within a span of two months, from september to november of 2019, i lost an old friend and former lover to bone cancer at 23 years old, and my father revealed to me that he’d been diagnosed with stage 2 lung cancer. this would indicate a nearly three year journey to where i am now - a sequence of events which tested the limits of my perseverance, willpower, camaraderie, self-love, and actualization of community. my life underwent severe changes throughout this period; essentially revising my entire outlook on my relationships to patching up and mending my relationship with my dad which had resulted in some pretty catastrophic gaps gashed out pretty equally on both sides. some outside events completely reformed how i lived, the safety and love i had to provide myself for my own wellbeing, and fostering a lot of growth and evolution out of a patch where what i’d known and what i held onto were slipping through my fingers.

during this time, my father set an example of how he would choose to live. he combatted cancer and heartbreak with rudiment, structure, dedication and iron will. i watched him break on more than a few occasions. but it was through his search for that light where he found his own branch of buddhism, practice of meditation, and a new outlook on his life. he began to teach me the lessons he’d taken away - both of us being that type of person with loud, constantly-spewing minds. he instilled and internalized the idea that meditation and serenity are not about clearing the mind of thought, but finding a means to acknowledge the thought and move on from it. it was only along the lines of that practice that we both began to unbox our trauma - both conjoined and individual. it was only then when we could cultivate growth, hope, and those first rays of light.

i had no access to therapy or professional help at the time. i was between jobs when i wasn't crammed into ones that abused and berated me and my time. my greatest resources for self-love, as they are now, were my loved ones and my then-cracked-yet-unbroken devotion to art. traumatic attachments kept me apart from those things i loved most, but in the process of recovering from a sequence in time in which i felt like i’d lost myself, figured it took recessing back to those works which had so clearly defined attics of my life to that point to regain shards of who i’d been, and define who i would choose to be moving forward. over the next year, i would play final fantasy vii six times to completion, twice with friends, four times on my own. the hanging threads of grief, trauma, self-actualization v. dissociation, lack of direction - these things culminated in a story which more and more i felt whispered answers directly to me, for my consumption alone. it’s in those moments where a bond is made between art and audience where the attachment becomes not just inseparable, but near essential.

final fantasy vii doesn’t hand you answers for the questions you come to it with. there isn’t a resolution to the trauma, there isn’t a solution to the pain or the grief. it is an embrace, and a hold of the hand, and a gentle call; “here is how you live with yourself. here is how you learn to be alive again.” the sociopolitical conflicts, the internal struggles, the budding seeds of affection and fraternity don’t reach a natural apex - they hum in anticipation of a deciding factor which never comes. perpetually trapped within the question, but offering you the means to provide your own answer in life. the final shot of the game isn’t a conclusion meant to be expanded upon. it’s simply a closing of the cover, the final page turned before the index of note paper before being passed to you with the command - “apply yourself. turn this into something that matters.” so i chose to.

and i found myself in midgar again, with new friends and a new outlook.

you come back to the slums of wall market and sector 7 with a new worldview and appreciation each time. there’s a different purpose, when your relationship with this game is as intimate as mine, for coming back here. i know the smog, the street life, the feeling of inescapable, walled-in urban destitution well. you grow up in any city poor enough and you get to know midgar intimately. it’s a familiar setting with a familiar social agency. the seventh heaven crew, they’re all faces i’ve known, fires in bellies i once shared, and now understand in a different light. they’re old friends i knew in my activism years as a teenager, they’re people i looked up to and lost through the years. i’ve lost a lot of people and a lot of faith over time. it might seem like a quick moment to many but the sector 7 tower fight reminds me of people and things that exist only in memories now.

the moment the world opens up and the main theme plays, while unscripted, is one of the most powerful in the game to me. i retain that this title track might be my favorite piece of video game music and such a perfect encapsulation of the game’s philosophy and emotional core. stinging synth strings meet acoustic woodwind and orchestral drones. playful countermelodies give way to massive, bombastic chords in a rocking interplay that rarely fails to inspire, intrigue and invoke. uematsu-sensei, unquestionably at the apex of his mastery here, provides his most timeless score. i think about, am inspired by, and draw from his work here intensely. the artistry pours out from every nook of final fantasy vii - the models, the cutscenes, the background renders, the gameplay systems, the story, the use of diegetic sound, the pacing, the designs - everything came together in a way that somehow evokes equal feelings of nostalgia, futurism, dread, fear, warmth, love, hope, and utter timelessness. streaming and voice-acting this entire game with my close friends was one of the best experiences of my year. hitting each turn with a decently blind audience provided both knowing and loving perspective and the unmitigated rush of first experience - in tandem, a passing of the torch, an unspeakable gift of an unbroken chain shared between loved ones. if final fantasy vii saved my life once before, this was the run which restored its meaning and direction.

i’ve been cloud, i’ve been tifa, i’ve been barret, i’ve been nanaki. i’ve been zack, i’ve been aerith. there are lives lived in the confines of final fantasy vii which i hold as pieces of my own, countless repetitions of those stories with those resolutions my own to meet, different each time. there was something magic about the ability to, a year after that painful strike of all of that anguish, that death, that loss, that fear, sit on the end screen as the series’ endless “prelude” played amongst 32-bit starfields and openly sob for a half hour surrounded by the voices and words of my loved ones. that was the day i learned to live again. it’s more than a game when you know it this intimately. it’s more than an experience when you share these scars. it’s more than art when you hold onto so dearly. there isn’t a classifier for what final fantasy vii means to me other than, “a lot”. sometimes, less is more. i don’t have a conclusion beyond that for you. the experience recalls everyone and everything i've ever loved and lost, and all that i've come to gain and hold dear. goodbye to some, hello to all the rest. true, reading this, it may have been a waste of your time, but i’m glad i was able to share this with someone. i hope this reaches at least one of you on a level you needed today, or maybe it invokes something in you about something you love so dearly. i’m here to tell you - this is how i learned to live again. if you need someone to tell you, today, that you can too, here it is. you aren’t alone. go find those answers for yourself.

please don't step on the flowers on your way.

