FINAL FANTASY VII

one of the best games ever made in my mind, I think I've only played it over 100 times since it came out

My first Final Fantasy FF7 for the Playstation! I had the magazine & had a good time playing this 3 disc game. Good story, graphics, battle system, characters.

7/10 Overall. I really really wanted to like this game but it really shows its age in a bad way. So many moments where the quality of life is so low (due to the times) and it leads to a frustrating time. I also did not like the combat system at all. This experience has taught me that I should just stick to modern remakes of classic games instead of actually playing the classics.

Besides that though, incredible story with great twists. Awesome characters. 9/10 in those aspects

i may not have played this game alot but this is a really fun game and i feel like everyone would like it, the soundtrack is great and the lore is too, this is a very great game and i wish i played it earlier.

Yep, still a great game all these years later. Great story, awesome characters, excellent gameplay; just a great time all around!

Here's the deal.
There is some built-in old Sqeenix launcher which requires a separate account to login. And it's mandatory to play the game. This is already questionable but okay.
I did that. The launcher doesn't accept my login and password so I can't even play the game.

I get it most people use mods to bypass the launcher but come on - mandatory mods to even launch the game that's still being sold?

Playing FF7 on Steam for a few hours has been my only experience with the game, so I won't go into detail about why this game is great. What I will say is that this is a really good port, particularly if you want to mod the game. For those people, I strongly recommend downloading 7th Heaven and looking at a guide on how to mod the game properly. With just a few graphics mods and gameplay tweaks, you can pretty much make FF7 feel like a modern game in all the right ways.

this game will always hold a special place in my heart
ignore that it's a dated game. play it, the story is so good and the gameplay is fun as hell.

My GOAT game.

Amazing cast of characters, great story, fun combat, beautiful world, best soundtrack, jaw dropping cutscenes, revolutionary for it's time.

Some things do not hold up well, such as the graphics and random battles etc, but there are mods to fix them.

Will never forget this game.

played remake first and just wanted to give this one a try, its amazing graphics are garbage but have some charm gameplay is much better than ff8 and 9

this is always a favorite the remaster is ment for the young mind and button masher. i bought it and honestly i wish they left the game play alone. i like it how this is. is there a way to change the game play on ff7 intergrade? the remaster?

The best game ever made.

First Played on the Playstation, this game was my childhood.
Then on the Xbox 360, complete run, maxed out stats and materia.
And now on PC, With 7th heaven Mods.
Thousands of hours of fun.

One day I won't be here anymore, but this game will, and that's fine.

It has been over 20 years since I played this game for the first time, I have always wanted to go back and replay it, after many attempts over the years I always seem to put it to the way side while life gets in the way, not sure why but I recently turned 40 and I thought it was a good time to give it another serious attempt.

Oh boy, I tell you what, I am so glad I did! Final Fantasy Remake was a good game but just didn't hit me like this original version. The nostalgia is off the charts and I am having so much fun, its currently 4am, I have no work tomorrow and I just finished breeding the Golden Chocobo and got the Knights of the Round summon. I cannot think of the last time I have stayed up all night playing a game like this, just like when we were kids when this came out and we stayed up all night getting the Knights of The Round. It has just brought me so much joy to relive it.

Okay nostalgic ramblings aside, this is still a very good game, the story is interesting, if not a little bit strange, the characters are so memorable, the music is great, the game really was ahead of its time, I would say it has a lot of things we take for granted in modern games that this was pioneering. For example being able to use vehicles to traverse the world, there is a buggy, boat (kinda) an airship and chocobos.

Difficulty wise its not really that hard for any one accustomed to any of the more modern FF games, its just a bit convoluted in parts and in my opinion there is no harm in using a guide to help you through it. The combat might turn some players off, personally I prefer it to the new games just something charming about turn based combat, with cool spells and awesome summons.

The graphics, now this is where people are going to be turned off almost immediately. Without mods it is UGLY as sin on a modern display, I would say almost unplayable. There is hope however, I utilized the 7th Heaven Mod Manager, it comes with all the mods you need in its catalog just search for which mods to install on Google and OMG this looks like a brand new game, the modders have done an absolutely OUTSTANDING job bringing this game into the 21st Century honestly it has to be seen to be believed, even the cut scenes have been revamped and everything looks outstanding.

