Final Fantasy 7: Ten years on

Ten years ago, a solitary videogame dragged me kicking and screaming away from my until then relatively normal existence and into the dark, cold and lonely world of the so called ‘Hardcore’ gamer.

It triggered a change in me that would remove any healthy social activities I had left in my life. Sunday league football was abandoned, in favour of lazy lie-ins recovering from the Saturday nights gaming session. Playing out was replaced by browsing various games related internet forums, conversing with complete strangers.

You would think I would resent this game intensely, for turning me into a academic underachiever and a social recluse in the space of a few short years. But I don’t.

So what mere videogame could be so good to excuse this unsightly metamorphosis? Well as you may have guessed from the title. It’s Final Fantasy 7.

In the days before internet forums or even indeed the internet *shudder*. I chose it from the shelves of my local rental store on the strength of the cover art alone . I didn’t get far, I didn’t even get out of Midgar during the following 3 days, yet my eight year old self was hooked and wanting more.

The pure scale of the thing was what initially hit me, fresh out of the 16 bit Mega Drive era, the game was huge. In the same way people are today struck by the enormity and immersion of game worlds offered by Oblivion or even the Grand theft auto series. For a impressionable eight year old with little previous gaming experience to be introduced to a large, varied, vibrant and most of all 3D game world as impressively pulled off as in FF7 was a devastatingly huge leap from the 2D sprite based levels of Sonic the Hedgehog.

A few months later and Santa Claus delivered this bundle of joy to me, overjoyed, my love affair with the game continued unabated over the next few months. Being young and not yet ‘Hardcore’ in my passion for gaming the game took me the better part of a year to complete, which perhaps goes some way to explaining my obsession with the game. It was a constant presence for a sizable length of my childhood. The clock had stopped rolling at 99:99 long before completion as I aimlessly stumbled about soaking in the game’s delights. It had taken me a timeframe similar to the game itself, the better part of a year, to complete the game, which inevitably gave me a feeling of resolution, relief and joy somewhat similar the characters themselves that a more hardened gamer completing it in the space of a week might not have.

However citing this as the main reason for my love of the game would be unfair, on my subsequent visits to the game In more recent years in more mature, cynical state the quality still continues to shine through as brightly as it did 10 years ago.

Final Fantasy 7’s story is as clichéd as, well, other Final Fantasy’s. Hero faces inner struggle, village gets burnt down and world is doomed by mysterious villain, it’s textbook fantasy. What separates it from its predecessors and even now from its followers is the deceptively dark game world. People died in FF7 despite your best efforts to save them, not only supporting characters but the central cast were also not invulnerable from the grip of the Grim Reaper. Every beautifully rendered member of your party had its own convoluted pasts and intertwining sub plots and reasons for being other than ‘saving the world!’. Your hero; Cloud, was and remains the very definition of the troubled, but not (too) angst(y), anti hero in videogames, rather than your generic whiter than white poster boy that still plague videogames and even the series itself today.

All this, set to the backdrop of the near future alternative reality of Gaia, where castles were replaced by Corporation headquarters and dungeons replaced by MAKO reactors gave a dark twist to the traditional ‘save the world/princess’ storyline, which Final Fantasy, for the most part, still followed.

Every member of the Squaresoft team was on top of their game for not only the series first foray into the fifth generation but its debut on the yet unproven Sony Playstation brand.

Nowhere is this excellence more personified in the musical score written by the legendary veteran Nobuo Uematsu and the bold distinctive Manga influenced character designs of relative newcomer Tetsuya Nomura.

A constant presence on all Final Fantasy scores since FF2, only recently taking a break on FF12 which unfortunately suffers from a bland inspiring soundtrack in his absence. Uematsu’s score for Final Fantasy 7 was and remains his opus. His songs carry the memories of long forgotten locations and long since fought battles in their rousing melodies. They personify ably each character without simplifying them and stir emotions from the games many highs and lows. None more so than the rousing Aeris’s theme, which both serves to not only remind you of the game’s lowest low but also carries a hopeful, stirring vision of hope. It is one of the few original game scores that deserves to be listened to in its own right, rather than just to serve as a nostalgia trip and compliment the game it stands out on its own as a brilliant piece of music. The many live orchestral and, in the case of the Black Mages, rock renditions of the soundtrack confirm this as a serious standalone piece of music all created on the most constricting of audio technologies, MIDI, it is nothing short of amazing.

