The saddest death: Cait Sith, who sacrifices himself to save the party from blowing up. He is greatly missed, until his replacement arrives.

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The second-saddest death: Yes, yes, I know. It’s hard to talk about Final Fantasy VII without talking about Sephiroth stabbing Aeris through the gut. There are several good reasons for that. It’s a shocking, well-executed moment that crushes the unsuspecting player not just because Aeris was a sweet girl, but because she was a party member—one who you would never be able to control in combat again. Plus, there’s that music.

Even today, it’s uncommon for a role-playing game to kill off a main character in that way. Designers don’t often like to spend half a game letting the player grow attached to a party member, then rip that party member away. It might infuriate the player, make them stop playing, or, worse, convince them to bring the game to GameStop and trade it in for $3.50. Killing Aeris was a bold move, and it had a massive impact on anyone who played Final Fantasy VII before someone could spoil it for them.

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Best boss: Jenova LIFE, who pops up right after Aeris’s death. Whereas previous fights against Jenova were scored by her eerie theme song, this battle just keeps playing Aeris’s Theme, which is unsettling.

Here’s the fun part: Jenova LIFE uses nothing but water attacks. And if you were paying attention, you picked up a Water Ring just a few minutes earlier that will protect one of your characters from all water attacks. If you equipped it, there’s no way to lose.

The designers of Final Fantasy VII, knowing that you (and Cloud) are likely still traumatized from Aeris’s untimely death, decide to let you work out your aggression on a boss that can’t beat you. All the while, Aeris’s Theme just continues to play in the background, reminding you of what you just lost. It’s an incredible sequence, and one that stuck with me for a very long time when I first played it.

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It’s too bad: The translation is so awful. If the English version of Final Fantasy VII had been written with as much care as, say, Final Fantasy IX a couple years later, it would hold up far better today.

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Best character: Cloud, who starts off as a stereotype (“look at me, I am a badass, look how badass I am”) but gradually evolves over the course of the story in large part because a whole lot of fucked-up things keep happening to him. He is traumatized both physically and mentally throughout the game, and it turns him into a stronger, better person. And therefore a stronger, better character.

Worst character: In retrospect, it’s gotta be Cid, who has a great theme song but is actually an abusive husband!! Cid sucks.

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The best dungeon: Shinra HQ, a massive skyscraper that you invade early in Final Fantasy VII. It is still perhaps the only JRPG dungeon that’s set entirely in an office building. For the first 60 floors of Shinra HQ, you can choose to either ride the elevator or walk up 60 flights of stairs, which is just as monotonous as it sounds (yet still somehow satisfying). Then you get to the upper floors, where you’ll have to solve puzzles and complete minigames, talking to corporate Shinra workers along the way. On the 63rd floor gym, you can go talk to Shinra’s head of security, who doesn’t seem to realize that you’re infiltrating the building he is supposed to secure. Moments like those are what make Final Fantasy VII great.

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Fun fact: Aeris’s theme—the iconic piano-heavy song that’s sure to bring a tear to any RPG fan’s eye—is actually a riff on Aria di Mezzo Carattere (aka: the Opera House theme) from Final Fantasy VI.

The best piece of music: This is a really tough one, because Final Fantasy VII’s soundtrack might be Nobuo Uematsu’s best work.. Highwind Takes To The Skies? Cid’s theme? Maybe the main theme? I DON’T KNOW, MAN.

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Best summon: Knights of the Round, which makes no sense and takes forever and destroys everything.

Best example of a villain refusing to fight you because he’s busy getting a tan:

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Another fun fact: In the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VII, there’s a hidden boss fight in the bottom of a well in Corel called Test 0, as was described in the Unauthorized Versus strategy guide for Final Fantasy VII. Although Square removed this fight (which seems like a glitch) from the North American version of the game, you can see video of it here:

Yet another fun fact: Back in 1997, there were all sorts of rumors floating around the internet about how you could bring Aeris back to life. Many of them involved getting some sort of elusive materia that would allow you to breathe underwater. Although none of those rumors were true, many early Final Fantasy VII players didn’t realize that you can actually get a piece of materia that allows you to breathe underwater, by doing a sidequest for an NPC in Kalm. This materia removes the time limit for the ultra-hard Emerald Weapon boss, making him significantly less unpleasant.

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Best character who is never explained and does nothing but still gets screen time for some reason: Johnny

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Does the game still hold up? It does. Final Fantasy VII’s MIND-BLOWING GRAPHICS haven’t aged nearly as well as its 16-bit predecessors, but the game still has panache, and all of that charming weirdness is just as appealing today as it was in 1997. When I play it today, I can understand why people thought it was so special, even when I’m holding back a chuckle while watching Cloud gesticulate with his goofy blocky arms.

Next time: Floating schools and mopy teens...

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