Okay, well if you have read my review which I doubt anyone actually will, thanks and if you have never played FFVII before please give it a go and make sure you include 7th Heaven visual mods have a great time, I hope you love this game as much I do.

So far one of the most interesting stories i've ever experienced in a video game. Materia system is also pretty enjoyable to mess with and I appreciate that the random encounters seem to be turned down in comparison to some of the other FF titles. Not having to deal with constantly getting into a random encounter every 3 steps keeps the fights from wearing on my patience.

=> 90 hour playthrough
=> Sephiroth, no saves this late in game.
=> Get him to sub 20%, still enough items to comfortably beat him.
=> Unexpected error, no legit workarounds.

Thanks Squeenix.

When I last played it, I thought it was super overrated but after playing Square's earlier non-FF games as well as other PS1 JRPGs from that era, it's.. now even worse. The graphics are trash (yes, even for the time), the story is virtually non-existent outside of Midgar and completely nonsensical besides, the villains and characters are garbage, the sidequests and minigames are horrid and useless for the most part, the localization is so dogshit that even with the Steam version's "improved" script, most of the dialogue makes Google translate sound like Shakespeare, and the gameplay is piss easy and breaks completely if you even look at it with half a braincell; it makes FF8's draw/junction system look like a masterfully balanced system

Add to that its overwhelming success introducing Square to the notion of endless milking at the expanse of their other (vastly superior) games, and you get not only the absolute worst FF game, but one you could even say killed the franchise's soul and corrupted the company

It's a classic, very well loved JRPG for a reason. It's a great game and play this first before the remake.

I managed to finish FF7 for the first time last night. Overall an interesting game that I quite liked, a unique back story where you aren't good guys nor bad guys. The story was good throughout but had some confusing aspects later on such as attacking Shinra in disc 2 where there was no need.

My favourite character was Yuffie and can't wait to play the remakes!

Well... Classic FF VII. I'm here for nostalgia and play a full game without waiting for each part. If only the title isn't milked like this.. this is such a good game. Story would be 10/10... one of the best I ever seen aside from Suikoden II and Tales of Berseria. Play with mod to enhance graphics and you get your own little remaster of the old game.

It requires an online account to play. I bought this specifically to play on the steam deck offline, so it was a waste of money.

imagine, if you will

a bloody mandatory account sign-in for a single player game from 1997.

This story and its characters are truly outstanding. I particularly enjoyed the battle system and the process of leveling up and mastering materia. I initially played the game on PC, but I later transferred my save to the Steam Deck. The visuals looked amazing on the smaller screen and the summons popped on the OLED. Although the game seemed a bit slow at the beginning, it gradually gained momentum. The boss fights, particularly the final one, were incredibly satisfying.

You have to sign up and make a Square Enix account to play this game

one of the best video games ever made.

amazing modding scene, endless replayability, this game is just... peak

The original classic still holds up today. By today's standards we can see most open spaces are just massive empty environments. The dialogue is stilted and written by people who have no idea how these people would speak. The mechanics are actually really simple and equally repetitive.

So basically modern games, just 25 years early. 10/10 worth another go for old time's sake.

Classic game, don't need console to enjoy a nostalgic RPG

I played this one on the PS1 multiple times from beginning to end. It's not aged well, but it's got a special place in my heart. Join a merry band of eco terrorists to stop an evilcorp from draining the literal life from the planet for the sake of the comforts of modern civilization. Stop an ancient insane bioweapon and her adopted son along with his merry band of mentally handicapped clones from doing an omnicide on the planet for the sake of revenge and some kind of magical "great reset".

Allow your main character to experience the joys of extreme PTSD as he pieces together his shattered identity and fumbles through conversations with the friends he barely makes along the way with an antisocial schitzo-affective personality disorder.

