1995

So the first thing you're going to notice is that none of these articles feature any actual images from our beloved game. This was mainly due to no one really knew if it was a real thing. Chrono Trigger had just come out and was deemed a monumental success. Since it had been nearly two years since Final Fantasy 6 (III in the States) was released, fans were already chomping at the bit for the next title from Square's flagship series. Solid news about the upcoming game wouldn't start hitting the magazines until early 1996. The images used in the Gamefan articles are from the August 1995 Siggraph Demo.

Ultra 64? What the heck is that, you're probably asking. Well, back in the day, Squaresoft and Nintendo were like BFFs 4 Lyfe. Seriously. Anything Square released, you needed a Nintendo system to play it on. And there were a slew of titles to lose yourself in. Many of Square's greatest RPG's lie in this early collection. Ultra 64 was of course the early name of the Nintendo 64 and with its announcement, the expectation was that Square would continue the tradition of making their games for the new Nintendo system. Alas, as friends sometimes do, the two companies parted ways. Square realized that they were going to need much more than cartridge based power to fuel their latest CGI endeavour. They backed out of their deal with Nintendo and took their idea to the Sony Playstation. Apparently being told, "If you're leaving us, never come back." Square and Nintendo would not work together again until the release of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on the Gameboy Advance in 2003.

1996

In 1996, the hype really began to take off full force. Game magazines were reporting anything and everything they could on the newest Squaresoft announcement. Final Fantasy VII was in development for Sony's Playstation; slated for a December release in Japan, with an anticipated American release for Spring 1997. Many of the images in these articles are lifted straight from the Japanese Beta demo. Early art and character designs are also prominent as well as speculations (most of them wrong) about the characters. One article wonders if Red-13 (yes, spelled that way) and Leviathan are enemies while another hints that a knight named Sephiros (uh-huh) would be an ally to join the party. Translations were sketchy at the time, so familiar names were often mislabeled as Claud, Eris, Bullet, Tyfa, and Yufi.

Finally we start to see some information on the story and proper character names, as well as mostly accurate back stories for the playable characters. The English Demo from the Siggraph disc was released for US audiences, packaged with Tobal no.1. It was an instant hit and was the demo I played myself at the local Toys Я Us. By Fall, the demo was everywhere and places like Babbages, Software Etc., and Blockbuster were touting the game's imminent release in the Spring of '97 for the US. Playstation sales were up in anticipation. Memory card packages boasted "Try beating Final Fantasy VII without one".

But as the hunger for the game intensified, the news that would rock the gaming community slammed us like a phonebook (remember those?) to the face. While many sources were reporting a nearly finalized game, Square felt that it needed just a little more spit and shine to be hailed as the greatest RPG to ever be made (we all know that title really belongs to Chrono Trigger #Truth). So it was delayed, reslated for one month later on January 31, 1997 in Japan. However, what that meant for the English speaking consumer, the Spring '97 date would need to be moved back as well to make time for translating.

1997

It's always a bummer when a game isn't released on time. Maybe the company needed more time to polish the final product, maybe it wasn't living up to what was envisioned. Whatever the case, Final Fantasy VII being delayed was a huge let down. Which is why over the next few months, magazines absolutely bombarded the gaming community with articles. With the Japanese release came people actual able to play and translate it. Reviews started popping up speaking of the game's excellence. 5 out of 5, 10 out of 10 ratings. Fans didn't stay depressed too long because the hype train was back up and operating and we were all ride or die once again.

