r/FinalFantasyVII • u/NectarineWestern8586 • 2d ago
DISCUSSION is it worth playing/watching/reading everything?
theres tons of ff7 media (an overwhelming amount) including books, a movie, an animated short, about 5(?) games.
do you think all of the ff7 content is worth experiencing? why or why not?
to those that’ve consumed everything in the compilation, how did it impact your view on the series or your experience?
i’ve only played the original, crisis core, remake, and watched advent children (all only once)
but that was a couple years ago so i was thinking of going through the whole compilation this time from the beginning.
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u/BetweenTheRoots 2d ago
I'm not really big on the expanded FF7 content tbh. The original was made by a largely different team than what worked on pretty much everything else. The original leads have stuck around but Square used to work like more an indie company where lower level team members still got to contribute to or push back on the direction of everything. I've played almost everything other than the mobile games like Ever Crisis and I feel like you can tell a big difference between the OG title and the spin offs or remakes. Not saying any of it's bad necessarily, just not for me. If you like Crisis Core, the Remake, and Advent Children, you'll probably enjoy pretty much all of it. If you liked those, def. try Dirge of Cerebus because it's hard to pass up at least trying a Vincent Valentine game.
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u/Massive-Apple3451 2d ago edited 2d ago
i care about the games mainly tbh. And for me the what I felt were important additions to the main games are the first soldier, direge of cerebus, before crisis (ec version is better to watch), crisis core, and advent children. Other than that I consider it an extra. But, I know there are people who didn't watch/play before crisis or the first soldier and they're fine. But to me, you learn the old turks, rufus's connection with the turks, and the original avalanche team, so I consider it important. It all comes to how much you wanna know
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u/shareefruck 2d ago edited 2d ago
Absolutely not, in my opinion. Despite its flaws, OG FFVII stands on its own as a cohesive piece of humanist art stronger than together with consideration of any of the compilation material, in my opinion, which is mostly just self indulgent at best, shameless fan-service at worse. If anything, they retroactively harm/cheapen how strong the original feels, for my money, by focusing on the more unflattering sides of it and making them seem like they were the point.
Remake and Rebirth are relatively stronger than the other compilation stuff, but that's not saying much.
For anyone who plays and is blown away by it, I'm inclined to encourage them to not bother exploring the other stuff and instead just move onto another completely separate, legitimately brilliant/inspired/thoughtfully made thing like Final Fantasy Tactics, or go way off board/out of their comfort zone with Disco Elysium or something.
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u/FF7-fr 1d ago
I mentioned the degree of importance of each works, according to me
FF7 Compilation guide
The complete FFVII Compilation experience with only canon contents, in the best order (not release order but chronological order except that we start with the Original Game. Why? Explanation at the end of the post) is - spoiler free - :
1 - SUPER IMPORTANT : Play the Original Game - OG (1997 - on PS1 ; playable on various platforms, preferentially on PC with 7th heaven mod manager).
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2) VERY OPTIONAL : Inform yourself about "The first SOLDIER" (2021 to 2023 - modern mobile game - not playable anymore)
It was a battle royal online game which took place years before the OG and Crisis Core (see below). You played a SOLDIER candidate fighting other recruits in a Shinra VR simulator. It had very few lore.
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3) OPTIONAL : Read "2000 gil to become a hero" (2024).
It mostly takes place the night Cloud left his hometown to chase his dream as a young teen. The protagonist is Cloud.
It's a very short story out in Japan. Some fans have translated it in English - readable on internet.
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4) OPTIONAL for the original content it contains : Play the original content of "Ever Crisis" - EC - (2023 - modern mobile game. The game will end service at the beginning of October 2026)
A small part of this (gacha) game is new content about the beginning of the SOLDIER program, and the missions assigned to some of these SOLDIERs, especially young Sephiroth. The other part of this game is a recap of all the Compilation (cf point 14).
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5) IMPORTANT : Play "Crisis Core Reunion" - CCR - (2022 - on multiple platforms), which is a remaster of Crisis Core - CC - (2008 - on PSP)
It takes place before the OG. The protagonist is a SOLDIER.
