After serving to my childhood pal, Cloud, by way of a reality-bending expertise to reclaim his id, I hear as he apologizes for his worst actions and explains to a room full of individuals why he misled everybody. Sure, his thoughts was underneath the affect of an invasive presence, however this confession comes from a spot of vulnerability, one the place he’s proudly owning his personal actions. He confesses to being “ashamed of being so weak” to the purpose that he “created an phantasm.” When he says he “can’t stay trapped in an phantasm any extra,” and that he’s “going to dwell […] with out pretending,” I really feel impressed not solely to defeat the evil we face, however to dwell my very own life with out pretending too. All of us stroll again to the cockpit of the airship known as the Highwind, headed north to face our biggest fears with honesty and resolve in who we’re, collectively.
Ultimate Fantasy VII arrived on the unique PlayStation on January 31, 1997 and it swiftly grew to become a worldwide, cultural gaming phenomenon. Within the greater than two-and-a-half many years since, FF7’s world, characters, and soundtrack, to not point out the fun of taking part in by way of its revolutionary, adventurous, and different quest, have remained contemporary and provoking within the minds of numerous avid gamers—particularly for these of us who performed it at an impressionable age within the late ‘90s.
As a child, I skilled FF7 as a three-disc epic on a large, glowing CRT display screen that may loom over me for hours at a time, a disc spinning away underneath the plastic lid of my grey PlayStation with a colourful PSM sticker slapped on it. Ultimate Fantasy VII pulled me in with a gravitational power not like something earlier than, and few artworks have come near hitting me in the identical approach.
However is that every one simply nostalgia speaking? Ultimate Fantasy VII, with its narrative that questions what elements of 1’s reminiscence will be trusted, additionally invitations us to query our personal recollections of taking part in it, and see how our opinion of it differs upon returning to it years later. Ultimate Fantasy VII is a recreation about so, a lot. It offers in huge, overwhelming ideas like unchecked company energy and greed resulting in ecological collapse and violence inflicted on the much less lucky, however can be intimate sufficient to be stuffed with tender and delicate moments comparable to somebody longing to admit their like to a pal, solely to fail and battle to seek out the braveness and the proper phrases.
FF7 options heroism at its most inspiring and villainy at its most terrifying. It makes use of the genres of science fiction and fantasy to stretch its story throughout a mind-bending cosmic actuality with characters who are usually not solely saddled with saving the world, however who should additionally navigate deeply human and relatable burdens: the dear coexistence of friendship and love, having your goals taken from you, the lack of expensive family and friends, of discovering household, of discovering your self. Atop these burdens soars a spirit that reminds us that irrespective of the percentages, we should attempt to battle for and be one thing higher than what the worst of actuality has to supply.
Many could love Ultimate Fantasy VII as a result of it was a particular recreation to them at a younger age. Such a relationship ought to not be dismissed. Nostalgia could present context as to why we do or don’t like sure issues, and whereas it ought to generally be questioned, it needn’t be discounted. Nostalgia is a human act of cataloging our sense of self, our minds and our bodies, with how we transfer by way of time and house, being attentive to who and what was round us. As I’ve revisited FF7 with my first full full playthrough in a few years, I’ve sought to concentrate on my nostalgic relationship with it as finest I can. And after as soon as once more successful its climactic battle and watching its superbly mysterious and hopeful post-credits scene, I stay satisfied that FF7 greater than earned the admiration it obtained in 1997.
Learn Extra: So You Need To Play The Unique Ultimate Fantasy VII?
A lot has modified since 1997. The place as soon as I clutched a wired gamepad and sat in entrance of a large, boxy tv, as we speak the sport follows me out into the world. Like a reissue of a basic fantasy novel, it will get tossed out and in of my bag on my strategy to work; I play it whereas ready in physician’s workplaces, whereas sitting within the park, on the practice, in cabs, on buses. And but, Ultimate Fantasy VII itself stays a lot the identical: It’s a rewarding RPG with a versatile and fascinating fight system, unlabeled secrets and techniques to unearth in an enchanting fantasy world, and tales of id, connection, and loss that make me cry each single time.