So the biggest thing to note with the previous articles is that we finally start to see the other characters and many aspects of the game itself. The materia system is talked about, mini games, and my personal favorite a crapton of images of this new mysterious character, Vincent Valentine. >:3 The magazines latched onto these new and exciting tidbits. Also, a ton more screenshots began popping up (even if some of the captions were incorrect, they were still pretty cool). We also start to see merchandise being advertised in the backs of these magazines, mostly Gamefan. If you were like me, my favorite thing to do was hang out in the magazine aisle while my mom went grocery shopping and check out the latest news and merch in the back pages of a game mag. I only ever dared ask her to buy me one once in a blue moon, $5+ for a magazine was really hard to ask for back then. ^_^;

And finally, the date arrived: September 7th, 1997. A day that shall forever live in the hearts of all FF7 fans. What's more, for the first time in gaming history, a company took the criticism it received over a game and actually did something about it. Many fans who played the Japanese version said that the game was too easy, short, and fell apart story-wise near the end. In a move that surprised nearly everyone, Square revisited the game and made some changes before its US release. They squared away the confusing materia system for a much easier interface, they made graphical enhancements, adding more to the previously rendered backgrounds, and probably the best move of all, they made the game more difficult. But not just by adding a few more hit points onto the bosses. No, they went above and beyond, adding new bosses that you could throw down with. I'm talking of course about the Weapons. Despite all the enhancements, some articles still couldn't help but complain and nitpick at the game, despite its overwhelmingly positive sales (over 2 million its opening weekend in Japan alone).

Even a month after release, magazines were still talking about it. Walkthroughs, character bios, materia builds, chocobo breeding, tips, tricks, and secrets galore! How to get Vincent and Yuffie, how to get the Gold Chocobo, where were all the special materia? There was so much packed into the game that magazines had to break their walkthroughs over several issues just to cover everything. One thing I never saw in my searching of these old articles was of course, the biggest spoiler of all, the loss of a certain flower girl. As a young player at the time, that rocked me to my core. You could revive Crono with the help of Gaspar, a clone, and the Chrono Trigger. But there would be no revive for Aerith. And no matter how much people speculated that there was some lost "Revive Materia" buried in the code, it would never be.

1998

The hype carried into the new year. Many magazines, mainly overseas ones, were just now reporting on the release of the game. The PAL release took place in November, so for many Europeans, this was their first real look at the game that had already smashed record sales. By this point, over 6 million copies of Final Fantasy VII had found its forever home. To top it off, Square had made a deal in December to bring FF7 to the PC. To accomplish this, they teamed up with Eidos Interactive (whom Square later acquired); the company responsible for Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, and Fighting Force. The game was set to release on June 25, 1998.

And there you have it folks! The entire history of Final Fantasy VII as told by gaming magazines from the late '90's. Nothing else to see here, move along, the page is over. Go home. You're still here? That's not the end, you say? Well, you caught me, because you are 100% correct that this is not where this game's story ends. Not by a long shot. Because no sooner than Square releasing Parasite Eve, Final Fantasy VIII, and Chrono Cross did people start dreaming of a Remake. When Square first released FF7 in 1997, the graphics of the video game had reached their highest point. The game was hailed as the best game ever, mainly owing to its visual effects. But this is a time when the CGI rendering technology was in its infancy.

Sure CGI had been around in the mainstream for a while with Pixar's Toy Story and the like and Mainframe's CGI animated series ReBoot, but it had never been seen in a game before with such intensity. Once FF7 released, the industry was kick started and the dream of seeing such a beloved game with updated, state of the art graphics was just too much to bear. Sadly, Square's response at the time was disheartening. A resounding "No" echoed from their offices. At this time, they were not interested in revisiting FF7 with updated anything. They instead chose to focus on different games, acquiring Enix (to make themselves Squarenix, or SQUEENIX XD), and generally distancing themselves from any notion of a Remake.

And yet, we persisted..

2003 - 2009

Maybe we had finally driven the point, or maybe they just got tired of listening to us beg. But in 2004, there was finally some news of the possibility of a Remake. Interview after interview had been given to magazines and websites alike. The poor Squarenix designer trying to talk about their latest game, by this time Final Fantasy Online (11) had been out and was overall a huge success. But the interviewer would always stray at the end and ask about a remake of the classic that graced our lives nearly a decade previous. And in 2003, at the Tokyo Game Show, Advent Children and the Compilation Series were announced. Two movies, Advent Children and Last Order, along with three new games; Before Crisis, Crisis Core, and Dirge of Cerberus were already in production. The magazines had a field day.

