A clear vision of the crossroads the franchise sat at, Final Fantasy 7 is at once immediately recognizable as Final Fantasy 6's successor and as a harbinger of the design and installments that were to come. While- similar to FFIV's jump- a lot of wow factor that must have been present at release is gone, (or even turned against the game in the case of its 3D models....) this is still a notable shift forward in some specific ways for the franchise.
Yes yes- the shift to 3D and prerendered backgrounds and CG cutscenes are the most obvious "progressions" from the outside. (Though I'd have a hard time saying the game looks better than its snes predecessors in the modern age) But those are fairly superficial as the level design is still firmly grounded in the 2D layouts and traversal of prior FFs. In fact, even its equivalent simpler layouts are more confusing to read than prior installments' thanks to the busier scenes depicted and fixed, often awkward camera angles forced by the prerendered backgrounds. It's a clumsy if necessary first step into this world and I'm willing to cut it a little slack as the first mover in the franchise, but it's not the upgrade that sets 7 apart now.
That step forward comes instead in objective/mission/scenario design. An early event in Wall Market sees Cloud and crew chatting up the locals in specific sequence to work out the solution to a problem they're facing. You'll run an errand for one person, compete in a minigame to obtain other needed items, and persuade another with an.... out of the box solution to let you where you need to go. As the game goes on, the player encounters more and more one off minigames, at a pace that would impress even similarly inventive more modern titles like Super Mario Galaxy.
Unfortunately, where a game like SMG holds a certain level of consistent quality between it's one off gimmicks, FF7 does not. You'll frequently be presented with an entirely new control scheme that may or may not hold up to any genre equivalent standalone titles, only further complicated by the fact you'll need to employ it in its entirety immediately with no ramp up time. Some are just plain boring. Others hold a spark of a cool idea but don't quite nail enough of the implementation to work for me. (A RTS lite scenario comes to mind here) Still others do a passable enough job at what they're attempting that the brief sojourn into a bike chase or submarine fight or whatever is a welcome curveball in the game's pacing. And other variations in the mission design come not from a minigame but in twisting the established franchise gameplay of traversing a map and battling enemies into new form. (I particularly liked a snowy expedition that tasked the player with using a crude map to navigate an expansive, open environment) All told, the changes here are numerous and, while again clearly clumsy at times, a firm leap into the kinds of variety the franchise would begin to refine for its dungeons and quests to come.
If its lavish production values, step into the world of 3d gaming, and more diverse scenario demonstrate its part in the evolution of the franchise towards the future we know today, where then does FF7 show its connection to the past- and FF6 in particular- as I alluded to at the start? Well, for one, the world and its societies continue to hone the more specific direction of 6's.... magicpunk? aesthetic away from the more generic fantasy adventures of the preceding adventures. Midgar, in particular, is the single most well realized setting to date in the entire franchise, with fairly clearly dileneated factions and conflicts that have put those factions where they're at. A cyberpunk dystopia drawing clear influence from the surge of material in that space in the 80s and 90s. Even if derivative of them in its own way, the grounded and textured nature of it is refreshing in a similar way to Narche from 6, only expanded much further.
Next, the materia system 7 utilizes for its character progression and building most closely follows its immediate predecessor over the job centric 3/5 (and i guess technically 1) or 2's experiment. Characters don't take on roles; they simply equip the item- materia in this case over magicite- that bestows capabilities instead. At first, I was hopeful this new system would prove to be an improvement to magicite. And it is, in some ways. Most notably, its placement in the context of equipment gives gear new dimensions through which tradeoffs can be presented- do you want more stats or materia, more materia or specifically more linked slots that allow for materia to modify other materia, (imbueing attacks with an element, enabling a spell to target all targets instead of one, etc) or will you give up those powerful links and stats for high growth rate equipment that enables mastery of the attached materia faster? As an aside, I saw some complaints about the simplification of equipment in 7 online after my playthrough and I just cannot agree with it on the whole- yes, each character is down to 3 equipment slots vs 6's 6 or the rest of the series' 5, but this addition of materia to the equipment alone just presents far more considerations at the equipment screen than any title prior has had for me.
