These days I have been a little preoccupied with the Vintage Game Club, courtesy of The Brainy Gamer. Consequently, I have been paying more attention to the latter, a blog for gamers who also like to think about the games they play. That's something I've been doing for a very long time. The most recent post on that blog talks a bit about the highly anticipated title Spore, and the press it has garnered. Though I am not sure when I'll get to enjoy this game, the post does bring up important issues with the current game journalism system. As someone who used to work for Gamestop, I am all too familiar with how game journalism fits into the commercial scene. It does a good deal of swaying people's opinions about what they should buy and what they should pass up.

Interestingly enough, Gamestop's most popular magazine is Gamer Informer. They tend to sell that magazine above all others, for the very obvious reason that the company owns Gamer Informer. Over the years this has lead to the retailer casting aside other major publications, or carrying them to simply generate the image of choice and competition (just try to buy a magazine other than GI at those stores). "The magazine has nearly 3 million subscribers according to Andrew Reiner, making it the highest circulated video game magazine," (link). I would venture to guess that major game companies which have ties to Gamestop also exert some manner of influence over information published in the magazine in order to bolster sales of their product, while smaller developers tend to get less favorable treatment, or get omitted entirely.

The point is that I personally never paid much attention to game journalist's opinions on what is good or bad. My own experiences have only reinforced this doctrine, and never was it more useful than during the days of the Dreamcast. Game after game on that system broke my preconceptions of genres and styles, and I loved it. Meanwhile, reviews for so many titles on that platform left a lot to be desired. What's more, my fellow Gamestop colleagues were often very unimpressed by the same games which I felt to be fresh, innovative, and, most importantly, very enjoyable. I felt that some of them had been conditioned by the commercial environment which surrounded us to hold bias similar to that of the game journalism community.

Some examples of titles on the Dreamcast which got less favorable marks include D2, Illbleed, Industrial Spy, Omikron, and Star Wars (Ep1) Racer. These games were at best groundbreaking and innovative, and at worst quirky and but still a lot of fun.

The Temple of the Ancients in Final Fantasy VII was where the plot really started to pick up, and you got a heavy dose of story from the game. Upon entering, it turned out that Sephiroth had already arrived. No big surprise there, as he was always one step ahead it seems. On account of Caith Sith, Tseng was also there, though he had been injured by Sephiroth.

Aeris told Tseng that there never was a chance of Shinra winning, which only echoed the fact that you knew your side would prevail at the end of the game. That, I don't think anyone ever questions in any Final Fantasy game, with the formula rarely diverging from the standard good-prevails-over-evil scenario. Back in possession of the Keystone, I made my way into the temple. It was a maze-like structure heavily reminiscent of an M.C. Escher drawing with stairs going every which way. Although it was not nearly as complicated to navigate as it first appeared. Several obstacles were presented which provided a little challenge, though not that much really, and the characters eventually caught up with their fate. That is to say, they found Sephiroth in one of the chambers where he predictably divulged his plan for world domination. Given his power however, it wasn't exactly out of character.

One boss fight later, it just so happened that the temple had to be shrunk, as it itself was the Black Materia required to move the story forward. This was where Cait Sith had his moment of redemption, and the melody playing along with his sacrifice managed to create sympathy for the character after all. Your party escaped the structure, and in its place remained a sizable crater. Things were going rather well, but it wouldn't have been FFVII if Sephiroth didn't reappear to spoil the fun. His control over Cloud yielded him the Black Materia, and he disappeared just as suddenly as he appeared in the first place.

Cloud was aghast at the knowledge of his actions. He suddenly lost it again, and assaulted poor Aeris as your third party member jumped in to break things up. So many things happened all at once, that it was all in effect a little hard to take in. Right then, Cait Sith came out of nowhere (or more precisely Cait Sith 2), in his usual nonchalant manner.



I found myself feeling multiple conflicting emotions at the sight of such unpredictable turns of events. Fortunately, the game changed pace right then. A dream, or vision, was presented in the Sleeping Forest which served as respite from the hectic plot twists of the last section. I would say that this was perhaps to the game's discredit—that the story moved at such a sporadic pace. You would go through long stretches of monotony with little plot, only to be thrust into a barrage of events. It was rather inconsistent, to be sure, and not simply because of my choice to pursue side quests.

