Writer- Thomas Williams
Final Fantasy VII is sometimes said to be the game that revolutionized RPGs for its era. It was many Western gamers’ first JRPG, and is one of the most well-known and well travelled games of my generation’s childhood. I wasn’t too hyped for it’s release back in 1997. Mainly because I was only one year old back then and I was too busy playing Learn to Walk and Spit Up on Yourself.
Fourteen years later Final Fantasy VII is my entry point for the classic RPG series. I may have not had much of a choice before, but in the following years I was wilfully oblivious to the experience that is a Final Fantasy game. Not entirely ignorant of the franchise, mind you; it’s hard to avoid hearing about it, what with it being a gaming’s cornerstone on the level of Mario and Metal Gear Solid, just the games and how they played. The closest thing to a Final Fantasy game I’d ever touched was Crystal Chronicles, not representative at all of the series’s unique turn based mecha...
Final Fantasy VII 1997 exceeds 15.5 million units sold worldwide as of February 2026, reinforcing its legacy as the series best selling title.
I’d love to know how many units have been sold of all the Final Fantasy VII franchise games, including the original, the remakes, spin offs such as Crisis Core, and mobile games Ever Crisis. I bet a fair few copies.
Modern day publisher be like: "Failed to meet sales expectations. Pivoting to live service."
It's an absolute legend of a game. And I honestly really love how the remake trilogy is shaping up so far.
Final Fantasy 7 is one of the most iconic video games of all time, with it helping to changed the RPG landscape when it was released in 1997.
If you already own it... There, I saved you the click on a deliberately misleading article.
I bought the game yesterday on steam for $4 because Square Enix is trying to replace it with a version that has no mod support.
Prior to yesterday, I had no idea the game had so many great mods until people started making a fuss out of it.
u get the switch 1 version of the og ff7 for free if you own 7 remake for the switch 2.
lol.
But BG2 didn't emerge in a vacuum, and in a recent chat with Slandered Gaming it emerged that—while we can thank BG2 for a lot of our favourite RPGs since—we have a whole other game to thank for BG2. That'd be Final Fantasy 7, which lit a fire under BG2 director James Ohlen to go all out with the game's structure and companions, per Trent Oster—who worked on the original Baldur's Gate and has since become CEO of Beamdog, the studio behind the BG1 and BG2 Enhanced Editions.
Baldurs Gate 1&2 were my games back in the day on PC. Icewindale and Neverwinter Nights as well
I'm a massive, massive FF7 fan, and while I don't agree with everything that you said, I thought it was a really interesting read. It was interesting to see someone review the game from your perspective, I mean it's frightening that you was only 1 year old at the games release. But a refreshing look at the game. Nice article. And it goes to show that the games quality is timeless.
I was dismayed at the end of your article when it said: "When I started playing FF VII, I learned of the game’s renown as the Final Fantasy game that fans hate. Some fans, at least. I’ve heard disparaging comments regarding its quality compared to later and earlier games in all aspects, sound track, plot, combat, and graphics."
The final fantasy game fans hate? How could an rpg fan hate this game? It's widely renowned to be one of the best rpg's ever and revolutionary for it's time. End of.
I mean graphics - it's a 1997 ps1 game. And besides, all of the backgrounds are essentially paintings, how can a painting be considered bad graphics? The game also used polygons an not pixels so everything is really smooth. Compare it to FF8 were each character's face has 5 pixels each.
Combat? - the materia system was an amazing combat system
Plot? - everyone's different but I love the plot, all the characters, I think it has one of the most interesting stories of any game I've ever played.
And soundtrack??? Are you kidding me??? The FF7 soundtrack has so many great pieces in it, they regularly feature in videogame music concerts. In fact Aeris Theme recently made the Top 10 All time best classical music pieces voted for by the public on Classic FM, the most respected classical radio station in the UK. To say the FF7 soundtrack is bad is just... I'm just going to say it, if someone thinks the FF7 soundtrack is bad, they're an idiot. It is one of the greatest soundtracks to any videogame ever, and the amount of recognition the tunes have gotten over the years speaks for themselves. The tunes are simply beautiful.
How can anyone hear this and say it's a bad music piece:
http://www.youtube.com/watc...
http://www.youtube.com/watc...
http://www.youtube.com/watc...