Final Fantasy 7 Nintendo Switch Review

Final Fantasy 7 was first released on the Playstation 1. Since then, a port of it has appeared on the PC, Playstation 4, and elsewhere. The game has never appeared on a Nintendo console…until now. Final Fantasy 7 is now available on the Nintendo Switch eshop. How does the game hold up on the Nintendo’s handheld console? Here is my review of Final Fantasy 7 for the Nintendo Switch.

Final Fantasy 7 for the Playstation 1 has a lot of fans, including myself. I will not lie, I was looking forward to playing this game a lot on the Switch. FF7 was the game that made me an rpg fan. And now I can play it in portable mode on the Nintendo Switch?! Wow! So how does the game hold up?

The story in Final Fantasy 7 holds up very well and the turn-based gameplay is still solid. If you’ve played the game before then you’ll enjoy playing it again. If you’ve never played it, then you should do that right now.

However, Final Fantasy 7 wasn’t upgraded like Final Fantasy 9 was for the Switch. FF7 does not have as many bells and whistles. Sure, you can turn off random battles, speed up battles, and activate a boost that turns on your limit breaks right away and keeps your HP from ever going down. But some of FF9’s best boosts, like max gil and max HP, are not included in FF7’s port.

I really loved the max HP and max gil boosts in FF9 and would have liked to have seen them here. I think the gil boost especially would have helped with getting all the weapons, materia, and finally getting that lifetime pass to the Gold Saucer. Its a disappointment that the boosts in FF7 feel very barebones compared to the ones in Final Fantasy 9.

Meanwhile, the game’s controls are good. They do take some getting use to if you remember how the Playstation 1 controller was laid out. The mini-games, especially, had PS1 button prompts that are now completely different. None of this should be a problem if you never played the PS1 release though.

Despite my complaints, Final Fantasy 7’s gameplay remains as good as ever. I wish I could say the same for the game’s graphics.

Final Fantasy 7’s graphics have seen better days. When the game was first released on the Playstation 1, it was a beautiful game. Over the years, as graphics got better, FF7 didn’t look as good. Now on the Nintendo Switch, it is obvious that Square Enix did some touch up of the character models and the CGI cutscenes, but the graphics, overall, are still pretty dated. Some of the backgrounds and especially the world map do not look great.

Final Fantasy 9, meanwhile, looks really great on the Switch. I think Final Fantasy 7’s port was very rushed. It does feel like the graphics could’ve gotten a better HD upgrade.

Then there’s Final Fantasy 7’s music, which surprisingly holds up well. The music is just as great as I remembered it. FF7’s music and its sound effects have stood the test of time. Fans of the original game won’t be disappointed and new players are in for treat.

Final Fantasy 7 on the Switch isn’t a perfect release, but if you enjoyed the game on Playstation 1 or have never played it before, you shouldn’t hesitate getting this version.

Final Fantasy 7’s story and gameplay remain as good as they were on the Playstation 1. Its music still holds up well too.

That said, I do wish the game had gotten more upgrades like FF9 did. I would have loved to have seen the graphics touched up a bit more and for there to be more boosters like the Final Fantasy 9 release had.

Fina Fantasy 7 is still a very good game and if you want to play it again or play it for the first time, then you should get the Switch version. The game is worth playing in portable mode.

Final Fantasy 7 for the Nintendo Switch gets a 7.5 out of 10.