FINAL FANTASY VII

FINAL FANTASY VII opens in Midgar, a city kept alive by the Shinra Electric Power Company at the cost of literally draining the planet. The eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE blows up Mako Reactor No. 1 to slow the bleeding, and Cloud Strife — a former member of Shinra's elite SOLDIER unit, hired for the operation — finds himself dragged into a war he didn't sign up for. What starts as an industrial sabotage thriller eventually becomes one of the most ambitious science-fantasy stories in the genre.

The combat is the classic Active Time Battle system, with the materia system layered on top: small magical orbs that slot into weapons and armor, granting spells, summons and stat changes, and that gain experience and split as they level. Build flexibility is the design's signature — any character can fill any role with the right materia loadout, and the game rewards experimentation across its hundred-plus hours of content.

This PC re-release ships with optimizations for modern Windows hardware and adds online features around the original game. Thirty-six achievements track progress and let you compare profiles with friends. Cloud Saves let you continue your game across up to three computers (requires an internet connection). A Character Booster maxes out HP, MP and Gil at the click of a button for anyone who's stuck on a difficult section or hunting for one specific Phoenix Down.

The original game itself — the story, the characters, the soundtrack — sits underneath all of this unchanged. Players new to FINAL FANTASY VII through the Remake series will find a leaner, weirder, more turn-based version of the same universe; players returning to it after twenty-plus years will find exactly the game they remember, with a few quality-of-life additions for the era it now lives in.