Despite the graphical leap from previous incarnations Nomura has stated he felt the graphical limitations prevented him from achieving his ‘true style’. The clean manga style does stand out In particular from the more photo realistic designs seen in future Final Fantasies in particular 7’s immediate successor FF8. However they remain amongst the strongest seen in the series and definitely show no signs of compromise which is testament to his versatility as an artist.

The bold and simple designs make no apologies for revealing the characters traits in their attire, however the game is not cheapened as a result. As much as the strength of Uematsu’s soundtrack is displayed by its many live renditions. The quality of the cast of FF7 is shown not only by the dozens of badly dressed Clouds and Sephiroths at any self respecting Cosplayers convention, but by the wide range of favourites the game generates, many love the quiet struggle of Cloud Strife, just as many love the spunkiness and vitality of Yuffie Kisagari.

However the highest testament of the character design is the love shown to the villain of the piece, despite shedding a tear as many other’s did over the result of his most dastardly deed, I still love Sephiroth, I wanted to be him for a brief period. He was the very definition of badass cool, his long flowing grey locks and ridiculously sized Masumane outdid even Clouds admittedly impressive Barnet and Buster Sword and like all good villains you wanted him to win just a little bit, deep down you know you did.

I could go on forever about the quality of every aspect of the game, In particular the gorgeous map design and the ingenious battle and Materia system that has yet to be bettered. But if you don’t know about it already, you owe it to yourself to find out about these things for yourself and treat yourself to the most cinematic gaming experience ever created. Forget Metal Gear Solid, this did it first and better.

Embrace your music

Eager collectors of music, of which Last Fm has many, have a tendency to consume far more than they can digest. Moving onto the next artist or album before necessarily becoming familiar with their previous obsession.

A habit of which I am more than familiar with, a quick glance through my iTunes library reveals that around a quarter of my 4,000 songs do not have a solitary play count. Not to mention the 1,000 on top of that, that have only been listened to once.

1,000 songs sitting on my computer taking up 5.5 gigabytes of valuable hard drive space that have never been played.

Taking that rough estimate a bit further into territory that might not necessarily be true that’s 150 albums and 125 artists that I’ve neglected to listen to.

It’s a wasteful habit that has and continues to deprive me of quality music. Of course the quantity of music I acquire introduces me to a lot of excellent albums and artists, only today I fell it love with Slayer’s unrelentingly thrashtastic Reign In Blood. But who’s to say there isn’t another dozen Reign In Blood’s, Ok Computer’s or Wish You Were Here’s amongst the 150 albums I’ve neglected to listen to?

Often the best music takes multiple listens to ‘click’, I hated Dark Side of the Moon and found Ok Computer tedious and dull at first, but nothing beats that eureka moment of not only discovering great new music, but discovering new music that you have persisted with despite discouraging initial listens.

We’re all on the search for that new favourite artist, album or even song. But sometimes it’s lying right beneath our noses.

So instead of buying that latest release, have a rummage through the more murky depths of your music collection and dust off that album you never gave a chance. You might just like it.

2 Nights in London with Prince

A little prologue on my long term love affair…

Prince currently lies 6th in my ‘Top Artists Overall’ list on Last.fm. Quite an achievement when he was closer to 36th this time last month only wheeled out for a cursory listen of mega rock ballad Purple Rain and a few other choice tracks off Sign ’O’ the times, recommended to me by a well meaning friend but assigned to languish in the lower reaches after failing to ‘click’ with me.

After enjoying the Planet Earth freebie. I downloaded the album Purple Rain and its rawer and rockier sound instantly clicked with me. As his 21 night ’Purple Reign’ drew closer a promotional email from Ticketmaster and a short transaction later I had tickets for the opening night, August 1st. I hurriedly downloaded several choice Prince classics, according to Allmusic at least, and begun my last minute revision of the purple pocket rocker. Once again nothing immediately clicked it would take a mighty opening night performance to earn the 111 listens he’s gotten this week.



August 1st 2007, 02 Arena, London

UK Hall of Fame video intro
01. Purple Rain
02.Girls & Boys (included D.M.S.R. lyrics towards the end)
03. Satisfied
04. Cream
05. U Got The Look
06. Shhh
07. Musicology
08. I Feel For You
09. Controversy
10. What A Wonderful World (Mike Phillips & Renato intermission)
11. Somewhere Here On Earth
12. Lolita
13. Black Sweat
14. Kiss
15. If I Was Your Girlfriend
16. Pink Cashmere (included The One U Wanna C lyrics)
17. 7
18. Come Together
19. Take Me With U
20. Guitar
1st Encore
21. Planet Earth
2nd Encore
22.Crazy
23.Nothing Compares 2 U
24. Let's Go Crazy
3rd Encore (solo Prince on electric guitar)
25. Little Red Corvette
26. Raspberry Beret
27. Sometimes It Snows in April
(band returns)
28. Get On The Boat
29. Sexy Dancer (music) / Le Freak (lyrics)
30. A Love Bizarre


It threatened to be very self congratulatory as the houselights went out and a video ran on the big screens suspended above the stage, featuring various talking heads such as Pharrel, Salma Hayek and Joni Mitchell, all reminding us how innovative and masterful the man is or perhaps was.