Narratively, this was a treat to experience for the first time over covid. Few pieces of media can keep me guessing through to the end the way this game did. It lets you know early on that it’s willing to nosedive from its lighthearted tone directly into some truly shocking, depressing places, completely change the scope of the narrative without warning, and that nothing is off the table when it comes to its world ending stakes. The characters as well are so diverse, memorable, developed and have a familial band dynamic comparable to that of The Last Airbender. The game is constant surprise after surprise and it never lets up until the credits roll. Gameplay-wise it’s great as well. Turn based games usually have to work a bit harder to win me over, but then again, this game isn’t really turn based. The active time battle system and all the different ways you can mess around with materia and summons gives you tons of freedom to customize to your whim, think outside the box and break the game in creative ways. Oh did I mention the OST? Top 3 of all time, and it ain’t #3. I whistle some of these tracks to myself at work all the time.

I do have a couple gripes. I played the Playstation Classic version, which is based on the original release, which was littered with translation errors which especially made the game’s midsection a bit tough to follow. It’s also a very minigamey game, and I found them inconsistent in quality. I’m really glad the Playstation Classic had it’s own save scumming feature because without it, grinding the Gold Saucer for the Omni Slash most definitely would’ve seen a hole punched in my TV. And for as much as it subverts a lot of my least favourite JRPG tropes, it still features some of them in full force, like random encounters.

It’s flawed, but it’s high points hit high and there’s a good reason why Square has milked this game like few others in their catalogue.

When it comes to Final Fantasy VII, I think there tends to be a general fixation on Midgar as a centralized point of identity for the game. And while I do think it's one of the best opening segments in maybe any videogame, what makes it work so well in the grand scheme of things is just how introspective the rest of the game feels when juxtaposed to its explosive sense of grandiosity.

Final Fantasy VII's globe trotting adventure isn't primarily defined by it's sense for theatrics, but by it's mellow tone and somber sensibilities. The towns you come across are oftentimes humble and restrained, carefully crafted with precision point environmental design and delicate cinematography. There's a tender sense of balance to found throughout the whole affair, as it seeks to comfort you just as often as it alienates you. That push-and-pull dynamic it shares with the player is such a key focal point as to what make the worlds of VII and VIII feel so utterly compelling to me, and I can't help but feel that the unquestioned contrast between the science and fantasy elements plays a major factor in how sheerly effective that relationship it is.

Aerith's fate is something I'll never forget, not just because of the effective dramatization found within that one moment, but because of how silent and truly felt her absence is across the rest of the game. A lot of people give this game grief for putting the snowboarding segment not even like twenty minutes later, but the fact that the game just moves on afterwards without dwelling on itself too hard is exactly what I think makes it brilliant. Final Fantasy VII allows its punctual moments to breathe and sink skin deep, and it knows that no amount of self indulgent dialogue commemorating Aerith would ever hit as hard as opening the party screen just to see a missing slot there.

Cloud might not be the person he says he is, but what he becomes through learning to open his heart to other people and show compassion makes him more of a hero than any mere SOLDIER could ever hope to be. He never has any major transformation in regards to physicality and utility, he doesn't have to. Just as he doesn't need to be told by someone that he's finally enough, he always was.

For every magnificent setpiece Final Fantasy VII has, there's a slew of soft spoken moments of beauty that truly make this game what it is, even up to its final moments. It ends the same way it began, a friendly face amidst a writhing future of uncertainty. That faint shimmer of hope shining just as bright as it always has.

Hey capitalism, how's it going??