All new Final Fantasy VII adventures! Well that's awesome! A movie about the aftermath of the game, a prequel set 6 years before the OG (that we never got..) where you play as a Turk (HOLY HELL! More Turks!?). Another prequel where you play..as... ZACK!? (omgomgomg!) and a short animated film to go with that time period of Zack and Cloud's trek to Midgar. Yes! And finally a sequel taking place 1 year after Advent Children (so 3 years at this point) where you play a gun-toting Vincent (*swoon*) and deal with a whole new threat. Sign me up! But wait.. no remake of the original? Has Squeenix even been listening to us? Sure, an expanded universe is great. They did it with FFX-2 first, so why not do something with their most beloved franchise. Are they afraid of making money or something?!

But no. With each release from the Compilation, we hoped there might be one more big reveal, but it never came. Advent Children was amazing (getting an extended version on Bluray due to demand), Before Crisis sadly never made it to our cell phones, and Dirge of Cerberus was a guilty pleasure but a nothing special TPS. The only real gem to come from the Compilation was Crisis Core on the PSP. After that, Square went silent on FF7 for some time..

2014 - 2016

Up to this point, the idea of a Remake became a regular joke among interviewers. With the release of a "Tech Demo" in 2005 to highlight the graphical capabilities of the PS3, Remake fever was stirred up once more, but just as quickly died off. Characters like Cloud, Sephiroth, and Aerith had made appearances in dozens of games, the most popular of which was Kingdom Hearts and Dissidia. Square began to get into the mobile market and nearly every one of their games featured someone from the main cast or a costume or other nods. It was obvious their love for the game was just as great as the fans. Why would it be featured in so many other titles if it wasn't so? It was in an interview with Yoshinori Kitase in 2014, that when asked about the possibility of a Remake after all these years, that he gave an odd answer. "You must believe me when I say it would take a lot to happen."

On June 15, 2015 at E3, Squarenix presented their games for the coming year. Among them was a "special trailer" that would cement what we all knew would eventually come after all these years (18 years):
Final Fantasy VII Remake was real and it was finally happening. Soon (tm)..

Five-ish years later: 2019/2020

As far as gaming magazines went at the time, there were very little left that still printed physical copies rather than just publishing online. Yes, that's right, physical media was all but dead, long live physical media. :( But one magazine in particular was still in print and I tried to get my hands on them to the best of my ability. Alas, there was also a new speed bump in the way of obtaining these magazines, and that was a global pandemic. With Barnes and Noble closed, the only place in my town that still carried gaming magazines, it was tough to get my hands on virtually the last (that I knew of) physical Playstation magazine, Playstation Official UK. And I couldn't even find their issue which featured an entire walkthrough of FF7 Remake.

2021 and Beyond

In 2021, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade was brought to the PS5 and Intermission, a side story DLC featuring Yuffie, was released in June. And in a bold move, Square gave all PS4 owners the middlest of fingers. You would have to upgrade to PS5 in order to play the DLC. Sure, I can get that they would somewhat force fan's hands for Remake Part 2, but for a DLC? That was just cruel and to be honest a dick move. I just now, like for real less than a month ago, finally got my hands on a PS5, over a year after Intermission was released. Sadly, there wasn't much I could track down for magazine coverage and I anticipate this will be how it goes moving forward.

This brings us to now. Today. Right this very milisecond. The latest news? Well, Crisis Core is getting a remake of its own, Crisis Core Reunion. Due for release on Dec 13, 2022. Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 2 is aiming for a release on February 29, 2024. Final Fantasy VII First Solider, a battle royal game on mobile, has come and gone, Rest in Peace. And Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis, also for mobile, is due mid 2023. It's pretty fun, if you want to spend a butt-load of money on gatcha items. At the end of 2023, Square Enix started putting out all kinds of hype news for Rebirth! Trailers, game play, and lookie lookie! A full spread in PLAY's December issue packed with all sorts of bits and bobs to keep us on our toes. All aboard, the Hype Train my friends! It's pulling into the station.