There’s something comical going into one of the most widely beloved games ever made and coming out with one of my favorite games of all time. It's the ideal punchline really. I expected to like the game, sure, but why didn't I anticipate something more than that from Final Fantasy VII? Instead I spent so much time going on a pilgrimage, having the exact same deep-seated reaction over and over again: "I get it now".
Funnily enough, the person 2 reviews below this one presented with their review the exact same gif I sent to my friends several times. It's a common sentiment, I suppose.
One of the reasons Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is near and dear to my heart, despite the myriad of structural issues playing it, is how much the game feels like an honest-to-god adventure. It was one of the first games to give me such a strong feeling, adventuring through the vast and varied worlds of the cloud seas, and few games in my (admittedly limited) playography have captured the vibe since then. Then playing FInal Fantasy VII, that strong feeling returned to me. Even if on paper there may not be that many locations, with many of them being made up of like 2 screens and a couple of room interiors, the game makes it work sooooo well. Going from the slums of Midgar, out into the world across several coastal towns, into the mountains and eventually snowcaps, ultimately into the skies above (and beyond even that!); you feel like such a small part of the game's world and it's incredible. Thanks to the use of pre-rendered scenes, the game manages to make its world so unique and varied in a way just can't replicate with the constraints of a reasonable development.
It's a damn shame no non-Nintendo company realized they shouldn't burn all their dev materials the second a game is out until the 7th generation. Yet even in their 240p glory, the backgrounds of this game still manage to be incredibly evocative, contributing a great deal to the game's scope and beauty. There's a certain charm to the contrast of fidelity in the game as is, with the blocky but incredibly sharp models on the high-fidelity but low-res backgrounds. Then sometimes the background becomes a FMV and, sure, it's blurry as hell, but woah! They're allowed to do that?! It almost feels like the game breaking its own rules and ends up always being a surprising little treat.
With the world being so compelling by itself, it adds a lot to the moment-to-moment exploration of each area. There's so many little secrets tucked away, often in the form of some useful materia, that makes the deeper exploration worthwhile. Aside from the normal on foot exploration, the game throws in so many crazy gameplay moments that, for the most part, all work pretty well, whether it be performing CPR on a child, trying to escape an execution chamber, or stopping a train. We don't talk about Fort Condor. The trek up Great Glacier was a particular highlight, with the need to warm up and the ending section of being lost in the snowstorm capturing the vibes of an arduous mountain hike incredibly well. For as many wild swings this game takes, it's incredibly impressive and a testament to the game's legacy how much of it holds up perfectly.
And throughout this exploration is, of course, the combat. I was initially a bit uneasy upon the realization that the Steam version lacked a few of the "cheats" available in the more modern console versions, aside from being able to go to the Squeenix website and mod your save file so you have max of everything???? That's not fun! I might not have gotten through Mother 3 if it wasn't for the save states and speedup features for grinding thanks to an emulator, even though I loved that game. Fortunately, it soon became clear that's not an issue, thanks to FF7 being an incredibly easy game.
Instead of a struggle, the combat becomes a playground for trying out the game's coolest feature: the Materia system. By giving every character essentially the same pallet to work from, the party ends up being incredibly morphable both for when the situation calls for it or just when you feel like changing things up. Adding in the enhancement Materia allows for so much stupid but incredibly fun opportunities, like making Cloud attack twice and have a chance to poison enemies upon hit (until hitting a boss that's immune to poison and, well, oopsies!) or having a full team heal spell that's incredibly MP efficient. I particularly loved the Enemy Skill Materia—which I did not know was in the other games as well until after beating this game, besides XV cause that game sucks—giving me an ever-expanding rolodex of unique moves that made Tifa (my E. Skill wielder) the clear MVP.
