Final Fantasy 7 is one of the best known and most popular Final Fantasies, even two decades after its initial release. Despite its age and a remake coming out, I've found that I appreciate the game more than I did before.
You've probably heard about the story by now, but it's significantly deeper and more complex than many realize. The opening act in the city of Midgar does a surprisingly good job of quickly establishing the story and characters, and doesn't get bogged down in some of the remake's pacing problems.
The characters are surprisingly complex. Cloud, the protagonist, is no exception, and due to a mid-game plot twist, you probably won't understand him until the very end. Barret is a character I've come to appreciate more with time, as once you get past his (admittedly problematic) Angry Black Man schtick, he's a deep and multifaceted character, as both a loving father and a ruthless resistance leader tormented by his past, and starts to see the error of his ways over time (although the Remake used his character better). Tifa, unfortunately, is less interesting, since her arc mainly revolves around Cloud. Yuffie feels a bit extraneous to the plot, possibly due to her being an optional (and easily missable) party member, while it's a bit surprising that Vincent was optional given his ties to the Big Bad's backstory. Sephiroth, the Big Bad, is legitimately threatening, and his debut is a textbook example of how to introduce a villain.
However, the original is badly translated. The PC release fixed most of the obvious mistakes (e.g. "This guy are sick"), but left in some of the subtler Lost in Translation problems, as well as some offensive dialogue(Tifa calling Barret a "retard" if you climb the Shinra HQ stairs).
While the graphics are dated, especially in the cutscenes(it doesn't help that there's no voice acting in the ending cutscene), the various locations have striking and memorable designs. Unfortunately, some areas can be a bit difficult to navigate due to the graphics.
The gameplay is standard Final Fantasy fare, but the main draw is the Materia system. By putting Materia into slots on party members' weapons and armor, you can grant characters spells and abilities. It's a convenient way to get a character you haven't used in a while up to speed, but there isn't much difference between the characters save for stat growths and Limit Breaks.
FFVII has a lot of minigames, whether required to proceed in the story or optional. They range from relatively entertaining to rather tedious, and I'm glad future installments reduced the number of minigames. As a hint, you should probably remap the "Switch" command from Insert to a more conveniently located key, since you'll be using it a lot in the minigames.
Some parts of FFVII haven't aged well, but it's still an excellent Final Fantasy all these years later.
Holds Up Surprisingly Well Nowadays
Final Fantasy 7 is one of the best known and most popular Final Fantasies, even two decades after its initial release. Despite its age and a remake coming out, I've found that I appreciate the game more than I did before.
You've probably heard about the story by now, but it's significantly deeper and more complex than many realize. The opening act in the city of Midgar does a surprisingly good job of quickly establishing the story and characters, and doesn't get bogged down in some of the remake's pacing problems.
The characters are surprisingly complex. Cloud, the protagonist, is no exception, and due to a mid-game plot twist, you probably won't understand him until the very end. Barret is a character I've come to appreciate more with time, as once you get past his (admittedly problematic) Angry Black Man schtick, he's a deep and multifaceted character, as both a loving father and a ruthless resistance leader tormented by his past, and starts to see the error of his ways over time (although the Remake used his character better). Tifa, unfortunately, is less interesting, since her arc mainly revolves around Cloud. Yuffie feels a bit extraneous to the plot, possibly due to her being an optional (and easily missable) party member, while it's a bit surprising that Vincent was optional given his ties to the Big Bad's backstory. Sephiroth, the Big Bad, is legitimately threatening, and his debut is a textbook example of how to introduce a villain.
However, the original is badly translated. The PC release fixed most of the obvious mistakes (e.g. "This guy are sick"), but left in some of the subtler Lost in Translation problems, as well as some offensive dialogue(Tifa calling Barret a "retard" if you climb the Shinra HQ stairs).
While the graphics are dated, especially in the cutscenes(it doesn't help that there's no voice acting in the ending cutscene), the various locations have striking and memorable designs. Unfortunately, some areas can be a bit difficult to navigate due to the graphics.
The gameplay is standard Final Fantasy fare, but the main draw is the Materia system. By putting Materia into slots on party members' weapons and armor, you can grant characters spells and abilities. It's a convenient way to get a character you haven't used in a while up to speed, but there isn't much difference between the characters save for stat growths and Limit Breaks.
FFVII has a lot of minigames, whether required to proceed in the story or optional. They range from relatively entertaining to rather tedious, and I'm glad future installments reduced the number of minigames. As a hint, you should probably remap the "Switch" command from Insert to a more conveniently located key, since you'll be using it a lot in the minigames.
Some parts of FFVII haven't aged well, but it's still an excellent Final Fantasy all these years later.