[SPOILERS FOR FINAL FANTASY VII, CRISIS CORE, ADVENT CHILDREN AND REMAKE]
Who doesn’t know Final Fantasy VII? It’s a cultural phenomenon that shook the world in 1997, and continues to do so, with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth right on our doorstep. Since the release of the original game, we’ve been greeted with spin-off games, movies, and finally, a remake/sequel trilogy that looks to expand and examine the source material.
So what’s my relationship with the game? Well, I was never really interested in Final Fantasy as a whole until 2020, when Final Fantasy VII Remake came out. But I didn’t play it back then either, at least not beyond the demo. Instead, I bought the original Final Fantasy VII on the Nintendo Switch, and even that I didn’t end up playing for a while. It wasn’t until last year that I picked up Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade on my PS5 during a sale, which then led me to picking up Final Fantasy XVI and Final Fantasy XIV. Finally, these past few weeks, I played Crisis Core, I’ve beat the original, and I ended up watching Final Fantasy VII Advent Children in theaters during the re-release event.
In fact, even beyond that, I didn’t know about Aerith‘s death, one of the biggest twists in pop culture, until I got it randomly spoiled via a YouTube thumbnail around the release of Remake. But now that I’m here, armed with all this knowledge from experiencing a lot of Final Fantasy VII’s world, as well as osmosis through watching a myriad of Maximilian Dood videos and streams, I thought I’d reflect on my journey through this world, and how I feel about everything surrounding it.
Let’s circle back to my first interaction with this world – the Bombing Mission demo of Final Fantasy VII Remake. To this day, not only do I think that that’s a fantastic demo in its own right, I also think it’s one of the best opening missions in a game ever. From seeing Aerith pray, to Cloud doing that sick backflip before jumping straight to combat, to that amazing boss fight against Scorpion Sentinel, I was immediately enthralled with this world, and what it had to offer, even if I didn’t check it out until a few years later.
But man, when I did, wow. Wow. Even though I hadn’t played the original, Remake blew me away. Going in fresh meant that I wasn’t really lost in comparisons to the original, and could take it all in as its own thing. Even though so many recommend that you play the original, I understood all of it, even down to that ending, and loved it too.
There’s not much to say about Remake that hasn’t been said already. I loved most of that game – sans the side quests. The amount of time they give to every character – including Biggs, Jessie and Wedge, the introduction of Deepground – from FINAL FANTASY VII: DIRGE OF CERBERUS – and how could I forget the Honeybee Inn. The way Tifa is easily the best character to play as in that whole game, hell, that entire fucking combat system. The fact that Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith basically have their first date in the sewers and then a haunted train station? Insane.
That ending too. Back when I played it originally, I appreciated it, but now, as someone that has played through the original, I appreciate it even more. In a time like now, when so much stuff is hung up on a nostalgia hook and fans hold up the source material to a zealous religious high, Remake expands on Sephiroth being a metaphor for fascism and applies it onto the way fans hold onto what they grew up with on a meta level, but also really sets up a new way to really approach and explore your past art. Will that set up land? Who knows, we certainly won’t until this Remake trilogy is over, but the set up is glorious.
Between then and the past few weeks, most of my Final Fantasy VII absorption was Max Dood videos and streams, but once that was said and done, it was finally time for original, Crisis Core and Advent Children.
Crisis Core… I mean, it was fine. I think it’s cool that we got that look into Zack’s backstory, especially in regards to his relationship with Cloud, Aerith, and Sephiroth, but the gameplay hasn’t aged well, and even the story I think is somewhat weak. Not much to say on that front.
Advent Children… I think, with this and Crisis Core (and what I’ve heard of Dirge Of Cerberus), too much of a good thing isn’t particularly good. I like it thematically well enough, and the fight scenes and music are excellent, but that’s as far as it goes. It was cool to see it in a theater with other Final Fantasy VII fans though, and seeing the trailer for Rebirth on the big screen got me to tears just by the measure of how emotionally charged it felt.
Now… the Original.
This was actually my third attempt at playing the Original. The first was way back when I bought it. I stopped right before the Rufus boss fight at the Shinra tower. My second was during a road trip. My third was now.
I was genuinely surprised at how well a 26-year-old game has aged. Of course, I did use 3x speed a lot during random battles and such, but it’s so cool. It’s also so interesting, coming to this from Remake and seeing how much they truly did expand all of it. A materia system that’s only really missing a loadout menu, a combat system that’s a really cool blend of real time and turn based? Excellent. A friend described the difference between original and Remake’s combat systems as “Remake’s system is what the original’s looked like in your imagination”, and that has been locked into my head for so long, because it really is true.
Leaving Midgar and seeing the big World Map for the first time is a treat, followed with every vehicle and story beat. Aerith’s death actually hurt, even though I knew it would happen, but so did so much more. Fighting alongside Sephiroth, Barrett’s story at Corel, Red XII’s at Cosmo Canyon, Zack’s at Gongaga, Cait Sith’s betrayal. Yuffie and Vincent’s stories. Finally beating the shit out of Hojo. Chasing Ultimate Weapon around the map. Breeding chocobo! Having multiple parties face off against Sephiroth, and then that final Omnislash against him, stuff of legends!
The bold choices too, firstly taking Aerith out of your party permanently, but then also taking Cloud – the protagonist of the game – out temporarily, such bold choices. The Cloud one I didn’t know about, so when it hit me I was pleasantly surprised, and appreciative! It’s cool that this game goes ahead and just does that.
I’m incredibly excited for Rebirth (and to review it). When I beat Remake, it easily became one of my favourite games of all time, and the same can be said for the original. Final Fantasy VII is one of the coolest franchises I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing, and I think you all should too.
