This review makes reference to a significant moment in the game’s story and for any other game I’d consider it a spoiler worth giving a warning for, but hopefully by me saying “spoiler” and “significant moment in the story” in reference to Final Fantasy VII, you can make an educated guess as to what I’m talking about. If you don’t know and don’t want to be spoiled, maybe don’t read this review.

Final Fantasy VII really does need no introduction. Possibly the most widely recognised JRPG of all time, considered iconic and a must-play not just in terms of the PlayStation’s library, but of all games ever. Yet for how well-known the game is, the first thing that surprised me about FF7 was just how little of the game is recognised and talked about in pop-culture and outside of the Final Fantasy fandom.
The opening 5-10 hours of the game take place in Midgar, which does an incredible job of building the initial world, and while I was aware that the party eventually left the city to deal with bigger issues, I don’t think I was quite ready for how little of the game is spent in what feels like the poster-boy setting of the game. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been equally surprised to discover there was an similar lack of knowledge surrounding the characters that join the party as you begin to explore more of the world. Cait Sith, Cid, Yuffie, Vincent and arguably even Red XIII are all introduced within the game’s first Disc and yet might as well be characters who join Cloud within the last 10 hours of the story for how unrecognisable they are compared to Cloud, Barret, Tifa and Aerith.

It can be hard to judge how much of a game is known from an “outsider” perspective. I was aware of additional locations and characters existing outside of those introduced in Midgar, but I couldn’t tell you how I learned about them in the first place. I didn’t know the names of any other cities except Gongaga because of that clip from Crisis Core being shared everywhere. I feel like I only knew about Yuffie because of her DLC chapter for the first Remake game, and I genuinely don’t know if I ever would have known about Cid, Caith Sith and Vincent prior to playing if it weren’t for friends in discord servers discussing the game – or maybe I googled a list of party members at some point, that seems like something I’d do.
The point is: to say you only spend about 20% of the game in Midgar, the only real common knowledge about the remaining 80% is Sephiroth as the main antagonist, and Aerith’s fate at his hands. The latter feels comparable to the gaming equivalent of the reveal of Darth Vader’s identity in Empire Strikes Back. Almost anyone you speak to about the game whether they have played it or not is practically guaranteed to know how her story ends, so it really does feel surprising that very little else about the game is as famous.

Contrary to the two paragraphs you just read, this is far from a complaint about the game. While I do wish that more people knew about my darling edgelord Vincent or Certified Dad™ Cid (even though he is not a dad, and Barret is right there), there’s something really nice about being able to go into a 25 year-old game and have a relatively fresh experience.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the game’s story holds up so well. There are a handful of moments which can drag a little, but they are far outnumbered by the numerous incredible sequences that take place across the game’s 40-60 hour journey. It is absolutely a story worth experiencing and if – like me prior to this game – you haven’t played a Final Fantasy game before, this feels like a great introduction into the series. Who knows though, that might change after I play X. Or IX. Or VI. Or IV. Maybe even XVI.

Final Fantasy VII most definitely does deserve the recognition and acclaim it gets, but it sure would be nice if people were made more commonly aware of things that aren’t the opening chapter of the game, because they’re really missing out. In the advent of the second entry in the Remake trilogy releasing this winter, perhaps this will finally change. Or maybe it won’t. Perhaps there’s some secret psy-op to gatekeep the game’s plot. A win for girlbosses everywhere. It’s what Aerith would have wanted.