I think its neat that what unites the ragtag heroes of Final Fantasy VII is a desire to fight back against both ecological disaster and the forces that enable it. Even if the polygons now look funny, Final Fantasy made such a seamless transition into science fantasy and cyberpunk here, that this game became the cultural face of the JRPG for nearly two decades. The only thing I feel weakens the experience, is that the world outside of Midgar falls short of capturing the majesty and intrigue of the first five hours of the game. But honestly though, what a first five hours!

I have a deep fondness for most games in the Final Fantasy series, but I love this one in particular because it has humongous "Dragon Ball Z" energy.

Final Fantasy V is an adventure where you get to hang with your pals, travel around the world, and fight bad guys while obtaining powers with style. This is Final Fantasy at its utmost campiest, and Exdeath, a literal alien tree monster, is an incredibly goofballs villain. You can genuinely feel the fun Square was having in the early 1990's, playing fast and loose with tropes in the genre they helped to codify. In my mind, there is no doubt that if this game was localized outside of Japan at the time of its release, JRPG fans would speak of FFV in the same fondness reserved for esteemed entries like FFVI and FFVII. I find this game immaculately charming.

(Also, this is the game that gave us Gilgamesh, and by extension, Battle on the Big Bridge, the most bodacious Final Fantasy tune. +5 stars for that specifically.)