FFVII was always the Holy Grail for me. My white whale. I first heard about in my first year of secondary school when someone in class brought in the strategy guide. I looked through it in amazement at the amazing “3D” environments and the sheer length of the game. I wanted it so bad but I was stuck with a shitty N64 (thanks Mum, geez) so I was locked out.
From the moment I finished IX I started looking for VII in every store I went into. I couldn’t find it anywhere. I hunted for years and years in the hopes of finding this game and it just never turned up. And sure, I realise know I could have bought it online in a day if I’d thought about it but I didn’t really ‘get’ the internet back then. It was in 2005 during my second year of uni when I finally found it in a random second hand games store in Bath.
I ran home and immediately started playing it. Of course at this point a lot of what made VII so great had been far surpassed by the progress of technology and the big story moments had become so widespread that I knew them already. This didn’t stop me still having a darn good time. In many ways I think VII is the most cinematic of any game in the franchise. The opening all the way through Midgar is so tightly woven to thread characters together and mix drama, tension and comedy all in one while setting up future plot payoffs. The game loses its way in places but always ends up pulling itself back together. Again, the world feels vast with secrets to find and mysteries to explore and the history and mythology connects up so well. I might have more love for VII if it had been my first exposure to the series but even so it’s still a classic that deserves every bit of praise it gets.