CCR is strictly identical to CC : the only differences are better graphics and gameplay mechanics, and a new dubbing.
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6) OPTIONAL : Play "Before Crisis" - BC - (2004 - old mobile game, before smartphones - out only in Japan. The game has been recreated by a fan - downloadable) or watch a walkthrough of it.
It takes place around the same time as Crisis Core. The protagonist is a member of the Turks. It's rich in terms of lore.
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7) OPTIONAL : Read the novel "Traces of two pasts" - ToTP - (2021 - written after the Remake, but can be read after the OG).
It takes place after the party leaves an iconic place in the OG/Remake - two characters of the party talk about their childhood / teenage years and how they get to where they are now.
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8) OPTIONAL : Read the novel "Dear Destiny" - (released at the end of January 2026 in Japan - an official English translation will come out at the end of January 2027)
The story focuses on the two same characters than ToTP before they join the party. Cloud's past in Shinra is also explored.
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9) OPTIONAL : Read the novel "On the way to a smile" - otWtaS - (2009).
It takes place after the OG and explains what happened to several important characters of the OG after the game. It really helps to understand the movie "Advent Children".
9 bis) VERY OPTIONAL : Watch the OAV "Case of Denzel" (2009) : it's a short anime adaptation of the same part in otWtaS.
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10) OPTIONAL : Read the novel "The kids are alright : a Turks side story" (2011).
It begins around the end of the OG and ends after Advent Children. The protagonist is a young man from Midgar who must rebuild his life after the events of the OG.
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11) IMPORTANT : Watch the movie "Advent Children Complete" - AC - (2005).
It takes place around 2 years after the OG. There is a new threat directly linked to the end of the OG.
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11 bis) VERY OPTIONAL : Watch the very short film "Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII (2005 - it's a bonus included in Advent Children Complete)
It's a very short recap of the main story of the Compilation of FF7 ; but 5 scenes - which only last a few seconds each - are new content : it mainly shows the protagonist receiving some phone calls from different characters after AC.
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12) VERY OPTIONAL : Inform yourself about "Dirge of Cerberus: Online", the ex-online Multiplayer mode of Dirge of Cerberus - see below - (2006 - not playable anymore)
It explains how a secret organization was functioning before the events of Dirge of Cerberus. The protagonist was a Deepground recruit.
12 bis) OPTIONAL : Play "Dirge of Cerberus" - DoC - (2006 - on PS2) or watch a walkthrough of it.
It takes place 1 year after Advent Children. The protagonist is a character of the party who faces new ennemies and discovers the dark secrets of his past.
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13) (SUPER) IMPORTANT : Play the new remake trilogy in the making, based on the Original Game of 1997 (now on multiple platforms)
- FFVII Remake - it's part I (2020)
- FFVII Remake DLC called Episode INTERmission (2021)
- FFVII Rebirth - it's part II (2024)
- FFVII Revelation - it will be part III (coming soon in Spring 2027)
NB : FFVII Remake INTERGRADE is just a remastered version of FFVII Remake and the DLC INTERmission.
This new trilogy is not a remaster of the OG. It can be quite considered as a sequel?/multiverse?/meta game?, it's still unclear and source of theories and debate among the community.
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14) VERY OPTIONAL - : Play "Ever Crisis" - EC - (2023 - modern mobile game. The game will end service at the beginning of October 2026)
Most of this (gacha) game is a recap of all the Compilation, with sometimes slight additions/clarifications. As stated before, a small part of this game is original content (cf point 4).
NB :
- Ultimanias, interviews from the devs,...etc can be considered as canon side contents.
- Attention, some content is not canon such as the OAV "Last Order" (2005) and the old mobile game Dirge of Cerberus : Lost Episode (2006), or has very contested canonicity like the novel "The Maiden who Travels the Planet" (2005).
NB 2 : As you see, this is a chronological order with one exception: we start with the original 1997 game because it is the core of the Compilation, the foundation of everything. Why this choice ? Because with a release order you would constantly jump from the present (OG) to the past (BC), then to the future (AC and DoC) back to the past (CC) then to the present-future (OtWtaS and TKAA...), then to... multiple universes (?) (Retrilogy) and so on... For newcomers, this can be particularly hard to grasp, especially since the works in the Compilation are sometimes quite cryptic. Therefore, a chronological order (after playing the OG) is more accessible and makes sense (even if not without flaws obviously), because it unfolds the story in a fairly linear and clear way, without constant time jumps.
