Ranking The Top 3 Final Fantasy Games Of All Time
3. Final Fantasy VII
Many people’s first FF game, Final Fantasy VII is overwhelmingly the most popular in the series. The story follows Cloud, Tifa, Barrett and others from Avalanche as they team up to take down the evil Shinra empire, a corporation bent on destroying the planet for a profit. It evolves into much more than that, going deep into just who Cloud really is and the tale of actions versus consequences as the party inevitably must protect the planet from Sephiroth, a medical abomination hellbent on fulfilling a twisted destiny of controlling the world.
A lot of the appeal for Final Fantasy VII was its game-changing graphics (at the time). The title used the power of the compact disc to utilize 3D models for the first time in the series. Beautifully-structured, pre-rendered backgrounds complemented the characters, as well as stunning FMV cutscenes that were so impressive it could not be competed with in gaming. The polygonal character models don’t hold up now, but were a breakthrough for the series. Monsters, NPC’s, summons; there was a lot of variety that was afforded to them.
The gameplay took brilliant new steps forward. It used the Active Turn Based system, however instead of separate classes, each character used a specific weapon set given only to them. The weapons were also held by the character models in combat, showing off the difference in appearance in each one of them. As well, only three playable characters were permitted in a party at once, the first time in the series to do so.
Leveling up gave slight boosts to your stats, but most of the character progression came through Materia, which serves as a single-purpose boost to your characters. Such upgrades included offensive and defensive spells, adding skills, boost stats (like HP and MP) upon level up and summon great beasts to add your team. It was a creative way of breaking up the traditional progression-pathing ways of the RPG genre.
Because the game was so expansive in its narrative and storytelling (the game required 3 disks at launch on the PlayStation) the development team were allowed to take bigger risks and create long-arcing plot lines. The subplots of Cloud and Aerith are both complicated, intricate and truly compelling in their own rights. The Rebellion vs. Empire origins, while tired in its nature, proved to be a viable trope in gaming. The intentions, desires, drive and reasoning of the main cast truly developed over the 40 hours of main story gameplay in a profound way.
Final Fantasy VII is a true masterpiece of its generation, and the highest selling Final Fantasy game. But, that does not make it my ultimate favorite in the series.