Final Fantasy 7 review – my GOTY, every year

Many games cause me to feel a wave of warm nostalgia wash over me, whether it’s thinking about slide-tackling penguins in Crash Bandicoot 2, reminiscing on my first-ever Pokémon in Blue (Charmander, of course), or my favorite memory of all, back-seat gaming while my older brother played Final Fantasy games on the PS1, with the rain pouring outside and the smell of our mum’s spag bol wafting through the house.

I love Final Fantasy. I attribute it to why I’m in this career, and it’s been with me for what feels like my entire life. The original 7 is my favorite game of all time, and now, as we approach the 30th anniversary and part three of the remake trilogy, it feels like the perfect time for me to finally review this gem and let you know why it’s time to pick it up if you’re yet to. Now, with that ‘this review is definitely going to be biased’ preamble out of the way, let’s get into it.

From the first few seconds after you hit ‘new game’, Nobuo Uematsu’s absolutely masterful ‘Opening – Bombing Mission’ song plays, slowly building up to a crescendo where the game’s logo bursts onto the screen before the protagonist leaps off a train. I get chills every time, and that’s just the beginning. Venturing from town to town, creating strong friendships with the characters you meet along the way, and finally managing to defeat that boss you’ve been training for will stick with you, and have you returning for ‘just one more hour’ over and over again.

Like most JRPGs, the game starts off fairly simple. You take on the role of an ex-soldier named Cloud Strife as he joins a group of eco-terrorists called Avalanche that hopes to take down a tyrannical energy company by bombing its reactors. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You soon learn about a handsome, grey-haired man named Sephiroth, who believes he’s the descendant of an ancient race that holds the key to entering the promised land.

Chaos ensues, Sephiroth wants to destroy the planet, you realize there’s something a little off with Cloud, and there’s a sprinkling of romance. The story is where this game really shines, and I’m hesitant to give too much away. I wish I could experience the twists and turns for the first time once again, so I highly recommend that you go in as blindly as possible to experience it for yourself the way Square intended.

It’s common knowledge that the story is unforgettable, but I’ll be the first person to admit that other things are particularly dated. One look at Cloud’s polygonal arms and it’s obvious that the graphics leave a little to be desired. However, even though I’m looking at this game through admittedly rose-tinted glasses, I think these blocky characters have a certain charm, and the gorgeous, pre-rendered backgrounds are a marvel that I think still stand up to today’s standards.

These backgrounds give the game a more timeless look and almost make you feel as if you’re playing through a painting rather than a videogame. Then there are the cutscenes. Trust me when I say these were an absolute marvel of their time. Whether you’re watching Sephiroth walk through flames, seeing your team make a grand escape in a three-wheeled van, or marveling as a larger-than-life monster destroys its surroundings, they’re all seriously impressive, even if you do look at them through a modern lens.

Accompanying these moments is the mind-blowing soundtrack I touched on earlier. From the solemn ‘Flowers Blooming in the Church’ to the genuinely nightmare-inducing ‘Trail of Blood’ and the toe-tappingly good ‘Electric de Chocobo’ and ‘J-E-N-O-V-A’., each piece of music perfectly complements the mood and feel of the scenes it accompanies, and I don’t think it would be too far of a stretch to call Nobuo Uematsu a genius. I would also be remiss not to mention ‘One Winged Angel’, a song that I think is recognizable to not just FF fans, but anyone familiar with videogames at large.

As you would expect, the various battle themes are also great, and you’re going to hear them a lot during your time in combat. The fights in FF7 are turn-based, and you can customize your character’s builds with the Materia system to make things a little more interesting. Throughout the game, you obtain five different kinds of Materia orb (magic, summon, command, support, and independent), which give your characters different abilities and techniques to use in battle.

Every weapon and piece of armor you equip to a character has a certain number of materia slots, and any character can use any orb. This means you can use anyone you like and still play how you want without having to worry about bringing a dedicated healer or damage-dealer. It’s also fun working out which Materia combinations fit your playstyle best. Do you want to boost your physical damage and take down enemies with brute force? Or do you want to set up the most powerful summon to loop numerous times, never even giving your foe a chance to fight back? It’s up to you.

To round off my review, I want to touch on how FF7 changed the gaming landscape. Since its release in 1997, the game has been hailed as one of the most defining RPGs of all time, shaping the way developers approach 3D games and establishing the benchmark for future development. It’s the best-selling game in the series, and January 31 is officially registered as ‘Final Fantasy VII Day’ in Japan. That’s all just a small part of its legacy, but even outside of the video game zeitgeist, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t heard of this game.

Final Fantasy 7 is available on Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android, PC, Xbox, and PlayStation, so no matter what your platform of choice is, you can pick the game up for a good price. For more recommendations on games like this, go check out our list of the best Switch games and the best Final Fantasy games.