The Childhood Game I Had Left Behind – Final Fantasy VII

​I don’t often like to write short blogs, but I realized I’d regret not breaking that limiting habit if I didn’t write about Final Fantasy VII right now. At the time of this writing, we are less than three days away from the release of the first Final Fantasy VII Remake game and I have a lot of thoughts I want to wrestle with and document by writing and sharing a blog.

I have three main forces pulling at me as I anticipate the Final Fantasy VII Remake. The biggest and primary thrust of this blog, is my history with the original Final Fantasy VII. FFVII was no doubt one of the biggest games of my childhood, but it has an odd distinction among them. Unlike the rest of my major childhood games that amazed me at the time and still resonate with me today, I had some struggles playing Final Fantasy VII when I was younger and years later when I revisited it in high school I found the game sometimes lacking in comparison to the other Final Fantasy games around it even if I still enjoyed it. Final Fantasy VII is my go-to example of a time and place game, one that was amazing at release, but one that did not age as well as I would have hoped.

​No game exists in a vacuum. They all have their own merits for sure, but they also always exist relative to other games that shape your opinion of them. I had already formed a foundational love of RPGs before walking into FFVII because my older brother introduced them to me on the Super Nintendo. The big three RPGs for me growing up were all Squaresoft games: Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, and Super Mario RPG. As a result, I was excited for Final Fantasy VII walking in (I wasn’t anticipating it beforehand; that distinction first goes to Final Fantasy VIII), and with that history combined with the richness of the new 3D graphics, Final Fantasy VII was destined to make an impression on me.

And it did! The opening sequence with the bombing mission was incredibly cinematic and introduced two cool characters right off the bat with Cloud and Barret. You soon begin to explore Midgar which at the time seemed overwhelmingly huge. I was again impressed once you get to the world map and you see how you have barely just begun your journey. While the character models during exploration looked a little goofy with blocky hands, the higher quality models during battle left strong impressions and the prerendered environments invited imagination. FFVII had plenty of cool surprises the farther you played, including the games at the Golden Saucer, not just airships, but underwater exploration with the submarine, and cool bonus characters including Vincent (my favorite character next to Cloud). There were a ton of secrets to discover as well which made the game fun to talk about with friends and family for months after it came out.

​I always enjoyed watching my brother play the game and I enjoyed playing the game myself, but I found myself getting stuck frequently since I wasn’t even quite six when the game first came out on PC. After the bombing mission, I didn’t know how to get out of the Midgar slums for a while. When I reached the overworld it was fraught with peril and I had to retry frequently. I think I truly got stuck somewhere in the middle of disc 2 and I had to load one of my brother’s later saves to see the end of the game. Regardless of how good my party was, I don’t think I ever challenged Sephiroth myself since I used to be afraid of challenging the final bosses in RPGs growing up except for the three Super Nintendo games I loved.

After Final Fantasy VII, I kept playing all of the new Final Fantasy games as they released and when I was in high school I decided I wanted to beat all of the Final Fantasy games in order. With the first six Final Fantasy games freshly under my belt and other RPGs I enjoyed growing up, I tackled Final Fantasy VII again on the PS3. This time I was far more prepared to play the game and I could begin to look at it critically. The biggest failing in Final Fantasy VII is the Materia system as character growth is primarily tied to it and Materia levels up so slowly. There is a lot of flexibility with Materia for sure, but since the commitments you need to make to see investments pay off take so long you might as well stick with what works. That’s fine too, because the game is actually very easy in comparison to other Final Fantasy games (which is funny to me given how much I struggled with it growing up). The tone of the game is super weird too as it begins at its most dramatic in Midgar following your ecoterrorist heroes, but not even ten hours in you are riding a dolphin to jump hundreds of feet in the air to advance the story. Real talk though, that dolphin better be in part 2 of the Final Fantasy VII Remake.

