Before I started this marathon, the two Final Fantasy games I was obviously most aware of were VI and VII. Naturally, when you hear about Final Fantasy VII, you always hear about Cloud, Midgar, Tifa, Aerith, her death, Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel, the Weapons maybe, etc. You know how beloved it is by fans and Square Enix itself, with prequels, movies, remakes, Smash Bros. appearances, and much more. Even as someone who had not played a Final Fantasy game at that time, I felt like VII hogged too much of the spotlight and gravitated to VI more (that, and I was/am generally more fond of the 16-bit era than the 64-bit era). So, let it be known after playing both of them for the first time, that as much as I loved VI, that I now fully understand why VII has become so beloved and iconic.
The iconography does make quite the impression: in the early hours in Midgar, with all of the well-known party members (many with pretty substantial arcs, or, with Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith, arcs that last the entire game), with Aerith's death (still really well handled even now knowing how often Final Fantasy liked to kill off a party member in each game), with many of the amazing boss fights, etc. Funnily enough, as iconic as FF7 is, I was not really aware of all the ins and outs of the plot until I played, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much of the game was about environmentalism and identity. The gameplay itself is certainly no slouch with the active turn-based combat fine-tuned, with the Materia system allowing for a similar level of customization to play styles similar to that of VI, with all of the memorable settings even outside of Midgar (Junon, Gold Saucer, Cosmo Canyon, Temple of the Ancients, Northern Cave, etc.) that previous games somewhat lacked (mainly due to technological prowess), and with the amount of sheer stuff there is to do (a wealth of minigames, Chocobo races and breeding, some terrifying Weapon superbosses, and more). There just is a sheer magic to this game that, at the time, it must have really felt like the future of the video game medium, and it is still so beloved to this day that it is, very likely, the first game you think of when you think of Final Fantasy.
The iconography does make quite the impression: in the early hours in Midgar, with all of the well-known party members (many with pretty substantial arcs, or, with Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith, arcs that last the entire game), with Aerith's death (still really well handled even now knowing how often Final Fantasy liked to kill off a party member in each game), with many of the amazing boss fights, etc. Funnily enough, as iconic as FF7 is, I was not really aware of all the ins and outs of the plot until I played, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much of the game was about environmentalism and identity. The gameplay itself is certainly no slouch with the active turn-based combat fine-tuned, with the Materia system allowing for a similar level of customization to play styles similar to that of VI, with all of the memorable settings even outside of Midgar (Junon, Gold Saucer, Cosmo Canyon, Temple of the Ancients, Northern Cave, etc.) that previous games somewhat lacked (mainly due to technological prowess), and with the amount of sheer stuff there is to do (a wealth of minigames, Chocobo races and breeding, some terrifying Weapon superbosses, and more). There just is a sheer magic to this game that, at the time, it must have really felt like the future of the video game medium, and it is still so beloved to this day that it is, very likely, the first game you think of when you think of Final Fantasy.