Final Fantasy VII

I'm wrting this because I realized I didn't actually touch on this game before, maybe some of the off shoots, but never actually gave this one an in depth review. Mainly I didn't do it because I felt spiteful about how as soon as Playstation came out with new graphics, Square abandoned it's roots in telling great stories with super deforemed midget sprites and jumped on the polygon bandwagon and everyone loves it because it had flashy graphics even though it was basically just the previous game done over again. But I got over it swallowed my pride, and gave this game a shot. If you have een living under a rock since 1997, here's what happened:

The game starts you in the middle of the story, like seriously after all of the flashbacks and prequel games, you realize you are really smack dab in the frickin' middle of this thing when the game opens with Cloud already in the middle of a mission with the eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE getting ready to blow up a power plant. Yeah, how's that for being thrown right in the deep end, you start planting a bomb in the first few minutes of the game. If you're too young to know what an eco terrorist group is, because they just aren't quite as big as, say, religious extremist terrorist groups are now, back in the nineties, people were big into saving the Earth and major companies who cared more about their bottom line than the environment were seen as the bad guys because they produced large amounts of toxic waste, used up lots of resources and built over pristine wilderness with no regard for wildlife. Eco-terrorists were the opposite extreme going as far as blowing up office buildings and factories to stop the pollution, even at the cost of human lives. Since it was current and topical, Square thought this was a good premise for a Final Fantasy game, at least as a starting point. AVALANCHE only has four or five members including their leadr Barret Wallace, a large black man with a gun for a hand(to be explained later, actually very relevant to the plot) and they hire Cloud Strife, a mercenary and ex-SOLDIER with an agenda of his own. SOLDIER is the private military of the Shinra Electric Company, the company that sells materia(the stuff that you use to perform magic, summons, skills, and augment stats), and whose mako reactors are going to be bombed by your hero. AVALNCHE believes that Shinra is destroying the planet, but they don't quite know just how right they are. The game starts in Midgar, a city that is like New York City, only it's owned by Shinra. There is no real government in this world, Shinra is the closest thing you'll get. After bombing two reactors, Cloud gets separated from the others when he falls through the roof of a church and meets Aerith. This church is inexplicably the only place where flowers grow in all of Midgar and Aerith sells these flowers and tries to keep a low profile, but somehow draws the attention of the Turks(kind fo like the CIA) who are chasing Cloud and suddenly decide she's also important, but it's not quite clear why. Cloud elps her escape and she offers to guide him back to his friends from the slums where they are but they get a little side tracked when Cloud notices his friend Tifa is in trouble. They help Tifa, but Aerith gets caught and AVALANCHE is killed except for Barret, Tifa and Cloud, and Shinra is responsible for both. Cloud leads the team to rescue Aerith, avenge their comrades, and take down Shinra once and for all. First they sneak into Shinra headquarters to find Aerith who has been thrown in a cage with a beast and if you didn't read the instruction manual or any of the promotional material it looks like a boss fight, but it turns out the beast is Red XIII and he just wants to escape and go home like everybody else, so he agrees to join the group and use his ferocity to help. Just when it looks like they're about to take down the president of Shinra, it appears someone has beaten them to it leaving a sword that is familiar to Cloud. But before all the pieces can be put together, they all make their escape, with Cloud jumping on a motorcycle and everybody else jumping in a truck which they steal from a display on the ground floor and Cloud provides cover while they leave the city.

A lot has happened and you just now hit the world map for the first time. Your first stop is the nearest town where you take a rest and Cloud explains the significance of the sword that killed the president of Shinra, it's the Masamune, an unwieldy zanbato that belongs to Sephiroth, a SOLDIER that Cloud believes he killed five years earlier. He tells the story about how they went to Cloud's hometown of Nibelheim on a misson where Sephiroth discovered the truth of his own existence, he was created by Shinra from a sample from a specimen known as Jenova that was actually being kept in Nibelheim. Sephiroth snapped and burned the town to the ground and tried to make off with Jenova, Cloud realized Sephiroth had to be stopped and fought him, Cloud was stabbed by Masamune, and Cloud desperately tilted the blade with his whole body while it was still in him, throwing Sephiroth down a hole to his doom. Or so he thought, it seems Sephiroth is alive, and to get to the bottom of this, Cloud wants to go back to Nibelheim. Tifa seems troubled by Cloud's recollection because she was there as Sephiroth's guide, but shrugs it off when Cloud tries to talk to her about it.

