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Final Fantasy VII might as well have been released in a piranha pit; in 1997, when developer Square put out the role-playing game for PlayStation, the industry was stocked with enough RPGs, such as Diablo and The Elder Scrolls, to last a lifetime. But even among the excess, Final Fantasy VII stands out like a shooting star.
Making the leap from Nintendo consoles to PlayStation, Final Fantasy VII was the first time that the series’ ambitious storytelling could be matched by the hardware to drive it. With a massive narrative spanning three discs, it was operatic in scope and its many emotional twists remain unmatched to this day.
By taking fantasy out of the cliché of a medieval setting and into a more steampunk world filled with themes ripped from real life (ecological terrorism, corporate propaganda, mental health and identity crisis), Final Fantasy VIImatured the medium as whole beyond its own series’ hallmarks.
