What Final Fantasy VII Means to Me
Final Fantasy VII is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and tonight we’re getting a Celebration Livestream to mark the occasion. The community is buzzing with expectations, rumors, and excitement. I’m salivating at the notion we’re going to get a first look at Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 2 (or whatever they end up calling it), and I’d be lying if I said the rumored Crisis Core remake didn’t appeal to me almost as much. The notion of new Final Fantasy VII games, merchandise, events, and whatever else Square Enix are cooking up has dominated my thoughts since the Celebration Livestream was announced! In the moments between daydreams and speculation, another thought takes up my time: just how much Final Fantasy VII means to me.
Final Fantasy VII wasn’t my first video game, not by a long shot. I spent the early years of my childhood playing games on the family Nintendo Entertainment System…until my parents sold it and our games. Then we got a Sega Genesis, and I loved it…until my parents sold that, too. After that, there just…weren’t video games in our house for a while. I played computer games at school on occasion, but beyond that I didn’t even think about video games that much. Until one day in 6th grade…
My best friend brought several video game instruction manuals (remember those?) to school, and among them was Final Fantasy VII. I was captivated almost immediately, I read every word more than once that day. I was intrigued by almost everything about it, the premise, the character illustrations and bios, and especially the short walkthrough of the opening mission. A showdown with a mechanical spider followed by a frantic escape? I didn’t know games were capable of that level of action and storytelling, but I knew I had to see it for myself. Soon after, I went over to my best friend’s house and watched him play some of Final Fantasy VII on his PlayStation. I was completely sold, and that Christmas (after much pleading) I received a PlayStation of my own. From then on, gaming was my number one hobby, and would soon be one of my greatest passions.
This was enough to convince 11 year-old Will he needed a PlayStation.
Final Fantasy VII brought me back to video games, and cemented them in my mind as an art form capable of telling compelling stories with characters I could get invested in. I would play for hours on end, until my dad’s patience would run out and he would demand the television back. Eventually, after watching me play, my dad tried Final Fantasy VII for himself, and he found that he enjoyed it just as much as I did. The game gave us something new to bond over. My dad and I shared tips for chocobo breeding, material combinations, where to find the best equipment, you name it. Before long, Dad branched out into other games, and even if we didn’t always enjoy the same games we would enjoy taking the time to talk about them.
I’ve played a lot of video games over the 24 years that followed, but Final Fantasy VII has always had a special place in my heart. I imported the Advent Children film, just to watch it a few months faster than if I’d waited for the North American release. That backfired a bit, as it didn’t have any subtitles, but I did eventually stitch together a ripped copy of the film with some fan-made subtitles (but not before I watched it without them several times). When the now-infamous “PS3 Technical Demo” was shown at E3 2005, the notion of a remake excited me more than any of the actual games revealed for the PlayStation 3. I never really gave up hope for a remake, the internet rumor mills made sure of that, and when Final Fantasy VII Remake was finally announced I was euphoric. Every new trailer and teaser for Remake brought me to actual tears, and I have friends that will back that up. I ended up loving Final Fantasy VII Remake, and I absolutely cannot wait to see what comes next.