g̵̡̛͓͖̙͚̮̲͈͛̐̎͆́̾̓͘͘ȧ̴̧̟̺̦͔̹̾̅̎͛̅̐͂̿̀̏̈͜͝ͅs̸̬̻͖̖͖̝̫͉̤̮̫͉̃͜d̵̺̻̗̝͓͉̦̩̱̼͙̂̾̀̿̄̄̈́͊͗͛̾͊͜͠͠,̸̨̡̪̻̰̫̺̣͉̭͚̝̑̍́̂̅̇͊̎̈̑̆͝l̴̬̫̓̿͐̂͠͠v̶̳̀̃̂̎̑̊̇̈́̓͝ ̶̡̛̘̹̞̈́̀̀̈́̄̀͊͒͆ͅk̵͍̖͈̓̿͑̐ͅj̵͖͐͒͗͆̎̔͋͠ȉ̵̬b̴̨͎̳̦̯͗͌͋̄̏̀c̷̫̬̅̒̑͒͂̅ǫ̵̛̛̖̗͔̞͍̹̖͉͌̾͗̈̌̋͜ͅl̵̢̩̖̪̗̠̜̤͕͓̆̈́̆̉̇̌̎,̴̼̩̫̖̩̫͋̾̉̿̓̈́́̔͝f̵̰͍̥̝͚̪͔̠̼͈̀̋͒̋͌̌͌͗̋̅͋̌̚̕̚ś̸͎̬͍̉̅g̶̺̿̔̐̀̑̑͒̕͝͝b̵̧̢̛͔̠̗̙̦̑̊̑̇͗̈́̈͋̑͌̓̚͘ͅf̶̢̢̥̤̮̤̊͛̊̒́͠b̸̟̤̣̦̞͍̘͙̥͓̜̉̊͜ͅh̷̝͌͊n̶͍̭̮̝̺̥̯̓͐̏͛͊͌̅̓͐̔̚̚d̸̛̘̹͎͔͚̰͈̮̓̿͊̿̏̉̋͋͑̈͛̈́̍͜ͅͅg̶̨̛̦̳͍̳̪̖͔̖̙̜͉͌̿̈́̆̏̈̅́̉̕ͅf̵̤͎̯̎̏̋͆̾g̷̡̹̝̯̬̒̎̄̉̊̑͆̄̕͜\̶̛̬̮̜̩̣̱͍̺̹̞̈́̓͛̾̒̏̿͠͠d̸̖̻͇͙͍͈̖̪̮̟͐̾́̊̋̂̾͐̓̽̑̎̍̾͛͜s̷̡̡̛̮͚̹̦̯̼̻̫̯̝̝̘̀̍̀̐͂͑̅̄̅͆͂̈́̿̚ͅb̵͕̭̠͓͙͕̖̩̤͔̜̘͐̑͋͒̍̕͝ͅͅͅj̴̢̢̞̦̰̥̮̟̟̩͓̣͂̓̓̏̈́́̓̌͑͑͂͘i̴̛̠͈̳͇͚̠̯̣̒̍͗̾̊̉͂͗͛̀̇́͘͝x̴͈̝̫̲͓͙͈̞͍͐̐̉̃̃̿̿̐̓̋̂͑̚͝f̵̨̢̜͍̘̬̼̹̞̜͑̔̓͗̓̅̓̀͠k̷̘̼̩̘̲͒̏̅̎̐̓́̄̾̀̂͂͘͘l̴̳̱̃̓͆́́̊b̸̢͙̹̦̱̙͎̗̱̠̮̉̔̽̒͑̒͊̿̾̋̈̐͘͘̚͜,̷̧̯̼͓̤̗̌͂̈́͘͠ç̷̢̗̙̥̦̏̈́̀́f̵̣̠̯̺̭͖̜̯͚̝̬͚̑̈́̀̈̍̊̊̇̈́͜͜͝b̸̬̘̫̟̭̰̖̠̮͊͋̿̊̇͠͝d̷̢̨̛͓̹̦͔͍̰̀̑̓̌̈́̾̌̈́̈́͝͝




.....Yeah

FF7 is just as good people hype it up to be. It starts off in the iconic Midgar with what is probably the most action packed opening of any JRPG, and after a few hours it's already opening up its world. It gets even better the more mysteries are unconvered, the more materia and limit breaks you acquire. The forced minigames are really the only complaint I have with it. It's not hard to understand why this was such a massive deal in the early 3D era with how cinematic and spectacular it is. Even to this day the seamless transitions between gameplay and FMVs with uninterrupted music are mindblowing, and the pre rendered backgrounds have an untouchable aesthetic.

No matter how hard Square Enix try with countless spinoffs and retellings in the same universe with all the advanced technology of today, they aren't able to replicate the magic that was achieved on a PS1 and only make its story retroactively worse. It's not nostalgia talking - this is coming from a person who first played it 23 years after release. There is a great subtlety to the original and its characters that the remakes miss completely. Sephiroth, one of the coolest villains of all time, is basically an entirely different character in every media released after this and his cryptic terrifying aura is lost for the sake of fanservice. I choose to think of this game as existing in a vacuum and will always recommend it over anything else as the most complete consistent work.

Final Fantasy VII is one of the most important games in JRPG history, or even gaming as a whole. The game is set within such an unbelievably vast "open" world that is incredible for being on the playstation (despite being on 3 discs). Within that open world are several much more detailed, handcrafted areas that look amazing due to having pre-rendered backgrounds that the characters interact with. The story is not half bad either and you'll find the cast will grow on you as you play, it can even be quite touching at times with its themes of anti pollution and protection of nature.

The problem with Final Fantasy VII lies in the actual game-play when you are not just walking around or watching cutscenes. Its a fairly standard RPG turn based battle system that does have its own touch but not enough to make it fun. the random encounters get downright infuriating after awhile, and the game will force you to grind for levels later on in the story.

Overall, if your able to sift through some mind numbingly outdated RPG battle mechanics, and the very cryptic hints on what to do to progress in the game that feels signature to most games pre 2005, you'll see one of the most incredible handcrafted worlds and most iconic stories in all of gaming. I'm super looking forward to playing more final fantasy games in the future!

For starters, I was not expecting myself to have binge this game so soon after buying the game.

FF7 was not the first game I was originally intending to play in this series but I couldn't help still wanting to play it due to recommendations from friends and as rebirth has just came out.

What I hadn't expect though was a story, so entrenched in so many ideas that I think it reasons that it stands the test of time. From the beginning, insinuating a anti-corporation stance with Barret and Avalanche, it truly immerses you to midgar.

What this game does with it's protagonist has to be one of the most touching story I've seen in gaming. Cloud's character paved the way for a lot of my favourite characters in some shape or form, but that's not even the full brunt on what makes me appreciate him. His inspirations and insecurities are at the heart of the story. They somehow managed to trick me multiple times in terms of reveals that one its all said and done, it does so in such a profound and human way.

It feels like a triumph in storytelling and video games and I'm genuinely happy I got to experience this classic to it's fullest.

“It’s true that sometimes I can’t figure out who I am. There’s a lot of things muddled up in my memories. But, Tifa… you said, ‘Long time no see, Cloud’ right? Those words will always support me. I am the one you grew up with. I’m Cloud of Nibelheim. No matter how much I lose faith in myself, that is the truth.”