It's not all positive, though, sadly. Unlike magicite, materia mastered abilities are bound to the materia itself rather than the individual using it. This, combined with the lack of even the character specific commands from 6, makes 7's party of heroes the absolute most interchangeable members yet. Limit breaks, which are rare considerations for normal gameplay and not teambuilding foundations of character builds, are pretty much the sole distinguishing trait here. Furthermore, managing this system in light of its materia bound abilities over character bound ones is a total pain as the story forces certain party members in and out of use. If you want to swap a characters loadout to another entirely, you'll need to individually unequip every piece of materia on their gear then manually add them back one by one to the new party member. (Magicite, by contrast, left all its learned skills on the character even when moved and if you did want to change it around to grant one character in particular usage of its associated summon, only one item had to be moved instead of potentially 10+) Some quality of life could have alleviated the managing the latter problem for 7's large party, but the former seems inherent to the system as is to me sadly.
The last bit of vital shared DNA between 6 and 7 I'd like to call out is that large party itself. While not quite as gigantic as 6's expansive cast, 7 continues in its footsteps with, at its peak, 9 disparate voices joining your ragtag team of ecoterrorists turned adventurers. The character centric episodes of storytelling remain as well, though this time integrated into the forced flow of the narrative instead of scattered about a technically optional series of quests like in 6's World of Ruin. It's not as impressive as the boldness of world of ruin's departure from series norms up till that point, but it does probably fit together a bit better at least? A less fortunate trait also inherited from 6 is the tendency to have those same cast members grow silent and sit on the sidelines for extended periods when their story isn't the one currently in the spotlight. (Two optional characters in particular get the worst of this, having very little in the way of commentary to offer on the main quest proper- especially baffling given Vincents proximity to the incredibly important events and actors that caused the narrative in the first place)
Speaking of the main story, let's actually talk about it. Final Fantasy 7 starts off with what is narratively and even probably scenario/mission design wise the absolute strongest stretch of game in the series to date in its Midgar portion. The player is dropped straight into the action, complete with a killer soundtrack- the iconic Bombing Mission, and they're handed the reins of.... ecoterrorists?! It's a bold move to make the protagonist faction the ones carrying out dramatic acts of violence, potentially ending innocent life while they're at it, for a change and FF7 both does that and doesn't shy away from debating the costs of their actions as well as the potential costs of inaction. For the first time, it really feels as though the franchise is grappling with a real thematic core and I was totally into it. Even once past the bombing mission itself, Cloud and crew's adventures continue in fascinating fashion through the city with a horrific twist on the way before leading to the obvious climactic confrontation at the Shinra headquarters. The whole section stays varied in what the player is tasked with, stays active on its narrative, and constantly incorporates the questions of its thematic content into the flow; it's legitimately a real achievement for the franchise thus far.
But then something happens. A new character arrives- Sephiroth, one of the franchise's, or hell even gaming in general, most iconic villains- and what that does to the story honestly.... kind of sinks it? That's not to say that Sephiroth is himself a bad character- I don't feel especially strongly about him one way or the other to be honest- but moreso that what he does to the story is to take this grounded (at least for FF) struggle with actual themes and completely derail it into a far more generic villain chasing quest across the world. It's not immediate, thankfully, (A desert storyline examining the lives of those left behind after corporate exploitation shows promise in particular and moments like the Fort Condor minigame can't escape the better worldbuilding established at the start) but slowly and surely, we get there. And our characters are no longer debating the lengths they should be willing to go to deal with their planet's slow murder but instead simply facing an evil that must be stopped. Like some other modern allegories that put the planets existential threat beyond humanity's flaws or even reach, he, in a way, absolves the humans of Shinra and the world of their destruction of it- what does the human destruction of the planet matter if a force completely outside humanitys control is going to headshot the planet separately anyhow? Moreover, this very obvious existential threat and its immediate impact observable by everyone renders the continued conflict between the protagonists and the Shinra corporation nonsensical. Both wish to stop Sephiroth yet can't help but attack each other at nearly every chance they get. (The huge materia quest in particular is baffling here) Throwaway lines occasionally arrive as justification but everything feels thin and contrived, a far cry from what came before.
To be clear, I do not think FF7's story is markedly worse than the games that came before. These have still been, after all, lighthearted adventure stories with little weight to them for the most part. The disappointment here comes strictly from the fact that 7 starts so strong and with such potential before reversing course.
All in all, it's fairly easy to see what the fanbase latched onto here, even including that story. It really does make far bolder steps forward for the franchise than any other title before it save maybe 4? But 7 is also maybe the... messiest FF thus far as well. I'm willing to overlook a lot of it and give it credit for putting in the necessary work so that future installments may see the benefit. If you're interested in seeing how the franchise moved from its more simple dungeons and battles origins to the more explicitly narrative driven and varied adventures of the PS1, PS2 and onwards, this is the perfect title to demonstrate that transition. From its vantage point, one can see all that came before and all that will come after in its design. I think that's pretty cool.
