Into Midgar we go! I hope I don’t bore you with my Maechen imitation, but I’m seeing so many things now that I didn’t understand the first time I played FFVII. Warning: there will be spoilers referring to events later in the game.
The opening FMV is still a lot of fun, with retro CGI graphics transitioning smoothly into live gameplay.
While I’ve been enjoying my 8 month sojourn in 16bit/retroland, it feels luxurious to come back to a PS1 game with backgrounds detailed enough for storefronts. (I briefly misread “Goblins Bar” as “Goblins Ban[k]” and was thinking, “Gringotts” even though this game predates HP.) And yep, there’s Loveless, a play that’s referenced in most of the FF7 spinoffs. Someday I need to get my hands on Crisis Core.
Aeris’ etherial appearance contrasted with urban grunge is a startling juxtaposition, reminding me of my own experience moving from green countryside to the big city (which I’ve since fled). She walks the old-school players out of the shadows and into the Brave New World of FF7, where the visual setting is now a major (if not the dominant) character in the story, as it will be for all future FFs.
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Well, I’ve come to the game that launched a thousand spin-offs, FFVII. To my surprise, I’m really looking forward to replaying it again, although like VI it has some draggy bits where I’ve gotten stuck and abandoned it on previous playthroughs.
