Square's 1997 J-RPG masterpiece Final Fantasy VII is one of the games that helped the gaming industry by which it helped to shape J-RPGs for the western markets. It was a fantastic game that is instantly recognizable and it still remains as one of the most popular J-RPGs, most popular Final Fantasy games and also still one of the best games on the PSOne console. Since the game's release it enjoyed massive success leading up to more games in the series, other J-RPGs and franchises to follow in it's footsteps alongside expanding on the universe of Final Fantasy VII with movies and games. Now I thought that with Final Fantasy VII celebrated 25 year anniversary I thought I could go back and have one more look at the Final Fantasy VII games and rank them from worst to best.
Before if I going to do this I am going to have a couple of rules in place.
Rules
No Final Fantasy VII games that are only released in Japan
No Mobile or iOS games that are discontinued so no Final Fantasy VII G-Bike or Snowboarding
No Ever Crisis Final Fantasy VII coverage here because it is not released yet
No ports of the Final Fantasy VII games because ports are an entirely different thing that can impact a game in a few ways
So with that said let's talk about each Final Fantasy VII game from worst to best and see how each hold up.
Worst - Dirge of Cerberus Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation 2)
And so we start off with what is no doubt the worst of the Final Fantasy VII lineup of games with Dirge of Cerberus Final Fantasy VII on the PlayStation 2. It was released in 2006 and it was an Action RPG spinoff with gameplay elements of a First Person & Third Person Shooter. It followed after the events of the movie Final Fantasy VII Advent Children and it had you playing as Vincent Valentine. Now Square Enix did try to improve the gameplay before releasing it for the west because they weren't happy with the way the Japanese Version turned out. Even with the tweaks Dirge of Cerberus is a very unenjoyable slog for a couple of reasons. The controls in this game are bad, you press the fire button to bring up the crosshair that puts into an aiming mode of sorts and it is clunky to get used to, the shooting lacks depth and there are only a handful of weapons on other. It does have the characters of FFVII including Cloud, Tifa, Cait Sith but the storyline is absurd and some of it just doesn't entirely make that much sense. About the main redeeming features is that the game does run at 60/50 FPS and it doesn't look all that bad even for a PS2 gmae but however it pales in comparison to other shooting games that were on the market at the time and the storyline is just ridiculous. It was mostly just an attempt to try and move the series into other genres including a shooting game but it didn't work out all that well.
Second Worst - Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier (iOS/Android)
Next up we have another Final Fantasy shooting game this time on the iOS with Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier released recently in 2021. Catching onto the popularity of the Battle Royale craze with games like Fortnite Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier is a Battle Royale game in which you compete against 75 other players to be the last player standing. You do this by scouting around the map for weapons, accessories, materia to use in combat as well as potions whilst you keep moving as the safe area moves and gets smaller and smaller. There are RPG mechanics where you fight against other players and also monsters to get your character stronger to fight against stronger players. It doesn't look all that bad for an iOS game and the presentation is really nice. This is however one of those games where you are either alone or you get killed within the first couple of seconds upon entering the battlefield or you can playing for several minutes not seeing a single person and then you are snipped out of nowhere, yep it's one of those games. The real issues with the game comes from the controls and the gameplay. The controls are incredibly awful at best and unresponsive at worst, this is one of the games where they tried to make a Third Person Shooter controls work on a touch screen device, unlike the Nintendo DS shooters like Metroid Prime Hunters, Dementium, the DS ports of Call of Duty and Goldeneye Rogue Agent where the developers really nailed the controls which made aiming rather easy to get the hang of and it felt natural, on the iOS the virtual buttons are a mess and the aiming is just terrible. If you are not aiming at somebody you are instead aiming at walls trying to get the crosshair onto somebody in which somebody else has already gotten the drop on you. I also don't think it is even possible to setup a controller on the iOS just so you can play it with easier controls making this just a chore to play. There is very little to this game so unless you really enjoy these Battle Royale type games there is little that is going to keep you coming back for more. Sure there are new seasons that add a new maps as well as additional customization items which are just more skins to unlock. This is Final Fantasy's third attempt at a shooter after Final Fantasy XV's DLC Episode Prompto and all of them are just terrible because they control bad and the gameplay on them are just very terrible.