Yes yes- the shift to 3D and prerendered backgrounds and CG cutscenes are the most obvious "progressions" from the outside. (Though I'd have a hard time saying the game looks better than its snes predecessors in the modern age) But those are fairly superficial as the level design is still firmly grounded in the 2D layouts and traversal of prior FFs. In fact, even its equivalent simpler layouts are more confusing to read than prior installments' thanks to the busier scenes depicted and fixed, often awkward camera angles forced by the prerendered backgrounds. It's a clumsy if necessary first step into this world and I'm willing to cut it a little slack as the first mover in the franchise, but it's not the upgrade that sets 7 apart now.
That step forward comes instead in objective/mission/scenario design. An early event in Wall Market sees Cloud and crew chatting up the locals in specific sequence to work out the solution to a problem they're facing. You'll run an errand for one person, compete in a minigame to obtain other needed items, and persuade another with an.... out of the box solution to let you where you need to go. As the game goes on, the player encounters more and more one off minigames, at a pace that would impress even similarly inventive more modern titles like Super Mario Galaxy.
Unfortunately, where a game like SMG holds a certain level of consistent quality between it's one off gimmicks, FF7 does not. You'll frequently be presented with an entirely new control scheme that may or may not hold up to any genre equivalent standalone titles, only further complicated by the fact you'll need to employ it in its entirety immediately with no ramp up time. Some are just plain boring. Others hold a spark of a cool idea but don't quite nail enough of the implementation to work for me. (A RTS lite scenario comes to mind here) Still others do a passable enough job at what they're attempting that the brief sojourn into a bike chase or submarine fight or whatever is a welcome curveball in the game's pacing. And other variations in the mission design come not from a minigame but in twisting the established franchise gameplay of traversing a map and battling enemies into new form. (I particularly liked a snowy expedition that tasked the player with using a crude map to navigate an expansive, open environment) All told, the changes here are numerous and, while again clearly clumsy at times, a firm leap into the kinds of variety the franchise would begin to refine for its dungeons and quests to come.
If its lavish production values, step into the world of 3d gaming, and more diverse scenario demonstrate its part in the evolution of the franchise towards the future we know today, where then does FF7 show its connection to the past- and FF6 in particular- as I alluded to at the start? Well, for one, the world and its societies continue to hone the more specific direction of 6's.... magicpunk? aesthetic away from the more generic fantasy adventures of the preceding adventures. Midgar, in particular, is the single most well realized setting to date in the entire franchise, with fairly clearly dileneated factions and conflicts that have put those factions where they're at. A cyberpunk dystopia drawing clear influence from the surge of material in that space in the 80s and 90s. Even if derivative of them in its own way, the grounded and textured nature of it is refreshing in a similar way to Narche from 6, only expanded much further.
Next, the materia system 7 utilizes for its character progression and building most closely follows its immediate predecessor over the job centric 3/5 (and i guess technically 1) or 2's experiment. Characters don't take on roles; they simply equip the item- materia in this case over magicite- that bestows capabilities instead. At first, I was hopeful this new system would prove to be an improvement to magicite. And it is, in some ways. Most notably, its placement in the context of equipment gives gear new dimensions through which tradeoffs can be presented- do you want more stats or materia, more materia or specifically more linked slots that allow for materia to modify other materia, (imbueing attacks with an element, enabling a spell to target all targets instead of one, etc) or will you give up those powerful links and stats for high growth rate equipment that enables mastery of the attached materia faster? As an aside, I saw some complaints about the simplification of equipment in 7 online after my playthrough and I just cannot agree with it on the whole- yes, each character is down to 3 equipment slots vs 6's 6 or the rest of the series' 5, but this addition of materia to the equipment alone just presents far more considerations at the equipment screen than any title prior has had for me.
It's not all positive, though, sadly. Unlike magicite, materia mastered abilities are bound to the materia itself rather than the individual using it. This, combined with the lack of even the character specific commands from 6, makes 7's party of heroes the absolute most interchangeable members yet. Limit breaks, which are rare considerations for normal gameplay and not teambuilding foundations of character builds, are pretty much the sole distinguishing trait here. Furthermore, managing this system in light of its materia bound abilities over character bound ones is a total pain as the story forces certain party members in and out of use. If you want to swap a characters loadout to another entirely, you'll need to individually unequip every piece of materia on their gear then manually add them back one by one to the new party member. (Magicite, by contrast, left all its learned skills on the character even when moved and if you did want to change it around to grant one character in particular usage of its associated summon, only one item had to be moved instead of potentially 10+) Some quality of life could have alleviated the managing the latter problem for 7's large party, but the former seems inherent to the system as is to me sadly.
