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Final Fantasy VII is more than just a video game. To over six million people worldwide, it is something much, much more important that that. It's not something you play. It's something you live.
The best game ever. That's what console magazines the world over said about FFVII when it was first released. But only two years later, FFVIII storms onto the scene with its exquisite rendered graphics and "look-what-I-can-do-better" attitude, and suddenly "the most powerful PlayStation game in the world" as Computer & Video Games dubbed it, isn't so special any more.
But in the end, FFVII could turn out to be the most "special" game in console history. The endlessly-grinding Internet rumour mill has it that after FFVIII, the Final Fantasy title will be dropped from the series - presumably to reflect the fact that FFVIII has taken everything that Final Fantasy stands for and mutilated it beyond recognition (Cloud says with more than a touch of sarcasm.) So, in effect, FFVII could be the last true Final Fantasy we ever see. Something that special surely deserves a place in gaming history for all eternity.
And yet, if not for the efforts of the devoted fans who keep the candle burning, Final Fantasy VII would surely fade away, swept into oblivion like so much Midgar dust. Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Aeris - the characters whose lives we poured our hearts and souls into, left unwanted and forgotten by some half-hearted, upstart clone with more impressive CGI rendering. *Cloud wipes a teardrop from the spacebar, lest it trickle between the keys, blow up his computer, set the house on fire and eventually destroy the neighbourhood in an ironic tragedy of Nibelheim-esque proportions.*
Sickening, isn't it. But it doesn't have to be that way. As long as we refuse to give in to the hype, as long as we continue to worship Final Fantasy VII for the epic it truly is, and promise ourselves that we will never, ever forget this unique experience that has not just shaped our lives, but become the very way we live them... then perhaps, just perhaps, the legend will survive. Amen. *Cloud gets off his soapbox.*
This BG made possible by Windows Draw, BitMorph 3.0, and some extremely talented yet unknown artist. All rights reserved, e.t.c.