Average - Final Fantasy VII Remake (PlayStation 4)
Now we are on to a remake that I honestly have a lot of mixed reactions about and that is the Final Fantasy VII Remake. People have been asking for a Remake of one of the biggest and most established and popular games of all time and after being teased for years we finally get a remake of Final Fantasy VII but not the way everyone was expecting or hoping to be. Now the reasons I have mixed reactions with Final Fantasy VII Remake is a couple of things. Firstly I do like the remixed tracks of the old tracks that played out including some of the battle tracks and many of them are actually really fantastic to listen to, the graphics while it does have some low resolution textures in some areas looks incredible and does legit look better than the original, when the game decides to actually follow the storyline and events of Final Fantasy VII the game truly shines but the moments are fleeting and overshadow the multitude of issues that the remake has. The game is an Action RPG that uses elements of the ATB system and it is an odd mix of the two that can be allowed to be played like a full on Action RPG combat system or you can use the menu to slow the action down to a snail's pace allowing to decide what other moves, spells or items you are going to use. The issues is that the AI isn't honestly all that reliable save or a few instances where you have to take cover or something and they will tell you and actually take cover, there is no real way to use the combat system to its fullest and the fights try way too hard to be cinematic and epic for the sake of it. The reason I say that is because nearly every enemy is a damage sponge and can take a lot of damage like its nothing, to actually get enemies to stagger you have to get the stagger meter to full so that you can actually do some major damage to them and it apply to some enemies but not others. It can be too much especially when enemies can deal a lot of damage to your party members and I found it easier to just relay on one special attack assigned to square in the Quick Commands that deals the most damage for each character as using what elemental spell an enemy is weak against as well giving everyone a healing, revive and barrier magic spells to make fights manageable. As for the storyline it is honestly a mess and full of nonsensical storyline elements that never happened in the original Final Fantasy VII game before. This is likely because the developers at Square Enix including the director Tetsuya Nomura wanted to separate the game into multiple parts with this game only covering the Midgar portion of the original story. Now why they've done this is beyond me but what we get in the Final Fantasy VII Remake is elements where they try to make Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus make sense. The issue is that they try to expand on the story elements of Midgar but not really doing a good job at it, the only exception is with Jesse who has become more of a bigger supportive character then she was in the original where as Biggs and Wedge are not all that fleshed out at all. There are even some new characters like Chadly and Leslie that try to add some depth to the new storyline but they are just honestly forgettable and don't feel like their inclusion was necessary. The worst new storyline aspect that was added in are the ghost like Dementors stolen straight from Harry Potter, those things call themselves the Arbiters of Fate where they target anyone who is trying to change the course of destiny and they will fight to ensure that everyone follows destiny and not oppose it. It's just a rather dumb plot device that goes against the story aspects of the original in a lot of ways. The storyline aspects of Midgar honestly do not feel all that expanded but rather resulted in meaningless padding where you get a bunch of sidequests in some chapters and nothing meaningful happens. Yep this whole portion of Midgar doesn't feel expanded but they instead padded the hell out if it as result of restricting the game to only the Midgar portion of the story. You can tell that what they are going for is that this is a reboot or a re-imagining of the original game at the very worst and we have to wait for the later parts to see where they going with the story. There was a later Intergrade release for the PS5 and eventually the PC which improved the visuals and they do make the game look a lot better then how it looked on PS4 before they patched it. It also added a rather pointless new chapter following Yuffie and honestly why did they think that it was necessary to have a chapter following Yuffie and some new guy following her wondering around Midgar. It just feels out of place. We are going to inevitably get a part 2 of the FFVII Remake saga but it does look like that it is going to take a whole decade before we see the entire original storyline remade. As it is Final Fantasy VII Remake just doesn't feel like the remake it could have been and just changes too much of what made Final Fantasy VII an incredible game to begin with.
Second Best - Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation Portable)
Moving onwards we have the least disappointing of the Final Fantasy VII titles with Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII which came out in Japan first in 2007 and then the West in 2008. Crisis Core is a prequel to the events that happened in the original Final Fantasy VII game where the player controlled Zack Fair working for the Shinra Organisation as part of SOLDIER who are Shinra's elite fighting unit. It starts out with the war between Shinra and the Wutai, Genesis and Angeal's disappearance, project G and explaining what really happened in the Nibelheim incident and how it lead to Zack taking up the legendary Buster Sword. Crisis Core actually has a fair bit of fan-service compared to the other FFVII games including the recent Final Fantasy VII Remake letting you explore Midgar as well as the Shinra headquarters, it even includes Cloud, Sephiroth, the turks Reno & Rude as well as Aerith plus the storyline does somewhat feel that it is part of the actual Final Fantasy VII storyline. Zack Fair has gone on to become of the most favourable characters of Final Fantasy VII compared to Cloud Strife being that he is more open to people and is more cheerful but yet naïve and cocky. The storyline has it's moments too, I like the showdown between Sephiroth, Angeal and Genesis in a cool cinematic as well as the relationship between Zack and Cloud as well the inevitable fate with Zack at the end of the game which is then where the original Final Fantasy VII game would take place. The game looked