FF7’s opening is the whole lot
FF7 opens with swirling stars towards the limitless black of house. Then, a close-up of a personality who would turn out to be only one member of a timeless solid of recognizable faces. The digital camera spends a while together with her earlier than pulling out by way of a bustling metropolis avenue to take us additional into the air, the place we glance down on a powerful and ominous megalopolis drenched in shades of black and inexperienced. Proud and audacious melodies soar from the audio system, the grinding wheels of a practice minimize out and in of the scene, and we zoom in to comply with mentioned practice pulling right into a station.
From there, it’s all narrative propulsion, a speeding practice setting the tone for the single-minded focus of the sport’s opening part. A rag-tag bunch of eco-terrorists, a “Bombing Mission” on a reactor (accompanied by an unforgettable music monitor of the identical title), and an instantly iconic protagonist, spiky-haired and wielding a large sword. It’s a gap for the ages.
A number of moments later we’re given the selection to call our character, or roll along with his given title: Cloud. One other character, Barret, who’s fast to swear and doesn’t shy from giving daring speeches, tells us that the planet is dying. The “life blood” of the planet is being harvested by our antagonist, Shinra, and their “bizarre machines.” Our protagonist can’t be bothered with these motivations. “I’m not right here for a lecture,” Cloud says earlier than he and Barret push by way of the labyrinth of concrete, metallic, pipes, billowing smoke, and flashing lights towards their explosive purpose.
This direct urgency and linear scripting takes you thru the primary few hours of FF7. Except for some alternatives to discover sure areas, and some moments of down time, FF7’s early moments are on rails, barreling towards the purpose of making an attempt to sabotage Shinra as an act of direct environmental motion. As a recreation, this tight pacing offers us the house to be taught FF7’s RPG system with out being too overwhelmed by the urge to discover. And it’s a wonderful RPG system that lets the participant modularly assemble courses by the use of slotting spells into slots by way of magical orbs often called materia.
Importantly, the narrative linearity offers you time to attach with the central characters: Cloud, Barret, Tifa, and Aerith. You come to know how they every relate to the antagonistic company power that actually looms over its topics. The town of Midgar is split into two halves, one which sits atop a large round plate adorned with luxurious and spectacle, and the opposite that lies under it, stuffed with wreckage and poverty.
The construction of FF7’s early moments run parallel to the story it’s telling. There’s even a literal reference to coach rails early on from Cloud:
I do know…nobody lives within the slums as a result of they need to. It’s like this practice. It could’t run wherever besides the place its rails take it.
Although you possibly can’t freely roam Midgar, the town by no means fails to really feel huge. A lot of this has to do with the clear consideration to element poured into the mounted, pre-rendered backgrounds: intricate equipment, the generally messy but comfortable and lived-in really feel of the houses of its residents, seamy city squares and storefronts. By as we speak’s requirements, these backgrounds are notably low-res, with objects which are generally onerous to discern, however they’re every artworks in their very own approach. There’s a transparent inventive perspective right here. This isn’t simply empty house to discover, like what many fashionable, a lot bigger open-world video games usually fill their areas with. The location of every object in these scenes feels intentional.
After many battles under the floor of the streets of Midgar, we’re delivered to the highest. Raiding Shinra HQ is our likelihood to strike again after witnessing the corporate destroy numerous lives…and that’s the place FF7 reveals its first twist: Sure, the planet is dying, however the risk is much larger and much stranger than our heroes believed.
After which…the world
After the exhilarating raid on Shinra HQ, FF7 settles right into a rhythm that those that performed the primary six Ultimate Fantasy titles will know effectively: the extensive, roaming areas of the overworld.
By holding this house again from you early on, FF7’s deliverance of the planet hits with a powerful, even perhaps intimidating, spaciousness. It’s a direct distinction to the claustrophobic nature of Midgar. It serves as a welcome change of tempo from the sport’s opening. Nonetheless, though it feels very extensive and open, FF7’s story and world nonetheless have a comparatively linear path, only one with wider areas to navigate between story factors and some extra alternatives for diversions.
But the planet of FF7 at all times feels huge. The construction of when and the way it reveals you this world doesn’t simply make for a satisfyingly paced story, it harmonizes with FF7’s story about saving the world from destruction.
