Final Fantasy 7
Mar 22, 2025
This post is part of the Games that Moved Me series where I break down how classic video games felt when they were released.
Before it was a hugely popular mainstream series, Final Fantasy flew under the radar as a nerdy RPG. The previous North American titles (FF, FF2, FF3) had beautiful pixel art and stories and a ton of charm but were not widely known.
Final Fantasy 7 changed that. It was one of the first console games that felt truly cinematic. The story was deep, the environments were immersive, the backgrounds and fmv cutscenes felt unreal, the characters felt realistic and flawed, the soundtrack was iconic and varied.. I could go on and on.
It was one of those games that just made you drop your jaw over and over again.
Picture yourself in high school popping this disc in on a Friday night in a dark room experiencing this intro:
The intro is moody and atmospheric. It feels intimate (the flower girl walking down the street) but also epic and expansive (the Blade Runner-style zoom out across Midgar). The cutscenes blend into gameplay relatively seamlessly (if you can deal with a bit of judder) and the action sequence throws you right into gameplay.
At this point I had played a ton of cinematic PC games (Wing Commander III, Full Throttle) but none of them managed to capture the feeling of being placed in a movie the way that FF7 did. It may be hard to believe given the blocky characters but at the time it was mind blowing.
Art Style: Beautiful backgrounds and cinematic cut scenes
Final Fantasy has always pushed the boundaries on art. Its box art (typically hand painted by Yoshitaka Amano) was top notch and stood out on shelves. The town backgrounds and character designs were iconic. But they always felt set in a heavy fantasy world (before the LotR movies made that cool).
Final Fantasy 7 managed to nail an art style that felt modern, edgy, and much more mature. It was more cyberpunk than steampunk. It used hues of neon mixed with dark grungy colors. It was very on trend with late 90's movies like Blade or The Matrix.
Final Fantasy 7 made it clear that video games were no longer just for kids and angsty teenagers.
Characters
Soundtrack
Story
I'm Brad. I write about creativity, tapping into my intuition, and living life to the fullest. I send out a brief email whenever I publish a new video or blog post.