really incredible especially for a PSP game and had remixed versions of music tracks found in the original. Now as for gameplay it is an Action RPG where you had the main story objectives but you also can participate in different sidequests that are unlocked as you progress. The Materia System returns allowing you to equip Zack with Materia that grants him different spells, abilities and as well as stat boosts, they can also be fused and upgraded to make Materia stronger or make a new Materia all together. The game does have its problems, first of all the storyline while it has its moments suffers from some uneven character development most notably with Genesis the game's main antagonist and also Angeal who is Zack's stern but kind mentor. I never found Genesis to be all that interesting for a villain and Angeal's actions even with the project G stuff that's happened to him to be questionable. I can point out that Angeal was originally the user for the Buster Sword but he would never use that sword at all in battle. Anyway in combat Zack is on his own and it plays as an Action RPG with real time combat similar to games like Kingdom Hearts and the Tales of Series just only it somewhat slower paced. You either basic attacks or use whatever spells or other abilities that are equipped by what materia you have on. The battle system isn't really anything that has a lot of depth to it but however it does have one strange system that you're either going to like it or hate it, what I'm talking about is the Digital Mind Wave system (DMW for short). The DMW is a slot machine like system which the three slots start rolling and if three pictures match it will do a limit break in corresponding to the matching pictures shown as well as giving you a power surge which temporally applies a boost to your HP & MP, if you get a matching number combo you will increase the level of one of your materia and getting three 7s will increase your character's level. It's a full on RNG system where you have no idea what the DMW is going to land on and plenty of times it is going to screw you over and give you nothing. It's a very strange system and honestly never been a fan of it especially when I went through the game myself. As for the combat, it's not all that great either. The story battles are way too easy and the sidequests can literally buff your character up too quickly making the story fights a joke. The sidequests literally are just go to the objective point and then take out the boss target and it recycles the same maps over and over again plus you either plough through the sidequests without any challenge or end up against enemies who just straight up one shot you with instant kill spells or abilities. There are exploits that you can use to make grinding easier but some of the sidequests can still be rather tedious and boring to go through. What's sad that I really wanted to like Crisis Core because the storyline while there is some uneven character development does feel like it is part of the Final Fantasy VII universe and Zack is a fantastic and relatable protagonist. It's just some of the gameplay elements like the slow combat that has no real balance and the DMW system is a strange system that has solely relies on RNG for leveling up your character and materia or using Limit Breaks and I just don't like it at all. There has been talks that Square Enix could consider doing a remake or remaster of the game but however that is happening on the Ever Crisis Final Fantasy VII mobile game for iOS and I sure as am not looking forward to it. Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII has got some enjoyable aspects but it is let down in a couple of key areas and that is a shame.
Best - Final Fantasy VII (1997) (PSOne)
Now we finally come to the definite winner of all the Final Fantasy VII games and it is no doubt the original 1997 release on the PSOne. When it come out Final Fantasy VII was one of the most influential games which would help popularize J-RPGs for the western markets and it was well praised for the excellent storyline, characters that we've come to know and love over the years, CGI cutscenes which were cool at the time, music and of course the gameplay. It is still an enjoyable RPG to back to despite the translation and the polygon character models outside of battle receiving a fair number of criticism at the time. The game used a Materia System where you can equip characters with materia which gives them different spells and other abilities which will increase their magic stats but would lower their physical stats. Many of the materia abilities are useful whole others not so much like the manipulation ability for instance being absolutely worthless. It had some enjoyable minigames like the G-Bike sequence , really enjoyable battle screens especially the way the camera pans around to see the special attack animations going off. The bosses were really cool and were challenging and fun to take on including some of the optional challenges that you could take on not to mention it used an Active Time Battle system where enemies can take their turns and attack while you are busy inputting your commands to your party members. The storyline followed Cloud Strife an EX-SOLDIER turned mercenary who teams up with AVALANCHE a small resistance team fighting against the Shinra Corporation who are draining the world's energy with their Mako reactors and then later the story goes into matters involving a dying race called the Cetra, Cloud's memories as SOLDIER and also a dangerous villain who's named is forever carved into the Final Fantasy community's head, the one winged angel himself Sephiroth. Sephiroth alongside Kefka from Final Fantasy VI have gone on to become one of the best villains in all of gaming not just in RPGs. Sephiroth was memorable for the shear fear that he brought to gamers with the carnage he left behind when he first broke into Shinra HQ in Midgar. He killed off Aerith one of your major party members as well as breaking Cloud down and revealed his true memories. Fighting Sephiroth was no easy task at the end of the game and listening to the one winged angel battle track will be forever be most memorable tracks in the whole game. I still that even with all of the new Final Fantasy VII game releases the original Final Fantasy VII still stands tall as the victor even with the rough translation and the character models which is something that adds to the charm considering the game's age.
With that we have come to the end, what were your favorite Final Fantasy VII games from worst to best?
Written by Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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