What could possibly keep a webmaster from updating his site for long periods of time?  Only the most compelling computer game could keep me away from my site.  Final Fantasy VII falls into that very elite category.  Find out why this is my favorite computer game of all times and why it is unlikely that anyone will surpass it in the near future.

[The Story] [The Cast] [Why I Love It] [Links]

You play the game as a young mercenary soldier, called Cloud in the original story, but the game allows you to name your characters anything you want.  You have accepted a job in which you will blow up a reactor, ironically belonging to the company by which you were once employed as a soldier.  The company, Shinra, is apparently draining the resources of the planet dry with it's many reactors and energy plants.  Although your first motivation is money, through the game you get to know some of the characters you interact with and begin to develop relationships with them.

Soon, the plot evolves from trying to stop an evil corporation, to chasing down another former company soldier, Sephiroth.  Something has driven him to madness and he is killing innocent people in his quest for, well, whatever.  More and more of the motives for his actions are revealed as you follow him around the world.

Eventually, as you encounter  more people and situations, light is shed on your own very dark past, much of which you don't clearly remember.  In the end, it's this past which turns out to be your true enemy, and yourself, your most difficult battle.

Does this sound too deep to be a simple computer game?  Of course it is, and that's the number one reason Why I Love It.  The story is intertwined with flashbacks, some of which are interactive, in which you can explore the world that is your past.  It's an amazing concept for a computer game, probably too much for the impatient, but for someone who likes a good adventure story, it's heaven.

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Cloud with his original sword.

Sephiroth: Evil, crazy, or both?

Cloud and his impossible hair-do.

Tifa packs a punch in those red gloves.

Aeris: Carefree and innocent

Thought filled Vincent perches on a rooftop.

What red blooded male wouldn't want to ride this bike?  Play the game and you can!

FF VII is rich with characters, so there is no way I can give you the complete list.  Here are a few of my favorites anyway, artwork courtesy of some of the many talented FF VII fans (found various places on the web).

Cloud

Cloud is the main character in this story, and most of the time you control his movements.  Formerly an elite soldier for the Shinra Corporation, Cloud's first mercenary mission is against Shinra: destroying a Shinra reactor.  First motivated purely by money, Cloud develops friendships and ties with his new business partners.

Throughout the game, Cloud remembers his past in confusing flashbacks.   Eventually, both friends and enemies begin to fill in the blanks for him until he realizes the horrible truth about himself.  In a sense, the game is not so much about saving the world, but Cloud's searching and finding of his own past.

Cloud's main weapon is the sword, and throughout the game, he finds better and better swords to do battle with.

Tifa

Tifa was Cloud's childhood friend and the one who first offered him the job with Avalanche, the mercenary group organized against Shinra.  It turns out that Tifa and Cloud were quite good friends as children; Tifa made Cloud promise that if she ever needed him, he would come to her aid.

As it turned out, however, Tifa is quite a fighter in her own rights.  She learned her skills from a martial arts master who roamed the world looking for skilled pupils to train.  She uses no weapons in the game, but prefers to fight martial arts style with her own hands and feet.

Aeris

Cloud first meets Aeris selling flowers in the slums, but he soon finds out there is something special about this girl.  Aeris, it seems, is not a human at all, but an Ancient, a being from another world who possesses special powers.  Since Shinra would like to have what she has, they sent their "recruiters", called The Turks, after her.  The Turks resemble the Japanese mafia, and you don't say no to their requests.

In the game, you actually have a choice between having a relationship "beyond friends" with either Tifa or Aeris. Or if you're the loaner type, you can be cool to them both and stay on your own.  The game is set up so that it's more natural to develop a relationship with Aeris, but it can work however you want it to.

Aeris is more likely to use magic than to fight, but she can fight with her staff if she needs to.

Vincent

Vincent is not an essential character in the game, but he is definitely the kind of guy you want on your side.  Cloud first finds Vincent in a place of self exile.  It seems that Vincent is also an ex-Shinra employee (he used to be a "Turk"; see above) who allowed Shinra scientists to run experiments on his fiance which led to her death.  His guilt drove him to hide himself away in a sleep state for many years until Cloud finds him and gives him a chance at revenge against Shinra.

While Vincent is very handy with a pistol or rifle, his greatest attack comes with his ability to change into several different kinds of monsters, each with special devastating powers.

There are many other characters in the game, each with his or her own personality, history, and motives.  The story doesn't assume that everyone wants to join in Cloud's quest, and you will meet some who do not.  But variety is the spice of life and make this game fascinating.

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I love this game for two reasons: the visual and the intellectual.

Cloud stands outside the Shinra Headquarters Building.

On a visual level, the game is beautiful.  This has much to do with the fact that it is basically a Japanese game ported over by an American company.  It comes on 4 CDs and takes a minimum of 300MB of hard drive space (1GB for the full installation!) and it is packed with full motion video.  Characters, although fairly rough polygons, are given three dimensions and fluid, realistic movement.  Such attention to detail is given just to the movements of the characters, that even when the dialogue is boring (and it sometimes is because much is lost in the Japanese to English translations), it's great to watch the characters.  Even when they are saying nothing, they are still moving around, showing their emotions through body language.  The backgrounds are beautifully crafted, and although they are not fully interactive, there are many places and characters which are extraneous to the story line, just there to add depth.

From an intellectual standpoint, the game is geared toward a more mature audience.   This is partly due to the fact that Japanese standards of subject matter are a little more liberal than American views.  Some of the issues the game touches on are the death of a loved one, a hint of prostitution, and even cross dressing (and yes, you will have to cross dress to solve this game!).  Of course, the main plot of the story revolves around a large corporation that is destroying the environment, experimenting on humans and other living creatures, and deceiving it's customers about everything.

It's amazing to think about, but one of the main characters is killed about halfway through the game, and I have seen websites with petitions to the game creators to bring the character back.  That just goes to show how much depth the creators put into the characters in this game.  When I hit this point in the game, I confess that I had a hard time dealing with the death of this character as well, but in this game, as in life, not everything ends happily.

I don't recommend this game to anyone who doesn't have time to waste.  Supposedly, it takes 50 or more gaming hours to complete, not to mention the time wasted surfing the web for hints when you get stuck.  So to save you time, if you do try the game, here are the best sites about Final Fantasy VII.

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When I surfed the net looking for sites about FF VII, I quickly found that I wasn't alone in my praise for the game.  There are hundreds of sites out there that have something to offer about Final Fantasy VII, but I found only a few that truly are worth visiting.  Who can blame the webmasters though?  They're too busy playing the game to produce a good site!

The Company Line:  Squaresoft's own Final Fantasy page.  Of course it's a good page; they have a product to sell. Eidos, who I think now owns Squaresoft, has their FF VII page here.

The Avalanche Hideout.  I have to give this site the nod for the amount of work put into it, although I didn't find it complete.

Sephiroth no Oukoku.  Even bad guys like Sephiroth need friends, and this site shows he has some very talented ones.

Jacel's World of Final Fantasy.  Basically, this is a well organized, well stocked site.  Looks great too.  You can find cheats here, but please don't use them...

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