It’s 3:17 in the morning and I’m lying awake in bed, typing this up on my ten year anniversary with the woman I will spend the rest of my life with. Even in this moment of respite, my mind once again begins to wander back into the Lifestream. Five years ago, against all my fears and doubts, I sat down with that same woman to show her the most important thing in my life up until meeting her. I had never even thought to share this with anyone I had been with before. Despite my anxiety and dread over what she might think, I was elated to find her enjoying every moment right alongside me. To my greater surprise, she had become a self-proclaimed Tifa fangirl and now cheers her on in every one of her on-screen moments, big or small. Everything in my life from my tastes, to my expressions, to my most cherished memories—even my love—is forever intertwined… with FINAL FANTASY VII.

“But that's all right. As long as I'm with you... As long as you're by my side... I won't give up even if I'm scared.”

As its name suggests, FINAL FANTASY VII is the seventh main numbered entry in the long-running FINAL FANTASY series. Originally conceptualized for the Nintendo 64 and later brought over to the Sony PlayStation in a move that many could describe to be betrayal, FINAL FANTASY VII marked a significant shift in the video game market. People all over the world, completely unaware of the FINAL FANTASY brand—or even roleplaying games entirely—flocked to stores in 1997 to pick up and play this game. I was not one of those people. But two years later, once I was old enough to read at a decent level, I experienced what would later become the most influential piece of media in my entire life.

“I was frozen in time, but now I feel as if my time is just beginning...”

FFVII continues the series trend of traversing a fantastical world of magic and wonder with a party of misfits trying to save the world, only there are some key differences. First and foremost, the Materia system. While the core combat retains the same almost-turn-based ATB (Active Time Battle) system first introduced in FINAL FANTASY IV, characters are completely customizable regarding skills and magic. While each character has their own innate stats, every character can be made to fit any role. The depth of the Materia system is the heart of FFVII’s gameplay, and if the effort and research are put in, it can reward the player with some insanely creative and useful combinations and setups that can outright break the game in a very fun way. In addition to the new Materia system comes Limit Breaks—powerful abilities able to turn the tide of combat when characters have sustained enough damage. These are all specific to the respective party members using them and are the key difference between each character.

“I always thought this planet was so huge. But lookin' at it from space, I realized it's so small. That's why I say this planet's still a kid. Someone's gotta protect it.”

In a harsh contrast to the games preceding it, FINAL FANTASY VII takes a page out of Akira to create a world that is brimming with technology. The Shinra Electric Power Company has created a new fuel source known as Mako by siphoning the life force of the planet itself without regard for Gaia’s wellbeing. This has led to great technological advancements throughout the world—most notably in the floating cyberpunk hub known as Midgar. The world of FFVII is far bleaker than most of its contemporaries at the time. The people of Gaia have no qualms telling it like it is and shedding some light on how hopeless, frail, and dissolute life has become after Shinra’s rise to power. Every character—no matter how insignificant—has had their life dramatically changed (for the worse) because of Shinra. As AVALANCHE, the player begins their journey performing acts of eco-terrorism to combat Shinra’s destruction of the planet, but soon uncovers a web of entangled stories and tragedies all converging on one single point—Sephiroth.

“Yo, jes' think about it... How many people in this world do ya think really understand themselves? People get depressed in life because they don't know what's up. But, they go on living. They don't run away... isn't that how it is?”

FINAL FANTASY VII was the first video game to tell me a story that resonated with me personally. Its plot is full of twists, turns, and big reveals that always had me shaking with excitement and anticipation, but the most important element is its character. Cloud Strife. Even if you’ve never played an RPG in your life, you’ve at least heard the name before somewhere, and for good reason. As the main protagonist of FFVII, Cloud is the character whose perspective you witness a majority of the events of the game through. To say Cloud is a dynamic character is an understatement for the ages. Extremely cold and dejected at first, Cloud develops into one of the most relatable and real fictional characters I’ve seen. While an enigma at first, players learn to understand Cloud’s true self over time. For me, there is no character I could ever understand better. As a kid, I shared so many of the aspirations and personality quirks of this mentally unstable box of emotional conflict and turmoil. From his prideful façade to his deepest sorrows and self-doubts, Cloud’s personality and depth shine through.

“What I have shown you is reality. What you remember, that is the illusion.”

Counter to Cloud is Sephiroth. By now, it’s nearly impossible to not know who Sephiroth is. He’s arguably even more popular than Cloud himself. Despite that, FINAL FANTASY VII is unparalleled in its foreshadowing and build-up to the true antagonist of the game. As the player makes their way through the world, they are constantly reminded just how powerful and foreboding Sephiroth is. From an execution of the world’s biggest threat to a flashback showing in raw numbers just how much of a force he is, Sephiroth is the perfect foil to Cloud. His personal connection to several of the key cast members adds a layer of determination and agency for the player. It’s not just Cloud that wants to bring Sephiroth down—it’s you.

“What to do? Have you lost your way? When that happens we each have to take a good long look at ourselves. There's always something in the deepest reaches of our hearts. Something buried, or something forgotten. Remember it... Whatever that is, must certainly be what you are all looking for...”

The music, much like everything else in the game, is remarkable. Composed by musical legend and series veteran Nobuo Uematsu, this soundtrack stands out even among his own works. This is a rare occasion where I enjoy every single song on the soundtrack. For a soundtrack of nearly 90 songs, that’s quite a feat. Every piece amplifies their paired scene without fail be it serious or goofy. Many of the tracks represent the blend of fantasy and science fiction extraordinarily well with synthesized sounds and exhilarating melodies. Every location has its own unique theme that helps build immersion and set the mood accordingly. While the main battle theme (which is a certified video game classic at this point) plays for a majority of the combat encounters, several notable boss fights have their own music that creates memorable clashes with the evil of the world. I find myself listening to this soundtrack on a near-daily basis.