Nevertheless, the Sleeping Forest scene was a rather pleasant change, and served to provide some perspective on the recent happenings. Cloud apologized for his loss of control, but Aeris wasn't too concerned about it and let him know that she planned on stopping Sephiroth on her own. She sprinted away in a classic dreamlike moment of the dreamer, Cloud, running slowly in place. As she vanished into the distance, Cloud was visited by Sephiroth even here. Though the encounter was still rather amicable, with Sephiroth's tone suggestive of his old friendship with Cloud, his parting words are “we must stop that girl soon.”

The obvious foreshadow here was that Cloud would be yet again forced to do something against his will. But right then, he simply woke up having lost all his courage. Fortunately, or unfortunately as the case may be, his little breakdown was soon diminished by the support of Tifa and Barrett with a the-show-must-go-on moment. Clearly there was no time to loose, and so your party made its way to the actual Sleeping Forest and the City of the Ancients beyond it.



I found the atmosphere in the City of the Ancients, also known as the Forgotten Capital, to be appropriately eerie. The music had an ethereal mood, and the whole place was naturally deserted. The city's design was rather interesting, a cross between Anasazi cliff-dwellings, giant fantasy shell houses, and classic European inspired fantasy architecture. A strange mix, to be sure. Nevertheless, it seemed to work, though a little more consistency there might have been nice too. After exploring the deserted city, it was time to go down to into its bowels, where one of the most iconic scenes of video gaming history would take place.

My guess is that there are few people out there who don't know what was about to happen next. I suppose I'm going to explain anyway. As cloud went up to Aeris, he lost control of himself again. In an interesting plot device, the player was given limited control over Cloud. You could only move his upper body, and even that only in limited ways. It was one of those moments where I wasn't sure at first if I was doing something wrong, but then realized that I was gradually loosing control over Cloud. Finally his sword went up and, against his better judgement, he was about strike at Aeris. Your party members saved him from committing that fatal mistake, but to no avail.



Sephiroth descended from above as an angel of death and impaled Aeris upon his sword. I daresay that this iconic scene had gamers across the world in shock. I admit that I wasn't sure how I was going to receive this moment with having witnessed it already a few years ago. But I confess that it lost none of its strength and touched me deeply. This was probably helped by the fact that I spent so much time with Aeris in my party, and as intended did become more attached to her as a result. Seeing her die at the rival's hands was powerfully emotional, and as I watched Cloud release her body into the pool, finishing the last moments of Disc 1 was all I could do. I found myself needing to break from the game and sort out my thoughts.

In a way, as most people initial reactions, a part of me wanted to ask the question “why.” A simple reaction, and perhaps the first thing we think of when a character dies in a story. It seemes rather senseless at the time, and the purpose of it eludes us. Another part of me realized how involving a characters death is for those experiencing a story, and how few games use such a plot device these days. So few games choose to kill one of the central figures in a game, and even fewer do so in a way that doesn't seem gimmicky. Which begs the question whether Final Fantasy VII did so as a gimmick or not. My answer would be that Aeris dying changed a lot for the remaining characters, and seemed to serves as a major point of change for Cloud.

Speaking of Cloud, I found the question of his fate was also critical to the story of FFVII. His identity remained a mystery for much of the game, and the fact that he was a puppet, continually playing into the hand of Sephiroth also generated sympathy for his character in my case. Even when success in the quest as a whole seemed to be forthcoming, as I battled tougher and tougher bosses, nothing we did appeared to be of particularly great consequence against the machine which Sephiroth had devised.

With the important events of Cosmo Canyon behind me, I continued on towards Nibelheim. Revisiting this pivotal place was clearly strange with the fact that the town still stands. As the party wondered why Nibelheim wasn't in ashes, I spent my time getting the optional parts here, such as adding Vincent to my roster of characters.

Heading through Mount Nibel made it feel like there should have been something happening there, some part of the plot. Or at least the characters reacting to being back in a place where such pivotal events occurred before, so it was a little disappointing to go into the old mako reactor without any words from Cloud or Tifa. Seeing as how you could look around but nothing else of interest remained, I pressed on past the mountains and towards Rocket Town.



An interesting bit of side-story followed with Rufus showing up to commandeer the Tiny Bronco, as well as Cid's backstory to it. Though that was mostly all at this stage, “interesting.” It didn't cross the line to exciting really, except for maybe just a little during the video of the escape. Okay, I admit that was fun, even if the other parts in Rocket Town were just so-so. Altogether, things went by fairly quickly, which made this chapter feel more like a footnote in the greater scheme of things.

