Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VII is a 1997 role-playing video game developed by Square for the PlayStation. It was ported to the Nintendo Switch on March 26, 2019. The seventh main installment in the Final Fantasy series, it was released in Japan by Square and internationally by Sony Computer Entertainment, becoming the first game in the main series to have a PAL release. The game’s story follows Cloud Strife, a mercenary who joins an eco-terrorist organization to stop a world-controlling megacorporation from using the planet’s life essence as an energy source.

Ensuing events send Cloud and his allies in pursuit of Sephiroth, a superhuman who seeks to wound the planet and harness its healing power in order to be reborn as a god. Throughout their journey, Cloud bonds with his party members, including Aerith Gainsborough, who holds the secret to saving their world. Final Fantasy VII takes place on a world referred to in-game as the “Planet” and retroactively named “Gaia”. The planet’s lifeforce, called the Lifestream, is a flow of spiritual energy that gives life to everything on the Planet; its processed form is known as “Mako”. On a societal and technological level, the game has been defined as an industrial or post-industrial science fiction setting. 

During Final Fantasy VII, the Shinra Electric Power Company, a world-dominating megacorporation headquartered in the city of Midgar, is draining the Planet’s Lifestream for energy, weakening the Planet and threatening its existence and all life. Significant factions within the game include AVALANCHE, an eco-terrorist group seeking Shinra’s downfall so the Planet can recover; the Turks, a covert branch of Shinra’s security forces; SOLDIER, an elite Shinra fighting force created by enhancing humans with Mako; and the Cetra, a near-extinct human tribe which maintains a strong connection to the Planet and the Lifestream. The main protagonist is Cloud Strife, an aloof mercenary who claims to be a former 1st Class SOLDIER.

Early on, he works with two members of AVALANCHE: Barret Wallace, its brazen but fatherly leader; and Tifa Lockhart, a shy yet nurturing martial artist and his childhood friend. During their journey, they meet Aerith Gainsborough, a carefree flower merchant and one of the last surviving Cetra; Red XIII, an intelligent canine from a tribe that protects the planet; Cait Sith, a fortune-telling robotic cat controlled by repentant Shinra staff member Reeve; and Cid Highwind, a pilot whose dream of being the first human in outer space was unrealized. The group can also recruit Yuffie Kisaragi, a young ninja and skilled Materia thief; and Vincent Valentine, a former Turk and victim of Shinra’s experiments. 

The game’s main antagonists are Rufus Shinra, the son of President Shinra and the later leader of the Shinra Corporation; Sephiroth, a former SOLDIER who reappears several years after being presumed dead; and Jenova, a hostile extraterrestrial life-form who the Cetra imprisoned 2,000 years ago and who Sephiroth was created from. A key character in Cloud’s backstory is Zack Fair, a member of SOLDIER and Aerith’s first love. The gameplay of Final Fantasy VII is similar to earlier Final Fantasy titles and Japanese role-playing games. The game features three modes of play: the world map, the field, and the battle screen.  At its grandest scale, players explore the world of Final Fantasy VII on a 3D world map. 

The world map contains representations of areas for the player to enter, including towns, environments, and ruins. Natural barriers—such as mountains, deserts, and bodies of water—block access by foot to some areas; as the story progresses, the player receives vehicles that help traverse these obstacles, thus opening more of the game world for exploration.  Chocobos can be found in certain spots on the map and, if caught, can be ridden to areas inaccessible on foot or by vehicle.  In field mode, the player navigates fully scaled versions of the areas represented on the world map. 

VII marks the first time in the series that the mode is represented in a three-dimensional space. In this mode, the player can explore the environment, talk with characters, advance the story, and initiate event games.  Event games are short minigames that use special control functions and are often tied to the story.  While in field mode, the player can also make use of shops and inns. Shops allow the player to buy and sell items that can aid Cloud and his party, such as weapons, armor, and accessories. Inns restore the hit points and mana points of characters who rest at them and cure abnormalities contracted during battles.