FF7’s story runs parallel with its construction as a online game. The whole lot will get bigger as you’re given more room to discover. The antagonist will get swapped from the Shinra firm to the extra existential and profound risk of Sephiroth and his mom, Jenova. Shinra’s position within the creation of Sephiroth at all times stays current, however the purpose stays the identical: Save the planet. And also you’ll see practically all of that planet. You’ll stroll, drive, and ultimately fly throughout its complete floor. FF7 options a wide selection of locales, individuals, and narrative twists and turns, set to a timeless soundtrack that is aware of how you can make use of recurring melodies and sharp contrasts in style to set an applicable tone for every scene. All of it makes this world really feel bigger, and your journey by way of it extra different and epic, than simply about any fashionable open-world recreation can obtain.
True, FF7 does really feel dated by as we speak’s requirements in some key methods. Quick journey factors, quest markers and targets, auto-save, none of that’s right here. You need to bodily go to the placement in thoughts, actively select to save lots of, and bear in mind the place the following goal is. It may be a bit of tough to return to a time when such quality-of-life options weren’t normal, and there have been instances that I wanted I may double-check my goal in a quest log or warp from, say, Wutai to Junon by choosing icons on a map. However FF7 delivers such a memorable story and such unforgettable characters over its roughly 40-hour marketing campaign that these are minor discomforts at finest—and in 1997, there actually wasn’t but a mannequin for a substitute for this construction, anyway.
FF7 was stuffed with technical marvels for its period, to make sure. However upon revisiting FF7 as we speak, I’m satisfied that the weather we as we speak take into account so dated, issues like its text-only dialogue and, sure, its blocky, square-fisted characters, truly contribute to its capacity to occupy house within the thoughts of so many gamers, and to stay there, puzzling and cherished, for many years..
Textual content containers, signature blockiness, and low-fidelity attraction
In Brian Eno’s A Yr With Swollen Appendices, the storied musician and report producer discusses the essence of “ugly” and even “nasty” components of older types of media. He says:
No matter you now discover bizarre, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty a couple of new medium will certainly turn out to be its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit — all of those shall be cherished and emulated as quickly as they are often averted. It’s the sound of failure: A lot fashionable artwork is the sound of issues going uncontrolled, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking up. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of one thing too loud for the medium supposed to hold it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too highly effective for the throat that releases it. The joy of grainy movie, of bleached-out black and white, is the thrill of witnessing occasions too momentous for the medium assigned to report them.
It’s that final line which actually connects this sentiment to Ultimate Fantasy VII for me. FF7’s blocky polygonal characters, its low-resolution pre-rendered backgrounds ceaselessly caught in a non-cinematic side ratio, the inflexible timbre of its soundtrack handle to speak, as Kotaku’s managing editor Carolyn Petit as soon as put it, “hand-crafted attraction.”
Like seeing brushstrokes in a portray, FF7 appears and feels prefer it was made by actual individuals aiming to seize the collective inventive frequency that everybody engaged on this recreation was tuned into, utilizing the instruments and expertise that they had accessible to them on the time. To borrow from Eno, to be enthusiastic about FF7’s 1997 presentation is to expertise “the thrill of witnessing occasions too momentous for the medium assigned to report them.” Taking part in FF7 is like listening to a report the place you possibly can hear not simply the tune, but additionally the musicians within the rooms and the areas the place they recorded their elements.
The polygonal characters of FF7 solely have so many animations. Over the course of 40 hours, you’ll have seen all of them used for all kinds of various expressions. Some are distinctive to sure characters: Cloud’s “shrug,” or Yuffie’s speedy air punches. And a few are hilarious, comparable to Pink XIII actually crossing his arms like an individual throughout a late-game showdown with an antagonist.
However there’s at all times character and persona current in these animations, like Pink XIII’s cute and labored crawl underneath the new solar of Costa del Sol after he remarks that the “warmth is drying my nostril.” The identical is true of the soundtrack, which selected to eschew the PlayStation’s functionality of taking part in recorded, “Pink E book,” CD-quality audio with sequenced notes and samples. It too is inflexible, but its use of melody and tune construction, and understanding when to pivot genres, paints the soundscape of a world and its individuals. That’s true whether or not we’re speaking about delicate and atmospheric tracks like “Lifestream” or “Phrases Drowned by Fireworks,” or the pounding progressive heavy metallic vibes of “Struggle On!” or “Start of a God.”
Each motion, line of dialogue, and musical beat feels hand-picked, deliberate, and fascinating. FF7 generally appears like watching a piece of theater on stage, with actors shifting round an intricately and deliberately designed set, meant to attract and preserve our consideration as gamers, earlier than wowing us with what have been on the time wildly spectacular graphical showcases in its “FMV” cutscenes, and permitting us the urgency to do battle towards the world’s worst villains.
