Final Fantasy VII Review

Final Fantasy is one of the longest running video game franchises; with over 15 main series games it’s not hard to see that it has quite the fanbase. My introduction to Final Fantasy was through Kingdom Hearts with the brief interactions with characters from FFVii, FFVIII, and I think FFX. The fights with Sephiroth were enough to pique my interest and so I checked out the FFVII Remake and loved it. So naturally I had to then go and play the original not only to see what the remake had adapted but to get a glimpse of what’s to come. I’ve got to say it didn’t disappoint.

Final Fantasy VII is a story of identity crisis. It opens up with a terrorist attack on the main power company in the world to eventually prevent them from sucking all the energy out of the planet. Our main character is a man named Cloud; he used to work for Shinra (the power company) as a SOLDIER but now works as a mercenary for hire. Cloud is hired by AVALANCHE to assist them with their bombing efforts and while escaping he meets a girl named Aerith. During the second bombing run Cloud gets separated from the others and ends up with Aerith. Together they meet back up with AVALANCHE and try to stop Shinra from destroying the area. Aerith is kidnapped and it’s revealed Shinra needs her for their big plans. Cloud and the others rescue Aerith but not before Sephiroth shows up and shows why he’s the big villain. The goal then kind of shifts. Cloud and the others still need to save the planet but Shinra sucking up the energy is no longer the biggest threat - Sephiroth has different plans. When Cloud tries to explain to the others who Sephiroth is, it’s revealed that Cloud may not remember things correctly and actually may not exactly be who he says he is. So then the question becomes, Who is he?

I had a lot of fun playing through this game. It was really fun seeing the parts of the original that got remade and what’s to come. I’m really looking forward to seeing all the towns outside of Midgar being rebuilt and fleshed out. I felt like there was some direction issues because there were a few times where I didn’t know where to go or even find out how to get the information to know where to go. It’s not a massive deal but I kind of need it.

My only real complaint is more because of the era it’s from. The original Final Fantasy VII came out on the Playstation 1 so as you can imagine the controls are everything but smooth. Don’t get me wrong - it provides an authentic experience but when they ported it to the PS4 they didn’t really change it a whole lot. I had zero problems with this until I needed the trophy linked to the G-Bike mini game. To get the trophy you need to get 10500 points by the end. You earn points by knocking down enemy bikes and you lose points every time an enemy bike hits the truck you’re protecting. The precise timing coupled with the PS1 graphics, having to control moving forward and backward as well as side to side, along with having side specific attacks makes this a genuine fucking nightmare. Finally add red bikes that intentionally lure you away so that other bikes can attack the truck and you have a recipe for me becoming a bomber myself. Needless to say, I won’t be getting that Platinum trophy for a while.