Armored Core VI is the latest entry after almost ten years of FromSoftware's series of dehumanized...
The year is 1997. One of the years known to video game enthusiasts as one of the most remarkable years in gaming. The release of the best James Bond game--Goldeneye, the release of the technologically miraculous Gran Turismo series, the epic conclusion to the Mega Man X series, the release of Castlevania Symphony of the Night that somehow reached the final revolution side-scrollers have still reached even after decades of existing, but despite 1997 being full of achievements and releases as historical as these, the year itself is more representative of what many people consider today to be the best RPG, if not out-right the best game of all time--Final Fantasy VII. Consider this: the game up to today is about to be TWENTY-SEVEN years old on January the seventeenth of twenty-twenty-four. It has existed enough that a person aged forty could have played it all the way back when they were fourteen. The funny thing is Final Fantasy VII is one of the most immortal games the industry has witnessed. The game has been playable through several re-releases practically every generation of gaming, and has never stopped being insanely popular. Many of its elements are very prevalent in the gaming zeitgeist and even recognizable in the zeitgeist of general popular media culture.
I believe there are many objective elements as to why Final Fantasy VII has lived this long in our culture, but there are plenty of subjective ones, too. An objective one for starters; I wonder how many of you are scratching your heads over how the seventh entree into a series can be the most popular entree without even going through the first six, right? The Final Fantasy Series is disconnected for the most part, with the only games having a direct chronological connection being the first and second entries--and even those are separated by hundreds of years between events. It is mostly just flavor text for those who got to experience both. The stories across Final Fantasy games have always been separated, and the first time the company had to divide the release of two games because the scope of their ambition got too large, we got Final Fantasy X having a cliff-hanger ending which got followed through two years later by Final Fantasy X-II. It is a laughably bad title for a game, but Squaresoft--the developers--always had great respect for their disconnected stories between numbered games because it is how every release has been able to maintain its own unique identity.
This means that people were not only familiar with the concept already, but they could look forward to a new game with a defined beginning and end, and oh boy, does Final Fantasy VII have those. Final Fantasy VII’s intro is very special to me for reasons we will get to discuss one day, but it is relevant to that year for several reasons that are all linked to the innovations and ambitions the game had pushing it forward. The intro was outstanding for its time in its technological advance, but it is crafted differently to other games in the way it is supposed to entice the feelings a movie intro does--the across the setting camera pan, the introductions of its two main characters, strangers in different places, but still hinting at a greater connection between them, a showcase of what makes your video game protagonist likable and a direct shot of the thing the characters are going for--the plot device pushing this particular moment, or maybe even scene. It is all very purposeful, and considering the painstaking process it was to do 3D animations back then, it really showcased how much effort, budget, and manpower is behind this experience--but also as to where it was going.
Games that focused on narrative have been very niche up to that point, being very basic games with very little interaction and stories that felt more appropriate for children. If the games had stories, they would be told over a small intro and maybe a couple of written dialogue scenes acting as interludes between levels or things of the sort. The only genre that was really pushing the narrative was role-playing games like the Final Fantasy series, but others such as Ultima or Dragon Quest also made efforts to push it. The release of Final Fantasy VI on the Super Nintendo showed a huge jump in smart and cinematic usage of the technology and conventions of the time, but Final Fantasy VII was coming out in the original PlayStation One, making the jump to 3D visuals represented a lot of challenges, but Squaresoft was absolutely sure that the new technology could bring more benefits despite the challenges. In fact, they were so sure they actually became enemies with Nintendo after choosing to go for PlayStation One only because the cartridges Nintendo was using simply were not able to contain the amount of data they needed, which even the laser discs the PlayStation One would have games come in were not enough because the original release of the game came in a total of three different discs. That was the kind of ambitions they had and the kind of faith they had in themselves.
It may be overkill, but it is important to mention the music alone. Nobuo Uematsu is one of the few legendary composers who, at least back then, had little to no background or knowledge in music. The man had explained many times that even as long as he was into the making of Final Fantasy IV, he had no musical training at all and did not have acquired a proper level of quality or knowledge in music all the way until Final Fantasy IX when he started needing more to properly make orchestral music. People still gravitate to his work in Final Fantasy VII, even today being acknowledged as his most popular work. The reasons are quite complex, and despite him being open about not really knowing what he was doing back then, one can tell it is actually a really thoughtfully put-together soundtrack. Not only that, but Yoshinori Kitase’s utilization of the soundtrack is really intentional in the type of memories and feelings they want to evoke. The redone soundtrack and all the added tracks for the Remake won 2020's best music award at the Game Awards, and in my opinion, very deservingly.
All of these elements come together to tell a story about life, death, and the will of humanity to survive. I find its elements to be extremely relevant today, and it is clear that Square Enix does, too, because they are still remaking Final Fantasy VII into a large trilogy of games. Their biggest controversy remaking Final Fantasy VII was the fact that they never really disclosed how “Final Fantasy VII Remake” is actually just the first third of the game. A lot of people were angry and claimed the game was incomplete, but stretching the first 10 hours of a 40-hour game into another 40-hour game is not really making it incomplete. It is truly an expansion of all that happens in those first ten hours of the original game. What makes the expansion of it is how much more they could pack in terms of the interactions with the setting and characters one gets to experience. A really great example to me is the fan favorite Aerith, the flower girl! In the original, you learn how she takes care of the plant life around her despite living in a dystopic, reutilized trash neighborhood, and it is supposed to showcase her caring side. In the Remake, you get to see the same scene with the flowers, albeit a lot more nuanced and detailed, but her attitude of caring for others is showcased a lot more strongly by showing how much she cares for the orphans in her Sector 5. In the original, you only find a child in an abandoned house who is trying to survive by selling potions and the like. While in the Remake, you interact a lot more with them--you save them from wild creatures, help them build a fort, get flowers for their garden, find the right spices and plants to make medicine for a couple of them who are sick--and it is all to showcase her caring nature in a much more poignant way while stretching a bit you could just pass through no problem in the original into a whole section where the protagonist, Cloud, and Aerith get to interact and show their chemistry as characters. It makes someone care more about them, but for someone who played the original more than 20 years ago, this is all a tear-fest! The music, the voice acting, and the little moments that were not in the original are all built so perfectly to make the emotions of nostalgia last way longer, and way stronger than they should. It is not trying to make a one-to-one recreation of the original but instead acknowledges what fans wanted and focuses on enhancing what matters.
The real genius of Final Fantasy VII is that it takes every chance at elongating and enhancing the nostalgia of past players while truly improving on what made the original so special. If it is brand-new for those who did not play the original Final Fantasy VII, it really is a very special game. It is a great experience, and honestly, you should check it out regardless of whether you hold any amount of love for the original or not. The original goes discounted relatively often, and right now is going for $15 on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. The second part of this remake of the legendary classic turned trilogy is coming out on February 29, 2024 at $69.99. If you pre-order it from BestBuy you get the metal case free with your order!
Are you more interested in playing it now? Are there any games you hold great love for? Would you like to see them be remade in the way Final Fantasy VII Remake does? Let us know in the comments!