Don’t dismiss the English model!
As chances are you’ll know, Ultimate Fantasy VII’s English model had a rushed and tough translation from the unique Japanese. This resulted in quite a lot of odd sentences and phrase decisions and a few now-iconic grammatical errors.
Fashionable variations of FF7 have largely cleaned this up, however this rushed translation has contributed to a sure character distinctive to the English model. Additionally, the English script is greater than able to delivering laughs and tears, and speaking the nuances of FF7’s many twists and turns. When you can learn Japanese, you in all probability ought to play the sport in its authentic language. However you’ll nonetheless have an exquisite time with the English model.
The place the boundaries of FF7’s ‘90s tech fall brief, that’s the place the participant’s creativeness takes over, with processing energy that no machine can match. To play FF7 is to additionally create FF7 in your thoughts, listening to what you personally assume Cloud feels like, what the odor of Mako is like, how Aerith’s snicker sounds when she will get the concept to recommend to Cloud that he gown up like a lady.
Abstraction and the position of your creativeness in FF7 is maybe most evident when exploring the overworld. Cloud’s mannequin towers over tiny buildings, abstractions meant to characterize complete cities. We all know consciously that this isn’t a simulated actuality, it’s an abstracted one. Our minds fill within the gaps with limitless element, directed by the inventive deserves of this basic RPG.
AAA video video games nowadays appear to reject this method, selecting as a substitute to attempt to create playable areas as near real-life scale as potential. However what number of of these sorts of video games, I’m wondering, will stand the take a look at of time the way in which FF7, with its wonky scale and repeated animations, has? With its “bizarre, ugly, uncomfortable, and nasty” components, FF7 stays a world past what expertise can produce alone. What we assign to FF7 has as a lot worth as the information initially printed on these three PSX discs.
The elements that haven’t aged so effectively
FF7 is much from excellent, after all. Whereas the sport principally sustains an exciting story of saving the world from a robust antagonist throughout 40+ hours, each time I get to the final third of the sport’s foremost narrative, I’m at all times a bit of underwhelmed.
That final half, unfold out towards the top of the second disc and everything of the third, is a sequence of quests to seek out key gadgets and alternatives for optionally available encounters. This residence stretch incorporates far fewer fascinating character backstory reveals, comparable to the reality about Cloud’s mysterious previous, Barret’s traumatic lack of his hometown and household, or Pink XIII’s relationship along with his father. It principally boils right down to encounters with Shinra forces to attempt to take the awkwardly named “Big Materia” from them.
FF7’s latter elements may’ve used just a few extra rewrites, I believe. Had Yuffie and Vincent been obligatory members of the celebration, with their backstories extra completely woven in, FF7’s closing hours may have been extra compelling. The sport additionally may have finished extra with its short-term shift to Tifa and Cid as foremost characters whereas Cloud is off doing his psychological gymnastics.
FF7 additionally has just a few different ache factors, significantly in 2024. The random encounters are generally disruptive to the sport’s emotional texture and infrequently too quite a few. The absence of auto-save is a frustration. And whereas I in all probability wouldn’t want to see a fast-travel choice on this recreation, some form of quest journal with a quick abstract and indication of the place to go could be good. Sure, you possibly can generally work out what you’re presupposed to do by speaking to random NPCs, however even in 1997, this course of typically felt aimless and time-wasting.
Lastly, whereas the power to individually spec out characters by the use of materia certain is cool, managing it throughout a number of characters could be a severe chore. The quantity of characters and choices you’ve got accessible can induce a way of selection paralysis and uncertainty as to who ought to fill what roles. Amusingly, the sport appears to concentrate on this considerably cumbersome mechanic. When you regain management of Cloud after taking part in as Cid for a short time, speaking to Cid will outcome within the following line:
I understand how robust it’s bein’ a pacesetter, as a result of I’ve been one. I at all times overlook who has what materia.
Ultimate Fantasy VII is a timeless basic
Late in Ultimate Fantasy VII’s story, in an optionally available narrative beat, Pink XIII’s adoptive grandfather Bugenhagen tells him to “look at all times to the everlasting circulation of time which is much larger than the span of a human life.” Whether or not it’s the affect of the two current remakes or not, I’ve felt compelled to watch when FF7’s characters discuss with time, to historical past, to legacies that characters hope to dwell as much as, and previous injustices they search to proper. Ultimate Fantasy VII is a recreation about many issues, however historical past and the way issues change is maybe one of the crucial vital.