Be sure to learn the joys of crossdressing, gambling, giant chicken breeding and racing, stylish magical rock collecting, highly dangerous god tier pokemon, electrical grid eco terrorism, space program eco terrorism, and let's not forget multiple racial and cultural genocides in the name of technologic advancement and profit.

Enjoy!

It’s hard to not go into Final Fantasy VII and not think ‘so, this is supposed to be the best one ever’. After playing Final Fantasy VIII and IX recently, I think this is unfair. I genuinely believe that any Final Fantasy from IV to X can be the best Final Fantasy (sorry XII, I love you, but heavy corporate fiddling disqualifies you in my eyes). They all can be described as an innovative, highly original yet incredibly flawed gem that pushed the genre and the franchise in a bold new direction. They all are fantastic games that combine innovative gameplay, groundbreaking visuals and gripping and unexpected story telling decisions. All of them are unique, interesting and unapologetically themselves. Be sure though that they are flawed. So I can’t help but roll my eyes anytime I see yet another 10/10 awarded for it, especially if it is a recent review. As if Final Fantasy VII has no problem at all. Let me find a few.

The story lacks connective tissue. Disk 1 starts and ends strongly, but how it gets there is pretty meandering. Once the party leaves Migard, they keep saying ‘We must go after Sephiroth!’. Why? What do you guys want to accomplish? Get helplessly stabbed? This dude can kill a Midgar Zolom with one hand tied on his back while we have to run around on chocobos hoping we won’t get eaten alive by this thing and you want to go after him? I think the search for knowledge would have been a much better goal than going after Sephiroth. They should have instead wanted to know more about the Lifestream or the Ancients and either Barret or Nanaki could have said there is a weird guy in Cosmo Canyon that does have answers and we should go there. When events are not connected to each other, it makes the story seem more confusing than it actually is.

Also, FFVII has an obsession for bad, poorly developed characters. Any Shinra higher ups? Completely generic evil characters. The Turks? I remember their theme song I guess. They don’t do anything but throw empty threats all game. Yuffie? The token ninja with a bad attitude? I am bored to tears. Vincent the ex-Turk? Congrats for Square for making Shadow the Hedgehog before Shadow the Hedgehog. Cait Sith? Geez Cloud, maybe there wouldn’t be a spy in our midst if you didn’t accept every maladjusted misfit in our group! Yet, the crown of bad characters goes to Nanaki, a.k.a. Red XIII, as he simply does not belong to this world. No one cares about him or his extinct whatever race. His arc starts and ends in Cosmo Canyon for a total run time of about 30 minutes and he is completely irrelevant after it is done through and through. The sad part is that I like Nanaki, but he has no narrative ground to stand on and, correct me if I am wrong, his whatever race has even less lore than the token ninja village.

Yet, I still enjoyed my time with Final Fantasy VII thanks to its theme and atmosphere. I think there should be more games about our ecological doom caused by corporate negligence and how we deal with that. There are very few games that try to wrestle with those themes and there should be more. Deus Ex (more the corporate part, less so climate change) and Umurangi Generation comes to mind, but I can’t come up with anything more. It is clearly a theme brimming with potential. I guess looking at the devil’s face is too much for us nowadays.

So, to come full circle, is Final Fantasy VII the best Final Fantasy? Sure, why not. If you want it to be.

Add a little 7th Heaven magic and maybe a sprinkle of Black Chocobo and this plays like a modern title with a great story progression! She's a rare bird.

Even though my recording for the finale has been lost (because the Steam version auto closes, which corrupted my recording), I did technically finish the game.

When I came into this, I didn't have the world's most positive opinion of this game. To me, people hype this game up like it's the greatest thing since sliced bread and no other game could ever compare. Sure, some cases of that might just be nostalgia, but I truly felt that with so much hype, the game must just be decent at best. I will admit, the game is pretty good. I did generally enjoy my playthrough of the game, barring the Great Glacier, which was pretty awful.

