Final Fantasy 7 Review
Time has been cruel to Final Fantasy 7 – but perhaps not in the ways you expect. Sure, its 330 locations, pre-rendered in the finest CGI that yen could buy in 1997, now appear jagged and antiquated: a steam-punk world viewed through the mist of an 8-bit kettle. Its characters, once seemingly the most expressive actors ever pushed onto a video game stage, are now as strange as balloon animals, all bulges and protractions, their weird deformation all the more grotesque in high resolution. But it’s not these surface aspects of the game that have been most wounded by time’s arrow. Rather, Final Fantasy 7 has suffered from 15 years of myth, anecdote and opinion. Primary-coloured headlines, fawning editorials and bar-stool critiques have overlooked much of the nuance of what is a broad, generous game – far more interesting and complex than the love/hate apologising accounts for. The second best-selling game on Sony’s PlayStation, it’s also known as the most returned video game of all time – players reportedly lured in by the visuals then repelled by the foreign foibles of the Japanese role-playing genre. Detractors accuse this flamboyant production, which cost $45 million and required 100 staff – unprecedented numbers at the time – of having spoiled the purity of the medium in its Hollywood-facing ambition. After all, here is an experience as much film as it is game, with its 40 minutes of video cut-scenes. Meanwhile, breathless thirtysomethings recount breaking down in tears at the unexpected turns of its story – these fans endlessly demanding a remake so that they just might feel that keenness of adolescent catharsis again. Read more…
You May Also Want To Read:
