Final Fantasy VII

When one thinks of a role playing game, there are many names that come to mind. Ultima. Might and Magic. Phantasy Star. LUNAR. Chrono Trigger. Xenogears. Legend of Zelda. Many more will be named, but there is only one series that has managed to stand the test of time with its sequels. The Final Fantasy series has been around almost as long as its parent company Squaresoft, established in 1986(Note: Squaresoft is now SquareEnix Co., Ltd. – a mergeing of Squaresoft and Enix – that was established in 2003). The series has seen its share of worlds, magic, villains, apocalyptic situations, battle systems and Chocobos. Many of the games made in this series never made it to U.S. soil for one reason or another, but of the installments that did make it across the Pacific one stands tall and is a monument to all other RPGs that would come after it. If you already know which game I'm speaking of, raise your hand. If not, please read the title above that all of us have remembered, and will remember, from the moment we played it: FINAL FANTASY VII.

Final Fantasy VII was a phenomenon that has done things previously unheard of in the video game world. I believe that this game is right up there with Street Fighter II: Championship Edition, Pac-Man and Tetris in video game history in terms of its achievements. To speak of this game's history is to speak of the history of the Sony Playstation. We'll talk about that eventually, but I must tell you the reason why Final Fantasy VII(from now on "FF7") was so popular.
In mid-1990's America, popular culture was being exposed to anime(Japanese animation) in a whole new way. Movies like M.D. Geist, Vampire Hunter D, Speed Racer and AKIRA led an assault on the eyes of the American youth led by the Super-Dimentional Fortress Macross(aka Robotech in the U.S.) We all learned at the same time that this stuff is cool and it comes from Japan. There was a glut of anime to follow in years prior to the 21st Century, with some of it focused on Eastern and Western sword & sorcery stories, of which role-playing games are no stranger to.
The role-playing video game was a hard sell in the action-oriented American market: you could put out a title and be guaranteed a predetermined return from core fans of role-playing games. This is a safe investment, but the appeal was limited to the core fans. Back then, you'd know that RPGs told a story that involved READING, something we were desperately trying to get away from with action games. With the release of the Squaresoft fighting game TOBAL No. 1 and a demo disc of FF7 for the fledgling Sony Playstation, that began to change. By the complete US release of FF7 on August 31, 1997 it was already an instant classic, destroying any present barriers to the accesibilty of role-playing games. In its rampage on American soil, FF7 also left us the Sony Playstation. And we all know how that one turned out…

Back to task: FF7 is awesome. I cannot stress this enough. It has probably changed moderate gamers into raving RPG fiends who can spare the time to train their characters 30 levels--a task that usually takes four to six WEEKS in 4 to 6 days. This requires intense concentration and involvement. Trust me, FF7 will keep you involved. Many times I have felt the need to turn off the game, only to find myself looking for an inn or save point and being hounded by all manner of enemies. Despite the anxiety it may have caused me, I liked it.
To many, FF7 is just another video game. To those people I say "Elvis Aaron Presley the rock star is alive…and a Black man." Final Fantasy VII was a life-altering experience for some, aside from the game binges. It had things in it that you didn't expect from a video game, let alone an RPG; anime-influenced futuristic character designs, a cast of characters whom you could empathize with beyond the quantifying "1-up", a love story that wasn't based on a requisite kidnapping that didn't turn you off with mushiness, and exterior worlds that were captivating. Speaking of captivating, the game had done something unoriginal in a very effective way to get your attention: the game began with a slow zoom back from a tight shot of the secondary character Aeris Gainsbrough in the city of Midgar, to a wide shot of Midgar in all its industrial glory, zooming into a Midgar train depot which is soon overrun by the rebel group AVALANCHE and its latest member, Cloud Strife - the main character you must play.

Above: A FINAL FANTASY VII cosplay group from Japan. There are no males in this picture.

Cloud Strife was not the typical hero for American audiences. The standardized grit of the X-Men's Wolverine was beginning to become more mainstream and the jingoistic cartoons of the Reagan era were over completely. That's when anime made its true debut on American soil with AKIRA(1989). Many people who have never seen anime or manga(Japanese comic books) are not familiar with the concept of gravity-defying spiky hair, except on punks in the 1980s. Many other people will also wonder how Cloud lifts his overlarge sword. All you needed to know is that Cloud was awesome. He's a bad-ass swordsman and he can use magic! All kinds of magic, especially Summon magic. Summon Magic animation sequences are, by far, the easiest argument for incorporating videogames into the realm of being an art form. The summoned creatures are elemental spells based on myths and legends, such as the Ifrit(fire), the Levithan(water) and the Titan(earth). Some are not elemental and based on other legends like the Norse god Odin, the Babylonian legends of Bahamut, and the English legend of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table. All of these are in-game animations set to blow you away.

Put to the seas of time, Final Fantasy VII will probably fade with the emergence of a new fad, a new game system, a different way of thinking in a different world; much like the mania of the Cold War. For those of us who lived those years and remember the reasons why we believed and did what was done, they will always be right in the eyes of history. Why? At the time no one could have imagined it would have turned out that way.

Final Fantasy VII gets a rating of 10.

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