Who would have thought a dated jrpg from 1997 would now be one of my favorite games of all time? It took a while to work up the will to play, but the time felt right after beating Rebirth. I knew it was going to be great, but the old PS1 style mixed with people being possibly blinded by nostalgia made me a bit skeptical. Nope, it’s just that fucking good.

For 30 hours I was completely absorbed in the world and its characters. For such an old game that isn’t a pixel jrpg, it’s amazing how its art style somehow holds up in a weird way. It takes some getting used to, but within the first hour all those chibi egg beater hands became charming as hell. The whole experience of FF7 feels like a time capsule of good vibes coupled with a story that surprisingly mirrors some issues that we are currently facing today in society.

I could go on about all the things I loved about my time with FF7, but honestly I think it’s still a must play to this day. Don't sit on the fence like me. If you love the remakes so far, do yourself a favor and play the original. If anything I’m way more excited to see the conclusion than I was before.

I remember always reading how this is one of the best Final Fantasy stories and it’s a must play for fans of the franchise. While I do mostly agree, time has not necessarily been kind to it.

On one hand it has all the classic charm of a FF game, but on the other it’s painfully dated. While I liked the story and its character writing, the stiff ps2 graphics and lackluster voice acting made it difficult for me to truly get invested. This game was obviously the right step forward in the franchise by introducing voice acting and cinematic moments, but I wonder if it would have aged better with classic text boxes. Regardless, without it we wouldn’t have the great voice acting and epic moments in modern FF games like we do today. In a way, it paved a better future for the games moving forward.

Regarding combat, I think this did take a minor step back. One thing I love about older FF games is the classic ATB mechanics. In my opinion it makes the turn based combat more lively and interesting - keeping you on your feet at all times. Here we just have the classic take your time and attack method. Still fun, but I did miss it. If you are a fan of newer JRPGs then I doubt this will be an issue at all.

Overall Final Fantasy X is a great game that I think is still worth playing. You may want to bang your head against the wall figuring out the sphere system and overcoming some of the painful boss fights, but the story still has a ton of heart at its core. Just sit back, listen to Uematsu’s beautiful score, and push through to the end because it is very much worth it.