That is not to say, however, that having the Tiny Bronco itself was of no consequence. Because it was actually quite important, as it allowed you to access parts of the world that were inaccessible before. The most notable of these was the island that Yuffie calls home. An entirely optional part, Wutai was the side-quest tied to that character. Seeing as how I was going for anything of importance in this play-through, I headed out to Wutai to try my luck.



I don't think that I played this part the first time through Final Fantasy VII, but I may have. Either way I didn't remember it. So the events felt quite new to me, and Yuffie's shenanigans of stealing our materia meant that I had to commit to the side-quest. In for a penny, in for a pound, as they say. I got through running after Yuffie and even doing the pagoda without problems. Though not integral to the main plot, the events were amusing and served to develop Yuffie's character further. And with that behind me, I was eager to get back to the main story and finally get some more plot.

This is where it got more interesting on Disc 1. Although it could be a little tricky to figure out exactly where to go next, the big clue was at the lone house on the point not far from the Gold Saucer. The man inside said he just sold the Keystone, and that's what you needed to go after. Apparently Dio decided to add it to his collection, but Shinra and Sephiroth were after it too. So off to the Gold Saucer we went, and after talking to Dio it was time for some battles. This part was actually fairly challenging, and I had to retry several times. I kept getting killed before beating the last enemy, and that wasn't acceptable since I had to get those extra items.

The section between Rocket Town and returning to the Gold Saucer felt very disconnected. There was very little to actually tell you where to go next, and knowing the next clue's location was only due to my previously acquired knowledge. As I recall, however, the first time around I fumbled along the coasts to find something for quite a while. I think this could have been designed a little better to facilitate smoother progression for the player. Unless of course Square intended for you to explore the world with the Tiny Bronco and talk to random people in random places and eventually stumble onto the right bit of info. That is a distinct possibility.

More importantly, however, after obtaining the Keystone it was not possible to leave the Gold Saucer just yet. So the party decided to go to the inn, and Cloud did a little recap of where we stood. Nothing special there. While Cloud was up in his room however, Aeris paid him a visit. This was one of the key moments of the game as far as I'm concerned, as Aeris told cloud that he was about to go on a date with her. Not “asked” him on a date, mind you, but “told.” The ever-opposite-of-smooth Cloud was taken rather by surprise, but naturally had little choice in the matter.



These events were key to Aeris' character. She divulged a little more information about her mystery boyfriend from the past, and how Cloud was so much like him. But again, no details, so you still didn't know who he was really. A nice video of the gondola ride around the Gold Saucer ensued, and the date was going smashingly. That is, until I ran across Cait Sith stealing the Keystone. Of course, you couldn't just forget about it, so the cat-and-mouse chase was on. After following the thief through a few different areas, clearly the whole thing was meant to be easy, the romantic couple caught up with Cait Sith and put him through the ringer. Turns out he was the spy all along, and was working for Shinra. The weird body was just a puppet/robot being controlled by some unknown entity, and you had no choice but to go along with the charade as they got to Aeris' mother and Marlene. So the plot thickened.

We retired to the inn, and the next day it was time to make our way to the Temple of the Ancients. So far, I had kept Aeris in my party for the entire game. I wanted to level her up as much as possible, and even went so far as to get her final Limit Break. It was important to do this in terms of gameplay I thought, which got you as much from her character as possible, but also I thought it important for the story. In anticipation of what was to come, I wanted to facilitate my attachment to Aeris. Spending so much time with her in my party made her a much more permanent fixture in my FFVII universe.

Going into this experience with determination, flexibility, and an open mind, I hoped to have an enjoyable experience playing Final Fantasy VII again. Or perhaps more appropriately, really playing it for the first time. I made up my mind not to rush things, and to take my time with getting as much as possible. I was not going for a perfect game, and I cannot even conceive of the hours required for such an endeavor, not to mention that I see no fun in that at all. Nevertheless, I tried to do as many of the optional parts as possible.

