Final Fantasy VII (1997)

Final Fantasy VII is, deservedly, one of the most analyzed and celebrated games of all time, so there’s no insight I can offer into its greatness—especially in a relatively brief slideshow blurb—that hasn’t already been made a thousand times over. Instead, I’ll relay a memory. During my senior year of college, some friends and I had a borrowed PlayStation in the apartment we were sharing, much to the detriment of our studies, and the discovery of that game’s world, the struggles of its characters, and the monumental achievement of its design became part of the fabric of that year for us.

I’d been playing games my whole life, but in so many ways, Final Fantasy VII was like nothing I’d ever played before–so grandiose, so thematically complex, so audacious and spectacular. I’ll never forget one of my roommates coming back from class one afternoon, tossing his backpack down on the ground and shouting, “Gold chocobo!” before recommitting himself to the grind for the precious bird. We knew the world of Final Fantasy VII still held secrets we hadn’t yet attained, and we wanted to explore it for all its mysteries before venturing to that fateful final confrontation with Sephiroth. In the decades since, so many games have given us worlds that are more vast, more graphically detailed, more packed with time-wasting “content,” but I don’t know that there’s ever been a world that was more memorable and astounding, or that has served as the setting for a more epic and unforgettable tale. – Carolyn Petit