“I've... been thinking, too... about the universe... people... the planet... How wide and big... No matter where I go and what I do, it won't change a thing.”

There is no way I can objectively look at this game. It is so ingrained in who I am that I have to bring emotion and nostalgia into it. The game isn’t perfect—nothing is—but to me, it’s everything I need. An engaging story in a world that feels just as real as our own with characters that breathe life into it, all accompanied by ace gameplay and a soundtrack that can move you to tears. FINAL FANTASY VII is a lot of things to a lot of people. To me, it is my beginning. It is the reason I cherish competent storytelling, complex characters, and expansive worlds. It’s the reason I see video games as more than just a hobby to pass the time. It’s why I want to create experiences and memories with people, to inspire them to explore and look at things in new lights just as I did when I was a kid… or to bring two close people even closer together. FINAL FANTASY VII was the spark that started it all, to continue on to all sorts of new things. Five year-old me popped that disc in and the game took me by the hand and said,

“Let's mosey.”

And I couldn’t be more grateful that it did.

new year's update from the abode: just finished the ff7 end credits crawl right as I closed out of the game I missed the ball drop. a bit of a shame but oh well... got a bit crossfaded and had a steamed pork bun so I was relaxed all the same. just sitting here pondering... why is this game the go-to "old-school classic game that's also political"? metal gear solid came out just a year later and has a much more coherent (if sort of uninspired) political statement, whereas ff7 is just totally all over the place. the effects of shinra's power plant experimentation on the lifestream are incredibly well-documented throughout the game, so the bedrock of the environmentalist message is there (the way it's presented reminds me of princess mononoke, released the same year), but the direct action via ecoterrorism part is fumbled so bad. there's a scene where barrett (leader of ecoterrorist insurgency AVALANCHE and party member) basically turns to the camera and says "hey I was thinking about it and I realized blowing up the energy reactors was actually wrong, sorry about that!" with absolutely no nuance or discussion at all, much less even presenting the reasoning that led him to that in the first place. the anti-capitalist stuff... like shinra is a "corporation" but it's functionally a giant malevolent social entity somewhere between a militant nation-state and an international empire/world order. if the name had been "people's republic of shinra" and no other content was changed I'm sure we would get puffy right-wing doughboys extoling the game's "critique of totalitarianism" in an equally baseless way. it's not that the intent isn't there - ff7r did a better job interrogating the class hierarchy of midgar while at the same time attempting to rectify AVALANCHE's contradicitions - but it's insubstantial to the point where I'm not sure I would even classify it as a "theme." I think it may be fair to say that the game has an anti-capitalist aesthetic, or setting.

some of it might be lost in translation too: it's shocking that modern ports of this game are still using the original translation. a presumably much richer text lies obscured behind a fog of awkwardly terse dialogue riddled with mistakes and typos. the clumsy cursing is charming to be sure, especially for a game of its era, but this script should have been cleaned up ages ago. it's really a shame, and one that has me wishing I had chosen to play the retranslation instead... especially since I find the HD versions sort of ugly with how much the clean polygonal characters stick out on the low-res backgrounds. I'd be much happier playing it in 240p with everything blended together as originally intended.

regardless of all of the above though, the story is a legitimately fascinating and grim refutation of the typical jrpg tropes of hero, past, sacrifice, and redemption that few other works can attest to, much less any that also simultaneously introduced much of the world to jrpgs in the first place. it's not just the lack of a fantasy setting that is surprising but the shockingly-fresh fusion of early industrial age ephemera with japan's distinct flavor of body-horror cyberpunk. that beginning chapter in midgar, the power plant raids, the MBV sign, the cathedral, wall market, and the assault on shinra tower all flow past the player as something uncompromised in its design and totally divorced from what had come before. midgar is a husk of a metropolis filled to the brim with refuse and abandoned buildings, and when cloud and his party finally venture from beyond its walls, it becomes quickly apparent that their world is completely beyond saving as well. much of the middle sections of the game focus on lifeless landscapes filled with mutated creatures and interspersed with dots of human survival. cloud himself is broken and often a passive force, and his self-realization as a victim of shinra and yet a vital agent of change serves as the hingepoint from where the game shfits from dejected wandering to assertive heroism (though the details of his past are probably better explained via the wiki than in-game). in a lot of ways, the protagonists - who tbf are rather shoddily assembled beyond the characters from the midgar section - are united on their will to succeed despite having already lost virtually everything. square's unflinching ending further subverts expectations by not rewarding the heroes for their actions: their civilization was on its death knell regardless of their intervention.

ff7 also just has some goddamn good jrpg combat, the kind I think about when I'm picturing comfy turn-based action in my head. every character is fully modular thanks to materia, which determines all skills, magic, and stat bonuses for each character. with virtually no grinding you can pick and choose your preferred tools and build your characters to taste; for most of the endgame I had cid handling barrier magic and taking potshots while cloud tanked and red xiii handled heal, time, and black magic. the limit break system in play here is also an incredible mechanic that gives players powerful tools when serious damage has been taken that opens up a lot of potential for amazing comebacks. the way you snap to your next turn once the gauge fills removes all of the stress of taking a particular large blow and having to wait to recuperate... just totally flawless. boss and encounter design is rock-solid as in the previous titles, and for what the game lacks in difficulty thanks to the flexibility of materia it makes up for in spades with the flashy combat visualizations. putting so many resources into lively battle animations and appealing summons shows that square more than understood the power of next-gen for jrpgs more than perhaps any other studio (team andromeda nonewithstanding?). there's quibbles I have for sure: it can be hard to tell which direction to click to select a character in some cases, and summon animations really should've been skippable. dungeon design is also underwhelming thanks to the unwieldy and often visually cluttered pre-rendered backdrops. however, just sitting down and playing this is comfier than perhaps any other ATB-era ff game... three characters, great low-poly models, awesome animations, and flexible battle mechanics.

overall it's a classic, a lovely romp through the minds of square's best creative talent, and satisfying to complete. it's hard to pinpoint for me what puts this one just out of masterpiece range... it pretty much comes down to the pacing being so incredibly uneven, the official translation being terrible, and the dungeon design feeling lackluster (though the scenery is almost always gorgeous). if anything I really need to replay this with the retranslation on my ps2 and see if getting a more authentic experience pushes it over for the edge for me. still fantastic regardless, and a perfect way to cap off the year.

Finally played the most popular FF game and it certainly deserves all the praise.
I was hooked from start to finish with only some frictions here and there.

I was kinda disappointed with the gameplay after FFVI. While each character in VI had a unique fighting style, like the Blitz with its combo-like attacks and the Bushido techniques, the gameplay here is just more or less standard Final Fantasy.
The Materia system is certainly more flexible than the Magicite, and it allowed for ease of swapping out party members without the loss of your most used magic (although I was always spending 10 minutes trying to optimize what Materia to equip to each character)

I also liked the many minigames they added and the gameplay sections that differed from JRPG gameplay, like the motorcycle chase and the Snowboard. While some parts of those lacked polish (which is understandable for an early PS title) it added to the charm of the game.

The story was amazing and had some nice twists and turns, though I was spoiled a couple of plot points (you know which), those moments didn't lose their impact.

The dungeons were kinda disappointing, being mostly going from point A to point B, with branching paths every once in a while. There was a couple of dungeons that were pretty cool actually, like the Temple of the Ancients and the last dungeon, but other than those two, the rest are just forgettable.

The boss fights were all great and I didn't have much issue with any of them, and they all had pretty cool designs, especially nearing the end of Part 2.
The final boss has to be the most stressed I've ever been while playing a video game.

Definitely glad I've played this game and it is certainly a must-play.

A pretty bold descent into ecological nihilism in which giving agency to the earth results in the removal of the tumor, that being humankind. Its mysticism is tempered by its weird sense of humour, its severity by its hero's journey, but then its hero's journey by its deanthropocentric revelations. It's funny, and weird, and there's a damp, defeated atmosphere lingering over the entire thing that both draws me in and makes me want to cry. The amount of thought, precision, and poetry in every pre-rendered background is astonishing. If I were to recommend this game to someone else it would be entirely on the basis of this. We're off to save the world again but the world exists in that living room. On that beach. In that hut. And so on.

''Everyone knew that. I'm...Cloud. The master of my own illusionary world. But I can't remain trapped in an illusion anymore... I'm going to live my life without pretending''

FF7 was a unique experience, one that I'm still trying to wrap my head around & my thoughts & feelings on it are still scattered throughout, disconnected & lost in the endless cosmos of my mind, but maybe it's because of that disjointed state of mind that I connected with Cloud's identity crisis on such a sacred level. It almost felt eerie but to put it into words, the part of Cloud that I saw myself in the most was his inability to face the truth in his identity, strive to discover who he is, & was comfortable with indulging in the idea that he is someone he isn't at all to escape his conflicts & abandoned the effort to uncover the truth since it maybe too painful. The idea that maybe if I was someone else, maybe if I started anew as an entirely different person who's less pathetic and less weaker with more to offer & was strong enough to help others by any means, I'd get the love and the warmth of acceptance by everyone that I yearn for, and I wouldn't feel so alien & disconnected. Such a faulty, twisted desire has been immortalized in my mind, and living in an environment where I'm always put down to praise someone else only strengthened it more. But it's exactly because of that that I was able to wholeheartedly relate to FF7's usage of the concept of memories as a backdrop for Cloud's character conclusion. Memories are the proof that we exist in both the real world and in people's eyes. No matter how fiercely we struggle to believe that our existence isn't worthless, they are the proof that we existed somewhere, & have impacted someone in someway. But it's exactly because of that that we need connections with others & loved ones to make memories with. It's a simple message, but the idea that as long as there are people with you, who have fond memories of you and vice versa, you'll always be able to exist & achieve self discovery, strikes a deep chord in my soul since I always dread the truth of my identity and how much it can crush me. It's why Cloud inspires me so much, because if someone who had a large portion of his life be artificially made & live his life as a fake puppet for so long, can achieve solace and make fond memories with people he loves and is loved by after a cruel journey of self discovery, then maybe I can find something fond & genuine too

Welcome to next generation. Final Fantasy 7.

It's a game where one of the best journeys you can get and still is. A goofy one. A serious one. A sad one. A happy one.

A one big adventure that is.

I was expecting a overrated but fun game. But this game... This game managed to bring me the old lighthearted feelings back to me. I liked 4,5 and... first half of 6 but HOLY MOLY. Ff7 the Best one when it comes to the Journey yet for me.

To the point I even went as far as to get gold chocobo and take down Emerald weapon I was that committed to it (If you know you know).

When it comes to story, I wasn't expecting to get shocked because the spoilers everyone knows about. You know it. I know it. (Do not worry I am not gonna go into detail even if you don't know it)

But I was wrong. It shocked me it emotionally gripped me and kept me smiling with every conversation.

