That’s three Final Fantasy games in the bag for this JRPG fan, and perhaps unlike FFIX or FFXII, this one needs little introduction. Forget JRPGs, Final Fantasy VII is one of the most well-known and well-revered games of all time, genre aside. Having grown up without the original PlayStation and no friends who had one, this game and many other PlayStation classics have passed me by for most of my life. Nintendo’s latest console has begun to change that, however, and as with Final Fantasy IX, I played this Square classic on the Switch. That means I once again had access to the 3X speedup function as well as a new (compared to FFIX, anyway) permanent Limit Break state, the former of which I used for the majority of the game. As a result, my initial playthrough clocked in around 35 hours, and I went on to finish much of the content, including getting every materia and master materia, in around 44 hours. I doubt I would have had the patience to do all of this at regular speed, so I’d say Square Enix knows that they’re doing with these re-releases — they know their audience has lots of choice in games these days, and these epic, time-consuming RPGs that enthralled us in the past feel like slogs in an era where slow battles with lengthy attack animations are no longer in vogue for any game. I wish more publishers had the foresight to follow the model set by Square and Capcom (who have added similar features in their Mega Man re-releases) in this respect.
Can the reader tell I’m having difficulty starting this review properly? I love Final Fantasy VII, and there is so much to love. I suppose I’ll start with the combat, as that’s always the main appeal of the genre for me. I had heard of the materia system prior to playing this game; I’d heard it being praised but I never quite knew what the fuss was about. I get it now. Having played FFIX already, I can see where the equipment system in that game evolved from, but I have to say, I find materia more fun. The ability to combine materia into all sorts of useful combinations is a blast throughout the game, since there’s always new toys to try that actually feel useful. My most common complaint with JRPGs is repetitive combat, but during FFVII I was constantly switching up which materia I use, both to maximize leveling them up as well.
Fully mastering a materia to automatically get a copy of it is a stroke of perfectly balanced brilliance on the developer’s part, and my mind was blown when I discovered master materia, which grants a character every ability of every materia of the same class, especially when I realized you can get as many master materia as you want — if you put the the time in, that is. There’s a sense of freedom and “why not?” to the whole system that modern JRPGs don’t often feature. It feels overpowered to be able to quickly grind up an Ultima materia to make a clone of it to use with both Quad Magic and All. It feels overpowered to be able to master an All materia in very little time and sell it for huge profits. It feels overpowered to exploit the chocobo system to get a guaranteed gold chocobo without ever racing. And you know what? All of this is overpowered (particularly with the speedup feature), and it’s what makes the combat so fun and the gameplay so addictive. The game is better for it, and I suspect this is what kept the many petulant kids who had asked their parents for Madden, but the guy at Babbage’s recommended Final Fantasy instead, playing long into the night.
To speak more of combat beyond materia, the pace of the real-time command system feels much faster (read: better) than in FFIX. It’s a shame that a later game in the series took a step back in that respect, but Square was pushing the PlayStation to its absolute limits by that point. The Limit Break system, which as I understand is new to the series in this game, is fun to use but feels somewhat unnecessary, although some of the Level 4 Limit Breaks are among the best attacks on the game. (As a side note, I can certainly see and appreciate how the Tales series took inspiration from FF in this respect.) The two superbosses were appropriately difficult, requiring optimization in just about every respect, while still allowing for multiple strategies. It felt incredibly satisfying to take down the Ruby Weapon, even having used speedup for grinding, since strategy is the only thing thay matters. I can understand how this formula of main game + superbosses became a template for future JRPGs beyond just Final Fantasy. Overall, VII’s combat system is strong in every respect, and I would have likely spent 100+ hours grinding out materia had I played this when I was a kid.
The other reason this game is popular is its story. Okay, that’s an understatement. The story is the main reason, and everyone knows it. From what I understand Final Fantasy VII took the more futuristic direction of the previous game and went hog wild, introducing players to the most beautiful world and visuals of the time. Though I never had a PlayStation, I played many other games during the 90s, and I remember what they looked like. There was nothing like this on the Nintendo 64, and even now I see why this was insanity at the time. My 9-year old self would have gone nuts for this. Nowadays, I appreciate the visuals and especially the music (Sephiroth’s theme is fire) more than ever, but the story itself fell a bit hollow. There’s just not much to it. None of the main cast gets much characterization, and most of the story centers on Cloud’s internal, well, strife (shudder). Rather than a negative, however, I view this simply as the intent of the developers to focus on a more personal story based in emotion and internal conflict rather than plot. While not typically what I look for in a JRPG, this set the mood for the pseudo-steampunk world and art style the PlayStation was capable of at the time, and it worked well.
I don’t have much to say about the characters, but they were all pleasant enough. They’re just not much to them, aside from Cloud’s romance with Aerith, but that entire arc fell flat for me because I knew the outcome. This is perhaps the most infamous spoiler in all of gaming, and as much as I wish I could have gone in unspoiled, I recognize it’s not possible given my long history with video games.
The world itself, by the way, is stunning even compared to FFIX. In many ways Final Fantasy VII feels more expansive than that successor, perhaps because it has more optional content to explore, and your access to the world is opened up at a more interesting pace. I constantly felt like new lands, caves, and rivers were accessible to me, each bringing the possibility of a new, powerful materia. The constant changes in traversal abilities, such as gaining the ability to sail, but only in shallows, then being able to fly, but only land on certain terrain, to finally getting a gold chocobo and trouncing all over the map to hilarious effect. There’s something utterly charming about these PlayStation-era visuals that mever gets old. Overall, I might just put Final Fantasy VII a notch ahead of IX, but it’s tough to choose. Every Final Fantasy game I’ve played so far has been fantastic, and XII remains my favorite.
For July’s game, I’ll be going all the way to the beginning. The very beginning. Join me next month as I discuss the first JRPG ever made, a classic from Enix— Dragon Quest.
