Final Fantasy VII – DISC 3

Since this is a heavy-duty RPG, where one can spend anywhere from 40 to 60 hours of gameplay, this will be broken up into numerous sections.

Final Fantasy VII is a 1997 role-playing video game developed by Square for the PlayStation console. It is the seventh main installment in the Final Fantasy series. Published in Japan by Square, it was released in other regions by Sony Computer Entertainment and is the first in the main series with a PAL release. The game’s story follows Cloud Strife, a mercenary who joins an eco-terrorist organization to stop a world-controlling megacorporation from using the planet’s life essence as an energy source. Events send Cloud and his allies in pursuit of Sephiroth, a former member of the corporation who seeks to destroy the planet. During the journey, Cloud builds close friendships with his party members, including Aerith Gainsborough, who holds the secret to saving their world.

Development began in 1994, originally for the Super Famicom. After delays and technical difficulties from experimenting on several real-time rendering platforms, Square moved production to pre-rendered video, necessitating the huge capacity of the CD-ROM format and therefore departing Nintendo for the PlayStation. Veteran Final Fantasy staff returned, including series creator and producer Hironobu Sakaguchi, director Yoshinori Kitase, and composer Nobuo Uematsu. The game is the first in the series to use full motion video and 3D computer graphics, superimposing real-time 3D character models over pre-rendered CGI backgrounds. Final Fantasy VII introduced more widespread science fiction elements and a more realistic presentation, while the gameplay systems remained largely similar to previous entries, with the addition of new elements such as Materia, Limit Breaks, and new minigames. The staff of more than 100 had a combined development and marketing budget of around $80 million.

Assisted by a large promotional campaign, Final Fantasy VII was a commercial success and received critical acclaim, selling more than 13.3 million copies worldwide. It is regarded as a landmark game and as one of the most influential and greatest video games. It won numerous Game of the Year awards, and was acknowledged for boosting sales of the PlayStation and popularizing console role-playing games worldwide. Critics praised its graphics, gameplay, music, and story, although its original English localization received criticism. Its success has led to enhanced ports on various platforms, a multimedia sub-series called the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, and the ongoing multipart high-definition Final Fantasy VII Remake, the first installment of which was released in 2020.

Widely regarded as one of the best videos ever made, Final Fantasy VII still lives on in the hearts of gamers today, simply because of a pivotal plot point late in the first third of the game. A major playable character is killed and to this day, gamers still shout to sky askig WHY?!? The characters are likeable and memorable. The music moves you, and even though the primitive block handed avatars are laughable, they serve as a reminder of how far video games have come in 25 years.

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS?!?! I bought this for my PS1 when it was released. God, I’m old.

The last time I played this was on my PS1, and I was happy to see that it still exists for PC, but this time around, I brought a little bit of help. I stumbled upon a Mod-Library called “Seventh Heaven” that can enhance the interface, music, models and textures of the game. When I first started playing this PC version, I was on my old PC, so it would crash a lot. Now that I’m on my more powerful computer, that rarely happens anymore.