March 25, 2008 - It's not quite the 10th anniversary of Final Fantasy VII anymore. The game dropped in America in the fall of 1997, so right now it's more like the 10th-and-a-half. With the release of Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII, though, Square Enix has only just now closed the book on what may be its most beloved RPG saga. The whole story's told, every loose end tied off, and our heroes are (mostly) living happily ever after now.

A lot of things went into making FFVII a breakthrough hit. Technologically, it marked the beginning of a new age in RPGs, with flat old-school sprites giving way to modern 3D worlds. You can't chalk it all up to flashy graphics and cinematics, though. FFVII's cast features a handful of all-time favorites, characters that gamers all over the world fell for.

Everyone, of course, has their personal number one (and two, and three, and probably 10, 11, or 12). Since we all love an old-fashioned argument starter, though, here come our choices for Midgar's top 10.


Honorable Mentions

Jenova

We’ll never know just what she looked like to start with.
She doesn't quite qualify for the main top 10, because let's be honest with ourselves – you probably have to have a few spoken lines to count as a "character." Consider Jenova more of a nifty-looking plot device, since her numerous mutated alien forms made for great stomach-turning boss monsters. She was also the centerpiece of a classic cinema sequence, as Sephiroth wrenched her bizarre "masked" coffin down from the wall of the Nibelheim mako reactor.


Vincent Valentine

Man, you look pale. Are you sure you’re feeling okay?
Nowadays, Vincent's look is just a little played. There's been a lot of water run under the gothsploitation bridge over the last 10 years, not least by the Final Fantasy series itself – the bad guys in Advent Children could really have used a little bit more color in their fashion diets. In his time, though, Vincent was a heck of a striking character design, and FFVII's 3D engine made his shape-shifting Limit Breaks some surprisingly scary stuff. Remembering Advent Children also recalls one of the movie's most visually inventive scenes, made possible by Vincent's awesome prehensile cape.