Every gamer knows how hard it is to come up with a personal Top 3 of all games ever played, and it gets even worse when you have to rank them. However, with Final Fantasy VII I don’t have to think twice to know that it’s among them. It probably was my first true RPG, my first marathon game with 80 hours plus. And that was reason enough for me to actually play this personal milestone again – 17 or 18 years after my first playthrough. It was a wonderful journey, a revisit of old friends and a strange mix of melancholia, dusting off glorified memories and rediscovering its magic.
Of course, people who read some articles on this blog knew that this post had to come sooner or later. Almost accidently I mentioned Final Fantasy in every second post, but then again that is not so surprising, given the fact that I played it exactly in that time span when I was writing those articles. Well, now I finished the game for the second time and it was indeed a journey of the most different feelings. Let’s start with fear.
There was fear in me. In fact, it was probably one of the biggest reasons that I had never touched Final Fantasy VII again, even though I was thinking often about it in all those years since then. Especially when there was frustration in me with the current generations of games. But then there was this nagging voice: “What, if you just glorify that game? What if you put it on a pedestal to function as a symbol with which reality can’t keep up?” Of course, this fear is more than justified. We all know how disenchanting it can be when we revisit something from our childhood that we imagined much greater in our childish memory than it actually is. And probably almost everybody of us has already dug up a game from the past and was rather astound what was so fascinating about it back then. But then again, could a game that is one of the most influential parts in your personal gaming history really totally disappoint you? Of course, the visuals would be rather ugly, and especially an early 3D game like Final Fantasy 7 aged particularly badly. But the gameplay itself still should be awesome, shouldn’t it?
Apparently I wasn’t that convinced, and of course playing a game with that scope requires total commitment, so even when the Steam version was released in 2013, I stayed skeptical. As it is custom practice with Steam, I bought it a couple of months later during a sale, not really knowing if I would ever play it. However, I have this kind of completionistic urge in me and so whenever I saw it in my library I thought more and more about actually playing it. Only when I got in some real retro mood I could finally motivate myself.
Getting started was easy
The first sequence of Final Fantasy 7 is a prime example of “in medias res” – you are starting in the middle of the action and have little time to overthink things. Of course, you learn the basic controls on the flight and while the visuals are rather repulsive, it is still very easy to get into the game – so that was already a pleasant surprise. It’s also extremely interesting how much of a story you store kind of in the back of your brain. I wouldn’t have been able to recite the first few hours of the game before starting it, but as soon as I was back in the action, everything immediately came back. What is visually extremely noticeable, is that the character models and other objects are now scaled to a higher resolution, while the pre-rendered background is not. This kills the flair a little bit, but at least it makes it easier to spot items and secrets which are distributed around the levels. About one thing I had to immediately laugh when I saw it again: The block-hands of the characters. It was especially funny because I remembered that even back as a kid this left a totally odd impression to me and reminded of some sort of hooves rather than hands.
In terms of gameplay and story however, Final Fantasy 7 definitely delivered one of the best introductions of its time, and of course the “in medias res” approach also wasn’t that overused back then. The first few fights I experienced as rather boring, as opposite to my first playthrough, the combat system is nowadays well known to me. And so you have those random standard fights where you can’t choose anything else than the “attack” command. Nevertheless the story was dragging me in again immediately.
The old crew
Packshot of Final Fantasy VII for PlayStation
One thing that I definitely underestimated is the cheesiness of the dialogues, while at the same time I remembered the characters and story much deeper than they seemed in my second attempt. But this sounds definitely more negative than it actually felt. So first things first: The dialogues. When I played Final Fantasy XIII (the latest part of the series), the most disappointing elements – besides the dull combat system – where the even duller dialogues and stereotypical characters. I thought that previous installments of the series did that much better. Well, the truth is, they barely did. They were just lucky that those dialogue lines never had to be read by voice actors. A lot of the emotional dialogues are way too hard trying to be tear-jerking and many characters are as one-directional as they are in the new games. Still of course in terms of design the entourage is one of the coolest in video game history. Red XIII and Vincent alone are just mint, and even Aerith as the good girl is likeable enough to make her death scene emotionally work.
Actually the most disappointing character was Sephiroth. The hype around this antagonist is well known and I always remembered him as absolutely badass and kind of congenial at the same time. And now I came to realize that actually he isn’t even talking that much, and his reasons are highly questionable to say the least. Of course his whole style is still formidable and compared to most other villains he is still awesome, but based on my own hype towards him character-wise I was honestly disappointed. However on the other hand I was honestly surprised about the personal storyline of Cloud. I remembered only fractions of it (that there was some confusion with him and Zack) and have to say that if there is any “deep” part in this game, then it is his storyline. Playing such a “weak” character with dozens of self-doubts was highly refreshing, even after almost two decades. For me, this storyline also delivers the best and most understandable dialogues and surprises with really human statements that are shining between all the other cheesiness.
Mechanics and music don’t rust
In terms of gameplay for me personally the game couldn’t age better. The old turn-based combat system is still working perfectly fine and even the character and equip system with the Materia is one of the better ones among the Final Fantasy series, even though I had to get used to it again. One mechanic that brings up the old hate in a very nostalgic and choleric way is the one of random encounters. Of course the old rule still applies: Whenever you want to grind a little bit, you seemingly wait forever for the next encounter, and whenever you want to progress the story, they are popping up every three seconds.
In hindsight it was a worthy experience to play Final Fantasy 7 again. This replay put a lot of overly positive memories in their place and made me appreciate the progress that games made since then a little bit more. Nevertheless it also made me see once again, why this game was so influential to me. After 18 years I still had tons of fun with it, and that is something that many games from that era couldn’t claim anymore today. I was a little bit disappointed by the story and characters, as I remembered them even more vivid, but Cloud’s storyline and the basic game mechanics made totally up for it. And of course the music… that music! It’s one of the best soundtracks ever, thanks to the genius of Nobuo Uematsu. The track “One Winged Angel” which plays during the boss fight against Sephiroth is pure video game history and brings back so many emotions that I can barely describe them. If you are a fan of the music of the Final Fantasy series and you ever get the chance, visit one of the Distant Worlds concerts – it’s really worth it.
Mordant Gamer 