Release of Final Fantasy VII

Date: January 31, 1997 • Location: Tokyo, Japan

Final Fantasy VII, the first video game in the Final Fantasy franchise to use 3-D computer graphics, was released.

Final Fantasy VII is a 1997 role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the PlayStation. The seventh main installment in the Final Fantasy series, it was released in Japan by Square Soft and internationally by Sony Computer Entertainment, becoming the first game in the main series to have 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. Ensuing events send Cloud and his allies in pursuit of Sephiroth, a superhuman who seeks to wound the planet and harness its healing power to be reborn as a god. Throughout their journey, Cloud bonds with his party members, including Aerith Gainsborough, who holds the secret to saving their world.