Story wise it's a bit messy to understand. But in it's core it's about two broken people. A person that wants revenge from the world and an another person that wants to take revenge from him. Sephiroth and Cloud. And just like that, both of them is the main characters of the story. Oh also, there is an another empire(it's called mega corp this time) to fight of course

But just like ff6, Empire are the Reason. Sephiroth is the Cause. And Cloud is the Solution.

And I loved that it's sticks to this to the end.

And side characters wise, they were fun. Are they the best side characters tho...? It's hard to say. There is a lot of good ones, Barret is awesome with a story of how a man can get angry to the point becoming a terrorist, Tifa and Aerith is awesome with their stories of coping with loss in their own way and seeing the romance blooming is just heartwarming, Cid is awesome with the story of a man can't let go of his past and turn into a rude as##ole but that's because how much he cares people around him even tho he sucks at showing it. There is also Turks, an opposite agent group that tries to takes us down but with every clash we slowly come to a respectable rivalry with them. There is Rufus, Big part of the Empire, even tho he is not much shown in the story, his sticking to his ambitions somehow manages to make him admirable(also I kinda wanted to see him more because of that even if he is a side character). There is also Cait Sith, he doesn't have a story arc like others but just for his clash with Barret and the argument of what is terrorism or not kinda made him good in my eyes.

There is also others... Vincent. Edgy word personified just like Shadow from ff6. Also Yuffie, same empty as Gau from ff6 but maybe with a little more personality. Shinra council members... Goofy but forgettable villains they are. Also Professor Hojo... The most despicable scientist there is... And couple more I forgot.

But when it comes to moments... This game really shines. Midgar plate event... The forgotten city... And the "Reunion". It's... Single-handedly enough to make this game better than all of my previous experiences. That's all I can say.

Unfortunately it's not perfect.

Because this game does not have a epilogue.

Why it's a flaw you ask? Because for me. The epilogue, the celebration, the aftermath is one of the most important things in a story and this game does not do that unlike every ff game I had played. It ends ambiguous. I can see why people like it but for me every ff's epilogue parts are best ways to cap a story down. But I guess it's never meant to be... ಠ⁠︵⁠ಠ

Gameplay wise it's the game I wanted ff4 to be. Classes but with customizable skills/materias. It's actually ff6's Relic system but expanded exponentially. You don't learn a strong magic and called it a day like ff6. You customize and select whatever skills you need. But you can't go overboard like ff6 because you are limited of what you can select. Then the real part kicks in. You strategize and prepare beforehand. Make some people healers, some of them physical attackers, some of them supporters, some of them magicians etc. I really enjoyed this part of it.

But for some reason class specific skills turned to something called "limit breaks" that is one shot hard hitting last defence kinda skills. While I understand that they want to make it not spammable skills like ff6 did(ehm sabin super combo attack ehm), it was kinda disappointing for me because they take too long to kick in and when they don't, character differences gets lost. I don't know why they did it tbh for example a dragoon joined on our party. But not being able to "jump" command freely kinda disappointed me.

It looks like ff5 gameplay is still is superior to all.

But one super duper nice thing is other team members still can level up with getting 1/2 exp from the main party unlike ff6, also at least there is no forced create teams part(I mean there is but it's not forced) like ff6 bc Fu#kin piece of sh#t grinding it gave me for the last dungeon still in my nightmares.

Also this game requires no grinding as long as you have the necessary skill/materia. You can rush the story without fighting once in the overworld. Heck yeah. Tho, most of the bosses have so little health, I kinda wish more balanced bosses so I didn't kill them in 3 minutes including the finale boss.

Also this game have minigames. How many you ask? A modern yakuza amount I would say and I am not frickin kidding. Be it timing minigames to even submarine or motor riding minigame in it to play. It's damn insane that HOW MANY minigames in this game that somehow works in the little puny ps1. It's insane.

Oh also using fmv videos on the background while characters on the screen running around is one of the greatest ideas ever.

Anyway that's all for the gameplay. I liked it but I would prefer highly nerfed but openly usable class skills rather than limit breaks next time. But really enjoyed the customizable skill/materia system so it's more on the plus side.

So yeah that's Final Fantasy 7. A wonderful game that if you still have your child in you, you will still enjoy it full percent. Think it like the goofy but heartful adventure you watched countless times in cartoons but still wish to see it again and again. This is what final fantasy about after all. A story of a friendship that borns from an adventure.

And no I don't recommend starting from remake. I haven't played it but what I heard is story is not the same.

Fuck it, I wrote a loooong review where I went into great detail about how this is probably the most well-paced and constructed JRPG of all time and how it's also one of the most life-affirming works in the medium; where the final Omnislash against Sephiroth and how we the Player have to enact it is a perfect extension to us the Player of Cloud's arc about believing that he is (we are) enough, that the attempt to be as good as someone else, that we're not even worthy of being alive, is folly and that its thematic concerns of life and death are some of the most well-drawn in any work of fiction, but unfortunately I accidently deleted that review (somehow) in trying to edit it, so instead I will just relate one of my major points from that essay, what I was able to save, here instead:

This is far and away the most well-paced and structured video game of all time (which makes it all the more astonishing that Kazushige Nojima would go on to ditch all that nonsense like thematic and structural cohesion for Final Fantasy VIII, itself very under-rated if flawed), to the point that every single story-beat is firmly ingrained into my memory. What assists this sense of cohesion is the flow of gameplay from one pre-rendered background to another. Final Fantasy VIII is a gorgeous game, however when you compare its visual structure to that of VII's it becomes obvious which is the superior title. The expanded visual scope of VIII lends itself to having a lot of more-or-less useless and or uninteresting environments and transitional sections connecting the more memorable scenes. I could not for the life of me tell you how the various dungeons and story moments of VIII relate to each other beat-by-beat unless I were to do several more playthroughs, whereas with VII I could do so only after two full playthroughs. There are lots of straight-forward hallways and pathways and VIII is definitely a less vertically-focused game than VII, which means less finnicky movement across those backgrounds, but the focus on panning across environments means that there's less visual conciseness in VIII than in VII, as well as less emotional depth per scene.

