Many of us grew to know most parts of the originalFinal Fantasy VIIby heart, and that’s both awesome and heartbreaking. But how many of us are aware of the full extent of theCompilation ofFinal Fantasy VIIextended universe that Square Enix kickstarted in the mid-aughts, in celebration of its seventh anniversary?
I sure wasn’t for a long while, but now I feel like I’m ready to talk about this wackily ambitious attempt at multiplatform, multi-genre, multi-generational storytelling.
Final Fantasy 7: The First Soldier: Thirty years before FF7
Even thoughThe First Soldiertakes place long before everything else in the series, it only came out in 2021, seemingly in an attempt to make bank on the battle royale craze.
Yeah, you got that right.First Soldieris a battle royale title where 75 wannabe members of SOLDIER fought it out for the big job. Boy, if Cloud feels like a fraud sometimes, imagine how the SOLDIERs must feel if this is how they ended up getting the job. ThoughThe First Soldierfeatured some cool ideas such as getting to ride Chocobos and, well, not much else, it failed to gain traction and Square Enixcanned the thinga little over a year after release.
Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis: Sephiroth’s episode, 15 years before FF7
This is agacha-style gamethat mostly retells the events of the OGFFVIIand other related media, but it also has a prequel segment dedicated to Sephiroth who, at 14, was already a total murder machine.
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7: Seven years before FF7
Crisis Coreis the crown jewel of theFinal Fantasy VIIcompilation, as it’s both the game that began experimenting around with the kind of gameplay we’d later see in more actionyFFtitles, and also because it’s a prequel that tells a story fans actually want to see.
Crisis Coreshows us the life and times of Zack, Cloud’s mentor and protector. If you prefer other media,Last Orderis an anime that takes place during the same time, but also focuses on some other events and tells the events ofCrisis Coredifferently.
Before Crisis: Six years before FF7
Ok, it’s strange that the game calledBefore Crisistakes placeafterthe one whose name suggests it takes place at the very core of the crisis. Still, maybe that was just Square Enix getting us ready for the clashing timelines it would introduce withFinal Fantasy 7: Remake.
Before Crisisis a mobile game that puts players in control of the Turks, the known bunch of crooks who work for Shinra as the company sets in motion the campaign of environmental destruction that leads to AVALANCHE’s pushback, and the start of the original game.
If you playBefore Crisis, then I must warn you that you’re canonically responsible for most of the problems in the world ofFF7. Congrats.
Final Fantsy 7, and alsoRemakeandRebirth
Ok, you probably know the gist of the plot of the originalFinal Fantasy 7.A simple mission against a megacorp turns into a fight against an alien deity and a vile super-SOLDIER named Sephiroth who wants to destroy the world. Spoilers, if you haven’t played the original yet, but our heroes kick Sephiroth’s ass and manage to save the world in the nick of time. Pretty straightforward.
Things only get really complicated when you realizeRemakeand, I assume,Rebirth, don’t simply take place at the same time or rehash the same exact events.Remakemakes it pretty clear that it’s not just a remake, as it creates a completely new chain of events that might, at some point, completely diverge from everything we’d expect to happen.Rebirthcould change things even further, too.
Be ready for the new trilogy to cause wrinkles for this list, canon-wise.
Advent Children
Advent Children is the direct, CGI-animated film sequel to the originalFF7. It has Cloud and co. dealing not just with a new virus that’s wreaking havoc among the population, but also with a bunch of Sephiroth acolytes who try and actually manage to resurrect the man for one last(?) fight against Cloud.
Advent Childrenis an absolute blast when it comes to action, but it feels like a completely unnecessary addition to the plot. If you want my advice, enjoy the original version and ignoreAdvent Children Complete, as it adds little more than irritating exposition and cheap drama to the whole thing.
Dirge Of Cerberus: Three years after FF7
Cloud is seemingly on vacation as Vincent takes the role of the protagonist inDirge Of Cerberus. The idea seemed great, as he’s the edgiest character of the bunch, but this game wound up being a bit divisive among fans.
Even though it puts on aDevil May Cryimpersonation with shooting and theFFcharacter that most resembles Dante,Dirgewinds up being a lesser plot about a B-tier threat for Vincent. IfDirge Of Cerberuswere an anime, it would be 100% filler.
The originalFinal Fantasy 7‘s ending cutscene
Ok, this might be cheating because this is just a cutscene and not a game, but let’s not end this onDirge of Cerberus. Insead, let’s hop back to the originalFF7.
The true final ending ofFF7 takes place 500 years after we stop Sephiroth and the meteor. We see that the once-industrially corrupted landscape has been replaced by some lush fields of green, which is code for “happy ending.”
Honorable mention:Final Fantasy 7G-Bike
I didn’t haveG-Bikeon any specific point in the timeline, because I like to believe that Cloud just gets to take it for a ride whenever the hell he wants to.
Final Fantasy VII: Rebirthcomes out on February 29 for the PlayStation 5.