Being a pre 2000 RPG, sure, there's some jank in there, like how you need All Materia to use heals on the whole party or the shenanigans around the Save Crystal in the final dungeon, meaning if you get screwed by the glitch, have fun running up and down the crater to save. On that subject, I do wish there was something like the Moogle Ring in Final Fantasy VI to turn off encounters, because there were a few times the encounter rate did bother me a bit, but primarily in the lategame.

On top of the fact this is a very old game, there's also the high chance of getting spoiled, which I have long since been spoiled. Moments like the end of Part 1 or the final Omnislash (which Sephiroth cheated me out of, by the way because he triggered my Counter Attack and died from it) have long since been spoiled to me. Sure the impact of that first moment was there, but since I already knew it was coming, it didn't have as much impact as it could've had.

The one big main gripe I do have about this game regards how grindy getting more Limit Breaks is, but that can be handwaved away by this being the first game to introduce them, and they're not nearly as broken as the next entry.

In the end, while I'm still very mad my original recording is now dead and I have to redo the final 3 fights, I now understand why people like this game. Perhaps, in another timeline, I didn't grow up on Nintendo games and played this instead.

My very first Final Fantasy game is FF VI, the one with Terra Branford, known as Tina Branford (Japanese: ティナ・ブランフォード, Hepburn: Tina Buranfōdo) in Japanese media, as the main protagonist.

But for the first rpg game I played was Dragon and Princess (1982).

Then comes along FF VII. With three CDs at the time on PS1. Super deformed / chibi characters, tons of attitudes and personalities that made each of them felt so real, unbelievably realistic graphics with breakthrough of camera angles and magnificent effects. Mindblown sounds with topnotch soundtracks.
Our jaws were dropping at the very first time we played it.
The good ol' days..

Still remember that also was an era where some games has more than just one CD.
Some of them I own and loved it so much are: Fear Effect (4 CDs), D (3 CDs), Koudelka (4 CDs), Metal Gear Solid (2 CDs), Parasite Eve (2 CDs), Resident Evil 2 (2 CDs), Riven (5 CDs), The X-Files (4 CDs), Wing Commander III & IV with Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell plus other famous celebs back then (4 CDs each) and many other excellent games with more than just one CD.
Phew!
It's so convenient today that we won't have to get a special cabinet or make a particular room just to store those games, as they take too much space, because it has so many CDs in just one bulky case of their own.

I love FFVII so much, because we can change most of the character's names, similar to Chrono Trigger. And at that time, the visual graphics are excellent it felt like we've seen the FFVII Remake for the first time. Yeah, can't compare it at all because of the big differences and a bit unfair; but it kinda felt that way back then.
Also, the soundtracks are excellently made by Nobuo Uematsu. All kinds of emotions can be vividly heard just by each of their rich tunes. Joyful, sadness, fear, hope, triumphant etc.

It's a special game among many that I really enjoyed from start to finish. The story's so great, it even has sequel as a movie entitled Final Fantasy Advent Children Complete.

Still remember we played this together, taking turns. Making appointments to sleep over on weekends just for FFVII. My cousins and my besties.
Some had passed away, gone too soon.
But the memory will always remained deep within.

And I am sure many other FF fans has their own favorites, probably other than FFVII.
It's alright and understandable.
Each of us has our own preferences.

Huge thanks to SquareSoft now become Square Enix.
For preserving one of the best classics ever.
b(^_^)d

Playing it was an interesting experience. I've never played a final fantasy game before. While I knew about Cloud, Sephiroth and Aerith, actual ending wasn't spoiled for me.
If you think beating the game is enough, check out some guides or videos about materia combinations. I've finished the game and got stomped by emerald and ruby weapons thinking you need to grind for them, but I didn't understand materia at all. Mixing and matching materia is the most fun part of strategizing and building a team in this game. So please try it out.

Good game.

Disappointing that this version is missing some quality of life improvements like fast forwarding.

I genuinely cannot believe it took me this long to play one of the greatest games of all time. This is a masterpiece, The KING of JRPG'S

An absolutely classic game that is still so fun today, its a lot shorter and so much easier then I remember though, but I guess once you've replayed a game so much its bound to happen. Maybe the fact magic defence actually works, helps too.

