facets have faded, but is the original Final Fantasy VII still worth playing today? And for the record I'm strictly talking about the PS1 version since that's what I played this past summer. I did get some exposure to it back when it first came out, but I didn't have a Playstation back then, and never played the PC version, so yeah, there's no childhood bias here, so I'm gonna try and be as objective as possible. And hey, if you played this game as a kid, if you loved it then and you love it now, then who cares what some guy on the internet thinks? It's not like my opinion of Final Fantasy VII, good or bad, or both, is somehow going to rip out and replace the memories you have of this game. Or is it? Yeah, no. Anyway, let's start with what I'm sure has already jumped out at you just from the footage here, the visuals. Now at the time, and there's a phrase again at the time, the visuals are pretty freaking amazing. I mean, as long as you got past the jagged graininess that accompanied pretty much every PS1 game, the visual design here is actually really important to the overall game structuring. The backgrounds as you can see function as huge matte paintings to serve as a stage for the action to take place, as well as exploration and finding your way around. This is cleverly done, because one, it sets the game apart. Yeah, it looks pretty outdated, especially the characters, but I liken it to Star Fox for Super Nintendo in that effect. It's almost like its datedness ended up lending itself to its own kind of visual style. I mean, one click glance and you immediately know this is Final Fantasy 7. And two, it helps the in-game footage come close to matching the full motion video footage of which there's over 40 minutes. If the difference between the two were too obvious, like we've seen all too often with certain games, then that would have been kind of ridiculous. But yeah, the backgrounds here not only look good, but they're pretty inspired pieces of art that are unique to Final Fantasy 7. Now, the problem with structuring a game like this with kind of a fixed camera and these huge backgrounds is that, I mean, can you see me back here? Where the hell am I? This layout also poses some really annoying problems with navigation. How do I even get around here? What, I just run up this pipe? What the hell? You can file this sort of thing under the, they did the best they could at the time file, but still, there are many instances like this where you're wondering where to go or how are you supposed to get somewhere. That is irritating as hell and it makes this game dated big time. But let's face it, when you think of Final Fantasy 7 today, you don't think of the graphics or the art direction or the battle system or the minigames, it's the story. The story in Final Fantasy 7 is its lasting influence on the gaming industry and not because of what it is or what happens or even how it's told, it's just the fact that a well-told story can be every bit as important as any other aspect of a game. And if done effectively, like it's certainly done here, it can be the most important and memorable aspect. Now, in my video for Final Fantasy 6, I made a lot of people mad by saying the game at times came across as a little hollow and a little self-indulgent because it seemed like the story was big only for the sake of being big, like the developers wanted to prove what a video game story could do. So as a result, there's a lot of fluff and a lot of characters that I just didn't care about whatsoever. In Final Fantasy 7, it's clear that they're shooting for the stars again in the same kind of way, but this time, this approach works mostly because it's just a better and more focused story with an actual main protagonist and much better character development. Now, I don't want to start a pissing contest between 6 and 7 since 7 obviously has more space to work with and has more technological advantages. But still, the main story arc and the accompanying character development are well done. And because of that, the story has aged well. You play as Cloud Strife, a mercenary for hire, and you start the game helping a terrorist group named Avalanche. Yeah, that's right. You start the game as a freaking terrorist. You're a bad guy killing innocent people. That's a little nuts. Avalanche is led by Barrett. They're blowing up energy reactors because of what Barrett believes to be the unethical use and extraction of this stuff called Mako. The energy company, Shinra, is using these reactors to suck the Mako straight out of the planet itself, draining the planet's very lifeblood. Meanwhile, Cloud doesn't really care. He just sees this as another job, although Cloud's childhood friend Tifa is in this group as well. The first mission is successful, but your group is ambushed on the second mission. It turns out Shinra doesn't take very kindly to having the reactors blown up and everyone is separated. That's where Cloud runs into Aerith, and she's got her own business going on and she's got people coming after her. It turns out that Aerith is the last surviving member of a tribe called the Cetra, or the ancients, a race of people that are uniquely attuned to the planet's health and well-being. The Shinra corporation wants after her because as an ancient, she could potentially guide them to unlimited Mako hidden within the planet. Seems like typical Rebels versus Empire, right? Ah, but there's a wild card here, the Tortured Sephiroth. I won't spoil too much of his