Final Fantasy VII
The JRPG that made you cry, that made your friends at sleepovers obsessed with the exact same story beats. Cloud, a mercenary with a huge sword, stood at the center of a world in crisis—and a scene where everything fell apart taught a generation that video games could break your heart.
Final Fantasy VII released January 31, 1997 in Japan and September 7, 1997 in North America on the PlayStation. Developed by Square and directed by Yoshinori Kitase, it was produced by Hironobu Sakaguchi, with character designs by Tetsuya Nomura, with music by Nobuo Uematsu. Square moved the entire series from Nintendo hardware to PlayStation for one reason: CDs held vastly more data than Nintendo 64 cartridges. North America got a $20 million marketing campaign to match.
The moment that defined it: Sephiroth kills Aerith as she prays in a scene that became gaming's most famous gut-punch. A whole generation learned video games could make them cry. The original has sold over 15.3 million copies as of 2025, and when Final Fantasy VII Remake arrived in 2020, the original's mythology only deepened.
Similar items
Final Fantasy X
The first Final Fantasy where the characters actually spoke — and the awkward forced-laugh scene became legendary for all the wrong reasons. A summoner's doomed pilgrimage, a sport played underwater, and an ending that broke a generation of PS2 owners.
PlayStation
The grey box that took gaming off the cartridge and onto the CD — and took it away from Nintendo and Sega while it was at it. Sony's first console arrived in Japan at the end of 1994 and in America the following September, and it made a generation fluent in memory cards, load screens, and demo discs. It started as a Nintendo project that Nintendo walked away from.
Chrono Trigger
Square's "Dream Team" — Final Fantasy's creator, Dragon Quest's creator, and Dragon Ball's artist — built a time-travel RPG so good that thirty years later it still tops greatest-of-all-time lists. A dozen endings, no random battles, and the game that gave New Game Plus its name.
AdventureQuest
The Flash browser RPG you grinded on school computers that blocked real games — turn-based monster fights, gold and XP, and a one-time $19.95 Guardian upgrade you begged your parents for. AdventureQuest is still running.