It's a great game for sure. If this is your only way to play, then do so for sure. If you can play on console, it'll probably be a smoother experience.

Excellent story. Mostly just love it because of nostalgia so it's hard for me to judge it on its own merits. It's definitely worth playing at least once.

Still a classic. Infuriating in places, but I think can be modded if the old-school-ness bothers you. I finally defeated Sephiroth after some decades. 10/10.

Loved this game when I first played it in '97. One of the greatest FF in the series.

One of the greatest classic games ever made, now with a great selection of MODS using 7th Heaven mod manager to make it look like new!

FF7 has a fun, interesting and timeless story of good vs evil with a ragtag group of friends dedicated to saving their world. The setting provides a great backdrop and sets it apart from other stereotypical fantasy JRPG grounding it in a slightly more relatable, industrialized world with more modern technology, but still shy of a cyberpunk future.
The characters are lovable and engaging with their own personalities to enjoy. The combat system is the best of old school turn based combat with the amazingly fun materia system to make your own strategy for each character and every big battle.

The story is large in scope, but simple to follow and short enough to not lose our interest. The meat of the game is the fun side-questing and exploration in addition to the deep battle system.
Definitely a must play. 😍

Okay I actually beat the game this time. Rambled a lot in the proliferating prose I previously partook in passing out, so will try to be more succinct here.

Final Fantasy VII is very fun. Remake games have better character writing. This game has a better overarching plot. Its ending is rushed, but the plot works. To have a game with subject matter so powerful and important is a rare thing. Somehow this is a JRPG about a corporation-governed city killing the planet. A JRPG where the only option left is eco-terrorism. These themes grow more relevant as the game grows older: the real life planet is going to burn and we are all going to die. Final Fantasy VII is a videogame about that (and some other, less interesting, nonsense). ATB is the most beige, nothing idea ever conceived. Although, the implementation is better here than it was in VI. This game has aged like a fine wine, and I am quite impartial to partial to a delicious wine. The pacing in particular is incredible. The next brilliant moment is always waiting for you. I would argue that the parts of the game still un-remade are amongst the most improvable. I think remake part 3 is going to be at least as incredible as Rebirth. Still glad I played this. Onwards to VIII, or maybe XII, or maybe XVI again, or maybe X-2.


Okay that wasn't really short. Sorry but I could talk about this game until my keyboard falls apart. It is the seminal piece of RPG history.


I mentioned previous writing in the above. I wrote this after the game's Big Twist. I have not reread it since I wrote it. It might suck. Here it is:

I am pausing this playthrough at the end of Disc 1. For this entire (half) game I was running the numbers of whether I preferred this or Rebirth. I still do not know. I will either finish this game after playing FFVII 4/FFVII Remake 3/FFVII Rebirth 2, or will burn through it within the next two weeks. Regardless, I may as well catalogue my thoughts up until this midpoint.

God do I wish tickets to the final fantasy orchestra weren't £100. Hearing music this evangelically perfect performed live would quite simply be the dream. Nobuo Uematsu is a composer whom I would forgive for having the world’s most considerable hubris. I feel like I say something to this effect whenever I talk about a Final Fantasy game. Should I stop saying it? Perhaps. Though consider that these games should also stop having such incredible music, perhaps.

A clear boon to this game over the remakes is the pacing: this game is a narrative bullet train. You leap from each iconic scene to the next, catching your breath during its brief overworld interludes. And, imperatively, this narrative is a beautiful one. I will save the long, winding discussion that no-one will read for when I have actually seen this tapestry’s end. But let me note that Final Fantasy VII has now joined the infinitesimally small list of games that jerked a tear or two from my cold, lifeless eyes. Thus, I like the story a lot. I am always searching for media to move me to such an extent. I would not have guessed it would be my second time through the Red XIII scene that would do this. Yet, such is life.

There are some more confounding choices made in this game. For example, major narrative beats tend to happen only with the three characters in your party. I think Vincent has been in the room for literally 1% of the events of the game thus far. This protruded itself to me the most after the famed scene at the end of disc 1. Here the game’s most earth-shattering moment occurs and 80% of its incredulously perfect cast are all absent. You could in fact convince me Yuffie doesn’t even know the name Sephiroth.

