Final Fantasy VII

🎮 Steam ⏳ 70 hours ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)

Genre-Defining JRPG #

The 2012 PC release of Final Fantasy VII is a straightforward port of the legendary 1997 PlayStation title, it retains the original game’s powerful storytelling, iconic characters, and strategic turn-based combat, which helped define the golden era of JRPGs. A lot of ideas used on this title, on literally every single element of it’s mechanics, are still used to this day, especially when it comes to the narrative and story-telling. Never before we had seen things like flashbacks and deep backstories for important characters, they pretty much simply existed, and you had a paragraph worth of information about them, mostly mechanical ones, they never felt like real people that could actually exist, and you could relate to.

Faithful Yet Dated Port #

This version is essentially a cleaned-up reissue of the earlier 1998 PC port, with a few minor updates to make it run on modern systems. It includes support for cloud saves, achievements, and a slightly improved MIDI soundtrack, though it still lacks the polish of a full remaster, so only play this if you can tolerate decades old graphics. The character models are blocky, the pre-rendered backgrounds are low-resolution, and there’s no native widescreen support, similar to the original title. QOL improvements are minimal, despite these shortcomings, the game remains fully playable and faithful to the original experience, so if you never had the chance to play the original, this is your best bet on modern systems.

Mods Enhance Experience #

For players new to the series or long-time fans revisiting Midgar, this version offers a nostalgic trip, but it feels dated without the help of mods. Particularly speaking I never used any mods, though I did some research and there is an amazing modding community behind this title, especially when it comes to Steam. So I highly recommend exploring the Steam community, you’ll certainly find something to enhance the experience, a good one would be to improve the 3D model details. Ultimately, it’s a solid way to experience a classic, but not the definitive version by today’s standards. I consider this one of my childhood’s best experiences playing videogames, I’ll never forget the first time I saw it and was absolutely blown away by it’s graphics.

Timeless Narrative Legacy #

I remember it vividly, it was in the second disc section where you board into a moving train, in order to try to stop it, lots of fighting and a timer to see if you can make it before it crashes into a small town that exists in the train tracks. For a lot of people this was their first cinematic gaming experience, it was for me, and an unforgettable one that deserves all the respect of the entire gaming industry, for following a lot of it’s formulas, even up to this day. It is definitely a must for FF and JRPG fans, don’t skip it, absolutely one of the best games of all time, with one of the best stories and characters the gaming industry could provide. I also highly recommend to 100% this title, it has some amazing optional content, such as hidden characters, bosses, dungeons and unique items.