The first parts of the game in Midgar felt a bit slow. Not sure if I was really enjoying it there through all of it. Maybe it's because I had seen those parts more than others, with them being at the beginning and easy to get to. Getting out of Midgar was actually a little exciting though, and I had Nikki there with me watching most of those scenes. Afterward, I felt a little relief when I hit the world map, and events progressed a bit more smoothly. I admit to having spent a little time with the Midgar Zolom to get Beta, which was a challenge this early in the game. Therefrom our quest for Sephiroth picked up the pace, and we continued past Junon Harbor and onto the other continent. The occasional Fort Condor battles did get a little annoying, but I continued on towards the Gold Saucer.



That's when I lost a little bit of interest. I wanted to do two things. One, get the lifetime pass to Gold Saucer, and two, win enough battles at the Battle Square to get the Championship Belt. At that point in the game, getting that much gil takes some time, but I did it anyway. The bigger hurdle was getting enough GP at the tedious Wonder Square to fight enough battles at the Battle Square. All of which is of course intended to gain the required Battle Points for the materia and Championship Belt. Seems awfully roundabout, and because of this tediousness I stopped playing for a little while.

Eventually I just bit the bullet and played enough basketball to win a bunch of GP and do all the rest. Finally I was free to move on, and I continued the quest toward the latter portions of Disc 1. Before that, however, there was still Cosmo Canyon. One of the more interesting areas of FFVII, the story elements there develop Red XIII's character rather well, and the scene in the Cave of the Gi was excellent.



Though I might have personal difficulties in relating with father/son relationships, the scene between Red and his petrified father, Seto, was very moving. Even in it's relatively low tech presentation, the emotional elements of the scene were still conveyed very effectively, I thought. The overall plot arc of Red XIII and the misconceptions around his father's departure did however strike a chord with me, and finding out the truth served as good incentive in that side story.

Final Fantasy. The name itself has so much meaning for gamers. It has grown into an icon of the industry, and has inspired people to discuss its significance and create fan-works. Some people hate Final Fantasy games, though more people probably love them. Regardless of personal feelings for the franchise, there are certain Final Fantasy games that have more significance than others. One of those in particular is Final Fantasy VII, and whatever fervent opinions it might draw out, it is difficult to dispute its status in video gaming history.

I have played almost all Final Fantasy games. Some of them only for a short time, and several new iterations not at all. Even so, having once been an ardent RPG'er I must reluctantly admit that I have unto this day not finished a single Final Fantasy game, save for my introduction to them on the Game Boy (Final Fantasy Adventure). Several of them I managed to get quite far into, only to inexplicably stop playing shortly before the end. But my biggest regret was never having finished Final Fantasy VII. I think what made me loose my motivation with that game was the powerful events surrounding Aeris' demise.



With the FFVII franchise being revitalized by Advent Children and a couple of games set in that universe, I began to think about the game again. Then, a few months ago I saw Last Order, an animated short that revealed information to me I didn't know up to that point. It got me thinking more about the game, and at last I made the decision to start playing it. Knowing my tendency to loose interest in games when they start to drag out, I resolved to persevere with FFVII and finish it for the first time.

My intentions here are much more than a simple rekindling of interest in the franchise as a result of Square's marketing efforts. It might have been sparked by that, sure, but the fact that the game is so iconic is what makes me want to examine it from a different perspective. The initial success of Final Fantasy VII can be attributed not only to its fan-base, but in large part due to the sheer novelty of the game itself. At the time of its release, the technology was some of the best we had seen. Graphically, FFVII made a leap forward with beautiful CG cutscenes, and real-time 3D battle animations that were very impressive. The graphical polish of all Final Fantasy games has been influenced by the style introduced in FFVII, with subsequent games always delivering some of the best visual art possible on the home console.

These factors, combined with Square's marketing push for the game, made Final Fantasy VII one of the most popular role-playing games of all time. Consequently, it was many people's first introduction to role-playing console games, which only contributed to cementing FFVII's place in history. I know I was certainly impressed by it at the time. This is why I felt it even more important to play the game again now. I have had years of time to distance myself from the novelty factor of the game, have gained a lot of perspective as a result.

Setting out to play it this time, I was certainly not going to be blown away by its graphical achievements. Nor was I going to be impressed by FFVII because it's the first RPG I am playing. With those superficial elements aside, I could focus on its deeper significance. That is assuming, of course, that there was any such deeper significance to be found. Going into this experience I was hoping to focus on plot, character development, and whatever greater meaning I might glean from the message presented by Final Fantasy VII. In short, I wanted to get at the real meat of the game that would have probably escaped me all those years ago.