What I mean by this is take, for example, the transition between the shots of the lab beneath Shinra Mansion and the dutch-angled hallway. Upon entering we're presented with an objective view of the space, overhead angle, and with the way the scene is lit our eyes are drawn to the light fixture hanging above the frame. It's set just to the point to where we can make out a brick pathway beneath it, and with the positioning of the bookshelves we subconsciously expect a hallway; thus we move toward it. With the transition into the dutch angle shot, we're immediately thrust into a subjective position alongside Cloud. This is emphasized by the vanishing point constructed by the shelves pointing toward Sephiroth the first two times we visit the area. This oscillation between objectivity and subjectivity feeds into the thematic focus of the entire game, and the mixture of tones infused by these two types of framings lends an emotional resonance that brands our understanding of the space that the designers then mine for emotional/narrative purpose upon us learning of Cloud's true background. Whereas with VIII our understanding of a space is relative only to our momentary attachment to it as a game-space (i.e dungeon, town, etc), VII uses the revisitation of environments as a way of relating to us that the world of Final Fantasy VII is truly a world, dense with echoing emotions and historical weight.

If I were ever asked for a video game that best defined my tastes in gaming, then it's easy enough for me to point back to the Final Fantasy franchise - but if I were to pick out a single one, Final Fantasy VII would be the first one that pops right back up. To me, this game is the perfect mix of fun gameplay, a great story, and all these years later, it does more than just simply hold up.

There's a whole lot more that I do want to say about this, but that'll have to wait till later - because this was also the first video game that I remember having cried at (many of you already know the moment, considering it's been spoiled numerous times already). Yet there's also an incredible feeling of satisfaction that comes forth from having accomplished everything that you possibly could within this game - and I've only sunk more time into this more than anything.

As it stands right now, it's my favourite video game of all time.

well I finally went and finished it. I've started this game probably a dozen times in my life, as far back as borrowing a friend's copy to play on my psone (the lil round one, not the big original kind) in 2001. And to no one's surprise: it's really fucking good! It's a classic for a reason.

Over the years I had already had a lot of major story moments spoiled and so I was expecting the game to not quite land or not really hit as hard as it did but it turns out that the execution is so strong that it didn't really matter that I went into a scene and said "Oh, this is the part where [redacted] dies" because that scene still Fuckin Hits!!

And there was still stuff I hadn't heard about! The submarine! Playing as Tifa! So there was still fun surprises for me here, too. And that moment when I finally got Cloud back after he's gone for a while? Hit so fuckin' hard!! The boy!!! He's back!!! Love him. Love it. Love it all.

I don't have many complaints about this game but one of them is all the little minigames you have to play. I think it is an interesting/cool idea to say "your character is going to perform an action that we can't really make work with turn-based combat so instead we'll do a lil bespoke minigame so the player isn't just watching a cutscene". I do, generally, like that idea. But so many of the minigames it has you do feel like unresponsive shit-garbage to control and frequently have little to no feedback to if you're even doing them correctly (or if you are doing things wrong, what it is you're doing wrong). So many frustrating moments that really feel like they should just make them more lenient. Just let me get through your story!! Don't be super strict about making sure I perform CPR correctly or am good enough at a military parade or raced a dumb bird or whatever else. I think the only one I really liked was the snowboarding but even that was kinda fucked up because of the Steam version's love/hate relationship with my controller.

My only other big complaint is Cid because, wow, that dude sucks ass. No wonder I've never heard anyone really talk about him when they talk about the characters in this game. His whole thing is really just he's an angry misogynist and I guess I'm supposed to think he's... cool? Because at the end he realizes he was mad about something he was wrong about? Fuck off into the sun, Cid. This is maybe the only FF I've played where I disliked a party member to the degree that I found him actually repellent. When I got to the section where I had to play as him I looked up a walkthrough to figure out how long I was stuck in that hell and what the quickest way through it was. Luckily, it was blessedly short.

Red XIII's line "It's hard to stand on your own two legs" has really stuck with me, maybe more than any other individual line of dialogue has in a long time. It's just such a succinct summation of part of this game's theme, y'know? You can't do it on your own, you have to be ready and willing to not just ask for help but also to accept it. You need people around you because life is hard and we can't make it on our own. Also, if you're an alien dog in disguise pretending to be a human solider it is literally difficult to stand on your own two feet.

At the start of the game I was a staunch Aerti shipper but the relationship that builds between Cloud and Tifa throughout this is so sweet it got me dangerously close to becoming a Cloti shipper. Although in my heart of hearts I know the real answer here is Claerti.

One last thing: like I alluded to above, the Steam version is super fucked! It didn't properly recognize my controller and had no way to rebind them so my only option would've been to do it via Steam's controller shit but that would've messed it up for every other game I play! It sucks! And if you use a controller the button prompts don't update correctly so you have to the keyboard binds and how those map to your controller! It sucks! Bad port! I think the only advantage this has is that it's easier to plug into a cheat engine table if you want that for any particular reason, y'know.