What Made Final Fantasy 7 A BIG DEAL?

Before the remake launches, we wanted to take a look back at one of our favorite classic PlayStation RPGs. What made Final Fantasy VII great? Let's dive in.

[mrwillham]

Before my father passed away when i was a child ffvii and ffviii were the last two games me and him would sit and play together everyday after school. I was about 7 years old then and i remember one day my dad must have been playing for awhile and i suppose he forgot to save because well.. i was playing around and unplugged the playstation andddd.. lets just say i didnt get to have any fun for a few days after that 😅.. so for me final fantasy 7. And the final fantasy games altogether are one of the few vivid memories i have left of me and my father and that makes it hold a special place in my heart and ill always feel a certain closeness to him even though he's gone everytime i play them.

[jamess]

The last gift my grandfather bought me was a Playstation 1 with Final fantasy 7, 8 & 9. He watched me play them everyday as he battled cancer and would love the stories so much so that he had me rush through the games at low levels so he could continue the story faster especially when Ariel died. He passed away in the hospital as I was halfway through FF9, I never finished that game without him.

[cita_m]

Red was not an expeiriment. He was experimented on, but he's not a product of Hojo. He is just the last of his kind.

[mtl]

My first experience of this game was when I went over to a friends to shoot his new air gun rifle. I went upto his room and he was playing this new game he bought called "final fantasy 7", to be honest I didn't like the name but watched him finish up what he was doing. My first image was the menu screen and he was equipping characters and selecting which materia to use. At this point I was memorized solely by the pictures of the characters, all the different choices of what you could do in the menu, and then as simple as it sounds, the bleeps when selecting and going back... after about an hour of purely in the menu came the first battle...! Wow, my world had changed. I then jumped on my BMX and peddled my heart out to get back home and gather my car washing equipment. I then spent the weekend washing cars to make enough to go out (on a school day) to buy my copy. I then tragically came down with a "flu" and spent the week exploring the world of Final Fantasy 7. Great, great times.

[BitGaymer]

My eye twitches whenever he says 'Midger'

[myenemysenemy]

It’s weird how FF7’s world is a futuristic dystopia but feels lifted right out of the 90s

[charliegaudino]

When you scroll through the comments and see so many people sharing memories about the game, it really shows you the power this game had. I was 16 when it came out and I remember wanting a PlayStation for this very game. There was so much hype with this game coming out, almost equal to the hype of the remake. Which probably makes it even bigger for the time since the internet wasn't buzzing with social media. I think a lot of that hype carried over in our nostalgia for FF7. It holds so many good memories for gamers and mix that with the time period of gaming also being such a memorable time with the transition of 3D games, you have this combustible feeling of amazing mind blowing joy. It is like FF7 is a time capsule for that feeling.

[XBret]

Omigosh! I'm so psyched that you used a picture of my Cloud cosplay at 00:13 . I like how you said "Decades even.." because next month it will be exactly 10 years since I debuted the costume.

A lot of cosplayers were inspired to make similar cosplays since then but somehow you still managed to use mine. Thank you, this really made my day!

[jayson]

“What makes Final Fantasy 7 a big deal?” said only people who haven’t played Final Fantasy 7.

[claude-alexandretrudeau]

Falcon: explaining why FF7 is so great.
me: He's using a Mythril Saber while fighting Bottomswell. Didn't steal the Hardedge in Shinra headquarters, huh?

[eugeneenriquez]

5:00

The first time I walked over that mini marsh/desert area on the world map when I was a kid, I saw a long snake like shadow slithering everywhere.

At first I thought it was some kind of background aesthetic but oh boy was I wrong. The moment it bolted at me and initiated a battle, a huge Snake was fighting me. Seeing how it towers over Cloud and Co. I knew this was not a battle I was meant to win at lower levels.

So I had to plan my way around the snake and reach my destination. Not to mention that cutscenes when you cross the marsh/desert where you see the same snake impaled into a tree and how the party mentions that it was Sephiroth's doing.

As a kid I thought, "Dam... I am in way~ over my head."

[cyniic]

I remember way back where we would be showing off our save files in our friends house to see who reached lvl 99 first, who earned all the final weapons, and so on. FF7 was a huge part of my childhood for sure.

[acutting]

The part that truly blew me away as a teenager were the Summons. To have access to these badass cut scene, massively powerful attacks to use, really whenever you wanted, was such a game changer.

[dainmarriott]

I was at school when this game first came out. Someone sold it me for 20 quid because he couldn't get past the first boss, even though it tells you how to do it in the manual. It really was a special game at the time, which I don't think any other game has had the same appeal to it.

I can play it time and time again and it always brings so much nostalgia.

[drevsgames]

So glad that guy from Kingdom Hearts got his own game 🙌🏻

[blackg]

*When someone pronounced "Midgar" Midger*
I'm gonna say the M word!

[georg]

The best game I've ever played so far. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I have a blast of memories around playing this game back in '97.

[calvinmatthews]

Makes me wish I was born earlier in the 90's so I could have childhood memories of this.

[geoleo]

The tumorous, Popeye-like arms of the characters, obviously...

I dearly miss 'em.

[jaredrousselle]

The remake of Final Fantasy VII might actually be the first Final Fantasy game I pick up and play and yes that includes the original