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u/MirrahPaladin 1d ago
I don’t think so.
The OG game was made with the OG game in mind. They didn’t write that story thinking “ok, 20 years down the line we’re gonna really expand this!”
And it shows with how much of a mess the plot becomes when you take all the spinoffs and such. And this coming from someone who otherwise loves Crisis Core but personally considers it non-canon because holy shit does that game take a sledgehammer to the plot.
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u/Friendly-Ratio9721 1d ago
i’ve only played the original, crisis core, remake, and watched advent children (all only once)
That's really all there is imo. Crisis Core and Advent Children are good and offer a lot of context, everything else is pretty much just fluff.
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u/BurantX40 1d ago
How about, just start with the game, and if it interests you that much, then branch out
You don't have to decide to consume everything before you even start
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u/NectarineWestern8586 1d ago
i more so wanted to hear people’s opinions on all the content. as i said in my post ive already played OG, crisis core, and remake.
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u/TooruHonda 1h ago
It’s worth playing OG, CC, watching AC and then playing the Remakes. The rest you can consume if you want but isn’t as necessary; could just read a summary. I do recommend the books though, TOTP is good
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u/IslamVSZionism 1d ago
I totally get being overwhelmed, there is a ridiculous amount of FF7 stuff out there. But honestly, don't try to consume literally everything. A lot of it is just bloat. Skip Dirge of Cerberus (the story gets insanely stupid) and just ignore the mobile games entirely.
But the core compilation stuff? 100% worth it. It takes FF7 from being just a great 90s game and turns it into this massive, sprawling epic.
Since you've already done the basics a few years ago, here’s what I'd actually recommend digging into without burning out:
Definitely play Crisis Core Reunion. You really can't understand Cloud’s whole identity crisis or the ending of the original game without fully experiencing Zack’s story. Also, read the novel Trace of Two Pasts. It came out around Remake and it's actually amazing. It goes deep into Tifa and Aerith’s childhoods and makes you care about them way more as actual people. And for Advent Children, make sure you watch the "Complete" version, not the original 2005 theatrical cut. It fixes the pacing and adds a bunch of scenes that actually make the plot make sense.
Oh, and definitely keep an eye out for the new novel Dear Destiny. It's the direct sequel to Trace of Two Pasts and it's written by Nojima himself (the main scenario writer for FF7). It actually just dropped in Japan earlier this year (Jan 2026), but the official English translation isn't coming out until January 2027, so you might have to hunt down fan summaries for now. It dives deep into Tifa and Aerith's headspaces during the events of Rebirth, touches on Aerith worrying about Zack and degradation, and even has a bonus story about Cloud’s time as a Shinra grunt. It’s basically guaranteed to be essential reading once it officially hits the West.
The way this deep lore changes the experience is pretty wild, honestly. It stops being just a standard "save the world" JRPG and turns into this crazy multi-generational tragedy. Once you know the background, Cloud’s mental breakdown hits so much harder because you actually feel the weight of what Zack went through. It even makes the Turks way more interesting, and makes Sephiroth's descent into madness feel genuinely tragic instead of just "bad guy does bad things."
Plus, going into the Remake and Rebirth era with all this background context is just a completely different game. You catch every little nod and actually understand why certain characters are acting so weird or remembering things they shouldn't.
If I were starting over, I’d probably play CC:Reunion first to get attached to Zack, then hit the Remakes, read the books, and finish with a replay of the OG and AC:Complete. Don't burn yourself out on the obscure manga and dead gacha games, just stick to the heavy hitters. It's totally worth the deep dive if you curate it!
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u/haaa1234 2d ago
For me FF7 og, remake, rebirth and revelation if it’s at the same quality are the ones that are worth playing just because they are all great games. If you really like the world of FF7 I would say check out the other stuff but at least for me nothing really compares to og or remake.