Jesus Christ, ATB is such utter crap. Did they actually lose the rights to turn-based combat? That is the only way you could justify such a pitiful display. It impresses the notion of game designers trying to be unique for uniqueness’ sake. It is slow and boring, drawing out the battles to lengths several orders of magnitude longer than they need to be. It clings to its obvious turn-based DNA too tightly, failing to evolve into anything of substance as a result. But you don’t play games like this for their sloppy combat. Moreover, I will admit it improves upon the combat of VI, if only by a smidge.

Playing a few hours of this in bed each night for the last week has been delightful, and I would score it something very high. Lest, I will save such numerical evolution for the advent of me actually rolling credits on this masterful game.

An "Afterword" to my weird Final Fantasy VII Half-Review:

Do I play this? Do I play the third remake game? That is the question of the hour.

The honeypot that is the original’s immediate availability tempts me the most. A week ago I was very content in waiting 4 years for the next game, but now, I can experience the entire Final Fantasy VII story at the press of a button. I really really want to play it.

I have run each and every pro/con through my head multiple times. The combat in the remakes is better. The pacing in the original is better. The remakes have both voice acting, and an orchestrated soundtrack. I can play the original on my steam deck. Each point seems to cancel another out.

The deciding factor, it would seem, is how will the story be delivered best. The condensation I’ve distilled in the main section of this brain spew has indicated this to me. Obviously the remakes have the technically stronger presentation afforded by a 25 year gap, but I simply do not have faith in the current team to stick the landing. They’re going to mess it up.

The moment most emblematic of this to me is the scene in which Aerith prays. In the original, Cloud delivers a heartfelt, sombre speech. In the remake, uhhh I don’t know. I still haven’t been able to discern what actually happened six months removed from beating that game. The scene in the original is perfect, and if I’m being blunt, they butchered it in Rebirth. There are other moments that give me hope, such as my beloved Red XIII moment, which made the leap gracefully. But that scene was the one they had to nail, and they ignored it in lieu of some multiverse drivel. I would waste a Genie’s wish asking for Square Enix to have just remade the story normally so I didn’t have to wade my way through this mind-melting conundrum.

Go play this game with 7th heaven mods, FF7 is king of all masterpieces, you'll regret if you didn't play this RPG in your life

(re)Playing this in 2024 is BRUTAL. I really recommend this if you want an experience that will make you thankful to be a generation of gamers with autosave. Jokes aside I really recommend it if you want to pay omage to what is considered a piece of gaming history (as it desearves) and embark a journey in the best (and first) open world to date

Though this game has a lot of story mode which can be a little slow at times it has lots of playability and nostalgia.

“Let’s mosey”
-A battle hardened first class soldier, totally not a dweeb
[hr] [/hr]

What a badly aged and silly game Final Fantasy 7 is, but despite that it still can pull of serious and amazing moments without feeling out of place.

Let me preface this first: I didn’t play this version of the game so there won’t be any criticism on the port, I emulated the game (legally) using RetroArch and the much recommended “CRT Royale” shader for that original PSX look.

Gameplay

Story

X-Factor

Downsides

still to this day in 2024, even after both Remake & Rebirth, it feels great. The materia system is top notch in combo variety & strategy. its a classic for a reason.

Square, what's the point of including a fast-forward feature if it can crash your game? I hope no one else crashes after beating the final boss like I did. That said, this is absolute cinema.

i broke the rules and starting playing after playing remake but it's still fun and i recommend if you're like me and want to fully experience the story

I was about 5 years old, it was like 2000 or 2001. my brother played this game with me watching. This game has stories that you could never fully know the secrets of. There is only one other game as impactful to people as much as this game, and its Ocarina of Time. As a boy OoT was my game to stop emotions from consuming me, to help numb and heal from the pain. As a man, 7 is the game i go to in order to feel again, love and pain, just to feel again.

I love you Hannah.

A bit janky since it's old (especially with keyboard) but really great story