Learn Extra: Ultimate Fantasy VII Rebirth: The Kotaku Evaluation
It is a recreation that has performed a key position within the arc of my life so far, and it’s one I’ll proceed to play sooner or later. I think about I’m not alone on this sentiment. The current remakes certain are fancy fashionable issues which I’ve loved excess of the different FF7 expanded media, however they don’t examine to the timeless essence of Cloud’s first and finest saga. Few video games do.
Upon replaying this recreation, I knew I’d as soon as once more have emotional responses to Cloud’s seek for id, and his relationships to Tifa and Aerith. I knew Barret’s return residence to Corel would hit me once more with a sunken sense of disappointment for what this man had misplaced, and the anger and craving for revenge that Shinra had instilled in him. These interwoven tales of society’s misfits coming collectively for one another and the world nonetheless land with highly effective emotional resonance.
This time round, I additionally had some new feelings. For the primary time, my Gold Saucer date was with Tifa, not Aerith (or, Aeris, as I want to maintain her authentic mistranslation for replays). Tifa’s try and confess her love for Cloud dovetailed into her dedication to be there for him throughout his pivotal psychological collapse with a story influence I wasn’t anticipating. It made the continuing scene between the 2 of them underneath the Highwind earlier than the massive showdown with Sephiroth land with a way of affection and tenderness that I hadn’t beforehand felt. It was like seeing this scene once more for the very first time, and I got here away from this playthrough feeling that I’d gotten to know Tifa greater than I knew her earlier than. It’s a stunning illustration of how there are at all times new depths and new emotional notes nonetheless ready to be found on this recreation as we return to it all through our lives.
Cloud’s intense moments of self-discovery additionally took on a brand new tone for me. After struggling by way of a dramatic sequence of occasions, one which forces him to cope with the truth that a lot of his id is a lie, he turns to face it with a outstanding sense of humanity and truthfulness.
So typically, I discover that discourse surrounding Cloud’s emotional and psychological journey merely reduces it to a part of the sport’s science-fiction worldbuilding, to “lore” that explains the connection between Cloud, Sephiroth, and Jenova. However the emotional influence of a heroic character confessing to being afraid of being weak, of being seen as weak, after which selecting to embrace honesty in entrance of everybody he’s lied to, I believe, is the extra profound component of FF7’s most dramatic plot twist. And that’s not simply me studying into it. Cloud’s speech does contain components of FF7’s sci-fi, nevertheless it begins with an sincere confession through which he owns the lies he’s unfold:
I by no means was in SOLDIER. I made up the tales about what occurred to me 5 years in the past, about being in SOLDIER. I left my village in search of glory, however by no means made it in to SOLDIER… I used to be so ashamed of being so weak; then I heard this story from my pal Zack… And I created an phantasm of myself made up of what I had seen in my life…
And I continued to play the charade as if it have been true.
Following this, Cloud does point out the “Jenova cells” that have been forcibly injected into him, however he makes it clear when he confesses that “my very own weak spot […] created me.” Sure, the fantasy component of Jenova messing with individuals’s brains is neat, and it does assist amplify Cloud’s psychological state, nevertheless it’s already working with relatable, human ideas. Cloud’s battle is considered one of disgrace, insecurity, and a nasty case of imposter syndrome. And it’s not a magic merchandise that helps him get by way of this, however a pal. That human reference to Tifa is what grants him the power to confront his personal lies, to personal them, not excuse them, and to dwell with out pretending.
That wasn’t all. Although Aerith’s demise at all times layers such an intense cloud of tragedy over the sport, a lot in order that I typically discover FF7 considerably miserable to play, this time the sound of youngsters laughing and taking part in within the recreation’s closing second introduced me tears of happiness and hope, and as a substitute begged me to think about the hopefulness of this recreation. As I turned off my Change to return to this actuality, one with its personal challenges of environmental disaster and political violence, with large loss and disappointment, I felt a larger urge to not fall into despair.
Ultimate Fantasy VII will at all times be the identical epic fantasy basic, and I’ll at all times be taught one thing new from it.