backstory, but I'll go so far as to say, as he finds out what his own backstory is, he kind of sort of goes insane and tries to follow in his quote unquote mother's footsteps and attempts to fulfill what he believes is his destiny by merging with the planet's Mako lifestream, or blood, itself. So how do you find blood? Well, with a wound, of course, so his plan is to summon a meteor, or actually a meteorite entity, to critically damage the planet. In the process of this comes the big, famous moment this game is known for. I won't spoil it even though the game is almost 20 years old, but yeah, I'll just say it still holds up just fine because the game does a nice job building up to it. What makes the story so memorable is the character development. Cloud goes from an apathetic mercenary to someone with a real purpose. You see Sephiroth learn from his own past through flashbacks and how he used to be a soldier and how he changes once he figures out where he came from. He in particular makes a great villain because while you can't necessarily relate to his methods, at least I would hope not, you can understand where he's coming from on a basic human level, same as someone like Magneto, for instance. Hell, you can even kind of say the same thing about Barrett and why he chose his path in life. In addition, the game also gives you control to a certain extent if you wanna form a closer relationship with Cloud and one of the other characters. Also bear in mind, there's a lot more to the story than I've explained in this video. All sorts of other characters and events, I just don't wanna spoil too much. But yeah, all I'm really trying to get across here is the story first and foremost is why this game is worth playing today and the reason the game made such a mark on the industry. It's referred to as cinematic storytelling, but not necessarily because of the methodology and the cutscenes and all that, but because of the scope of the narrative and how you as a player grow to empathize with so many different characters. That's crazy to think considering just 10 years earlier the only character development you cared about was how fast they could run to the right and make stuff go boom. If you're looking for other reasons to get into a game like this, like for the combat system, I mean, yeah, it's the typical Final Fantasy stuff you'd expect. A lot of aspects here are very similar to Final Fantasy 6. There's random battles on the world map and boss battles triggered by the story. The big feature unique to Seven is Materia, which are these very magic orbs you can place onto weapons or equipment allowing you to customize a character's abilities and stats to a certain extent. So in other words, it's not all that different from the Espers in Final Fantasy 6. The combat system here certainly isn't bad by any stretch. It's just pretty standard. I tend to think that was by design. They likely wanted to keep the combat as streamlined as possible while keeping the emphasis on the story. I should mention though that there are plenty of unique quick time events and minigames so it's not just fight and read text, fight and read more text. Of course, since this is a Final Fantasy game, the music is done by Nobuo Oematsu. Interestingly, however, the music here is a bit less bombastic and a bit more subdued. It's well done all the same. All the characters have their own distinct themes and they're all catchy and memorable and will stay in your head for weeks after playing. But it's pretty cool how during some of the flashback scenes, the music is a little quieter and a little more melodic. It blends in and adds rather than stands out on its own and it's really executed well throughout the game. That should really be commended. Oh, and have I mentioned that they're finally remaking this game? Only they're remaking the entire game from the ground up and ditching the turn-based combat system and changing around some aspects of the story. Yeah, we'll see how that goes. Pretty disappointing as it would have been nice to see something faithful to the original. All right, this has gone on way too long. I don't usually ramble this much, but yeah. All this is to say Final Fantasy 7 is still just fine. I will say I remember people went a little crazy back in the late 90s proclaiming it as the best game ever made and then there was a big-time backlash that followed years after. But as usual, the reality falls somewhere in the middle. This game certainly isn't the greatest but it certainly isn't awful either. Sure, Final Fantasy 7 is certainly flawed because of the visual stuff I mentioned earlier and because it's video game storytelling taken to its natural extreme with every strength and shortcoming of the medium amped up to 11. It's very text heavy to the point that in the first four or five hours you wanna grind not just to level up but just to find some action. There are cutscenes to the point that during one flashback they ask you if you wanna take a break and save before you continue. It still works in its own way though and above all else Final Fantasy 7 feels like the culmination of every Final Fantasy game that came before it. It feels like the best possible incarnation of what the developers were looking to accomplish back then for better or for worse. So yeah, it doesn't have the same impact today as it did when it was released but Final Fantasy 7 is still a good old-fashioned role-playing game with a well-told story and there's nothing wrong with that.