Perhaps my main reason for not expecting such a strong attachment to the game was the belief that I had already grasped onto most of the story through cultural osmosis. But two things surprised me: 1) Aerith's death acted as something of a vortex sucking up most discussion of the game, and so I ended up never having heard of several major plot points prior to playing the game 2) even things that I did know, watching them occur in game with all the tact the game has just makes them hit different. The way the game builds up and lingers upon Aerith's death is so artistically gripping, it was able to make me a bit emotional even knowing full well what was about to occur leading up to it. There's something incredibly special about the fight with JENOVA afterwards, with Aerith's theme playing over the entire duel, and then JENOVA eventually running out of "energy" and just letting you slay it. The entire ordeal feels so mournful, a reminder what exactly you're fighting for.
The way the entire cast comes together over the course of the game, from a rag-tag group each with their own goals brought together by convenience more than anything to a strong support group. The case does have its issues. Some feel a bit underdeveloped (Cid, Vincent despite how AWESOME he is), Barret is very clearly butchered by a translation and perhaps original script that feels quite racist at times, and Cait Sith can really just go fuck himself (regardless of how funny the Cait Sith 2 bit was). Yet, those issues largely melt away in a really loveable group that was always a joy to see talking to each other in the big "roundtable" scenes.
At the center of it, both literally and emotionally, is Cloud, who came out of it being one of my favorite characters in videogames. His incredibly messy arc of growing from a traumatized, fraudulent mercenary into someone who truly cares, motivated by the others brought into his life (and more importantly, Tifa) is a really compelling experience (something that's being built upon interestingly in what I've played so far of the remake). The final speech he makes to the party, compelling them to go out and find their own reason for fighting, something more personal than the fairly nebulous goal of "fighting for the planet"—that he wouldn't blame them if they don't end up returning in their final days—wraps up the game's themes of life and purpose so succinctly, and shows how much Cloud has grown himself.
There's so much more that could be said about this incredible experience, and obviously a lot that has been said over the past 27 years, much of it by people far better at writing than I am! It feels so great to finally be in-the-know about this special, special game, to truly understand the fervor brought about by its long-anticipated remake, and now getting wrapped up in that anticipation myself. Even after the journey came to an end in its beautiful finale, I was immediately ready for more of this world, hence why I started playing FF7R the same day, and will be there for Rebirth on PC day one no matter what. There's good reason it's one of the most beloved games of all time, and it has all the right to remain that way.
Funnily enough, the person 2 reviews below this one presented with their review the exact same gif I sent to my friends several times. It's a common sentiment, I suppose.
One of the reasons Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is near and dear to my heart, despite the myriad of structural issues playing it, is how much the game feels like an honest-to-god adventure. It was one of the first games to give me such a strong feeling, adventuring through the vast and varied worlds of the cloud seas, and few games in my (admittedly limited) playography have captured the vibe since then. Then playing FInal Fantasy VII, that strong feeling returned to me. Even if on paper there may not be that many locations, with many of them being made up of like 2 screens and a couple of room interiors, the game makes it work sooooo well. Going from the slums of Midgar, out into the world across several coastal towns, into the mountains and eventually snowcaps, ultimately into the skies above (and beyond even that!); you feel like such a small part of the game's world and it's incredible. Thanks to the use of pre-rendered scenes, the game manages to make its world so unique and varied in a way just can't replicate with the constraints of a reasonable development.
It's a damn shame no non-Nintendo company realized they shouldn't burn all their dev materials the second a game is out until the 7th generation. Yet even in their 240p glory, the backgrounds of this game still manage to be incredibly evocative, contributing a great deal to the game's scope and beauty. There's a certain charm to the contrast of fidelity in the game as is, with the blocky but incredibly sharp models on the high-fidelity but low-res backgrounds. Then sometimes the background becomes a FMV and, sure, it's blurry as hell, but woah! They're allowed to do that?! It almost feels like the game breaking its own rules and ends up always being a surprising little treat.
