Listen, I’m so tired of being a contrarian forever. Yeah Fallout 2 is the worst thing since South Park, because that’s fun. And it’s the same for JRPGs, I don’t wanna have to battle people over whether or not Dragon Quest V is an abusive father, or Final Fantasy IV is mid but III is the real good shit.

But VII kinda rocks. Yes the Wall Market section is troubling in various ways, the game almost fails to pass the Bechdel test (nobody has ever been done dirtier than Tifa imo) and this Cid might be the worst yet, but it’s such a big step up–in enviroment detail and storytelling, in the battle system, in stinky little triangles–over Final Fantasy VI, and it’s yaoibait with an antagonist seme who actually has some sort of a motive and gives everyone else a reason to do stuff. Also capitalists get got which is pretty funny. The game tries to pull punches with Barrett’s ‘I was just doing it cuz I was mad’ but nah, How To Blow Up A Mako Reactor, actually.

After six games straight that desperately tried and failed to be adequate visualisers to their Nobuo Ooematsu soundtracks, VII actually did it. I can totally see why people flipped about FFVII and it made a huge impact, actually. Three minute long summon animations and SGI workstations was the secret sauce.