The last bit of vital shared DNA between 6 and 7 I'd like to call out is that large party itself. While not quite as gigantic as 6's expansive cast, 7 continues in its footsteps with, at its peak, 9 disparate voices joining your ragtag team of ecoterrorists turned adventurers. The character centric episodes of storytelling remain as well, though this time integrated into the forced flow of the narrative instead of scattered about a technically optional series of quests like in 6's World of Ruin. It's not as impressive as the boldness of world of ruin's departure from series norms up till that point, but it does probably fit together a bit better at least? A less fortunate trait also inherited from 6 is the tendency to have those same cast members grow silent and sit on the sidelines for extended periods when their story isn't the one currently in the spotlight. (Two optional characters in particular get the worst of this, having very little in the way of commentary to offer on the main quest proper- especially baffling given Vincents proximity to the incredibly important events and actors that caused the narrative in the first place)
Speaking of the main story, let's actually talk about it. Final Fantasy 7 starts off with what is narratively and even probably scenario/mission design wise the absolute strongest stretch of game in the series to date in its Midgar portion. The player is dropped straight into the action, complete with a killer soundtrack- the iconic Bombing Mission, and they're handed the reins of.... ecoterrorists?! It's a bold move to make the protagonist faction the ones carrying out dramatic acts of violence, potentially ending innocent life while they're at it, for a change and FF7 both does that and doesn't shy away from debating the costs of their actions as well as the potential costs of inaction. For the first time, it really feels as though the franchise is grappling with a real thematic core and I was totally into it. Even once past the bombing mission itself, Cloud and crew's adventures continue in fascinating fashion through the city with a horrific twist on the way before leading to the obvious climactic confrontation at the Shinra headquarters. The whole section stays varied in what the player is tasked with, stays active on its narrative, and constantly incorporates the questions of its thematic content into the flow; it's legitimately a real achievement for the franchise thus far.
But then something happens. A new character arrives- Sephiroth, one of the franchise's, or hell even gaming in general, most iconic villains- and what that does to the story honestly.... kind of sinks it? That's not to say that Sephiroth is himself a bad character- I don't feel especially strongly about him one way or the other to be honest- but moreso that what he does to the story is to take this grounded (at least for FF) struggle with actual themes and completely derail it into a far more generic villain chasing quest across the world. It's not immediate, thankfully, (A desert storyline examining the lives of those left behind after corporate exploitation shows promise in particular and moments like the Fort Condor minigame can't escape the better worldbuilding established at the start) but slowly and surely, we get there. And our characters are no longer debating the lengths they should be willing to go to deal with their planet's slow murder but instead simply facing an evil that must be stopped. Like some other modern allegories that put the planets existential threat beyond humanity's flaws or even reach, he, in a way, absolves the humans of Shinra and the world of their destruction of it- what does the human destruction of the planet matter if a force completely outside humanitys control is going to headshot the planet separately anyhow? Moreover, this very obvious existential threat and its immediate impact observable by everyone renders the continued conflict between the protagonists and the Shinra corporation nonsensical. Both wish to stop Sephiroth yet can't help but attack each other at nearly every chance they get. (The huge materia quest in particular is baffling here) Throwaway lines occasionally arrive as justification but everything feels thin and contrived, a far cry from what came before.
To be clear, I do not think FF7's story is markedly worse than the games that came before. These have still been, after all, lighthearted adventure stories with little weight to them for the most part. The disappointment here comes strictly from the fact that 7 starts so strong and with such potential before reversing course.
All in all, it's fairly easy to see what the fanbase latched onto here, even including that story. It really does make far bolder steps forward for the franchise than any other title before it save maybe 4? But 7 is also maybe the... messiest FF thus far as well. I'm willing to overlook a lot of it and give it credit for putting in the necessary work so that future installments may see the benefit. If you're interested in seeing how the franchise moved from its more simple dungeons and battles origins to the more explicitly narrative driven and varied adventures of the PS1, PS2 and onwards, this is the perfect title to demonstrate that transition. From its vantage point, one can see all that came before and all that will come after in its design. I think that's pretty cool.