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​I think what strikes me about Final Fantasy VII is that you never really know what will come next and that is a great thing. There are many wonderous locations to explore beyond the industrial city of Midgar such as the Golden Saucer, a giant amusement park that hovers above a large desert. It’s more than just location variety as the tone and gameplay shift frequently as well. There is a bout of horror for example as you explore the upper floors of Shinra’s HQ, followed by a cool motorcycle sequence, and soon after by a tower defense minigame at Fort Condor. I also love that the game remembers your actions which affects for example your date in the Golden Saucer or how it personalizes Cloud’s breakdown (“I played the piano!”). These elements kept me invested in the game even when the combat and character growth systems didn’t. Final Fantasy has a reputation of always reinventing itself with every mainline entry and Final Fantasy VII proudly carried on the tradition and I hope the Final Fantasy VII Remake will do the same.

The second main force pulling at me as I anticipate the Final Fantasy VII Remake is my history with the Remake itself. While I saw its E3 reveal trailer and first gameplay glimpse live over the internet, I had one specific event with it prior to those in person that I’ll never forget. When I attended the very first PlayStation Experience in Las Vegas with my older brother, I was present for what was probably the most infamous moment on its road to release. I was sitting three rows from the front of the main stage of the opening ceremony and the brand manager of Final Fantasy came out to discuss what they were bringing to the PlayStation 4. I learned later this was a mistake, but the logo for Final Fantasy VII appeared behind the man talking. The crowd started getting excited and my brother turned to me and said they are finally going to announce the remake. I wasn’t sure as a trailer began to play showcasing the original PlayStation graphics. Everyone expected it to explode into beautiful PS4 graphics, but that moment never came as it was merely an announcement that the PC version of Final Fantasy VII would be ported to PS4. The energy was sucked out of the room and we all felt defeated. I didn’t learn how much of an impact that had on the internet until after the show where it gave rise to the Ultima Troll gif (see below), but for better or worse that incident always has an influence on my excitement for the game.

​Finally, the last major force that’s really causing a great impact on my anticipation of FFVIIR is the state of the world. As I write this, I’ve been home for twenty days now due to the global pandemic of Covid-19 prompting shelter in place orders from the state of California. I’m handling it fairly well since my biggest hobbies, video games and anime, are ones you enjoy at home. It’s still sad though to be off and you can’t go out at all to visit friends or even go out for lunch or dinner. A Hatsune Miku concert I had been looking forward to for months that would have happened this Wednesday in LA was pushed back until October and I’m fully expecting Anime Expo to be cancelled this year soon. While losing that normalcy and big events are disappointing, I’m glad to stay home to keep myself and my parents as safe as possible through Social Distancing.

I’ve gotten to finish a few cool games at least while I’ve been stuck at home including Yakuza 3, the first Devil May Cry, and Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore which is currently my favorite game I’ve played this year. This has been a great time as well to reconnect with friends with everything grounded to a halt and I've enjoyed playing a lot of Splatoon, StarCraft, and Animal Crossing with friends online. I’ve also finished some great anime as well such as the original Love Live and its movie, the fourth season of My Hero Academia, and the first season of Magia Record. I’d love to write about everything I’ve been enjoying during this time and I have a lot of free time as the shelter in place order shows no signs of being lifted soon so you might see some more blogs from me sooner rather than later.

With Covid 19 being so disruptive to normalcy, it is obviously having a big impact on games as well. Final Fantasy VII Remake is the last huge game right now in this period with a release date. If it wasn’t for the situation we are in, I probably would not want the game to be as great as I do right now, but I want to lose myself in a huge, high quality adventure. I didn’t play the demo in March or watch the final trailer because I’ve been wanting to go in as blind as possible, so I’m excited to see what Square has created and I hope it delivers.

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That concludes my latest blog! I hope you enjoyed it! I always enjoy feedback so feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @JustinMikos to share your thoughts. I’d be curious to know your history with the original Final Fantasy VII and your excitement for the Remake. Until next time!