Luckily as the opening chords of what could only be Purple Rain rang out and he rose from a lift hidden in the centre of the stage in a cloud of dry ice there was little doubt that he had remembered to bring something for the fans, no matter how ‘hardcore’ or ‘casual’ we were, Prince had brung the hits.

Despite the sound being less than satisfactory, with Prince’s vocals muffled under a droning echoey bass and his trade marking screaming guitar strangled by overbearing keys.

However as is often the case with sterile Arena shows like this the sound quality is only half the battle when winning over the audience. Thankfully Prince at least tonight showed why is he is the gold standard when it comes to live performances even if the sound is a bit crappy. Its hard to take your eyes off a performer once described as making Michael Jackson look ’nailed to the floor’ and he sure was in a jubilant mood tonight, temporarily forgetting the religious scriptures that have arguably made him less provocative as a live performer dancing like no 49 year old should be able to and possibly getting most of the female portion of the audience pregnant in the process he definitely drew enough orgasmic screams from them as he slipped his jacket off his shoulders just for a moment.

Most artists would struggle to keep the attention of their audience after opening with (arguably) their biggest hit. Prince however is not most artists, although ever unpredictable he did seem to try his best to lose the audience with the songs from his more obscure past and his less loved present. Combined with the shaky sound things threatened to turn ugly, luckily throwing in songs like U Got the Look, I Feel for You, Kiss, If I was your Girlfriend, Take me with U and rather oddly covering The Beatles’ Come Together kept the audience on side, entertained and more willing to enjoy his lesser know stuff. Although Prince being Prince he would still be engaging in whatever he does.

Closing the main show with a recent highlight, Guitar, Prince returned for two pre planned encores emerging up the lift to sing the title track off his latest album Planet Earth then returning for a second much more satisfying encore opening with another good but unnecessary cover this time of last years summer hit, Crazy sung at first by a talented ’backing’ singer. Remembering that he does have a fair few hits of his own that he hasn’t yet played he roars through Nothing Compares 2 U and with little rest bite teases the audience with the galvanising line of ’Dearly Beloved’ three times whilst strutting along his stage, demanding and gaining a louder response from his audience each time before tearing into ’Lets Go Crazy’

As the screaming guitar solo dies down and Prince declares his love for London and the audience before descending down his lift in a cloud of dry ice it appears to be all over, people start streaming out under the ugly lights. But those eager to beat the rush will have missed a memorable piece of spontaneity in a venue which hardly encourages it.

A cheer ripples from the far corner of the floor, the venue now half empty with only the slow and the hardcore fans left soon catches on as a parting of the sea of remaining fans takes place as a shell of burly bodyguards make way for the Prince to return to the stage. As if returning to the stage through the common people wasn’t bad enough he also climbs a flight of stairs to take to the stage underlining that this is indeed a spontaneous gesture to celebrate his return.

Anarchy descends upon the venue, people clamber over seats and jump barriers to get a closer look at this event. Once everyone is settled he plays stripped down electric versions of Little Red Corvette, Raspberry Beret and Sometimes in snows in April which garners a louder response from the lucky few left now the casuals have made a hasty exit. The band also returns and it seems as if its going to turn into the perfect gig as he polishes off the last few major hits left unsung but unfortunately this is not the case as he decides to treat us to one more cover and two more obscure numbers this time with a 70’s theme as the houselights go down once again and are replaced with disco lights as Prince steams through Get on the boat, Le Freak and A Love Bizarre.

A special gig to be sure but one with many missed opportunities and unplayed hits (When Doves Cry anyone?). Prince however is an enigmatic performer with or without When Doves Cry and makes the majority of his contemporaries look distinctly average, on the stage at least, even at the age of 49. If this is the last time he is to play his hits (well..some of them) , it is a very fitting farewell. If its only a marketing trick to increase ticket sales the gigs and the media hype around them will secure Prince a whole new generation of fans to see him well into his 60’s.