Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VII must be the most hyped game I've ever posted. The impact that this game apparently had on the childhoods of all my friends seems to be bigger than every other game combined. It tops "Best Game of All Time" lists; it made the PlayStation a viable alternative to the Nintendo 64; it contains the biggest, most heart-breaking twist in the history of gaming. While I'll at some point post a similarly hyped game, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, I've played significant portions of that game, but went into FFVII without any previous playtime. Yes, I had a small bit of familiarity with the story, the worst-kept secret twist in video games (aside from maybe "The Princess is in another castle!") and the characters, but there was so much for me to discover. What the heck was 'materia' all about? What makes Midgar so much cooler than other towns in other Final Fantasy games? Why is Sephiroth such a memorable villain? And most importantly, could it live up to the hype? While it's impossible for this game to have the same effect on me that it did my peers, mostly because I'm a grown man and not 11 years old, I can confirm that Final Fantasy VII is a very, very good game. It continued the science-fiction-oriented trend of Final Fantasy VI, taking place in a futuristic society on the brink of discovering a new form of energy. Protagonist Cloud Strife, a former government (SHINRA) soldier (SOLDIER) defects and joins forces with a sorta terrorist group (AVALANCHE) who believes Shinra is seeking the energy for some nefarious purposes; in their attempts to stop Shinra, they meet up with a few more characters and eventually come to realize an even greater enemy is trying to blow up the world in an attempt to sorta claim the untapped energy resources for himself- Sephiroth. What I liked about this story was that it felt very 'complete'- every location, boss fight and character (except maybe Yuffie) truly felt like it served a purpose in the grand scheme of the story and not just a random mish-mash of insanity that plagues many other Final Fantasy installments. Even though I already knew the huge twist (hint for those who don't know: one of your party members doesn't make it to the end), the game actually delivered a few good ones after that too and every character feels fully fleshed out; even the lesser ones like Cait Sith get a significant backstory and play a major role in the story. In addition to the great storytelling, there's fun gameplay to back it up. I love the idea of materia- basically you can find spells on the ground in the form of 'materia', and now they're suddenly easy to level up and switch around instead of being attached to one character. If you're looking for a really deep level of customization FF VIII, X and XII may be better, but I can see why Final Fantasy VII makes for a great introduction to the series. And yet here I am, playing it nearly last- only XIII remains for me in the numbered series. I don't expect to be getting to it for several months, maybe a year, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.