With the world being so compelling by itself, it adds a lot to the moment-to-moment exploration of each area. There's so many little secrets tucked away, often in the form of some useful materia, that makes the deeper exploration worthwhile. Aside from the normal on foot exploration, the game throws in so many crazy gameplay moments that, for the most part, all work pretty well, whether it be performing CPR on a child, trying to escape an execution chamber, or stopping a train. We don't talk about Fort Condor. The trek up Great Glacier was a particular highlight, with the need to warm up and the ending section of being lost in the snowstorm capturing the vibes of an arduous mountain hike incredibly well. For as many wild swings this game takes, it's incredibly impressive and a testament to the game's legacy how much of it holds up perfectly.
And throughout this exploration is, of course, the combat. I was initially a bit uneasy upon the realization that the Steam version lacked a few of the "cheats" available in the more modern console versions, aside from being able to go to the Squeenix website and mod your save file so you have max of everything???? That's not fun! I might not have gotten through Mother 3 if it wasn't for the save states and speedup features for grinding thanks to an emulator, even though I loved that game. Fortunately, it soon became clear that's not an issue, thanks to FF7 being an incredibly easy game.
Instead of a struggle, the combat becomes a playground for trying out the game's coolest feature: the Materia system. By giving every character essentially the same pallet to work from, the party ends up being incredibly morphable both for when the situation calls for it or just when you feel like changing things up. Adding in the enhancement Materia allows for so much stupid but incredibly fun opportunities, like making Cloud attack twice and have a chance to poison enemies upon hit (until hitting a boss that's immune to poison and, well, oopsies!) or having a full team heal spell that's incredibly MP efficient. I particularly loved the Enemy Skill Materia—which I did not know was in the other games as well until after beating this game, besides XV cause that game sucks—giving me an ever-expanding rolodex of unique moves that made Tifa (my E. Skill wielder) the clear MVP.
Perhaps my main reason for not expecting such a strong attachment to the game was the belief that I had already grasped onto most of the story through cultural osmosis. But two things surprised me: 1) Aerith's death acted as something of a vortex sucking up most discussion of the game, and so I ended up never having heard of several major plot points prior to playing the game 2) even things that I did know, watching them occur in game with all the tact the game has just makes them hit different. The way the game builds up and lingers upon Aerith's death is so artistically gripping, it was able to make me a bit emotional even knowing full well what was about to occur leading up to it. There's something incredibly special about the fight with JENOVA afterwards, with Aerith's theme playing over the entire duel, and then JENOVA eventually running out of "energy" and just letting you slay it. The entire ordeal feels so mournful, a reminder what exactly you're fighting for.
The way the entire cast comes together over the course of the game, from a rag-tag group each with their own goals brought together by convenience more than anything to a strong support group. The case does have its issues. Some feel a bit underdeveloped (Cid, Vincent despite how AWESOME he is), Barret is very clearly butchered by a translation and perhaps original script that feels quite racist at times, and Cait Sith can really just go fuck himself (regardless of how funny the Cait Sith 2 bit was). Yet, those issues largely melt away in a really loveable group that was always a joy to see talking to each other in the big "roundtable" scenes.
At the center of it, both literally and emotionally, is Cloud, who came out of it being one of my favorite characters in videogames. His incredibly messy arc of growing from a traumatized, fraudulent mercenary into someone who truly cares, motivated by the others brought into his life (and more importantly, Tifa) is a really compelling experience (something that's being built upon interestingly in what I've played so far of the remake). The final speech he makes to the party, compelling them to go out and find their own reason for fighting, something more personal than the fairly nebulous goal of "fighting for the planet"—that he wouldn't blame them if they don't end up returning in their final days—wraps up the game's themes of life and purpose so succinctly, and shows how much Cloud has grown himself.
There's so much more that could be said about this incredible experience, and obviously a lot that has been said over the past 27 years, much of it by people far better at writing than I am! It feels so great to finally be in-the-know about this special, special game, to truly understand the fervor brought about by its long-anticipated remake, and now getting wrapped up in that anticipation myself. Even after the journey came to an end in its beautiful finale, I was immediately ready for more of this world, hence why I started playing FF7R the same day, and will be there for Rebirth on PC day one no matter what. There's good reason it's one of the most beloved games of all time, and it has all the right to remain that way.