This was quite possibly my most anticipated "game to get to" in my A-Z of Steam series. Final Fantasy VII requires little introduction. With the remake out last year, and fresh DLC for it this year, my timing for getting back to the original iteration of the game was pretty well timed.
This review may contain spoilers for the Final Fantasy VII Remake. Be warned.
FF7 released on the PlayStation 1. I had an original copy, and would play it on the weekends at my grandparent's house in their spare room on a tiny TV. I got a few hours in each weekend, and it made me want to constantly be at their house.
While I didn't understand much of the story at the time (as I was pretty young!) I loved the combat and the perceived freedom gleaned from the world map. There was so much to explore, and battles were a challenging grind.
Now, it is 2021, and I'm a far more mature gamer - I've reviewed games for money (as a full time job), and I've got a couple of decades of experience beyond what I had when this game was first released, and I was first exposed.
Final Fantasy 7 follows Cloud Strife, and his burgeoning connection with Avalanche. He's a mercenary, interested in money, and getting the job done. He used to work for a company known as The Shinra Electric Power Co, who produce energy using MAKO energy, extracted from the Planet.
As a seemingly eco-terrorist group, Avalanche bomb a reactor, pulling back the curtain on what Shinra is doing to "kill the planet", as splinter cell leader Barret explains in the early game.
Thus commences an adventure that spans the planet, and builds upon everything else the Final Fantasy series developed prior. The combat system allows characters to be unique through their "limit breaks", powerful attacks that are triggered by them taking damage in combat - and you are allowed an enormous degree of customisation through the use of materia - magical energy orbs that can be equipped in weapons and armor, giving you access to magic, summons, and other abilities.
This means you can make any character a thief. You can make any character a ninja who throws things. However, not all characters excel at all roles. There's a fine balance, and combinations of party members synergise well to enable different outcomes in combat.
Enemy monster designs have aged decently, with perhaps the exception of a few of the minor things that were blown completely out of proportion later in time, by things like the Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
Speaking of the Remake, it is amusing to see how so many elements from the full game made it into the remake. While we don't have chocobo racing / breeding, or the half dozen mini games from The Golden Saucer, we have its influences evident almost everywhere in the Remake.
The battle dungeon in Wall St is a stand in for the Battle Square at Gold Saucer, as is the combat simulator. Underground Shinra bases not explored til late in the FF7 Remake are influenced by the party's revist to Midgar on "the third disc" of the original title.
There's so much here that is faithfully injected into the Remake, making me appreciate it even more, so much so, it will be the next game I play, to stuff my brain right full of FF7 literature that I can experience the entire universe all at once. I might start that later today by watching the Advent Children film prior.
The version ported to the Nintendo Switch is decent, stable, and plays well in both docked and portable mode. The best feature is a 3x speed up, which means that I completed the game, and all side-quests in around 40 hours, an endeavour which would've taken significantly longer were it not also for the battle boost feature, which allows you to wander around with perpetually filled HP, MP and Limit Break bars, making the modern port far easier than the original title's sometimes unforgiving combat, and sparse save points.
This drew out length on the PlayStation version considerably, as it is often not just about the final hours on the clock when you finish, but how many hours of lost progress you were subjected to throughout the play through.
FMVs have dated considerably, but they do not interrupt the story telling. There's a marked difference between the opening FMV of the game, and the final, which is evident that the developers who, when first coming to grips with the tech at their disposal, flexed their artistic prowess with more intent towards the end of the game.
It reflects a game that had its areas and story hand crafted, with a passionate group of developers and artists enhancing their skills and refining their crafts as the game wore on.
While the original title had three discs, it is a seamless experience on the Nintendo Switch, which each disc declared a part, or an act. They're of unequal length, but coalesce impressively to deliver a truly classic RPG experience.
While it's Final Fantasy, it feels truly unique, not only being the first 3D title, but a new world, devoid of crystals, maturing them into materia; which allowed for far more customization and exploration with the combat systems than previously allowed in any Final Fantasy game prior.
Overall, this is the title that exposed much of the West to the JRPG, and there are all too many reasons why this game is considered a cult classic. It excels in not only evoking nostalgia due to the timing of its release, the burgeoning game market at the time, and the articulate nature of those now looking backwards as "gaming historians", but by weaving together a story of ecological terrorism that was prophetical in the analogues that can be drawn to the current day, capitalist undertones that mar the world's leaders and their decisions.
Perhaps this stuff was going on in the late 90s when this game was released, but back then, I was just a kid. Now, I look back on the tale, and think, well, yeah, that happened, and it's still happening, over a decade after this master piece's release.
An excellent game, and something every gamer should experience at least once.