1263: Lifestream

Final Fantasy VII came out on Steam today, a full year after its “new” PC port hit Square Enix’s store with new achievements, cloud saves and an option to make the whole thing insultingly easy for yourself.

Final Fantasy VII holds a very special place in my heart for a variety of reasons, the main one being that it was the first ever JRPG I played and understood.

I’d played role-playing games beforehand, largely on home computers, but didn’t really understand the concept. I’d tried games like Temple of Apshai, Alternate Reality and Origin’s dreadful Times of Lore, but didn’t really get my head around the concept of numbers affecting your performance in the game. When I first started playing Final Fantasy VII, I still didn’t quite get it, but all the core concepts gradually started to come to me: turn-based combat, abstract representations of game elements, characters distinguishing themselves with unique special abilities.

It wasn’t the mechanics that attracted me to Final Fantasy VII, though; it was the story. I’d never experienced a video game with a story 1) that long and 2) that emotionally engaging. Of course, both Final Fantasy VII’s length and emotional engagement value are both somewhat laughable today, but remember, this is 1997 we’re talking about here, and also I had never played a previous installment in the Final Fantasy series. Largely because quite a few of them never made it to Europe.

I’ll tell you the one reason I picked up Final Fantasy VII in the first place: my brother explaining to me that it was the first video game he knew of that had made people cry. I don’t remember if he was one of them or not, but certainly someone he associated with had wept openly at That One Scene That Everyone Knows by Now But Which I Won’t Spoil on the Off-Chance You Still Haven’t Played FFVII and Were Thinking About Picking it Up on Steam.

That idea was fascinating to me. Up until that point, computer and video games had been an important form of entertainment in my life, but very few had engaged my emotions in such a manner as to have a physical effect. In fact, none had. There had been story-based games, sure, and there were a number of these which contained characters I thought rather fondly of — I still fancy Sophia Hapgood from Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis — but none which had really made me feel something.

By the time I reached the end of disc 1 on Final Fantasy VII, I was thoroughly invested in the story and characters. By the time that disc actually ended — you know the bit I’m talking about — I had to put the controller down, sit back and dry my eyes. It felt a bit odd tearing up at “just a game”, but it marked the beginning of my lifelong fascination with interactive storytelling — particularly those works that grab you by the heartstrings and tug, tug, tug.

I don’t know yet if I’ll pick up Final Fantasy VII on Steam. I have a perfectly serviceable physical copy on PS1, after all, and aside from the hi-res graphics on the PC version (which aren’t all that great) the PS1 version is The Way to Play. But that game will always have a very special place in my heart. It may not be the best entry in the Final Fantasy series; it may not be my favourite game of all time any longer, but it will always be special.