On the way to Nibelhiem, they end up at the Gold Saucer, a ridiculous casino that's like the whole Vegas Strip crossed with Disney World. Here they meet Cait Sith which appears at first to be a fortune telling animatronic cat riding an animatronic moogle. Cait Sith is actually a spy bot controlled by Reeve Tuesti, Shinra's housing commisioner who turns the tables on Barret by revealing that he has Barret's daughter Marlene held hostage and they will be taking Cait Sith along or else. They end up thrown down to a prison pit in the desert that nobody can escape except to play for their freedom in the arena for the entertainmanet of the resort's guests. Before that happens, Barret has an unfotuate encounter with another guy who has a gun for an arm, his old friend from a mining town that Shinra used up and left behind ad when Barret tried to stand up to Shinra, they were run out of town and Barret's friend fell off a cliff, Barret tried to give hs friend a hand and help him back up, but Shinra forces shot at them severing the hands that they were holding on to each other with, leading Barret to believe his friend was dead and he put a gun in place of his lost hand to remind himself to avenge his friend. Now that he found his friend is alive and went even more psycho, Barret has to settle things. With Barret's backstory revealed, we return to the present and Cloud leads the arty to win not only their freedom, but also a car to drive out of the desert and onward toward Nibelheim. Of course the car breaks down and they need to stop for repairs in Cosmo Canyon which happens to be home to Red XIII known in these parts as Nanaki. We get a quick bit of background on him, he finds out his father didn't abandon him he died being literally petrified while protecting the canyonfrom an invading tribe, and he gets the Seraph Comb(a kinda cool weapon), but it still doesn't explain what he is. Next stop Nibelhiem where eveything is normal and Cloud is confused, because nobody remembers him or the fire. The party continues on to find Cid Highwind an old retired Shinra pilot who is bitter about unrealized aspirations to be an astronaut. The Turks show up and Cid gets dragged into the party's conflict and flies them to the Temple of the Ancients where they believe all of their answers lie. They find the Black Materia and Sephiroth telepathically messes with Cloud's mind. Aerith abandons the group and heads north. Aerith is a Cetra, and has a special connection to the planet and is trying to secure the White Materia which will counter the Black Materia in a worst case scenario(which of course will happen). Cloud and the others catch up with Aerith in time to witness Sephiroth kill her and then we discover the truth about the Sephiroth clones, which he claims Cloud is. tifa dmits that it wasn't Cloud in Nibelhiem, it was Zack, Aerith's boyfriend. Cloud is confused and Sephiroth takes advantage of the moment to take the Black Materia.

The team is separated, but they eventually find Cloud recovering at a clinicin the south, but he's clearly gone mentally. Finally, Cloud discovers the real truth, he was a mere infantryman guarding Zack and Sephiroth, he was wearing a helmet that obscured his face which is why Tifa didn't recognize him, but most of what he remembered was otherwise accurate. Now they are ready to stop Sephiroth, but he has already activated the Black Materia, dropping a meteor on the planet. Don't worry though, the meteor will hang in the sky for as long as it takes to defeat Sephiroth. As for why, his plan is that just as blood flows toward a wound to heal it, if he blows a crater straight to the core of the planet, he figures all the mako energy will flow to him and make him a god. what's really crazy is that it kind of would have worked, but you stop him first. The biggest moments here are when Sephortoth transforms into the "One-Winged Angel"(Actually seven because he's a seraph plus his one black wing) and the final duel with Cloud which is just for show, select Omnislash and watch Cloud finish him off(man that will be even more awesome in the remake). Then the meteor drops and the white materia activates and saves the world in what was the most beautiful cinematic sequence in any video game at that time.

For the remake, if you're listening Square, please correct Barrets's speech and the Turks pluralization/singularization and for the love of all that is good and holy, please explain what the hell Red XIII is! I'd also appreciate something with Cait Sith that makes him make more sense too, but really I'd just settle for Nanaki getting explained, because I just don't know why you put him in and left us hanging.