Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VII  is a 1997  role-playing video game  developed by  Square  for the  PlayStation  console. It is the seventh main installment in the  Final Fantasy  series. Published in Japan by Square, it was released in other regions by  Sony Computer Entertainment  and is the first in the main series with a  PAL  release. The game's story follows  Cloud Strife , a mercenary who joins an  eco-terrorist  organization to stop a world-controlling  megacorporation  from using the planet's life essence as an energy source. Events send Cloud and his allies in pursuit of  Sephiroth , a former member of the corporation who seeks to destroy the planet. During the journey, Cloud builds close friendships with his party members, including  Aerith Gainsborough , who holds the secret to saving their world. Development began in 1994, originally for the  Super Famicom . After delays and technical difficulties from experimenting on several real-time rendering platforms, Square moved production to pre-rendered video, necessitating the huge capacity of the  CD-ROM  format and therefore departing Nintendo for the PlayStation. Veteran  Final Fantasy  staff returned, including series creator and producer  Hironobu Sakaguchi , director  Yoshinori Kitase , and composer  Nobuo Uematsu . The game is the first in the series to use  full motion video  and  3D computer graphics , superimposing  real-time  3D character models over  pre-rendered   CGI  backgrounds.  Final Fantasy VII  introduced more widespread  science fiction  elements and a more realistic presentation, while the gameplay systems remained largely similar to previous entries, with the addition of new elements such as Materia,  Limit Breaks , and new  minigames . The staff of more than 100 had a combined development and marketing budget of around $80 million. Assisted by a large promotional campaign,  Final Fantasy VII  was a commercial success and received universal acclaim, selling more than 13.9 million copies worldwide. It is regarded as a landmark game and as one of the  greatest and most influential video games ever made . It won numerous  Game of the Year  awards, and was acknowledged for boosting sales of the PlayStation and popularizing  console role-playing games  worldwide. Critics praised its graphics, gameplay, music, and story, although its original English  localization  received criticism. Its success has led to enhanced ports on various platforms, a multimedia sub-series called the  Compilation of Final Fantasy VII , and the ongoing multipart high-definition  Final Fantasy VII Remake , the first installment of which was released in 2020.