Final Fantasy VII
PlayStation
Start a discussion about the greatest video game of all time and someone is bound to bring up Final Fantasy VII. If I am in the discussion, chances are that this person will probably be me.
While there is a large group of gamers out there that consider this to be the best game ever made, Final Fantasy VII also has its fair share of detractors. They say the characters are too flat. They don't like the Materia system. They knock the story line. Some of them do actually like the game, but say that it is not as good as it is made out to be.
I, however, will defend this game to the death. To me, it is one of the greatest games of all time. It is very hard for me to pick a definitive "best game ever" with all of the amazing titles I have played over the years. But for this game to be not only in the discussion but a front runner certainly says something about its quality.
I played this game for the first time during a very tumultuous period in my life. I was a loner in high school. Didn't have any friends. Just hung around at home all of the time. I was very unhappy and very lonely. I buried myself in video games to distract me from how I felt about the outside world.
I had always been curious about Final Fantasy, but I never had the chance to play any of them because I had a Sega Genesis rather than a Super Nintendo during the 16-bit era. When I heard about Final Fantasy VII and read the previews, I knew that I had to check the game out. I didn't own a PlayStation, but I had been saving my allowance money. I was going to use it to buy a PlayStation and this game. I was bound and determined.
And I did. One random day after school I walked up to the Best Buy nearby and bought a PlayStation and Final Fantasy VII. I remember it was a cold and dreary day. I sat at the bus stop flipping through FF7's instruction manual and thinking about how awesome the game looked.
I remember getting home and immediately hooking up the system to play the game. I was completely blown away. Great graphics, great story line. I enjoyed the combat system. The music was out of this world. It was a very immersive experience that I instantly fell in love with. I had never experienced anything like this on the Sega Genesis or Nintendo Enterainment System before. It was one of those watershed moments when I realized just how amazing video games could be as technology got better and better.
Unfortunately for me, I didn't take into account that I had to have a memory card to save the game. I played as long as I possibly could (I made it just past the part where Cloud stays the night after rescuing Aeris from the Turks) but eventually I did die and have to turn the game off. It was a sad moment for me. But at least it taught me to go out and get a memory card!
Final Fantasy VII is a game that I really devoted a lot of time to as a teenager. I don't know how many times I beat the game, but it was a lot. I stayed up night and day playing the game. I lived and breathed Final Fantasy VII. If you asked me back then if it was definitively the best game ever made, I would have said yes. This was escapism at its finest.
So the game holds a lot of sentimental value for me. My first Final Fantasy. My first PlayStation game. Plus the fact that it helped me through a difficult time in my life. I spent hours on end completely immersed in this world while I tried to forget that the real one existed. So not only is the game already a classic by conventional standards, but it holds sentimental sway for me too.
The thing that makes the game truly great, however, is that the game is still a lot of fun to play. Maybe I am biased because I spent so much time with this title as a kid, but when I played it again in the year 2016, nearly 20 years after the game's initial release, I didn't think there was a single dull moment in the entire game. Everywhere you look, something iconic is happening. The story line is riveting. The locations are varied, detailed and simply bursting with personality. The musical score is legendary. The battle system is simple and a ton of fun. Now that I think about it - it is one of the most well designed and easy to use battle systems I have encountered in an RPG.
Yes, the graphics are blocky and don't necessarily hold up when you look at the characters too closely. But the environments are well designed. The cut scenes also look really good.
I found very little to nitpick about when playing the game. It's just an all around fun time, from beginning to end. Final Fantasy VII definitely deserves its place in the conversation for greatest game of all time. Just so you guys are clear: I LOVE FINAL FANTASY VII and there is no way this game is going to get anything less than an A+. I think I have made that much clear.
It you have never played Final Fantasy VII you are probably very curious by now about the game. So I shall provide you some details. FF7 is a role playing game, or RPG for short. Instead of being all action all the time, it is slower paced and focuses more on its story line than anything else. To me, a great RPG always has to have a great story line, or it is all for naught. And this game definitely has a great story line.
You don't get a whole lot of details coming into the game, but Final Fantasy VII lays everything out for you in a way that is very easy to understand. There is an evil corporation named Shinra that is sucking the very lifeblood out of the planet in order to fuel its technology. You play as Cloud, an eco terrorist of sorts who has joined a group of revolutionaries to destroy Shinra's reactors because they believe that if the Shinra keeps up what it is doing, it will destroy the entire planet.
The farther you get into the game, the more the plot thickens. It is too detailed and (at times) too convoluted to post everything that happens with the story line. Let's just say things explode onto a much larger scale... and fast. Long story short, during your battle against Shinra you stumble upon a plot hatched by an evil ex-soldier named Sephiroth to destroy the planet and use its life blood for his own nefarious purposes. This is definitely an abridged summary, however. There is a lot more going on in the game than just this. If you have never played this before, you should expect a shocking twist about midway through the game. Game of Thrones isn't the only franchise out there that's not afraid to kill off main characters.
Combat, as was tradition with many RPGs from back when this game was made, is turned based. This means you pick from a menu what it is you want to do in a battle. Attack, use magic, use an item, steal, perform a summon... it is all done via text menus. You and your enemy take turns with your moves, although this game does have an active time battle feature that means if you take too long to make up your mind on what to do, your enemy could get back in there and attack again.
I actually prefer this method of battle as opposed to the way most RPGs are now - with their fast paced "real time" attacks and automatic actions. I like being in control of the battle and its pace, so this game was perfect for me. As I mentioned earlier in this review - Final Fantasy 7 was one of the first RPGs I ever played, and I still have yet to find a game with a control scheme I like as much as this one.
So the story is great, and I like the way the battles unfold. Two strong points in favor of Final Fantasy VII. The graphics may seem primitive by today's standards, but these were considered top notch when this game came out. Yeah, the characters themselves aren't much to look at, but the environments I think are fantastic. Not only are they well drawn and pleasing to the eye, but they are all very unique and never repetitive. Couple the game's unique look with its distinctive sound track, and it all adds up to one highly detailed world that is just brimming with character and personality. No two cities or environments could be confused with one another. Midgar, Cosmo Canyon, Mideel, Nibelheim, Rocket Town, Junon, Wutai, the Gold Saucer and all of the areas in this game are instantly recognizable by their look and sound. Each area has its own very distinctive personality.
There is a lot to see and a lot to explore in Final Fantasy VII. Every time I would play this game as a teenager I would uncover something that I hadn't noticed on a previous play through. This game is like the gift that keeps on giving.
Factor in everything I have said about the game, and you should be able to see why I hold this title in such high regard. First PlayStation game I owned. First Final Fantasy game I ever played. Helped me through a tough time in life in addition to being a great game. Great story. Great atmosphere. Iconic moments, iconic characters. Lots of hidden stuff, and replayability up the wazoo. I can hardly think of anything bad to say about the game. It is a true classic in my eyes.
Greatest video game ever made? It's a tough call. I'm not ready to name anything "the greatest" yet. But it is certainly on the short list of candidates. I know that a lot of people like to try and shoot this game down, or mock its supporters who say that it is one of the best ever. If anyone who shares that mindset is reading this article - I truly feel sorry for you. This game is amazing - and even if I was the only person on the planet who had that opinion, I would still stand by it. I don't like it because it is popular, or because it is the "cool" thing to say that FF7 is one of the best games ever. I truly believe it has earned its place in that discussion.
Overall:
A+
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