Final Fantasy VII

So we arrive where the real fun begins. The game that won over the NA market's heart, mind and soul for the RPG, made the genre competitive for the first time and put Square in the history books. I will not do a background for this game, since IGN did such a nice job in their article A History of Final Fantasy VII. Check it out, it's a very good read. With that done, let's dive right in...

We open with a nice little cut scene that put anything done before to shame, focusing on the flower girl Aerith (Aeris in NA) and the city of Midgar. A gorgeous cut for the time, and it still brings a flood of memories as the start to a great journey.



The game begins with Cloud jumping off the train with the rest of the crew from Avalanche and getting his new name, Rhekwyhem. After that the team heads in and blows up one of the eight Midgar reactors which the evil corporation Shinra is using to suck the life out of the planet and use for power. As the game progresses we get introduced to our memorable cast. Barret (Morpheus), who surprised me back in the day with his cussing on the train and his attitude. Tifa (Cysra), who is Cloud's childhood friend and obviously has a crush on him. And the flower girl Aeris (Aerith), who is the last remaining Ancient, being hunted by Shinra for technological research.

Here now, Square decided to go with a three man party for the first time and stuck with it in later games. It's worked well I think. Something I also like about this one is the constant flux of characters that it forces you to play at least for a little bit. Where as in VI, even though I had fourteen characters I only really had to play with 4. So many great things in the game, I can't even begin to touch upon all of them. But it wasn't long into the game that I really felt like I had missed it and was coming home for a bit. I say it's my favorite game, but sometimes you forget why; I'm starting to remember quickly.

As the story went on we got to see the demise of Biggs and Wedge and Jessie as Shinra took out an entire section of the city just to kill the renegade gang Avalanche to the tune of classical music as President Shinra watched from his suite. Love that scene.

With Aerith introduced we get a little peak into what's really going on. She is the last of a dead race called the ancients who are one with the planet's life force. When Shinra kidnaps Aerith, it's time to head in and rescue her. Climbing the 70 odd floors to the top we get a lot more information. We learn about Sephiroth from SOLDIER and his quest to stop Shinra from reaching the Promised Land of the Ancients. We also see the headless body of Jenova in Hojo's research laboratory and we pick up our fifth character Red XIII (Ichorid). After getting toyed with for a bit, the party is captured and tossed in cells. Time to take a nap.

We awaken to the door open and things are eerily quite outside. Rhek breaks the rest of the party out and we find everyone in the building has been massacred. Of course it could have only been one person. The Jenova body is missing and a trail of blood leads us to the office of the president of Shinra. His body is impaled upon his desk with the sword of Sephiroth...

A helicopter approaches outside and we rush out to see Rufus (the president's son) make claim to the company and plan his own evil plots for his new empire. Rhek decides to end Rufus before he can begin while the rest of the team leaves the building.

Of course Rufus escapes before we can kill him, and the building is totally surrounded with no where to run to. Now we enter into another beautiful cut for the time of Cloud on his motercycle and the rest of the gang in a light blue van as we bust through the glass and make our escape. The mini game loads up to defend the van while riding on the motercycle and I make quick work of any who approach. As we reach the end of the road we decide it's time to band together and put an end to Sephiroth and Rufus both; we leave Midgar behind to enter into the main world map for the first time, several hours into the game...